The last cloud burst into icy mist as the Ponyville pegasi finished their morning rounds for today's scheduled clear and sunny sky. Once finished they gave a collective high-hoof on a job well done. It was a pretty sweet deal to be able to fly and control weather after all, and it was going to be a great day. This was in no small part due to the Elements of Harmony and their recent victory on restoring order from the antithetic clutches of Discord. The town wide celebration, spearheaded by Ponyville's premier pink party pony Pinkie Pie, and Element of Laughter, was to begin at noon. Everypony was excited, after all, Pinkie Pie parties were the best.
Everypony was gathering at town hall to hear the basic schedule of events and enjoy the bubbling excitement at a day that was going to be well spent with friends. One of the highlights however would be the music provided by the famous Weird Colt Ponyvich, and was known for his funny parody songs. The irony of the situation was not lost on anypony, save, probably, the pink pony who had invited him to come and play in the first place. But that was Pinkie for you.
Everypony was in high spirits and were gearing up for the grand time that they all knew would be this day and most of the night.
***
Window blinds drawn, her dark pink fur matted, and violet mane with white streaks bunched around her face, Screwball lay restlessly in her bed. It had been but four days since her encounter with Discord. Her first instinct upon gazing at his conglomerate visage was nothing short of trembling fear. Such a mismatch of animals, bat and feathered wings, goat leg, eagle and lion paws and claws all put haphazardly together. And then there was the gaping maw that housed many teeth, and one prominent fang. What else would she have been able to think of a creature that had simply appeared inside her house but that it was a creature of evil and violence, or at the very least carnivorous. But, instead of taking a huge bite of her sides or slashing at her face with any number of his wickedly sharp claws he, instead, did something altogether unexpected. With what was a small, though mostly sly, grin he snapped his lion paw, though thinking back on it now she could have sworn she heard a bike horn honk, and disappeared as Screwball's favorite Beanie cap's propeller began to whir like it were caught in a wind storm as she found herself lifting off the ground. For a second she thought that he had enchanted her cap, but that didn't quite ring true. If the cap was the one flying then it should have lifted off her head. But that of course had to be the answer because, otherwise, it would mean that she was providing the force of lift that was suspending her in the air.
Their would, of course, be time for introspection later. For the time being, considering she seemed to have the power of flight if the way she bobbed up and down in the air at will was any indication with a single thought,she looked up to thank the mysterious and, now somewhat, less frightening creature for this wonderful gift only to finally notice him vanished from sight with only the echoes of his deep, mirthful, laughter filling the air.
As euphoria began to set in, and was then passed for higher climes, Screwball began to test this new talent of flight. Though, more the ability to hover once her thoughts tried to catch up to her just as she sped out the door. Trees rushed by in a blur of pastel browns and all shades of green, as she sped out of town. Though she knew she didn’t have the same sort of grace that a pegasus is naturally born with, even a taste of this power had enough to send her into a babbling, endorphin-rushed, stupor.
Testing the limits of the height she could reach she found the max attainable was about ten feet comfortably and twenty by straining herself. She'd wondered if she could now walk on clouds. Though unreachable, through her limited power alone, the thought of speeding as fast as she could off of the nearby mountain at an appropriate angle to a nearby cloud seemed feasible enough, but she shook that idea away.
'What if I missed?' she'd thought.
Even with her new talent she wasn’t sure if she could slow herself down sufficiently enough. A better idea would be to get one of her friends from Cloudsdale or maybe even just the local weather patrol worker Rainbow Dash to bring a cloud down and see if she could climb atop it. She always seemed to be sleeping in one of them anyway.
A sufficiently safer plan in tow she returned to Ponyville in a state of nearly blissful ignorance to the rest of the world. Feeling rather silly she ran her hoof over her mouth in an attempt to imitate her beanie propeller, which had yet to slow down. Still, she couldn’t help but notice the beautiful floating houses when she reached Ponyville city limits, as well as some gardens as well.
'How cool! Now unicorns and Earth ponies can have a home with a view, just like the pegasi or even the Princesses!' she'd thought.
She had just reached her house, intent on getting some snacks into one of her saddlebags and head over to Cloudsdale, or possibly act as a bribe to wake up Rainbow Dash, whichever came first. If worse came to worse and she'd simply step through the cloud, no harm, no foul. Tying up a few sweets in a sack by the kitchen she had just started to notice the checkerboard style grass out the window. Pinky Pie, she'd thought with a lopsided grin, was probably out there right now playing cross-country hopscotch. That’s when it turned sour as the great rainbow erupted above the town, stretched into a dome, and obliterated the countryside back to it's green monotoned color and snatched away her new-found power, leaving in it's stead a sense of frozen loss.
Finally coming down from the adrenaline that had sent it buzzing with life for the past few hours as her body went limp as her newly awakened power was cruelly snatched away from her. it felt her mind had begun to close in on itself as it went back to, what she now felt like a dormant state. The sudden loss of her power quickly became a hard reality an instant afterwards as she hit the hard tiled floor of her kitchen. She'd been hovering to reach a carrot for herself from a high shelf instead of getting the stepping stool as she'd already tied up the sack for her trip.
Not wanting to believe what was happening she'd attempted to hover, straining to reach the now closed section of her mind, that she was now only too aware of, that had enabled her flight. Her eyes began to water as she struggled in, what was only more clearly becoming, in vain. The only thought that had been able to push through the mire of emotion had been: who could have possibly done something so cruel to me?
Looking though the kitchen window she saw a group of six ponies. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight, the Elements of Harmony, who had not but a few months past ended the dark alicorn, Nightmare Moon, and her plans for eternal night. They'd been participating in a group hug, Twilight shouting, “We did it we defeated Discord”, as sparks of residual magic kept sparkling off of their jewelry. The ambiance giving them a soft glow around them, as if to say they were shining examples of the principles Celestia had imparted to Equestria as they stood before the clearly frightened visage of the, now stoned, creature who had blessed her with flight.
Screwball could only stand there, mouth agape, as she stood in her kitchen spying through the window. All thoughts were swept away in a torrent of emotions. Rage, sorrow, betrayal, and a general befuddlement swirled within her. How could the Elements of Harmony have done something so cruel to such a kind and giving creature?
***
Screwball had spent the last four days after the incident in her room, for the most part, trying to sleep. After waking she would eat, do some vigorous cardio, take a shower, and then head back up to bed. The process repeating every odd four hours or so after the first day. Sleep had become her only solace as she could still feel the magic in her dreams from what felt like a lifetime ago.
On the fourth day, however, her absence caught the attention of Feather Quill, her best friend. A mare of a simple tan coat with chestnut mane tail, and sparkling golden eyes, she came to check up on Screwball to see if she was preparing for the city-wide party. Quill had always been the yin to Screwball’s yang, and ran the local fabrics shop. Enjoying a more quiet life of fabrics and other assorted desk and table activities, Screwball was her opposite. A force of nature, she was always doing stunts and activities that everypony thought was either pointless or dangerous, but everypony did agree that she was a star pitcher and would eventually hit the big leagues, her cutie mark a testament to her signature pitch which literally curved through the air like a drill bit and was next to impossible to hit, when she threw it slowly. Polar opposites, they shouldn't have made such great friends, but they were like zipper teeth, impossible to get together, but through the magic of friendship they meshed together and were stronger because of it. They balance each other and brought out the best of both their personalities. of course the occasional fight would crop up, occasionally butting heads as they came to an impasse in one conversation or some activity they had managed to wrangle the other one into, they had always managed to put right after about an hour, or so, not able to stay mad at the other for much longer than such a brief span of time.
Upon entering her friend’s house Feather Quill couldn’t help but notice how dark and gloomy Screwball's house looked when all the window shades were drawn. Calling out for Screwball she heard a muffled groan that sounded something like “leh meh lone” from upstairs. Going up, Quill was shocked when she found her friend Screwball in her disheveled state. Her eyes were red and had deep purple bags around them, and despite the extreme case of bed-mane she looked like she hadn’t slept in days.
“Screwball, what’s the matter? You look like you haven’t slept in a week,” she said, her voice crooning over her like a sick filly.
“Hardly” Screwball said, mustering enough strength to put some sarcasm into her voice. “It's All I've been doing for the past four wretcheddays is sleep so I can relive the memories.”
Feather Quill frowned, “What do you mean? What memories?”
“Memories of magic.” she grumbled
“Memories of what?”
“Memories of using magic!” she shouted as she lifted her head from her pillow, tossing of her fore-hooves above her head.
Feather Quill snickered, Screwball just looked so silly with her mane all a-frizz while trying to look serious, "well I'm sure if you practice more you'll get quite good at slight-of-hoof tricks.”
“That’s not what I mean,” the dark pink pony huffed. “I mean I was given a taste of the real deal, the whole sparkly-glowy kind. I was able to fly!”
The look of confusion on Feather Quill’s face was evident to Screwball even as she re-buried her head firmly into her pillow to catch the silent scream climbing out her throat in frustration. Lifting her head back up she knew she wasn't going to get any sleep again until she dealt with Quill, but rather than see the smile she was sure would still be stretching her face, she was instead faced with a more knowing look.
“I too lost something special,” Feather Quill said after sharing the silence for a full minute. “I was given a gift as well. Though if had been flight I’m sure I would be in the same place you are," and ran her hoof across the bed spread in a looping figure. "I was given the ability to change the color of any one of the cloth materials I touched. In fact, that’s the reason I’m all out of white, and why I’m now, for a limited time, selling a crystal color set of cloth. They look like spun gemstones but have the softness of cotton, from which they were originally made,” and finished with a bittersweet grin just barely stretching the corners of her mouth.
“Do you think that Discord was really evil?” Screwball said in a squeak of a voice as she looked away, afraid her friend would rebuked for thinking that compilation of a creature could be good in any way, shape, or form. After all, his life had been sucked out of him and his flesh frozen into stone.
“…I’m... not sure.”
Screwball slowly began to turn her eyes back to find the equally confused orbs of her friend and whispered, “Am I evil for thinking Discord shouldn't be trapped in stone?”.
Silence began to stretch through the room again until Feather Quill replied, “I don't know, but I do know is that once the magic stopped, it felt like part of my mind was being smothered.”
“You felt it too?" Screwball gasped.
They continued in hushed whispers, wondering what their shared revelations could mean.Maybe it had just been them. Maybe they had both been too high on endorphins to have felt anything besides the extremes of emotion that came with it and the fall that came after. However, without any more information it only amounted to baseless conjecture. They'd have to talk to the other ponies in Ponyville if they wanted to get even the slightest hint on what ahd really happened during Discord's escape. And since she was finally start to look better Quill finally brought up the fact there was a citywide party that they'd be able to talk to everypony at. Screwball's smile only grew, until she caught a whiff of her own breath and had to stifle a gag. Telling Quill that she would meet her outside in a few minutes she went to her bathroom and began to freshen up before heading outside.
***
Once outside Screwball found Feather Quill just outside Sugarcube Corner, the local sweet shop. Cantering over she noticed a look of discouragement on her friend’s face. Asking what was wrong Quill replied, “While you were getting ready I decided to ask a few of the ponies around here what had happened to them during Discord’s little escapade. Of those that I asked all the unicorns and pegasi all said the same thing. They suddenly became bereft of either their horn or wings for about an hour before they suddenly returned to them with nothing the stranger happening besides the way they noticed the land had changed, as well as a troupe of buffalo giving a graceful rendition of Swan Lake.”
“And what did the Earth Ponies have to say?”
“I tried asking some but many of them were accompanied by either a unicorn or pegasus friend and seemed to not want to say anything, especially after their friends mentioned how horrible it was to have been bereft of their horns or wings. But the ones that were by themselves or in groups of only Earth ponies did admit that they didn’t think it was as bad as what the Elements of Harmony have led them to believe. But, a few did mentioned feeling that some part of them felt like it was now missing.”
Screwball was intrigued. To have found a consensus, even a small one, in such a short time was almost more than she could handle. She and Feather Quill weren't the only ones! The faint echoes of a plan began to form in her head. Smiling, Screwball told Quill to go and enjoy the party and that she would meet up with her next to the apple bob in a little bit as she ran back inside her home saying she had forgotten something.
Once inside Screwball quickly shut the door. Looking around she took stock of how much space her main room could fit. Though the focus of the room was primarily dominated by a group of couches, there was certainly plenty of room, probably. Though, it would probably be a good idea to finally get rid of the broken olive green ottoman before she did anything else.
***
Finding the apple bob next to Twilight's library tree Screwball spied Feather Quill talking to Mrs. Cake, who was taking a break from the rush that had just mobbed her sweet shop for an after lunch morsel. Cantering up to them she asked if she might steal her friend away for a few moments. Being friendly, and a little tired, Mrs. Cake agreed and walked over to one of the many benches that had been set up for the party. Leading her friend to a more secluded spot where nopony could overhear them Screwball whispered, “I know that there has to be more Earth ponies that feel the same way that we do, if not the whole town. I am going to see just how many there are. I’m setting up a meeting at my house an hour after the party has been cleaned up. Do you want to help me with this?”
“Of course I want to help you,” Quill replied with a roll of her eyes, “but I want to see if there are any unicorns or pegasi that may harbor the same feelings we do. You can go around and ask Earth ponies, but I’d like to focus on the others, OK?”
"Ok. Now, I saw we head over to the flower path, I want to see what Pinkie did with the streamers this time."
Smiling at the abrupt change in tone Feather Quill gave a small laugh, though she still agreed, Pinkie streamers were not a thing to be missed in the summer time, if you had a care for such things. Besides, there was going to be plenty of time throughout the day to mingle with everypony, so why rush?
It had disappointed Feather Quill that she had been unable to find even one unicorn or pegasus that had been at least nonplussed over having experienced a bit of chaos, but in the end she returned to Screwball’s house with her head hung crestfallen with her lack of success. Literally all of them had done was belly ached to her how horrible it was to have had their precious horn or wings taken away for a measly hour and how they were glad that a creature like Discord was now locked away in a stone prison up in Celestia’s vaults and would never have to be subjected to such a horror again. Not a single one of them realized that they were saying it to an Earth pony who had never experienced either such events herself, being born without either her entire life, and was a perfectly functioning member of society, nor did they notice the stares they got from their Earth pony friends that they were hanging around with at the time. It had especially been agitating that none of the pegasi had even noticed that while they had their flight privileges revoke, none had sustained any injuries. All those that had been in the middle of a flight had found themselves suddenly standing still on the ground and those in the clouds had inexplicably found they were marooned but still able to stand on them.
She refused to let this turn of events sour her mood completely and in an act of defiance to the mounting displeasure dove into a tray of Mr. Cake’s famous cinnamon-swirl French toast. They were delicious, and it quickly brought a smile to her face. She let herself relax for the remainder of the city-wide party; after all, she had an interesting night still ahead of her.
…
When Feather Quill arrived at Screwball’s home late in the evening, but more early in the morning, she was astonished at what looked like all the Earth ponies in Ponyville, save the Elements of Harmony’s of course, crammed into her friend’s home. It was quite clear that many others shared the same notions on the whole Discord “fiasco” that had befallen Equestria as she.
About the room could be heard tales recounting the awesome thrills that had been unleashed upon them during Discord’s short stay in Ponyville. One mare with some grapes as a cutie mark was laughing, quite loudly, recounting her story on how the effects of black pepper triggering a sneeze had turned houses to plywood replicas, and how she was relieved that it had really happened so wouldn’t have to give up on her favorite pastime.
Squeezing through the crowd she slowly made her way to Screwball, who was talking to a colt with a grey coat. Upon getting closer to the conversation it had something to do with jelly and how he had been able to change his body into it. The colt had a smile that was bordering on the psychotic, clearly making Screwball nervous, so Feather Quill stepped up and excused the colt saying that she needed to have a private word with her friend. Obliging the colt meandered off to continue his story to others who would listen.
“Well, looks like all that’s going to show up has” said the brown mare, a little dejected that she hadn’t seen horn nor wing of anypony else but Earth ponies.
With a loud erherm, from Screwball, the crowd began to slowly quiet. “Fillies and gentlecolts, you, as I, are here tonight…”
“Erm, technically it’s morning” said a brown gelding with an hourglass cutie mark.
“…………. this morning, to discuss a matter that we all feel needs to be discussed. The recent escape and re-incarceration of Discord. As well as, how it may not have been a completely just action.”
The ambiance in the room began to shift at those words. A few ponies began to shudder a little at the mention of the draconequus. Even though many of them shared mixed feelings about the incident, they could all agree upon the fact that things had become radically different from the peaceful lives they had known as he had gallivanted across Equestria.
Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Screwball mustered her courage and said, “I think it might have been the wrong thing to imprison him in stone.”
And with that, the room was sent into an uproar.
“Free Discord?!?”
“What, defy the Alicorn princesses?!?”
“Especially now that Princess Luna was free?!?”
“Defy the Princesses’? What about all the other pegasi and unicorns?”
“This is madness!”
“He ruined my cabbages!”
The raucous noise was becoming unbearable, and if continued for much longer would it would probably the whole of Ponyville, when suddenly the lights went out. A few high pitched screams went up followed quickly by some embarrassed male coughing. A few were getting their nerves back, and a few mumbles of “who turned out the lights” and “someone get a candle” began to swirl around the room.
At the edge of the room the tell-tale tinkling sound of magic moved the crowd to dead silence as the light of a glowing green horn lit up a small corner of the room, silencing everypony, and stopping a few from breathing. With a flicker of movement the glow encompassed the recently used light-switch and flicked it back on, revealing the mint-green Lyra Heartstrings, the resident harpist, though more infamously known as a conspiracy nut.
“Well, well, well. Seems some ponies have finally got it into their little heads to question the world around them,” she smirked.
“Why are you here?” came an indignant cry, hidden in the crowd.
“Well it’s certainly not to crush this little rebellion,” Lyra replied coolly.
The room grew more silent, if possible, at those words, until a voice in the crowd groaned, “Oh sweet Celestia, guess we know who put Screwball up to this,” as his hooves began to beat a path to the front door, followed by a slow, but quickly growing number of hooves, and jovial voices and giggles at what a ‘silly filly’ Screwball was to get herself tangled up with such a character.
As the last pony exited Screwball’s house, politely shutting the door, Lyra gave a small smile, “Looks like my reputation precedes me,” and looked over to the two remaining mares, “so you’re the two little question askers. You know, if you wanted to cause a ruckus, there were easier ways to do so than pose questions that could get the ear of the military.”
“What are you talking about?” came the quick, and huffy, reply of Screwball, who was far from happy at Lyra, seemingly to have single hoofedly ruined her meeting.
“I’m not being mean,” Lyra replied in a quick tone, but softened as she said, “I’m trying to help you. Look, just, if you two really care, at all, about what happened to you five days ago, you’ll come visit me in the next couple of days, I’m practicing for an orchestral piece so I’ll be at home. Just come when it’s most convenient for you two.” Lyra then lit her horn and pulled the door open before quietly shutting it behind her as she left.
Feather Quill was the first to recover, and sedately made her way to the now empty sofa, flopped down upon it and said, “Well, that happened.”
Screwball cracked a small grin, always surprised at how simple she could make nearly any situation no matter how extravagant or curious, and made her way to the other side of the couch, her jump causing Quill to jostle some as Screwball settled in, and said, “Yeah, heh, I guess it did.”
The exhausted silence stretched on for what felt like minutes, but was closer to thirty seconds, until Feather Quill said, “So what do you want do?”
“I don’t know, things just escaladed pretty quickly. I think I might actually have to think about this.”
Quill gave a small chuckle, “Oh my, the famous Screwball taking time out to think, Tartarus must be freezing over.”
For that Feather Quill got a light cuff to her forehoof, which only made her laugh all the harder. It had been a long, strange, day, and she, much like Screwball, was rather tired.