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// prologue: In the gardens  
// Story: monster: second chance 
// by mama13579 
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As she often did after lowering the sun, Princess Celestia decided to take a walk around the grounds. Officially this was to clear her head after a day of listening to tedious affairs of the day court. While this was in part true.The actual  reason  was because she adored  listening to the sounds of Lulu's night. The crickets chirping in  the grass, the soft hoot of an owl and of course the distant roar of the Canterlot waterfall.
Tonight, she decided, is a great night to walk the hedge maze. As she neared the entrance a voice called out " Halt! this area is of limits to all o-o-oh your majesty" he stammered, as Celestia came into view" forgive me I mistook you for a civilian"
" That's quite alright Sergeant" Celestia said, waving a hoof to show no harm done.
" But I am curious how did you mistake me for a civilian?" the princess asked.
" Its dark out your majesty, I heard hooves approaching, so I issued the standard warning." He said, having regained his composure

"Ah, I see, well please stand aside so that I might continue my walk." Celestia  said

She then cracks a smirk "I promise I won't release Discord."
"Yes ma'am." He said, moving off to the side and saluting as she passed by."Enjoy the rest of your night.
"And you as well sergeant." And with that Celestia entered the maze.
The first few minutes few minutes passed by in a blur with Celestia lost in her thoughts. Her thoughts were interrupted when she came to a fork in the path she did not recall. This momentarily threw her through a loop until she remembered that thanks to an ingenious piece of magic, the maze was constantly changing. This of course was why she placed Discord here so it would be much harder for anypony to find him.
"After all"she thought,"we wouldn't want a repeat of what happened when those three fillies found him."



The only reason she knew of this event was because he had told her when he had finished corrupting my student and her friends.


"Discord how did you escape?" She asked when the draconequus had suddenly appeared before her. "You were suppose to be sealed away unto the end of time.


"Its really a funny story Celestia," Discord said, there I was minding my own  business when, suddenly three fillies started fighting in front of me, and wouldn't you know it the disharmony of the fight allowed me to escape.

"the next time your imprisoned I shall place you far away from anypony then" Celestia had said

"There won't be a next time Celestia, I have taken your six little ponies and thrust them into disharmony, now your oh so precious elements of harmony are nothing but tacky pieces of jewelry." Discord said, " now nothing can stop me, ahhahahahaha!"

And with a snap of his claws he had disappeared.
Celestia continued on, deciding to take the right path at each juncture. One hour later she emerged into the heart of the maze.
Discord, stood before her, bound in stone with a look of terror upon his face. Indeed, his pose looked almost pitiful, not like the defiant stature he’d assumed the first time he’d been imprisoned.
"Hello...Russell."she whispered using Discords true name, a name which had not been uttered for millennia. As she sat down on a nearby bench, she pondered the being before her. He was not always as he was now. Nay, in ages past he was once a kind and gentle stal- no not a stallion a... What was that word again? Man, she remembered, that was what male humans called themselves . He was a kind and gentle man once, as well as a friend to Luna and herself.
Celestia thought back to the day she first found him, lying in a field not far from the castle. He seemed so weak and helpless, so she had decided to look after him and nurse him back to health. She recalled how Russell had struck up such a rapport with Luna. Celestia being the older of the princesses and therefore the main ruler of the land, thought it wonderful that her sister had a friend to spend time with while she was busy with the affairs of state.
Then came the day he fought the pegasus. She started distrusting him as she came to understand he was as weak and helpless as she had once assumed. In addition she noticed a budding relationship between Luna and Russell, this served only to deepen her distrust. She was sure this was not a matter of to much concern.
"After all" she rationalized "he's just a mortal and in time he'll die and be forgotten."
So she contented herself to wait. She waited for months, then years, then decades, she realized he was not going to die anytime soon. Her distrust deepened further. She took solace instead in the fact that he was just one being and could never truly pose a threat to her realm.
That all changed when Russell began to manifest his strange powers. She started to become truly fearful of him since he now  had the ability to threaten the diarchy, whereas Luna took endless delight in watching him create, warp and destroy matter for hours on end. In hindsight she realized she should have helped him learn how to control his power, instead of letting Luna encourage him to use his powers freely and without consequence. Maybe then perhaps that poor stallion might not have died.
She knew now of course that she should have given him a chance to explain his actions. Alas, back then she had been so sure that here was the validation of all she had come to suspect, that without a second thought she assembled the armies and gave chase as he fled. When she caught up with Russell she found him sitting on a stone throne staring at a glass of chocolate milk. Luna called out to him but he seemed not to hear. She thought back to how utterly furious she was then, how she couldn't wait to drag him back to the castle and lock him in the deepest darkest dungeon for all eternity.


Fate however had other plans. What happened next still haunts her nightmares, Russell's body began to twist and reshape itself into a jumble of different animal parts, it was in that moment, she theorized, that the Russell she knew truly died, replaced by Discord, the self proclaimed spirit of chaos and disharmony. Celestia shuddered, the next thousand years were to unspeakable to even imagine. Next Celestia recalled her and Luna's final battle with Discord after discovering the elements. How he had laughed as we summoned a set of stone orbs, how that laughter had turned to panic as the  light struck him and began to turn his body into stone, and how most disturbingly, that panic became laughter once more. What she didn't know was having to imprison her former friend destroyed Luna's spirit making her susceptible to the darkness.
A single tear rolled down Celestia's cheek as she remembered having to seal her sister in the moon, an act she always regarded as her greatest failure. Hope was not entirely lost however.  A small smile appeared  on her lips as she thought about how Twilight Sparkle her most faithful student, and her friends had rediscovered the elements and cleansed Luna of the shadow in her heart. And yet, a frown took the smiles place, she still catches glimpses of Luna looking forlorn and melancholy when she thinks nopony  is watching, it's almost as if she misses somepony... Suddenly Celestia has an idea.
"That's it!" she exclaims leaping to her hooves.
" I know how to fix lulu's mood as well as help you Russell. She says walking up to the statue.
" Fluttershy." She states simply.
"Yes that should do nicely and although I know you probably can't hear me I promise you will be yourself again real soon." She announces to  the statue. And with  that she turns and begins to make her way out of the maze, a plan coalescing within her mind, as well as a realization that her plan has made her words to the guard earlier a lie.  
Unbeknownst  to her, within his prison Discord has heard her.[j]