Whilst Sunset was off helping Nurse Flutterheart. Misty and Izzy both walked into the Brighthouse together. They immediately spotted Starlight still sitting in the wheelchair talking to Sunny.
“Oh, Starlight, you’re not up then,” Misty said worriedly.
“Almost,” Starlight smiled. “I’ve just got to take it carefully.”
“If she stresses it too much now it’ll take longer to get better,” Sunny explained.
“And that’s excellent advice,” a voice that seemingly came from everywhere said.
The group was immediately split in two, those who recognised the voice and those who did not.
Izzy squeaked as she jumped into the air. After landing, she looked around in fright as she tried to spot where the voice had come from. Picking up the nearest small objects that she could throw with her levitation.
Misty squeaked as well but didn’t jump in the air like Izzy did. Instead, she got into a ready stance, her horn glowing as she scanned the room. Ready to zap whatever the source of the voice was. Despite these bravado actions, her eyes were wide, and her breathing was ragged and rushed.
Whilst Sunny was surprised, she recognised the voice. Therefore, after getting over the initial shock, she grinned happily as she looked around the room for the source. She completely overlooked her two friends and didn’t realise they were getting ready to defend themselves.
Starlight also recognised the voice. However, she didn’t start scanning the room for the source, she was wise to that. Therefore, she sighed as she spotted Izzy and Misty’s reactions.
“Discord, could we do away with the theatrics for once?” she said. “I’m not in the mood to see Misty start shooting and damage the newly repaired Brighthouse. Nor Izzy throwing stuff everywhere.”
“Huh? Aah, Misty, Izzy,” Sunny gasped as she finally spotted her friend's reactions. “It’s okay, he’s not a threat.”
Both Misty and Izzy looked at Sunny’s reassuring expression. Blinking, Izzy returned the items back to where they’d been. Misty relaxed her readiness but still looked nervous.
“Wait? Discord?” Misty gasped as she looked around.
“Who?” Izzy frowned with confusion.
“Oh, you’re no fun at all, Starlight,” Discord's voice said.
“I’m sorry, Discord,” Starlight said with a thin smile. “I just don’t have the energy right now.”
Suddenly, the table lamp in the corner began to move. Misty couldn’t help squeaking with surprise as the lampshade lifted and revealed the lamp had become a tiny version of Discord.
“Ah, too soon after being freed from your cast, is it?” Discord smirked.
“You could put it that way,” Starlight sighed as she rubbed the leg in question.
There was a flash as tiny Discord disappeared and was replaced by the lamp. The lampshade fell and wobbled around before settling back into place. Then, there was another flash as Discord appeared sitting in one of the chairs. His feet resting on a hoofstool as he reclined comfortably.
“Well now,” Discord smiled. “Isn’t this nice, I do like that newly decorated smell.”
“Discord,” Sunny beamed. “It’s so good to see you again.”
“It’s nice to see you too, Sunny,” Discord smirked. “Didn’t you do well, finding all the elements. I have to admit, I was worried about Pipp’s element of confidence. However, you made sure she pulled through, didn’t you. Then there was your spark, realising you needed to stand together in unity. Oh, it was brilliant.”
“Wait?” Sunny frowned. “Did you…”
“Oh nonono,” Discord interrupted as he waved a pawed finger. “I didn’t do anything. You listened to the trees and that’s how you succeeded. All I did was watch.”
Suddenly, Izzy popped up next to Discord. She studied him carefully in awe. Moving around the chair and looking from all sides with a big grin on her face. “Wow, you’re amazing.”
With a huge smirk on his face, Discord looked Izzy directly in the eye, their noses nearly touching. Izzy froze in surprise before a beaming smile appeared on her face.
They continued the staring contest for a while until finally, Izzy blinked.
“Oh shoot, you win. I’m Izzy.”
“Oh, don’t worry, Izzy. I knew that already,” Discord chuckled.
“You did?” Misty gasped.
“Of course, Misty,” Discord grinned. “I’m so glad you’ve been reunited with your father.”
Misty gasped and looked at Sunny and Starlight for reassurance.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Starlight said as she waved a hoof. “He’s likely just been watching.”
Discord couldn’t help chuckling at Misty’s shocked expression. “Don’t worry, Misty. I assure you I have benevolent intentions.”
“You sure about that?” another voice said.
They all turned to look towards the ramp, Zipp was stood at the bottom with her wings flared. She had a serious and untrusting look on her face.
Behind her, Hitch was standing a little way up the ramp, holding Sparky. Then, someway further behind him at the top, was Pipp. She had a sour expression which was partly covered by the green mud mask that covered her face.
“What’s going on down there?” Pipp moaned. “I was halfway through filming a beauty tips video but there’s too much noise.”
“Put that on pause for the moment Pipp and come and meet Discord,” Sunny grinned.
“Sunny, I don’t think we can trust him,” Zipp replied.
“Yes, you can,” Starlight responded. “Trust me, whatever you’ve read you are interpreting it wrong, or it’s outdated.”
“What? Like how he let Sombra go and attack the Crystal Empire?” Zipp frowned.
“Who’s Sombra?” Sunny blinked.
“Oh, poo,” Discord grumbled as he folded his arms. “Why does that keep coming back to bite my tail?”
An area of the floor next to Discord’s chair suddenly rippled as though it was a pool of water. A silver piranha with black fins and red eyes appeared and started swimming around this 'pool'.
Then, it suddenly jumped upwards and snapped at Discord’s tail. Discord didn’t even look; he calmly pulled his tail out of the way just in time as the gnashing teeth snapped together. The piranha immediately looked upset as it missed and started falling.
When it reached the floor, the piranha appeared to land back in a pool of water, there was even the sound of splashing. After it disappeared, the rippling effect vanished and the floor returned to normal.
“Could I explain before you lock me up and throw away the key?” Discord asked.
There was a flash as a set of iron bars appeared in front of Discord. He put on a sorrowful expression as he grasped onto them and looked back at the gathered ponies miserably.
“It would be rude not to hear him out, Zipp,” Sunny responded robustly. “He helped me get my powers back.”
“Okay, okay,” Zipp sighed. “But only because I trust you, Sunny.”
Zipp and the others came down to the living area and each took a seat expectedly. Meanwhile, there was another flash as the bars disappeared. Discord sighed and crossed his arms again as he pouted. “Oh, why is it you make one tiny little mistake, and it follows you around for millennia?"
“Well, it wasn’t one mistake, was it,” Starlight smirked. “It was four, you let Cozy Glow, Chrysalis and Tirek out too.”
Discord threw his hands in the air in exasperation. “Oh, throw me to the timberwolves why don’t you, Starlight.”
“Wait, who?” Zipp frowned.
“Three other villains that Twilight and her friends had already defeated,” Discord sighed.
“He had good intentions,” Starlight interjected.
“Yes, until they blew up in my face,” Discord responded, his face seemingly exploding for emphasis.
Many of the others gasped, only to sigh with relief as the smoke cleared and his face was unharmed.
“Look, my ‘plan’ was to give Twilight and her friends one final test,” Discord explained. “I posed as Grogar, a powerful villain from Equestria’s ancient past and rescued Sombra and the other three. But Sombra decided to go off on his own and he attacked the Crystal Empire. I had nothing to do with it.”
“It wasn’t exactly easy, but he was defeated,” Starlight interjected. “Honestly, I can sort of see your point Discord. At a time that Twilight had just been told she was going to take over Equestria, defeating Sombra was a good boost to her confidence.”
“Until I lost control of the other three and she found out about it all,” Discord grumbled. “Rest assured; I will NOT be doing anything like that again.”
“So, what will you be doing?” Hitch demanded.
Sunny grunted with irritation. “I’ve already told you, he helped me! He was a great help working through all my knotted feelings. He's not a bad pony, err, creature."
"Draconequus," Starlight winked.
“Thank you, Sunny. I'm glad to have helped, you wouldn’t have defeated Opaline all knotted up like that,” Discord smiled. “You six are Equestria’s new hope. Together you are going to do great things.”
“I see you’ve become more philosophical in your old age,” Starlight smirked.
“Starlight, I can’t be described as old,” Discord grinned.
“You’re still a lot older than the Discord that I know,” Starlight winked.
“Okay, okay fine,” Discord snorted. “But rest assured I’m a spring chicken in the grander scheme of things.”
There was a flash as Discord transformed into a chicken and proceeded to fly around and around the room.
“Is this normal?” Pipp whispered to Starlight.
“Oh yeah,” Starlight chuckled. “If anything, this is tame by Discord standards. He’s going easy on you.”
They all watched as Discord continued to do laps around the room. Making sounds like a chicken as he did so.
“....and that’s when Starlight tried to banish me from the school,” Discord laughed sometime later.
“What do you mean, tried to?” Starlight exclaimed. “I did banish you from the school.”
“Not completely you didn’t,” Discord chuckled as he wagged a finger. “Your students just couldn’t see me and thought the school was haunted.”
Starlight grunted as she frowned with annoyance.
“But why would you keep doing those things in the first place?” Hitch asked.
“Because he felt left out,” Starlight revealed. “Nopony asked him if he wanted to help with the school. Although, Discord could have also done a better job of saying he wanted to help.”
“Oh alright,” Discord groaned. “I admit I’m still not good at doing that.”
“That’s okay,” Misty smiled. “I often feel like I can’t just ask for things too.”
“Ooh yes, how’s life being famous Misty?” Discord grinned.
“W...What do you mean?” Misty gasped.
“Being a Guardian of Unity of course,” Discord smiled. “You did very well at the party. Not only standing on stage in front of all those ponies but also dancing in front of them too. I’m sure there will be ponies lining up for your autograph soon.”
Misty gulped as she looked worriedly around at everypony else.
“You have little to worry about, Misty,” Starlight soothed. “Twilight and her friends didn’t really get popular until they released their journal. Then it soon calmed down. Everypony knew who they were but very few times did they get hordes of ponies asking for their autographs. Just the odd one or two.”
“I don’t even get that many doing that,” Pipp exclaimed. “And I’m a pop princess with millions of followers on multiple platforms.”
“Actually, you’re right,” Misty smiled. “I maybe had one pony ask for that when I was with Izzy in Bridlewood. But that’s because they saw both of us and there were plenty of ponies around.”
“Okay, enough random talk,” Zipp grinned. “Let's talk Crystal Empire details, Discord. Like what happened to it after Twilight created the Unity Crystals?”
“Oh no, you're not getting a cheat code out of me," Discord said stubbornly as he crossed his arms.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hitch exclaimed.
“It means that is a question you’ll find the answer to in your own time,” Discord responded robustly. “I could have given Twilight all the answers too, but I didn’t. I was a good friend who knew the best thing for her was to learn and grow on her own.
“Now, trust me. If I could tell you everything I most certainly would. However, it will do you more harm than good. So, what I will tell you all is to be prepared for the adventure of a lifetime.”
“But that doesn’t sound that helpful,” Sunny gasped. “What do we need to do to prepare?”
“Well, maybe you should take Sunset’s suggestion?” Discord winked. “Getting somepony to run your cart part-time.”
As Sunny frowned in thought, Misty gasped and quickly disappeared with a flash. When she reappeared, she had the strange six-sided chest they had found in Opaline’s study.
“If you can’t tell us about the Crystal Empire,” she said. “Then what could you tell us about this?”
“Well, I can confirm one thing that's on Starlight’s mind,” Discord grinned. “It’s not the one that Twilight and her friends unlocked.”
“Then it’s a different one,” Starlight gasped. “Which means it’s still to be unlocked. How did Twilight unlock hers again?”
“Twilight and the others each faced a situation were living up to their element was extremely hard,” Discord remembered. “Take my dear departed Fluttershy for example.”
Discord clicked his fingers and suddenly the sound of Fluttershy’s voice filled the room.
My experiences with the breezies has helped me to see that kindness can take many forms and sometimes being too kind can actually keep a friend from doing what they need to do. Pushing them away may seem cruel but it’s sometimes the kindest thing you can do.
“So, is that what we’ve got to do?” Izzy said unsurely. “Make the breezies leave the Night Market?”
“I don’t think Runcord would be too happy if you did that,” Starlight responded as she glanced at Discord.
“No, I get it, Fluttershy was the element of kindness,” Sunny explained. “She realised in that case it didn’t mean being kind to the breezies. She actually had to be mean in order to be kind to them. So, for me, I’ll face a situation when inspiring hope in somepony will be difficult.”
“Like that will be hard for you, Sunny,” Pipp smiled. “You’re always full of hope and it's infectious."
“But that might not be the same for us,” Zipp pointed out. “This chest might not even be for us to unlock. We have no idea where Opaline got it from. It could have been ment for some other group of ponies that never unlocked it."
“And those are questions that you will have to answer yourselves another day,” Discord said as he started to get up. “Now, a favour if you don’t mind concerning Sunset. Please don’t tell her you’ve met me.”
“Why?” Izzy frowned. “You’re brilliant!”
“Oh, I know that Izzy,” Discord laughed. “But Sunset’s not met me yet.”
“But what’s wrong with that?” Sunny frowned. “You could wait and meet her now?”
“Better she meets him when we get home,” Starlight explained.
“Exactly, I’d like to avoid any awkwardness when we finally meet. Which is why I’m going to take my leave before she gets here,” Discord smiled. “However, don’t you all worry. I’ll be watching and if I’m able to help you, I will. TTFN.”
With that, everypony said their goodbyes before Discord snapped his clawed fingers and disappeared with a flash.
However, Starlight blinked as she heard a whisper in her ear. “Thank you for keeping my little Runcord secret,” Discord’s voice whispered. “You’ve a long and full future ahead, Starlight. Just know this, look out for Sunset. Give her a helping hand when she needs it, no matter what she says.”
Starlight said nothing, she only frowned in confusion as the door to the Brighthouse opened and Sunset walked in.