Order In Equestria

by Bowenross

Discord and Order

I woke up three days after I had fallen asleep and stretched the soreness out of my muscles. I walked downstairs and quickly changed into my pony form. I opened the door and saw Rainbow Dash rushing after a cotton candy cloud. I took off after her, following her towards Sweet Apple Acres. When I arrived, everypony there was having problems with the chaos that was spreading. Twilight came up shortly after I did.

"Don't worry, everyone. I've learned a new spell that'll fix everything." She concentrated, gathering a large amount of power in her horn. When she had finished gathering her magic, she shot a blast of magic to the surrounding area. Needless to say, her spell had failed. There were still cotton candy clouds and mutated rabbits. "I don't believe it, my failsafe spell… failed!"

"Don't worry about it, Twi. This is pretty strong magic, so it's understandable if you can't fix it. I'll do it." I gathered up my own spell and spread it across Ponyville. All of Discords magic was cleansed from those it had previously affected and the clouds had disappeared. "There, that was easy."

"Ah dang did you really have to do that? Those clouds rained chocolate milk! You could have at least let me keep one." Pinkie said with a pout on her face.

"No can do, Pinkie, that blast I sent out got rid of them all in Ponyville. And if I let one stay, it would have just duplicated itself and spread more chaos." At that moment, Spike burped up a letter. "I bet I know what that letter says already girls. Let's head on to Canterlot. Hold on to your breakfasts if this is your first time teleporting." I quickly teleported the entire group, minus Spike, into the safe room of the castle.

Celestia jumped in surprise as we appeared right in front of her. "I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly, but follow me. I've called you here for a matter of great importance. It seems an old foe of mine, someone I thought I had defeated long ago, has returned. His name... is Discord. You can do a great deal to help us, Ordeus."

I looked up from the book I was reading on royal guard training and responded, "Oh, I can't help with this. That would imbalance this world too much, so the girls will have to do this on their own. And I have a great idea to advertise the royal guards later on!"

"But you are supposed to…" Celestia started to argue before Pinkie interrupted her.

"Hey, look! We're famous!" She exclaimed as she pointed at the stain glass window that depicted the mane six defeating Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony.

"You six showed the full potential of the Elements by harnessing the magic of your friendship to beat a mighty foe. Although Luna and I once wielded the Elements, it is you who now control their power, and it is you who must defeat Discord, because Ordeus here doesn't seem like he wants to help very much."

"Hey, I already told you the reason why I can't! If it wouldn't really affect anything I would definitely help." I put the book I was reading down and then just sat there, waiting for Discord to show himself.

"Princess, you can count on us to…" Twilight started to say before Pinkie interrupted her as well.

"Hold on a second! Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain, you guys. Chocolate rain!" Pinkie said with a dreamy look in her eye and her face bright and excited.

"Don't mind her Princess, we'd be glad to use the Elements to defeat Discord." Twilight told Celestia as the others gathered around her and agreed.

"Have no fear, ponies. I have total confidence that you will be able to defeat Discord with these!" Celestia had unlocked the vault and taken the box out of it.

Rarity looked at the case in awe of the gems and the craftsmanship, or craftsponyship in this case. "You can keep the Elements, I'll take that case!"

Celestia simply rolled her eyes and opened the chest to reveal that nothing was there. Everypony gasped and Celestia dropped the case out of surprise. Pinkie looked in the case again and said to the group, "Oh, well. If anyone needs me, I'll be outside in the chocolate puddles with a giant swizzle straw." And before she could bounce out of the room, Twilight pulled her back with magic.

"But that doesn't make any sense! The Elements were protected by a powerful spell that only I can break!" She looked distraught and worried that something might have happened to the Elements, which was the case. But of course only Discord and I knew that they were in Ponyville's library.

There was a chuckle from a disembodied voice. "Make sense? Oh, what fun is there in making sense?" Said Discord as he spoke to us, mainly to Celestia.

"Discord, show yourself!" Celestia shouted at the disembodied voice, and we heard a snap of fingers and Discord appeared on the stain glass windows.

"Did you miss me, Celestia? I missed you. It's quite lonely being encased in stone, but you wouldn't know that, would you, because I don't turn ponies into stone." He chuckled dryly at his own joke. Frankly, I didn't see what he found funny in his comment.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure that if she missed you she could have just went into the garden and looked at your frozen form." I piped in, drawing Discords attention towards me.

"Oh, I see that we have a new alicorn among our midst. And he has a sense of humor! He should totally replace this stuck up pony princess that can't take a joke." He chuckled again, which was really annoying after about the fifth time.

Celestia simply stood her ground and stared at the Discord glass. "Enough! What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?"

Discord simply looked at her and responded, "Oh, I just borrowed them for a teensy little while." He then snapped his fingers/ talons again and appeared in one window instead of three.

"You'll never get away with this, Discord!" Celestia stamped her hoof against the ground.

"Are you serious Celestia? I forgot how boring you could be."

"Hey! I won't let you talk to the Princess like that!" Rainbow flew straight at Discord, and smacked against the glass.

"Ah, the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash."

"That's right! And I'll always be loyal to the princess and my friends!"

"We'll see about that…"

Rarity rolled her eyes and looked at the case again. "I can't believe we're wasting our time talking to a tacky window."

"The beautiful Rarity, representing the Element of Generosity, if I'm not mistaken?"

Applejack grinded her teeth in annoyance. "So you know who we are. Big deal."

"Oh I know much more than just who you are, honest Applejack."

Twilight looked up at the window, scrutinizing Discord. "You seem to know our strengths too."

"Yes, Twilight Sparkle, and yours is the most powerful and elusive element, Magic. Fluttershy's is Kindness and Pinkie Pie's is a personal favorite of mine- Laughter." He laughed loudly at this, enjoying the reactions he got from the ponies in the room.

Pinkie snickered and Twilight looked over at her. "Pinkie! This is no time to be laughing!"

"But he's dancing on your head!" She pointed at Discord, who was in fact, dancing on the depiction of Twilight.

"Stop stalling, Discord! What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?" Celestia stomped her hoof against the ground again, fire in her eyes.

Oh, why so serious Celestia? Fine, I'll tell you, but I'll only tell you my way." He started speaking in a rhyming type of voice. "To retrieve your missing Elements, just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the Elements back where you began." He laughed maniacally, disappearing from the window as his laugher faded.

Fluttershy was slowly creeping towards the door. "Can we go home now?"

Twilight was quietly reciting what Discord had said to herself. "Twists and turns… twists and turns… twists and turns!" she looked out the window and saw the labyrinth. "That's it! I bet Discord hid the Elements in the labyrinth!"

Celestia walked up behind the mane six and said to them, "Good luck, my little ponies. The fate of Equestria is in your hooves."

Twilight walked up to her mentor and rubbed against her neck. "Thanks, princess. We won't let you down." She led the rest of the group out towards the labyrinth. I just stayed back with Celestia and felt somewhat left out. Discord hadn't said anything about me after he had said that he would rather have me rule. He acted like I wasn't even here!

"Why are you still here, Ordeus? Are you not going to help the others find the Elements? And why have you not already defeated Discord if you are here to keep order?" She asked me as she looked at me from her throne.

"Well, I'm still here because Discord is a trickster and a silver tongued serpent. I just don't fall for his tricks though. And if I helped to find the Elements, I would mess up the timeline. Don't ask on that. And, I'm here to keep order and balance. The world needs some chaos to stay balanced, because without it the world would become 'stagnant' and would fall apart."

Celestia looked shocked at this news. "Well if you can't just defeat him, why would you not encase him in stone again?"

"Because, as I said before, that could mess up the timeline. The girls have to get through this challenge on their own. This will help deepen their friendships, like the time they defeated Nightmare Moon using the Elements. They will learn how to deal with their darker sides and overcome difficult obstacles."

"Okay, if you aren't going to help them, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to watch over them and make sure Discord doesn't actually hurt them. I doubt that he would because he simply wants a laugh right now, but that could change in an instant. I'm going to go now, have a great day." I walked out the door and headed towards the door that led out to the labyrinth. Celestia just made a quiet grunt and headed off to the throne room.

I caught up with the girls right as soon as they reached the entrance to the labyrinth. I smiled at them and they greeted me. Fluttershy gasped and quietly stuttered "W-we have to go in there?"

Rainbow flew up and said, "Nope! Dopey Discord forgot about these babies! I'll just do a quick flyover and get the Elements in no time." Before she could get anywhere else her wings disappeared, making her fall to the ground. She felt at her back where her wings used to be and cried, "My wings!"

Fluttershy's wings were next and then Rarity's and Twilight's horn disappeared. Twilight started to freak out. She pointed at Rarity "Your horn is gone!" And then she felt her own forehead and exclaimed, "My horn is gone!"

I laughed quietly for a moment and then said with a straight face, "Yup, and we all know what this means." They looked at me like I was going to say something important. "That means that you guys are just like Applejack now."

They all just stood there with shocked looks on their faces and Applejack yelled "Hey!" at me. Then we could hear Discord's laughter again. "You–You should see the looks on your faces. Priceless!" He appeared in the air above us, crying because he was laughing so hard. Wherever his tears landed, a poison joke flower would sprout. "I knew I would like this guy, he's hilarious!"

Twilight stamped her hoof indignantly "Give us our wings and horns back!"

Discord's laughter stopped and he wiped a tear from his eye, and as it descended towards the ground it caught fire. It just sat there on the ground for a moment, smoldering, before I snuffed it out with my hoof. "You'll get them back in good time. I simply took them to ensure there's no cheating. You see, this is the first rule of our game: no flying, and no magic."

Rainbow Dash looked at him with a mad glint in her eye. "The first rule?"

Discord came down and cradled her face with his lion paw. "Yes. And the second rule is that everypony has to play, or I win. Good luck everypony!" He snapped his fingers and disappeared into the labyrinth. The labyrinth then began to twist and turn, becoming larger and more difficult. Some parts of it even rose up from the ground and became floating globs of earth with hedges on them.

"How ever are we going to find the Elements now?" Rarity asked with a downtrodden look on her face.

Twilight looked at me and saw that I still had my horns and my wings. She walked up to me and shoved me towards the entrance. "Ordeus here will help us find them. He still has his wings and his horn. How did you manage that by the way?"

"It's because I have a natural barrier surrounding my body that blocks him from using any spells on me that would be detrimental to my body. And he didn't even bother with me because I'm not a player in this game. I can't help you girls find the Elements, I'm simply here as an observer." I decided to drop the same hint that Discord had given them. "Remember girls, twists and turns are his master plan. But, find the Elements back where you began. He will try to trick you at every turn, in this labyrinth and in life."

I flew off to hover above the labyrinth so that I could watch the girls. "Don't worry, even if Ordeus can't help us, we can get through this if we just stick together" Twilight said to the girls, trying to encourage them. They all yelled yeah and lined up to enter the labyrinth. As soon as they entered the labyrinth, hedges grew as walls between them, cutting them off from one another. They all yelled loudly in despair. Twilight just yelled over the hedges, "Stay calm, girls! Everypony head to the middle as fast as you can, and we'll regroup there!"

The others confirmed that they heard what she said and began to head off, except for Pinkie who just sat there for a moment saying "What's that? Who's there? Girls!" She got up and began heading down her set path. I brought up six different viewing screens so that I could see what all of them were doing. Discord appeared behind me and tapped my shoulder.

"So, I never really got an introduction for you. Who are you by the way?" He snapped his fingers, probably trying to find out about me.

"That won't work, Discord. I'm surrounded by a barrier that prevents any of your magic from affecting me. And I'm Ordeus, as you already know, the alicorn of order and balance. So I'm not really the opposite of you, but I don't really bring about chaos. I know when the world needs some discord, and when it needs order."

"Well at least you know how to make a joke and take a joke. Old Tia never could take my jokes." He rolled his eyes into his head to watch a few of the pranks that he had pulled on Celestia and Luna.

"That's because your pranks and jokes could have hurt somepony, hopefully you have toned it down some since then. But yeah, I know how to make a great joke every now and again and I can pull some great pranks." I saw in my peripheral vision that Applejack had reached the grove of apple trees and was talking to the 'Guardians of the Grove' as they called themselves.

Discord moved up to the screen. "Ah, yes, I thought that she would be the first to reach the prank I set up there. Soon we will see how honest she really is." He laughed as she slowly lost color, collapsing on the ground in shock. The hedge opened up slightly beside her and Twilight walked up to her.

"Applejack! Thank goodness! I thought I heard voices over here. Who were you talking to?" Twilight looked at Applejack with a concerned look on her face.

"I was talking to... uh... nopony! Nopony whatsoever!" Applejack shiftily looked side to side. She then got up and said to Twilight, "Come on, uh, we best be going." She headed towards the opening in the hedge as Twilight stood there and looked questioningly at Applejack?

"Did Applejack just...? Come on, Twilight! Applejack wouldn't lie." She told herself before she followed Applejack through the opening, which closed right as soon as she went through it.

"Oh, how they will slowly fall one by one to their darker sides." Discord laughed in glee. "I do hope that Pinkie is the next one, I set up the best balloon garden for her."

I rolled my eyes at his glee. "She will be the next one, she's almost there anyways." I pointed at Pinkie's screen and it showed her about to turn the corner into the balloon garden Discord had set up. "I don't really see why you are making them go through all this when you know that they'll defeat you anyways."

"Oh, how you jest. How do you think those silly ponies could defeat me without their precious Elements of Harmony?" He nudged me in the side, putting in enough strength that would bruise anypony other than me.

"I wouldn't under-estimate the strength of their friendship. Even though you may 'Discord' them, they will still pull through in the end. It may seem silly now, but true friendship is something strong that even you cannot stop. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to my house and fix myself a sandwich." I flew off, and Discord disappeared to go mess with the rest of the ponies in the labyrinth.

As I made my way back to Ponyville, I fixed a few things that Discord had messed with. I stopped the dancing buffalo and settled some of the houses that were floating. When I reached Ponyville, I saw that Discord hadn't gotten the chance to mess with anything here. I went to the library to see if Spike was doing anything, and if he wasn't I was going to see if he would like to hang out at my house. I had a room full of gems that I wasn't going to use at all and they could be a great snack for the young dragon.

I went to the door and opened it, walking in because it was the public library. "Hey, Spike, you here dude?"

"Yeah, just give me a moment. I have to finish cleaning the bedroom before Twilight gets back." A few minutes later, Spike came waddling down the stairs. "There, finished. What do you need, Ordeus?"

"I didn't really need anything; I just wanted to see if you wanted to come over to my house to hang out. I have a room full of gemstones that I'm never gonna use. I was thinking that I'd let you have some."

Spikes eyes lit up and he started to salivate. "I would gladly help you get rid of some of those gems, just let me close up the library and then we can head on over to your house." He grabbed the key and the closed sign. We walked out and he closed the door, placing the closed sign on a nail in the door and locking it behind us. "Ok, let's head on over to your house."

"Hold on to your breakfast then." I charged up my horn for a teleport spell.

"What do you mean by…" he started to say before we blinked to my front doorstep. He wobbled there for a moment before falling on his back. "Ugh, you could have warned me you were going to do that."

I gave him an apologetic look, "Well I told you to hold onto your breakfast. At least I didn't burn you at all, like Twilight did that one time.' I opened my front door and pulled him in. "Anyways, welcome to my home! The gem room is down the left hallway on this floor. Don't open any other doors on the way to the gem room." I looked him straight in the eye as I said that. "I'll be in the kitchen making myself a sandwich, meet me in there when you've gotten the gems that you want."

He nodded and ran off down the hall. I headed for the kitchen, switching forms as I passed through the door. I opened up the fridge and grabbed some ham and smoked cheddar. I put them on the island countertop and grabbed the bread from the cupboard. I put the sandwich together and put it in the microwave for twenty seconds. If I didn't have technology in this world, I don't know what I would do for food.

As the microwave dinged, Spike walked in while carrying a huge stack of gems. He went over to the table and set down his stack and started to devour them. He didn't even notice me until I had taken my sandwich out of the microwave and sat down at the table. He stopped eating and jumped out of his chair. He backed away slowly, eyes darting around the room, looking for the alicorn that said he would be in the kitchen.

"What in the hay are you? And what did you do with Ordeus?" HE asked as he kept backing towards the door.

"Calm down, dude. I am Ordeus, I just actually look like this because I'm not actually a pony." I took a bite of my food and started to chew. "I let you in on a secret only three other ponies know about. I know how it feels to be left out of something others are doing and they won't let you in on it. So I figured I would make this day more exciting for you."

He looked at my sandwich, and shuddered. "Is that... meat you're eating?" I just nodded my head and he cringed. "So you're going to eat me?" I shook my head and he visibly calmed down a bit.

"I'm an omnivore; I eat both plants and animals. But I don't eat dragons; they're too chewy for my tastes." He yelped at my joke. "Don't worry that was only a joke. I've never had dragon' and I don't really feel the desire to ever have dragon." I motioned for him to sit back down. "Why don't you continue eating? We can converse on things while we eat."

We sat there for a thirty minutes, chatting while we ate our meals. I found out that Twilight had a fear of poorly written lists, which I found hilarious. I told Spike a little about me and what was going on. He paled at my description of Discord and what he was trying to do.

"So you just let him go free to mess with Twilight and the others while you came here and made food? What if he hurt them, or even worse?" He shook where he sat, shaking the table.

"Don't worry; he won't hurt them or anything. He just wants to pull a few pranks, get a few laughs. You know ultimate prankster and lord of chaos type of stuff." I looked out the window, (the kitchen was one of the only rooms with a window), and saw the day and night cycle was being messed with at rapid rates. "It seems that they have lost the game. Time to head on back to the library, Spike. Remember what I said about telling nopony about what I am. Want me to just teleport you back there by the way?"

"Sure, but can I bring a few gems back with me?" I nodded and he went back to the gem room and got some gems and put them in a small carrying pouch I had given him. "Okay, I'm ready this time."

"Then I'll send you back right away." I snapped my fingers, imitating Discord, and sent Spike back to the library. I waited a few minutes until I could see Twilight and the rest of the group coming down the soap road. I then teleported myself to the library after I had changed back into my pony form. I arrived a few minutes before the girls got there, and I entered the library. Spike had fallen asleep and was snoring peacefully in a spot away from the door. I thought about waking him up, but then I decided against it. I sat there for a few minutes and read a Daring Do book while I waited for the girls.

I didn't have to wait long, the girls filed in, soon followed by Tom being pushed into the library by Twilight's magic. Spike had been woken up by Fluttershy pouring a bucket of cold water over him. Spike looked at Twilight and I, a look of distress on his face. "Twilight, Ordeus, what's going on? Why does everybody look so...gray?"

Twilight and I said, "Don't ask," at the same time. Twilight then started to pluck books off the shelves. "I need you to help me find something." Fluttershy had refilled her bucket and had come up behind Twilight.

"Hey, Twilight, what's soaking wet and clueless?" She heaved the bucket up and prepared to dump it on Twilight.

"Fluttershy, I don't have time for-" She turned around and got the water dumped on her.

"Your face!" Fluttershy yelled and then she banged the bucket down on to Twilight's head. Spike waddled up to Twilight to help her get the bucket off of her head and then he looked at both Twilight and I.

"What's happened to everypony?" Spike asked before he got slapped upside the head by Fluttershy, who was flying around, hitting anypony who wasn't paying attention.

Applejack trotted up to Spike and put her hoof on his shoulder. "I guess you just bring out the worst in us, Spike." She dropped her hoof from his shoulder and glanced around shiftily again. Spike looked even more confused at this blatant lie that Applejack had told.

"Ugh. No time to explain. We've got to find the reference guide to the Elements of Harmony before somepony does something she'll regret!" Twilight said, giving a glare to the other ponies in the room other than me. She returned to pulling books down from the shelves, looking for the reference guide.

Spike hopped up and ran upstairs, yelling down at us, "The Elements of Harmony? Oh, I know exactly where that book is." We could hear some rummaging in the room above us before Spike shouted down at us, "Found it!" When he came back downstairs, Fluttershy grabbed the book from him and blew a raspberry at his face.

Twilight got pretty angry at this point. "Fluttershy give me that book right now!" I decided that I didn't want to watch the game of keep away so I just teleported the book to Twilight, avoiding the annoyance of the game. She looked at me and told me, "Thank you." She opened the book and gasped. "The Elements! They were here all along!"

Spike came out from his hiding spot and said to us, "This is great! Now you guys can defeat Discord and put everything back to normal!"

Twilight had an extremely happy look on her face as she looked at the other girls in the room. "See, girls? We did it! We found the Elements of Harmony! Together!" Applejack yawned and the others just stood there like they weren't going to do anything. Twilight facehoofed, "Let me guess, you guys don't care?" They all yelled no at the same time and Twilight facehoofed again and sighed. "I never thought it would happen. My friends... have turned into complete JERKS!" She said as she slapped the necklaces on to the girls with her magic, "Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! And... big crown thingy! Come on, everypony, let's go!"

Spike looked at her and counted the ponies in the room. "But, isn't somepony missing? Where is Rainbow Dash?"

Twilight looked at him and levitated the Element of loyalty over to him, slapping it on his neck. "Congratulations Spike, you're the new Element of Loyalty." She stomped out any qualms he had with it. "Now let's go defeat Discord so we don't ever have to talk to each other again!" She opened the library door and ushered the others out, slowly levitating Tom out of the library.

We made our way to the center of town, where we could see Discord sitting upon a throne made of golden licorice and blown up bubblegum for the cushions. He looked at the necklaces and Twilights crown. "Well, well, well, I see you've found the Elements of Harmony. How terrifying!" He faked a terrified quiver before he busted out laughing.

"Discord! I've figured out your lame riddle. You're in for it now!" Twilight exclaimed as she went up towards Discord, pulling the girls along with her.

Discord stopped laughing and rolled his eyes at Twilight. "I certainly am. You've clearly out-dueled me, and now it's time to meet my fate." He made a bull's-eye target appear on his stomach/chest and said, "I'm prepared to be defeated now, ladies. Fire when ready."

Twilight shouted, "Formation, now!" and the group stood there awkwardly, waiting for Spike to get in formation. Twilight just glared at him. "Rainbow Dash, get over here now." Spike just nervously gulped and got in formation with the girls. "Alright, let's get this over with" Twilight said as the Elements started to glow and lift the small group into the air. The magic then failed and dropped them onto the hard ground. "What's going on?"

The girls squabbled over what had happened and left their elements lying on the ground in front of Twilight. Spike had left his in front of Twilight saying that he had to go clean up the library. Rarity then grabbed the Elements and ran off towards her house. Twilight slumped down onto the ground and sobbed, "FINE! Leave! See if I care! I don't need you guys either! With friends like you, who needs...enemies...?"

"Bravo, ponies, bravo!" Discord clapped and had random noises like explosions going off in the background. "Harmony in Equestria is officially dead. Discord rules, Celestia drools." He then laughed as he went off to cause more chaos in Ponyville leaving Twilight and I in the town center. I picked Twilight up and placed her on my back and carried her to the library. About halfway there, Discord appeared beside us and started to tell us about what he was doing.

"Oh, my stomach! Twilight, Ordeus, you've got to see what I just did." He pointed over to Berry Punch, who was getting pepper poured over her. When she finally sneezed, the buildings around her fell as flat cardboard cutouts. I chuckled slightly at this. Twilight just looked sadly at the draconequus beside us and then looked back down. "It's priceless!" He laughed loudly again. "Come now, Twilight Sparkle. You've got to get into the spirit of things! After all, this is your new home."

She just sadly said, "Not anymore." And I continued to carry her to the library. Thankfully, Discord had left us after yelling yes and laughing maniacally. We arrived at the library and I put Twilight down. We entered and Twilight shut the door behind us. "Spike, pack your things, we're leaving." She didn't hear Spike's pained groaning. "Don't ask where we're going, 'cause I don't know yet. Just not here."

"Can't...move. The princess...has been sending these...since I came back to the library." He belched up yet another scroll. "Make it stop!"

Twilight picked up one of the letters in her magic and opened it, reading it aloud as her eyes scanned over the page. She kept on reading the letters, gaining color back as she read. "Real friends don't care what your cover is." "Friendship is a wondrous and powerful thing." "And like the path cut through the orchard, there will always be a way through." "The best thing to do is stay true to yourself." "Everypony has a special magical connection with her friends. Maybe even before she's met them." She looked at Spike and me, beaming like the sun.

"Spike! Ordeus! It's all so clear! Can't you two see? Discord's trying to distract us from what's important. He knows how powerful our friendships are, and he's trying to keep us from seeing it. Do you remember what I said the first day we arrived in Ponyville?" I shook my head and Twilight rolled her eyes again. "I was talking to Spike for that. I told you that the future of Equestria didn't rest on me making friends. But the opposite is true! The friendships I've made since I've been here are what saved Equestria from Nightmare Moon. And now they need to save it from Discord!"

Spike just sat here moaning from the pain of receiving so many letters in such a short amount of time. Twilight, who was totally oblivious to this, continued on, "You're right, Spike. I've got to fight for my friendships. For them. For me. For Equestria!" Spike moaned again, and Twilight looked at him. "Oh...uh...why don't you just stay here and rest? Ordeus and I will take care of the whole fighting for friendship thing ourselves." Spike just moaned again and let out a small belch, releasing a bit of flame but no scroll.

We made our way towards Sweet Apple Acres, where Applejack was. "Applejack, we're here to fight for our friendship!"

Applejack just looked at us, with a look of malice on her face. "Oh, now you want to fight. Where you went when I was battlin' Discord?"

Twilight looked at me and I nodded to tell her I knew what I was supposed to do. I tackled Applejack, pinning her down so Twilight could use her memory spell on Applejack. "Snap out of it. This isn't you! You're not a liar." Applejack turned back from gray to her normal orange and golden yellow. I got up off of her and helped her up.

"Wh-what happened? Twilight!" She looked down and sighed. "I saw a vision of us feudin' and fightin'. I couldn't face the truth, so I started tellin' lies. Can you ever forgive me?" She looked at Twilight with pleading eyes, begging for forgiveness.

"I already have. Come on, we still have to get the others." We headed off for the next home. We made quick work of the others, turning them back into their normal selves. I let Applejack hold them down because I didn't want to accidently hurt them. After we got all of them but Rainbow Dash, we had to search for her.

"Ugh, we aint ever going to find her, she could be anywhere!" Applejack yelled after she had finished looking through her part of Ponyville.

Pinkie just pointed up and jubilantly exclaimed, "Yeah, we will, 'cause she's right there!" We looked up and saw Rainbow lying on a cloud, relaxing like nothing was wrong.

Twilight yelled up to the cyan mare on the cloud, "Rainbow Dash!" The mare in question just glanced down at us, said "what's up guys", and then went back to relaxing on her cloud. "We've been looking everywhere for you!"

"That's nice, I guess." Dash said as she waved at us in dismissal.

"Discord's still on the loose! We need you to help us defeat him with your element, Loyalty!" Twilight said to the stubborn mare up on the cloud.

"Pfft. Loyalty, schmoyalty! Have you guys seen Ponyville? It's a disaster! I'm staying here in Cloudsdale where everything's awesome." Dash said as she relaxed further into the cloud she was lying on.

Rarity just glanced at the cloud skeptically. "How in Equestria can she think that tiny patch of clouds is Cloudsdale?"

Applejack looked over at her and nudged her with a hoof. "The same way he got you to think that cheap rock was a bona fide diamond."

Rarity looked indignantly at Applejack. "I thought we agreed never to speak of that again."

Twilight just gathered us into a huddle. "Time for a Plan B." She told us what each of us was going to do to get Rainbow Dash back to normal, telling me that I was going to act as a block in the sky. I nodded and flew off to a spot in the sky where Rainbow would be flying towards. It didn't take long for the rest of the crew to chase Rainbow to where I was stationed. She didn't even see me and she ran straight into me, becoming dazed for a second. Fluttershy rammed into her and pushed her down to the ground. I followed the group down and held Rainbow in my magic grasp.

Rainbow Dash just struggled in a futile attempt against our hold on her. "Lemme go! I don't need you guys! Leave me alone!" Twilight walked up to Rainbow and used her magic to help Rainbow return to normal. "Wh-what happened?" She gasped and looked around. "How's Ponyville? Where are the Elements?! Did we stop Discord?" We all cheered and the girls gathered in for a group hug.

Twilight was the first one to break from the group hug. "Come on girls, maybe it's a little early for a group hug." The others agreed and we trotted off back to the center of town.

We got there as Discord was trying out a new trick, turning ponies into their negative colors. I Stayed back and reverted the ponies that Discord had messed with as they ran past me. Discord still hadn't seen us as he sat on his throne and laughed. "Chaos is truly a wonderful thing!"

Twilight stepped towards him and shouted, "Not as wonderful as friendship!"

"Oh, this again?" Discord looked at the group and conjured up a glass of chocolate milk, drank the glass, and threw away the milk. The resulting explosion caused a few of the cardboard buildings to fall over as well as tossing a few ponies a few feet backwards.

"That's right. You couldn't break apart our friendship for long." Applejack said as she stepped up beside Twilight, a steeled determination in her eyes.

"Oh, Applejack, don't lie to me. I'm the one who made you a liar. Will you ever learn?" He said as he looked over towards Applejack, then he noticed her color had turned back to normal and gasped.

"I'll tell you what we've learned Discord. We've learned that friendship isn't always easy. But there's no doubt it's worth fighting for." Twilight stated as the rest of the girls grouped around her.

Discord made his way back to his throne and sat down, making a gaging sound as he sat down. "Ugh, gag. Fine, go ahead, try and use your little Elements, "frenemies". Just make it quick. I'm missing some excellent chaos here."

Twilight held her head high, readying her element. "All right, ladies, let's show him what friendship can do!" The rest of the girls gave nods of affirmation, except for Pinkie. She was under a cloud, drinking chocolate rain.

"Wait-wait-wait!" She yelled before she finished up with the last mouthful of milk. She licked her lips and jumped back over to the girls, growling at Discord when she had gotten back to the group. The Elements began to glow brightly, lifting the girls up into the air and creating a blast of rainbow magic that headed straight for Discord.

Discord, finally realizing that the Elements actually worked now, shouted out, "Huh. What's this? No. NO!" And as he finished turning to stone, he fell forward onto the ground. When all that was over, everything turned back to normal. I walked over to the statue and tapped on his face.

"Don't worry, Discord, you'll be let out later to be reformed by Fluttershy. Don't even try to resist it either, because it'll make it that much harder on you." I picked up the statue and placed it on my back. "See you girls in a few weeks or so on Nightmare Night. I'm going to get this guy back to where he belongs for now." They waved at me as I lifted off and headed back for Canterlot.

When I arrived, Celestia was there at the garden waiting for me. I deposited Discord back to where he was before and sat down next to Tia. "So, how is Spike? I know I probably hurt him somewhat by sending that many letters in such a small amount of time."

"Don't worry, he's only somewhat nauseous. He went to sleep after you finished with the letters. But, back to the matter at hoof, what do you plan to do with Discord now?"

She lifted a hoof to her chin, pondering on what she was going to say. "I don't really have plans for him right now. If he breaks free again, we'll simply get the Element bearers to turn him to stone again."

I sighed and scooted back further into the bench. "I was thinking that you can reform him later. Get Fluttershy to do it, seeing as how she in the kindest of the group. She'll teach him how much friendship really matters. Do this a few months from now and it'll work."

She looked at me skeptically. "Are you sure? That is a large responsibility put on Fluttershy's shoulders, and a threat to Equestria will be free again."

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Have faith in your student's friends. Now, I'm going to go to sleep for a few weeks. I'll be up for Nightmare Night, so you'll be able to talk to me then if you can find me." I took off for my house and just teleported after I had flown halfway there. Sometimes I forgot that I could teleport when other times I forgot I could fly. It would have been much easier for me if I had been a pegasus or a unicorn instead of an alicorn.

I walked into my house and locked the door behind me. I locked all the doors and windows that led to the outside as I made my way through the house. When I got upstairs, I went straight for my bedroom. I changed forms and flopped down onto the bed. I looked over to my new set of armor and smiled. "This is going to be a great Nightmare Night for me." I turned over and fell asleep, ready for the coming holiday.