//------------------------------//
// Birds of Disorder, Flock Together 
// Story: Dragon Road - Season 2 
// by FoolMeThrice 
//------------------------------//





This story would start between two trees. Two, luscious apple trees. Between them, set up neatly on one side and sloppily on the other, was a dark red hammock. The hammock was not the one of interest. No, our focus would be set on the duo sleeping upon this hammock. Two warriors, aspiring to grow to even greater heights.

A formerly shunned half-saiyan laid, arms behind his head, right leg crossed over his left. His skin was fair, though not free of imperfections such as scars and scratches. His lengthening raven hair caught a particularly cool breeze and flowed. His black trenchcoat caught the same breeze, flowing more than it would normally since the belt was undone, the coat left open. His dark brown pants held his form while lacking constrictions, and his white boots did the same. This was Kai, owner of a popular café.

Sprawled over him and just as asleep, was the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash. Now, the two did not often fall asleep together, but Kai had chosen to push the mare particularly hard today. Try as she might, everything was just a bit too much, so she was tired to the point of collapsing. They had agreed after a quick rest, they would get right back to it.

…It had been an hour since then. But that was okay, too. The two of them were simply doing as everypony else on this glorious and sunny day. Enjoying themselves.

That was until a drop of something landed onto Kai's nose, and he stirred awake quickly. He looked around, then to Rainbow Dash. Shrugging off whatever that was, he closed his eyes pulled the pegasus closer… before opening his eyes slightly and moving her to the side a bit. Then he was struck by another curious drop.

Gazing skyward, the cause may have been clear… but it did not make sense.

“A pink cloud?” He winced when a third drop landed upon his forehead. Wiping it up, he gave it a glance and a sniff. Brows rising, he tasted it to confirm his suspicions. “Chocolate milk?”

A raspy but frankly cute yawn gathered his attention, shifting to Rainbow Dash. Her big ruby eyes met Kai's onyx, and she offered a smirk.

“You sure don't waste time, do you?”

“Just who's on top of who?” They chuckled at the banter, though Kai returned to his earlier concerns. “The clouds are weird today.”

“What do you—” She was cut off by the strange rain of chocolate milk. “The heck?” Rainbow Dash went through the same process as Kai, and quickly deduced the obvious. “Something definitely isn't right. I'm gonna head to Cloudsdale and see what's up. Uh… you should… get the other and stuff.”

“Yeah.” The two parted in an instant, and flew off respectively. The saiyan couldn't help a grimace.  “…Tch… Cotton candy dropping chocolate milk…”





Chapter 1

Birds of Disorder, Flock Together





Princess of the Sun, Co-ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia, paced in her throne room. She was nervous. Very nervous. She took deep breaths to calm herself. After all, she was expecting company, and the last thing she wanted was to convey her emotions to them. It would come off as a lack of faith, and Princess Celestia had much faith in them.

Before she could think much more on it, seven figures materialized a few meters in front of her. Kai, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie and Applejack. The recent wielders of the legendary Elements of Harmony and saviors of Equestria, and their saiyan warrior friend. The princess smiled, so very relieved to see everypony arrive even quicker than anticipated.

“Princess Celestia, we came as fast as we could!” Twilight exclaimed, her voice expressing all of the worry her friends felt.

Celestia nodded.

“Thank you, Twilight. Thank you, all.”

“This is serious, isn't it, Celestia?” Hearing the grave tone Kai used stopped Twilight from her rapid-fire questioning, and everypony straightened up.

Again, Celestia nodded, matching his seriousness. Knowing she had the group's attention, she gave a gesture implying to follow, and turned to walk down a corridor.

“I've called you here for a matter of great importance.” ‘Here’ seemed not to be the castle itself, but this particular area of the castle. The long corridor had window panes to either wall, but they had art on them. Crude as it may have seemed, this art told a story. The story of Equestria.  “It seems an old foe of mine, someone I thought I had defeated long ago, has returned. His name… is Discord.”

“Discord sounds like an appropriate name…” Rarity  grumbled after Fluttershy's fearful squeek. The pane with Discord displayed… a cross-species individual, between a dragon, and a pony, and a lion, and a griffon… those were the obvious ones. Discord, indeed.

“Discord is the mischievous spirit of disharmony. Before my sister and I stood up to him, he ruled Equestria in an eternal state of unrest and unhappiness. Luna and I saw how miserable life was for Earth ponies, Pegasi, and unicorns alike, so after discovering the Elements of Harmony, we combined our powers and rose up against him, turning him to stone.”

“Alright, Princess!” But the continued expression of direness told Rainbow Dash this story was not one with a happy ending… or any ending at the moment.

“I thought the spell we cast would keep him contained forever, but since Luna and I are no longer connected to the Elements, the spell has been broken.”

“No longer connected?” Twilight's question remained unanswered for now. Instead, Celestia slowed as they neared the end of this corridor—to a door of some kind.

“This is Canterlot Tower, where the Elements are kept inside since all of you recovered them. I need you to wield the Elements of Harmony once again and stop Discord before he thrusts all of Equestria into eternal chaos.”

While Twilight understood generally, she still didn't understand why they had to do this. Celestia had to have been better suited for this. She was about to speak out and inquire about such, but was interrupted.

“Heh… They're ready, Tia. Get them the Elements.” They looked to Kai, who looked like he was only just returning from a few panes back. He was also snickering… as if Equestria wasn't in danger.

“What about Kai? What will his role be?” Twilight asked.

“Kai does not possess the spiritual attachment to any Element, and, sad to say, he does not hold the general requirements to wield them. That is another story.” Celestia waved this off.  “You six showed the full potential of the Elements by harnessing the magic of your friendship to beat a mighty foe. Although Luna and I once wielded the Elements, it is you who now control their power, and it is you who must defeat Discord!”

After a brief moment of self-doubt, the girl resigned themselves to this and agreed to save Equestria once again. Princess Celestia unlocked this door with her horn, and brought forth a beautiful chest. When she opened it…

…it was empty.

“The Elements! They're gone!” Nopony else had much else to say, being slack-jawed at this unexpected turn of events.

“That chamber is protected by a powerful spell that only I can break! This doesn't make sense!” Lamented Celestia.

However, a laugh cut through the shock. So taunting, so mocking, so condescending, and so chaotic, it could only belong to one individual. Whether they met them or not, it was clear.

“Make sense? Oh, what fun is there in making sense?” 

“Discord… Show yourself!” Celestia demanded, everypony looking all around.

“Well, if you insist!” The princess let out a short shriek when something fell upon her, leaving a bump on her head. “Oh, you said, ‘Show your shelf.’, right?”

“Pfft—Ahaha!” …Only Kai seemed to think that was funny. And as he laughed, Discord appeared physically in a puff of smoke. The being of disharmony laughed alongside the saiyan, draping an arm around his neck, and vice-versa.

“Not bad, eh, kid?”

“I didn't even have to help—she set herself up for it!”

“I know, right!” A mix of stares met them. Confusion, irritation, and… slight betrayal.

“Kai… Discord has you under his control! Release him!” Celestia shrugged off the shelf and stood to her hooves, ready to fight.

“Wait a sec'! I'm not under anyone's control.” Kai shook his hands to stop everypony from attacking. He chuckled. “When I was looking at that picture back there, he started talking to me. Thought he'd make an entrance with a joke. I was gonna help him, but, y'know… set yourshelf up for that one, Tia.” To that reminder of wordplay, Discord snickered.

“Kai, you mustn't become careless. Discord is the enemy.” The saiyan rolled his eyes and went to rejoin everypony's side.

“Fine, but can we skip the usual banter?”

“Since you asked so nicely, alright.” Discord laughed, only to stop abruptly. “So, I know everything about all of you, I'm back for revenge, blah blah blah—you get the point. Anything I'm forgetting?”

“Nah, I think we're—” Kai actually stumbled slightly when Celestia pushed him backwards to take the lead in this confrontation. Clearly, she was fed up.

“Where are the Elements of Harmony, Discord?” 

“Oh, I just borrowed them for a teensy little while.” Still as elusive and uncaring as before. This irritated the princess.

“You'll never get away with this, Discord!”

“Oh, I'd forgotten how grim you can be, Celestia. It's really quite boring.” Discord waved off, incuring the anger of Rainbow Dash.

“Hey! Nopony insults the Princess!” She was fast. Faster than even Discord had accounted for. Something was slightly different than he had planned… and yet, faster still, was Kai, stopping her with a hand and becoming dead-serious for a brief moment. “Let go!”

“Hm…” He met Discord's stare… then his serious stare faded. “I get it. Rainbow, you're not winning that one. Back off.”

“What?” Seeing his face, Rainbow Dash grumbled and decided to stand down, though she remained poised. The interaction brought a smirk onto their adversary's face.

“Now that one is perceptive. So, Celestia? How does he measure to the last one?” Discord asked regarding Kai. Celestia's eyes widened by a fraction. “Yes, the other one. Liked to talk to himself, so I know all about it. Did you not tell anypony?”

“Be silent, Discord! Tell us where the Elements—”

“Now that I look closely, isn't there a bit of resemblance?”

“Where!?” To her enraged repeating, Discord yawned, fanning himself with a claw while moving his head left slowly.

“Honestly, you're like a broken record, Celestia—” His head abruptly stopped, snapped to the right, and continued moving left. “—broken record, Celestia—” Again. “—broken record, Celestia.” Seeing nothing but jest, Celestia looked to Kai, only to surpress a flinch under his direct gaze. She quickly glared at Discord again. “Fine, I'll tell you, but I'll only tell you my way.” Everypony was all ears. “To retrieve your missing Elements, just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the Elements back where you began.”

With a laugh loud enough to fill Equestria itself, Discord snapped his fingers and vanished.

Everypony was a bit less than confident, but this was a situation that allowed no room for error. They quickly contemplated.

“What do you reckon he meant? Twists and turns and endin' back where we started?” Applejack repeated in the hopes somepony could figure it out where she fell short.

“Twists and turns… twists and turns…” Twilight looked out of one of the undecorated window panes and spotted the outside… and thusly, the grass-made labyrinth. Her eyes went wide. “Twists and turns! That's it! I bet Discord hid the Elements in the palace labyrinth!” 

Celestia nodded at the group. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could…

“Celestia.” She flinched, looking to Kai. He pointed at her with a glare. “After this, me and you are having a little chat.” That, did not bode well. But luckily, he at least was ready to take care of this first, as were the girls.

“Kai. Let's go.” Rarity nudged him to get him in the direction they would be headed. He grunted, but followed along to the labyrinth.





The palace labyrinth was… well, it was intimidating. Not so much in a ‘There are probably killer monsters inside’ kind of way, but more in a ‘If we fail to navigate a labyrinth the world is doomed’ way.

“W-we have to go in there?” Fluttershy was rightfully afraid.

“Nope! Dopey Discord forgot about these babies!” Rainbow Dash replied confidently, flaunting her wings. She flew up at an angle. “I'll just do a quick flyover and we'll have the Elements in no time.” Or, she would have, if her wings didn't vanish. She blinked right before plummeting to the ground. She was caught by Kai, but her concern was on her back. “My wings!”

The respective pegasi and unicorns freaked out when they lost their wings or horns. The Earth ponies of the group were calm enough to simply feel confusion, rather than panic.

Familiar laughter rang out from around them. Then, with a snap, Discord appeared once again.

“You should see the looks on your faces. Priceless!” He put an arm around Kai's shoulder again. “Right?”

“Not as good as the first one.” Discord frowned.

“Oh, I made you all serious earlier, didn't I? Well, no matter.” 

“Give us our wings and horns back!” Twilight demanded.

“You'll get them back in good time.” Discord hovered about for a bit, lifting a finger. “I simply took them to ensure there's no cheating. You see, this is the first rule of our game: no flying, and no magic.” That was… mildly concerning. But it begged another question.

“The first rule?” Rainbow Dash would be the one to ask, noting his curious wording.

“The second rule is everypony has to play or the game is over, and I win.” He snapped his fingers and appeared by Kai again. “Oh, and I'm borrowing this one.” He declared, taking the saiyan by the arm.

“Let go of my brother, you brute!” Rarity screamed, stomping towards them.

Discord almost laughed, but was interrupted by a heavy punch to his face. Kai still in his grip, he retreated slightly to see what hit him.

“How did you move so fast? I took your wings from you!” Rainbow Dash smirked.

“You still forgot something. I can't fly with this ki stuff, sure, but I can still go faster than you!” She readied herself to continue, but Discord simply snapped his fingers yet again, vanishing with the saiyan. “Wait! No, Kai!”

“I… suppose he should be alright for now.” Twilight noted, trying to ease Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and herself at the same time. “He… can handle himself. For now, we need to find the Elements of Harmony.”

Quietly, the group agreed, though it was unfortunate to be down a member. They entered the labyrinth and looked around. Seemed this would be a relatively simple endeavor. After all, Twilight recalled seeing the labyrinth from above several times, both in her youth and recently. She had a somewhat clear mental map. With a gesture to follow her, the student of Celestia led everypony through the labyrinth.





“Well, that was a bust.” Although the riddle seemed clear, there was no sign of the Elements of Harmony. Even more odd, contrary to Twilight's assumption, Discord did not once appear to cheat in this little game of his. Hence, Applejack grumbling as they reentered the castle.

“Welp, it's still raining chocolate milk in Ponyville.” Pinkie gave a grin to the others, hoping they would catch on and do the right thing.

“No, Pinkie!” She pouted. No fun. No fun at all.

The group entered, a bit shameful to have been unable to find the relics, or their friend. However, greeting them when they looked… were the relics… and their friend…

…right next to their new enemy!?

Oh, and Celestia. She looked just as confused as everypony else.

The saiyan and draconequuis were just laughing away, gripping at their sides tightly.

“And so I said to her, ‘Ma'am, I believe you've dropped your coin-purse.’ And she says, ‘Ma'am!? I'm a stallion!’”

Another fit of laughter followed.

“What…”

“…in…”

“…Equestria…”

They finally noticed the girls and waved.

“Yo! This guy's great!”

“Great!? He took the Elements—” Kai pointed to the Elements on the floor, contrasting Twilight's argument. “—took our wings and horns—” Discord snapped to restore those features. “—and…and! And he foalnapped you!” Discord snapped again, envelopping Kai in a cloud of smoke. It faded, and Kai patted himself.

“Found him.”

The girls could only look to Celestia… who could only look at Kai. So, the saiyan explained.

“Seriously, Tia. This guy is evil to you? Sounds like all he's done through time were just a few pranks that went way too far. Discord's hardly what I'd call a villain.”

“Eh, he's out of line, but he's right.” Celestia narrowed her gaze at them.

“It was not, and is not that simple.” Her stance shifted ever so slightly. “Kai, you have displayed much of what anypony would consider treason. Are you on our side… or Discord's?”

…At that moment… something clicked for Kai.

“That's the kind of ultimatum a real villain would give…” Kai stood, shaking off his sudden suspicion. He matched the shifting of Celestia's stance with his own, causing her to tense slightly. “I choose... the side of moving on.” Everyone, even Discord, looked confused at that. “Like I said, Discord's a prankster without a limit. I mean, he can make it rain chocolate milk.”

“Chocolate milk!” Pinkie emphasized.

“But that's kind of all he's done so far. And if he's going down for that, then what about all the pegasi who pull pranks like that?" It was serious, yes... but almost nopony could help looking at Rainbow Dash for a moment.  The warrior in training could only glare at him and mutter.

“Thanks , jerk.”

“Kai... I want you to think about this...”

“I seriously am. He's ready to make nice, so, maybe we can, too? Just a chance?”

Celestia observed her subjects. Pinkie still seemed a bit more concerned about  the chocolate milk. Applejack didn't seem to be having any of this nonsense. Rainbow Dash was tensed, almost coiled, unsure. Rarity was unnaturally calm, seeming a lot more curious than worried now. Fluttershy and Twilight... they both looked a bit downcast... They wanted to give a chance to  Discord. That much was obvious.

With a long sigh, Celestia spoke again.

“What do you propose?

“Well, since you're so scared, Celestia, let's set rules.”  The princess' brow twitched at the passing insult, clearly unhappy with this start… but she gestured for them to continue. She'd hear them out, at least. “We decided. For Discord, keep the chaos to a minimum, no comic book space-time stuff, no natural disasters, no hurting ponies unprompted—that sorta thing.”

“And for you girls… no Elements!” Discord quickly lifted a claw to halt the protests, already halfway out of their mouths. They stopped in time to listen, still glaring accusingly. “Ah, ah! On me. Anyone else is fine, just not me. And that's our deal. Well, Celly? How's it sound?” He bowed to the princess, who in turn gave a short shake of her head.

“Nearly acceptable. I want you under supervision so you are not tempted to break this deal.” Discord rolled his eyes.

“Fine, fine. Who gets the pleasure of watching me? If I got to choose, I'd go with your second student. Or… is that third?” That made Twilight curious, but she kept silent.

“You are trying my patience.” Celestia's annoyance was met only with a smile. “I feel that if you simply experienced kindness, you could show it properly. Therefore, you will be staying with Fluttershy.”

Yeah, that was an easy way to make Fluttershy faint. Rarity was quick to catch her. Discord gave a short laugh and shrugged.

“Look at that! I've still got it.”

“I trust you know better than to try to harm my little ponies.” Celestia stated with no small amount of anger.

“Yeah, yeah. No boo boos. I got it. Can we get to something else already?” Celestia gave Kai a look, who caught it and lifted a brow.

“Wha… Oh! You're finally done? I've been waiting for this one.” He cleared his throat. “Discord, I now pronounce you… Chaotic neutral!” A miniature Discord appeared to play a classic rimshot, as Kai pumped his fist midair.

Everypony face-hoofed.

“That was not what I was trying to convey.” Kai shrugged.

“Then it's serious time, huh?”

“Twofold, Kai!” They looked to Rarity in confusion. “If it had never happened, I certainly would never have remembered. However, we had a little agreement, did we not?” Kai's lowered brows meant he understood… but was not pleased.

“What sort of agreement?” Twilight asked for everyone.

“When we were much younger, we agreed upon something. If it rains chocolate milk, Kai would have to tell me whatever secret he had been keeping even to this day.”

“What an… oddly specific wager.”

“We have Kai's eccentricity to blame for that. In any case, I'm anxious to hear what this secret is, Kai.”

“Let's hear what Celestia has to say about this guy who I resemble, first.” Kai put off, directing a look to the princess.

Celestia nodded shortly and beckoned the group to follow.

“We'll converse in the dining room. I imagine this whole fiasco was exhausting to you all.”

“Mind if I come with?” They glanced to Discord. “Been a pretty long time since I had a decent meal… or heard a good story.”

With a sigh at realising, despite past transgressions, Discord would be playing nice at least, Celestia waved a hoof for him to follow, too. He smiled and trailed behind.

In a few moments, the group was seated, some with food, others with just tea. It was silent for a few minutes, awkward and tense at the same time. They simply sat, shifting their eyes around, as if the decor was the focus.

“…This one time, I asked a fat mare if she was going to have a boy or a girl. It was exactly like this.” Okay, nopony could help chuckling at least a bit at that. Discord breaking the ice. Something Celestia never thought could happen.

“Well then, I suppose I'll start as bluntly as possible. Kai, the saiyan I met is named Beet. It doesn't take much guessing to know he must be your father.” Bluntly indeed. Kai crossed his arms and closed his eyes, teetering backwards in his chair.

“Yeah… Yeah, that's definitely that bastard.”

“I'll explain from the beginning.  The day he arrived  in Equestria.”

To Be Continued…