//------------------------------//
// Rehabilitation, Part 4: Temptation 
// Story: Harry Potter and the Prancing of Ponies 
// by The Guy Who Writes 
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Canterlot had changed immensely in a short time. Gingerbread houses and cardboard cutouts lined the streets in place of buildings, large number threes had taken the place of trees, and the streets were paved in fool's gold. His mind put two and two together in an instant.

"What have we here?" asked a voice that Riddle had only heard once before – in the statue garden of Canterlot Castle. "Another alicorn coming to stop me?"

"Stop you?" he echoed, turning to face the collage of creatures and raising a few powerful shields of multi-coloured hues as he did. Normally he wouldn't bother with shields, but this situation warranted as much caution as he could spare short of outright avoidance. "That depends. Are you exacting revenge for your entrapment?"

Two conditions Riddle needs for murder: malice and world threat. Discord clearly has the world threat under his belt. Once the creature confesses his malice, his fate will be sealed, and Riddle's final Horcrux shall be made.

"Revenge shmavenge," huffed the draconequus. "That would be so cliché."

Riddle stared at him, suspecting it was a lie and wishing his employer was here to confirm that it was. "Then what's all this?" he asked, waving a hoof at the ruined city.

"Just getting my mojo flowing," Discord said as his body twisted and cracked through a caricature of a stretching routine. He sighed cathartically. "Now I can move on to the rest of the world."

Unfortunately, that was a plausible enough answer that Riddle couldn't write it off as a simple lie.

"In the most predictable way possible?" Riddle asked, wondering if he could goad the malice out. If this creature had a problem with cliché (like Riddle did), then perhaps he had a problem with predictability as well. It would make sense as a good insult against a being of chaos.

"Predictable?" the creature cried indignantly. "You call moi-" he snapped his fingers, and the creature's colours inverted "-predictable?"

"Yes," Riddle replied, unbothered by the change, even when it snapped its fingers and inverted the world's colours as well. "The first thought I had when I saw the state of the city was 'Discord', even before I saw you. Is that not the definition of predictable?"

"Well of course you thought that! You really are the royal fool, aren't you?" The creature snapped its fingers and Riddle was suddenly wearing a jester's outfit. "The city is in a state of discord. That's not a prediction, that's an observation, captain obvious." The creature snapped its fingers again, and now Riddle was wearing some kind of hat, a covering over one of his eyes, and a peg in place of a hoof.

Riddle immediately apparated to the ritual room of his hideout. It was the most well-warded retreat he'd ever established, not just in Equestria, but in all his life, for it used many wards he'd only discovered after arriving here. It blocked Phoenix Travel, Time Turners, Teleportation, and once he revealed Portkeys to Equestria, it blocked those as well. He'd even gone so far as to ward against House Elf teleportation. Not to mention all the other standard and not-so-standard alarms. The only thing he hadn't warded against by this point was apparation, and Discord had kindly given him the time he needed to perform it: one second. 

His adrenaline was still pumping, though. He looked down to his missing hoof with his one uncovered eye. He didn't think chaos magic would be able to make changes this drastic to the bodies of other living creatures. He also didn't think it would be able to completely bypass his defenses like that. He hadn't even felt his shields ripple. The changes went through them, as if Discord's magic was on the same level as a Killing Curse.

Finite incantatum didn't work to dispel the effects, no matter how powerful he made it, meaning a specific counter was likely required, or an understanding of Chaos magic itself. As far as he knew from his studies, Harmony magic was the only thing that countered Chaos magic, and Riddle didn't know how to tap either. He could always transfigure a new body to rid himself of the additions, but his priorities were elsewhere. He could tolerate a peg leg and an eyepatch for now.

His threat assessment of Discord was recalibrating, taking certain things into account.

For instance, Discord considers complex and detailed changes to landscape and weather as 'getting his mojo flowing'. A mere warmup, in other words. Discord was sometimes referred to as a 'god'. And Discord might literally be able to make anything happen just by snapping his fingers. Not as bluff, like it had been with Mr. Potter, but as a natural part of his powers.

Everything but the 'god' part had NOT been in the history books, which was his immediate excuse for his own rashness, but when he thought about how to prevent such stupidity in the future, Riddle realized that he had been too confident in his horcruxes and too eager to make another one. That had prevented him from seeing and weighing the threat of Discord rationally.

Now that he'd lost his tunnel-vision, he was completely reconsidering his approach. Maybe this isn't the best time to be thinking of his great creation. Maybe he should just focus on avoidance. Chaos magic might be able to affect his Horcruxes as well, and he did not want to risk that. Ever.

Unfortunately, his internal phoenix fire didn't like the idea of inaction. Not at all.

But before he could even address that annoyance, an unwelcome and terrifying voice intruded on his thoughts and his personal space. "Well, isn't this a lovely little lair? I take it back. You're supervillain obvious."

A snapping sound caused the eyepatch and hat and peg to disappear. In their place, he felt minor changes to his teeth (elongated fangs?) and wings and cloak. He couldn't see himself, but he probably looked more menacing.

If before he had been worried, now Riddle was actually scared, unlike he had been in a long time. If this creature could track apparition – although more likely than not, it could track instances of its own magic – Riddle didn't want to stick around to find out what else it could do.

He immediately decided to go to his final retreat, skipping past all his portkeys that would have taken him to various backup safehouses across Equestria. At this point, his best bet was the only place that Discord might not be able to reach – a place Riddle himself had resolved not to revisit until he'd carefully and deliberately planned what to do when he got there. So much for that. Emergencies are emergencies.

A twinge of will brought him to his Astral Plane faster than any existing transportation magic could have, except phoenix fire. If the spontaneous reversion of his 'menacing' additions was anything to go by, his suspicion that Discord and his magic could not follow was hopefully correct.

The phoenix had not objected to his desire to appear in the Astral Plane, apparently understanding the concept of tactical retreat, but it did object to the idea of waiting out the disaster. Then a thought occurred to him that the inner-phoenix absolutely loathed.

When Riddle noticed that his cloak and all his other possessions had not made it with him to the Astral Plane, he finally understood where Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger had been when the phoenix took them back to Earth. He simultaneously realized what he might have been doing wrong earlier, and how Dumbledore's test might be successfully avoided.

He might be able to leave Equestria, right here and right now, simply by deciding to phoenix travel with the Astral Plane as his starting location. That was very likely the piece of the puzzle he had been missing, if it wasn't the others he'd already considered. All the little details finally made perfect sense, as they usually do when the real answer reveals itself.

Mr. Potter's effects had been left behind, so he had journeyed to the Astral Plane. If he was showing Celestia some memories of the human world, he would naturally swear her to secrecy. Or even more likely, he was showing Ms. Granger his memories, Celestia intruded, and then he bound her to silence. Yes, that sounds exactly like what might have happened.

And if the Astral Plane is somehow the Mirror's equivalent of an interface with the human world, or something like an administrator's workspace for those who made the Mirror, then perhaps phoenixes go through here before going to the human world... actually, that last part feels more like speculation than fact. This place might just be the Mirror's way of allowing its trapped victims to engage in self reflection, or something like that. But the main theory about phoenix travel is well worth testing.

Now he just has to decide if it's what he wants to do. He had spent months thinking about the issue and eventually deciding against it. Escaping now would end the trap and end the advantage of infinite time...

...but in retrospect, his reasoning could have been motivated by a desire to cope with an otherwise hopeless situation. It could have been what Mr. Potter calls 'rationalization'. Riddle could have simply been convincing himself to adopt a less stressful, less unpleasant state of mind in response to a hated circumstance.

Now that he might actually be able to escape at will, all the advantages and benefits of the Mirror's trap seemed far less enticing. Immediate freedom truly is appealing to him. He could go back to the other side of the Mirror, go back to his old ways, unbound by any restrictions save the Unbreakable Vow to not destroy the world. He would once again be able to kill at will, using his favourite spell as regularly as he once did. It was very, very tempting.

He had already taken care of the smaller details too. He literally could go right this minute.

Back when he was doing his original testing with phoenix travel, he had made plans about the many things he'd have to set in motion within the first few hours of getting back to the other side.

1. He would end the hostage situation immediately.
2. He would magically preserve Perenelle's corpse on the off-chance Mr. Potter can revive her. Holding her mortality over her head to leverage her hoarded lore away from her would be satisfying and fitting, given how she's been doing that to other wizards all her life. It would also be practically sensible. The world might need that lore to avoid destruction, and on a personal note, he simply wanted the power. Finally, this plot would content his long-standing desire to do something clever about her situation.
3. He would provide logistical support in Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger's war on the world's Dementors, since those things were the most immediate threat to his immortality.
4. After all that was done, he would ask of his wayward student a single, pointed question. If Mr. Potter confirmed that his escape had been deliberate, as opposed to accidental, then Mr. Potter would learn what it meant to affront Lord Voldemort.

He'd even planned the story he would tell about his 'redemption' to fool Mr. Potter long enough to suffer the consequences of betrayal...