Chapters Alicorn Amulet's Prisoner
Chapter 1: The Grand Start of Chaos!
Within the Everfree Forest, on top of a shelf within the hut of Zecora the Zebra, there was a small chest. Barely the size of the head of a foal. And within this chest was a familiar artifact. A necklace with the image of an Alicorn carved into black metal. The eyes and the gem within the necklace of the alicorn were red, emitting light within the confines of the box.
The box suddenly moved, picked up by the owner of the box’s home, Zecora. The zebra was accompanied by Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. “Are you sure about this Twilight? Such an endeavor may just end in a plight.” Zecora rhymed to Twilight. She was uncertain of this idea that Twilight had. It seemed far too risky to her.
“Yes, Zecora, I’m sure. I’ll set up as many countermeasures that I can to combat any possibility,” Twilight reassured Zecora. For context, Twilight had remembered about the Alicorn Amulet and wished to test it. Only unicorns had used it before, she wondered what would happen if other types of ponies, or even other species used it.
Zecora hoofed the box to Twilight and it was levitated out of her grasp. “Inform me, when you can, for I am curious of what will come of your plan.” Twilight nodded before the two exchanged farewells and parted ways.
Within a strange void of red, there laid only one small island. Well, not exactly an island. A chair and table made of spruce floated around the void, with a tea set taking up room on the table.
Taking the chair was a being eerily similar to another well-known character. Made from a mismatch of creatures. A talon for the right hand and a lion’s paw for the left. The leg and hoof of a brown horse for the left leg and the leg of a green lizard was the right. The torso was a mystery but was covered in brown fur, with a batwing and the wing of a bird attached to the back. There was a tail that was also reptilian but was a much darker shade of green when compared to the lizard leg, which also ended in a tuft of white fur. The neck and head were shaped like a goat with grey fur and an obvious feminine shape to it. A large poofy white mane sat on top of the creature’s head, almost hiding the antler and horn on its head. Red eyes with yellow sclera looked down at an empty teacup in thought.
This was a draconequus. They looked almost just like Discord, Lord of Chaos, and Disharmony, but still had differences that made it apparent that they weren’t him, which were the mane and the placement of their arms.
The draconequus sighed, wearing a frown. It gave a yell as it threw the teacup it held in its paw, flinging it into the distance before the sound of shattering glass was eventually heard. “By my fellow Spirits, I hate this place.” The voice of the draconequus was notably feminine.
“Oi!” The draconequus suddenly shouted into the void. Oh wait, it’s talking to the narrator. “I’m a ‘she’ and ‘her’, thank you very much.” Ah, yes. This draconequus is Eris, twin sister to the Lord of Chaos known as Discord.
Eris sighed before a large painting appeared a few feet away from her tea set. The painting held the image of Trixie Lulamoon, a unicorn made up of different types of blue with the exemption of her eyes, which were purple. “Oh yes mysterious painting, wow me with your tales of wizardry,” Eris said dryly. She was familiar with this little thing, due to how often it showed up to her.
The painting shifted and moved, showing Trixie on a stage in front of a crowd, wowing the ponies with tall tales and tricks. The painting shifted again, showing four ponies now on the stage with angry expressions. Expressions that spread to the crowd before they left.
“Yes, yes. I’m aware of this one’s backstory. You’ve shown it to me hundreds of times by now. Just skip to the good part.” The painting did as Eris commanded, shifting to a small shop. On a display was the Alicorn Amulet, which Trixie took and put around her neck.
Practice using the Amulet’s power was done in an open field. The grass was turned into licorice, animals were turned into other animals, objects appeared out of nowhere, the list of what went down in that field was endless.
Then Trixie returned to the town that was shown in the beginning, wearing the Amulet and ready to prove how ‘Great and Powerful’ she was. Eris gave an irritated sigh. “Get out of my sight.” She gave a wave toward the painting and it faded away. How much longer until a new bearer comes to being? Eris was curious how much time had passed since that one was removed.
Suddenly, the chair and table vanished from view, the tea set soon following suit. “Oh, would you look at that?” The signs that a new bearer has arrived. “Let’s see, who might this idiot be?”
The painting appeared once again before shifting. No longer was it Trixie Lulamoon, but it was a pegasus. A sky blue coat of fur and a rainbow for a mane and tail. Magenta's eyes filled with determination and the cutie mark of a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt striking down. Fancy writing appeared on a corner of the picture with the name ‘Rainbow Dash’.
“Huh. That name looks familiar…” Eris struggled to remember where she could’ve seen that name and appearance before, but came up with nothing. “Ah, well. I’m sure I’ll remember eventually. Now, why did you put this on?”
The picture changed, showing the silhouette of a pony speaking with Rainbow Dash. The Amulet was inside of a box that floated next to the silhouette. After Eris got a good look at the image, it shifted again into a large room made of purple crystal. Five other silhouettes were in the room, standing only a few feet behind her. The Amulet was resting on a small pedestal, its red eyes glinting in the light of the room.
The picture then vanished once again. “Hm. We’re they asked to put it on? Must be someone trying to learn about it or something.” Eris put a paw to her mouth as she yawned. “None of the previous users were a pegasus. I wonder what my magic does when channeled through one…”
“This feels…weird.” Rainbow Dash looked down at the Amulet as it gave an eerily red glow.
Twilight was with the rest of the Mane 6, a notepad and pencil at the ready as they stood behind a wall of thick glass. “Can you put more detail on that, Rainbow?”
“How am I supposed to describe this? It just feels weird having this on!”
“Try flying!” Rainbow rolled her eyes at Twilight’s command before doing as she was asked. She lowered herself to be ready for take-off and flapped her wings.
To say that the result was unexpected would be an understatement. She went into the air like normal, but the ground under her changed into a red crystal instead of the purple it was supposed to be. This wasn’t noticed at first and before the ponies would, lightning would appear out of nowhere and strike their surroundings. Dash quickly set herself down before anything else could happen.
Twilight feverishly wrote into her notepad as Rainbow took off the Alicorn Amulet and placed it back on the pedestal. “What the heck was that Twilight?!” Rainbow’s question went unheard as Twilight looked over the room and her, taking note of what happened while also adding in some basic theories to put more thought into later.
“Fascinating. It seems able to improve the magic of a pegasus, but it also seems to unlock the ability to cast spells.” Twilight said to herself. “If only there was a way for the Amulet to not corrupt the user’s mind. Applejack, it’s your turn.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes before following Twilight behind the safety glass, giving Applejack a nod as the two passed each other.
“Huh, what do you know?” Eris watched the scene unfold with the help of the mysterious changing painting. “I’m surprised she so easily took it off. It's probably cause she only had it on for a minute. They’re being really careful while testing. Good. Would hate to see this go wrong.”
The painting changed again. An earth pony with the name Applejack. An orange coat and blonde mane and tail. Green eyes and three apples for a cutie mark. She’s also wearing a cowboy hat. A scene similar to the first by Rainbow Dash was shown. Someone had asked her to wear it.
“Testing what this thing can do? My, I hope she doesn’t end up making a mistake.” Before Eris could ponder on the possibilities of an earth pony wearing the Alicorn Amulet, a sudden shudder shook the void that she inhabited. “The heck in haystacks?!”
After Applejack had put on the Alicorn Amulet, things immediately started to happen. Like the roots of a tree, lines of red spread through the crystal, almost as if they were cracks. “The hay just happened?!” Applejack looked at the effects around her, quickly taking the Amulet off as she did.
As if time reversed itself, the red disappeared with no trace left behind. “Are you okay?” Twilight called from behind the glass. It was quite the sight to see how suddenly things started to happen, but the condition of her friend mattered more to Twilight.
“Yeah, Ah’m okay. What was that Twi?” Twilight and the others approached Applejack as Twilight responded.
“I don’t know. Earth ponies passively release magic all the time into the area around them so I guess the magic just went wild.” Twilight scribbled more into her notepad.
Suddenly, Pinkie Pie hopped to the pedestal and looked over the Amulet. “Hey Twilight, do you know what this thing is made of?” She stared into her reflection from the Amulet’s center gem.
“No Pinkie, I don’t. The gems on it are enchanted rubies but I have no idea what metal it could be made of.” Twilight responded.
“Mm, okay! So what’s that?” The five looked to Pinkie and found her pointing at a wall with her hoof.
To everyone, there was nothing there. “Theeere’s nothing there Pinkie.” Rainbow Dash gave the wall a closer look, even tapping it with her hoof. “It’s just the usual purple wall made of crystal.”
“Hmmm…” Pinkie squinted as she gave the wall a closer look before shrugging. “Eh, must’ve been seeing things.”
Pinkie then moved over to the pedestal once again, picking up the Alicorn Amulet. “Pinkie.” Twilight warily said. “What are you doing?” With Pinkie’s strangeness and how the Amulet reacted when Applejack put it on, the theoretical disaster that could result with her putting it on would be less than favorable, to put it simply.
“Is it just me, or is something different about this?” Pinkie asked, looking once again into the gems on the Amulet.
“Lemme see.” Twilight picked up the Alicorn Amulet with her magic and looked over it. She too noticed that something was different about it. “Wait.” She gave it another look over and cast a diagnostic spell. “What happened to its enchantments?!”
“What are you talking about Twilight?” Rarity finally decided to speak up, looking over the Amulet with Twilight. She too quickly took on a surprised expression. “By the stars, all the magic in it is gone!”
“How can it all be gone?” Rainbow questioned. “What, did Applejack use up all of its juice or something?”
“That would make sense. But there’s also the chance that it had a finite amount of magic. The Alicorn Amulet is old and enchantments weren’t always able to draw use ambient magic from the environment.” Twilight hummed to herself in thought before giving a sad sigh. “Oh well, it doesn’t really matter now. Thanks for all the help girls.”
“It was nothin' Twi,” Rainbow responded.
“Yeah Twilight, it was nothin. I should probably get goin now, lots to do at the farm now that I’ve been gone for so long.”
The rest of the group gave their farewells and left Twilight to ponder as she held the Alicorn Amulet in her magic. ‘What happened to the magic in you?’ She sighed and set the Amulet back into the small pedestal before also leaving the room. She had some more things to attend to now that this experiment turned to be now impossible.
Unbeknownst to Twilight, the red that infected the castle’s crystal had moved after she closed the door. The red moved to the far wall and made a symbol. Eight arrows coming out of a singular point; the symbol of chaos.
‘Dang. So that’s what happens when chaos is channeled through an Earth Pony. Where is Discord? I can’t…move….’
Author's Note
Mmmmm. Better than before. Sorry this took too long. Sudden bouts of inspiration for new stories happen way too often and it slows my progress a lot.
Alicorn Amulet's Prisoner
Chapter 2: Chaotic Introductions
It had been about a week since the experiment happened. Events had unfortunately kept Twilight Sparkle busy, leaving her and everyone else to not know about the thing inside the castle walls.
It all started pretty mild. An occasional book would fall off of its shelf after being put away, doors randomly creaked open, and a very distant laugh that was commonly passed off as hearing things was heard.
But now, this was definitely abnormal. Books that no one had touched were disappearing, doors were slamming open and closed throughout the day, and the map room was constantly moving to other places! After the week had passed, in the morning, Twilight had finally gotten enough of it. “Discord!” Twilight called into the air, knowing that he could hear her.
“Yes, Twilight?” Discord’s voice came before the Spirit did, appearing in a flurry of rose petals whilst wearing a suit. Why was he wearing a suit? Twilight didn’t care and probably didn’t even notice.
At his appearance, the doors within view from the castle hallway all slammed open at once, eliciting a jump and the flaring of wings from Twilight. She pointed at one of the doors accusingly. “Is this your doing?”
“Hm…” Placing a monocle onto his snout, the draconequus flew toward the door and gave it a once over. “Nnnope.” He removed his monocle as it disappeared, placing his talon onto where one would assume his heart is as he continued. “I am completely innocent of this.”
“Well, I don’t see anyone else who could be doing it besides Pinkie, and I’m pretty sure she would’ve stopped by now if that was the case.” Twilight impatiently added. Spike and her had been losing precious hours of sleep because of this and she was getting snappier as a result.
“Well.~” Discord drew out. “Perhaps I should find out what’s causing this. I’d hate for one of my friends to be uncomfortable in their own home. Especially if I’m not responsible.” Switching out of his suit with a snap, Discord began to wear a much more detective based outfit, Sherlock Holmes style. Or, in pony terms, Sherlock Hooves.
With a magnifying glass in hand, Discord took a much more in-depth look on the door, giving a “Hmm” as he did. “Weird. This is chaos magic and yet I’m not the one that casted it,” he muttered to himself. “Twilight, when did this start and what were you doing beforehand?”
Twilight rolled her eyes before responding. “It started about a week ago, after a failed experiment with the Alicorn Amulet.”
The mention of the Amulet seemed to surprise Discord, making him drop the magnifying glass before it disappeared. Soon after, so did the outfit he wore. Slowly, ever so slowly, Discord turned toward Twilight, with quite possibly the most serious face he’s ever worn. “Where is it?” The seriousness in Discord’s voice unnerved Twilight, but she started toward the room that it was held in.
As they walked through the castle, more doors slammed open, some even flying off of their hinges with how much force was used into opening them. Weirdly enough, the door that led to the room with the Alicorn Amulet was the only one that never slammed open. In fact, it was locked. But, upon Discord’s approach, that door also slammed open. Unlike every other door, these double doors managed to make a crack in the crystal walls, which was quickly repaired by the castle’s magic.
Twilight gasped as what they saw in the room. Cracks of red covered the entirety of the room’s walls, floor and roof included. Although, the pedestal that held the Amulet was avoided by the cracks. And in the very back wall, the Symbol of Chaos was painted onto there with red. “What…What is this?”
Discord flew into the room, ignoring Twilight’s question as he picked up the Alicorn Amulet and looked it over. It was empty of magic, just as it was last time Twilight saw it. Placing the Amulet back on the pedestal, Discord looked around the room, inspecting all the cracks while avoiding touching them. He knew what these were. ’This can’t be true…Can it?’ he pondered to himself as he looked over everything, finally stopping in front of the Symbol.
The seriousness Discord gave was much more unnerving by now. Usually, he’d laugh upon seeing his symbol or simply think nothing of it. But this time, he was really looking at it, with a very curious but confused expression. “Discord, what is all of this?” Did he know something about the Alicorn Amulet? What was it? The Amulet may have died, but knowing more about it could still prove useful.
Once again, Discord ignored Twilight’s question. Instead, he placed his lion paw upon the Symbol. Instead of feeling crystal, he felt Chaos. Pure and utter Chaos Magic. It wasn’t the kind that he ruled over though. He may have been the Spirit of Chaos, but this wasn’t his. This was someone else’s. The feeling surprised him enough to remove the paw out of shock. That was, before he placed the paw back onto the symbol and pulled.
The effect was immediate, the cracks quickly began to recede into the symbol and, as Discord kept pulling, the Symbol of Chaos began to change shape. Instead of being the symbol, the shape changed into a vague blob of something else, but that was only once all the cracks had receded.
Even once the magic was all in one spot, Discord kept pulling. He had to know what this truly was. The mere presence of this magic gave him a hope he hadn’t felt in a long time. Instead of pulling on nothing, a talon had grabbed a hold of Discord’s paw. Now confident that this was what he hoped, Discord pulled with newfound strength that his body otherwise suggested he didn’t have. At least, that’s what he felt like.
Following the talon came a torso with wings, then a hoof, the base of a tail, a head, then finally a lizard leg and lion paw. After the whole body was pulled out, Discord fell to the floor with a stranger on top of him. Well, a stranger to everyone but him.
Eris put her talon to her head as she groaned. That was probably one of the worst experiences she’s ever had, right next to being trapped in the Alicorn Amulet. She wobbly tried to stand, but only fell onto her back and against the wall as a result. With a groan, she rubbed her eyes as they tried adjusting to the light of the room. ’Crystal is too darn reflective.’ she idly thought.
Twilight balked at the sight. ’By Celestia’s mane, please don’t tell me that there’s two of them and that Discord was just pulling a prank on me this whole time.’
Discord also got up, but didn’t stand. He was instead staring at Eris, complete and utter shock stopping him from doing anything else. Eris looked at him and smiled. “Hey bro, how’s it been?”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Twilight rubbed her face with her hooves in exasperation as she leaned onto the map table from her throne. “You’re telling me you’ve had a twin sister this whole time and didn’t think of telling anyone?”
Discord gave a shrug from his position in the air, as Eris hung off of one of the roots that hung from the ceiling. “Pretty much, yeah.” The three had moved from the Amulet room, as Eris will call it, and Discord explained just who Eris was once they were situated.
“Discord isn’t one to think and plan a whole ton…for the most part,” Eris idly said, looking into one of the crystals that were on the tree. It was the memory of Twilight and her friends defeating Nightmare Moon.
“Pfft, rude.” Discord crossed his arms and looked away from Eris. But his joking rage faded in mere seconds before bringing her into another hug.
“Anywho,” Eris looked to Twilight, returning the hug Discord gave as she spoke. “I’m Eris, second Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony.”
Twilight heaved another sigh. “Just, stay here a bit please. I gotta have Spike inform the other princesses about this.” Twilight stood from her seat before leaving the twins in the map room, closing the double doors behind her.
“Finally! Thought she’d never leave,” Discord grumbled. “So, Eris.” He put his appendages together, a pair of crescent moon glasses appearing on his snout. “What would you say to see how much of the world has changed since you off and vanished?”
“Hmm,” Eris sported similar glasses, speaking with an overly posh accent as she spoke. “I think that would be delightful, brother of mine.” The two chuckled, before Discord gave a snap of his talon, making the two vanish in a puff of smoke.
They appeared in a flash of lightning above a cloud, binocular eyeglasses in a paw. Eris held up her pair and looked down to the streets of Ponyville. “Hm. Not too much of a difference in how buildings look,” she mused, turning her attention to the less average buildings. “At least they know how to make a place stand out now.”
“I know, right?! Everything was so terribly bland back then.”
“Mmm. True, but the grand situation of the world wasn’t the greatest, so I can see why the world was so ‘bland’, as you call it.” Eris lowered her eyeglasses, her eyes unmoving from the town below. “While a better world does give me less overall power, it is still much better seeing it happy rather than miserable.”
“Which means I’m not happy with those stunts you pulled when I disappeared.” Discord sputtered in surprise. “I had access to the memories of whoever wore the amulet, don’t try lying and saying you didn’t do anything. Otherwise, I’m not making you any of my special cakes.” Eris turned away with a frown, obviously being dramatic.
Discord gives a dramatic gasp. “Not the cakes!”
“What about the Cakes?” Eris made a jump at the new voice, turning to look at the newcomer on the cloud. The most memorable pink pony in Equestria, Pinkie Pie. She was laying on her back, staring at Eris and Discord with her usual smile.
“Oh, it’s just you.” Discord dusted off his chest. “It’s nothing, Pinkie Pie. My sister here was just being dramatic.”
Pinkie gasped, lifting into the air as she did. “You have a sister?!”
“Yes, she’s right here.” Discord pointed to the draconequus in question. Another gasp was made as Pinkie saw Eris.
And then, she was gone. A dust cloud appeared underneath before a pink blur flew into town and into the large building that looked like a gingerbread house. “That…was weird.” Eris looked at the building the pink one ran into with a raised brow.
“Even for Spirits of Chaos, that pony is weirder than anything,” Discord solemnly stated, before giving a clap of his hands. “No matter! I simply must introduce you to someone.”
“Who might that be?” Eris curiously asked. Discord was certainly excited about seeing whoever this was.
“It’s a surprise!~” He snapped his digits and the twins disappeared in another flash of lightning, which happened to turn the cloud below them into a cotton candy cloud.
The twins appeared in the middle of a living room. “Fluttershy, sorry for dropping in, but I’ve got someone you need to meet!” Eris looked around. Whatever building they were in was certainly one of those tree-based homes, based on the wood that made up the walls, roof, and floor.
Small bird houses were hanging off some parts of the roof and notable holes were in certain parts of the walls, leading Eris to conclude mice also lived here. In the center of the room was a coffee table and behind it was a green couch.
“Just a moment, please.” A soft voice called from a window that led to the back of the home. “I’m just finishing feeding all of my animal friends.”
“Who are we meeting, exactly?” Eris questioned with a cross of her arms.
“Just wait until she finishes up.” Discord replied, summoning a small throne made up of red velvet before taking a seat on it. At that, Eris took a seat on a blue and green rug on the floor and waited.
It was only about half a minute before the door at the front opened and hoof falls reached Eris’ ears. “Hello Discord.”
“Fluttershy! Always a pleasure to see you.” Discord stood from his seat and approached Fluttershy, giving her a hug while Eris turned around to get a look at the pony in question.
A bright yellow coat and a pink mane and tail. She had a type of blue eyes and her cutie mark was made up of three pink butterflies. She looked up at Discord with a small smile. “It’s great to see you too. Now, what was so urgent that you needed to show up so early in the morning?” Eris looked at a nearby clock and it showed that it was just past 7. She wouldn’t call such a time early by her standards but, considering a pony’s average sleep schedule a thousand years ago, she supposed that it somewhat was early. Just around the time everyone’s up and starting to get moving.
“So,” Discord drew out. “I may or may not have forgotten to mention two key things. First thing, I have a sister, who is currently seated in front of your little table.” He motioned to the mentioned sister with a talon.
“Hello.” Eris gave a wave.
“And the second thing, she’s been missing for the past thousand years and I honestly thought she was dead.”
“Wow, no faith in my abilities?” Eris put a paw to her chest with a shake of her head. “You wound me so.”
“Oh hush, you would’ve thought the same.” Discord hovered through the air and flew to the couch, taking a seat as the red throne appeared again.
Fluttershy was left speechless, staring blankly at the twins. Although, she wasn’t left in shock for long. With a shake of her head and a small smile, she started heading to an open archway while speaking. “Okay. I’ll get some tea ready and we can talk some more about this.”
Alicorn Amulet's Prisoner
Chapter 3: More Introductions
It only took a few minutes before Fluttershy came back, setting a tray with some tea cups onto the living room table. After seating it down, she went back to the kitchen and took a teapot to the table. She poured both Discord and Eris a cup before setting up her own. “So, Eris. Where have you been all this time? According to Discord, you’ve been missing for a long time.” Surprisingly, Fluttershy wasn’t acting too, well, shy. She seemed mostly at ease with Eris compared to how meeting others usually went with her.
Eris gave a somewhat disheartened laugh. “Funny thing about that. I’m assuming you’re aware of a little experiment that took place a week ago? Specifically one with the Alicorn Amulet?” At Fluttershy’s nod, Eris continued. “The source of power for that little trinket was me.” Fluttershy gasped.
“Oh…Oh my.” Fluttershy covered her mouth with her hooves. Then, in a quieter whisper than usual, she asked, “How did you escape?”
“Hm. During that experiment, I was freed. Once a pony named Applejack put on the Amulet, I was channeled into the castle, due to how earth ponies channel their magic into their surroundings.” Eris shrugged. “I was stuck inside the castle walls after that.”
“Up until I swooped in and saved the day.” Discord said, puffing his chest out in pride.
“Yes, until you discovered what was going on and pulled me free.” Eris rolled her eyes.
“Um,” Fluttershy looked between the two. “I’m sorry if this seems rude at all, Eris, but, why aren’t you flying around like Discord?”
“Ah.” Eris looked to Discord for a moment, who was enjoying some of the tea, before looking back to Fluttershy with a small smile. “Due to being inside the Alicorn Amulet for so long, I’m suffering from excess magic use like a unicorn would. By sometime tomorrow I’ll probably be fine. Sooner if I feed off of some chaos.”
“Oh, that’s good to hear.” A knock came from the front door, giving Fluttershy a start before setting down her cup and standing. “I’ll be right back.”
Fluttershy approached the door and opened it, finding a frowning Twilight Sparkle on the other side. “Oh, Twilight! It’s good to see you.” Fluttershy said with a smile.
Twilight returned the smile. “Yes, it’s good to see you too, Fluttershy. Have you seen Discord? I asked him to stay in the map room while I did something, but he was gone when I got back.”
“Oh, uh. Yes, he’s inside having some tea with me and his sister.”
“You’ve met her already?” Twilight rose a brow.
“Mhm.” Fluttershy nodded. “Would you like to come in?”
“I would love to, but I need to bring Discord and Eris to see the other princesses. Celestia and Luna asked me to fetch them so they could meet.”
“Oh, alright. I’ll go get them.”
“Thanks Fluttershy. I’ll be out here.”
Fluttershy left the door open and walked back to the living room. “Did you get all of that?” The living room was a small one and not far from the door, so it was a reasonable assumption that Discord and Eris were able to hear the conversation between Fluttershy and Twilight.
Eris nodded. “Yep. Guess we better get going.” She stood from her seated position and gave her back a stretch. “Come on Discord, otherwise I’ll drag you by the tail.”
“Alright, alright.” Discord set his teacup onto the tray it originally sat on and his seat disappeared in a flash of white. Now back to floating through the air, he followed Eris as she walked to the door. “See you later Fluttershy!” He gave a cheerful wave to the pegasus, which was eagerly returned.
After closing the door behind themself, Eris turned to Twilight and gave a bow. “Lead the way, Princess.”
Twilight gave a roll of the eyes. “Discord?”
“Yes?~” Discord drawled.
“Could you teleport us to Canterlot?” Twilight questioned.
Discord broke into a nervous laugh. “Haha, haha…About that.”
“What is it?” Twilight rolled her eyes.
“The thing is, I may or may not have forgotten about a detail with teleporting with a magically exhausted creature…” Discord tapped a talon and claw.
“And that is…?” Eris motioned Discord to continue.
“If magic is used on them too much, sssome things could…happen?” He shrugged with a slightly strained smile.
“So what you’re saying is that if you teleport us, something could happen to Eris?” Twilight rose a brow.
“Well I don’t know.” Discord waved his arms in the air. “A draconequus doesn’t run out of magic! Eris’ situation is something I haven’t experienced before and neither has she! I’m merely going with how it works with unicorns when they get tired of throwing spells around.”
Eris sighed. “I suppose we should use the train then?”
“You know about trains?” Twilight questioned. “They’ve only been around for the past hundred years.”
“Time travel.” Eris shrugged. “I was bored and curious of what happened in the future. Heard about trains before my better judgement decided that I shouldn’t mess with time.”
Twilight blinked incredulously for a few moments before shaking her head. “Nope, not gonna question it.” She then turned away and began to walk. “Let’s go take the train.”
The train ride to Canterlot wasn’t too eventful. Twilight spent the time writing stuff on a paper while Discord kept an eye on Eris while she looked out the window.
It was when the trio got off the train that things gained a bit of interest.
The interest in question was in the form of being stared at by passerby as the trio walked into the streets of Canterlot. Various ponies were quick to turn away and mutter to each other. By Eris’ guess, they likely were speaking about her sudden appearance. The fact that Discord was using a train might have also been what they were talking about.
Other than that, nothing exactly happened until they made it to the castle entrance. One of the two guards looked at the three with a raised brow. “May I ask for the reason behind your visit?” He asked, likely following the protocol for anyone entering the castle.
“We’re here for a meeting with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,” Twilight answered.
The guards gave a nod and the other spoke. “Welcome to Canterlot Castle.” They opened the gates and allowed the three through before closing the gates behind them.
“Lemme guess,” Eris started. “We’re gonna get lost while heading for the throne room and then get escorted after accidentally entering a restricted area.”
“What?” Twilight asked. “How would that happen? I know this castle like the back of my hoof.”
Eris shrugged. “I read a lot of fiction before I got stuck in the Amulet and that kind of stuff seemed to happen a lot.”
Twilight shook her head. “Well, I can assure you that we won’t get lost. Like I said, I know this castle like the back of my hoof.”
“How the hay did we end up in the dungeons?” Twilight questioned, turning away from a door that led into said dungeons. “I could’ve sworn this door led to the hallway the throne room was at.”
As Twilight pondered at this conundrum, Eris looked to Discord with a raised brow. “Discord?”
“Yes.~” Discord replied with an innocent smile.
“Stop messing with the doors.”
Discord crossed his arms in a pout. “I forgot about how boring you were.”
“Hey, I can be fun, but I also know when to not mess around like this.” Eris pinched her snout with a sigh.
“Fine, fine.” Discord floated toward the door and closed it. After giving it a knock, he opened it and it instead led into a large hallway with stained glass windows. The trio entered the door and looked to their right, towards the large door at the end of the hall with two guards keeping watch.
“Yes! The others should be just past those doors.” Twilight smiled and trotted ahead of the draconequess twins, who followed just behind. Eris was occupied looking at the windows, seeing snippets of the past in the glass. She took in each one but didn’t ask any questions concerning them. She lingered on one sporting Discord with puppet strings on ponies, but continued to stay quiet.
Twilight gave a nod to the guards at the doors once she was close enough, cuing the guards to open the doors and let them through. Once the three entered the throne room, the doors closed behind them with a loud thud.
“Oh, hello Twilight.” Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were standing at the bottom of the steps leading to the throne the two shared.
Upon seeing the two, Eris gave a bow, her face inches off the ground as she did. “Greetings Princesses.” Eris could see a familiar and friendly sight upon looking at the Princess of the Sun and the Princess of the Moon, but the sight in question was one she couldn’t quite put a finger on.
The duo returned the bow with their own. “Hello, Eris.” Celestia greeted.
“It is a pleasure,” Princess Luna added. The three stood and Luna continued. “It seems Twilight was not jesting when she said Discord had a twin, though she certainly acts more respectful.”
“I’m guessing Discord hasn’t been giving the respect he should.” Eris shook her head with a small smile. “Sounds like him.”
“Rude.” Discord folded his arms in a pout.
“Oh hush, you know it’s true.” Eris rolled her eyes. “You rarely gave any respect to anyone. That casual attitude is going to get you in trouble one of these days.”
Celestia cleared her throat, interrupting the two. “Let’s continue before this dissolves into a sibling argument.” She turned toward Eris with a kind, almost motherly smile. “Eris, what can you tell us about you? It’s certainly surprising that there’s a second Spirit of Chaos. We assumed that Discord was the only one of your kind.”
“Well, as far as I know it’s simply the two of us and he isn’t a Spirit of Chaos.” Eris shook her head. “The both of us are the Spirit of Chaos. It’s more so like one thing split into two. At least, that’s how I like to think of it.”
“An interesting way to think about it.” Celestia nodded in agreement. “Is there anything else you can tell us about you?”
Eris tilted her head from side to side in thought. “Well, you could say that the chaos I deal with is different from what Discord deals with, naturally, that is.”
“Would you care to elaborate?” Luna asked with a raised brow.
“Let’s see…” Eris brought up her lion paw and counted with it as she gave her list. “War, death, madness, pain, disease, etc.” She shrugged. “Stuff like that is what chaos I’m naturally drawn to. Discord, on the other hand, is drawn to what you’ve probably already seen when he was spreading chaos. Disagreements, innocent imagination, much more light-hearted stuff like that.”
“Hm.” Luna tapped her hoof against the floor in thought. “That does explain why no one was exactly harmed during Discord’s reign a thousand years ago.”
“Indeed.” Celestia agreed. “I suppose we are more lucky than we thought that Discord was the one that went evil and not Eris.”
“Yeah, you guys would be beyond traumatized from that kind of reign.” Eris chuckled. “But anywho, besides that, the rest of what I could tell you about me is basic stuff like favorite food or drinks. Of course, these opinions may be outdated. It has been a thousand years since I last ate real food.”
“Of course. I’m assuming you will be staying with Discord in I’m guessing your shared dimension?” Celestia asked.
“Unfortunately, no.” Eris shook her head. “Since I came out of the Alicorn Amulet, I’m in a state similar to when a unicorn is exhausted of magic. As a result, I cannot go to the Chaos Realm until sometime tomorrow.”
“I see. If you would like, you can stay in one of the guest rooms until then. Discord is welcome to stay as well, since I’m guessing he’d rather not leave your side for a while.”
“Agreed.” Luna said. “Based on my own return from imprisonment for a thousand years, one’s sibling can be quite…clingy.”
“I was not clingy.” Celestia rolled her eyes. “I just wanted to catch up after you were away for so long.”
Luna shook her head. “No matter. What say you, Eris?”
“I gladly accept, Princesses.” Eris gave another bow.
“There is no need for formalities here.” Luna shook her head. “We prefer casualty outside of the public eye, especially with our equals.” Luna turned to a side door and started to walk to it, Celestia following from behind. Luna lit her horn and opened the door with her magic. “Come now, we are about to indulge in some dinner before my sister goes to rest for the night. You can come along as well Twilight, don’t think we forgot about you.”
Eris and Discord followed. Twilight had stopped writing notes into a parchment and quickly rolled it up, trotting for a moment to catch up. “Sorry, I wanted to take some notes and got caught up listening. Eris, would you be willing to answer some questions for me?”
Eris shrugged. “I don’t see why not. I’ll try to answer them all once we get to the dining room.”
“Oh, come on. It’s funny seeing Purple struggle to figure me out.” Discord pouted as he flew ahead of Eris and Twilight.
“I thought I told you to stop calling me Purple.” Twilight said in an exasperated tone.
“You did. I just decided not to listen.” Twilight rolled her eyes at Discord’s response. The walk to the dining room was finished soon after, the group entering and taking a seat along the table. Minus Discord, who opted to float in the air.
After Twilight took her seat, she unrolled her scroll and resumed jotting words into it. ”I guess she’s putting her questions together before she starts asking them.”
A butler approached Celestia and Luna before asking for what they would like. They both opted for a simple salad. Twilight also asked for a salad. Discord and Eris asked for nothing. After the butler left, the room simply stayed in silence as Twilight wrote her questions and they all waited for their food.
Alicorn Amulet's Prisoner
Chapter 4: A Brief Lunch and Questionnaire
Once the ponies all got their painfully bland salads, Twilight started on her questions. “So Eris, how does your magic work? Discord and I’m assuming you can break almost all laws of magic without any repercussions! Why is that?”
Eris shrugged. “Because we’re Chaos? Rules are usually something that’s thrown out the window when a town is panicking, yeah?” Twilight gave a confused nod. “It’s the same thing. One way you can look at it is that magic panics when we use it, so it doesn’t follow any of its own rules.”
“Oh-kay.” An answer was assumedly put on the parchment as Twilight’s quill moved a little. “How does your biology work? Discord hasn’t been very helpful in telling me how he works.”
“Biology?” Eris raised a brow. “We don’t have any.”
It was Twilight’s turn to raise a brow at the answer. “What do you mean? You’re both here right now and I’ve seen Discord eat and drink stuff plenty of times.”
“We eat and drink for the fun of it.” Eris elaborated. “If we never ate or drank, we wouldn’t feel anything like hunger or thirst. What you see here is all there is to see.”
As Eris explained this, Discord acted out her words. He pulled down a chart from somewhere, showing an image of him chopped in half. Besides some thickness to his outer layer, the inside of the Discord of the chart was completely hollow. With a stick, he pointed at the hollow inside and the outside shell, wearing a lab coat and large square glasses.
Once Eris noticed the graph, she gave a small chuckle. “Thanks Discord.”
“Of course dear sister.” He gave a dramatic bow.
Twilight’s quill moved vigorously as she wrote down the answer to her question. “How old are you guys, exactly?”
“Pfft, asking a forbidden question from a lady I see.” Eris jokingly said.
“I-It’s alright if you don’t want to answer!” Twilight started in a mild panic.
Eris laughed at that. “I was joking, Twilight. Anywho.” She tapped her chin in thought. She mumbled to herself as she tried adding up her total years. “One thousand years in the Amulet, a couple hundred years before that. Sense of time was wonky before that. Hm…”
After a few moments of silent thought, Eris said her answer. “I’d say we’re at least three thousand years old. At most we could be an infinite number of years old though. Time was a weird thing forever ago.”
“How so?”
“Time hadn’t been made yet.” Discord lazily answered, sipping on a glass of chocolate milk as he hung like a bat on the room’s chandelier.
“What? What do you mean?”
“That’s…not something we’re allowed to talk about.” Eris answered with a shrug. “Oh! That reminds me. Discord, do we still have those hangout meetings?”
“Yep.” Discord rolled his eyes. “Still as dreadfully boring as they were a thousand years ago.”
“Hangout meetings?” Twilight asked.
“Another thing we’re not allowed to talk about.” Eris answered. “Once or twice a year we just aren’t available is all.”
“So that’s what Discord does those days.” Celestia casually mentioned with a mildly mirthful expression. “I always assumed he went to play some prank on one of the other kingdoms.”
“Who’s to say I don’t?” Discord asked, suddenly next to Celestia and wrapping her lion arm around her. “Sometimes I need a little variation with my prank victims. Pranking ponies everyday can get boring, especially if it’s the same ponies.” He pointed at Celestia’s salad. “Mind the leaves, by the way. Someone stashed something suspicious there.”
Celestia rolled her eyes and ate a piece of her salad. “I see that my salad is now made of chocolate.” She sighed dramatically. “There went my cheat for the day.”
Luna rolled her eyes at her sister’s dramatics. “Sister, we both know you don’t follow this diet of yours outside of the dining room.” Eris and Twilight watched, the purple alicorn munching on her own salad as she waited for the next chance to ask her questions.
“I do follow my diet, Luna. I just happen to give myself a little something extra to reward myself for following it.”
Discord then chimed in. “Oh quit the dramatics. It just tastes like chocolate.”
“You really shouldn’t ‘reward yourself’ every night, Celestia. Once a week would be better, once a month even more.”
Celestia sighed. “I believe we should talk about this at a later time, Luna. After all, our main focus is on Twilight’s questions for Eris right now, not how loyal I am to my diet.”
Taking that as a que to continue her questions, Twilight took the opening. “Eris, what was it like inside the Alicorn Amulet?”
Eris flinched at the question but answered all the same after a moment or so. “It was…just a room. It was incredibly big and constantly glowed red but it was just a room. Whoever made it was good at making containments, because no matter how much force I put into breaking out, it held out. I could do anything inside of it when the Amulet wasn’t being worn, but when someone was wearing it I could only look at the wearer’s backstory that led them to putting on the Amulet.”
“Their backstory?”
“For example. When you were doing tests with the Amulet, I saw each pony who wore it and the story of what led them to putting it on. Your silhouette approached them with a chest that held the Amulet. I couldn’t see any details about you or any others nearby, but I could see the environment and where the Amulet was at the time.”
Twilight scribbled onto her parchment some more, munching on her salad as she did. “I’ll have to get back to you some other time with more questions, if you’re okay with it. Those were all the big ones I had for now.”
“Of course, I didn’t expect you to have all of them already. With how Discord is, I wouldn’t doubt that you ended up throwing away whatever previous list you had since you knew he wouldn’t tell you anything.”
“You’re…not wrong.” Twilight tapped her chin. “I should see if I kept it anywhere. I don’t often throw away my lists.”
“You have fun with that.” Eris gave a dismissive wave. “Just don’t go nuts if you don’t find it. Or do, I won’t stop you.”
“Why would I go crazy over that?” Twilight questioned with confusion. “If I never find it, I’ll just assume I threw it away and make another one.”
“I mean, you did have a major freak out however long ago when you ended up not sending a report to Celestia on a due date that was never explicitly given.” Eris shrugged. “You never know what can set people off sometimes.”
The ponies in the room looked at Eris in open confusion. Celestia decided to be the one to ask the question. “How…did you know about that, exactly?”
Eris shrugged again. “It’s a Spirit of Chaos thing. The amount of madness that Twilight was experiencing during that event is powerful enough for me to passively learn about it, as it falls into my category of Chaos.”
Twilight quickly wrote this down, repeating the words to herself in a mutter as she did. “And Discord can do this too?”
“Indeed.” Discord sat on a chair sticking to a window, sipping a teacup. As in the cup itself. Inside was a mold of chocolate he proceeded to much on. He continued with his mouth full. “Though I usually ignore it, too many things in this age fall into my realm of chaos for me to listen.”
“Hm, yes.” Eris put a paw to her chin. “This day and age is much more peaceful and joyful. Not nearly as much chaos that I rule over seems to exist here. In other lands, perhaps, but Equestria is definitely seeing better days than before.”
“I’d say a thousand years ago were just as well as today.” Luna commented. “It may have been less technologically advanced, but it was practically the same.”
“Eh,” Eris replied. “A good amount of Equestria was having difficulties back then. I mean, so many tried getting into dark magic to get the power to overthrow the two of you. The only reason why no one actually tried was because most of them chickened out, especially since Luna was a bit more…temperamental. No offense, of course.”
“None taken.” Luna gave a dismissive wave. “I was young and foolish back then.” She idly tapped her hoof. “Now that I think about it, we were too engrossed in matters to actually check in on our subjects back then. Or, at the very least I was.”
“Yes…I do believe I irresponsibly threw a lot of my own work on yours in favor of interacting with our subjects.” Celestia sheepishly admitted. “Sorry about that, by the way.”
Luna sighed. “Tis fine, sister. As long as you aren’t doing it now you are forgiven.”
“Anywho.” Eris started, steering the conversation back to where it was. “The chaos these days certainly seems to be more Discord’s than mine, which I must congratulate you for. Once chaos falls somewhere, it can be hard to get it out.”
“Thank you.” Celestia nodded in thanks. “It took a lot of time and work, but it’s good to hear that you believe that is the case.”
“Trust me, if my chaos was running rampant these days, I’d already have recovered from the Alicorn Amulet.” Eris tapped her chin. “Although, I could just be out of range at the moment and it’s still around in areas outside of Equestria.”
A butler pony entered the room and gave a brief bow. “Apologies Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, but it’s approaching time for the second Day Court.”
“Thank you, Serve.” Celestia thanked the butler. The butler dismissed himself and Celestia and Luna rose from their seats. “Apologies for cutting this talk short, but duty calls.”
“We may continue this conversation when dinner comes, if you’d like.” Luna offered.
“While I would love to, I believe I should try catching up with the current era.” Eris answered, standing from her seat. “Do you happen to have a library in the castle?”
“We have the Royal Archives.” Twilight offered. “I could take you over there before I head home.”
Eris nodded. “Lead the way. Bye Celestia, by Luna.”
“Until next time.” Celestia gave a wave of her hoof before leaving with Luna following behind.
Discord floated above the other two remaining occupants of the room as Twilight began to head for the door with Eris in tow.
“Wow.” Eris looked at the long halls of shelves, filled to the brim with books. “This is quite a collection.”
“Do you need any help before I get going? I know this place like the back of my hoof.”
Eris shook her head to Twilight’s question. “I think I’ll be fine. Thank you for taking me here.”
“Of course. If you need any help, I’m sure a passing guard or servant can help you.” Twilight lit her horn and, in a flash of light, disappeared.
“Are you really planning on reading for the rest of the day?” Discord asked as he lazily flipped through a comic book. “Most of them are far too bland to even bother.”
“Yes Discord, and I plan to keep reading until sometime tomorrow at the very least.” Eris began looking through the shelves. “If I get bored, I’ll just read some fiction to break the monotony.”
“Monotony?”
“Dullness, boredom, lack of variety-“
“Okay, okay! You don’t have to go all dictionary on me.” Discord grumbled.
“Don’t ask what a word means if it’s in a dictionary then.” Eris rolled her eyes before taking out a book. It was relatively small and had a brown cover with golden writing. “Ugh, they still use this type of writing? Was hoping that print would’ve become more popular by now. Can you get me some reading glasses?”
“Sure.” Discord snapped his talons and glasses appeared on Eris’ snout.
“Thank you.” Pushing the glasses to her eyes, Eris read out the title to herself. “‘A Brief Lesson in Equestria’s History, Simplified’. That’s a good start.” She opened the book and took a seat on a bean bag. “Just after the founding of Equestria, two Princesses came to be. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the first alicorns ever seen by pony kind…”
Alicorn Amulet's Prisoner
Chapter 5: Recovery Party
“Hm.” Eris closed a blue book titled ‘Magical Studies’. “Well, that’s all the practical things done with.” She tossed the book and snapped a talon, the book flying to its place on a shelf. She then took off her reading glasses and gave a flick of her wrist, the glasses disappearing after. “All that’s left would be books on socializing, but books about that never really help.”
Discord was snoring on the ceiling, curled up in a fashion similar to a snake. Eris got out of her beanbag seat and went for the exit of the Royal Archives. “Listen to the music, the music will make it right.” She hummed to herself as she pulled out a pocket watch from her hair.
Dusting excess that stuck to the watch, she quickly read the time. “Noon. That’s around lunchtime for the Princesses, right?” Eris shrugged and tossed the watch into the air, bumping against Discord’s nose with a squeaky sound effect.
The noise and impact woke Discord from his sleep, leaving him to stretch as Eris opened the door that would exit into the castle halls. Although instead of halls, the dining room was on the other side.
Inside were the Sun and Moon Princesses, peacefully munching on their meal. Luna was the first to notice Eris' arrival. “Afternoon, Eris.”
“Afternoon Luna, Celestia.” They all exchanged nods as Discord flew through the door, closing it behind him with a stretch of his tail. Eris took a seat opposite Luna and to the right of Celestia, and Discord took a seat to Eris’ right.
Eris set her lion paw on the table and lifted it, revealing a steaming mug of hot chocolate underneath. She slid the mug to Discord, who took it and summoned a glass of chocolate milk with a snap of his talons. Eris took the glass and had a sip before speaking. “So, anything interesting so far?”
“Not exactly.” Celestia responded. “Luna‘s now awake so we can get some more work done and that’s about the most interesting thing worth mentioning at the moment.”
“We really should make all that paperwork more compact.” Luna bemoaned. “I know we have ponies that help with the paperwork, but they should really make a more simplified version of the papers while filtering out the more ridiculous or unimportant ones.”
“Luna, they are already simplified.” Celestia rolled her eyes.
“Lies.” Luna tiredly glared. “They are as complex as the running magic theories are to earth ponies.” She took a large gulp out of a mug full of coffee. “The land is lucky that coffee exists now, or I would already be close to having a fit of rage.”
Eris chuckled. “Yikes. Hopefully the paperwork will be a bit more mild today.”
“Alas, we still have leftover paperwork from last night I have to go through. I miss when Cadence was helping me with this.”
“Who’s Cadence?” Eris asked.
“The Princess of Love,” Discord answered. “Mi Amore Cadenza is her full name. Bleh, love.”
“Ooo, she sounds nice. Where is she now, if not in Canterlot?”
“She lives in and rules the Crystal Empire,” Celestia replied. “You should meet her sometime. I’m sure you would get along great.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
A door into the room opened and a butler poked his head in. “Apologies, Princesses, but the second session of Day Court is starting soon.”
“Of course.” The butler left the room as the princesses stood from their seats. “Also, congratulations. It looks like your magic is back in order.”
“More back in chaos, but yes. See ya!” Eris gave a cheerful wave as the princesses left for their duties. “Now, Discord.” The mentioned brother turned to Eris. “Gimme a rundown, I need to get my bearings with Equis after being absent for a thousand years.”
Discord gave a “Hm” of thought. “Well, there is a new Dragonlord and the griffin civilization is pretty much in shambles. Luna was banished for a thousand years as her host was overcome with envy. The entirety of the Crystal Empire disappeared for a thousand years but it’s back now. Oh! And there’s a new member!”
Eris stared at Discord with wide eyes. She took out a pair of glasses and placed them on before reading a set of invisible text. “Oh-kay. Definitely different when you hear it come out of the horse’s mouth. Also, Luna, Luna?”
“Yes, Luna, Luna. It’s a wonder she’s still using the same pony as a host.” Discord put his talon to his chin in thought. “From what I was told, the thousand year imprisonment helped her calm down, but Harmony had to undo the corruption itself afterward. Would’ve been counterproductive to purify while the source was still there.”
“Do the princesses still not know?”
“Yep. They are completely clueless.” Discord winked. “Haven’t told them a word.”
“Good, good. We both know what would happen if they found out.”
Discord gave an audible shiver. “Don’t remind me. I’d sooner somehow off myself than deal with that.”
“Don’t say stuff like that. That’s my thing.” Eris shook her head. “And who’s this new member?”
“Her name is currently Nightmare.” He rolled his talon. “I’m sure you can guess what she rules over.”
“Yeah. I guess she hasn’t given herself a name yet.” Eris stood from her seat. “Anyway. I have a feeling we should go to Ponyville. I haven’t met the rest of Harmony’s Conduits yet and I’d love to see what kind of ponies were picked.”
“Okay.” Discord snapped his talons and the two vanished in a flash of light, reappearing on top of an apple tree. “Welcome to Honesty’s home. Mostly known as Applejack.”
Eris followed a pointed lion paw and saw the pony in question. An earth pony with orange fur and a blonde mane and tail. “I like her hat.” Eris idly commented as Applejack used her hind legs to kick a tree, apples falling into barrels that were set underneath.
“Now, Twilight is the conduit for the Magic in friendship.” Discord began to list. “Fluttershy is Kindness and Pinkie Pie, the pink mare that was defying physics, is Laughter.”
“Who’s Loyalty and Generosity?”
“Loyalty is a blue pegasus named Rainbow Crash.” Discord chuckled. “And Generosity is a white unicorn named Rarity.”
“Rainbow Crash?” Eris raised a brow. “I have a feeling you’re messing with me on that one.”
“Me? Messing with you?” Discord put his lion paw on his face dramatically. “Unthinkable.”
“Uhuh.” Eris said, unamused. “Anywho, let’s go say hi to Applejack.” She teleported with a snap of her talons and, reappearing on top of the next tree Applejack was about to buck. “Hi there!”
Applejack jumped before turning and looking up at Eris. “What is it Discord? Ah’m tryin ta work here.”
“Ooo, I love your accent.” Eris complimented. She teleported again, appearing next to Applejack with her lion paw put to shake. “But I’m not Discord. I’m Eris.”
Applejack looked at Eris with a raised brow, but took the offered paw to give it a shake. “Applejack,” she introduced herself. Maybe if she played along, Discord would leave her to go back to work.
“Hm,” Eris rubbed her chin. “You don’t believe me. Oh well.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I can assure you I’m not Discord, but I’m sure Twilight will tell you all about me sometime today. Thanks for freeing me, by the way. See ya!” She disappeared in another flash, Discord following from his perch with his own teleport.
“Hey Applejack!” Applejack turned to the source of the voice. Pinkie Pie was hanging from a branch. “Hurry up, the party’s gonna start soon!”
“Ah know, I was just finishing up here before Ah got goin.” Applejack responded. Pinkie Pie disappeared in the apple tree and Applejack started trotting to town in a hurry.
The twins met up on a random cloud above the orchard. “So, where can we find the last two ponies?”
“Let’s see...” Discord pulled out an old map, unrolling it and looking it over. After reading it for a few moments, he took out a telescope and gave it to Eris. He directed her view to a carousel looking building. “Carousel Boutique is where Rarity works and lives. She makes clothes for a living and sells gems on the side.”
“As for Rainbow Crash,” Discord chuckled. “She could be in one of these clouds napping. Or she could be training, she doesn’t keep a very consistent schedule.”
Eris smirked. “Alrighty. I’m guessing she’s a weathermare like most pegasi?”
“Correct.”
“Hiya!” The twins jumped into the air and turned around, seeing Pinkie Pie bouncing off a trampoline. “I need-“ She fell, before bouncing back up. “-you to-“ she fell and bounced again. “-follow me!”
Eris flew down to the ground and Pinkie Pie allowed the bounce of her trampoline to lessen, quickly allowing her to hop off of it safely. “What’s up, Pinkie Pie?” Eris asked.
“I need you to come with me!” She cheerfully answered. “It’s super duper important and I need both of you for it.” She trotted in place, ready to get moving.
“Okay.” Eris shrugged. “Lead the way.” Pinkie went straight to it, hopping with an unnatural bounce to her. The twins followed from behind, able to keep up with the excited mare’s pace.
Eris waved at ponies the trio passed, which was met with returned waves from rather confused ponies. The group eventually stopped in front of Sugarcube Corner. Eris offhandedly remembered Pinkie Pie running into this building after the first time they met.
“Come on, it’s just right in here!” Pinkie hopped through the swinging doors and disappeared into the darkness.
“Hm.” Eris squinted at the darkened doorway. “I smell a surprise.”
“At least it isn’t a bad surprise.” Discord said with a shrug.
“True. There’s a distinct lack of blood or manic glee.” Eris floated over the swinging doors and landed in front of the doorway. With a flick of her tail, the lights came on, surprising everyone hiding inside. Eris took in the decorations of the bakery’s insides. Streamers, a banner saying ‘Welcome Back’ and tables covered in baked goods.
“Dang it!” Pinkie Pie was stationed by the light switch, just about to flick it. “Surprise foiled. Welp! Let the party commence!” The party quickly went into swing, ponies going to socialize and eat food while Pinkie hopped to Eris.
“Hi Eris! Welcome to your ‘Welcome back to Equestria and congrats at getting free from imprisonment’ party!” Pinkie continued to hop excitedly in place as she spoke. “Remember yesterday when we saw each other on that cloud and I was all like-“ she made a dramatic, familiar gasp. “-and then ran away? Well, I got to planning as soon as I left. I got a list of all your favorite stuff from Discord and drilled Twilight with questions about you, but she couldn’t tell me much so I had to go back to Discord to ask him! And then I got a sudden idea to just make a bit of everything, since you’ve been gone for so long and haven’t been able to try out any new foods-!”
Eris used a lion paw to close Pinkie’s mouth, stopping her from continuing her long explanation. “Thank you for the party, Pinkie Pie. I appreciate it.”
Pinkie nodded enthusiastically before Eris let go of her snout. “You’re very welcome! Just let me know if I missed anything!”
“Well,” Eris looked at the party participants. “Do you know if a unicorn named Rarity and a pegasus named Rainbow are here?”
“Yepperoonie!” Pinkie pointed toward the food tables. “Rainbow’s over there and Rarity is probably somewhere close by. Just look for a rainbow mane or a curly purple mane.”
“Thank you Pinkie. Now go and enjoy the party, you’ve earned it after setting it up.” Pinkie nodded and bounced away from Eris, who floated over to the food table. She was quick to find a rainbow mane, due to how much it stood out from the rest.
“Yo.” The owner of said rainbow mane looked up at Eris.
“Yo. I’m guessing that you’re Eris?”
“Indeed I am.” Eris landed next to Rainbow ‘Crash’. “Quick question, is your name Rainbow Crash? Discord told me it was that but I’m assuming he was trying to pull my leg.”
“It’s Rainbow Dash , the fastest flyer in Equestria.” Rainbow corrected with a small boast. “Feel free to just call me Rainbow though.”
“As you wish.” Eris nodded.
Rainbow squinted her eyes to Eris. “You sure you’re Discord sister? You act nothing like him.”
“The exact details are…complicated, but I’m most certainly Discord’s sister.”
Rainbow shrugged. “Meh. Want a cupcake?”
“Sure? The word doesn’t seem to ring a bell though.” Eris tapped her chin as she started to think. Rainbow handed one to Eris, stopping her before she would go down the rabbit hole that’s her memory. “Ah, the name speaks for itself.” She took a bite out of the blue frosted cupcake and gave a hum in thought. “Baking has definitely improved over the last millennium.”
“Well, I’m gonna leave you to meet everyone else.” Rainbow stated. “I gotta go talk to Twilight about something.”
“Alright, see ya.” The two exchanged a small wave before Rainbow Dash trotted off into another part of the bakery. “Now to find Rarity. Then I’ll meet whatever other pony approaches me.” She mumbled to herself. Continuing to munch on the cupcake, Eris looked over the ponies and soon found a curled purple mane on the other end of the table.
With a snap of her talons, Eris teleported to the other end. Turning to a unicorn with the purple mane she spotted, she was quick to introduce herself. “Hello there, may you be the lovely Rarity I’ve heard about?”
Thoughts filtered into Eris’ mind, allowing her a small look into the pony’s inner chaos. ”Ah yes, suffered from Inspiration Manifestation. Like Twilight, she can get stressed when a deadline is coming up. Considering that she runs a business by herself, it makes sense. All in all, not too many flaws that fall into my category.”
“That would be me. And I assume you are Eris, darling?” The two exchanged a shake of each other’s appendages.
“Correct.” Eris nodded. “How might your day be?”
“My day has been going swimmingly, darling.” Rarity looked out into the crowd. “I’m currently trying to keep an eye on my sister and her friends but,” she shrugged, “fillies. They can be a hoofful.”
“Yes, they most certainly can.” Eris chuckled. “By the way, I love how your mane is styled. How long does it take to make it look like that?”
“Oh, this little thing?” The unicorn flicked her mane with a hoof. “It can take all night for my mane to get this shape. I sleep with curlers in to make sure it looks like this in the morning.”
Eris nodded. “Well I must say, it certainly looks lovely on you.”
“Aw, thank you Eris. I love how your mane is styled as well, it fits you perfectly!”
“Why thank you!” Eris smiled. “It’s not much really, all I do is comb it back.”
“Really?” Rarity raised a brow. “I must say that I’m jealous. It takes so much work to look as presentable as I am right now.”
Eris shrugged. “I’m sure you look great without the curls and makeup.”
Rarity shook her. “Oh no. I would be unrecognizable without at least my curls.”
“Hm, true. The curls are a big indicator to who you are without looking at your cutie mark.”
A child’s yell was heard somewhere in the bakery, followed quickly after by laughter. Rarity looked toward the sound and sighed. “Sorry to cut this short darling, but I should see what’s going over there. That was most certainly Sweetie Belle.”
“Of course.” Eris gave a nod of understanding. “I should make sure Discord isn’t causing trouble anyway. Knowing him, he’s probably thinking up some kind of prank to pull on everyone.”
The two parted ways with a farewell and went on with the party.
Author's Note
Not very happy with how I ended that, but I don’t got much in mind for parties in any of my stories.