A new day
The town of Ponyville was silent, its citizens lay peacefully in their beds, unaware of the unfamiliar stallion sitting on a hill overlooking their small town. He was not new in town so to speak, he had met many of the residents before, but there was perhaps only one pony in town that could possibly recognize him. A purple unicorn who had been the architect of his defeat. A quick scan with her magic would expose him, and that would no doubt be a problem. His disguise was convincing enough, his coat was a simple brown, his mane a light grey, his cutie mark was a pair of grinning and frowning theatre masks. Truly the only thing even slightly noticeable about him was a pair of large tinted black glasses, which covered his misshapen yellow eyes.
24 hours he had been given, 24 hours to prove that he was capable of good and that he could live peacefully in society. The iron ring on his leg prevented him from spreading the chaos he so craved, but try as he might, he was unable to conjure a single chocolate storm cloud. He had opted for a unicorn body, which gave his an amateur amount of magic at best, just enough to teleport or perform a simple mind reading. It drove him mad to feel such a huge amount of power, but only be able to use a fraction of it, like water trickling through a blocked stream. Celestia would raise the sun in an hour, so until then he watched and waited.
As the sun rose, there were three ponies awake in Ponyville. Applejack, who had gotten up to begin the days chores, Rainbow Dash, who had decided to clear the clouds as early as possible, so she could have the day off, and Discord, who sat silently contemplating a life without chaos. Oh how he wished for his ability to control the sun and moon, the waiting was unbearable. He stood up, cracked his neck, and reached out mentally to any pony that might be awake. He saw the Element of Honesty bucking apple trees. "All the power of an element of harmony, and she just wants to kick trees?" he said aloud. He reached out again and saw the Element of Loyalty, zipping through the air at an incredible speed, flying through clouds and doing flips without a care in the world. “Well I suppose I at least have a place to start,” he decided, and with a flash he was gone.
Applejack gave the tree a hard kick, causing apples to fall into the baskets below. She wished Big Mac was here to help, but he was in bed with the flu, and she obviously couldn't ask Applebloom to help out. She prepared to kick again, but a flash of light caused her to lose balance and fall over. "What in tarnation!?" she cried, then looked up to see that standing before her was a brown stallion.
"Do you umm… Need any help?" he asked nervously.
"Who heck are you?" she asked angrily.
“Oh um my name is…” Oh blast! Why hadn't he come up with a name earlier? AJ was staring at him, waiting for an answer. "My name is Vanishing Act" he blurted out.
"Alrighty then Vanishing Act, may I ask just what the hay you're doing on mah farm?" She asked.
"I just… Well you see… I umm, thought you might need help is all," Discord replied, trying to sound convincing.
She eyed him suspiciously, "have you been spying on me?"
Of course he had been spying, but obviously he couldn't admit it. “No I was just passing by and you looked like you needed some help, so I decided to offer my services.”
"Well alright then, I suppose ya can help me buck apples if ya want, but don't try anthin foolish ya hear" she warned.
"Of course not,” he assured giving the nearest tree a hard kick.
"So can I call ya Vanish?" AJ asked.
"Yes that's fine, but I need something to call you." In truth he already knew her name, he had cursed it over and over while in his stone prison, along with the names of the other five elements.
“Ya'll can call me Applejack," she replied with a slight smile.
"Alright then Applejack" he said, kicking another tree.
"So are ya new in town?" AJ asked.
"Yes I am, this, is my first visit to Ponyville, it’s quite a nice little town," he replied.
"Um, what’s with the glasses? If ya don't mind mah askin that is" AJ asked curiously
"Oh my eyes are very sensitive to the sun," Discord replied
"But the suns barely even up yet," she pointed out.
"Force of habit I guess, I just put em on without even thinking," he chuckled nervously.
"Maybe we should quit talkin and get to work," she suggested.
"Yes great idea," he said quickly. They spent the next hour in silence, the only sound was the bucking of trees and the thumping of falling apples.
Applejack wiped the sweat from her brow. "That's enough for today I reckon," she said, giving the nearest tree a final kick. "Thanks fer helpin me out Vanish, yer alright."
"Oh it was no problem," he assured, and he meant it, kicking those tree's hadn't even caused him to break a sweat. By now the sun was in the sky and ponies were rising from their beds to begin the day.
"Well I gotta take mah sister ta school, maybe I'll see ya around," AJ said.
"Yes, maybe you will,” he said cheerfully and with a flash was gone. As Applejack headed back to the house, she wondered about Vanish. What kinda feller just offers to do hard work without expectin somethin in return? But she wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Far above, Discord lay on a cloud, watching her. “Did you see that Celestia?” He thought angrily, “good deed done.” Suddenly in his mind he heard gentle sobbing, “that sounds familiar,” he thought. He searched Ponyville mentally for the source of the sobbing, but found nothing. Then he realized it wasn't coming from in town, but above it.
It must be a pegasi he realized, scanning the clouds for any signs of life. He burst out laughing when he found the source of the noise, there on a cloud, high above town hall, was a light blue Pegasus. “Oh this is priceless!” He thought, the ever confident Rainbow Dash, sobbing like a baby. He couldn't wait to find out what the problem was. With a quick magical pulse, he could hear her thoughts as clear as day. She was thinking about the Element of Kindness for whatever reason.
"Darn it! why can’t I work up the courage to just tell her?... I bet she'd just laugh at me, that's why" Rainbow thought to herself. Discord burst into another fit of laughter; oh this was too good, Rainbow Dash, the supposedly toughest pony in Ponyville, was in love, with a mare no less. His whole body shook with laughter, imagine if he told somepony, he was laughing so hard that he fell off his cloud, hitting the ground with a dull thud.