//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 - A Brief Holiday // Story: Tales From Day Court // by Blade Star //------------------------------// Two weeks after the wedding, it was a case of all hands, or hooves, on deck. The long awaited Royal Summit was upon us. Equestria’s political system is remarkably similar to that of Britain, albeit with a monarch who actually has the ability to exercise political power. It’s a strange mix of a federal and unitary system. Each region has its own governing body which handles domestic day to day matters. Each year, all of these different ponies come together to discuss matters at a national level. In a way, it’s a bit like Parliament. Each city or region sends a delegation to represent their interests at the summit. The point of the summit is to address major issues affecting one or more region and to provide solutions, encouraging cooperation. Everything is covered in the summit, from education, to common defence, to financial matters, and of course, matters of the law. Celestia, Luna, and their respective advisors, myself included, would oversee the various meetings. Delegates would also vote on proposed changes to national policy, subject to royal endorsement, and take part in the usual fact finding and strengthening relations exercises. The upshot of all this, was that soon Canterlot Castle would be flooded with ponies from all over Equestria, as well as representatives from its protectorates, such as the Crystal Empire. The big finish would be the unveiling of a statue built by the crystal ponies as a gift to Equestria as a whole. As you might have guessed, there was quite a lot of preparation to do beforehand. I myself would be meeting with quite a few legal bigwigs including the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor, the Chief of the Manehatten Police, and the CO of the Appleloosa Rangers, as well as quite a few judges and prosecutors, including my old friend Wrought Steel, who was representing the Canterlot CPS. All my plans had to be presented to both Celestia and Twilight, who was organising the summit this year, and loving it. Heading along the corridor to the throne room, I became aware of raised voices coming from within. The great doors were too thick to make anything out, a security measure on the part of Celestia, but I could definitely hear an argument. I approached the guarded double doors. “What’s going on in there, chaps?” I asked the two guards on duty. “Sounds like a real shouting match.” One of the guards prepared to open the door for me. “The princess granted Discord an audience, sir,” he replied, a little wearily. Yeah, that’d do it. Discord can be like an eight year old at times. When he wants something, he demands it, and when he doesn’t get it, he can throw a right tantrum. Perhaps I could help. Heading inside, I was barely fazed by the scene before me. Celestia was out of her throne, standing on the dais, glaring angrily at Discord, her eyes narrowed in annoyance and her swan like wings open. Discord meanwhile, was surrounded by a pack of guards and was shouting angrily. “Attica! Attica! Attica!” he shouted, stamping his foot indignantly, and pointing an accusing claw at the guards, several of whom were unicorns with their magic ready. This was a new one. Walking in, Celestia spotted me quickly enough, relief becoming evident on her features. Aside from Fluttershy, I’m one of the few people the draconequus will listen to. Remember what I said about our friendship being like that of House and Wilson? I guess that makes Celestia Cuddy. Standing behind the still angry draconequus, I cleared my throat. This got his attention and he turned around to face me. “Erm…Attica?” he offered. I pinched the bridge of my nose in an effort to quell the impending headache. “Alright, Discord. What’s going on here?” I asked. Discord quickly leapt at the opening. “Ah, brilliant!” he declared. “Roger, will you tell sun butt over here that she can’t ban me from the summit.” Celestia was coming close to losing her temper; Discord is the only being I’ve come across that can really get under her skin. I could see where the argument had come from. “Discord, why do you even want to go?” I asked, tiredly. “The whole thing is just a couple of days of lots of boring bureaucrats meeting up to swap notes. What possible reason could you have for wanting to go?” “Why the chaos, my friend!” he replied. Leaning down, he wrapped his form around my shoulders. “A whole day of ponies arguing, complaining, debating, and throwing petty insults at each other. I need to be there!” He did have a point; Manehatten was sending a delegation after all. And at times, Celestia had told me, things could get quite heated. Having heard Discord’s side of the story, I turned to the princess. “And, respectfully, your highness, why can’t Discord attend?” Celestia seemed to have gotten a handle on her temper now, and was sitting down in her throne again. Her expression was back to its calm default setting. “My advisor, you of all ponies should know just how…disruptive Discord can be. This is one of the most important, and trying, political events of the year, without his presence. I have no desire to see further disharmony amongst my little ponies.” I turned back to Discord. “She does have a point, old man,” I said. “Your brand of fun isn’t exactly suited to something like this. We need ponies to work together, not start fighting with each other. Nor do we need any of your unique form of comedy.” Discord wilted, literally. I tried to find some way to compromise. “Look, Discord,” I said, rubbing the back of my head. “Why don’t you help me out with my part of the summit? Leave the political side of things to the princess.” I knew I was sort of enabling him, but if I didn’t do something, he’d probably start some sort of guerrilla campaign or Occupy Canterlot movement. Still, it seemed to satisfy him. He quickly perked up again. “That does sound like fun!” he declared. “After all, at my age, I am just as well versed in the law as you are.” He snapped his talons, prompting a judge’s wig and gowns to appear on him, along with a pair of spectacles. I addressed Celestia again. “Is that acceptable to you, your highness?” I asked. Celestia was halfway between frowning and smiling at the situation. On the one hand, I was encouraging Discord to compromise, maintain his friendships, and cooperate with me. On the other though, I was effectively rewarding his juvenile behaviour. Still, it’s not like I can take away his chaos powers, so we’re kind of stuck. “Very well,” she replied eventually, still not sounding entirely confident. “Discord may join you during your meetings. But I ask that he not disrupt proceedings, and that he not use his chaos magic too frequently.” Discord pouted. A pleading look from me got him on side though. “Agreed, Celestia. I shall not use my chaos magic to disrupt the summit.” I’ll be honest; that really worried me. But he had given his word, and since the incident with Tirek, Discord has been quite good at keeping his promises. With that, the two of us left the throne room. Discord followed me back to my office, sticking to my side like glue all the way. Having him around would certainly make things more tolerable. As much as he can be a pain at times, he is also serves as a great counter to boredom. And, in my case, he is quite fun to be around, though I’m sure many ponies who aren’t such close friends with him would disagree with me on that one. In any case, there was plenty he could do to help out. As long as he was occupied doing something he viewed as fun, Discord was quite manageable. Plus, who better to co-chair discussions on Equestrian law than the being who knows every possible way of breaking them. Heading into my office, I explained my plan of action to Discord. “Right, old man,” I began. “The two of us are going to be looking after the legal delegations during the summit. There’ll be a couple of meetings on general law and order and crime levels, one discussion on proposed changes to Equestrian law due to new case law, and one on rehabilitation. Those are the big ones I’ll need to oversee anyway.” "Sounds interesting enough,” Discord replied, having peeled off to examine the trinkets and nick-knacks scattered about my office, as well as the small library of legal texts. “And here was me thinking you’d be bored out of your skull,” I answered, smiling. It should have occurred to me the moment he agreed to help that he was up to something. “Still, nice to have you on board to help.” Discord turned around to face me, smiling like a cat with the cream. “Well, I thought it a fair exchange, my friend,” he said, forming his paw and talon together into a steeple. “Exchange?” I parroted. This only made him smile more as he walked over to me. “Yes, a little exchange. I agree to take a walk in your shoes, and you get to walk in mine.” I was now completely befuddled. “Discord, what on earth are you…” I didn’t get to finish my question, as Discord snapped his talons. I felt the familiar sensation of magic hit me, though it was stronger than anything I’d felt before; even stronger than a teleport. My feet suddenly gave way beneath me, and I only just managed to grab the nearby desk to steady myself. A few moments later, things returned to normal; my balance was regained, my vision stopped swimming and the odd tingling sensation under my skin faded. “Argh,” I exclaimed, putting a hand to my forehead. “What was that for? You know I don’t react well to your chaos magic. You can’t just go snapping your talons will-nilly.” For effect, I snapped my own fingers. It was at that moment, I saw a bright flash off to one side. That was Discord’s magic signature. Whereas unicorns and alicorns used spells that gave off a particular coloured aura, Discord’s magic manifested in a white flash. Turning to see what it was, I found that the potted plant on my desk was now alarmingly sentient, and snapping irritably at me like a rabid dog. I turned back to Discord. “And the point of that exercise was?” I asked. Discord, still smiling, held up his various appendages. “Wasn’t me,” he replied. “I didn’t snap my talons for that. Interesting little beasty though.” I sighed; of course it was him! He was the only being on this planet that could perform chaos magic. The only other person in the room was me, and I have no magic. Snapping my fingers would do absolutely jack. Then, with an insufferable clang, the penny dropped. Discord had hit me with a spell. I had then jokingly snapped my fingers, mimicking him when he used his magic, then the plant had turned into a Triffid. I turned back to the still snarling house plant. Focusing for a moment on what I wanted, I snapped my fingers again. Instantly, the plant was engulfed in a white flash of light, and when it receded, the plant was back to normal again. I think ‘bugger’ is a suitable word for summing up this situation. I turned back to Discord. “Discord,” I said, in a calm voice. “Tell me what you just did. Then undo it.” Discord rolled his eyes at my seriousness. “Oh, don’t be such a drama queen,” he replied. “You’re perfectly safe. I just transferred a small amount of my magic to you, giving you some token chaos powers. I told you before; I’m going to walk a mile in your shoes, so you can take a walk in mine. It’s a bonding exercise.” I was going to kill him. My mind had already thought up a dozen different ways to beat the living daylights out of him. Luckily, saner heads prevailed. I’m not even sure you can kill Discord. My best bet was to see Celestia, or Twilight, or anypony who knew how to fix this. For goodness sake; the summit started in a few hours! I quickly made for the door. “Going somewhere, dear boy?” Discord asked. “I thought we needed to plan out all those meetings.” You know what’s crazy; Discord wasn’t doing this out of spite. Either he thought he was genuinely helping me, or was trying to teach me a friendship lesson. Resisting the urge to crush the door knob, I turned back to him. “I’m just going to see Celestia first, Discord. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” I then proceeded to open the door. “Well, at least save your legs. You can teleport yourself now after all,” he offered. Hell no. “You know what, Discord; I’m good.” With that, I headed out the door, and pretty much ran toward the throne room. With the summit still a few hours away, Celestia was still in the throne room finishing off some paperwork of her own. Everything has to be signed and approved by either herself or Luna; so when she isn’t hearing petitioners, she’s signing documents. As I walked in through the double doors, she looked up from her work. “Are you alright, my advisor?” she asked. I imagine the look on my face was something west of murder. Even the guards backed off a little as I walked up. Stopping before the dais, I took a breath and explained the situation. “Princess, we have a serious problem,” I reported. The alicorn did her best to repress a sigh at the news and rolled her eyes. Sending the small mountain of paperwork elsewhere with her magic, she stepped off her throne and stood with me. “What has he done now?” she asked, referring to Discord. I then explained what the prat had done to me, and the fact that I now had innately unstable chaos magic coursing through my body. Celestia’s response was thus. “Discord!” she bellowed, briefly dipping into her own version of Luna’s infamous ‘Royal Canterlot Voice’. The guards and I all grabbed our ears in an effort to preserve our eardrums. A moment later, the insufferable twit I call my best friend materialised in the throne room. This time, he was wearing a light brown chauffeur's uniform, complete with hat. “You rang, milady?” he asked in a poor imitation of a Trottingham accent. I sank my head into my hands. Why oh why did I let him watch Thunderbirds? Celestia promptly began questioning Discord. “Is there any particular reason you needed to give one of my advisors access to your chaotic powers?” she asked. Holding up a paw, correcting her, Discord replied. “Sporadically uncontrollable chaotic powers,” he added. Celestia’s eye twitched. He went on. “Hey, it’s not my fault, everypony new to magic gets surges, look at unicorn foals. I mean really what harm can he…” I cut him off. “Hang on, Discord. What do you mean ‘sporadically uncontrollable’?” I asked worriedly. Celestia answered for him. “When innate magic activates in a pony, it takes time for them to gain control of it. In unicorn foals, until they get to about one year old and their magic becomes dormant until early adolescence, it can manifest in uncontrolled and powerful surges.” That didn’t help alleviate my worry “How serious are we talking?” I queried, looking at both of them. Celestia too, now looked decidedly concerned. “Well, a unicorn foal can inadvertently perform spells that even Twilight might consider challenging. Their magic is unrestrained and undirected.” “Exactly,” Discord broke in. “He’ll be fine; stop worrying.” “Discord, if a unicorn’s magic can be that powerful, what kind of results do you think might arise from uncontrolled chaos magic?” she demanded. I understood what she was getting at. This magic could fire off at any time. And given its greater scope, whatever I was thinking about at the time could happen. Literally anything. Well, I suppose there had to be a limit; Discord had said I only had some token powers. Still, I’ve seen the stuff he can do with just basic abilities. “Oh, it’ll be fine, Celestia,” Discord replied. “He can’t affect gravitational fields or the planet. Worst case scenario he summons some terrifying demon from his subconscious.” That, of course, was all it took. The passing thought, triggered a surge, which caused the magic to activate. A moment later, in the middle of the throne room, there was a terrifying gestalt demon roaring the place down. “And with that,” Discord said, snapping his talons and producing a top hat. “I take my leave.” And the bastard vanished in a flash of light. As terrifying as it was, the demon I had inadvertently created was no match for Celestia. Activating her own powerful magic, she hit the creature square in the chest, knocking it down. She then encircled the creature with thick iron chains before teleporting it away, presumably to the dungeons. Comically, she paused to blow a stray hair out of her eyes. She then turned to me. “Right, we will deal with that later,” she said. “For the moment, I think it’s best if we ensure your safety, Roger.” “I wholeheartedly agree with you, your highness,” I replied. “Is there anything you can do to reverse what Discord has done?” Unfortunately, Celestia shook her head. “Alicorn magic cannot easily override chaos magic. It certainly can’t remove it from a being. And I doubt that any kind of magical restraint or deactivation spell would help either. The only thing that could undo such things would be the Elements of Harmony.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “So what do you suggest I do, Tia?” I asked. “I can’t cancel my portion of the summit. Everything’s already set up, and it’s too late to cancel anything now; the delegates will be here in,” I looked to my watch. “Four hours.” Celestia thought for a moment. “That is true, my advisor. But in your current state, I do not think it would be wise to let you continue with your duties.” She placed a hoof to her chin. “I suppose I could ask Twilight to take on your meetings. She knows the material almost as well as you do.” I quickly considered Celestia’s suggestion. It certainly sounded possible. Twilight had studied a fair bit of Equestrian law with me when I first started as Celestia’s advisor. A qualified solicitor I may be, but I was in need of a refresher course on the Equestrian legal system; there are more differences than you might think. In any case, she could probably manage it. If worse came to worse, she could come to me with any questions. “That does sound like a good idea, your highness,” I replied. “Twilight knows her cookies, and she can come and find me if she gets stumped. What about me though?” At that moment, we were interrupted by a flash of white light as Discord returned. This time, he was dressed in one of those CDC bio-hazard suits, complete with gas mask. “Is it safe yet?” he asked, his voice slightly muffled through the mask and suit. “If you mean, ‘has Celestia gotten rid of the terrifying demon you caused me to inadvertently create?’ then yes. Still, old man, if I were you, I’d take off running just to be safe.” Behind me, Celestia was already on her hooves, staring the mismatched draconequus down. “Discord, undo your spell right now. You promised me that you wouldn’t disrupt the summit,” she said, pointing an accusing gilded hoof at him. At this, Discord snapped his talons, removing the suit and returning himself to normal. “And I haven’t disrupted the summit in any way, princess. Why, it hasn’t even started yet,” Discord replied defensively. “You have however, virtually incapacitated one of my advisors and the chair of several meetings. So if you want to keep that promise, you’ll undo your magic now!” Discord made a sucking sound through his teeth; the sort of sound a plumber makes before he tells you that the cost is going to be a bit more expensive than you thought. “Well, I would,” he said, sounding almost apologetic. “But I may or may not have put a lockout on that spell. The only way to get rid of it is for it to wear off on its own. That should be in about a day.” He then changed his tack. “If you like, I could take him off your hooves for the day; somewhere nice, far away from Canterlot for example.” Celestia undoubtedly saw where this was going. Discord was attempting to play her, appearing to be friendly and helpful. In reality, he was just being his usual self-interested self. Still, given the current situation, she was left with little in the way of options. “Fine,” she said, through gritted teeth. Even though her anger was directed at Discord, and not me, I still felt pretty scared of the usually calm and maternal alicorn. “We’ll deal with this after the summit.” She then turned to me, softening noticeably. “Roger, I’ll send a note to Spike to deliver to your wife, to let her know you won’t be back until tomorrow. I take full responsibility for this.” Snapping his talons again, Discord summoned both me and himself a couple of suitcases. “Oh don’t worry, princess. He’ll be back before you know it. I’m sure you, Luna, Twilight, and that other pink airhead can manage.” And with that, we left the throne room in a dazzling flash of light. When my vision cleared, I found that I was no longer in the throne room. I was outside, that was for sure, for there was an early evening sky above me. So, either we’d travelled through time, or much more likely, we were a somewhere to the west of Canterlot. Looking around a moment, I found that Discord was standing beside me, with a big grin on his face too. The pair of us were standing in some sort of alleyway between two large bricked buildings. It was about the width of a carriage. I also decided that we were probably in a major city, for all around, their seemed to be nothing but concrete, tar, and bricks. Listening, I picked up the slightly muffled sounds of a busy city. I could hear clattering carriage wheels, chattering ponies and dozens of other bells and whistles. The last of those gave me a good clue as to where we were. I turned to Discord. “So, let me get this straight,” I said, looking squarely at him. “You wanted to go on holiday with me. And rather than wait one or two days for the summit to finish, or for a regular holiday, you decided to give me potentially dangerous chaos powers, so Celestia would be forced to send me away. Are any of your plans not incredibly convoluted and sociopathic?” Discord put a talon to his chin in thought. “Now that you mention it, no,” he replied, grinning. He saw my dour expression. “Oh cheer up, dear boy. You’ll have a great time here. What’s done is done; you might as well enjoy the turn of events. And don’t worry about your chaos powers; I undid that as soon as we left.” I looked around again. “Where the hell are we anyway?” I asked. Discord gestured to the end of the alley, which led out into the street. The two of us starting walking, and within a minute, I knew precisely which city I was in. Stepping out onto the thoroughfare, I was all but blinded by millions of flashing lights, and my ears assaulted by the endless cackling of thousands of bells, whistles, and other exciting sounds. Ponies cheered, groaned, shouted, and chattered to each other over the noise. The busy city, along with the dozens of signs left no doubt in my mind. “Las Pegasus?” I exclaimed. “You brought me to Las Pegasus?” Discord nodded. “Well, where else can two guys go for a fun night out?” he asked. “You’ll love it here. Oh, and while I’m thinking about it…” Discord snapped his talons and I suddenly found myself holding a large sack of bits. “That’s about five hundred, should be enough to get you started.” “Started?” I parroted. Discord rolled his eyes. “We are in Las Pegasus you know,” he replied, sarcastically. “C’mon, let’s hit the tables!” I found myself being hauled along the street, through the bustling crowd until we reached the nearest place. I was still semi-blinded by all the lights and camera flashes, but I think the place was called ‘The Silver Cloud’. Luckily, it wasn’t Cosa Nostra owned. Heading inside, Discord led me through the hotel lobby and out into the casino proper. I’ve been to the odd casino before, the last time though was in 1989 for a party, though I do like to gamble every now and then. The interior of the Silver Cloud was what you might expect. The décor was fairly stylish, with plush carpet underfoot. Directly ahead of us, were rows upon rows of slot machines. Neither Discord nor I were much interested in those, so we headed on through to the tables. At a glance, I picked out roulette, blackjack, poker, craps, and a few others that I didn’t recognise right off the bat, as well as a sports book at the far end. “So,” Discord said. “Where do you want to go first?” I thought for a moment, rubbing the bridge of my nose; the noise was giving me a splitting headache. I wanted to argue with him. I wanted to tell him he was being a stupid twit and a jerk to Celestia. I wanted to be running my portion of the summit that I had spent over three months planning, not wasting my time in some bloody casino out in the desert. Okay, maybe not that last one. If I’m honest, I was sort of glad to have dodged that particular bullet. But, I did feel guilty for effectively pawning my work off to Twilight; she had enough to do as it was. Discord was right though. In his own peculiar way, he was being nice and doing me a favour. There was little point pouting now. The only way back was through him, and he wasn’t budging. Besides, Celestia would kill him when we got back. I might as well enjoy my day off. Sighing and throwing my hands up in the air, I pointed to the craps table and headed over there. “You know how to play?” I asked as I walked up to the odd bathtub shaped table and, after checking the table, set fifty bits down and asked for change. Discord though, looked confused. “Er…no?” he answered. I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, you’re what, in four figures at this point, and you don’t know how to play craps?” Discord shrugged his shoulders. “I’m more of a roulette person,” he replied. Since the dealers were still busy reorganising all the bets and sorting my own chips, I decided to give him a quick explanation. “Okay, the shooter throws two dice so they bounce off the far end. You want to roll so they add up to seven or eleven, and not roll a two, three, or twelve. If you roll any other number, it becomes your point, and you need to roll it again before you roll a seven to win. If you do roll a seven before your point number, you lose and somepony else gets to roll the dice. Make sense?” Discord nodded. At that moment, the dealer passed me my chips, which I quickly counted, and then picked up and set on the rail. Looking around, I spotted that a grey coated pegasus stallion down at the far end was the shooter at the moment, and judging by his mood, he was on a hot streak. I was surprised to see pegasi and earth ponies playing. I’d figured that without hands, unicorns, with their magic, would be the only ponies able to throw the dice. But this pegasus was using his wings, remarkably like hands, to throw the dice. It was even weirder watching the earth pony dealers manipulate the layout with their hooves. Lack of hands aside, the pegasus was still making passes. So, I stuck a five bit chip down on the pass line. Discord mimicked my action, though I explained that it was fine for him to watch if he wanted. Since he was insistent however, I briefly explained the basic bets. The pegasus did well again, rolling himself a natural and bagging the two of us a few more bits. However, all good things must come to an end and a few minutes later, he started to lose. First he rolled boxcars, and then he seven’d out after a couple of goes at chasing a nine. I took the dice for a while, since the sudden change of fortune had put more than a few gamblers off. As I waited for the dice to be passed back and for the dealers to redistribute the bets, I noticed a few things. I think I’ve said before that ponies don’t have CCTV, but they obviously needed a way to watch for cheaters. The dealers even used the same exaggerated movements as their human counterparts at a table. Looking up, I clocked their own version. Instead of cameras, the roof of the casino was lined with catwalks, along which walked ponies with binoculars, looking down on the tables. Quite clever if I do say so myself. And you had the usual pitboss types roaming around looking for troublemakers. I wonder if ponies have a version of The Box? Just as I rolled a six and stuck another five behind the line, some cocktail waitress turned up to offer us some free booze, which we readily accepted. Given that I was up twenty bits anyway, I tipped her and threw down another five bit free odds bet for the dealers. I did well for a while, but eventually my luck turned. Still, I was up around fifty bits; not too shabby for an ultimately unwinnable game. I had the dealer colour me up, and Discord and I moved on to new games. From what I remember, I was drinking a bit more than I ought to have been by then, we played a bit of roulette, as well as some blackjack, and we might have ended up in some poker tournament. After that, I think things started to get out of hand. I distinctly remember being comped for a few things to get us away from the tables. I blacked out at some point in a luxurious hotel room up around two hundred and fifty. The next thing I knew, I was waking up, back home, sprawled out on my sofa. My head was pounding, I guess I did drink a bit too much; in fact, I don’t think I got that blasted since Bob Lawrence’s wedding party. On that occasion I’d downed half a dozen pints of Guinness, several fingers of whiskey, and an alarming amount of red wine. According to my wife, I’d left the party fairly coherent too. This time though, I was out for the count. It was painful to open my ears, never mind my eyes. My groaning in agony attracted the attention of she who must be obeyed, who didn’t look best pleased. She came into the living room and sat down on the sofa next to me. “Well, good morning,” she said. “Or should I say ‘good afternoon’. It’s gone one, you know.” I groaned in response. My mouth was too dry for much else. “Celestia told me what Discord did. But I was hopeful that he’d at least drop you off when you were done.” I asked the obvious question. “What…what happened last night?” I slurred. “And what day is it?” Margaret passed me a telegram, dated yesterday evening. It brought back a few hazy memories and explained why she was probably just a bit mad at me. It read as follows: ‘MARGARET STOP DISCORD KIDNAPPED ME STOP IN LAS PEGASUS STOP GOT IN FIGHT WITH PITBOSS STOP IN JAIL STOP NEED 500 BITS TO MAKE BAIL STOP - ROGER’ Hesitantly, I looked up from the message. However, my wife seemed to be a little less angry now. I ventured a response. “Oh good God!” I exclaimed as I read the message again. My wife laughed a little, bringing back my headache. “Don’t worry, it’s all settled up and Celestia said that the casino won’t press charges.” At this point her tone became serious. “But they took your winnings, you also aren’t welcome in Las Pegasus anymore.” “What about Discord?” I asked, my desire to murder him, bury him in a shallow grave, dig him up and kill him again becoming stronger by the minute. “I’m fairly certain Celestia’s still yelling at him,” Margaret said. “Although speaking of your best friend, you should look at what else you did last night.” She pointed to my hand. Looking on my ring finger, I realised, to my horror, there was a new ring there. As my eyes presumably went wide, and my pupils shrunk to pinpricks, my wife began to giggle. “Who did I marry?” I asked hesitantly. That got my wife to just burst out laughing. “Discord!” she exclaimed between laughing fits. I expect I went white at that point. Luckily, after she calmed down, Margaret reassured me. “Don’t worry, it’s already been annulled. It’s invalid anyway. Nice band though.” I got a further brief telling off from the wife for my escapades. But she did agree that I needed a break, though she wished she could have come along. In any case, I managed to get away with a stern warning, both from she who must be obeyed and the city of Las Pegasus. My thoughts then turned to the Royal Summit. It turned out, when we received another message from Celestia via Spike, that I had definitely dodged a bullet in regards to the summit. Everything had turned out alright in the end, but things had almost come crashing down when Spike, acting on his own to avoid having to bother a sleeping Twilight, caused a few serious incidents in Canterlot. The issues included a busted water main and the crystal statue had been all but destroyed. Luckily, that was the catalyst for bringing all the arguing delegates back together; Twilight got them all into a team building exercise to put it back together. It certainly sounded like I had skipped over one hell of a party. I wrote the princess back, assuring her that I would be back in Canterlot as soon as possible. It was nice to have a brief holiday, but it was time I got back to work. Before long, much more serious matters would put me in the firing line.