Twilight couldn’t believe her eyes : there was no mistaking it, in spite of his... humanoid... appearance, this was Discord, the spirit of chaos, the very essence of disharmony and wickedness. The same Discord who had fought her friends and her, back in Equestria, who had corrupted the elements of harmony, brought chaos to Ponyville and lied, tricked and twisted his way to power multiple times. There he was, all smiles and manners, sporting a horribly tasteless outfit, eyes glowing and tooth out.

“Why you…!” The princess let out as she took what looked like a battle stance, only slightly less convincing due to her lack of horn, magic, and everything that made her any sort of powerful.

“Me ?” The professor repeated, visibly confused, but still keeping his ever detached attitude.

“Discord !”

“I’m sorry young lady, do I know you ?”

“Don’t play-”

Oh, that’s right. Twilight suddenly remembered : this was not Equestria. These were not DJ Pon-3, Octavia Melody, or Lyra Heartstrings. And this was not Discord.

“If you’ve come to ask for a private lesson, you’ll have to ask someone else. I heard that Ms. Zecora would be more than happy to help you. That is, unless you’ve come for an autograph…”

He paused to turn his head towards Vinyl and the others, as his smile creepily widened and his eyes started to shine.

“Or a favor.”

Alright. Abort mission. To hell with the crown and the fate of Equestria. Back to the castle with a hot cocoa, a comfy pillow and a very very solid door. Twilight definitely was not prepared to deal with the Lord of Chaos a second time.

“Yeah yeah, listen” Lyra answered, completely unaffected by the man’s demeanor, “We need your help with a… situation of ours.”

“Do you now ? Well talk about a change of narrative… I liked part one better anyway.”

“What ?”

“What ? ...Anyway, what is it I could possibly help you with ? Hold you horses, I didn’t agree yet ! I suppose it has something to do with that one over there, who seems to know just soo much about me, don’t you, miss… ?”

“Sparkle… Twilight Sparkle.”

“Well Ms. Sparkle, I’m positively thrilled to make your acquaintance ! Apparently you already know who I am for some reason, so let’s skip the small talk. You three, what sort of pickle have you gotten yourselves into this time ?”

“Sunset Shimmer”

“Oh my, we’re name dropping already ? Nothing like a bit of high school drama, which isn’t surprising considering that young lady…”

“Yeah she’s a piece of work…” Bon-Bon let out in a sigh.

“I was talking about our mutual friend here but whatever. Mhm. Get it ? Mut-”

“Anyway” Lyra continued without giving the pun a second thought, “She’s stolen some sort of family heirloom belonging to Twilight, and has also… done us wrong in the past. It’s complica-”

Are you going to help or not ?

The entire room stopped to look at Vinyl, who had just signed a few words right in front of her teacher. She did not seem happy. Or patient. Which in Twilight’s opinion was hardly a surprise when addressing Discord.

“Well young lady, I’d gladly try my best, if you ever want to actually explain what you want from me ! I don’t suppose a class in advanced Newton laws would solve your issues now would it ?”

“Simply put, we need your help to take her out of the picture” Lyra explained in her classic diplomacy.

“Take her out of the picture ? Come on now young lady, this is one of your classmates we’re talking about, you can’t just ask me to help you do… whatever it is you want to do !”

You helped us with Sombra ! Vinyl exclaimed. With her hands. By basically moving very fast.

“Sombra ?!” Twilight thought, getting more and more confused by the second. She could hear Spike shake in her backpack. Looks like he didn’t like what he was hearing either.

“With Sombra, the situation was totally different, for a number of reasons. And I shouldn’t have to justify myself ! Just report that girl to our dear principals if she’s that much of a nuisance !”

“You think nobody’s tried that before ? She bullied everyone into submission !”

“I wouldn’t have thought that was any concern of yours.”

“Point taken, but we still need you !”

“If you give me one good reason, I’d be glad to offer advice.”

“Please !” Bon-Bon begged.

“Oh god where is this going ? This was a bad idea. I should get back to Fluttershy and the others…” Twilight thought.

“What has Sunset Shimmer even done to you four ?”

She’s blackmailing us !

“...”

“...”

“What ?”

“I’m sorry my dear, what did you say, I mean, sign ?”

She’s fucking blackmailing us ! Vinyl continued, angrily waving her fingers, eyes almost red with anger, Me and Lyra, we made a mistake, big one, and she’s learned about it, now she’s using it against us ! We can’t fucking do anything !

“Dude” Lyra interrupted with a hand on her friend’s shoulder, “We shouldn’t-”

Vinyl knew what the lyrist was about to say : Octavia was here, right by her side, she knew. She knew, but she didn’t care. Less talking, more action, and her goal right now was to convince this prick to help them.

“I fucking need to do this. Come on…”

...There is a video. Of me and Lyra. And no, not this kind of video, more of the illegal kind. We did something we shouldn’t have done and she… she knows about it, she got the file. Now she’s blackmailing us.

“Yeah we can’t tell the principals…” Lyra added.

“...That’s why we’ve come to you.” Bon-Bon continued.

Octavia did not say anything. She had sitten on a chair, trying to process everything she’d just heard.

“Oh.” Discord simply let out.

“Oh indeed” Twilight thought. This seemed more serious than what she had thought.

“Alright.” Discord said.

Alright ?

“Yes, alright. I’ll help you at the best of my capacity. But this time we’re talking about a CHS student, so I will keep you girls in check.”

“Yeah sure, whatever.”

“Do not test me, Ms. Heartstrings.” Discord suddenly responded, with a heavier and somehow scarier tone than before.

“...Okay, alright…”

“So ! He said, turning to Vinyl and Twilight, “What is it you’re planning to do ?”

Okay,Vinyl continued, trying to stay calm in spite of the variety of emotions flowing through her mind like a very slow tidal wave, We need three things : get the video back from Sunset, have her expose herself for what she really is, and get the principals to somewhat help us.

“So I assume my role is once again to convince our sweet principal Celestia and her sister to help us ?”

At least to make Twilight’s life a little bit easier. Even though she met the principal, she’s not a student here, so we should keep her out of trouble.

“But what did you mean by ‘expose herself’ ?” Bon-Bon inquired.

“We need her to step out of the shadows, give both the staff and the students as a whole, a glimpse of what she can really do…” Twilight explained.

“Like, I dunno, kidnapping someone ?” Lyra proposed, with an eye on Vinyl.

“That sounds a bit too extreme…” Twilight responded, with Discord nodding in approval. As mischievous as he was, there was simply no way he’d let a student of his get into this type of situation. Maybe.

What about your dog ?

“What did she say ?”

“What about your dog.”

“Spike ?! No ! There’s no way I’d let that… I’d let Sunset take him !”

“I’d do it.” The teacher simply said.

“Don’t you start !” The princess commented, her purple skin turning crimson, “How could you even propose such an idea ?!”

“I mean, we’re not gonna let her kidnap a person, and most people here have seen you with your dog, so they’d understand the situation. Also you know, we wanna get her either silenced or expelled, not thrown in jail.”

“I understand that Lyra, but I-”

Twilight suddenly felt a tap against her back. It was coming from inside her backpack, where Spike was still hidden to avoid the principals. Why he was still in there at the moment was unknown though, maybe he just enjoyed the smell of pencil sharpeners and chestnut snacks. Did the dragon want to talk to her ? She needed to find a good excuse to hide for a moment.0

“Can I use the bathroom real quick ?”

Not the most original approach, but you do what you can do in a new world.

“Yeah sure, there one next door in the hallway, but-”

“Thanks !” The princess simply said before taking off in a hurry.

“...Okay…” Bon-Bon commented. She had been somewhat quiet during this whole exchange, instead trying to focus on her friend sitting in the corner : Octavia looked pale, and her eyes were riddled with doubt and incomprehension, or at least that’s what the pianist interpreted. As Discord, Lyra and Vinyl were still talking, she moved over to the latter and gently tapped her shoulder to get the DJ’s attention.

“Vinylyshoudtaktotavia…”

What ?

“You should talk to Octavia.” She said in a slightly clearer voice, trying to keep this conversation away from the rest of the room.

Yeah I know, I have some explaining to do. Vinyl wrote on her notepad. Despite her best efforts, Bon-Bon was far from fluent in sign language.

“But like, right now. Don’t worry, we’ll handle Discord and Twilight. Plus, the lunch break’s almost over, so you don’t have much time to set things right.

Okay.

“Setting things right uh ? That’s… not gonna be easy…”

“Hey, we should probably discuss this in another room.” Bon-Bon addressed the two remaining people, “Octavia has… a few things to process…” She whispered to Lyra. Discord had heard that too, but she didn’t care, and neither did he.

“Fair enough.” The man simply put, before grabbing his things and following Lyra and Bon-Bon outside.

“Okay, this is…”

Vinyl didn’t really know what to think. There she was, in an empty classroom with Octavia, still sitting by herself in the corner, but now looking at her with a look she could not describe were she held at gunpoint.

“...Okay.”

It was now or never. She could not afford to simply wait it out, nor could she try hard to appear like her careless and gleeful self, that would be like trying to perform stand-up comedy in a courtroom.

“Here goes…”

She didn’t know what to say, but she needed to say something, about the car, about the video, something to give Octavia at least half an explanation. She started moving her hands in the air :

Hey, so I-

“What were you talking about ?”

Wow, that was surprising. And scary. Octavia had never interrupted someone like that, much less one of her friends.

“...”

“Vinyl, what was this about ? What did Sunset Shimmer say to you ? What is this video ?”

“Fuck this is going way too fast. Where are the brakes ?”

The DJ’s hands stayed put. She couldn’t say anything : where to even begin ? With her and Lyra crashing a car or her getting sequestered in a garage by a school bully ?

“If this is between you and Lyra, then so be it. But it is now my concern as well. Please Vinyl, I need to know.”

“...”

Fine.

So she told Octavia everything.

Author's Note

Howdy there young folks !

What do you mean more than a year ?
No no, we're still in October 2019, there is no major health crisis, the USA isn't burning down, England isn't collapsing on itself and I still have a decently coherent upload schedule.

In all seriousness though, I hope you and your loved ones are safe. The world's a shitshow right now and I'm not helping by not giving any news or updates on these characters you and I got to love. And for that I am sorry.
I'm not dead though, so that's cool and fine and hype. Also merry Christmas and happy soon-to-be new year ! I mean, implying that 2020 doesn't keep going that is.

I know this chapter was short, too short. I wanted to add a part about Fortissima at the end, but I liked it how it was. Hoping the next chapter will be longer. And won't take as much time.

As always, bisous, stay safe, wash your hands, love each others,

Antoine.

EDIT : I realized I posted a chapter in April 2020 so I'm not as trashy a human being as I thought and also the beginning of this note doesn't make sense now but you know what let's say it's been a year.