The Tale of the Two Horned Pony- Chapter 9: DualCore's Genius Plan

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For context, this story takes place at the beginning of the 8th season of Friendship is Magic. I am posting this story chapter by chapter, so stay tuned for updates. Other than that, I hope

that this years in the making story brings as much joy for you as it does for me! This is a reformatted and edited chapter!

 

Chapter 9- DualCore’s Genius Plan

 

The arrangement at Sugarcube Corner did not work out as planned. Pinkie Pie was not normally let down, but it was suddenly clear how difficult it was going to be to help DualCore on his first assignment. The odds were stacked against him. If even she couldn’t make it any easier, then maybe he was destined to fail after all.

 

DualCore kept his cupcakes in several large to-go boxes, and carrying the bag on his back, he shuffled home. Once more, there were no detours, no additional stops. All on his mind was the swirling torrent of vicious remarks. One second he could hear,“You never belonged here!” The next second he heard, “Go away!” More and more of these phrases played out, keeping DualCore awake in the late night. 

 

DualCore’s bedroom was still that sickeningly adorable pink color. He did not bother to repaint the walls, or the floor. He did not want to get out of his bed, but at the same time, he could not relax. His brain had hundreds of insults and jeers blasting at him with relentless fury. He couldn’t help but imagine himself back at Celestia’s throne room, surrounded by Princesses awaiting his punishment. The vision was so clear he had to wonder whether he was dreaming or not. 

 

By morning, he was simply exhausted. He couldn’t tell if he got any sleep that night, or if he was in a dream. But he solemnly picked up his bag and trekked his way alone to the School of Friendship. 

 

Rainbow Dash’s loyalty class was not particularly DualCore’s favorite class. Rainbow Dash’s injuries had finally healed enough to get her out of the full body cast, but the other students still eyed him uncomfortably, reminded that he was the reason she was injured so badly. Of all the classes, he shrunk down the most here, actively trying to keep his footprint in the class as small as he could. 

 

While Rainbow Dash wrote on the chalkboard on the defining characteristics of a loyal friend, DualCore was passed down a note. Unusual, to say the least, but he silently took the note and read it. 

 

“You will never belong here. Go home, freak!”

 

The other students were suddenly staring at him intensely, as though daring him to leave. Another note fell upon his desk. 

 

“You are a sick and twisted monster!” 

 

From outside the window, the once blue sky had turned an unsettling orange. Rainbow Dash’s lecture was no longer recognizable from the whispers of “Nobody likes you” and “Just get out of here” and the countless other comments rumbling around him. 

 

A deep rage started to boil from within. DualCore was losing himself. One more message fell upon his desk. 

 

“You ugly horned mule! Everyone hates you!”

 

This had gone too far. DualCore was so angry that he tried to fight. He was weighed down to his desk. He couldn’t even lift his hooves to break free. He was too weak. 

 

Rainbow Dash was no longer lecturing. She too was now sneering at DualCore, spewing the same comments as the students. Several other students peeking outside the classroom door also scorned. 

 

Something snapped inside of DualCore. A point of no return. His horns began glowing, not the brilliant gold he once remembered, but black, heavy enough to obscure each horn in a void. The black aura was consuming him, malforming his horns until they curled back, pointing inwards like thick hooks. His eyes inverted, and a shadowy blue haze engulfed his vision. 

 

Next second, his teeth sharpened, growing fangs like a bat. His aura swelled, engulfing his entire desk. The students quickly began cowering away. There were no more whispers. No more sounds. Everything became deathly still around DualCore, who was now completely unrecognizable. 

 

After what seemed like a minute of silence, all of the noise came back to the classroom so intensely the school began to quake! The magic around DualCore had lost control. The aura swelled once more, consuming everything around, turning all it touched to dark flames. 

 

The darkness had grown to such a feat that the whole class was blinded by pitch black, consumed by fires that made the flames of Tartarus look cute. Everyone was screaming DualCore’s name, pleading for mercy, but it was too late. The entity that had taken over may as well have been deaf. 

 

The cries only grew louder, everyone desperately calling for him. “Dualcore!!! DualCore!!!” They got louder and louder until-

 

POW!!!

 

DualCore was woken up with such a jolt his papers flew off his desk. He was panting heavily, clearly in a cold sweat. He looked sick, from his shaking pale fur, to his baggy eyes. 

 

“Hey, Two-horns, you can sleep after class!” Said Rainbow Dash. She dropped a textbook with an ear splitting thud to wake DualCore up. 

 

If the other students weren’t watching before, they did now. DualCore was shaken, so much so that his normally blank and silent demeanor was broken. He did not look this frightened since the trial. What even was this, he thought astonishedly. He could not remember ever becoming such a hideous… whatever he was in his life. Though, he still had large, vacant pockets in his memory. 

DualCore had to remind himself that he did not have powers anymore, and that whatever this was, it was all just a dream. It did not stop the fact that this nightmare haunted him, and not in the usual way a nightmare would. Something about it felt more real, as though it possibly could have happened before. Dreams don’t become this vivid.

 

The rest of Rainbow Dash’s class went on as normal, the scare of DualCore waking up from his daydream ultimately checked off as just something that happened. As everyone was dismissed, Rainbow Dash stopped DualCore in his tracks. 

 

“Stay here for a second.” She said bluntly. DualCore sighed, rolling his eyes as he turned around to face her.

 

“What did I do this time?” He asked exasperatedly. 

 

“Nothing. Look… are you sleeping okay?” Rainbow Dash asked, meeting DualCore’s baggy eyes. “Because you look awful!”

 

“I don’t rest.” Said DualCore nonchalantly, looking away again.

 

“That’s the problem!” Rainbow Dash responded, a smile touching the corner of her cheek. “If you don’t make time for yourself, how are you going to make time for your friends?” 

 

DualCore yawned, still tired, but now too anxious to want to close his eyes again. He had nothing to say back to Rainbow Dash, her advice making some sense to him. 

 

“Look, don’t sweat over what happened… I’m still cooler than you are though. Don’t forget it!” Rainbow Dash smirked, shaking off her injuries like they were nothing. 

 

“Yeah whatever.” Said DualCore, who couldn’t help but smirk back. 

 

The nightmare still lingered over DualCore’s mind, but as he wandered the halls during lunch, the chill came back to him. The vision of himself that jumped him on his first day was back again. This time, however, it looks like he had not figured out where he was yet. 

 

He was done with the anxiety. He glided across the hallway, intercepting the double horned doppelganger in the hallway. 

 

“Who are you?!” DualCore asked commandingly. “Isn’t it bad enough there’s only 1 of me here?!”

 

The doppelganger flinched, sweating profusely as though he was about to be attacked. 

 

“Well?? Who are you?!” DualCore asked more clearly. 

 

The facade evaporated instantly, and before DualCore was no longer a double of himself, but now was a muted teal colored changeling. She was scared to the verge of tears, and when they streamed down her face, DualCore stepped away, immediately regretting what he said. 

 

Without saying another word, the changeling flew off. Stumbling on his words, DualCore tried to apologize, but it was too late. She was gone. 

 

DualCore did not mean to come off as aggressively as he did. He knew that he did not want to harm the changeling, nor did he intend to threaten her. Not that he had the ability to do either in this situation, but nonetheless, he was now even more afraid than before. Princess Celestia would surely come down and banish him for going after another student, he just knew it. 

 

The dark cloud above DualCore carried over in Applejack’s class. By now, he did not want to fall asleep, or speak, or even look at anyone. The Changeling from lunch was in the same class, and she was not in class today. 

 

The alarm bells rang for DualCore. No doubt she was talking to a counselor, ready to rat him out, and then his mind spiraled back into an endless sea of scenarios playing out in his mind like a TV guide of melancholy. What shook him back out of this deep dive was Applejack. She asked DualCore, “Can you tell me a sign that a pony could be lyin’?”

 

Shaking off the worst of his fears, DualCore cleared his throat. “Check their body language. A liar will send mixed signals.”

 

Applejack eyed him intently. “That’s right… Honesty’s about more than just telling your friends the truth, but it’s about being true to yourself. Very good, Two-horns.”

 

Despite some of the class watching over him as though they didn’t expect him to answer it correctly, receiving a little praise did brighten his spirits. The rest of the class carried on. For DualCore, the pace felt a bit too smooth. Something had to stop him. There was no way in his mind that he was going to get away with hurting another student’s feelings. 

 

As the class ended, DualCore was dismissed, moving on to his study period. The feeling of impending doom still loomed over him, a bubble carrying the weight of all of his actions raring to burst at any second. 

 

By the time he was dismissed from Twilight’s class, the feeling that the next horseshoe would drop was even heavier. When Twilight stopped him before making his way to the exit doors, his hair stood upright at all ends. 

 

“Remember that you have until Friday to invite a friend to the Friends and Family gathering.”

 

DualCore’s heart sank. He totally forgot about the two tickets. The gathering was in three days, and he was more than certain nobody liked him. As he headed off, he looked around, hoping to see someone, anyone who was interested in going with him, or at least not too bothered by the idea of having him nearby. 

 

Finding a friend to go with went exactly as he expected. In his week of living in Ponyville, he had not explored any of it. He did not know where to go, and his attempts to invite a pony to go with him to this gathering were all quickly turned away. Most ponies wouldn’t even give a response. They’d look away, or walk off before he could pull the tickets out. Some ponies went a step further and flew away, like he carried a contagious virus. 

 

The bramble was still erected throughout Ponyville and beyond, its dark thorns pulsating with the same potent darkness as strong as it was when it first grew. Against his better judgement, he lunged for one of the brambles. It was rooted to the ground good and tight. No amount of tugging could free the thorny growth or even stir it. 

 

DualCore kicked the wall of thorns, unable to do much else. Several ponies passing by were watching, but turned their heads when he turned around. He didn’t know what he was thinking. All he wanted was to rip the large bramble from the ground at that moment. Without magic, he couldn’t do anything about it. It’s not a mystery why nobody would want to go anywhere near him. This was his fault, and as much as he hated to admit that, it was the truth. 

 

The rest of the evening was spent circling around Ponyville. DualCore asked pony after pony if they wanted to go with him to the Friends and Family event. Many ignored, but the few who responded did not mince their words. It was clear that nobody wanted to go, and a few of the ones with plans to go already would even consider cancelling their plans instead. 

 

DualCore felt defeated. Nothing seemed to work out, he thought. He tried as hard as he could, asking as many ponies around him as he found. There was no way around it. He had to accept it. 

 

This assignment was impossible. 

 

Once again, DualCore laid in his bed, unable to close his eyes for a moment, not even to blink. His anxious thoughts played over again, but now was not the time to sleep. DualCore needed to take action. He had to do something to get this assignment out of his hooves. He thought it over, tiring his overworked brain for a solution, and one possibility hit him. 

 

Twilight Sparkle has a dragon. The one that told him he was not the only double horned pony… That one. He is her companion, and some days he appeared in study period to draft and send letters to Princess Celestia herself. 

 

That’s it!! Finally, there was an idea worth putting to practice!

 

 DualCore ripped the pink curtain from his bedroom, and draping it over himself like a hood, he snatched the two tickets from his notebook and scurried outside. 

 

DualCore passed by the Castle of Friendship on his trek to school every day. From what he knew, Twilight Sparkle slept there. So if she was there then so was her dragon. Not many ponies were out at this time of night, allowing DualCore to scout ahead. 

 

Making it to the Castle of Friendship was easy enough, DualCore thought. As wrong as it felt to creep inside, this was easier than making a friend. Far easier. The castle’s interior had no traps, no obvious detours, nothing on the surface. The echo was the worst at a time like this. Each step DualCore made, even the daintiest of tiptoed gaits, carried like a stomp. 

 

It did not take long for another set of scurried steps to be heard. DualCore panicked. His opening came in the form of a shadowy corner. He crouched low, leaving a crack between the hood and the floor to peer through. The footsteps grew louder, and sure enough, it was Spike who came down. 

 

“W-Who’se there?” He sheepishly called. He was holding a candle light outwards, looking for the apparent intruder. 

 

This was his chance. DualCore got back on his hooves, and he calmly approached the frightened Spike. Spike spotted the hood and was about to scream like he saw a ghost. Before he could, DualCore stifled the dragon with his right hoof. 

 

“Listen, I need you to do me a favor. Will you help me?” Said DualCore in a low voice. 

 

Spike was fighting to break free, biting at DualCore’s hoof, but he held his breath, tears welling up as he kept Spike from calling for help. He exhaled, looking at Spike with watery eyes. 

 

“Please, if you do this, I have some cupcakes from Sugarcube Corner. You can have some of my cupcakes if you help.” 

 

Spike’s expression softened. “Do you have any sapphire cupcakes…?” 

 

“I saw like, three of those in my box, yeah.” Said DualCore quietly. 

 

“Give me all three and it’s a deal.” 

 

Three sapphire cupcakes were a small price to pay for this plan. DualCore let go of Spike, and he pulled the two tickets from within his hood. 

 

“Okay, my first assignment is not working out. I’ve asked nearly every pony in this village, and not a single one wants to go with me to this stupid gathering. I think the best thing to do is to just go alone. I already know I won’t make any friends within the semester I’m here, so I’m done deluding myself with the possibility.” 

 

Spike held the second ticket in his hand, unsure of what DualCore really wanted. “And… what do you want me to do with this?” 

 

“Send it back to Celestia. If I hide it I’ll fail. If I make up some imaginary friend, I’ll fail. I’m just going to cut my losses.”

 

“Well, if you’re sure… Do you want to attach a letter to it?” Spike asked a little more genially.

 

“Sure why not?” Said DualCore indifferently. 

 

Spike took out a scroll and attached the ticket. Reaching for his quill, he prepared to write. He peered back at DualCore, signalling him to word out the letter. DualCore, realizing what Spike was doing, cleared his throat and took a breath. 

 

“Dear Princess Celestia, 

I tried my best, but this first assignment is not working out. I understand you wanted me to make a friend within the first week, but that’s not how ponies are. I’m okay with going to the Friends and Family gathering alone. Honest. I’d rather go alone than with anyone who was only obligated. I’m sorry. 

Sincerely, 

DualCore”

 

“How’s that?” Asked DualCore, feeling like he lifted the weight of the castle. 

 

“Good enough.” Said Spike, using his powers to send the scroll and the ticket to Princess Celestia. 

 

Mission accomplished, thought DualCore. Thanking Spike for his help, he promised to give the sapphire cupcakes the next morning, and was gently tiptoeing his way back out when a loud CRACK echoed throughout the entire castle. Another letter appeared in front of DualCore. 

 

Clutching his chest, DualCore panted heavily. “One of these days, somepony is going to scare me DEAD!” he whispered savagely. 

 

Just when matters could not get any worse, another pair of footsteps began to issue from up the stairs. Twilight Sparkle, in a particularly sour mood, descended with a furrowed frown. 

 

“Spike! You better have a good reason to wake me up this late!” She said scaling down to the foyer. 

 

Before she could say anything else, her eyes locked right to DualCore’s. The color had gone from his fur. “What is going on here…?” she whispered violently.

 

Spike snitched. “DualCore made me do it! I had nothing to do with this! He offered me his sapphire cupcakes if I could help him!! It’s not my fault!”

 

DualCore could not decide whether to be scared of what was to come or upset at Spike for squealing so easily. Either way, Twilight Sparkle looked more livid than ever, her eyes darting between him, Spike, and the letter in front of him. She teleported in front of DualCore, and he tripped over his own curtain. He forgot how fast her magic made her travel. 

 

Twilight opened Princess Celestia’s scroll, and a ticket to the Friend and Family gathering fell out. She began to read… 

 

“Dear DualCore, 

I’m afraid you have lost the point of this first assignment. I can forgive you for not thinking outside of the box, but the point is not to just give the ticket away. To make a friend, you have to open yourself up to others. This is why you are a student at the School of Friendship. To develop the social skills needed to forge new friendships. Everypony starts at the bottom, and that is okay. To practice these skills, you need to speak up and participate. 

Best regards, 

Princess Celestia

 

P.S. Do not ever send me letters using Spike again!”

 

Twilight Sparkle’s twisted eyes met DualCore’s again, and before he could see himself out, he was hurled up in the air. Levitating, Tangled by the curtain he used as a hood, he flailed helplessly. 

 

“Heeey, what are you doing?! Not this again!!” Said DualCore, no longer trying to be quiet. He fought with all of his strength, but without magic, he was weaker than an earth pony. 

 

Twilight Sparkle launched DualCore out of the castle with the force of a Chinese firework! His screams woke up several ponies as the lights in the houses flickered on. 

 

“GOOD NIGHT!!!” Yelled Twilight angrily, slamming the door to the castle, and going back to bed.