Following the events of "In Search of the Sun", Discord has returned, seeking citizenship in Equestria. However, he has entered a rather strange condition in the contract...

It is highly advised that you read "In Search of the Sun" first!

If you missed it, here's the skinny: Celestia gets sick, Twilight and the elements (+ Spike) have to travel with Discord to get a cure, ????, Celestia gets better, Discord is set free, and everypony lives happily ever blah blah blah! You're now up to speed, but you're still missing a lot of dynamic!

edit: This story is now has a follow-up, the slice-of-life/comedy fic A Normal Day!

There was a question... and Spike wanted the answer. The curiosity of it was gnawing at his little dragon brain like gerbils in a vat of candy corn. In desperation, he turns to Cadence for help, and she's more than happy to assist.

After all, it's just a simple question. What's the worst that could happen?

(Takes place prior to Season 1. Rated for scattered innuendo.)

Tonight, on a very special episode of My Little Pony…

Spike may have finally found someone who can reveal the identity of his parents. But when that someone is Discord, has our little dragon bitten off more than he can chew?

~-Spike jumped up from the couch in excitement. "Then you've actually met them!?"

Somehow, Discord's grin managed to stretch even wider. "Ohhhhhh yes. In fact, I've known your father since the day we were born! And your mother… well let's just say she and I are intimately acquainted…"-~

She was his first friend, his dearest friend, his oldest friend, but after all these years he has to let her go. He doesn't want to, but sometimes you don't get your way. Goodbye Fluttershy.

Twilight's been almost alone for a thousand years, and in a desperate attempt to bring her friends back, intentionally unseals Discord, Spirit of Chaos, from his stone slumber.

He's in for some nasty surprises, since she's changed quite a bit over the years...

Discord wants Twilight to hit him. Twilight thinks there has to be a catch. Set in the same continuity as my TNG crossover fics, between "The Princess and the Dragon" (and also "Discord's First, Last and Only Friendship Report") and "The King Who Would Be Man", but Discord being Q isn't relevant to this specific story.

A page for this series now exists: Next of Kin to Chaos

A zipped copy of a WMA Audio file of me reading this story is now up on my web site, but be warned, the zip file is 28 megs. (The WMA is a good bit bigger than that.) I have an MP3 version as well, but it was both larger and less compressible, so I went with the WMA version instead.

Dusk Shine has been in a crazy relationship with Eris ever since she decided to crash his birthday party two years ago. Their opposing nature has made every day of their love just as exciting and unorthodox as the first day it started.

Follow Dusk Shine as he tries to keep his sanity with the girl that drives him crazy in more ways than one.

This story is a sequel to A Pony's Sympathy

Following Discord's last escape from stone [as seen in A Pony's Sympathy], Twilight Sparkle sought to understand his role in the keeping of Balance in Equestria

Her want to understand sparked an alliance of sorts, a kind of understanding between them. Although having one pony in his corner has done little to convince the rest.

His lack of empathy and understanding of a pony's sensibility has been tolerated by Celestia.

But while both the princesses and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony struggle with even more dire problems, Discord is forced into a lesson of his own, and it could not have come at a more inopportune time.

Continuing the story of A Pony's Sympathy, the fledgling friendship between the Spirit of Chaos and the Element of Magic may determine the fate of the ponies, and the way both sides of harmony regard one another.

[Written/published between Nov. 2012 and Nov. 2013, based loosely on Star Trek: The Next Generation episode 3x13 'Deja Q']

Twilight discovers Discord in-hiding - which is strange enough - but the discussion they have causes her to consider the particulars of true harmony, and whether or not a being such as he should be allowed to live freely to retain his part in it.

[Written/published between Sept. 2011 and Oct. 2012]

When facing Twilight Sparkle, Nightmare Moon was given a choice: redemption or revenge. What if she had chosen the latter? A grim fate awaits Equestria, but in a time of greater strife and conflict, Discord's return is accelerated. While he expected to bring chaos, he did not anticipate that he would end the Longest Night and bring hope and joy back to the land.

Discord struggles to reconcile his nature with his desire for admiration. While Twilight's friends strive to carve a new life in the ever-shifting Equestria, she searches for Celestia, the only one who can bring harmony back to her lands. But Nightmare Moon also seeks her sister in a desperate attempt to find her place in the world. New dangers lurk in the wild and more threaten to fall over Equestria. Nightmare Moon's decision broke the balance of the world. Will Equestria ever turn to peace, or will the spiral of chaos and destruction be the end of everything?

(An alternate history, this story takes the universe established by the canon and explores one possible outcome if Princess Luna had not been redeemed.)

Comments contain huge spoilers. Walk softly.

Special thanks to my pre-readers, MmmandarinOrange and DarkmatterButterflies for keeping my head on, taking the journey of the story, and making it so much better than it would have been if I wrote it alone.