This story is a sequel to Discord Teaches Philosophy

Warning: The following is currently unedited and contains a significant amount of Philosophy.

After deciding on taking up the role of a Substitute and finding out that the main Philosophy teacher is boring his students, Discord decides to step in to take up the responsibility of teaching. And he will do it by teaching it in plain Equestrian, in a way that these young students would understand. As well as in his own unique way.

Lesson Plan (in no particular order):

Socrates: His Method and How We Ought to Live ✅

Plato: Allegory of the Cave ✅

Marcus Aurelius: How Stoicism Deals with Hardships ✅

Confucius: Who is Ruling Whom? ✅

Kintsugi: The Art of Imperfection ✅

Machiavelli: In Defense of the Prince ✅

Montaigne: Usefulness of Humility ✅

Rousseau: Of Savages and Civilization ✅

Kierkegaard: Subjectivity and Truth ✅

Nietzsche: Of Suffering and Happiness ✅

This story is a sequel to The Most Chaotic Date Ever!!!

A few decades of family life for Discord and Celestia (happily married) and Luna in their castle under the peaceful reign of Twilight Sparkle has been a joy. Indeed, neither Equestria (nor their little family) has faced a severe crisis ever since the pre-coronation attack by Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow.

But times are changing - Twilight has a new special student: Luster Dawn. And Luster's first mission of friendship was to reform the evil trio. She reports success, and can't wait to show Twilight as well as the former rulers of Equestria (and several carefully chosen others) just how changed the villains are. The villains can't wait to show everyone a few things too. And Discord, Celestia, and Luna can't wait to be an active part of something bigger than themselves once again courtesy of the little ponies in their lives.

Welcome to a tea party for the ages where hopes, doubts, lies, longing, confusion, betrayal, jealousy, ambition, and of course love and friendship will all reveal themselves and be confronted in one of the most gloriously chaotic spectacles of potential disaster any creature has ever known. The Master and Mistress of Chaos are in for the evening of their lives.

Things are hard in Ponyville for Fluttershy and Discord; mainly because of Discord. But when magic starts to go on the fritz and eventually starts failing altogether, it's up to the main six and the Draconequus to find out what's causing it and, more importantly, how to fix it.

This would be a lot easier if anypony trusted the King of Chaos to begin with, but with bigger problems on the horizon, some things will have to wait to be dealt with. Like trust. Or loyalty. Or friendship.

Of course, sometimes what we think isn't important to deal with right now, is exactly what's needed to prevent things from getting far, far worse.

This is a fic based on the Time Loop Files, the format of which was first codified by Innortal on fanfiction.net.
Here's a brief guide.
The basic idea is, one character (the Anchor, usually the main character of a fictional setting) is looping back to the very first moments of their parent series every time either they die or some kind of time limit expires. They of course end up monumentally stir crazy given enough time.
Eventually others start to loop as well.
The reset is not always perfect. Sometimes a loop's history will be different to the "prime" loop, or canonical plot.
"Crossover" or "Fusion" loops also occur, randomly. These can involve the home loopers having a guest, or the anchor for one universe spending time in another, or replacements of one character by another.
Vacation Loops are where the Anchor (or others) decide/s "buck it" and lets off steam by doing whatever comes to mind. There's little or no attempt to maintain the original timeline.

In addition, and particularly more recently, it should be known that this story has a collaborative element to it - people may submit loop ideas or loops, ideally at the Spacebattles thread (a link to the current version of which is on the Trope page), and they may become included.

There's two page image options, thanks to Filraen - the current page image has been edited by the original creator from this work of theirs.. The other one is here:
http://hourglass-vectors.deviantart.com/art/MLP-Loops-466030169

I was still a young colt when I took my first steps into the world of steam engines and railroading. I was meant to sing the song of steel, the chorus of the railways. Despite the challenges, discomfort, and dangers, I wanted to be a railway pony. I wanted a fine steam engine like #3803. I wanted to be like Highball.

What I got? Well now, there's a story worth telling...

It's only been a few moons since Spike moved to Ponyville, and the settled zone hasn't quite gotten used to having a dragon around, any more than his sister has become accustomed to managing all the duties of a small town library. So while she sorts out late fee notices, he's expected to work the front desk and speak to patrons. Ponies who don't know how to talk to him. Ponies who seem to be having a hard time even looking at him. So when Twilight finally sends him to collect a book from a truly unresponsive patron, it's almost a relief.

Except that the pony isn't there. Will never be there again.

And just about nopony seems to care if she was ever there at all.

(A stand-alone, no prior-reading-necessary part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group: new members and trope edits are welcome. )

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Discord and Princess Celestia have been dancing for some time now. Not everyone can see it. Not even Celestia can, truthfully.

But Discord does. He sees every move and every turn. And he's not certain he ever wants their dancing to stop. No matter how much it might hurt them both.

Featured!

Note: Story takes place between seasons 4 and 5 (and was drafted prior to knowledge of "Make New Friends but Keep Discord".)

Discord’s miffed that Princess Celestia doesn’t seem to have extended him a ticket to the Gala—he thought they were friends! (Though maybe he understands a little, considering his recent betrayal, even if he did make things right in the end). However, when she shows up to not only give him his ticket in person but to ask him to be her personal escort for the evening, Discord is surprised (and then smugly satisfied) to say the least…that is until Rarity decides that Celestia’s invitation was clearly her asking Discord out on a date.

Discord dismisses the idea however as he has plenty of other things on his mind at the moment—ponies at the Gala will certainly be talking about Tirek, and how can he face their questions when guilt about what he did is bothering him so much that he can’t even talk about his mistake with his friends? And what is he supposed to do now with his life since he’s finally fully reformed?

Pretty soon Discord’s worries spill over into his dreams—many random dreams…and many random dreams specifically about Celestia. What is his subconscious trying to tell him? And why does Celestia keep trying to get closer to him? It’s all leading up to the most chaotic night ever when Discord will show up at the Gala arm in arm with Celestia and ready to face the world as the ‘REFORMED reformed’ Discord!

(Featured fall 2015, and spring & summer 2016 )