Epilogue
The streets of Canterlot were a mixed sight after spending so long in the woods. There was a delectable element of chaos to the way ponies would run to and fro, and Discord savored it. The woods were too peaceful, and the deer far too orderly. In Canterlot, it felt like anything could happen at any time.
Of course, their adventure in White Tail Woods was an exception, but that had been perhaps too much chaos for someone so old. Discord was not blessed with lasting youthfulness like Applejack, after all. It had been astounding to learn someone who seemed so young was well over four hundred years old. Many of the other deer were even as old as Discord himself.
Somepony heard her name being called and turned to look. She tripped and dropped her loaf of bread. It rolled along the ground where a bird started pecking at it. The bread distracted the bird while a cat snuck up from behind.
Everything was connected in the most delightful series of unpredictable events. Anything could happen at any time, and Discord relished in the beauty of it.
But not everything in the city was beautiful. More than a few ponies noticed him as he walked past, and he didn’t care for their looks. His stature, his mane that stood on end, his ears, along with myriad other traits about him all marked him as different from them. It had been unlikely that his noble unicorn father would fall in love with a low-class donkey, then it had been unlikely that his mother would come to reciprocate. Given the social norms of the time, it was unlikely for them to act on these feelings, and given the biological complications, it was unlikely for them to conceive a child.
It had been nothing short of a series of completely unpredictable events. It had been, in a word, chaos.
In any event, at least he knew as he walked through the gates of Canterlot’s Academy of Magic that no one would dare disrespect him here. Not, at least, in his presence, although Discord had no delusions of what they must say behind his back.
“Oh, Professor Discord, you’re back!” one of his brighter students said as she caught up with him in the hallway.
“Yes, Moon Dancer, it would seem that I am.”
“How was the trip?” Moon Dancer asked.
“Exhausting.” In truth, the last week had been nothing of the sort. The deer mistrusted him for being a pony, although that was nothing new to an old hinny like himself, and the deer had otherwise been accommodating to his wishes. He suspected that had mostly been because of Applejack and Fluttershy.
“Well, at least you’re back now. Princess Celestia is here at the Academy if you wanted to see her.”
Discord grinned. “Yes, in fact, I would. Is she in her office?”
“Yeah, she was in a meeting with the dean, but she should be finished now.”
“Delightful.”
He sent Moon Dancer on her way and then made for Celestia’s office. He didn’t have any particularly urgent business with her, but it did save him from having to make a trip to the castle.
Along the way, he was greeted by a few students, but most of them ignored him. He was a familiar sight at the Academy and had been for as long as anyone could remember. There wasn’t much reason for anyone other than his own students to pay him much attention.
He didn’t bother to knock as he entered Celestia’s office; it was more fun to catch her unaware. “Good day, o radiant one! And such a fine day you’ve blessed us with today, I might add.”
Unfortunately, Celestia was far too accustomed to him to pay the intrusion much mind. The other occupant of the room, however, wheeled around in a start at the intrusion.
“Welcome back, Discord,” Celestia said with her trademark slight smile. “Your trip went well?”
The large purple dragon she had been speaking with was less pleased to see him. “Of course. We would hate for it to have been anything short of perfect.”
Twilight Sparkle’s tone suggested that she would not hate that in the slightest, although deep down, he also suspected she would be sorry if he had been harmed. They were far from friends, but years of being colleagues had brought a certain camaraderie about them. Dragons were not more accepted among ponies than hinnies were, after all.
“It was quite the experience,” Discord reported. “In my typical fashion, I stumbled into a wealth of unexpected things, the likes of which we’ll need to discuss in time. But above all, I can say that the woods just have such a wonderful sense of harmony.”
“I do hope you collected samples,” Twilight said, her tone finally lighting. There was no faster way into her good graces than by science, after all.
“My reptilian friend, I do believe you’ll be delighted with my findings.”
“I look forward to hearing the full results of your study,” Celestia said. “It will be a good break from all the paperwork I’ve been doing. This new law reform has been an absolute nightmare.”
“Yes, there’s been a lot of that for a long time now,” Discord said with a nod. “But, it seems to me that is an element of change coming.”
“I hope you’re right. Although I do wonder who would bear such an element.”
“Twilight!” An earth pony colt – purple with a tan muzzle and a green mane and tail – excitedly ran into the room. He approached Twilight, who seemed to be puzzled by his appearance.
“Spike? What are you doing here?”
Spike tilted his head. “You said to come get you before Professor Inkwell’s lecture.”
“Is it three o’clock already?”
Discord chuckled. “Run along then, Twilight. We can catch up later, and I’ll tell you all about the discoveries I’ve made.”
Spike eyed him suspiciously, but Twilight seemed content. “Great! You don’t mind, do you, Princess?”
Celestia smiled. “Of course not. Enjoy the lecture, Twilight. And do try to find something for young Spike to do besides helping you take notes this time.”
Twilight chuckled nervously and didn’t answer as she led them out the door.
Once alone, Discord turned to Celestia. “Bear the element? A little on the nose, isn’t it?”
Celestia dropped the pretense of her eternally calm demeanor, instead allowing herself to look annoyed, as she only would when in Discord’s presence alone. “It was all I could think of. You know I’m not good at that sort of thing.”
Discord smirked. “Well, at least Twilight is as perfectly oblivious as ever. I doubt she’ll question it.”
Celestia bowed her head, and when she looked back up, her expression had completely changed. She now looked concerned, but not without hope. “You really found it, though? Hawthorn’s element?”
“I did.”
“Perfect! Then you have it with you?”
“I don’t.” Discord allowed himself the guilty pleasure of savoring Celestia’s shocked expression before continuing. “It’s with its bearer now. It’s a deer again this time, a doe by the name of Applejack.”
Celestia finally allowed herself to look relieved. “And you think she can be relied upon?”
“Harmony does not choose her bearers poorly.” Discord could tell Celestia was not comforted; it had been nearly a thousand years, and she still did not believe that. “Yes, I would place my trust in her. Did, on a number of occasions.”
That seemed to do the trick much better. Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I suppose I should meet her.”
“I don’t think there’s any need to hurry. It sounds like the deer may open their doors to ponies again, so I think a meeting is a given. Wait until then.”
“But –”
“We only have three Element Bearers so far,” Discord said curtly. “Diplomatic ties with the deer are also important if we’re right about the showdown being in the Everfree Forest. If the other three make themselves known sooner rather than later, then you can arrange a meeting. Otherwise, do not go until you’re welcomed. Do not take Aspen’s help as a given; he is not the welcoming ruler that his mother was.”
Celestia nodded. “Thank you, Discord. I don’t know what I would’ve done all these years without your counsel.”
Discord chuckled. “I scarcely know what you did a week without me.”
Celestia laughed as well. It was good to hear that; she did not laugh nearly enough these days. “We’ll get her back this time.”
Then again, Discord couldn’t remember the last time he had genuinely laughed himself. “Of course we will. We are not going to lose her again.”
For something that was supposed to be a oneshot, this got really long! Thank you all for reading my first foray into adventure stories, the Noodleverse, and AUs in general 
A few links, while I have your attention. First off, I made a group for the Noodleverse if you haven’t seen that yet. Additionally, you can find all the sweet Noodle AU artwork over on Pasu’s Tumblr 
There's a TVTropes page for this fic. If you've enjoyed it and are into that sort of thing, consider adding to the trope page!
I’ve got a Discord server, if anyone wants to come check that out (please note that it is a 16+ server, if you are not 16 years old or older please do not join!)
And above all, I hope you all have enjoyed this story as much as I’ve enjoyed telling it. Thank you again for reading!
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Thank you for the nice story!
8447617
A story focusing on Rainbow will probably be next, but I can’t guarantee anything. I’m glad you liked it, and thanks for all the comments along the way 
Definitely looking forward to continuing in this AU someday
I thoroughly enjoyed this. The slow start really pulls the blinders off on the reader later on in order to show off the world-building. I really enjoyed how intense this story became and the epic proportions it promises in later installments. You managed to make the concept of Nightmare Moon's banishment even more horrifying, or perhaps just differently so compared to the usual of being sealed in a celestial body. The character changes and dynamics were really fun; I enjoyed seeing what relationships were preserved and which were shifted. There was a lot of care put into the differences and balancing the headcanon of existing characters with original characters in a way that feels really natural. Applejack/Fluttershy is such a fun rare pair and the Pinkie/Dash was cute too. I really look forward to what comes next!
How does this not have more attention?
10503324
I'm glad you enjoyed it, it's always been one of my favorite stories of mine and yet never seems to get read. It was great practice for writing an original fantasy novel, which so help me I'll do someday lmao. There will be more Noodleverse stories, although it will be a little complicated to do them; I told so much of the important information in this one because I wanted it to be a complete standalone story (I'm unsure when I decided I was writing six of them) so now I'm not sure how to do the others without being formulaic
Anyway, I'm just glad you enjoyed the fic, and I hope you'll enjoy more whenever I get around to figuring them out
10503398
I personally really would enjoy the formula presented here, but I guess there’s always subplots to improve if you want to take away from that.
10503514
Character goes on adventure > discovers their element > makes a connection with it somehow > meets with the previous element bearer > ??? > Profit
It's a good formula, I'm just uncertain about repeating it five times (I have a different thing in mind for the sixth already). But that's a problem for future bun lmao right now I gotta write my original fantasy novel instead of this horse business.
I don't normally comment (not because I'm a dirty lurker who revels in the sidelines or anything, hehe... he...), but I felt that I had to for this one. This quickly became one of my favorite reads. I'd go on and on about it, but I feel that words don't really do justice, so I'll just say that this fic took a particularly bad day of mine and flipped it on its unexpecting head. Straight to my list of favorites.
From the bottom of my goofy heart, thanks a ton for this one. It's appreciated in spades.
10899454
It always means so much to me when people comment on this fic. It's one of my favorite things I've written, yet it's actually my least popular fic in terms of stats. I'm delighted you think so highly of it. It probably won't be for a minimum of a few months, likely longer, but I plan to write more stories in this universe. I want to write a story for each of the mane six getting their elements, culminating in Nightmare Moon's return and a standoff with her that has actual buildup over the course of the series. Whether I manage to get the motivation to follow through on these plans is another matter, but I've actually got a few chapters down on Rainbow's story
10899478
That's awesome to hear, my dude. I loved the story, so seeing absolutely anything blossom from it would be a sight for sore eyes. I struggle a lot with motivation myself, so I fully understand the time it takes to put pen to paper. Heck, it took me seven years to push myself hard enough to write anything at all. Take your time, friend. Keep on killin' the game.
Just noticed that the image source leads to a dead link.
11404481
Ah, that would make sense, the artist who did the cover left the fandom and deleted her accounts so there's no actual source of the image anymore, I'm afraid.
11408355 Also, I made a proper version of the TV Tropes page yesterday.
11408767
Awesome! Thank you so much once again, I'm ecstatic about the Tropes page!
11404816
(Very late to the party, hello!^^) Krickis did a wonderful job on the characters. And as the comic artist that's what I'm trying to convey too with her.
Even if most of the drawn stuff is pure fluff/trahsI do regret the flanderisation of her hippie dippy side sometimes, both in canon and the fandom.This does, of course, bring up the question: What _is_ his shape, exactly?
11423816
Discord? He's not hiding his shape at all, he's really a hinny. He's just very unnaturally long lived for one, for reasons that will be revealed in time...
11423821
I have my speculation, in that case. Time will tell.
Wonderful work
Can't wait for the next one.
11791881
Thank you! I'm always so happy when people find these stories, I look forward to continuing this series soon hopefully. Been struggling to write at all for mental health reasons, but I have plans to continue this series and about half of a chapter of the next fic written.