The combined ribbons of light, all white but mine and Twilight's, slammed into Discord, and then slowly faded away; like an after-flash of lightning on the retina.
"What!?" Twilight shouted, before turning to me in astonishment. "It didn't work!? How come yours worked?!"
In front of them Discord was laughing maniacally, so very amused by their epic fail. He was rolling on the purple felt grass with mirth.
"That was too funny!" the draconequus wiped his tear-stained red eyes. "The look on your faces, AGAIN – priceless!"
I stood there, utterly stunned. The Element of Loyalty had worked through me and I had really no clue how that was possible. Wasn't it only to work for Rainbow Dash? Twilight Sparkle must have had the same feeling because she and her pet dragon gaped openly at me. Then Spike gasped and ran away; darting into the area behind me.
It was only partially registered on my awareness, but I was no longer in the hedge-maze I had landed in from the dimensional rift. Instead, I was standing on blue and green checkerboard ground in front of a huge, habited tree. It must be the tree-library that Twilight lived it; although it truly looked nothing like the cartoon. It looked real; realistically real – which was awesome. The tree-bark was something I latched onto in order to cling to my sanity. The tree-bark was real; brown in color and evolutionarily correct (just like an earth tree would be: ridges, smell, texture and all). Being around Discord was slowly warping my brain's primal-functioning basic beliefs – like being in a dream where you were in first in one place, then a completely other location within a heartbeat.
Snapping out of my Discord-induced fugue, I was aware of the grey-monotone Rarity grabbing the element of Loyalty off my equine neck, screaming; 'MINE!' before dashing away. The other ponies all sneered at each other before parting ways and moving elsewhere.
'Fine! See if I care! With friends like you, who needs…" Twilight Sparkle's despair-ridden voice was thick enough to make me wince. "…enemies…"
Shaking my head to clear the fog of confusion, I blinked as her very big teardrop fell onto the ground, making a broken heart shape. I watched in shock as her beautiful purple coloring slowly bleached away as her spirit was smashed into dust.
"NO!" I neighed in spiritual agony – only to be whisked away to Discord's side. The draconequus draped over my backside, laughing.
"Ah-ah, no interfering, my dear." The hateful, mischievous monster draped an arm over my flank. "It would be no fun if you jumped in and saved the day."
Glaring – scowling – at him over my turquoise-colored flank, I snorted impressively through my new-found nostrils. "You are a 'Grade-A' bully! If there is anything I HATE MORE than seeing peop-ponies' (here I stumbled at the verbal change of the word 'people') spirits crushed like that; it is those who take pleasure at enacting such detestable acts."
"Awh, is the wittle Gwittermind gonna do something about?" He taunted me before turning his attention to the sorry sight of a retreating Twilight. I watched as Discord verbally bashed the magical unicorn even more. I couldn't hear what she said, but Discord cheered in victory as the pony grew even gloomier. Her color was grayed, like the other ponies who had ran away moments before.
XXXX
Then, I was in the middle of the Ponyville entrance, looking at the chaotic clusterfoal mess of the village. The sky was pink, blue and orange, with clouds of pink cotton candy raining dark-chocolate liquid. Buildings were floating upside-down, sideways, tilted, inverted and/or spinning in place. I gasped at the scene as more unfolded. The dirt and grass were soap and paper; the plants grew many things inconceivable like radios, records, lollipops, coffee mugs, wagon wheels and fish. Trees were changing seasonal stages in minutes; the hapless pony citizens of the village finding themselves trapped in twisted, looped and pointless labyrinths. Many just floated in the multi-colored air, their hooves running uselessly.
A herd of stilt-legged cats trampled by, kicking up dust to obscure the color of their fur; but most of the felines looked to be colors of neon yellow, lemon-lime, plum, jade, mud, blue polka-dots, red-white stripes and pink stars, gold triangles and grey wiggle lines. The poor animals looked terrified; because chasing behind the herd came a pink and orange roan earth pony.
"STOP!" the pink and orange pony hissed. "You cats better get back here so I can save you!"
The pony, whose rump was a splotch of orange – which matched her front half of pink dusted-orange – had green and dark-green mane and tail. The yellow tiara on her sophisticated mane-style glittered fiercely in the now-green sunlight. As she galloped closer and closer, I could see her pale green eyes, and her flank-mark: three black cat-paws. It was ironic, because I could smell the crazy on her…cat-crazy.
"What are you staring at?" The orange and pink pony panted as she came to a stop in front of me. Her sides heaved like she had just finished running a marathon. Now that she was close, I could see the subtle change of green in her elegant mane and tail; forest green and dark-lime made stripes throughout her hair-do. It gave me the impression of a Hampton Hills Housewife, where the perfectly placed hairstyle was the most important thing of the day.
"Um…" I didn't know how to answer that without setting off her ire. "Hi, I'm Glittermind…I think."
"That's sooo nice. I don't care." The pony wheezed. "Now help me catch those cats."
"Those were…cats?" I queried; unsure of just why this pony was so hay-bent on catching cats during something as catastrophic as Discord's free reign.
"Girl, forget you…" the pink and orange pony hissed and straightened herself up. "A pony who doesn't know what cats look like…OMC CATS!" the green-maned pony's attention was interrupted by the same herd of unfortunate cats stampeding by. Her eyes lit up with undisguised delight.
"COOOO-OOMME BAAACK!" With that plaintive call, the cat-print marked pony ran off.
"Ok, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! MAKE IT STOP!" I neighed as a deluge of byzantine snow and brown wax-strawberries rained upon me. "Make it stop, or I'll stop it myself! Why, HOW, am I even here?"
"Oh, Glittermind, my dear, you have a truly bright and strong spirit." Discord reappeared next to me, play-acting buffing his nails. "Had I known how fun it would be to pluck a human from another dimension and morph her into a pony would be, I would have done it before."
"Send me back, I can't take any more randomness." I demanded of the masterful trickster.
"There is no way back, my dear, you are stuck here forever." His leonine hand held up a pad of paper, with the crayon drawings of a pony being denied access to a circle; a circle meant to represent a doorway into another dimension. I vaguely registered that the pony –unicorn - was colored in the likeness of me. "I know all about you, my dear. You are very interesting to be lost in the dimensions like you are. How delightfully chaotic to be so disconnected from everything you hold dear. It must be so utterly crazy to be so lost and not have a clue of how to find your way back home."
"WHAT!?" I was surprised on how devious this insane monster was. He knew all about my fate of being lost in the dimensions of the fabric of space. I had to find pieces of my shattered jewel-talisman – a fist-sized, celestial-born diamond – to forge a way back to my home-dimension. Now Discord was saying there was no way I could escape this dimension he had pulled me into; no way to move onward in hopes to find a way back home. I was trapped.
"Seriously, my dear, did you not think there would be a possibility of being trapped in a dimension like this forever? You are really naïve and take things for granted; expecting things to be wrapped up in a nice neat little story-book happy ending." Discord lounged in his purple and blue striped throne and leered at me. "Did you think I was some two-bit villain in some kiddie show?" He was scaring me to the core of my soul with the things he was verbally revealing.
"You can't possibly…" I started saying. "We…how can you say that…"
"Oh, come now my dear, I know all about you. You think you would get away from me, go save Twilight Sparkle and her friends and win the day, then go home? Please, since I have you here, I am growing more powerful by the second. I feast on chaos and discord, and your confusion is quite delectable." Here he paused and reached up to a low-laying cloud and extended his arm, offering me a glass of chocolate rain. "Here drink this, you'll feel better."
"Fine, anything to get you to shut up." I tilted my head and drank from the glass. Worst mistake yet. I reared back and neighed; spraying the awful liquid out of my mouth. The chocolate-rain liquid tasted like the nasty, grainy orange-flavored cough syrup medicine. GAG.
"THAT'S AWFUL!" I shook my head in attempts to rid my pony tongue of the taste.
"You see? You rely too much on the basics; like how Twilight Sparkle will come and rescue you." Discord smiled as he tossed the glass over his shoulder. It fell and grew into a frog-flower. "Our dear Twilight Sparkle is broken, no hope of defeating me or rescuing her little friends. As for your little friends, they are still stuck within the hedge maze…and nobody will rescue you."
"Huh!?" My body shivered once because I felt a chill inside. Twilight Sparkle was broken and defeated? Drooping my head as my heartache over these thoughts flared again; my body felt heavy and cumbersome. Discord was right; I relied too much on myself and my unexplainable, inane cosmic luck to make things happen. I was stuck in this place with no way back home.