//------------------------------//
// The dashing Draconequus rogue 
// Story: Seeing the Light 
// by Animalman57 
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Meanwhile, the Pegasus Kingdom was still mourning the loss of Princess Fluttershy, even after King Gentle Heart and Queen Whisper Willow had a son named Zephyr Breeze a few years after her capture. They had a crown all set up for her for when she reached the proper age, but is now currently guarded by numerous guards. On top of the castle's roof, there was a brown earth pony named Caballeron and his main companions, a pair of unicorns known as the Flim Flam Brothers. They decided to go for theft after they heard of the Pegasus Kingdom and the crown that could sell for millions.

"Ugh, why am I here?" said a deep voice from behind them. They all turned and saw their newest accomplice, a being known as Discord. 

He was a strange looking creature called a draconequus, not a single part of him matched with another. His head and neck were grey while his body was brown. His head was that of a pony and he has two appendages on the top of his head, his right one the antler of a deer and the left being the curling blue horn of an unidentifiable ungulate. His ears were floppy goat ears, one being slightly higher set on his head than the other. He had a large fang jutting from his mouth. His fluffy eyebrows and goat-like beard were pure white while his mane was jet black. 

His right arm was that of a lion paw, while his left was an eagle talon. He had two wings on his back, his right wing being a purple bat wing, while his left wing was a blue pegasus wing. He stood on his two hind legs, unlike the quadrupedal ponies he was associating with, his right leg being a green reptilian claw, while his left was the hoof of a goat. His tail was a red snake tail with pink spines lining the top of it and he had a white feathered tail tuft at the end. 

Despite his mismatched appearance, the most striking thing about him were his eyes. He had golden sclera and ruby red pupils, with one pupil being larger than the other. He almost always had an intense look in his eyes thanks to this color combination. 

And right now, he had a rather bored looking expression on his face. 

The trio looked at each other briefly before turning their gaze back to the draconequus before Flim spoke, "Well, we needed some assistance, and who better to help than the legendary Lord of Chaos? You'll be able to steal this crown before they knew what hit them." 

Flam stepped forward to try and sweeten the deal further, his red mustache bouncing as he talked. "This crown is worth an absolute fortune to the right buyer and we'll generously pay you a strong cut of our earnings if you do your job correctly." 

They both smiled, hoping that was enough to convince him. It was hard enough to try and get him to the castle in the first place.

Discord rolled his eyes before saying, "Really? A crown is what you're after? While I could steal the crown rather easily, I don't really see a reason for me to do that. I have no use for monetary gain, after all." He snapped his talon and bits rained on top of him. 

Caballeron pushed past the Flim Flam brothers and walked to the draconequus before stating, "Listen, you despise royalty, right?" Discord nodded, thinking bitterly of his encounters with Celestia before Caballeron continued. "I do as well, so if you do this, that'll be a major blow to this royal family. It is said this crown here belonged to a princess that was lost as a baby. Losing such a precious artifact will certainly cause some good old chaos." 

Discord's frown soon turned into a devilish smirk as soon as he heard the word "chaos". He loved causing, well, discord among any creature, especially royal goody two shoes who saw themselves as above it all. 

Granted, he wasn't messing with Celestia, but it was almost as good, and that was good enough for him. 

Admittedly, his heart twisted slightly at the thought of this crown belonging to a lost filly princess, but odds are that, if she was stolen as a baby and hadn't returned yet, she was either dead or the ponies who stole her weren't going to give her back.

Or perhaps she didn't want to come back after finding out the truth. Can't say I blame her if that's the case, he thought to himself. 

He stretched, creating some abnormal noises from his joints before walking forward. 

"Stand aside, ponies. Let the master of chaos handle this." They rolled their eyes at the draconequus' ego, but said nothing. Very few beings could give Celestia a run for her money (and numerous headaches from said encounters), so he was their best shot at stealing the crown. 

He lower himself down by the skylight by using his tail like a rope and as he descended down, he noted that all the guards were, unsurprising for the Pegasus Kingdom, all pegasi. He grabbed the crown with his paw and thought how easy it was. 

But to be truly chaotic, he thought, spooking the guards is a must. One of guards sneezed and he took his chance. 

"Feather flu, huh?" He asked in a casual manner, as if he wasn't stealing the crown. 

The guard responded, "Yeah, real pain. It seems to be going around." The guard suddenly realized the voice wasn't of any of his stallions and it was coming from above and behind him, right where the crown is. He turned around and saw Discord casually leaning against the pillar, crown in paw with a smirk on his face. 

Discord saluted with his talon as he joked, "Welp, I'm on break. See ya later, captain." and reeled himself into the air back through the skylight before they could stop him.

The guards ran to the king and queen, interrupting their meeting with the delegates from the Crystal Empire. "Your majesties, the crown has been stolen." Willow and Gentle Heart gasped at this before turning to their friends from the Crystal Empire to apologize. 

Before they could, Princess Cadence, a tall pink alicorn mare with a purple, pink and yellow mane and tail, said, "No need to apologize. In fact, why don't I have my sister-in-law, Twilight Sparkle, help track the bandits down?" The king and queen were apprehensive, but eventually accepted the help. Twilight Sparkle, a much shorter alicorn with a lavender coat and a dark purple mane and tail, stood tall. 

"Don't worry, your highnesses. I've had special training from Princess Celestia herself. They won't know what hit them." She bowed to them before turning the guards. "Stallions, let's head out."

Caballeron, the brothers and Discord were all running down the bridge that left the kingdom and towards the forest on the border of the kingdom. Discord had stuffed the crown into a satchel whose strap was wrapped on his shoulder. 

And he was laughing the whole way.

"Oh, sweet chaos, did you see the look on his face? He didn't realize he was being swindled until it was too late. I haven't laughed like that in a while." 

Caballeron smiled in response. "Fantastic deception, Discord." 

Film and Flam were decidedly less impressed. 

"Do you really have to alert them to our presence? We could've snook in and out without them noticing the missing crown for hours. Why did you do that?" Flim asked. 

Discord smirked as he responded. "Chaos, my dear boy. Chaos." 

Twilight teleported herself and the guards to the forest. "We are gonna cut them off at the pass and capture them, alive. The king and queen want the bandits unharmed so they may face the appropriate punishment. Is that clear?" Twilight commanded. 

"Yes, ma'am," the guards responded before they all spread out. The thieves were running down the path before a hoard of guards blocked their path. 

"Welp, we're boned." Flam said in terror. Discord rolled his eyes and snapped his paw. A big trap door opened on the dirt path. The guards, stunned by this, fell without even trying to fly out of the pit. The door closed up and the misfit crew resumed running down the way they came. 

More guards came out, this time from all sides and it was Caballeron's turn to kick butt. He punched and kicked his way through the lot of them, knocking them out with little effort. He had experience in hoof to hoof combat, much more so than the others in his group. The Film Flam brothers started firing spells from their horns, getting a good dozen themselves. Soon, they were defeated. 

"Let's keep going, eh, Discord?" Caballeron asked. No response. "Discord?" He looked around and found that the draconequus was gone.

During the ambush, Discord was somehow separated from the group, currently being chased by a pair of guards. Discord soon realized what was happening and, upon berating himself on letting this last as long as it had, he stopped running, jumped off the path and snapped his paw. The dirt floor became slippery butter. The guards started sliding past the draconequus, who was waving a tissue at them before the two of them crashed into the rocky wall before them. Discord cringed at the impact. He snapped his paw again and the dirt path was returned to normal. 

"Well, I suppose I should return to my partners in crime and help them out." He thought for a second longer before walking away from the others. "Oh, I'm sure I'll find them later. I never did like them, anyhow. Besides, that Caballeron fellow can probably take care of himself. Not sure about the other two, but it's not like I care." His monologue was interrupted when he heard a horn ready to cast a spell at his back. He raised his hands in surrender. 

Of course I get caught by the one unicorn guard they seem to have. Not like they'll be a match for me, but it's just my luck. Or lack of luck, I suppose. Discord turned around to face the pony ready to fire at him. Once he saw who it was, however, he smirked. 

"Well, if it isn't Princess Twilight. Personal prodigy of Celestia herself. Sister-in-law of Princess Cadence and sister to Prince Shining Armor. Whatever did I do for you to bask in my presence?"

Twilight's face hardened once she saw his face. "Discord, I should've known you'd be shifty enough to try something so underhanded." Her eyes narrowed at the bag around his body. "The crown's in the bag, isn't it?" 

Discord gasped. "Why, Twilight, how dare you accuse me of such horrid crimes. I may enjoy chaos and disharmony, but I'm no common low life thief. I'm almost hurt by your accusation. And here I thought we were friends." Discord said while fluttering a pair of eyelashes he magically grew to complete his innocent facade. 

Twilight stared at him in disbelief before she yelled, "In what universe were we ever friends?! You're crazy!" 

Discord simply smirked. "I thank you for the compliment, but I'd prefer bonkers or perhaps insane. Really, Twilight, for a supposed nerdy bibliophile, you never seem to crack open a thesaurus." 

A thesaurus fell from the sky and landed on her head before landing on the ground in front of her. It opened up and the page it landed on had her name in it along with a bunch of synonyms for her, 'buzzkill, nerd, useless princess, Celestia's obedient little puppy' and so on. Twilight was currently red in the face from anger. 

Discord took great pride that he managed to make the great "Princess of Friendship" so annoyed. 

"Well, anyway, I enjoyed this little chat, but I really must be off." 

He teleported away as Twilight yelled in anger, "Diiiiscorrrrd!!!!"