Celestia stepped out into the peace and tranquillity of her school’s garden. The whole area was filled with luscious green trees and plants that swayed softly in the gentle breeze, and exotic creatures of a wide variety that made the garden their home. What she perhaps liked most about it, however, was how quiet and reserved the area was. The entire area was serene.

The garden in her school had been modelled after the Canterlot Castle garden, with all of the lush green plants and exotic animals that went with it. It served as a great escape from the war that was raging on right now. Here in this garden, the war didn’t exist. Everything was as how it was before the war changed everything.

Celestia loved coming here. The serene beauty of this place was a reminder to the solar alicorn of what her country had once been like, before all this happened; or rather, her former country, since she had stepped down from her position as ruler, handing it over to her sister, Luna.

The whole area was beautiful, calm, and peaceful, and she walked through it without a care in the world.

As Celestia continued to survey the area around her, her smile brightened when she spotted her pet phoenix, Philomena, in the distant, majestically flying from one tree to another. A second later, the magical bird spotted its owner and cooed happily at the sight of her. With a beat of her wings, which were almost as wide as the solar alicorn’s herself, she adeptly switched direction in the air and flew towards her.

As she drifted in closer to the white alicorn, Celestia extended her front hoof, which Philomena landed on, like a perch. With Philomena in her hoof, standing in the middle of her peaceful garden, without a sound nearby or a worry in the world, Celestia said the only thing that came to mind. “It’s so peaceful here.”

“It certainly is,” Celestia heard a voice say. The voice sounded familiar, yet at the same time, was one that she hadn’t heard in a long time, and certainly did not expect to hear now.

Less than a second later, but enough time for her eyes to widen in surprise, there was a small flash of light, and suddenly, Philomena’s usual head disappeared, being replaced by what could technically be called the head of a pony, but at the same time, still looked wrong, even if it wasn’t currently sitting atop a phoenix body.

As quickly as her perplexed expression had formed, she switched again to an annoyed scowl, with her eyes sown shut, and almost gritting her teeth in irritation. “Discord!”

“Guilty.” The Spirit of Chaos chimed back, with a cheerful smile on his face.

Celestia tried her best not to groan in irritation, and instead simply furrowed her eyebrows at him in response. Why was it that no matter the situation, Discord always managed to get under her skin?

There was then another flash of light, and Discord was his normal self once again – an amalgamation of several different creatures’ body parts – hovering directly in front of Celestia, just a few inches off the ground. “You rang, Cellie?” He spoke coyly, with a smug smile on his face.

Celestia had to bring her hoof to her face to try and stop her brain from herniating itself. “Discord… what are you doing here?” Ever since the conflict with the zebras had escalated to an all-out war, Discord had suddenly just disappeared without a trace. Nopony had any idea where he had gone, not even Fluttershy. Celestia then lowered her hoof from her face again, and her eyes suddenly widened slightly, thinking she knew what his sudden reappearance meant. “Have you finally agreed to lend us your assistance in this war?”

Discord, in response, merely stated flatly. “Actually, no. I came here to tell you that I’m leaving.”

This response caused Celestia to do a double take. “You’re… leaving?” She repeated, in a confused manner. A moment later, she returned somewhat to her previous expression. “Discord, I swear, if you intend to betray us and ally with or enemies…”

“Oh no, no, no, no,” Discord said, placing his fingers against Celestia’s lips as he spoke, to cut her off, speaking in a manner like he were addressing an infant. “Celestia, you misunderstand what I’m saying. I’m not leaving Equestria; I’m leaving this world.”

“Wh-what?” Celestia stammered out.

“Yes, you heard right – I’m leaving this world. It seems that I’m no longer needed here anymore. You ponies seem to be doing such a good job of creating more chaos than even I could ever hope to dream.”

Celestia gave him a strange look at that statement, however, Discord recognised what she meant by it and simply continued to explain himself.

“I’m a Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, Celestia, but I’m not evil.” This earned him a soft glare from Celestia, but Discord sought to explain himself further. “I mean, sure sometimes I go to extremes in my actions, but there has always been a method to my madness.

“Harmony and discord. Light and darkness. Good and evil.” He punctuated each gesture by raising one hand. “They are all two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other. What’s important is to have a balance between the two.” He said, holding each outstretched hand like a scale.

Seeing Celestia focus more on him now, he continued with what he was saying. “That’s the reason why I acted the way I did all those centuries ago. Equestria, despite what you may think, is one of the most unbalanced worlds I have ever seen. You ponies are so invested in concepts like harmony and order, that you perceive anything that’s not perfectly controlled at all times as evil.”

He then turned to the side and scoffed, with another wave of his claw. “You just can’t handle even the slightest bit of chaos. I mean, just look at the Everfree Forest. Your little ponies are terrified of it simply because things happen there on their own, without someone or something controlling it.” He then turned back to face Celestia again. “Of course, it really says something about how much things have changed now, seeing how you have adapted so quickly to something like war.”

Relaxing in his expression, he then leaned back in the air, with his arms folded behind his head. “Indeed, that’s why I first came to this world all those centuries ago. I saw that it was so unbalanced with order and I sought to correct that. Balance is what’s most important, Celestia.” He said, raising a single talon on his eagle claw in the air as he did so. “No chaos means there’s no room for choice or creativity. Think about it, would anyone actually want to live in a world like that?”

A moment later, his serious expression fell a bit. “Okay, I may have gone a little overboard on the chaos part, and I certainly didn’t account on being trapped in stone for a thousand years.” He then just shrugged his shoulders. “Ehh, live and learn.

“I was hoping that my simply being in this world would be enough to sway the balance of harmony and chaos, but I guess I was wrong.”

After hearing what Discord had to say just now, Celestia was confused to say the least. “Discord,” she started, struggling a bit to find her voice. “W-what are you exactly?”

Looking back at her now, Discord smiled, pressing the digits on each of his hands together. “Like I said, I’m a Spirit of Chaos. I am change given form – unrestrained and free.” He then lowered the volume of his voice, sounding deep. “Change isn’t a bad thing, Celestia. It means that there is still room to grow and learn.

“I’ve taken many different forms and visited many different worlds across my many lifetimes. Sometimes I’m a bit more low key, and sometimes I’m so aggressive with my beliefs that it makes this me look tame. Even still, I’ve never come across a world quite like this one. All in all, I think I’m going to miss it here; the thousand years I was trapped in stone notwithstanding.” He added aside.

Looking back to her now, he piped up. “Well, Celestia, it’s been… fun? Worthwhile? Tolerable? He tried to think of an appropriate word to describe his time here, but eventually he just gave up and shrugged his shoulders. “An experience, my time spent here with you, but I really should get going. You know how I am – got places to see and chaos to make. I suspect that we shan’t be meeting again. Toodles,” he said, waving his eagle claw at her, intentionally flexing every one of his talons as he did so. He then proceeded to snap his fingers and disappear in a flash of light.

“Discord! Wait!” Celestia called out to him, catching him before he was gone.

Lowering her outstretched hoof slowly, her head also dipped slightly. “If you’re not going to be coming back here again… does that mean that we’re going to lose this war?”

With a blank look on his face and slowly lowering his claw, he then suddenly shrugged his shoulders again and beamed innocently. “How should I know? Even I can’t see the future, Celestia. If I could, do you think I would have been turned to stone. Twice? Just call it a spirit’s intuition.” He added, with a casual wave of his lion paw.

Celestia wasn’t sure how to react to that, but she still couldn’t help but dip her head in worry.

“That’s the thing about war, Celestia,” he said, taking her head in his mismatched hands, forcing her to look at him. “Ultimately, there are no winners. Just a huge mess of problems left behind afterwards, still needing cleaning up for years to come.”

When Celestia’s eyes drifted away from him, since she couldn’t move her head at the moment, Discord, having known Celestia well after all this time, let out a long sigh before becoming completely serious.

“Celestia, consider for a moment just how much your precious Equestria has changed since this war started.” This statement got Celestia to look back at him again. “You may think that things will turn out badly if you lose, but have you also considered what might happen should you win?” This caused her to raise an eyebrow slightly. “Do you really think that things can ever truly go back to the way they were before after so much has changed?”

Letting go of her face and relaxing his arms at his sides, Discord looked up into the sky, the chaos spirit looking uncharacteristically serious. “I’ve lived countless lifetimes, Celestia, and I’ve seen conflicts the likes of which even your ever-changing world hasn’t seen the likes of yet. If there’s one thing that I know for certain, it’s that war – war never changes.”

He then lowered his gaze back down to face her again. “Try thinking about the best thing that you can hope for for your country, your little ponies, and your world. Would it be a victory for one side?” He said, holding one hand out to the side. He then held out the other hand. “Or would it be a total annihilation for both sides? A complete do-over. A chance for everyone to start over and begin again.”

Celestia listened to what Discord said carefully, taking it all in.

Discord simply smiled in response. “Well, I think I’ve overstayed my welcome.” His genuine smile then slowly turned into a sly smirk. “And I got to psyche you out one last time. Talk about going out with a bang.” He announced, spreading all of his limbs out wide, creating a small display of fireworks behind him.

This earned him a sudden glare from Celestia, breaking her out of her deeply contemplative look, and spoiling the moment.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that, Celestia.” He said with a wave of his paw. “I am the master of chaos, after all. It is fitting.” Looking back to Celestia, full on, with a serious expression again, he continued. “Well, once again, and in every sense of the word, ‘Goodbye, Celestia’.”

Discord then raised his eagle claw high one more time, and with a final snap of his fingers, he was gone, and Equestria was once again bereft of a Spirit of Chaos, but certainly not lacking in any of it.

Now all alone in her school’s garden once again, Celestia was able to properly think things over. There were still a lot of things that she was uncertain of, but there was one thing that was certain: while things were still really bad, they must be worse than she thought if Discord of all people was making things easier for her.