Techorse Short Stories

by Spirals95

#34 - Chaos Leashed

Author's Note:

In this story:

Discord has been freed by a guest and claims to want to learn a more productive use for chaos. Twilight and her friends are tasked with helping the Lord of Chaos learn how to get along with the rest of their world. The guest's demand for Discord's freedom, however, might cut the plan short!

Chaos Leashed

Techorse series #34

By Spirals95

---

The dark cloak of night had fallen over Canterlot, only the light of the quarter moon shone down on the cliff side fortress that housed the Princesses. Princess Luna kept to herself, choosing this night to be one of the nights where she enjoyed a book, and stayed up to listen to the dreams of her subjects. She turned the pages on the large silver volume, looking for new things to learn as the fire in her room's fireplace crackled, providing light and warmth on that cold evening. Outside of the castle in the garden, only the sound of a single owl could occasionally be heard, as the insects had retired for the season due to the cold. The statues in the garden lined the path to the castle, overlooking the area in silence.
A figure in a cloak approached one of the statues, his black clothing waved in the breeze, exposing his white hooves with a ruffle cut at the bottom. A glow like an apparition came from underneath his cloak, white in color, and a sizable bronze device that resembled an expensive wristwatch emerged from a pocket in the side of the intruder's clothing.

The suspect had failed to destroy Ponyville to spite Princess Celestia earlier, but was now sure that his new plan would ensure the end of the princess's new found happiness. Perhaps he'd even get revenge on that meddling bookworm Twilight Sparkle as well!
The enchanted watch attached itself to its intended target and by curse, clicked into place, unable to be removed like a set of strong handcuffs. The face of the watch glowed a faint light blue, before receding into nothing. The light blue light traversed the statue in cracks, breaking apart the stone, and removing the sheath of lime. The stranger in the cloak then cast a bright spell over the area, creating a large white bubble around them of energy, that was oddly invisible to any outside observers. As the blue light faded, the stone of the statue crumbled away, and a twisted figure straightened himself out.

"Oh, what luck!" mused Discord, straightening his long neck, "I seem to have been freed! You have no idea just how uncomfortable it is to be a lawn decoration."

"I'm sure," replied the figure, his eyes visible through his cloak.

The draconequus recognized the figure's Russian accent and snapped his lion paw's fingers, "Ah, I remember you, you're..."

"Does it matter that you know who I am?" interrupted the male, "Look, I've got deal for you. That device on your wrist is temporarily holding your body in the string of time moments before Celestia's friends froze you in stone. I control that device. Right now, the effect will only last for two days."

Discord played with the watch and attempted to turn it into something less sensible, like a scrunchy wristband, but to no avail.

"The watch is also in its own time channel," laughed the intruder.

"Giving me an accessory that shields me from the Elements of Harmony?" said Discord, pulling on his goatee, "Sounds interesting, but of course I'm not anyone's lackey. I'd rather go back to stone than have to actually... follow instructions."

Discord then remembered his greatest scheme of all time and said, "Of course, none of this will matter once my surprise in the Everfree Forest rears its head."

"Oh, you mean the part of the forest that burned down this year?" asked the stranger.

Discord slapped his forehead in disgust, and the stranger laughed, "Yes, Discord, that ancient thing of yours was completely burnt and destroyed in the forest fire this year. You have no chance against Equestria except through me!"

Discord grumbled at his ancient plan of one thousand years in the making being foiled and pouted, crossing his arms.

"Look, if you do as I tell you, not only will I give you your freedom, Discord, but I will also give you a large chunk of Equestria for you to fly and be free in," offered the stranger, "it's double or nothing. What will it be for you, hmmm?"

"You mean, you want your precious Equestria in utter chaos?" Discord asked, giving a twisted grin, "I've never heard such sweet words in my life!"

"I'll assume that's a yes," said the cloaked stallion, removing a small piece of paper from his cloak and giving it to Discord, "this is all I want. I want you to deliver Twilight Sparkle to me two nights from now so that I can make Celestia pay. I don't care about the green one."

Discord looked at the photo, clearly one of Twilight Sparkle and Techorse standing next to each other.

"Ahhh, I see, going for her student?" hummed Discord, tossing the photo away.

The picture impacted the side of the bubble and froze in midair, suspended in time, as were the two inside the bubble. To the outside world, not even a single second had passed yet.

"Once she's in my hooves, I will extend your watch's time infinitely," said the figure after clearing his throat, "then, anything from Canterlot to the western mountain range is yours. You don't even have to hurt them, just bring them to me."

"Well good, causing harm is not the goal of chaos," Discord said, crossing his arms, "I'm not going to do your dirty work for you, but I'll be fine with bringing Twilight to you."

"Good," said the figure, a spark shooting from his horn at the watch, "just remember, if you don't..."
Discord began to notice that his feet were beginning to re-encase in stone again, but it receded quickly as the intruder in front of him revoked his spell.

"You go back to being pigeon latrine," he said.

This was no way to treat the Lord of Chaos! But unfortunately, Discord knew that he had no choice in the matter, and figured that eventually he'd be able to break the Elements of Harmony's hold on him by himself. Then he could teach the Russian sounding stallion taunting him some manners.

That particular stallion informed his new "friend", "Just tap on the watch if you need to communicate with me. I look forward to being delivered Twilight Sparkle!"

With a bright flash of white, the stranger vanished, taking his bubble of time with him. The photo fluttered gracefully to the ground, and Discord dragged his tail on the ground as he went to pick it up.

"Of course, now I have to decide how to do it," he mused, summoning a green chalkboard from out of nowhere, and putting on a pair of black glasses he retrieved from behind his head.

He drew a few diagrams of ways he could go about trapping Twilight, but ultimately gave up, and balled up the entire chalkboard in his hands as if it were a large piece of paper, tossing it behind his back.

"They won't even let me in the front door," said Discord to himself, "perhaps what I need to do is... a little bit of acting."

The master of acting and deceiving, Discord prepared exactly what he was going to do the following morning. If things went according to plan for him, and they frequently did, he'd soon easily have Twilight and Techorse to trade for control of most of Equestria! All that sweet territory to cause chaos and trouble in would be his.

He could sense that Princess Celestia was still awake and sitting on her throne, discussing matters of what artwork should be displayed in a new gallery that was being opened up later that month in Canterlot. Not wanting to simply wait until the next day to put his plan into motion, Discord decided to make his grand entry now. Snapping his taloned fingers, he disappeared in a flash of gray light, and appeared near the eastward wall of the castle.

The moonlight was projecting a shadow of a nearby tree onto the wall, and Discord's shadow grabbed a hold of it, allowing him to defy gravity and climb the tree's shadow to ascend the wall, before reaching a window in the side of the mighty structure that had been shut tight for the evening. Shrugging, he simply turned himself into a 2D version of himself, a paper thin Discord, and slipped through the narrow gap between the two panes. Once inside, parchment Discord drifted gently to the ground back and forth before resting. He pulled himself up, clenched his lion's paw into a fist with the thumb out, and blew hard into it, re-inflating himself into a 3D being again.

Discord was not doing any of this to make the perfect entry into the castle. He was only doing it to make a nonsensical game of the situation he was in. Although he could have teleported into the throne room, that direct route would have simply made far too much sense. It was so much more fun to attempt to stealthily enter the castle, and make trouble for the night watch when possible.
Once he had reached the door that led to the throne room, he noticed that it was locked, unable to simply open the door and do what he had planned.

"What a shame," he said quietly to himself, "making the candles lighting the hallway dance in with me would have been the perfect entrance. Time for plan B!"

He looked back and forth with his devious yellow eyes down the hallways, and saw a small mirror near the double doors marking the throne room.

Discord slid up to the mirror and looked at his reflection before saying, "Watch for guards for me."

The reflection saluted, clearly no longer mirroring Discord's actions, "Yes sir!"

The chaotic mastermind turned back to the door while the mirror image took out a pair of binoculars and started scanning the hallways.

Discord went back to the double doors, and reached up, pulling his unicorn styled horn off of his head with a subtle popping noise. He then rolled the horn in his hands pack and forth, and like a piece of putty the horn turned into a long, thin piece of material quickly. Discord then inserted his modified horn into the lock on the door, and started to pick the lock while his reflection kept guard.

Once he felt the tumblers click into place, he rolled the horn back to its original size in its hands, and replaced it on his head, and then opened the door, while staying behind it. Light from the throne room shone in and illuminated the hallway, and the reflection Discord, his duty done, vanished from the mirror.

---

Princess Celestia noticed that the door had opened, as had Captain Arbiter and Jools and Jops, all of which were nearby the throne. Arbiter's brow curled in suspicion, he could have sworn that he had locked that door for the night!

The two ponies in charge of the art gallery's opening, both unicorn mares with a passion for portraits and landscapes, did not notice the open door.

"I would like to open up the option for a portrait of you, your majesty, if you'd so desire for the portrait gallery," one of them said, smiling in hopes the princess would say yes.

Princess Celestia seemed to stare at the open door, and not at the art gallery owners.

She then looked down at her subjects, and said to them, "Please let me have a moment here."

She then returned to the open door and called out, "If there's somepony out there, please come in!"

A few moments passed, and then, a blue cardboard box slid into the room, nonstop, ignoring the rules of inertia and friction. The two art gallery owners turned around and looked at the sliding object with great confusion, as did Jools and Jops.

"What is that?" asked Arbiter, growing worried as the box slid to a halt on the red carpet in the middle of the throne room.

The container was just 10 feet from the throne, and rested perfectly on the floor. Princess Celestia craned her neck in on the object, hoping to get a better look. Immediately, the lid of the box flew off backwards, and landed on the ground, causing her to recoil in surprise. The box contained a large set of playing cards, all face down, with a red crosshatched pattern for the back art. All of the playing cards suddenly flew upwards at once, and assembled themselves into a giant pyramid, the most impressive house that could be made with a number of decks. The watchers of this event were impressed by the feat of magic, but remained silent.

The house of cards then collapsed in on itself, creating a column, from which a taloned hand emerged and scooped the entire thing in one cartoony swoop, collapsing all of the cards into a single deck. Discord now stood in the middle of the carpet were the cards were, wearing a small blue poker visor on his head. He shuffled the deck of cards in his hands, and smiled at those present.

"Discord!?" said Princess Celestia, stunned and also extremely worried.

"Celestia!" he answered, as if she was an old friend, "Care for a game of cards?"

The two art gallery ponies screamed, and dropped to the ground, covering their eyes in terror. They had heard the legends about the Lord of Chaos that had flung Equestria into sheer disorder, and how life under him was uncomfortable beyond belief.

"I suppose it is a little late for cards," he said, sighing as he watched the unicorns cower.

Discord took off the visor and threw them and the cards over his shoulder, where they vanished into thin air.

Captain Arbiter drew his sword from its blue sheath, his magic gauntlets hovering at his sides as they activated and grabbed the blade.

"I don't know how you're free," he said, pointing the tip of the blade at Discord, "and honestly I don't care. Not another step, Discord!"

He intentionally disobeyed the order and took a step forward saying, "I don't know what you mean by that, Arbiter Axechop."

"How did you know my name?" he demanded to know, moving forward, "You were turned to stone ages before I was employed here."

"I could hear everything out there in the garden," he answered, "the invasion of the robots and "humans", whatever those were. Even the art gallery you were just discussing."

He then smirked at Arbiter and said, "And of course, let's not forget your betrayal when you set that guillotine up."

Arbiter grit his teeth and snarled as Jools and Jops got the two unicorn mares back to Princess Celestia's sides, where they'd be safer in the event of a fight. Princess Celestia looked angrily at Discord, thinking that his intentions would mean a coup against her. Options to stop Discord raced through her head, as well as questions as to how he was no longer in stone. Should she try to wake up Luna? Summon Twilight Sparkle and her friends?

"Discord, I don't know what you want, but I'm willing to listen if it means you don't plunge Equestria into total chaos again," she said.

"Well I was about to get to that!" Discord said, walking forward towards her.

He then reached down with his claw and said, "You see, what I want to do is..."

Arbiter took this as an attempt to hurt Princess Celestia, and made the decision to strike. His sword in his gauntlet, he yelled, and jumped at Discord with his blade, who looked at him quizzically. The stallion struck his sharp blade in a wide arc as he jumped in mid air, his black cape fluttering behind him. A sound akin to blade across wood was heard as the sword made its arc, and Arbiter decapitated Discord in one swift stroke, sending his head to the ground in front of Celestia. He landed on the ground, sweating and breathing heavily from his sudden action and mighty blow. Princess Celestia's mouth fell open, and the unicorn mares screamed again at what they had just seen. Discord's mixed body fell to the ground with a mighty thud.

"A... Arbiter!" said the princess, shocked.

Jools and Jops looked at their captain in awe of what he had just done. Silence had overtaken the room as the knowledge that Discord had just lost his head sunk in. It didn't last long however, when his body started to show movement, despite him having apparently been vanquished in the eyes of those present.
His body stood up and reached down to pick up his head, which he replaced on his neck. He then gave the detached head a sharp smack with his paw, and it spun around quickly several times before a sharp click was heard. Discord shook his now replaced head quickly to re-orient himself, and coughed once before turning to Arbiter, who was clearly shocked.

"Was that really necessary?" he answered teasingly, "You really do need to watch that temper of yours, Arbiter! Violence solves nothing."

Princess Celestia breathed a sigh of relief, and her heart rate began to go back to normal. Discord pointed at Arbiter's black cape, and the cape enlarged and fell off of his neck before moving under his hooves. The captain tired to protest, but it was too late, as the engorged cape wrapped him up and tied itself into a bag, trapping the captain. His sword and gauntlets fell out of the opening before it sealed, ensuring that he could not escape. The bag moved around as the pegasus struggled to free himself.

"Now that we have the captain in time-out, let's talk," suggested Discord, turning back to Princess Celestia.

"You'll never win, Discord," she said, getting up from her throne, "I don't care what you do to me. Equestria will not fall."

Discord put both his hands to his heart and pretended to act hurt, "But Celestia, I merely wish to announce that I'm retiring from plunging Equestria into chaos."

Princess Celestia's eyes relaxed, and she asked curiously, "Oh?"

"Chaos is such bliss, but even I need a vacation," he explained, "I'd like to propose finding a more creative outlet for it, in exchange for, perhaps lightening my stone sentence by a few thousand years?"

"This is a trick," muttered Celestia, her horn starting to glow.

Discord had her right where he wanted her.

He said, "Of course you'd think that, it wouldn't be the first trick. In fact, I don't know which trick it would be, I've lost count myself..."

Arbiter continued to try and free himself from the bag, but the more he struggled, the more the now cursed cape held him tight. Discord looked at the rolling bag with a slight smile, and cleared his throat before continuing,

"I'd like to go to a more isolated area, say, the river and light woods near Canterlot. Just to stretch my scales, and feathers, and everything else," he said, putting his hands together in supplication, "once you have, perhaps you could send that student of yours, Twilight Sparkle, to help me find chaos's true place."

Princess Celestia knew something was wrong with the situation, but she could not figure out what. The watch Discord seemed to have now did not tip her off, as she had believed it was a part of his poker outfit he had worn at the start of the conversation. Despite her negative feelings, Celestia had hoped that someday, Discord could be made into a good being, and this presented the perfect opportunity. But she still had a few more questions to ask, just in case he was up to something.

"How do I know you won't simply leave the area and cause problems?" she asked, her hair still flowing behind her.

Discord emoted with his hands, and said, "Obviously because you still have the Elements of Harmony. If you'll notice and check your vault, you'll see that I haven't touched them. Not even the extra one you've added. Justice, what a nice choice by the way, might I add. A very deep and interesting subject."

Princess Celestia thought about what she had just been told. Essentially, Discord had left the Elements of Harmony alone as a token of good faith. Perhaps this would be the best time to teach her former enemy the deceny he needed to live in Equestria free from stone. Hope welled in her heart that Discord would see the light over the next few days. She still issued a warning, however, to make sure he wouldn't flee and cause mischeif.

"If you dare to leave that area, I will send Twilight Sparkle and the other element holders with their artifacts to turn you to stone again." she warned, "Otherwise, you are free to go."

"Will I be able to expect Twilight tomorrow?" he asked "innocently", "Or within two days? I do wish to start right away on making chaos a more productive hobby."

"I will have her visit the area as soon as possible," she answered, working up the positivity to smile, "enjoy your night of freedom."

Discord thanked her, and faked a small bow before diving into the open blue cardboard box, disappearing into it. The box's lid sealed up again, and then it rolled out of sight down the hallway into the darkness. At this point, Arbiter's cape returned to normal, back around his neck and no longer a prison. The captain stood up, and moved in front of Princess Celestia, bowing.

"Forgive me for my violence," he said, "I acted in haste."

The alicorn lowered her head to her captain and said to him, "I was just surprised that you were willing to take the risk of standing up to him for everypony in the room. Besides, I already was aware that Discord could replace his head at will. It's been one thousand years after all."

Arbiter stood up and smiled, his one good eye looking at the smiling faces of the unicorns, and of Jools and Jops.

"Hopefully Miss Sparkle is going to be able to help Discord figure out a more appropriate use of his skills," he said sternly, "I'd like to not have to drag him back kicking and screaming by those tiny wings of his."

"I'm sure you won't have to," said Princess Celestia, confidently.

She then turned to her guests, and asked them to spend the night in the Castle rooms so that they could discuss the art gallery at some other time. The two agreed and left the room with Jools and Jops, leaving Arbiter and Celestia alone to close up before heading for bed. Tomorrow, they would send for Twilight Sparkle, and ask her to tackle her greatest challenge yet.

---

When Twilight Sparkle received her letter the following morning about the news, she couldn't believe what she was reading. Although it was tempting to write a letter back asking for confirmation that Discord was actually going to make an effort in self-improvement, she instead decided to gather all of her friends, as requested by the message. It was easy enough to get Rarity and Applejack to join, who wanted to do anything to aid in keeping Equestria a place of sanity and order. Rainbow Dash had been slightly harder to convince, seeing as she had trouble forgiving others from time to time, but eventually the lure of being able to add another awesome feat to her list got her to follow the group of friends. Of course, Pinkie Pie was up for anything that could lead to a great time. This left convincing Fluttershy to work up the courage to join them on their mission. The team reached Fluttershy's home, where they found Shadow Breeze at the front doorstep, about to knock.

"Shadow, Fluttershy might not be in today," warned Rainbow Dash, walking up to him, "she needs to come with us."

"Oh, hey everypony," he said, turning and noticing how they were traveling as a pack, "why? Is there something going on?"

"We have an important task ahead of us for the next few days," explained Twilight, "I had to leave Spike at the library to keep it open."

"What's the task?" asked the graphite colored pegasus, looking a bit confused.

Fluttershy had heard the conversation from inside her home, and gently opened the front door on her tree with a slight creak. She walked out and greeted her friends.

"Good morning," she said, smiling softly, "did I forget about something we were going to do today, girls? I'm sorry."

"Don't worry Fluttershy," Applejack explained, "ya didn't forget anything, this just came up this mornin'."

"Anyways," explained Twilight, swishing her tail once, "Fluttershy, we've been tasked by Princess Celestia to take on a great challenge. Apparently Discord has somehow managed to set himself free, but instead of laying chaotic waste to Canterlot, wants to try and find a more creative outlet for his powers."

"Wh... what?" gasped Fluttershy, her pupils shrinking at the news.

Shadow Breeze's eyes also grew wide, and he asked, "Wait... seriously?"

"I know it sounds hard to believe, but he even left the Elements of Harmony in the vault," Twilight continued, raising a hoof, "with them under tight security now, at the very least he won't be able to pull off an escape."

"I guess, but I'm still rather suspicious. Think about all the stuff he did last time," stated Rainbow Dash, digging her hoof in, "I'm surprised we're not going to take the Elements and go turn him to stone again."

"Look, I'm a bit upset too," Twilight said to her, making eye contact, "but Princess Celestia wants us to make peace with Discord. Even if we don't like him, at least we can make sure he doesn't cause any more trouble without turning him into a decoration again."

Shadow Breeze got an idea in his mind, and suggested, "Make peace? Since I'm a diplomat in training, may I come with you? I'd like to write up an agreement that could help!"

"I don't see why not," said Fluttershy, "if you'd really like to, that is. You're not scared?"

"No. As far as I know from what I've heard and read, Discord's not dangerous," he said, shaking his head.

"But if he gets loose, he'll make life hard on all of us!" protested Rarity, "I don't want us to end up under mind control yet again."

"That won't happen," said Fluttershy, "I'm sure of it. There's a good part of him deep down inside there."

"Oh please!" scoffed Rainbow Dash.

"Anyways, we need to go to Techorse and get his help on this one," said Twilight, "come on Shadow, I'm sure he'll be thrilled to have another friend helping us!"

---

When they reached Techorse and told him the news, he had his own moment of skepticism before being told the evidence that Discord wanted to make a change. He then let them in, and led them into a small ready room, equipped with a hologram table. There they planned how they were going to tackle their quest.

"We'll need to figure out how Discord can make a positive impact on Equestria instead of a negative one," said Techorse, standing next to Twilight.

"We don't know exactly what that is," muttered Rainbow Dash, "honestly, I don't think there is anything that loon could do for good."

Twilight admitted somewhat shamefully, "Nopony knows right this minute what Discord could do, but do we really want to go back to fighting him every time he gets free? Equestria's order is at stake here ponies! We've got to at least try to pacify Discord until we can figure out something he can do. I'm not sure how he'll react to hearing he's irredeemable!"

"That's a terrible thing to say anyways," whispered Fluttershy, looking at the ground glumly, "he's not irredeemable. He just needs a friend."

Shadow Breeze looked at the back of Fluttershy's head and frowned at her sadness.

"So what can we do to convince Discord not to run off and turn Ponyville into a pinata?" shouted Pinkie Pie, putting her hooves on the grid lined table.

"Well, I'd like to try first, if everpony doesn't mind. Discord hasn't met me yet, and he might be more willing to hold off on trying something funny if he receives some kind of a token of peace from me," Techorse said, smiling, "anypony got an idea as to what he might like?"

"Maybe his own home?" asked Fluttershy, "Does Discord have a house in Equestria he used to live in? It seems he has no place to go, and that's really sad."

"Yeah... hang on, where does that weirdo live anyways?" asked Rainbow Dash, "You know, before he got turned to stone?"

"I'm not sure, but we can't leave him without a place if he's going to be here in Equestria with us," answered Techorse, "so we're going to make a place! Good idea Fluttershy."

"But how are we going to design an entire castle?" asked Twilight.

"Remeber the time you loaned me that book on castle architecture?" he asked, "I copied all the designs into the castle holo-projector."

Techorse pressed a button with a hoof on the table, and a hologram of a large castle appeared over the table, rotating.

"That being said, I'm going to build Discord a new home in the area outside of Canterlot where he's located right now. What I'm hoping is that at the very least, getting a free castle might be incentive enough to wait for us to come up with a reasonable answer to his question."

"You're going to waste all that work building a castle for that guy?" protested Rainbow Dash, swatting at the hologram with her left wing, "Come on Techie, that's a stupid idea!"

"We won't be building it. I'm not making us do any work," he said, rolling his eyes as he shut off the hologram, "Let me go get my help for this project, and then we'll all head to Canterlot!"

"Not so fast, how are we gonna get a permit to build a castle?" demanded Rainbow Dash.

Applejack laughed and tipped her hat before cracking a low joke, "Easy sugarcube, the moment Techie tells 'em he's building it to keep Discord out of their manes, he'll have that permit hot in his hooves!"

Twilight smiled and stated, "I'll get us all set up for our stay. We're going to be there for a couple days, so I'll need to get us all packed up."

The unicorn mare led her friends out of the room to go back to their homes and pack their belongings for the trip. Techorse stepped outside of the castle, and entered his back yard, noting the place where he first encountered Twilight, and sighing.

He then extended his robotic arms out of his saddle, and put the first two fingers of each metal hand into the corners of his mouth, and whistled sharply. The robotic arms retreated into the saddle with a mechanical buzz, and the ground near Techorse started to shake. Suddenly, three large, worm-shaped robots emerged from the ground, and focused their frontal camera and headlights on Techorse. They were mining probes, the giant machines that fetched his metal and resources necessary to build his inventions while causing as little damage to the surrounding terrain as possible. Each one was four feet in diameter, and the three mechanical worms stared down at the pony that had built them, waiting for instructions.

"I need to ask you three a favor," he said, smiling.

---

Later on in the day, the ponies had gathered at Canterlot castle to embark on their mission. Techorse made it back to the castle last, and entered the throne room with a smile on his face. He found all of his friends flanking the sides of the red carpet that led up to the thrones in the castle.

"Everything's ready," he said.

"Wowie!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, "That was fast!"

"Techorse's machines truly are wonderful," said Rarity, "I'm sure he had quite a large number of robots working on the new home."

"A new home?" asked Princess Celestia, stepping down from her throne and approaching Techorse.

He explained to her, "I've had some of my mining robots build a castle for Discord close to the river that he's camping out by. I'm hoping that offering a new place to stay will help buy us some time to figure out what he can do with his powers that won't cause so much trouble."

Twilight Sparkle added, "Techorse wants to try to talk to Discord alone before any of us get a chance too. Just to help him get settled in before we arrive."

"That could be dangerous," warned Princess Celestia, "even though the Elements of Harmony are safe, Discord may have several tricks planned for you."

"Twilight already came up with a plan B in case things go wrong," said Techorse, his saddle's side ports opening up.

The robotic arms emerged, holding a rectangular device with a red button.

"I'll just teleport myself out quickly if Discord tries anything funny. This device is programmed to take me back here to the throne room in the event that I have to bail. Even one use of chaos magic will zap me out!"

"If that's so, then I'll allow you to go alone," Princess Celestia said, "I've had Arbiter and the guards keep a close eye on the Elements of Harmony. If you arrive back here with bad news, we may need to get them back out."

Techorse smiled, "With any luck they'll stay right in the vault."

"I wish you luck Techorse," said the Princess as he turned to leave the throne room.

Twilight followed him out into the castle hallway.

"Hey!" she said to him, getting him to turn around.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing. Just be careful," she said, kissing him on the cheek.

"I will Twilight. Love you," he answered, walking down the hallway.

She watched him gallop down the hallway, with a good, confident feeling that he'd be fine.

---

Techorse ventured out to the lightly wooded area by the river where he was sure he would find Discord. The peaceful serenity of the woods seemed untouched by chaos, which Techorse took as a good sign that his soon to be acquaintance really did want to make a change. Eventually he spotted him, and to his disappointment, he seemed to be up to his old tricks. Discord was turning saplings into bowling pins, having set himself up a little alley near the river, where he was perfecting the art of sparing the seven-ten split. The young trees in the area had been completely disrupted for the game, which might not be such a terrible thing, if it were not for the fact that Canterlot had taken care of that forest for years.

"Excuse me," said Techorse, trying to be polite as he approached Discord in the middle of his game.

Discord, wearing an orange striped bowling shirt and shoes, rolled his solid black ball down the lane, knocking over the two remaining sapling pins in short order. He then brought his fist down in victory, and turned to Techorse.

"Ah, hello Techorse! Care to join me for a few frames?" he asked as his ball went through an old oak log that had been converted into a ball return.

"How did you know my name?" he asked, surprised.

"I've heard everything ever said in that castle, just because I was stone doesn't mean I was deaf!" responded Discord, rolling his eyes.

"Plus, I can see that little toy on your back. That's your so called 'battle saddle'. Which you never seem to actually want to use, because you're afraid you'll be seen as a big bully," he continued, mocking him.

Techorse frowned, somewhat annoyed, and responded, "I didn't bring my laser cannons, Discord. The others don't know that. I was hoping we could make peace."

"Peace? Well I suppose that's the goal of Justice after all, hmmm?" he responded, turning a nearby bush into a green bean-bag chair. He reclined on it and turned another bush into a chair for Techorse to use.

The pony cautiously sat down next to Discord, and continued his conversation.

"It seems you already know about the newest Element of Harmony," Techorse said, moving some of his brown hair out his eyes with a hoof, "and what it does if it's used with the other six versus not using it."

"I'm aware. I'm also aware that I requested Twilight Sparkle to speak with me instead of you. Where is she?" he asked.

He then put his fingers in his mouth and mockingly gasped, "Oh no, don't tell me! Princess Celestia has changed her mind and has sent you to arrest me!"

"No, not at all!" said Techorse, not really picking up on the sarcasm.

He assumed that Discord was naturally this sarcastic based on what his friends had told him about the draconequus.

"I wanted to show you something, it's a bit west of here down the river," he said, "it's a gift from all of us."

Discord thought, "Oh what a foolish colt. There's an ambush waiting for me down the river, Twilight Sparkle and all her friends will be there with the Elements to turn me back. I suppose there I can easily convince them I want to change, of course... that'll mean taking a break from my match."

He looked at the bowling set and snapped his fingers, reverting the alley into the saplings and trees that it once was. Several irritated mother birds and their young returned to their nests that had been disrupted by the transfiguration of their homes.

"I'm not perfect," he said, faking his best humble attitude, "I just wanted a little game. I hope that it's not too much trouble. We shouldn't get off on the wrong paw, hoof, or claw here."

Techorse sighed heavily and said to him, "To be honest Discord, I don't view you as my enemy at all. Some of your tricks are actually pretty amusing to watch. I just think when it gets out of hand and nothing makes sense is when we get upset with you. But don't worry, we're here to help you with that."

"Pretending to enjoy chaos won't win me over," warned Discord, reverting the chairs back into bushes and removing his summoned shirt and shoes in a puff of smoke.

Techorse found himself pulling his tail out of the bush, shredding a few leaves on the way out.

"Well, maybe the gift we have for you might!" he suggested, smiling, "Let's go see it!"

---

He led him down the river until they cleared a small hill, bringing into view the castle that Techorse had his construction drones build. The cranes and mechanical worms had finished putting the last of the tan-colored bricks into place, and the home was complete. It was a large, intricate castle, roughly half the size of Canterlot's, without a central spire, but plenty of turrets and towers in an unorganized pattern. A few red-colored flags fluttered from the battlements, and the front door was a brand new idea Techorse had come up with himself, the very stones of the front of the building retracted and opened up to lead into the depths of the stone mansion.

Discord was not impressed, "A castle? How cliché."

In his mind, the orderly nature of bricks and mortar made standard castles a thing he despised.

"You might not think that once you see what's inside!" said Techorse excitedly as his robots retreated back for home, "Come have a look."

The two entered the darkness of the building, and then Techorse's battle saddle opened up, his robotic arms snaking towards a light switch. Once he had flipped it, it was revealed that the entire castle was a mere shell, an empty one at that. Several thousand square feet of floor space with a 100 foot ceiling, and not a single object in sight save for a few electrical lights and a large pile of construction materials left in the middle of the ground.

"Think of it this way Discord," said Techorse, trying to appeal to him," I've given you a blank canvas to work with. Building any normal kind of structure would have made far too much sense. I don't know if you'll necessarily need that pile of materials, but I've given you a home that you can make as chaotic and nonsensical as you want it to be!"

Now that had Discord's attention, and he stroked his goatee in surprise, "So... you want me to make this place... utter chaos?"

"It's your new home now!" nodded Techorse, "You can do whatever you want with it."

"This was your idea?" he asked.

"Well, it was actually Fluttershy's," answered Techorse, beaming, "but we wanted you to feel as if you're a part of Equestria with your very own domain. This is Chaos Castle, Discord! Next time I'm here, I'm really looking forward to see what you've done with this place!"

"Fluttershy... wanted you to make this for me?"

Discord was somewhat moved by the offer. His very own home that he could put his very own rules on? As much chaos as he wanted within the large walls? Still, he had a mission to finish if he wanted to maintain his freedom. His chaos could easily spread far beyond the walls if he could trap Twilight Sparkle and deliver her to his new employer. Conflict began to emerge in his complex mind, however. It truly seemed as if the green colt next to him cared about him changing his ways, and a castle that would cost millions of bits was essentially just handed to him for free. No one had ever been that generous or kind to him before in his life.

"I'm very grateful for this!" he said, turning to Techorse, "Oh, and this place will be the home of chaos I've always wanted. You may not like what you see when you return with Twilight Sparkle."

"I'll make sure she visits her soon, don't worry," assured Techorse, "I'll be back tomorrow. It was nice meeting you."

He then turned around to walk away, before Discord asked him a very crucial question.

"Techorse... one question."

He turned around and waited for the response.

Discord continued, "Being the element of Justice, why aren't you mad at me? After all, did I not turn Ponyville on its head last year? One thousand years ago, the chaos I plunged the land into, no matter how sweet, surely must anger you."

Techorse shook his head, "Justice is setting what's wrong, right. Not getting revenge. Since you've made it clear you want to set your wrongs right, I think we can be friends Discord."

He then walked out into the afternoon sun, leaving the draconequus indoors as the stone walls sealed back up, leaving him alone. Discord really could not believe what was going on. Initially he had hoped that his fake act of "wanting to change" would work, and Twilight would have shown up where she could easily be subdued and turned over. Now it seemed that his plans were backfiring, and that the ponies really did want to encourage a change in his nature. It especially seemed that Techorse was being sincere in his efforts, and wanted to prove that his chaos and mischief were really not the crime they were sometimes made out to be.

Fluttershy having wanted to give him his very own home when he didn't have one was especially touching to Discord, and he reflected on her kindness despite how cruelly he had treated her previously. Of course, the idea of plunging all of Equestria into chaos, and also keeping his new home as well was a fairly tempting thought. Still, Discord was beginning to feel like a real heel for what he was going to do to Twilight and her friends, whose trust he had won. But before anything could be done about that, he had a blank canvas to paint.

Discord looked at the large pile of materials, did a 360 degree spin around the place, and then laughed merrily like a child in a candy store as he set about turning his new home into a place of true chaos.
Once he had finished, he stepped outside to take in the night air before returning to the floating bed he'd made for himself on the third and one eight floor. No sooner had he taken his break, that the cloaked figure had returned to question him.

"A very nice home for you to rule your share of Equestria with," he laughed, walking up, his eyes glowing within the hood of his coat.

"Do you like it? Techorse gave it to me, on Fluttershy's request. You know, Techorse, the green one in the picture you gave to me," he said, smiling.

"Ah, well, it is an impressive work. But of course, I have no interest in the green one. I want Twilight Sparkle. Where is she?" he demanded.

Discord stuck his hands out defensively, "They didn't send her today, but tomorrow I'll have her for sure."

"Good. Once you deliver her, I will extend you watches' life indefinitely," he said, pleased, "you're still well within your time limit. Do not let me down."

He then teleported in a bright flash of white light, leaving Discord alone again. His thoughts returned to him and challenged his ideas. Although it did seem like Techorse wanted to be nice, he knew that he'd always be on Celestia's leash if he ever decided to actually change. The practical route was to turn over Twilight anyways, and perhaps cover up the incident before launching his campaign against order. But there was a tiny ray of light in the dark thoughts, begging to be let out, that stated that the ponies really did care about him. The light flickered, and it was hard to see in the vast choking darkness, but it was there.

---

The following morning, after Techorse had been greeted warmly by his friends, a meeting was had over breakfast to determine the next step in bringing Discord to their side.

Techorse stared at what was on his plate, a small block of hay drizzled in honey sauce. He had promised nearly a year ago to try hay someday, and this was the first chance he'd really had in order to fulfill his promise to his friends. He took a large bite out of the pile, and chewed the dry edible grass thoughtfully.

"So, how was it?" giggled Pinkie Pie.

Techorse swallowed his food and answered, "Very dry, but it's kind of like a biscuit. I like it!"

Twilight spoke up, "It seems that yesterday went well. We've made good progress towards rehabilitating Discord. So what will we do today?"

At this point, Shadow Breeze dropped the bagel he was chewing on, and answered, "We ought to go over to his new castle and try to discuss things diplomatically."

"I'm not sure if Discord will be very interested in a peace treaty, it's far too orderly for his tastes," said Rarity, skeptical that the idea would work.

"Maybe we should just try being friends..." trailed Fluttershy, hoping someone would hear her, but to no avail.

"...I believe diplomatic discussion may be helpful," said Princess Celestia, seated next to her sister at the head of the dining room table, "although nothing formal may come of it, it would be possible to at least help Discord understand the boundaries we want for Equestria. Shadow Breeze, you should choose a few of your friends here to go with you today."

Shadow Breeze looked around the table, and made his decision, "I want Twilight, Techorse and Fluttershy to go with me."

"Me?" asked Fluttershy timidly, "But why?"

"You're so gentle with others, and you know, persuasion is better than force," he answered, smiling.

Fluttershy blushed at the comment and answered, "I guess that's true. I... I'll go with you Shadow."

"It seems like everything is going way too well," muttered Rainbow Dash, "I'd thought for sure Discord would have tried something funny."

"We really ought to give him a bit more of a chance," said Fluttershy, "I know he was a bit of a... nuisance. But there has to be a reason for that beyond just wanting to make a little fun."

"Yeah, well, when we don't know which way is up anymore, at least I'll be able to say 'I told you so', if those words still make sense," scoffed the pegasus.

"Come on Rainbow Dash," Applejack grunted, "give it another day. We still got the Elements of Harmony if things go wrong."

"I guess you're right," she answered, nodding, "no big deal."

Techorse crammed in the rest of his hay cake and said, "Well, let's pack up and head on over to the new castle. Hopefully Discord has finished remodeling his home. I can't wait to see what he's done with the place."

The four friends chosen to go on the short diplomacy mission set out for the castle and reached it within the hour. The outside of the home seemed to look identical from how Techorse had left it the previous night, although now a few of the towers and turrets were floating or connected to the structure by an odd tunnel of stone.

"Seems fairly normal. It's probably a complete mess inside though," said Twilight Sparkle, turning her head slightly and raising an eyebrow.

"Now no matter what we see in there, we need to compliment Discord on his work," said Shadow Breeze, "Please."

"Oh, it must be amazing in there!" said Fluttershy, offering an example.

"I have no idea what to expect," admitted Techorse, "I hope I don't go blind. Discord likes to invert colors from what I hear."

The four approached the stone wall that marked the doorway and rang the doorbell, which strangely responded with sheer silence. The wall opened up in the pattern it was intended to, and a smaller red door appeared, barely the height of the four ponies. The door then split up and replicated into four small doors, one for each of the ponies.

"Oh boy..." sighed Twilight, "He couldn't even give us a normal door. Bet it's impossible to navigate in there."

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Fluttershy said.

The four opened their doors, and entered the building. Once they were inside, their mouths dropped open at what they saw. It appeared that Discord had chosen to stick with the color scheme of the tan stone, with blue and red carpeting. But following with the crazy nature of his work, the inside of the castle looked like an M. C. Escher lithograph. Stairways and halls led this way and that, defying not only gravity, but volume and proportion size. Sets of large, grand staircases were flipped upside down, but the four ponies found that they could climb up the stairs, and crane their necks "upwards" to look "down" at their friends.

"This is amazing!" gasped Techorse, "So many laws of physics treated like suggestions!"

"Pinkie Pie would have a blast here!" joked Twilight, poking her head out from a flower vase, "This place is a real work of art."

"How did you get in the flower pot?" asked Fluttershy, her eyes growing wide.

"I went through that small opening over there," said Twilight, pointing to a hole in the wall of one of the staircases.

Twilight retracted her head, and she walked out from the narrow hole, smiling.

Discord, wearing a solid white smoking jacket, slid his way down the ceiling on one of the golden rails of the staircases, dropping down in front of his four guests with a smile on his face.

"Welcome back Techorse. Great place you gave me here, such a beautiful home for chaos!" he said, laughing.

"Glad you like it! As promised, I brought Twilight here so we could talk about how we can help you use your powers outside of these walls. My friend Shadow Breeze wanted to talk about the legal side of it, and Fluttershy is here as a tag along," he answered, pointing to his friends.

"Splendid!" answered Discord, tapping his fingers together deviously, "Go ahead through the second curtain on the left up the horizontal spiral staircase, and we'll go to the inverse living room to discuss things."

Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy did as they were told, and Discord followed them, leaving Twilight and Techorse alone. Twilight Sparkle turned to her coltfriend and said, "Did you see that look on Discord's face?"

"What look?" he answered, unaware.

"Something is up. Keep on your guard," she warned.

---

The two then followed the instructions, and found themselves in a living room with the furniture all attached to the ceiling, with some of it floating in layers towards the ground. Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy sat next to each other on a couch hovering a few inches from the ground, and Discord reclined in a comfy chair nearby, where he picked up a small black cloud of smoke. Blowing into it, he produced multiple tiny brown wooden smoking pipes that floated up and popped like bubbles into nothing.
Shadow Breeze opened up, "We'd like to propose a peace treaty between you and Equestria."

"Sounds a little too... organized." hummed Discord, smirking.

"Well if you want to get anywhere, you'd better listen!" threatened Twilight.

"Please Twilight, I'm sure we can work something out," soothed Fluttershy, "Discord just wants to be able to enjoy life without going back to stone."

"That's right Twilight," teased Discord with a sarcastic tone, throwing the cloud away, "I only want to have a little fun with life."

Twilight twisted her face into that of annoyance, and Shadow Breeze continued, "We'd like you to be able to use your powers of chaos to... well..."

There was a sudden pause, and Shadow Breeze remembered to his horror that they hadn't quite come up with any way Discord could practice his form of magic without causing disaster.

"I'm listening," he answered, his right ear growing to twice its size, and he put his claw to it.

"Well... I..." Shadow Breeze tried to fan himself with his wings, and he began to sweat.

"What Shadow means to say is that we're not quite sure yet what you should do with your chaotic powers," said Techorse bluntly, "but we will figure something out, and let you practice it as soon as possible."

Twilight smacked her forehead with a hoof, and Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze froze in terror. Now they were in deep trouble. There was no way that the Lord of Chaos was going to simply accept being on a tight chain sitting down. However, Discord was still attempting to lure Twilight into his trap, and needed to keep her at his new castle until the stranger returned to take her away. He may not have liked what he had just heard slip from Techorse's lips, but it was something that he could definitely take advantage of.

"Oh, but there's simply nothing better than chaos," he said, knowing how predictable his response was, "You can't chain or fetter it and expect it to be quite the same. It has to be free and unbridled."

"Well, we can't have that," said Shadow Breeze, attempting to be bold, "ponies need solid places to live, where the same rules are in place every day. We can't wake up and have the way to our work be different from the day before, it'd make no sense!"

"But why not?" countered Discord, "Does it not get boring going the same way every day to work? Wouldn't you like to write with pens one day, and have the thrill of writing with snail slime the next? To never have to have the same experience more than twice?"

"I'm not saying that wouldn't be fun, but, it's hard to be productive when you don't know what's going to happen next. Ponies, at least, tend to withdraw when we can't make sense of thing,." continued Shadow Breeze, trying to avoid eye contact.

Discord coughed, and summoned a blue book with a snap of his fingers, along with a pair of blue reading glasses. He flicked through the book, and came to a particular point in it. The draconequus then handed the book over to Shadow Breeze and pointed at a phrase. Fluttershy leaned over to also have a look at the words with her aqua blue eyes.

"Can you see this?" he said, "What does it say in Equine Latin?"

"Pro Bono," answered Shadow Breeze.

"That means 'Who Benefits?'" said Twilight, displaying her intelligence.

"A solid answer for 100 points!" shouted Discord gleefully, clapping. Twilight looked over her head with confusion as a solid gold '100' materialized over her head.

"Well what do you mean by 'Who Benefits?'" asked Shadow Breeze curiously.

Discord continued, "I simply can't accept any kind of treaty where I don't benefit from it. All of your ideas will likely only benefit ponies while continuing to box me in. I've been boxed in for over a thousand years. Why are you so certain I would want that further?"

Fluttershy answered, "We don't want to trap you, Discord. We want limits. If that'd be ok."

"Limits..." scoffed Discord, taking off the glasses.

He then chucked them into his mouth, chewed for a while, and blew a bubble, popping it with a sharp fingertip.

"Well, sure," she answered meekly, "Chaos is a good thing... right?"

Discord smirked and answered, "The best."

Fluttershy smiled and sprung her trap, "Well, you can always have too much of a good thing."

Discord's mouth fell open. Also off. His jaw fell to the floor, and he had to go and retrieve it before re-attaching it to face.

"I... never really thought about it that way," he said, scratching the back of his head.

"Well, think on that," suggested Shadow Breeze, "we won't ask for you to live with no chaos. You'd suffer. We want to find a balance."

Discord thought to himself, "For years I saw chaos as the one true way to make reality perfect. Now along comes these four to challenge my perspective. It's a well known part of chaos nature, that rule of too much of a good thing causing chaos. Too much sugar in the clouds causing sticky rain... my own perspective only obeys itself."

He then smiled, "No matter. I do not have to try and put up with this filthy logic once Twilight takes her 'vacation'."

"I will need a little time to think it over," he said audibly.
Twilight answered hopefully, "So will we, Discord. We're going to find the perfect outlet for you, promise."

"I'm surprised you want to," he said, shrugging, "turning Ponyville on its head is fairly unforgivable. So was when I made Canterlot the heart of chaos years and years ago. Good times..."

"No it's not," she answered, "it was annoying, but..."

She then took a deep breath, not believing she was saying this, "I forgive you."

"Forgive me?" he asked.

"So do I," added Fluttershy.

Discord frowned, "I've never felt... forgiven before. Princess Celestia certainly never showed any forgiveness."

"Well, this is the first time you've asked, by trying to be good," said Fluttershy.

Discord was about to burst from the amount of conflict in his warming heart, but he desperately wanted freedom. He snapped out from his feelings and began the final stages of nabbing Twilight.

"I'd like for you to stay for a little celebration tonight," he said, "let's have Twilight and Fluttershy stay here, and talk to me more about this... too much of a good thing idea. You two stallions should go get the others from the castle, they'd be thrilled to be served cake and cookies by moving cookware, I assume, hmmm?"

"That sounds like fun!" answered Shadow Breeze, eager for the treat.

Twilight nodded and smiled, "I'll help how I can. I don't really read too many cookbooks though."

"I only need you to read me the ingredients," said Discord, taking the chance to get her separate from the group, "I'll meet you in the kitchen, if you can find your way."

"Finding my way will be half the fun!" she said, trying to be polite as she left the room.

"It's through the other door," he coughed.

"Sorry..." answered Twilight, sheepishly trotting past them.

Techorse and Shadow Breeze were dismissed to go get the others for the party that night, leaving Fluttershy alone with Discord. He decided now would be the best time to trap Twilight, and use the excuse that she needed to use the bathroom in order to fool Fluttershy. As he got up to leave though, Fluttershy spoke up,

"Discord... um..."

He turned around and stared at her.

"I... actually think you're a pretty sweet guy," she said.

"Sweet?" he snorted.

"Well, I think sometimes the reason you do the things you do, is because you don't have any friends to have fun with," she said, "everyone treated you so poorly just because you're different."

"I... would not say that's false." Discord said, frowning.

"Can I be your first friend?" she asked, smiling, "If that's ok?"

"Fluttershy, why would you want to be my friend?" he asked, shocked, "The others wouldn't like it, especially Rainbow Dash."

"Rainbow Dash is a bit tough, but she'll change," Fluttershy said, "Maybe the other won't say they want to be your friend right now, but secretly, I think they do. We did give you a home."

"Well, anyone can give you free stuff," he said, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, but being friends takes sincerity," answered Fluttershy, walking up to him and looking up at his yellow eyes, "I don't have anything to give you. But I do want to be your friend, Discord."

Discord did not want to cry at all costs. He was about to betray them, and here, Fluttershy, the most timid pony he could think of, was not afraid of his chaos and wanted to be his very first true friend. Others had shunned him due to being a genetic mess of different animal bodies. Now, it seemed like none of that mattered. Discord realized he needed to have friends in his life, and Fluttershy, who had suggested giving him a home and had behaved in kindness despite his evil, was offering to be his very first one in his empty life.

His heart melted, and he answered, "I accept! I would love to be your friend, Fluttershy! I've never had friends before, but I'd really enjoy having you as my first one."

Fluttershy squee'd in delight, and hugged him, "That's wonderful, just wonderful! You can visit me in Ponyville anytime you want. We can talk."

"Thank you..." he answered, "I must help Twilight though."

"Go ahead, I'll wait here," she answered, placing herself back on the sofa.

---

Discord rolled himself into the hallway, and moped internally as he headed for the kitchen to commit to his end of the deal. Looking at the artifact watch, which was beginning to glow softly as an indication that the spell keeping it enabled was about to wear off, he wondered if he was truly doing what was in his best interests. Just one minute after accepting Fluttershy as his first friend, he was going to betray her horribly. But it was too late to back out of the deal now, no matter what he thought, and he entered the kitchen to find Twilight reading a cookbook and smiling as she went over the recipe for chocolate cake.

Discord, trying not to cry, snapped his fingers. The drawers in the kitchen opened up, some on the ceiling even, and rows upon rows of silverware fell out the drawers onto the ground. Twilight was oblivious to the fact, as Discord had placed a summoned pair of blue earmuffs over her ears without her knowledge. The unicorn mare felt the piece of equipment up against her pointed ears, but figured that they were simply a thoughtful gesture due to how cold it was outside. She continued to read as the silverware on the floor started to bend and change shape, crawling towards her in a locomotion that represented a set of metallic inchworms. Twilight thought she could hear scraping through the warmth and sound blocking of the earmuffs, and turned around just in time to watch in shock as the silverware-turned-snakes ambushed her and dragged her down.

---

Later that evening, with the stranger coming back for his prize, Discord had stuffed Twilight into a magic-protected trunk, a velvet color with gold edging, and had left the case underneath a table. The party he had planned to keep the others busy until he could discreetly pass Twilight off to the stranger later in the darkness of the night. It would then be time to plunge Equestria into chaos, if he so desired.
The moving cake stands and party trays moved around the tables on their own accord, shifting into place while avoiding spilling their contents of cakes, brownies, and other snacks planned for his guests. As they all arrived, they were quite impressed by the display of confections. Rarity was especially pleased by how polite the animate silverware was behaving, serving her a brownie and bowing slightly was a humble pewter stand, which then hopped off on its one "leg" to go serve the other guests. In particular, Techorse seemed to be gunning for a brownie himself.

He then picked up a nearby chalice of sparkling water with his robotic arms, and then picked up a fork with another. He banged them together to get everyone's attention at the table, and everypony looked at him. Techorse then put down the fork, which hopped away dizzy and upset at being used in such a way.

The inventor said, "I'd like to honor Discord for all his efforts in changing his ways."

"Yay!" cheered Pinkie Pie alone.

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and added, "Well, maybe at first I thought Discord was just playing a big trick on us, but I guess now he's cool. He did throw this big party for us."

"That's true, and he's been mighty patient on us trying to answer how he can use his powers for good!" added Applejack before stuffing a sugar cookie in her mouth.

"Where's Twilight?" whispered Fluttershy to Shadow Breeze, "She's supposed to be here too."

"I don't know," he answered, "maybe the little mares' room?"

Discord sat at the head of the table in his hovering throne he had constructed for himself, debate and uncertainty swirling through his head. It was clear to the ponies that something was causing him trouble, but they couldn't pinpoint what that was.

"I don't know why," said Applejack quietly to Rainbow Dash as she swallowed the rest of the cookie, "but it seems he ain't very happy."

She answered with a shrug, "He's probably just feeling guilty over being a pain in the past."
"Well, there's no real reason for him to do so!" Rarity cooed, a little too loudly, "He's quite the gentlecolt now, it seems. There hasn't been a single trick all evening!"

"I do have to wonder though," asked Techorse of his host, "where's Twilight? Didn't you say she was busy with something?"

Discord refused to acknowledge Techorse, and simply drummed his pawed fingers on the table, looking quite guilty.

Knowing the green colt would need an answer to his question, he sighed and then said, "Twilight Sparkle is here with us. Don't worry Techorse."

"Great! I can't wait for her to show up, she's missing all the fun!" shouted Pinkie Pie, jumping up on the table.

One of the snack trays got 'worried' and moved away from her. Pinkie Pie crouched, like a cat ready to strike, and shook her tail before pouncing and gobbling up an entire plate of chocolate cake greedily.

Fluttershy sighed and then turned to Discord, "I hope Twilight does arrive soon. I'm starting to get a bit worried. It doesn't feel good when a friend goes missing."

"Aw forget her for now," said Rainbow Dash, "let's just try to have a little bit of fun in the meantime. It's not like she's lost for good Fluttershy."

"Are you certain about that?" shouted a cloaked figure, descending from the sky.

He crashed through the snack table, smashing it to pieces and knocking treats everywhere. The ponies at the table screamed and scattered, and then stared at the uninvited guest.

"Well Discord..." he said in his Russian accent, "Do you have Twilight Sparkle for me? Your time is almost up."

"Wh... what?" gasped Rarity.

"Oh, none of you are aware?" he said, laughing and turning around, "Discord has set up a party and forgotten to let you know?"

"Know what?" demanded Techorse, standing up and scraping his hoof on the ground angrily.

"I'm the one who set him free, green one," he answered, pointing to Discord, who shrank himself magically to try and disappear from view, "in exchange, I wanted him to turn over Twilight Sparkle to me so I could finally get back at Celestia."

Rarity screamed, and then promptly fainted, sending Applejack and Shadow Breeze rushing to prop her up so blood could return to her head. Discord returned to his regular size, and moved over to the chest, taking it out from underneath the table, and moving it magically in front of his guest. The lid opened, and Twilight Sparkle fell out, tied up, with a heavy lead container placed over her horn, locked into place to try and prevent her from using any kind of magic. A piece of enchanted parchment paper had formed a simple gag in her mouth, and the unicorn mare gave Discord an angry look as she was floated over to the stranger. The stranger laughed, and both of them floated into the air as a pair of white wings emerged from underneath the cloak, allowing him to hover.

"Techorse, do something!" shouted Shadow Breeze.

"I can't..." he answered, "I didn't bring my weapons because I trusted Discord. I wanted to show that."

"Of course now we know the truth!" growled Rainbow Dash, spreading her wings, "These two are working together! Well, we'll see if he gets to keep Twilight!"

She shot out towards the cloaked fiend, yelling at him. In response, he fired a bolt of energy at her, which Rainbow Dash dodged. Then, the stranger gasped as the pegasus mare impacted him, knocking him back in the air. He retaliated once he had oriented himself by surrounding Rainbow Dash in a time charm, locking her in mid air. Then with a flick of his head, the pegasus was sent downward, and she impacted on the ground hard. Rainbow Dash stood up shakily, and spat out a droplet of saliva.

"Rainbow Dash, fastest pegasus in Equestria... is still no match for time," he said, chuckling.

He then turned to Discord and said, "You have fulfilled your end of the bargain. Allow me to recharge your artifact permanently, and you may unleash chaos on your half of Equestria, as promised."

Discord looked up at him, and then down at the watch. He gazed over the other ponies, who were scared, confused, angry, and defeated all at the same time. His eyes went over Fluttershy, who looked at him with a feeling of disgust before bursting into a loud cry. Shadow Breeze walked over to her, and wrapped his left wing gently around her in an attempt to comfort the mare.

"I thought you were my friend!" she said after reducing her cry to a sniffle, "I thought you were good now."

"Please make an effort at being realistic," scoffed the hovering figure, "Discord has always been an evil loser to the core, but at least he's a useful loser. I have Twilight Sparkle now, and have my leverage against Celestia! Now allow me to free you permanently Discord! Come get your freedom and go."

Discord took one more look at Fluttershy, and her absolute pain and suffering about the betrayal and sure loss of her friend. He knew he had to do the right thing, for his new friend Fluttershy, even if it meant losing his chance at freedom.

He then hovered up to the level of the cloaked figure and crossed his arms, "I may be a loser. I may end up in stone for the rest of eternity. But you'll have to give Twilight back. She means too much to my friend Fluttershy."

Fluttershy felt the lump in her throat start to dissapear at the words, and smiled softly, tears still running down her face.

"What? Discord what is this nonsense, you're the Lord of Chaos, not some... friend to ponies!" protested the male, taken aback, "Just give me your watch you fool! Don't be stupid."

"Give. Twilight. Back." he demanded coldly, fire building in his eyes.

A few seconds passed. The ponies below watched in awe, realizing that Discord had changed his mind. He might have been a scoundrel for turning over Twilight, but now, it seemed like he didn't want to anymore.

Who's side was he truly on?

"It's already over. I'm taking Twilight Sparkle, Discord," said the stranger slowly, "I'm disappointed you do not want your freedom, but that's not my problem. Farewell."

He then tried to teleport away with Twilight Sparkle, much to everyone's horror, but his glowing eyes opened in shock when he realized it wasn't working.

"What?!" he shouted.

Discord smiled and crossed his arms, "It seems you've been tricked. I removed your horn while you were going on about me being a loser. Now, hand over Twilight, and I'll put your horn back on your head."

The figure screamed in anger, and rushed Discord, attempting to use violence to solve the matter instead. Discord snapped his fingers, and suddenly, he multiplied, with dozens of identical copies of himself filling the air. The figure crashed through the Discord he intended to attack, and it exploded in a puff of smoke.

"Which one's the real one?" laughed all the clones, flying around in the air.

The winged enemy flew around, striking at the images, until it left the original Discord.

"Your watch will run out, and then I'm smashing the statue!" wailed the guest, foaming at the mouth.

"We've got to do something!" whispered Shadow Breeze to Techorse.

He turned and answered, "Let this play out."

"You're falling for the very tricks I used to try and prevent myself from being trapped in stone," hummed Discord, smirking, "the very things I used to stall the Element Holders are keeping you from securing victory. How does it feel knowing you're that weak?"

The figure moved towards Twilight, and tried to grab her so he could fly off. Discord snapped his fingers again, and the trunk Twilight had been trapped in jumped up and swallowed her up. It then split into three copies of itself, and shuffled around like a street scam artist's game.

"Which one is she in?" he said, laughing, "Try to guess!"

The stranger growled, and followed the shifting cases with his eyes, before settling on one as it stopped. He tapped on the case with a hoof, and it opened up. He gasped as Twilight Sparkle, free from her bonds, jumped out of the case and grabbed onto his back. She irradiated him with bolts of energy from her horn as he flew around desperate to get her to stop. Twilight used her magic shots to steer him around in a loop, before releasing him in front of Discord. She then dropped down to the ground, where she was caught by Rainbow Dash who flew up to save her from a bad fall. Both of them looked up as the stranger careened towards Discord.

The Lord of Chaos cracked his knuckles, and smirked. The stranger screamed and yelled in terror, as he tumbled in air helplessly towards him, unable to avoid his fate due to Twilight's damage to his wings.

Discord snapped his fingers one final time.

The black cloak twisted and warped, refusing to reveal the guest, but turning it into a giant black firework rocket strapped to his back in addition to the rest of the cloak. The fuse ignited, and stranger yelled out as he was sent flying into the distance, over the horizon, before the rocket detached from his back. The cloaked figure vanished from sight and sound as he was sent flying at several hundred miles per hour in the distance, and the firework rocket continued without him before exploding in a sharp report, temporarily filling the night sky with a beautiful display of firework stars.

Discord sank back to the ground, and sighed in victory, before looking at the watch. The glow was starting to intensify, signaling the end of its use.

The draconequus realized that his time was up, but he had succeeded. He had successfully prevented the intruder from kidnapping Twilight. Even if he couldn't be free... at least he'd be remembered on just one positive note. He looked thoughtfully at Fluttershy, who was smiling weakly now, proud of his change.

"I'm... so sorry... friend," he said gently to her, and then, the watch crumbled to dust and fell off his wrist.

Within seconds, he was plunged into the darkness of stasis as the limestone consumed his body from the inside.

---

It didn't seem to last, however. The next thing he knew, Discord felt the stone leaving his body again, and he could see and feel once more. He dropped to the tile floor of Canterlot castle, having been freed from the stone. When he looked around, he saw all six of the original Element Holders wearing their artifacts, with Techorse standing off to the side with Shadow Breeze, his scales glowing silver in approval of freeing him.

Discord found himself in front of the two princesses, who didn't seem to be angry with him.

"I don't understand," he said, clearing his throat, "I betrayed you all. I thought for sure that would mean a permanent extension on my sentence."

"Well Discord," explained Twilight, the glow leaving her tiara artifact, "that alicorn didn't give you much of a choice. It was either betray us, or go back to being stone again."

"Based on the fact that your assailant had wings and a horn, he must have been an alicorn," continued Princess Celestia, "unfortunately, I have a letter to write soon, as I have a bad feeling as to who that alicorn may be."

"As do I," added Luna, looking out a nearby window in the throne room.
Discord approached Fluttershy, wearing her necklace, and asked, "Can you forgive me for all of this, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy gave him a hug as a response, "Of course. We all do bad things from time to time."

"Which reminds me!" said Applejack, removing her necklace, "We need to tell Discord what we finally figured out. You were in stone for a day, and we had plenty of time to think about all this. Turns out we've found your special place."

"I'm listening!" he said.

Twilight continued, "After thinking about it for a while, and with Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy pretty much helping us to admit it... it turns out we all rely on a little chaos to get by. I wouldn't have a job if I didn't have a mess of books to put back."

Rainbow Dash stepped forward, "I kinda love seeing what a thundercloud can do sometimes."

"Pollination is random," admitted Applejack, "without it, there'd be no apples."

Techorse was next to go, "Wanna know how many times my experiments blow up in my face? It's part of the fun and the nature of inventing!"

Rarity pushed forward, "I even call my back room 'organized chaos'. I can't believe I didn't even seen the connection before!"

Fluttershy said softly, "Well, sometimes my animals get to be a handful, and that's a kind of chaos too."

Attention was then turned to Pinkie Pie, who giggled and said, "Do I really even need to say anything?"

Twilight then turned her eye contact back to Discord and finished, "Discord, all of us rely on the natural chaos of the world to get along. If things get too rigid and boring, our lives would all be ruined. We need you to use your powers to make sure that the right amount of chaos exists in Equestria, so that we can live well. Will you do that for us?"

Discord, overjoyed, did a back flip and released a large burst of multicolor sparkles, filling the room with disco-styled lights and happiness.

He laughed heartily and answered, "I will do it! Let chaos be the new spice of life!"

Everyone in the room cheered, knowing they'd finally helped him to find his place.

---

After forgiveness had been given, and things wrapped up for good, there was a grand reception and dinner in the castle dining hall. The party was extended far outside the castle, and all of Canterlot celebrated Discord's conversion to the light. After the celebtration had died down for the evening, most of the friends had gathered around the table to talk before heading for bed so that they could return to Ponyville the next morning. They had all bid their new friends farewell earlier, and had expected Discord to leave back for his castle. Shadow Breeze had noticed Fluttershy walk off on her own, however, and followed her into the hall.

"Fluttershy?" he asked.

She turned around and made eye contact with him, "Yes, Shadow?"

"It was really sweet of you to befriend Discord," he said, "I just... wanted to let you know that."

She blushed a bit, and they looked at each other again.

"Well, you know... somepony had to see through to his heart," she answered, "and I think... maybe... I'm also..."

Shadow Breeze looked tenderly at her, having enjoyed the time they had spent together, and waited for her answer.

"Maybe... um..." continued Fluttershy nervously, "We could talk about it again later, tomorrow, at my house. My squirrels have been asking to meet you, they hear you have a peanut plant. Would you like to come over?"

"Of course!" answered Shadow Breeze, taking a deep breath, "I'll see you back in Ponyville."

"That sounds nice," said Fluttershy, accepting the offer, "I'll see you there tomorrow."

The graphite colored pegasus with the blue stripe through his mane turned around and retreated back for the dining room. Fluttershy continued on, her pink tail dragging across the floor. She found Discord packing up a suitcase outside, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of light blue sandals. Captain Arbiter was helping him load up some more clothing into the suitcase, and finished closing the lid before nodding at Fluttershy and leaving for his barracks.

Discord was ready to leave the castle when Fluttershy approached him, "Hello again. What's with the suitcase?"

Discord answered after de-summoning his glasses, shirt, and sandals with a snap of his fingers, "Well after all of this, I figured I'd take a vacation someplace warm with a nice beach."

"You deserve it," said Fluttershy, "I can't wait to hear how it was. Take some pictures."

"Certainly," he answered, "of course, I need to head back to my new castle now. My coach leaves for the seashore tomorrow morning."

Fluttershy understood and said, "I'll see you later, Discord. It's great to share a friendship with you."

Discord's heart welled with joy, but he brushed it aside and picked up his suitcase.

"Of course, Fluttershy. It really is magic," he answered with a subtle wink, before heading out into the night.

Fluttershy turned around and walked back for the castle, a happy feeling in her soul. She knew she had done the right thing, befriending the Lord of Chaos. The pegasus mare hadn't brought it up with her friends, but she knew all along that castles, diplomacy, and other things were nice, but not everything. Sometimes, what a mean person needs most, is a best friend.