The Enchanted Computer: A RariTwi Exquisite Corpse

by SigmasonicX

Rating: teen
Tags: Fiddlesticks, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rarity, Romance, Adventure, Twilight Sparkle, Lightning Dust, Alternate Universe, Main 6
Length: 13686

Rarity and Twilight journey to free Princess Celestia from Discord's curse, and come across... a computer? And it gets stranger from there...

Following the events of The Enchanted Kingdom and the first 2-3 chapters of The Enchanted Carousel, Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie follow a lead to Princess Celestia's location. They find much more than they bargained for...

You should read all of The Enchanted Trilogy, starting with The Enchanted Library, through the first few chapters of The Enchanted Carousel before reading this.

Written with Monochromatic's permission.

An exquisite corpse is a form of collaborative art where each participant only knows about part of the whole work, and must complete their part with limited context. In this case, each writer only had access to the previous chapter, resulting in the story getting confused, yet still moving forward undeterred. The exception is me having full context when helping out the others.

Participating writers were me, The Red Parade, kits, Corejo, WilloIllo, No Crow, trAce, Nonchalant, and Undome Tinwe.

Published 2022-10-28 22:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2022-10-28 22:00:00 UTC

~ 01 ~ The Return to Granite's Rest (SigmasonicX)

Twilight felt the train rumbling beneath her seat.

As she and Rarity had planned, following their weeklong vacation—marked by several occasions where Rarity quite adeptly distracted her from her anxiety—they immediately set out for their first and biggest lead.

A long time ago, a pony named Indigo Glen found Princess Celestia. Somehow, they broke through whatever enchantment Discord had placed to hide her away and was able to paint her. Though few could decipher the meaning, this painting lasted the test of time and could now be found at a tourist trap in Granite’s Rest.

The train slowed to a stop and Twilight stepped off with determination.

Rainbow Dash and Spike were checking the Rainbow Falls. Applejack was rustling up what family she could to check Neighara Falls. The royal guards and Princess Luna were flying all across Canterlot Falls, in hope that it was just the curse that prevented them from finding Princess Celestia right away.

Twilight looked to Rarity to her left and Pinkie Pie to her right. Their mission was to find something—anything—about the painting to narrow down their search. The most minute detail could be the key to finding her mentor and putting an end to this entire ordeal.

She would not fail.

Twilight adjusted her wings underneath her cloak as she jostled against tourists in the street. Even on a return, she was amazed how many ponies would come to an abandoned town just to see that it was abandoned. Except it obviously wasn’t abandoned if there were this many ponies and—ugh, this wasn’t worth thinking about.

Except if she wasn’t thinking about that, then she had to think about the painting. The one that showed her princess in excruciating pain, casting a spell that was strong enough and persistent enough to ruin her horn. And so much time had passed since the painting was made, so she must be even worse off, and—

Twilight felt something warm against her neck. “Are you feeling alright, dear?”

Rarity’s words immediately brought the alicorn back to reality. Of course, Rarity was here this time. It would be alright. “I am now.”

“Luckily for you, I love when you say things like that,” Rarity replied with a wink.

Twilight felt something else warm—this time on her back, and rather heavy. “Ooh, check it out, they’re giving out free T-shirts over there!”

Pinkie’s presence offered its own form of comfort. Twilight shook her head. “What? Free shirts? I’m confused. If they’re free, they can’t be high quality, and if they aren’t high quality, why even bother wearing a shirt during tea time?”

Pinkie laughed from above her. “Oh Twilight, you’re really missing out if you’ve never worn free T-shirts before! It’s T for Twilight and everything!”

The princess scrunched her eyebrows. “Wait… these shirts are named after me?” Of all things, this is where they got her name right?

Rarity laughed. “Oh don’t listen to her, she’s just being silly. They’re T-shirts like the letter T, because of their shape. I’m not a fan myself, but they have their place.”

“And free ones are the best! Look, even Applejack likes them, she’s in the crowd and everything.”

Before Twilight could react, she felt another mare climb on top of her and grimaced under the added weight. “What, Applejack’s here?”

“Yeah Rarity, look over there!”

“Pinkie Pie, don’t tell me you’re pointing at that mare with a white cowboy hat! She looks nothing like Applejack!”

“Oh huh, I guess you’re right.”

Twilight sighed. “Alright, both of you, get off.” She shook like a wet dog and both mares fell on either side of her.

Though she landed on her feet, Rarity still pouted. “Darling, that was quite rude.”

Twilight smiled awkwardly. “I’ll make it up to you later.”

Rarity smiled back. “I know you will.”

Pinkie, meanwhile, had somehow landed on her back but was none the worse for wear. “You know, that mare was close enough to Applejack that she could be our Applejack for this adventure!”

“What do you mean?” asked Twilight.

“Applejack isn’t with us, but it’d still be awesome to have an Applejack. So she can be our Applejack!” Pinkie jumped from the ground and flipped right-side-up. “Ooh! And that mare with her that had a lightning cutie mark! She can be our Rainbow Dash!”

Rarity shook her head. “Pinkie-dear, please don’t bother those two.”

Giving up surprisingly quickly, Pinkie smiled and nodded. “Alright. Anyway, with everypony off getting T-shirts, the path to the painting should be completely clear.”

Twilight looked along the path she followed last time. “You’re right, there’s barely anypony at all.”

“Just looks like there’s someone sweeping up, in fact,” Rarity said.

As they approached the painting, Twilight braced herself to look upon it once again, only to immediately get distracted by a loud gasp.

“Oh my hoofness!” Pinkie yelled. “I can’t believe it!”

The pink mare galloped straight into the custodial mare, sweeping the gray pony in her front legs and squeezing her hard, making her drop her broom. Though this would surely give the average pony a heart attack, the mare only showed a minimal amount of surprise and then smiled warmly.

Pinkie shook her. “Marble! What are you doing here?” The custodial mare mumbled something and Pinkie looked up at the painting. “Oh, duh, of course! Rock painting! Perfect place to get a job!”

“Pinkie, care to introduce us to your friend?” Rarity asked.

Pinkie spun around, putting her front leg around the shoulder of the other mare, who looked everywhere except at the unicorn and alicorn in front of her. “Rarity, Twilight, I want you to meet Marble Pie, my twin sister! We’re so much alike it’s crazy, huh!”

Marble seemed like she wanted to say something, but gave up and said, “Mm-hmm.”

Rarity clapped her hooves together. “What a wonderful bit of serendipity! To think we’d run into your sister here.”

Pinkie’s eyes widened. “Rarity, you’re exactly right! Marble must be here to be our Fluttershy!”

Rarity’s face scrunched. “Well, not exactly…”

Pinkie turned to Marble and screamed, “Marble, do you want to be Fluttershy?!”

Marble looked away and mumbled something, which Twilight could only assume was, “I don’t know who that is.”

“Oh, you’d be great! Just keep being you!” With that, Pinkie separated from her sister. “Anyway, we’re on a secret mission, and this painting here is the key to the whole thing. What can you tell us about it?”

Like a switch had been flipped, Marble’s eyes lit up and she looked straight at the other mares. In a practiced routine, she went into a long lecture about the history of the painting and the nature of the rock it was painted on.

Unfortunately, Marble mumbled the entire thing and Twilight couldn’t hear a word. Once the lecture ended and Pinkie applauded loudly, neither the princess nor Rarity had the heart to ask her to repeat it.

Rarity put her hoof on Twilight’s. “Well, I’m sure there’s something we missed when we looked at the painting before,” she said with a somewhat pained expression on her face.

Twilight nodded. “Both of us are here together now, so I’m sure that—”

“And down she goes!” Pinkie shouted from the side of the painting as pushed her head against it. Twilight and Rarity froze in place as the painting wobbled, and then with another push from the earth pony, topped over.

With a yell that surprised even Twilight, she lunged forward and reached out with her magic, just barely cushioning the painting’s fall before it could break against the ground.

Twilight wanted to angrily ask Pinkie what she was doing, but instead she stared blankly at the opening before them. She looked at Pinkie, who had an annoyingly innocent expression. “There’s… a cave behind the painting.”

Pinkie nodded. “Yup! Sheesh, it’s like you guys didn’t listen to Marble’s story at all. It’s obvious from the sounds the painting makes when you hit it with your hoof that there’s an opening behind it.”

Twilight flailed a front leg. “But how?! How did so many ponies visiting not think to check for a big cave back here? For so many centuries?”

“Centuries?” asked Rarity. “That’s it! Twilight, dear, it’s the curse. It was broken when you and I each came here before, but it wasn’t before then.”

Twilight considered this. “A royal guard checking wouldn’t see this cave… and anypony who did would go get a royal guard and then get cursed themselves.” Her eyes widened. “But wait, if this cave is linked to the curse, then…!”

Rarity grinned. “This must be where we can find Celestia!”

Pinkie shook. “Ooo, this is so exciting!” She gasped. “I need to get Lightning Dust and Fiddlesticks!”

Leaving no chance for anyone to respond, Pinkie darted away.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Lightning and… are they the ponies we saw earlier?”

“The names do seem appropriate,” Rarity responded.

“But they were strangers, right? When did Pinkie learn their names?”

Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. “Darling, you and I both know that isn’t worth dwelling on.”

Twilight groaned lightly. “I suppose you’re right. Now, about this cave.” She reached out with her magic, searching for any abnormality. “It seems safe enough.”

Rarity glanced down at her necklace. “No chaos magic either, at least not yet.”

Twilight rubbed her chin. “But that can’t be right. Everything we know indicates that Celestia’s imprisonment is connected to Discord, and as powerful as she was and probably still is, it would take a lot of chaos magic. There can’t just be none.”

“Perhaps the cave system is very large and we just can’t sense it yet.”

“No, I can tell with my magic, this entrance goes to a single room with no other pathways. In fact, I don’t think it’s a natural cave at all.” Twilight rubbed her forehead. Celestia couldn’t be here, yet the curse indicated she was. What did this all mean?

Rarity lightly pushed her head into the crook of Twilight’s neck. “Darling, you can think about this all day, or we can just take a look. If it’s as straightforward a path as you say, Pinkie should be able to follow us when she returns. And better if we do it before another tour group comes.”

Twilight nodded. Rarity was absolutely right. “No time to waste, then. Let’s go.”

The three mares stepped toward the cave. Twilight and Rarity stopped, followed shortly by the third mare.

The princess and the unicorn turned to the other pony with them. Pinkie’s twin sister, Marble Pie, glanced around awkwardly, her one visible eye darting back and forth, then down to the ground. Her mouth was shut tightly and she gripped her broom like a walking stick.

“So, Marble,” Twilight said gently. “It looks like Pinkie left you here with us.”

Marble made brief eye contact and simply said, “Mm-hmm,” before looking elsewhere again.

Rarity tilted her head. “Did you want to come with us?”

Marble shrugged and said, “Mm.” She then murmured something that Twilight couldn’t quite hear, but Rarity was slightly closer and her ears perked up.

The unicorn looked at the cave and back at her. “I suppose you would have to explain to your employer what happened here.”

Marble nodded.

Rarity lightly smiled at Twilight. “Well, we did determine it’s safe enough inside, so we might as well.”

Twilight sighed. “And Pinkie plans to bring two more strangers, so we might as well go with it.”

With that resolved, the three mares stepped bravely into the cave.

~ 02 ~ The Passage Behind the Painting (SigmasonicX)

With the cave having been sealed for Celestia-knows how long, Twilight expected the air inside to be cool, but it was instead surprisingly warm. Not to mention there was a dull humming noise coming from inside. What was that?

She took a quick glance toward her necklace, and Rarity’s for good measure. Still no sign of chaos magic.

Twilight prepared a light spell as they exited the passage, but it turned out to be unnecessary. The humming she heard grew in intensity as various objects around them lit up, both on the floor and on the ceiling. The room brightened up slowly, allowing the ponies’ eyes to easily adjust, but they blinked anyway.

In many ways, Twilight’s experiences with modern devices prepared her for the oddities before her. She recognized power cords and the idea of machines that used them, but she could not understand the purpose of the humming gray towers filling the room, each twice the height of an average pony.

Twilight noticed Rarity backing away, not so much in fear, but as to take the full scope of what she was seeing. “Twilight, what are these?”

Twilight looked around more. After her initial shock, she realized that this wasn’t quite as unfamiliar as she thought. In fact… “I couldn’t tell from outside the cave, but I think these devices, whatever they are, are using Princess Celestia’s magic.”

Rarity’s eyes widened. “Using her magic? What do you mean?”

Twilight scrunched her brows, struggling to remember. “It’s like electricity for your sewing machine. I actually worked on a project like that for the princess once.” Her eyes widened and she looked around. Some of the gray towers had glass panels and she glanced inside. “Wait, that’s a transistor board! I worked on that too!”

Rarity narrowed her eyes. “Darling, don’t tell me you made all this and you forgot.”

Twilight shook her head. “No, I mean, I worked on a lot of these components, but there are lots I don’t recognize, and I can’t even begin to understand what they can do when connected like this. There’s no question, this is one of Celestia’s inventions.”

Rarity’s face brightened up. “How remarkable! While I doubt we’ll find Princess Celestia among these boxes, it’s wonderful that you found something of hers.”

Twilight giggled. “Can you believe it? One of Celestia’s inventions and I get to study it!” Rarity gave her a look and Twilight quickly added. “But of course, finding Celestia is our priority. Let’s look for hints.”

“Um,” said a quiet voice barely audible over the hums of the machines. Twilight and Rarity found Marble Pie standing at the far wall in front of one of the strange devices. This adventure’s Fluttershy, as Pinkie put it, awkwardly stepped to the side, the broom she had latched on her back bumping against a tower. She mumbled something and waved her hoof at a device displaying text, with what appeared to be a hoof typewriter below and a stool below that.

Twilight grew a glowing smile. “An interface! I remember when Moon Dancer worked on this! Oh wow, so that means Princess Celestia has been using everyone’s inventions.” She suddenly squealed loudly.

“Darling!” Rarity said, pinning her ears against her head. “We already have a Pinkie on this adventure, we don’t need you to stand in for her.”

“Sorry! I’m excited because this must be a database! Like a big library, but all contained in machines. Theoretically, a system of machines this large could carry more books than all of Canterlot Library!” Seeing Rarity’s expression, Twilight continued, “But we don’t have to look at all that. Celestia likely left some information we could use inside of this.”

Rarity furrowed her eyebrows. “Inside?”

Twilight giggled. “Let me show you.” She sat at the stool and looked at the interface.

Boot system? (Y/N)

Twilight looked at the keys as she continued speaking. “I discussed this kind of interface back at Magic School. You see, you use the typewriter to respond to this question with either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. I’ll type in ‘Y’ for ‘yes’.”

She did so and pressed another key to confirm the response. At this, a new line of text appeared.

Authentication required

“Good heavens,” Rarity said. “It says something else now.”

Twilight hummed. “Yes, but this is going to be a problem. It’s asking for authentication—like a key that will prove I’m allowed to use this machine.”

“A key? Do you think we’d find it in this room?”

Twilight shook her head. “It isn’t a physical key. It’s more a password or a—” Her eyes darted to a device on the side of the screen, which she recognized all too well. “Or a magical signature. Look, Rarity, that’s a magic-identification tool. I remember working on one as a student.”

Rarity caught on with speed that surprised the alicorn. “So Celestia used that to identify her magic, meaning only she can use this device.”

Twilight nodded. “Yes. Well, that was the idea at least. I only got as far as making it distinguish pony magic from other forms of magic, but I’m sure she made her own advances.”

Rarity fluttered her lips. “That means we’ll need Celestia to use this machine, thus we can’t use it to find her. How inconvenient.”

Twilight sighed. All this information right in front of her but completely inaccessible. “Well, it’s not like we came here expecting to find her right away. This was just a fun bonus, and we have plenty of other leads.”

“It’s best that we don't linger, regardless,” Rarity said, glancing at Marble, who warily sweeped the polished but dust-covered floor. “I’m sure the local tour group would love to bring ponies in here, so we need Cadance to restrict this area as soon as possible.”

Twilight desperately looked around. Was there really nothing else to do here? Ultimately, Rarity’s logic won out. Groaning, she stepped off the stool, knocking it over. She considered setting it upright, but decided to leave it as a way of getting back at the machine. “Marble, we’re leaving.”

The tour group custodian looked up with a start, then nodded with a, “Mm-hmm.”

Rarity looked at the stool with a smile and righted it herself with magic. “It’s a shame Pinkie took so long to find those mares—Lightning Dust and Fiddlesticks, was it? She missed the whole—”

All of a sudden, Pinkie was there right next to her. “Rarity! There you are!” she shouted.

“Gyah!”

Rarity flung the stool up and into the side of the interface. Right into the magic-identification tool.

Twilight’s eyes widened as she heard the machines whir loudly. She ran to the screen.

Authentication accepted. Now signing into eQuestria

Twilight smiled. “Oh, it does just check for pony magic of any kind. That’s great!”

However, as the whirring grew more intense and the lights around them grew brighter, Twilight’s smile quickly faded.

Before anyone could act, white light engulfed them all.

Twilight opened her eyes. No, that wasn’t right. Her eyes suddenly came into existence, along with the world around her.

The princess spun around. Where was she? Still in the cave? No, this looked like…

Canterlot. She was just outside Canterlot, perhaps half a mile from the city gates.

Except she wasn’t. This wasn’t the Canterlot she saw when she visited Cadance with Rarity. The castle, the waterfall, the sounds, the smells—it was the Canterlot of her youth. The Canterlot of a thousand years ago.

Ripping her thoughts away from where she was, before she got lost in nostalgia, she instead focused on how. Was that machine for time travel? No, that was impossible.

Suddenly, it all connected. This was a simulation. An advanced illusion spell, one not bound by the dimensions of the room it was cast in. It was only theoretical, but she had already seen many things she thought only theoretical.

Now the next most pressing matter consumed her. Her eyes widened, she called out, “Rarity! Rarity, where are you?”

How many ponies were in the room? Herself, Rarity, Marble, Pinkie… maybe others? It was hard to tell. Were all of them in this simulation?

On the nearby road, several ponies—or simulated ponies—looked at her with surprise, including, to Twilight’s own astonishment, Princess Cadance, younger and wearing her ponytail from when Twilight was a filly.

She filed that thought for later. “Rarity!” she continued calling out. “Pinkie! Marble!”

Still no response. While turning, she saw her necklace fly up in the corner of her eye and a cold sweat broke out. Hesitantly, she lifted it for a closer look.

It was glowing. The light was dull, but there was no mistake.

There was chaos magic here.

~ 03 ~ brb pasting TEL all over Cal Arts (The Red Parade)

“...My name’s Fiddlesticks, I live in Appleloosa. My brother’s the mayor. I… I play the fiddle at the Saltlick on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

The guard on the other side of the bars gave her a quizzical glance but continued to dutifully record this information on their notepad.

“And this here is Lightnin’ Dust, she–”

“Is the best flier Equestria has ever seen!” Lightning shouted from the cot on the other side of the room. “Washouts? Too good for the Wonderbolts? Best flier since Hurricane?! Ring any bells for you?”

“Quiet!” shouted one of the other guards.

Lightning rolled her eyes and turned over to face the wall.

“We’ll verify this,” the first guard said apologetically before withdrawing from the cell.

Fiddle slumped over on the bench, staring up at the ceiling. They had been right behind Pinkie Pie when she charged into the cave, and Fiddle had only caught a single glance at the strange machines inside before a bright light had engulfed them. She had caught the word “eQuestria” blinking in some digital monitors, but the next thing she knew both she and Lightning had fallen into a heap on the floor of the Royal Kitchen.

A few guards had swiftly shown up to apprehend them and move them to the dungeons, where Fiddle was dismayed to find that none of Rarity, Twilight, Pinkie, or Marble were there.

“So where do you think we are?” Lightning asked, crossing her forelegs behind her head.

Fiddle shrugged. “Canterlot? I mean, it sure looks like it.”

“Nah. This isn’t Canterlot. Or the real one, anyways.”

“How do you know?”

“Have you seen those ponies out there? Looks nothing like what I saw last time I went to Canterlot.” Lightning swiped a strand of her mane from her face. “I mean, it looks like old Canterlot. Old old Canterlot, the kind they had in those paintings at that stupid museum you took us to.”

“I thought you liked the art museum.”

“I said the cushions were nice to nap on! Because it was boring!”

Fiddle rolled her eyes, huffing. “Whatever. Look, we need to figure out what happened and where the others are.”

Lightning rolled her eyes. “Why bother? I mean its their fault we’re in this stupid place to begin with.”

“Lightnin’, when Princess Twilight asks for help–”

“I still don’t think she’s the real one,” Lightning muttered.

Fiddle sighed, trotting over to the cot and slapping her.

“Ow!”

“Knock it off, Dusty.”

“Fine, fine.” Lightning rubbed her cheek, glaring at Fiddle. “All I’m saying is that I think this whole thing is some sort of weird simulation. I dunno why its set so far in the past or why it's so realistic though.”

Fiddle shrugged. “Princess Twilight is quite strong with magic. I’m sure she’d know, if we could just find her.”
The two were interrupted by hoofsteps rapidly approaching from down the hall. “These ponies are with you?”

“Mm-hm!”

The guard fumbled with their keys, unlocking the door and saluting the newcomer in the hall. “We’re terribly sorry about all this, your majesty! Please let us know if you need anything else, Princess.”

Fiddle perked up as the door swung open. “Twilight?”

Instead, a shy gray mare trotted over.

“Wh… Marble?!”

The very real Marble Pie smiled and waved. “Mm-hm!”

Twilight had searched for what felt like hours, running down the streets of this strange simulated Canterlot. “Rarity! Rarity?”

Her voice was hoarse from all the shouting, but she was no closer to finding any of her companions.

Eventually, she skidded to a halt at the castle gates, where a chorus of yelling voices got her attention.

“...and that’s when Cadance said, ‘Wow, I really can’t believe we came from the enchanted library all the way to the enchanted kingdom!’ And I was like, ‘Of course silly! Now we’re going to the enchanted carousel!’ Then I thought that was a little silly because–”

“Pinkie!” Twilight grabbed her friend by the shoulders and spun her around. “Where are the others?”

“Oh hi Twilight! Isn’t this place cool?”

Twilight absentmindedly grabbed her necklace. “Pinkie, we need to leave,” she said urgently. “There’s chaos magic here. Where’s Rarity and the others?”

Pinkie perked up. “Oooh, chaos magic! Rarity went into the castle to talk to the Princess!”

“Excuse me,” one of the guards piped up. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you and your friend to leave now, you’re creating a disturbance.”

Twilight gritted her teeth. “Princess? It must be him.” She widened her stance, hron glowing. “Pinkie, stay close to me.”

“Hey! What are you doing? Stop!”

As the guards began to move around them, Twilight began to focus a spell. As she cast it, however, a voice called out to her. “Twilight, wait!” She vaguely registered someone approaching from behind, but with a loud pop the gates disappeared from existence.

The teleport had landed them outside the doors of the throne room. “Wheee! That was fun!” Pinkie cheered.

“Ugh…”

Twilight whirled around to find that another pony had been caught in her teleport: none other than the younger Cadance she had seen earlier. “C-Cadance?”

“Twilight…” the other Princess shook her head to clear her thoughts. “What are you–”

“Oh hey, Twilight! Your necklace!” Twilight looked down to see that her necklace was brimming with light now.

She whirled to the doors that were now being pulled open, and without another word she charged into the throne room. “Princess Celestia, I… need…” She trailed off, freezing at the sight in front of her.

Rarity was standing in front of the throne, engaged in a conversation with the alicorn seated at it. But the pony was not Princess Celestia but rather…

“...Strawberry Sunrise?” Pinkie Pie gasped from the door.

Strawberry looked up lazily at them, popping a strawberry in her mouth. “Oh. Hey.”

~ 04 ~ Purple Ink (kits)

“Strawberry Sunrise?” Twilight sputtered, repeating the name Pinkie had given. “Who is– Where is– No, wait.” Taking a deep breath as Pinkie bounced into the throneroom and began to inspect the walls, Twilight drew herself up to her full height. “Rarity, are you okay?”

Rarity chuckled. “Never better, darling. Now that you’re here at least. I was having the most delightful, if unenlightening, conversation with Miss, I’m sorry, begging you pardon, Princess Sunrise here.” Rarity made a grand sweeping gesture towards the figure lounging on the throne, who lazily waved back at her. “Oh! And I see we’ve been joined by Miss Cadenza.”

Twilight glanced over her shoulder. The too-youthful Cadance that had gotten caught up in her last teleport stood in the doorway, twisting her foreleg awkwardly. She could deal with a very teenaged and very undisplaced Cadance in a minute.

“The princess here was just inviting me to a soiree she’s having this evening, darling. Oh don’t look like that” Rarity waved a hoof. Twilight wasn’t aware of any specific way she was looking that was wrong. “I was going to invite you as my plus one, darling. I must admit, I was quite worried before you showed up, but now that you’re here, I almost feel like myself again.” She paused a moment too long before throwing in a final “Darling.”

Twilight’’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Rarity, where is your necklace?”

“Hello,” Strawberry’s annoyed tone didn’t stop her from popping another of her namesake into her mouth. “Princess over here.” She waved a hoof and flapped her wings in demonstration, but Twilight just opened and re-settled her own. “Just the one in charge of the whole place.”

“Oh, darling.” Rarity strutted towards Twilight, giving her mane a slight flip. “Don’t you remember. I gave it to my highly charming assistant ages ago. You remember her, yes?” Rarity continued her saunter, closing in on Twilight. “The one who is as beautiful and charming as myself? Even if she has a tendency to over-use certain words? One can’t hope to imitate perfection, after all.” Rarity fluttered her eyelashes at Twilight.

Twilight opened her mouth to ask Incantation just exactly what she was doing here instead of being a train ride away, but was cut off as Pinkie began to yell excitedly.

“Twilight! Twilight!” Pinkie yelled. “Look at what I can do!”

“Not now, Pinkie! This is more importa…” Her complaint died on her lips as she turned towards her friend to see Pinkie Pie walking backwards with her tongue stuck out of her mouth in concentration staring down at her hooves. As walked into the base of a column, her hoove stuck as surely as if she were walking across the floor. Pinkie began to walk backwards a good dozen paces up the side of the column, with gravity seeming to have no hold upon her.

When she got half way up, Pinkie looked away from her impromptu floor and beamed at Twilight and Rarity. “I wish Luna could see this! It’s almost like being in the dream realm!” As Pinkie spun in place, her hoof sank into the column.

The world went black. For a moment the column, the room, everything except for “Rarity” and Pinkie flickered into nothingness. It was so brief that if she hadn’t been able to see her friends, she would have assumed she’d blinked. When the room returned, Cadence was sitting on the throne, with Strawberry Sunrise lounging on a chaise that hadn’t been there before.

“What’s Equestria?” Asked Pinkie. “Only it had a little E and a big Q! Can I do that again?”

“Pinkie, dearest. I don’t think we have the time.” Rarity gestured towardsTwilight’s necklace, which was now glowing brightly enough it was painful to look at.

Cadence blinked. “What was–”

“Guards!” yelled Strawberry Sunrise. Her eyes glowed with a soft green light. The same light that Twilight’s necklace blazed with. “Guards!”

“I do believe that’s our cue to flee,” said Rarity as she scrambled to do just that. Rarity, Twilight, Pinkie Pie and the too-young Cadance fled the room as Strawberry cried for her guards.

“So let me get this straight.” Lightning Dust said as she, Fiddlesticks, and one Princess Marble Pie walked down yet another identical looking palace corridor. “We wake up in a kitchen and get tossed in a cell by some meatheads, while you got the whole wings and horn royalty treatment, and woke up in a cloud bed with silk sheets?”

“Mm-hmm!” Marble nodded.

“We wouldn’t have had it near as rough if you hadn’t mouthed off at them, Dusty.” Fiddlesticks bopped Lightning Dust on the nose. “And you haven’t seen Princess Twilight, Pinkie Pie, or Rarity either?”

“Uh-uh.” Marble shook her head slightly.

The trio walked in silence for another minute.

“Sooooo…” Lightning Dust eyed Marble’s back. “Your wings. Are they real?” At Marble’s nod, Dust asked, “Can I touch them?”

Fiddlestick’s hoof made a soft squeak as she brought it to her face. “Dust, no!”

“But–”

“I already told you, I’m not sharing you.”

“I didn’t–”

“You do this everytime a mare you know gets wings.”

Marble squeaked and attempted to hide within her own mane.

“It happened one time! We weren’t even dating!” Dust popped into the air and leveled a hoof at Marble’s back, specifically her wings. “And look! They don’t even move right.”

Fiddlesticks opened her mouth to continue the argument when Dust’s words registered. “What do you mean they don’t move right?”

“When she’s happy or scared or whatever. Her wings don’t move. At all.” Dust said. “It’s why pegasi are so bad at poker. You basically can’t keep them still. But she is!”

The world vanished, the three mares hanging in a void. It returned so quickly that Dust hadn’t even had time to fall yet. “What was that?” she yelled.

“Guards!” The cry rang in the air, causing the three of them to face down a side hallway that hadn’t been there before. Out of the blinding light sprang four ponies.

“Rarity?” called Fiddlesticks as she recognized the lead pony.

“I’m afraid not!” was the reply as Rarity ran past, followed by Twilight, Pinkie, and some young pony in a very well done Denza getup.

“But!”

“No time! Guards!”

Fiddlesticks looked between Lightning Dust and Marble, and all three turned to run with the group.

“This way!” cried Pinkie Pie and she slammed into a door. As Rarity and Twilight then the rest piled up behind her, the door’s latch gave, and it swung open, dropping the seven ponies outside of the castle and seven stories up.

~ 05 ~ hi guys.....im back from my hike (Corejo)

Time seemed to slow as Twilight processed the sensation of falling. The rise in her bowels, the instinctive gasp, and the intensifying rush of wind. She somersaulted once, twice before managing to catch the air beneath her wings.

Her eyes instinctively snapped to the figure of Rarity falling beside her, and she didn’t miss a beat. She threw her hooves around Rarity, lassoed Pinkie Pie in her magic, and pumped her wings to slow their fall, alighting on the flagstones below.

Beside them, Lightning Dust set down a frazzled-looking Fiddlesticks, giving her a quick peck on the cheek and cheeky grin, while Cadance gently levitated down a very embarrassed and strangely alicorned Marble Pie. Add that to the list of questions to ask later, right next to teenage Cadance.

Twilight sighed and turned a smile back to Rarity, whom she held delicately in her hooves before her brain caught up with the moment and reminded her this was Incantation, not Rarity.

Incantation put a hoof to her forehead in an overdramatic swoon. “My hero.”

Twilight dropped her. “Is everypony okay?”

“Rude,” Incantation said, getting up. “Maybe I’m not okay.”

“We don’t have time for your games,” Twilight said. “We have to—”

“Guards!” came “Princess” Strawberry Sunrise’s voice, seemingly everywhere at once. “Guards!”

There was a distant roar that got the hairs on Twilight’s neck standing on end. A massive serpentine head crashed through the doorway they had just fallen from, sending cracks spidering across the face of the castle. It roared at the sky, wrenching left and right, trying to squeeze the rest of its body through before catching sight of them. It paused, and its slitted eyes narrowed.

“Don’t tell me that’s the guard,” Cadance said.

“Do you want to stick around and ask it?” Lightning Dust said. “Let’s get the hay out of here.”

“It’s an illusion,” Twilight said. “This is all an illusion.”

A violent scrawling of talons on stone brought their eyes back up before once, twice, three times it hurled itself against the doorframe. The doorframe gave a little more with every blow until it exploded outward in a shower of masonry, and the creature tumbled after them.

It hit the ground in a heavy splatter of black ichor that slowly reformed into the lithe serpentine form of a dragon, though that was more suggestion than reality. Its body was less that of a real creature and more an amoebic imitation, its pearlescent green scales a patchwork facade that swam loosely in place like an eggshell cracked apart and its few remaining pieces held together by the contents within. Long, goopy, tar-like strands flew free from its oily figure as it let out a roar that rumbled in Twilight’s bones.

It’s an illusion. It’s an illusion. It’s an illusion.

Twilight trembled as this creature easily five times her size barrelled toward her before being abruptly spun around by Lightning Dust.

“It looks real enough to me!” Lightning Dust said. She booked it for a nearby alley, the others already turning the corner. “Let’s move!”

Right. Now was the time for running. She scrambled after the others.

They were in a village now. Thatched roofs and wooden walls made up the bulk of this disturbingly empty place.

Focus. It’s an illusion. It had to be. Her necklace had never once glowed brighter than this. Find the source of the chaos magic, dispel it, and they could finally start making sense of things.

The alleyway led to an open courtyard featuring a large marble water fountain. Across the way, there was a large stone guardhouse of some sort that formed an extension of the castle proper. Most importantly, it had two big sturdy doors, perfect for keeping out goopy dragon things.

“In there!” Twilight said, just as a deafening crash of wood ripped through the courtyard behind them.

The dragon had sideswiped a house as it careened around the corner, demolishing the entirety of the wall and leaving a long blackened smear in its wake. The act tore away even more of its scales, exposing more of the churning, tar-like fluid holding it together. One of its eyes was missing, and in its place glowed a burning ember that curled away in green smoke.

“What the crap even is that thing?” Cadance said, looking over her shoulder.

“I don’t know, and I don’t want to know,” Twilight said. “But illusion or not, it’s still dangerous.”

And as if on cue, there it was again. Everything faded to black, and the ground beneath her hooves disappeared for a fraction of a second, leaving her stumbling for footing after having fallen an inch in space.

Pain blossomed in Twilight’s muzzle as her momentum carried her headlong into what had become a wall. She put a hoof up to her nose, feeling the pain reach up into her sinuses and get her misty eyed.

“Sheesh, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie said. “I know you’re worried about getting us all out safe, but you could just use the door.” She pointed at the large double doors five feet to Twilight’s left.

Twilight gritted her teeth. If it wasn’t illusory goop dragons trying to eat her, it was somepony giving her lip. She shook her head. Luckily, the stutter had shunted them forward, across the courtyard, putting some healthy spacing between them and the dragon.

Pinkie pushed on the doors, hooves scraping pathetically on the flagstones, before she flattened to her belly in defeat. “It’s locked!” she yelled.

Twilight tested it with her magic. “It’s not locked. It’s barred. Cadance!”

“I got it!” Cadance said, passing through the door. The faint windchime tinkle of her magic trickled through the door as she worked to undo the bar from its latch.

“Wait, how did she do that?” Fiddlesticks said with a look in her eye that said she most certainly had just seen a ghost.

“No time!” Twilight said. She huddled them all in front of the doors and threw up a bubble shield to wall them in. “Everypony get ready to move!”

The dragon was on them like a tidal wave, crashing headfirst into her shield. For the briefest moment, its face was inches from hers, and she saw the feral hunger in its one good eye, now fractured into three pieces like a broken dinner plate.

It reared back to smash its head against her shield, again and again. Cracks spidered all around them, and Twilight winced with every blow, trying desperately to stay on her hooves. The sweat started on her brow and got in her eye. Just a little longer.

The doors swung open behind her to let the others in, and just as her shield shattered into a thousand rose-colored pieces, a blue sheen wrapped around her and yanked her backward through the doors.

The others shut and barred the doors, and they all hesitantly backed away.

The dragon railed against the door, jostling it on its hinges. The wooden beam groaned beneath every blow, but held fast, and eventually the noises died away.

“Everypony okay?” Twilight did a quick headcount: Incantation—still disguised as Rarity—, Pinkie, Lightning Dust, Fiddlesticks, Cadance, and alicorn Marble.

“What the crap was that thing?” Lightning Dust yelled, then pointed a hoof at Cadance. “What the crap are you?”

“It’s a long story,” Twilight said, “I’ll tell you when we get out of this mess.”

The world fizzled to black for a moment and what felt like a sudden and intense atmosphere pressed in.

“Guards!” came Strawberry Sunrise’s voice—omnipresent, amplified. “Guards!” Twilight put her hooves to her head. “Guards!”

The world fizzled again, and all went silent.

Twilight listened to her heart beat in the seconds spanning that terrible silence, until the quiet voice of Marble Pie had her preferring the silence.

“Where’d the other door go?”

They all turned to see the door leading further in was no longer there.

“T-Twilight,” Cadance said, pointing a shaking hoof at the doors.

They had an odd, blackened discoloration, like oil seeping through paper. Little beads of black liquid pressed through the wood grain, between the cracks, around the frame, swelling and collecting until they became large enough to bleed downward and pool on the floor.

From it, a large, gangly claw reached out and hit the floor with a meaty slap that sent oily trails scattering toward them and dragged out the rest of its matted, oozing form as if from a swamp. There were no more scales, and from its blackened skull sprouted a pair of horns, one spiralled, one crooked, as the creature gave up the last of its facade to take the shape of its master.

Its eyes came to life as little motes of green balefire, and its lips curled back in a predatory smile as soundless, discordant words crawled up the back of Twilight’s neck to lick at the tips of her ears.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

~ 06 ~ Alright, that's the chapter title (WilloIllo)

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Twilight stared at the oily, shadowy reflection of Discord and glared coolly. “Get behind me!!” she said to the others, spreading her wings to shield Lightning Dust, Fiddlesticks, Incantation, Cadence, still alicorn’d Marble, and Pinkie. She tried to ignore the shaking in her hooves, or the whispers in her head. She’d done this before.

This explained why her necklace had been glowing brightly – and it meant they were closer than she had planned. Twilight's mind spun as she tried to figure out a plan. For now, she needed to keep this manifestation of the chaos magic talking; if they were talking, they weren’t being pulled further into this illusion.

“I was wondering how soon you would catch up to us,” she said calmly, giving the shade a cool expression.

The shade’s baleful eyes simmered, and she could feel its smile, even as its form remained an inky void. “My dear Princess, you should know by now you can’t escape me.”

“Naturally,” Twilight agreed, giving a challenging smile. “And thus far we’ve managed to banish you every time.” The magic growled in response to the challenge.

“Twilight!!” Incantation, still disguised as Rarity, said, aghast. She turned towards the spirit with a smile. “If you’ll excuse us a moment?” She pulled Twilight close and whispered harshly. “Twi, I know Boss won’t shut up about how clever you are, but I really have to ask. Are you insane?”

“Just trust me,” Twilight whispered back. “I know what I’m doing.”

Inky paused, her eyes narrowing. “You better.” turning back to the spirit, she nodded. “Continue.”

“... As I was saying…” The chaos’ face was incredibly unimpressed, glaring down at them, its hatred especially hot and bright for Twilight. “Such boasting,” it said. “What you took down were mere shadows compared to me. Luna’s dreaming and your silly little guilt is nothing compared to the depths of despair your dear teacher has fed me.”

“As I recall,” Twilight said, pacing back and forth while keeping her eyes on the being. Her plan was working; she had gotten the chaos magic to do something Discord had always loved: gloating. “I’ve heard this one before. Surely you can be a little more creative than the other spirits of chaos.”

“Now hold on just one darn minute,” Fiddlesticks said. “You mean the spirit of chaos is the one behind this?”

“Can we please discuss this later?” Twilight asked. “Kind of in the middle of something here.”

“Well excuse me,” she muttered under her breath, unimpressed.

“Well aren’t you just so clever,” it growled at Twilight. “Yet despite your confident words, it seems you’ve ended up trapped here.”

“For now,” Twilight said, giving a smile. “I’ve escaped you before, and it’s only a matter of time before we figure out how to break your illusion–”

“Illusion?” the spirit interrupted, giving a deep throaty chuckle, growing swiftly into a cackle. “You think this is an illusion? My dear, dear Twilight. I thought you were smarter than this!!”

Twilight froze, staring up at the spirit as her confidence drained away. “What? Of course this is an illusion. Only the real Discord could do this much, and you’re a sliver of his power.”

It tutted her. It tutted her, like she was a student who had come to the wrong conclusion. “Ohh, my dear Twilight. Surely you’ve figured things out by now. I’m not doing any of this.”

Her mind spun, and she backed away. “No… you can’t mean…”

“Now, as delicious as watching you suffer is, we really must end this,” it interrupted her, its voice dripping with amusement. With a snap of its fingers, its form twisting back into a cracking and marred green dragon as the cacophony of ‘Princess’ Strawberry Sunrise’s voice, still shouting for guards to come take them, filled the room, Twilight fell to her haunches.

Pinkie woke her from her shock, shaking her. “Twilight!! We gotta go!!”

“But– the exit–”

“It reappeared while you were talking,” Marble interrupted from behind her, opening a large, wooden door with the magic she’d acquired in this chaos. “You’re the last one out.”

“C’mon Twilight,” Pinkie insisted again. “Before that meanie gets to you!!”

Twilight nodded and followed, sparing one last look behind her. The chaos magic, re-formed into a large green dragon, roared and opened its inky maw in the direction of the door, before she slammed it shut in its face and ran off with the others.

“Is everything okay, Twilight? You froze like a popsicle in there!!” Pinkie asked her.

Twilight took a deep breath and let it out before responding. “I’ll be fine. That thing just took me by surprise, that’s all.” She kept running, turning a corner quickly. “The fact that Discord’s spirit is here means we’re starting to get close. We just need to see this through to the finish.”

As she rounded the corner, she felt the ground falling away beneath her yet again and she stumbled for a moment as she was suddenly shifted into what appeared to be a dungeon, smashing face first into a pony looking like Rarity.

“Sorry Inky,” Twilight said.

“Uh… Boss? That ain’t me,” a clone of Rarity said from beside her.

Twilight paused, did a double take, and her jaw dropped. “Rarity?!!!”

~ 07 ~ I Found the Smoking Section (No Crow)

“A dungeon?!” Fiddlesticks exclaimed, exasperated. She looked around their new grimy locale and groaned. “If these are all illusions, why can’t we go somewhere nice for once?!”

Marble nodded, her wings rustling at her side. “Mhm. Like a rock farm.”

Lightning Dust snorted. “Uhhh… That doesn’t sound much better, to be honest.”

As a discussion ensued between the three, Twilight, Pinkie, Cadance and Incantation-slash-Rarity focused on the newly appeared Maybe-Real-Rarity-But-Also-Maybe-Not.

“Girls!” Maybity exclaimed, relief evident on her face. “Thank goodness I’ve found you!”

“Rarity!” Pinkie exclaimed. “It’s you!” Her eyes narrowed. “Or is it you?!”

“Yeah!” Ink added, taking on a defensive stance. “How do we know you’re not just another illusion?! Prove it!”

Maybity huffed, her tail whipping against the floor. “First of all, Incantation, I find it very rich of you to accuse me of being an impostor when you still use the wrong shade of blue for my eyeshadow. I have told you countless times that it’s Celeste, not Baby Blue!” she huffed, lifting a great weight off Twilight’s chest now that she’d proved her identity. “And before you say it, they’re not the same!”

“Girls!” Twilight interrupted, ending everypony’s discussions. “We need to focus! We’re so close to finally ending this! After everything we’ve fought for!”

Fiddledust blinked. “Uhhh… Lightning and I got dragged into this.” She turned to Marble. “Didn’t you too?”

Marble shrugged.

“Okay, fine,” said Twilight, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “Some of us have been fighting for this for a long time.”

A sudden tremor interrupted her, shaking the entire dungeon and them too, tumbling them to the ground.

“Holy maracas!” exclaimed Pinkie.

A loud boom sounded off in the distance shortly after.

“Come on!” Twilight said, running off. “That must be Discord!”

As the intrepid bunch of ponies and alicorns made their way towards the source of the tremor, Twilight’s heart drummed in her chest. This was it, wasn’t it? The end of it.

Wow.

“Darling?” Rarity asked, catching up to Twilight. “Are you alright?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight replied, feeling like only to Rarity could she confess such a thing. “I’m scared. What about you? Where were you? What happe—”

“Nevermind me, I’m fine,” Rarity insisted. Her tail flicked to the side and enmeshed with her parner’s. “Twilight, it’s alright to be scared. I’d be concerned if you weren’t frankly. The fate of Equestria is at stake.”

“Rarity. That doesn’t help.”

Rarity grimaced. “Ah, yes, sorry. Ah. Er.” She cleared her throat and tried again. “Twilight, you’re not alone. Remember that.” She gestured to the eclectic group running behind them. “Everypony is here because of you.”

“What if I fail, Rarity?” Twilight despaired. “I’m the only one who can ultimately use the elements! What if it doesn’t work?! And then I’ve let down everypony that believed in me! Ponies have risked their lives for this! And their livelihoods! Like you!” Her breathing got more and more laboured. “When was the last time you sold a dress?!”

“Twilight, I say this with all the love in the world, but I am not lovesick enough to risk my entire financial situation for or on you.”

“That’s literally what you did the first two years of our relationship!”

“Well! Well, that may be so, but—! But—! But REGARDLESS!” she sputtered, red in the face. “I’m smarter now! I made investments! I’m also making passive income from the Dreamland so there!” She took a deep breath. “Sweetheart, look. I promise you this will be fine. You have it in you to do this! Pretend it’s as easy as, I don’t know, writing a book! Didn’t you tell me you wrote a novel once while you were trapped in the library?”

“Rarity, I say this with all the love in the world, but you’ve clearly never tried writing a book.”

“Stars’ above, I can’t win, can I?”

And evidently, no, no she couldn’t, because she just as she finished her sentence, the group reached a massive room in which they found the source of the sound. To Twilight’s dismay, it was not in fact the real Discord, oh no.

It was Rainbow Dash, her stomping around causing large tremors due to the fact that she was twice the size of Spike—who, incidentally, was also there, and looked fairly annoyed.

“Ha ha HA!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, stomping around the dragon. “Who’s the squirt now?! Huh?! Huuuuuuh?!”

“Oh dear,” said Princess Cadance, ever so awed. “Maybe she can stomp Discord to death?”

~ 08 ~ Darling, I Enlarged the Pegasus (trAce)

Being stuck in a crummy illusion maze? Annoying.

Being stuck in a crummy illusion maze with a magically enhanced Rainbow Dash?

“Bwaaaahhhhhh. Kssshhhh. That’s me crushing a building. Check it, I’m gonna crush another. Psshhhhhkow! Dude, you’ve been holding out on me all these years! We coulda been like, building stuff for you to destroy. Being big is sick!”

…Yeah.

“You’re real menacing, Dash. Now let’s find a way out of here.”

“What? Come on, Spike. What if I start being small again when we leave?”

“What if.”

“Oooh, I get it.” Rainbow reared up slightly and slammed a hoof down on each side of Spike. “You’re jealous!”

“I’m not.”

“You’re used to towering over all of us, but now when I make you look tiny, you can’t handle it!” she declared with a smug smile.

“I really can.”

“Oh yeah?” Stomp, stomp. “Why do you want to leave so bad, then?”

“Because we are lost in a maze, our friends are probably lost in the maze, and Discord is also here somewhere—hopefully lost.”

“Ahhh, mazes are smart pony stuff. Twilight will find us easy.” Rainbow hefted her weight into a small hop, shaking the room as she landed. “Heh, easy. How’s the weather down there, squirt?”

⸞⸟⸞⸟⸞⸟⸞⸟⸞⸟⸞⸟⸞⸟⸞⸟⸞⸟⸞⸟⸞⸟⸞⸟⸞⸟

“I can’t tell if she’s mad or happy or what,” Fiddlesticks said.

“Oh, she went mad a long time ago,” Lightning Dust responded.

Twilight and her companions watched as the gargantuan Rainbow Dash pounded the floor around Spike, goading him with every impact. It was not working.

“Spike?” Rarity called out.

The drake turned his head, eyes lighting up at the sight of their group. “Twilight!” He dropped to his stomach and lowered his head down to them, causing everypony except for Marble to flinch. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, Spike. How about you two?”

“We–”

“Hey, Twilight!” Mega-Dash’s greeting echoed around the stone room.

“We’ve been managing,” he grumbled.

“Who’s down there? I heard you say Twilight, and I see Pinkie and Rarity and… another Rarity. Ink?”

“Yup.”

“Don’t ‘yup’ with my mouth!” Rarity gasped. “Honestly, you’re not even trying at this point.”

“Hiya, Dashie!” Pinkie shouted. “We have Princess Cadance and my sister, Marble, and these two over here are a super cute couple, their names are Fiddlesticks and Lightning Dust, and we’re all trying to find where Discord is together!”

Dash awkwardly fell into a sitting position, causing the smaller ponies to catch some airtime. “Oh, hey Lightning. Long time no, uh… congrats on the mare. Anyway– Discord. I’m ready to roll out when you all are.”

A silence stretched from one side of the chamber to the other, punctuated by a quiet groan from Spike.

“Can you ‘roll out?’” Cadance finally asked.

The few doors dotted around the walls of the room were not big enough for Spike, let alone this Giga-Dash. There was a single hallway on the far side that could possibly fit the dragon, but in Rainbow Dash’s current state…

“Assuming this is also an illusion of some kind,” – Twilight idly tapped her chin while looking up at the pegasus – “she should be more than able to fit into any space she could normally. She only looks large.”

“You mean I’m not actually big? I just think I am?” Rainbow sounded genuinely disappointed at the suggestion.

“Exactly. But we did hear her stomping from the dungeon back there… maybe it affects everypony in the vicinity. But she also just caused enough force to physically move us. Did our brains make us jump because we expected to? Or did we perceive ourselves being lifted despite remaining on the ground? What if –”

“It’s chaos magic, darling,” Rarity interrupted. “Best not to think too hard about it. Rainbow, why don’t you try making your way down that hall behind you?”

“Uh, yeah. Okay,” Rainbow began pushing herself backward into the opening. “I can—guh—do that.”

“Need a push?” Spike chuckled.

“No. Go away.” Her hooves slipped against the floor, so she raised one to the ceiling.

It didn’t help.

“Maybe.”

Spike hoisted himself onto his claws and meandered over with a chuckle. “Any magic words?”

“You’re cooler than you look and… I don’t know, your scales are shiny. Start pushing already.”

“Good enough.” With Spike’s help, Rainbow was able to cram herself slightly further down the hallway before getting stuck. “Not so fun being dragon-size when you run into this problem, huh? Oof.”

“Yeah, this sucks a bit. I feel bad thinking about all the places you can’t go. Guess being a dragon isn’t as cool as I thought it would be.”

And just like that—pop! Dash’s inflated form popped like a balloon, leaving her normal-sized body to tumble through the air for a moment before she caught herself and glided to the ground. Twilight and the rest of the group met up with the ex-titan where she landed.

“That’s more like it. Nice wingspan, pipsqueak,” Spike teased.

“Keep talkin’, Gigantor.” Dash stretched her wings out, accompanied by a sigh of relief. “Whew! Thought I would be stuck like that! Alright, Twilight, what’s the plan?”

“Find Applejack and Fluttershy, make our way to Discord, and use the elements. Simple.” The princess’s wings rustled, causing Rarity to step forward and rest her side against Twilight’s.

“We’re with you, darling,” she whispered. “You can do this. We can do this.”

With that, they set off down the grandiose hallway. From somewhere within the castle-like structure, a gentle song floated through these stony veins of chaos.

~ 09 ~ Throwing Rocks in a Hard Place (Nonchalant)

Once again seeing the parts of the maze that looked like a castle (for it was more and more obviously a castle, decorated with ornate statues and tapestries of Princesses Celestia and Luna, for some reason) was a welcome return to comprehensibility for the group.

“–know it was a little disorienting, but getting to experience eight-dimensional fractal geometry on that scale was absolutely fascinating!” Twilight gushed. Again. Rarity suppressed a sigh that had long since lost most of its affection for the mare beside her.

Most of it.

“Twilight, I understand that you enjoyed seeing our tenuous grasp on the stability of the universe slip away from us, but you’re really making me regret those theoretical mathematics books I picked up for you,” she ground out.

The rest of their friends nodded and mumbled their agreement, some in better shape than others. On their journey towards the heart of the maze, they’d come across some sets of stairs that folded into each other, seemingly forever, until they’d eventually found Applejack and Fluttershy sitting against a wall, eyes closed, singing classic Ponyville folk songs. The only explanation they’d offered was Applejack shrugging and saying “honestly, Rarity, we’ve been through so much weird stuff with you trying to free the Princesses, at this point the world lookin’ so funny it makes our eyes hurt barely registers.”

She wasn’t offended. Really, she wasn’t.

Not by her friends, anyways. She had a Spirit of Chaos to vent on.

Once they found him.

Eventually.

“So, uhh, where are we going, anyways?” Lightning Dust asked.

Everyone stopped momentarily, looking at her with confusion. In near-unison, they pointed down the hallway.

Lightning rolled her eyes. “Right. Chaos magic. You’ve said so before.”

“You’ve been dealing with it a lot better than most ponies,” Pinkie offered. “Only a little bit of screaming at the inverse-spiders!”

Everyone shuddered.

Rarity cleared her throat. “Avoiding further discussion of many-bodied insect legs, I do think we’re getting to the center of the maze,” she said. “I think it opens up just past this next bend.”

Spike stretched out his neck, peering around the corner. “Actually, I think she’s right! There’s some sort of big courtyard with a bunch of low walls up ahead!”

There was excited muttering at the news, and Rarity’s self-proclaimed stunt double spoke up.

“Lightning, Fiddlesticks, come with me?” Ink said.

They both nodded and stood next to the changeling, who immediately started poking around the worn, crumbly walls of the castle. In short order, Ink shuffled over to Marble Pie, who nodded and started prodding the wall with her hoof.

“Incantation, dearest, what are you trying to do? Tunnel to DIscord?” Rarity asked, frowning.

Ink hummed. “No, just setting up some insurance while you Princesses and chosen Element Bearers over there go yell at the big bad.” She smiled in a decidedly un-Rarity-like way when Marble timidly walked back over, depositing a large chunk of stone in her waiting hoof. “Don’t mind me.”

Twilight shook her head, pressing up against Rarity. “It’s okay,” she said. “Won’t even need it.” She pulled the Elements of Harmony out of her bag and floated Rarity’s to her neck. “We actually have all the Bearers now, so we can easily put a stop to Discord and whatever he did to the Everfree to make it…” she gestured around with a wing. “This.”

In short order, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and finally Twilight Sparkle all donned their Elements. Their glow seemed to almost be pushing the chaos back on its own, the walls gaining a slightly woodier texture and the ground softening under hoof and claw.

With that, they all looked around. It was time. Rarity took a step forward. “Shall we get on with it, then?”

The six Bearers, Spike, and Princess Cadance stepped into the courtyard, and into nighttime. The low walls were overgrown with vines now, and some of the pillars had fallen over. In the middle of it all, Discord lounged in midair.

A few ground-rattling snores later, there was the sound of a bubble popping and he unfurled himself to stand on the stone floor. “Oh, Princesses, you’ve finally come to talk things out, I imagine?” He waved a claw. Everyone flinched. “And of course, you’ve brought your entourage. Tell me, how did everyone like what I’ve done with the place?”

Rainbow Dash pushed herself forward. “Ha, joke’s on you, Discord!” she called. “Twilight was basically the only one who paid attention.”

Discord looked thoughtful for a moment. “Ah. I suppose I didn’t take my audience into account. You’re right. This is still the Everfree Forest. Or, rather, a possible version of it. I don’t just pull my ideas and pranks from thin air, you know.” There was a sharp crack as he suddenly stood on a mountaintop, winds howling and the simulated altitude causing everyone’s ears to pop. “No, I do curate these things.”

A languid snap of claws dismissed the mountain to the size of a museum diorama behind the draconequus. “Though I do find that my brand of magic is excellent for stressing a point.”

The ground rippled, and for just seconds at a time they stood in a library, then a throne room. “But you all already knew that,” he said, lip curling in disdain. “You just don’t care.”

Rarity scoffed. “It’s one thing to be angry, Discord, but it’s a completely different one to be so petty as to lose all sense of tact.”

“Is that what you think I’ve been doing?” Discord drawled. “If anything, it’s you who have lost all sense of perspective.”

Perhaps someone should have interrupted the monologuing Spirit of Chaos as he continued to illustrate his points by casually altering the fabric of reality. Perhaps they could have, with a little more time to prepare themselves. Instead, he continued.

“In fact, Princess Twilight, I’m surprised you don’t understand where I’m coming from!” he chided. “You spent an awfully long time on your own as well, tending to your books. Was it not enough?”

Rarity growled, sparking her horn menacingly. “You’ll stop talking now, Discord. You’ve put everyone here through more than enough.”

The Spirit turned to face her. A snap of his claw had his eye looming over Rarity, examining her through a massive magnifying glass carved from the sky. “Is the little fragile one volunteering for some perspective of her own?” He reached into her mind and pulled the nightmare towards reality. Her boutique, dusty, forgotten, moth-eaten cloth piled high against the windows as a sewing machine sputtered weakly on for centuries. Hooves eternally young, but translucent and weightless.

Rarity couldn’t tell if the first pained scream came from her or Twilight, but the second definitely came from Discord.

“What sort of insolent little–” Discord rubbed the back of his head, removing a smooth, rounded chunk of stone from his mane. “Do you teach all your little friends to ignore the rules of a proper dramatic confrontation, or are they like that when you find them?” He shook his head at Rarity, collapsing the wall that hid Marble, Incantation, Lightning Dust and Fiddlesticks with a huff. Lightning, winding up with a second rock, immediately stepped in front of her marefriend.

Rainbow Dash and Spike both yelled out in warning, but Discord merely chuckled. “Please, I’m busy with you all right now. I’ll deal with them…” The four ponies vanished. “...later.”

Princess Cadance flared her wings, drawing on centuries of experience projecting authority. “It isn’t too late, Discord. We’ve said it before, but if you swear to leave and never return, we won’t use the Elements and subject you to their judgement.”

“We have said it before, dear… Denza, was it, these days?” Discord agreed, setting up a lawn chair and slithering down into it. “But as I also said, I get lonely. Would your dragon assistant care to keep me company?”

Twilight’s Element pulsed coldly. “He’s off-limits,” she snapped. “You’re not separating us again.”

Pinkie Pie nodded importantly. “And you’ve been so mean to the rest of our friends that none of us would go with you even if you wanted us!”

The draconequus let out a long-suffering sigh. “Well, we have to sort this out somehow, we’ve been talking in circles for so long that my beard’s gone gray.”

“That’s where you’re in luck,” Rarity crowed. “We have a solution.”

“Oh yes, the Elements of Harmony. Again. I’m sooooooo scared right now,” Discord deadpanned.

“Please, it’s not like we’d curse you for eternity or anything,” Rarity said. “But, and I’ll never get tired of saying this, my marefriend is smart.”

“The princess who ruled over a pile of books? Of course she is. Such a scholar.”

Rarity pressed herself against Twilight affectionately. “And she has excellent taste in friends! She gathered proper bearers for all the Elements without even trying!”

“That’s… what?”

“You’re right about one thing, Discord,” Twilight growled, letting the insistent glow of her Element spread from its core. “This ends now.”

~ 10 ~ Judgement Day (Undome Tinwe)

Knowledge filled Twilight's mind.

As the Elements strengthened the bonds of magic between her and her friends, the understanding of how to use the artifacts flowed into her in addition to the emotions of her friends.

It took a moment to sort through the maelstrom through her own mind, but eventually Twilight was able to pluck out what she needed first. A wave of prismatic energy shot out from her crown, impacting against a barrier that Discord had conjured up at the last moment.

He snarled at her as he pushed back against Twilight's assault, but her friends fed their own power through the shared connection and it was trivial to overwhelm his powers.

But, just as Twilight was about to channel her righteous anger into a final blow to wipe Discord off the face of the Earth, she saw the fear in his eyes, and faltered. The familiar guilt flared within her heart despite her best efforts, and instead of pushing through, she spread the Harmony magic around, allowing it to pulse out into the world and return all of it back to normal.

Reality reasserted itself as the rest of the local geometry became three-dimensional and analytic once again. The animals stopped speaking in tongues, and the plants were once again stationary. Incantation also reappeared in a puff of magic. "Aww," she whined. "I was just filling up!"

"Wait, where'd Lightning, Fiddle, and Marble go?" Rainbow asked.

"Well, while we were trapped in the Infinite Void, Lightning and Fiddle started making out to pass the time," Ink explained. "And then Marble finally got the courage to ask if she could join in, so they'll be with us when they're done with that." She pouted. "They kicked me out when you opened the portal, though."

Rarity sighed. "Well, luckily we won't have need of them." She turned to face Twilight. "Shall we end this once and for all, my darling dearest?"

Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat as she stared at Discord. She'd trapped him in a bubble of Harmony, preventing him from influencing the outside world with his powers. Time and time again, he snapped his claws, summoning increasingly large and comical explosions and weapons to try to hack, slash, stab, explode, and exfoliate his way out, but the spell held strong and kept him contained.

"Do it, then!" Discord shouted. "Finish what you started, Princess Sparklebutt, and kill your old friend. I'm dead to you anyways."

He was wrong. With Rarity's help, Twilight had forgiven herself for what she had done after Discord cursed her, and had accepted that she wasn't responsible for the Spirit's actions. But... that didn't mean she hadn't betrayed someone she genuinely had thought of as a friend, and who had thought of her as a friend in turn.

None of that justified what Discord had done, but did Twilight really have the right to pass judgement now?

It would be so easy to wave her horn and end Discord's existence, or to trap him in a prison for all eternity, without any chance of escape. And yet, she couldn't bring herself to strike down someone she'd already hurt once before, no matter his sins.

A storm of emotion threatened to pull Twilight under, as her righteous wrath and protective instinct warred with the remnants of her guilt and desire to try to rebuild that charred bridge between them. Spike and Cadance stood to the side, looking expectantly at Twilight, having suffered just as much or more from this ordeal.

Twilight couldn't breathe, and moments stretched out into seconds as they floated in the air, Harmony itself swirling around them as it awaited Twilight's decision.

"Twilight?" Rarity's voice brought the princess back into the present. "Is everything quite alright?"

"I..." Shame filled Twilight's heart. "I'm sorry," she whispered, and she didn't know whom she was talking to: herself, Rarity, or Discord.

Discord was the first to respond, however. "Oh, spare me your trite sentimentality." He snapped his claws and summoned up a tiny violin, along with a smaller version of himself to play it. "I'd rather be dead than listen to more of your self-pity."

"Shut up!" Rarity snapped. She took a breath to calm herself before facing Twilight. "Could we speak in private, please?" she asked.

Twilight nodded mutely, conjuring a bubble of silence around them.

"Thank you, dear." Rarity smiled gently. "Now, what seems to be the problem, Twilight?"

"I can't kill him," Twilight said, looking away. She couldn't face Rarity right now. "And I can't trap him like he did to me. I can't."

"Oh, my darling heart." There was no pity in Rarity's voice, only understanding. "Of course you can't. You're too good a mare to stoop to his level. But something must be done about him."

"Part of me still wants to try to save him," Twilight admitted, turning back to face Rarity. The unconditional love in her eyes gave her the strength to keep talking. "To try to bring out the good I know is still in him, like I should have done the first time. I'm much better at friendship now, and I think, with enough time, I might be able to salvage things."

"If that's what you want to do, then you have my support," Rarity said. "I trust you."

"I know, but that doesn't help me come to a conclusion," Twilight replied.

"Do you truly believe he can be reformed?" Rarity asked?

"I don't know. I think so, maybe?." Twilight sighed. "But, I'm not sure I could do it, not anymore."

"And somepony else could?" Rarity glanced around, where their friends were looking at them with worried eyes. Twilight could feel the concern and love they held for her through the bond of the Elements, and it warmed her heart.

"You're right." Twilight didn't have to do this alone now. That was the most important lesson she had learned.

Closing her eyes, she reached out to the other bearers, sending out a silent plea for advice.

Rainbow Dash was the first to respond, of course. Her fierce loyalty manifested itself as a desire to protect her friends, and her answer was clear; Discord could not be allowed to hurt any of them ever again.

The second of her friends to reply was Applejack, who fought through her anger to give an honest evaluation of the situation, which was the same as Dash's. Pinkie Pie wanted to make sure that Luna's laughter was never taken away again, but despite her grim pronouncement, she made sure to inject some of her own natural good cheer into Twilight, to remind her that her friends would support her no matter what she decided.

Of course, Rarity, in her eternal generosity, was willing to put aside her own vendetta if it would give Twilight closure. But she would only do it for Twilight, not for Discord, who could rot in Tartarus as far as she was concerned for what he had done to her beloved princess.

And then, just as Twilight thought she might might abstain, Fluttershy's kindness pulsed through their bond. She acknowledged the pain that Twilight had been through, and her right to never want to see Discord again, but she also reminded Twilight of her conviction that there was good inside of everyone. Though, bringing out that good was not Twilight's responsibility, and it didn't make her a bad pony for not wanting to try.

Through all of it, though, Twilight understood that her friends would support her no matter what she decided. And their friendship would survive this trial, they all are sure of that.

With all of her friends' input, she made her choice, and prepared herself to live with it.

"Goodbye, Discord," Twilight said as she ripped open a portal between realities and launched him through it.

"Wait, don't I get a final monol— aaaaaah!"

And then it was over.

With one final spark of Harmony, Twilight cleansed the rest of the courtyard of Discord's influence before allowing the Element's powers to return to their owners. For a moment, she felt empty, untethered from the world, and nearly collapsed onto the ground.

Rarity caught her, and soon enough her other friends were all surrounding them. "Darling, are you alright?" the love of Twilight's life asked her.

Twilight nodded. "I... I couldn't forgive him, in the end," she said softly. "But that didn't mean I couldn't give him a second chance, whether or not he deserves it. I sent him to another world, similar to ours but different, where another version of me might be able to make friends with him like I wanted to." A grim frown graced her muzzle. "And if that doesn't work, that world has the Elements too."

"So does that mean it's over?" Rainbow Dash asked, flitting above them impatiently.

Twilight nodded again. "Yes," she said. "It's finally over."

~ 11 ~ Epilogue (SigmasonicX)

“Game Over”

“User Wins”

With a flash of light, Twilight found herself on the ground. He head swam with questions. Where was she? Was it something the Elements did? She looked around, seeing she was surrounded by strange gray towers in an enclosed room. Then suddenly, she remembered something so obvious she couldn’t believe she forgot.

She didn’t have time to linger on this as Rarity and then Pinkie Pie fell on top of her.

“Oh ponyfeathers,” Rarity said loudly under her breath.

“Woof, my head is spinning, and not in a good way,” Pinkie said.

Rarity grunted in an unladylike way. “What now? Did we not actually stop Disc—” Twilight could feel the unicorn lift her head up. “Wait, these devices! This database! Now I remember!” Finally noticing the pile she was in, Rarity got up and the other ponies soon followed. “Good heavens, Twilight, was all of this that library you were talking about?”

Twilight shook her head to clear her thoughts. “As hard as it is to believe, from the moment we left this room, we were caught in an elaborate illusion spell contained inside these machines.”

Rarity’s face fell. “Then we didn’t actually defeat Discord?”

“And Rainbow Dash didn’t actually turn into a giant?” asked Pinkie Pie.

Twilight scrunched her eyebrows. “Well…” She honestly couldn’t say. Everything she saw was beyond what even her models predicted. It had to be fake, but… it was all so real.

“Not to worry, my little ponies. Your quest is at an end.”

Twilight’s head shot toward the voice. While Rarity and Pinkie looked around in confusion, Twilight recognized it instantly.

With a flash of light, an alicorn princess appeared before them. Though her coat was ragged and her horn was cracked, she still stood regally with her wings splayed.

Tears welled up in Twilight’s eyes. “P-Princess Celestia!” Not caring who saw, she ran up to her and embraced her. The sight was enough for tears to well up in Rarity and Pinkie’s eyes.

Twilight rubbed against Celestia’s neck. It was rougher than she remembered, but the warmth was still there. After endless moments, she pulled away. “So we did it, then?” she dared to ask. “We won?”

Celestia simply nodded.

“But how? Wasn’t all that a simulation?”

“It was a simulation, yes, but one that real ponies—and draconequuses—could journey into, as you did. You see, when Discord tried to trap me all those years ago, I drew him to a place where I knew his influence would be reduced, inside the ‘cyberworld’ I call eQuestria, and then behind the simulated Canterlot Falls. So the one you faced was, in fact, the real Discord.”

Rarity rubbed her chin. “But we defeated him using the Elements, which we didn’t bring, and with ponies that didn’t come here with us. How is that possible?”

Celestia nodded. “In truth, there are aspects to eQuestria that are beyond even my understanding. My guess is that as Discord’s magic distorted the realm, your harmony magic did the same. It brought you the tools you needed to reject his infection, and together, you cast a very real spell to banish him. When Discord tried to torment you by altering the simulation, I can’t imagine he expected that.”

Pinkie waved her front leg. “I have a question too! Why are you so big?”

Twilight stared aghast.

“My stars, Pinkie Pie!” Rarity shouted. “You can’t ask a pony why they’re big!”

Without any sign of shame, Pinkie said, “Alright,” then asked, “So where are Marble, Fiddlesticks, and Lightning?”

“Oh right!” Twilight said. “Were those three created by the simulation too? But wait, no, Marble definitely came here with us.”

Celestia’s expression broke a bit. “No, all of them are real. But, well, those three ponies are all rather busy right now, so I opted to let them stay in eQuestria for a bit longer.”

Twilight blushed when she remembered what the simulation-Ink said.

Sweat was visible on Celestia’s brow now. “Now, I must apologize, but I do appear to be due for some rest now.” At this, her legs suddenly gave out and she fell. With a yelp, Twilight cushioned her with her magic.

Celestia slept for the first time in a thousand years.

Breathing heavily from her exertion, Twilight looked at her princess, then looked at Rarity. “It… it’s really over.”

Rarity smiled and nodded. “Yes it is, darling.”

“So, what do we do now?”

Rarity lifted Twilight’s chin. “We carry on.” She then walked toward the room’s entrance. “Though first, we need to figure out how to get large white alicorn out of here without drawing too much attention. And gently let Ms. Marble and the others know it’s time to go. And then, of course, we take a vacation.”

Twilight playfully rolled her eyes. “You just had a vacation!”

“That was merely a baby one. We’re going to have a proper vacation! At a beach resort or some such.”

Pinkie jumped. “Can Luna and I come too?!”

“Of course, dear. All of us are going!”

“Even the mean cave dragons?”

Rarity’s eyes widened. “Uh, well, perhaps if they apologize properly.”

Twilight laughed and shook her head. Things still felt so incomplete, but this was it. This was the end of one part of her life, and the start of another.

North Ridge sat with a sigh. “Well,” he grumbled. “The train’s delayed again. We likely won’t be able to make the trip tonight.”

Rarity often had a somber look on her face, but this time, she had a hint of a smile. “I’m happy to say, my dear North, that this trip won’t be necessary after all.” She looked at him with shining eyes. “This will be hard to understand, but my timeline, my past itself, has just been rewritten.”

North blinked. “I’m sorry… your past? What does that mean?”

Rarity smiled. “What that means is… we never met. Goodbye, my dear friend.”

And with that, without even a flash of light, Rarity was gone. North Ridge sat alone. He looked around startled, wondering if perhaps she was playing a trick on her.

But then he saw it, in the newspaper stands.

“LOST PRINCESS MARRIES DRESSMAKER”

And underneath that headline, he saw an image of the very Rarity whose face was plastered over wanted posters just a minute ago, blissfully standing next to a regally-dressed alicorn mare.

He cautiously strode to the stand and pulled out the issue to take a closer look. He read through the article twice, and then once again.

Finally, he smiled. “Heh. Son of a bitch.”

He would have one hell of a story to tell to the next pony who cared to listen.