Continued from >>3260791

Without so much as hinting at flexing his power, Discord appeared in view a dark pair of pants and a white shirt with long green sleeves. Once in costume, he walked onto a stage that appeared out of nowhere and continued to the center, where a comically four times oversized normal-sized grey couch stood.

Twilight was about to ask what Discord was doing when a mass of applause, whistles, and cheers surrounded her. She looked around and realized she was seated in an auditorium by herself. She was a one-mare audience, so the sounds were just another one of Discord’s fabrications.

Meanwhile, in front of her, Discord somersaulted over the couch’s armrest and landed on the cushions, bouncing up and standing boldly.

“I want to explain this to you with some style.”

Discord looked out at the audience, which was only Twilight, and waited for her to laugh. Instead, she only sat, staring at him, equally confused as she was unentertained.

“Right,” Discord awkwardly stated before coughing into his hand. “Well, I wanted to keep this explanation simple, so there’s only this one prop. What’s really important is what’s inside.”

He walked over to the right side and reached down, pulling out a ginormous chip.

“No, this is only a potato chip.”

He reached in again, this time pulling out what looked to be a long feather that was dripping ink.

“Oops. Nope. That’s a quile.”

Again, he reached in, this time dropping to his knees to dig in further and pulling out a book.

“Princess Twilight’s Private Journal. Now, how did that one get in there?”

“Hey!” Twilight shouted angrily, watching her book of private thoughts get tossed off stage.

Paying Twilight no mind, Discord crawled forward and pulled out the golden Twi-scepter, then held it up for inspection, almost looking genuinely confused.

“Now, if your journal shouldn’t have been there, this certainly shouldn’t have been in there.”

“DISCORD!” Twilight shouted again, this time even louder.

Giving in and realizing that the Gallagher spoof wasn’t landing the way he wanted, Discord reached in one final time and pulled out the severed piece of vine he’d been examining earlier.

“Here we are! Just your everyday run-of-the-mill magic growing, anti-magic, partially altered, deer kin potion produced vine.”

“Partially altered?” Twilight asked, suddenly feeling her body bounce up into the air.

“Why, yes,” Discord answered, falling out of view from Twilight. “And do you think the font for my name is okay? The retro color isn’t too much? Is the font too hard to read? I think ponies might misread the lowercase D as a double c.”

Twilight looked down to see that she was rising up above the couch. Where the cushions once were, a trampoline had been installed. So, instead of falling back down, she began to flap her wings to flutter in place. Also, the lowercase d did look like a double c had been written in, but that wasn’t important to her.

“Discord! If you didn’t do this! Do you know who did!?”

To answer that question, Discord sprang into view from above Twiglith, somehow having bounced down from above instead of from below.

“Oh-ho-ho~ No, but they certainly did a spectacular job at mashing together this masterpiece of chaotic, mish-mashed magic. Sure, it cancels out the magic of whatever it embeds itself into or manages to wrap itself around, but it seems like more of a hindrance if used against you when targeting a specific tree.”

“DISCORD!”

Snapping his taloned claws, Discord had both of them flash out from the air and reappear in a nearby cafe. They were both dressed up in formal attire while Spike stood on a stool in a butler’s uniform, pouring Twilight a cup of tea.

“Twilight, I’d never make something so dangerous that it could be used against me in a way that it could overpower me… That, and if I made an overgrown vine, I think I’d be more partial to black than your garden variety of green. But, you’re right. These vines are much too dangerous for the likes of us.”

Finally snapping out of a trance, Spike stopped in time from overpouring Twilight’s cup of tea while Twilight herself gave Discord a dirty look and grew sharp tone.

“The likes of us?”

Discord whipped out a fancy napkin and tucked it into his collar as he laughed a cocky, elitist laugh.

“Oh, come now, Twilight. Us! Those who are out here! Enjoying the finer things in life! Not like that stupid tree you’re so protective of. What does it even do for anypony? It wasn’t strong enough to keep itself safe from these vines, and it was so weak that even your friends sent you away to stay out of harm’s way. I say good riddance to that boring old thing. And once your friends get back after figuring out they’re too late, we can all start living far more interesting lives.”

Instantly, Twilight recoiled at the suggestion.

“The Tree of Harmony is weak! And my friends won’t fail!”

The look Discord gave Twilight somehow gave the impression that despite the grin he gave her, he never meant of a word of his condescension, and he expected her reaction.

“Oh, well, how silly of me to assume they needed you. All you did was choose to keep your precious princess self out of harm’s way while your friends thrust themselves right into danger. It’s not like you’ve done everything together before. I’m sure you’ll all be the best of pals again when they return from their terrifying yet deeply bonding experience that they’re having without you.”

That seemed to have put Twilight’s mind back on the right track, and she was determined to right the wrong she had started.

“I never should have agreed to come back here.”

In no time at all, and with even less effort, the fancy dress and butler clothes were removed, and Twilight was galloping off back into the Everfree Forest with Spike on her back yet again. Although, the start of their drip did not come without some hesitation from Spike.

“Come on, Twilight. He’s just trying to get under your skin.”

True or not, Twilight didn’t care.

“Well, it’s working!”