For once, Sunset Shimmer had decided to forgo her usual weekend ritual of spending Saturday morning watching cartoons aimed at preteens; there was simply too much on her mind to indulge in any sort of escapism. She’d spent most of the previous day trying to sort out Penumbra’s claim that she was actually “The Nightmare,” and she still wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. By all rights, it should have been a non-issue: Nightmare Moon was Luna, and Penumbra was nothing like the Vice Principal. Well, beyond her tendency to come off as stiff and unapproachable... and the fact that both seemed to have a natural rapport with Rarity....
Sunset shook her head rapidly. There was no time for such pointless speculation. Magic was so inefficient in this world that shape-shifting was, in theory at least, impossible, so Princess Luna would undoubtedly look like Vice Principal Luna had she traveled through the mirror. But then again, Penumbra had called herself “The Nightmare,” not “Nightmare Moon,” and as far as Sunset could remember, there was no record of Luna using that particular name during her rebellion—nor had Celestia ever used the name to describe Nightmare Moon.
Sunset groaned as she paced about her empty home. This was no time to travel down paths of mere speculation; she had to stick to things that could be verified, and right now, she needed to figure out which member of the team Celestia had sent was actually in charge of the operation. Obviously, Penumbra was the top candidate at the moment, if only because Pinkie Pie seemed too spacey to lead a tour group in Celestia’s castle, much less a semi-covert attempt to retrieve something as important as the Element of Magic. Sure, Pinkie was the one trying to win the Fall Formal, but that was probably just because she had the outgoing personality needed to actually pull it off.
But this “Discord” person was another matter entirely. Sunset had initially thought that he might be some sort of golem sent to pose as Pinkie and Penumbra’s father, but a brief meeting with Principal Celestia threw that into question. Apparently, she hadn’t noted anything stilted about his personality... but then again, the principal was also somewhat susceptible to mind control, so long as one was subtle about it, so she might have missed the usual “Uncanny Valley” signals that golems normally gave off. And there was also the matter of his alleged name to consider...
He couldn’t be that Discord... could he? Sunset immediately dismissed the notion. There was no way he could be the thing from Celestia’s sculpture garden. After all, if the Princess hadn’t been willing to let Sunset’s relatively minor infractions slide, there was no way in Tartarus that she could ever be willing to forgive someone who had tried to usurp her crown. “Discord” had to be a code name. Indeed, that might also explain Penumbra’s odd claim about being “The Nightmare.” It was quite possible that they were using code names for some reason or another, and they’d decided to go with an “Equestria’s Worst Villains” theme. Of course, she’d never heard of anypony named “Pinkie Pie” running amok and terrorizing the populace, but that hardly mattered. If “Discord” was a real pony, then it was quite possible that he was staying in the background while pulling all the strings.
The fact remained, however, that all her ideas about Discord were based on speculation and secondhand accounts. Once Sunset realized this, her course of action was clear: she needed to observe him for herself to figure out what was going on. Sunset grabbed her leather jacket and headed out the door, determined to find her rivals’ putative father.
———————
As was usually the case, Fluttershy’s social calendar had been completely empty on the day of the initial campaign meeting, but that hadn’t stopped her from worrying about arriving late. After all, this wasn’t just a chance to help out a new friend, but if Rainbow Dash showed up, it would be a chance to reconnect with an old one. This nervous unease was complemented by an equal amount of fretting over the possibility of arriving early and having to make small talk when Pinkie Pie wasn’t present. In the end, she’d decided that her best bet was to aim for punctuality, so she arrived at the meeting place in the park precisely at one o’clock, only to discover that most of Pinkie’s other friends had already arrived and were sitting on a blanket near a small copse of trees.
Fortunately, Pinkie Pie spotted Fluttershy before her social awkwardness could kick in and waved her over to the group. “I’m so glad you could make it!” Pinkie exclaimed after jumping to her feet and embracing Fluttershy in a tight hug.
“It... um, it was no problem.”
“Super!” Pinkie said. “Well, let’s get you introduced to everyone. First, there’s my twin sister Penumbra.”
The dark blue girl sitting next to Pinkie extended her hand, and Fluttershy shook it. “Um, pleased to meet you,” Fluttershy said somewhat nervously.
“Likewise,” Penumbra replied, though she didn’t bother altering her scowl.
“Don’t worry, she always acts grumpy, even when she’s in a good mood,” Pinkie explained. “Penny’s weird like that—though I shouldn’t be calling her ‘Penny,’” she hastily added before Penumbra could voice her usual interjection. The introductions continued: “Next there’s Rarity. She’s a junior like you, but I’m sure you already knew that.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Rarity said with a broad smile. “I believe we have a history class together, though I don’t think we’ve ever had a proper conversation.”
“Oh, um, no,” Fluttershy said nervously. “Uh, I mean, yes, we have a class together, but no, we haven’t really talked.” Indeed, at one sentence apiece, this was already the longest conversation Fluttershy had ever had with a student as popular as Rarity.
“And finally, there’s Applejack, who’s a sophomore like me,” Pinkie finished.
“Howdy,” Applejack said as she smiled and tipped her cowboy hat.
“Applejack,” Fluttershy repeated blankly. It seemed to take her a second or so to fully process what she’d just heard. She might have been an introverted loner, but even she knew about the feud between Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “You invited Applejack?” she finally asked Pinkie with an obviously worried look in her eye.
Before Pinkie could answer, however, Applejack jumped in with her own response. “There somethin’ wrong with wantin’ ta help out a friend?” She squinted her eyes distrustfully at this newcomer.
Fluttershy’s attempted recovery managed to be even more awkward than her initial flub. “Um, well, you see, it’s just that I, um, didn’t expect to see you here, because Pinkie kind of said I’ve have a chance to catch up with... um... somebody else.”
Applejack pushed back her hat and scratched her head. “What in tarnation is that s’posed ta mean?”
Before Fluttershy could dig herself any deeper, the real answer made itself abundantly clear. “What the hell is she doing here?!” Rainbow Dash had just arrived, and unfortunately, the first thing she’d done was to make eye contact with her nemesis.
“I could ask the same thing,” Applejack said angrily as she jumped to her feet.
“I can’t believe you’d want to listen to a thing this self-righteous redneck has to say!” Rainbow Dash shouted in Pinkie Pie’s general direction as she continued glaring at Applejack.
“The hell you talkin’ about, ‘self-righteous’?!” Applejack snarled.
“You always go on about how much better your family is. ‘Mah parents work hard, and they need mah help. I can’t meet you then, mah family needs me to sort apples. Mah family’s better than those two fags who live at your house.’” Rainbow Dash accompanied her over-the-top accent with some sort of head-wiggle that managed to seem derisive, despite the fact that Applejack had yet to do anything that looked like that.
“I never said anythin’ like that!” Applejack shouted, catching the attention of a few passers-by.
“Only because you didn’t have the guts to say it to my face!”
Applejack crossed her arms. “I ain’t never said nuthin’ like that to nobody! I don’t say anythin’ unless I know it’s true.”
“Then why do you keep telling people I’m a self-absorbed slacker?” Dash asked, emphasizing her words by spreading her arms as wide as possible.
“Because ya are a self-absorbed slacker!” Applejack retorted. “I ended up doin’ all the work on that project!”
“You never let me have a chance! You just walked into class two days before it was due, gave me the stinkeye, and said you’d already done everything!”
“Because you obviously weren’t going to do it! I kept tryin’ ta set up a time to meet, but it was always stuff with your stupid soccer team!”
Rainbow Dash looked utterly flabbergasted by such a blatantly insensitive statement. “That was important!”
Applejack shook her head dismissively. “Sports are extracurricular! By definition, they ain’t as important as homework!”
“Then why didn’t you try to meet up on a day when I was free?”
“I had to do work on the farm.”
“Ha! Isn’t that ‘extracurricular’?”
“Hell, no! That’s family business, and family’s the most important thing there is. Don’t you try an’ act like I’m on your level. You’re the one who’s at fault here.” Applejack jabbed a finger at Rainbow Dash’s chest for emphasis.
Rainbow Dash immediately stepped back, brushed off her shirt where Applejack had prodded her, and put her hands on her hips. “You never gave me a chance to do my part!”
Applejacklet out a derisive snort. “We had a month to do the project, and three weeks in, you’d barely even started! It seemed pretty damned obvious that you were going to put it off until the last minute, and there was no way I was gonna let my grades suffer because you were procrastinating.”
“There were two whole days left,” Rainbow Dash insisted through gritted teeth.
“Ain’t no way you’d have finished in two days.”
“You don’t know me! When I start working, I work fast!”
“Maybe you don’t care if your work is sloppy—”
“Will you two please just shut up for two seconds?!” Penumbra suddenly boomed. For a second or two, Fluttershy forgot about the argument, largely because she was wrapped up in amazement at Penumbra’s deceptively powerful set of lungs. More importantly, it seemed that Rainbow Dash and Applejack had similar reactions: both sophomores were currently staring at her, mouths agape and quiet. “I believe Pinkie Pie can explain why she asked both of you here if you give her a chance,” Penumbra finished in her usual volume.
“Thanks, Penumbra,” Pinkie said. “Basically, there’s two reasons why I asked both of you to come here today, despite the fact that you obviously don’t like each other. First of all, as much as I might wish that I could get named Fall Formal Princess by being super-happy and cheerful to everybody in school, there’s no way that’s happening, especially since I’m a new student here. I’m going to need all the help I can get, which is why I asked all the friends I’ve made so far to help out. And yes, that means I consider both of you to be my friends, despite all the nasty things you say about each other.
“Actually, that’s a really nice segue to my other reason for getting the two of you here: Neither one of you seem to match the description the other gives. Rainbow Dash doesn’t seem self-absorbed at all to me; it seems more like she just gets really focused on one thing, and then it’s hard to divert her attention somewhere else. And Applejack doesn’t seem bigoted to me at all; she’s just really blunt with her opinions, to the point where she can sometimes sound insensitive.”
From the glares on their faces, it was obvious that neither Applejack nor Rainbow Dash was thrilled with Pinkie’s description, but both remained silent, which Pinkie apparently decided was a signal to continue. “Okay, from what I’ve heard so far, this whole thing started when you two were assigned to work on a project together. Now, Rainbow Dash claimed that Applejack got impatient and did all the work, which just resulted in a lot of resentment on the part of both of you. But,” Pinkie quickly added when she noticed that Applejack seemed ready to launch her rebuttal, “this little shouting match give the impression that Applejack thought that Rainbow was procrastinating, and she was worried that this would drag down her grade as a result. But A.J., if that had been the case, couldn’t you have just told the teacher about it? Don’t most teachers take that sort of thing into account when grading group projects?”
Applejack sighed. “It ain’t that simple. Most of the grade was gonna come from the presentation in front of the class, and we agreed to split things up half-and-half. Rainbow Dash was gonna handle the first part, and I was gonna do the second part. But that meant that I had to know exactly what she was gonna cover so I wouldn’t end up repeatin’ stuff, which meant that I wasn’t gonna be able to finish until I knew for certain what was in her half.”
“Then why the hell didn’t you just tell me what you needed ahead of time?!” Rainbow Dash shouted.
“I did. That’s what I gave you. It was a list of all the things I needed you to cover, arranged in an outline so you could plug whatever extra stuff you wanted to add in. What I didn’t expect was that you wouldn’t add any research of your own! You just explained everything on the outline in the longest way you could think of to fill up time until it was my turn!”
“You never told me that!”
“I did so! I said, ‘Here’s everything I need you to cover’ when I gave you the outline, and you just stomped off before I could say anythin’ else!”
“That’s not what you said!” Rainbow Dash insisted.
“Oh yeah? Then just what did I say?”
“I... er... don’t remember exactly... but you were definitely acting all superior when you said it, because you were talking about your family.”
“Well, yeah. We were getting towards the major part of the harvest, and that meant that there was absolutely no way I’d be able to meet with you before the project was due.”
At this point, Pinkie clapped her hands cheerfully. “That’s it! We’ve found the problem! Well, the obvious one, at least.”
“Huh?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking genuinely confused. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, obviously, this whole thing is just a big ol’ misunderstanding. Applejack told you what she needed you to cover, and you thought she was saying that there was no need to cover anything else, so you didn’t bother adding to it.”
Rainbow Dash seemed taken aback by this assertion. “Hey, I did so add to it... it’s just that the way she laid it out made so much sense that it didn’t seem like there was any point in going off on any tangents.”
Pinkie was practically beaming. “Did you just say something nice about Applejack? Hey, A.J., I think Rainbow Dash just complimented you.”
“That was not a compliment!” Rainbow Dash insisted. “She was being all high-and-mighty when she did it!”
“That, or she was just really stressed out because of the harvest, so she wasn’t able to really get the point across that she was trying to help,” Pinkie said.
“Er... that ain’t exactly true,” Applejack sheepishly admitted. “I pretty much did finish all the parts I needed her to cover for my half, mostly because I didn’t think she would finish.”
“Ha!” Rainbow exclaimed. “You see?”
“Okay, look, I’m sorry I didn’t trust you to finish,” Applejack said. “But at the same time, you coulda taken some time out of your schedule to actually explain how you were gonna approach the whole thing, because I got the distinct impression that you were just gonna wing it.”
“That’s what I was going to do,” Rainbow Dash said. “It’s always worked for me before. But whatever, now that I’ve finally won this argument—”
“I wouldn’t say you’ve won it, though,” Pinkie said. “After all, in group projects, there’s supposed to be some give and take so that everyone can work together. It sounds like you were all take and no give, even before A.J. gave you that outline. I mean, couldn’t you at least have shown her your notes or something so she’d know you’d gotten started?”
Rainbow Dash blushed. “Uh, well, actually, I hadn’t started... um... and I guess I probably would have been in trouble if Applejack hadn’t done all the heavy lifting. I sort of underestimated how much there was to the subject.”
“And what do we say when we realize we did something wrong?” Pinkie prodded.
Rainbow Dash let out a sigh. “I’m sorry, Applejack.”
“So, are you willing to call a truce to help me out?”
“Pinkie, I am not just going to suddenly be her friend out of the blue,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Yeah, the last twelve months or so ain’t just gonna go away like that,” Applejack agreed with a snap of her fingers.
“I’m not asking you to be BFFs, I just want to you guys to try to work together, because, like I said, I need all the help I can get.”
Rainbow Dash sighed again and looked over at Applejack. “Truce?” she offered, extending her hand somewhat reluctantly.
With equal reluctance, Applejack shook it. “Truce.”
Pinkie jumped into the air, clapping her hands in joy. “Great! Well, now that you’ve both admitted that you aren’t completely horrible people, maybe we can actually get this meeting started. Rainbow Dash, you’ve met Penumbra, but Rarity and Fluttershy are here to help out as well.”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as she took note of who else was present. “Fluttershy?! Oh, jeez, I can’t believe I didn’t even notice you. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s alright, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said.
“No, it isn’t. We were best friends in grade school, but I completely ignored you so I could have that shouting match. Crud, maybe I really am self-absorbed.”
“Can we get started before Rainbow thinks of someone else she needs to apologize to?” Penumbra said. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, and we still don’t know where to begin.”
“Au contraire, my dear Penumbra,” Rarity said with an amused smirk. “The road to Pinkie’s election was just cleared for us moments ago, and we all bore witness to it.”
“Uh, I’m not sure I’m following you there, Rarity,” Pinkie said as she scratched her head.
“My dear, do you realize what you’ve managed to accomplish here today? Thanks to several rather public outbursts between Rainbow Dash and Applejack over the last year, everyone in Canterlot High knows about the intensity of their feud. Why, it even eclipses my own rivalry with Sunset Shimmer, which is saying quite a bit. Yet not only did you convince these two to set aside their differences for a common cause, but that cause is your election as Fall Formal Princess! I would say that this alone makes you the ideal Canterlot student, regardless of how long you’ve actually been attending. Once word of this spreads, your candidacy will be seen as legitimate overnight!”
“Really?” Rainbow Dash said. “So does that mean we won’t actually have to do anything?”
“Er, not exactly,” Rarity replied, her tone becoming considerably more subdued. “You see, your feud is so infamous that hearsay alone won’t be enough to convince the rest of the students. To prove that you have decided to bury the proverbial hatchet, you and Applejack will have to engage in some sort of public demonstration.”
“What?!” Applejack asked. “You can’t be serious. I mean, I’m pretty sure I can ignore her easy enough while stumpin’ for Pinkie, but actually tryin’ ta do somethin’ with her is out of the question.”
Rarity shook her head. “If Pinkie Pie is going to present herself as a peacemaker, the other students will need some evidence that she’s actually made some peace. It needn’t be anything over-the-top; a polite, civil conversation in the hallway will probably suffice.”
“I don’t know,” Rainbow Dash said. “How about the two of us just sort of coexist in the same general area without snapping at each other for a week? That sounds doable.”
“Oh, come on, you’re exaggerating,” Pinkie said. “It can’t be that hard.”
“Pinkie, were you not payin’ attention durin’ our shoutin’ match?” Applejack asked.
Fluttershy wasn’t sure how, but at this point she managed to summon the fortitude to enter the conversation. “Um, I don’t think Rarity’s saying you need to compliment each other. All you need to do is show everyone that you’ve stopped fighting, right? What if you just said hello?”
“Great idea, Fluttershy!” Pinkie said. “Okay, let’s roleplay. Applejack, why don’t you start?”
After a few moments of awkward silence proved that Pinkie wasn’t about to take ‘no’ for an answer, Applejack reluctantly began: “Uh, howdy... Rainbow Dash.”
A few seconds, later, Rainbow Dash responded. “Um, hey, Applejack.”
“Er, how are ya doin’?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Rainbow exclaimed. “We were just talking about hellos here. Nobody said anything about going any further than that.”
“Okay, so it clearly needs some work,” Pinkie said. “But that’s not a problem! We’ve got plenty of time to workshop this before the weekend’s over.”
“What?!” Applejack and Rainbow Dash shouted in unison.
“Just kidding,” Pinkie reassured them with a mischievous smile. “I doubt it’ll take more than fifteen minutes of practice before it starts to sound natural—but if we do that now, the others will probably get really bored waiting for you to finish, so we should probably move on to the next idea. Somehow, I don’t think getting you two to stop sniping at each other is going to be enough.”
“Sadly, you are probably correct,” Rarity said. “Indeed, had Sunset Shimmer not dropped out of the race, I likely would not have been crowned as Fall Formal Princess last year, despite being the self-evidently better candidate. But I digress; we shall definitely require some sort of additional plan to bolster Pinkie’s support.”
“Um... is this where your idea of recruiting the loners and introverts comes in?” Fluttershy asked Pinkie timidly.
“Yepperoonie!” Pinkie said. “Are you up for it?”
Fluttershy stared at the ground as she answered. “I guess I could try, but it’s not like we’re some underground social network. We’re introverts for a reason, after all.”
“Still, it’s probably an audience that Sunset has never bothered trying to reach,” Rarity said.
“More importantly, you can talk to the kind of people who aren’t comfortable with Pinkie’s usual boisterousness,” Penumbra added. “After all, she can be a handful if she catches you by surprise.”
“Yeah, and Pinkie Pie being herself is still going to be central to her getting that silly crown thingie,” Rainbow Dash said. “Assuming you can keep Sunset Shimmer from doing her alpha bitch thing.”
“Leave her to me,” Penumbra said darkly. “I’ve volunteered to run interference to keep her out of Pinkie’s hair, and Rarity’s been giving me advice.”
“Okay, so it sounds like everyone’s got their assignments, then!” Pinkie said. “Well, how about we split up for now, and meet again in a few days to update the plan?”
“Sounds good ta me,” Applejack said. “I need to get back to the farm anyway.”
“Not before you and Rainbow can run through a conversation without sounding like you’re on the verge of tearing each other’s hair out, I hope,” Pinkie said.
“Dang... I was hopin’ you’d forget about that.”
“You and me both,” Rainbow Dash agreed.
———————
Discord found himself once again taking advantage of Donut Joe’s free wi-fi and general atmosphere, pausing between videos of cat owners scaring their pets with cucumbers to take sips from his latte, all the while pretending not to notice that Sunset Shimmer had been watching him for the past fifteen minutes. Even though he’d never actually seen Team Pinkie’s adversary before, the red and yellow streaks in her hair were a dead giveaway—not to mention the fact that Donut Joe greeted her by name when she placed her order. At the moment, she was in a nearby booth, doing her best to look inconspicuous.
For a brief moment, Discord considered texting Pinkie Pie to ask what he ought to do, but he thought better of it. Not only was it likely that Pinkie had her hands full with Rainbow Dash and Applejack at the moment, but odds were good that she would just tell him to do something boring, like not interact with Sunset in any way, shape, or form, which was showing a little too much respect to this wannabe villain for Discord’s taste. More importantly, though, doing nothing would mean passing up a chance to have some fun, and there was no way Discord was going to do that.
Calmly, Discord closed the lid of his laptop, rose from his chair, and walked over towards Sunset, whose eyes grew wide as she realized that her attempt at subterfuge had utterly failed. “Do you mind if I sit down here?” Discord asked with an exceedingly polite smile on his face. Through long experience, he’d discovered that there were few things as unsettling as an unnatural display of manners.
“Uh, yeah, sure,” Sunset said warily.
“So,” Discord said as he slid across from his opponent, “you’re Sunset Shimmer.”
“And you’re called Discord,” she replied.
“At the moment,” Discord said with a nod, knowing full well that Sunset would assume that he was admitting to using an alias.
“And why are you here?”
“Me? Oh, I just do all the assorted things that Pinkie and Penumbra can’t do while they’re at school. You know, this and that. It can be surprisingly interesting.” Discord picked up a packet of sugar and idly manipulated it in his hand for a few seconds before he continued. “And of course, in a pinch, I can provide some emergency backup,” he said as the sugar packet vanished.
“Congratulations,” Sunset Shimmer said, clearly unimpressed. “You’ve gotten used to using fingers, and you’ve figured out some basic sleight of hand.”
Discord chuckled. “Perhaps that’s true,” he said as an Equestrian bit suddenly appeared in his other hand. “Or,” he continued, laying the coin in front of Sunset, “perhaps I want you to think I’m bluffing.”
Sunset glanced at the coin long enough to see Princess Celestia’s profile turn its head and wink playfully at her. As Discord had hoped, this relatively minor display of real magic seemed to throw her off guard. “Did you prepare that ahead of time back in Equestria?”
Discord shrugged his shoulders. “Would you believe me if I said I didn’t?”
Sunset didn’t bother answering. “Why are you even talking to me?”
“Well, you were putting so much effort into your little attempt at surveillance that I figured you deserved something for your trouble. You certainly wouldn’t have gotten anything without my cooperation. Perhaps if you’d have thought to cover that hair of yours with a hat, I wouldn’t have noticed you the moment you walked in, but I suppose that a hairdo that perfect requires a lot of effort to maintain.”
Sunset decided to ignore this comment. “Listen,” she said, lowering the volume of her voice even further, “I don’t know why you’re spending so much effort to recruit this world’s Twilight Sparkle, but I’m going to find out.”
Unfortunately, her tactic of trying to startle information out of Discord with an abrupt subject change failed. “Is that so?” he remarked as he thoughtfully tapped his chin. “Now, I wonder how you managed to learn about that, particularly since Pinkie and Penumbra only met Twilight for the first time yesterday. I suppose it’s theoretically possible for you to have connections at the university, but I’d say it’s far more likely that Twilight told you about this herself.”
“I’m not going to dignify that with a response.”
“Oh, you don’t have to. After all, if you are acquainted with Twilight Sparkle, you’ll more than likely merit a mention somewhere in the archives of her blog, which in turn means that I now have something relatively productive to do for the rest of the afternoon, and for that, I thank you.”
“Do you really think it’s a good idea to be so flippant with me?” Sunset asked as she furrowed her brow in obvious annoyance. “I’ve been exiled here for a reason, after all.”
“True, but then again, you’re hardly the first to fall away from Celestia’s good graces,” Discord said. “But if you play your cards right, she’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself. Probably.”
“Are you telling me to surrender?” Sunset asked in a harsh whisper.
Discord shrugged. “Well, I wouldn’t exactly put it in those terms, mostly because I know full well that you won’t, but a change of heart would certainly make our job much easier.”
“Fat chance.”
“So it’s greater than a slim chance, then? That’s encouraging.”
“That’s not what—”
Discord refused to let Sunset finish her sentence. “Nonetheless, I think you’ll find that that three of us are not to be easily intimidated. We can be quite dangerous ourselves, when we feel the need.”
“Well, I’m not easily intimidated, either,” Sunset replied, jabbing her finger forward. “And you can tell Pinkie and Penny—”
“Don’t call her ‘Penny.’” For the first time in the course of the conversation, all of Discord’s usual glibness departed, and he stared Sunset in the eye, utterly stone-faced.
“Excuse me?”
“Her name is ‘Penumbra,’ not ‘Penny.’ Now, if you will excuse me, I have much to do.” With that, Discord rose, grabbed his laptop and his latte, and exited the coffee shop, leaving behind a decidedly bemused Sunset Shimmer.
Huh. I just happened to finish a new chapter of another story I'm following, and suddenly up pops this new chapter also. Let's read some more...
It's a delight to see Sunset try to figure out what's going on. Sometimes the most entertaining thing you can do with masterminds is to tell them the truth and watch as they go nuts trying to peel back all of the nonexistent layers of deception.
It's kind of disturbing to think of Pinkie stabilizing anything, but she does regulate her friends' relationships very well. This chapter was great demonstration of what happens when the pink fuzzy insulation gets torn out of the friendships we know and love. Moral of the story: Fiberglass is the best imaginary friend. Or something like that.
Eagerly looking forward to more, especially as both sides have some new data to chew over.
aw you gave us all a chapter as a Christmas present!
All this shrugging off of Sunset on the part of our heroes is troubling. We will have to see if she ends up as pointless a villain as she was in the movie or if they really don't know what they are messing with.
Whatever the case one thing that is impressive is making Pinkie organised and even logical while still maintaining her bubbly and random character. That can't be an easy balancing act.
Another enjoyable chapter. Great job.
Oh my. Did something happen between Penumbra and Discord that I forgot about? Discord is very rarely stone-faced. Usually only after pranking Celestia and she gets the Elements.
6761150 I swear to Sun-butt, our glorious immortal goddess of cake and chessmastering that literally started monday with 3 updates in my box, spent the entirety of monday AND tuesday reading, and ended last night with 5 updates in my box. Tis the season, indeed.
6761720
Discord certainly wasn't shrugging off Sunset Shimmer here. He made it pretty clear that he's going to use what she unintentionally revealed to him. Of course, he's not actually taking her seriously, but he never takes *anybody* seriously.
I'm just impressed with how well Pinkie and Penumbra are doing with using human terms instead of pony terms i.e. Everyone.
6761906 I disagree, it's clear that he doesn't consider her a threat.
Using someones mistakes against them does not equal respect for an adversary
Like penumbra, Discord views this whole mission as in the bag and I can't blame them. The way Sunset has behaved so far leaves her as little more than an inconvenience. The fact that Sunset still has no clue who anyone is and Discord clearly came out on top of this confrontation is not making for much of a conflict.
The authors previous stories make me believe that things will get better. As things stand for now though I'm worried Sunset will be an ineffective mean girl like she was in the movie, and that was the worst part of the movie for me.
6761674
Pink fiberglass horse is best horse?
6762147
Similarly, lack of respect for an adversary doesn't equal "shrugging them off." Discord isn't taking her seriously, because that's just how he is, but he also isn't ignoring her or treating victory as a fait accompli. Also, in the previous chapter, Penumbra got pretty rattled when her attempt at intimidation didn't work the way she expected. That makes it a fairly safe bet both that Sunset Shimmer isn't going to be a pushover, and that Penubra at least won't expect her to be.
6761720
6761906
Neither did Penumbra, for that matter. When Sunset reacted in an unexpected way to what she said she got perhaps even more worried about it than was warranted.
6761812
1. They're kinda pals, and Penumbra doesn't like to be called Penny. He's doing both parties a favor here.
2. It might mess with Sunset's head. He's doing himself a favor, too!
Hopefully Sunset doesn't catch on she can use 'Penny' to throw a half-step in Penumbra's party wagon.
Awesome chapter.
But what definition of bemused did you mean?
It sounds like the proper one would fit [bewildered / confused]. But a lot of people use it to mean, mildly amused, nowadays.
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Still it was awesome seeing Discord toy with Sunset Shimmer. You make a rather amusing Discord.
I'd say you pulled off that argument pretty well, and that's coming from someone who can't stand conflict (in life, not necessarily in literature if it's in character).
Yay! It updated! And it's still good!
Typo:
"have chance"
6763400 - The traditional definition, though depending on how you interpret the next few chapters, the more recent definition may apply as well...
6763684
Sweet! And yes, Discord has that effect on sapients in general. In both sides of the board.
Oh! And Merry Xmas.
6762683 I'm just not getting any of what you guys apparently are. They seem to view the popularity contest at school as more of a hurdle to overcome than Sunset. I don't understand why you feel they find her the least bit a threat just because they are aware of her in the most minimal sense possible. They have made no effort to contain or even learn anything about her (the first and only thing learned by them about Sunset is just something she let slip to Discord in this chapter, not something they sought out.). I find all the protagonists to have a very 'meh' attitude about the whole thing. Hell I'm pretty sure Pinkie is far more concerned with what Discord might do than Sunset.
And I'm pretty sure when Penumbra says she is going to play interference with Sunset, it isn't with any expectation that there would actually be trouble. After all she already stood up to Sunset both publicly and in private and nothing happened. So why would any of them feel threatened by her?
My guess is that they are intended to be treating this more lightly than they should though. It's possible Sunset will pull out the stops at some point and knock all their overconfident butts off balance. If the way Trixie was handled in the last story showed me anything it's that a seemingly lame Antagonist can surprise you.
6762398 All I can say to that is agree to disagree. From where I stand not taking a threat seriously and 'shrugging them off' mean the exact same thing. You do have a point that Discord tends to treat all adversaries that way. I mentioned him more because he makes 3 for 3 in characters not troubled by the stories antagonist, not so much because it's out of character for him specifically.
I just want to mention these are just my feelings and how I interpret the story so far. I'm not trying to tell anyone that they have to feel the same. I'm not angry, not shouting, and I respect your opinion even if I don't see it that way
6765543 I guess I don't really know what you figure they should be doing about Sunset that they aren't. In her current state, they have good reason to believe she is not a threat magically speaking. Her mundane threat level is unknown, but they have gathered as much intelligence as can be gotten from talking to students at Canterlot (via Rarity). I concede that they could have organized surveillance on her, but that kind of dedicated stalking would consume a large amount of time (especially given their small pool of personnel) and could conceivably draw the attention of authority figures (Sunset calls the cops).
As for Penumbra not genuinely expecting Sunset to be capable of causing problems, I would argue, firstly, that that is sheer speculation, and secondly, that it is contradicted by how worried she got when Sunset's reaction surprised her.
I will say, though, that none of the above precludes her throwing them a curveball. So that particular expectation may yet be right after all.
6765543
I will not agree to disagree on whether water is wet. If they were "shrugging her off", they would be discounting her entirely. They would be assuming she was no obstacle at all. They haven't been doing that, therefore they are not "shrugging her off".
Furthermore, you can't even claim that they aren't taking her seriously. Discord isn't, but Penumbra has been since first bumping into her back in chapter 4. And she was particularly rattled just in the previous chapter when Sunset Shimmer didn't intimidate the way Penumbra expected her to. As for Pinkie, she's focused more on her part of the competition rather than dealing with Sunset Shimmer directly. But even she acknowledged that she found Sunset Shimmer intimidating when they first met back in chapter 6, and back in chapter 5 she was pretty fast to assume that Sunset Shimmer was some evil mastermind who tore their friends' relationships apart. So who, besides Discord, isn't taking her seriously?
Honestly, I have to wonder what story you're reading, if you really don't notice any of this.
Everyone seems to have missed this, but this Sunset Shimmer apparently didn't break up the Rainbooms friendships. Whether that means she's smarter or just more self-absorbed, I'm not sure.
6769742 - I'm pretty sure I addressed this in the story, but to be clear, Sunset didn't break up the friendships because for the most part, they weren't there in the first place. The only two of them who had been friends at one point were Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, and their friendship just sort of fizzled out rather than having a definite "end."
6773423 Ah, ok. I thought Rainbow Dash and Applejack used to be friends and that is why they worked together on this project in the first place, but I guess they got assigned together.
Thanks for explaining it!
Discord has the complete works of Noel Coward, and is a fan of Jeeves and Wooster?
Variations on a theme of freindship conflict are tricky, but usually the first step is the trickiest?
Now Im trying t think of an appropiate shape of hair for Sunset that can have a hat. Chef, Beehive, Marge Simpson, Montgolfier?
That may be so, but it's definitely more entertaining. Thanks for taking to time and effort to make them interesting.
Everyone thinks of humanized Discord as a gaunt, thin person. However, in his discussion with Sunset, hearing his lines in my head makes me try to picture him more as an animated version of John deLancie. It's not easy picturing deLancie with Discord's beard type, so my brain keeps switching back and forth between the two versions.
6785140
Well he was stated as being thin. But gaunt, I don't think that. More likely I see him as a more elegantly dressed version of:
pre15.deviantart.net/71ee/th/pre/f/2012/225/b/1/discord_h_by_maniacpaint-d5b04ig.jpg
source.
Good point Pinkie Pie.