Enjoy!

It was morning and Flash Sentry, Shining Armor, and Discord had made it to what was left of Discord's house.

"Wow, what a dump!" Armor spoke of what was left of Discord's things.

"Let's see what you think when someone steals your whole house."

Armor got out a notebook and pen with his powers and wrote.

'"Discord is a slob'."

"I agree with Discord." Flash said. "You're just being mean."

"'Discord is good at decorating'."

"That's not even a thing!" Armor argued.

"Celestia said it's my job is to help Discord and that's what I'm doing."

"I actually AM a good decorator. When I have my powers, that is." Discord said matter-of-factly.

"And so it begins." Discord said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well, which way do you wanna go?" Twilight asked Fluttershy. "Both ways are very dangerous to this 'Mix-and-Match Mountain' place."

"I would go to the Everfree Forest, which is where Discord lives, but there's a lot more monsters in there! Oh, and Discord took down the yellow brick road, so I'm pretty sure he doesn't expect us to follow him." Fluttershy figured out.

"Ghastly Gorge it is, than! Are you hungry, by the way?" Twilight asked.

"Yes. I could go for a carrot or two. They're my pet Angel Bunny and mine's favorite."

"Let's see what Pinkie packed us."

Twilight opened up the bag she had been carrying.

"Oh, Pinkie! Cup cakes?"

"What's wrong with cup cakes, Twilight"?

"Nothing. I wanted nutritious snacks for the road to keep our strength up, but I guess I should've expected this. Want one?"

"No. You're right. We need our strength."

"I'll have just one bite, than." Twilight said as she filled her mouth. "Mmth. "Gmod."

Soon, they came to the gorge.

"Ready? Twilight asked her Flutteshy.

"N-Nope." Fluttershy said as she shook in fear. "But I'll come. I NEED to come!" she said with a changed self-confidence.

"Let's go, than. For our friends!"

"For our friends!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Remind me why we're going in THIS direction? The Everfree Forest?" Armor asked Discord.

"You should've said so earlier. If you're scared, we could go back." Discord said as he gave a toothy grin.

"I'm not scared. I'm pretty nervous, though." Flash admitted.

"We're going this way on purpose." Discord explained. "I know these woods like the back of my claw. I live here. And most of the creatures in these woods attack only if you're invading their territory and they won't bother us unless they feel the need to. Fluttershy told me that, by the way. I know where the creatures live, so stick close to me unless you run into them."

They walked along for a while in silence.

"I'm hungry!" Flash said just then.

"The castle cook cooked us some salad and veggies." Armor said.

"Is THAT what I'm carrying?" Discord complained of the pack on his back.

"Don't start! We're the only ones doing any work, here."

"I prefer cotton candy and chocolate milk, if you didn't already know."

Then they heard a growl.

"Huh?" Flash uttered. "Is that your stomach? It's not mine."

"Nope." Discord said. "MY stomach doesn't go 'growl' It actually goes-."

"-You said you knew where they lived!" Armor lashed.

"I-I can usually sense where they are with my magic, but didn't bother today because I couldn't!" Discord told.

"Diiiissscorrrd!"

Out of the bushes came a monster!

"Timber!" Discord yelled.

"What? Where? Which tree fell over?" Flash asked.

"Not timber. TimberWOLF!"

A timberwolf is a wolf made out of wood.

A lion with wings soon followed.

"A manticore!" yelled Armor.

A big, sparkly bear with stars everywhere came out after.

"An Ursa Major! ...And what is that?"

There was a chicken with wings and a snake body.

"A cockatrice!" Flash yelped.

Discord and Armor looked at each other. Then at Flash.

"What? I can't know about magic creatures, too?" Flash asked.

"But seriously. A giant chicken?" Armor said, unimpressed.

"Um. It can turn you to stone if it look you in the eyes."

"So, what's a powerful creature like that running away from?" Armor wondered.

Buzzing could be heard from behind the bushes.

"What is it, now?" Armor asked, getting ready to cast a spell.

"Whatever it is, it must be terrifying to scare all those animals!" Flash followed suit by puffing out his wings and chest.

Discord proceeded to fall on the ground, laughing.

"How can you laugh at a time like this?!" Armor said, furiously.

"Just look." Discord pointed.

Out of the bushes came small circular animals with fairy-like double wings. It was blue.

"They're parasprites." Discord explained. "They're another creature Fluttershy told me about. They're harmless."

Then another parasprite came out of the bushes. A pink one. Then it started to eat the bush. Then a green one popped out of the pink ones's mouth. Then purple. Until a whole swarm of colors attacked the three equines.

"Except when they multiply." Discord said a whisper.

The swarm caught him.

Armor shot stun spells at swarm.

Flash flew way up into the sky, then grabbed a cloud to drench the parsprites with.

"HEY! There's too many!" Discord complained. "Neither of those things will work! And worse. You'll hit ME!"

"We're goners!" yelled Flash.

"Nope. They'll just eat everything we packed." Discord explained.

"Well, what are we supposed to do?!" Armor yelled.

"Sing!"

"What?!"

"SING!"

"What can I sing on such short notice?!"

Off in the distance, the group heard humming.

"Grab me and follow that humming!" Discord yelled, stuck in the swarm.

Flash ran until he bowled over the parasprites and Discord over and held Discord while he flew.

"Y-You're heavy."

"Ahem!"

"Sorry. Hefty."

"Whatever." Discord said with a roll of his eyes. "I wish I could REALLY roll my eyes."

They came across a frothy river off in the distance.

"You can put me down, now." Discord said.

"Oh. Sorry again." Flash apologized.

Flash let Discord down and they were now at the river.

To the three's startled eyes was the creature's black eyes, an orange mane with yellow streaks, and purple scales. It also happened to have a curly, purple mustache.

He appeared to be holding a bar of soap. And humming.

"He seems friendly." Flash commented.

"He is. Twili told me about him." Armor explained. "He's a sea serpent."

The sea serpent stopped humming and let out a shriek.

The equines covered their ears.

"WHAT IS HIS PROBLEM?!" Armor screamed.

"You three are watching me bath NAKED!"

"You mean you wear clothes, normally?"

"WHAT?! I THINK I LOST MY HEARING WHEN HE YELLED!" Flash yelped, still holding his ears.

Amor zapped his ears.

"Flash?"

"Okay. I feel better, now."

"Ahem?" the serpent brought the three to his attention.

"I don't usually wear clothing, but Rarity promised me something so avant-garde, sooo FABULOUS, I decided to take a longer bath than normal to clear my pores and look my best for when she brings me my new jacket."

"You know Rarity?" Flash asked.

"Indeed."

"Must be a big jacket!"

"Oh, I KNOW!"

"You know, I always wondered what 'avant-garde' means."

"It means experimental, new, fresh, art!"

"I can tell you're Rarity's friend." Discord told the serpent.

"Really, Discord? What gave it away? And yes, I prefer being called that, now."

"You're afraid of being seen naked when you're almost always naked!"

"Hold on! How do you know Discord?" asked Flash. "Did Rarity tell you about him?"

"No, I'm afraid. I wandered into his 'dominion' one day uninvited. Fluttershy was there, of course and told him not to be so mean. Although she also told me not to waltz in there without being invited next time. I bet she wouldn't have left me alone if I was lost and crying.

"So, what brings you here to my literal neck of the woods?"

"Parasprites." Discord said, flatly.

"Ooh, my! Did they follow you here?!"

"Yes, but we think your humming scared them away." Armor said. "Could you please start that up again until we're gone?"

"Certainly!"

The serpent started humming.

"Would you like me to create a bridge out of my body so you can pass?"

"That would be nice."

So, he dove underwater, then made giant loops the three equines could hop across with.

"Is every, uh, creature okay?" asked Flash.

"Yes." said Armor.

"Fine." said Discord.

"Anybody hungry? I am." Flash voiced.

"Let's eat!" Armor said.

"I don't see how any of that can be good. I mean, it's not like it's chocolate milk or cotton candy."

"Quit complaining!" said Armor.

They opened up Discord's pack to find-

"-Absolutely nothing!"

"Hooray!" yelled Discord.

The other two looked angrily at Discord.

"Uh, I mean. Nooo! The parasprites must've ate it all!"

"Time to write down all the bad things you've done over the last few hours." Armor said as he got out his quill pen and notepad.

"'First, Discord complained about our food. Second, Discord failed to tell Shinning Armor and Flash Sentry where the animals were. Third, he refused to let a serpent in his house'."

"Those weren't bad enough to write down! Plus the last one doesn't count because it was a long time ago!"

"Be fair!" Flash defended.

"Fine. But no more complaining, or I'll add THAT to the lit of things."

Discord was about to yell, then regained his composure.

"My turn!" Flash began. "'First, Discord told Shining Armor and Flash Sentry that the parasprites were only after food. Second, Discord used his friendship with a serpent to save Shining Armor and Flash Sentry'."

"That hardly counts as a friendship." Armor pointed out.

"Well, at least you both only said two things." Discord said. "Now, where can we find some food?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle had made it to the Ghastly Gorge in the afternoon.

"Twilight. I really don't think we're going to catch up with Discord and the others." Fluttershy said in worry. "I mean, they left before us."

"Well, we can't turn back, now. We'll waste time getting to them, than. Besides, there's no hurry." Twilight said in an easy-going way.

"How can you say that? They could be in danger!" Fluttershy warned.

"My brother and Flash are both castle guards. And Discord is filled with all that crazy chaos magic. Plus, we've come across more dangerous things than them and made it through. They will, too."

"Oh, I hope so."

They had only walked for a while when something popped out of a hole in the side of the gorge.

"Quarry Eel!" Twilight cried.

A quarry eel is a red-colored eel with white scales and purple fins that live on land.

Fluttershy and Twilight zoomed past it on their wings, only to find another eel.

"Turn back!" yelled Twilight.

"But-"

"TURN BACK!" Twilight demanded of Fluttershy.

"Okay." Fluttershy whispered to herself.

"We need a plan." spoke Twilight as they landed.

"We can't just fly through the gorge and avoid the nests!" Fluttershy reasoned. "We're not fast enough."

"They're diurnal."

"What?"

"It means they're asleep at night and awake during the day. We should sleep during the morning then stay up at night."

"I don't know, Twili! I'd rather continue on with no sleep. And WHERE will we sleep, anyway?"

"The windy cave."

Twilight and Fluttershy settled down to sleep, but found it hard to because of the sound of the wind.

"TWILIGHT! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"

"DON'T YELL! IF YOU DO, IT'LL CAUSE A-"

Then a cave-in happened on both the entrance and the exit to the cave.

"Oh, no!" Twilight whispered.

"Hey! There's a way out!" Fluttershy pointed with her wing.

"Flutters, no!"

Twilight grabbed her by using her magic.

"More of the quarrys' nests are down there. I read about it back at the library. Cover the hole with a rock. We'll dig our way out tonight."

"But we should dig our way out, NOW. We're going to fall behind!" Fluttershy was freaking out.

Fluttershy dove into the hole where more quarry eels lived than ever.

"Fluttershy, stop!" Twilight yelled as she flew after her.

Eels snapped their huge jaws in Fluttershy's direction. She was just fast enough to escape each time. Still, Fluttershy shook in fear and closed her eyes as she flew.

But she flew on.

Twilight chased.

Finally, Twilight caught her.

"We're going back! NOW!"

Twilight used the magic in her horn and dragged Fluttershy back to the surface.

"Look, if you want to keep going, I'm all for it." Twilight resonsed. "But we can't put ourselves in danger."

"Don't we put ourselves in danger all the time?" Flutttershy asked.

"Not like this. Tell you what, we'll stay up for the rest of the day then all night. Just this once."

"Thank you, Twilight. But are you sure you can deal with it?"

"You were planning on doing that yourself, anyway, right?" Twilight smiled in an understanding way.

"Y-Yes, but I didn't plan on leaving you behind, I expected you to follow me! That's all!" Fluttershy frantically told.

"I believe you.

"Good."

"Now, let's dig our way out of here!"

It took all day to dig their way out of the cave.

"Now, we just have to fly over the thorns." Twilight reminded.

Fluttershy and Twilight flew high up into the sky. They were almost out and over the thorns when something bad happened.

"Twilight! My tail is stuck!"

Twilight turned around to help her friend.

"Leave me be! I'll only slow you down." Fluttershy tried to convince her.

"Fluttershy. I'm The Princess of Friendship. I NEVER leave a friend behind!"

Twilight used her magic to shoot a beam from her horn and break the thorns.

"Let's fly!" she declared.

Fluttershy and Twilight finally made it out of the gorge and sat on the nice, soft grass.

"Hey, I can see the river from here!" Fluttershy said as she saw.

"Still want to keep going?" Twilight asked.

"No. We should stop since it's night. I mean, I have three friends to find, but I have to help my friend who's right here. Huh. I think I just learned a friendship lesson!"

"Thanks, Fluttershy."

Twilight gave Fluttershy a hug with her wings.

"Good night, Twilight."

"Good night, Fluttershy."