Time has passed…
An hour, maybe two, and you still struggled to grasp what had happened. Twilight and Chrysalis were finally connecting! And yet, they just had to, they just had to go at odds with each other. Chrysalis had to be a bitch and Twilight just couldn’t hold back her curiosity and friendship bullshit. Why?! Why can’t she change?! Why can’t Twilight leave things alone? Why does no one seem to understand? Hell, why can’t you yourself make things work? Even with unlimited magic, you couldn’t succeed. Why do you even bother anymore?
“Hmph, and there’s the little chaos artist now.” Said a voice, sounding rather annoyed with you. “Just had to out-stage my award winning skills by confirming Twilight having a thing for humans. Anon, I hope you realize you went a little too far this time with teasing Twilight and I expect an apology from you this instant! But also, take your time, I want your apology to be worthy of my amazing ears.”
Discord?
You look over and do indeed see Discord, hovering at the end of the bed, waiting impatiently for some reason. He just rolled his paw at you, demanding your apology. “While we’re young, Anon. I’m the forgiving sort today, so you needn’t hesitate.”
Your eyes went near red with rage. You stood up, pointed at him, and began to yell. “YOU FUCK! EVERYTHING JUST WENT TO SHIT AND YOU ONLY CARE ABOUT THAT?! THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?! DO YOU REALIZE HOW FUCKED EVERYTHING IS?!”
“I was there, Anon, I was watching the entire thing. Why do you think I came here? Your deluded mission is one thing, but out-performing me is an offense I don’t plan to take lightly.” Discord says as he brandishes a rapier towards you. “En guarde, Anon!”
Is that all he cared about?! Of course it is, It’s him after all! He LOVED fucking with Twilight, so of course he was gonna get pissed at such a stupid fucking little insignificant thing! Goddammit, why wouldn’t you expect that?! Everyone here is so single minded! FUCK THIS! “GODDAMMIT, DISCORD! YOU WANT TO FIGHT?! WELL, HOW ABOUT THIS!” You slap your horn on your head and fire a beam of raging hot fury right towards him. “I’M DONE! AND YOU KNOW WHAT?! FUCK YOU, IT’S TIME YOU LEARNED A LESSON YOU’VE BEEN NEEDING TO LEARN FOR A LONG TIME AND… Ugh, of course! Goddammit!” And your rage is replaced by bewilderment as Discord quickly turns his sword into a pot, catches your beam within it, puts on a chef’s hat, and starts boiling the pot on a summoned stove.
“Ah, finally, the last ingredient I needed for ‘Chaotic Catastrophe’ chili! I’ll tell you right now, Anon, I hope you’re ready for a spicy dinner tonight. Delicious, of course, but only those who can handle the burning sensation of a million suns may partake in such a delicious delicacy.” Discord says, smiling at you as he adds a little salt into the mix.
You fall over, defeated. He wasn’t even pissed?! Then what the fuck was all that then? “Ugh… What’s wrong with you, Discord? Why can’t you just leave me be?”
“Anon, you know that I know that Fluttershy knows that I know that you know that I worry about you. In fact, tonight’s dinner is in celebration of such chaos you wreaked in Twilight’s mind, even if some of it was provided by Chryssi. Heavens, Anon, I don’t even know why you’re so upset. So what if the entire visit was a disaster? You still got exactly what you wanted.” Discord says as he takes a small taste of the chili. “Hmm, needs more meat.” Discord says to himself as he holds his paw over the pot and slices it off with a butcher’s knife. “There we go. Mmmm, wonder if Big Mac would be a pal and lend me an apple for this. Mnnn, nah, would make things too fruity.”
“The hell are you talking about?! Chrysalis decided to be creepy ominous at the end and Twilight couldn’t lay off her need to talk friendship bullshit. How is that a win for me?” Really, the hell was he talking about?
Discord regrows his paw and goes back to mixing the pot as he looks over at you, smirking. “She’s literally tied to the laws of chaos right now, Anon. That deal she made with you is magically binding. Yes, she made the stakes rather grim, but it does give her incentive to play by the rules.”
“The deal?” You blink, confused for a moment, before looking at the shackles on your legs. “Right… so you’re saying these are really real? She can’t break the deal?”
“Not without dire consequences. Really, ‘death’ isn’t my thing, but that was her call and so the will of chaos made it a reality, albeit, more in Twilight’s favor than hers. Then again, that seems to be what she was wanting. Or she could just be loony and not realize how utterly ridiculous her own rules are. In fact, Anon, I’m with you on the thought that there is no way that Chrysi could take on everypony who decides to protect Twilight all at once, i.e: everypony who is anypony.” Discord says as he continues to mix the pot. “She stands no real chance in succeeding, not unless she actually found a way to get close to Twilight without anypony knowing. And furthermore, without her power, which is weakened due to lack of such strong love, even Rarity could crush her in mere moments. You don’t even need to worry about her getting close, considering the Apple clan have a dog that can certainly sniff her out if she ever even got close to Ponyville.” Discord says as he tastes the chili once again, nodding to himself as he lets out a low moan. “Mmmm, perfect.”
“You mean Scrappy? Wait…” Was Discord saying the win was pretty much guaranteed? You look at the shackles again, and point towards the one on your right foreleg. “So these shackles, as long as they exist, it means the deal is still on, right? And because of that, Chrysalis pretty much would have to outsmart everyone to even get a shot at Twilight, right? Ok, that’s good I guess, no way she can manage all that. But what about after? You think she would really give friendship a shot?”
“Beats me. In my opinion, Anon, which I am certified to give as I too was once a villain, she may not want to. But she may cease her more hostile nature as well. Really, I have no idea how to really make her change sides, but what I do know is that a catastrophic event may cause her to finally see the light. For her other self, it was the destruction of her children and the finding of a new family. For her? Well, you’d know that better than I.” Discord said, in an almost fatherly way, as he poured some of the contents of the pot into a bowl, threw in a spoon, and hovered it all over to you. “Now, do you really have anything to be stressed about?”
You grab the bowl using your own magic, and look into it. It certainly looked like chili, despite the odd ingredients to make it. You then consider Discord’s words. As disastrous as everything was, you still technically got the outcome you were hoping for. Though, if Discord is right, and Chrysalis still doesn’t reform, what could you do to try to make it happen anyway? Of course, there was also… “I dunno. Discord, what if she goes nuts after the deal is done, and still tries to do evil? I pretty much said I’d deal with her myself. I mean, I don’t want to destroy her, but…”
“Ah, but you don’t want to be responsible for anypony she hurts right after. Yes, I could see why you’re having trouble considering all this. You could simply lock her away into Tartarus. But probably after a thousand years or so she’ll escape and wreak havoc anyway. Hmmm, such a conundrum. Do you not trust her enough to be good on her own?” Discord asks, in a half respectful yet still condescending tone.
“I don’t, even if I should. Mmmmnnnn…” Your eyes peer over to Discord, as a thought enters your head. “What about you? You did the same shit, right? Acted all reformed only to try to take over everything, with Fluttershy’s promise pretty much guaranteeing you couldn’t be stopped. How did you feel when you realized you were lonely, how did you feel after all the shit you did with Tirek? I mean, look at you Discord, you even got Spike and Big Mac as buddies now. So y'know, just tell me, how was it before all that? How did you REALLY feel?”
Discord flinched at that, his ego suddenly taking a blow to such words. “Yes, I suppose I couldn’t be trusted. And yes, I felt that horrible feeling, that nasty feeling of loneliness. As for Tirek, well, I hadn’t become fully accustomed to friendship yet and he was promising the kind of rulership and power I used to have when I was the ‘King of Everything’. Now, of course, I did get betrayed, and that did hurt. Ugh, and then Twilight, of all ponies, forgave me. Which, given it revealed the final key needed to use ‘Rainbow Power’, I can say it wasn’t entirely terrible given everypony could say I technically saved the world. Ah, but I digress, looking back on all of that now, looking at my friendship with Fluttershy, you, and the others.” Discord sighs “I’d rather have what I have now than go back to how things were.” Discord looked defeated for a moment as he said this, until he raised his talon and looked to you with a smirk. “Although, being friends with Fluttershy does mean I can get away with things from time to time too, so it’s not all bad. She does like to defend me at times.”
“Thanks for telling me all that Discord, I think I can use that. Just let me think. Hmmm…” Chrysalis has already gone through a lot of loss so far. She was ok with Diamond, but not with Twilight. If she is defeated, would she really sink back into the forest? Would she plan and scheme again? Would she just give up and become a hermit?
Wait…
Discord finally gave in mostly when Fluttershy herself pretty much put a rain on his chaos parade. Chrysalis, what if you managed to stop her yourself when she enacts her plan? You and her, going toe to toe. She couldn’t hurt you, given the deal, and if you stand your ground and talk to her, show her how insane and illogical her thoughts really have become…
Then maybe…
“Discord, I need you to be serious with me on this, ok? What if I stopped Chrysalis myself? Give her the whole friendship shebang in my own way. I put my hoof down and I give her the ultimatum myself. She can sense feelings, so if I’m serious, which I will be, then something should give. Even she can’t handle being alone forever, Discord. I mean, hell, even if she says she does, I can pull out the fact that I’m mortal and there can be a point I could be gone and BAM! It’s over. A little underhanded, but I’m going to have to be to make it all work, I need to pull out all the stops. Pretty good plan, right?” You look to Discord, feeling confident in your plan.
Discord, however, suddenly seemed saddened, as if you said something to hurt him. “Oh, yes… Right, hrn. Well, in my honest opinion, your mention of mortality and finally having such a showdown with her should lead to your success, given it would wound her in a way that only friendship can heal. So yes, I think that might work. She’ll no doubt give in, either right then or a couple of nights to ponder on it.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I was thinking too. I just have to focus on making sure I’m there when she finally shows up. But, ngh, I’m a little scared. If I can’t step up, if I just screw up or give in to her even the littlest bit, she’ll walk all over me. Ogh!” You suddenly felt despair as you brought your hooves to your head and began to shake. “Dammit! I keep telling myself not to fall for shit like that, but I always do! Chrysalis always manages to bullshit me! I just… I’m just scared that she may look like she’s trying to bullshit me, but she actually isn’t, and I don’t listen anyway. And yet, I know if I don’t act tough, well, I already said she would walk over me and-uh?” As you doubted yourself further, you felt a hand, or rather, a paw on the shoulder of your right foreleg. You look up, and see Discord looking at you, like an actual dad. “U-uhhm, uh? Discord?”
“Hush, Anon.” Discord says as he snaps his tail, zipping your mouth up like he used to do long before. Even further, he removed your ability to move, keeping you as still as a statue. “I’m about to help you. Anyway, you say you have a lack of will. Or afraid of having a lack for it anyway. I can’t tell you if you can do it or not, I’m not Twilight, I’m not going to be like her and take a guess at something that could just explode in your face. Well, not unless it wasn’t important enough to warrant such care. But I will tell you this, Twilight at this very moment has gathered her friends to discuss this whole business with Chrysy. Now, before you assume, she had asked me earlier while you were having your little episode to fetch you for this meeting, but I think you could use this to truly test your mettle. That’s right, if you could tell off five ponies and make your stand, then standing up to our buggy friend should pose no issue to you. Oh, don’t raise your eyebrow at me, I said the correct number. Fluttershy doesn’t count because I’d rather not imagine you talking down to her or making her upset… Which you better not do, or else. Ah, not to worry Anon, this threat extends to Twilight and her friends as well if they so happen to make you cry. Although, if you do cry, I’ll also taunt you for being such a baby. Really, you’ve been around long enough to deal with everything thrown at you, especially given you have the advantage of having CHAOS on your side. But I digress, now is the time to truly test yourself, Anon.” Discord says as he snaps his talons, freeing you from his magical grip. “And best of all, this advice comes free of charge. Sort of, I do expect you to answer a question for me.”
Woah, you didn’t expect that kind of advice to come from Discord. He has his moments, but that was pretty profound. Especially since manning up, which admittingly, you should have already done, doesn’t exactly sound right coming from him given how much of a baby he can be. Still, it was insanely helpful, so you thank him, and ask him what the question is.
“I just wish to ask you not to hate me. Don’t ask why I’m asking, you know I’ll teleport you into a lake if you ask why. I just wish for you to understand that you and Fluttershy truly mean the world to me and… Ugh, I just went that far, didn’t I? What’s gotten into me? It’s not like we haven’t had a moment like this before and-” But as Discord began to get nervous on his own train of thought, you call out to him.
“I get it. Heh, you’re just worried something happened, or you probably just wanted to make sure we we're still ok. Well, yeah, we’re still ok. We’re best buds, no matter what! I was just feeling, I dunno, edgy? I guess that’s what you’d call it. But I gotta ask this, what even made you feelGYAH! BLFDLFGF” And in an instant, you found yourself in the town square fountain. Not exactly a lake, but wet just the same as you pop your head above water and hang from the side, spitting water out from your mouth before cursing Discord out. “DAMMIT! God dammit! I wasn’t even asking why you asked, you fuck! I just wanted to know what made you feel so caring all of a sudden! Geez! Totally not the sameGYAH!” And suddenly, your bowl of chili was plopped on your head as it began to drip down. You give it a lick, and then yell out. “This isn’t even spicy, Discord! You fuck! Though, it's pretty tasty!" You began to lap up as much as you could, damn it tasted great! "Oh yeah, I sometimes forget how good of a co… OH WAIT, NEVERMIND!” And you dove back into the fountain, drinking it up like the little horse you were, trying to make the horrible burning in your mouth go away.
Fucking dammit, you'll never truly figure Discord out. What made him suddenly get nervous like that though? Hm...