At the edge of the Everfree Forest, came a huge magical 'POP!', and out came Celestia, Luna, Cadance and Discord and a rather singed Twilight, even her diaper, wings and halo were smoking a bit.
"Urrghhh... that may have been a little clumsy," she said groggily, "But we're here, at the edge of the Everfree Forest,"
Discord stared at the rather dazed unicorn. "Goodness sakes Celestia, I know she's talented and all, but mass teleportation at such distances?"
"She's very talented, and knowledgeable," she curtly responded.
"It does make one wonder..." he said cryptically, as if to converse, but Celestia turned to a Cadance helping keep Twilight steady.
"Twilight, Cadance, have you confirmed the theory that I have suspected of Discord?" she asked.
"Just one more thing I need to analyze, your majesty," said Cadance, and walked to Discord with her horn glowing.
"Hey, hey, I am not some lab rat to be dissected!" Discord rebuked.
"Don't worry, Discord, I'm just going to scan a particular energy source from your body," and her horn scanned his body up and down, and Cadance's eyes betrayed a revelation.
"Just as I suspected," she said, "Discord's power is corked up by magic of the chaos of love. From some calculations that Twilight has made, combined with my knowledge in love spells, we've come to the conclusion that since Discord was released from the love, he can only, well, be released from love, as in... specifically your love, Princess,"
Celestia sighed. Discord was at a loss for words.
"So Discord's powers would've returned in full force had he loved me back," she whispered to herself, "what a foolish pony I was,"
"Hey, full power doesn't mean full evil, you know!" Discord snapped.
"And yet, Twilight is still in a cupid outfit because of your little sneak attack!" she snapped back.
Discord pursed his lips and crossed his arms, "At least I tried to remove it,"
"Discord, I couldn't remove it, and neither Cadance or Luna could! Whatever was in that bucket, it was dangerous and potent, and just like how you are dangerous and potent,"
"Sheesh, don't have to spell it out for me, Tia," he said.
"That's Princess Celestia to you... Warden of the Everfree Forest,"
His head snapped to stare at her in shock. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Turning you back into stone, seems cruel, especially for a third time. So I decided that it's best you live in permanent exile, but perform community service on behalf of Equestria, as a warden that will safeguard and protect all ponies who wandered astray in the Everfree, as well as research its strange and chaos-filled properties, under strict Equestrian Royal guard duties of course,"
"So this Everfree Forest is my overgrown prison then?" he asked carefully.
"Indeed, and you shall have no further say in this," she replied stiffly.
"Wow. Wow. I... I mean, the Everfree Forest is hardly my kind of decor, but I can't say I'm not grateful, the job will probably be interesting, so yeah, thanks,"
"That's surprisingly humble of you, Discord," she said.
"Well, after being tossed around all day, beaten up all day, broke a heart of a lovely lady, well, all day, then yes, humble is all I have. And, well, I've been meaning to apologize, for the way I acted today,"
And he turned to a rather amazed Twilight, "I'm sorry Twilight Sparkle, for acting so heinously to you and your friends,"
And turned to Luna, "Especially to you, Luna, for a rather uncountable number of things,"
"Apology not accepted, Draconequus," Luna said frankly.
Discord said," Naturally," and turned to Cadance, "Now there's something I've done that ticked you off isn't there?"
"First time you came back, my head had my wings and my back had my horn,"
"Ohhh, so that was you, right! Sorry about that, really not used to being delicate about anything,"
Then Discord shifted awkwardly, clearly not comfortable with the most complicated subject, "And Celestia, look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all the times I've acted as a bad coltfriend and well, trying to take over Equestria and all that jazz,"
Celestia said whilst looking at the ground, "Then I must apologize as well, for causing all this to happen. But you're here now, and this will be a good oppurtunity for you to better yourself,"
"Please Celestia, stop. Just stop with all this politeness. I need to tell you something,"
She didn't say anything. Neither did anypony else.
"That time when I yelled all those things at you so cruelly, well, I didn't mean them!"
"Excuse me?" hissed Celestia, an accusing eye glaring at him.
"I was just so exhausted and confused and scared to hurt you again, alright, that I ended up hurting you again! I wasn't thinking right! I never do, y'know! Our weird and crazy history is literally stacking on my head, not leaving me alone! Let me make a right this time, Celestia!"
She shifted very uncomfortably, her face looking as if about to burst something ferocious, and she did.
"Oh, this is just like you to be so indecisive and foalish! Meandering around without any aim! It is far too late for that, Discord! I'm done with you,"
"Why!?" he cried, desperate.
"I'm sorry Discord, but you had your chance. This conversation is over," she said, turning away, but Discord glided and faced her with pleading eyes.
"Please, Tia, another chance, just one more!" he pleaded, even making a little heart gesture with his hands, but Celestia's face remained stony.
"You can as a warden, Discord, a warden without full chaotic magic,"
"Urrgh! To blazes with my magic! I'm not talking about that! I'm talking about the two of us together!" his hands held her shoulders suddenly, which caught her off guard, even a slight blush on her face.
But she rebounded easily.
"Let go of me, Discord," she ordered.
"Please- aargh!"
Luna's horn pressed against his welt.
"Thank you Luna," and Luna backed off, and before Celestia could even fully spread her wings to fly off and could finally let go of her mask and find a place to cry her eyes out-
"Give him another chance, Tia," said Luna.
Celestia froze, and everyone's else's jaw impacted the ground. Discord was the first to crank it up and weakly uttered, "what?"
"He could take you out on a date, perhaps? That is the way it is done these days, indeed?" she offered.
Celestia turned away to reveal a most confounded look. "Are you my sister?" she actually asked.
"Tch! Yes, it is I," said Luna snidely, "And no, I am not playing around,"
"YOU'RE PLAYING BALL FROM MY SIDE OF THE FIELD!!?" yelled a confounded Discord, "But you hate me! You rejected my apology! You even wanted to do worse than warmly tar and lightly feather me!!"
"Aye," she said, "And I intended to tell sister this right after,"
Celestia confronted Luna and sternly demanded, "Why, are you, of ALL ponies, asking me to give this, this, pony, another chance!?"
Luna huffed, clearly annoyed.
"Look here, Celestia. the fact is, Discord is here, now and probably forever. And the two of you, are incredibly skilled, incredibly long-lived, incredibly clever! And you are avoiding a problem by tucking away where you can't see it, where it could fester and worsen once again!! You and him are forever bonded, whether by love or hate, it does not matter to me!
"What matters is that you give him another chance, as you did for me,"
"My little sister, your circumstances were different-"
"My circumstances were disturbingly similar to his, sister," she hissed heavily, "Let him not hide away, Celestia. Give him one more chance, on even grounds, as his ultimate challenge to win your heart once again, or live a lonely life as a warden. At the very least to give yourself and Discord a semblance of a closure!!
"ONE. MORE. CHANCE,"
Her eyes glared right into Celestia's.
The two stayed still, until finally Celestia sighed, and turned to the others. "Twilight, Cadance, and you, Luna, are to assist Discord and to be his minders in preparation for whatever Discord wants to do to... to court me,"
"YES!!" whooped Discord, looking much more spiritedly than before, "Oh Celestia, you won't regret this, I promise you! It'll-"
She raised a hoof and that shut him up, and turned away again.
"I expect some homemade cake from you, Discord," and she teleported away.
Cadance and Twilight could only stare at Luna, dumbfounded. Discord conjured up a notepad, and began to scribble plans, wonderful plans to win his love back.
"What?" said Luna.
And Cadance smirked, "Softie," she chided.
Luna frowned, "This remains a secret, I have a reputation to uphold. Especially from you, Discord!"
"Oh...!" Discord's concentration broke from his jotting, "Oh right! Umm, I honestly don't know what came over you, Luna, but thank you, thank you. Errmmm... hug?"
And he goofily placed a pen behind his ears and outsretched his arms, with a genuine smile.
He chilled on Celestia's couch, just lazing. All whilst Luna pretended to be some raging Minotaur, making a racket all around the rooms, stomping around, terrorizing inanimate objects and such.
"Rarrgh!!" went Luna the little Minotaur, with fake horns on her head to boot, "I am Mooh-na the Minotaur! Fear my superiority!!"
Discord heard her shout that and spat a raspherry, "Pfff- Moooh-na the Minotaur! Can that filly's imagination be anymore dumb?"
Suddenly, Discord heard a huge crash that seemed to originate from the library, and worse still, he heard Luna screamed.
"Horseapples-horseapples-horseapples-horseapplese-HORSEAPPLES...!" repeated Discord as he flew to the library.
And an entire bookshelf was on the floor, books and toys everywhere. Discord lifted the shelf up effortlessly, and there was a pile of books under. He dug through it whilst yelling, "LUNA! LUNA!"
Until finally, he found her, huddled up like a fragile ball, fake horns dented, and sobbing. And she looked up at him with such fear and guilt. Discord was at a loss for words. He decided to do what he does best: smile and suck up.
"Hey there kiddo! Lookit' you! An entire bookshelf fell on you and barely even a scratch! And oh? what's this?" he noticed, and gently lifted her right hoof.
"Oh dear, a little boo-boo! Don't you worry! Look!" And Discord used his magic to slowly but surely heal the wound. Luna looked on in wonder, distracted from her frightened composure.
"Are... are you going to tell big sister about this?" she whispered timidly.
"Nah! We'll just spruce this place up nice and new! It'll be fine!"
And so they did. And they organized everything good as new.
Turned out Luna had a real knack for detail and precision, which she could happily boss Discord around with to magically catalog the books back.
After the job was done. Luna looked up to Discord and said, "Thank you Discord, for saving me and fixing the shelf,"
“That’s what friends do, little Moooh-na!” said Discord.
Luna giggled at this, and he conjured an ice-cream cone for her to have as a snack.
A secret that even Celestia, knew not.
“Will you accept my friendship?” echoed Celestia.
"Forgive me if I withhold my emotions," Luna said, holding back, "But your challenge is not just to Tia, but to myself as well,"
Author's note: Firstly, yes, warden. Kind of headcanon-esque, but hey, had to put the guy back somewhere.
Secondly, it's weird writing Discord as pathetic. Really weird, but hopefully, he'll be more spirited in the coming chapters! More fun that way!
Thirdly, I'd appreciate feedback from you guys!