"The magic of our cutie marks is not reserved solely to us. Though we are the only creatures of Equus who bear a physical mark of our connection with that magic, it runs through every living thing in the world. It gives everything purpose, it tells them, it whispers to their hearts, what their fate is. Even creatures like Discord or The Nightmare have this magic buried inside them. The issue with this purposeful connection is that it can be interrupted. Rewired, or destroyed; without a purpose, someone can lose themself, and might never recover."
"So...we took away his cutie mark? I didn't know Discord had one!" Celestia looked towards Pinkie with a tired, quirked brow and shook her head softly.
Glass broke downstairs, and Discord's muffled voice snarled out a curse.
"I...yes...er, I mean...Discord doesn't have a cutie mark, but he has the spiritual equivalent of one...or, rather...used to..." Celestia shook her head in grief and released a heavy sigh then continued, "But he doesn't anymore. The elements...they tore it from him." Twilight flattened her ears slightly and tilted her head as she processed this new information.
"But...the Elements of Harmony...they're just that. The Elements of Harmony. Why would they do something so...cruel as take away a...well a metaphorical cutie mark?" Celestia turned her dark gaze upon her student, then tilted her head forward.
"Well, Twilight, do you remember your first lesson under my tutelage?" Twilight brightened.
"I do remember that! How could I forget my very first lesson from you? 'Magic is not sentient, nor does it have any moral code. It listens to what its bearer desires, and goes about it the way the bearer dictates. If channeled and managed correctly, magic is a great asset. In unknowing hooves, it is the most dangerous thing in the world. If the bearer cannot dictate how to go about achieving the desire, the magic...does what is...most efficient...oh no." Celestia smiled wearily and nodded.
Something metal hit the basement ceiling, resulting in Fluttershy yelping as the floor shook slightly.
"Indeed my dear Twilight...the Elements channel magic VERY well. Too well, I suppose I should say. The magic stored within them listened to what you desired. To reform Discord, without delay, was your desire, and was the driving force behind your activation of them. You hadn't a clear path in mind to reform him...so the Elements did so for you."
"So what's the problem? He can't do his chaos snap thing anymore, the most damage he can do is just yell and snarl." Rainbow asked, crossing her forelegs. Celestia wilted slightly and she glanced towards the cyan pegasus with a somber gaze that quickly brought Rainbow to the ground, pulling her wings in tight against her body as she shifted uncomfortably.
"Even if he misused his powers, Discord had them for a reason. He's an avatar, a being with a bigger purpose than even me and Luna. As the master of chaos, he used to keep balance. He went mad, and misused his powers, but he was still a controlling factor. Without him as a metaphorical leash...who knows what the magic of chaos could do to our world?"
"But..." Twilight bit her lip before leaning forward faintly and extending a hoof then continuing, "But if it doesn't have a user, then it shouldn't do anything, right? Besides, he was misusing his powers, so he wasn't a good avatar as you put it!" Celestia shook her head and rubbed a temple with her hoof, and her student knew she was wrong before Celestia even spoke.
"Twilight, you know as well as I do that latent magic can be just as dangerous as magic that has been released without a purpose in mind. Besides that, I can't truly say whether or not his actions could be labelled as misuse. He used to be a lot crueler..." Twilight wilted, and she releases a resigned sigh. Celestia stepped forward, ears drooping with guilt, and sat down, resting her dainty hooves on the table as she regarded the grain of the wood.
"...The reason I brought Discord to you was because I saw a different part of him. He might have been overzealous, when he finally broke free...but he was being harmless. The Discord that Luna and I banished a thousand years ago was not the same Discord that you, my little ponies, fought. A thousand years ago, he would not have thought twice about crushing you. But he just played games."
"Well ah thought that was because he was tryin' ta break us apart so that we couldn't use the Elements." Applejack took off her stetson and flattened her ears in shame, studying her hat. "He did a darn good job of it too...ah felt like mah heart was bein' broken more times than a china plate in a bull stampede! That was no game..." Celestia shook her head morosely.
"Maybe not to you, but he has the capacity to be so much more evil than he was with you...I wanted to take that as a sign. I wanted to believe that maybe, because he was being so...tame, that there was a chance that maybe peace with him was possible. Now that this has happened...such a grave crime, even to someone who normally would so flagrantly disregard morals or ethics....I'm afraid that might never be the case." A heavy silence swiftly fell on the group, and only after a solid fifteen seconds was it broken by Pinkie taking a step forward to Celestia.
"So uh...so we really hurt him then?" Celestia winced and nodded softly, only to yelp as Pinkie pulled a cake out of her mane and set it on the table, then watched in confusion as the pink mare trotted towards the basement door, despite the noise of a raging draconequus just behind it.
"Uh...Pinkie? What are you doing?"
"Well I'm gonna offer him some apology cake, DUH! I mean, if I was Discord and Discord was me and I just had my not Cutie Mark taken away I would really appreciate Discord-Me giving me some apology cake because taking a cutie mark seems REALLY rude even though technically I don't know where my cutie mark is or how it got taken-"
"Pinkie Pie, please reconsider- he is in a very delicate state right now-" Celestia scrunched up her muzzle as Pinkie tapped her hoof against her snout, and Pinkie gently stroked her head, "Shhh...Auntie Pinkie has got this covered!"
"Pinkie, considering what happened to Fluttershy, he's probably in a bad mood. I don't think that just barging in and throwing a cake at the problem is going to do anything other than make it worse." Rainbow snipped, slicking her ears back against her head. Pinkie let out an airy giggle and waved her hoof playfully.
"Well of course it would Dashie! But I'm not gonna THROW the cake at him, I'm just gonna ask if he wants any, silly!" Without pause to allow for further argument, Pinkie threw the door open, only to yelp as Discord swung his head into her barrel, sweeping her aside and he threw himself out of the basement, screeching. Celestia stood, only to get thrown into a bookshelf as his lashing tail whipped across her flank, and with a roar he tore the library's door down and launched himself into the air outside. Over Rarity's panicked shrieking and Applejack's swears, he could hear Twilight ordering Rainbow to retrieve medical assistance.
Discord's entire body ached even more now. Nothing new, truly, but it still felt slightly satisfying to complain about it. His brain felt like it was disconnected, and that his body, though it hurt, was on autopilot. His wings screamed at him to stop, but he couldn't find it within himself to try. How much time had he been flying? No clue, but long enough that he was nowhere near Ponyville. His thousand year old atrophied muscles began to seize, yet he still couldn't stop. It was so much easier to just keep running. The more distance he put between himself and Celestia and her ponies, the more he could ignore his problem.
Finally, his wings could function no more. He plummeted to the ground, only managing to catch a slight updraft to cushion his fall. He hit the ground hard, his left paw catching on a scrub bush and turning his body so that the full weight of the fall landed squarely on his right shoulder. A numb part of his brain recognized that the kind of pain he felt was a bad sign, but he could ignore that too. He rolled several times before finally going still. For a few moments, he simply breathed, closing his eyes and ignoring the world around him, before slowly sitting up, keeping his weight off of his right claw. The night sky stretched out above him- had he truly been flying that long?- and a rocky, barren wasteland expanded around him. A soft breeze rushed past him, smelling of rock and dirt, and his shoulders slumped, as well as the rest of his body.
Discord raised his eyes towards the sky, and his breath caught in his throat. Everything around him was empty. Barely a few scrub bushes, the occasional rock. No clouds hovered over this land, he couldn't scent any for miles in any direction. The vastness of his landing spot suddenly hit Discord like a brick, causing his chest to constrict on itself. In pain, he stood, hopelessly looking around, as if he could have somehow missed something previously. He spun in circles, his breathing shortening with each twist of his body, until he stopped, finding himself staring up at the moon.
No one stared back. For a thousand years, at night, he'd had Nightmare Moon to keep him company, or the castle guard, or sometimes even Celestia, but tonight, he was truly alone. No other being, no life within this wasteland, and most importantly, no magic. His legs crumpled beneath him as tears flooded his eyes, and the Spirit of Chaos began to wail into the endless, empty night.