//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Realms of Discord 
// by Chilly Quill 
//------------------------------//

The knocking downstairs persisted as Nigma paced nervously around the room. “What are we going to do? There are so many ponies downstairs and we have Discord trapped in the house!”
“I can’t even fly anymore.” Discord moaned. “What’s going on with me?” The draconequus slumped into a corner, rocking in place and mumbling incoherent nonsense. 
Wild Mint grabbed Nigma and held him until the pony stopped moving. “This is an easy fix, you know.” The green pony said calmly. “All we need to do is hide Discord and entertain everypony until they’re ready to leave!”
“And how, exactly, do you plan to do that?” Discord growled. “I’m not partial to being stuffed in a closet and somepony is going to ask to see every last room in the house, I just know it!”
Mint thought for a moment before a wild grin grew on his face. “It’s simple. All we need to do is cast an illusion on you so you can be right in front of us and nopony would know!”
Nigma blinked. “Now I know your speaking nonsense. There’s an illusionist right outside our door. Discord can’t cast his own spells and no illusion spell I could cast could fool Chilly Quill.”
Wild Mint’s grin only grew wider. “So we just need to get that same illusionist to do the work for us!” Nigma and Discord froze in place staring at Wild Mint in bewilderment. “Well I don’t hear you two coming up with anything. No excuse me while I welcome our guests and work on my plan. Not everybody has to be unsociable pigs.”
Wild Mint walked down the stairs before Nigma could snap out of his daze. By the time he came to, Discord had given up and was busy messing with the box in front of the couch. Nigma remembered Wild Mint calling it a television. He shook his head and peeked downstairs.
The sight was worse than Nigma had feared. Wild Mint was already welcoming the last of the guests, allowing two mares inside the house. One he remembered as Rose Wind, the Pegasus he had met at the town hall. He looked around for Chilly Quill but couldn’t find him anywhere. He suddenly felt a hoof poking his back and he jumped, smacking away the hoof. He found Chilly Quill right behind him, shying away. “I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just that Mint told me you needed me for something.”
Nigma didn’t waste any time dragging Chilly Quill upstairs, leaving Wild Mint to entertain the guests. Mint grinned when he saw Chilly flash up the stairs. “Step one, check. All I have to do is keep everypony busy.” 
Uncle Crabapple had walked up to Mint while he was talking now staring at the Stallion curiously. “Oh hi Uncle C. I was just . . . thinking.” Crabapple nodded toward the stairs. “Oh Nigma just needed Chilly’s help with a stain.” 
A muffled cry came from upstairs, making Crabapple blink. Wild Mint grinned nervously. “It’s a really bad stain. “
Meanwhile upstairs, Nigma was busy holding down and muffling a frantic Chilly Quill. “I thought I told you to be quite!” Nigma said, struggling to keep his magic around Chilly Quill. “Just keep calm and I’ll let you go.”
Chilly muffled something from under the magic gag, nodding as he did so. Satisfied, Nigma dropped his magic and helped up the grey unicorn. “I guess I overreacted.” Chilly sighed. “But why do you have Discord in your house? I thought that he was just a legend, but here he is!”
“Legends have to come from somewhere, you know.” Discord huffed. 
“He’s right you know.” Nigma said quietly. “It’s a lot to explain, but here’s a short explaination. Discord is real and he’s basically my dad. Something’s blocking out his magic and we need your help hiding him in plain sight. Can you help out?”
Chilly Quill was busy staring down the Draconequus in front of him. Discord twitched and shifted around, trying to break his line of sight. Chilly sighed dreamily. “You said something about trees, right?”
“N-no we need you to use your magic to hide Discord from everypony downstairs!”
The mention of magic stirred up Chilly Quill. “Y-you want me to u-use magic on him?” He stuttered. “I can’t hide him! My magic isn’t strong enough! For gods sake man, I barely get by when I’m making stories with the pictures provided!” He paused for a moment, glancing over at discord. “Although . . . he might make a wonderful painting if he can stay still for a moment or two.”
Discord glanced up from the TV just as Chilly Quill’s horn ignited in a blast of crimson energy. The magic grabbed Discord as he tried to run away, shifting around him until the light enveloped the draconequus’ body. A few moments later a giant picture stood in place of Discord, the painting horrifically blurry and difficult to understand.
Nigma tried not to laugh as the picture screamed. “What happened to me? Why can’t I stop running?”
Chilly Quill sighed. “I told you to stay still. These kinds of illusion spells suspend the creature in their last movement. It makes it easier to mask your body.” Another flash came from Chilly and Discord popped back up, continuing his running right into to wall. “Now stay still this time! I don’t want to make another blurry picture.”
“Maybe a little warning next time!” Discord snapped. “Let me see what I can do.” Discord sat up and set himself into a pose that struck Nigma as familiar. It was almost like the last time Discord was sealed up. 
Chilly Quill nodded, lowering his head. Another flash of light went off, reproducing the painting as it was before, minus the indescribable blob. In its place was a perfect reproduction of Discord posing like royalty in front of the sunrise. Nigma stood awestruck in front of the painting, almost believing that Discord was inside of the painting.
The painting wiggled until it fell over. “This feels really weird.” Discord said from behind the veil. “I feel completely blocky and I can’t move an inch. How long is this going to last?”
Chilly pondered the question for a moment. “I think it lasts for a week unattended.”
Nigma could swear he could see the painted Discord’s jaw drop. “If you think I’m going to stay this way for a week, you’ve got another thing coming to you!”
“Relax, Discord.” Nigma said. “Once everypony leaves, Chilly will drop the spells on you. We’ll take care of your magic then.”
Discord was about to say something when Wild Mint called the two ponies downstairs. “Looks like it’s time to put up or shut up.” Chilly said. He grabbed the painting with his magic, holding it in front of him as he walked downstairs. “You coming or not, Nigma?”
Nigma shrugged, walking down the stairs. He could immediately hear shrieks of joy from the group below. “Oh my god! I love that picture! Chilly, is that a housewarming gift?”
Chilly grinned. “Indeed it is. Nigma had me clean up a stain he made on the canvas. I marred Discord’s perfect figure.”
Two identical earth ponies walked up to the painting, eyeing it critically. “It’s not the best Discord painting we’ve seen.” They said at once. “It’s like someone added a second belly to him.”
“I’ll give you a second belly!” Discord screamed from underneath the veil. Nigma flinched, but it seemed like Chilly Quill was the only other pony to hear the threat. 
“I will admit that you cleaned it up nicely.” Wild Mint walked up to the group, smiling at the new painting. “It bears more resemblance to Discord than most paintings I’ve seen now! Can’t believe how badly marred the picture was before!”
The two earth ponies frowned. “You haven’t been to any decent art galleries, have you?”
Wild Mint frowned before walking up to Nigma. “We’ll find a place for the picture later. Right now I need to introduce you to my friends.” He turned back to the two ponies. “These are the Note Twins; Sharp Note and Flat Note.”
Nigma couldn’t distinguish between between the two until one walked up. “Hi there, pretty boy. I’m Sharp. My brother is Flat. What’s your name?”
Nigma glanced over at Flat Note, seeing the menacing glare being given to him. “My Name is Nigma. It’s a pleasure to meet you both!”
“Oh, but the pleasure is all mine!” Sharp mused. “You simply must come visit us at our house uptown. I’d love to play you a few of my original pieces.”
Nigma’s eyes lit up. “You two are musicians?” 
Flat Note frowned. “You couldn’t tell by the names?”
Nigma ignored the rude remark. “You have to tell me what instruments you play!”
The twins looked at each other before laughing. “It would be easier to tell you what we DON’T play!” Sharp giggled. “Neither of us can play the Saxophone.”
Nigma blinked, trying to understand why that one instrument eluded the twins. He didn’t have a chance to as before another mare walked up to him. “So you’re the stallion that Wild Mint told me about.” Nigma glanced at the mare. She was a cute white Pegasus with a pink mane and a teacup as a cutie mark. The Pegasus immediately squealed when she glanced at Nigma’s eyes, shying away behind Wild Mint.
Nigma frowned. “I didn’t even do anything this time. Why is she afraid of me?”
Wild Mint shook his head. “Don’t take it personally, buddy. She’s afraid of everything unusual. She’s really only comfortable at work and home. You wouldn’t believe what I had to do to convince her to come over.” Wild Mint backed up, shoving the Pegasus in front of him again. “Go on and tell him your name. His eyes aren’t going to hurt you.”
Nigma felt his heart sink. Most ponies didn’t even bother mentioning his color wheel eyes. He didn’t think such a cute pony would find them strange, much less be scared by them.
The frightened mare glanced at Nigma again, this time grinning. “Your eyes aren’t that scary, actually. They just caught me off guard.” Nigma grinned. “Well my name is Summer Sun. It’s nice to meet you.”
Nigma’s eyes flashed blue for a moment. “It’s an honor to meet you, Miss Sun.”
The Pegasus blushed. “Oh please. Just call me Summer.”
“Well then, Miss Summer. I’m honored to welcome you to our new home. I’m sure my friend Mint is just as honored.”
“Well he should be.” Summer said nervously. “He is my brother after all.”