The Draconequus' Challenge
It was a bright autumn day when Twilight Sparkle walked towards her friend Fluttershy's cottage, a book held in her magic's grasp. The air was fresh, there was only a small breeze, and the dead leaves crunched with a satisfying dryness beneath the alicorn's hooves. There were a few clouds here and there, just the right amount to tone down the sun's brightness while leaving some light so she could read easily. Then again she could have the read her book if it was darker or even raining, because an avid reader will usually be prepared to read no matter what. On she went, sidestepping past a root here and avoiding a bump in the road there while she turned the pages.
She was currently reading the latest novel from an author whose popularity was growing quite steadily, who went by the nom de plume Loose Carol. In this book, called A Journey Through Looneyland, a young mare had to struggle to retain her sanity after a magical experiment had sent her head first into a twisted version of her own world, where everyone was apparently insane and each trial she went through revealed something more sinister truths. Or was she the one who had gone mad, while everyone else was quite sane? Had the experiment sent her someplace strange, or changed the world around her? What did all those trials mean? Those were some of the questions that the reader had to ask themselves as they read this book, and it had many Equestrians - and even residents of other countries - turning pages with fervor.
Twilight Sparkle had started to read this the day before, and even though her curiosity was piqued - and that's another hole in the road avoided - her interest in the overall story was starting to wane. She found the main character, who would complain about her troubles a lot and seemed to be drifting through the world, slightly annoying, and some of the trials made no sense whatsoever no matter how many times she re-read the passage. She was a very, very bright mare herself, but the idea of taking the non-existent left door to get into a building where drunks were model citizens seemed forced and asinine.
She was more of a Daring Do fan, where the obstacles that were met were either puzzles, that could be resolved with a logical and careful approach as well as an ingenious execution of said logic, or other living beings that could be reasoned with, tricked, or defeated with some good old-fashioned beating up. The reason why she liked Daring Do so much, apart from the excellent writing - duck slightly because of birds, be ready for the little bridge - was that she could imagine herself in the main character's environment, and she would even clap her hooves together happily when it turned out Daring Do solved the puzzle or enigma the exact same way she did. That feeling of immersion was exactly what was missing in the book she was reading at the moment.
Oh come on now, you can't just imagine your hoof is in the other room to get the key and -
"Um, hello Twilight."
"Wha- huh?"
Twilight realized she was standing in front of her friend's home, who was holding the door open and looking at her with her head tilted to the side.
"It's just that you were just standing in front of my door with your hoof up like you were going to knock, even after I was done getting ready. Is what you're reading that good?"
"Oh sorry about that, I guess I kinda zoned out. No, actually, I was just having a hard time wrapping my head around a certain part," said Twilight, rubbing her right foreleg in embarrassment. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yes, there's not much I needed to prepare anyway. Discord said his home was just five minutes away from here. I shouldn't be gone too long Angel, so don't worry! Bye bye!"
Fluttershy closed the door after calling to her pet, and the two of them were on their way. Twilight had thought it would be a good idea to pay a visit to their reformed friend, not just to make good on her title as Princess of Friendship but to also make him feel more welcomed and act a bit more friendly, hopefully. She had asked Fluttershy if she could be there when they met, since their other friends were not the best ponies to turn to when dealing with the outrageous draconequus. She was a bit nervous after receiving no response for a few days, but in the end Fluttershy told her Discord said he would be glad to host them, as long as it wasn't a Tuesday. So it came to be that on this Sunday morning, a few days after the Running of the Leaves, the two friends were walking towards the Everfree forest, following Discord's instructions in order to reach his house.
"Are those saddlebags okay for you?" asked Fluttershy, looking at the bags pinning down her friend's wings, "are they not hurting your wings?"
"No they're fine, I actually kinda forgot they were there," said Twilight, closing her book before putting it in her bag.
"Um, what did you bring? If you don't mind me asking..."
"Oh, just some stuff to write down some notes if need be and some things for us to enjoy, like some tea Zecora actually grew herself and wanted me to try, some biscuits, some cups, just...stuff, I guess. Do you think I brought too much?" asked Twilight, suddenly embarrassed for having brought so much.
"I don't think so, in fact I think Discord will appreciate the gesture. Or, um, he might tease you...a bit...but I get the feeling he's very grateful even for the smallest of gestures, even though he won't show or admit it," said Fluttershy, smiling and shaking her head in mock exasperation.
Twilight felt better after hearing that, and the bags felt right once more against her wings. She had taken them just in case she wanted to ask Discord some questions, and to bring some items so that she wouldn't show up empty hoofed. Then again, Discord was always empty handed and he could summon pretty much anything he wanted no matter its size, something she was actually a bit jealous of even though she would never admit it. Speaking of which it was hard to read him, his words being intentionally misguiding or cryptic sometimes and his body language pretty much indecipherable.
Maybe I should ask him about that as well, his body shouldn't be able to twist so much unless his bone structure works like-
"Um, Twilight? Twilight, we're here."
Not again, I really need to get my head on straight today.
She looked around, seeing that they were on the edge of the Everfree and hearing the odd noises always coming from it. She was about to ask what Fluttershy meant before she noticed they were standing in front of a very very tall tree, light purple in color with long blue leaves resting at the tip of long, thin branches. Furthermore, she noticed that there was a small tunnel at the foot of said tree, and it took her a second before something clicked in her mind, making her sigh and rub her forehead with a hoof.
"Fluttershy, what did Discord say exactly when it came to where to be?"
"Um, he said we would meet at the foot of one of his thinking trees just before eleven and that he would take us there, but I don't see him up there or anywhere near. Oh dear, I hope he didn't forget about today," said Fluttershy, tapping her hoof out of embarrassment.
"I don't think so. Tell me, is that a rabbit hole by any chance?" asked Twilight, pointing at the tunnel.
"Why yes, it is! But why do you ask?"
"I'm having a strange feeling that..." said Twilight, trailing off as she reached for her copy of A Journey Through Looneyland and flipped through the first pages. Her suspicions were confirmed when she reached the passage in which the main character comes across a rabbit hole, at the foot of an impossibly huge tree, that turns out to be much larger on the inside. She then rummaged though her bags and pulled out a watch, indicating that they had five minutes before the clock reached eleven.
"Just as I thought. You see, I have this book with me that-"
But before she could explain any further, the rabbit hole enlarged itself without any warning or sound and the wind picked up suddenly, throwing them into the tunnel that seemed to suck them in with its own breath. They shrieked with surprise and fear, the ordeal lasting only two seconds before the environment returned to its original state, with only a deep laugh left to echo quietly above the tree.
************
The two ponies slid down the hole, holding each other and yelling in panic. Instead of hard dirt the tunnel's walls were made of blankets, thereby making it a much less painful ride. What really scared them was how fast they were going, and all the sensations that assaulted them. All around them the walls turned orange, then green, then blue, and kept changing colors while all sorts of smells floated through the air, such as pine and mint and sand, as well as chocolate and strawberries, then honey after the smell of seawater. As they fell they could taste vanilla then coconut, followed by carrots then bread and banana.
Fluttershy had tried to slow them down by flapping her wings, but it seemed as though an invisible force were holding them closed; then again, it might have been the terror she felt. There was a light approaching from the distance, and with it came all sorts of sounds, such as honking cars and balloons popping, squeaking toys, the roar of a lion and high pitched laughter among many others. As they neared the end of the tunnel and the light got brighter, they could hear a sentence repeated louder and louder:
I was sitting on the pot with my hands on my knees, when lo and behold I felt a cosmic breeze!
They were thrown out of the tunnel as soon as they reached the end of it, but instead of meeting the ground Twilight felt herself float gently in the air without feeling any wind, slowly spinning on herself. She opened her eyes to see a small globe covered in grass spin slowly beneath her, floating next to other globes of various sizes from different distances. There were only pieces of land, round or flat, floating above a dark purple abyss and beneath a sky of the same color. Some shapes could be seen moving in the distance, and she could have sworn she saw a flying blue centipede not too far above them. She wasn't too sure however, too busy hyperventilating as her mind reeled from the sensation of weightlessness.
"Twilight, are you okay?!"
She looked around to find Fluttershy looking up at her from the globe of grass, although Fluttershy was upside down from where she was floating. She also saw the tunnel, which faded away in a blur with a sound similar to television static.
"I'm alright, I'm alright, I'm okay! I just have to focus...focus on the ground...focus focus focus!"
Concentrating on the feeling of solid ground beneath her hooves, as well as remembering the science behind gravity from her books, Twilight felt herself slow down and gently sink down to the surface her friend stood on. As soon as her hooves felt grass she shook her saddlebags off and collapsed, her wings flapping out of synch, laughing nervously and breathing heavily. She had never felt like this before, as the sensation couldn't compare to levitation or flying. She could levitate herself through great effort and was still learning how to master flight, so her mind was having a hard time dealing with the helplessness she had just felt. She was aware of a wing draped over her shoulders, and tapped it gently to let her friend know she was indeed okay.
"Fluttershy, do you have any idea where we are? How are you?" asked Twilight, rising on her shaky hooves.
"I'm fine, I landed on my hooves as soon as we were out of the tunnel. And we're actually in...um...a separate dimension, from what I gathered from Discord's explanations."
"Wait, what?!" said Twilight, staring wide eyed at her friend with her wings flared out, causing Fluttershy to give a tiny squeak and retreat behind her hair.
"Um, yes...I've seen this place through Discord's window when I was in his house, but he would always bring me directly there and told me not to wander here alone. He told me about this place, but there were a lot of terms I didn't understand that concerned chaos magic and different dimensions...Twilight, I'm scared, I don't like it here," whispered Fluttershy, crouching down and wrapping her wings around herself.
"It's okay Fluttershy, I'm right here next to you. Nothing bad is going to happen as long as we look out for each other," replied Twilight, sitting next to her friend and rubbing her back with her hoof.
"Actually, nothing bad is gonna happen as long as I look out for you," said a very familiar voice.
Quickly looking up the two ponies saw a lion's paw shoot out of thin air, followed by a talon which seemed to warp the air around both appendages before a very familiar head and neck slowly appeared. The rest of Discord's body slithered out of the invisible hole he had stretched open, and he finally stood tall before them with his hands held behind his back.
"Hello, my dear friends! I'm sure you're wondering why I've gathered you all here today!"
"Discord, are you responsible for what happened to us just now?!" asked Twilight, glaring at the draconequus who just smiled down at her.
"Why yes Twilight, that was me. But before you start ranting and raving," he interjected, holding up his paw just as Twilight was about to yell at him, "let me explain the very good reasons behind my actions."
The two ponies found themselves lying down in two large beanbags set next to each other, while Discord held a notepad in his hands as he adjusted some reading glasses on his snout with his tail. After flipping through a ridiculous number of pages, he slapped it closed and cleared his throat, turning to face them.
"Alright, first things first: are you okay?"
Twilight was about to tell him how she was very much not okay, before she actually thought about it and realized that she was, in fact, alright. She shifted a bit into the beanbag and muttered that she was okay, after which Fluttershy whispered the same.
"Good, good, I'm glad to hear that...Fluttershy," he chuckled, holding his hands up when he saw Twilight's deadpan stare, "and you too, Twilight, don't worry. Now, I suppose you're wondering why you had to go through what happened and why I'm not making much sense. I will answer only the first part, as the second is pretty obvious.
He then walked over to Twilight, wrapping himself around her just enough so that he was holding her while facing them both.
"Now let's talk about Twilight here. Prized student of Celestia, Element of Magic, Princess of Friendship, blardy blardy bla, but more importantly, our friend," he said with a large grin, as a book flashed into existence. "But if I'm to be a good friend, I have to take a page from the book of Applejack and tell her what I honestly think about her."
He opened the book, ripping a page from it and holding it up closely to his face. Twilight looked closer and could make out the words apple and apples written over and over again, with an apple drawn crudely in the center of the page.
"In all honesty, Twilight Sparkle, I think you're boring. B-O-R-I-N-G, bawring," he said, balling up the page and throwing it over his shoulder where it floated into nothingness.
"Discord! That's not nice at all!" said Fluttershy, rising from her beanbag to glare at him. Twilight, on her end, was angry and slightly vexed by his attitude.
"But! I also think there's a lot of potential to expand her mind, which is one of the two reasons why I set all of this up. I seem to recall, for example, a certain incident with a doll with an apparently magnificent mane; and you making Rarity manage the weather? Priceless!" he continued, grinning with his eyes narrowed.
"How do you know about Smartypants?!" shouted a blushing Twilight, swatting at Discord's head to no avail.
"Omnipotent, omniscient, omni-how-do-you-like it," replied Discord, shrugging while avoiding each of her swipes. "So there's one example of how our good friend Twilight has the potential to think outside the box, bend the rules, and expand that delightful mind of hers. I have to say, you wanting to visit me with our good friend Fluttershy - finally reacting to my remarks about visiting by the way, good on you for that - was the perfect opportunity for us all to help you with that. So to answer your question: I put through that not-so-terrible 'ordeal' as you call it to prepare you for what's to come, since this dimension can throw a lot of stuff at you."
Twilight stopped to think about he said for a minute, and found that his twisted logic was somewhat sound, and she found herself intrigued at his proposal to learn more, or learn differently if she understood him correctly. Giving a small smile and raising an eyebrow, she looked up at the grinning Lord of Chaos.
"Alright Discord, I see you want to challenge me so we can be better friends, is that it?" she asked, satisfied when he nodded eagerly. "In that case you're on, buddy boy."
"That's the spirit!" he cheered, clasping his hands together while confetti exploded from behind him. "Actually I'm the spirit, but let's not get off-topic. And in this corner..."
He was suddenly behind Fluttershy's beanbag, his hands sitting atop the cushion while his head was next to hers. Fluttershy squeaked in surprise but didn't shy away from him, while Twilight looked back and forth between them and where he had just been. Discord looked at Fluttershy and frowned slightly.
"Oh I'm sorry Fluttershy my dear, I forget you don't like that. And you said it's apparently rude, so double fault on me. And I hope that tunnel ride wasn't too rough. In short, I'm sorr...I apologi...I'm sorry," he finally said, apparently having difficulties getting over some silly ego block when it came to saying sorry.
"It's okay Discord, I forgive you. It was a bit scary, but it was also a bit fun," she said, both of them smiling as she put a hoof on his paw, "but I'm not the one you should apologizing to. Twilight was really distressed back there, she's not used to flying out of control like that."
"Oh yes, right, I saw that. My, I must be a bit slow today. So I'm...sorry Twilight, if my summoning was a bit too rough for you," admitted Discord, leaning towards her.
"I'm better now so I forgive you Discord, but don't do that again," said Twilight, appreciating his efforts to understand them better.
"Noted. Now!" he exclaimed, curling around Fluttershy in what seemed to be a more protective manner, which Twilight mentally noted for later transcription.
"Fluttershy, my dear friend, you know I love you to bits, right?" he asked, satisfied when the blushing pegasus nodded. "And as such, I figured I have to be just as honest. We need to work on that backbone of yours."
Twilight frowned a bit and tilted her head to the side in confusion while Fluttershy shrank in her seat, only to look up when Discord took one of her hooves in his lion paw and patted it with his talons.
"Now I don't want to make you feel bad, but I just see potential for more, like I do in Twilight here. I see you scared of your shadow and my window back in Celestia's castle on one hand, and then I see you tell a dragon what's what when it threatens your friends and putting minotaurs in their place like no one else on the other hand! So much potential, so much to admire, I just sometimes think it's a bit of a waste!" he explained, making small puppets appear in each hand to re-enact the scenes used to illustrate his point.
"So that's the second reason why you're here today!" he exclaimed, appearing above them in a flash of light while the tips of his fingers touched each other. "Expand your mind, build your courage! Discover, improve, win! And win just one for the Gipper!"
He froze for a second, his arms thrust out in triumph, before he slapped his right palm against his forehead and turned away from their confused expressions, grumbling. "Different world, different references, Discord. Fluttershy told me I should stop or make better ones, come on, we can do better..."
He then turned back to them, smiling triumphantly as he snapped his lion fingers, making the beanbags disappear and Twilight's saddlebags rest back on her wings.
"I'll be watching over you to make sure nothing really bad happen to you, but I won't be babysitting you. After all, I have faith that your friendship will guide you towards my home, which is right over there!" he explained, making a red arrow appear over their heads to point them towards a glowing red light on the horizon. "This shouldn't take you too long, and if you well and truly want to get there faster I'll bump you ahead. Alright, I think that's everything! Have fun, girls!"
And with that, he caught his own tail to spin out of existence, leaving the two ponies to stare at their surroundings. But just a few seconds later his head popped out of the ground in front of them, making them jump back in surprise.
"Oh, and Fluttershy? There are many many many animals here that no one has ever seen, so feel free to look around! Toodles!" he said, vanishing in a burst of light and leaving a very happy pegasus behind his passage. Her smile disappeared however, and she turned to look at her friend.
"Um, I'm sorry if he annoyed you too much Twilight, I told him to be on his best behavior when you came by..." said Fluttershy, poking at the ground in embarrassment.
"Are you kidding me? This is great! Discord has clearly shown some progress when it comes to friendship, he wants us to be better ponies, he gives both of us a source of new knowledge, and if I succeed I get to rub it in his face!" she laughed, blushing once she realized what she had said on that last part.
Her friend giggled, and they took their first steps towards Discord's home in this bizarre dimension, always looking around for new and exciting things to see.
Author's Note
Hello there everybody! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'll cook up some more as soon as possible!
Feel free to point out any errors, I went over this a couple of times but I'm in the hospital so I was a bit woozy when I re-read this. Feel free to leave a comment if you think there are things I could do better or that didn't sit right with you.
