//------------------------------//
// Search: Discord 
// Story: Princess Celestia's Body Double: Setting Stage For Harmony 
// by JLB 
//------------------------------//

It wasn’t the longest of walks from Diamond Eye’s laboratory, which was within a leisurely stroll from Canterlot Towers, to the hedge mazes, pathways, elegant trees and other greenery of the Canterlot Gardens. The fact they were going to visit Discord’s statue far ahead of schedule, however, made it that much lengthier and tense. Unpleasant thoughts were a consistent part of Princess Celestia’s everyday mindset, and were often swatted away in their hundreds. This one was an exception.

‘A blast from the past, figuratively speaking, isn’t it? I’m not quite sure what has me more disgruntled - the memories that have been dug up today, or the fact I’m so easily affected. Am I not supposed to be the mare to stand bold face to face with crisis?’ the mare berated herself internally, snout scrunching with exasperation. ‘I can’t let this go, either. None of this. For one thing, I’m going through with this research. For another, I’m taking steps to sort myself out before it’s too late. It may not end with Nightmare Moon. And all of today’s unhappy remembrances are, by far, secondary to… her. Time to get a grip.’

“I should note, by the way, that you need not worry about the necessary paperwork regarding the proper archiving and acknowledgement of my findings in the field of primordial Love,” the court wizard’s voice reemerged after a lengthy pause, returning her attention to more immediate matters. “Aster and I have already planned for any unexpected discoveries such as this. You will be notified when we require you to send us a limited use seal of approval for signing purposes.”

“Good to know. Heavens know we don’t need another conundrum like there was with the classification of spell-eater rocks,” she said approvingly, nodding. After a moment of thought, she turned her head to the stallion: “I do feel the need to remind you, though… By and large, this has to stay purely theoretical and classified for at least five decades. I doubt there is any actual danger in releasing the secrets of the… ‘mass affection stimulation device’, but the more mundane applications of Love do bother me to a considerable degree.”

“Naturally, Princess. There exists a near-zero chance that the Classified Research Academic Community will review, sort and evaluate the copious materials I will put forward for consideration, within less than ten years,” Diamond assured her. “Considering there also exists a significant probability that one or more of the Community chairs will pass away within that time frame, twenty years is the most likely estimated wait time. This, obviously, brings up the possibility of my own demise within that time frame, which would require re-filing the entire inquiry under Aster’s name as my official apprentice. In that case fifty years would be the most likely time by which Love-related research will enter closed academic circulation.”

“...well, then. Let us hope that you don’t pass away in that time frame, just in case we need solid designs and a strong theoretical base for highly powerful Love-based magic,” Celestia joked after a good few moments of would-be awkward silence. The qualitative descriptor was something of a redundant thing in most conversations with her court wizard, however. “Because in that case we’ll have to border on the established magical ethics and have to consult you from beyond the grave.”

“Acceptable in cases of crisis,” he replied.

“Yeah… yeah, I know. That’ll be all.”

The Princess puffed loudly out the side of her mouth. Like many things this day, talking about the intense levels of obstructionism within arcane academia couldn’t help but fuel some of her internal doubts. She was at the core of things being this way, of course. All groundbreaking discoveries typically called for delays, which were justified, first and foremost, by the necessity of proper documentation, testing and peer review of Princess-picked members of the scientific community. In reality, the main concern was that someone would accidentally invent something they could not possibly comprehend the true implications of. Securing Equestria’s present well-being, containing particularly questionable findings and protecting the entire planet’s future was a noble goal, all things considered.

‘And yet my little ponies make it extremely hard by constantly making it something useful. It’s much easier to justify putting a forbidden tag on a necromantic treatise. Someone discovering the once-obscure functional specifics of the power of Love? Much more queasy. Love is by no means a bad thing, but the sheer amount of restrictions that would be needed to put on practitioners… We can’t just have Unicorns with fitting cutie marks going around and seducing whoever they want, or making them fall into one another as they see fit. And what would the Unicornian representatives think? And what of the criminal justice system? And, and, and.’

Diamond Eye did not seem to see the discussion as to the virtual irrelevance of his findings until the end of his life as needing any continuation. They walked in silence, bypassing the sprawling view of Canterlot and the nearby hills. The mare cast a long look at the glamorous city, roofs glistening with her sunrays, skybound Pegasi being hastened along by the windy weather. Her eyes shifted from posh manor to posher manor yet, extravagant buildings all, poking out of the richer part of the city. To little surprise, she couldn’t see her other self from that distance, but the lack of magic shows, crowds, flooding, dragons, police squadrons or explosions bolstered her spirit. To her side, the silver Unicorn had clicked a set of darker lenses into the mechanical monocle on his eye, as the descending path toward the Gardens was particularly awash with sunlight.

‘All so complex, Love, above other things. Oh gosh, how on Equis am I going to explain this to Osma? She will never shut up about it. Love is a primordial magical element this, grumpiness is a habit of snooty winghorns that. Good thing I’m not as bad as she says. Or I would be hoping that we’d learn exactly nothing new examining Discord with controlled amounts of Love energy.’

“We have arrived. Please stand still for a few moments so I can check if the harmonizer spell requires maintenance,” Diamond’s voice sounded out, causing her to plant her hooves firmly in the ground. The mare’s body trembled as the path underneath her quaked, for just a couple of seconds. “We may now proceed.”

“That was fast. I see you’ve done some calibrations since our last visit?” the Princess asked, arching her back and fluttering her wings to erase the miniscule cramps that had washed over her body. They were now within the Statue of Discord’s containment area.

“I was only partly responsible. The theoretical base of this optimization work can be attributed to Aster,” he answered, exhibiting significantly less of a disturbance as he entered the invisible bubble that covered this particular part of the Gardens.

“Oh, good. Speaking of optimization. It would be fairly optimal if we actually accomplished something here,” she told him, weaving a different question into their current topic to help his peculiar mind react better. “Are we missing anything, Diamond? I assume you’ve taken a small Love-potent sample.”

“I have.”

Getting to the her ancient, petrified enemy, wasn’t particularly difficult. His outstretched avian hand peeked out from behind towering hedge walls, which formed a perfect circle around him, safe for two gates. The path they were on led directly to one of the gates, an exact, straight line of cobblestone paved up a smooth rise. The stones were a repeating, consistent pattern, each of them one hundred percent identical to the other, all of them replicated magically from an especially even-carved original stone, with not a millimeter or milligram of minute difference from it. Branching of the cobble path were six side roads, each exactly ten meters apart from the other, three on each side. Those roads lead to flower-wrapped gazebos, all entirely identical, made of perfect geometrical shapes, upon which the uniform white flowers nested in ideal heart shapes. Trees and bushes that lined the grassy spaces between those roads were planted in the same pattern, over and over again, and their foliage was trimmed to be the same oblong shape for the trees, while the bushes were turned into squares. The wind was barely a breeze, flowing continuously, never ending - there were no clouds in the sky, which was the absolute, pinpoint, perfect sky blue. Shadows cast by the objects within this part of the garden each fell so that there was virtually no overlap. Despite it being around four in the evening, the sun stood in the sky as if it was exactly twelve o’clock in the afternoon by the planet’s natural time.

‘I have to give myself credit. This was a vanity project, once. But now, there’s definitely some usefulness to this,’ Celestia thought to herself, pacing up the road leading to Discord’s perfectly circular hedge ring. ‘This is beyond uncanny, even for me - and this was all my idea. Tourists that enter this place rarely make it to Discord. Most of them are here to have fun, not be unnerved by what I assume is the closest we will ever get to perfect order.’

Diamond Eye was a fortunate companion to have while heading into the depths of the garden, since unlike anyone who had ever been there, he seemed to be rather content with the abnormal state of things. If anything, it could be noticed that the Unicorn was ever so slightly more liberal with his words and gestures. He appeared to have a much easier time conversing within this place, in general. In good part, this place’s specific atmosphere could be attributed to his efforts - while Celestia had gone through a number of court wizards since the day she decided Discord’s statue needed a new home, he was the one that was by far the most enthusiastic about taking her idea to the most exact, literal level possible. No better prison for a creature of elemental Chaos than the most perfect, harmonious place one could possibly conceive at the current acceptable level of magical advancement. Many details no one would ever notice without looking for them were his ideas: the identical shapes of all the leaves, one specific shape for each type of plant; the specially bred symmetrical grass whose perfectly grass green blades were spaced at the most harmonious angles possible, even if stepped on; the magically cloned interiors of each gazebo, and more.

There was only one thing that Celestia wished to change that he ultimately refused her on. She wanted to place windows into the circle that surrounded his statue. He deemed them a structural weakness and simply cut down their height for a similar result. And then, for good measure, a complicated illusion spell was permanently cast at an area around the statue’s head, channeled from a spell-eating rock securely locked away in Diamond’s laboratory. Anyone in that area would see nothing but a pattern of hearts, suns and moons beyond the magical bubble this part of the Gardens was located in. Very fortunate, considering some research had shown that his vision wasn’t limited to his eyes, even in statue form.

He could see everything, of course. The Princess, her Court Wizard and their apprentice were, at any given point in time, the only ponies to be aware of the fact that Discord was still very much conscious and awake within his statue. He saw, heard, and, with sufficient force applied, felt everything. Telepathy, judging by some of her past Court Wizards’ findings, he had no access to. This was enough, however.

‘Enough to make this your personal hell, you reprehensible abomination,’ Celestia almost said out loud, a heavy frown forming on her face. A loud sigh escaped her throat. ‘This used to feel juicier... Now I’m just hoping you can’t read my mind. No point sweating it, then. I’ve things to do and decisions to make.’

They entered through the gate silently, the metal having been forged and enchanted to be almost completely silent. They entered from the back, facing his dragon-like tail. The petrified draconnequus was now open for them to see - him, and the contents of his permanent residence. It was strewn all over with perfectly grey, droll looking things, dozens upon dozens of them, placed in perfect formations, symmetrically, filling as much of his field of view as possible.

“How are you doing there?” she called him out with some drips of venom seeping through her words. “What’s new? Hm. Here I thought you were going to do some refurbishing any day soon.”

That was not all there was to his immediate vicinity, of course. While the greater part of the reason for the enchanted garden’s existence was to enact fitting retribution on the malevolent entity, plunging it into what must have been the most miserable environment he could ever have imagined, there was also a security function to all of this. The freakishly tall mismatched creature may have been a statue, but there was never any certainty with the likes of Discord, and Celestia had always known that he was still there, somewhere. And of course, he was, beaten, bound and scarred, but by no means gone. The Elements of Harmony, however, weren’t child’s play - he possessed virtually no control of the laughably negligible amounts of Chaos magic still at his disposal. It was about two hundred years that he was more or less unattended for, and in that period of time, his power grew very unsubstantially. Shortly thereafter, some proper containment measures were enacted. A century or so later, Celestia’s grand design for his torture was implemented.

That hampered the growth of his control even further, albeit it did eventually become slightly more noticeable than it once was. It was, at the absolute best, a passive, persistent aura of Chaos and improbability. Patches of grass swayed pitifully side to side, wobbling with effort. Some of the artfully boring ornaments would rarely try their hardest to move the tiniest portion of an inch, and ninety nine times out of a hundred they would instantly retreat. On particularly special occasions, the sad makings of a distantly pink vaporous cloud, no bigger than a miser’s muffin, would pop into existence and weep out a half-formed tear of remotely sugary liquid. Who knew, perhaps, had his acclimatization to his new state of affairs been allowed to go further, he would even try to communicate.

In any case, Discord was having quite the unenviable existence for the couple hundred years.

‘Maybe after we settle today’s business, I’ll get to find out what the feeling permeating this place really is. This popping, tense sensation in the back of my head. Considering the lengths I’ve gone to to make this an eternity of unbearable torment for him it’s probably his boiling, vicious hatred,’ she mulled the thought that entered her mind every time she had to visit. Today being different, and her having more duties than just being around in case performing extensive physical maintenance on the garden of perfect order resulted in any sort of accident, this thought was not so moot anymore. That made the rest of it slightly more relevant as well: ‘Or, of course, it could be my possibly misguided conscience, recognizing what he’s going through. Heh, I remember the tantrum I threw when I started calling it “him” four hundred years ago… The habit stuck, though.’

“Yes, that’s very interesting, Discord. Anyway, I have things to do. Diamond, would you please?” she said out loud, considering that the stallion would likely have simply stood in place for minutes on end had he not been given a prompt.

In less than a second, a sealed beaker was floating in front of her, a single pink pellet of semi-liquid arcane energy secured within. A small portion of the magic contained in the orb she brought him, it seemed - processed to have a physical form that allowed for easy transportation. At least, that was what could be assumed. Carrying around literal pieces of primordial magical energies wasn’t something that happened particularly often, and last time that was needed, the methods of delivery were a bit different. Celestia tilted her head, taking the beaker into her own magical aura. The subtle slot at the base of the statue, used for the centennially rare occasions that magical artifacts were put to use on Discord, took a lot more effort, since she used her mouth to uncover it, for safety’s sake.

‘I can’t help but feel like I’m not appreciating the gravity of the situation. I mean, I am, but this feels awfully mundane. Even testing this out isn’t particularly mundane, however,’ she mulled while lowering the beaker into the disproportionally wide, deep cavity. ‘Let alone the other possibilities this discovery is offering us, provided Diamond is at least mostly right - which I’m sure he is.’

“There we go. Now, I have good news, Discord. We have brought a little bit of uncertainty into your life just now!” she declared with partly fake bile welling in her words. “I have absolutely no idea if this is going to hurt you or not. And, who knows, if this goes well enough, I may never get to ask!”

With that, she fired off a concentrated beam at the opened slot, which went aglow, preventing any residual arcane energy from reaching the actual statue. It was quite the light show, thick color-shifting spiralling waves coursing intensely around an intensely bright white beam. By the look of it, it could easily have been mistaken for a high power disintegration charge or something of the sort - rather fitting, considering the occasion, and one of the few things to really suit the importance of what was happening. In reality, however, while it was technically an offensive spell, it was a heavily modified version, which reduced it to what was essentially a poking stick for very specific arcane qualities of two or more objects located close enough to each other. Underwhelming considering the appearance, but Diamond Eye, who retrofitted the spell’s previous version, did make a point that not modifying the original spell’s visual compartment considerably aided the ease of use and channeling time.

‘And it does. It just looks a bit ridiculous. I can’t help but imagine I’m blasting this damn thing to pieces. Following which, I can’t help but also imagine him breaking out of his newly destroyed statue and wrecking havoc. At times, I wonder why I even think… This is taking some time.’

The scientist himself was observing fleeting arcane readings coming in and out of existence in front of him, occasionally brushing against parts of his eyepiece to zoom in and out. Specks and sparks moved at dashing speeds in front of him, and even that was only with the aid of magic complex enough to perfectly justify his presence. While the Princess would have been capable of pulling it off and even understanding what any of it meant, it would have put quite a hamper on her mental capabilities for the rest of the day.

“Any time now?!” she muttered under her breath, having broken a few sweats channeling the prodding spell for several minutes straight.

“All done,” Diamond responded about ten seconds later. Celestia instantly snuffed the overblown magic spell out and began to pant lightly, brushing a forehoof against her face. The beaker was back in a pocket of the Court Wizard’s coat before she could take it into her own telekinetic grip. “Primary analysis results available.”

“Good job,” the alicorn said raspily, flexing her wings and cracking her neck. She squinted, looking for any breaches in the perfect symmetry and order that surrounded them, but owing to her accuracy, there was not a leaf out of place. “So, then. First of all, how is Discord doing? Simply being curious.”

“Hmmm.” Diamond gathered his thoughts for a short while, coming out with a response considerably fast for his standards. “Slightly more uncomfortable than the norm.”

“That would be Discord’s norm, I imagine?” The Princess didn’t sound particularly invested, partly because she was stretching her legs and giving her warmed-up horn a soothing rub. ‘To be fair, last time I cast the original spell, I was panting for an hour. And when I used the actual offensive spell at its base… Nevermind that.’

“Correct. To refresh your memory, the draconnequus discomfort norm based on aural readings is—”

“Overwhelming discomfort, medium level physical suffering, strong psychological misery. I know.” Celestia’s eyelid twitched. “Slightly worse than that, then?”

“Essentially.”

“Ah, so it goes,” Celestia replied, shrugging her shoulders. She suppressed the desire to at least shake her head at herself, both for doubting her dedication to disregarding Discord’s despair and for doubling down on said dedication. “Now, onto our main objective… Actually, to preface: considering the track record of this idiot in intellectual pursuits, I doubt he would be able to make heads or tails of the information you will present, so go on right here and right now. What have you learned?”

“A number of things. Rather curious. Several thoughts I’ve had as to the nature of Discord have been proven to be the case. That does, however, mean that he cannot be of the same origin as Osmosis. There exist fundamental differences between these two entitiess’ mode of operation. They share some key features, but their deeper nature is at odds with one another.”

‘Oh thank goodness. I still can have Osma hug me to sleep. Were she of the same family as him, I don’t think I could have. And now - onto more productive conclusions…’ She straightened herself out, spreading her wings and taking on a particularly serene facial expression. It tended to help her think, and Diamond Eye hardly minded - his gaze was fixed at the statue. “I’m relieved to hear that. Go on.” she said.

“First of all, it seems that the shapeshifting abilities these creatures possess are vastly different. Both have capabilities - or, rather, had, in the case of Discord - for corporeal alteration, but while Osmosis’ has been proven to be an infinitely long process of various changes responding to a wide variety of external and internal influences, Discord’s body shaping has nothing to do with her abilities. Judging by some of the reactions he has had to the concentrated charge of Love, his essence reacts very poorly to the concept of permanence, even if that permanence is related to the process of change.”

“He can’t take how organic Osma’s shapeshifting is? Not random enough for him?” Celestia asked, involuntarily giving the statue a look herself. Her lips curled downward and she turned away with a dismissive huff. “It makes sense. He’d usually… do something, and then keep that something around for a time until he was bored of it. For the time being he would typically stick to some sort of, ahm… ‘theme’. If my memory serves me right, that is.”

“An apt interpretation. There is more, however. While both of them are indeed creatures of primordial magical elements, they do not share much functional similarity. The reaction he had to this foreign element being introduced into his system was quite contrary to that of Osmosis during the last tissue examination. It is quite telling, considering they can both be broadly classified as Elementals.” He cleared his throat and pulled up the turtleneck, after which he stepped toward the crevice with the Love beaker. After a moment of hesitation, Celestia raised a halting hoof, to which he immediately retracted his steps. “The reaction their base elements have to other energies is very telling. You likely recall that when exposed to other magical elements, Osmosis’ samples, which we now know consist of Love, would take those energies in and multiply both their own arcane charge and that of the other sample. The reaction of Chaos to an influx of Love was to attempt either converting its charge to its own or destroy it, but due to Discord’s weakness, the receptive Chaos charges were unsuccessful.”

“I… seeeeee,” Celestia drew out slowly, rubbing her chin and raising her eyes to the sky. “Anything more?..”

“These are the basic conclusions I have drawn. Osmosis has no relation to Discord aside from more than likely being an Elemental entity, thus strengthening the remaining theories as to her genesis. I intend to compile a more thorough report with secondary findings by next week.”

The Princess sighed deeply and ran a forehoof against her ethereal mane. Her wings fidgeted at her sides, her hooves stepped in place involuntarily. She caught herself biting her lip, primarily because Diamond Eye turned his head to her. A light chill passed through the mare as the monocled eye gazed at her, as if exposing the heavy thoughts within - of which there were some.

‘It’s now or never. Or, rather, “later”, which by my standards could easily be “never”. When has my gut led me wrong?’ she told herself, lowering her eyes and taking in a deep breath. ‘Good heavens, how I wish that my gut would actually lead me somewhere in situations like these anymore. Though perhaps it’s best to wish that situations like these don’t happen. Then again - it’s been a very, very long time…’

“Princess Celestia?” the scientist called out for her, calm as per usual, albeit still rather troubling in that he was rarely one to break tense pauses such as this one. “Problem?”

“Perhaps not. I have a clarification to make, and some additional business to attend to regarding this… creature,” the alicorn uttered, growing more determined by the end, clearing her throat again for additional clarity.

“By all means.”

“You said that when Discord’s Chaos magic, which you say he consists of, went in to intercept and convert the Love charge, it wasn’t successful. Could you tell me how exactly it failed?”

Diamond Eye blinked slowly. His silence went on for slightly longer than it was typical of him. The fact they were in a spot where he tended to have a lot less issue reorganizing his thoughts made that even more noticeable. Although, the fact this wasn’t the usual couple moments it took her Court Wizard to rearrange his train of thought to a new topic was further compounded when the Unicorn’s facial expression changed from the usual distant, calm mask he bore. He turned his head slightly, almost squinting into the white mare’s eyes with his good eye. His mouth was slightly opened, as if he were about to speak up, which he didn’t. Instead his lips curled subtly down, and his unflappable, piercing gaze broke off the Princess.

“Diamond… Is there something wrong? Should we leave here? I don’t really think there is much he can do with this information, in his current state...” she asked him serenely, trying to sound as soothing as she could.

“There is approximately a seventy three percent chance of a concentrated mega-magnified volley of Love-based crystal-infused bombard removing Discord from all currently registered layers of existence,” the silver stallion said abruptly, a hint of a rather different tone in his voice. “For reference, that is one of the weapons projects I suggested thirty six minutes ago after we left the laboratory. The percentage I have provided applies to Discord in a weakened state, decreasing toward a projected sixty two percent chance at his approximated full strength.”

Celestia froze, her eyes having widened. This has only very rarely happened before, Diamond making jumps like these. Her initial thought was that something went wrong with their experiment and he was being affected by Discord. Why would he answer her with this? That thought didn’t hold much water, though.

‘It’s clear as day I want Discord gone, with no chance of him doing what he did. Which effectively means killing him.’

What happened was simply the result of him being in a mentally comfortable environment, having good deduction skills when he allowed them to work, and her motives being transparent to someone with a practical mindset.

“So… you think destroying him for good is the way to go about this?” she asked.

“The remaining twenty seven percent calculated for Discord in a weakened state account for four scenarios. Most likely is the twelve percent chance of Discord not being fully destroyed, with the surviving Chaos energy retaining the capability to infect, consume and possess matter and arcanery as it recuperates,” the scientist spoke up, and levitated a notebook from his front pocket, taking relevant figures down as he spoke. “There also exists an eight percent chance that disintegrating a Chaos elemental with the concentrated power of another primordial element will produce resonant waves bearing enough power to create an apocalyptic event. Assuming that the entity in question is not processed with specific magical and chemical agents, there will additionally be a two percent chance of the blast failing to have any effect whatsoever.”

‘This complicates things…’

“Lastly, there is a one percent chance that if Discord has enough integrity to withstand the bulk of the raw destructive effect, Love’s inherent qualities will take over his essence instead of destroying it.” Diamond Eye stared at her throughout, making a short pause after providing the numerical lowdown. He brushed a hoof against one of his sideburns. “As for the changes in these percentiles that occur with the growth of Discord’s projected strength, failure to fully destroy and triggering of an apocalyptic event stay the same, probability of lack of effect goes down to the low decimals, with conversion to a more Love-based entity rising respectively.”

‘And this… changes things. This definitely changes things.’

“Right… I assume that the method of destruction you’ve suggested is the most reliable you can currently suggest?” Celestia asked for another clarification, shaking her head.

“Correct. It is unlikely that a method more likely to deliver a Love-based solution to the issue of Discord’s existence can be developed in the next one hundred and twenty one to three hundred and seventy five years, which is the current prognosis for an escape attempt being undertaken with the irreversible flow of Chaos energy reawakening within his being.”

“How long do you think it would take to create such a… bombard?” The Princess raised a forehoof, moreso looking as if she was swatting unpleasant thoughts away than exhibiting actual interest. That was primarily because she was doing just that. ‘I may as well be spoon-feeding Discord the Chaos he needs, acting like this. None of this is helping. I thought I’d made my choice putting the beaker in there. Why did Diamond have to bring up destroying him? Why did he have to figure it out? It was up to me to say that. And then be done with it, and let whatever happens, happen.’

“No solid numbers I can provide right now. I would assume somewhere in the range of a century if work was to begin next week. Various possible events, including my inevitable death, will likely impact the process.” The scientist seemed less than perturbed talking about the topic, somewhat unlike Celestia. While there was ever so subtly more character and life to his normally droll and straightforward deep voice, bringing this up was just as much of a mundanity for him in here as it was outside the garden of artificial harmony.

‘And him having to remind me that I will inevitably lose the one Unicorn loyal, practical and scrupulous enough to be trusted with science at this level… that does not help either.’

“I see. You… did not answer my question, though, Diamond. Do you think destroying Discord is a good idea?” She spoke with some enforced firmness, raising her eyes to return the stallion’s persistent gaze. “Is that the practical, reasonable, objective thing to do?”

This time it was Diamond Eye’s turn to look more disarmed than usual. He scowled, looking down. A small, yet audible puff of air exited through his nostrils. One of his ears flicked momentarily. He turned his head back to look at the statue, made a few steps toward it, then turned around, and looked through the bars of the gate they entered through. Growing more irritated in his expression, he then stepped at a somewhat accelerated pace to the front of the statue, putting his forehooves at the base and taking a long look at the thing they were discussing, in all its awkward, mismatched glory.

Considering that such an amount of seemingly excessive movement and emotion was quite unusual and likely meant some intense thinking going on in his head, Celestia did not intervene, instead walking to the front herself, careful not to nudge any of the mocking trinkets strewn about.

‘I don’t think I can look at his maw for as long as he can,’ she pointed out to herself after five seconds of inspecting the stretched out half-equine half-dragon goat-bearded snout. So for the next couple of minutes of silence, she stared through the bars of the gate herself, viewing what little of the Canterlot skyline was there to see.

“The destruction of Discord is objectively an impractical avenue of action,” the stallion spoke up at last. “The risk of infecting Equis with Chaos or outright destroying it is unacceptably high. However.” He was silent again for nearly half a minute. “Discord’s return is inevitable. There is no way to cut off the growth of his power any further than it already has been. For when he regains freedom, I have no superior course of action in mind.”

“Oh.” Celestia couldn’t resist showing her surprise. “Uh… huh.”

‘So… my dedicated ruthlessly practical pony who consistently tries to pitch me weapons of mass destruction, mind control devices, spying spells, arcane poisons and the like - and the only reason I still listen to him is because he is all those things - doesn’t actually think killing Discord is a good idea.’ She blinked slowly. ‘What a world. Had he not seen through my base desires and decided to skip ahead, I would have been the one to say he needed to be destroyed. And he would have agreed, because while there’s a one-in-five chance that we create even more problems, he hasn’t figured out… this stupid idea I’m beating myself over for even getting in the first place. That is, when I’m not brooding over how I haven’t found a way to make it work yet. Only now, I think I have the solution. For the Discord problem, not for my mental disturbances. Goodness gracious, Osma might have a point when she says I have problems...’

“Do you have something in mind?” Diamond asked her, yet again taking initiative.

“In fact… I do.” The Princess took a breath and finally let it out: “I believe that with your findings regarding Love, and especially its effect on Chaos, Discord can be…” She bit her lip and huffed loudly, but finished it nonetheless. “...reformed.”

“...define ‘reformed’, Princess.” Now that there was at least some degree of discernible emotion present in the scientist’s expression, the fact it turned completely static was noticeable. It was clear that gears were turning in his head, and it didn’t appear to be a smooth process.

“It’s a liberal use of the term, I have to admit,” she said, raising a hoof in admittance. “What I really mean is more along the lines of, uhm…” The mare bit on her lip, searching for a more straightforward term that her Court Wizard would be on board with.

“Brainwashing, colloquially speaking?” he suggested.

She all but opened her mouth to protest, but swiftly closed it after having thought of it objectively. Her snout scrunched up. She sighed.

“This is a… harder question to answer than it might seem. I’m not entirely sure. What I intend to do is introduce scheduled doses of distilled Love into Discord’s monthly containment checkups. The reaction he has shown to it is... promising.” Celestia gave the statue a brief glare. “I have a distinct feeling that adding more and more of non-Chaos elements into him would have a beneficial effect, generally speaking.” The alicorn turned her head to Diamond Eye. “The tiny dose he’s been subjected to right now has remained, correct? It’s still within him?”

“It is, as an intruding foreign object. Plainly speaking, it is a sickness to his arcane body. Right now he is too weak to attempt to purge a fraction this small,” he answered, still looking somewhat surprised, thoughtful and relatively unconvinced. “Higher dosages could result in an emergency immune response that would undo any… progress you would be trying to achieve.”

“I understand that. I assume that with the proper calculations, particularly catastrophic events can be avoided. That should not be a massive issue,” she assured him. “What I really would like to know is… when you described the reaction he had to Love, I believe you said it bolsters both itself and the original element. Does that mean that it could potentially be less of a ‘foreign object’, and more of an… organic part of him as a magical entity?”

“...” Diamond Eye was silent for some time, his good eye having gone slightly wider than usual. He rubbed his goatee. “I had not considered that. From what I had learned, this is not unlikely. I think I understand what you mean, Princess.”

“I’m confident that you do,” Celestia replied with a calm smile, straightening out her neck after having realized she was rather ungracefully, tensely bent down for some time now. “So, as you can see now, it’s not quite brainwashing.”

“That wholly depends on what specifically Discord is as a Chaos Elemental. I would require several weeks of study to arrive at a more accurate conclusion.”

“Well… for what it’s worth, I can offer you a couple more relevant observations of my own. From back in the day. Some… things about Discord that make me think doing this is justified,” the mare replied with what was arguably a heavier voice than required. ‘It isn’t like Diamond would find this too unethical. His only concern about killing that clown for good was the risk of apocalypse, which I do have to agree with anyway.’

“By all means. I’m open to additional information.”

The Princess closed her eyes tight, rubbing both with a hoof, one after another. Her wings shifted in place, and her ears declined at a slight angle. She opened her eyes, looking at the Unicorn in front of her, finding some degree of relief in the amusing fact he looked almost excited to hear her out. Quite the rare sight, and presumably a good one, even considering the highly questionable topic.

At long last, she opened up about something she never even talked to Osma about. Primarily because there was never a reason, but still.

“You see, when you describe Discord as a Chaos Elemental, you’re exactly correct. All he ever did was Chaos, through and through. As we both know, history tends to change ever so slightly as years go by.” She cringed at the understatement, but went on nonetheless. “As it stands right now, most ponies hardly believe he ever existed, and as for the… fairytales, which is essentially what records of his rule are by this point, he is depicted as, well…” Celestia searched for the right words, eventually arriving at an eyeroll and a shrug. “...an archetypical villain, more or less. Someone me and my sister heroically defeated with the power of the Elements of Harmony.

“You obviously know that his modern interpretations are hardly in character with what someone with his sort of power would indulge in. It goes deeper, however. What we are doing right now, the sheer fact we’re standing here, how you can examine what little of his internal magical activity can be tracked, all of that is owed to the overwhelmingly powerful - the strongest in all of history, in fact - storm of Harmony myself and Luna unleashed upon him. Back then, he was even more Chaos than he is now. And right now he is still very much Chaos incarnate.

“It’s a bit hard to explain… and it’s also a bit hard to think about, I admit. But, let me put it this way - Discord, back when he ruled over us, was… random. Things did not make sense. They simply did not. He was not a villain, per se. I honestly don’t believe that he even had a personality to speak of. The shape he is in right now was the only consistent thing about him, and even that, I assume, was something that went through many iterations before he was born - I hardly know how he came to be. But Discord… he was anything and everything at once. Believe it or not, but there were days when he would act like the most benevolent being you could imagine. There were days when he’d recreate the old Equestria. There were days when up was right and left was noodle rain with a chance of potatoes. There were… many sorts of days.

“What I think is the most applicable way to describe him is that… he was a force of nature, nothing more - he just happened to have a body and a voice. There was no rhyme or reason. In fact, in purely objective terms, had he stayed in power, Equestria would have technically been ‘safe’ forever. Chaos cannot exist without a counteracting force of some kind, it is, at its core, a reactive element. There would have been nothing for Discord if there were to be no one to force Chaos upon. When he would come close to all but plunging us into oblivion, his behavior was outright self-destructive - he would not simply act nice, he would all but force the small number of ponies capable of maintaining resistance to gain ground. In fact… I don’t think a single, solitary individual died during his reign. However good that was.

“Eventually, he set up his own defeat. He never recognized what the Elements were. He was Chaos incarnate - I don’t think he was really capable of comprehending them. Despite the fact he was aware they existed, he seemed to always erase them from memory. During a particularly… stable period, he was finally taken out and turned into what you see before you. Now, you may be thinking that considering what I just told you, anything but destruction or indefinite containment for a creature like this is utter madness. There is one thing, however, one thing that indicates there can be progress yet.”

“Discord’s being has already been fundamentally altered once,” Diamond Eye spoke up before she could continue. The Unicorn nodded to himself and blinked in understanding. “The magical emissions representing his ‘personality’ have been consistent for as long as I have been examining him. Presumably, this has been the case since he was subjected to the Harmony blast. While pure Chaos, the Discord that we are discussing right now is an actual individual.”

Princess Celestia put a hoof on the scientist’s shoulder and nodded. A breath of relief left her lungs. ‘I feel so much better now. This is such a relief… I just needed to talk. And we haven’t even agreed if what I want to do is a good idea. I am starting to feel that Osma will have to try to ruin today for me.’

“You are very much correct. After being turned into a statue, Discord is now… something, someone that can be worked with. He was solidified, I suppose you could say - with the personality he’d taken on in his last encounter. I think it was to mock us, he thought nothing would happen when we unleashed the Elements. Not the most pleasant of states to be solidified into. So now he may not be a pony, but he is…” She stopped, realizing she didn’t have a good description. “Let’s just say there is a reason that in my notes from the early centuries, he is referred to as ‘it’, yet right now we talk about him as a ‘he’.”

“I understand,” Diamond Eye replied with a now evident, if still distant, tone of involved excitement. He shifted his eyes to the statue now and again, slowly nodding to himself. In all fairness, combining this description of Discord with the haphazard mishmash of animal parts that stood there in stone was quite the task. “For lack of capable Element bearers with which to stabilize and petrify him, you wish to use Love as a substitute form of further melding Discord into a creature that will peacefully coexist with life on Equis.”

“Exactly! Osma can serve as our donor, and bit by bit, he’ll be filled with enough Love to balance out the Chaos, and from then on, well…” Celestia rubbed her temple. “We’ll be using very small doses, naturally. I don’t want the security to be lowered. Besides, my assumption is that he will be more accepting of this foreign magic when he’s in a perpetual state of turmoil. Slowly but surely, if initial procedures beyond this one prove successful, and adding some optimization, I bet he would be significantly more civil by when it’s time for him to leave the statue in about two hundred years.”

“A pleasant course of events,” he answered slowly, with a nod. “If it does take place.”

“And now, of course, you’re free to tell me where I’m wrong, Diamond,” Celestia said immediately, shaking her head. “Since that is why we’re discussing this in the first place. I’m not one hundred percent sure about this.” She sighed. ‘I mean, I do feel like I am. This is definitely an unpleasant conversational obligation. Such euphoria is dangerous, though. I shouldn’t get so carried away, no, no. Control. Things aren’t required to go the way I want them to, even if it’s all going so well.’

“I have multiple concerns about this,” he said, pulling up his turtleneck and starting to slowly pace around. Clearly what was going on was mentally stimulating. “Even if what you say is promising, Princess, it’s a high risk giving this entity even more power than it already has. The personality he currently possesses is very likely less than cooperative, especially after having been in a state of perpetual despair for hundreds of years. It’s possible that after accumulating enough Love he will find the Chaos part of his being capable of breaking out of containment. With the nature of Chaos, it’s not unlikely that such an event won’t be foreseeable despite any precautions.”

“He will never stay contained forever, though. The flow of Chaos into his being cannot be halted. The longer he stays this way, the worse it’ll probably be once he does break out - which is inevitable.”

“Correct. The effect of Love can also alter his personality to a sizeable degree. I will also make sure to monitor the projected time until escape attempt, of course. Another concern is…” He cut himself off mid-sentence, furrowed his brows, and then continued nonetheless. “I don’t mean to imply anything regarding your sensibilities, but in case an acceptable degree of ‘reform’ is achieved and he is released, there is no solid proof that he will stay an ally for long, or that it is not some form of deception on his part. The nature of Chaos does mean that none of our scientific findings in its field can be entirely final. What you said only compounds this fact.”

Celestia hung her head.

“Well, you see, Diamond… that’s just how it is,” she said plainly. “Sometimes you just can’t be sure. Especially in this case. I have thought of this myself. Personally, I find the risk to be worth taking. I’ll look into precautions just as well.”

“The only proper precaution that comes to my mind is the use of Elements of Harmony, Princess,” Diamond responded. “Suitable Bearers for which…”

“...I am looking for a Bearer right now, Diamond. My apprentice won’t simply be a study partner. This is their main goal, to wield the Elements,” Celestia retorted resolutely. “In fact, the strengthening of Discord and his subsequently sped up escape only play into this fact. Unless we dramatically overstep the dosage, his return should be well past the point I have found a suitable Bearer. By then they would have learned the finer aspects of Harmony, and Discord could easily be kept on a leash.”

“In this case, I suppose I can only support your decision to start searching for this Bearer so early. I do hope Osmosis succeeds at her task, then.” The scientist nodded to himself. “The only objective flaw that remains is the possibility that Discord will somehow find a way to break out prematurely. There would be a lot of research necessary to try to find a way to see through possible methods of obfuscation.”

“I’ll help in whichever way I can, if this is really it and you see no other problems.”

“Nothing substantial,” he replied, blinking and stopping for a moment. “Certain ethical aspects.”

“Well… yes. It is, essentially, brainwashing. But it seems like a necessary evil to me. Discord as he is right now would be vile to begin with - not to mention the fact he is highly unlikely to be cooperative after suffering in this garden for centuries. Altering his very essence and making him a being of dual elements is not exactly the cleanlest thing to do,” Celestia conceded. “But it’s either that or death for him. He’s lucky to keep the very essence of his existence, if this works.”

“Besides that, his return at any acceptable degree of reform would serve as a good boost of morale for the nation. They wouldn’t know the finer details of how it was achieved,” Diamond added. The Princess shrugged at having found no counter-argument to the display of cold calculation. “And in any case, with the data you’d offered me today, I find it safe to say that it’s hardly an abhorrent act at all.”

“You do? Well, I’m glad you think so,” Celestia said with a smile, ears perking up in a bit of surprise.

“This is not the first time his very nature was permanently altered. Now we are simply taking steps to refine it further so as to fit our needs,” the stallion elaborated. “Which I can only support.”

“...right, I see.” Celestia swallowed an unpleasant lump in her throat after Diamond put the situation in perspective. “So, as I was saying, anything that I can do to help refine the process we’ll be moving forward with, I am ready to offer.”

The Court Wizard hummed in approval and brought out several notebooks from his coat, taking down multiple lines of notes in each. With a sizeable burden having been loosed from her shoulders, Celestia turned around to leave Discord’s containment zone. Despite the lack of finality and the many questions still looming about this entire arrangement, as well as the fact that the specific purpose she had for this visit was not fulfilled, the alicorn was hardly as tense while she stepped out.

‘There we go. I’ve been mulling this idea for years. And now, thanks to Diamond, I’m actually going forward with it. Reforming Discord… in a very literal sense, but still. Mutating would be the less pleasant and more correct word for it, I suppose. At least Diamond is considerate enough to use my terminology,’ she thought to herself, smiling faintly. Her smile deflated when she was halfway through the gate. ‘Oh, right. I may be supposed to thank him for this. Not that he would feel left out, but… Socializing, Celestia. It can’t always be Osma dealing with your little ponies. Keep acting like this and she’ll all but take over.’

“One last thing… I should thank you, Diamond Eye. I knew I’d made the right choice when I picked you after my previous Court Wizard had his accident,” she called out to him. “Even if many ponies thought your mental and physical health were cause for concern. I know I have told you this before, but your work is greatly appreciated. I need someone like you in times like these.”

Even despite the acceleration of his mental faculties within this area, the Unicorn was taken by surprise. He stood still for some time, his notebooks floating in the air. He wasn’t completely frozen, like he would be elsewhere, in his lab or, worse yet, in places he was even less accustomed to. The stallion appeared to be processing a complex emotion, Celestia could tell that much.

“You overestimate my contributions, Princess. I am only a Unicorn with abilities for practical and theoretical sciences. You likely remember what I told you about the Court Wizard institution as a whole,” he replied after a sizeable period of deliberation. “It is ineffective. There are simultaneously too many tasks associated with it that can be more efficiently divided between existing Royal Scientific Communities, primarily the filing, quality control, sorting and archiving of new and existing works, and too few pursuits of vital importance to dedicate a single wizard and their apprentice’s career to.” He sighed slowly and shook his head, closing his eyes. His snout was ever so slightly scrunched. “I am simply the right Unicorn in the right place at the right time. An exception from the rule. Had the circumstances of my employment different, my problems would have made me an utter failure. A failure too costly for one stallion and his apprentice to cause.”

‘Oh, no… No, no. Not now. Do I need this now? I don’t need this now…’

“In conclusion, I feel this happens to be an opportune time to mention that it is my sincere suggestion that you make me the last Court Wizard you ever employ. I will draft up transition plans in case you agree,” he continued. “Chances are high that in finding the Bearer, you will acquire a protege of your very own. Harmony requires more than simple, basic contact between student and teacher. I find it likely that you having a younger protege of your own will become a consistent feature of Equestrian royalty. Since they will need to possess immense magical talent, they will be able to take care of the more vital parts of my job. All the others are not worth the influence I alone currently possess.”

‘Not a good time, Diamond. Not a good time. Not a good time to do this to my mood, and not a good time to have a point I don’t have much to refute with. I can’t just hide behind grumbling old-fashioned Canterlot power players again, not with him…’ Celestia’s ears drooped, her head nearly touched the ground. She closed her eyes and exhaled. “What about Aster, Diamond? Are you going to deprive him of the position he’d been working toward for years?” The mare dragged a forehoof down the length of her snout. ‘Great. Not only is this the only thing I have to retort with, but I also made it sound like Aster is planning to kill him. Good thing he probably doesn’t mind.’

Diamond Eye stopped, closing his eyes hard. Even the mechanical tube on his left eye temporarily covered up the outward lens. His own posture drooped. The artificial breeze blew gently on the two most stoic and serene ponies in all of Equestria, right next to the mismatched abomination from ages past stretching its arm goofily up into the sky. ‘All this is so miserable that we’re probably giving that bastard more power. And I’m going to have to learn to not call him a bastard, too…’

“...maybe Aster can be the last,” Diamond finally spoke up, and a subtle to the point of seeming an optical illusion smile appeared on his face. “I can’t let him stay a school principal forever. He has more in him than proof-reading my texts and running Princess Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns.”

Princess Celestia chuckled briefly and quietly. ‘This is sweeter than it could have been. I should be glad for this much… in fact, I am.’

“Who knows, Diamond. Maybe you and Aster will iron this out with my protege once Osma knows where to look for them,” she said, straightening herself out again. “Maybe, if something goes really wrong with the reform of Discord, we’ll blast him back to stone together again. And at that rate, he may just end up agreeable. So much Love and Harmony blasted into his body, it might just work out.”

“That is a joke,” Diamond Eye said, seeming to state more so than ask.

“As I said - who knows?” Celestia shrugged and beckoned for him to follow her outside. “We should be going. This talk has been excessively weird and we could be fueling Discord up right now. That is almost not a joke. How long did you say we had until he had enough in him to try it again?”

“One hundred and twenty one years to three hundred and seventy five. That number is very likely to go down, hopefully at a controlled rate. The possibility of a Chaos growth spurt caused by Love’s amplifying ability also exists,” he reminded her quickly.

“So long as it’s not less than fifty years from now,” she replied, making something of a grim joke of the situation. “There’s already a villainous comeback scheduled for that year…”

“The lowest acceptable return estimate should be fifty one years, then?” the scientist asked.

“...I guess?.. It would hardly be optimal, and we’d need to go through a lot of effort to handle him, but… Yes.” The Princess shrugged, looking out at the city once again and cringing at the thought of him being released in a not-fully-reformed state, still bearing traces of Love mixed in with Chaos, a chaotic entity to the point of consisting of more than one element. “Let’s call that the worst case scenario. He’d need to be subjected to a lot of Harmony then. We’d need to really pump in the Love after he’s petrified again, should he act up. Or teach him to make friends for a more organic source of Harmony.”

“That was… also a joke.”

“More or less.”

Diamond Eye breathed in deep and tapped on his monocle, sinking the tube to its regular outdoors length.

“We should go.”

“We should. Productive day, Diamond. A very productive day.”

‘I do wish I could say it was all-around pleasant, though.’