Twilight stirred the pot of alfalfa, carrots, and potatoes as it cooked on top of the hotplate in her lab.
She checked her array of Bunsen burners, tubes, and other miscellaneous objects of science as she expertly swiveled the spoon around. She lifted a test tube off of its stand as the liquid inside began to rise from the heat. She began to pour it slowly into a beaker sitting on an enchanted frost plate, where the liquid inside had already started to freeze. The two liquids hissed as they were poured together, and then Twilight stirred the concoction thoroughly.
She went back to stirring the soup for a bit, keeping an eye on the temperature. Satisfied that it would still be a while before it finished, she let the stir-stick rest against the side of the pot, then added some spices.
But, unbeknownst to her, she had failed one of the most basic of lab safety rules.
She had used the same stir-stick in both the soup, and her concoction.
The concoction she was studying was not steaming and hissing anymore. Seeing that it had cooled considerably, Twilight magically lifted it over to another hotplate and poured it into a vat that sat waiting there. setting the now empty beaker down, she picked up a notepad and a quill.
As she sat there watching it, scribbling notes at every bubble that burst forth, her soup began to change. The concoction began to dissolve the alfalfa first, reducing it to a biologically active pigment in the mix. The two types of tuber plants followed soon after.
Twilight didn't notice.
The different elements of basic biology began to slither together, clinging and melding into one messy blob.
Twilight's attention was elsewhere.
The blob began to grow, the heat of the soup quickly incubating it.
Twilight smelled a rich aroma, and turned down the heat a small bit so the soup would stay hot, but not boil over.
The blob's growth had been startling, but now slowed down. It's body absorbed the spices, which helped it to keep sustained. But, it needed something more.
It reached a tendril out of the pot, and searched around for something. Chancing upon a test tube, it latched onto it and began to dissolve it into food.
A second tendril found another, smaller object. A vial. It devoured that as well, the last thing disappearing being a label saying 'Lyra Blood Sample'.
The blob continued to grow and change.
Twilight was too absorbed in her studies to notice.
The tendrils located another vial, which it began to absorb. This one was labeled 'Fish DNA Sample'.
The blob began to take form.
The Unicorn still did not notice.
The blob grew longer, thinner. A curled tail formed.
The purple pony paid it no heed.
The blob swelled in the middle and at the top. A torso and head were forming, sped up by the heat of the hotplate.
The aroma that wafted around inside the lab was amazing. Twilight continued her studies, knowing that she could eat when she was done.
A split appeared on the head of the form. It grew wide, and two more slits opened up. It looked around, a grin on its face.
Twilight hummed a popular tune to herself, one Fluttershy had been singing as she had tried to prepare a bribe to get Twilight's ticket.
The being in the pot's two tendrils shriveled, and stiffened a bit, becoming little fins. Its skin hardened as its skeleton slowly finished forming.
Twilight kept at her notes, her quill flying furiously across another sheet of paper.
The being, still smiling, giggled.
Twilight paused her scribbling, listening intently. When she didn't hear anything, she shrugged and went back to work.
The being swam in a small circle, being careful not to touch the sides of the hot pan as it looked around at this world in wonder, the smile never leaving its face.
Twilight ran out of paper. She began to reach out with her magic to get another pad, but surrendered to her stomach as it let out a mighty rumble.
She turned towards the pot, lifting a bowl into the air with her magic. "Mama!" Twilight heard a giggle.
Twilight looked into the pot. Swimming in the lowering water was an aquatic animal with a horse's head. A horse whose blood she had taken samples of to try and figure out how she sat like she did. As she watched, the creature sneezed and a horn popped out of its head. It giggled again. Twilight fainted.
"Mama?"
Twilight groaned. Her head hurt. She could smell soup. Good, she was hungry. She opened her eyes, only to see a pair of yellow-gold eyes looking at her with concern. The eyes brightened and a smile came onto the creature's face when she saw that Twilight was alright.
It put its flippers to either side of her face, nuzzling her as it giggled. "Mama!"
"Mama?" Both her and the creature looked up to see a charcoal-gray head with purple eyes staring down from the vat she had been studying earlier.
This new creature hopped out, its eight sucker-studded arms pulling it across the ground until she was able to wrap them around Twilight's horn. "Mama!" The new creature began to rub its head against her horn, and she fought the urge to faint as they both started to happily chant "Mama! Mama! Mama!"
Her stomach rumbled, and the two creatures giggled. "Okay, you two... it's time to eat." The two creatures squeeled, smiles wider than ever. Twilight smiled too.
Twilight sat under the small horseyntal food stall's overhang, delighting in the hay and seaweed sushi rolls. Her two new creatures also loved them. Even as she ate, she studied her two creations.
The octopus one was able to use its arms efficiently, lassoing the rice rolls and popping them into its mouth, each new one eliciting a giggle.
The fish-horse-thing, however, strained as it used magic to do what it could not with its flippers.
"Is... is that a sea-pony?!"
Twilight looked up as Lyra squealed, picking up the tiny version of herself and hugging it. "D'aww, Imma call you Li'l Lyra, and you will be my baby!" Lyra giggled, and her counterpart did the same.
Twilight couldn't comprehend the scene. "Actually... that's my, uh, 'sea-pony', Lyra."
"Oh? Oh." Lyra flushed, putting the critter back in its bucket of water, where it immediately went back to eating.
"I'm sorry. I've always wanted to see a sea pony... and, that one looks like me! How'd you find it?"
"I, uh... actually, I kinda... made it."
"Oh? How?"
"I... dunno. I was mixing some compounds and chemicals together, while also making soup, and... instead of soup, that was there. I fainted, and... when I woke up, the other one was in the actual mix I had been studying. There were 4 vials and two test tubes missing when I looked around the room. 2 vials of different sea animal DNA - Longear Sunfish and Octopus - and two vials of blood samples. One sample from you, and one sample of a pony named Octavia. I don't know what the test tubes were of; I hadn't started cataloging those yet." Twilight rubbed the back of her head with a hoof, and popped another piece of sushi into her mouth. After chewing, she began to sip from her iced water.
"... Well, that sounds awesome! Can you make a bipedal version of me? With... With thumbs?"
Twilight choked back the urge to spit, very nearly coughing up a waterlogged lung in the process.
"How would I do that?! I don't even know how I made these two! I forgot what compounds I used when I hit my head, and my notes only say that there was a high amount of carbon, and other biological by-products in the mix. I don't think I could redo this experiment, even if I wanted to!"
Twilight shook her head. "I'm sorry, Lyra, but I don't want to try again. I'll just end up doing something worse than expected. At least these two aren't dangerous."
The two creatures smiled at Twilight and chimed, "mama!" before tossing a piece of sushi back and forth before the Lyra look-alike caught it in her mouth. They both giggled at the fun they were having, and Twilight gave a chuckle as she wrote down some more notes.
"Well, I gotta go meet Bonnie at the park. I'll see ya later, Twi! Bye, Li'l Lyra! Bye, Octy!"
"Baaai!" the two bucket-bound creatures called before giggling again.
'Octy, huh? Hmm...' Twilight smiled as she paid the bill, grabbed the leftovers, and lifted up the two buckets. "Okay, you two. I think that it's just about bed time for us all."
After putting both of the creatures in their own big fish tanks - along with a way to go between the two - Twilight got herself ready for bed.
As she drifted off to sleep, a haunting melody slipped into her mind, sending a shiver along her spine.
Shoop-bee-doo-shoop-shoop-bee-doo... Shoop-bee-doo-shoop-shoop-bee-doo...
"Spike, I'm sorry, but I didn't have time to grab any food. I've been too busy chasing these two around-" CRASH! "Gah! No! Ohhh, that was a priceless bust of Starswirled the Bearded!" Fwump! "Oh, no! Oh, nononononononono! Ahhh, Spike! Try to find something to eat if you can, I'll be back after taking these two for a swim at the lake! Say goodbye to Spike."
"Baaaii!!!" SLAM!
Spike stared at the mess around him dejectedly. "Aw, man... ever since those two sea ponies were created, I've had even more work than normal!" He grumped, crossing his arms on his chest while his eyes bored holes into the shattered remnants of one of Twilight's oldest possesions. Sighing, he got to work.
A little over an hour later, the Library looked almost as clean as it usually did. The books were back on the bookcases, the pots and pans put in their place. Spike's stomach yowled in pain as he looked through the kitchen cupboards for anything to sate his hunger.
"Aww, nuts. All we got is bread?! You gotta be kidding me." He grunted in displeasure before his belly rumbled even more. "Ugh, fine..."
He looked around for some butter, or jelly, or nut spread, anything to go with it. He couldn't even find the Hot Sauce left over from Pinkie Pie' last party at the Library. Finally, he had no other options. It was time to check the Big Freezer.
He opened the door leading into Twilight's lab and flicked on a light. Every step thudded in the unearthly silence that permeated the air. He got to the basement floor and made his way over to another door. 'Here goes nothing...' Spike flung the door open, cringing back as if expecting a monster to come flying out at him.
When he was convinced that the freezer hadn't moved, he cautiously made his way towards it, pausing every few steps before his hunger drove him forward again.
Finally, he reached the freezer. Looking up at it, he slowly opened the door, wincing as a frosty breeze sent shivers down his spine.
He looked inside. There, on the freezer shelves, were a myriad of frozen ingredients for different tests that Twilight was working on. He carefully pulled a few out, and saw, to his surprise, a can of Cram(tm) brand fake meat. 'Yes!' He'd finally found something to help rid him of the foul beast residing in his belly; the beast whose name was Hunger!
Quickly heating the frozen food with a burst of flames, then using a claw to rip it open, he dumped the contents of the can onto a slice of bread, followed by another slice to make the most glorious sandwich he had ever seen! Well, that day, at least.
Running up the stairs to get away from the Freezer, he munched happily at the sandwich. "Shooooooo Beeeeee Wooooo!"
"Gah! No! Don't do that!"
CRASH! WAP! SPLOOSH!
Spike looked up from his sandwich to find a dripping wet Twilight Sparkle walking into the Library's Foyer, a bucket on her head and another on her right back hoof. Clop, clop, clang, clop, clop, clop, clang, clop... Spike did his best not to laugh by stuffing the sandwich back into his mouth.
"Oh, yuk it up while you can, Spike..." Twilight muttered angrily as she shook herself off, sending water all over the floor.
Hi-ccup! Hic-cup! Hic-cup! Hi-urp! Dropping his sandwich, Spike tried to swallow what he had in his mouth as his dragon flame came to a boil.
Failing at this, he let go. Uuuurrrup! Letting out a tremendous burp for one so small, Spike disappeared in a flash of green flames.
Standing in his place was a slender, curvier baby dragon with slightly stubbier fins and spikes.
Spines looked around, feeling a bit disoriented. "Woo, Dusk, honey, we gotta tell Prince Solaris not to send messages during lunch-time. Oof, I feel like my scales just got rearranged..."
Spines looked up into the wide eyes of Twilight Sparkle, her own eyes lighting up in recognition. "Oh! Twilight! It's been a while, hasn't it?" Twilight's eyes rolled, striving to find out if her brain looked as egg-like as Rainbow Dash said it did. She dropped to the ground in a faint. "Twilight, sweetie, are you okay, there? C'mon, sugar, wake up!"
Spines flinched when she heard a giggle come from behind her. Turning around, she saw a sea animal with an aqua-teal color, and a unicorn's head snickering to itself from inside a large fish tank that Spines didn't recognize.
"This... this isn't my big sis, then... isn't it?" Another giggle, this one from above, made her look slowly towards the ceiling. An octopus, also with a pony's head, hung from one of the rafters. Spines decided to check on her own brain as her eyes rolled backwards. She fell beside Twilight, dead to the world other than a small twitch developing in her right leg.
"Spike? Spike... Spike!"
"Gah!" Spike shot up, his eyes flitting around, looking for something - anything - to convince him that he wasn't dead.
He found something. The face of a young unicorn stallion, whose purple and pink-striped mane was a bit of a mess, eyes filled with concern. "Spike, are you alright?"
"Gah! Wh-who are you?! Wh-what'd you do to Twilight?!" Spike scrabbled backwards, getting to his feet.
"Woah, Spike. Calm down. I'm... guessing that you're not from the Universe I was hoping you were. I thought that Twilight might have been sending you with a letter, but... I guess not." Dusk shook his head, frowning. "Ahh, well... My name is Dusk Shine, and I live in, and operate the Books and Branches Library here in Ponyville. I am the personal student to Prince Solaris, and, well... I'm guessing that you belong to a Miss Twilight Sparkle. Unfortunately, I... don't know what dimension you've come from. I just know which one you are most likely not from."
Spike was confused. "... I don't get it."
Dusk facehoofed. "What were you doing right before finding yourself here, in my home?" Dusk was trying to be patient, but Spike was really not being very much help.
"Uhh... eating a sandwich? Why?" Spike scratched his head, his eyebrow arched like the Golden Gate Bridge.
"Hmm... Spines was eating a sandwich when she disappeared... What was on your sandwich?"
"Um, some Cram?"
"... fake-meat stuff?"
"Yeah!"
"Funny. Here, we call that Spam."
"That's... kinda dumb," Spike said with a shake of his head.
Dusk sighed. They were quickly losing focus. "Okay. Great. It seems that you've made some sort of spatial sandwich, and your 'jumps' are most likely paired with other sandwiches that are similar. How many bites did you take?"
Spike thought for a second. "Uhh... two or three?"
Dusk nodded to himself as a parchment and a quill began to hover beside him. "That just strengthens my theory. Spines only just made the sandwich, and had taken only one bite. So, in order for you to get back to your own world, you'll need to eat more of the sandwich."
Spike's stomach growled, as if delighted to hear this. "Eh heh... I can do that."
Spike looked around for the sandwich his counterpart had made. Seeing it on the ground, he picked it up and brought it to his lips. "Okay, here goes..." He closed his eyes, and sunk his teeth into it. He dropped the sandwich almost immediately, his cheeks bulging out as his inner flame came to life.
Letting loose a magical burp, he disappeared. In his place, an exact replica of him took form. The only difference was that he had purple eyes, and a bushy mustache, which he was currently twirling around a claw. "What's this, then? Where's my sandwich? Blast. Looks like Daring's gone and left me in the dust once again." Turning towards Dusk, he let out a small laugh. "Ah! Why, if it isn't Daring's little boy-toy, Professor Midnight! How's the princess, hmm?"
Dusk found himself staring at the neurons that made up his grey matter. Then, there was a fwump as he hit the floor. "Ah, I see that I scared him out of his wits. Oh? What's this? My sandwich? Thank goodness. I was still feeling rather peckish."
The scourge of the seas, the scoundrel of Saddle-Arabia, the very dragon who had tried and failed to capture Daring Do more times than anypony else, took a bite of the sandwich and disappeared.
"Woah, woah, waaaahhh!!!" Spike fell from the tree he found himself standing in. Luckily, something broke his fall. Something soft, and warm, and.... familiar?
"Rainbow Dash? Is that you?"
The semi-familiar mare looked at him with confusion before tackling him to the ground. "Alright, Spades, last chance. Where're my friends?"
"Spades? Who's that? I'm Spike! ... And I'm getting the feeling that you're not Rainbow Dash."
"... No, you're right. You couldn't be Spades. His eyes are purple, and he has a mustache. Hmm... You're one of his Hench-dragons, aren't ya? Yeah, you must be a... a spy! Where. Are. My. Friends?" Daring growled threateningly, before her stomach gave an almighty wail. She hunched over, pain evident on her face.
"Gosh, miss. I'm sorry. Here, let me help you." Spike jumped easily to his feet, and started looking around the clearing for anything edible. "A-ha! Here we go!"
Spike returned to the pained pony carrying an armful of a multicolored berry. Daring tried to back away, but her stomach seized up again, and she whimpered in pain. "Don't worry. These are safe to eat. Watch!"
Spike popped a handful into his mouth and chewed. Afterwards, his face grew a blissful look as he moaned with delight. "These are even better than I remember!" He offered some to the pegasus before him.
Daring cautiously accepted a small handful of berries, first checking to make sure they were, in fact, safe to eat.
Her eyes widened as the juices flowed over her tongue. So many flavors! Banana! Blueberry! Watermelon! Pineapple! All! At! Once! She greedily chowed down on the proffered berries, feeling them weigh heavily in her belly.
"Mmmmh...." She laid back down, closing her eyes as she slowly chewed the last handful.
"Heh heh. A friend of mine showed me those, exclaiming that there was candy that grew in the wilderness. She called them Sonic Rainberries, because the flavor smacks you so fast, you have to eat more than one to really enjoy it. I think you'd really like her. Her name's Pinkie Pie. She's sooo random sometimes."
As Spike chuckled to himself, Daring's eyes had snapped open. 'Oh, Creamy Crumb, you are sooo random!' She leaped up, spreading her wings to their full extent. She snapped her head every-which-way, once again alert.
"I only know one pony who's that random, and that's my friend Creamy! Do you know where she is?" She wrapped her forelegs around Spike's arms, rattling him as his eyes shook around like little pinballs.
"Oof, how would I know? I just popped into this world. I'm trying to get back to mine."
Daring wasn't fazed. She scooped up the baby dragon, spread her wings, and shot up past the canopy of the expanse of trees known as Everfree Jungle. "Well, you're gonna help me, anyways!"
Spike barely had time to think as he was suddenly airborne, a sandwich in his claws. 'Well, at least I got my ticket outta here...'
After an hour of flying around, the sun began to set.
"Nooo, oh, noo! Not now! I gotta find my friends!" Daring was getting a little tired. After not eating for a full day, one meal had not been enough. She started to sink lower in the sky, her head drooping as she panted.
"Look! A fire!"
Her head snapped back up and she looked around. Sure enough, there was a fire in the distance. The setting sun shone through the hazy smoke trail emanating from it.
"Woo!" Daring climbed a little higher in the air before snapping her wings to her sides, and plummeting straight towards the clearing.
She saw the dog before it saw her. Wap! Bam! Sokk! Kra-pow! Fwump. Thump. Fmp. Thud. The four Draco Dogs fell to the ground, their dragon masks falling off and shattering.
'Woah,' Spike thought to himself, 'That was awesome! I wish we could've done that when they ponynapped Rarity...'
He looked over at the group of six ponies, all gathered in a tremendous hug.
The Applejack lookalike still wore her same old hat, but her cutiemark had a turbine instead of a trio of apples. She had a pair of Aviator's goggles thrown around her neck.
The Fluttershy impersonator was... well, a guy. Not too strong of build, but definitely more likely to get in a fight than the timid pony he knew. His cutiemark was a white flag crossed with a javelin.
The male Twilight looked like Dusk, but... different. He had a similar cutiemark, but it also held a scroll. His eyes were also covered by glasses that seemed to flicker between dark and clear as the fire's light shifted across them.
Rarity's other was.... stunning. She wore a tight-fitting saddle with a couple of flasks and canteens, as well as a medicine kit. Her cutiemark looked more like Nurse Redheart's.
Pinkie's copy was... exactly the same. The giggle, the song-about-to-explode-forth expression on her face, everything. Well, everything but her cutiemark. It was a triangular beaker with some sort of liquid inside. As he watched, he swore that it changed color.
Daring tackled him as he was about to walk away, and brought him into the middle of the group. "Look who helped me find you guys! His name is Spike!" The others all looked at him curiously, possibly noting distinct similarities and differences between him and the dragon that they called an enemy.
"So? Can we keep him?" The purple unicorn shook his head.
"Sorry, Daring, but you know my rule..." Daring visibly sagged.
"Yeah, yeah... no dangerous or possible adversaries for pets..." Daring crossed her forelegs and harrumphed.
"And, of course, No snakes." The unicorn looked around. "Now, where is my whip and hat? Everypony knows I can't teach without that hat."
"Pfft, yeah, whatever you say, Midnight. Only adventurers need hats." Daring trotted up to the unicorn and nuzzled him.
He smiled. "Yeah, you're right, of course." He gave her a quick kiss before turning to the dragon before them, who was currently trying to remove the thought of that couple popping up in his universe.
"So... what to do with you..."
Spike snapped to reality. "Oh! I just take a bite of a sandwich dropped by a counterpart, and..." Putting the sandwich in his mouth, he took a bite, and started to chew.
His eyes watered, his Dradon's Apple rose and fell as he gagged. Then, he burped out a tremendous amount of green fire.
In his place stood a little boy in green-and-purple checkered shorts. The boy looked around. "Sis..?" He looked scared as, instead of a beach, he found himself standing in a deep jungle, surrounded by ponies. "Siiiiiiiiiiiiis!"
After many trials, Spike began to take smaller and smaller bites of the sandwiches he came upon. Until, finally...
Spike picked up the sandwich as mechanically as he had ever done so, about to take a bite. Then, he heard a giggle. A distinct giggle. He looked around at the Library, which looked much the same as it had in every other world, but... there were two fish tanks. One held a sea pony with Lyra's visage, the other an Octopus with Octavia's. He was home.
Twilight was unconscious. "Twilight!" Throwing the last of the offending sandwich away, he hurried to his 'older sister's' side. "Twilight, are you okay? C'mon, wake up!" He shook her gently, and she started to stir. "Huh..? Wazzah? Spike..? What happened? I had the weirdest dream..." Twilight trailed off as she tried to remember what had just happened. All she could find in her memory was a tall girl with a mustache, a cape, and shorts. She shook her head to clear it; she had obviously spent too much time reading Spike's crazy Naan-ga.
"I'm just glad you're okay, Twilight..." Spike hugged her right foreleg as a big smile spread across his face. He decided not to tell her what happened. She'd either make him stop reading his comics, or, worse, believe him.
He just wanted life to return to normal.
A pair of giggles behind him gave him pause. 'Well, as normal as it can be...'
Never Feed Celestia Beans
Never Feed Celestia Beans
“No, really, we could compete!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
It was the afternoon in Ponyville, and during the summer time. Princess Celestia believed in hosting an annual exotic foods competition around the warmest of seasons. Of course, with it having many different guests from all around the world attending, it became a rather big deal for whichever city was hosting it. This year, it was Twilight’s home. Unfortunately, it would also be the city’s last time catering such an event. Sweetie Belle had heard of it early, and because of her persuasiveness, she and her two ~~partners in crime~~ friends were entering the competition. In the clubhouse, Scootaloo asked the gang, “So what are we going to cook if we enter?”
Applebloom, who didn’t realize how bad this would muck things up voiced, “Ah know just the thing! It’s an old recipe Applejack once fed to Granny Smith a while back. Ah was still really young, but ah do remember where she stashed it.”
_______
Time Shift
Princess Celestia collapsed to the ground, tears leaking through her eyes and grunts releasing from her coughing mouth. “W-what in the world did you feed me?”
“It’s just beans...” Scootaloo looked at her friends in a worried manner. Before they knew it, a horrendous sound emitted from Celestia’s rump which made Lyra give a disgusted face. With that first sound, the sun wobbled in the sky, and a stench like an egg rotting at the high point of a Summer’s day seeped into everypony’s nostrils. “Oh... buh- by Luna’s beard...”
Then, a blinding flash of light stung through the air, and in less than a second, the air was filled with putrid, brown and red clouds acting as instant purifiers for the ozone. Everypony began scattering in shock and fear while Princess Celestia attempted to stand, but following her predictable collapse came a thunderous reign of fire through the smoke that laid waste to grand city hall. Right then and there, she found the strength to scream out, “... Pepto Bismol!”
Then, all Tartarus broke loose with an inferno ripping through the ground just beyond the city limits. Molten lava began seeping through a justly made volcano and started to approach the town in a threatening, though luckily slow pace. Apple Bloom gulped and instantly ran to the nearest house. Breaking in through the window and getting several nasty cuts along her hooves, she headed straight for the bathroom, hopeful to find her target. Opening the medicine cabinet, she muttered to herself, “Please, be here!”
Meanwhile, Scootaloo returned to her scooter and took off with blazing flames following her wheels. Her wings flapped hard with haste, headed right for Rarity’s boutique. Just before reaching it, a ray of ridiculously fatal heat poured down destroying the establishment just before the pegasus pony was able to smash through the door. “So much for that plan...”
Sweetie Belle also made an attempt to help, but unfortunately, with houses burning down all around her, there was little she could do. Reluctantly, though, she ran through the hell-like landscape in desperate search for Pepto Bismol, the world’s last hope. In a sudden relief, she saw Pinkie Pie’s manner still intact and fireballs crashing down all around it. She paced herself forward, panting as she went. With a flash from behind her propelling the unicorn straight into the door, she stood, blood seeping down her muzzle and staining her coat and the left side of her mane. “I’ve... gotta find... t-the Pepto!”
Finally, with the wall of lava starting to wreck the right side of the city, all three fillies of the Cutie Mark Crusaders came galloping from all different directions, all headed for Princess Celestia. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo clashed right into each other before the ruler of Equestria, which by the way, was being ripped to shreds by the chaotic force of her own sun. The apocalyptic occurrence was almost completed if not for the three each delivering a bottle of their own. Celestia quickly snatched them up and uncorked the bottles. Drop after drop coated her mouth and dribbled down her coat only to be caught by her magic and brought sailing back in. Not a single bit was wasted. The sky cleared up, and with her eyes turning pure white, her highness flared her horn, and everything returned to normal save for a few unlucky individuals that died in the event.
______
Time Shift- I’ll try and pick this up tomorrow.
“Well, that was... weird,” Twilight said as she looked at the feathery appendages now adorning her midriff.
“Yes, yes it was,” Celestia murmured in agreement as she sipped some Pepto-laced tea. “My stomach is still roiling.”
“Oh, yeah, that too. But... When did I get wings?” Twilight asked, her voice quavering with worry.
“Ahh yes; when an Alicorn dies, another must take their place. Since you were the strongest mare within a hundred miles that wasn’t already an Alicorn, a small portion of my powers was bequeathed upon you. You would have gained my stature as well had I died.”
“Oh....” Twilight was silent for a moment. “Is there any way to give these back...?”
“Only if you die, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Well, shoot...” Li’l Lyra and Octy giggled as they played in their tanks, watching Twilight glower at her wings.
“Though, there’s another way...”
She coyly stood from her seat and trotted off. Moments later, Twilight’s wings would be gone, and she would be left clueless as to what happened. Never would she get her answer even when she asked her mentor about it. In truth, Princess Celestia ventured to Discord to arrange a sort of deal...
Discord looked at the now purple pegasus wing on his back and shrugged. “Eh, it’s a little tacky, but I can definitely feel some of your power in them, Princess dear. I hope you don’t mind me.... testing them, hmm?”
Celestia simply answered with a sigh and a nod. Cackling with glee, Discord tapped into his new addition of strength, and raised the sun, which was now wearing shades and sporting a cool-kid smile. “Now that’s something different, haha! I’m glad I made it an adolescent, though. A baby’s face on the sun would’ve creeped even me out,” Discord told Celestia as she struggled not to cringe. “So these are for keeps?”
“It’s either you or Twilight...”
Discord giggled slightly and stated, “I can’t hold onto them forever, you know... The DNA structure isn’t fitting in with my distorted body. Soon, they’ll return to their original owner. I suggest, when that time comes, be sure Twilight thinks it’s something mystic or enchanting.
Huffing at the unfortunate outcome, she smiled letting the fiend know she’d do what she could. “I guess I can always screw with her and her friends, though I guess I would need a little... chaos to do it.”
“Oh-ho, are you proposing what I think you are?” Discord hopped on his tail and clapped his paw with his talons as he chuckled gleefully. “Oh, you’re much funner now, Celestia! When did you ever become such a troll?”
“I guess you’re just rubbing off on me.”
As the mare turned to leave, her horn ignited, and Discord found himself dressed up with a tutu like he was about practice his ballerina routine. “You know, I kinda like it...”
Author's Note
Written by Art Inspired as part of a prompt/contest I'd won. Thanks, Art~ 
