Poison Joking Around [Lyra/Sunset/PM]

[Discord]

It was a crisp autumn day, the last of the red and yellow leaves hanging on for dear life to the limbs of trees. There was a chill in the calm air; enough to require some sleeves but not enough to require a full winter’s gear. Being the weekend people were hanging about, enjoying the benches, playing on playsets, or just taking a walk. Over all the perfect picture of an autumn day.

And Discord was bored out of his mind at this perfection, all the people so happy looking in the calm, content weather. It was time for things to get a little…chaotic. Unfortunately, his powers were still limited, the influence of chaos still weak. Fortunately, even a little bit of power was all that was needed for some of his favorite little plants. Seeing some of the still living, breathing flowers in a nearby patch, Discord’s shadow slithered over, a talon appearing out to give it a tiny little tap. With an aura of dark, blocky magic, the flower shifted and stretched, the petals turning a shade of blue.

”If this world thought poison oak was so terrible, I can’t wait to see how they deal with some poison joke.” he muttered to himself with a grin. Some rustling in the bushes alerted him to some animal coming, and he slipped back into the shadows, a cute, fluffy bunny taking a sniff at the now growing path of the blue flower.

Several minutes later a bunny took flight with its newly formed bat wings, ready to begin sucking the juice from the apples of the Apple family farm down the road. Enjoying the view, Discord slithered off back into the shadows, ready to watch and see what kind of chaos this would all create…

[Lyra Heartstrings]

Lyra had spent a lot of her childhood going to the Everfree. It was the biggest park around, and a great playground for a little kid like her to run around in. It was still a great place for her to run around in today, but for different reasons. She couldn't remember if the urban legends and stories surrounding the park had existed when she was a little kid, perhaps she had been too innocent to notice at the time. Now as a teenager she was aware of it.

Considering a schoolmate of hers was an alien, and had turned demonic for a little bit, she wasn't going to dismiss the stories.

It had taken her a while to figure out Sunset Shimmer was an alien, and thinking back it was so simple. She wasn't a native terrestrial being, therefore she was extra-terrestrial. Now before things had changed Lyra would have been quick to blow the whistle on her and set flares for the black helicopters to land. Now she was determined to keep that little piece of information to herself.

Lyra walked through the park not bothering to stick to any of the paths. She didn't need to use them. If she somehow got turned around it was a park, not some national forest. Walk long enough in a direction and you were bound to find a parking lot or sidewalk. Her hoodie protected her from the slight chill in the air and she was armed with a small handheld camera to try and catch anything suspicious she found on footage. She had done stuff like this before, and thankfully the weather here was much less humid than in the swap.

Nothing much was happening today it seemed. People were out enjoying their day. She could hear ducks off in the lake being ducks. After watching something about them on animal planet she could never look at them the same. Birds were chirping up in the branches of a tree and- HOLY SHIT WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!

Lyra caught sight of something large and fuzzy flying by. She raised her camera up to try and catch it on film and started jogging to try and keep it in frame. The encounter only lasted a few seconds, and it was more than enough to get Lyra's heart pumping! She had caught something on video but what was it exactly? It had wings like a bat, but bigger, and a big fuzzy body. Was it some new creature or a fruit bat from the amazon? Those things could get freaking huge, and if so, why was it all the way here between Canterlot and Ponyville?

Maybe it wasn't the only one.

The investigator began snooping around just like she had seen in all those shows on television. There was more to this mystery. She knew it! Scrounging around she couldn't find anything else in the trees. It would be hard to check every single tree in the Everfree on her own. She slumped down against a tree to rest for a moment and look around. Details were easy to miss when you weren't looking for them, just like that blue flower over there. She had never seen a flower like that before.

"That's new. I wonder if Sunny knows what it is." Lyra fumbled with her camera to get her phone out and snap a picture of it. She walked up to get a nice clear picture and CLICK, it was snapped. She'd show her come Monday when they were back in school. The blue flower looked weird. Most flowers weren't blue, and its petals didn't looks like any flower she knew. She reached out and touched the flower to see what it felt like and sniff it. It smelled pretty good. She couldn't quite place it, but she knew it was familiar. Maybe it was an ingredient in something she ate a lot?

Whatever it was she'd have to find out later. Right now she was going to go take another look for some giant bats and hit up a drinking fountain. The girl had only taken a few steps before she felt her foot slip out of her shoe. She tried to take another step but couldn't get her balance and ended up falling forward. Not the most graceful thing she'd ever done. No one saw her though right? If no one saw it then it didn't happen!

She reached out to grab her fallen phone, and that's when things got weird. She felt her hand touch it, but she couldn't feel her fingers. She wasn't able to grip her phone. She looked over and her eyes shrank. Her fingers were GONE! Beginning to panic she pushed herself around so she was sitting up and looked down at herself. She was not only missing the fingers from both of her hands, but her feet were gone too! They had disappeared out from under her causing her to trip!

"I... I... I HAVE HOOVES!" she yelled in fear. Her heart was pounding like a race horse as she tried not to panic. Panicking only made things worse. She needed to breathe, not hyper ventilate. Deep breaths, slow breaths, not so fast that the air doesn't get into her lungs. To her knowledge nothing on the planet was capable of such rapid transformation. Even if science had found a way to cause rapid mutation she would have felt it. That left one option.

Magic.

Trying to pick up a smart phone, let alone dial one with hooves was a tasked much harder than Lyra had anticipated. The phone kept flipping and flopping about, and when she could get it steady she couldn't operate the touch screen accurately at all with a hoof. "Push to talk. Push to talk. I know its a feature. I just need to... got it!" She had managed to get the phone between two of her hooves and hold it steady enough to press on the volume button for a few seconds. Just long enough for a microphone icon to appear on the screen.

"Call... Sunset Shimmer." The screen changed to bring up Sunset Shimmer's contact information, then begin dialing. The sound of ringing was a good sound. "Pickuppickuppickuppickuppickup-", click. "SUNSET HELP! I'm in the park, and I found this flower, and now I don't have hands or feet, and I think magic did it HELP! This better not be your voicemail!"

[Sunset Shimmer]

For many people, seeing Sunset Shimmer with gloves and overalls on might seem to be an impossible sight to believe. But for the select few who knew of her gardening hobby, it wasn’t that odd. Messing with plants, potted or not, could be messy, and she wasn’t up for getting her clothes dirty. And who would want to get blisters on their hands while pruning and other stuff? Granted, potted plants probably weren’t going to do that, but still, helped the feeling of being a gardener as she was kneeling on the ground snipping off dead and overgrown branches from some of the bushes in the backyard.

Wiping her brow, she was about go back in when all of a sudden she felt her pant’s pocket vibrate. Taking off a glove, she dug in and pulled out her phone only to see a picture of Lyra on it. Huh, that was odd. Sure, she had given her and Bon Bon her number, but Sunset doubted they were close enough to just call each other out of the blue. Probably wanted to talk about the upcoming show or something.

”Hey Lyra what’s…”

Sunset cringed as Lyra’s voice blasted out into her ear (that was common, wasn’t it?). Once it sounded like the volume was lower, Sunset listened to her babble on about flowers and not having any feet and…magic?

”No Lyra, this isn’t the voicemail,” Sunset replied, taking in the information,”So what exactly do you mean that you don’t have any hands or feet?”

I should find it more odd she mentioned magic, but… she thought as she looked at her wrist, the Harmonizer band tightened snuggly on it. Whatever was going on here probably was involving Discord; his magic was about the only thing that sounded like it would cause limbs to spontaneously disappear.

[Lyra Heartstrings]

It wasn't voicemail! Spam calling a phone with hooves was going to be difficult. It'd be easier if she called Bon Bon to help, but then she'd have to explain things to her. Would her friend still want to hang around her even if she was some freak with hooves instead of hands and feet? She knew Bon Bon didn't like to be singled out and bullied or anything, and being seen with some hooved person would be a surefire way to draw that sort of attention.

"I have hooves! I'm not kidding! Oh god that could be taken as a pun. Hooves like horse hooves, not a biungulate." Lyra realized that the call might come off as a prank. She really didn't want Sunset to think she was calling and making fun of the pony stuff. She thought it was cool and wanted to know more about it, but now wasn't the time. "I saw this giant bat thing with ears kinda like a bunny, then I found this weird blue flower, and next thing I know I got hooves. Oh... Oh.. I got these blue spots all over them. Please tell me this is all because of magic and you can fix it. Pleasepleasepleaseplease."

Out of all the different pieces of anatomy a horse had she got hooves. Her music career was probably ruined. She'd be set back in school who knows how many years. Why couldn't she have gotten something like a tail? She could probably rock a tail, but not hooves. Her fate was in the hands of what used to be the schools biggest bully.

[Sunset Shimmer]

If it had been anyone else, they would have hung up on Lyra and thought it some weird prank. Fortunately for the teal-haired girl Sunset had not too long ago went into a demonic form and tried to zombify the school. Also, she was a actually from a land of pastel-covered ponies; she would be the last person to be in a position to be overly skeptical. Plus, from the way everything sounded, she was already having a guess at what it was that was going on…

”Alright, let me get this straight. You were walking around, saw some bat thing with bunny ears, found some weird flowers, and then you got yourself a pair of hooves and spots” she replied, just saying everything back to make sure she got it all.

Admittedly, Sunset had to let out a bit of a laugh. Lyra was freaking all out about something that Sunset had lived with most of her life, although admittedly hooves in this world weren’t exactly as useful. They couldn’t even pick things up!

”Don’t worry about it too much Lyra, I think I got an idea what’s going on. Back in Equestria there’s this flower caused Poison Joke. It’s a magical flower that likes to pull pranks on ponies, often through some kind of transformation. It wears off after a few days, though I might be able to recreate the antidote you’re supposed to bathe with. Just….hold your horses, I’ll be there in a moment and help you out,” she replied, snickering a little bit before hanging up. Despite how panicky Lyra sounded, Sunset did have to admit the image of the girl trying to walk on hooves was rather funny.

More concerning, however, was how exactly the Poison Joke got there. It was Discord no doubt, which meant chances were something a lot bigger was about to go down. Pulling up the rest of the girls number, she texted them a brief message about meeting up at the park if they could for an emergency. Glancing at her outfit, Sunset figured she might as well keep on the overalls and gloves; she was not in the mood to get the Poison Joke on herself after all.

Still, she made sure to grab a mask and some trashbags; they were going to have to pull these things before they spread too far…

[Lyra Heartstrings]

"I'VE BEEN POISONED?!" Being told she had come in contact with a flower than had the work poison in it's name had brought an immediate reaction from Lyra. She felt a little bit better when Sunset said it only pulled pranks, and it could wear off. "Sorry... just... this is new to me, and I'm kinda scared. I'm in the south west area of the park. I'll.. I'll.. try and keep anyone who passes by away. please hurry."

She wasn't going to die, that was great. She also didn't have to become some hermit or go join the circus, that was almost as great. Sunset Shimmer said she might be able to even make an antidote. That was the best news yet! What wasn't so great was Lyra didn't know how long she'd have to wait. She had no idea where Sunset Shimmer lived or how long it'd take for her to get there. She had to sit there and hold her horses.

Hold her horses.

Sunset Shimmer had made a pun and she was just not noticing it. Lyra couldn't help but let out a tiny snicker at it. It wasn't that funny from her own perspective, but from someone else's it could be hilarious. The levity was appreciated. She'd have to get her back with some sort of pun later, but that would have to wait. Right now she had to make sure no other people came in contact with the flower.

Lyra slowly and carefully got her camera and phone into the belly pocket of her jacket then stuck her hand-hooves in there to hide them. With a bit of wiggling about she managed to get herself sitting cross-legged with her foot-hooves tucked under her. If someone showed up her story was going to be a simple one. The plant was poisonous, and she'd already called poison control. They were on their way to remove it, and she was to keep people from poking it.

[Sunset Shimmer]

Sunset could understand Lyra’s panic. Being involved in spell mess ups or poison joke for the first time could be scary, and she figured it was worse considering the lack of magic in this world meant no experience whatsoever. Still, in terms of what could have possibly occurred with Discord running about, poison joke was pretty low key. It was obvious his power was pretty low if that plant was all he could come up with. Yet she had to admit that if not kept in check it could be a pretty devastating plant. If it was giving humans hooves, who knew what else it could do.

…okay, there was that bat-rabbit thing. But there wasn’t much they could do about that now if it had flown off; it would just become another town legend.

About a half hour later or so Sunset, having parked the car already, walked up to the cross-sitting Lyra holding a trash bag and still in her gardening outfit.

”Alright then, let’s see the damage,” she replied, wanting to see just how these hooves looked on the girl.

[Lyra Heartstrings]

Sunset Shimmer arrived looking just like a gardener. The only things missing was a straw hat. Gone was the tough looking leather jacket that Lyra so wasn't jealous of in even the tiniest bit. It was a good look for her. Any look that wasn't a crazy demonic form was a good look for her though.

Lyra let out a little whine of displeasure, but complied to the other girl's request. She pulled her hooves out of her pockets and extended her legs. In the time it took for Sunset to arrive Lyra had collected herself a bit more. "I know these aren't new to you, but they are to me. I haven't tried standing yet or anything. I think it might work a lot like walking in heels maybe, but last time I wore those I nearly twisted my ankle. I don't think the spots have spread or anything else has changed."

[Sunset Shimmer]

Sunset looked over Lyra as she slowly showed off those new appendages. As serious as the situation was, Sunset did have a slight grin on her face at the sight of it all. There was also the twinge of…would homesickness be the right term? This world was just as much a home as Equestria was now, but she still missed the whole pony thing. Maybe the next time the portal was open she could sneak off to Equestria, just for a bit….

Lyra talking snapped her out of her thoughts. Squatting down, hands gloved, she gently lifted it up to get a look at them to make sure that the hooves were in good shape. Everything looked healthy even without the horseshoe. If Sunset didn’t know any better, she would say Lyra was always born a pony…which technically was correct since she did know of a Lyra back in the other world.

”Well, good news is they look to be in good shape. Should be able to walk with them with a bit of support. And if you haven’t gotten hit by any changes since I talked to you, safe to say this is all that’s going to happen. Poison joke tends to work all at once.”

Standing back up, Sunset offered a hand to grab onto Lyra in order to help her up. As she did, she glanced at the patch behind her at the blue flowers. Definitely poison joke. She sighed in annoyance at the sight.

”Great, going to have to get all these uprooted as soon as possible before they spread. Good thing I was already gardening…”

[Lyra Heartstrings]

"That's good, I guess. At least I didn't get stuck with messed up hooves on top of it." In a time of crisis it was good to remember to be thankful that things couldn't get any worse. It was also good to know that there wouldn't be any more changes. Things were bad, but not dire. If she could get her condition reversed before she had to go to school or her mom found out, it would be wonderful.

Lyra reached up and hooked her wrists around Sunset's hand to pull herself up. It was an awkward grab, but with help she was able to get up on her fee- hooves. She held onto Sunset Shimmer for a moment as she stood unsteadily. A wobble here, a shift in weight there. It was like trying to walk on just her heels, or maybe tip-toe? It took a few seconds, but she was able to steady herself.

Once stable the musician loosened her grip on the other girl and locked eyes with her. "Sunset Shimmer. If I had any doubts whatsoever about you turning over a new leaf, they're gone now. You really came through for me. Once this is all over I'd be happy if you'd like to be friends."

"Since I'm already affected, if nothing more can happen to me, I can help with the plants." She looked down at her hooves. She couldn't really grab and uproot something with them. Tasty as they smelled she wasn't about to go chomping down on it either. "I might be able to dig with these. The inside curve of the hoof might be useful."

[Sunset Shimmer]

Sunset helped Lyra work on steadying herself. Having been born with hooves the sight was pretty familiar, but usually only for newborn foals. At least she got the hang of it quicker; being helpful or not, Sunset didn’t exactly want to spend all day teaching Lyra the basics of having hooves. Once it seemed she was secure, Sunset stepped back a bit to survey the flowers, but she was interrupted by Lyra’s offer of friendship.

”U-uhm, sure that would be…good,” Sunset responded, not exactly sure what the proper response. The last group of friends she made was during the whole demon zombie thing. Then she got them from just stating she was going to change her ways and having Twilight kind of thrust her onto them. Now it was all kind of natural, which oddly made it more awkward…

”But I wouldn’t thank me yet. I’m honestly not sure if I can make the antidote; magic seems to be kind of arbitrary here, and don’t know for sure if I can get perfect substitutes for some ingredients.” she replied. It wasn’t exactly an optimistic assessment, but Sunset figured some brute honesty was needed here.

Surveying over the flowers, Sunset thought about Lyra’s offer. The poison joke here seemed particularly potent; if Lyra was in Equestria, it would have probably taken a day or so to really kick in. And if this was Discord created poison joke, who knew exactly how it worked. For all she knew, Lyra picking around in there might exacerbate the condition and bring more changes.

”I guess as long as you only touch it with your hooves you might be okay. Kind of got a bad feeling about this patch here and wouldn’t want to risk getting it anywhere else on you, just in case. Unless you’re up for maybe getting a fur coat and tail to go with your hooves.”

And why is it I can see her actually wanting that…

[Lyra Heartstrings]

"You said it should wear off right? Even if you try, and it doesn't work things will still be okay eventually. We'll just need a Plan B." Sunset Shimmer had been on the level with her. Lyra's hopes were up, but not not unreasonably so. Some way or another they'd get through this. "My mom's not around a super lot. Working twelve hour shifts at the hospital keeps her away, then getting sleep at home. Not a lot of time for us to spend together all the time."

"As long as I can make it through school on Monday, I'll be fine. If I call in sick my mom's going to want to look me over, and she's a nurse. She'll know if I'm faking. I'm really close with her so I could try and go for a mental health day, but she knows I haven't been stressing over anything lately so it might not fly." Telling Sunset about her situation was for the best. They could figure out a Plan B better if both of them knew the limitations earlier. She had seen the other girl spending a lot of time around Principal Celestia, and not due to detention. Depending on how much she had told her, maybe the Principal could lend a hand?

Her steps were unsteady, but Lyra managed to make it back to the blow flowers without falling. She wasn't a natural at walking with hooves, but being able to hold her arms out for extra balance helped. She knelt down and thought about how to help while minimizing her exposure. Slowly she moved a hoof to the stalk of the plant and bent it down. With the flower pressed to the side she could use her other hoof to dig out the dirt around the roots.

"I don't like the hooves, at least for my hands. A fur coat sounds like it could get a bit annoying. No offense, but it just might take some getting used to if I suddenly got one. I put some thought into this while I was waiting for you to show up. A tail wouldn't be so bad. I could probably rock a tail no problem. As far as possible transformations go there could be worse, and some not so bad. All it would take to hide one thing would be baggy pants and an open mind." Lyra let out a small laugh to lighten the mood a little. She couldn't change the situation she was in right now, so why not make the most of it while she can?

"So... wanna talk any about where you came from, or who might be responsible for this stuff? I won't put any of it down in my blog, promise."

[Sunset Shimmer]

Having a nurse as a parent would make things a bit more complicated; got rid of the “I’m sick” option, as Lyra pointed out. And getting through the school day with these kind of hooves was going to be difficult. Why couldn’t she have become a unicorn or have hooves like Equestrian ponies? Then at least they could get through a day without that much difficulty. Well, except that they were hooves, but plans couldn’t be perfect.

After recommending caution, Sunset simply watched as Lyra dug up a plant. Meanwhile, she was using a small shovel and her gloves to throw them into the trash bag. There was a temptation on her part to maybe plant one or two later one for nostalgia sake…and maybe some experimentation. Magic was magic, and figuring out more about how magic interacted with this world would be very helpful. Plus, if she could recreate the antidote right, it could be useful for a couple pranks…

”Be careful what you wish for. I actually knew a pony who got…that kind of change when hit by poison joke. He was an insufferable prick to begin with considering he was related to the princesses, and his…er, her post-transformation freakout was practically unbearable to listen to. Unfortunately didn’t improve his manners towards mares either…”

Not to mention the scolding Celestia gave me afterwards for putting that stuff in his dinner in the first place… she added in her thoughts. That Gala evening was at least a night to remember.

”Anyway, I got a pretty good idea what’s behind this….” she trailed off, unsure about whether she wanted to go with the full explanation. But Lyra had trusted her this far, and if she was being dragged into this sort of thing then she deserved some explanation..

”Remember when I went all demonic and made you all zombie slaves?”

Yep, brilliant way to start things off.

”Well, after Twilight hit me with the Elements of Harmony, the big rainbow thing, it seems the magic I was using kind of…got away? And it’s kind of morphed and grown into a being named Discord.”

Even an entire world over, just saying the name was enough to cause a pit in Sunset’s stomach. Her mentor never had a nice thing to say about the draconequus. And what little experience she had with him here confirmed he was not exactly a good thing to be around.

”There’s a version of him in Equestria too. He used to rule Equestria and turned it into his own personal playground. We’re talking full on break down of reality kind of playground. Poison joke like this is definitely his mark; he loves taking things and just twisting them around into sick jokes….”

[Discord]

”Bravo my dear Sunset for such a lovely summary of the situation.”

Slow, sarcastic clapping noises could be heard as a talon and paw spontaneously appeared, followed by the rest of Discord as he stood floating in midair about the pair of humans.

”But you forgot to mention my absolutely endearing personality and my blue thumb,” he said, picking one of the poison joke flowers and harmlessly sniffing it as one of his paws turned temporarily blue,”After all, there’s nothing more beautiful than the smell of chaos in the middle of the afternoon.”

He threw the flower up into the trees, where a pigeon sat eyeing it. Discord was quite aware of the bird, but figured chatting with his enemies would be more interesting for the next few minutes. Besides, some more interesting things could be afoot here…or ahoof.

”Anyway, it’s been a pleasure meeting you Lyra. Who knew that the first victim here would be friends with one of the Elements of Harmony, and their leader for that matter.”

Discord slithered for a moment before encircling Lyra, getting some good eye contact with her, using his pawed hand to turn her head towards him.

”Of course what exactly does she have to offer you? She’s a has been. The whole school doesn’t like her, and all that magic and excitement of Equestria is in the past. But I, on the other hand, can offer you the future,”

With a snap of his talon hand Lyra’s hooves turned back to hands, but she gained a horn and a white green with silver hightlights tail to match her hair.

”See, her magic is restricted by rules and regulations all in the name of ‘harmony.’ But I’m the master of chaos; my magic has no restrictions. Anytime, any place,”

Lyra’s horn glowed gold as the poison joke flowers all lifted from the ground, going simply into the trash bag Sunset brought along with her.

”With this little baby right here, which you can hide at any time you want, you could do a lot more than some silly little flowers. Come on, what do you say? Want to have some fun?”

[Lyra Heartstrings]

"Sounds like he didn't get enough of what he deserved." Lyra said with a giggle. It was a little hard for her to picture things like they might have been in the pony world, but not impossible. "In shows and books whenever you see a royal family there's always at least that one guy with a sense of entitlement. Just 'cause they have a fancy title they think that makes them beyond everbody... or would it be like... everypony else?"

Lyra listened intently to Sunset Shimmer's explanation of things, not even flinching when she brought up the whole demon thing. It was in the past, and she had forgiven her for it. The first thing she took note of was the mentioning of what, not who. It wasn't another evil wizard pony, or group of them, it was a thing. Secondly, the evil magic that had been fueling Sunset at the time hadn't been eradicated, but rather purged from her body. Third, it had the ability to break the laws of reality, and the tone of Sunset Shimmer's was not a good one.

The muse opened her mouth to ask another question when another voice came out. Nervously she began looking around until she spotted the source. She gulped, and suddenly it felt like there was a pit in her stomach too. The big bad had shown up... and he looked like a kindergardener had drawn him. He looked sinister, like Dr. Frankenstein's fairyland cousin had decided to do the same sort of experiments with whatever he could dig up.

She watched as Discord picked up one of the flowers and wasn't affected by it. It made sense he wouldn't be, but there went one idea out the window. She was legitimately scared of the situation and as much as she tried not to show it, she couldn't stop an eep from escaping as Discord slithered around her. To top it off it made her make eye contact with it. Those wild unnatural eyes would probably be in her nightmares for a while. They were crazy eyes, and the only thing you could trust crazy to do was be crazy.

Discord was the chatty type. That was good. Maybe she could keep him talking long enough for Sunset to figure out a plan? Or was that Discord's plan, use her as a hostage so nothing could be done about it? With a snap she felt herself change. She once again had her hands, though she still had hooves for feet. The back of her pants felt like they were pressing up against something that was in the way and suddenly there was a weight on her lower back. Lastly her forehead felt funny. her golden eyes moved up to try and see what was there. She had some horn of some sort sticking out of her head now.

With all the equine stuff going on and the sudden appearance of a horn, did that make her a Unicorn? Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had gotten wings when they had transformed. So somehow they had Pegasus power? She really didn't know anything about it.

"Fun... I like fun." Lyra repeated after Discord in a daze. She felt like she should be bouncing around with glee at the prospect of magic, but instead she felt like her soul was being dangled in front of the devil. She broke her gaze from Discord and stared at a stick on the ground. Her horn was once again enveloped in a golden aura, and the stick began to rise off the ground, then flung itself into the trunk of a tree. Hey eyes once again turned upwards at the flowing of her magical horn.

"So... let me get this straight. I join you... and I get to use magic whenever I want? Magic to do whatever I want?" She kept staring up, but her voice had gotten back to normal. "All I have to do is turn my back on my new friend." There were at least half a dozen ways Sunset Shimmer could have done something mean to her. She could have said she was on her way, and never showed up. She could have taken pictures of the hooves to spread around, or brought other people to point and laugh. She could have even said the antidote would have worked for sure and secretly been plotting just to get her in a tub of icky stuff. She didn't though.

She took a deep breath, and then her face contorted in concentration. Her horn began to glow brighter and shoot of little sparks when suddenly there was a crack from up above. Not a tiny snap, a full on CRACK. The sound was of a branch on a tree suddenly snapping and falling down to land on Discord. Lyra threw her arms up in front of her to protect herself from any of the smaller branches that could hit her in the face as well.

"Sunset Shimmer has a lot to offer me." she said defiantly. "She can offer me her friendship. The bonds we make with other people can make us stronger than we think we are. We can do things we didn't think we'd be able to do, and recover from things we'd never think we'd get better from. I could have turned out like Sunset Shimmer did, almost did, but a friend helped me deal with my personal demons, and I'm stronger and better because of her." If Discord had given her the ability to shoot daggers with her eyes by glaring hard enough, he'd be a pincushion by now. She knew that Discord would remove what magic he had given her at some point, so did her best to squash him with the tree branches while she could.

"Sunset Shimmers my friend, and I'm her friend to. That means as much as she has my back, I have hers. Your offer might have worked on me in the past." she admitted. Had he approached her before she had decided to give Sunset Shimmer a chance she probably would have considered his offer quite a bit more. "But as the saying goes you're a day late and a dollar short."