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// After the Gala 
// Story: The Breaking of a Non-Brony 
// by BronyWriter 
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A note before we begin: this is a much darker version of the TDverse than the one presented in Not A Brony and a darker take on Discord (all of which I will justify). If you prefer the funnier side of TD's adventures in Equestria, turn back now. If you liked the more dramatic, emotionally heavy sides, then this is that turned up to eleven. If you prefer the comedy and choose to read this anyway, well, I warned you...


Peace and tranquility. It reined over the Canterlot Statue Garden in a way that little else did. Statues are like that, ever vigilant, ever watchful, never moving. Of course, not every statue in the garden was carved from stone by skilled craftsponies. No, on occasion, when the need of Equestria was great, a later addition to the gardens tended to be more... alive than its naturally stone brethren. 

This was the case with the strangest of the statues in Celestia's collection. If one didn't know better, and few did, one would just assume that the random assortment of animal parts was a mistake or a joke on the part of the stonecutter who crafted it and nopony bothered to remove it. In fact, that was a common explanation that the royal sisters gave to foals who asked about it. They said that they kept it around because it made them laugh. 

It was ironic in its own way.

Of course, none of that was important right now to either the being trapped in stone, nor the one who burst through the doors of the castle, shattering the carefully built silence. The being, a human that had been brought to Equestria by Celestia herself, was distraught; it was obvious enough from his gait and expression. Something had gone seriously wrong in this human's life tonight. His was no ordinary form of misery. 

Within the deepest center of Discord's stature, a small fire awoke inside. Oh, it was nothing powerful enough to allow him the freedom he so desperately craved, but it was a start. It had begun when he had seen the human. How strange... and inviting. 

By some stroke of sheer luck, or fate, whichever one prefers, the human maneuvered himself into the statue garden. Maybe he was drawn to it by the deathly calm. It certainly wasn't for the decor as the shroud of night covered any aesthetic qualities that the statues may have held. No, this one wanted to be alone with his misery that much was certain. 

Discord grinned inside his statue prison. He loved misery more than little else. It was so easy to twist into something deliciously chaotic. That was his game, after all, chaos, and to him it was a game. The princesses 'secure' in their castles might valiantly believe otherwise, but Discord was older, stronger, and smarter than those two misguided fools. He knew better than to believe that ponies had any worth other than as playthings for the powerful. The weak were meant to be controlled by the strong. That brought chaos. When the weak rose up against the strong, that brought chaos too. Whoever won the struggle, there was always chaos to be had. Such was the natural balance of life, whether Celestia chose to believe it or not. 

Still, the human needed to be the focus at the moment. The human could not be manipulated for chaos if Discord did nothing with him. 

In another stroke of what Discord considered to be pure luck, the human chose to rest leaning on his very statue! Why he had chosen to lean on the oddest one in the garden none could say. It probably had something to do with the fact that he didn't care what he leaned against right now, he just needed something to be there. 

Discord examined the distraught human that leaned at his hooves. He sensed a lot of chaos from this one, more so than he had felt when three fillies had fought in front of him, something that allowed his escape. It was a pity that Twilight Sparkle and the other Elements had encased him in stone again. He had planned to make those three fillies his jesters, sentenced to fight with each other for all of eternity. Oh it was a beautiful thought. Still, what was done was done and this human required more attention. 

Discord used what magic he could muster to probe into the human's mind. Hmm, TD was what they called him. TD Harrison Powell. He couldn't find what the T and D stood for, but it was an unimportant detail at any rate and certainly not one he would waste his time with. 

Further analysis of the human's mind revealed something... interesting to the trapped god of chaos. He knew the Elements of Harmony. He had spent some time with them it seems. What's more, he had a good reason to hate almost all of them! Well, not that dratted Element of Kindness, but Discord didn't like to think about her. So, this human had met the Elements and had good reason to hate almost all of them. What was even juicier to Discord were his feelings toward Celestia. Oh yes, if he ever escaped he could certainly use those. 

The human sighed and muttered something to himself, completely unaware that his mind was being read by the being he leaned against. Discord grinned as he unraveled the human's mind. It was foal's play, even for a being like him. Humans, it turned out, were remarkably simple creatures, driven by base desires and unable to feel much empathy. Or at the very least, that seemed to be the case for this one. 

TD sighed again and picked up his new walking stick in his hands. It portrayed on wood what Discord was seeing in TD's mind, creating a sort of parallel between the two. Each were examining his memories, wondering what to make of them and what brought him to this point. Each wondered what to do next with the information that they had been given. For Discord, the answer was as plain as the chaos inside the human. For TD, it was as clear as the statue in front of him. 

"This isn't fair," TD muttered to himself, tightening his grip on the walking stick. "Celestia interferes and now I'm stuck here forever! Isn't that just freaking great?!"

"It does sound like a rather poor position to be in, I must admit," said Discord. The human bolted upright and looked around wildly, searching for the pony who intruded on his private angsty thoughts. Well, conventional thought would have him searching forever, time Discord didn't have. "You won't find me wandering the grounds, TD," said Discord. "You have to think a little more outside the box than that."

TD frowned and tried to gauge where the voice was coming from. It didn't seem like it was coming from one direction, which was confusing him, instead it sounded like the voice was inside his head. He frowned and scanned the gardens one more time before his traveling eyes landed on the chaotic statue before him. 

"Excellent!" said Discord. "You have found me, TD, and for that I applaud you. Not many know I'm here."

"I don't imagine that you talk to many ponies out here," TD replied. 

Discord let out a slight chuckle that held no trace of mirth. Indeed, it sent a shiver down TD's spine. "Very astute of you, TD," said Discord. "And on the flipside, I don't imagine that you talk to many statues, even after having come here from your planet."

TD took a step back and narrowed his eyes. "How do you know about all of that?" 

"Oh it wasn't really too difficult to discern. You see, you are not a pony, nor are you a member of any of the other intelligent races scattered across the planet. Combine that with your hatred for Celestia and you've got yourself a being from another world that was brought here by mistake... or otherwise."

"How do you know that I don't like Celestia? We only just 'met'." Discord was silent for a moment and TD took that moment to take a step backwards. "You stay out of my head, you got that?!"

"Or what, TD, what are you going to do?"

"Just--"

"To be fair, I can definitely see why it would bother you. I mean, Celestia controls you, the Elements control you, so why add a statue of all things to that list of things that ensure that you are powerless here?" said Discord evenly. This was going to be too easy.

TD scowled at the statue for the briefest of moments before something clicked in his brain. Now that he really saw this statue, he knew where had had heard about it. "So, you're Discord then, huh?" 

"In the... well... not 'flesh' exactly, but you know what I'm getting at. I'm pleased to meet you, TD. Yes, very pleased indeed."

"Uh-huh. I take it that you have some grand escape plan involving me then, yeah? Isn't that what you do?"

Discord gasped in fake surprise. "My goodness, how did you figure me out so quickly?"

"Hey, sarcasm is my department." TD walked up and knocked on Discord's right leg. "It seems that being a target for the birds is yours. I'm not falling for your stupid tricks, dude, I'm leaving."

"Me oh my, it certainly seems that the chaos you've brought with you isn't going to be the instrument of my escape this time," said Discord. "It's too bad that you couldn't have brought the Cutie Mark Crusaders with you to the Gala. I'm sure the four of you could do it. I mean, the three of them did it before." 

TD stopped in his tracks at the mention of the fillies. For the briefest of moments his face flashed with anger before he leveled himself out and continued walking. It was too late and the damage had been done.

"You should have seen what I was going to do to them as thanks for helping me escape!" taunted Discord. "All it took was arguing about what I was and I was free as a bird! Well, that and the princesses not begin connected to the Elements anymore, but enough chaos would allow me to escape. I'm sure those fillies are dense enough to help me escape again."

TD stopped walking away once more and his grip tightened on his walking stick. It was as if he wanted to go back and beat the statue into submission with it. It was almost unbreakable so there was a shot that the statue would suffer damage before the staff did. 

Discord reached out and read TD's mind once more. He doubted that the human would actually attack him. That would be foolish. But he wasn't after TD attacking him. That alone would not do. He wanted the conflict. The two opposite ends of TD's thought process fighting each other. One side saying walk away, he's a statue and can't hurt them while the other said to go and make sure that Discord knew to never touch the Crusaders of there would be more hell to pay. Frankly Discord didn't care which side won out in the end. It was the conflict, the internal chaos of his thoughts and emotions, which interested him. 

The best part? It was working. He felt the slightest easing of the protective spells and the tiniest crack in his stone form. He knew that he needed to keep this going as long as he could, but the human would not stay forever, letting Discord needle him into conflict. 

Discord spouted off a few more words vaguely threatening the foals, but he had a larger purpose: there was a larger section of chaos around, he could feel it. Since the castle was close by, he felt that it might be... ah ha. Jackpot. 

Something had gone on in the castle, something big. It threw every occupant into a state of chaos and it was beautiful. All he needed to do was feed off of it for just long enough to escape. Further sensing revealed that the Elements were in there too. What's more, they were upset about something. Yes... that would do nicely. 

Discord turned his full attention back to TD. He'd smirk if he could. "It seems you created quite the ruckus back there," he said. "What did you do I wonder that would send an entire castle into disarray?" 

"We're done here," insisted TD.

"You could have walked away at any point," stated Discord. "I certainly wouldn't be able to stop you." 

"Good, let's keep it that way." TD began walking towards wherever he was going but Discord wasn't giving up so easily. 

"Good luck out there, TD!" he called out. "I hope you like having your life more or less dictated by Celestia and the Elements! I'm sure your family will get over you quickly enough, but foalsitting the children once a week should make up for that!." 

TD stopped once again and Discord allowed himself an internal smile. That had done it. The crack increased allowing Discord to draw from both the chaos in the castle and the internal battle raging within the human. It was ironic really; if the human did decide to attack, it would do more to stop him than merely trying to decide what to do. Seeing upon which side the coin would land wasn't nearly as interesting as the constant chaotic spinning that took place before it landed.

It was almost too good to be true for Discord. The Elements were emotionally distraught, Celestia and Luna were upset, the castle was in an uproar and this human had provided the spark that had set the explosives off. 

And, speaking of explosions, it seems that TD had just about had enough of Discord's taunts. 

He tossed his backpack on the ground with as much fury as he could muster and grabbed the walking stick with both hands. Discord readied himself for freedom; the crack had grown until it was all along his back, as TD charged, shouting a few very not foal-friendly words that only added to the flames. 

With nothing left to lose, TD swung the staff directly at the statue. It collided with the base of Discord's left leg with a satisfying crack. The crack was followed by several more as the blow had fractured the area where it had hit. TD's eyes widened in horror when he realized what he had done, but it was too late. The cracks spider webbed up the statue until in a blinding flash of light, the stone dissolved leaving an empty statue pillar where the god of chaos used to reside. 

TD stared at the empty base in open mouthed horror. "Oh no," he whispered to himself. "No, no no no this can't be happening!" He looked down at the staff in his hand and thwacked the tip on his head. Not hard enough to do any damage, but enough to remind himself that he had screwed up big time. 

He looked up and his eyes landed on the castle in front of him. Of course! The Elements and the princesses were all still inside the castle! He felt like chuckling slightly at the realization that he would have to walk back in directly after he had punched Celestia in the face--for the second time no less--to ask her and the Elements to clean up the mess he made in unleashing Discord. 

Deciding to bite the bullet, TD took a step forward but immediately tumbled to the ground when his foot refused to move. Undeterred, he pushed himself up and tried to move forward again, with no success. He swore and looked down at his feet. To his horror he was no longer standing on grass, but rather in a thick, gooey substance. 

"You'll never get anywhere like that, you know," said a voice above him. TD's head shot up and there, in all of his non-stone glory, was Discord. The creature was even more twisted this close up and TD was more than a little unsettled that this thing was focusing all of its attention on him. 

"I'd say 'let me go' but we both know that's not going to happen, don't we?" said TD. 

"Hard to say," said Discord, thoughtfully scratching his chin with his paw. "You are such a wonderful source of chaos but something I find rather depressing about mortal sources is that the source will run out at some point. There are very few things in this life that produce infinite chaos and you, human, are not one of them. I suppose it also depends on how quickly you could break through extra sticky molasses." 

TD's eyes flickered over to the castle once more, hoping desperately that somebody would decide to take an evening walk to cool their heads after the disaster that was the Gala. 

Following TD's gaze, Discord smirked. "Do you wish to call for help, TD? If so, I won't stop you."

"Or you might," TD replied. 

Discord help up his paw defensively and looked vaguely offended. "Say what you will about me, but I am a creature of my word."

"Or are you? I imagine that me not knowing would cause a lot of chaos."

Discord scoffed and shook his head. "You may be right, but that's no fun after a while. The ponies eventually go mad trying to figure it out and it's just boring."

"I thought that kind of chaos would be fun for you," TD retorted. 

"Pure chaos cannot come around without at least some order, human," stated Discord. "I imagine your species would know that."

"Hard to say, you're fictional in my world." 

Discord let loose an uproarious laugh that he quickly quieted down when he remembered that the princesses and Elements were still nearby. "Excuse my mirth, TD," said Discord, "but I find that very amusing." The draconnequus slowly floated downwards towards TD and placed a claw on his forehead. “I guess in the end it doesn't matter if I'm fictional in your world or not," said Discord. "What matters is that I am free and I intend to stay that way. I mean, have you tried being trapped in stone? It's a nightmare, an absolute nightmare!" 

TD glared at Discord and opened his mouth to retort, but Discord grabbed TD's head in his claws and shoved him downwards, submerging him completely in the molasses he had conjured before diving in himself. 

The molasses pool on the ground quickly began shrinking down until it would prove to all but those who witnessed it that the ground had been undisturbed by anything, magic or otherwise. 

The events of in the Canterlot Statue Garden complete, silence and tranquility reigned over the grounds once more.