"...with twenty-seven votes in favor and one abstension, the motion passes," Anubis said, bringing his gavel down for what Sunset was certain must have been the five hundredth time that meeting. "Investigation into the feasibility of draining the Nile for cleaning will begin no more than one month from today."

A chorus of weak groans greeted this pronouncement. Anubis clearly didn't care. He merely flipped over his latest clay tablet onto a stack on the floor that nearly came up to his elbows. He picked up the next one and scanned it quickly. "Is there any other new business?"

Sunset quickly raised a hoof. "I motion we go investigate whatever made that explosion back at the start of new business."

"Seconded!" Hathor agreed.

Anubis' mouth twitched slightly. "Any discussion?"

No one spoke up. "Very well, then. All in favor, say aye."

A chorus of 'aye's rang out around the table, including one from Anubis himself. Thoth quickly scribbled a number on his own clay tablet.

"All opposed?" Anubis asked. Total silence was his only answer.

"The ayes have it," Thoth said, quite unnecessarily to Sunset's mind. "Unanimous, with no abstensions."

"Great," Sunset said flatly. "So how long do you want to spend talking about that before we actually follow through?"

Thoth cocked his head. "Er, maybe five, ten minutes?"

"Overruled," Anubis said, rising from his chair.

Sunset followed suit. She was rather curious about this abrupt change in Anubis' demeanor - she suspected it was almost painful for him not to agree with Thoth and natter on through the proper protocol for however long it took. The expressions on the faces of the other gods only confirmed that.

The retinue followed the jackal down the hallways of the compound. As they moved closer to the source of the explosion, Sunset noticed more and more guards roaming the halls. It was only to be expected, of course, but it made her heart race. Had Trixie made it out safely? Had she been hurt? Had she been captured? She tried to overtake Anubis, but the jackal's muscular bulk took up too much space for her to skirt around.

Eventually, the party arrived at a room, guarded by a pair of jackals. They snapped a salute at the gods, then moved to allow them access. One by one, they trickled in.

The smoke had cleared and the dust had settled. Precious little else remained. Burnt-out fireworks littered the ground alongside pottery sherds and pieces of the wall. Some chalk lines were still visible under the rubble, but what had once been a circle was now more of a ring - the chalk in the center had been apparently blown away during the summons.

Thoth cleared his throat. "Well, now that we've investigated, perhaps we can return-" He fell silent when P'tah smacked him over the head.

Anubis turned to the nearest guard. "What happened here?"

"Uncertain, sah! Use of projectile weapons determined, sah! Likely used in the summoning of some entity, sah!"

Sunset stared around the room, not quite able to reconcile what she was seeing with reality. "Have you apprehended any suspects yet?" she asked.

"No, ma'am! No creature found in the area, ma'am!"

"Nop- no one was hurt in the explosion, then."

"No, ma'am!"

Sunset let out the breath she had been holding. "Well, I suppose that's something, anyway."

She glanced over to a corner where Anubis was studying the ground. "What have you found, Anubis?"

The jackal turned swiftly. "Nothing yet, my queen. Would you prefer to continue looking?"

Sunset considered. "No, I suspect the guards can handle this situation themselves."

"As you say, Queen Ra." Anubis turned and walked back out of the room, with the other gods quickly following suit. As Sunset hurried to catch up, she couldn't help but notice a patch of white on the underside of Anubis' sandal. He must have scuffed some of the chalk, she thought to herself. Just as well. The less evidence the guards had to sift through, the less likely they were to pin it on Trixie.

Trixie couldn't breathe for a long moment. She couldn't feel the air or the ground, or anything but Discord's arms. Her mind flashed back to that horrible time when she had been stuck in the mirror portal, neither in nor out of either side. She thrashed almost instinctively -

And then she was dripping with cool, sticky brown liquid as Discord carried her up out of a pool of cola.

"Ew."

"Oh, suck it up," Discord grumbled.

Almost immediately, a swarm of little red vacuum cleaners rushed out of the underbrush, nozzles at the ready. Trixie recoiled, but Discord merely sighed and shut their eyes. The vacuums raced around the pair, sucking away every last drop of soda from their bodies. Only a few seconds later, they rushed back into the bushes, leaving Trixie confused, dizzy, and surprisingly fluffy.

"There," Discord said, setting Trixie down. "How's that for a secret entrance?"

"Um, kind of inconvenient, Trixie thinks."

"Well, who asked you anyway?"

"You did. Just now."

"I never did."

"Trixie heard you!"

"Are you calling me a liar?"

"Trixie certainly is!"

"Perhaps Trixie should consider getting her ears checked?"

"Trixie-" she cut herself off and shook her head. "No, Trixie sees what you are doing here. You cannot wind Trixie up so easily these days."

"Tsk." Discord flicked their forked tongue at her. "I'll just have to try harder, then."

"Discord? Do we have company?"

Ba'ast didn't walk into the clearing so much as she was suddenly just… there. Trixie just about jumped out of her skin.

Discord snickered. Ba'ast merely raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. I see you've risen from Queen Ra's acolyte to her emissary."

"Trixie thinks her job duties are best defined as 'concubine,'" Trixie said, brushing herself off with as much dignity as she could muster. She wasn't entirely surprised to discover that the ground wasn't made of sand at all, but brown sugar. "Or perhaps… er, just 'marefriend'?"

Ba'ast looked at Discord significantly. Discord stared back blankly before quickly feigning comprehension.

"How… delightful," Ba'ast purred. "I'm so pleased that you finally admitted it to one another."

"You could tell?"

"From the -" Ba'ast hesitated. "Well. Perhaps not from the very first time we met. Definitely by the end of the second, I could tell there was something."

Trixie raised a brow.

"Well, you were on a good trajectory, anyway." Ba'ast leapt up and a palm tree swooped up to meet her as she passed her zenith. She landed perfectly, and the limb twisted and bent so that she lay staring into Trixie's eyes. "But I digress. What brings you to our little oasis, my dear?"

It was difficult to focus, staring into Ba'ast pale green eyes. Trixie wanted to lose herself in their depths, searching for eternity…

She grunted and blinked several times to clear her head. "Your side of the story," she said. "Trixie has heard from Anubis already how you and your cohorts are assailing cities."

"But you don't trust him."

"Gee, did you get that when he tried to kill Trixie, or when he almost made Sunset burn to death?"

"To be fair to Anubis, that's less about your mistrust of him and more about your completely understandable antipathy for him."

"Look, we're agreed that Anubis is a bad dog, and he definitely deserves to get beaned with a rolled up newspaper. So can Trixie please just hear your side of things so she can get back to Sunset with the rest of the story?"

Ba'ast smirked and sat up straight on the tree branch. "Oh, I suppose. Perhaps afterwards you can better explain why you so mistrust Anubis."

"But-"

Ba'ast inhaled deeply through her nose and held it for several seconds before letting it out with a huff. "We are at war with Anubis," she began, "because the inhabitants of this world need our help."

We have been here for well over a thousand years now, (Ba'ast said,) and we were fortunate enough to arrive in a peaceful, prosperous land. The creatures that had already inhabited this world were welcoming, and offered us room in their society. They asked nothing in return, save that we be good neighbors to them, that we share alike and work alike for the common good. But for… some among us, (she sighed rather than spoke,) that simply wasn't good enough. It took Anubis a few centuries, but he's managed to dig his claws into virtually every central power structure in this civilization. And then he threw out anyone that wouldn't bow to his will. My cats all had to leave, of course, because no-one can tell a cat to do anything. We've lived outside the cities, existing off the land in secret, looking for a better home. All this, I would not begrudge Anubis - he's a born bureaucrat, I'll say that for him, and if it means I never have to see him again, I'd take banishment any day of the week. But since Anubis took power, nothing has changed or grown. No new art styles, new methods of agriculture, new technologies, virtually no new buildings, only repair work done on the old stuff. Every creature alive today is living as their ancestors did some two dozen generations ago, and no society can live like that. Only survive.
But one day, about a decade back, a new god arrived on the scene - the avatar of chaos incarnate. It took… some time for us to join forces. You seem to know Discord - you likely also know that they aren't the most collaborative of creatures. But in time, we decided that our common enemy united us more than our, shall we say senses of style, differed. We began testing the waters, checking the mettle of Anubis' allies. They were, to say the least, shoddy. You saw Thoth? Yes, that would be a typical skirmish. But the creatures of this world and our own world crave order. They would defend Anubis, and there would be blood. That must not be. So we began to circulate rumors…
We claimed that Discord is the reincarnation of Sutekh, as your friend is the reincarnation of Ra. For all we know, they may well be. Certainly, they fill the void that Sutekh left behind, and that is truth enough for our purposes - truth enough to make people question Anubis' strength, truth enough to unite the exiled gods, truth enough to make Anubis worried. His power has crumbled slightly, which he interprets as an existential threat. This is good and bad. It is bad, because it has forced him to be proactive, and he does not loathe bloodshed as we do. It is good, because it has forced him to scramble, and he appears much weaker and more complacent than he would like people to believe. If we can press him into that disadvantage, the people will rise against his tyranny. If we can do that, if we can unite as one against the power structure…
It will be the birth of a new civilization.

"Well," said Trixie. "That… sounds good." She hesitated. "But, um, where exactly did stealing Sutekh's bones and the radioactive rocks come into play? Because Trixie did notice you left that part out."

"Oh, you heard about that, did you?" Discord said from where they had curled around a palm tree of their own. "Well, of course, it was partly to wind up Anubis, make him lose the plot a little quicker."

"Stealing someone's dad's bones would do that," Trixie agreed.

"Partly…" Discord dragged the word out, then paused a long moment. "I'm not certain I should really tell you. Particularly since you haven't held up your end of the bargain. Where's my surprise?"

"You'll get it before Trixie goes," Trixie said firmly. "Half the point of a good surprise is the anticipation. And Trixie considers what you did with Sutekh's remains to be part of your side of the story, so you have to tell Trixie that first anyway." She turned her nose up at the draconequus, considering them closely. "Nyeah," she concluded, sticking out her tongue at them.

Discord's eyebrows had slowly risen through the entire speech. "Well, well," they said. "I thought I liked you for a reason. Bold as brass, I see."

"You may as well show her," Ba'ast said, having returned to her more customary lounging position on the branch. "It will only strengthen our case."

"That remains to be seen," Trixie said archly. "Lead on."

Ba'ast leapt from her resting place. The tree whipped upright with a sharp snap that made Trixie jump.

"Come! We will take you to the power plant."

The meeting had ended some few hours ago, and Sunset had retired to her chambers. On her arrival, she had been perturbed when she discovered that Trixie had yet to return, but not overly alarmed. With all the guard on high alert, it was only natural that Trixie might want to lay low for awhile. Perhaps she'd even left the compound entirely to establish an alibi elsewhere. All she knew was that Trixie hadn't been taken into custody, and that was comfort enough. At least, for the first couple hours it was. By the third hour, she had taken to pacing the room. When the fourth rolled around, Sunset could take no more.

The guard outside Sunset's room visibly jumped when she slammed her door open. She barely glanced at him. "You. Go look for my priestess."

"I regret, my queen, that I cannot leave-"

Sunset stopped dead. Almost glacially, she turned her head to lock eyes with the guard. "That sounded almost like a refusal, guard. Let's try this again. Go… find… Trixie." She lit her horn, and the tip blazed like a welding torch. "Capice?"

He saluted quickly. "Yes, my queen!"

"Good. Get to it."

She turned her back to him as he raced down the hallway. He wouldn't find Trixie, of course, but at least Sunset wouldn't have to put up with him hounding her.

No. To find Trixie, she'd have to go straight to the big dog himself.

Anubis was hunched over his desk when Sunset tracked him down. He barely glanced up when she entered, then went back to poring over his clay tablets. "Report," he said gruffly.

Sunset raised a brow. "Are you quite sure that's how you want to begin this conversation?"

The jackal did a double take, then shoved almost all his tablets to the ground in his haste to rise. "My queen, forgive me, I did not realize that it was you!"

"Yes, I had suspected as much," Sunset said drily. "You could stand to pay a little more attention to the world around you as it actually is, Anubis."

His lips tightened. "Yes, Queen Ra. Thank you."

"Well, never mind that now. I seem to have waylaid my priestess, have you seen her anywhere?"

Anubis raised a brow. "Waylaid your priestess. Not exactly a common problem, if I may so say. Perhaps you should keep her on a shorter leash."

"Well. You'd be the expert on leashes, wouldn't you?" Sunset shot back. She was pleased to see Anubis' lip twist at that. "I last saw her before the meeting, and sent her on an errand. I wanted some dried figs from the market. It's been… oh, around ten hours since then, and I really would like her back."

"The market," Anubis echoed. "For… dried figs."

"They're sweet. Is this really the most important thing about the situation?"

"No, of course not. Forgive me, my queen, please go on."

"There's not much more to tell, I suppose. As I said, that was the last time I saw her, and with the unexplained explosion… well, I'm concerned. I know no one was found in the area, but do you have any kind of idea what happened?"

Anubis glanced back at his desk. "Quite a coincidence that you should ask. As it happens, I was just now looking over the reports of the incident."

"Oh?" Sunset glanced over at the tablets. Indeed, they seemed to detail the explosion's aftermath in some detail. One analyzed the value of everything that had broken, and Sunset winced when she saw the total. "Hope you got this place insured," she said.

"Hm?" Anubis glanced at the numbers. "A trifling sum. I suppose we're fortunate that the damage was contained to one small courtyard. If the explosions had happened somewhere important… hmph." His brow furrowed. "This may have been a test run."

Sunset looked up from the tablets. "A test run," she echoed. "Of what, exactly? And by whom?"

He squinted at her as though she really were the sun. "The forces of chaos, of course."

"Ah," said Sunset. "Of course."

"It is the only possible explanation," Anubis continued, beginning to pace. "Incursion by teleportation! A coward's method of attack, showcasing their craven, debauched nature."

"Uh-huh," Sunset said.

"Yes… and their removal of your priestess even more so."

Sunset stopped and turned to face the jackal. "Come again?"

Anubis stood with his back to the wall now, arms crossed over his chest. "Your priestess was here. The explosion happened. Now, she is no longer here."

"That's circumstantial evidence at best," Sunset pointed out. "At worst, it's scapegoating and slander."

"Which are you inclined to think it really is?"

"Somewhere in the middle, around wild conjecture and confirmation bias," Sunset returned. "It's possible, I grant you that, but you haven't even evidence enough to prove that it was Discord and their allies that broke in here, let alone that they kidnapped Trixie."

Anubis scowled. Well, good. If he wasn't going to be helpful, neither was Sunset.

"Will you at least consider the possibility that the forces of chaos have taken your priestess?" he asked.

Sunset paused, thinking. "I'll… consider it, yes. But there's every chance she's still in the city. Mobilize your guards to search for her. If we haven't found her by nightfall… well, we'll talk again then."

Anubis's shoulder and neck muscles unclenched slightly. "Reasonable enough," he conceded. "Very well, my queen. I will see you this evening."

"Not if I see you first," Sunset muttered, storming into the hall.

Anubis watched the door swing slowly shut. As it clicked back into place, he gave a grim smile. Everything was falling into place.

Sunset found herself back at the TARDIS, glaring at its blue double doors. She didn't have anywhere else to go, and if nothing else getting the TARDIS off the summoning circle that had brought it here would be a productive way to spend a few minutes.

She started pushing the box along. The worst part was, Anubis's theory might actually be true. She knew that Trixie had been trying to contact Discord when she vanished. The jackal might have made some biased leaps of logic, but he still had managed to come to the most logical conclusion.

Sunset grunted as the TARDIS hit a raised set of runes. She lit her horn and tugged the box over to the edge.

And if Discord had Trixie, she thought, there was no telling what might happen to her. The Discord she knew was amiable enough - kind of a dick, sure, but a far cry from a villain. But she knew that was a recent development.

The TARDIS bumped against an invisible wall at the edge of the circle, and Sunset hissed in frustration.

She had looked into Discord's checkered, striped, and polka-dotted past. It hadn't been easy. Celestia and Luna had been cagey about the chaos deity's first rampage, and Ponyville seemed to have brushed the details of their second release under the rug. Even Rainbow Dash just got sullen and quiet every time it was mentioned. But not for nothing had Sunset been Princess Celestia's personal student. She had scoured the Royal Archives. Little information survived of Discord's first reign of terror, or indeed of their life before that sordid era. The more recent rampage, though… that had been detailed in-depth in practically every newspaper in the nation. Sunset had read them all, and she had been horrified. Even setting aside the mental magic, which had been banned in every civilized society capable of using it and then some, Discord had done terrible, nightmare-inducing things to innocent ponies. She was convinced that they had changed, although it took her several days to start trusting the elder draconequus, but they were thousands of years in the past. This Discord had never met Fluttershy, never learned what friendship meant, never learned to take responsibility for their actions.

And yet.

Sunset sat down, her back against the box. Discord hadn't struck her as cruel or uncaring here and now, either. They hadn't exactly been pleasant, but merely… aloof? Detached? They might try to kidnap Trixie, if it came to that, but Sunset doubted it would come from any malicious intent. Just curiosity.

She sighed. It just didn't make any sense. She needed Trixie here, to help her see where it had all gone wrong. Of course, if Trixie were here, that particular point would be moot.

Sunset stood up. Well, she wouldn't get anything done waiting around in here. She trotted out of the circle. Wherever Trixie was, she hoped that she was safe.

Trixie followed Discord and Ba'ast deeper into the thick forest of palm trees surrounding the oasis. "So, just how big is this place?" she asked.

Discord sucked in a long breath. "Well," they said. "You know the city you were just in?"

"Yes."

"Take that area and multiply by seven."

"Okay…"

"Now add two-hundred and seventy-three, then divide by eight and three-fifths."

"Huh?"

"Now, square that total, add seventeen, then throw that all away because this is theoretically infinite."

"Oh. Why didn't you just say so?"

"Because I wouldn't have had the pleasure of seeing you so utterly lost."

Trixie scowled, and would have retorted if Ba'ast hadn't interrupted. "Here we are at last!" she said, pushing aside some leaves.

Any comment Trixie might have made dried up in her throat as she saw what stood in the glade beyond. Well. Stood might have been a strong word. 'Lounged', perhaps. Or 'lay', as in 'lay in wait'.

"Tha, uh, that's a… That's a big snake you've got there," she said.

The serpent, easily as wide as a two-lane road and long enough to comfortably wrap itself up around the tallest tower in Canterlot, flicked its tongue lazily. Ba'ast beamed. "You like?" she asked, turning to face Trixie. "I would have preferred to use Catshepsut, of course, but she was rather specialized… and, of course, we parted company not long after landing here."

Trixie blinked. "Catshepsut?"

"Oh, pardon me, you were never introduced, were you? Catshepsut was the sphinx."

The gears in Trixie's head clunked once or twice, then ground back into position. "So… this is another artificial intelligence?"

"'Intelligence' might be a bit strong," Discord muttered.

The snake gave him a long, hard stare. "Yes, well," Ba'ast said hurriedly. "Trixie, I present to you Mala, the divine temptation."

Trixie looked the snake up and down doubtfully. "She's certainly… pretty," she agreed after a moment. "But, um, Trixie doesn't feel… 'tempted', per se."

"Oh dear. That's not even remotely what I meant."

"Oh. Then what's so tempting about her?"

The sides of Ba'ast's lips twitched. "It would be easier just to show you." She turned to the giant serpent. "Open up!" she shouted. "It's me."

Mala twisted, slithering sinuously over the sands toward her mistress. She stopped, her head lying at Ba'ast's feet. With a hiss equal parts mechanical and hydraulic, the snake's massive maw swung open, revealing a metal tunnel. The cat turned to Trixie and smiled brightly. "Shall we?"

Trixie looked down the corridor as far as she could, until the serpentine corridor twisted too far off the straight for her to see. "You first."

Ba'ast let out a full, throaty laugh. "Very well, my dear. Discord, darling, you can bring up the rear."

Discord looked disdainfully at the metal maw. "Must I?"

"Yes."

They sighed in mock-exasperation. "Very well. A chaos god must do what a chaos god must do."

Ba'ast smiled at them softly, then marched into the gaping mouth of the snake, the other two walking after her like baby ducks.

The hallway was, unsurprisingly, a funhouse path of hills, valleys, and curves, following the curvature of the serpent's prone form. After several minutes of intense hiking, Trixie stopped dead. "Alright, enough is enough," she said waspishly. "How much farther back did you put this thing you wanted to show Trixie? This seems like something of a design flaw, frankly."

"We're still moving down the throat," Ba'ast said. "The principle function lies at the belly of the beast."

"Oh, of course it does," Trixie grumbled. "You just love your little in-jokes here, don't you? Trixie is almost surprised you didn't put it in the heart."

"Don't be ridiculous," Ba'ast said, continuing along the hall. "That's where the CPU is."

Trixie huffed and trotted along after her, but no sooner had she turned the corner than she stopped dead once again. Discord bumped into her backside. "Hey, watch it," they complained, but Trixie barely noticed. Her face, the walls, everything was suffused with an ominous lime-green glow.

"This… this is safe, right?"

Discord thought about that for a moment. "Probably? Hey, Ba'ast, she can handle this, right?"

"Yeah! Yeah, she should be fine."

"There, you see? You should be fine."

"...Should?"

Discord grinned. "Oh, nothing's ever certain. Here, more than anywhere else, that is true."

"...Where is here, anyway?" Trixie asked, starting down the hallway again.

"Everywhere. Nowhere. Somewhere else. We're outside of traditional space and time, north of normal and yonwards of hither."

"Very poetic," Trixie said drily.

"Well, if you have a better way to describe it, I'm all ears."

Trixie huffed, but said nothing more as she rounded another bend in the corridor… and once more, stopped dead in her tracks. "This is getting to be a habit," Discord grumbled, coming to a halt just in time. They gazed into the room beyond. "Though I will admit, this time is rather justified…"

On the walls, luminous green crystals shone out through the glass of their water-filled tanks, bathing everything a sickening shade of lime. Complex systems of wires and pipes also lined the walls, spreading outwards from the center of the room. And there, Ba'ast stood, examining a set of gauges on another, larger tank of water with a series of glowing crystals inside. She turned at their entrance, smiling faintly. "Welcome, my dear. Do you understand, now?"

Trixie started to shake her head 'no', but hesitated. "These crystals… they killed Sutekh, yes?"

"That's so."

"You stole them from Anubis, along with Sutekh's own remains." She paused. "...Why?"

Ba'ast turned that question over in her mind a few times. "Several reasons, I suppose. The crystals - they're known as glowpaz, so you know - are a useful power source, even if they were drained by the trip here and Sutekh's self-sacrifice. They weren't doing any good sitting around Anubis's palace all day. As for Sutekh… I won't deny, the disappearance of his remains added a certain amount of legitimacy to our claims that Discord is his reincarnation, at least as far as the public is concerned. But that was never the primary goal of our reclamation of Sutekh's bones. I would have taken them even if it had discredited us utterly."

"Then why? It seems so disrespectful to his memory to use it in such a way."

Ba'ast's eyes flashed, and Trixie could tell she'd touched a nerve. She stepped back, but in an instant, Ba'ast's serenity was restored. "Disrespectful? No. What was disrespectful was the way Anubis, our god of funerary rituals and transition to the afterlife, refused to give his own father the proper burial of a god, a hero, or even the lowest mortal being - no offence."

"None taken." Trixie screwed up her muzzle. "Hey, wait a second-"

"So yes, we took his bones, his headdress, his symbols of power. They lie buried with him in a pyramid not too far from here, finally all put to rest."

Trixie nodded slowly. "Okay. That explains the bones. And the glowpaz kind of makes sense, Trixie guesses, but… why a giant snake? What's the point? It seems to Trixie like you could light up this whole oasis like central Manehattan - or Las Pegasus, that seems more your style. You could win the people over by introducing this new energy source and see Anubis's power base crumble beneath him. So why the snake?"

"Anubis won't give up his power so easily," Ba'ast said shortly. "He'll make claims that the glowpaz is still dangerous, as though his father hadn't siphoned away its life-sapping powers. He'll use this as a tool to gain more power, more control. He's very good at that, you know. It's only a matter of time before his head gets swelled enough he decides to start a war and makes a strike against us."

"So how's the snake going to help with that?"

Ba'ast turned a knob, and the central tank began to bubble. "We're going to strike first."

Evening had fallen, and Sunset returned to Anubis's office. "You haven't found her," she said without preamble.

"No."

"Did you bother to look? Or were you so convinced of your chaos-god theory that you let a few areas slide?"

"Every building in town was checked. No stone was left unturned. She is not here. We followed the trail of her scent and lost it in the stink of explosives. Her last known location was twenty meters from the courtyard. Are you ready to face facts? Or would you prefer to keep calling my methods and efforts into question?"

Sunset flinched. She hadn't been expecting that. "The former."

Anubis smiled. It wasn't exactly a pleasant smile, but compared to other smiles she'd seen on his face, it was positively sunshiney. "Then you agree that this pseudo-Sutekh must be hunted down. Imprisoned, interrogated -"

"Hold up."

Anubis faltered.

"I agree we need to find Discord and ask them a few pointed questions. May I remind you, we still have no direct evidence that they were involved in Trixie's disappearance, and I'm only onboard with this because we haven't got any better leads? There is going to be no celestial dragnet, no kangaroo-court trial, no… whatever other things you're thinking of."

"My queen, you insult me! I would never-"

"Oh, so my trial for your father's murder was just a one-time event, then."

Anubis's jaw snapped shut for a long moment. "People can change," he said eventually.

Sunset rose. "And I'm extending the courtesy that belief offers to you. You should do no less to Ba'ast, Discord, and their ilk. I'm going to study the crime scene, see if I can track any teleportation magic. Goodbye, Anubis. I hope to find you in a better mood when next we meet."

Anubis watched the door slam shut as his Queen departed. He scowled. "Oh, rest assured, Queen Ra. You will."

"A first-strike policy? That's lunatic!" Trixie shouted as the trio made their way back up the snake's gullet.

"Oh, believe me, we're not fond of it," Ba'ast said from her place poised on Discord's back. "If we could live in peace with Anubis, we would. I personally went centuries without trying to claw out his eyes, and I could keep it up for centuries more. But he's always pushing his boundaries, and by extension, our buttons. If we don't fight back, he'll wipe us out."

"And you think starting a war will help with that?"

"We have our supporters. We can win more if we show Anubis to be fallible."

"You can do that in so many other ways! The dog has serious issues, okay? You don't need to sic a giant robot snake on a city to prove he's a bad leader, you can literally just remind everyone about the time he refused, for centuries, to look at the evidence that proved how his father died."

"Do you think we haven't tried that? It simply isn't good enough any more. We have to move on to more tangible issues."

"Creatures will die, Ba'ast."

Discord, who hadn't said much of anything this whole time, flinched. Ba'ast scowled for a moment before recovering her composure. None of this went unnoticed by Trixie. "We can help," she said plaintively. "Sunset is well-respected in these parts, you know. Maybe she can discredit Anubis where you have been unable to."

"Oh, what do you know?" Ba'ast snapped. "You preach peace, understanding, as though they were real. The only language any creature understands is power. Anubis speaks it well, but his understanding is deeply flawed. We will use our superior technology to prove the effectiveness of our creativity, of our development over his stagnation, and the people will flock to us."

Trixie took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. "Trixie understands far better than you would think. She too was tossed to the outskirts of society, left to turn cold and bitter. Trixie… has hurt ponies. She did things that she thought she would never be forgiven for. And yet, today she is the personal advisor and close friend of one of the ponies she wronged the worst. She lives in a town she once conquered and pillaged, and is considered to be a pillar of the community. My relationship with Sunset is living proof that forgiveness is possible."

Ba'ast just stared through half-lidded eyes at her. "...Cute," she decided. "Really, your naivety is just… adorable."

Trixie met her, stare for stare. "Peace is not naive. Trixie is living proof that it is hard, and complex, and completely worth every gruelling second it took to achieve. War is simple. You attack. They retaliate. Rinse, wash, repeat, until enough creatures have died."

Ba'ast frowned. "Your horn… should it be doing that?"

"Peace and forgiveness are not pipe dreams! Violence and vengeance is easier, but at what cost?"

"No, really, that thing is sparking quite a lot."

"What?" Trixie crossed her eyes. A corona of green had ignited around her horn. "Um. This is unusual." A moment later, a burst of green light went off, sending Trixie, Ba'ast, and Discord sprawling. A scroll bounced off the floor and rolled against the wall.

Discord sat up first. "What in the world was that?"

"Flame-mail," Trixie groaned. "Oh, that one's going to give Trixie one Tartarus of a headache…"

Discord snagged the scroll and studied it. "I don't recognize the seal."

"No, you wouldn't. The pony who wrote it won't be born for another three thousand years, at least." She paused. "Wait. So how did Trixie get it?"

"Outside of time and space, remember?" Ba'ast said. "Things happen when they're narratively interesting, not when it would be right or logical. It's part and parcel of living with the deity of chaos."

Trixie snatched the scroll from Discord's claws and broke the wax seal, unrolling it. Her brow furrowed. "Who is 'Minuette'? Oh! Cool, Starlight's there…"

She stuffed it under her cloak. "Well, there's no real urgency. Trixie his a good few centuries to go before she needs to worry about any of that."

Ba'ast frowned at her. "It's interesting," she mused. "The more you say, the less I seem to know about you. You're a mystery, my dear Trixie." She turned tail and stalked up the serpent's throat. "One I intend to solve."

Sunset took in a long, slow breath through her nose. The smell of gunpowder and smoke had faded with time, but there was still a lingering trace in the air that made her mane burn brighter. She had pulled off this trick once before, on a much larger scale, back at the House on the Rock. Now she needed to power the barest shadow of that feat, running the clock back just a little bit to see what had transpired here, without actually resetting the entire room. It was harder than it sounded. Her power was fire, fire that threatened at every turn to burst from her and fulfil her vision for the world.

But if that happened, if she recreated the room as it had been before Trixie had started the summoning, would she bring back Trixie? Would there exist two Trixies and two Discords? What would Anubis have to say about that?

That last question tempted her, and she felt her power flare. But at the last second, she extinguished it. No. No, she couldn't lose her grip on this one. She took in another long breath and focused on the floor before her. Her eyes glowed orange; no whites, irises, or pupils, only portals to a dimension of flame.

And slowly, the rubble turned ghostly and transparent, and chalk lines obscured by time and tromping feet grew clear. Sunset studied the circle of runes for a long time. She could see no flaws in them. Trixie clearly knew what she had been doing. Sunset let the flow of time play out, slowly - she could see a glowing silhouette of Discord at the center of the circle, and a dimmer figure that must have been Trixie outside it.

And then she saw a new set of chalk lines appear - just a quick note, set apart from the circle. And then a few key runes smudged themselves from existence, and both figures vanished.

Sunset strained to read the note, the last thing Trixie wrote before vanishing, the clue that might solve everything. The phantom room grew brighter, more tangible, almost glowing with the power being poured into it. She could almost read it - s̷̭̀ḥ̸͒ȇ̴̢ ̷͇̍c̸̯͗o̸̖͘ú̶̺l̵̻͘d̷̲́ ̶̱̇a̶̦̓l̸͜͝m̶̛͚ơ̶̮s̸͓̀t̸̪͒ ̸̳͂r̸͙̃e̷̼͒á̸̤d̵̯̏ ̸̖́i̶̤͆t̷̨͒ ̴̲̈-̵͓̔-̶̰̈́

And then her hoof hit a piece of crumbling masonry that her illusion had hidden, sending Sunset tumbling to the ground as the spell collapsed.

"Ow," she said, more out of habit than pain. Her pride was wounded far worse than her body. She pushed herself upright, mentally kicking herself. After all that thought and meditation, she'd nearly lost control at the critical moment. She stumbled over to the chalk note, but it was smeared beyond legibility.

"Anubis should hold his guards to a higher standard," she said bitterly. "Who knows what other evidence they've destroyed."

Although… she didn't recall there being that many guards in the room when she'd first arrived. Actually, the only one she'd really seen poking around was Anubis himself.

She thought back to earlier, just after the gods had left the room to return to the meeting. The chalk smear on Anubis's sandal had seemed odd at the time. Sunset's jaw clenched.

Ba'ast had vanished by the time Trixie and Discord emerged from Mala's mouth. As soon as Trixie stepped off the serpent's jaw, the snake slithered away faster than anything that size ought to be able to move. Trixie watched it go for a long minute before glancing up at Discord. "So did she use you for inspiration, or…"

Discord snorted, the first sound they'd made since Ba'ast had walked out. "Please. As though I would ever debase myself so far as to slither to get around. No, she thought of some fellow named Apophis. Big bad chaos god of destruction, from her people's world."

"You don't like Mala, do you, Discord?"

"Oh, so you could tell. You're a regular detective, I see."

"You don't want this to become a war, either."

"Oh, a psychologist as well! Absolutely wonderful. Absolutely flipping wonderful." They flew up and twined themself around a tree, glaring at Trixie. "You're from the future, aren't you? Subtle, you aren't."

There didn't seem any point denying it. "Yes."

"That wasn't your surprise, was it? Kind of a giveaway, there."

"No, that wasn't it."

"Hm." Discord rubbed their chin. "Tell me, then. Is war inevitable? Do we win? Do we lose? Will it be bloodless?"

"Trixie doesn't know. She didn't pay a lot of attention in history class."

"Don't you think you'd remember a war between the gods themselves? Order and chaos locked in battle over the fate of all civilization?"

"Listen, there was this really cute zebra mare sitting right in front of Trixie, okay? It was a very hormonal time in her life, don't judge her!"

Discord rolled their eyes. "On such things are civilizations lost," they grumbled.

"Sunset would know," Trixie said. "Why don't we go back?"

"Apart from the fact that you still haven't given me your offering? Well, I don't know where she is, and there's a strong possibility that I might drop you straight into the arms of Anubis's guards. You're far safer here."

"But Sunset can help! And Trixie is sure she's worried about Trixie. There must be some way to contact her…"

Discord shrugged. "I don't know. You could summon her, I suppose, same way you did me."

"What? But that - Sunset is -" Trixie paused. "Oh. Huh. Okay, help Trixie draw a circle in the sand real quick…"

Sunset was just storming back to Anubis's office when she felt a foreign tingle run up her spine. She spun around, expecting to find Anubis glaring down at her, but the hallway was empty and the tingle only grew stronger. And then the world burst into flame.

She blinked several times to clear her eyes. "Trixie?"

Trixie clapped her hooves in delight. "It worked! It worked!"

"Trixie, what is happening? Where are we?"

"Outside time and space."

"In my domain." Discord purred from behind Sunset.

She jumped and spun around. "You! So you did kidnap Trixie."

Discord put a paw to their chest. "Kidnap? Me? Well, there's gratitude for you. You save one unicorn from being captured by the guards, and do you get any thanks? Indeed not."

Sunset paused. "Captured by the guards?"

"Yes! Did you not get Trixie's message? 'Be back soon, love you'?"

Sunset scowled. "... No. No I didn't. When I get back, I'm going to make Anubis eat his own loincloth."

"Sunset, listen, we probably don't have a lot of time. Here's your offering." She tossed a scroll to Sunset.

"What's this?"

"Letter from Twilight. Trixie thinks that we can track the location it was teleported from using the TARDIS, but we're going to have to get it back. I - oh, take Trixie's hoof." The magician reached into the circle.

Sunset grabbed her hoof, and the events of the past several hours ran through her head. "A giant snake? Really?"

"Yeah, that was basically Trixie's reaction."

"I know. You just showed me."

"Oh. Yeah. Um, advice?"

"Well, unlike you, I was able to focus in my history classes. Probably helped that I was personally tutored by someone who was there for most of it, but I digress. But, no. There's no record of any war among these gods happening, not in the history books, nor in mythology. Which means we're going to have to seriously de-escalate tensions here before we get the TARDIS."

"How do we do that?"

"No idea," Sunset admitted. "But getting you back to the city would definitely take the wind out of Anubis's sails. Discord, can we count on your support on this end?"

Discord hesitated. "Well, er, that is… I'll do whatever I can to limit the deaths."

"A little weak, but I'll take it. Trixie? Break the circle, and let's go."

"Ah-ah-ah!" Discord wagged a finger, imposing themself between Trixie and the circle. "Not so fast. You still owe me something, remember?"

"Trixie?" Sunset demanded. "What are they talking about?"

"Huh?" Trixie cocked her head. "Oh yes. The surprise. Close your eyes a moment."

Discord did so. They heard Trixie rummaging around her cape for a moment or two.

"...Seriously?" Sunset asked.

"Shush!" More rustling. "Okay, open them," Trixie said after a few moments of silence.

Discord opened their eyes. "Booga-booga-booga!" Trixie shouted from behind a crude mask, waving her hooves in the air.

Discord's jaw dropped. "That- buh- wha? That's it?"

Trixie removed the mask. "Trixie never said it was a good surprise."
The draconequus stood absolutely still. Trixie shuffled her hooves a little. This had seemed like such a good idea when there had been a wall of magical force between her and Discord…

Then, a chuckle. Within a few moments, Discord was helpless with laughter, their arms wrapped around their belly as they doubled over. Slowly, their laughter died and they rose to their knees, clapping a claw on Trixie's withers. "Trixie. I realize this is a long shot, but is there even the slightest chance that you would consider switching deities? The eensie-weensiest of possibilities?"

"Nope." Trixie peered around Discord to look at Sunset. "The benefits are too good."

Discord chuckled. "Fair enough. But I'll give you one miracle, on the house. All you have to do is whistle, and it shall be done."

"Sounds good to Trixie," Trixie said, trotting over to the circle. "It probably won't be used for another few thousand years, but it's good to know Trixie has it."

"Goodbye, ladies! Goodbye, good luck, and good-" they froze.

Sunset frowned. "Discord?"

"Oh, no. Oh no, no no, got to stay grounded," Discord muttered, grabbing onto a palm tree. Their paw went right through as they began to dissolve into sparkles. And then they were gone.

"...Anubis?" Trixie guessed.

"Come on!" Sunset said, all but hauling Trixie over the border of the circle. There was a flash of light, and they were gone.

There was a flash of light, and the two mares tumbled onto cold stone tiles. Trixie managed to recover first, by virtue of having landed on top of Sunset, and raced down the hall like a shot. Sunset hurried after her. "Where are you going?" she demanded. "We don't know where Discord is, or even if Anubis summoned them here!"

"Maybe not," Trixie said, still running. "But if he did summon Discord, there's only one place he'd do it. Trust a showmare's instincts, he's going for the biggest stage he can get."

"And where's that?"

The auditorium was packed once more, but now the crowd was silent. The TARDIS had been dragged out of the summoning circle and was even now sitting on the corner of the dais. Someone else was stuck in the circle now, seated on a stool and listening carefully to Anubis as he read from a clay tablet.

"You, Discord, alias 'Sutekh', alias 'Lord of Chaos', alias 'Jim Fritters', alias 'Z of the Z Continuum', alias 'Lance Dijon', alias 'Will U. Stopmakingthatawfulnoise', alias 'Francesca Addams', stand accused-"

"I think you'll find I'm actually sitting."

"-of the following crimes. High treason. Conspiracy. Disturbing the peace. Indecent exposure. Speeding. Improper parking. Jaywalking. Jayflying. Jayswimming. Creativity without a license. Vandalism. Disturbing the peace again. Flying while intoxicated. Flying while being in the shape of a bumblebee, thus breaking all known laws of aviation. Tax evasion. Trespassing on - will you stop making that awful noise?"

"No," said Discord, continuing to make armpit fart noises.

Anubis ground his teeth. "Trespassing on government property, holding your claw a millimeter away from the peace and saying 'I'm not touching you~', and abducting the high priestess of Ra. There are more, but I thought we'd start with the ones you did today. How do you plead?"

"Oh, usually something like this." Discord hopped off their stool and knelt on the cold, carved floor of the summoning circle. "P-pwease hewp me, Mistew Anoobus! I'ww do anything!"

Anubis glared at him. "You also now stand accused of being in contempt of court."

"Again, I'm kneeling accused. You really do have to work on your legal terminology if you expect to be taken seriously."

Discord glanced around the room, looking for the barest hint of a smile. They didn't find it. "Tough crowd," the muttered, taking their seat again. "Alright, can I plead to each of those separately?"

"You may."

Discord looked up at the ceiling, ticking off points on their claws in turn. Innocent, it was low treason at worst. Guilty, guilty, we don't normally wear clothes, guilty, innocent, guilty, guilty, guilty, innocent - my artistic licence is fully up to date. Guilty to the next three, innocent because bees don't care what you think is impossible, innocent because I'm not a registered citizen, guilty, guilty, innocent, and innocent on grounds that I hold no contempt for the court, only pity." They paused. "That bird is writing down everything I say?"

Anubis glanced at Thoth, frantically scribbling away. "Yes."

"Line break, Thoth, colon, I am a doodoo-head and I like to eat sand."

"Strike that from the record!" Anubis barked. "No, don't just type 'strike that from the record', strike it from - oh, forget it."

"Can I change that last answer? Because I think I may actually have some contempt for the court after all."

Anubis growled, and Discord grinned. But looking out at the sea of faces wiped the smile from their face. Making Anubis lose his cool was not only failing to turn the audience against him, it seemed to be strengthening their resolve.

"Let me put this to you simply," Anubis said, stepping to the edge of the circle. "Tell us where the High Priestess of Ra is."

"Don't know. With Ra, I suppose, though where she is I couldn't say."

"We know that to be untrue."

"Do you? When's the last time you checked?"

Anubis rubbed the bridge of his muzzle. After a moment, he said, in a much calmer voice, "Discord. Would you examine the outer ring of this circle?"

"If I must." Discord glanced around their temporary prison. "That's the symbol for acid, lightning, fire, blood, pain…" they trailed off. "A… voice command…"

"Yes. At the right word from me, one or more of those runes will activate. So, I hope there won't be any more fibbing."

Discord hissed as a shower of poisonous green fluid rained down on them, raising welts on their skin and leaving holes in their wings and coat. They glared at Anubis and snapped their claws, instantly undoing the damage. "You've made your point."

"Good. So tell us, Discord. Where is the priestess? Where is your base of operations?"

"I've told you where Trixie is. And my location of my little oasis is no secret! It's simply a fraction of a degree out of sync with your universe, beyond bounded space and time."

"Take us there."

"Uh, can't do that? Still very much trapped in this circle."

"Uncooperative."

Discord screamed as electricity arced over their body, then fell shaking to the floor. They glanced around the room. Some faces remained impassive, but some, at least, were shocked. Good. If the clown routine failed, they could at least fall back on pathos. They rose, not bothering to magically remove the burn marks. "What is it that you want from me?" they snarled. "Obedience? Surrender? Merely my absence? Tell me! I know you don't care about Trixie, Ba'ast told me enough about~"

"Hostility."

Discord burst into flames. They shook it off. "Enough of this mockery! I have my rights, my dignity here! I demand to speak to Ra! I trust her to arbitrate this fairly! I will not speak again until-"

"No, you won't. Restrain."

"Flurb," said Discord, as all of their muscles went slack.

Anubis loomed over them. "Ra has been compromised, as well you know, serpent. She has spent far too long away from us, her people. Her traditions. Her responsibilities. She has taken on this new, pathetic form. She questions our old ways and challenges her most devoted followers. She-"

"She," said another voice from far behind Anubis, "is right behind you."

Anubis spun around. Standing at the door of the auditorium, quaking with rage, stood Ra. His face went slack. "I, uh, that is, my queen, I can explain."

"I told you, Anubis. No courtroom farce. No hunting down suspects willy-nilly. Certainly no torture. And here. You. Are. So go on. Explain."

Anubis stammered. "Well, that is - this was the most expedient way to find your priestess!"

"You rang?" Trixie said smugly, stepping out from behind Sunset's spread wings.

Anubis's jaw hung open.

"Release them," Sunset said. "Now."

Anubis hesitated a moment, then straightened up. "No. They must be put on trial for their crimes. I was telling the truth about you! You're corrupt! You've turned your backs on the good of your people! You've-"

"It's an interesting thing about politicians," Sunset said. "They so often accuse their opponents of crimes they're guilty of themselves. You've staged a public torture event for a personal rival and political foe, Anubis. Your abuses of power are nothing short of criminal. I strip you of your authority here. Step down."

"Never."

Sunset shrugged. "Alright. Hardball it is. Hey Trixie, which of those runes look most important?"

"Uh, that one… that one, there… that row… and that should restore muscle control."

"Cool."

"No! You cannot bypass the bindings on the circle! I designed them specifically to keep out the powers of Ra!"

There was a series of explosions. "Hi. My name's Sunset Shimmer. Terrible to meet you!"

Discord rose, stretching every inch of their spine. "Well, I'll say this for him, my back has never felt better."

Anubis spun around again, terrified. Discord gave him a very unpleasant smile. "Oh, don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. I'll just be watching with my popcorn."

Anubis turned to face Ra - or Sunset, apparently - again, and flinched when he found himself faced with a column of flame. "Anubis," she said. "I banish you from this city. You are not welcome here, nor in any other city that you once reigned over. You may go and start anew elsewhere, with all the followers you can entice to join you. But your reign here is over. Do you understand?"

"I- that is-" Anubis hung his head. "Yes. I understand."

"Good." The pillar of flame turned back into Sunset, and she turned to face the crowd. "My people. You have lived in stagnation for too long. I have a feeling there's going to be quite a lot of change coming your way. You've got some catching up to do. It might be scary. It might be difficult. But I promise you, at the end of the day, you'll be much better for it."

A few ragged cheers came up from the crowd, but mostly everyone looked confused.

"Okay, said Sunset. "Good talk."

"We're leaving now," Trixie added. "Trixie prays to her that we're not coming back. Bye."

They both turned and trotted for the TARDIS. Anubis glared at them and began to draw a great curved sword from his belt.

Trixie, not even looking back, gave a piercing whistle that would have made any Manehattanite taxi-hailer hang their head in shame. Discord snapped their claws.

Anubis promptly transformed into a pink teacup poodle and fell to the ground, his sword clattering harmlessly on the stones.

Trixie just kept walking.

Anubis pulled himself up off the ground, pointed at the unicorn, and shouted in a register at least three octaves higher than usual, "Well? What are you waiting for? Get them?"

There were a few snickers from the crowd. "No! Stop laughing at me! This is a baleful polymorph! I object to this most strong-hmph!"

He was cut off as Discord shoved him into a handbag. "You know, I can't stand small dogs. All that yapping all the time, so infuriating. Here, Nephsys, you hold onto your son for now, I have to go and sort something out."

They snapped their paw and vanished. The TARDIS also began to wheeze and groan out of existence, leaving behind a cheering, yelling, and extremely confused auditorium.

Sunset peered around the console. "There must be somewhere we can put the scroll," she muttered. "Right? It has to go…"

One of the panels clicked and slid open, revealing a pit of translucent blue gel. "That looks promising," said Trixie.

"Yeah, alright," Sunset said, moving to drop the scroll in. At the last moment, she hesitated.

"What?"

"I kind of don't want to go back," Sunset admitted. "Not yet. I mean, I do, but… think about how much there is left to see out there! Think about all the places we could go and explore…"

"Okay, point. Now think about all the times you're gonna have to pretend to be Ra again, given our track record of landings."

Sunset slammed the scroll into the gel. "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."

Trixie laughed and pulled Sunset into a tight one-hooved hug as the time rotor rose and fell, taking them home at long last.

"Discord?"

"Yes, Ba'ast?"

"What happened to Mala?"

"Oh, we won't need her anymore now that Anubis has fallen."

"That's extremely short-sighted! There's always another foe, another challenge to be faced, another -"

"You know, you're starting to sound terrifyingly similar to the dog himself."

A long silence. "What did you do with Mala, Discord?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Where is the glowpaz, Discord?"

"Don't worry about it."

"You're sleeping on the couch for the next century, Discord."

"Yeah, I figured."

Far away, beneath the rising moon, an enormous snake lay coiled on a pile of glowing green stones, sleeping and breathing for the first time in its existence, utterly at peace with the world around it.