Twilight paced around the library.
Her friends looked to her with concern, they knew how their friend could get when she was too nervous.
Outside it was raining chocolate milk, and Pinkie Pie was jumping around with her tongue sticking out. Rainbow Dash dragged the reluctant mare inside the library as it began to rain anvils. Rarity groaned as Pinkie licked the chocolate off herself in a literal tornado of tongue. Spike passed out their elements. They placed them on their respective necks, and waited for Twilight to finish her muttering and pacing. As soon as she started to run down the flooring Spike placed a claw in front of her.
"Sorry girls. I'm nervous. Discord hasn't done anything apart from chaos and destruction. He usually has some grand scheme." Twilight said, rubbing her hooves through her mane. The rest of the girls pulled her into a group hug. Just then, Spike barfed up a message. It floated and attached itself to Rarity's face. She reacted as anypony would, by screaming.
"GET IT OFF ME!" Rarity screamed as she ran back and forth trying to get the possessed scroll off her precious purple mane. She ran around before Twilight pulled it off the screaming mare, giving her a slight smirk. She rolled her eyes and opened the scroll.
My Dear Elements,
I've got a little surprise at my castle.
Come to negotiate.
If you do, there will be cake,
If not, well you enjoy chocolate rain, Don't you?
Toodles,
Discord
"I can't believe this!" Twilight said in disbelief. Pinkie Pie stole the note away.
"Me neither! It's not even raining chocolate anymore! Liar!" She said.
"How do we know this isn't some sort of trap?" Rainbow said, the others nodded in agreement.
"I don't know, he might be lying, but we need to trust him for now if we want things in Equestria to go back to normal." Twilight said sternly. Pinkie threw an arm around her friend.
"Twilight's right. We have to go. Discord said there was a surprise!" Pinkie squealed like an excited child. The other mares looked to each other. Rainbow Dash flew up.
"Okay, all in favor of going, raise your hoof." She raised her hoof. Applejack raised hers, and she was followed by almost everypony in the room, except Fluttershy. They all looked to her, she backed into the shelving. Rainbow Dash pulled her to the group, she clawed at the floor. She blushed and raised her hoof.
"Good, we're all agreed. Well, let's pack a bag and try to find this castle." Twilight said. The scroll floated towards her, the back transformed into a map. Twilight seized it with her magic and placed it in her pack, the others packed their saddlebags and strapped them to their backs. Rarity had made a hat. The anvils had stopped raining down. But Twilight placed a force field over them anyway. They headed towards the Everfree Forest together.
I woke up in an odd cage. My forehead burned. I reached up to touch it, and I found my horn was gone. Brilliant.
I attempted to look beyond the cage, but in between the bars was this mesh wire. I was stuck in a cage, with only my wings. Great.
I sat and tapped the cage floor. I waited around, continuously tapping. Last I saw, this was Discord's doing, and I knew one way to insult him.
"This is typical. Place a mare in a cage. Boring." I said. The mesh disappeared. I nodded. A box appeared before me. A filly popped out. She wore a beanie, and her mane was curly and purple with white highlights, or maybe it was the other way around. The strangest part of her was her eyes, they were swirled and magenta, like a lollipop. She flew up to my cage, though she had no wings. She looked like an Earth pony.
"Hi! I'm Screwball!" She said with a cheery voice. I stared.
"Do you like chocolate? Why are your eyes like that? Do you like watermelon? What's your favorite color? Mine's green, or white, I love all the colors!" Screwball said. She looked at me with a discerning eye. She reminded me somewhat of Dinky, which sort of comforted me.
"Well let's see, I like chocolate, my eyes are dark purple because of an effect of emergency Alicorn transformation, I like watermelon, I don't have a favorite color." Screwball's jaw dropped.
"No favorite color? Do you at least like candy?" I shrugged. She screamed. She flew up to a security camera on the wall.
"Daddy why did you take this mare?" She yelled into the camera. I realized she was Discord's creation. It made sense.
She flew down to my cage.
"Why did Daddy choose you?" She spun the cage around me. I disappeared into my mind palace, searching through my memories.
"Come with me." He whispered into my ear.
My body was still burning from the transformation.
"Where?" I asked. He pointed to the mountains.
"We could live there forever, just the two of us. You're immortal now. We could live together up there, just the two of us, for all eternity." He kissed my cheek, making me blush.
"Discord, my mother would be destitute. I can't just leave her. I can't." I said as he kissed my neck. He stopped.
"Well we'll have to wait until she's dead then." He said.
"What?" I yelled. He shrugged.
"Everypony will die one day. Except for us." He said in a matter of fact voice.
"But, but." I stuttered. He placed a claw over my mouth.
"I understand. You can't handle it right now. But when you're ready." He said. We kissed, I saw in the corner of my eye, his claw getting ready to snap.
"What are you doing!" I yelled, he looked at me calmly.
"It's not what you think." He said. I shook my head and backed up.
Suddenly light flew around him. I fell out of the tree. He was struggling against the magic, I pulled on my blanket and flew clumsily up towards him. Sun guards surrounded him, Celestia's mark on their chest armor.
"What are you doing to him?!" I yelled, they blocked me from reaching him.
"Ma'am stay out of this." The one holding him said, Discord had fallen unconscious. I fought against the ones holding me back.
I fired a shot at them, followed by another, and another. I was shooting at them, I couldn't stop. My eyes glowed, my sound mind went inside myself, I was blinded by anger and rage. They fired one shot at me, the first two hitting my wings, the last, my head, causing me to fall to the ground, paralyzed as they took Discord away.
Meanwhile in the real world, Screwball was tapping me on the shoulder, her hooves somehow magically passing through the cage.
"Hello? Are you still there?" She asked, hitting the side of the cage. I came back.
"Yes?" I answered suddenly.
"So, what do you wanna do? I'm really bored. It's usually just Daddy and me here." She said. I nodded. Suddenly, an idea formed in my head. I decided to put it to action.
"Could you get rid of this cage? Then we could see your dad together. And then we could have some fun." I said, she clapped excitedly. Then she leaned back her head and laughed evilly.
"Of course!" I'd love to introduce you to Daddy!" She squealed. I felt the cage glow around me, the cage slowly burned. Finally the cage disappeared. The chance was too tempting, what with a window just open a few feet away. I had to get away from this horrid madhouse. I flew out.
I flew away as fast as I could. I reached the edge, a force field stopped me from flying any further. I struggled as chains appeared around my hooves. Suddenly, Discord appeared next to me, holding the chains and making a "tsk, tsk" noise. He looked as he did when I knew him. Except he had a beard.
"Oh, I'm disappointed in you... What was your name again?" He looked to me. I thought, he doesn't recognize me, I could use this to my advantage. I thought of something unrelated to my name.
"Why should I tell you?" I said.
"Well if you're going to disappoint my daughter I would like to know your name. I'm Discord by the way." He said, picking his ear.
"I'm Stargaze." I said.
"Well Stargaze, you are about to be a very useful mare." He said. He placed a paw to his ear and listened to something I couldn't hear. He then started to work hard.
"Starry, we'll have to continue this fun chat later." He said, chuckling as he laughed. I glared at him. Discord snapped his fingers and I appeared in a small cage in a place that looked sorta like a backstage for a theater. My wings were bound my two chains. I struggled against them, but they wouldn't budge. Discord put a claw to his lips and shushed me.
"Wait for your cue, my dear." He said, I replied with an angry grunt.
He rose up from the floor, leaving me in the dark.
Discord rose out of the floor, matching the gazes of the other ponies who stared in amazement as they stood on their platforms.
"Welcome, dear ponies! I hope you enjoyed my little transport present!" He said, summoning a throne with a snap of his fingers.
He only received cold stares in return.
"What is this visit for, Discord?" The purple unicorn asked. Ah, Celestia's little teacher's pet. Twilight. Well she would learn.
"Yeah! That ride wasn't fun at all!" Pinkie said.
"Yes, but the platforms are made of chocolate." Discord said. Pinkie licked the platform, and her tongue got stuck on the frozen metal, she pulled on it and yelled for help. Discord chuckled at the sight.
"What is it that you want Dipcord?" Rainbow Dash yelled.
"Simply a few things. If you'll allow me to explain, then I will. If not. Well, let's just say the next few day will rain killer chocolate rabbits." He said. Fluttershy gasped. Twilight sighed.
"Well why should we give anything to you?" Rainbow asked.
"If you want your kingdom back, you'll do it. And there's the matter of my hostage." Discord said with a grin.
"Hostage?" The element bearers parroted. Discord snapped his fingers as a cage appeared. A purple pegasus in a cage rose, her muzzle covered with a gag, her wings bound to her back with chains. The girls gasped.
"What have you done to that poor mare?" Twilight asked.
"Nothing yet, though I will if you refuse me." Discord answered.
"Girls! We have to save her! What if he feeds her chocolate bunnies until she bursts!" Pinkie yelled, apparently freed from the platform's trap.
"Who is she?" Rarity asked.
"Why, I am surprised at you all. She was a resident of Ponyville. I thought you would recognize her." Discord said, he looked at the pegasus with renewed interest. Pinkie stared.
"Nope! And I know everypony in Ponyville!" Pinkie Pie said.
"What do you want?"
"Well, I have a little deal for you. I'll stay in my old castle here, and you'll take the mare off my hooves for a week. Then you decide, you can let the mare rejoin me, or any mare can join me. Your choice. If you do anything in an attempt to destroy me in anyway, I'll go back to my old ways, and Equestria turns to my vision of perfection. So don't think about using those pesky Elements." Discord said. The mares were obviously considering it.
"Well what will you do to the mare when you have her?" Twilight asked, her eyes narrowed.
"I don't know, lock her up, transform her into an orange, anything is possible." Discord said with an indifferent shrug.
Twilight turned to her friends for guidance. They formed a small circle of friendship, all of them with their backs facing Discord.
They all looked at each other, waiting for somepony to speak first.
"We can't just give him an innocent mare... Can we Twi?" Applejack said.
"I can't even begin to think of what he would do to her." Fluttershy mumbled.
"I don't know. But we can't leave Equestria to suffer, we'll take her to Princess Celestia and figure out what will happen then."
"That seems wise." Rarity said. The others muttered agreements. They turned to the waiting draconequus, of whom at that point had made his own living room as he sat smoking a bubble pipe while wearing a robe and fez. He snapped his finger and everything disappeared around him except the robe, fez, and pipe.
Can I really condemn a mare to a lifetime with this beast? Twilight thought. She looked to her friends for guidance.
"So, my little ponies, deal or no deal?" He asked, transforming the room into a game show set, with the mares in front of colorful podiums, each with a large red button on top.
Twilight swallowed her fears and hit the button.
Bzzt!
"We accept. On one condition." Twilight said, she still sounded unsure.
"And what would that be?" Discord said in a condescending tone, irking Twilight.
"You have to treat whoever comes to you at the end of the week in a respectful manner. You can't hurt the mare." Twilight said. Discord raised his eyebrows and smiled.
"I think I could live with that." Discord replied. He shook Twilight's hoof to seal the deal.
He snapped his fingers and the mare fell to the floor and gasped for air. The group ran over to her and pulled her towards the exit.
"See you in a week!" He called after them as the chaos slowly disappeared around them.
He knew that for the hermit pony, a week in society would be torture. And he would be thrilled when she came back begging to be released from those ponies obsessed with making new friends with everypony they met. Oh this was far too good a plan.