//------------------------------//
// Epilogue: Swamped 
// Story: Elements Change the Dark Hearts 
// by Nightmare_0mega 
//------------------------------//

It had been a very trying day for the Princess. There were so many things that were unaccounted for, and every precaution taken was almost entirely overwritten in a single evening by a solitary being. The whole situation reminded her of Discord's takeovers of Canterlot, and how much of a mess it left the country after his plans were finally ended. She sighed as she filled out file after file, approving dispatches to assist in the location of the other monsters that were scattered from the incident, as well as clearing the requests to clean up and repair all the various damages caused by the whole situation. To say it was difficult dismantling and clearing out the broken hospital room that sat at the front gate was an understatement. This wasn't even going into the fact that, once citizens were able to return to the castle, curiosity was at its peak and every single pony nearby couldn't help but try to investigate the hullabaloo. Celestia sighed irritably as she continued to balance budgets and order funds to continue the clean-up effort, wishing it were much simpler to handle. At least I don't actually have to deal with the accounting.

There was still the pressing matter of revealing the crux of the situation to the new guests that now resided in Equestria. Depending on their personal affairs, history, and outlooks on life, it was difficult to tell how the news would be taken and extreme reactions are a major possibility. She had confidence that at least one of them had acclimated to life here enough to not do something too drastic, but catastrophe likes to spring up whenever inconvenient. This wasn't even to mention how her beloved protégé and her friends would react. Celestia believed they would at least take the news in a bit more of a predictable light.

Furthermore, there was also the matter of the latest guest: Psycho Mantis. He had certainly lived up to his name in many aspects, to say for sure, and while she had power enough to stop him, it would have only gone south if she took matters into her own hooves outright. Twilight needed to establish some sort of bond between the two of them, and stepping in would have only ruined that chance. That was to say that if the gamble fell through, she would have stepped in, but it would have been a last resort. Her sister wasn't exactly thrilled to hear about that, but it seemed she had since eased up on the distressed and desperate prying for information since their last talk.

However, it remained to be said that Psycho Mantis IS still extremely dangerous. His power was not governed by laws of science, nature, or magic. Even Discord himself, as chaotically influential as he was, couldn't command such an ability. Despite the bond he seemed to have formed, it was still alarmingly frail. There was no telling how he could act at any given moment. Thankfully, Twilight had promised to keep a close eye on him to make sure he didn't decide to recreate events with a new captive. She just hoped that his intellect warranted enough of a curiosity to want to learn about the world a bit, hopefully to appreciate his temporary stay here.

There was also THAT matter. Celestia was ever so grateful of the various progress reports on Twilight's research she was doing on the "anomaly", but she didn't have the heart to inform her former student that she already knew. She even had written up the return spells for the five visitors, ready to be executed after everything was said and done. Speaking of which, the thought of the return spells reminded her that she needed to speak to Discord. Celestia had no hoof in bringing the sixth visitor to their world, and had a strong suspicion that Discord had decided to do it himself as a surprise. It wouldn't be out of the ordinary to assume he was responsible, especially since the result was extremely chaotic and time consuming to clean up.

She sighed as she finished the last paper for the time being before rising from her seat. With a flare of her horn, she fixed herself up to look more presentable, and exited into the hallway. With another flare of her horn, she scanned the castle to locate Discord, and cast a Teleportation spell to jump to his whereabouts. With a sudden flash, she appeared in the throne room, which was closed for the day due to the repairs and clean-up that was still underway.

"Discord, I know you're here. Come on out," she commanded, "I'm not exactly in the mood for your pranks today, so you better put that slime bucket away."

"Oh, spoil sport," he huffed as he slithered out from under the cushion of the throne, bucket of green viscous fluid in claw. He tossed it aside, which caused it to moo out of existence. "It wasn't one of my most clever of pranks anyway. My mind has been a bit preoccupied lately."

"We need to talk about Psycho Mantis."

"Oh yes, indeed we should," he responded surprisingly seriously.

Celestia's eyebrow rose to the rather straightforward reply. "You're being awfully-"

"Straightforward? Indeed, it's a bit out of character for me, isn't it?" he said without a joke, pun, or comedic transformation. "It's also rather out of character of you to bring something so dangerous to this world. You've honestly outdone yourself this time."

"Wait a minute," she interjected, "I thought you were the one that brought him here. I had no plans to do something like this so soon."

"You are rather fond of your schedules, which is why I was so surprised you brought him here on a whim."

"I didn't bring him here!" she angrily retorted, "It had to have been y-" The room went suddenly silent, as the revelation of what was going on hit her, and with it, the color from her face drained to a ghostly pale. "He... he wasn't planned..."

"Dear oh dear," Discord said mockingly, "There goes your carefully set-up turn of events. And what a wonderfully chaotic mess it brought too. It's a shame it was a little more violent than I would have liked, but beggars can't be choosers."

"He wasn't planned..."

"So, how do we proceed from here, Ms. Sun-butt? I assume the first step is to send away the 'accident', if you want to salvage-"

"We can't!" She exclaimed, surprising Discord, "It's far too late now. He's here, and Twilight has bonded to him. It's frail, but... I think we can get this to work."

Discord crossed his arms and clicked his forked tongue, "Improv is SUCH a low form of comedy, my dear, but you ARE certainly full of surprises today." He gave a shrug, "Are you sure? You seem rather torn on the matter," he said as he ripped himself in half like paper, before swirling back together.

"No, but... I don't have much of a choice right now. It would be unfair for Mantis to be replaced like that. He seems like he needs a new lease on life. And, it would be unfair to Twilight, having gone through so much due to his arrival." She gave a heavy sigh before gazing back to Discord. "Don't tell anyone about this. Not until the time comes."

"Scouts honor," he said with a sly grin.

"I'm serious, Discord. If the information got out before it's time, it's likely it'll wreck everything I've been trying to do. Please, if not for my sake, then for your friends' sake."

Discord pawed at his little goatee with audible chalkboard scraping and thought for a moment. He would absolutely love to watch Celestia's plans collapse on top of her, even just for a giggle, especially to annoy the giant blue toad that had been brought first, but he didn't want to involve Fluttershy in the issue; especially since she had invested so much time in their friendship and rehabilitation. However, there was also the possibility that the whole situation could unravel by itself, and still cause a disaster of hilarious proportions. He could hear the panic now. With a giggle, and a suitably annoyed Celestia, whom tried vainly to cover her ears, Discord stopped scratching his goatee and made his decision.

"Fine, Ms. Perfect. You win. I'll let this play out as is. But, do please call me if something goes wrong." With that, he snapped his fingers and splashed from existence with an audible cluck.

Celestia sighed, knowing that his offer was not to help, but to laugh at her if anything did go wrong. She could only hope that things from here on out would go smoothly until it was time.