I still find the surprised and confused expressions of ponies quite funny, and the small purple alicorn's face was doing a great performance in the comedic career. She looked like she had just encountered some strange creature she had never ever seen or heard of before talking with a sun demi-goddess about something that deserved serious and immediate attention, and that this creature had just asked a terribly nonsensical and unexpected question. Or maybe she was just allergic to chicken feathers and that made her have a funny face.

It was probably the chicken allergy. I mean, what are the odds?

While her jaw was still hanging low and she was trying to form a coherent answer to my clever and perfectly timed question, pink invaded our sight.

Verso hijacked the commands again and tried to get away from the pinkness that just appeared, but we felt strong arms constricting around our body, preventing us to move. I think he was about to try his 'venting off' thingy when a big blue eye darted all over our face. We also heard a big gasp.

"Ohmygosh!" a very high pitched female voice escaped from the pink creature. "I'veneverseenanythinglikethethingyouarebeforeIsawthethingthatyouare!"
"Uh..." was all Verso could say before the pink female continued.
"Andyoutalktoo! Ihavetothrowyouaparty! Doyoulikeparties? Ofcourseyoulikeparties,everyponylikeparties!" she said extremely fast.

I barely understood the topic, and I probably did only because she just used the same word four times in just over two seconds. The pink blur was talking about parties! We love parties! Well, Verso doesn't, but he usually slept during the few parties we had back on Earth, so it's not like he knew what they were like. I would have answered her, but Verso still wasn't leaving the front, afraid about what the pink animal could do. And I must agree that, whatever the pink creature was, she was holding us a bit tight and Verso was having a hard time breathing.

Thankfully, a golden glow encased the pink being before he could complete his 'vent off and burn the abomination' plan, which wouldn't have been a very good idea. The thing floated away from us, still ranting about parties or something, and we discovered it was actually a very, very pink earth pony mare with a somewhat darker pink puffy mane that had chicken feathers picked in.

"Now, my little pony, don't go and frighten our guest. He is a bit..." I think she glanced at us before continuing, glaring at Verso's glowing hands. "... Jumpy when startled."
That's right! I said. You could have hurt her!
Well, I didn't. He answered, fixing our eyes on the floating pony. And she would have deserved to be roughed up a bit. Jumping on unknown creatures and choking them is usually a good career-ending choice.
"So this is the guest you mentioned in the later you sent to Twilight, Princess?" another voice asked.

Verso blinked and stopped glaring at the pink mare to realize that aside from her and the purple alicorn her big lizard were four other mares. He stepped back to put a little more distance between them and us while we were taking in the new informations.

The mare that just talked was a pristine white unicorn with a stylized violet mane and a trio of blue diamonds depicted on her flank. she was the only one of these ponies that didn't have any trace of chicken feather in her mane or fur. Next to her was an orange normal pony mare with a blond mane and a stetson, looking at us with an eyebrow raised. She had a trio of red apples tattooed on her flank. Hovering just above them was a turquoise pegasus with a ruffled rainbow-like mane and a rainbow thunderbolt tattoo, a frowned expression aimed at us as if we just insulted everything she held dear to her hearth. And the last one was trying to hide behind the others, sneaking a few glances at us. She was a buttery pegasus with a light pink mane and tail. All in all, she looked rather nice, if somewhat scared.

"What is this thing anyway?" the flaming pegasus asked, quickly moving right in front of us, glaring at us.

Verso didn't like that. At all. I don't know if you've noticed, but he is somewhat short-tampered. It would be okay if you didn't, though, he hides it pretty well. Our hands glowed brighter and the pegasus was encased in Verso's yellow magic as he sent her a few meters away. I could feel his half of our soul slowly burning hotter and hotter as he was getting angrier. Thankfully, he didn't do anything more and released her, even if I could tell he would have liked to see if her legs could bend in a lot of directions. That's silly, he could simply ask.

"I'd appreciate it a lot if you didn't call me a 'thing', horse. Lesser men would feel insulted," he said in a scary voice.
You mean to say you didn't? Why are you so angry then?
I... Just forget it. I could probably spend years teaching you what sarcasm is and you still wouldn't understand. You're too... nice for that.
Thanks!

It seemed that Verso's 'sarcasm' brought the purple alicorn back to her senses and focused back on us, her irises growing ten sizes as a excited smile covered her face. She galloped in front of us, the big lizard falling off her back and landing on the ground with a loud 'tud', and eyed us up and down, while her horn glowed as she levitated scrolls and a quiver out of her saddlebag.

"I've never heard of anything like you!" she said. "Where do you come from? What's the name of your species? I saw you could use magic, is it anything like..."
"Twilight," Celestia calmly said.

The purple alicorn stopped asking questions, turned to look at her, then back at us. She glanced at her notes and blushed a bit. Her horn shone brighter and all the items disappeared in a flash of light. She giggled awkwardly and looked away as she stepped back. The lizard got up and rubbed its head, somewhat glaring at her.

Celestia stepped forward and cleared her throat. She smiled at the ponies and started talking.

"Twilight, I would like you and your friends to meet..." She glanced at us and Verso raised an eyebrow, glaring back at her. "... Do you even have a way of presenting the both of you at the same time?" she asked.
Verso shrugged. "Never had to. Everyone knew us in the Institute. Recto often introduces himself alone and I don't usually spend nearly as much time outside. I'm just making sure we are safe, and since I suppose this is the presentation you talked about earlier, I think I'll hit back."
He left the commands and I got back to the front, smiling. "Hello! I'm Recto, nice to meet you all!" I cheered.

The ponies looked like they had no idea what to do with us. The purple lizard looked at us with a mix of awe and confusion in his eyes.

"Hey, how did you change your voice? And your eyes?" he asked. "That's creepy, dude."
"Why would I change my voice?" I asked in return, tilting our head in confusion. "That would just be confusing. And I don't change my eye either. It's still blue, isn't it? It changed color?" I gasped in excitement. "Is it green now? I love green!"

Okay, most of them were looking at us as if I was nuts at this point. Even Celestia seemed a bit taken aback by something. Mister Discord, however, was having a hard time not to laugh. I wonder why he was trying not to? Anyway, I continued, looking back at the purple alicorn.

"Hey, you didn't tell we about the chicken feathers. What's up with that?"
"Well, uh..." she tried to answer, still disturbed by something.
"'Twas mighty strange," the orange one answered, still eyeing us with confusion. "They just kinda appeared over Fluttershy a few hours ago."
"Those horrid critters ruined the dress I was wearing to encounter Princess Celestia's guest!" the white unicorn growled, a bit of anger in her voice. "If I ever find the one responsible for this fiasco...!" She somehow mimicked and strangling motion with her hooves and I noticed that mister Discord had both his paws/claws/hands/things on his mouth, trying not to laugh out loud.
"That's not a very nice thing to say..." the buttery pegasus whispered. "The poor little things were so scared and confused..."
Well, that's funny. I thought. I looked at Celestia, wonder in our eyes. "There are chicken rains here? This place is great!"

The princess blinked and mister Discord chuckled. I think every pony in the room was looking at us like I was an idiot. Well, all except one.

"Oh that would be so funny!" the pink one said. "Can you imagine that? You just push the clouds in place for a downpour and chickens fall out of it!" She giggled at the idea.
"Oh, so that's not a real thing?" I shrugged. "Meh, I suppose that would be pretty silly. But then, how did the chickens appear in the first place?"
"Well, duh!" the pink pony said. "They just get out of the eggs, silly!"
"Okay, this is getting out of hoof now," the purple alicorn intervened before I could reply. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, nice to... why are you laughing?"

I wish I hadn't relapsed, but what can I say? She does have a funny name. So I was laughing, and her even more confused expression was doing little to stop me. Verso got back on front, grumbling, while I was taken over by my hilarity. They looked disturbed when our body just stopped laughing all of a sudden.

"Don't mind him, it's a human thing," he said.
The purple princess frowned. "Your voice and eyes changed again. Is that normal?"

Mister Discord slithered between Verso and Twilight - gosh that name is ridiculous - and popped a cristal ball into existence in his paw.

"That's a pretty simple thing to explain, dear Twilight," he told her; grinning. "Our friend here isn't quite alone inside his head. He..."
"I believe I can explain it myself, Discord," Verso interrupted him, a bit angry as he walked away from mister Discord, only for the rainbow maned pegasus to fall in front of us, still frowning.
"What does he mean 'not alone in your head'?" she nearly growled.
"Okay, you are definitely going to calm down right now before I have to kick some sense into your skull." She looked like she would have replied something, but Verso continued. "And he meant what he said: this body hosts two souls and changes a little when we exchange places, hence the voice and eyes thing. I'm Verso, and you already met Recto. I would say it's nice to meet you, but I like to think I'm more honest than that."

The blue pegasus looked infuriated enough to simply jump and strangle us, but we were suddenly surrounded by a golden light and dragged closer to Celestia, who didn't look overly pleased.

"I would appreciate it if you were a bit nicer, Verso," she said with authority.
"I'm not used to deal with people. That's usually Recto's job, but he would have choked up laughing over Twilight's name. And to be honest, it's not like I really care."
"That's no reason to be such a meanie!" the pink pony said. "You won't make friends if you keep up with this attitude!"

Verso's eye twitched. His part of our mind got a bit burning hot and he breathed in to prepare to say something, but stopped.

"Okay, I am not doing this," he said. Have fun.

He left the commands and I was dragged to the front while he kept growling on the back.

"Yep, he is grumpy now," I said while my giggling was dying down. "Well, I just realized you all know my name and Verso's, but except for..." I waved in Twilight's direction, trying not to look at her. "... the alicorn's name, I don't know any of yours."
The pink pony gasped again. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm Pinkie Pie, Ponyville's Party Premiere!"

I smiled at her and looked at the others. None of them seemed happy, though, the blue pegasus in particular. Celestia sighed and mister Discord lazily floated above us, just watching. I had a question in mind now.

"Are your names related to the pictures on your flanks?" I asked. "I mean, Twilight *snort* Sparkle here has a sparkling star, Celestia has a big celestial object, I think Luna had a moon... Though I don't know how ballons have are linked with your name, Pinkie Pie."
"Are you talking about our cutiemarks?" Twilight asked, slightly annoyed by my chuckle. At my nod, she continued. "Well, they are related to our special talents. I don't know how our names are related, though..." she finished, thoughtful.
"Well, they have been so far," I said. I grinned, excited. "Can I try and guess your names? That will be so funny!"

They looked kinda unsure, except for Pinkie Pie who just nodded faster than she probably should have been able to. Without waiting for their answer, I started inspecting the remaining unnamed ponies, searching for an easy one. My eyes settled on the buttery pegasus that was trying to hide behind the orange pony. I remembered her 'cutiemark' was a trio of butterflies. And the orange pony said a name earlier that fit pretty well.

"You!" I said, pointing at her. She whimpered and hid further behind the orange mare. "Is your name 'Fluttershy'?"
She squeaked adorably and the blue pegasus rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's her," she said. She flew in front of me in a blink, a smug grin on her face. "Now, I'm sure you won't have any trouble guessing a name as awesome as mine!"
I took a closer look at her mark, a rainbow-colored lightning bolt. After a second to deliberate with myself, I jumped and tried. "Is it something like 'Rainbow Flash'?" I asked.
She blinked. "Nah, but you're pretty close. I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in all of Equestria!"
Damn, so close...
Watch your language.
Sorry...

I looked at the remaining two ponies. The orange one had a trio of apples on her flank. She was wearing a cowboy hat and had a funny accent like some people I heard talking in a film about cowboys. Maybe she was a cow... mare?

Do cowmares even exist?
No, but neither did talking ponies a few hours ago. So, by all means...
"Hmm... Something with apples and cowboys... Is it 'Applejack'?"
Why in hell would a magical pony be named after...
"Well, darn' it partner, you're good," she said, forcing Verso to silence.

She extended a hoof like she wanted to shake hands, which is rather strange because I don't think quadrupeds would do something like that. But at the time, I didn't care: it was my first hoof shake ever! I grabbed it and almost regretted it when she shook it hard enough to make our arm feel numb. Thankfully, Verso was too amused by the situation to try and hurt her in return. Even though it was nice to know he wasn't in a bad mood anymore.

When Applejack finally let our arm go, I turned to face the last pony left, the white unicorn. She looked rather classy, her mane was definitely maintained and her coat looked a bit more groomed than the others'. Her flank tattoo was that of a trio of blue crystals.

"Uh... 'Sapphire'?" I tried. It sounded rather plausible, all things told. She huffed anyway, an offended expression on her face.
"You were able to get rather close to the others' names, but not mine? A shame."
"Sorry..." I muttered.
She smiled gently. "Nevermind, my dear, it's not a problem. I'm Rarity, fashion designer." I think I heard Verso growl when she said that.
"Do me! Do me!" Pinkie Pie demanded, bouncing in place.
"Well, I already know your name, Pinkie Pie."
"Aww..." she sighed, nearly sad.
"I can do it anyway!" I quickly added. It got her smiling again. "Well, you're pink. I'm gonna call you Pinkie."
She gasped in surprise. "And that's my name! You're really good at this!"

I blinked and searched for the last incomer. I looked at the purple biped lizard that reached a bit lower than our haunches. I inspected him for a few seconds, got my conclusion and nodded to myself for the dramatic effect.

"You're not a pony."
"Wow, thanks Sherlock Pones," Rainbow Dash snickered behind us.
"Nah, I'm a dragon!" he replied enthusiastically.
I blinked. "Really?" He nodded and I tilted our head. "I always thought dragons were giant greedy fire-breathing winged lizards that eat people and capture princesses. Kinda jerks when you think about it."
He blinked back and Twilight Sparkle answered instead, chuckling at his discomfort. "He is just a baby dragon."
"Oh!" I exclaimed. "That makes sense." I knelt down to get at his level, smiling. "Well, I sure hope you won't grow up to eat people. That's kind of a bad idea to be fair. You look rather cool, so I don't think you will."
"Huh, thanks, I guess?"
"You're welcome. So, what's your name, spiky lizard?"
"I'm Spike!" he joyfully answered, extending a hand I happily shook. "And I'm a dragon, not a lizard. I don't do that tongue thing." He hissed for some reason and I used my best sorry smile.
I got up and looked at Celestia. "Well, what now?" I counted them quickly. "Now that we're eleven, maybe we could play at something? It was nice playing with mister Discord and the guards, but I think they were upset after Verso beat them."
"I'm sorry, but it seems I can't make it," mister Discord said, looking at a funny golden watch. "As much as I would appreciate having fun with you and my dear Shutterfly, I also have pressing business elsewhere."
"Hum, it's, hum, Fluttershy, if you don't mind..." someone whispered.

Before anyone else could raise an argument, mister Discord snapped his talons and disappeared, leaving the rest of us in a somewhat odd silence that would probably have lasted much longer if he didn't reappear right next to Celestia after a few seconds, a glass of delicious chocolate milk in his paw.

"Oh, before I leave, call them Kay, they love it. And Recto-buddy?"
"Yes?"
"Catch."
"Uh..?"

He then threw the pure deliciousness-filled glass at us before disappearing again. I instinctively caught it with my telekinesis, only a few drops of the precious brown liquid escaping. I sighed in relief. And accidentally crushed it. I can still hear it, the cristalline sound of the glass simply cracking before it exploded inward, becoming shards of evilness as it merged with the most precious liquid of them all.

Needless to say, I was upset and sad. I think the epic "Nooooooo!" I shouted at the ceiling made the others understand the gravity of the situation, because they all looked at me oddly, safe from Pinkie Pie, who was staring with dread in her eyes at the monstrosity I had just committed. Verso just sighed.

Verso! I'm a monster! I mentally cried.
No, you're not. He replied monotonously. First, it's not that much of an atrocity... I gasped. How could he even think that? ... And it's just an accident. You still can't control your telekinesis after all.
I gasped again when a metaphoric light bulb lit up in my mind. Can you do something? Like, separating the glass from the chocolate?
You aren't seriously considering... Wait, of course you are... He sighed again. Just... Let me out.

I squeed in glee as we exchanged positions again, letting go of the now shards-filled ball of chocolate for barely an instant before Verso caught it. He sighed again and waved our hands a few times, each wave separating more and more of the most precious drink from the sharpened dangers it contained. Soon, he was levitating a liquid ball of happiness as well as the shards. He turned to look at Celestia.

"You wouldn't happen to have another glass at disposition, would you?" he asked. "Recto still can't use telekinesis correctly."
"That was pretty impressive!" Twilight exclaimed before Celestia could answer. "Not every unicorn is able to separate the components of a levitating object!"
"I'm not a unicorn," he answered matter-of-factly. "Now, a glass please, so I can go back and let Recto have his fun?"
"Just a second..." the purple alicorn said.

Her purple horn lit up in a slightly more pinkish aura and she hijacked Verso's control of the glass shards. Verso went wide eyed and turned to face her, emitting his sense field, dropping into a fight-or-flight stance. Celestia looked slightly worried and her horn lit up in her beautiful golden aura. The other ponies - and Spike - safe from Twilight all looked at Verso and Celestia, not really at ease either.

Twilight didn't notice a thing and her horn glittered brighter for a second, the aura around the shards turning blinding white. When she was finished, she was holding a new glass in her telekinesis. She turned her attention back to Verso with a smile, completely oblivious to the somewhat tense atmosphere of the room.

"There you go!" she exclaimed happily.

A kinda awkward silence reigned on the room again. Verso blinked a few times, ans everyone was looking at him, to see what he was going to do now.

"Uh, thanks, I guess..." he finally said as he grabbed the new gobelet. He started to pour the liquid heaven he thankfully hadn't dropped when he panicked inside, when Rainbow Dash flew right in front of us.
"What was that for?" she asked, suspicious. "You did something!"
"Care to be more precise?"
"You magic-pulsed something! What kind of spell was that?"
"Oh, you are talking about the sense field? Well, she startled me and I just used it by reflex. I'm not used to someone grabbing something I'm levitating."
"A sense field?" Twilight intervened. "What is that?"
"A 'spell', as you put it, that allows me to feel everything that is happening in its perimeter, without looking at it."

Twilight's pupils shrunk for an instant before they went wide and an equally wide smile crawled its way on her face.

"I've never heard of a spell like this one! This is a great idea! Just think of all the possibilities!" She jumped in front of us, casually throwing Rainbow Dash out of her way and looking at us with wonder in her eyes. Verso stepped back. "How does it work?"
"I'm done here."

Verso dragged me to the front and I barely caught the glass in our hand before I let it be destroyed once again. I sighed in relief and immediately drank it before another accident could happen and ruin the day forever. After I finished the precious drink, I noticed that Twilight was still in front of me, wonder gleaming in her eyes.

"Hi, thanks for the glass," I said.
She blinked. "You already thanked me."
I shook our head. "Nah, Verso did, just to be polite." She blinked again. "I'm Recto! He explained everything like, five minutes ago!"
"So... do you know this 'sense field' spell?" she asked, hope and confusion in her voice.
"Yep."
Glee instantly returned to her face. "Teach me!"
"I can't," I replied. "I'm fairly bad at this magic thing. Verso teaches me how to do some things, but I don't really know how it works. You would have to ask him."
Her eye twitched and a few hairs of her mane went loose. "Well, I did! He didn't reply!"
'Cause I have no reason to teach it to her. In fact, I have more reasons not to teach it to anyone!
"He answered," I said cautiously. "He... wants something in return."
I've never said that!
Twilight's smile was nearly too bright for me to bear. "I can show you spells I know! Oh!" she exclaimed, clapping her hooves in excitement. "I'm sure you have a different view on traditional thaumaturgy from most ponies! Think of everything we could learn from each other!"
"I'm not sure I understood. What do 'summer torching' even means?" I asked, deeply confused.

Verso mind-palmed and Twilight blinked. Behind her, a few of her friends failed to contain a snicker. The purple alicorn opened and closed her mouth a few times, probably trying to find a way to define this strange combination of words to me.

"It's 'thaumaturgy', not 'summer torching'!" she finally exclaimed.
"'Sonate urchin'?"

I was seriously getting more confused every second. And judging by her red face, she was probably getting angry at me for not understanding. Behind her, I could see Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie laughing pretty hard, with Applejack and Rarity having a hard time not giggling too.

'Thaumaturgy', Recto! Verso wrote in our mind. Basically, the ability to perform magic or miracles. It's also sometimes used to talk about spell crafting. I would have thought you would know with all the fantasy books you've read!
Uh...
Just... Just let me out again. I'd like to ask a few questions and using you as an interpret seems to distort some things.
Hey! You said you had no reason to teach her, so I found you some!
We'll talk about that later. Now, please?

I grumbled and let him out again. He mentally muttered something and glanced at the still red faced Twilight.

"Since I'm the one that will be working with you, I'd like to ask a few questions." She nodded and he continued. "First, I guess you know a bit about magic, since you were Celestia's personal student?"
Twilight nodded again. She glanced at the white alicorn with a sheepish smile. "I'd like to say I know more than 'a bit about magic', but you're right."
"Great. 'Cause we don't know anything about it."

She stared at us like he had just said to a priest of the Church of the Holy Cheese that we didn't know what camembert is. Or like another head had just popped beside the first one.

"But... But how? How can you not know anything about it?" Looking at her, I was pretty sure she was going to have an infarctus soon. "You...How could you create a spell without knowing the basics?!"
"Probably because there wasn't any magic where I come from, and we're just mostly autodidacts."

Okay, based on how she now was looking at us, we might as well had just said the the pope of the Holy Cheese Church that we created camembert all by ourselves while deeply believing that cheese doesn't even exist in the first place. We also probably had grown a third head and started dancing polka with a flight of space ducks too.

"That's not theoretically possible!" she exclaimed. "There is no place on the entire surface of Equiis where there isn't magic! And you have magic!"
"First, we don't come from your world, universe or whatever you call your reality. Second, ask Discord about technicalities, but he clearly explained that we were the only ones in our world to have this power, and that it came from elsewhere."
"I... Uh..." she started just staring into oblivion, her eyes becoming glassy.
Good job. You broke her.

Verso would have replied something if Pinkie Pie didn't simply 'pop' in front of us, her eyes filled with more stars than ever.

"You're an alien? That just so great! How did you come here? Do you have an airship that looks like a flying saucer? Is that true that aliens built the pyramids? Have you already abducted somepony? Do you know this Doctor guy that gets along with Derpy? Do you come in peace? Do you..."
"Stop, please, just stop. Your voice hurts my mind."
Hey! That's mean!
That's also true. I already feel the growing migraine.
That doesn't mean you have to be a jerk about it!
"Oki doki loki!" Pinkie said, happily bouncing away.
Uh, what do you know, it actually worked.
Still not a reason.
"Do y'all really come from another world?" Applejack asked.
"Yep!" I answered, coming back in front position for the time being. "Mister Discord saved us and brought us here."
"Really, now?" Rarity suspiciously asked.
"I knew he isn't such a bad pony," Fluttershy whispered confidently.
"Yeah, he is kinda nice. I mean, he gave us chocolate milk for the first time in our life when we encountered him!"
"For real?" Pinkie gasped.
"Yeah! And just a few hours earlier, he sent a whole flight of chickens to a friend!"

For some reason, they all stopped talking, just staring into space for a second. They then glanced at each other and Rarity's face progressively went bright red in what was definitely contained anger. That awkward silence was ruptured when mister Discord himself reappeared in a flash, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of sunglasses.

"Ah, I do love these Piña Colada emergencies..." he sighed happily. He then noticed us and glanced at our group over his glasses. "What are you all ponies still doing here? Don't you have, I don't know, friendship related things to do?"
"I WILL DESTROY YOU!" Rarity shouted before she lunged at him, her eyes literally on fire with rage. And I mean, literally. I wonder if she still got burns because of this.

While the unicorn was trying her best to crush our at-least-twice-savior, and while her friends were either trying to stop her, cheering for her or even helping her in her quest for destruction, Princess Celestia walked beside us, half-ignoring the show.

"So you want to learn about magic, Kay?"
Verso hijacked the commands and glared at her hard enough to make her step back. "Don't ever call us like that again. I hate this name."
"I should have guessed by the way Discord suggested that I use it. May I ask you why?"
"You may. I won't answer though."
Hey! I'd like to know too! What is it with you and that name?
I'll tell you one day. Just... not now.
That's your answer to everything! I harumphed. He didn't answer.
"Very well," Princess Celestia said, sounding a bit frustrated. "But you didn't answer my question. Do you want to learn magic?"

I immediatly started to repeteadly shout "Yesyesyesyes..!", too distracted to actually take control of our body to bounce around at the same time. Verso mentally grumbled someting about needing to know how it works, when we both felt something that felt like a powerful tremor in our souls. Verso's mind froze in fear once again, making Celestia looking at us like she had said something bad.

That's not possible! Not so soon! He nearly screamed.
Hey! What was that?
I have to go... He continued, distraught.

He didn't let me reply before he abruptly retreated in his own soul and left me completely alone at the commands. So of course, I did the first logical thing in mind : I shrugged, got back to the previous topic, jumped and hugged Celestia's swan-like neck as hard as I could.

"Yes! I'd love to study magic! It would be just like in the books!"
"Calm down, Recto," the princess chuckled. "And I can assure you that I believe Twilight to be a most capable teacher. She and her friends are some of the friendliest ponies I know."

I looked at the terrifyingly angry Rarity that was currently trying to zap mister Discord with lightning while screaming a lot of words Verso forbid me to say. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were currently laughing on the floor and Twilight was shooting lasers at the Draconequus too. Pinkie Pie was cheering them as she somehow got her hooves on a pom-pom pony suit with the faces of the two attacking ponies printed on it, while a deeply confused Fluttershy was wearing a similar outfit that arbored mister Discord's face on it.

"Yeah, they look like pretty friendly ponies to me."
"Well," the princess sighed, "Discord does have the tendency to bring out the wo..."
"I mean, look at them!" I continued, not one to feel the need to let magical pony princesses finish their sentences. "They're all playing with mister Discord and having fun! I wish Verso and I could play like that when we were in the Institute..." I muttered.

That's when mister Discord decided it would be a good idea to slither behind me to try and hide from the magical pony duo. I turned to advise him to find another hideout, as he was hardly hidden by us, mister Discord being a lot taller than we will ever be. That's also when I heard a gasp and Twilight shouting something along the lines of "Rarity, wait!".

And then, I was zapped.

Thruthfully, it wasn't really painful or anything, but it really looked like the electrocutions in the cartoons : there was a sizzling, I saw our bones through our skin and it ended with a slight smell of something burnt (wich turned out to be some of our hairs as mister Discord licked two fingers and extenguished a small flame on our head).

I think it was the heaviest silence I heard in a long time. Everybody (safe from me) was holding their breath. Mister Discord was staring at me with a big smile, Princess Celestia had me confused with a giant bomb, Rarity's face was filled with horror and shame and everyone else was just staring at me.

That's when I started to laugh.

Tears of mixed rage and terror were rolling on my cheeks. I was back in the room, thunder roaring again and again as the door was barely holding on its hinges. How? I just reinforced it a few hours ago! He shouldn't be able to try and get free so quickly!

"How? HOW?!" I shouted at the door, the thunder muffling my cries. "How can you... Why won't you simply stay dead, monster?!"

The thunder stopped, silence falling on the room once again. I could feel him, right behing that thing, I could feel his murderous smile widening on his face. I shouldn't have... I never felt him except for his voice since...

"You call me the monster?" His voice said, somehow even more terrifying than the thunder that could shake this place to its foundations. "I'm not the monster here, traitor. I'm not the one who betrayed them. I'm not the one who killed the other. I'm not the one who IMPRISONNED the other!" he replied, his voice growing more and more powerful with each sentence until it put even the thunder to shame.

'I͌͐ͥͭ͐̎͌'̟̩̟̂̓ͦM̤̟̼̪͇̖̩͋͗͐̀ ͇ͧͩN̥ͯ̆͗ͥ̊̈̈Ò͔͖͉̰̠͙̏̏̎ͫT̖̥̫̹͖͔ͣͤ͆͒ ̝̪̣͂ͭͧ͆ͤT͇͕͉͕͚ͫ̔͑͌̂̓ͣH͊̃E͖̜̦͚̣̗̱ͧͧ̎͆́ͫ ̣̑O̱Nͩͮ̈́̈́ͧ̑̚E̯͇̦̭͎̓̿͌ ̳̣̈͑͌W̘̣͉̾̀̋̇́Ĥ̹̍ͦ̓̎̆̔O̔͆ͫ͌̃͊ ͚̻̒̈́̂͒̒Ș̘̮͕̳͑̐͒͆́̋E̻͈̲ͣN͖̅ͧͣ̀͌̎̌T̪̤̀ ̯̘̮̭̣̱ͭ͑͑̉ͥ̎H͕̱̟̟̘̖̄ͩͫI̲̹̞̜̗̦͗Ș̌ͨ̐ͯ̽ͮ ̩̘̫̦̙̯̄͆̂͂̑ͨÕ̦̪̪̬͆͒̉̚ͅW̥̠̦̲͎Ṉ͕͓̤͋̔ͦͤͅ ̟̖̩̂ͦͣ͒B͖̱̮̺̥͒͂̓ͣ̑R͓̠͖̳̺̤̓͌̈́O̪̮̺̩̖ͭ͐̅̚T͍͖̳̰ͥ̓̆ͭ̿H͉̳̝̜̊̔͗ͅẼͬŘ̿ͨ ̖͇͇͎ͭͪ͊Ṭ̃̓̆ͩ͆̋O̜͇̤̻̒̃̂̃̆͆ ͨ̃ͨͣH̟̊͛̉ͪ̓͆ͨE͙̩̣̗̟ͪͨL̫̰͎̪͈L̜͎͌̊̍̽ͬ̒̚ ̦̙̜̪ͅA̩ͤ̌̀ͬN̅̿̂̑D̫ͯ̌ ̯̤̞͙̩̞ͪ̎TR̞͈̺̩͗ͧͅȦ̜͖͙̱̯̽̋̄̑̃P̤̳̝̠̊̾̋̈́P̞̟̂͛ͬͧ̓̚̚E̘̣͕̰ͭ̓̄͐Ḍ̼͓̱̾ͭ̾ H̰͇̬͚͇͋ͤͧ̎́͒̓Ỉ͉̼̿ͪͬ͊̿̈́M͙̄ ̜̹͆̂̑ͩͩ̀̇W̤̲Ỉ̩͈̼̉̅ͨ͑͛ͧT̙̱͎̟̳ͮͣ͂H̰̱̤̲͉͗͑̉̽ ̉T̝̺͌̇ͧ̊H̏ͨ͌E̻͓͙̱̦M͋͂ !"

His last shout threatened to destroy the chains holding the door shut. I stepped back, terror filling my heart as I could feel his power still growing behind the door. I somehow tripped and fell to the ground, still staring at it. He is too strong... I thought, despair grasping my throat as I felt like crying. I can't...

Behind me, the bed was still here, with him still sleeping peacefully. Looking at him, my resolve grew stonger. I couldn't give up, I didn't have the right to. I stood up as I could, still shivering with fear, but I stood up nonetheless. I dried my tears and stared with newfound bravery in front of the danger. He started to tackle the door again and the thunder soon followed back.

"I didn't betray them, they were manipulating us," I whispered. "I killed you because of what you became. Of what you did!" I said louder. "I imprisonned you so that you COULDN'T HURT HIM ANYMORE!" I shouted, stepping toward the door once again. "MY BROTHER DIED AND THEY PUT YOU IN HIS STAND! YOU DESERVE YOUR HELL! AND I'M KEEPING THEM IN THERE WITH YOU SO THAT HE WON'T EVER HEAR THEIR LIES!" The chains rattled, my anger giving them the strength they lacked, covering the door in layers. "I'm strong now! I don't have to follow your every whim anymore!"

I cut open my palm to draw out some blood and caught one of the chains in my hand. The metal turned red where I touched it, the color spread on and I felt my energy being quickly consumed by the new seal, until I was on the verge of exhaustion when the very last link changed color. It the whole structure shined a blinding red light, that slowly turned white before it dimmed away, revealing the door covered in various chains and bounds once again.

I couldn't feel him anymore and the thunder took back its slow pace. I simply collapsed, my breath short and my head feeling like it was about to explode. I smiled nonetheless, for once. I was a lot too weak to go back outside, I would probably have to wait until the next day to do so, but I had won and got us some time again.

"You see?" I successfully whispered, my throat hoarse, glancing at the bed. "I can still protect you..."

Author's Note

Well, what do you know, I actually updated something for once. Isn't that just incredible? Surely, today has got to be a special day for me.
Well it's not. Stop making wild guesses. It usually ends badly.
I am working on the next one. To be completely honest, I'm already losing time writing nonsense about me losing time writing nonsense. No, I'm not procrastinating, what could possibly make you think something like that? That's just ridiculous! If you continue with this, you may as well say I'm studying beside writing, and that would just be preposterous, whatever that word means.

I let you alone now, I have, uh... not studies to not study. Until next time!

Honoo, away!!