Living the Good Life: Chapter 8

>"Anonymous." Comes a mysterious echoing voice from beyond your subconscious. You feel something start to prod your abdomen softly. You protest by uttering a soft growl before snuggling the back of your head into the pillow.
>"Anonymous!" The voice calls again. The prodding becomes harder and pain erupts in your stomach. You open your eyes and yelp. You still aren't accustomed to being woken up like this.
>You come to find that the owner of the mysterious voice is Eris. When the two of you lock eyes Eris lets out an exasperated sigh.
>"Finally you're awake, I was about to have to start punching you next." Eris says before grabbing your blankets and throwing them off of you.
>"So what's on the menu for today?" you ask as you blink your eyes in order to get proper focus. You hear Discord respond rather than his daughter.
>"Nothing today Anonymous. Today's the day you're going back to P0nyville." Discord says happily before clasping his hands together. He rubs his palms together and gives you a sinister grin.
>You turn and raise a brow in question, "So the magic's run its course? And what's with that evil look?" you ask as you examine Discord. It seems as if his body has finally returned to normal... Well normal for him anyway.
>Discord waves his hands dismissively, "Oh it's nothing Anonymous I'm just in a good mood is all. Let's go ahead and get you back out there. You need to make another friend." Discord states before snapping his eagle talons.
>You watch as a purple aura creates an outline around your body. Your skin begins to tingle as the colored aura begins to enter through your pours. An eerie warmth creeps throughout you.
>Your ribs begin to sting as the magic forces them in to place. Your spine audibly snaps as its realigned. As everything else within you returns to its proper place the hunger you were feeling starts to dissipate.
>You were afraid of this. Not knowing when you were hungry or thirsty meant that you were going to have to keep up with making sure you got nourishment from somewhere.
>God help you if you don't eat anything over the next few days... at least with Pinkie Pie as a friend you possibly had access to cheaper sweets from her place of business.
>But there'd be no way you'd get anything for free. You're a new friend, you're not someone she's known for a while like Twilight or Applejack. You have no money and you don't have a job to rectify that.
>Perhaps Twilight will know someone in town who can hook you up with a job. That reminds you...
>"Hey Discord," you ask as you test out your newly healed body by moving your arms, "How's Twilight been? Does she know about what happened? Did you have either of your daughters inform her?"
>"Well, I was the one who brought you here from her library. So Twilight already knows of your condition. As for visiting neither me nor my daughters have done that. Me for obvious reasons of course." Discord states in a nonchalant tone.
>"Though there's more to it then that. Turns out Applejack and Macintosh were the ones who brought you to the library. Seems like you made a new friend out of the farm p0ny." Discord flashes you a grin.
>You scoff, "Yeah me and the hick p0ny are friends? Fat chance. She probably only brought me to the library out of guilt." you say before sitting up and re-positioning yourself on the bed. You feet hang lazily off of the side of your bed. You continue.
>"As far as I'm concerned if that p0ny comes near me I'm socking her in the jaw." you crack your knuckles for emphasis.
>"Same goes for Fluttershy... nasty cunt," malice drips from your tone upon mentioning that winged menace. She had better hope you don't see her, you'll do far worse to her wings than massaging.
>"What'd she even do?" Asks Eris out of curiosity as she crosses her arms and leans in. You sigh before shifting your position to face Eris.
>"She told me that she'd apologize to Twilight for being mean if I massaged her wings." your eyes narrow when Eris bursts out into fits of laughter. She finds it so funny she's holding on to her stomach and rolling around in the air. You narrow your eyes out of annoyance.
>"So why're you laughing? Is it because I was dumb enough to massage a peagsus' wings or is it because I believed her?" Eris' laughter dies down enough for her to answer.
>"Both," she says before her laughter comes right back at the same volume as before. You're not in the mood for this, you get right out of bed and walk over to your dresser.
>You sift through the drawers and come up with a your boxers, socks, jeans, and a plain white t-shirt. After putting on your clothes you thank Discord for him healing you. Then you head to your door to grab your shoes.
>The sooner you get out of here the better. As you finish putting on your shoes and open your door you hear Eris call out to you.
>"Hey wait a minute I was just-" You don't hear the rest because you've slammed your door shut after stepping out in to the hall. As you're walking down the hallway leading to the bed in Twilight's basement you find Screwball sitting on her flank.
>She sits on the border of the hallway between the illuminated area and the darkened area. She looks in your direction for a moment before looking at the carpeting dejectedly.
>You pay little attention to her as you walk by her, "I'm sorry about yesterday." she says without looking up at you.
>"Yeah I know you said that multiple times," you state flatly before continuing through the darkened hallway. You're still fairly mad at Screwball. You hear her whimper as you start your trek through the darkness.
>You doubt she didn't want to hurt you. She knew your body's condition and she pulled her little prank anyway. She didn't care and those tears of hers are fake. At least to you they were.
>Finally you emerge from under your blankets. You look around Twilight's basement to find that nothing's changed, you're not surprised after all you were only gone for a little over a day.
>You crawl out of bed and on to the hardwood floor of the basement, you ascend the small flight of stair and open the door at the top, then you step in to the library's ground floor.
>You find that not a single candle has been lit. That's odd you assumed Twilight would be up and about; you believed you've made somewhat of an impact on her.
>Maybe she's out visiting Pinkie or maybe she's just taking a nap. You decide to go ahead and try to eliminate one of those possibilities by checking Twilight's Room.
>As you approach the latter you swear you can hear sniffling coming from the second floor. Well looks like there's a third option: Twilight is in her room crying.
>She can't possibly still be like this over what happened with Fluttershy could she? You finish climbing to the top of the ladder and look into the room. You find Twilight lying on her bed.
>She has her face buried in her front hooves and you can see her withers hitching in turn with her sniffling. When your feet hit the second floor and when you stand up straight you clear your throat.
>Twilight looks up from her position and your frown deepens. It's obvious that she's been crying, her red and puffy eyes attest to that. She looks at you for a few seconds before her eyes begin to water again.
>"What's wrong?" you ask in more of a demanding tone than a concerned one. Whether you meant to sound like that or not isn't important, what is important is finding out why she's crying.
>If it's Fluttershy again you're going to be pissed, you swear you'll be breaking her wings if she did something else while you were gone. Finally Twilight speaks up through her sobs.
>"You're okay! I'm just so happy!" Suddenly she leaps out of her bed and gallops over to you. When she gets close enough she gets on to her hind hooves and wraps her front hooves around your waist.
>She openly cries into your shirt. At this moment you're happy that she was so worried about you, it shows she cares, but why? You haven't even been here a week why would she be so concerned over someone she doesn't know?
>Hell you wouldn't be this broken up if a new friend got themselves hurt over doing something utterly idiotic. If anything she should be angry with you for going off alone into unfamiliar territory.
>These p0nies must really appreciate friendship, much more than humans do anyway. No one you knew would get like this over you, not even your own parents. It's refreshing...
>"Well yeah I'm okay. Discord fixed me right up." You say with a smile before kneeling down to her level, forcing her to break off the hug.
>"But you shouldn't be crying over me. It's not your fault I got my butt kicked." You say with a chuckle. Twilight drops her jaw in shock before shaking her head.
>"But it's my fault! I didn't go with you and you got hurt, you're supposed to be my responsibility and instead of keeping you safe I stayed inside and cried... " Twilight looks at the floor sadly.
>"It's just like Discord said, I am useless." Twilight continues as she sniffles again. You groan before putting a hand under Twilight's chin. You tilt her head so she's looking in to your eyes.
>"Twilight, I'm only going to say this once so listen up. You are not useless, you're a unicorn capable of incredible things." Her sniffling seems to stop as she hangs upon every word you say.
>"For one, regardless of choice you took me in. Instead of treating me like a burden you were open and friendly... kind of. You've done more for me than the majority of people I've known on Earth and for that you're far from useless." You flash her a grin before chuckling.
>"On another note you can do magic. That's an impossibility from where I come from and might I say it's awesome to watch you use it. You should do it more often." you state with a laugh, Twilight opens her mouth to protest but you cut her off before she can say anything.
>"And I'm a big boy Twilight, I make my own choices and I deal with the consequences of them. Whether I make a good choice or not. You shouldn't feel responsible for the things I do okay? That's silly." You hope she's getting the message. You're not being all that delicate, but you're not one to sugarcoat something like this.
>"B... but I should ha-" you put your free hand over her mouth to silence her, "No buts. I was an idiot for going out alone. I had good intentions but a poor means of following through on those intentions" You take a breath and continue.
>"Instead of making you happy I made you miserable. You were probably worried sick about me. If anything I'm a pretty terrible friend and for that I'm truly sorry." you get back to your feet and walk over to Twilight's bed. When you take a seat Twilight joins you.
>"I did what I did because even though I've only known you for a few days it hurts me to see you like this. I wanted to make you happy by having Fluttershy apologize." you explain.
>"You didn't have to go that far," Twilight says as she looks over her hooves.
>"But I wanted to Twilight. Your happiness means a lot to me." Twilight's ears perk up and she turns her head to face you.
>"Sure Pinkie seems fun, and I bet Applejack is a good friend when she isn't being a lying bitch, but neither of them are you." You see Twilight's lips form into a small smile.
>"T... Thank you Anon... I needed to hear that." Twilight says as she clops her front hooves in front of herself lightly. She seems to avoid your gaze, she's seemingly fixated upon her hooves.
>"Can you forgive me for doing something so impulsive?" you ask. Silence is your reply, Twilight seems to be thinking of an appropriate answer. Finally she speaks.
>"I can forgive you... On one condition." Twilight flashes you a smirk before leaping off of her bed and trotting over to her dresser. Using her magic she opens up one of the top drawers.
>You hear the jingle of coins as a sack comes floating out of the dresser drawer. You watch as it opens and a ten coins are levitated out of the bag. They fly over to your left and land next to you.
>After the bits land next to you Twilight puts the sack of coins back in the dresser drawer. She turns to you and says
>"Get us some cupcakes from Sugarcube Corner. Ten bits should be more than enough." Twilight says happily before trotting back over to you. You pick up the "bits" and look over them.
>They seem like nothing more than simple coins about the size of a penny. They seem like they're gold coins but if Twilight has them in such quantity that can't be right.
>You stand and put them into your pocket. Then you give the little gray mare a salute, "Right away, any particular kind?" you ask, she shakes her head.
>"Chocolate cupcakes it is." You state, and with that you walk past Twilight and over to the ladder. Before getting onto the ladder you freeze and look to Spike's bed.
>You just realized Spike wasn't in the room... in fact he wasn't in the treebrary at all. "Hey Twilight?" you ask. "Yes Anon?" Twilight asks in return.
>"Where's Spike?" you say before pointing to Spike's empty bed.
>Twilight looks in the direction your pointing, "Oh Spike? He cleaned up the library for me so I gave him some bits. He went to Sugarcube Corner to get a few of those gem encrusted cupcakes he loves so much." Twilight explains with a smile.
>"I guess I'll meet up with him then. Want me to bring him back here?" You ask as you start to descend the ladder. Twilight shakes her head but with you out of view her gestures falls upon no one.
>When Twilight realizes this she face hoofs and shouts down to you, "No, I gave him the day off so he'll be back by sunset." That comes off as a little odd to you, after all your impression of Spike is that he's a small child.
>Or maybe he's nearing his early teens or something? Or maybe P0nyville is safe enough for a little dragon to be walking around unattended. Well, he's not your responsibility and he can probably take care of himself.
>With that in mind you make your way out of the treebrary and into the now crowded streets of P0nyville. It seems as if nop0ny is afraid of the remaining animals, or the poker card lined streets.
>Though you notice a good portion of them are walking around with their umbrellas at the ready. You look to the sky and find pink clouds floating around overhead.
>Some of them are raining down a brown substance. You cringe in disgust... Discord wouldn't really have something so unhealthy rain down upon the Equestrians would he?
>When a pink cloud starts raining down near you, you smell what the clouds are letting loose among the p0ny folk. Oh... It's just chocolate milk... CHOCOLATE MILK RAINING CLOUDS?!
>You back away from the approaching cloud and jog towards Sugarcube Corner. As you've already come to find out the p0nies around you aren't so surprised to see something like you walking around.
>In fact a few of them actually greet you as you walk by as if you've lived in P0nyville for months! P0nies are a bit too open... and friendly. Regardless you greet a few of the pastel colored p0nies in return.
>You'd stay and possibly chat with a few of them but you don't want to risk getting covered in chocolate milk. Last thing you want to do is use Pinkie's water again for another bath.
>When you find a break in the clouds you slow back down to a walk. As you do so you take a good look at the surrounding buildings.
>It's as Twilight explained, these homes are quite simple in appearance. Most of the structures in P0nyville seem to be timber-framed with distinct thatched roofs and overhanging upper floors.
>Without Discord's magic distorting the buildings it's a lot easier to tell how they're made. As your cross over a stone bridge you take a quick glance over the side to find a river running through below.
>The once clear crisp water has been polluted by the chocolate milk. You can find multiple brown streaks in the water as the current carries the water along its path.
>"Disgusting." You say to yourself as you complete your trek across the bridge. You spot a large tower-like structure and an adjacent fountain when you finally hit the center of town.
>Well didn't you take a new path? When you spot the gingerbread and stacked cake roofing of Sugarcube Corner you come to realize that this was much easier than walking around the town.
>Then again it's actually safe enough to travel through town, thankfully Discord seems to be merciful. You hope he continues to be so, you'd love to see this place the way Twilight described it...
>You continue to look around the adjacent buildings as you make you way over to your destination. Upon arrival you find Spike sitting at an outside bench.
>He's busy munching away on his cupcakes. His bench mate, a mint green and white unicorn, is sitting in an odd posture while sipping on some drink balanced on its belly.
>That can't be good for it's back. You consider asking why it's sitting like that but the call of cupcakes garners your attention.
>As you're about to turn to the door you see the unicorn turn it's head to you. You catch its gaze and turn back to face the p0ny.
>The two of you stare at each other for a few seconds before the unicorn rubs its eyes with its hooves. When it blinks it's eyes and looks at you again it's jaw drops.
>The p0ny gets to her hooves, spilling her drink on the ground in the process. This is a first, you figured everyp0ny around here would react the same way, but it looks like this one is afraid of you.
>Well at least you thought it was afraid of you until you saw it start to grin. Then it's grin got wider and it's eyes seemed to light up. It seemed absolutely giddy to look at you.
>Suddenly the unicorn takes off into a gallop in some random direction. You and Spike watch as she gallops out of site. When Spike turns to look where the unicorn was looking prior to running he finds you.
>He waves a little claw at you and you wave in return. Since he's out of earshot you instead point in the direction the unicorn galloped off to and shrug your shoulders.
>Spike shrugs his little shoulders before returning to his meal. Okay he doesn't know either, oh well if it's something big you're sure it'll make itself known in time.
>With that weird tidbit out of the way you reach out, open the door to Sugarcube Corner, and fly back from the door as a blur of pink tackles you off of your feet.
>You land on your back, as you do the playing cards that made up the ground are flung in to the air. Poker cards come down in a small rain around you and the pink ball of fluff upon your chest.
>"OhmygoshitsyouhiAnonareyouokayIhearMacintoshhurtyourealbadbutyoulookokaynowIknewyou'dcomebyandgetsomethingtoeatwhatdoyouwant?" Pinkie asks excitedly. She gives you this huge expectant smile while her bright blue eyes bore a hole to your soul. You have no idea what she said.
>"Pinkie, take a deep breath, and ask me that again. Slowly this time." You request as you eye Pinkie wearily. Your eyes widen in shock as she intakes a comically large breath of air.
>Her body literally inflates, what's going to happen when she let's it all out? When she does you feel the g-force from her exhalation push the skin and hair on your head back.
>When she's back to normal she finds you glaring at her angrily. She giggles before blushing out of embarrassment.
>"Sorry about that Anon I just get super duper excited sometimes!" Despite being sorry she still manages to exhibit this excited behavior. You feel your anger melt away at the site of her smile.
>"So, what brings you by on this bright and sunny day?" Pinkie asks as she steps off of your chest, allowing you to finally stand.
>When you get to your feet and wipe yourself off you answer, "I came by to get some chocolate cupcakes for Twilight. Looking to get a baker's dozen... how many bits is that?"
>As you and Pinkie walk into Sugarcube she says, "That'll be four bits." you reach in to your pocket and pull out the necessary bits.
>When you put them in Pinkie's outstretched hoof she takes off into the kitchen. You have no idea how long it takes to bake that many cupcakes so you decide to just sit and wait at a nearby table.
>As you sit idly you rap your knuckles upon the table top in a repetitive beat in order to pass the time. Your eyes wander around the interior, you spot a few cakes and pies set up in various display cases throughout the ground floor.
>All of them look scrumptious. The cakes seem like they were baked to perfection and the pies smelled heavenly... so tempting... No, you're not going to use Twilight's bits to fill your greedy stomach.
>You don't even feel hungry thanks to Discord's magic. So what if you went without breakfast you'll be getting cupcakes soon enough. Besides why would you want any heart shaped or red icing covered cakes?
>They seem a little too Valentine for your tastes, plus you'd feel a bit silly eating something representing love alone. That reminds you of something very important.
>You make a mental note to be sure to eat and drink at least three times a day so you won't end up having to deal with the sensation of being starved or dehydrated.
>When your eyes get their fill of the sweets on display you turn to look out into P0nyville. The first thing you spot is that same unicorn from earlier.
>This time it's looking at you through a privacy hedge bordering a nearby building. It's got a pair of binoculars and the p0ny is looking at you through them.
>Is this p0ny serious? Half it's body is protruding from the hedge... and how is it holding binoculars in it's hooves? You narrow your eyes and lean in, making it obvious that you know the unicorn is there.
>It seems to gasp in pure horror before fumbling the binoculars in its hooves. The unicorn glows mint green for a split second before disappearing from sight
>Unfortunately it didn't get a good grip on it's binoculars so they were left to hit the ground. Suddenly it teleports back to grab its binoculars. Then it teleports away again.
>You sigh before shaking your head. What an odd little p0ny, hopefully it'll stop spying on you since you caught it in the act. Yeah and Fluttershy will stop being a cunt...
>Your attention is drawn to the sound of a box being placed upon your table. You turn to find Pinkie Pie beaming at you from the side. How she's managing to balance on her hind hooves is amazing you to say the least.
>"Enjoy your cupcakes!" Pinkie says with cheer before opening the box and showing you that your cupcakes seem to reflect the overall theme the other baked goods are showing off.
>Red icing in the shape of a heart with pink and white sprinkles cover the tops of the chocolaty goodness now in your possession. This prompts the following question out of you.
>"Pinkie, what's with all the hearts?" you ask as you look to the pink p0ny. Pinkie gasps in shock, her body begins to float from the intake of air that came about her gasp.
>When she finally stops she hits the ground and asks, "How can you not know about Hearts and Hooves Day?!" she asks while looking over you as if you've lost your mind.
>"Because I'm new here. What is it like Valentine's Day or something?" you ask as you examine one of the cupcakes in your right hand.
>"What's Valentine's Day?" Pinkie asks, tilting her head in confusion as she does so. You explain to her what that day means and she nods in understanding.
>"That's just like Hearts and Hooves Day!" Pinkie exclaims before becoming giddy with excitement.
>"So what is that today or something?" you ask as you take a bite of your chocolate treat. Immediately an explosion of flavor delights your taste buds. A combination of chocolate and cherry...
>You look in the cupcake to find that Pinkie baked pit-less cherries right into the cupcake. Despite the icing also having a cherry flavor as well it doesn't overpower the chocolate of the cupcake itself.
>You eat the rest of it without a second thought. Pinkie giggles over your lazy smile as you slowly chew the rest of your treat in order to savor the flavor.
>"They're that good huh?" she asks, you nod in response. "And no Hearts and Hooves Day isn't today silly filly. It's the day after tomorrow! We're getting a head start!" Pinkie says happily as she takes a seat across from you.
>"So... Anon, do you have a special somep0ny for Hearts and Hooves Day?" Pinkie asks, you notice her eyes become half lidded and she gives you a seductive grin.
>You decide to ignore her gestures, the thought of getting with an alien p0ny is in fact alien to you. Hopefully Pinkie won't press the matter any further. Besides she's probably just being... well... her.
>You shake your head before pointing to the window, "No I don't but judging from the way this unicorn keeps spying on me I might as well go ahead and say I have one."
>You turn your head to where your pointing to find that the mint green unicorn has returned. This time it's wearing a tan overcoat and a fedora, along with a pair of sunglasses. It's sitting upon a bench.
>Despite wearing sunglasses you can tell it's staring at you, it's got a pen and notepad and it's scribbling away furiously, occasionally glancing between you and its notepad as it does so.
>When it notices you and Pinkie staring at it, it panics before throwing the pen and notepad in some random direction. Then it picks up a newspaper that was lying next to it and opens it.
>It's a poor attempt at hiding, it doesn't help that the unicorn glances around the side of the open newspaper to see if you're still looking its way.
>You sigh in annoyance before turning back to Pinkie, "Pinkie Pie, who's that and why is that p0ny staring at me?" Pinkie turns back to you and answers.
>"That's Lyra Hearstrings one of many mares that stay here in P0nyville... and I dunno maybe she finds you interesting." Pinkie states happily. "Riiiight." you say before grabbing the box of cupcakes and standing.
>"I'm gonna go now... thanks for the cupcakes Pinkie." as you turn around and head to the front door you hear Pinkie call out from behind you.
>"You're welcome! Come again!" Pinkie shouts as she waves goodbye to you. You close the door behind you and set off on your journey back to the treebrary.
>But before you go, you decide to try to get to the bottom of this spying thing. You approach Lyra as she pretends to read the newspaper in her hooves.
>"Excuse me Lyra?" you ask as you walk over to Lyra's bench. Lyra doesn't look up from her newspaper.
>"Yeah what's up I'm kinda busy at... the... moment..." she says as she looks from behind the paper to find you approaching her.
>She cries out in surprise before scrambling away from you. She runs in the opposite direction of you, she doesn't take her eyes off of you as she runs. That turns out to be a mistake.
>When she finally turns around to see where she's going she runs face first into the side of a building. She stands there for a moment before slowly sliding onto her belly.
>You see stars swirl around her head as she lies there in an attempt to recover from her self inflicted injury. You use this as an opportunity to get close to her.
>When you get within five feet of her she's back on her hooves. She looks to find you right there near her. Before you can say anything she decides to teleport away.
>"Hey wait a... never mind." you say in disappointment. You eyes scan over the pair of broken sunglasses and tan fedora she left behind.
>Before you can reach out to grab them a blur of gray comes running out of nowhere. Whatever it was manages to swipe the sunglasses and fedora before speeding away.
>You hear the gray blur shout, "THOSE ARE MINE YOU BRUTE!" before disappearing from sight. You growl in anger before looking to the sky and shouting to no one in particular.
>"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE P0NIES ARE THEY ALL CRAZY?!" your voice carries throughout the town and some passing by p0nies stop to look to you, more out of confusion than fear.
>When your small shouting match with the sky ends you look around you to find that you've drawn a crowd. You take a few deep breaths to calm your nerves before speaking to them.
>"Sorry about that p0nies. Just a little angry, nothing to see here." You wave a hand at them dismissively before heading off in the direction of Twilight's treebrary.
>A few p0nies shrug their withers before going about their daily lives. None seemed too put off by your anger, after all they've seen worse.
>Before you came along they had utter chaos to deal with day in and day out. In fact, some p0nies have started thinking that you're the reason why a good half of the chaotic problems have ceased.
>That's why they approach you openly, that's why some say good morning to you. It's too bad nop0ny has actually told you that as of yet.
>After a good ten to fifteen minutes of walking Twilight's treebrary finally comes into view. Fortunately the unicorn isn't following you anymore, or she's just gotten better at keeping herself hidden.
>Regardless not feeling as if you've been put on display is a good one indeed. You open Twilight's door and walk in to find her sitting at a nearby table reading one of her many books.
>The noise of you opening her door causes her to turn your way. She flashes you a smile before shutting her book and getting to her hooves.
>"I see you've brought the apology cupcakes." Twilight says happily before levitating the box out of your hands and over to herself.
>"That I have." You retort with a smile and a nod, when she opens the top of the cupcake box via magic she eyes the treats hungrily... then you watch as her determined smile and hungry eyes turn into a look of confusion.
>"Anon, you do realize these are Hearts and Hooves cupcakes right?" Twilight asks as she looks up to you. You nod in response.
>"Yeah Pinkie said something about getting a head start on the holiday." you state with a shrug as you walk over to Twilight.
>You reach in and grab a cupcake, unlike the first one you ate back at Sugarcube Corner you don't take the time to savor the flavor of this particular sweet.
>As you eat, you can't help but think of the two p0nies who've made their mark on you today. Lyra the Stalkercorn and the gray greedy blur of fur. Maybe Twilight can shed some light upon them.
>"Hey Twilight. I ran into a few new p0nies today." You tell her as you finish gulping down the bits of chocolate cupcake that remained in your maw.
>"You did? who?" Twilight asks as she wipes her mouth of the bits of chocolate from her cupcake. As you tell her about how Lyra was acting, and about the gray p0ny calling you a brute the two of you walk to the purple cushioned couch Twilight has set up on the far side of her library.
>When the two of you take a seat she speaks up, "I have no idea why Lyra's like that. She seems so open and cheery that's unlike her... perhaps she finds you interesting?" You shrug your shoulders in response.
>"Pinkie said the same thing, what about the p0ny that swiped her stuff?" As you wait for Twilight to answer you cross your right leg over your left knee for comfort.
>"That's Rarity... the town's fashion unicorn. I'd call her a tailor but she'd probably say something about how uncouth that name sounds or something." Twilight doesn't seem to pleased to be talking about her.
>"She used to be so caring and generous... now she's a complete jerk!" Twilight shouts angrily before casting a hateful glance at her bookshelf. Seems like a lot of p0nies are jerks lately. Or maybe it's just Fluttershy who knows?
>"Wait... so she wasn't always a greedy thief?" You ask before taking another cupcake. You feel as though you'll grow addicted to these things if you don't stop sometime soon. Twilight nods.
>"No... she, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash all used to be such nice p0nies... until Discord came in and screwed everything up." Twilight says while casting her eyes to the floor.
>Wait Rainbow Dash? That's the first time you've heard that name. Twilight only gave you the basics and Discord hasn't given you anything at all as far as information goes... maybe it's time to get more educated.
>"So... that means Discord only messed with you, Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy?" you ask as you turn your attention to Twilight. Twilight shakes her head.
>"No he's messed with other p0ny's personalities as well... but the influence on them wore off over time. The six of us don't have that luxury." Twilight states as she digs into another cupcake.
>"And why is that?" you ask as you wipe your chocolate crumb covered hand on your shirt. Twilight turns to you.
>"Because Anonymous, the six of us are the only ones capable of wielding the Elements of Harmony. The Elements are the only thing capable of beating Discord... that's why we're like this..." Twilight explains as she finishes off yet another cupcake.
>That's a new title you've never heard of before... And if what Twilight says is true then why would Discord be happy with you making friends with those he wants out of commission?
>From what you've seen, when you befriend a gray p0ny they become their natural pastel color and no longer act as Discord dictates.
>Isn't that counter productive for the chimera who gave you a new life? This bit of new information alone does little to keep your curious mind from asking the following...
>"Twilight... what are the Elements of Harmony?" You ask as you put the cupcake you were holding back into the box. Food can wait, you need answers... maybe this will shed some light on the thing in charge.