My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Discordian Troubles

Chapter 12

A Way Back Home?

Eris laughed as she bounced a Gryphon child like a basketball. She bounced it around, keeping it away from several glass Draconequus’. she scooted around them and tossed the ‘ball’ into the basket. It went in and gave Eris 3 points.

“YES!” Eris grabbed the scoreboard “That means I have…” she added 3 to it. “100 to your 33 and that means I win.” she chuckled and snapped her fingers, sending the glass Draconequus’ away.

The Gryphon child unfurled and ran as fast as he could away from the crazy lady. Eris let him run and tossed the scoreboard away, causing it to explode like a firecracker. Suddenly, Discord appeared. “hey there, Papa Discord. You missed the game. I creamed them 100 to 33.”

Discord ignored that and skipped to the point. “I’m not here for that, Eris. I want to know where that Black Hole sent them all.”

“what, after the Reaper was destroyed 3 days ago?” she thought back to what she did. “by all accounts, it should’ve killed them and sent them straight to the afterworld.”

A alarm clock went off in Discord’s head. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“no. why? Wasn’t I supposed to have done that?”

Discord bit his finger and whined. “Their bodies were taken as well into the Afterworld, which means they have a good chance of coming back.” Discord rapidly snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Eris scoffed and wrapped a towel around her head. “how was I supposed to know?” she muttered as she snapped her fingers and disappeared.

Back in Ponyville, a couple of characters I think we all forgot, myself included, sensed something wrong and FINALLY woke up after a long 7 month nap. Something in the atmosphere affected them, making them black out for that long. Who are these people, you may ask? Well, they’re animals.

Ash’s pets, the Alaskan Wolf Fenrir and the Swallow-Tailed Kite Cobalt, finally woke up after a long while and already felt that they missed out on a lot of events. And to top it off, their owner was missing.

The door to Fluttershy’s cottage opened and Carrot Top walked in. she smelled something bad and covered her nose. “geesh. I know I promised Fluttershy I’d look after her animals but she didn’t warn me about the smell. P.U.” she walked in and saw Fenrir and Cobalt were up. “Hey! I was worried you two were going to sleep forever. Everyone was. Fact you didn’t die of starvation and thirst is nothing short of a miracle.” Fenrir looked around for Ash. “you looking for your owner? Well, Ash said you two were a lot smarter then you looked. So…” she shrugged. “might as well give it a try.”

“hey-ey! Adolf!” Aura happily exclaimed as he held the kid by his ankles. “it’s been too long, squirt.”

Adolf felt the blood rushing to his head. “yeah. Great to see you too. Going dizzy. Going dizzy.”

“oh.” Aura flipped Adolf upright then set him on the ground. “just happy to see you again. Me, Req, and Bahamut thought we weren’t going to see you again.”

“I know. I felt the same way. I just can’t believe you guys are all dead.”

“I don’t think we’re dead.” Bahamut said as he scratched his cheek. “I think we were just sent here. I don’t feel ‘out of body’ or anything.”

“Me too.” Req and Aura said in unison.

“really?” Adolf asked in confusion. “Huh. That is a bit odd.” the 4 all looked at each other, wondering if they were truly dead.

In just 3 hours, everyone sucked into the black hole had found themselves at the same area that Req, Dash, and Manni had found. The only one who didn’t reappear there is Derpy. Naturally, everyone was worried, hoping she’s okay. She has her daughter going though a tough time with that disease that has her growing dragon wings inside her body. The ropes that wrapped around the Orion; belonged to those who lived there, pulled the ship into the area. Satoshi woke up half way there and, though some explanation from the deceased, helped them pull it there.

Everyone took the chance to say their good-byes to those they had lost from events they couldn’t control. Some, however, weren’t able to find who they were looking for. Adolf said it was because that not all lives are in this town. There’s thousands; millions; billions others like it all over that desert and that they would be in one of those. The fact that Adolf, Shine, Soarin’, and a number of others were there was nothing short of coincidence.

And that’s not even the highlight of the ‘livly’s’ stay. One of the deceased gave them the nickname; saying they aren’t fully dead. Nobody takes her seriously as she was… cuckoo back when she was still alive.

“What do you have to show us, Adolf?” Req asked as her little brother dragged her to the middle of town.

“Something amazing.” he said. He lead her to a large pool of green water in the middle of town that’s only a foot deep but 30 feet wide.

“What is it?” Lina asked as she and the others approached the pool.

“I don’t know the real name for it but we just call it the Pool. Allows us to see what’s happening in the living world; current events, if you will. There‘s one in every realm across this entire place.”

“huh. How’s it work?” Hiccup asked.

“Simple.” Soarin’ flew on over. “just say the name of the place you want to see and it appears. Works like this…” he cleared his throat and said… “‘Cloudsdale. Equestria.’”

The pool lightly shone for a moment then showed a picture of said place. Everyone exclaimed in amazement at the thing; they never saw anything like it. Aura wanted to try something. “Teria. Earth.” the pool shown and showed the medieval style town. “can it show people too?”

“Yeah.”

“Jessica Aesir.” the pool shined and showed Aura’s younger sister holding her baby boy in her arms.

“Wow! What a cutie!” Fox wolf-whistled.

A vein popped in Aura’s head. One light scuffle later and Fox was on the ground with Aura’s boot to his head. “I can tolerate most inter-species relationships, but I’m sure as hell not going to tolerate you hitting on my sister! All right!?”

“All right.” Fox squeaked, his mouth barely able to move.

Req sighed. “you’re gonna have to forgive Aura. He’s very protective of Jessica. Even more so after what Sopa did to her.”

“Sopa?” Twi asked.

“Jess’s less… friendly boyfriend. Had a huge crush on me and in a word: Sadistic. Ever put her though the same thing your going though with Starlight.” Twi looked back at her preggo stomach; knowing what Jess went though.

“hey, whatever happened to him?” Adolf asked.

“I don’t know. That was mine and Aura’s battle but he was to deliver the finishing blow.” Bahamut said.

His and Req’s eyes fell on him. “I… I couldn’t do it. As much as I hated him, I couldn’t bring myself to kill him.”

“then he must still be alive.” Req said. She looked into the pool and said ‘Adrian Sopa.’ the pool shined but turned to black. “Black?”

“odd.” Adolf lightly touched it. “it never did that before. Adrian Sopa.” again, nothing but black. “what the hell?” he muttered.

Req and Aura looked at each other with nervous expressions. They had a bad feeling about this.

“OH! Let me try something.” Amelia shoved the two aside. “Lina Inverse.”

“Me!?” Lina exclaimed in surprise.

“it won’t work, missy.” Adolf said. “it doesn’t show people who died. It on--”

“hey. There we are!”

“wait, what?”

Sure enough, there was Lina right in the pool. Along with everyone else. But Adolf, Soarin’, Shine, and the surrounding area weren’t in there.

“How can you be in there?” Soarin’ asked himself. “this thing doesn’t work like that. Trust me, I tried. It doesn’t show dead people.”

Riku looked at his hand then up into the sky where the angle was looking at them. “Maybe, we’re not really dead.”

“we’re not?” all the livsy’s asked.

“how else can we be in there? And why else would that crazy lady give us that bad nickname?” Hiccup concluded.

“Which means… you guys can go back.” Shine said.

All the livsy’s looked at each other for a moment and cheered. “We can go home!” they all cheered. They completely ignored the feelings of those that were dead until they were a minute in. “s-sorry.” Fluttershy shyly said.

“It’s okay.” Adolf, Soarin’, and Shine said.

Twi got a idea. It had nothing to do with those 3 but it may be a clue that could end someone’s suffering. “hold on. I want to try something.” she walked to the pool and remembered what Celestia told her about Cosmos. “Alicorn Cosmos, Scion of the Stars.”

“who’s that?” Lloyd asked as the pool shone, not remembering hearing about that guy. Even the ponies were confused who he was, even with Celestia’s explanation.

“Cosmos was Celestia’s husband. She said that Discord sent him away. So, maybe…” the pool stopped shining, allowing Twi and everyone else to look in. everyone but the dead trio gasped in surprise. “it… it can’t be.” Twi gasped.

In the image where Cosmos should be… was Discord.

A couple of white flashes appeared behind them. “you really shouldn’t have done that.” Discord threatened.

“D-Discord!” Twi gasped. “how did you get here?”

Discord scoffed and held her up. “I’m a Spirit of Chaos. I can bend reality to my will. Going to the Afterworld isn’t exactly hard.”

“he’s right.” the dead trio said. “he’s done it before.”

Discord put Twi down and hovered above them. “guess it was too much to ask for my daughter to take care of you!”

Eris sighed. “how was I supposed to know that the Black Hole would send them here, body and all? You see, this is what happens when I’m kept out of the loop so don’t blame me.”

“what do you want, Discord?” Req asked in a threatening tone.

“Simple.” he snapped his fingers. “For you do die!” A lightning bolt shot out of nowhere and towards them. It disappeared as soon as it reappeared. “what?” he snapped his fingers again and the same thing happened again. “What in…”

“didn’t experience before, did you Discord?” Soarin’ chuckled. “ya see, offensive magic has no say here. This is a place of eternal rest, after all. Non-combat spells are still good though.”

Discord snarled and snuffed. “This ain’t over!” he barked before disappearing with Eris.

Zil fell over and chuckled. “Whew. Thank goodness for that rule.”

Twi returned her attention to the pool and looked it. It showed Discord returning back to the living world and freaking out. “why didn’t Celestia tell me that Cosmos was Discord? She said that Cosmos was a Alicorn with power of the stars.”

Nobody had no answer for her. This was news to them as well. But the reason and the answer will appear sooner or later. Right now, they had more pressing concerns.

“Adolf? How do we get back?” Req asked.

Adolf shrugged. “how should I know? I can’t go back so I didn’t bother looking for it.”

The group groaned and scoffed.

“if the way back is what you seek…” the crazy lady that gave the nickname started. “… then seek the palace to the East. There, a tome will be found to take you back to the realm you call home. But, be forewarned. To claim the book, you must face what you fear most.” the lady walked off, leaving them to ponder what she said.

“the Palace to the East? This place has palaces?” Emil reacted.

“it seems so.” Shine muttered. “though I haven’t heard anything about it.”

“she said something about a book.” Twi got exited. “maybe it’s a book of all the knowledge in the universe. Oh, that’s so exciting!”

“Twi…” her pony friends went on.

“Okay. Okay. Guess I can wait until I die.”

“I’m more worried about that ‘worst fears’ line.” Trixie said. “when they say that in stories, you know it’s going to be bad.”

“well, it is worst fears.” Zel commented. “of course it’s going to be bad.”

“un… guys?” Applejack interrupted. “the more time we spend talking, the more time Discord has to figure out how to stop us and mess Equestria up big time.”

Everyone looked at each other and nodded. “Right.” they all said. With a objective in hand and a world to save, they ran off the to get the book and get back home.

Dash stopped and let everyone run by her. She looked back to the pool and looked into it. “Scootaloo.” the pool shined and showed a image that shocked Dash to her core. Scootaloo sat in a corner by herself, crying and cutting her legs with a razor, and as grey as Dash when Discord distorted her. Guess depression is Scoot’s opposite.

Tears fell from Dash’s eyes and into the pool. She felt a pang run though her front-left leg, getting her attention. “Don’t worry, Scoots. I’ll get back as fast as I can.” she turned and flew after her friends.

Scootaloo cried her eyes out, holding a bloody razor in her hooves. All 4 of her legs were cut up intentionally. She lost 3 families in just 3 years. The universe must hate her if it’s doing this to her.

Something wet hit her on the back of her neck. She reached back and wiped it off. She looked up at the ceiling of her room. There weren’t any cracks or noticeable leaks. So where did it come from?