When Twilight stepped into the darkness, she felt her stomach turn as gravity twisted around her, With nothing under her hooves, she fell, and she landed among dangling, tangled cables. She opened her eyes, briefly perceiving a another white-paneled room, this one wide and circular. But the cables tightened around her, binding her legs, crisscrossing her chest, and covering her eyes. Tangled up in the wires, Twilight dangled upside-down, suspended about fifteen feet above the floor.

She struggled instinctively, but none of the cables would come loose. She felt her horn, still on her forehead, and tried to pull at the cables - but although her magic was working, it couldn’t so much as touch the cords that were binding up her body. They must be part of the challenge, thought Twilight. Removing them would be “cheating.”

But it wasn’t clear what she was supposed to do. She was wrapped up tight, blindfolded, and apparently forbidden to free herself; if there was a challenge here, she wasn’t seeing it.

But then something appeared in her vision. Though her eyes were still covered, an image flickered to life, exactly like one of Discord’s monitors turning on. It took Twilight a moment to realize what she was being shown, but once she made sense of the shapes, it was clear: she was looking at herself. She was hanging from some sort of machine, with unfamiliar components under rings of white plastic. Tied up in the cables was her own body, still in its rubber jester suit - she could even make out the puffy shape of the diaper within it.

Twilight struggled again, and she saw herself swing back and forth. What she was seeing, apparently, was a live feed of the room she was in, from some outside perspective. She reached out with her magic, trying to touch what she was seeing - and the view changed. Same room. Still looking at herself. But a different angle. She reached out again, and she saw a third perspective. In this one, she wasn’t looking directly at herself - rather, the view was pointed at a space directly below her. And there was something overlaid on this view - a circle with lines crossing its edges.

The circle reminded her of something, and it took a moment of quiet thought to remember what it was. Back when Shining Armor had been going through weapons training on his way to becoming the captain of the royal guard, he’d let curious young Twilight carefully inspect the weapons he was learning. Twilight never developed a taste for physical weapons - the thought of what they did to a pony’s body always made her queasy - but she did retain a vivid memory of looking through the iron sights on a crossbow. And that memory gave her the sense that, with this circle over her vision, she wasn’t just looking. She was aiming.

Twilight reached out and changed the view again. It looked like the same room she was in, but she hadn’t been able to see this part of it from the other cameras. This view was pointed down, aimed at some kind of closed circular aperture set into a raised platform on the floor.

And then Discord strolled into view, wearing some kind of orange jumpsuit. He turned to look at Twilight - or, at least, whatever camera Twilight was currently looking through.

“Oh, hello there!” He said, his good cheer sounding a bit forced. “Always watching, eh, Princoss?”

Occasionally, Twilight found that she was prone to over-focus on small, manageable problems, even when much larger problems were looming. And it was for that reason that, instead of any of the other things she could have interrogated Discord about, she chose to question the way he had mispronounced “Princess.”

“Princoss?” She repeated.

“Yes,” said Discord. “That’s you, isn’t it? PrincOS. Stands for… ‘Pony… Something Something Something Something Operating System.’ You’re the tyrannical artificial intelligence that rules this facility, and you’ve been constantly monitoring me, forcing me to run through your tests, all in the name of friendship.”

“Discord,” said Twilight, “You’ve sort of lost me with this elaborate reference you’re weaving, but I gather from context clues that you’re trying to recast me as a villain.”

“You don’t think the horseshoe fits?” Sneered Discord. “Well, let me unpack the metaphor. Are you not a ruler? Do you not punish those who fail to live up to your standards of ‘friendship?’”

“I never forced you to make friends! I offered friendship -”

“Yes, you held friendship in one hoof, and with the other one you offered being turned back into stone.”

“I -” Twilight sputtered. “Discord, I was trying to stop you from hurting ponies. If you’re suggesting I shouldn’t have used the threat of force, then you’re holding me to a far higher standard than you hold yourself to.”

“But it wasn’t enough for me stop having fun, was it?” Said Discord. “I had to start caring about ponies.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Twilight. She could feel cracks starting to form in her sense of calm. “Was it awful of me to offer you the chance to be more than a… one-dimensional villain?”

“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, Twilight,” said Discord. “I wasn’t one-dimensional - I was all-encompassing. I was everything. Nothing mattered to me but my own amusement. I watched ponies cry and beg and go mad as I twisted their brief lives into balloon animals, and it meant nothing to me. I was blissfully, gloriously alone in here,” he said, jabbing a talon at the side of his head.

“Discord, you can’t just-”

“No, you can’t just!” said Discord, pointing his paw at the camera. “I can! I was happy all the time before you ran your friendship experiment on me! Now I get sad whenever Fluttershy gets sad! And she gets sad whenever something bad happens to a wild animal! Which is constantly!”

“Oh, for-” Twilight’s leg jerked, tugging at her bonds, as she tried to put a hoof to her forehead. “We’ll get you a therapist, Discord. You’ll learn how to compartmentalize your feelings. Everypony struggles with-”

“I am not everypony!” bellowed Discord. “I am the Lord of Chaos! My station entitles me to do whatever I want and feel great about it! So if friendship enriches your life, Twilight Sparkle? Fine. Keep it. Because it’s done nothing but hurt me, and I want it gone.” Discord stormed out of the camera’s field of view.

“I’m sorry you’re hurting, Discord,” said Twilight, “But this? All this? It’s crazy. If you just let everyone go, we can talk about… what are those?”

Discord was coming back onscreen with a box under each arm. “Oh, I think you know what they are,” said Discord. He turned toward the camera again, showing Twilight the bright red jack-in-the-boxes he was carrying. “Symbolically, they represent the emotional burden of friendship - they’re cubes that represent the weight of companionship, in other words. On a more literal level, they are boxes that contain Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, which I am going to - again, literally - burn in an incinerator.” The circular aperture in front of him opened, revealing a dull orange light coming from someplace far below. “The burning will symbolically represent-”

“No!” shouted Twilight. “Discord, if you do this-”

“Yes, I know,” said Discord, setting the boxes on the floor, “If I do this, I’ll alienate everyone who ever cared about me. Sever every emotional bond. Not even dear Fluttershy would forgive me.” He grasped one of the boxes in both hands and took a step towards the incinerator. “That is kind of the point.”

Twilight rocked back and forth, swinging in the hanging cables, not getting any looser. She reached out with her magic, trying to touch anything, grab anything around her - but she only succeeded in cycling between the room’s cameras. And she came to a stop on the camera that wasn’t just looking. The one that was aiming. She attempted a subtle sideways motion with her magic, and found that the camera rotated as she did so, giving off a mechanical ping.

Discord’s ears perked up at the sound, and he turned towards Twilight. “Ah, you’re playing with the rocket launcher,” he said. “There was going to be this whole thing where you would fight me with it, but I find that I’m not in the mood. If you think you can hit me without catching the royal sisters in the explosion, then fire away.”

But Twilight wasn’t turning the rocket launcher towards Discord. She swiveled it towards herself, angling it upwards so that it pointed at the spot where she hung.

“Woah!” yelled Discord. “Okay, time out, time out! Well played, you have my attention - let’s just talk about this...”

As he spoke, Twilight angled the view further up, aiming at the guts of the machine that held her in bondage. A rocket sailed into the structure and exploded, raining circuitry and plastic over the center of the room. Twilight’s body lurched as the machine went off-balance, sending her swinging wildly.

But the queasy feeling of swinging was overwhelmed by something else. The rocket’s impact caused a surge of sensation in her marehood, as if the force and heat of the explosion were mirrored in the seizing muscles of her pussy. She drew a sharp breath, groaning, and her legs kicked involuntarily against her restraints.

Discord chuckled nervously. “Er… there was going to be sort of an orgasm-denial element to our fight,” he said, “Where every time I hit you, it would trigger… well, it seems silly now. All the more reason for you to stop-”

Another rocket slammed into the machine, and Discord shielded his face as the fiery red light of the explosion threw his shadow across the wall. Twilight moaned, her mouth drooling and hanging open, as she felt the explosion as a quiver in her pussy. By chance, the cords wound tighter, not looser, as the machine began to crumble above her. Her legs were held tightly together, her hips pressed against one another as pussy juice leaked from her lips and into her diaper.

Urgh. That diaper. That rubber suit, with its garish colors and floppy bits. Even her explosive act of rebellion was stripped of dignity, made farcical. And now she was going to cum with Discord watching. With her friends watching, too. Applejack and Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity, all in that red curtain room, watching on monitors as she came, spilling femcum into the padding of her giant poofy diaper.

She fired three more rockets as quick as the launcher could load them, desperate to get it over with. Desperate to cum. Each explosive impact thrummed through her inner walls, making the muscles of her pussy seize, sending shockwaves through her bound-up body. And as the machine over her head finally broke apart, sending her into freefall, she came, her cries of climax piercing the destructive rumble all around her.

She only had fifteen feet to fall - she’d survived much worse - and nothing heavy landed on top of her after she hit the floor. Even still, she felt like she could have lain there for hours, sleeping off the climax that was still sending aftershocks through her body.

But there was no time for that. She struggled, and at long last the cords around her body were loose enough that she could free one forehoof. She reached it out in front of her, set it on the floor, and dragged her body forward. The cords around her body were still hooked to some seventy pounds of machinery, so pulling herself across the floor was slow going. But she was willing to use all the strength she had left.

“Discord…” she groaned. Blind and crawling, she searched for him.

“Yikes,” said Discord. “I was just trying to incinerate a couple of princesses, Twilight. You’re taking this super seriously.”

Twilight snorted, dragging herself closer. “Discord…”

“Okay, I can see you’re far beyond being reasoned with,” said Discord.”If it’ll calm you down, go ahead and have your princesses back.” He snapped his talons and vanished - and the cables holding Twilight loosened all at once. She stood, kicking her legs, stumbling free of the tangled cords, and made her way to the two jack-in-the-boxes that stood side by side.

With her magic, she turned both cranks at once. The boxes were silent as she turned their cranks, and after a few rotations of the crank, the princesses popped out simultaneously. “Celestia! Luna!” cried Twilight, reaching her forehooves out towards them as they bobbed on their springs.

Celestia reached out with her hooves as well, smiling warmly at Twilight from inside her rubber jester suit. “Twilight,” she said, “I am so happy to see you all right. Just what is Discord doing?”

“I don’t know,” said Twilight. “But he’s getting more dangerous. Less predictable, more… chaotic. He’s suffering, but… it doesn’t matter. Right now we just need to stop him.”

“Twilight,” said Princess Luna, ”Do not forget that friendship is the source of your strength. Using its power, you overcame Discord in a way that no one else could. And I believe that you can do it again.”

Twilight groaned. “You’re right,” she said. “Ugh, why does it always have to be me?”

Luna gave her a sympathetic smile. “If I could solve this problem with my power over the moon, Twilight Sparkle, I surely would,” she said. “But it is your connection to the magic of friendship that is needed once again.”

“Well, let’s not rule out the moon,’ said Twilight wearily. “Can you still move the moon from in here? Could you set it down on top of the funhouse and just bring an end to all this?”

“I could,” said Luna, “But let us consider that a last resort.”

“You are not alone, Twilight,” said Celestia. “The two of us will try and find a way to-” and then the princesses vanished, spirited away by Discord’s magic.

“Thanks,” said Twilight, staring up at the empty, wobbling springs. The incinerator aperture closed, then irised open again, this time leading into familiar darkness instead of hot orange light. “Great,” Twilight whispered, and threw herself in.

Twilight fell into darkness, and remained in darkness when her hooves hit solid ground. A light flicked on, illuminating Discord, throwing harsh shadows across his face.

“You’re right, you know,” he said, without much emotion.

“About?”

“About me. I’ve turned my back on friendship. And friendship can’t redeem those who reject it - there can be no peace between us.”

Suddenly the lights went up all around Twilight, bright cheerful spotlights that illuminated a colorful floor. And it was just a floor - in every other direction, there was still only darkness, although the darkness had become… swirling. Alive. Between herself and Discord there was a landscape, as though the two of them were standing on a giant map.

Twilight looked down at her hooves, and saw a grassy hill represented in something like one-tenth scale. She lowered her head and saw grass swaying in a breeze, tiny but intricately detailed. It even smelled like real grass. “Discord,” she said, raising her head, “Where are we?”

“Don’t you recognize it?” Said Discord. “This is Equestria!”

“Equestria isn’t a flat square,” said Twilight, taking in the shape of the floor. “And its geography isn’t neatly divided into a uniform grid.” The floor, now that she looked at it, did roughly resemble a map of Equestria. Mountain ranges, deserts, forests, cities - they were all in more or less the correct spot, but they’d been laid out on a grid so that no one square seemed to be more than one “type” of terrain.

It was a board game, Twilight realized. A little like Saddlers of Catan.

“It’s s board game!” Said Discord, a few seconds after Twilight realized it on her own. “You and I are going to play for the fate of Equestria, Princess. If I win, you and your friends will remain eternally in the funhouse while I plunge Equestria in madness, etc. etc. And If you win, I’ll save you and your friends some trouble, and turn myself into stone.”

“I don’t want to turn you back into stone, Discord," said Twilight. "I want you to be happy. I want you to have tea with Fluttershy, and go on adventures with Starlight and Trixie and Thorax. I want you to pester me and Cadance about a made-up illness…” Twilight sighed. “Okay, if I’m being honest, I don’t want that last one. But I don’t want to see you turned back to stone either!”

“Well, too bad,” said Discord. “Those are the stakes, Princess. Play the game. Surrender Equestria to me, or beat me and banish me for another few millenia.”

Twilight stamped her hoof. “I-”

“Won’t play your sick game, yes, yes,” said Discord, twisting his wrist dismissively. “I don’t wish to place a time limit on your turns, Twilight, but if it becomes clear to me that you are trying to stall by not taking your turn, moves will be made on your behalf. Oh, and… I don’t think you would sink so low, Twilight, but physical violence is expressly forbidden - or to put it more precisely, it’s impossible for either of the players to harm each other.”

Twilight growled under her breath. “And are you going to play fair?” she asked.

Discord grinned. “Oh, you’ll find this game to be more than fair,” he said. A slim book popped into existence beside Twilight and plopped onto the grass. “By all means, familiarize yourself with the rules. Take all the time you need, I shan’t pressure you.”

Despite her misgivings, Twilight felt a jolt of excitement when she saw a book for the first time in hours. She flipped it open and started to devour line after line of small print, absorbing the rules of the game. It seemed to be a game about acquiring territory, expanding one’s reach across Equestria. The rules were devilishly complex, which excited Twilight - but it also sparked a suspicion that Discord was trying to slip something by her. She knelt, getting comfortable on her tiny grassland square, and tucked into the book.

“Okay,” said Twilight, “So placing a red beacon on a desert square reduces-”

“Weather effects, yes,” said Discord.

“Except on odd-numbered turns,” said Twilight. “All right, all right…”

“Okay, but do cone effects work vertically as well?” asked Twilight.

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” said Twilight, pointing at the miniature Cloudsdale floating above a mountain square, “If there’s a cone in play on the square underneath Cloudsdale, or… underneath the moon or the sun, does it affect what’s above it?

Discord quirked an eyebrow and looked up at the miniature heavenly bodies. “The sun and moon aren’t territory, Twilight. They’re just there for authenticity.”

“Okay, okay, just asking…”

“I mean, feel free to try and build a city on the sun, if you like…”

Twilight scoffed and turned back to the book.

“All right,” said Twilight, rising to her hooves, “I’m ready.” She’d spent almost an hour reading the rules, and she’d satisfied herself that it was possible for her to win. Discord - as far as she could tell - was playing fair.

“Marvelous!” said Discord. “The first move is yours, Princess.”

Twilight glanced behind her, where the miniature Ponyville stood on an adjacent square. At one-tenth scale, its taller buildings were still above her head. At the start of the game, she controlled Ponyville and a few adjacent squares, and she had some very basic options for expanding her territory. “Okay,” she said, “I’ll take… these two grassland spaces.”

The border of those spaces shone purple, and then Twilight felt her body jerk as the ground underneath her seemed to fall away. But no, the ground wasn’t falling - she was growing. Her hooves slid across the grass as her body took up more and more space, outgrowing the square she was standing on. She felt her ass bump into something, and turned around - her big, poofy diaper was nudged up against the crystalline Friendship Castle, pushing on it as her body expanded.

Twilight laughed softly, enjoying the feeling of growth, and wiggled her expanding butt against the miniature castle. The rubber suit squeaked, and her diaper crinkled, as her expanding butt rubbed up against the little structure - and then she heard a crack. She stepped forward and turned around, surveying the damage; her butt had managed to snap off one of the side towers.

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” said Discord. “It won’t count against your score. The territory is still yours.”

“Why did I grow?” asked Twilight, shooting a pointed glare at Discord. He looked smaller now - still a good deal taller than Twilight, but not as much as before. “That wasn’t in the rules.”

“Well, it doesn’t really affect the flow of the game,” said Discord, acting innocent. “It’s just a scorekeeping measure. As your territory expands, you expand.”

“Fine,” sighed Twilight. Discord took his turn, expanding his territory by one space and growing about a foot taller. He’d started out on an unassuming patch of desert, with no city inside his territory. That presented some early-game challenges, but he was close to a more diverse array of resources, which meant a potentially stronger trading position between turns 7 and 21, during which…

Well, it was complicated. Suffice it to say, neither player’s starting position seemed to be overtly superior, as far as Twilight could tell. On her turn, she expanded her territory another two spaces, snatching up a square that she dearly coveted: the royal city of Canterlot. Her body expanded along with her territory, leaving her about twice as large as when she’d started. There was something about owning Canterlot that sent a thrill through her chest, and in her excitement she succumbed to a silly idea.

“Might as well rub my diaper butt against this city too…” she said, grinning, and backed her butt up to the miniature Canterlot. She nudged her poofy rump against the little city, maybe taking a little too much enjoyment in the full-body afterglow she got from her magical growth. Chuckling, she wiggled her hips, making tiny buildings crack and crumble under her rubber-coated butt.

And then she heard screams. She jumped forward in shock and turned around, peering at the miniature city - and she saw tiny ponies in its streets. They were molded plastic, with no articulation in their bodies, but they hopped up and down in the streets as if being manipulated by invisible hands. As she brought her face closer to the city, they jumped as if in distress, and fled in the opposite direction.

“Discord!” she said, turning to look at him. “This wasn’t in the rules either! Why are there tiny ponies in the cities?”

“Just a bit of flavor,” said Discord. “Once again, it’s not something that affects the flow of the game.”

A terrible thought struck Twilight. “Is all of this somehow… real?” she asked. “Is this board actually Equestria?”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Discord with a dismissive wave of his paw.

“No, I’m going to worry about it,” said Twilight. “I’m not going to play this game if there’s a chance I’ll crush real ponies under my hoof… or my butt…”

Discord let out a rough, rueful sigh. “Yes, Twilight, if you must know... this space is, in a sense, the real Equestria. A sort of reflection through a funhouse mirror. The state of the real world is reflected in the weather, the little ponies, and the movements of the heavenly bodies… but your actions here do not affect the real world. You did not snap off a tower from your castle, nor did you crush any Canterlot ponies beneath your padded butt.”

Twilight relaxed. “Okay, good,” she said.

“But-” said Discord, the side of his mouth quirking upward, “There is a connection between this place and reality. The good ponies of Equestria can in fact see you - a gigantic projection of their Princess of Friendship, standing tall and mighty, locked in combat for the fate of their world. You must be awfully proud.”

“They can see me?” said Twilight, her face going pale.

“They see you just as you are, Princess. Larger than life, clad in rubber, with an enormous poofy diaper on that big pony butt.”

Twilight fell flat, covering her head with her hooves. So this was her final humiliation. Win or lose, Discord was going to embarrass her in front of everypony in Equestria. “Fine,” she muttered, still huddling under her forehooves. “Take your turn.”

Things were not going well. Twilight was pushed back against the western edge of Equestria, finding herself - again - cowering under Discord’s hoof. He’d claimed huge swaths of land for himself, cutting Twilight off from most avenues of expansion. And he, like his territory, was big. His body overshadowed mountain ranges and trampled forests, and while Twilight had expanded considerably since the start of the game, she still didn’t come up past the top of his hoof.

His hoof did look pretty good, though. Twilight took a moment to congratulate herself on the hooficure she’d given him.

“Doesn’t look good for you,” said Discord, lifting his hoof. “You’re cornered, and you’re tiny. We can play out the rest of this game… or maybe I could just finish you off here and now.”

Twilight jerked her body backwards, but Discord was quicker. His leg shot out, and then his hoof was on top of her, slamming into her, crushing her flat against the miniature landscape.

Only… it didn’t. Discord was leaning all his weight on his hoof, but it felt to Twilight like little more than a heavy blanket. She squirmed under his hoof, unharmed but helpless to move. “Oh Twilight, surely you remember!” said Discord. “The players can’t hurt each other, just as I told you before. I didn’t really scare you, did I?” He lifted his hoof ad watched Twilight scramble out from underneath it. “Chin up, Princess,” he said, staring down at her. “You can still win this.”

“I intend to,” muttered Twilight.

Twilight rested her butt on… well, on most of Equestria. She’d blazed the comeback trail, backing him into a corner of the map, shrinking his body and his territory as her own body had expanded tremendously. This meant victory was well within her grasp - and it also meant that her enormous diapered butt could be seen from just about anywhere in Equestria. She was really trying not to think about that part.

“It’s over, Discord,” said Twilight, looking down at him. He’d ended up under her butt - somehow - and everything below his waist was pinned beneath rubber. “Just call off this stupid game!”

“And rob you of your well-earned victory?” said Discord. “Wouldn’t dream of it. You have only to deliver the Victory Flag to your starting city, and you’ve won. You’ll be free, and I’ll be turned back to stone. I’ll be out of your mane for at least a thousand years.”

“I told you, I don’t want-” Twilight stopped. “Starting city…” she mumbled, then she glared down at Discord. “Discord!” she shouted, shaking the mountains with her voice, “You said this game was fair!”

“More than fair,” said Discord.

“Then why did you fix it so that you can’t win? You don’t have a starting city! Under the rules of the game, you can’t possibly-” She groaned. “Ugh, how could I have been so stupid? I pored through the rulebook trying to make sure that I could win… it never occurred to me that you would try and fix it against yourself.”

“But that’s just what I meant, Princess,” said Discord. “A fair game would be one we both can win. And since this is a game that only you can win, it’s more than fair.”

“Was this your whole plan?” said Twilight. She ground her padded butt into the game board in a futile attempt to punish Discord - succeeding only in crushing several miniature towns to bits. “To play the villain and rile me up so that I’d feel like I had to neutralize you?”

Discord wriggled under Twilight’s rump. “Of course!” he said. “This whole show was about convincing you that I’d turned heel, Princess! So that when I turned myself back into unfeeling stone, no one would mourn.” He crossed his arms and looked into the distance. “Well, the game’s still on, Twilight. Because I want out. My heart wasn’t made to bear the burden of friendship. Take your turn. Finish it.”

Twilight stood up, careful to keep all four hooves on a board that was almost too small for her now. “I won’t.”

“If you don’t take your turn, it’ll be taken for you,” said Discord.

“No,” said Twilight. “We’re playing a new game now.”

“I don’t see what this accomplishes, Twilight,” said Discord.

“You don’t?” asked Twilight.

She and Discord stood at equal height now, each one laying claim to almost exactly half of the map. Through a series of carefully planned moves, she had ceded her territory, intentionally leaving areas open to attack - and giving Discord no choice but to advance. Creating a perfectly balanced map had been even harder than winning, but Twilight knew her way around the rules of the game now.

“Surely you don’t intend to drag this game on for eternity,” said Discord. “Even if you were willing to stay trapped in this funhouse with me, you’re not the only one stuck here. Your friends are still watching from the red room, and the snack table only has so many snacks.”

“And I wouldn’t want to leave Canterlot without its princesses,” said Twilight. “Although… even your magic can’t disrupt their connection to the heavens. They’d still be able to raise the sun and moon, no matter where in Equestria they are.”

“I suppose so,” said Discord.

“Can I ask for a clarification of the rules?” asked Twilight. Then, without waiting for an answer: “The rules say that the players can’t hurt each other, right? But if someone else were here, would they be able to?”

“...Yes?” said Discord. “But if your plan is to somehow bring another pony into this space, then I’d like to know how you plan to-”

“Luna, if you’re watching...” said Twilight, “The moon.”

“What about the-” said Discord, and then the moon - the miniature moon that floated above the miniature Equestria - slammed into the back of his head, sending his body crashing to the ground. The whole floor shook, and the swirling darkness around the game board began to fade, letting the light of a Ponyville afternoon shine through.

“I get it,” mumbled Discord, as stars and chirping birds circled his head. “You… used the moon to defeat the bad guy… just like in… Portal 2…”

“Discord,” said Twilight, looking sorrowfully at the fallen lord of chaos, “For the last time… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“So no brain damage, right?” said Twilight.

“Well, with him it’s not easy to tell,” said Thorax, “But… I don’t think so?”

Twilight sighed. “Well, good. I tried to get him to the right size, so that an impact from the moon would just knock him out and not cause any permanent damage, but… it’s not an exact science.” She took a bite of her almond pastry, surprised by its quality. She wouldn’t have expected anyone in the changeling hive to know much about preparing pony food. But then, they did used to infiltrate pony societies…

“How’s Fluttershy holding up?” she asked.

Thorax shrugged. “Lots of hugs, lots of crying… and she’s obviously worried about all her animals back home. But I think it’s helping to have her here.”

“And Discord,” said Twilight. “He hasn’t… tried to escape?”

“Honestly,” said Thorax, “He doesn’t seem to mind not having any magic. He said it was like ‘taking a vacation from himself.’ I don’t know if that makes sense to you, but… well, as a changeling, I think I know what he means.”

“I think I do too,” said Twilight. She picked up her pastry and finished it off with a final bite. “I’m ready to see him,” she said. “It’s taken me a while to psyche myself up for this, but I need to show him that my offer of friendship is still good.”

“Ah, okay,” said Thorax. “But… if you don’t mind my asking… why are you dressed like that?”

Twilight chuckled and shook her head, and the floppy bits of her rubber jester’s hat wobbled. She stood from her seat, and her diaper poofed back to full size. “I thought Discord could use a laugh,” she said.

Author's Note

This story was a commission! If you want one of your own, see my commission policy and prices here. I can also be reached at massdriver77 {at} gmail {dot} com, or on Discord at MassDriver#3858.

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