Over the next week, Celestia and the cutie mark crusaders spent their time trying to convince Twilight and her friends that they had to free Discord. Of course, she was against the idea, but luckily, some of her friends were more willing to try it out. They eventually all decided they would have a vote at Twilight's library regarding the situation. The other ponies and the cutie mark crusaders were all there and ready to give their voice to Celestia's crazy plan. Spike was on a podium with a gavel and small powdered wig; the ponies there were whispering and talking to each other until he slammed the gavel down on the table and shouted, "order! Order! Now the meeting of if we're going to let Discord free is in order!"
Twilight stood up and strolled into the middle of the room as she explained, "Look, as Celestia's caretaker and guardian until she returns to an adult, I'm allowing her to speak her mind on the subject at hand in regards to how she feels. However, you're all here because we need to come to a unanimous decision in letting Discord free. Before we vote, Celestia should explain her plan."
Celestia rose up feeling a bit embarrassed and a bit unsure of this, but she started. "Hello um...you all know me, anyways now my proposal to get my cutie mark and to turn me back to normal is to release Discord from his stone prison."
The other mane six spoke amongst each other, and Celestia waited for them to quiet down. "Now, I know this plan might sound crazy, but I'm going to need you to release Discord using the elements of harmony. We’ll talk to him and try to make him understand he has to restore me back to normal and not only that, try to show that he can be friends with us."
Everypony grumbled, and even Fluttershy was looking rather squeamish. Celestia took a long look around the room before she continued, "I know this plan could end up blowing up in our faces, but you have the elements of harmony and can stop Discord if he tries to go crazy. So even if the plan fails, we don't have a lot to lose."
"Yeah, we do! You even remember what he did last time!" Rainbow Dash shouted.
Rarity shook her head and replied, "this plan is crazy darling, I'm not sure I can agree with it."
Pinkie Pie bounced over and cried out, "hold on!? We didn't hear everything yet! We didn't know about one factor, and that was that Celestia and Discord have a past. They were friends once, and she helped him before she got her cutie mark!"
"Yeah!" The cutie mark crusaders all shouted out together.
Fluttershy rose up and spoke up next. "I think we should consider this...Discord caused a lot of harm and caused a lot of problems we're still fixing, but Pinkie Pie has a point if he was friends with her before they could be again."
Twilight groaned, rubbing a hoof down her face. "Well, if we brought back Luna from being Nightmare Moon, we can maybe change Discord too…"
Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves and scoffed, "I'm not changing my mind! That jerk made me think a cloud was Cloudsdale! No way am I letting that jerk free!"
Applejack nodded in agreement. "I agree with Rainbow Dash; a cow don't change its spots. Luna wasn't really bad; but unlike her, Discord seems to be rotten at the apple core; I don't think he can be trusted."
Rarity shook her head. "I'm sorry, darling, I would love to reunite two old friends...and do want to believe that Discord could change...but I'm still unsure of this plan."
Sweetie Belle ran to her sister and pleaded. "Look, sis, I know of all ponies you give ponies second chances, and you can see the good in them even when they don't."
"Wow, that was really wise of you to say…" Rarity whispered. She gave a sigh before relenting. "Fine, I'll go with releasing Discord."
"Well, Applejack and I say no, so no way! We're not releasing Discord!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed loudly.
Applejack got up and grumbled, "yeah, Rainbow Dash is right; we can't trust him; if he manipulates us again, we could be dooming Equestria to his reign."
The others all were looking at each other with concerned expressions on their faces. Celestia sighed, wondering how she was going to convince the two most stubborn of the mane six as Scootaloo got up and shouted, "wait! You're getting all the wrong idea! We're not trying to reform Discord, it's just about getting Celestia her cutie mark and getting her back to an adult!"
"Yeah! This isn't about Discord!" Sweetie Belle snapped. "Celestia had her body stolen by a crazy personality and has been dealing with all of you treating her like a helpless filly! We owe her to at least try this out so she can get back to normal!"
Apple Bloom turned to face her sister, "my friends are right, Applejack; besides, you've been wrong before; remember how ya thought Zecora was a witch?"
Applejack lowered her head and grumbled, "alright...maybe she has a point…"
Rainbow dash groaned as she turned to Celestia. "Yeah...Celestia's been like this for months, and all we've been doing is codling her. Yeah, fine, let's try it for her sake."
Twilight gave a reluctant nod, "alright, I think we're all in agreement of releasing Discord to get Celestia back to normal…but for him to remain unfrozen that’ll be up to how things go after Celestia is back to normal.”
Everypony nodded in agreement as the violet unicorn turned to her assistant and asked, “ok, Spike call the verdict...Spike?"
Spike seemed to not be paying attention chewing on gems, then he looked up at Twilight's angry look and squeaked as he slammed a gavel on the desk. "That concludes the trial, the verdict to free Discord is unanimous!"
However, everypony didn't bother cheering, including Celestia; they all just looked at each other nervously, unsure if their ready for what's to come.
The group decided they would take the train later that day. Celestia was somewhat nervous as she was sitting with Twilight. It was bad enough with paparazzi trying to snap pictures of her while heading to the station then having ponies in the other seats gossiping amongst each other.
The princess was looking down at her hooves, trying to ignore them as she whispered to herself, "I'm not sure if I'm ready to turn back to normal? From what the cutie mark crusaders told me, the paparazzi have so much on me...I don't know if I can take all the humiliation."
"You can, I'm sure you will," Twilight explained as she hugged Celestia close. The little filly always felt so happy and secure with Twilight hugging her. They held the embrace for a good while as Twilight whispered, "To be honest, I loved being your caretaker, and I hope you enjoyed being my foal."
Celestia nuzzled into the violet unicorn's lap, Twilight’s body heat just felt so warm and she was still rather tired from the long day. As the little filly closed her eyes she whispered back. "Yeah, thank you for doing so much for me."
"It's no problem , no go on and get some sleep," Twilight whispered under her breath as she brushed the little alicorn's mane.
The little filly slowly fell into a deep sleep and took a long nap in Twilight's lap. An hour or so went by, but eventually, the train pulled into Canterlot station, and the mane six got out with the filly sized Celestia into a crowd of ponies with cameras and reporters. The alicorn princess hid behind Twilight, scared of so many ponies taking pictures and asking her questions. Luckily some royal guards came by with a chariot while a group of guards came through the crowd shouting at them to back off. Twilight ran threw the crow and placed Celestia inside. She then climbed in too then the guards toon off. Celestia gave a sigh of relief as they soared then squealed as they flew higher in the air. "I knew you guys would come to the rescue!"
"You're the princess of the sun! We're here to rescue you from the paparazzi anytime!" One of the guards shouted as they flew straight to the palace.
They landed in the courtyard where the young princess was escorted inside; there, they found Quill Feather on the throne doing her job writing something down on a long scroll; at least from what she could tell, she's been doing really well in her place. Quill Feather hearing the giant doors open looked down the hall and gasped, "is that Celestia!"
"Yeah! It is!" Celestia squealed back, the little filly couldn't contain her excitement as she ran down the hall. When the filly got to her old throne, she jumped right into her assistant's hooves; the brown coated unicorn held the filly close and nuzzled her. "Oh, it's good to see you doing well."
"Yeah, you too, you've been doing such a good job while I was gone," Celestia whispered as she nuzzled into her assistant. Quill Feather let the little alicorn sit in her lap as she turned her attention to Twilight.
"Thank you so much for caring for the young princess," Quill responded.
"No problem, it's been my absolute pleasure!" Twilight proclaimed quite proudly.
Quill let Celestia down as the rest of her friends burst through the door; they all bowed and Quill just rolled her eyes and waved a hoof. "There's no need to bow to me, I'm just an assistant."
All the rest of Twilight's friends gave a sigh of relief, but Quill Feather was now looking somewhat confused and turned to Celestia and asked, "um...Celestia? What are you all doing here?"
Twilight and her friends started to mumble and stare at their hooves. Pinkie Pie was the first to try saying something but Celestia held up a hoof then turned to her assistant. "So, um, I didn't come here just to say hi? We came to release Discord."
Quill blinked with a look of utter confusion, then shouted, "Are you crazy! Didn't you all just place him in a statue!?"
Celestia quickly shouted back, "yes, but we need to do it so I can turn back to normal; you have to trust me!"
Quill turned to the mane six and asked. "And you agree with this?"
Twilight begrudgingly nodded as the rest of her friends (Rainbow Dash and Applejack muttered “not really” under their breaths) Quill shook her head and turned her attention back to Celestia as she rose up. "Well, I'm only here to be a replacement for you princess. If you think this will help you, go ahead. But before you do anything, let me clear the palace first."
"Of course!" Celestia chirped in excitement as she jumped off her throne and sped off towards Twilight.
The violet unicorn ruffled her charge's mane then looked up back at Quill and replied, "Well, that makes sense; besides, I think we all need some time to stretch our legs after that long train ride."
"Right! Come on! I'll give you two a tour of the place!" Celestia squealed, taking Twilight by the hoof and dragged her up the stairs. The rest of her friends followed with Rainbow Dash and Applejack trailing behind as the farm mare commented. "Celestia knows we've been here a few times now, right?"
"She's in a filly mode right now; let's just go have some fun before we unleash the lord of chaos." Rainbow scoffed as she dragged Applejack upstairs.