In Canterlot, Princess Celestia walked down the path of the Royal Gardens. What Random told her and Luna was true, their wounds started healing as soon as they finished their meal. She paused for a moment to look around at all the statues and let out a sigh, her mind replaying Random's words over and over. She clenched her eyes shut in an attempt to drive away those thoughts, but it was no use. She could almost hear the statues calling out at her, demanding to be released from their prisons.
"Well now Celly, you seem like you have just had a bit of lemon tea and forgot the sugar."
Celestia's eyes snapped open at the voice, and she quickly noticed she had stopped right in front of Discord's statue. Her eyes were wide in surprise, as she clearly heard him speaking. But that's not possible right? The Elements imprisoned him again not long ago. He shouldn't be able to interact with the outside. She was about to dismiss what she heard as her mind playing tricks on her due to her stressed state when she heard him again, and this time she could clearly see the voice was indeed coming from the stone amalgamation she was looking at.
"Now now Celly, I know I'm handsome, but even then I think it's rude to stare, no matter how attractive I may be." He said with a chuckle at the end.
Celestia's mind almost ground to a halt. It took an impressive amount of willpower to keep her composure as she straightened her posture and glared at the stoned Lord Of Chaos.
"Discord. How are you doing this?"
There was a hum from the statue. "To be honest with you, cakebutt, I'm not sure myself. My best guess is that it's thanks to the chaos my boy wrought in the short time he has been free. He makes me so proud I could cry, if statues can cry that is."
Celestia frowned. Both at the news, and the jab at her weight. AGAIN. She was NOT fat, merely had large bones! But that aside, the fact that Discord had an influence on the outside of his prison, as faint as it was, was worrying.
"I don't know what your plan is this time Discord, but the Elements of Harmony will put an end to it! Both you and that creature will be locked away to the ends of time, I assure you!"
And then Discord laughed. It was not a mad laugh, or a laugh of defeat, or even that condescending chuckle he always gave her and her sister. It was long and loud, the kind of laugh one only gives when they were told something, but find it very funny because they knew something the other don't. Celestia actually took a step back, surprised by the action.
"What is so funny, Discord!? Answer me!"
"Oh Tia, Tia, Tia. To think you have not lost that sense of humor of yours, saying that you're gonna lock him away again. It's hilarious!"
Celestia snorted. "Me and Luna did it once. I'm quite confident that the new bearers can do it again, they did defeat you if I'm not mistaken."
"Are you now? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you and moonbutt only got to him because you sneak up on him, did you not?" He took Celestia's silence as his cue to continue. "Second, of course your little lapdogs defeated me. I'm old and not in my prime anymore, I was bound to end up this way again."
"What are you saying Discord?"
"Really Sunbutt, you still haven't caught on?" He chuckled again. "Then let me spell it out to you. Your little ponies won't defeat him, simply because of a simple fact."
Celestia couldn't detect any hint of deceit on his voice, so she asked hesitantly. "And what fact is that?"
You could almost hear the grin on the draconequus voice when he spoke his next sentence.
"Random is more powerful than me."
"Achoo!"
Random sneezed. He and Screwball were at their father's home in the Chaos Dimension, doing a little bit of cleaning, since they weren't sure what season of the year it was, so they couldn't say it was spring cleaning. Screwball looked over, dressed in a cute tiny maid outfit and wearing cat ears. Even her tail was that of a cat, which just made her all the more adorable.
"Too much dust?"
Random, dressed in a fine butler outfit, also sporting cat ears and a tail, waved his hand in dismissal.
"Nah. Someone must be speaking of my magnificent self." He grinned as a trophy fell on his hands, the word Magnificent printed on a little plaque at the bottom. Screwball giggled as they took a moment to survey the state the house was in after their cleaning, and Random took a little checklist.
"Potted plants on the ceiling?"
"Check!"
"Floating couch?"
"Check!"
"Perpetually burning Snowglobe?"
"Check!"
"Dancing carpet?"
"Check!"
"Everything else that we didn't bother including but is some sort of plot device?"
"Check, check and check!"
Random smiled, unzipping his outfit down the middle to show his normal clothes underneath as Screwball simply walked forward, her outfit staying in place floating for a moment without her in it before falling to the ground.
"Excellent! Now, I believe it's time to cause some chaos, but what to do? I did make a deal with those six to not do something extraordinary. Shame, should have made a loophole." He lifted his feet from the ground and sat cross-legged on the air, Screwball taking the opportunity to jump on his lap where she was absently stroked by Random. "What could I do that will bother everypony, but not be too hard to clean up later? I could mess with their houses. Sounds promisor. Maybe the trees too? Hmm." A light bulb appeared above his head and flickered for a moment before lighting up. "Ooh, that's it! I know exactly what to do today!"
Twilight was researching. Nothing new there. What was new was the subject of her research. She was looking for any books that had any information on Random, his origins, his relation to Discord, anything. So far, she had no luck, which was mildly frustrating for the unicorn. It's been almost a day now since their confrontation with the chaotic being, and she was still a little worried about the princesses, even though she received a letter from them telling they were fine, just frustrated that they couldn't beat Random. No, what had her worried was another letter she received earlier from Princess Celestia detailing her little "chat" with Discord. If the Draconequus was to be believed, then Random was certainly stronger than him, which could explain how he stopped the Elements of Harmony after they were already fired.
She was shaken out of her thoughts by the sound of a knock.
"Spike! Can you get that?" She called to her number 1 assistant.
"Sure thing, Twilight." He put the books he was organizing down and walked to the door, opening it. "Good morning. How can I help..." He trailed off, not seeing anypony at the door. So he shrugged and closed it, intent on going back to his chores. However, he was stopped in his tracks.
Knock knock knock knock
Frowning, he opened the door and looked around, seeing nopony. With an annoyed grumble, he slowly closed the door again and took a step away before violently slamming it open and glaring outside, still seeing nopony. He sighed, thinking that the prankster finally went away.
Knock knockknockknockknock knock knock!
Spike screamed in frustration and began beating his claws at the door.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?!? WASN'T I OPENING YOU!!!"
Twilight just happened to walk in on that scene.
"Spike! What are you doing!?" She asked as her horn glowed and she levitated the baby dragon away from the door before any damage could be done. Spike looked at her with an almost mad glint in his eyes.
"Twilight! Door! Knocking! Nopony! IT WON'T STOP!!!"
Confused by what he said, she nonetheless brought him close into a hug and stroked his spines in a soothing manner, trying to calm down the door dragon. He hugged her back, taking some deep breaths to calm down. It was such a nice scene to look at, you could almost hear the author D'aww while they wrote. But the author is a bad person, and decided to break that beautiful moment, in a way that me, your poor narrator, had to release a gasp of disbelief.
Said interruption was in the form of a laugh coming from above.
Looking at each other, Twilight and Spike rushed outside to see what made that sound. Looking up, they gasped at what they were seeing.
It had blue feathers covering it's body, with a white belly.
It had yellow feet.
White gloves.
Red hair.
But most importantly...
It was pecking holes in the wood of her tree.
"Oooooh how much wood does the woodpecker peck when the woodpecker peck wood!" It sang.
"MY LIBRARY!!!" Twilight shrieked seeing the state her tree house was in. Holes were pecked on almost all the upper part. Sure, she could close them with a spell later, but still, seeing her home in that state wasn't something pretty.
Random stopped his pecking for a moment to look down at the purple duo. He grinned and flew down to them, landing in front of Twilight and performing a bow.
"I didn't think I would have an audience so soon. But thank you regardless!" He then straightened up and proceeded to turn to Spike and peck him on the head before laughing again and dashing off.
"Ouch! That stings!"
Leaving the pony and dragon behind, Random stopped at one of the houses and pecked a hole in it before pushing his head into it, glancing at the shocked family inside.
"It's me!"
He snickered as the ponies inside screamed and ran out of the house. Straining a little to pull his head free of the hole, he finally managed to do it after a moment, but his head had funnily taken on a cylindrical shape. Shaking his head a little resolved that problem and he took flight again to see what else he could do, spotting Sweet Apple Acres in the distance. Grinning, he flew towards it, almost salivating at the delicious smell of apples that were wafting up to him. Circling around for a moment, he landed at one of the trees closest to the house and started pecking away before the sound of a bark interrupted him. Looking down, he noticed a little brown dog barking up at him continuously. Rubbing his beak for a moment he shrugged and started walking down the tree to see what the fuss was about.
"Ahoy, my fellow animal friend. What seems to be the problem?"
To an outsider's perspective, it would seem crazy to speak so directly to a dog, as the answer was nothing more than barks and growls. To Random however...
"Stop pecking our trees, ya varmit!"
"Aww, she has a country accent. Adorable." He leapt to the side absently as Winona charged him, causing the poor dog to ram headfirst into the tree and slump to the ground, tiny images of Random in his current form flying around her head and chirping.
"Aye, fellas!" Random said to his tiny counterparts.
"Aye Random!" They answered before poofing away as Winona shook her head vigorously.
"Hold still, ya feathered apple tree pecker!" She said and proceeded to charge at Random again, who decided to turn tail and run this time, laughing loudly.
That was just the start of the things he would do in this form.
A week later, we see the mane six together at Sweet Apple Acres, with Twilight being bombarded by concerns from her friends due to the "feathered wood pecker" that has been running around and, well, pecking wood. Sure, no lasting damage was done, as apparently the holes would close by themselves when it was nighttime so ponies wouldn't be cold. It was more of an annoyance, as it certainly made everypony cringe when they saw the wood of their homes or other possessions full of holes, and worse was that nopony managed to even come close to containing him. The punishment for failure were also pecks, usually to the head or muzzle. It certainly made her pull out a few hairs of her mane in frustration, and get a few pecks herself in the process.
So much, that she even lost some nights of sleep trying to find a way, any way to stop the "Woodpecker" as he was nicknamed by the town. Currently, she had heavy bags under her eyes, which were almost all the way closed as she held a steaming mug of coffee in her magic, taking an occasional sip. She was trying her best to stay awake and listen to her friends, but she just wasn't all there. So much so, that when Random walked by them and waved, she simply offered a "Hello" in answer, before taking another sip of her mug.
...
...
...
She spat her coffee all over Rarity's face, much to the horror of the white unicorn and pointed at Random with wide eyes.
"THERE HE IS!!!"
Random glanced back at them and grinned before taking off running towards the trees with the six ponies right behind him. Arriving in an area of the ochard where the trees where in two perfectly symmetrical rows, he proceeded to peck the shape of doors on them before opening one and entering while the others watched in confusion. Pinkie smiled wide and bounced to one of the doors.
"Oh oh, I love this game! We just have to guess which door he's behind!"
Rainbow looked at her oddly before snorting. "Uh, Pinkie? We kinda saw the door he entered. That's a little obvious if you ask me." She approached said door and opened it. "See-"
She got cut off when she received a jet of water to the face. Pinkie laughed, and the others had to use all their willpower not to burst into giggles too.
"See, Dashie? It wouldn't be fun if we found him right on the start! We gotta search!"
Said that, she proceeded to open the door she was in front of and enter, much to the confusion of the others while Rainbow shook herself dry. Looking between themselves, it was unanimously decided that 'It's Pinkie, don't question it'. So, reluctantly, each one of them chose a door and went in too.
Random opened the door on the last row on the left before looking around, walking up to the second row on the right and knocking on the door before going in. Twilight opened the right door on the middle row and looked around before going back inside. Rarity and Fluttershy opened the first and second doors on the left row, looking at each other before they decided to switch places, closing the doors behind them. The doors on the last row opened as Applejack came out from the right one jumping and bucking, Random riding on her back wearing a cowboy outfit before they vanished in the left door, both closing right after. The left door on the middle row opened and Rainbow was propelled out by another jet of water, before she growled and went to the last row on the right and slammed the door open, dashing inside. A few moments later, the mane six exited from the doors, all of them with their manes ruffled.
"Did anypony catch him?" Twilight asked.
Everypony shook their head, Applejack and Rainbow being the two most disgruntled for obvious reasons. The sound of all the doors opening drew their attention, and as they looked, their jaws dropped as each door was occupied by a clone of Random, who grinned at them.
"Guess who!" They said before laughing and slamming the doors shut in unison.
Twilight's eye twitched at this unbelievable impossibility, her mouth opening and closing like a fish as she tried and failed to form words. Finally, after all this nonsense, her brain gave up.
And she promptly fainted.
While the others tried to make sure their friend was alright, high above the group Screwball sat atop a cloud, recording everything with a camera Random gave her.
"This is definitely gonna get a load of upvotes."