Apinkalypse Now
- Story by Thom Zahler, Art by Tony Fleecs, Colored by Heather Breckel
Following one of his tea parties with Fluttershy in his dimension, Discord returns Fluttershy back home, but inadvertently leaves the portal open. Pinkie Pie is chasing down Gummy and both fall into the portal. Pinkie is initially a bit frightened, but soon finds that Discord's dimension seems to bend to her will, making her zany ideas come to life, and she readily sets off to explore it.
In Ponyville, Fluttershy and Discord find from Maud that Pinkie has been missing for a while, and Discord's chaotic powers are waning. They go to Twilight's castle, and Twilight and Starlight try to figure out what's wrong when Discord is unable to return to his own dimension. With their magic combined with what Discord has left, they discover that Pinkie's stuck in Discord's dimension, explaining why Discord is unable to use his chaos magic.
Twilight calls in the other Mane 6, and with Starlight's help to magic them into Discord's dimension and provide an anchor to get back home, they and Discord take off. After discovering that Pinkie's "redecorated" much of Discord's realm, they soon find her, but she doesn't feel like going back, having quickly gained appreciation for what she can do in this realm. She transforms into the alicorn Princess of Chaos, and threatens to use her newfound powers on the real world. Discord, having regained part of his powers, quickly challenges Pinkie to a "Cuckoo Cook-Off" for control of the realm, each testing the other with their wacky imaginative ideas. Though Pinkie initially seems to have the upper hand, her creativity soon wanes and Discord wins the battle. He reverts Pinkie back to normal, who quickly apologizes for her behavior, and then helps to return all the ponies back to their own world so that he can get to cleaning up the mess Pinkie made of his dimension.
This issue provides examples of:
- Affectionate Parody: Pinkie's first shot as the Princess of Chaos is the exact same pose as the reveal of Nightmare Rarity at the end of issue #6 (Rarity even says "Great. This nightmare again."). Tony Fleecs makes a nod to #6's artist, Amy Mebberson, with a bit of "Hi Amy" hidden in the clouds behind Pinkie in this reveal frame.
- A God Am I: Chaosville!Pinkie turns herself into an Alicorn and proclaims herself "Princess of Chaos."
- Continuity Nod:
- The episode builds immediately off the episode "Discordant Harmony" (which aired the weekend before this issue was released), as well as calling back to "Fluttershy Leans In".
- One of the Cloud Gremlins from Rainbow Dash's Micro comic can briefly be seen during the "Cuckoo Cook-Off".
- The Darkness Gazes Back: Pinkie nearly quotes Friedrich Nietzsche in seeing Discord's realm and that it seems to be staring back at her.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: During the battle, Discord threatens Pinkie with the family-friendly version of Development Hell.
- Hijacking Cthulhu: Pinkie Pie almost does this to Discord on accident.
- Lampshade Hanging: During the Montage of Twilight and Starlight researching a possible solution for Discord's problem, Starlight reads a book titled "Montages".
- Pass the Popcorn: Twilight, of all ponies, enjoys some popcorn while watching the "Cuckoo Cook-Off".
- Shout-Out: The first "stage" of the battle between Discord and Pinkie appears to spoof elements of Disney's Tangled (a story based on public domain elements that went through its own Development Hell).
- Unskilled, but Strong: Played with. Discord, having always been all-powerful by default, has never needed to study magic (and, in fact, gets too bored after only ten minutes of it) — so he has to go to Twilight and Starlight for help in returning to Chaosville without his powers. However, during his Wizard Duel with Chaosville!Pinkie — a David Versus Goliath scenario where he's the former, and she's the latter — he wins by tricking her into exhaustion (a common Weak, but Skilled tactic).
- Victory by Endurance: Discord ultimately ends up winning his Cuckoo Cook-Off simply by outlasting Pinkie till her powers wane enough to bring her back to normal, though he mentions it was a very close match.
- Wizard Duel: It's between two Dimension Lords (Discord and Chaosville!Pinkie).
- Worf Had the Flu: Fluttershy initially believes Discord's waning powers are due to him still recovering from almost fading out of existence during "Discordant Harmony".
