Friendship, Disharmony and Sonic Ch. 2.5

Discord continued his laughter at the mischief he had caused. He laughed so hard he went from laughing on his feet to laughing on his back. Twilight was left scared and speechless over the idea of failing to stop Discord from spreading his chaos. Feeling as if she was being laughed at, Pinkie asks, “And what are you laughing at?!”

After the outburst, Discord settled down from his laughter and wiped a tear from his mismatched eyes. “Ho, you ponies are just the most fun I’ve had in EONS,” he said in amusement while rubbing his eagle claw over his lion paw. After hearing his statement, Pinkie got in his face, surprising him in the process, and yelled, “Well, quit it! You’d better think before you laugh at the Pink…ie Pie!” After she finished yelling at Discord, she glared at him, while he smiled back at her, trying not to laugh.

Taking Pinkie’s words as a challenge, Fluttershy simply said, “Oh yeah? Well ha, ha.” After hearing her fake laugh, Pinkie’s attention was shifted from Discord to Fluttershy and she yelled, “Quit it!” Not taking her seriously, Fluttershy said, “No. Ha, ha.” Pinkie, wanting the mocking laughter to stop, yelled, “QUIT IT!!” Fluttershy continued teasing Pinkie and said, “No. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.”

Applejack approached Rarity and tried to trick her into giving up part of her “diamond.” She responded to her request with a karate kick to Applejack’s face. Rarity lunged at her, continuing her assault, while Applejack backed away from her, avoiding her kicks. Shocked from seeing how her friends were acting, Twilight tried to talk some sense into them and said, “Girls, why are you all acting like this? We need to stick together.”

Her plea fell on deaf ears after seeing that they continued their fights and weren’t paying attention to her words. She heard laughter and turned to see that it was from Discord. He was sitting on a three-seat cushion with popcorn at his side. “It’s just too entertaining,” he said, enjoying the scene before him as if it were a movie, nonchalantly eating the popcorn. Twilight walked up to the draconequus and said, “Stop it Discord! You’re not playing fair!” A bit surprised by what he heard, Discord said, “I’m not playing fair? Perhaps we haven’t met. I’m Discord. Spirit of chaos and disharmony. Hello-o-o-o.”

Feeling as though his actions were still not necessary, Twilight demanded an answer and said, “How are we supposed to find the Elements of Harmony, when you took away the labyrinth before we could get to the end?” Discord looked at her with surprise after her accusation of taking the labyrinth away and said, “Oh, wait. Did you-? Ha-ha! How funny! You thought the elements were in the labyrinth?” He then used his powers to take both himself and Twilight to the recent event in the castle, replaying the last part of the riddle for her to hear a second time.

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Meanwhile, at the Center of Time, Time Eater sensed that someone had traveled through time. “What is this I sense?” it asked itself and saw the events that Discord teleported to.

“Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the elements back where you began,” he said in the past, confusing the mare, while he had a sinister grin on his face.

Time Eater, still weak from its fight with Sonic, chose not to interfere with what was going on. Out of curiosity, it opened a portal of its own and witnessed everything that had happened in Ponyville. From Cheerilee’s field trip to Discord’s escape from his stony prison, it led up to what he could do with his powers. “Hmm, I’d better keep my eyes on this draconequus for a while,” it said while thinking of a plan.

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Discord teleported himself and Twilight back to the present, and said to the still-confused pony, “I never said they were in the labyrinth.” Out of shock, all Twilight could say was, “But, but…” He walked away from her and said in a taunting tone, “Keep trying Twilight Sparkle…Maybe the magic of friendship can help you.” He rapidly changed his tone and jadedly finished his conversation by saying, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some chaos to wreak.”

And with a snap Discord of his fingers, he teleported himself out of sight. After seeing a flash of lightning and hearing thunder over her head, Twilight saw the cotton candy clouds gather over the area the labyrinth once stood, and it started downpouring chocolate rain over the area. “Chocolate milk? I hate chocolate milk!” said an angry Pinkie Pie. Upset with Pinkie’s behavior, Twilight ignored her and said to herself, “Ugh! Think Twilight, think. Find the elements back where you began. Back where you began.” She was now thinking about the riddle on this note and tried her hardest to figure it out.

While she was thinking, Rarity was carrying her “diamond” on her back and was attempting to take it away, but Applejack jumped on it, causing her to yell, “Don’t touch my gem!” Fluttershy then flew up to them, put her hoof on the rock, and said, “I’m touching your gem, Rarity. Ha, ha,” earning a glare from Rarity in the process. Hearing laughter again, Pinkie accusingly pointed her hoof at Fluttershy and yelled, “What ‘chu laughin’ at?!” Losing her patience with her friends, Twilight said, “Ugh, I just want to go home.” At that moment, realization struck her, and she said, “Wait a minute. Home! ‘Back where you began.’ The Elements must be in…Ponyville!”

With the answer clear to her, she and the remaining ponies returned to Ponyville, however, the small town wasn’t the same. The cotton candy clouds made their way to Ponyville, and along with Discord’s chaotic influence, they were taking effect on the town. Mixed tiles were seen covering the grass around Ponyville, the river was contaminated with a mysterious pink substance and some of the homes and random trees were floating off the ground. Town Hall was also seen floating off the ground but was turned upside down, it was a weird sight to behold.

Twilight started walking down the pathway to Ponyville, feeling confident and happy to have solved the riddle. While walking, Angel and the rest of the bunnies with long dear-like legs had trampled her in their path, earning praise from Fluttershy for this misbehavior. The sun immediately set on the ponies and the moon was raised in its place, giving the ponies a hard time seeing the path in front of them. After getting back on her hooves, Applejack said in sarcasm, “Wow, I can see so much better now!”  She started walking on the pathway, but she started slipping and crashed into Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie, stopping short of Twilight, who was trying to get back up. Applejack embarrassedly said, “I meant to do that.”

After getting back on her hooves, Twilight tried to walk on the pathway but ended up slipping and falling instead. The sun suddenly rose, giving everypony a better chance to see the pathway which had been changed from a dirt path to a soap path. Discord skated on the soap with a grin and said, “Beautiful, isn’t it? This is the new and improved Ponyville, and these are only my first changes.” Pinkie started skating on the soap and said, “This may look like fun, but it's not.” Twilight groaned in frustration at Pinkie’s attitude. Discord then put his lion paw around Twilight and appeared by her side. He grew taller, lifted her, and said, “Picture it: The chaos capital of the world.” He then held her out, so she could get a “better view” of the new Ponyville, but the sun suddenly set once again, and she said, “I can’t picture anything. It’s too dark.” After hearing her remark, Discord dropped Twilight onto the soap path. “Well, wait a few minutes, and you’ll see it in the beautiful light of day… or not,” he said before disappearing from Twilight’s sight again.

It took the ponies time, but they finally reached Twilight’s library home, as the sun rose once again. Twilight’s patience with Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity was wearing thin, their attitudes along the way had gotten worse by the time they arrived at her home. She was visibly tired as she pleaded with them to enter her home and hopefully find the Elements. Upon entering her home one by one, the gray hue their coats carried, had darkened on each of them. Rarity was the last one to enter, refusing to go inside without her ‘diamond’, Tom, thinking that Twilight and Spike would steal him without her knowing. Seeing that she wasn’t going to go in without Tom, Twilight begrudgingly carried the boulder on her back and led Rarity into her home.

Spike had fallen asleep on the floor after he finished mopping, with the mop still in hand. Fluttershy grabbed the bucket with used mop water and dumped it on him. He woke up with a fright, shook the water off, and questioned Fluttershy on why she did such a thing after seeing the bucket still in her hooves. She simply responded, saying, “Because you looked so peaceful,” leaving the baby dragon confused by her response. Twilight entered the library by crashing Tom through the wall, to which Rarity tends to, worrying about her “diamond” getting scuffed up.

Spike approached her and said, “Twilight, what’s going on? Why’s everybody look so gray?” Not wanting to answer his questions, she said, “Don’t ask. I need you to help me find something.” Still holding the bucket that still had water in it, Fluttershy asked, “Hey, Twilight, what’s soaking wet and clueless?” Not wanting to deal with her, Twilight said, “Fluttershy, I’ve had just about enough…” But before she could finish, she had water dumped on her. Fluttershy flew down to Twilight, and said, “Your face!” After finishing her derisive jest, she slammed the bucket on Twilight’s head.

Feeling completely confused, Spike asked, “What’s happened to everypony?” Applejack walked past him and said, “I guess you just bring out the worst in us Spike.” Twilight walked up to one of the bookshelves and said, “Ugh, no time to explain. We’ve got to find the reference guide to the Elements of Harmony before somepony does something she’ll regret.” None of the ponies looked threatened or cared if Twilight was mad at them as she says this. Spike said, “The Elements of Harmony? Oh, I know exactly where that book is!” And with that, he dashed to one of the bookshelves and grabbed a brown book. After pulling the book from the shelf, he said, “Found it.”

After his declaration, he was hit in the face by a scroll, and he lost his grip on the book. Fluttershy grabbed it, making Twilight angrier with her than she already was, demanding that she give her the book. Fluttershy then yelled, “Keep away,” and tossed the book to Applejack. Twilight got to her, but she tossed the book to Pinkie Pie, and she bounced it back to Fluttershy before Twilight got to her. Twilight tried to jump and snatch the book from Fluttershy, but she pulled the book away from her, and she tossed it back to Applejack, starting the pattern again. Twilight insists they stop, but they persist in ignoring her, bouncing the book to each other and away from Twilight. Before the pattern could go a third time, Spike tackled Fluttershy, making the book fall to the floor. Twilight was going to get the book, but before she could, Rarity stole it with her magic and ran off with it, yelling, “Mine!” Twilight then said, “Hey! Do you even know what you just stole?” She started to chase after Rarity to get the book back. Rarity yelled back, “No, but if you want it, I want it.”

Twilight tried to tackle Rarity but ended up hitting the floor face-first instead. She gritted her teeth in frustration and yelled, “GIVE ME THAT BOOK!!!!” Rarity jumped on a round table, and kicked the wooden horse’s head off it, hoping to slow Twilight down, but she jumped over it and continued to chase her, determined to get the book back. Twilight was close to reaching Rarity, but before she could catch her, Fluttershy lifted Rarity off the floor, and Twilight ended up crashing into the boulder instead.

Twilight shook off the pain and said, “Where is she? Where’s Rarity?” Applejack simply said, “Beats me.” This caused Twilight to go over the edge, and she yelled, “Lies!” She lunged at Applejack and Pinkie Pie and got into a fight with them. Rarity and Fluttershy were also caught up in the fight as the four ponies ganged up on Twilight, getting their hits in, and biting her, but she also managed to fight back and land hits on them too. Finally, Twilight jumped out of the fight, successfully recovering the book. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity tried to get to Twilight, wanting to steal the book again. Seeing them advancing toward her, Twilight held the book tightly, not wanting to lose it again, yelling, “Get back! All of you! This is my book, and I’m GONNA READ IT!” As she warned them to stay away, Spike joined her side and stood between them, holding one of the scrolls up to them like it was a weapon, standing guard for Twilight now that she has a chance to look into the book.

Twilight opened the book, flipping through the pages with her magic and she found all six elements in the middle of the book. Overwhelmed with joy, she told the ponies about the elements, but none of them cared about what she had to say about the elements, friendship, or teamwork. Feeling sad after witnessing their rampant negatively, Twilight said, “I never thought it would happen. My friends… have turned into complete JERKS!”

She takes the elements out of the book and puts them on the others one by one, saying, “Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! And big crown thingy! Come on everypony, let’s go!” Twilight was practically stomping to the exit; her friends’ attitudes have gotten to her. Spike ran up to her side and said, “But Twilight, aren’t you missing somepony?” Still mad, she said, “Nope. We've got the liar, the grump, the hoarder, and the brute. That just about covers it.” Seeing that a pony was missing, Spike asked, “But what about Rainbow Dash?” After dealing with Discord and everyone’s bad behavior, Rainbow Dash had slipped Twilight’s mind. After thinking over the situation, she thought of a half-baked plan and said, “Congratulations Spike, you're the new Rainbow Dash. Now let's go!” She puts Rainbow Dash’s necklace on Spike and doesn’t want to deal with anything else at that moment as she dashes for the exit. Feeling worried about the situation he was put in, Spike frantically said, “Me?! But-but-but what if she finds out I’ve been impersonating her?”  After saying this, he felt complete terror over the thought and said, “Oh, that won’t end well.” Not caring, Twilight said, “Too bad, you’re Rainbow Dash! Now let’s go defeat Discord, so we don’t ever have to talk to each other again!”

After hearing this, the ponies charged out of the library with glee with the idea of no longer speaking to each other once Discord is defeated. Rarity tried to push Tom out but was still having trouble pushing it. Twilight came back and yelled, “MOVE!” She used her magic and threw Tom out of the library, creating another hole for the tree and nearly crushing Pinkie Pie with it. Discord arrived shortly after the incident and said, “Well, well, well, I see you’ve found the Elements of Harmony. How terrifying.” After seeing him, Twilight said, “Discord, I’ve figured out your lame riddle. You’re in for it now!” Discord landed on the ground and continued talking in a fake defeated tone, saying, “I certainly am. You’ve clearly outdueled me, and now it’s time to meet my fate.” Discord made a pair of sunglasses appear and he placed them on, ready for the eventual attack from the Elements of Harmony. He continued and said, “I’m prepared to be defeated now ladies, fire when ready.” He waved his eagle claw over his chest and a target appeared in the area.

Not wanting to waste any time, Twilight yelled, “Formation, NOW!” The other ponies, unenthusiastically, walked up to her. Spike was hiding behind the boulder until Twilight called him over. She activated her tiara and started floating off the ground with the others, and for a moment, Discord was concerned that the attack was going to go through, but they fell to the ground, not being able to use the elements without Rainbow Dash. Twilight was confused by this, not realizing that not only were they missing Rainbow Dash, but the other ponies weren’t connected to their respective element in their corrupted state. Spike took off Rainbow Dash’s element and was going to go back to the library, but he was tripped by Fluttershy’s tail and was called Rainbow Dash’s trademark mockery nickname, “Rainbow Crash” by Fluttershy herself. Discord continued to mock the ponies after their failed attempt to stop him, declaring that harmony in Equestria is dead, and was seen skating off on the soap road, laughing at his victory. After the failed attempt, everypony went their separate ways, sick of being around each other, leaving Twilight alone as she says, “FINE! Leave! See if I care! I don’t need you guys either! With friends like you, who needs…enemies…?” After losing what was left of her hope and after losing her confidence, Twilight’s color drained and she was now gray like the others. After her coat changes to gray, she sheds a tear, and it splats into a broken heart on the tiled ground.

Twilight walked through Ponyville with a cotton candy cloud following her and it rained down chocolate milk drenching her in its substance, matching her mood. Ponyville had fallen into more chaos with Discord free and unstoppable. He appeared next to Twilight and laughed in amusement at the chaos he was continuing to spread in Ponyville, enjoying every minute of it. He tries to get her attention, pointing to Berry Punch, who had a giant pepper shaker over her. It shook pepper on her, and she sneezed from it, in turn, the sneeze made the houses and trees around her fall flat on the ground, like cardboard. Discord thought the prank was priceless and kept laughing until he noticed Twilight’s mopey mood. Discord pulled a cotton candy cone and said, “Come now Twilight Sparkle. You’ve got to get into the spirit of things.” After taking the cotton candy cloud, he licked the treat and continued, “After all, this is your new home.” She looked at Ponyville, not satisfied with the condition it was in, and said, “Not anymore.” And with that, she walked back to the library. Seeing that he broke Twilight’s spirit, Discord yells, “YES!!” and laughed to himself, his victory complete.

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Time Eater watched everything Discord had done to the ponies and the chaos in Ponyville. Time Eater enjoyed everything that Discord was able to do and said, “Discord has some interesting abilities. Buffalo’s dancing in tutus, pie falling up to the sky, buildings turned upside down, I even liked how he can easily manipulate those ponies without even trying. Even if he’s just toying with them, I know this isn’t the full extent of what he can do.”

Seeing what Discord is capable of, Time Eater started forming his plan for revenge.

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The sun had set once again as Twilight made her way back to the library. After entering, she started getting her things packed so she and Spike could move out of Ponyville. Spike groaned in pain after she told him to start packing. She didn’t know where she wanted to go, but the only thing that she knew was that she needed to get away from Ponyville. As she packed one of her bags, she took her tiara off and dropped it into the trash can. Still in pain, Spike said, “Can’t… move. The Princess… has been sending these… since I came back upstairs.” Spike burped up another scroll to go with the many others before Twilight’s arrival, and pleaded, “Make it stop.”

After looking over one of the scrolls, Twilight noticed that they were the letters she had sent to Celestia ever since she started living in Ponyville. She questioned why she was sending the letters back to her but instead of discarding them, she started reading them one by one. After reading each of the many scrolls that she wrote to Celestia, Twilight rediscovered the meaning of friendship and regained her colors. From here, Twilight realized Discord’s full plan, despite what he says, Twilight now knows that Discord fears the friendship that she has with her friends and this scheme was doing just one thing, distracting them long enough to make it seem worthless. With a new sense of confidence, she left the library and searched for her friends, knowing what was needed to get her friends back on the side of harmony once again.

One by one, Twilight got her friends back by using a memory spell to push all the past adventures they had been through back into their memories. Each of their colors had returned, and so had their personalities. Applejack apologized for lying after fearing the visions of their friendships ending, Fluttershy believed that all the things that had happened to her were part of a bad dream, Rarity took the boulder out of her boutique and said, “We must never speak of this again,” finding this embarrassing. Pinkie Pie laughed at the whole thing, seeing that her turning gray was one of the funniest things she ever heard or had happened to her.

The ponies went to Rainbow’s cloud house to look for her, but after Fluttershy looked in the house, she declared that Rainbow Dash wasn’t there, thankfully she was spotted on a nearby cloud by Pinkie Pie. Twilight tried to convince her to join them to put a stop to Discord’s chaos, but Rainbow Dash declined and said that she will stay in Cloudsdale instead, which was only the small tuft of cloud she was on, not the big cloud city that they all knew. Seeing that she wasn’t going to listen to reason, Twilight came up with plan B.

With the help of the hot air balloon, the new plan was to take her by force. Originally, Twilight was supposed to cast a simple memory spell, while Fluttershy held down a slumbering Rainbow Dash, unfortunately, Fluttershy’s good nature had her wake Rainbow Dash up and ask for permission to do so, something Twilight and the others were not very fond of; Pinkie looked on in confusion, Rarity rolled her eyes at Fluttershy’s action and Twilight had a facehoof moment with Fluttershy for this, wishing for her to be more aggressive at a time like this. This quickly turned from holding Rainbow Dash down and using the spell, to chasing her down as she flew away from them as fast as she could. With Fluttershy being the only pegasus among them, she needed to fly the balloon to catch up to her.

Rainbow Dash attempted to make it harder for them as she flew in patterns to throw the girls off, but despite how fast she was, Applejack was able to lasso her, making it all the easier for them. Rarity and Pinkie Pie, unfortunately, ended up also getting lassoed, due to Pinkie not securing the ropes, but even in the situation they were put in, it still managed to slow Rainbow Dash down as it pulled her off the cloud she was on. Rarity yells at Fluttershy to fly faster in hopes of not falling to her doom, not too sure if the rope holding her and Pinkie Pie was going to last any longer. Fluttershy cries from knowing that she’s a weak flier and believes that she couldn’t go any faster, but with Twilight motivating her, Fluttershy flies faster and she catches up to Rainbow Dash in a short amount of time. With how close they had gotten, Twilight gave Applejack a second lasso and she managed to get it on Rainbow Das as well, stopping her in her tracks.

With the second lasso secured, Twilight and her friends finally stopped Rainbow Dash from flying any further and brought the reluctant pegasus down to the ground. To keep her from flying, she was tied down by Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie, making it easier for Twilight to use the memory spell on her, despite her attempts to break free from the ropes. After casting the spell on her, Rainbow Dash’s colors returned, and she was left confused after she was back to normal. Worry suddenly struck her and she asked, “How’s Ponyville? Where are the Elements? Did we stop Discord?” The ponies shared a group hug, happy to see that Rainbow Dash was back on the side of harmony once again, however they stopped celebrating after they saw a few buffalo dance in tutus, realizing that this wasn’t a good time for a group hug just yet.

Back in Ponyville, Discord had made himself a throne on top of a tiled hill, enjoying the moment of his reign over the new Ponyville. Some of the homes were replaced with a giant house of cards, the rabbits ran through the area once again, and the pies that floated earlier started falling from the sky. He made a glass appear in his Eagle claw and filled it with chocolate milk and happily said, “Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing.” He was about to drink his chocolate milk, when a familiar voice said, “Not as wonderful as... friendship!” The voice caught him by surprise, and he saw Twilight and her friends wearing the elements, and they were prepared for another attempt to stop Discord. “Oh, this again,” he flatly said, not taking them seriously. He drank the glass, tossed the chocolate milk over his shoulder, and it exploded on whatever it hit. “That’s right. You couldn’t break apart our friendship for long,” said Applejack. Discord raised his lion paw and used his magic to pull Applejack toward him and said, “Oh, Applejack. Don’t lie to me. I’m the one who made you a liar.” He then raised his eagle claw and started pulling the rest of the element bearers one by one with his magic. They tried to break free from his magic but struggled in the process. “Will you ever learn?” he questioned.

Not wanting him to harm her friends, or corrupt them a second time, Twilight teleported herself to the ponies and used her magic to create a magical barrier around them. She brought them back to the ground, while Discord was left surprised by the move. The barrier covered part of the tile ground and destroyed part of it, revealing grass underneath it once again. After the barrier disappeared, and her friends were free from his magic, Twilight said, “I’ll tell you what we learned Discord. We’ve learned that friendship isn’t always easy. But there’s no doubt it’s worth fighting for.” As she said this, her friends stood their ground and displayed the same confidence Twilight had. Finding this too cheesy for his liking, Discord said, “Ugh, gag! Fine go ahead and try to use your elements, frenemies, just make it quick.” He teleports back to his throne and says, “I’m missing some excellent chaos here.”

Feeling confident, Twilight said, “All right, ladies, let's show him what friendship can do!” The moment was however ruined when Pinkie said, “Wait-wait-wait!” She was seen under one of the cotton candy clouds, drinking the chocolate rain one last time. After she finished drinking the chocolate rain, she joined her friends and was ready to use the Elements of Harmony with them. After all the ponies were present, Twilight activated her tiara, and a glow surrounded the element bearers. Discord yawned, unamused with the ponies, believing that they would fail once again. Each of the elements lit up and fired their energies at him, and caught his attention as he said in confusion, “What’s this?” Seeing the energies himself, Discord grew concerned and said in disbelief, “No.” Twilight re-opened her eyes, and they glowed like before but this time, along with her friends’ eyes glowing, the elements released a powerful rainbow energy at Discord. The rainbow hit him on target, and he yells, “NOOO!!!” His body started turning back into stone from the tip of his tail to the top of his horns. He desperately tries to move during this moment, but he was unable to do anything to stop this as he was now fully encased in stone once again. The rainbow then covered Ponyville, and encased it in a magical dome, restoring the town to the way it was before Discord’s influence.

Twilight and her friends went back to Canterlot for a special ceremony that Princess Celestia arranged for Discord’s defeat, inviting everypony in Canterlot and Ponyville to the event. She announced to everypony, “We are gathered here today, to once again honor the heroism of these six friends who stood up to the villain Discord and saved Equestria from eternal chaos!” All the ponies in the castle cheered for Twilight and her friends as Celestia unveiled a new stained-glass window, showing the mane six defeating Discord, emitting more cheers in celebration of this great victory.

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6 months later

After Discord’s defeat, peace was maintained in Ponyville, and everypony in Equestria couldn’t have been any happier. Under Princess Celestia’s orders, Discord’s statue was returned to the Statue Garden in Canterlot, and the Royal Guards heavily guarded it, making sure he won’t be able to break out again. But the moment they left the area to switch out guards, a portal opened, revealing a dark figure. The figure approached the statue and covered it with a dark sphere. The dark figure pulled the orb away from the statue, leaving it intact, and another portal opened. The figure enters the portal with the orb and disappeared, leaving no trace of suspicion after the guard’s shift change. The portal was sent to the Center of Time, revealing the figure to be…Time Eater.

Discord felt lost after the dark sphere disintegrated around him. He first stretched himself, finding the position he was trapped in very uncomfortable, earning some pops as he loosened up. “How long was I stuck like that?” he asked aloud. “Six months,” said an unknown voice. Not expecting someone to respond, Discord opened his eyes and realized that he was no longer in Ponyville. He frantically looked at his surroundings and said, “Who? What? Where?” Wanting to get to the point, and to have Discord stop his babbling, Time Eater got his attention by yelling “Enough!” Discord stopped looking around after being yelled at in his head. He felt a presence behind him, and he turned to look at the dark figure in question. “Who, or what are you?” he asked.

Feeling satisfied with getting his attention, the creature introduces himself by saying, “I am Time Eater. What you see with me is a being that can control time and space.” It then opened a portal and showed Discord the events that happened between him and the ponies. “I can even bend reality, like busting you out of your stony prison without destroying the statue.”

Discord looked himself over and was satisfied to see that none of his mismatched limbs were missing. He says to the creature, “Normally, no one wants me for anything unless they want me to do something for them. So, what is it that you want from me?” Time Eater then proposed its request and said, “I want your assistance for revenge on a blue hedgehog that I need to settle a score with.” It then clutched its hands into fists in anger remembering the events it was put through by Sonic. Discord looked unamused by the request and simply said, “Not interested.” He finished his statement while waving his eagle claw at Time Eater and started walking away. Time Eater continued explaining its plan of revenge and said, “My revenge also has those ponies you got your butt handed to in it as well.”

Discord stopped in his tracks at the mention of “ponies” and was now interested in the plan. He scratched his chin in curiosity and said, “Keep talking.” Time Eater opened a portal that revealed seven gems, adding more interest to Discord. It then said, “These seven gems, are known as the Chaos Emeralds. They contain a massive amount of power.” Discord then asked, “How much power?” “So much power, not even you could comprehend it,” Was all Time Eater had to say. Discord stared at the flashback in awe.

Time Eater continued explaining the emeralds' use and said, “These emeralds can increase the user’s strength, speed, and every known ability ten-fold. Any one of the seven chaos emeralds possesses great power on its own, but if you get all seven of them, you will be unstoppable. Not even the Elements of Harmony can touch you.” Discord laughed evilly after hearing the lore. “Time Eater, you got yourself a partner,” he said excitedly and extended his lion paw. Time Eater grabs the paw, shakes it, and says, “In a way, I knew I could trust you.”

Wanting to waste no time, Discord asked, “So, where are these Chaos Emeralds supposed to be exactly?” Time Eater tore open another portal, and it revealed Sonic and said, “This is the hedgehog I mentioned earlier. His name is Sonic. He has been known to have the Chaos Emeralds when they are needed the most. I need you to catch him and bring me those emeralds!” Discord in complete disbelief said, “Him?” He then started laughing at what he saw, thinking that it was a joke. After settling down from his laughter, he asked, “You’re kidding right?” Time Eater yelled, “This is not a joke!” After being yelled at, Discord’s smile was wiped from his face and he listened to what Time Eater had to say. “That hedgehog is a lot stronger than he looks. Underestimate him, and it will be costly.” Discord, still not sold on what it said about the hedgehog, nonchalantly said, “Whatever you say, I’ll get your hedgehog for you.” And with that, Discord jumped into the portal, on his way to get Sonic.

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Sonic was running along a beach, with no plans for him to go. He was just enjoying his freedom and his much-needed vacation time away from Dr. Eggman’s plans of world domination. Discord came out of the portal and spotted Sonic running. “This is Sonic? Wow, with how fast he’s running, I’d say he’s about as fast as Rainbow Dash,” he thought to himself after seeing the hedgehog running. After thinking for a few moments, Discord came up with a plan and had a sly grin on his face.

While Sonic was running, he felt a raindrop hit his nose. After feeling it, he immediately stopped in his tracks and looked up to the sky to see that the clouds were pink. Questioning what he saw, Sonic turned his head to the side and saw that it was still too early for sunset. “Ok… what’s going on here?” he asked aloud and shrugged. Another drop fell, and it hit his open hand. Sonic looked at it and saw that the raindrop was brown. He was confused by it and inspected it. After tasting it, he was shocked at what he tasted. “Chocolate milk? This is just getting stranger by the minute,” he said.

Sonic was about to start running again, but he slipped and fell flat on his face. To his surprise, the sand on the beach had turned into ice. He then heard hysterical laughter and saw a mismatched creature on its back laughing at him. Sonic got annoyed with the mysterious creature’s laughter and said, “Okay pal, what’s so funny?!” Discord wiped his misshapen eyes after settling down from his laughter and said, “Just seeing the look on anyone’s face after I surprise them is always funny to me. As for who I am, I’m Discord. I’m the spirit of chaos and disharmony. I tend to have a lot of fun with my abilities to mess with reality.” Sonic wobbly got back on his feet and said, “So, I’m guessing that you’re the one who turned the sand on this beach into ice.” “Well, someone’s a fast learner,” he said with a smirk.

Wanting to get right to the point, Discord said, “I’m mainly here for the Chaos Emeralds. So, if you don’t mind, I’ll be taking them.” Sonic almost slipped in surprise after hearing what he said. “Okay, how does this Discord guy know about the emeralds?” Sonic thought to himself. “How do you know about the Chaos Emeralds?” he asked. “I was released from my stone imprisonment and was told that you know the emeralds, one would say that you might have them on you,” he simply stated. Sonic had a feeling that a certain ‘Baldy McNosehair’ was behind this. He did his best from chuckling at the nickname and asked, “Was it a fat, bald, egg-shaped guy with a big mustache that released you?” Discord looked at him with a puzzled look on his face and said, “Egg-shaped guy? Very weird, but I have no idea who you’re referring to.”

After hearing Discord’s response, Sonic started feeling very uneasy and thought to himself, “Okay, Eggface is off the list.” Sonic rubbed his nose with his index finger and said, “It’s too bad you weren’t here a few months ago when I had them.” Discord had a feeling Sonic wasn’t telling him something and decided to keep an eye on him. Despite the cocky grin he held to his response, Sonic felt worried about the situation, but one thing was for sure, he did not want Discord to get the Chaos Emeralds. “I gotta get to Knuckles and have him scatter the emeralds before Discord gets his hands on them,” Sonic thought to himself.

He was going to start his run to Angel Island, but he ended up slipping and falling on the ice again, making Discord laugh at his misfortune. He glared at the laughing creature and started walking off the ice as slowly as he could handle. After he got back on solid ground, he took off to Angel Island with a boost. Discord stopped his laughter after he heard the sonic boom, and saw that Sonic was no longer in sight. “Scratch that, he’s a LOT faster than Rainbow Dash,” he said to himself.

After getting over his shock over Sonic’s speed, Discord snapped his finger and disappeared. The chase for Sonic begins.