AN: So with hopefully all the correct edits in place, here is the next chapter. Only two more to go after this!

I don't own My Little Pony. Also, credit to other references, such as but not limited to: the Dead Alewives D&D sketch, and "Shaving Cream" by Benny Bell.

Chapter 20: Trust

Fluttershy sat to the side of the room watching Discord and the changeling known as Chalcid fight. She found herself trembling at the display. Watching Discord fight brought back the memories of their first battle with him. Was he always like this or was he just going easy on them back then?

She could only shiver at the thought. Either which way, now was not the time to dwell on the past. Now it was time to figure out how to solve everything that was going wrong in her life. Pushing back the laughter that rang in her ears, Fluttershy tried to think of what to do next. True, Discord had promised that he would solve this problem. The only question was of how. He had already blatantly dismissed the ideas of Princess Celestia and all her friends from ponyville, his conversation with Chalcid had more than revealed that fact.

Perhaps a trip back to Strong Bones? But she was no unicorn, and all her current problems were very much magic based. Did he have a talk with her before he came here to rescue her once again? Was he just lying to her, planning on locking her away in his cottage once more?

Fluttershy felt her heart jump to her throat at the thought. While Discord had proven rather kind and had done so much to take care of her while she was injured, the fact still remained that she did not fully know if she could trust him. Who was to say that it wasn't him that had cast this spell on her and was pinning the blame upon Twilight Sparkle or the rest of her friends from Ponyville?

No. That wasn't right. During her conversation with Princess Luna the Princess herself had admitted that Twilight Sparkle had cast that spell on her. So Discord was not lying. At least not on that point. But did this mean that she should trust him right now or try and sneak out while he was distracted by the changeling commander?

Her thoughts were disrupted when she noted a blasting spell flying over to her general direction. Giving a light gasp, she dived down into the cushions on her chair. The blast missed by a few feet, but it reminded her of one simple fact. She wasn't strong enough to fight the changelings on her own. Especially not since her run-in with that other changeling guard not even minutes before. Her limbs still felt shaky and her head light. If she wanted to escape this place then she needed to trust Discord. They had been on the cusp of making a breakthrough back at his little cottage, and if he was correct then they were getting to be good friends before the whole spell fiasco. Perhaps it would be alright if she trusted the draconequus, if only for just a bit longer.

Fluttershy glanced up and watch Discord as he laughed across the cave while he dodged all the attacks made by the changeling. He was practically bouncing off the walls. As a matter of fact, it was as if the walls were made of rubber and he was in his own private bounce house. Did Discord ever run out of energy?

With a small smile Fluttershy found herself almost cheering when the fridge fell from the air upon the changeling. It was so very much in Discord's character to drop random appliances upon unsuspecting foes. Sitting up she prepared to move over to his side when Chalcid reappeared once more.

The two of them bantered back and forth a bit, but Fluttershy wasn't fully paying attention. The fierce gaze of Chalcid had turned so that it lay fully upon her. She had no doubts in her mind that whatever happened next would be directed at her. The fear that flooded her veins kept her body and mind firmly frozen on the spot. She could only watch the events unfold. Discord, in his gloating state, was easily distracted by the spell the changeling threw at him. It didn't take but a second for Chalcid to suddenly jump up and charge her still and unmoving body.

Finding herself stuck, Fluttershy did the only thing she could think of at the time; she screamed.

The changeling was descending fast towards her, fangs bared in a snarl as he prepared to attack. Whether he planned on draining her completely or just using his fangs as a way to grab her as a hostage, she did not know. All she could see was the dark intent that the changeling held in his eyes.

Chalcid was no more than a heads length away when something crashed into her side, pulling her roughly across the floor. Her wings dug into the ground, bringing a loud yell of pain from her lips as she rolled away from her would-be attacker.

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT!" a voice called near her head.

"I RAN OUT OF TIME!" an identical voice called from somewhere behind her.

Shaking her mane, she winced as her wings draped themselves across her body. Glancing back she spotted the ruffled yellow feathers of her wings poking out of the large gashes and cracks upon her casts. It seemed that the fall, and perhaps the whole days worth of events, had slowly broken the casts away to the point that even the tie that kept the wings so firmly against her side had now fallen away. Fluttershy could only shake in pain and fear at the sight of her damaged appendages. At this rate there could be a good chance she would be unable to fly again thanks to the damages she kept getting. Tears began to well up in her eyes at the thought, bringing with them that distinctive laughter from before. Fluttershy felt her heart speed up at the sound, shoving her hooves over her ears in fear.

"YOU FLEW JUST FINE AT SUPER SPEEDS NOT EVEN TEN MINUTES AGO!"

Fluttershy paused at the loud intrusion, bringing her mind back into the moment. Looking up to see what all the yelling was about she spotted a very disgruntled Discord who was glaring off at the other side of the cavern. Following his gaze she spotted the puppy-fridge from before and standing right next to it was...Fluttershy paused and glanced back and forth a couple more times to be certain. Standing across the room was yet another Discord.

"Discord?" Fluttershy whispered softly in awe.

"WELL WE ALREADY USED THAT PLOT DEVICE, DIDN'T WE!" the second Discord yelled from where he stood next to fridge, the freezer door stuck in an open position.

The Discord by the freezer was pouting and muttering about doing the same thing twice when his copy picked up Fluttershy. Even though it was obvious that the cloned draconequus was trying to be gentle with her, the small pegasus still let out a sharp cry of pain. She could barely keep her eyes open, and even when she could the world around her flashed back and forth between reality and the one of mirth that her mind seemed to keep creating. The laughter became infectious, making her bubble with a deranged, almost strangled laugh that echoed awkwardly off the walls. Even the changeling froze at it's sound, giving the pony a calculating gaze once more.

"Fluttershy?" the copy asked frightfully to the seemingly crazed pony in his grasp.

At the mention of her name the pegasus seemed to come back into the now, blood turning cold in realization that she had lost control once again.

"Are you alright Miss Fluttershy?" the clone asked softly.

"I...I'm fine," Fluttershy whispered softly, heart pounding heavily in her chest.

Glancing up she spotted the glare from the changeling commander. Fluttershy could only shiver in fear at his hardened look that seeped with anger at losing his prey. Glancing to the side to avoid his stare she spotted Discord who was giving her a worried look from across the room. The clone however seemed to accept her answer at face value, relaxing once more into his usual huffy and oddly critical self.

"Well, I started as a chef and now I'm apparently a bodyguard," Discord muttered as he held the pony close before he looked down at her worried form.

Seeing her frown the clone gave a large smile of reassurance, "Now don't you worry about a thing Miss Fluttershy! As much as Dip-cord over there seems to think I am the latest form of lawn darts, I will take good care of you."

"I heard that!" the original Discord called out across the cave, patting the now very lively refrigerator on the head. The appliance hummed in excitement, it's cord wagging happily back and forth on the ground.

"Lord Discord," the smooth voice of Chalcid interrupted their conversation, the changeling dusting himself off with his translucent wings, "As amusing as it is to see that you can clone yourself among other abilities, I fear I must intrude. I do believe were in the middle of, as you called it, a "dance?""

The original Discord paused in the middle of petting the appliance, a look of contemplation etched upon his face. After a second he turned his gaze to the changeling and gave a large smile.

"I do so apologize. I forgot where we were for a moment!" Discord said, grabbing the fridge with both his claw and paw and throwing it straight at the changeling.

As fridge flew across the room it's freezer lolled open with it's tongue waggling happily in the air. When it came closer to it's target the appliance opened its door wider, displaying an array of sharp teeth towards the changeling. Fluttershy gasped as she watched it descend upon the changeling like a hungry wolf, only for Chalcid to take two side steps and miss him completely.

The appliance landed mouth first upon a large boulder, which it enthusiastically tried to chew, growling and gnawing at the stone as though it were a chew toy. After a few seconds of failed chomping it seemed to realize something was amiss, seemingly deflating as it sighed in discontent.

"Is that really the best you can do?" Chalcid asked with a raised eyebrow.

Discord went to open his mouth to argue back but the changeling was already taking flight, changing his form once more to that of a mountain lion that charged the Discord that was holding Fluttershy. The clone's eyes widened as it saw the quickly approaching attack and jumped up, trying and failing to not move the small pony around too much. Fluttershy gave a small yelp that inadvertently turned into a small fit of laughter, her world swimming in and out of focus once more much to her internal worry.

"Hey!" Discord cried out from the other side of the room, "You can't just turn into a cougar and run away from me!"

"Well, it could actually be a puma," Fluttershy added with a small fit of giggles even while her eyes spoke volumes of her fear.

"I prefer mountain lion," the changeling provided as he turned on a dime, stretching his claws wide as he swiped at the snake tail of the clone.

"Puma, cougar, mountain cat; who cares!" the clone yelped as he whipped his tail out of reach of the large cat, "Will you just do something!"

"Don't interrupt during an educational moment," the original Discord tisked, snapping his claws and turning the ground under the changeling into ice.

Chalcid's eyes went wide at the sudden change in the environment, slipping back and forth before he finally fell. As he flopped upon the ground, he gave a large centering breath, changing his form to something more suited to the environment. Seconds later a large polar bear stood in his place, slowly lumbering to his feet to swipe once more at his prey.

The cloned Discord didn't waste another second as he held Fluttershy close and flew towards the closest exit form the room, "I know when to take my leave!"

"You better take good care of her!" Discord called after his doppelganger.

"And you better give me a raise!"

"Tsch," Discord huffed, "Help these days."

"I must agree," Chalcid's voice brought his attention back across the room to where the polar bear seemed to curl in on itself and reform into the changeling he had been fighting, "Good help is simply so hard to find."

"Well, what is one to do," Discord sighed as the ice seemed to simply sink into the existing earth, vanishing from their arena, "You can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em as they are a part of your subconscious dream to be a chef that simply just won't shut up."

Chalcid gave a small nod, though he truly didn't understand what the draconequus was going on about. With a deep breath he readied himself, his form changing to that of a wolf once again. Letting loose a deep growl he charged forward towards Discord's current position.

"Wait!" Discord called out holding his claws and paws out in front of him in the universal sign of stopping.

The wolf blinked and skidded to a stop a few dozen paces away from Discord.

"I want to cast a spell," Discord announced.

Chalcid started to circle his prey, his mind whirling as he debated why he was waiting, "Why haven't you cast it yet?"

"Fine then, I will!" Discord pouted, pulling a cape and poorly made wizards hat from behind his back, "I cast magic missile!"

"Magic...missile?" the changeling paused at the ridiculous title. Chalcid shook his head in frustration. This battle was starting to drag, and he did have plans to meet with his Queen before the day was through. With a howl he charged at his enemy.

As the changeling leapt into the air at the draconequus, Discord laughed like a small child, pulling back his cape to reveal a large cartoonish missile that seemed to be stuck in place. No matter how much it sparked and flared from the end it only seemed to shake slightly in the air with no forward progress. Chalcid was left with no chance to dodge as he leapt right into the device.

The inevitable explosion shook the caves around them, blocking their view of each other in the chaos. Chalcid, having changed back into his original form, came up for air to look around the room in horror. The room was covered in pure white foam that clung to the walls giving off an almost perfumy smell. It seemed as though not a spot was free from the froth.

"Shaving cream!" Discord sung merrily as he did a backstroke past the horror stricken commander, "Be white and clean! Shave everyday and you'll always look keen!"

Yet Chalcid did not seem to have the same humor about the sudden foamy mess of toiletry products having exploded inside his base. He stood up tall, blasting the soapy-mayhem from his from, leaving what had to be the cleanest changeling and spot of cave floor that Equestria had ever seen.

"You seem...upset," Discord said as he arose from the foam sporting a Freudian like beard and glassing, waving his paw in a pseudo-clueless fashion.

"Upset! I have more than a right to be upset right now good Lord Discord! Do you mean to make a mockery of this battle!"

"No!" the draconequus lied horribly, his eyes darting back and forth and he quickly threw away the jester's outfit that he was hiding behind his back. The bells from the hat jingled merrily as the hit the wall, fell to the floor, and promptly exploded.

Chalcid glared at the draconequus, form changing once more to that of a griffon, flying forward with talons out. Discord paled at the charge and ducked back down into the shaving cream. The griffon wasted no time in slashing through the froth to try and find his target, making the world around him seem like it was snowing.

"Where are you!" the changeling-griffon challenged, spinning around to try and spot the draconequus when his eyes landed on his form, completely covered in the bubbly substance.

Chalcid growled as he dashed across the room. Looming over his adversary, he grinned as he slashed his talons straight across his midsection. The grin soon left his face as he found his attack went all the way through, cutting his enemy in half. The upper body of Discord simply flopped to the side and fell back into the foam, sending clouds of foamy bubbles into the air.

"Putting dummies in your place," he muttered to himself in frustration, "Where are you, Discord?"

Turning around he found a variety of shaving cream Discords in various poses, set up almost like snow men across the room. Off the side sat the real Discord, busy forming another replica of himself.

"Do I go classical or modern?" he mused to himself as he looked at his base form, "Or perhaps more regal? Oh! Like Napoleon Ponyabarte!"

A snap of his paw later and in place of his poorly done foam sculpture of himself sat now an imposing form of a conqueror version of himself, wearing the same clothes as the revolutionary conquer. His "snowman" looked forward with a serious expression, complete with the bicorne hat and his claw within his decorated jacket.

Discord gave an agreeing nod when he suddenly froze.

"What feels like imminent demise?" he mused to himself, turning around to spot the changeling-griffon flying towards him at high speeds.

"Oh," was all he was able to utter before the creature was upon him, pushing him through his Discordian Ponyabarte and a few of his other decorative, soapy statues. They slid easily across the shaving cream faster than either could have expected running quickly into the wall, stunning Discord and knocking the changeling back, forcing him to release his current form and change back to his original.

"You will take me seriously," Chalcid hissed as he stood up once more.

"Where's the fun in...serious," Discord asked in a dazed voice, shakily lifting his claw in the air.

"Battles are all about being serious," Chalcid said, marching toward his downed adversary, "It is all about analyzing your enemy and creating logical plans and strategies to take that enemy down. It is about using your mind to dominate and ultimately destroy those which defy you. How else would the changeling horde have made it this far without the use of careful plans and strategies?"

"A lot of good that did you in Canterlot," Discord muttered as he sat up, rubbing the back of his head. A surprised "oof" left his mouth as a hoof pressed his chest back into the ground.

"The Canterlot Invasion was perfect," Chalcid insisted through grit teeth, "It accounted for the Princesses and their spells. It accounted for the guards and the attendees. It accounted for the reaction of every pony that lived within that city."

"Funny, as seeing how it was the ponies that didn't live there that ultimately played the part that took you down," Discord mocked.

The changeling growled in frustration, his form changing to that of a bear once more. With a mighty roar he swung his claws down upon the downed draconequus. Discord moved his arms up to shield his face as he started to sink into the ground to avoid the blows but could not avoid being hit.

As he rose up from the ground across the room. He stumbled back a bit as he hissed in pain, his paw cupping the left side of his face that throbbed in pain. Pulling back his lions arm he blinked his left eye experimentally, trying to ignore the pain. While his vision was blurred a bit he could still see. Holding his arms out to the side to get balanced again he noted the gashes that screamed in pain that marred both their backs.

"What have you done to my beautiful face and arms," Discord yelled, catching the searching gaze of the changeling.

Chalcid wasted no time on waiting for his enemy to recover any longer than he already had, eyes dancing as he seeked his target and spotting him across the room in a matter of seconds. Retaking his form as a hawk, he flew over to Discord's distracted spot in a flash. As he neared his enemy he changed his body to that of an elephant, intent on crushing this adversary.

Discord looked up in time to see a large wall of elephant threatening to smash him into nonexistence. For a split second fear filled his eyes before a serious expression crossed his face. He wasted no time in summoning a large trampoline above him, bouncing the large mammal back across the room.

Chalcid's elephant body flailed as it sailed through the air. Trumpeting in frustration, he twisted mid-air shifting into a turtle, ducking his head and limbs into the hard shell that protected his body, his armored form slipping easily across the soapy floor of the room. Extending his limbs to slow his slide, he slowly found traction through the rocks and debris on the ground. Shaking his head to righten the world once more, he spotted Discord standing confidently across the room. Chalcid let loose a growl, that sounded horribly weak in his current form, but he did not care. Changing his form to the powerful legs and strong horns of a ram, her charged head first at the draconequus once more.

"You wanted serious," Discord said with a sneer, watching the changeling's approach, "You've got serious."

With a snap of his paw a large crate appeared next to him, its contents jingling as gravity pulled it to the ground. Discord reached inside the container, eyes not leaving the changeling-ram that approached him, and pulled forth a glass filled with chocolate milk.

"I can't believe I had to resort to this," he muttered with a pout, taking a moment to look at the beverage in his claw.

With a sigh, he quickly chugged the glass of the drink, leaving only the floating form of the liquid behind, and threw the gravity defying beverage at the approaching changeling. Chalcid only lightly altered his course, thinking nothing of the object that flew close to his flank. As the liquid crashed to the floor he quickly realized the grave mistake he had just made as the earth behind him exploded upwards, causing him to be pushed off balance and spill to the ground. Looking up he could only gape at the Discord's now smug gaze as shaving cream and dirt rained down from the explosion.

"My poor chocolate milk collection. I had worked so hard on creating the perfect levels of milk and chocolate! But alas, it is an emergency," the draconequus sighed, before shrugging his shoulders and chugging the next glass in the crate and tossing in the general direction of Chalcid.

The changeling, learning from his previous mistake, became a mole and dug as fast as he could to avoid the inevitable blast. Plowing through the earth he worked his way down and away from his previous position and back up to a new area. Popping back up he found Discord was happily drinking glasses and tossing them around the room, making the ground shake all around the cavern. He simply had no care in his mind as to what was hit, as he flung glass after glass around the room.

Chalcid recognized a valuable weapon when he saw one, and changed back to his original form to summon a glass to himself. Remaining hidden behind a rather large collection of shaving cream, he studied the glass before him. The drinks smell made him gag. It was much too sweet. With a shake of his head he took aim and jumped out from his hiding place.

"Found you!" Discord cheered as he reached for a new glass himself.

But the beverage had already been flung through the air with magic, flying towards its desired target with ease. Discord's eyes went wide as the glass flew right at him, dropping his own full glass of chocolate milk to the ground in surprise. The glass sailed through the air, hit Discord square in the chest, bounced back off and onto the floor.

"Wha-," Chalcid gasped mind boggled that this weapon had not worked, "It didn't work? How did it now work!"

"You didn't drink it, did you?" Discord guffawed, as he tried to brush the chocolatey mess that got into his coat, "It only activates if you drink it. Duh!"

"How can any creature enjoy a sickly drink such as that!"

"Sickly," Discord asked, a pout marring his face. Shaking his head he turned serious, "You take that back! You will apologize to all the chocolate milk drinkers of the world in this instance, you fiend!"

Chalcid found himself sweating as he found large barrels filled to the brim with the chocolatey beverage appearing in the room between him and the enraged draconequus. Turning in place, he pushed himself as fast as his legs could carry him as he fled from the creature that was now threatening to "fill his belly with the most amazing creation known to the world" and that he would "like it and enjoy it."

As the changeling commander found himself darting off down the nearest corridor away from the shaving cream room that was quickly being flooded with chocolate milk, he could only think of how failed of an attack this had been.

"There has to be a better way," he huffed to himself, thinking fast about everything he had seen so far with the self proclaimed Lord of Chaos. After a second an evil grin spread across his face.

Dodging another milk attack from the raging draconequus behind him he calculated his new plan of attack. Perhaps if he could lose Discord, he could find exactly what he needed for a victory against not only the draconequus, but the ponies of Equestria as well.

Fluttershy found herself wincing yet again in the clone Discord's arms. They had met up with more than a few groups of changelings that the draconequus dealt with as swiftly as he could, but it did little to keep her from being jostled around in his arms. Still it was better than running blindly around on her own again, and something about Discord's presence seemed help keep the shifts between reality away.

"Sorry," the clone hissed once again, having effectively transformed one of the changelings into a chicken as large as a train engine. The now chicken-changeling paused in shock at first, before drifting its eyes across the room. Spotting the buzzing of the other changeling's in the room the chicken began to drool. The remaining changelings looked at each other with worried glances before scattering, the chicken-changeling bawking out a challenge as it chased after its prey.

"It's alright," Fluttershy whispered with tears brimming her eyes, "Could you just...put me down for a moment."

Discord looked like he was going to argue but stopped when he saw her face, "Fine. But don't blame me if mister original gets all butthurt over our little break here. I'm supposed to be your "bodyguard" or whatever."

Fluttershy gave a soft smile at his pseudo attitude. She knew deep down that he would do whatever the real Discord asked. He just didn't like being told what to do, especially if it involved work. Just like the original, he was a real sweetheart at heart.

"Listen, Miss Fluttershy," the clone began with a hesitant voice, "I know you said you were fine and all...but are you really. I know my original self is getting worried."

"Well...I…." Fluttershy looked up at the copy with wide eyes, not knowing what to say. She opened and closed her mouth a few more times, her eyes darting across the hall as she tried to think of something to say, dragging out a prolonged silence.

"I'm getting ahead of myself," Discord laughed nervously, trying to end the awkward tension that had grown, "Let's just focus on getting out of here. Alright?"

She nodded slowly, adding with a soft smile, "Right."

Discord smiled largely as he studied the two exits that were before him, "Now which way is the way-"

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"

Discord jumped in front of Fluttershy at the intrusion, blocking her view of the addition.

"Did you think we'd let you just run away like that," a female voice echoed off the cave walls, "After everything you've done!"

"Fluttershy," the clone whispered, his voice sounding nervous, "I need you to run."

"Wha-," she looked up at him horrified only to be interrupted.

"This isn't time to argue or ask questions," Discord's face looked down at her with a fierce stare that made her shiver, "This is a group that I don't think I'll be able to win against. Not like the changelings."

Fluttershy nodded, her face filled with fear. She couldn't wrap her head around what could possibly scare Discord in any form.

"I don't know what you're mumbling over there," a new voice spoke up from down the hall, "And I really don't care! You are going down Dip-cord!"

A sudden blue blur flew around Discord, almost blocking his form from the pegasus's view.

"Fluttershy! Run!" Discord called from within the quickly forming tornado, their eyes meeting for a mere second in time as he stood against this unknown danger.

Suddenly Fluttershy understood. For all the doubts that she was having earlier, she had found that she trusted the chaotic being known as Discord. Ture, he was selfish, egotistical, and could be rather cruel to those he didn't like, but at the end of the day he had been nothing but kind and friendly towards her. Even when her home turned against her, he was there to look after her. His eyes spoke volumes of how much he worried and cared about her. All they asked for was a bit of faith in return.

It that's what he asked, then that's what he would receive. With a teary nod, Fluttershy turned and took off down the side tunnel.

"Fluttershy?" what sounded like the second voice parroted, but Fluttershy was already gone, racing off down the cave's tunnel.

"Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash repeated in confusion, trying and failing to spot her friend as the world sped past her. Was that second form from earlier really her? Now that she thought about it, the blur had looked the same shades of yellow and pink….

Discord smirked as he watched the distracted pegasus slow down just enough for him to be able to track her. One second she was speeding around, creating a cyclone around her sworn enemy, the next second the blue pegasus found herself sprawled out against the wall above the rest of her friends.

"I thought that this was already reviewed," Discord muttered as he shouldered a frying pan, "You need to pay attention more in class or you'll fall behind."

"Are you alright?" Applejack looked over their downed friend.

"Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash muttered, eyes still spinning.

"Fluttershy? Did you see her? Where was she?" Twilight tore her attention from the smirking draconequus before her to her downed friend.

Rainbow Dash shook her head hard, her eyes dancing around for a moment to refocus on the world around her, "Fluttershy...Fluttershy was just over there!"

"What!" Pinkie cried out, "And she didn't even stop to say hello!"

"Where did she go," Twilight demanded, turning around to try and spot the soft yellow and pink pony.

"Discord said something to her and she ran off down the hall," Rainbow sat back up, preparing to join the battle once more.

"Oh my," Rarity frowned, "Is she...is she afraid of us by chance?"

"No way," Rainbow's head snapped over to look at the unicorn, "It has to be some sort of spell Discord cast on her! She's our friend, she wouldn't be scared of us!"

"Either way we need to stop her before something terrible happens!" Twilight looked at all of their group in turn, each one showing determination and support in their eyes, "We'll defeat Discord and return our friend to her home! We can fix all of this!"

"Such a stirring remark," the Discord across the way tutted as he tossed the frying pan away from his form, his uniform almost rolling off of him like a cloud, "But the question of how still hangs in the balance."

"Well, you could just let us take Fluttershy back home again," Pinkie Pie put forth, followed by a large grin that seemed to take over her face.

"Pretty please," she added, her eyes growing big, practically covering the rest of her face that wasn't already covered by the grin.

"How about I let the lot of you walk away from here and I take care of Fluttershy and whatever ills her for the days to come," Discord haughtily replied.

"You don't even understand what "ills" her," Rarity shot back.

"We know a cure for the spell," Twilight added, giving one last attempt at negotiations, "We can fix her and-"

Discord interrupted her with a large yawn, "Yes, yes, she's your friend and you are here to take care of her, yadda, yadda, yadda. You know you really need to get some better dialogue."

With a snap of his paw a large force field appeared between the group of ponies and the draconequus. It looked to be almost the length of a full grown stallion and was bright red in color, yet completely translucent to the other side where they could see the draconequus smirking in success.

"I'd really love to stay and chat," his voice came through the barrier like a distorted echo, "But I have a pony to finish rescuing."

"Hey! That's our job mister!" Pinkie cried after his retreating form.

Rushing forward, the pink pony made to bash upon the wall to yell at him to come back at once and to "surrender over his resume to guarantee he had the correct job experience for such a task," only to find that instead of a solid barrier that she and others had been expecting, it wiggled back and forth, giving ever so slightly to her hoofs. A few test pokes from the others proved that it wasn't just Pinkie who was experiencing this event.

"What in the world," Applejack asked with a hard frown on her face.

"What is this," Rarity poked a hoof at it as though the wall would suddenly bite her.

Pinkie Pie once again took the initiative and gave the wall a large lick, much to everyones protests.

"Oh my-," Pinkie began, a look of awe upon her face that slowly shifted into a grin, "It's full of jello!"

"Well, more like it is jello," Twilight tried to correct, stopping when she saw the sugar fiend of the group start munching her way through the wall, "Pinkie! What are you-!"

"Wait, Twilight," Rainbow interrupted, watching as Pinkie ate through the large layers of the substance, "She's making a way through! We'll be able to chase after Discord and Fluttershy in no time flat!"

"But what if it's poisoned," Twilight asked in horror as she watched the pink demon move forward with a terrifying gusto.

"A little too late for that now," Applejack muttered, watching where Pinkie was only a legs length away from the end, "Anyways, usually Discord is more about pranks than actual physical harm…."

"We can swing by the hospital later," Rainbow said with a roll of her eyes, Pinkie honestly looked fine to her, "Plus, it would have taken too long to find another path, Discord could have left with Fluttershy by then!"

"Alright," Twilight conceded with a sigh, watching as Pinkie Pie finished creating a hole through the jello barrier.

"That was too good," Pinkie said with a sigh as she fell upon her back for a break upon the other side of her tunnel.

"Thanks Pinkie," Rainbow smiled down at the downed pony as she turned to dash off down the halls.

"Rainbow! Wait up," Applejack called, giving a worried glance at the party pony.

"I do say," Rarity squeamishly made her way through the sticky substance to her friend, "Are you quite alright?"

"Better than alright!" Pinkie sighed, "I was so hungry."

"Didn't you just eat a large amount of ice cream not that long ago?" Twilight asked with a frown.

"Oh, that was good too!" Pinkie squealed at the memory of the sunday mess, "But that was sooooo long ago now. I needed a new snack!"

"If you say so," Twilight said, trying not to ask too many questions about her seemingly bottomless pit of a friend.

Rarity interrupted them by clearing her throat, "I do think we need to get a move-on. Applejack and Rainbow Dash seemed to have disappeared ahead of us."

"Onwards!" Pinkie cried out, flipping over with a groan, running forward before either Rarity or Twilight Sparkle had the chance to ask anything.