In Ponyville, the sun rose and a mare by the name of Searing Victory woke up, a yawn escaping her as she sat up in her comfy bed. The mare, a bright red unicorn with bright blue eyes, lean figure, and a blonde mane and tail that she kept fairly short and spiky, did some stretching as her routine started.

First, it was some mild pangs of hunger. She dismissed them as she stretched and started doing her hundred pushups for the morning. “One, two, three, four, five. . .” The hunger was quite normal, as was her workout and accent that her employer, one Yang Xiao Long, described as English. However, something felt a bit different.

The regular aches that she felt after the hundred pushups were normal, along with her losing count at some point. She felt irritated and not being able to pin down what felt different, even as she went through another series of exercises.

“I wonder if I should see a doctor?” Searing asked as the warm water of her shower soaked her fur and she started lathering up. Her magic worked just fine, as it always had. She could still smell the signature scent of her Brave Phoenix shampoo just fine.

She tested her magic again after getting out of the shower, heating up a towel and running it over herself to dry off quickly. As before, everything felt fine, but she was getting more irritated at not knowing what was different.

While making breakfast, she started thinking about her situation. "My magic works fine. My body is as fit as ever. I'm not in heat yet. I can see and hear just fine. I smell burning toast." She looked down at the skillet. "Ahh! My toast!" With some practiced levitation, she pulled a plate over and put the toast on it for inspection. "Okay, it's not a lost cause. It's just. . . Very well done. The minotaurs gave me worse stuff than burnt toast before."

A few bacon strips went into the skillet, and if Searing had any doubts about her sense of smell before, the GLORIOUS fragrance of bacon would have dispelled them. There was no normal pony food that quite matched the meat she was cooking. Sure, there was hay bacon, but it just wasn't the same.

After the bacon went onto the toast, it was time to make some bacon grease infused fried eggs. Searing checked her fridge and was soundly disappointed that she was out of eggs. With a resigned sigh, she decided to see what would happen if she used cheese instead.

The bacon and cheese sandwich she created was both novel and a little disappointing. While the cheese did add some flavor, it lacked the substance that an egg provided, and was much harder to clean from the skillet.

With breakfast done, Searing started on her list of errands. Her employer, none other than Yang Xiao Long, had insisted that the unicorn take a day off from bartending and bodyguarding. "Let's see. . . I need eggs. . . That's actually it for groceries. Bills are already done. Umm. . . Oh, a sundae sounds good! I'll get one if Sunny Scoop's open today. Celestia knows I could use one."

"And I think that's it. Short list. Huh. May as well get started." Searing grabbed her saddlebags and bits, left her home, and took a moment to bask in the warm sun and fresh air. The weather pegasi had done an excellent job of placing the clouds, leaving the sky tastefully decorated. Her worries disappeared for a bit, and she felt at peace with the world.

The peace didn't last long. Something wasn't right with the ponies and occasional griffons. Normally, she would catch someone looking at her every few minutes. That was fine by her; she had a great figure and she knew it. Above average height, excellent shape, and a nice amount of lean muscle under her well kept fur. Searing didn't mind being looked at, but she didn't revel in or take advantage of it.

It didn't take long for her to find Sunny Scoop's sundae stand. The pegasus mare was, in fact, just finishing the setup work for the day. The idea of dessert, even so shortly after breakfast, was a nice one. She walked up to the stand as soon as it was open and Sunny. . . Didn't seem to notice her. Right across the counter. "Hey, Sunny?" Searing waved a hoof at the dessert mare.

"Hm?" Sunny looked around for a bit. "Oh, hi. Didn't notice you there. How can I help you?"

"You didn't-" Searing gave a frustrated sigh before placing her order. "I'd like a two scoop banana split with mango chunks, lemon peels, and some honey drizzled over it."

"Eight bits, please."

Searing levitated the bits out as Sunny turned to start on the sundae. Sunny suddenly paused, as if she'd forgotten what she was doing, then turned back to the counter and looked like she was waiting for a customer. "Sunny?" Searing's inquiry went unnoticed. "Sunny?" Unnoticed again. "SUNNY!"

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I must've. . . spaced out or something. What was it you wanted again?"

"Two scoop banana split, mango chunks, lemon peels, honey on top."

"Right." Sunny repeated the order and got as far as the two scoops before turning back to her customer. "What was it you wanted again?"

"Aaaaaaaggggghhhhhhh…………"

Five minutes later, Searing was sitting on a fountain with her sundae. She knew she couldn't really be mad at Sunny. The cheerful mare seemed to honestly forget she was there whenever she turned away, and she'd been helpful before. Still, Searing felt some anger towards the mare. The sundae, at least, was as good as usual.

Watching the crowd, she saw nobody looking at her. Griffons, ponies, male, female, none seemed to see her. Discord pedalling at high speed on an invisible bike and slowly going backwards also seemed to cause nobody to bat an eye. "Is Ponyville just that strange? That Discord can do whatever it is he does and it's treated normally?"

As Searing made her sundae disappear, she shifted positions to some of the more inviting ones she'd learned over the years. Still, nobody seemed to notice the shapely mare with her ice cream on the fountain.

After throwing the trash from the sundae away, Searing slumped onto the fountain's edge, her gaze resting on the water. She started to drift off a bit when Discord, with goggles and a snorkel on, popped out of the water. "Well well well, look who's feeling all lonely and forgotten."

"What do you want, Discord?" Searing tiredly asked. "I'm not having a good day."

"What do I want? Now isn't that the question of the year? What if I told you that I know why nopony's noticing you?"

Searing's interest was caught. ". . . Go on."

"You have a very. Very. VERY. Rare magical disease that has almost no documentation: Background Pony Syndrome."

"Get to the point." Searing could feel her temper start to rise a bit.

"Feisty. Basically, you just kind of fade into the background. Tell me, do you notice every single instance of trees rustling in the wind?"

Searing was suddenly aware of the trees around her gently rustling in the wind. "Well. . . No."

"It just fades into the background, and that's what BPS does to you." Discord disappeared and was suddenly lounging along Searing's back and neck. "You just faaaaade into the background."

She turned in his general direction. "Then what?"

"You want the details? Or should I cut straight to my cure for it?"

"Tell me about the cure."

"Details it is!" Discord snickered at Searing's unhappy groan. "Long, long, loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong ago, ponies were not as colorful as they are now. It was much more common then, and was one cause of ponies just disappearing. Because of how few colors they had, it wasn't as easy to notice if one pony in particular was missing. Then colors started happening, and it became much less of a problem because in a world of tan and brown ponies, a blue one is hard to miss."

"Get to the cure already."

"Fine fine. But I warn you, it's going to be a bit. . . Chaotic." Searing suddenly found herself sitting in a comfy chair (the same kind that the unexpected Equish Inquisition used, not that she knew). On the other side of the desk in front of her was Discord dressed up as a doctor looking at a clipboard. On the desk itself were a variety of travel brochures that almost hurt to look at. "I can make you the last ever case of BPS and cure you, but you'll need to take a little trip. Time and space may not make sense while it happens. As your travel advisor and doctor, I prescribe taking the Craymaxamyarc trip package."

"Is that even a word?"

"Spirit of chaos, my dear. Our first stop will be a local attraction: Ghastly Gorge!" With a snap, they disappeared and were in an opening in the wall of the gorge. "Ta-da!"

Searing looked down into the deep, black abyss. "Has it always been this deep?"

"When a huge weather machine rises from here, it kind of has been. It also just so happened to conveniently open up this deep underground science bunker OF SCIENCE! Anyways, toodles, gotta go finish organizing some chaos things. I'll be back in a week."

Being full did not stop Searing from thinking about food in the situation. "What will I eat?"

"There's a fully stocked fridge and the water is perfectly safe. Don't worry, it's all fresh. Ciao~" With a snap, Discord disappeared.

Searing sighed and went inside. "Well, not like I've got anything better to do. May as well explore a bit."

Author's Notes:

And so it begins. The unusual adventure, full of strangeness, weirdness, and bizarrity. We start off with a dose of isolation.