> Thread of Destiny
>  by Shenzy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Honeymoon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Honeymoon

It has been just a few months, but he felt like it has been always this way.

He glanced down to his side where he found the most beautiful pony in all of Equestria.

She had a pink mane and yellow fur and eyes so blue he could lose him self into.

Every time their eyes met, he lost track of time and everything around them didn't matter.

There they were, a pegasus pony and a draconequus. They were as different as you can get. Pegasus pony's made out around one third of Equestria´s population so it was not uncommon to see them- but him on the other hand – there was nothing alike. Most would call him monster. And they did. The only thing that could came close to his looks would be a "Chimäre". His right arm was the one of a lion, the left claw of a an eagle, the right leg of a lizard and the left leg of a goat. Not to mention his non alike horns and goat-beard... there was plenty strange about him. Last but not least: he was not just a strange creature, he also was the self claimed "Spirit of Chaos!" with almost unlimited magic ability´s. Which he used on his well being- which of course, most of the time ended in chaos.

"Its getting late, maybe we should go home" she softly said. Oh her voice. It was like a melody in his ears. He just looked at her and didn't respond, except for a warm smile. "Umm... Discord, you listening"? She mumbled. The draconequus nodded "of course i do!" he acknowledged "but... may could we stay a tinzy bit longer"? He asked with a bashful smile "i ummm... want to enjoy the view of all those green things and flowers and such" waving off with his hand.

She turned her head in the direction he had gestured and he sure was right.

For their honeymoon he had let nothing to chance and made sure to pick the most beautiful place in all Equestria he could think of.

Right in front of them there was a big blue lake, the water was clear as an crystal and the sunset reflected on it and giving everything a touch of red. The lake itself was surrounded by a leaf forest, which was full of adorable animals she loved so much. The only thing which didn't belong was a small house on the other side of the lake.

It just didn't look like any ordinary lake house, not even like any house at all.

It had a pink roof and green walls and no window was formed like the other. It shape also seemed off, it was almost square but twisted around it self the higher it got.

The second floor also had a balcony with a handrail made out of candy canes.

"It sure is pretty" she calmly said "but i´m getting tired".

There is nothing more pretty than you – he thought to him self. "Alright" he said – he could not refuse a wish of her when she looked at him like this. He raised his eagle claw and snapped his fingers. A bright light flashed around them and only the pick nick blanket was left behind where they had been on for the last hour, just enjoying another company.

In the very same moment they did reappear in the nearby lake house. The pony was on a wide red couch – while the draconequus appeared behind the kitchen counter, dressed up like a gourmet cook.

The pony looked at him while he prepared carefully a meal with a little help of his magic.

Ingredients flew trough the air and cut them self into little pieces, just to plunk into a soup.

Discord him self was making pancakes. He glared over to his wife "i hope you are hungry".

She gave him a small nod "it sure smells good".

Discord couldn't help to praise him self about this compliment he just received "well i'm a brilliant cook! Take a look at this!" he grabbed the pan and gave it a jolt up – the pancake left the pan – spun around a few times in the air and landed again in the pan. The pegasus gave him a smile.

"... and now without hands" – the pan just repeated the trick he done – without him touching the handle. The pancake got flipped up – circled – and landed right in place again.

This time the pegasus giggled a little. He loved when she did that. "You sure got the best chef in all the world my dear! There ain't anypony else as skillful as me!" with those words said he tried to lean on the table nearby but instead put his paw right on the stove. "OUCH!" he shouted when he pulled his claw from the hot plate and started to jump up and down – shaking his smoking claw.

"Oh my!" the pegasus called "are you okay discord?" and walked up to him.

He was busy blowing at his burned fingers when her hooves reached out of it, which made him freeze in place. He was about three times her high and bend down to see her. She was so tiny and fragile, but she made him feel weak. "Its nothing" he assured her, casting a healing spell on himself. The wound did vanish like it never has been there.

"Oh" she said in relieve and was about to letting his claw let go.

"but, ouhh, it kinda still hurts you know" he said to her in a suffering tone.

She raised a eyebrow at him for a moment and gave a soft kiss on the back of his claw.

"There you go, all better now" she smiled. The draconequus met her smile with one of his own and pointed on his lips with his lion paw "i´m hurt here too!"

The pony blushed and looked embarrassed to the side "oh Discord..." before she could say any more the paw of his carefully lead her chin back in his direction and she received a kiss of him, which she willingly let pass.

Those was the moments when he knew- he was not any different from anypony else. Well okay he was different! No one could deny. Except for her. She made him feel like he belong. She didn't see a monster... she looked behind his appearance and loved him for what he is. Despite his many flaws.

He confident lifted his claw and snapped- and they found them self on the dinner table.

The food flying out of the kitchen and set it self up on the table.

On her side landed the soup he did prepare – it was pure vegetarian of course.

On his side the pancakes landed and formed a small stack. A syrup can appeared for a moment- he took it and spilled a bit over the stack and it was gone a moment later.

He took a look but something was not right yet. "Silly me" he said with a grim on his face and snapped yet again – which resolved in lighted candles to appear while the rest of the room was dimmed down in light.

"I... i didn't know you are so romantic" she mumbled shyly.

"I´m not" Discord replied due.

The pegasus seemed confuse about this. "But what about all this?" she asked.

"Fluttershy, you are the only one making me do this. I cant help my self." He raised his arms like he wanted to touch the sky above – "I always want to bring chaos! ... right now i want to turn all the world to pudding and make pigs fly! ... well- the pig thing i already did to be fair" he grinned. "but then again... how could i?" his arms lowered and reached out to her hooves across the table. He would always be the spirit of chaos, but for her, he would behave himself... most of the time.

After the romantic dinner they settled them self to sleep in a queen sized bed. Discord clapped his hands together and the lights faded leaving the room only illuminated by the moonlight through the large windows of the balcony.

The pegasus right on his side – his arm wrapped around her hip, not willing to let go ever again.

"Night my dear" he whispered into her ear.

She didn't respond, cause she already had fallen asleep and so he also made him self some more comfortable and dozed off.

It was the sunlight shinning into the room which made her wake up. She opened her eyes and noticed a bird sitting on the balcony railing, which made her smile. She does love animals. Most of all birds and tiny critters. After a quick look to the left – finding her husband still asleep, she decided not to wake him up yet. She slid out under his arm and made her way on the balcony.

The bird still was there and looked at her with some curiosity. This sure was a remote place, pony's dint come here often. Still Fluttershy´s appearance didn't seem to scare the bird off, so she greeted him with her soft voice "good morning little bird, you want to share the sunset with me"?

The bird started cheeping back and she knew what he meant to say. This was one of her special talents she discovered back then when she was a filly.

"Oh, i see. I think i can help you" she smiled and wandered off back in the room, just to return a minute later with a small bucket in her mouth, putting it down on the floor.

She took it up with her hooves and shook the seeds out of it into a small bowl she had put here a few days ago.

The bird again chirped in glee and jumped down from the railing and started picking up the seed.

Just moments later a second one came in ... than a third and a fourth. The birds seem to get a little upset about the seeds. "There, there... don't worry i got plenty more". She took again her bucket and put some more seeds into the bowl "you have to share, no reason to get upset".
She always knew how to calm down an animal. She often done that in the past. Not even wild beasts could resist her calming personality – neither wild dogs, Cerberus, lions and eve a huge dragon at one point.

Helping out an creature in need was one of the most important things to her, besides her loved husband and her friends.

Her friends – this thought grabbed her tight. She didn't see them for a about a week now and she started to miss them really bad. No doubt she didn't enjoy the time here spending with Discord and the animals. Doing travels all over Equestria and enjoying nature in all her glory. But she was used to see her friends on a dialy basis. As much as he could not reject a request of hers – she also found her self often having a hard time to take away the fun from him. Which would mean to end the honeymoon.

He did behave so well, which made her so proud on him. Except a few minor missteps of him.

At one point Discord found a stallion glancing on Fluttershy, so he immediately made himself appear right in front of his line of sight, using his magic to turn the stallion upside down and tied up. "What are YOU looking at!?" he demanded to know. The stallion was about to take a breath in order to speak, but before he could so so – he found him self to have a gag up in his mouth. "I don't want to hear!" He waved off "... so better save your breath, you sure will need it!" devilish starring up to the sky.

A light flashed and Discord was suited like a golfer, raising his club, about to strike the ball – when his ear caught a familiar voice behind him. "DISCORD! What you are doing!?"

The draconequus shivered and froze in motion. He turned to find his bride to frown at him.

"Playing golf"? He said innocently.

"But not with another pony! What is up your mind?"

"Well he did ..." he started but stopped in mid sentence seeing her to still starring at him like this. He sighted in defeat and snapped – which released the pony and set it right side up on the ground, free to ran off as fast his hooves could carry him.

"I´m so sorry!" Fluttershy shouted after him.

Discord could not help to look vengeful after this stallion.

"You are in some trouble" she stated.

His sight fell back onto her, raising his paw onto his own chest "me?"

"Of course you!" she replied "when ever i turn my back on you, you cause trouble..."

"I´m the spirit of chaos!" he said like it would justify any of his actions, than pointing in the vague direction where the stallion ran off "and he sure deserved some".

"This poor guy didn't do anything, did he?" she said, already knowing the answer.

Discord thought about what to say – there was a bunch of answers ready to burst out, but none of them seem quite right. He knew he could not play her for a fool and something inside him didn't even want to try at all.

"No" was all he mumbled.

"You cant just treat everypony like this. You have to keep your self under control".

This word bothered him like a punch in the stomach ... control... it made him grind his teeth.

"Than they get their dirty hooves anywhere near you!" he said as calm as he could.

"That´s what this is all about?" She get to calm down a little, now she knew what this was all about.

He just shrugged with his shoulders, avoiding to look in her face.

She knew he didn't mean to be bad. He had changed. Let alone for her.

The pegasus took a deep breath and tried to be understanding. He wasn't used to be around somepony and had no idea how to act different, since he wasn't "reformed" for to long... so it was up to her to teach him good – she wasn't the element of kindness for no reason. Still, it didn't felt for her like a chore, she did it because she want to do it – not just because she had to.

The draconequus suddenly felt a soft nudge on his chest, when he looked down he found the yellow pony leaning her had onto him.

She didn't need to say anything. His anger vanished in a matter of seconds and a warm feeling flooded through his body.

"I... will try to behave..." he said with a pout.

"Thanks" she said with her kind voice "that's all i ask for".

She leaned her head to the side and thought for a moment.

"Maybe we could go somewhere less crowded, till you get a little more control of your temper?" she asked briefly.

Discord didn't waste any time "Splendid idea!" he shouted.

befor she could ask what he had in mind, he snapped his fingers like he does every time before he performs his magic.

At one point he mentioned he didn't had to snap to do so – but he like doing so just for fun.

When she opened her eyes she was where she was right now. Standing on the balcony – the draconequus standing by her side, his paw laying on her mane.

In front of her a stunning sight on the beauty of nature. He struggled to find her voice again "where are we?" she asked with wide open eyes, still trying to comprehend the new environment.

"don't you like it?" he said in concern, quickly raising his claw to snap again.

She took her hooves and prevented him from doing so. "No, no, no... its perfect, ... just as it is".

Discord face lighted up in relieve. "Well then..." he lowered his paw. "I mean it sure could use a little more... chaos... but i guess it will do if you say so" he smiled.

"So where are we" she repeated the question.

This made Discord rub his goat-beard... "Somewhere between Canterlot and Crystal Empire, i used to take a break here once in a while after i was done with... " he stopped.

She took a asking look at him.

"... spreading some chaos." he said a little guilty.

The pony nodded understanding. "This was a long time ago, its okay, i don´t mind".

"Thanks" he replied. Somehow missing the times. He still knew what it looked like here.

The lake was filled with chocolate milk, the trees all used to be sugar canes and the sky not blue, it was a deep green and fish was flying towards the horizon.

Yes those were the good old times. The thought of this made him sight a little.

But, rethinking his position right now, it wasn't all that bad he assumed.

They watched together the sun rise in the distance and hold on to each other, enjoying the company.

It was this very moment she got interrupted by Discord appearing on her side, just like the day they arrived. As soon as the birds got to see him, they flew off, scared of his sight – which made him smile a little. He didn't like to get called a monster, but once in a while he liked to scare of something.

His smile faded as soon as he noticed Fluttershy starring down onto the lake, lost in her thoughts.

"Something wrong dear?" he asked.

Her head shrugged up "i miss my friends..." she said almost in a whispering voice, her eyes avoiding his.

"Don´t we have great fun here!?" he wondered "all those... uew – cute little animals and..."

"That´s not it. I just want to see them" she cut him off "... sorry." she added a moment later.

He couldn't be mad. "Well... than what you say we make breakfast and... we go home after?"

She now looked at him – her eyes growing wide and he was lost in this blue diamonds of hers once again. "Really!?" she asked cheerful. "What ever you want, i make it happen!" he confirmed – gesturing his snapping motion.

The pegasus made one flap with her wings and almost tackled him to the ground in order to hug him. It wasn't to easy to do so – since she was really small compared to him.

He caught her right away and hugged her back- usual he wasn't used to get hugged, but when she did it, it was kinda alright.

When she let go, she blushed and silence took place.

Her husband was the one to break it (he loved breaking stuff) "so, what you want for breakfast?"

She tough about it a moment. "What ever you make is fine with me" shyly scratching her hoof on the ground. He could not help to role his eyes at this and teleported them down to the dinner table.

A moment later food appeared on the table. For her there was a mixed plate of cut down fruit and juice. For him there was a bowl of paper and a glass of chocolate milk.

Fluttershy took joyful bites of all the things he had made. Some of which she didn't even knew.

He always made sure there was something different about each meal, so it was special every time – a small example how he did use his chaos in a good kind of way, without hurting anypony.

He on the other side was quite straight forward about his taste. He did eat sweets most of the time, he once told her he was used to since he was still with his parents. They always made him chocolate milk and cotton candy. His all time favorites.

Only once in a while he would enjoy a good book... to eat.

She knew where this strange taste came from, but well he was like this at times and she didn't mind.

After they done with their meal, they got up to their room and started packing things.

They had collected quite a bunch of things over time of their trip and made a lot of pictures.

One bag was only there for souvenirs. They had visited almost all mayor cities since Discord wanted to show her everything. He kinda rushed it a little when he teleported them at one point straight to the North Pole. Fluttershy of course cried out, because of the freezing temperature. As soon as he noticed he rose a brow and just said "Too cold?" - still freezing she just nodded quickly. He snapped his fingers and the North Pole turned into a dessert.

The pegasus could not believe her eyes and had to blink several times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. "Discord!" she called. "You cannot do that!"

"Cannot? I just did!" he replied proud and a little confused.

"No, what i meant was, you cannot change this place around like this"

"I thought it was to cold for you?" now his confusing took over.

Fluttershy sighted at this response. Sometimes she wasn't quite sure if he meant it or just was joking.

"Please turn it back and lets go somewhere else" she pleaded.

He thought a moment about this... and within a blink of an eye they was in the next city. The air was warm and everything seem okay. He also assured her the Northpole is as he put it "boring again". Which made her smile a little - to her relieve he didn't see it.

Still he had one more idea up his sleeve. Literally. Like a magician dressed he pulled out a little snow ball, shook it and gave it to her. She took it and took a closer look and after the snow inside the glass settled down she was amused to find tiny versions of them both inside of it, in the very same pose she had been in. He, appeared to be cheering, she appeared to be freezing. The small sign on the glass simply said "Northpole trip".

She could not help to find this very funny and once she started laughing, he joined in to the confusion of the pony´s around them. Which already gave both strange looks and avoided the same sidewalk like they have been on.

Ready set up Discord worked his magic and they where back at home.

"Oh i missed being home" Fluttershy said in relieve. "I cant wait to see all my friends!"

Her sight wandered trough the room for a bit and her smile faded a little. "But there is so much more to pack-out and ..." before she could finish the line the suitcases has been disappeared. Her husband had took care of all of it. The most part of their souvenirs appeared on the other side of the room in a strange looking showcase, to the left and right some of their photos they had took.

"What you think?" the draconequus asked.

She nodded "Its perfect".

This made him frown onto her.

"Uh. Sorry... i mean it looks good the way it is."

His face became a little more forgiving. She knew he wasn't really mad on him, so she wandered off calling out of her most favorite pet "Annngell, mommy is home!"

Discords frown came back again. He could not stand this rabbit. When ever it was around, Fluttershy had only eyes for him. He tried to get rid of it a few times but as soon she got suspicious he had to bring him back (unharmed)... which made their relationship even worse. This little arrogant rabbit. If he just could he would take it and ...

"oh there you are my little sweetheart" he heard her from the other room.

In his mind he flipped pages where to send him. For each sweetheart the distance became a little further... right now he was thinking about the moon. Luna sure would not mind. She was not banned onto it since years so there is plenty place. This though gave him a devilish smile.

Fluttershy returned with bunny on her back into the room.

"My little bunny missed me so much" she stated "maybe we can take him with us on the next trip?"

"No way this bunny gets with us on a travel" Discord said straight out.

The bunny threw him self in a sad pose and got tears in his eyes.

"Oh you made Angel cry!" she turned her back on him and took Angel into her arms. "There, there, don't be sad, i'm sure Discord didn't mean to".

While she done that, Angled grinned over her shoulder and showed his tongue to Discord.

The spirit of chaos literally gone of in flames for a moment "On second thought" he said – "ur right, we should take him with us next time" he said, letting appear a grill with a open flame under it- which made the bunny shiver in fear.

Fluttershy didn't see any of this going on between them and turned around to Discord, who was just standing there with a bright warm smile.

"You really mean it?" she smiled "oh i knew you two get along one day!"

Discord and Bunny could not else to both role their eyes at this.

"Take care of another" Fluttershy said when he left the house to meet friends.

Angel and Discord sat alone in the entry hall – glaring on one another.

The rabbit once again showed is tongue to Discord.

Discord on the other hand raised his brow "so you want it like that!? Fine!" He shouted – and summoned the grill from before once again.

The critter realized just yet there was nopony around to defend him and ran of in panic.
> A Heart of Cotton Candy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A heart of cotton candy

Discord was sitting in his living room on the couch and zapping through the PV-channels.

He was the only one in all Equestria who happened to use this kind of technology, so the channels he zapped trough weren't regular channels either, by the push of a button the odd shaped box showed another part of Equestria. In one moment he did see a part of the urban life of Manehattan, when he pushed again he had a close look into Celestia's throne room. "Boring old Celestia" he said to him self, watching her listening to a bunch of citizens. Once again he flipped the through channels with a deep sigh "those pony´s... how can they possibly enjoy this! Doing the same boring tasks day for day... they are less fun than being stone" than something caught his eye and he zapped back a few channels and a grin appeared on his face "if that´s not my favorite show".

The screen showed his beloved wife. He pushed once more to enhance the sight and the PV doubled and tripled in size- to almost cinematic measures.

"Well, that, i call entertainment!" the lord of chaos said out loud to himself.

Fluttershy was trotting happily down the path he had made between their castle and town. The path octagonal stones in all colors of the rainbow, till it reached the border of his little kingdom and became ordinary from one step to the next. A part of his agreement not to fool around outside with his borders.

"I cant just sit here and watch her from afar" he thought to himself. "She sure doesn't mind if i come along".

With those words said he teleported in a cloud above her, laying on his stomach and spying on her he grabbed a corner of the pink cloud and ate it. It was delicious cotton candy.

"Its just normal to look after his wife" he knew and slapped him self for the though. Normal. This word again, quite high on his list of words which made him sick.

The yellow pony below him gracefully followed the path along a wide bow leading directly to town. The Everfree Forest wasn't quite the safest part of Equestria. A lot of dangerous creatures lived in his depths.

For the most part Fluttershy could handle all those beasts, but there still were some exceptions to the rule.

Like those timberwolf´s closing in around the corner.

"Didn't they get the lesson last time!?" he mumbled angry to himself and snapped with his fingers once. When the pegasus passed the spot she was thrilled to see what was waiting behind it. A bunch of tiny cute squirrel sat there, looking up in confusion.

"Oh! Ain´t you just the cutest!" she cheered "here have some" with those words she grabbed some nuts out of her pocket she had with her and spilled them on the ground. She always had a little mixed selection of food with her, she was thoughtful and kind like this all the time without wanting anything in return.

The squirrel´s didn't grab them and ran of scared into the forest.

"You don´t have to be scared" she said, but the small animals didn't return, which made her a little sad inside. Usual animals never run of her, maybe they had been scared of by something else. "I will leave the nuts here for you" she said with a sad tone in her voice. "They might come back and pick them up after all" she tough and continued her travel.

She later entered town from the south/west side, passing town hall and heading to the market.

A little shopping before she met up with her friends sure would be fun. Her husband usual would create what ever she needed, but she didn't want to bother him, also she liked to talk to somepony else. Most pony's in this town was happy to see her, only a few gave her a odd glimpse and wandered off. She knew what this was all about – her husband.

Despite the fact he was official reformed and also forgiven by Princess Celestia and some others, he showed up in town and played pranks on pony´s... which alter on lead to arguments with her.

Some of them even was scared of him, which she kinda understood, she had felt the same way before she got to know him better, if just the other would take the time and look behind his grumpy wall. Maybe some day.

On the market she looked around. Wondering what to get first, when her eye was caught by the carrot stall. "Oh Angel sure would love some" she said to her self cheerful and got over to it.

"Um, hello there" she shyly greeted the pony working there.

Her name was Carrot Top. A yellow earthpony with orange mane and three carrots as cutiemark.

"What can i do for you?" she asked slick.

"If you don´t mind i would like to buy a few carrots... please" she said quiet.

"Well alright, how many you want?"

She thought a moment. Angel was a small rabbit but sure had a big appetite.

"Half a dozen will do" she replied.

"This makes eight bits" she stated.

"Eight bits? Oh... okay..." Fluttershy said and started to search in her pocket for the money.

"Oh where did i put my money... i hope i didn't forget..."

Discord was still around, sitting on a roof and noticed her distress, willing to help her out.

He would liked to get down there and tell this pony-trader a lesson, taking advantage of this kind pony and trying to rip her off... may turning her into a carrot and feed her to this annoying bunny back home.

Would serve both just about right, but he reconsidered. She would not appreciate it and would nagging for days about it. He knew that first hand: once you turn one tiny pony into a lantern you are branded for life!

So he did the next best thing he could think of, summoning quickly a small diamond on the table when this pest wasn't looking.

When Carrot Top noticed the diamond, her eyes got big and she snatched hit quickly of the table and put into her money box.

"Take your carrots and ..." she grabbed a few extra and put them on the stack "those as well... for my favorite customer" she grinned at Fluttershy.

The shy pony looked up from her bag in confusion "you sure?".

"I insist. Now take them before i make up my mind again" she said a little more grouchy.

"Okay, thank you" she replied and put the carrots into her bag, wandering off.

Money and things like this didn't matter to Discord. He was able to bend the rules of matter and time with ease, so he had no use for anything like it, but seeing his wife smile – this was worth all the riches in the world for him.

Fluttershy was wondering where to go next and decided to take a trip to Sugarcube Corner, where on of her closest friends used to work and life – Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie was a earth pony and the most energetic one could find. She could not sit still for longer than ten seconds flat, before bursting out in cheer, trying to make everypony near by smile.

Pinkie was special in many kind of ways, but one of the most interesting things about her, was she is also one of the Elements of Harmony. The element of laughter – Discords favorite. She was one of a hand full living beings who could take up with him when, when it was about being crazy and chaotic... her only flaw was, she wanted to make everyone happy... that wasn't quite what he had in mind.

When she entered the shop and was greeted with a high pitched shout across the room "FLUTTERSHY! Ur back! Ur back! Ur back!" Pinkie screamed and jumped right to her and gave her a really tight hug.

Fluttershy barely could breath and only could squeeze out "Pinkie, please..."

Pinkie immediately let go fo her and she slowly slid flat to the ground.

"Sorry!" the pony said with a big smile on her face, than started to jump circles around her.

"Where have you been!? What have you done!? Did Discord behave!? Did you bring me a present!?" asking rapidly one question after another without taking a single breath in between.

The pegasus slowly came back to her feet, overwhelmed by the questions she didn't know what to answer first.

"I made cake! Want some welcome cake!? OH OH OH! We should totally throw you a welcome back party!" she than continued. "With balloons and streamers and..."

"Oh, but i was just gone for a few days" she said to her overly excited friend.

Pinkie stopped in her tracks "I would love to a welcome back party every time i see one of my friends again... but i don't got enough cake" she shrugged and got close to Fluttershy´s ear "i have to save it up for you know who´s anniversary..." then stepped back and continued right away "So- i just need to make a new cake, invite everypony and we are ready to PAR-TEY!" she grinned.

"Well, than. Um... Okay. If its not troubling you..." Fluttershy gave in.

"Yay!" the pink pony shouted out "what kinda cake you want? Apple? Carrot? Chocooollatte? I do love chocolate!"

This gave Fluttershy an idea. She reached down her pocket and put a bunch of carrots on the table. "Carrot Top gave me plenty" she explained "you might could use some for the cake?"

"Sure thing! Carrot it is!" Pinkie replied, grabbing on to the carrots and wandering off to the kitchen. "I will make the cake and you go tell the others!".

"Sounds good" she said, grabbing on to her pocket. Pinkie Pie was already rushing back and forth trough the kitchen and getting her ingredients together. "Bye!" she shouted with the hooves full of work and a spoon in her mouth as the pegasus left the store.

Fluttershy felt already a lot better, after she had met one of her friends. Pinkie sure did her cutiemark – three floating balloons. She always knew how to put a smile on her face.

She wondered who to visit next. Sure Rarity would be a good place to walk by. She could help to spread the word about the party. Rarity was quite a gossip mouth at times. Always talking about events, celebrities and fashion. Fashion was her biggest passion. Unlike Pinkie which used to work for the bakery/party service, the white unicorn worked in a boutique, making all kind of beautiful dresses for any occasion she can think off. She was also a lot more calm and behaved than Pinkie and always took care of her looks. The unicorn never failed to impress, with a flawless coiffed mane and manicured hooves, most stallions could not stop their heads turning after her.

Like all of her close friends, she also represents one of the Elements of Harmony- generosity.

She would help out anypony in need, friends and strangers alike – she sometimes may talked a little conceited, but never acted like it at all. She sure had a heart pure as diamonds, which also happened to be her cutie mark. Three shining diamonds sitting on her flank.

Also Rarity had a special talent to her... she was able to use her magic to find gems. Unlike Pinkie Pies "Pinkie sense" (which was able to predict all kind of strange things coming up in the future), she was able to control it when ever she had the need to.

Fluttershy entered the boutique with the ringing of the door bell introducing her to Rarity´s awareness. The unicorn looked up from her stitching work she was about to perform on a customers dress and found her friend Fluttershy standing in the entrance.

"Oh darling! didn't knew you where back already..." she said with her Manehatten accent and a smile.

"We just came back today" she shrunk a little saying so.

Now she had Rarity´s full attention. Rarity glanced over to her and raised a eyebrow "So you didn't drop him?"

"No! Rarity... that was really rude of you" the pegasus said loud as a mice- which was equal to screaming according to her levels.

"I'm sorry dear" she unicorn said while moving to a shelf full of silk and satin – carefully picking two rolls with her magic "... red or blue, what you think?" she asked incidentally.

"Um, both are beautiful" the pegasus replied.

Rarity had expected this answer and took the blue one and walked back to her work place.

"I was just thinking he might got out of hand again, you sure can tell me if he did".

"He did behave... " she said "... most of the time" she said a little more quiet.

Rarity´s eyes became a little bigger "He didn't did harm you, did he?"

"He never would" she assured her "... in fact, he was really lovely and kind to me"

The white unicorn could not quite understand what she just got told.

"He was lovely? ... he s a creature of chaos" tipping her chin with her hoof "he also doesn't quite look like the..." she thought how to put it gently "... the romantic type".

"You just have to get knowing him a little better" she shyly said and blushing while doing so.

Rarity gave this a moment of consideration "i'm not sure we are on the same... page" she than said "but you MUST tell me everything about your trip! I want to know all the details!" she tried to change subject.

"Well, Pinkie wanted to throw a welcome back party for me today, i could tell you then about it... if that´s okay?" she asked polite.

The unicorn stepped over to her work table, taking a look into her business book. "I´m quite busy" she sighed ...

"I ... i understand if you cant..." Fluttershy started.

"BUT" she got interrupted and used a pencil to cross out a appointment "i will take some time off for you and i don't want to hear a no for an answer!"

"That´s really generous of you Rarity" she smiled.

"I know darling, but that´s how i am" running her hooves through her purple mane and suddenly starting to look all around her "but what to wear?" she mumbled "i want to look good for your party" and glared to Fluttershy "you also need a dress don't you?"

The pegasus shook her head "no, thanks, i´m fine. As long as my friends are there"

Rarity could not help to smile at this "she s so kind" she though to her self "... also a natural beauty" she added, almost jealous but let go on that and focused on what to do next.

"Well, if you say so, i don´t mind" she said "but i want to look marvelous, its a celebration after all"

Fluttershy noticed how busy the unicorn was all of a sudden and felt it was time to go "till later" she said calmly when walking to the door. Her friend took a quick look from her fabrics and called "goodbye" before she started to rush again back and forth.

Discord had listen in to every single word of the conversation in there and it made him frown.

He didn't like Rarity that much. He ... kinda... considered her to be a friend of his, because she was good friends with Fluttershy – but they are really far apart when it comes about their personality´s. Rarity was so sissy, always concerned with her looks and and judging other pony's by it and despised chaos. Since he was the lord of chaos, this means she despised him as well and always hinted she didn't want them to be together. "So many pony´s, so little time to turn them all into some rubbish" he thought to him self, taking of the roof and flying after his beloved wife.

There was no doubt where she was heading next, the castle came already in sight.

Fluttershy was about to enter when she bumped into a blue pegasus coming out of it.

"Sorry" she immediately said and was stepping back "it was my fault, i didn't look".

The blue pony in front of her waved it off "Fluttershy you are back! Awesome!"

Just moments later she was also joined by Twilight which had caught up the noise.

Twilight used to be a unicorn in the past, but on a faithful day, Princess Celestia gave wings to her and made her an alicorn princess as well. She had purple fur and a dark blue mane with highlights of pink in it and used to work in her library – which got turned into her own Castle by the tree of harmony, after they defeated the evil centaur Tirek.

"Welcome back" she greeted her friend with a smile "glad you visit. I was already wondering when you return".

"Yeah!" the blue pegasus joined in "some of us was concerned Discord was on to something!"

"Rainbow!" Twilight dispraised her "Discord is reformed and i´m sure Fluttershy can handle him... right?"

The shy pegasus nodded "He had his moments, but he behaved really good".

The alicorn nodded to Rainbow Dash on her side "you see, i told you. We should not jump to any fast conclusions"

"Ja ja..." the weather pony waved off "i guess."

Twilight´s attention came back to Fluttershy "So why are you here Fluttershy, what can i do for you?"

"Well, Pinkie said she threw me a welcome back party... and i wanted to invite you".

The other two looked agreeing on each other. "It would glad to come" Twilight said.

"I wanted to read my new Daring Do ..... but i´m sure i can wait a little longer" she smiled.

"...besides, whats more fun than having a great party with your friends!" she shouted.

This made Twilight and Fluttershy giggle.

"Well i would stay longer, but i got some clouds to bust before the party starts" Rainbow declared.

"Its okay" Fluttershy said calmly.

"See you than" Twilight said.

before neither of them could anything more – the blue pegasus opened his wings and shot into the sky like a bullet and was out of sight a few seconds after.

Rainbow Dash was the local weather pony in town – her flank showing a cloud, with rainbow colored lightning on it. She s a more than just talented flier and probably the fasted pony there is.

Like all her friends – she earned her cutie mark on the faithful day when she pulled of her first Sonic Rainboom and there for changing their friends life. Their friends had been the most important ever since they met – when they found out the one thing they had in common was the Sonic Rainboom, it just made this bound stronger. Last but not least, Rainbow Dash also represented an element of friendship – loyalty. Despite her impulsive temper at times, she never let her friends go second because of that and stood up to every challenge to keep sure of that.

Twilight invited her friend in to talk a little more.

She walked through the rooms and came into a big round one, with hundreds books in the shells, same laying on the ground.

"I´m sorry, its a little messy" she said "Spike is over by Applejack, giving a helping hand. Its almost time for the zappapple harvest and you sure know how much work that is" she smiled.

"I don't mind. I'm married to the lord of chaos after all" she giggled.

Twilight took a second to process this joke, just to join in giggling along.

"Well..." she started "it does sound like you have become a more confident, since you are with him".

The pegasus though a moment "i'm not sure i am"... she met Twilight´s sigh "... am... i?"

"He is a really powerful being, it cant be easy to keep him in place" she said while trying to cleaning up with her magic. Hoovering books back into the shelf's and bringing papers to stacks.

Twilight was also really well trained in magic, she studied it all her life and earned her cutie mark doing so. A pink star with sparks was on her flank and ever since she become an alicorn, her powers had increased enormous. Still, despite she had become one of the most powerful magic beings in Equestria, she could had a really hard time to catch up to Discords level of magic. He had proven to be a natural talent when it came about to perform his magic, despite he never had studied a day in his life – his powers seem unlimited.

"He can be a hoof full" she admitted "but he has a good heart" she blushed.

"Good to hear" Twilight said while walking to the next shelf "i have to admit i had my doubts at times... he wasn't quite always an angel" then she turned to her friend "but it seems you shown him the way"

The face of the pony turned from yellow to a deep red and she shyly shrunk in size, still smiling a little. "I guess". Was all she said.

"So... how was your trip?" Twilight asked along. "Been some where interesting?"

Fluttershy put her head on the side "oh, we pretty much were everywhere... he didn't want to stand on one place to long.

"So he dragged you around?" she lifted an eyebrow.

"No it was nothing like it!" than again she shrunk as she noticed she just had said it out loud "I'm sorry... but he just wanted to get sure we had a really special trip, that´s all" she said almost whispering.

Her friend placed carefully a hoof on Fluttershy´s back "Don´t worry i understand, you must be really special to him".

This again made Fluttershy a little embarrassed but also proud. She was never special to somepony before. Not like this.

"Where is your husband anyways?" Twilight checked after. "Is he in town?"

The pegasus shook her head "No, he did stay at home" ... "he doesn't like to be in town so much..." she than added.

"Hm. I see. Its not easy for the somepony to get used to him, but they sure will at some point" The princess said understanding.

"So... about the party of yours, how about i send Applejack a letter for you?"

Fluttershy had a questioning look on her face "don´t you need spike to do so?" she asked.

"Since i'm an alicorn, i can teleport letters all over Equestria on my own, but Spike usual insist it counts to his duty´s, so i let him" she pointed out.

"If its no troubling you" Fluttershy said to her when she watched Twilight performing her magic.

Ink and Paper came flying in from one of the upper rooms and began to write on its own.

"Hello Spike" she read out loud "... be so kind and let Applejack know Fluttershy is back and Pinkie is having a party today... " she was thinking if she should add something and decided to add silently "ps. And watch out of flying pigs" in order to remember the little Dragon, Discord is back in town as well.

After this was done, Twilight's horn unleashed a short flash of light and the letter was gone.

On the other side of the town - across Apple Acres, the letter got burped out by spike a second later.

Spike was surprised, he didn't though he would receive one today, so he curious opened the letter to read it to the other pony nearby.

AJ was right on his side and cheered up when she heard her friend is back in town.

"I´m glad she found yer way back save" she said in her thick cowgirl accent "sometimes this Discord can be a pain in the neck".

Spike looked up to her "Well, he is reformed... isn't he?"

"Yes he is, but he still could be up to something" she admitted.

Again Spike began "But they are in love! I would never do something to my beloved wife" but than forced him self to look to the ground, when he caught him self to stare a little to long at Applejack...

There was just something about her. It was like when he watched Rarity, but they wasn't anything alike. He could not lay his finger on it.. Rarity was such a lady, taking care of her look all the time, when ever they met, she looked marvelous to him. AJ on the other side didn't mind to get dirty and rarely cared her looks. As a earth pony she worked almost all her life on the apple farm, which made her strong and gave her a wild beauty. Her blond mane shimmered in the sunlight like fresh straw, while her orange fur matched great wih her cutie mark – three shining red apples.

All of her family had apple related cutie marks or they would not had been the "Apple" family for no reason. Growing and harvesting all kind of apples was their way of life.

He had a hard time to believe she was really convinced of her words, but she sure never would lie to him. She was his friend, not to mention also the element of honesty ... and that´s why he was more than relieved when she looked at him and said "ya know Spike, i guess yu could be right..."
> The Spirit of Generosity
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The spirit of generosity

The draconequus sat on the roof and played along with his magic. He never have been patient and found it to be incredible boring to wait for something to happen.

Rolling his eyes he grumbled "What does her take so long?" so he tried to get a peak through a window whats happening in there and was quite annoyed to find Twilight - babble poor Fluttershy's cute ears full. He would like to just snap her out of it, saving her from this horrible fate, but just as he was about to raise his fingers, a though came to mind- this could be a chance to get some free space. being in town already- his wife probably occupied for the next hour or so - "why not have some fun then" he grinned to himself.

With a snap of his fingers he was in middle of town, searching out for the first victim, when a conversation caught his ears. He looked around to find right below him the Mayor Mare of Ponyville in conversation with a red stallion. "Lucky me" he said to him self, listening in to her petty talk. 

"Thank you for helping out on the construction site, we could not have done without you" the mare said in her diplomatic tone "still, i would like to book you for another two days, until the new workers arrive, if that's a possibility".

The red stallion nodded and simply replied "Yup".

The stallion was one of the strongest pony's around, working hard all his life on the apple farm, plowing fields and moving big loads of farming goods around the city without even breaking into sweat.

Discord knew this guy was the brother of Applejack and somepony called him BigMac.

"Well, lets see how big you are after this" he said to himself, snapping his fingers and in the blink of an eye the once tall stallion shrunk down to the size of a filly.

The Mayor Mare was shocked "What happened!?" she shouted, while the now tiny stallion looked at him self in confusion "don't know". Not even his usual deep voice was left the same, for now it was high pitched and changed beyond recognition.

The gray haired mare, which now quite a giant in comparison, looked down at him and tried to get a calm tough together "well, i guess, you wont be able to help till we can change you back to normal size".

Looking again on his self, the stallion frowned and let his head hanging down and again simply replied "nope", but this time with a sad tune in his voice.

The jokester on top of the building could not stop laughing at this sight. It was hilarious!

"You are a genius" he complimented himself and snapped him self to the very next location, leaving behind the two in their utter state of confusion.

Floating over Ponyville, performing aerial roles and keeping eye out for a new chance to play a prank. Right in his front a gray pegasus pony with crossed eyes came by, wearing a post bag and holding a packets in her hooves and was about to land right in front of her customer Cheerilee, the school teacher of the filly's in town. 

The deep purple earth pony smiled when her eye caught Derpy coming down out of the sky, ready to deliver her packet, but right when she was about to touch down, she stumbled about the packet she was wearing and made a somersault to the ground.

Cheerilee looked down onto her with some worries "is everything alright?" she asked.

Derpy Hooves got her self up and nodded cheerful and picked up the packet to bring it to her. 

The teacher opened the packet right away to find all kind of school materials in there.

board-sponges, chalk, papers, rubber bands, glues and a few other things.

"Everything seems to be alright" she smiled "without your special delivery, the young filly's would had a hard time to start the new year".

All of a sudden the chalk floated out of the packet and attacked the teacher, in a matter of seconds her deep purple fur was white as a sheet of paper – which also left the packet, along with all the other things inside, circling around the post-pony Derpy, faster and faster till she was wrapped up like one of her packets, unable to move anymore. Only the snot and her eyes wasn't covered, luckily still able to breath and see whats going on, but frightened non the less.

While the two down there cried out lout (as good as you can do, wrapped up anyways in case of Derpy) and asking them self how and why this did happened to them!

Just a few meters away across the road sat a spirit of chaos in a tree, holding on to his stomach with his paw, while his griffon claw was hammering onto the branch he was sitting on "now that's what i call a lesson!" he roared of laughter with tears of joy coming from his eyes.

"Hey! What ya think you are doing" a shriek reached his ear. 

Suddenly disturbed he looked down below to find young pony with red mane and yellow fur, wearing a big pink ribbon on her head.

"None of your business" he grumpy replied. This filly was just like her bigger sister, nagging all the time, which left her pretty low on his list of favorite fellow citizens.

The filly bucked against the tree the draconequus was sitting in, which resulted him to lose his balance and crash to the ground painfully.

"Serves ja right" the little girl stated "Its not nice to play pranks like dis". 

Discord came back on his feet, rubbing his head in agony, dramatize the pain he had "don't you know who i am!?" he grumbled.

"A big mean bully, that's for sure" the filly said, in her typical country accent.

"Bully!?" Discord said with disbelieve in his voice "Nononono" he added, waving his paws in front of her like he could deny his part in this prank "you see, i just...... tried to ....."

"I know what ya tried" Apple Bloom said strict "don't you dare to talk ya self oud of it"

He could not fool the filly, her sister probably had told everything about him already, so he raised his hands in defeat.

"Okay fine, you got me" making a tiny white flag appear in his hand "I pulled of a tinzy tiny prank, so what?" he smoothly asked.

The filly toughed for a moment "well, ...." she paused again "... i will tell ma sister all about it and then you will be in a lot of trouble" she proudly said.

Discord was about to turn away and leaving, when this words made him stop in his tracks and freeze in place (literally) "...oh poo" he thought to him self. He knew what that meant. Her big sister Applejack, with her irritating habit of honesty, would of course tell Fluttershy next, which wasn't good at all considering the fine line he used to walk.

The young filly grinned at him, when he sighed and said "Ok, what i have to do so you keep your cute little mouth shut" while pinching her in one of her cheeks.

Slapping his hand away "first of, i'm not a baby..." she pleaded, which made him role eyes "... and i don't want anything from you" she said and was about to walk of, but the draconequus teleported right in front of her "why don't you wait a moment and talk this over!" 

"No" she stubborn replied, walking around him, just to find him once more in her path and her self on a comfortable chair.

"You see i cannot let you tell on me" he said, while raising his arms and twitching his fingers "so i thought we could make a little deal" he smiled dishonest, knowing he could not just zap her away, since this would make it even worse when anypony finds out.

The filly raised her hoof to her chin, rethinking the offer, which made Discord raise his hopes for a moment. 

"Hmmmm i like you to......" she started, making Discord leaning forward in order to pay close attention "... get out of ma way" she ended.

This was the last drop in the barrel. He snapped his hands and the young filly was lifted upside down from the ground in eye height "look you little weasel, if you don't tell me what you want in order to keep that cute little mouth of yours shut, i will turn you into scarecrow and put you on display on that little farm of yours" he said sharply.

"Ya wouldn't dare!" still holding on to her decision.

She was right, but he could not possible let her know for sure.

"Applejack sure didn't left anything out about me" Discord thought to him self, the filly would probably stay stubborn, so he tried a change of tactics once more when he noticed something.

"What about a cutie mark?" he said, looking on her blank flank.

"A cutiemark!?" she gasped, but let go of that idea right after, pouting "Magic don't works on that, ... tried already...... " she sighed "caused quite a lot of chaos..." 

"Good you met me! I'm the spirit of chaos!" he exclaimed "I can make the impossible happened!"

"Na ah" she said "i don't take chances, i learned ma lesson" she stood her ground.

On the other hoof, still, he had a point. This was no ordinary pony she had right in front of her. She had the one in a life time chance to get anything she wanted. She knew he had huge magic ability, to say at least. Taking over Equestria wasn't easy as its sounds after all.

She was still struggling, levitating upside down in the air "okay, but first you have to put me down" she said with a straight face, which wasn't easy since her blood started to get to her head.

Without hesitation she found her self on the ground, right to the feet of her "wish fulfilling spirit".

"So so, what you want then kid" he asked curious, still a little leery if he really got this in his bag.

She glanced at him "well, actually a bunch of things" checking out what he was willing to offer "we could work down my Christmas list for starters!"

He rubbed his chin " quite greedy for your size, aren't you? I was talking about one wish, i'm not Santa Hooves" he pointed out. 

"Make it ten or the deal is off!" she insisted.

Raising a paw and spinning it around he said "lets say i grand you.... four wishes... remember, i got unlimited powers... and unlike your aunt Twilight i wont cut off your fun" he smiled devilish.

That's more the filly had hoped to get and almost bursted out in excitement, but hold in to act cool. 

"Ain't it usual three wishes you get?" she then asked to clarify the terms of their agreement.

Discord made a grimace "look, i'm not some lame genie in the bottle kid, i'm the spirit of chaos! I don't stick that pesky rules, so do you want them or not!?"

"All right, all right!" she cut him off "...you don't have to flip out, was just asking...".

She thought hard what to wish for but her mind was jammed. Unlimited possibility's and just four wishes to spend it on, how should she know what to wish for? There was just to many things she wanted so bad at some point. 

The filly sighed "i wished my friends where here" she mumbled to her self.

"GRANTED! The draconequus acknowledged, snapping his fingers to in order to make the other two cutie mark crusaders right next to her in the flash of a light.

"That wasn't ma wish!" Apple Bloom shouted at him, but Discord just raised his shoulders "Our deal was you got four wishes – you said i wish and i fulfilled that" as he quoted his words "wish of yours... so there are three more left. Take it or leave it!" 

"Not fair!" she argued again, when she got tapped on her shoulder "whats going on here!?" her friend Scootaloo demanded to know.

Her unicorn friend stepped forward "i was about to help my sister..." she said, obviously wearing a just half finished dress. 

Sweetie Belle was the first one to notice Discord "... and what is HE doing here?" pointing on that hideous thing in front of her.

"Yeah, she s right! should he not be on honeymoon with Fluttershy?"

This line made Sweetie Belle gag "she sure got an awful taste" 

"Watch your tongue!" Discord said furious "Or i turn you into a mule!" 

"If you touch them" Apple Bloom stepping in front of her friends "our deal is off!"

Discord grumbled something in his goat beard and waved her off.

"What deal"? Sweetie Belle asked, even more confused than before "Could somepony finally explain whats going on!?" looking back and forth between her friends.

Scootaloo stayed quiet keeping her attention now on Apple Bloom, since she seem the only one knowing what was going on here.

"So... you two got a deal, that much i got, but what is it all about?" she asked.

"You know, Discord did...MPhh" the draconequus careful hold her mouth close with his lion paw and answered the question for her "that's none of your business, all you got ot know is that your....." he took a breath in order to swallow the word "pesky" and instead said "dear friend.... and me got our self a little deal. And she got four wishes granted, three of them remaining".

"Why four wishes!?" Scootaloo asked.

"Seems odd" Sweetie Belle agreed.

Discord snarled at this "what fun is there to make sense!? Just go with it!" starting to spit flames.

The two filly's he was shouting at was terrified and jumped behind the tree next by.

Apple Bloom somehow could understand his reaction a little better, so she wasn't as afraid and waved her friends over to come back again. "Its okay, i will explain it to you... and don't worry, he" pointing her hoof at the angry spirit of chaos "wont do a thing, wont ja?" giving Discord a glance, which was sulking with crossed arms. "Yaya what ever" he agreed "just hurry up, i don't get younger!". 

The tree filly's got into her "thinking circle" as she always used to when thinking of new ideas, how to earn their cutie marks – since all of them are still so called "blank flanks".

"Ok, here is the deal" she explained "Discord granted me four wishes so i ......" she kept her mouth shot and noticed Discords stare "doesn't matter. Point is, we can wish for anything we want"!

"Four wishes?" Sweetie Belle asked "we sure could use them good" she said, with excitement in her voice growing. 

"But we are three friends, how we split them?" Scootaloo pointed out, trying to calculated it, tapping her hooves on one another.

"Well, not exactly four wishes..." Apple Bloom admitted "...i kinda blew the first one, so just three remain."

Scootaloo just did go along with it "well, at least it makes the splitting easier" 

"Than we better make the remaining ones count" the white filly pointed out "I cant image he will be often this generous..." 

"You are right" Apple Bloom confirmed "better Milk that cow, as long sun is up"

"He ain't a cow Apple Bloom, he is a dracunu, draconelu...."

"Draconequus" Discord mumbled.

"Yeah, that" the little pegasus nodded.

"Focus" Apple Bloom brought to mind "we have to think of good wishes. Remember, he can give us what ever we want!"

This made the faces of her friends shine bright with glee.

"...except our cutie marks" she quickly complemented, making her friends feel a little disappointed.

"You sure?" Scootaloo asked carefully, but all she got in response was a serious glimpse.

"So cutie marks are off limits, anything else there is? Sweetie Belle wanted to know.

"Nope" the orange filly said with a smile.

"Well than i already know exactly what i want" stepping in front of Discord first.

Scootaloo just mumbled "well that was fast, hope she know what to wish for" right to Apple Bloom.

"Finally!" Discord said in relieve. "So what you wish for?" he asked, raising his hand, ready to make his magic roam, prepared to unleash powers great enough to bring down all of Equestria in the blink of an eye.

"I wish my sister would have more time for me" she said without a hint of a doubt in her voice.

"You want me to do what?" he said, grabbing one of his ears and detaching it from his head, in order to shake and blow it out, just to put it back again where it belongs. "Come again?"

"I wish my sister would have more time for me" she said once more to him.

Discord looked a bit unhinged about this request "Look girl, magic don't quite works like this, i could make the day longer, not a problem!" assuring of his powers "...but Celestia and Luna are quite some fun breaks, when its about tempering with time, you got that?"

Sweetie Belle toughed about this for a moment. ".. but she is always busy! The past weeks she agreed to at least five new lines for some fancy occasions... she will need months to get them done!" she said, leaving her head hanging to the ground.

"Now you are talking!" he said and snapped his fingers before anypony could ask what he meant by that, a bright light flashed up and nothing seemed to had happen.

The filly´s looked on each other utter confused.

"Nothing happened" Apple Bloom said.

He just sighed about this meager understanding of magic and lack of observation skills.

"Hellooo!" he waved "somepony home?" pointing nonchalant on the dress Sweetie Belle was wearing. 

It was not half finished anymore, he had completed it just like that and it looked stunning.

"Wooaaooooh" the three said in confirming unity. It really looked amazing, just like Rarity would had done it her self! They never had though a spirit of chaos was able to creat something beautiful like this.

"... i finished all of them, happy?" he nagged.

The little filly wearing the dress knew what that meant and was thrilled by it. "Thank you so much!" she shouted happily.

"Don't mention it." Discord said to the grinning filly, pinching his eyes together "seriously, don't mention it, or i zap ja to a mannequin!" he warned her, which still didn't make her smile any less.

His focus wandered to the remaining two little brats. 

Scootaloo was the next in line to make a wish. 

To see his magic work right in front of her, just has given her an idea what to ask for, so she stepped bravely forward and spread her tiny wings.

"I want to fly like Rainbow Dash!" she said.

"Hmm.. easy one" he said. 

"Hold in!" she than shouted, having a bad feeling about that grin of his "just make my wings a little bigger, so i can fly by my self" she specified her wish. 

His grin disappeared "please, that just what i had in mind too" he lied, followed after the familiar *snap* of his.

Checking her bag she found her wings just had the perfect size and felt stronger than ever before, so she tried to flap them a few times and raised from the ground with ease.

"FINALY!" she cheered out loud, while spinning a few rounds over their heads, when Discord snatched her out of the air by her tail and put her back to the ground.

"You can fly later some more, but if you don't mind, we got a deal to seal" turning to the last one to make a wish "so, spit it out, what you want?"




The little filly really didn't know what to say, her friends had made some really great ideas for their wishes and she could simply not think of any right now, that would come close to be as good.

"Well...... i wish for......" she just tried to start, hoping something would come to her mind "i wish.......  uhmmm...." trying to think of anything as hard as she could, ...but what was the right one to pick?

Helping the Apple Family with the farm? ...but they loved their work and she didn't want to take them away any of it.

Might forcing him to clean up the mess he made? ... as she looked over to Mrs. Cheerilee was already gone as well as Derpy just had left behind a hand full of torn apart papers. 

Her face started to become a frown, she could not think of anything.

Cutiemarks where off limits and even payback on pesky Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon seemed a bit off a overkill – she could handle them by her self just fine.

Discord snapped his fingers with alarmed that filly to raise her had immediate, looking at him.

"Hey i didn't wished for anything yet!" she shouted.

Discord acted like he just noticed her "what? I just snapped them for fun!" then he started walking back and forth "but since i got your attention" he said, stopping in tracks "MAKE YOUR WISH FINALY!" he shouted, lifting him self of the ground a few inches "......... please" then he hastily added with a voice, cute as sugar, while coming back on the ground like a feather.

"I ... don't know" the filly just mumbled "i think i need some time"

The draconequus reached out with his hand to the kid, holding a card in between his griffon fingers, which she took and read out loud whats written on it -Discord, Spirit of Chaos : Your local source of mischief-.

"I don't have all day, call me when you made up your mind" he said.

"So, i just call for you and you will come?" she tried to understand.

"Duh!" knocking on her forehead "anypony home!? That's what i just said!" 

The filly tried to push away his paw, making him stop from knocking on her head "ouch, stop it! i get it alright!" 

Discord was about to leave when he gave her a last nod with the head, pointing his finger like a teacher would lecture a student: "remember– you keep your mouth shut, your friends had their wishes, so the deal is on". 

The next time she blinked he was gone, just like that.




"Why didn't you ask for something" the pegasus said in confusion, flying small circles around her.

"She is right, you could had anything you ask for" Sweetie Belle stepped forward.

The small filly let her head hanging "I know, will think of something, ...eventually" 

"Well, don't get me wrong, but i must check out my wings!" her flying friend said and took up into the sky "later" was the last thing she said before she was out of sight.

"I got to go too, i must return the dress" the unicorn said "... and spend some quality time with my sister" she smiled happily.

"Its alright, till later" Apple Bloom said, trying to return the smile - her unicorn friend than nodded and ran of in the direction of her sisters boutique.

As soon the others had left, she took a really deep breath and relieved a long sighed. This had not turned out as fun she thought it will be, not at all. Was something wrong with her? 

Anypony had something to wish for – like her friends did, ...so was she not like them after all?

Leaving her had hanging, she got her self on the long way back to Sweet Apple Acres, which hopefully would enough time for her to think a simple wish, coming from heart.

Discord was just back in time back home when his wife came back trough the door.

He sat him self comfortable on the couch and tried to act all natural – twiddle one´s thumbs. 

Than he suddenly decided she never would buy that and made him self some chaos, summoning a winged pig on a unicycle, juggling a bunch of colored balls. That one always cheered him up.

Fluttershy stepped into the room, took a look at the pig, but didn't seem to disturbed about it.

"Howard, would you be so kind and leave us alone, please" she said calmly to the pig, which dropped his act and took up into the air, to disappear out of the open window.

"I was watching that" Discord said upset, pointing at the remains of the strange show.

"Discord, may i have a word with you" she said with a soft voice, close to a whispering.

The draconequus appeared right on her side "Of course my dear" he said charming, taking her hoof and started kissing it softly "what you want to talk about?" he smiled into her blue eyes.

His smile vanished just a moment later when a red colt stepped into the room, but it wasn't a colt at all.

"Oh poo" Discord said trough his paw, slowly sliding down his face- he knew he had
> Making Sense?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Making sense?

Apple Bloom got close to the apple Sweet Apple Acres, where she used to live with her family.

It was not just her home, it also was one of the biggest apple acres in all of Equestria – delivering sweet juicy apples all over the land to make a living.

The path was now going slightly downhill, so she could see a big part of the farm. 
Most pony's would be impressed by this amazing sigh. The apple trees gone as far as you could see, disappearing behind the horizon and every tree carried dozen of apples- red, big and tasty, almost ready for the harvest. 

This great acre of course didn't came from nothing by night, it took generations of work to make it happen – that's why the farm was old as the townhall itself. 

The filly should had been used to it, been living here since she was born, but once in a while she still felt amazed, wondering how many apples hanging in those trees – she even tried counting them at one point, but pretty quickly gave up after the a few tree lines.

She was heading to the center of the farm, coming by some fields of corn and straight towards a big building, which could be mistaken for a yarn at first, but was in fact the family home, the sun was right above it like to guide her way back home.

The building had red walls and white painted timber beams, on top of all that was a bright purple roof and the closer you got the more was clear it was not just a simple yarn, it was a mansion, build to last generations, right next to hit was an actual barn, a granary and some huts for the chicken.

Apple Bloom was e when a old brittle voice came to her ear "hello little filly".

She turned her head to find granny smith, about to pump some water in a bucket.

"Hey granny" she replied, not quite paying attention to granny, slowly walking up to the door. When she was about to enter she took a look on her granny.

The old green mare lifted had filled bucket up and tried to bring it indoors, but after just a few steps she stopped in her tracks to make a break, picking it up once more and repeating the process doing so.

"Let me help ya" Apple Bloom said, picking up the bucket for her to bring it in.

"Could had done it" the old mare said "but thanks anyway" smiling at her young niece.

Both got inside, going straight into the kitchen. "Put it down right there" the mare said, pointing next to a pot, already boiling on the fireplace. 

The younger one looked around, dinner was almost ready it. There was a apple-cake, some salad and of course the soup.

Granny put some more water into the pot, took a spoon and tried the soup with a slurp.

"Lacks carrots" she announced, walking to the table and picking up a knife, starting to slice a carrot really slowly.

Apple Bloom knew by the time she would be done, the soup would had been boiled up, so she took her self some carrots and cut them down in a few quick moves of her hooves.

She didn't mind to help granny out- she learned a lot by watching her, she also had become a good cook after a while, but sadly not good enough to earn her cutiemark.




The family was on the table, only BigMac didn't had shown up yet.

"I wonder where he s" the cowgirl said "he never been late to dinner".

"I'm sure he will be here any minute" her sister said "he sure doesn't know when to quit"

Applejack though about that a moment "i guess you are right, he sure does overtimes once in a while".

"Get eating, or it gets cold" granny said, sipping at her soup. 

The two could failed to disagree and started as well.

A few minutes later the front door opened and Big Macintosh standing in it.

"Hello BigMac" the younger one said "you sure let ya time" the older one added.

BigMac walked over to the table and sat down, picking him self a plate full of food.

"Did ya work late again?" Applejack asked him.

The stallion shook slowly his head "nope" and continued eating.

The two sister gave each other a confused glance.

"So, where you have been then?" she asked again.

The stallion paused a moment eating, to look up to her "just a little walk" he said in his calm deep voice. 

Now Apple Bloom got a little curious "everything alright, brother?".

He looked at her, shook his head again and simply said "nope".

"Let your brother eat, he had worked hard all day" their granny stated. 

The two mares nodded and continued dinner. 

"Well, i will go out later, Pinkie Pie is having a party for Fluttershy, she is back in town ya know?" Applejack said, trying to get a conversation on track.

"Ye, i just seen..." she stopped a moment "... her today" biting her self on the lip, she almost had let slip it was in fact Discord she had met.

"It sure will be fun, why don't you come with me?" Applejack suggested.

"I don't know" the filly said, pushing her salad from one side to the other "i'm not quite in the mood".

This made AJ raise a eyebrow "Not in the mood? Whats wrong with everypony today?"

"Nothing much, was a long day i think" giving a glance to her brother, hoping he would help her out, which he did "Eyup" he agreed.

"Fine, than i guess i go there by my self" she said.

Apple Bloom left the table early "i'm not that hungry today" putting her plate in the kitchen and heading upstairs for her room.

Applejack pointed above her shoulder "any idea whats wrong with her?" 

Her granny seemed to not have heard it, so just her brother replied "not a clue".




After dinner was done, BigMac was heading for a bath, while Granny and Applejack did do the dishes, so Apple Bloom was alone in her room, laying flat on the bad, her legs stretched out. 

"A wish, a wish......" she was saying to no one, except her self and some plushie`s sitting in the corner.

"Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo sure had some good ideas" she recalled "but i guess they will be busy now..." turning around on her back and starring at the ceiling now, letting time pass.

"Granny might has an idea, but... it will take hours to explain it to her" she grunted.

With her friends off the list, not able to tell her sister about it and granny also not an option, there ain't many pony's left, which gave her an idea "it doesn't have to be a pony!" that was the idea- first in the morning she would go and visit Zecora! She always knew advice and would not tell any pony. 

When Applejack came into the room checking on her sister, she was already asleep with a big smile on her face. "Well, she seems alright now" she whispered to her self, walking to the bed and pulling the blanket over her "night sis" she said, kissing her sister on her cheek.

Applejack left the room, to find her brother walking by heading for his "you also going to bed early?" she asked.

"Yup, long day" he tired replied, leaving his head hanging when walking off

She shrugged at his answer and didn't bother to ask any further. May they was just tired, a good rest sure would do wonders on them. 

"Well, see ya later" she passed, heading downstairs to find granny, napping on her rocking chair.

"She ain't the youngest anymore" she tough to her self, before she left the house.

In sugarcube corner was the party just about to get going.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake provided the catering, serving drinks and sweets. The mane six almost was complete as well two of the cutiemark crusaders where present.

"So, where is Fluttershy!?" the blue pegasus asked, hoovering a few feet above the ground to get a overview. Flying right next to her was Scootaloo "yeah, where is she!?".

Twilight Sparkle trot past them "she sure will be there any second, why don't you fatch your self some punch or cake?" giving both a deprecating stare.

"Ghme" the Rainbow Dash grunted "fine" she gave a sign to her new flying buddy and both swiped across the room.

Twilight stopped in front of Rarity "glad you could make it too, didn't see you in days" she smiled.

"Well, i guess i found some time" the unicorn replied a little dazed.

"Busy with orders i guess?" The alicorn glanced at her with a smile.

"Y.. yes" the unicorn nodded "but, Twilight, something really strange happened today".

"So? What happened? She wondered, seeing her friend this disturbed "Is everything alright?"

"All my dresses are done and they all look amazing!" Rarity said, waving her hooves.

She hadn't quite expected this, so she asked her "Sooooo...? Whats wrong with that?" 

"Well, i ...." she run her hoof trough her mane. "I didn't make them."

"You didn't make them?" Twilight repeated curiously.

"Not a single one!" Rarity almost shouted, trying to fatch her voice again. "I don't know what happened. I just was gone to get some more fabrics and as i came back, they where all done!"

"Any idea how that could had happened? Could somepony else have finished them?" Twilight suggested to her, trying to check all possibility's one by one.

Rarity thought a moment "the only one at home was Sweetie Belle" pointing her hoof to her little sister, which was on the candy table, talking with Scootaloo.

The alicorn glanced over to the filly and back to the nervous wreck "didn't you say she got a howl lot better, helping you out?" 

The unicorn considered this for a moment "Well yes, i did... but she ain anywhere as skilled as that! I mean you should see them, they are stunning! I could not had done it better my self! I just don't understand..."

Twilight tried to think about it "hmm... well Rarity, i don't see many options right now, but i will try to investigate this, maybe i find some clue in one of my books..." she leaned her head on the side and tried to go trough her library in her mind "could have been goblins, or kobolds... well not kobolds, they would ask for money" the alicorn turned again to Rarity "you miss any money?" she asked sharply, pointing a hoof at her.

"Money? Um.. no, i don't think so." which made Twilight go up and down some more "Well that rules at least kobolds out". 

The door opened and the yellow cowgirl stepped in, getting greeted with a thunder of streamers and confetti "WELCOME APPLEJACK!" a pink ball of joy shouted, right before she jumped on her in a  attempt to give her a hug. 

"Wow!" was all she was able to replie, before she almost lost her balance and got spun around by Pinkie Pie "i'm so glad you are here! The others are here too! This party will be so much fun!" she rapidly spit out, still spinning her friend in circles again and again, just to suddenly stop and let go "how rude of me" she said – leaving Applejack dizzy behind, just to return a moment later "want some cake?" holding up a plate with a slize of cake on it.

If the cowgirl didn't had so much practice through rodeos, she probably had gaged right now,

so she took a slow deep breath "not yet Pinkie, thanks" trying to stop the floor from spinning.

"Okay!" the partypony cheered and just swallowed the howl piece in one rush "ywu downt knou whad ywu missing" she munched "itws delicouws!" 

Applejack slowly got back up on her feet and stumbled over to her other friends- Pinkie Pie hopping right next to her.

"Hi there fellows" she said to the two. 

"Hello Applejack, glad to see you" Rarity said with a calm voice and a slight nod.

"Hi AJ" Twilight simply said. She may was a princess now but still, she didn't had changed at all

"So how are things going?" 

Applejack could not help her self and bowed down "The business is running fine your highness" This made Twilight and the others giggle and Twilight played along "Glad to hear, i will await your next report by the end of the week" waving her hoof like a royal would on his butler. 

The four of them now laughed in unity. Pinkie Pie even rolled over the floor, it was just to funny.

"What i missed" Rainbow Dash joined the group.

"Oh nothing much" Twilight said, still a little giggling "We just had a little fun".

The blue pegasus crossed her arm's "well i had fun today too, Scootaloo become quite a flier and i showed her some of my trade mark moves" performing a small loop to indicate what she was talking about.

Twilight gave Rarity a glance, which seemed to think just think the same, since she countered with the same curious expression on her face.

"Wasn't Scootaloo to small to fly?" she asked careful.

"She sure isn't anymore! almost flying like a pro!" Rainbow said proudly.

The white unicorn stepped forward "Well, when she became so good? Could it been just, today?"

Rainbow slowly lowered her self to the ground and sit down. Thinking and flying proved to be tricky for her at times. 

"Uhm..." she started, tapping her hoof on her chin "i guess so, why you ask?".

This was more than just strange, so Twilight turned to the others "anypony else noticed any odd behavior lately?"

This made Applejack step forward "to be honest, my brotha and my sis acted a little strange today".

Twilight now looked at Pinkie Pie, which just starred at her, trying to keep track "how about you Pinkie, noticed anything..." trying to put it simple "unusual?"

"Nope" shaking her head "Oh wait, there was one thing!" she started "I was trying to make another cake and then, suddenly" she let pass by a dramatic moment "the sugar was empty!" 

The others just sighed at this. 

"This was not was i meant Pinkie" starting to break down the facts "Filly´s suddenly can fly, Raritys dresses got finished by them self and some pony's act strange."

"Ohhhhhh........" the earth pony nodded "Nope. Nothing like that"

Twilight coult not put it together "this doesn't make sense" she grumbled. She could not stand it if things didn't get along. "There is no rhyme or reason to it" she said out loud.

Right then a flash of light filled the room, revealing Fluttershy and the spirit of chaos himself – Discord, trumpets floating aside, playing by them self.

Rainbow Dash pointed at Discord "Speaking of making no sense".




"To much?" Discord asked polite, when he noticed the stares he received, snapping the trumpets away.

Just a moment later a pink flash rushed at her "Fluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutherssshhhhhhhhy! Pinkie hugged her strong as she could "i missed you so much!"

"But... we just met today" she whispered shyly to her. 

"Yes we did! But we didn't had your welcome back party then!" she smiled. 

Applejack now walked over too "Pinkie, turn ya hugging a little down, Fluttershy needs some air" which made Pinkie let go and made the cowgirl now hug Fluttershy herself, but a lot more careful.

"Missed ya sugarcube" she smiled.

"Oh, thanks" Fluttershy blushed "i missed you as well"

Now the rest of the group found his way, as well the filly's, group hugging her – "i missed you all so much" the pegasus in the middle said softly.




Discord stood a few meters away, obviously felt left out "puh, i'm back too, you know?" he grumbled.

Twilight was the first one to step to him "welcome back, Discord"

"Well gee, finally somepony noticed" he bend over "my dear Twilight! So loyal to her true friends!" giving a glance and Rainbow Dash "Unlike others".

"Hey!" Rainbow shouted upset, when Discord was suddenly next to her and giving her a hug with one arm, while ruffle her mane "oh Rainbow, i was just kidding" just to get pushed away from her "cut it out" she said, trying to fix her mane.

"He sure didn't learn new manners on the trip" Rarity pointed out, but could not stop her self smiling  a little about the sigh of Rainbows attempt to fix her mane. 

Discord rubbed his hands and took a look around "so, where is my (second) favorite pony?" cheering up to find Pinkie Pie right in front of him – pushing Applejack aside in order to get to her.

"Hey Discord" she cheered "How was your trip?"

"Delightful, i even found you a little present" he said, grabbing her hoof and giving her an small electric charge, just to reveal a buzzer-ring on his hand.

Pinkie shook her head "Huff, that was fun!" 

For the most part he just kinda tolerated the other pony's and could him self not get him to be close friends, but Pinkie Pie was different, she wasn't disturbed by his pranks as long he didn't go to far.

He pulled the ring of his paw and handed it over to Pinkie which looked at it like he just had gave her a gold treasure of sorts.

"Want play some twister?" she asked him with a bright smile.

He waved off "oh please, i'm the master of twister!"

"ain't you the spirit of chaos already?" she asked doubtful, twitching her eyes together.

The draconequus summoned a business card, sitting him self next to her in order to give her a closer look "there, spirit of chaos" flipping the card around on the other side "master of twister".

"Wow you really are!" she said amazed "but i will still beat you" grinning confident.

The partypony ran of in the corner, where a party of twister was already set up on the ground.

Discord walked over to it and started to stretch him self "there is no one more flexible than me in all Equestria!" and like to prove a point he took of one of his arms, in order to scratch his back between his shoulder plates "ahhw, just the right spot" she shuttered - putting him self back together after that little demonstration of his.

Applejack leaned over to Twilight "So, what ya think?"

"He sure has the ability's" she confirmed "but why would he do that kinda things?"

"Twilight is right" Rarity stepped in "He isn't quite known for his generosity"

Finally done with her mane, Rainbow also had to get something of her chest "He s a jerk, he never would do something nice like this" 

"Girls, this isn't nice of you" Fluttershy defended Discord.

"Sorry, Fluttershy" Rainbow said "but you have to admit he gets out of hand a lot"

The kind pegasus disagreed "He was really lovely when we traveled".

Rarity rose an eyebrow "Lovely!?" pointing a hoof on this strange creature, playing twister "him?".

Fluttershy blushed "Yes, he really was..."




Sweetie Belle poked her sister "don't you like your spare time with me?" she sulked, have to listen to all of this. Rarity had forgot all about her for a moment "Oh, no no, that's not it darling" giving her a hug "i really do love the time we spend together" she cheered her up "but, i'm not sure if Discord would be so nice for no reason". Her little sister didn't reply anything, she didn't want her to find out, also she enjoyed the hug of her big sis to much to let go.




Scootaloo now also stepped in "does it really matter? Everything is great" she said with glee, flying a few meters back and forth, giving Rainbow Dash a "hoof up" in the process.

"She got a point" the pegasus pony admitted. 




The group was suddenly disturbed, when Discord was yelling "I lost!? HOW!?"

Pinkie Pie was jumping up and down "I WON I WON I WON!" she shouted victorious.

The draconequus tried to get it together "i cannot lose! I will get my revenge!" as stormclouds with thunder and lightning appeared next to him "you cannot stop me!"

Twilight was about to get in battle stance – casting a spell to force him to stop, when Pinkie Pie faced Discord, without a hint of fear "okay then" she took another brave step forward "best of three?" Discord gave her a sharp glance and a devilish smile "...deal!" - as the storm clouds suddenly vanished into thin air and the two of them got to play one more round of Twister.

Applejack stepped next to Twilight which was about to calm down "I cant figure out dat guy"

Twilight looked to the cowgirl "Me neither". 

The group just agreed to role with it for the moment, enjoying the party and company of each other. 

As hours passed everyone had a fun time and even Discord did behave quite okay for his standards. 

Pinkie Pie roamed around, celebrating with one after another, Twilight somehow got her hooves on some "Ponytales" book and read it to the filly's. Applejack and Rainbow Dash competed in a muffin eating contest, while Rarity asked out Fluttershy all about their hooneymoon, which she told her only in small pieces, giving Rarity a hard time to be patient.

Once in a while, Fluttershy would give her husband a glance in order to keep him under control, when, as he just lost once more to Pinkie Pie, playing twister. 

"Two out of five" Pinkie announced "you are not bad!" she said, smiling from one ear to another.

Discord just gave her a frown "Its a boring game anyway". 

"Why don't we play stick the tale on the pony then?" she grinned, pointing on the poster on the other side, turning her back on Discord.

"I got a better idea" he said, swiftly grabbing the pink pony's tale - detaching it from her body by using her magic, holding it up like a trophy.

She immediately looked behind her and noticed what had just happened "hey! That's my!" she shouted at him, jumping up in order to grab it out of his hands, but failed to do so since the draconequus just hold it a little bit higher, giggling at the fruitless attempts of her "well that's a game i can get behind" he smiled.

"Excuse me Rarity, Discord seems a little cranky again" she said to Rarity kind and walked over to her husband.

"Discord, don't be rude..." she said with her melodic voice. 

The draconequus tried his best to hide the tail behind his back "Pardon me?" 

She blinked with her big eyes at him "I know you got Pinkies tale, please give it back".

He struggled with him self, but didn't put up to much of a fight doing so, letting the tail fall right into her waiting hooves "there" he nodded to Pinkie, which tried to attach it unsuccessfully a few times.

A frown got on her face "its my favorite tale" she said, hugging it like a lost friend. 

Fluttershy watched all of this and gave her husband now a way less innocent glance "You will fix this now Discord" raising her voice to a level which most pony's just would call about normal, which counts as shouting for her standards. 

Once more he obeyed, bending down to the sad pile of pony, which used to be the most joyful friend of her, tapping on her head three times, like a magician would on his cylinder.

She looked up to him doing so and when she looked down againt her tail was gone, which made her jump up and look around about his remain – just to find it right behind her, where it belonged. 

"Its back!" she cheered "phew, i thought i lost it for good!" jumping on her tail like a pogo stick.




Fluttershy was reassured, still it was a hard job to look after him. 

"I think we leave now" the pegasus said, her voice sounded tired. 

"You leaving already?" the partypony could not fail to hear what she just said "Cant you not stay some more?" she bagged.

Applejack joined in "i think i will also go home". 

Now Rarity was the one to speak "to bad, Fluttershy was just about to tell me all about Yanhoover..."

"You girls already tired!?" Rainbow teased them "i'm not tired at all!" 

"I would love to stay a little longer, but i... i think its time to go home" the yellow pegasus said shyly. 

Her alicorn friend walked up to her "well, than i got an idea, why don't we try out my new book sleep over partys – advanced edition?"

"I really think uhm..." she stuttered.

Rainbow Dash was all in for it "That's a great idea Twi!" 

"Splendid idea" Rarity had to agree "then you could finish the story of yours" she smiled gracefully "... if  that's okay with you Sweetie Belle" looking at her filly sister, shaking her lower lip and making big eyes on her.

The filly waved it off "alright, i don't mind a night, but..." she said in warning voice "don't stay up to long and you will be back to breakfast" like a parent would to his children – which made her receive a huge hug from her big sister "not in front of everyone".

It was quite embarrassing to watch, but made everyone grin. 

"Why don't i stay over at you Sweetie Belle?" she suggested

"Can she, plleeease" Sweetie Belle asked her sister, receiving a aproving nod. 

"This will be so cool, to bad Apple Bloom is not around"




"Well, Apple Bloom got soon to bed...  please don't wake her up" Applejack said to the filly.

Now thinking about it- her family probably would not even notice she was not at home, they all are ready are asleep "well, than count me in as well" she smiled. 

"Sleepover! Sleepover! Sleepover!" Pinkie cheered, dancing around the crowed.

Twilight was quite happy everyone joined in, only Fluttershy left "so what you think?" she smiled at her, as her friends did as well.




"Uhm okay" Fluttershy gave in. 




"Okay?" Discord asked harsh "But you said we go home!" 

She turned to her husband "I want spend some more time with them, i hope you don't mind"

Discord started to grumble "Of course i mind, didn't we spend enough time already?" 

"We just spend so many time the last weeks, ..." she said, holding her hoof up to him, which he took "please".

He sure didn't look happy, asking "why don't come i just with you then?"

Twilight was the one who tried to break it down for him "Discord, slumber partys are for girls" 

The draconequus didn't took it well "oh i see, you just want leave me out then, isn't it like that?"

"Pardon us, but that's how it works" Rarity said "we will have some chatt, maybe a make over  ... girls stuff" she tried to explain, without giving to much away.

"And that for i spend my time being nice?" his voice came grumpy out of his mouth, since he felt left out again.

"I think you need a time-out" Fluttershy urged him "you got your self all upset again"

Now she also picked on him, he was her husband, should she not do as he said? 

"Well" he raised his chin "if you want me to leave, i got the idea".

"Thanks Discord, don't worry, you will get her back right on the next morning" Twilight assured him, but the spirit of chaos just grunted at that.

Despite his obviously bad mood he was in right now, he took his time to bend over, laying his paw carefully on Fluttershy's face, raising her head slighlty in order to give her a soft kiss on her lips, which she welcomed with closed eyes.

The guests were quite stunned, what they just had seen. Rarity could not help to make a grimace.

Sweetie Belle did awe, finding it to be a really cute moment, when her sister tried to cover up here eyes in order to protect her young mind. 

Scootaloo on the other side made a gag motion, along with Rainbow Dash. 

Pinkie Pies mouth was simply wide open, her eyes big as plates.

When the couple released the kiss, Fluttershy blushed, giving her cheeks a soft red touch. 

Discord also looked quite pleased in this very moment, but as soon he glanced to the crowd watching him- his smile suddenly turned into a frown "what you looking at!?" he snarled - snapping his fingers and disappearing in a bright flash.
> Restless Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Restless night

The purple little dragon was about to polish his prangles, making them shine like some tasty gems. Since it took a lot of time, he could not do so when Twilight was around- she sure kept him busy, making lists, sorting books or take letters to Princess Celestia. 

"You are some handsome dragon" he said to his reflection in the mirror, admiring himself and his work- when he picked up noise coming from outside, so he ran for the next window to take a closer look – to find the mane six heading for the castle.

"What they are doing here?" he asked himself, when his eyes keep stuck on a white unicorn, which looked irresistible as always. "Aww. Rarity" he sighed, blushing as he leaned him self out of the window in order to get a better look.

The group now was on the doorstep, which made Spike lean out of the window to the point he almost lost balance, when he heard Twilight's voice coming from downstairs "Spiiiikee...... i'm back".

The dragon was about to run downstairs, when he came back to take a last check in the mirror, licking his paw to make a last correction before heading down.

As he came into the entrance hall he was greeted by his employee and friends.

The Alicorn didn't waste any time, asking Spike if he would be so kind and leave for they slumber party. 

"Not again..." the little dragon moaned "cant i just stay? This place is now freaking huge!"

"I´m sorry spike, but those are the rules" she said once more hoovering a book out of one of the shelf's. 

Spike could not resist to close his eyes and lay his paw on his forehead "Twilight and her books" she sighed. She really done everything "by the book" – and quite literally at that.

"This our first sleep over with all of us here, you sure understand its something special, don't you?" his dream pony asked him, with her irresistible Manehatten accent, which made his knee go soft.

"Well,... its just ....." the dragon started, not knowing what to say. He may could talk back to Twilight - they often had their smaller arguments, but Rarity? That was on a howl different level.

"You could crash on my door, i don't mind" Rainbow Dash threw in.

"He ain't a pegasus, he cannot stand on clouds Rainbow" Twilight reminded her.

The pegasus was a little embarrassed "Oh yeah, i forgot about that part again, sorry".

"Well, if its only about a place to sleep, my cows ain't use the barn, he could get him self there put" Applejack suggested.

"A barn? You cant be serious, i'm not some cattle" he argued.

"He got a point, i would not sleep in a barn either" Rarity said conceited.

Applejack shrugged of that comment "don't ya worry Spike, its the finest barn there is".

He was outnumbered on this one. His sigh wandered from one to another, when he looked at Fluttershy, she gave him a kind glimpse "Please... if, you don't mind of course...".

Spike now noticed the owle which had watched the howl conversation "What about him" he said, pointing at the owle.

Twilight followed spikes finger to find Owlowiscious sitting on a shelf "what about him?"

"Why don't he has to leave" he asked.

"Who" the owl replied.

"You, why don't you have to leave too?" the dragon said a little ouder.

"Who" the owl said once more, getting the dragon started.

"You, i'm talking about you up there" pointing again his finger at Owlowiscious.

This kinda conversation sure could take a while, so Twilight stepped in "Owlowiscious, would you mind to leave us for tonight?" 

The owl didn't ask this time and just flow of through one open top window, leaving Spike behind frowning. 

The little dragon though about that for a moment and took a deep breath "alright alright, i go" he replied grouchy..." rolling his eyes about what just happened and still grumbling "everytime the same......" 

"Party!" Pinkie Pie shouted and ran straight for the kitchen, in order to fatch some snacks for the sleep over.

He sure wasn't mad before he left, since Rarity stepped up to him, giving him a small kiss on his cheek "this is really kind of you spike-wikey" she smiled, making his heart race like it was on fire.

Half way to the barn, still holding his cheek which this magnificent pony just had kissed, lost in his toughs "Oh Spike, one day you will tell her..." still feeling all fuzzy over his body "but i guess, i could need somepony to help me". 

Holding to this very though he stumbled onto the farm, when he tripped over an apple "ouch" he grunted as he hit the ground "not my lucky day..." starting to reconsider, holding again his cheek "... but i guess i had worse".

As he lifted him self back up he noticed the great sigh in front of him, he sure wasn't into apples, most time he ate some crunchy tasty gems, but still the sunset above the distanced hills made it quite special. 

Some couples asked the Apple family to stay here for romantic pick-nicks or even got engaged while spring, when all the trees still carried bloom´s – setting the perfect mood to form a bond which might last forever.

Some day he might also would stay on this ground, doing so as many did before him with their special somepony, but for now he just would stay for the night and hopefully find a nice place in the barn.

As he got closer to the barn it became bigger and bigger, casting a long shadow which reached out to cover everything into darkness, giving it a frightening look, similar to a hounted house. 

A shiver ran down his spine, as he remembered last time he had a feeling like this, making him sick to the stomach. 




befor Discord had build his new home for him and his future wife, the old ruins which used to be there was once a castle in which Princess Celestia and her younger sister Princess Luna used to live. This had been about a thousand years ago and it was called the Castle of the Two Sisters, until in one faithful night, the younger sister could not take the darkness in her heart anymore and turned into Nightmare Moon. 




This was the part when spike slapped him self in order to keep him self focus "this ain't the castle, there is no dark princess here!" he said as brave he could afford, pushing open the big doors to take a look inside. 

It was pitch black inside, only a few crack of light found their way into it, giving everything a disturbing unfamiliar silhouette. 

As he put his first step into it, searching for lamp he could light up with his breath there was something on the back of the barn, right in front of the window.

Spike stopped in his motion and observed what ever was moving over there as he noticed black wings spreading slowly in the moonlight, when suddenly two deep red eyes shimmered at him.

"Its ... its Nightmare Moon!" was all he could shout, as the creature closed distance between them in just a moment, forcing the dragon to throw him self to the ground in a attempt to get cover – making the monster miss him by just a few inch, as it swiped over his head with a long shreek.

"Ahhh! Spare me!" he stammered "i.. i taste awful! Please!" his howl body shaking in fear.

He slowly took a look between the fingers of his claws to figure out what was going on, but he could not see a thing, so he took a closer look, getting on his knees in order to find out where she did go as he noticed on the sky the black winged creature heading for Ponyville.

It was just a bat - a fruitbat to be precise. Those would not eat him or anypony for that matter, they only ate apples and other fruit, living in a small remote part of Sweet Apple Acres s.

"Just a bat!?" he was so relieved to find out, letting his shoulders fall and catch his breath "good thing nobody saw this" he sighed, wiping the sweat of his head going back in the barn where he finally found a lantern.

The young dragon took a carefully breath, creating a small magic flame to light up the wick.

A barn was surely one of the places where you didn't want to get a fire out of hand. 

Everything was dry to the bones and careful pilled hay balls standing on the walls in order to be used as food for cows or once in a while building a scarecrow.

As he adjusted the lamp a little to make the flame bigger, the barn didn't look so freighting anymore, in fact it really looked cozy "its not that bad at all, i guess Applejack was right" he said, as he put the lantern on a hook and jumped on a stack of hay near by "... and its all for me" cuddling him self onto it like a bed.

Not every creature would consider hay to be really comfortable, but despite him being a young dragon, he already had a thick skin covered with scales, so he didn't felt a thing.




Inside the family domestic Apple Bloom was woken up by a noise coming from outside.

Still sleepy she walked up to her window and took a look around "must fallen alseep for a few hours" rubbing her eyes, failed to find the source of the noise.

Than her wandering sigh crossed the barn and she pinched her eyes "why is there light?".

This was odd, nobody would work at this time anymore.

The filly walked out her room, to Applejack's room "Applejack, you are there?" she asked, slowly pushing open the doors, but the room was empty as well her bed "hu, strange" she said to her self.

She turned around to go for Big Macintoshs room, trying to open the door, but it was locked from the inside "hey, somepony in there?" she asked out loud but didn't get a response, so she put her ear against the door to listen carefully in order to figure out if somepony is in there.

There was a noise inside, a deep long snoring, which she instantly reconciled to belong to her brother.

It was quite a hard task to wake him up since he had a really deep sleep, resulting of his hard work.

She though about to knock on the door and wake him up, but let go of the idea. She didn't even know whats in the barn, so she didn't want to bother her brother. 

"Could been Applejack" she was thinking to her self and it kinda made sense to her, so she went downstairs, passing by old granny, which she also didn't want to wake. 

Granny Smith often got overly excited when her slumber got interrupted and it wasn't easy to calm her down again, so she just sneaked out of the front door heading for the barn.




As she got closer she found the barn doors open and stuck her head in. 

There was no Applejack to be found, only a lamp burning, bathing everything in a slight orange touch. 
"Applejack?" the filly carefully asked "... are... you in there?" waiting for something to happen.

She now stepped inside, checking to the left and right, walking closer to the lamp. Somepony had to put it there, they sure would not forget to put out a fire in the barn.

A though occurred to her "nobody of my family would let on a light in here, so it must be somepony else" getting nervous, trying to make her moves more silently. 

"Nnnnnrrrr" was the first thing she picked up, it just sounded like Big Mac, just not as loud,

so she got down and crouched behind a straw-ball next to the source of the snaring, still it could be an wild animal after all "no wait, makes no sense, those don't light lamps" she figured out.

Leaning slowly around the corner she was released to find a dragon laying on the straw.

If it was for any other dragon in Equestria, she would been out of the barn by now, running for his life – but this dragon was nothing to be afraid of, she knew him well and smiled at the cute appearance of him.

Spike was laying on his back, snoring a bit and moving his arms and legs, probably dreaming of something. 

Stepping next to him she tried to be gentle "Spike..." she said, poking him with her hoof.

The dragon didn't response, waving once at her hoof and turning on his side.

"Spike" she said louder than before, poking the dragon once more.

The young fire breather sure reacted disturbed, again waving into the air, mumbling something to himself.

"Wake up now!" she yelled at him, stepping on his tail.

The dragon woke up and jumped behind the next cover he could make out "Help, its Nightmare... " holding his breath as he noticed the young filly "... Bloom?" relieving a sigh. 

"Oh ... its just you..." he said, coming out of his cover.

"What your doing here?" pointing her hoof on him "don't you live with Twilight?"

"Urm... well the thing is, she asked me to leave" 

The filly raised a eyebrow "she threw ya out like this? ain't you friends anymore?"

Spike hold up his hands "No its not like that, they got a sleep over, and well, its just a girls thing you know? So ... they asked me to leave for tonight" he explained to her.

"So how you come to be in here? A dragon in a barn doesn't seem a good idea" she pointed out.

"Well, to be fair it wasn't my idea..." he started "... your sister said its alright if i hang out here" shrugging his shoulders.

Her sister sure didn't use her head sometimes. For Applejack everyone was equal, she didn't treat anypony different by appearance, not after she learned her lesson on Zecora.




"Hey, Spike, would you like to come with me?" the yellow foal asked "I want to go to Zecora... i wanted to go tomorrow, but since you are here i thought we could go together".

He wondered where this idea came from "Zecora? Isn't it a bit late to go there?" 

"Don't worry she wont mind, also if we go together we can be there in no time!" 

"But its getting dark, who knows if we come across some wolfs or monsters" he shivered.

"Oh i´m not worried, if you come with me i got a big strong bodyguard" she teased him "i mean, you did save ma sister from timberwolfs and saved the Crystal Empire, didn't ya?"

This was how she would get Spike. He might not be the bravest, but he had his moments.

"I guess you are right about that, i'm quite brave" he said a bit arrogant, stretching his muscles like a bodybuilder "and strong..." 

"Well, then lets go!" she nailed him on his words, heading for the exit. 

"Wait! We cant go just like this...." he said, trying to hold her off.

She glanced over her shoulder "well, if you don't come with me, i just will go alone..." 

This young filly was so stubborn. Its kinda like a family tradition with them- being stubborn and not willing to give up, so there was no point trying to stop her after she set her mind.

"alright! alright! I come with you! ... but we have to be careful and if there is any problem, we will turn around, no questions asked" he settled the rules for their little adventure.

"That's okay to me, lets move" she smiled at him, walking of.

Spike rolled his eyes "oh Spike, you are such a push over" he mumbled about to leave the barn, when he ran back and picked up the lamp from earlier, so they had a light along the way.




The sun was almost gone behind the hills of Ponyville and their lamp conjured scary shadows along the path which did lead directly to the zebras home. 

Along the path they seen a lot of strange things. Trees seemed to have faces when you didn't look at them directly, strange blue plants growing along the path and sounds of animals was to be heard in the distance. 

"I'm not so sure this was a good idea" Spike said, while looking out for wild animals about to jump them. 

"Oh don't be such a baby" the filly tried to hide her fear "we will be there in a minute".

So they did go on, getting followed without noticing what was right behind them.




As they walked along the path deeper into the woods, the lamp which Spike had brought along started to run low on fuel and was about to go out when there was another light source between the trees. 

As they came a little closer they noticed shadows moving trough the house, Zecora must have been still up, maybe working on some new recipe.

"There it is, that's her house!" the filly cheered "we made it, you see and there ain't a monster anywhere!" she said, turning around to spike which was behind a few steps.

It was this moment when the thing which had followed them came in sigh.

All she could make out was that it was for sure a lot bigger than both of them and had yellow glowing eyes.

The filly instantly started running towards the house "Spike run!"

He didn't quite get it at first, so he turned around in confusion to find the source of her behavior – his eyes growing wide "wait for me!" she yelled and ran after her towards the door as fast he could.




They both hit the door almost in the same moment, starting to hammer against it in order to get let in "Zecora, its me and Spike! Please open!".

"Who?" they got asked from the inside. 

"P-please! You know us, l- let us in!" the dragon stuttered, but it was to late. 

Their follower had closed distance on them and the two leaned with their backs against the door, holding up their arms in order to protect them self. 




"What you two young brought you in this sphere, don't you know its dangerous out here?"

The too of them looked up, Zecora was standing right in front of them in her typical robe, caring a bag full of leaves and roots. 

"Oh its you Zecora, we thought ur a monster of some kind!" the filly sighed.

Spike also was more than confused "If you are out here, who is in there?" he asked, when the door opened behind him – to reveal Owlowiscious.




The four of them sat in Zecora's brew room, while Zecora explained the situation to them.

"The owl you call a friend, sometimes reaches me a helping hand" she rhymed as she would do almost anything. 

"So that's where you go when we are not around?" Spike looked at the owl.

"Who" the owle replied.

"You! You come here and help Zecora..." 

"Who" came once again.

befor Spike was able to say something more, Zecora laid a hoof on his mouth in order to make him stop asking "It´s late to be my guests, you got some worries on your chests?"

The little dragon raised his shoulders ""I don't know, Apple Bloom wanted to see you for some reason, she didn't told me..."

The filly exchanged a the looks on her and asked Spike to leave the room for a moment.

He didn't even try to argue this time, its wasn't the first time today he got thrown out, but at least  Owlowiscious had to leave too, which made him feel a little better about himself.

"What seems to be the problem of yours, you might need any cures?" the Zebra asked the filly.

"That's not it, i'm fine, but i wanted you to ask for advice on sumething."

Zecora smiled at her "Well, than tell me right away and i will find an answer for your pray".

Apple Bloom took a breath and explained to Zecora quickly about her ability to make a wish, without telling her who would be the one to cast it "... and that's why i'm here. My friends had so good ideas and i cant come up with anything."

"Hm..." the Zebra toughed about it, walking over to one of her brews "that question of yours might not hard to be solved, but to answer it you have to be evolved".

The filly laid her head on the side "whats that supposed to mean?"

The Zebra giggled at this "you search for a wish to become true, but it does not have to be for you" she said and threw in a hoof full of leaves into her brew, which made appear a small green cloud racing out of the pot, to form a grown pony – which looked at first happy, but fell onto it knees unable to get up by itself anymore.

"If somepony is in need, why don't be kind and share your deed?" Zecora closed up – and the green portrayal got up again, jumping around in glee like a young filly.

"So... you say i should use my wish for somepony else?" the filly started to understand "hmm... didn't think of that..."

"Can i come back in again? Are you done?" Spike shouted from the other room. 

"Uhm. I guess,... we are done." the filly replied.

Spike and  Owlowiscious entered the room. 

"It was nice to have you here, but its getting late, i fear" Zecora said as she nodded them to follow.


She guided them trough the dark forest and also had the kindness to refuel the lamp of theirs with a special slow burning oil she had created. They sure could use it- as well as Zecora's lead, since fog had came up, becoming thicker by the minute – trying to mislead anypony who didn't knew his way around to get lost in the woods.

Only Owlowiscious had left behind at her home, she didn't mind him to stay over, as he had visited her quite often and did not took more space than a pot.

The walk was a quite one. Apple Bloom appeared to be distracted by her toughs, Spike on his side didn't want to make noise – afraid some monster could hear it... and as for Zecora, she had put over her coat and acted mysterious as always.

When they arrived the edge of the forest Zecora was the first one to speak "I will leave you now, going back to the owl" she said firmly, walking of back into the forest.

"Zecora wait" Apple Bloom said "... but how do i know who needs my help the most?"

The Zebra didn't stop, but replied "don't you worry about this, answers will come from where your heart is" with those words said, Zecora seemed to merge with the fog - disappearing like a ghost.




"Darn, she sure is spooky" Spike had to point out, but Apple Bloom didn't listen "answers from my heart? Whats that supposed to mean again!?" she grumbled to her self.




As they came back to Sweet Apple Acres, Apple Bloom invited Spike to come inside, giving him the Guestsroom which was for sure a lot harder to set on fire than the barn, bringing her self to bed afterwards.




As she was on her bed once more, starring at her ceiling, she tried to fire out Zecora's words, almost getting mad at that. "Why just couldn't she tell me? Always those darn riddles... by the time i figure it out, i will be an old mare!"




That's when it hits her like a brick wall. How could she so be so blind about what was right in front of her! Granny Smith was the oldest mare there is, also she was family and needed more and more often help on her daily tasks. 

How old was she anyway? She didn't even know for sure, she never had asked her out and her brother and sister tried to avoid this topic all together.




Apple Bloom also did remember when Granny did fall for the Flim Flam Brothers – selling her a "youth potion". It sure was just a big fake, but the old mare at least had felt young, making her happy as she never seen her before... 

So why not just make her feel younger and make her younger for real?

This was it. This was how she wanted to spend her wish. This was how she must spend her wish.

She didn't want to lose her, she really loved her like she does the others and her friends.

The really idea made her grin to the point it started to hurt. She barely could hold back her excitement – wanting to wake up everyone in order to tell them, so she rolled from side to side in her bed, giggling while doing so. 

... but than all of a sudden she found her self crying. Granny Smith, she didn't want to let her go.
> Discord
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discord

Discord came shuffling out of his flash of light, heading for the kitchen. 

Part of his depletion came from playing twister with Pinkie Pie – she sure knew how to bend her self, the other half came from the disappointment he would be alone tonight.

It was his first night separated from Fluttershy since the start of their relationship.

The only one with him at home was angel, Fluttershy's pet rabbit, who noticed right away he would spend the night alone with him and he didn't liked it at all.

The rabbit ran straight up to Discord and started to complain on him, waving his small paws and giving him a potion of his rabbit gibberish which only she seemed to understand.

He wasn't really in the mood to put up with the Rabbit, nagging and hammering on his leg, so he just snapped tired with his fingers – the Rabbit floated of a few meters and landed soft on the ground, but before he was able to charge on Discord once more, it got buried below a pile of giant carrots.

"That one should keep you busy" he mumbled, disappearing in the kitchen. 

The fridge sure would have something to cheer him up – so he took a look inside to find nothing else than chocolate milk in all variations.

He took a moment to think about it and picked the extra strong one with full fat milk, shuffling back into the living room where the rabbit was about to crouch out below the carrot pile.

Angel was barely half way out of the pile when he started to nag at Discord again – as a shadow appeared right around him, making him look up on a even bigger stack of carrots that came crashing down on him.

Discord sat down on his favorite couch and zipped on milk. 




Chocolate milk and cotton candy always make him feel better. His mother would always make him a glass of coco and his father would give him some cotton candy when he was sad, when he was a kid.

After his fourth glass he started to feel better already. Maybe it wasn't to bad to spend some time alone... he could make some chaos... or well...  what more is there to do?

Most pony's would be asleep right now, his other friends are on this stupid slumber party of Twilight and his wife was with them. 

What was the point in making chaos if nobody would be there to appreciate it?

"Well, i guess i had to bed soon today" he grumbled, teleporting him right into his bedroom, laying down. 

Some rest would do wonders and first thing in the morning he would get over there and pick up Fluttershy. May go out with her or something... and zapping Twilight into a frog.

He found him self to have a hard time to sleep. This bed was so big all of a sudden.

Discord put his head to use what to do about it – making a plushie of Fluttershy appear in his arms. 

"Not bad" he thought to him self, but it wasn't quite the same – so the small plushie vanished, making a live size one appear instead "much better". 

A moment later a tape recorder appeared alongside on his desk, playing a recording of Fluttershy's voice "good night Discord" the record said "night dear" he replied and dozed off.




angel had watched the howl thing and couldn't help to be freaked out, shaking his head in disbelieve – so he decided to walk off to his own little room to get some distance between him and this maniac.




It was a silent night in all of Equestria, the fullmoon was high above, giving everything a shiver of silver. Luna sure had done a great job on this one, making it perfect for lovers all over the land to come together and enjoy this romantic view for hours to come.

Discord was sleeping well, holding tight to his wife and dreaming of things most pony's would find disturbing, when his slumber got interrupted – as his body started to shake for a moment.

"Who dares to wake me!" he grumbled, checking all around him in the dark room and clapping his hands in order to light it up. 

His eyes wandered around some more but he could not find anything odd, besides all the odd things he had created himself - still he could not get rid of this wrong feeling inside. 

This was the first time he felt disturbed by something being wrong, he was the Spirit of Chaos after all and making things wrong was his second nature.

So he got him self up and checked quickly the rest of the house. 

Nothing was in the living room, nothing was in the kitchen and neither the fridge or the roof.

"Nobody would dare to get on my property" he thought to him self, holding his hand up to his chin.

It probably was nothing. Maybe he had caused some chaos while sleeping again? Who knew, who cares.  

He was still tired and didn't really care what just had happened, so he decided to snapping himself back to bed again, over thinking once more the list of things to check. Only thing he didn't had checked was this darn rabbit, but he didn't even think about to get up again for this annoying rodent.

He grabbed onto his plushie again and cuddled up with it falling asleep again.




The sun was slowly crawling up to the firmament to bring a new morning to pony's all over the land, as the first beam of light came trough the window to wake up a snorling draconequus in his bedroom.

He stretched his legs and arms, kissing his wife as he would every morning as he noticed something was different. After he took a closer look on her, his memory came back and he realized he just had woke up a pretty good plushie imitation of his beloved wife.

He let disappear the plushie with a snarl, heading off to the shower. 

When he passed by the mirror he could not help to admire himself "good morning pretty!" he said to his reflection which did wave him off and blush "oh, you charming little devil". 

As he entered the shower, he grabbed the faucet to turn it a few times around, letting come out a steady flow of water. "Brrr... way to cold" he shivered and unleashed some magic to find him self standing under a lot more comfortable stream of water – in the far south of Equestria, below a small waterfall "... perfect" he said to himself, starting to hum one of his favorites songs "mmh mh  cupcakes cupcakes mh mmh sweet, not sour mh mhh" making sure he was fresh and clean.

A door and a towel appeared next to him, he grabbed the floating towel out of the air and opened the door, as he walked trough he was back in his home drying him self off.

The last thing he done was brushing his teeth – a man with class never had bad breath, when kissing a lady – when he was done he picked out his fang and brushed it separately, gave it a close look and polished it one more time on his chest, before putting it back in.   

"Who could resist this incredible looking beast" he said to him self as he checked once more the mirror – receiving cheers and whistling form a bunch of copy's on the other side.




He got down into the living room, the pile of carrots was still laying there untouched as he turned his heads to the clock hanging above his chimney. The clock was of course not an common one – showing himself in the center with a bright smile, his lion paw representing the hours, his griffon claw the minutes arrow. 

"Looks almost as good as my lamp" he said to him self "... but now its time to pick up my wife!" he clapped his hands together in excitement and snapping him self to Twilight's home right away.




"Discord is here" he said with wide open arms, presenting him self to the crowd, waiting with closed eyes for comments, but they just didn't come. Not a single one.




As he blinked around himself with one eye, still holding his pose he noticed there was nopony in the room, so he let fall his arms with a sigh "once again a great entry wasted" he grumbled to himself, starting to walk around – but stopping just a few meters later dead in his tracks.




Something here was odd. Not just odd – wrong. Horrible wrong. More than that!

He turned back and forth and observed each centimeter of the room.

It was just like he has seen it the last time... before it was destroyed and replaced by the castle.




"Whats this all about!?" he asked out loud, starting to search the place for the others.

Zapping him self to the first floor he found only a closed door, which he started to push open slowly to take a look inside "helloooo?" - his eyes wandering trough the room, but still no one was in sigh.




There was just an room. Nopony was around anywhere. "Are you kidding me!?" he asked himself, waving his arms into the air "If that's some kind of joke, it ain't funny!" making sure he was heard in the howl house.

Now he was about to lose his temper, somepony tried to play him for a fool – nobody tempered with the Spirit of Chaos! When he would get his fingers on the joker who pulled this one of – ...oh he had so many ideas he had hold back for such a special occasion and trying out every singe one of them – might even twice!

Oh he would ... - but than his eyes started to catch on to something which his mind had not noticed before.




This wasn't a setup, this place was actually left. In fact, it looked like nopony was here for months. There was no bed to be found, the bookshelf's were empty and the dust – he took a finger and let it slide above a cupboard - was thick. He had to get a better angle on this howl thing, so he got him self outside the library, right above on a cloud of cotton candy, providing a sigh on everything and it turned out it was true – this was the library without a doubt.

Scratching his head he thought about it "...did i do this and forget about it?" 

No... he was quite sure he didn't do it, he would remember – also he had more class than that, if he had done it, the castle probably would something like giant strawberry... and a flying one at that.




Discord used his magic often at random – doing things which seemed to most pony's impossible and nonsensical. This was the main reason nobody had ever questioned the way of his magic in detail. They toughed they had figured it out: it was like their magic, just a lot stronger...

This was not quite right of course. 

To be fair, he had himself just little knowledge where he got all this power from in the first place – of course he had a vague idea- a feeling which was crawling up his spine when ever he used it... and to be honest, he felt better not to question it – and why should he? What he knew was assuring enough he could not ever lose them under almost all circumstances. Channeling this power was easier to him, than breathing or having a heartbeat – in fact he could stop both at will using them, without having any drawbacks to worry about. 

Still there was one thing he had figured out on the very start, when it was about to channel his powers to his will: Creating objects just took a little of imagination to do so, but when it wa about living creatures and more important personality's... this was when it became complicated. 

Making appear something like, lets say a bird – was still simple in itself, but it was more or less just a decoy without a will on its own and how could be other wise? It had no history, no experience to call his own and that for no desires which gone further than Discords.

Same thing was true for pony's. He could create a copy – and control it like a puppet master, but it would not be the same. So if he had to get a real pony he would reach out with his mind, expanding it along his powers all over the land till he could sense his presents – and grab it with his very though, to put it simple. It was similar to Twilight's teleportation spell, but combined with a kind of six sense... and there was the problem right now.

He could not sense his friends - neither his wife anywhere. 

They used to be like bright flames in a ocean of candles in the back of his head – making out their presents was not to hard even before he knew them, since they was bound to the elements, which gave them a strong magic presents. This flames was gone and how could he tell them apart from all the other small lights? Not just that – their lights also seemed to have changed, what could had happened and even more important - why? 




At this point he was more than worried. Where was Fluttershy and the others? Oh forget about the others! Where was my lovely Fluttershy!?  

He sure had not a clue what to do next, so he sat on his cloud for a while trying to get a straight thought. "They was supposed to be here!" he grumbled "I bet this darn Twilight blew again one of her spells" starting once again his temper "i told this pony more than once she should quit this pesky bookmagic of hers! She just cant handle it!" the cotton candy cloud started all of a sudden to burst out in lightning and rain – chocolate one of course.




"Somepony will tell me whats going on!" he shouted to the sky – making most pony's in town aware to his appearance - as well his bad mood.

Most of them just starred at him, some scared - some confused, others just ran off home or into the next store - and a hand full brave ones dared to ignore him.

befor they could blink, he was right between them- levitating three of the ground, pointing his finger warning in front of their faces "You tell me right now, what happened to the Castle and where is Fluttershy!?"

The pony's whimpered and shivered in fear, more of the surrounding ones started to ran off when they saw what was going on.

His lionpaw reached out to the first stallion and grabbed it by his mouth "tell me", he said patiently.

"W-w-hhat?" the stallion replied paralyzed by the combination of fear and Discord powerful magic.

Discord snapped and the stallion flew right off – landing uncomfortable a few hundred meters away in a treetop.

Now it was time for the second candidate "Where is Fluttershy?" Discord said once again patiently with a snarl.

"Uhm uh i ... wh-o?" he said - just a moment before he also flew off into the tree, landing even harder than the first one.

"I was very patient..." said the kidnapper to the third one in the row, a mare that shivered all over her body "last try" he pointed on the Library "where ... is the castle and why is there an old library?" taking a deep breath, slowly raising his griffon paw. 

"C-ca-stle?" she stuttered. 

The draconequus face turned into a upset frown "well than..."

"W-ait!" she barely got out in time "i ...i don't know about any castle... but that l-library was always th..there".

His claw lowered himself slowly "go on..." his face drifting into curiosity.

"It i ... it was closed months ago... Mayor Mare bb-build a new one..." 

"Months you say?" he though about this for a minute "Where does Twilight Sparkle life?"

The mare hesitated to answer "i....." preparing for the worst "i don't know who that is" closing her eyes and covering her fave with hooves, but instead of flying off and crashing into something, she got sat down slowly on the ground – she would not dare to look up on him till he said "you are useless, leave" so she dared to glance up from under her hooves.

He just stood there, giving his head a massage like he was stressed out.

The mare wanted to run off, but her body didn't obey, she never had been so frightened in her life – until he shouted at her "I said LEAVE!" with an earth shattering effect.

She jumped back on her hooves and ran off as fast they could carry her, heading back home ...leaving behind an angry god.




Discord knew what place to check next - and he found him self into an empty room the second time this day. Still, it was different from before- this place didn't look like it was left alone, everything was clean and tidy. 

The chairs had been put up on the tables and everything had been cleaned carefully. There was no food in the display – neither anypony there who would be able to sell it.

Discord wandered around, taking a peek into the other rooms, the kitchen, the storage – only to find them in the same state: clean, but empty. 

How could it? They just had celebrated here a few hours ago. To his left had been tables with food, a few steps away had to be the darn twister game he had lost against Pinkie Pie and right over there, this had been the place where everypony was busy chatting.

Everything here seemed quite unfamiliar now, like it just didn't had happened, he sure didn't had imagined it. 




He snapped him self outside to the front door, finding a sign hanging on it "Closed", right next to it was a small note "Dear costumer, right now we are in holidays till tuesday, i hope you visit us then again – signed: Mr. And Mrs. Cake"




Sugarcube Corner was off the list. This was about to get more and more annoying by the minute.

What would be the next possible place? He had to rule out the city first, then he would expand it... if he had to: he would turn upside down all of Equestria. 

Town by town, every single square meter and make everypony talk, if they wanted to or not. He would find out there was no doubt, it was just a matter of time and since he was immortal, he had plenty of that!




Discord picked a place right above the town middle, high enough so he could see the majority of it. He sat on the soft pink cloud of his, letting his eyes wander across the town. 

The castle was gone and nopony knew about it – they truly believed it has always been like this, but how could it? The castle wasn't build yesterday! 

Also, why was Sugarcube Corner closed? Pinkie usual jumped in for the holidays, when Mr. And Mrs. Cake used to be out of town. She never would let pass a chance to cheer up somepony else. This was not just a flew by chance. Everything and everypony was wrong and this feeling grabbed his guts and didn't let go.




Then his eye saw the next place he would investigate, but he had a bad feeling about it already.

Discord had pulled out a telescope out of the thin air and took a closer look; what he saw didn't get his hopes up by any means, but he had to get a look inside. He had to get sure  and left no stone unturned, so he got himself right into Rarity´s Boutique.




The room he found him self in was almost completely dark, the windows had been shut close with wooden planks, almost like this building was part of a ghost town.

Since the warming sunbeams could barely find a way in the room also was surprisingly cold, almost chilly, adding even more to the impression this place was haunted.




He passed the small foyer and came to the main selling room, it was a lot bigger and several dresses was presented on mannequins. They just stood there lined up, waiting for a customer to walk up and decide which ones dress to chose, making somepony happy.

Right now they looked somehow creepy, partial hidden in the shadows... seeming to move in and out of them, when somepony walked past... waiting to get the attention they need, to be famous once more - just for this very moment they had been picked.




Discord didn't try to expect anything from this place, so why he felt so disappointed right now?

Could it been all his friends had been gone forever? He would never see the lovely face of his wife again? What would he do? Where should he go? 

It was like a door in his mind had got kicked in, a door he was sure he had closed forever. It reminded him on the cold feeling and loneliness when he was turned to stone. He had listen to Celestia and so many others past the years, unable to be a part of the world around him, while time passed by. 




Suddenly, he was shook out this dark thought's of his. There as a sound coming from upstairs, he almost didn't had noticed. It wasn't more than a whispering, hidden by his own footsteps before. 

He hold on to his breath, trying to calm his heart, but still wasn't quite sure it was not just his imagination- playing a joke on his mind, but then there was the sound again. 

It was not just a whispering, it almost sounds like somepony was sobbing.

A shiver ran down his spine, but what was he afraid of...?

This time he didn't just teleport himself up, he hadn't even though about it. The draconequus slowly sneaked trough the house like a predator, still listening to the sound coming from above.

As he was on the bottom of the stairs and about to put his hoof on the first step- he did hold in. Risking to scare of what ever was up there, was the last thing he wanted to do, so he used his magic to fly above the steps in a fast swift motion, without making a sound besides a draught, landing softly in front of the door. 

Curiously his ear came close to the wooden barricade, listening in to the sound coming from behind.

Now he was sure, the sound was not just in his mind. How could it? It was so unbelievable sad to listen to. It was a slow convulsive sobbing, only stopping for a moment to whisper something he still couldn't understand.

His lionpaw slowly pushed open the door, his eye searching the room for the source of the noise, but like downstairs the room was dark and cold, so he could not see a thing in there, so he decided to get in.

As he was in the middle of the room he tried to listen in again, but the noise was now so quite he could not make out from which side it came, making him doubt he was in the right place. 

He turned 360 degree all around, but there was just some unfinished dresses... an demolished bed and some more harlequins, partial laying on the ground besides stitching tools and broken glass. 

Obviously somepony had cracked the big mirror and torn of the curtains. The more he looked around, the more it became obvious, that somepony had destroyed the howl first floor piece by piece.




The thin voice found his way to him "..w-why don't you leave me alohoo-one?".

Discord looked above his shoulder still not quite sure where the voice came from.

His eyes still tried to adjust to the darkness, he had narrowed it down to one corner of the room, starring on a silhouette which could been as well just another harlequin, except this one was shivering and obviously crying.

He just stood there and listen to her. He didn't enjoy it, but he wasn't sure what to say, so he stuck to a simply "Hello?".

"Le-heavee me alone" the corner pony blubbered out "i-i cant take it an-nymho -hoore", then the pony cried even louder, not able to hold her feelings.

A small shiver of light started growing in the room. Discord had used his fingertip like a match to enlighten a few candles near by he had summoned.

What the light gave away wasn't quite what he had expected... in fact, it was a lot worse. He had seen Rarity teared up once, but she had been overly dramatic back than, fetching her self in a minute, just to be confident as always.

This time it was different, you just had to see her to know she was a wreck. Her fur was rumpled from bottom to top like she had gotten her self into a fight - thinking of the appearance of the room, she probably had, but it didn't stopped there: also her mane, which was used to be styled perfect in long lures most pony's been envy about, now hung flat from her top with split ends, like it wasn't made in days or weeks.

The unicorns hooves looked also rough and she had some minor injurys all over her body, some of them seemed to came from glass cuts of some sort. 

Last thing to notice was her face. Even he had to admit for a pony she usual looked quite good, showing pride and class in any situation, but right now it was quite the opposite, as she wore only some remains of make up. Black eyeliner was running down her eyes, above her cheeks, dripping down on the floor, mingling with her tears into a small puddle below her.

What miserable pile of a pony he had in front of him, that wasn't the Rarity he knew.




"What happened to you!?" he asked in disbelieve "you look horrible!".

Her sad blue eyes slowly got up and met his, but it seemed she could barely get a focus on him, leaving her head hanging again after a few attempts. This was some odd behavior for her standards, he would had expect some stinging response. Rarity never was short on words like this, but there was none, not even a small "pah" of indignation. 

A small chair appear underneath him and he sat down, trying it once again in a more caring voice "Why don't you tell me what happened?".

The unicorn still did nothing else but shivering all over her body. 

"You can tell me" he said calm "i'm your...... friend"- this last word almost getting stuck in his throat.

She sobbed one more time, her voice was thing and hoarse "i, i lost m ey..." starting to tear up again. 

His lionpaw found carefully his way onto her back "there there... maybe we should uhmm" he tried to think of something she might liked, getting up and making a few steps trough the room "make you some... chocolate milk?" he suggested – summoning a pretty table with two cups on it.

Once again, not even reviving a comment.

Discord grumbled annoyed: why it had to be her- he barely knew anything about her!

If it had been somepony else he knew what to do... maybe he could use his mind control on her, so she would be a little more forthcoming? 

Giving her a short glance he decided not to do so. Not just he had promised to never do this kinda thing again, but also she was more than emotional unstable... this could cause all kind of side-effects, might even lasting ones - which he could not risk.

"Come on, you are a genius" he said to himself "think of something classy".

The drinks on the table kept changing size, form and taste. 

Chocolate milk, carrot juice, apple-tini... "no, no, no" ...hot tar... "mh, didn't had that in a while, but ...no" trying out a dozen more till he found it: tea "that should do!" being pride like he had thought of that marvelous idea on the first attempt.

"Soooo... care to join?" he asked once more, making a inviting gesture on the hot tea, which was ready to be enjoyed.

The unicorn gave the gesture a tired glance and took a deep breath, unable to resist this old habit, she was willing to join him for a glass.

Rarity had problems to get up on her hooves, her exhausted body barely able to hold her weight and as she tried to make her first step – she collapsed onto the ground and passed out.
> A Kind Gift
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A kind gift

Discord pushed the table aside and got right to her, checking her pulse with a stethoscope. Her pulse was weak, but still there – making his own heart skip a beat in relive.

She had to get some rest – who knew how long she had been up?

Using his powers, he fixed the wreckage which used to be her bed and put it on it carefully.

Now when she was laying right in front of him, he thought she kinda looked skinnier than usual.

"Shesh, this sure would take a while" Discord though to himself, but he could not leave her alone in this state. 

Hours passed by and Rarity still was laying in her queen sized bed- at first she even had panted in  her sleep, but after a while she got quite – at some point she even had a slight smile on her face, probably having a good dream. The draconequus sat besides her on his chair and had dozed off, snoring. 


The afternoon set in when Rarity slowly woke up. Her body felt so weak and her vision was blurry - still the slumber has given back some of her strength. 

It dawned to her she was sitting in her bed, which was odd - she had smashed it to pieces days ago, but it was good as new and she felt the soft satin below her to proof her wrong.

There was something else new in this room, a pleasant scent of tea was hanging in the air, she enjoyed the note, taking a deep breath in order to figure out the flavor, it must been mare-gray.

A cup or two would be nice right now as she felt quite thirsty, but was unable to make out the source of the sweet cent as the snoring caught her ears.

She looked to the side of her bed, there was some kind of chair and somepony sitting in it, but it kinda looked strange. Must been her eyes playing tricks on her, rubbing them with her hooves to get her vision on focus again. 

As her sight came back, blinking a few more times, it still took a bunch more seconds to understand what she was seeing: something was sitting there - a wild mess out of animal parts added into one creature, like a patch of unfinished stitch-work. It looked so absolute wrong, she rubbed her eyes again, feeling her heartbeat to raise up from a crawl - right into a rush. 

Rarity's first reaction was to get distance, but instead of jumping out of the bed and running for the door, the unicorn landed dowdy on the floor - waking it up.

"Wooooah..." the draconequus yawned, noticing right away Rarity was gone "Oh come on! Not again!" he shouted, jumping up from his chair, turning his head all over.

The pony was even more scared now, what ever it was – it sure was angry, might it wanted to eat her alive!? She had so many problems already, why it keep getting worse only for her? Under the bed was enough space, usual taken by boxes of horseshoes – she could hide below it, might he would give up? 

As she started crawling slowly below it, two big yellow marbles landed on the other side on the ground, but those marbles looked at her! Making her shriek as loud her body could effort.

"There you are!" the monster cheered, as a lion paw snatched the eyes of the ground, trading places with the monsters face starring at her.

"Help, Heeelp!" she panicked, as she was pulled out from under the bed and levitated from the ground. 

Discord had to girn "Stop it" snapping his fingers to make her mouth shot with a big patch, which she couldn't remove no matter how hard she tried.

Some kind of magic sat her down on the bed again "There... now don't move!" he said, waving his claw finger, like a parent would on his child "Whats gotten into you? Its me Discord!" showing off himself. 

Rarity didn't dare to move, she had not a clue what was going on "whmmo?" she mumbled.

Rolling his eyes he snapped away the patch, just to receive another shriek – making her mouth shut once more "Cut it out already! Whats the matter with you?" he sighed. 

It occurred to her he might didn't want to eat her after all... still, he sure looked frightening.

"One more try ... and if you shriek again, i will turn you into a fancy lamp" he said overly nice, holding up a miniature of himself – presenting a shining light-bulb in it´s paw.

The patch vanished once more into thin air, but this time the unicorn didn't dare to move. 

"Finally ... and now would you tell me whats going on?" laying his hands together tip on tip – waiting for an all explaining answer.

"Wha... wh-o... are you?" she asked, pointing her hoof in his general direction.

This gave him a feeling crawling up his spine: by the time he had figured out whats going on, he would be insane - making him crack a smile, even if he didn't want to.

"My dear, we are friends" he started "so please tell me what happened to you and everypony else" once again with a overly nice tone to it, waiting for a response.

A deep grumble came from her stomach, making her blush little "Oh, pardon" she said a little embarrassed.

"Well, it might was better to get her something and ask afterwards, just to make sure she would not collapse again" he thought to him self, making a breakfast tablet appeared on her lap with a flash – on top of it some tea, a soup and even a slice of apple pie. Everything just looked and smelled terrific she had to admit.

"Why don't you have some? I'm a fantastic cook" he bragged.

She gave the food another glance, not sure about what to do, which he noticed.

"Its not poisoned..." giving her a observing look "...and you don't quite look like you would last long anyway" he pointed out.

He was right, having something in front of her she now just realized how hungry she really was, so she gave the soup the first try, still carefully... zipping on the spoon.

"Did it taste like poison?" she thought to herself. "Well, how did poison taste anyway?" It tasted more like a sweet chestnuts creme, soft on the tongue and full of taste: if that was what poison did taste like, she should had tried it sooner!

After this she found it difficult to hold her self back – holding to her manners and not gulp down the howl bowl ...same for the cake and tea. It was heaven. Heaven on a plate.

Discord was even kind enough to give her one more round, which she also ate in a haste.

"This, was magnificent!" she said full of glee, giving him a kind smile "...thank you".

He waved it off a little embarrassed. Till to this moment he never had cooked to anypony else than Fluttershy, which might had hold back her critic in order to spare his feelings, but now he knew for sure. Rarity was way to picky to be this sensitive - especially when its about him.

With a snap of his fingers the meal was gone. 

The unicorn felt a little guilty, not just she had judged him on his guise, she didn't even had introduced another formerly "My name is Rarity, pleased to meet you" holding out a hoof.

"I know! ... and where are the others?" skipping his introduction.

She lifted an eyebrow "Excuse me, i don't quite understand, what you mean by others?" 

"I mean your friends, where is Fluttershy? Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack... " still getting an odd glance "... Rainbow Dash? Your friiiiends...." making it sound a little more cynical he wanted to.

It was more than obvious he had mistaken her for somepony else, but she knew at least one of them. 

"Well, um..." spinning her hoof a bit in his direction.
"Discord" he gave the hint.

"Right. Discord. I´m sorry darling, but i do know only one of them. In my kind of business there ain't much time to make friends" she frowned. 

Well one was better than nothing he figured, he might could solve this mess after all.

"Then spit it out already" he grumbled - once again getting impatient.

"Oh my, no reason to get grouchy..." she said "... anyway, the pony i was talking about is Applejack. She owns "Big Apple Acres... well, i mean she don't lives her anymore" the white mare tapped her self on the cheek "...but i guess somepony there knows where she went" making her sigh deep "she sure has become the pony everypony knows" envy was filling her voice.




The draconequus frowned a little "Well, not quite the pony i had hoped for, but i guess she will do".

This made Rarity raising again her eyebrow "You ain't going to hurt her, do you?".

"What you thinking? Do i look like a monster!?" 

Before she even could take a breath he zipped her mouth shut. 

"I will visit her later" than pointing his lion thumb on the mess what was once called a room "... but you mind to explain this first?".

The white unicorn was ashamed to admit "i... wanted get rid of it" avoiding eye contact.

"Isn't that fancy stuff kinda your thing?" Discord pointed out.

"Yes, it was" she paused "but not anymore... i gave up on it ... "

"Moment" he interrupted her, sat down on his comfortable chair and got him self some popcorn in a flash, giving her a wave with his paw "-...please, continue".

"Well, umm... " laying her head back, browsing her memory's "i used to be somepony special...", she said, stroking her ruined mane "most pony's used to be jealous on me, but i also had a lot of fans – as it comes with fame, you know... and for my boutique, it was famous all over Equestria" reaching her hooves up like she could touch the sky "i had the most exclusive customers from all over Equestria and everpony loved my designs!" thinking of all the magazines who had wrote articles about her.

"Of course, as the requests got more and more, i had to work harder to make it in time" The unicorn bit her lip "but it still wasn't enough, those pony's acted at times like some fashion sucking vampires. The more i gave the more they demanded... i just could not hold up the paste anymore, so i had to work night shifts...". 

"Why didn't you hire somepony?" he asked between bites.

"I was about to get there..." clearing her throat "...as i said, i had more requests than my hooves could handle, problem being i could not hire any ordinary pony to help me! I mean i had plenty offers, but most of them just didn't had the raw talent i was looking for" as passion sparked up for a moment in her voice" - also a fashionista like me" putting her hoof on her chest" could not trust anypony coming along... i got my secrets to keep and some competitors already had tried to steal my fabulous designs!" 

As he noticed she had got lost in her toughs again he snipped a single popcorn at her. 

"Um where was i?" taking a moment "Ah, right... as i said. I could not just trust any come along pony..." this said she gave her best shot to get up of bed and it worked this time, she had gathered enough strength to stand on her own. Not quite as confident as she used to, but it sure was a good start - making the way over to a broken shelf, searching the ground... poking her hoof between the broken planks and fabrics moving them aside till there was a soft sound of breaking glass to be heard.

"...i just had to push trough... somehow. I could not give up ony my dream that easy!"

Willing to hold her balance she grabbed between the glass pieces, picking up a small frame. 

It had scratches around the golden edges and some dust on it, but non the less it was obvious it must had been quite expensive.

The heart formed frame showed an old picture of Rarity and her little sister – Sweetie Belle, both smiling in the camera, showing of how much fun they must had on this day. Right below the picture was a small gravure "For my best big sister ever, Sweetie Belle". 

This time she tried to hold back her feelings.

"My dear sister was so generous and tried to help me out" cracking a small smile "it was worth a try i figured, ...what choice do i had?" but sighed.

"It... didn't work out, she wasn't any good at anything. I tried to teach her stitching and fabric cuts, but she ruined them, costing me customer after customer" holding in for a moment "i was so angry with her, she just not didn't do what i ask her for!" she pushed down this mislead anger, once again tears starting to run down her face "the one pony who tried to help me honestly... and i told her she was useless, ...i could not need her being around... want her getting in my way". 

Discord didn't knew what to say. This was not quite his profession, so he just said nothing, but stopped chewing... the popcorn somehow didn't quite taste as good anymore.

"W-we had a big fight over it" she said, stroking the frame softly "wasn't our first... " she admitted. 

"She left" letting hang down her shoulders as well as her head "as she left the boutique and got back to Manehatten". 

She put down the picture on the edge of the bed and walked to one of the windows, taking a look outside trough one of the gaps between the planks.

"At first i thought she would come back... so i didn't bother - i had still a lot of work to do, but..... now i know..... she wont".

"So? You could not need her anyway" bending his fingers in quotes.

"I was wrong!" she shouted, giving one of the remaining harlequins a surprisingly horse kick – smashing it against a wall to pieces. 

"I tried going on! Doing my work! But i could not do it! My designs, they all was flawed! Flawed!" she sat down and hold up her hooves "The more i tried to put it right, the worse it got! Even the customers started yelling at me- they said my designs would be ugly and uninspired, that i was an amateur ... that...my career was over..." as she started sobbing again "they all turned their back on me..., as soon as i could not deliver anymore" tearing up once more.


Silence was hanging in the room as Discord made a fundamental suggestion "Uh, apologize?".

"I cant. I mean... i have not spoken to her in months" she sulked "i don't think she would forgive me anyway. I treated her horrible" wiping away hear tears.

Discord scratched his head "Well i'm not an expert on this territory, but my wife said: its never to late to do something kind".

She rose an eyebrow "You got a wife?"

He slid in front of her, knocking on her head a few times "Did you even listen!?"

"Ouch" she said, waving his hooves to stop him "don't you think i tried already!?" about to get grumpy "she wont answer to me".

"Than just try again!"

"You don't have to tell me anything! Besides... you got any idea what a ticket to Manehatten costs!?" 

"So whats your point? Buy one!" 

The unicorn mumbled something he could not understand. 

"Come again?" as leaned forward a bit.

It was really embarrassing to her "I´m... broke" trying to avoid his glance "i haven't sold anything in a while...".

She sure had no idea who was right in front of her, or she would had not said a thing.

"Hello, my name is Discord, Spirit of Chaos – all mighty being, pleased to meet you" repeating his introduction, but also packing it full of sarcasm.

"Almighty? Pah... i admit that little trick of yours was nice, but don't think i'm that naive – i know whats a fraud looks like" pointing hooves "and you.. well..." then she didn't quite know what to say. She never really seen anything like him before, so she just let it go.

"Fraud? Fraud!?" that he took personal! He was called a lot of things over the years, but a fraud? That was a new one! - so he snapped his fingers, making one of the harlequins jump up immediately and rode around in the room like a wild stallion, causing even more chaos as it smashed the last unbroken remains, as well some of the window planks flooding the room with some more light.

Rarity freaked out "Ah! Make it stop!" yelling for her life as the fake stallion run at her and performed a jump barely over her head.

The draconequus just snapped one more time - making a pair of sugar cubes appear in his paw which he hold up "come here boy" luring the puppet. The harlequin stopped in his tracks and turned around, looking at him without eyes and seemed to notice what he hold up. It didn't bother to destroy the place anymore and trot to this offered treat, starting to eat out of his masters paw.

Her eyes could not else to stare in disbelieve on this scenario. 

This was one of the puppets she had worked on countless hours. She felt somehow attached to them, since they always been around, never failing to be patient and make them self useful. 

Holding unfinished dressed or presenting the most exquisite fashion without asking anything in return – which was natural to them, since they are just made out of ordinary, painted wood.

Somehow she could not else than to feel bad for the one she had destroyed before... wondering what they might say about her, if they could.




As he was done feeding the puppet, he did pet it a bit which made it neigh in joy "at least somepony in this room got some manners" giving her a disgraceful glance.

"Would you please make it stop?".

Discord gave in - the puppet trotted back into the corner of the room, got in its former pose by raising one of his front hooves and froze in motion.

Rarity could not help to get over to the harlequin - poking it a few times carefully, making sure it was just a puppet. This sure had not been an ordinary trick.

"I would love to stay... but i got a tight schedule"

She swung around, making a few fast steps in his direction "Wait! Please!" she tried to stop him.

"What?" he nagged, holding a pocket-watch in his claw, despite having no pockets to put it in.

"I´m sorry" she said – and she meant it honest.

"Don't tell me" he said, swallowing the pocket-clock and chain in a single bite, to vanish in a flash of light.




"You cant leave me like this...!" she yelled trotting up and down in the room "Come back!" she repeated a few more times, but he didn't.

At first she just sat there thinking about it for a while. He might been some kind of monster and rude, but he really did care for her, like a true friend would ...at least to the point when she scared him away.

"Great job Rarity, you done it again!" she scolded her self "you just could not hold your mouth shut, couldn't you!" she got up and wandered around in the room, still nagging to herself, till she came by the bed – as her head slammed against the bed post, but it wasn't an accident, she did it again and again and again in order to punish her self. The pony's head started to hurt really bad, but she continued until she didn't see any point in going on and sat down.

Still leaning her forehead against the partial broken post, starring at nothing in particular "this might been the last straw" was going trough her mind, as her sight caught up something shimmering in a sunbeam next to her, making it shift a bit to the side. It was the golden frame, laying where she had put it before.

It caught her attention, making her head turn a little, just starring at it for a while.

There wasn't a single scratch on it  anymore, also the howl appearance had changed. It had become smaller and featured a cap now, protecting the image inside, as well a necklace attached to it - making it able to carry it around.

She got up and took a few steps to get a closer look, touching it carefully with her hoof like it could break again apart.

The unicorn took it up between her hooves. 

When she opened the cap, she found the picture of her sister remained untouched – giving her a smile like she had done so often in the past, despite rarely getting one in return. This was something she always wanted to keep close to her, so she hung the chain around her neck to find some sort of card below, which she had not noticed before.

It must had been hidden below the amulet, making her even more confused.




"Whats that?" holding up the card in order to read it.

~ Ponyville Express ~ 

#Class: First

#Passengers: 1

#Kind of ride: One way

#Service: All inclusive 

#Issued to: _Mrs._Rarity_

Ponyville Express? It occurred to her all of a sudden. She knew what to do! 

She hold on tight to the ticket and ran off as fast her hooves could carry, hurrying downstairs – not even bother to open the door wither her magic, instead smashing right trough it like a battering ram – throwing it out of her door hinges. 

Nothing was able to stop her. The fire of passion was burning hot inside – even hotter than a creative rush, giving her strength to finish the task ahead.

The peasants of Ponyville jumped aside when she stomped by, the expression on her face made clear she would run right through anypony, who dared to get in her way, as she run along main road she could not help to notice the time on a big clock, hanging outside of a store. 

It was alarming late – since Ponyville was just a minor town, the express train just came once a week and the regular train was to crowded on a daily basis to find a place, unless you had an special work pass to get in one of the additional compartments.

She had to make this one, who knows if she could take another week with the guilt, not to speak if Discord had came by, who knows what would had happened to her.

Rarity came way to fast around the corner, sliding on her hooves a few meters in the wrong direction- crashing into a market cart which happened to stand there, but at least the salespony wasn't around...

It took a moment for her to recover from this, her flank was hurt, but not bad enough to make her give up. She clenched her teeth and got up, trying to find her pace again.

sweat run down all over her body and she had put up a fight in order to keep running, she never was good at running – it wasn't quite ladylike to get into physical competitions, which now started to backfire on her.

She tried to ignore it, but with every step the burning in her muscles got worse to the point she forgot about her flank, since her howl body was now in the same amount of pain – having a hard time to keep her breath, gasping for air. 

"Just a little bit longer" trying to hold on to this tough. She might not been a sportspony, but she also never was a push over.

Than the rail station came in sigh - making her give a final sprint across the street towards the entrance. 

It was not unusual to see a pony running for a train... this happened on daily basis, but seeing a mare, with smudged make up – running and gasping like she had fought for her life, that was new!

Some pony's in the crowed even had recognized her despite the condition and appearance she was in and started mumbling as she got closer.

"She looks awful" "What had happened to her?" "Oh my, somepony help her!" was some of the shouts she caught up, many more to follow.

There was no time to bother, as she still gave everything she got to get onto the train in time, hearing him already pulling into the station, barely minutes left she assumed.

An instant later she noticed a filly had stepped accidentally in her path, it was white with a pink mane "Sweetie Belle!?" she gasped, trying to break down the rush – as her legs collapsed below the pony, making it crashing once again onto the ground – head over heels, sliding over the ground to stop right in front of the young one, which just had noticed in shock what had happened.

The world went dark for a moment, as she managed to open her eyes again, looking up to the filly.

The filly's mother had rushed towards her in order to pull the foal away "Summer, don't touch her!" the mare said, taking her daughter with her.

Her body declined to work. Still, she could not help to feel relieved, it might not been her sister, but she had not run over the poor filly. There was nothing more she could do. She had giving it her best shot. Once more the world around her went black as pony's gathered around her.
> Big Boss
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

BigBoss

After his first attack, Mayor Mare had taken actions immediate – gathering the rare information's available. The attacked stallions stood in a state of shock, as well as the few eye witnesses which had turned up yet. Maybe there was more, but those probably stood at home hiding. 

Still, what she knew made little sense – the described creature was impossible and the pony's got into a fight with one another about how the creature looked in detail, so she could not rely on it to much. Worried about the possibility of another attack, she informed the only authority she could think of – but writing only what she knew for sure, which sadly wasn't to much.

Discord had appeared unnoticed on the roof of the main building, in the middle of Big Apple Acres. 

The sun was about to set and pony's below him pulled in the daily harvest, in the middle of it was BigMacintosh, giving orders. "Carn over there, you buckers to the barracks" in his usual calm and deep voice. He almost didn't had recognized him, he lacked his horse collar, instead he had some kind of black formal west – sitting on him like a second skin, stretching over his bulky body.

"It seems the family got bigger" Discord said to him self, noticing a lot new faces.

As much as he knew, the Apple-Family used to work alone, making the harvest process tedious – but it was their way of living. 

The farm provided apples for the entire region, partial delivering it all over Equestria with help of an old friend of GrannySmith -Filthy Rich. Filthy Rich was a gifted salespony, buying and reselling apples all over the land, having a established business with the family ever since. 

When it was time for the zapp apple harvest – he even to the first charge, in exchange for a big pile of bits. A clean win-win situation for both sides.




He thought about getting down there and just ask right away, where to find Applejack... 

Equestria was to big to find a single pony by chance, even for his kind of powers. 

The obvious solution was to ask anypony down there, but as soon as they would see him, there would be mass hysteria like it happened before. Even if the world wasn't upside down, most pony's avoided him – afraid to get on his bad side... so he had to think of something more sneaky than that.

He snapped his fingers and got back on the ground, behind a bush line, taking a look on his self.

"Hooves, i cant image how they can stand them" he shuttered – since he had become an earth pony.

His fur was a brown gray mish mash, his tail turned out red and his mane was gray, only his eyes didn't had changed. 

About to walk up to BigMac he came by a puddle of water, taking a look to admire himself as he – "You are some good looking boy" he thought to himself.

"Darn, i have to hurry..." as he noticed in the corner of his eye BigMac was about to walk of, so he didn't bother and moved along to catch up with him. 

As he was about to ask the stallion his question, BigMac got into the family home and shut the door behind him. 

"Oh come one" he cursed,  knocking at the door a little to hard – hooves just could not replace his elegant lion paw. The door opened again and the red stallion took a look on him "What?"

"My good old friend BigMac, good to see you, i gotta little tinzy bitsy question for ya..." but before he could break it the question BigMac interrupted him "Its Sir MacIntosh for you and we ain't friends" the muscular stallion looked around and started shouting in Sweetie Belles direction, which was just done to give a few new workers instructions "Oy, Belle, get this rookie out of my face". 

The stallion turned around and slammed the door shut.

"Who he thinks i am!? Just you wait till...!", he said to him self ready, backing off the door a few meters to knock it in, as a hoof tapped on his side "what?" he turned, to find a yellow filly on his side. 

"Don't mind ma brotha, he didn't mean to" she said to him, giving a little smile.

It was the younger sister of Applejack – Apple Bloom looking at his unusual appearance "are you really a new worker?".

This was almost to easy, so he put on his best – lying to your face – smile and simply said "yes".

"Than you better should go to de barracks, you don't want to see my brotha mad" the filly said a lot nicer than her brother had.

"I'm in fact really new. Really really new." he said "Could you show me around?"

"Well i really should get in" a little unsure about it. He didn't looked dangerous, just a little awkward.

"Will just take a minute" giving her one more of his smiles.

Well, a few minutes would not be to much time, also she didn't really want go inside already... her brother seemed to be in a bad mood anyway, so she agreed.




The tour revealed quite a bit new information's to him.

First of all- none of the pony's he had seen so far was part of the family, they all had been outsourced workers, which came and left depending on the outstanding orders. 

Hundreds of pony's came and left the farm each week, trying to earn a few extra bits – which also helped out the town, since there was new customers for all kind of things, stallions which got hotel rooms for longer stays or even settled down. Economy was flourishing in Ponyville.

The farm also had expanded. Sleeping barracks had been build, to provide more sleeping space.

They wasn't anything special, just ordinary sleeping rooms, providing cover from rain and cold to the hard working stallions. Those often would be used from stallions which would just stay over night – like the ones that pulled the applecarts from town to town.

As they got closer to the barracks, they walked by a big sign. "Property of  Apple Inc. (c)" was written on it in bright red letters on a green background, showing juice apples and other goods around it.

"Whats Apple Inc.?" Discord asked casually, but already started to shift his attention to something else, since this investigation started to get boring already.

"Our company of course, my sister leads it ever since" making it sound like its common knowledge, but also a little proud "one day - i will got to Manehatten and lead it my self!" 

"Manehatten you say..." finally, this was the clue, this was all he needed to know.

"Sure, you been there?"

Discord gave her a devilish smile "Not yet, ...but very soon".

This guy was odd and it started to add up really fast, giving her a howl new thought.

The filly stopped and looked at him "how it comes ya know the farm, but not about the company? Everypony does...".

A quite legit and sharp minded question for her standards he had to admit. 

"I'm just here to earn some bits, bucking some carro- i mean apples" he replied, trying to get off-topic "so, when i can start doing that stuff?" waving his fore hooves a bit.

She almost could smell the fishy feeling that stallion was giving her... that guy not just looked odd, he also acted strange "Are you some kind of company spy?" giving him a close eye.

"What a question!" he thought to him self, holding back a giggle.

Her mind might was more focused, but still young and naive, because even if he was a spy, he sure would not tell her... which, to be honest, made it kinda amusing.

"Spy? Me? don't be ridiculous!" starting to pet the filly's head with a smile - this time more careful than he done on the door, but still in a quite stiff mechanic motion "you pony's and your imagination..." but she could not stand to get treated like a baby, so she backed off a few steps, giving her a howl new sight. 

Discord now just had to get out of here, without causing any ruckus and he was on his way to – heading for Apple Inc. Headquarters - bringing him one step closer to his final goal!


Apple Bloom saw now what was going on - making her eyes go wide. 

"What the hay?" she thought to her self - holding on to her breath. 

Was he a changeling of some kind!? She had learned about them in history class, but much as she knew they would not just been a lot better actors, but also didn't look anything like this. Maybe she could get him somehow to blow his disguise in front of everypony...

She didn't want to let him walk of anywhere, especially not into the barracks: she wasn't allowed in there, so she had to hurry before he got out of her reach.

This gave her an great idea, which might would work! There was still an ace up her sleeve. Well- not her sleeve, but in the  pocket she was carrying around... something able to convict this impostor once and for all "Ey, you forgot something!" pulling out an work pass.

This pass would enable the owner to use the regular train for free and even grand some small discount on local offers – a deal her big sister had arranged with the Mayor of Ponyville, in order to make the hard work look some more attractive.

"I bet you don't have ya work pass yet, you can have this one" she said, giving a familiar smile - he had used it himself a hundred times before... last time, when he had answered her first question.

About to give him the pass, she dropped it with an innocent "oops" and didn't bother to pick it up.

Discord took a look down "wont you pick it up?"

The filly shrugged "Wont you? Its yours after all" waiting for him to make his move.


If that was some kind of trick, it was quite a bad one and he sure would not fall for it.

So he picked up the ticket, but it was still laying on the ground. 

"What the...?" he grumbled, trying it once more, but it still refused to get picked up. 

For his third attempt, he sat down, using both hooves, but this cursed ticket seemed to have some magic spell on it, which made it unable to get picked up.

Now he lost his temper and threw him self flat onto the ground, trying to pick it up with his mouth and tongue, but his tongue was a lot shorter in pony form and the ground was rough.

The filly watched his desperate attempt of his, amused by the lack of basics skills.

"Problems?" she asked polite, with a winning smile, making him freeze in motion.

This made him realize, what he was doing right now, looking up from his miserable pose onto her big grin - so he got him self quickly up from the ground, trying to get the dust of his fur and tongue. "That ticket is cursed!" he declared, trying to justify his actions.

Apple Bloom just took a short glance to the ground and was able to pick it up with ease,

creating an awkward silence between them.

"So, you know?" he asked right away.

"Ye, i do..." she nodded slowly.

"What gave me away...? The mane...? The eyes...?" he frowned "...the ticket?"

"Actually, a little bit of everything, but..." the filly pointed her hoof right onto one of the big barrack windows, which got polished on a regular basis.

He turned around, starring at the reflection shown to him, ...which looked absolute normal.

There was not much to see: a few trees, another barrack, a small yellow filly with a big red ribbon and a magnificent looking draconequus right next to...

It almost knocked it out, when he realized his beginners mistake! 

Off all the things he could had forgot, the one giving him away was the most obvious: his reflection!

Unlike everything else in Equestria, only his reflection had a life on his own, so he would had change it separate to his appearance in order to get his disguise work!




"Fooled by a filly" he said to him self in disbelieve, holding his hooves up his face – as well his paw and claw, if you counted in his reflection to this.

"You ain't an changeling, i know that much, but what are ya?" Apple Bloom asked- examine the odd creature with a half closed eye wandering between him and him - slowly backing off.

"Time to leave i guess" he said, letting go his charade.

He rose his hand and tried to snap - when he noticed there wasn't any fingers to do so, just hooves. Of course he could perform magic without snapping, but he had got used to his little show act so much, it really broke his focus if he was not able to.

His reflection had watched his miserable attempt and could not stop rolling over the floor – laughing at him to the point of tearing up, making Discord shouting at it "Veerrry funny ... and now cut it out already, we got work to do!".

The reflection still chuckled a little when it got up from the ground, trying to put on a serious face.

"You mind?" he asked, pointing his hooves in the vague direction of Manehatten.

His copy made a short motion of a nagging blabber mouth with his paw, but stopped as he received another angry glance of his master, making it give in and snap his fingers in order to zap him away.

As he had disappeared in a bright flash, the workers turned heads, but failed to find the source,

only a few had seen him disappear – rubbing their eyes in disbelieve or shaking their heads.

More and more worker came together – talking about what had just happened, calling their boss on the plan. 

"Whats all the noise about" the red stallion walked slowly into the crowd which made respectful space for him, avoiding his sigh. The workers which had been a little longer on the farm knew what this meant and walked off, still there was a dozen standing and doing nothing but talk.

"Don't you got work to do?" he asked around.

One stallion was brave enough to speak up to him. "Sir, there was a light flash and...".

BigMac cut him off "No Reason to waste time. We got twenty carts on the list and they ain't ready yet".

The now the rest of the stallions got quite and got back to their works – or barracks, depending on their shifts and duty's.

Now only Apple Bloom was left. "What about you?" he asked her.

Apple Bloom didn't even know if it would be wise to bother him right now, so she decided to let it go for the moment - it would had sound crazy anyway, so she shook her head and walked off too.

Time passed by and the two remaining members of the Apple family sat to dinner. 

Applejack was in Manehatten, leading the company and Granny Smith had retired on the other side of the town, getting looked after by a nurse. 

So it was just the two of them left, the Apple Bloom and BigMacintosh. 

Apple Bloom still had to think about the incident – it might been better to tell him now, who knew if that guy would return. Also if he would find out she had hold back information's, his temper could  tilt, so she decided to speak up "BigMac..." 

The stallion swallowed his bite and gave her a long sight, then continued to eat.

"Uhm. I know what the workers had seen earlier, i thought its ... important you might know".

He was still eating, didn't even bother to look up, which made it hard to tell if he was even listening.

She felt so nervous about it "There was a monster in disguise... the worker have seen it too". 

This got his attention as he stopped eating.

Nearby was a mare waiting with them in the room – the housemaid.

Her fur was a gray which had a slight touch of white, her mane was blond and her eyes a sparkling red. On her flank you could see her cutiemark, looking like a feather duster – on top of all this she was wearing a maid costume, which was a simple elegant black with some white edges.

The maid noticed right away and moved next to him.

"Damsel, you may leave" he said calmly, which made the gray mare perform a small curtsy, doing so by making a short step with her left hoof, bowing the head respectfully – than leaving the room without a noise.

Now he spoke to her "don't say such things when there is staff around" raising his voice slightly.

The filly put her hooves on the table "but there was a monster, his reflection was wrong and he ... used some sort of magic and ..."

BigMac rose a hoof and Apple Bloom got silent. 

"Don't say such things, its ain't good for the company, we cant risk a scandal" – making her sigh.

Since he had stopped bucking apples and left it to others, he had put all his energy in leading the farm, taking it way to serious by getting obsessed on any detail he could find.

It was like she would talk to a iron wall. No, in fact it was worse – he was way more stubborn than that. Iron can be bent, but BigMac never would give in to what she was saying.

After this they just continued their meal in utter silence, until ten minutes Damsel came back into the room.

"Sir, there are two delegated from Mayor Mare, who want to speak to you".

He could not stand to get interrupted while eating, but at least it seemed important.

After a short huff, he got up from the table, heading for the door, just to stop a moment next to the maid which was looking straight forward where he had sat before "thank you", making her blush.

Apple Bloom hated her so much. She was the only pony he was nice to. He bullied the workers and even if he didn't pick on herself, he still didn't treat her nice. What made her so special?

She didn't had time to think about it and run right passed her to catch up with her brother.




The two stallions on his front door didn't lost any time, but tried not to give to much away, since the last they needed was more panic "Good evening Mr. Macintosh, we are sorry to bother you, but had there been any ... irregular circumstances?" 

The stallion looked both of them into the eyes "Nope".

The filly poked her brother on his flank, he knew what she wanted, but he would not give in and shook almost unnoticeable his head.

The blue stallion mumbled something to his fellow and tried it one more time "Are you sure Sir?"

BigMac took a deep breath and his calm face turned into a frown "I am..." followed by a deep whistle which had put a water boiler to shame, making two big muscular stallions appear a few seconds later "Escort our guests from my property".

The four pony's trot away, leaving the two of them behind in the door frame.

He gave her a last warning glance and got him self to bed – it had been enough trouble for one day.

Apple Bloom didn't bother to go anywhere, she just sat on the porch, until Damsel walked up to her. 

The stars already had come out and the air had lost it warm touch, still a few stallions worked on the farm. She could see their lantern's in the distance, almost like a bunch big firefly's. 

"What you want?" she said sore.

"Does the young Mrs. need anything?" she asked in her usual honey sweet voice.

The filly clenched her teeth "No, i don't need anything" – oh she could not stand her.

"May i'm allowed to speak open?" the maid tried, lowering her head in humbleness.

The filly waved off. "Whatever" ... right now, she couldn't stand her brother even more than her.

"Thank you, young Mrs." she said, once again with a nod, and sat her self next to the young filly.

The minutes passed by, but still the maid had not said anything. 

She just hold her company, watching the busy firefly's doing her dance around the trees.

There wasn't anything else to do, except to get some rest for the next day and the filly sure could feel the drag on her mind as her eyelids got heavy and her anger dwindled away.

Damsel took her hoof and laid it around her, so she would not fall to the side.

"Young Mrs.?" checking if she was still up and she sure was. A little tired, but not asleep yet.

"I assume you got some hard feelings towards Mr. Macintosh... but you should know, he really cares about you young Mrs."

Apple Bloom rose her head, watching the mare talk as she observed the sky like she could count every single star there is "I know he may acts aloof at times, but that's not who he is."

"... but he is so often mad... half the time i don't even know why..."

"Young Mrs., your brother ain't mad at anypony, i assure you... but he has a big burden to carry, i fear even to big for his shoulders".

"...but he doesn't have to carry anything, the workers do!"

"I would like to show you something" the mare picked carefully an old photo out of her housemaids dress, putting it down in front of Apple Bloom, which showed her brother at work - and smiling at that.




Granny Smith often had shown her photos like this. It was sepia as all her old photos used to be.

The old mare never had let out a story to each single one. 

"Wurking all day, like he knew nuthing else" Granny had told her "plouwing fields so fast yu neva seen! And bugging like a devil... making sure de delivery was always un time!".

The old mare loved to tell those story's, spending hours bragging about her memory's– showing photo by photo, hundreds of them. When ever BigMac was on a photo, he used to wear an horse collar. 

In fact, when she was thinking about it- there was not a single one, when he had not had wore it, ...then again the BigMac she knew was always wearing his black west, making him look like a howl nother stallion.

"...but this was like forever ago." Apple Bloom clarified. 

"Yes, indeed." Damsel nodded, before taking a last glance on the fullmoon above their heads "...we should get in now young Mrs."

The both of them got up and trot indoors. Damsel´s room was on the ground floor, Apple Blooms used to be on the first floor.

The maid had performed another curtsy to her, in order to dismiss herself and was about to go to her room, when Apple Bloom broke a final question.

"Where you got that photo from?" 

Damsel turned to the filly "Somepony special".


The sun barely was up, but BigMac was already up and ate his breakfast – his last step before he would get out and give the workers the instructions for the day, being occupied it all day.

Usual he would sit there alone by him self, only one with him being Damsel, waiting patiently for him to make a request.

Occasionally they would talk about everyday things, during this morning ritual – the weather, new workers, some article in the news paper, ...nothing special, but today was utter silence hanging in the room.

BigMac just sat there, looking on his plate which he had barely took a bite from, so Damsel dared to ask "Sir, doesn't the meal please you?"

"Nope". 

"Shall i bring you something else?"

The stallion shook his head slowly as he always did.

His eyes met the watch, hanging on the wall... it was almost time to get out. Work called.

"No, thanks."

The stallion got up, causing a dull -womp- as his weight came down on the floor, heading for the door.

"Sir..."

The stallion stopped in his tracks, but didn't bother to turn around, he knew what she was about to say and closed his eyes in order to listen carefully to what yet had to come.

"... the young Mrs. went to town early, ... i was told to wait, before i tell you"

His hoof came down like a sledgehammer, breaking the floorboards with ease, letting pieces fly everywhere, but he kept his voice as monotone als always "I release you from my services".

The maid gave a curtsy as she always did "I understand, Sir."

The door got swung open "I ain't your Sir anymore" walking out to the waiting stallions, three minutes late than usual. 

Outside the main house sat about fifty stallions, all waiting for their boss to show up, talking to one another in confusion. He used to be the very punctual and asked everypony to do like him, so it was really odd when he was late, as he finally came out the stallions all cut the talk and stretched their backs straight like soldiers would on a parade.




"Foreman" he said dry, making three stallions step forward.

"You got the lead..."i go to town""

The three looked each other with a short glance, but didn't dare to speak up.

"Shall i get the chaise Sir?" an servant asked, without ever receiving an answer - as his master suddenly got him self into a run, like an avalanche would: starting off slow and inconsiderable, but soon gaining speed, pushing his massive body into a darn rapid gallop like so many years ago.

"Wow, that guy is fast" one of the foreman dropped, making the others agree astonished. 

Damsel still stood, where he lad left her. Thinking what to do...

She had spend half her life working for him and could not image how to go on... this farm, this work was her life – and if this life had told her anything, than to neverever give up.

She would refuse until the sun would fall from the sky!

The maid left hasty the building, the stallions already started to split up as told, getting busy with plans, forming groups and gathering equipment. BigMacintosh was gone, he had an head start and she could not run all the way to the town, due to a lack of endurance.

"Please, somepony bring a chaise" she said, but was not heard over the ruckus going on so she tried again "Please, i need a chaise!" 

A few stallion now took notice, also the servant from before.

"A chaise? You don't have access to a chaise, only foreman or higher got permission".

"I really need it, i have to go after Mr. Macintosh – immediately!".

The servant laughed at her "still wont raise your permission", giving his colleagues a rude wink "she should had worked a little harder on her promotion..." making them join in his laughter.

As he was about to turn his head back to the maid – all he could see was a hoof flying at his face, blowing him off his own, to land hard on his back in pain.

The laughter hat cut off, the servant was bending him self in pain, holding his face and bleeding nose "are you insane!?".

She stood above him, her ruby eyes burning "try me".

Apple Bloom was finally in town. It had took her longer than expected, ...Damsel would had told him already she figured – trying her best to reach town hall, which turned out to be problematic. A big crowed had gathered around it – as the Mayor Mare gave a speach.

"My fellow citizens... as you may already know, i have contacted Princess Celestia about the events in our beloved town." She paused here for moment, for the words to settle down.

"The Princess assured me about her support... and that she would come here, herself".

Now the crowed was full of conversations and mumbling. "The Princess comes here!?" "Celestia in our town!" "I have to brush my mane, i look awful" "Honey, we must bring the kids, they cant miss!" Mayor Mare continued her speech, but as most pony's she didn't bother to listen anymore. There was no time to waste.

The filly was not able to push trough the crowed as mares and stallions, filly's and colt walked back and forth like ants. Some of them left, but many more joined in, getting one another excited about the news. So she found her self trying angel after angel, but got only closer a few meters - as for shouting would had been useless, the crowed was to noisy for that.




"Darn, this way i never reach the mayor" so she tried to get around the other side - pushing head down between to chatting mares as she bumped into a stallion in her path "Uh, sorry", moving around him as the stallion grabbed her and pulled her backwards out of the crowd – pushing away mares and stallions alike, gaining curses and admonishing looks.

"What you think you doing?" the snorting stallion said calm.

It was BigMac! How he had got here so fast!? This didn't had went as she had figured it out.

"I- just ... i was..."

"You come with me and you are grounded for a week" he said final, picking her up like a dog would a young one, searching for the next cab there is.

Apple Bloom did her best to give him a fight, but it was no use, he was way to strong. 

It was like in one of the old tales her granny had told her... about a brave knight who successfully fought by himself an Ursa Mayor ...but BigMac proved to her it was just a fable.

"Let go! Let me go!" There was nothing she could do then yell at him - since he didn't even blink as she repeatedly hit him when ever she could, swinging in his grip.

The stallion rose a hoof to wave over an cab as another chaise pulled over.

It was one of his, which would made the thing even easier as the side door opened and a gray mare stepped out, blocking his path. Apple Bloom got sat down and hold tight with his hoof, but unlike before she didn't bother to struggle.

"You?" 

The mare gave a curtsy, respectfully greeting him, holding the pose, while her long blond hair swung in a soft breeze.

"You are not allowed to use my chaise"

"I had to come here, Sir" still bowed down, avoiding his sight.

His voice growled in anger "You are not my maid anymore."

Apple Blooms eyes got wide "he had fired her!? ... and it was her fault...!"

"Brother please! She just di-"

"Quiet! Both of you!" his breath got heavy "ain't here anypony listening to my orders anymore!?"

giving both a reproachful glance "... or don't you care about our farm?"

Damsel still refused to raise her self "We do Mr. Macintosh, ...but what about you?" as her ruby red eyes met his leaf greens "don't you care anymore for the everypony around you? There is more to the world than work! I thought i knew you better than this..." 

Their eyes met and he tried to withstand her glance, but there was something about it, which made him avoid it first, looking to the side. 

It was a wild mix out of sadness, caring and disappointment, making him feel guilty to the guts.




So this was the day he had to decide what was more important to him. Damsel and his sister, or the work he had sacrificed himself to on a daily basis, for all those years. He looked down to Apple Bloom, the filly had about the same expression like Damsel on her face, her lips trembling sadly, but maybe it was to late for him to make a change, he already gotten gone so far... to the point he barely knew who used to be, it would take a lot of effort to make the turn and he could not spend even more of his strength, not because he didn't want to, but there was none left.

To much pony's depended on him, being who he was right now.

Behind them the crowd started to get very excited, yelling and cheering towards the sky, praising the sudden arrival of her royal highness – Princess Celestia.

She was riding her royal chariot, which was pulled by four strong white pegasus stallions- flying trough the air gracefully, slowly going down and about to land near by.

The chariot sure was worthy a ruler of her carat. It was four wheeled- two of team showing her emblem: a sun with a smaller moon on the inside. It had a purple sating lounger ontop of it, which was crowned with elegant details all around. On the top of the backrest was a small flag with ornaments waving in the wind. 

Apple Bloom grabbed his leg, holding it tight "Brother, we are there for you..." 

It was one of the rare occasions he was able to see her like this, like her true self, ...just being a child, not some decal of an adult he had tried to push her into. She was way to young to get treated like this – she should be more often outside, playing with her friends, instead of working on the farm along the others, until sunset.

Damsel got close to him, pressing her chest against his, so his head was resting on her shoulder "...you can do it BigMac, you are the strongest stallion i know" as he felt the rhythm of her heart beat, knocking a little faster, than he had imaged it would. 

He finally began to understood his horrible mistake. More than that. This mistake had spread like wild fire and would consume every single bit of happiness inside a pony, forming them into working machines like him self – and what good was work, if it was done without passion or pride and pony's at ur side you care for?

"You are right... both of you". 

Since he was about a head bigger than Damsel, now he was the one to bow down, in order to give her a short kiss on the forehead which she really enjoyed.

They hold in for a moment, until his former maid, which just had turned into his special somepony, gave him a small nudge.

BigMac turned to his little sister "i'm sorry, for being so stubborn..." also giving her a big hug, trying to be careful.

"Ohw...." still it was quit a tight hug, giving her a hard time to get air, but she didn't mind. It was the first hug she ever got from him and enjoyed every single moment of it. 

About a minute later he let the filly go - "huwf, you should train this" she told him.

"I sure will work hard on it" he said, giving a small playful grin, but receiving a serious glance from both of them in return "sorry".

This time the two girls giggled.




The four pegasus stood guard on the sides – while Mayor Mare was on the podium, delivering the frame for the topic, before princess Celestia would take over.

No matter where you search, you could only find four types of pony's in all of Equestria.

Earth pony's – owning big physical strength, giving the power to tame the land.

Unicorns – holding the gift of magic in their hooves, creating new miracles.

Pegasus – carrying big wings on their back, raising to the sky in order to control the weather.

The last kind was alicorn's.

There only existed two of them and princess Celestia was one of them, combining all of the three other pony types into a new one.

As an alicorn she  also had another trade which none of the three former types called their own: she was immortal. Living for over a thousand years without aging and it was this time which had told her well: providing her wisdom and foresight – making her the perfect ruler.

There still was one last thing that made her even more unique than she already was,

she was the only pony able to raise the sun and moon with her magic – providing the eternal day and night shifts and balance to the world.




Celestia was elegant and pretty as you would image a princess. Her fur was snow-white and her mane a constant flow of pink, blue, green and blue hair, which seemed to float in a soft breeze all the time. Her eyes had a shimmering pink and she wore a crown with a big purple spinel in the middle, as well an elegant horse collar which also hold a purple spinel, both made out of the finest gold and covered in ornaments. On her hooves she had open shoes up to her ankles, which also had a golden touch. The most outstanding detail about her was her cutiemark – representing the sun itself, like it would emphasize her powers.


The princess got to the speakers desk. 

"My dear citizens of Ponyville" her voice was clear and warm as sunshine, speaking in a graceful and calm manner "i got informed there was an attack on citizens of this town" pointing her hoof to the Mayor Mare and a small red dragon on her side "i will find the one responsible for this in order to protect you from his evil" as she paused for a moment, like she would share the pain of others "sadly, we got little information's right now, what or who really attacked... so if anypony can speak up, please do so now".

A few of the witnesses were in fact standing in the crowd, but didn't spoke up.

Some of them were afraid to get picked out by the monster, which might was still around – other simply had stage fright to speak up to Princess Celestia.

Everypony had heard about her ever since they was little... they knew she was the undoubted ruler over all Equestria, but only few here had seen her in person them self... at times even skipping howl generations of family's to be seen. So grandparents told their nieces and nephews about that day they got a glance on her, making her almost something like a myth.

Only one voice was to be heard "I seen him".

The princess shifted her attention to a young orange filly, standing on back of a big red stallion on the back of the pony mass.

Some pony's now started to mumble to one another, looking the small group.

"ain't that the Apples?" "What their farm got to do with the monster?" "He wanted to feed him some workers."

The princess got smoothly down from the modest podium with a slight flap of her wings, everything about her movements was gracefully, stepping towards the child.

The pony's all around moved back up to make space, bowing as she passed by.




As she got close, Apple Bloom jumped from BigMacs back and the trio bowed down as well.

"Your highness" the three said together.

The princess smiled "Please raise" her voice was majestic "so, you have seen the creature?"

Now Apple Bloom was the one who froze in place. At first her naive nature didn't let her think about it to much, but now – up close... her aura was overwhelming!

BigMac realized this giving the filly her a small nudge "Its alright, tell her...".

This might seemed like a small gesture, but was enough to make her go on, so the filly started to explain everything to the princess, also about his intention to go back to Manehatten.

Celestia did listen carefully, waiting for her to finish, before saying anything in return.

"Than its true,... Discord has returned" her warm voice now also caring a alarmed tone in it. 

"Discord? Who is he?" the filly asked.

"He was an old foe of Equestria, until i defeated him and restored order..." the alicorn turned to one of their pegasus guards "we leave immediately". 

This order was all he needed- collecting his comrades, landing the royal chariot nearby as she got onto it.

"Princess Celestia, please take care of my sister, she works in Manehatten" Apple Bloom said worried to her, as she gave the filly a last glance "I will defeat him once again and protect everypony from his evil doing - as well your sister, my child." her smile provided all the confidence you could ever ask for, making the Apple Bloom smile ...than the chariot rose from the ground and moments later was gone on the horizon.
> Bonus Chapter! Muffin Time!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Muffin time!

Discord didn't quite appear in Manehatten. In fact, not even close to it. Somepony might even would dare to say: he barely had moved at all, if you took into account what he had aimed for.

As he looked around he noticed right away, this was not Manehatten...

Standing right in the middle of nature, wondering what his bloody reflection had done.

Than the gear in his mind kicked in... of cause he knew this place! Spinning around to find Fluttershy's old treehouse where she used to life before their marriage. 

Everything looked like before. The garden was well tamed... the way was clear of leafs... and some birds and critters were nearby, like it used to be.

This one was a no-brainer, being already here, so why not give it a try?

A snap of his fingers made him appear in the living room, which looked different to what he did remember. 

"Hello?" was his first attempt, trying to lure out which ever pony was around. 

A kind voice came from the first floor as a pegasus pony stepped down stairs "honey, is that you?"

The mare stopped half way down as her eyes starred in wonder at him.




The pegasus had gray fur and a blond mane – her eyes was yellow and bubbles graced her flank

...but something was strange about her eyes, they looked twisted, giving her an confused expression all the time.

At first Discord assumed her facial expression was part of his surprising appearance, but even as the pony started to panic the confusion remained on her face.

The mare ran downstairs straight for the door in order get away, but was lifted up her tail.

"Eeek, help!" the pony shrieked, struggling in the air, swinging from side to side.

As the intruder got a little closer and gave her an close look, kneeing in front of her.

"You ain't Fluttershy" he said sharp-minded like a spoon ...as if there could had been any confusion in the first place!

The pegasus still was flapping his wings, trying to escape his almighty grip – shrieking once again for her husband, which didn't seemed to be around.

"Oh please" he said, snapping his fingers and stuffing her mouth with a muffin.

The muffin made her calm down, in fact she enjoyed it so much, forgetting all about him or her miserable pose she was in.

Discord now had a similar expression on his face like she had before, but well he wasn't picky right now so he let appear another muffin in his hand, this time extra tasty with sprinkles on top to show to the mare, which almost was done with the first one.

"Look" he hold up the muffin "this is the worlds finest muffin you ever will have in your puny life, if you can answer me one question: Where is Fl-...." but all of a sudden there was some strange noise coming from outside, making his head turn to the door. 

This sound was so awkward... at first it was like somepony used some kind of magic beams, which got reflected by thin metal... but than became more like somepony had forgot to unlock breaks on a carriage, while some kind of echo started to beat along with it, getting louder and louder, just to suddenly stop. 

Discord hadn't been in this house for longer than two minutes flat and was about to encounter the third mind boggling thing coming towards him as the door swung open and found a brown stallion was standing in it.

The earth pony had light brown fur with a deep brown mane, his eyes had a babyblue tone and his flank showed a hourglass, also he wore a collar and with a bow-tie on it, holding some weird thing in his mouth.

"Let go of my wife demon!" pointing his hoof dramatic at the monster which was threatening his wife. The pegasus had finished her muffin and cheered in glee as she saw him.

"What ever evil dimension you come from, i'm not afraid of you... no sir! I assure you!"

Discord rolled his eyes annoyed, but also rethinking his own entry's "did he also looked like that kinda oddball?..mhhh..... nah!" 

Strange enough he felt the irresistible need to introduce himself "My name Discord! Spirit of chaos!" raising him self from the ground to his full intimidating size, spreading his non-alike wings.

Now the stallion introduced himself "My name is..." he made a dramatic pause here "Dr. Whooves, the upcoming storm!"

"Never heard off" the spirit shook his head unimpressed.

"Well, you know,... defender of Equestria,... arch enemy of the Dale-"

"Yaya" he cut him of "Get lost, i'm busy here" pointing on the pegasus, which was swinging back and forth - trying to reach the muffin, which Discord was still holding in his paw.

The two of them observed this behavior for a minute. 

"I guess ...i may rather talk to you" the draconequus said.

"Ha! I will sto.... ,... wait, talking? Like in not fighting, standing here and moving lips?"

"What you thought?"

The stallion shrugged "so.. you don't plan to conquer Equestria ...or kidnap anypony?"

"Maybe... once or ...twice" making the stallion jump again into battle pose "but..." he hold up his finger warning "but, not today... don't plan anything..."

"So what was that spirit of chaos thing all about then, sir!?"

Giving him a sarcastic reply "Whats that stupid bow-tie all about!?"

"I let you know, Bow-Ties... are cool"  

"So is chaos! ...but,i´m ... kinda retired, ... a little....... " he mumbled, rubbing his neck ashamed as he thought about what his wife had told him.

The stallion waited for a moment and put away his awkward screwdriver behind his ear with a smooth gesture "well, if you may let down my wife, we talk then!" he smiled reliefed.

Discord snapped his fingers and the pegasus was free to fly to her husband, giving him a hug.

"Okay, fair enough, what you want here then, retired-spirit of chaos?"

Discord frowned "the name is Discord and i search somepony..." as Dr.Whooves took over the conversation "Pleased to meet you Mr.Discord, but this pony here is taken" reaching his hoof out to the mare which blushed at his comment.

He rubbed his forehead "I search a pony called Fluttershy, she used to live here!"

The stallion made a few steps up and down the room "do i know her? ...... do i ?... do i do i do i...... Flutter... Flu Flutt....... hmmm........... no. Negative, sorry – just me and Derpy here" he pointed at his wife "uhm, honey?" but the mare shrugged her shoulders..."no she doesn't know either, sorry once more, again".

Once more a dead end he thought going towards the door "well, i leave you lovebirds then" grabbing the doorknob about to get outside, as the husband spoke up.

"Uhm could i ask you a favor... before you leave... peacefully?" making Discord give him a glance.

The stallion nodded to his wife, which was still starring at his muffin which he had forgot, still holding in his paw "would you..... could she.....you know, have it?" asking kind as he could with some strange accent not even he had heard ...and he sure had come around a lot.

Discord shrugged and threw the muffin over to her, which she fetched like a dog with her mouth, chewing right away joyfull – smiling in glee.

"Thanks pal, appreciate that" Dr. Whooves said with a grin, as their visitor got a last question for him "...are you immor-" but was cut off with a panic facial expression of the Doctor- holding one hoof up his mouth, waving the other one, his eyes begging "please, don't – say - it".

So he just let go... and left.

Discord wasn't paying attention to what was right in front of him- slamming against another door "Ouch!" as he rubbed his nose, walking around the strange blue box "Where did that come from!?" reading what was writen on it "Police Box?" waving it of in anger, to rub his nose a little more.

"I must get out of here, this place is nuts!" and coming from him, you could call this quite a compliment!

Discord snapped his fingers and vanished in a bright flash.

The stallion had seen the howl thing from the window "What a strange way to travel...".
> Manehatten -what have you done!?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manehatten – what have you done?

As he arrived on his destination - the day was about to end as the sun vanished behind the horizon. There was no point to continue the search in the dark: he might knew where she could be found while on work, but had still no idea where she lived. 

Getting some rest was his best option yet, the coming day sure would be long and awful annoying like this one he figured.

His eye found him self quickly a hotel nearby – zapping him self in the finest suite there was – a moment before the real guests could enter.

"This is our room!" the couple complained towards the door – hammering hooves against it, while a servant tried to unlock the door once again without any success. 

Ten minutes later the manager himself – a big grumpy stallion also got there to get sure his guests could finally enter. 

"Is there somepony in there!? Open the door, this room is reserved for our guests!"

A voice came from the inside as the noise outside reached her limit "you mind? i'm sleeping here!"

The manager itself now hammered his hoof against the door, once again with no use.

"This hotel is only for paying guests and this room needs a reservation!" he shouted at the door – while his face got all red from all the screaming. 

Once again the voice was heard "there you got puny payment – and a bunch of really precious diamonds appeared out of thing air, landing right in front of him in a small pile "and your stinky reservation", as another bunch materialized on top of the first pile, letting it grow on twice the size.

The manager and servants eyes got wide, as they starred at this huge amount of cash laying in front of them, making the manager almost drool. 

"Well" he said, swallowing hard "in that case... anything we can do for you fine sir?" as he started to pick up the diamonds and cramming them into his pockets where ever he could find space.

"Cotton Candy, Chocolate Milk ...and get lost!" the voice replied a last time.

The manager spun around "You heard that gentleman" poking his servant "Hurry!"

Now he turned to his guests "of course we will find another room for you"

The guests reacted offended about the howl situation "we booked this room three months ago! You just cant kick us out for some..... hoodlums!", but receiving nothing than a stubborn reply "If you don't want the other room, there is still the street" the manager made clear "and now shush! Our VIP wants some rest!" as he pushed the still refusing couple down the hallway into another, not quite as elegant, room.

Discord was laying down on the queen sized bed, wishing for his queen to be here with him...

unaware of the Princess which was heading towards Ponyville right now.




When he woke up, the sun rose above this magnificent town... Manehatten was one of the largest citys there is in all of Equestria; thousands of pony's working here day and night in order to keep it going.

The city was built out of hundreds of skyscrapers, getting bigger and bigger the closer you came to the middle, giving every new visitor the challenge to raise their heads far enough in order to make out the top, if those are not hidden inside a cloudy sky.

Visitors came from far and near just to make business here, open a new one or closing up an contract. 

Travelers came here to enjoy this amazing sights -  and a business of its own had formed around that, getting sure earn a profit those tourists by giving them tours across town to all the great places the city had to offer: bars, parks, fame places and restaurants and last but not least souvenir shops, as well providing necessary hotels to stay for a couple of days.

Out of all those fantastic places you could find in town, there was still one which put all of them in his shadow, quite literally – and it was called the -Big-Apple Tower-. 

Raising hundreds of meters into the air, providing space for all the workers of the company, as well sleeping places for guests and even a own private restaurant on the bottom floor.

There was not a single moment when the doors of this building did hold still, since pony's came and left all the time, like blood, getting pumped and circled by the heart of the town.

Discord appeared nearby on another skyscraper, which would had been the largest around, if its neighboring didn't happened to be about one third bigger in size – making his existence quite insignificant, like the tower was just build in order to mock it.

The newest visitor in town took a look around, watching those ant like pony's below him, running trough the streets – partial sitting in carriages, but his sight was almost magnetic pulled back on the great building in front of him, but unlike everypony else he failed to be impressed by it.

Having unlimited powers made a lot things taste quite pale on his tongue – he could create such a tower by its own, giving enough time to figure out the details... but then was still the fact remaining he was the self claimed Spirit of Chaos... and this building was not a miracle, but a taunt to him – representing a carefully planned and constructed symbol of order, which it showed of since day one.

As he starred on it for a minute or two, he felt the need coming up to change it – to break it down to its foundation and rebuild it in his own image, clenching his teeth in order to hold back on this action.

There was something else he noticed on the very top of this building – a giant golden apple, slowly spinning on a thick steel post... and as it spun slowly around it self, everypony could read the big red letters on it from afar. -Apple Inc.-

"An golden apple?" raising his paws as he would show it to somepony else "oh come on! It could be as well an orange!" as he snapped his fingers and the apple had all of a sudden a giant bite mark on his side ...still spinning like nothing had happened "ha.... " feeling a little better to get rid of some stress, having at least caused some chaos, which was able to be seen anywhere from within the town.

Inside the tower – on the top floor was a big entrance hall. It had wide open windows with long red curtains - and a red carpet leading towards two big wooden doors, which would take you into the most important office you could find.

Also in this room, next to the gate like door, was an old bulky desk, which was made out of dark wood – sitting on this desk you could find a mare, working trough her papers and holding guard to who ever dared to enter.

The mare had deep blue fur, a black mane with highlights of white - blue eyes and glasses on her nose – as well a horn on her head, her flank showing a feather, writing on a paper-scroll.

She was about to copy a list her boss had dictated to her, typing it down on her type writer which was obviously made for pony's, having large keys – making a "pok" every time she hit one of the – as the room was filled by this noise in a rapidly repeating order. 




As she was almost done, her boss called from inside – using a speaking pipe which connected not just their tables, but also the rest of the building with one another "Quill, if our guests from Canterlot arrive, please send them in right away".

"Of course" she replied formally, turning back to her type work. 

Her boss knew she didn't need to say more than that, since Quill had been her secretary from the very start and a big help at that. Never failed to remember on an appointment or holding back a unwanted visitor who managed to sneak by the guards.

On the other side of the entrance hall the lift opened with a ping, announcing its arrival with new welcome visitors. The door slid open and revealed a crowd of royal pony's – two mares and four stallions sitting in the corners of the lift, pressing her bodys against the walls.

It wasn't dure a lack of space they done so, the lift it self was large enough to fit twice the pony's inside before running out of space, so it had to do with the fact there was standing a draconequus in the middle of them.

As Discord left the lift – the other pony's kept staying inside, while he was walking straight for the desk.

The still typing mare gave him a short glance, failing to be impressed by his intimidating size and shape "You got an appointment?" asking dryly as she had so many times before to anypony and anything which had walked this halls. 

"Oh, she sure will have time for me, we are old friends" grinning towards the mare.

"Name?" she asked, this time not even bothering to look up at him. 

"Discord, Spirit of Chaos!" shouting it out as he was an famous celebrity.

The mare hold in with her typing, giving a short glance on a piece of paper "Not on the list"

"don't worry, your boss got time for me- i'm sure they..." pointing his lion thump on the crowd, which still stood shivering inside the lift "don't mind if i go first" closing his gesture with a sharp and displeased grin on every single one of them.

The stallion next to the buttons dared to stretch out his hoof slowly, pushing one of them - the doors slowly slid shut and the lift made his path from where it came.

His grin became a lot more pleased now "You see?"

The mare glanced to the lift and back on her desk - crossing out a bunch of names from a list.

As the new visitor was going for the door, about to touch it the secretary shouted "you still need to make a appointment!" 

"Ha!" rolling his eyes "you are kidding me" trying to push the doors open, but got struck by the blue mare with a surprisingly strong bodycheck – sending him flying to the ground as she got over to him and pinned him down "No appointment – NO entry!" shouting to his face and pushing his chest while doing so. 

"This expression on your face, so sure of your self..." he said from below her, about to zap her right to the north pole, as the doors swung open and her boss was standing in the middle of them.

"Its alright Quill, let him come in... and cancel the remaining appointments"

The mare gave him a last warning glance before she got up from him and returned peacefully to her desk, continuing to type, but as he stood up and walked towards the door, she didn't leave him out of her sight until the door shut close behind, giving him the chance to show her his tongue like a spoiled brat.




Her boss, was an orange mare with blond mane and tail- which was made into braided ponytales, hold together by a thin needle; her eyes had a fresh grasgreen and her flank showed three red juicy apples, she also wore a stylized cowboy collar with a golden framed apple around the neck.

She walked slowly behind her desk, which was similar to Quills, but even bigger and had ornate´s of gold strings all around it – and sat down on a big comfortable chair – also in the same ostentatious stile, holding her hooves as some other creature would to lay his fingertips on one another.

"I thought you would be there earlier, what took ya so long?" Applejack opened the conversation casual.

Discord was walking up to the desk, stretching him self a little in order to get over the attack he just had received "well, i was.......uhmm..."  as he reached the desk he seemed a little confused "... you knew i would come?" raising an eyebrow at her.

The pony leaned her head a little to the side "i got sources..." giving him a reproachful smile "... you really should not had thrown two of our workers around". 

"Oh.... those...." waving it off "they are fine!". 

Applejack leaned towards a piece of paper and started to read "... several minor wounds, two broken rips, sprained hoof, scratches and cut wounds caused by branches, as well..." Discord cut her off on that point "okay okay ...maybe i over did it a tinzy bit" letting a hint of guilt sliding in his voice "wasn't intentional" he mumbled. 

Discord leaned forward "big deal – but do you even know who i am!?" waiting for her to react - as she put her hoof tip on the paper she had just read to him, sliding it to the side to reveal a copy of an old drawing, probably out of some kind of history or magic book.

On the page was a draconequus, fighting against an alicorn which seemed to be surrounded by a bright magic shine. Right below the picture was a brief description about the opponents.

"Well, i guess its time ya know who i am" as she stood up to walk to her window, which made out the howl fourth wall of the room, letting her sight slide slowly over the city below.

"Y´see, when i came her´ from Ponyville... it wasn't a simple life: high-society is harsh to everypony it doesn't know, pushing them around like an apple cart. This town was makin´ me sick to the stomach... " she turned to discord and he noticed the fire in her eyes "as i build up Apple Inc. ... i started to realize, that my company could be more than a place for working pony's..." she turned back to him "it could be my new family...".

"Your family lives in Ponyville" Discord pointed out sarcastic.

"Let me finish ma story"

Discord seemed annoyed but assumed there was a point to all of this coming soon towards him.

"Well, as i said... this now was ma new family... i treated the workers well – and got pony's of the streets. When eva somepony was willing to work, i offered him being part of this..."

The mare now avoided his sight and started to move around some more, heading towards a burned flag showing the Manehatten symbol – a golden horsehead. 

"Ya´know my competitors even tried to get rid of me – being a threat for their profit..."

once again she gave him an bitter glance "...but then the fight was decided by chance... " it was obvious she hold back some kind of anger as she returned to her seat.

Discord materialized a box with a boardgame inside "I´m not here for a game of guess-hooves!" throwing the box behind him on the ground.

"Oh don't ya´worry" she  leaned forward "because you will help me to get what i wanted since that very moment."

Discord used his magic to slide over the book side from earlier "You might misread that... i'm not Celestia".

"Well, i figured it would take a little more to convince ya" Applejack pulled out one of her drawers and put a photo on the desk, which Discord took carefully like it was made out of thin glass.

The picture showed Fluttershy – flying and giving the camera a big warm smile, it even had her signature on it!

"WHERE, did you get this!?" he started to boil up.

"Well, how about i tell ya... after that little favor of yours?" 

He put his paw and claw on the table, leaning towards her face "How about i zap you on the other side of the window first?" 

Applejack assumed he was her worst client yet, but she was sure to be able to handle him "Wont get ya anywhere" giving a winning smile "and don't ya bother - nopony in this building does know anything hun".

Smoke came from below his hands, as he channeled his anger trough them. Paw and claw buried deep into the massive table, which partial was set on fire as he threw it with ease across the room, destroying a bookshelf nearby. 

Of course the secretary had heard that noise and ran into the room "Whats going on here!?"

checking for her boss to be okay – as she noticed the destroyed furniture. 

"Everything alright Quill..." Applejack reassured her "be so kind and order a new desk and... why don't yu take the rest of the day off?"

The mare looked concerned at ruined furniture which - seemed to be smoking... but if she said it would be alright- it sure would. 

"I will" she simply replied, giving the gasping monster a last warning glance - and walked off, closing the doors behind her.

Her attention shifted back to Discord "i tell ya what: help me out- it wont even take an hour... and then i will give ya the rest of the file".

Oh what would he like to do to her, but even if she didn't knew, she was also one of his friends and right about what she said... he probably had to agree – so he reached out his griffon paw to her.

She took a look on his paw, but didn't bother to shake it.

"Fine! Deal"

As she reached out in order to shake his paw - she boggled and pulled back her hoof, as its paw turned out to be still steaming hot – which he had done on purpose as his face gave away.

"Don't you try to fool me..."

"I wont, honestly."




"As much as i know, you got quite some powers, right?"

"Of course i do!" with that said a tiny cotton candy cloud appeared behind them, putting out the growing fire with chocolate rain "So what you want?" spinning his finger in the air.

"Well, at first, we need to go the Crystal Empire – on the westside fields"

befor she even had time to explain a word more, a blinding bright light had flashed in front of her eyes, so she hold up her hooves in order to cover them. A moment later she felt a soft breeze touching her fur, as her ponytales swung in a soft summer breeze.

The pony took down her hooves to find her self starring at the crystal Castle in the distance, Discord right besides her.

"There we are, whats next?" making sure he was in a hurry.

She didn't answer at first, since she had changed slightly in appearance... her hair was now a ordinary pony tail, the collar was gone, but she got instead a cowboy hat on top of her head.

"Why you done that?" she asked.

"Oh that? don't mind! ... so, whats next?!"

This kind of stile was something for farm pony's, not for business ones but she kinda ... liked it.

"We have to find my contact here, i have to talk to her first, than you get your instructions."

Applejack knew this place well, she had been here often, ever since her bitter victory, so after a short orientation she started to move, followed by closely by him.


The two walked along an old dirt-road as he could not help to notice, everything around them was quite a dessert. Once in a while there was a dead tree laying on the ground, drying in the sun - but aside of that there was not a single straw of grass to be found – a pretty boring part of land to look at...

After walking for thirty minutes straight - Discord started to ask why he could not just zap them also the rest of the way, to which Applejack always replied "its necessary" staying stubborn and slowly following their path further into the dessert.

At first he was really angry about her attitude, but after starring on this empty landscape for miles to come he was bored beyond believe and she didn't let him do anything about that to make their trip shorter. 

It felt like a felt eternity for them to come by something interesting, which was a small wooden bridge, spanning over a gap in the ground which just seemed to come from nowhere – to go nowhere. Really odd. Why bother building a bridge for a gap you easly could walk trough? Also right here- for the city to be miles in the other direction.

Their travel didn't seem to end, now they had spend about an hour or more, wasting his time in order to see nothing worth to brag about. 

"Stupid dessert" he mumbled to him self, as his feet starting to hurt from all the small stones on their path and the tedious walking through the burning hot sun – so he did lift of a few centimeter, which didn't made it better since they had not changed location and he was forced to stay close to her... and if he didn't know any better, he had imaged she would walk slower by the minute.

There wasn't much more to do than stare on the path and count the stones he came by, big and small, round and angular... shesh. So tedious. Making him miss, being one of them.




"We are there" Applejack stated - pulling Discord out of his mentally absents. 

He took a look around, there was a house, barely big enough for a small family, a water well and some kind of windmill - but unlike normal ones, it also had a big chimney on his side which was spitting constantly colorful clouds into the sky.

"This is it?" he asked, not even try to hide his disappointment. 

"Yes, that's it" she said and started walking again. 

As they came close to the house he noticed right away the ground had some strange color's nearby.

He kinda liked it – it was odd and reminded him on the good old times, when he had transformed Ponyville into the Chaos-central..., but for what reason somepony else would color the ground was beyond his understanding.

The two walked up to the small house as she told him to wait outside.

"You make me walk here trough the hot sun and don't let even let me in!?" 

"Just ya wait here, a don't want to scare her off" she said sharp to him and entered the building.

Discord sure was angry... but his thirst let him forget that. He could summon a glass of chocolate milk or so, but that isn't quite as good when its about heat, so he just used his magic to pull out the bucket of the nearby well to take a zip, just to spit dirt moments later.

"Wuah! What the...." he leaned down the well and made his eyes glow like a lamp – to find the well was dry as the rocks around him, making him sigh. "If you don't do it your self!"

A bottle of water materialized in his hand, as he drank half of it in a rush and threw the rest away, letting it burst on the ground – as the hot ground let the water vanish moments later.

"Well, looks like i got a few spare minutes, hu, i wonder if..." with this said, he was gone with a grin on his face.

Meanwhile inside Applejack was stepping through the building to her faithful worker.

The worker was a hue purple furred mare, with dark blue mane and tail, which had pink and purple highlights in it. She had a star and sparkles on her flank and purple eyes.

"Hey there Twi, how s going?" she asked the unicorn.

"Oh Applejack! I didn't expected a visit from you before Friday.... its not Friday is it?" walking to the calendar, afraid to have mixed up the date.

The orange mare raised her hoof "nah, don't worry, its not..." 

"Well, than whats the reason for your early visit?" the unicorn trotted back to her working place which was loaded with all kind of mixtures and experiments. Bottles was connected to one another with pipes – some boiled slowly below small flames to distill certain liquids out of them into the other.

All of that machinery and valves seemed to be very careful crafted work,which ended in a single pipe right above a small ordinary plate with a hoof full earth on it. 

"I was just about to test number 402b" as a checklist hoovered to her side.

She reached for the final valves and opened it for a moment, just enough a single drop of the liquid could fall onto the earth, which changed their color on contact to pink... but nothing else happened.

The unicorn gave a big long sigh "well, back to the scratch-board one more time, number 403b sure will be a success!" 

"Well Twilight, i have come to talk about yur work" 

The unicorn gave her a asking look "What you mean? ...i'm sure i can figure it out!"

"That wont be necessary anymore Twi, i got somepony else who can help us. He's waiting outside.".

Twilight had to think about that for a moment "Is that your way to tell me..." performing a kick-move with her hoof "...i´m ~ fired?" 

The unicorn panicked "i worked so hard on this! I cannot stop now... i got a few more things to try" walking up and down in the room to gather all kind of strange objects and mixtures.

Applejack smiled at her and got close "No of course not. Ur part of the family" giving her a big hug "i never would let ya go".

This gave her a good feeling in her stomach, making her calm down again "You are right, ...i'm sorry..." as the earthpony released her from the hug "okay then, where is this somepony and how did he figure it out?" she put away her clip board and turned of all the little flames in the room, shutting down her experiment.

"I mean... i have read all books available! Or does he have some i missed?" starting once again to get wired up in her logic. 

"Well, he didn't..." Applejack said "When I show you, ya´ill understand, but you have to promis´ not to flip out, alright?"

Twilight understood those therms, but not a hundred percent "Well,...... okay?" 

"Ya have to promise, its might our only chance." Applejack insisted.

Twilight used to know her as a serious worker, but this time she seemed even more overcautious than normal. "I will do my best" crossing her chest with her hoof.

This was good enough for her, so the earthpony gave a sign to follow as the two walked outside.




When they came out there was nopony there. 

Applejack was concerned for a moment she might had misjudged her new partner,

as Twilight noticed something.

"What is this?" point her hoof to the draconequus, which was flying next to the big chimney, picking the smoke clouds apart coming out there, about to stick a blue one in his mouth "Eww gross – blueberry!" he spat it out, as the two mares cough his attention.

"Twilight Sparkle! What a joy!" he shouted – holding her a second later in a tight hug.

The unicorn barely got air and had the strong wish to run, but he just hold her to firm.

"Ya know him?"

"I... don't..." Twilight squeezed out.

Applejack pointed on Discord "... but ya know her?" raising an eyebrow.

"Well. Uhm..." giving her a close look, as he noticed she didn't had wings and wore her mane different "must have mistaken her for another purple unicorn named Twilight", letting her slump to the ground.

The two mares looked at one another in confusion as the unicorn started to walk around him "This creature is a myth... isn't it?" poking him with a hoof in order to be sure he was real. 

"Legend?-yes! Myth? Far from it! Giving her a slap on her hoof.

That was the moment her mind put the pieces together, as joy rushed trough her body "This means, we can fix it!?" she cheered up as Applejack gave a aprooving nod to this – when Twilight grabbed Applejack surprisingly and spun her around "He is real! We can finally fix it! You are the best AJ!" 

Discord gave a little cough from him, in order to get their attention back, but the unicorn was so energetic, he could had easily mistaken her for Pinkie Pie right now.

Until he lifted her up from the ground by her tail, she just didn't had stopped.

"I assume she told you from our little deal?" 

The unicorn was slowly spinning upside down around her self, which made it hard to answer while looking into his eyes "well... she just said, you would help us" 

"Oh, didn't your honest little friend tell you, how she wanted to blackmail me?" putting on a frown and receiving a confused expression in return. 

As the upside down pony was turning around to Applejack she asked "AJ, what is he talking about?" 

"Well, i..." she started, but was quite irritated to talk to her like this "would ya please let her down?" and so he did - the pony got back to the ground, but had to pause for a moment, since a lot of blood had run into her head.

"Well, i promised help to find somepony he was looking for ...but i was about to keep my part for sure!" as she hold up her hoof.

"Not really nice of her, as soon she knew it was important to me, she put on her thumbscrews..." Discord now gave them a evil grin "but guess what!" – making appear the file she had promised in his paw, as well X-Ray glasses on his nose "Hiding it behind a bookshelf? How foolish of you! Hahaha!" 

The earthpony stomped on the ground to make her point "I was about to hold my part Discord!" 

"Pff, i don't want to be one of ur puny work drones..." came the conceited response.

Applejack got a few steps closer "...but ya don't understand, we need this land to be green again!"

Discord performed a gallant aerial loop "What for? Make a few bits? What do i care? I got what i want so..."

This was when Twilight got into, hammering her hooves against his sides, shouting at Discord "The empire is STARVING!" while her punches got slower "...the crystal pony's barely have enough food to make it trough the day! don't you understand!?" sobbing as she spoke "many left and .... the others might don't make it another year.... " as she started to melt down onto the ground, till she was laying on her stomach "i c-cant fix iit............ i cant fffi-x it..... " repeating her self over and over again "i cant fix it!" as her tears started to flow.

Applejack didn't even care about Discord anymore, walking to her friend in order to put her hooves around her "There, there... we will find a way" trying to calm her down, whispering words of confidence into her ear ...but without any noticeable effect. 

Now Applejack was the one to shout at Discord "You got ya wanted, why don't ya leave us alone!?"  

Her face was full of anger, but also shared some of Twilight's disappointment within.

Honest curiosity was what made him ask "So you ... it was not about money?"

The orange mare didn't even bother to look at him anymore, barking over her shoulder "The land had been poisoned! Are ya blind!? The changelings destoryed everything!" pointing a hoof towards the horizon "its dead for miles!"

This made him turn around him self, giving this land a howl new look. 

She was right. They had walked for almost an hour without seeing a single patch of green, not a standing tree, or bird in the sky... there was nothing but dust.

There was only one fool here right now – and it was him.

He turned around and got over to the two, but Applejack didn't want to get him close, so he used a little bit of his magic to move her out of the way, sitting her just a few steps aside.

"What ya think you´re doing!?" she grumbled, as he held up his hands placatory - just before he sat down to Twilight... who was still blaming her self, for her inability to make it right.

"I'm sorry Twilight... i didn't understand..." he said calm as he put his paw on her shivering body.

Applejack failed to understand what was going on right now, as much she was able to read about him in this short period of time, not single nice word was used to describe him, in fact most of them used to be quite ... unflattering. So, did he know her after all?

Twilight was still mumbling to her self quitely, as suddenly the draconequus raised to his full impressive size "... but i can".

He left her alone and Applejack took his place in order to put her hoof around, while Discord started walking off towards the sun till he was about a couple hundred meters away- until he stopped. At first he just shook his body, make his muscles lose up a bit, cracking his neck and bending his paws a few times – like a sportler would before he gets into a marathon...

... but then his hands began to glow in a bright light as waves of energy started sparking all around him- flaring up to a white fire sphere, pushing the air around him aside- when Applejack shook the unicorn in her arms in order to maker her aware. Twilight rose her head slightly and her sight was caught as a miracle happened. 

The unleashed power spread out in a explosion like manner – forming an ever expanding sphere all around the creature in the center, so bright, it almost hurt to watch... the sphere was at first just a few dozen meters in diameter, a second later spanning more than hundred – another second - it already reached a couple of miles – another one passed – it was spanning the howl crystal Empire already, flooding the world like an ocean of light.

Half of Equestria was witness as it happened: not just the crystal pony's – Galloping Gorge, Cloudstale and Canterlot had seen it as well, being close neighbors to the empire.

Ten-thousand pony's and other creatures had observed the miracle, as the land formed into something nobody had expected to happen ever again. 

The light pulled back slowly like waves pulling back into the ocean the land below turned out to be green and full of life. 

The grass was thick growing everywhere... trees stood up high in smaller and bigger forests, spending cooling shadow and providing shelter to creatures of all kind... the gap was now once again what it used to be: a floating river, bringing fresh water from the mountains into the land, serving life to everything around it.

Twilight and Applejack was blinking and rubbing their eyes.

Around the house had formed an howl apple-forest similar to Big Apple Acres! 

Thousands juicy apples hanging on them, sparkling red in the sunlight.

Applejack let go and stood up... as she looked all around herself - moving over to one of the trees in order to give it a buck – making it rain a dozen apples onto the soft grass below.

Twilight was starring at her doing so; like neither the tree or the apples could possible be real. 

The orange mare picked up one of the apples and took a careful bite... and it tasted amazing! It was juicy... having just the right consistence, not to crunchy, not to soft – making you want to bite again, which she did. Only zapp-apples possible could taste better, ...but not by much.

Applejack picked up one more from the ground and threw it over to Twilight, which caught it quite clumsy. 

The unicorn starred at the apple and turned it a few times around, giving it a close look. It was red all around and felt just like an apple should. It had a fine smell which got to her nose, making her take a deep breath – closing her eyes doing so to enjoy the moment. Even if nothing of this was real, she made sure not to forget.

Discord stepped in front of Twilight, casting his long shadow on her. 

The unicorn opened her eyes and gave him a gleeful smile - holding up the apple towards him. 

The draconequus refused to accept it "its all yours". 

Her smile got even bigger as she took the first bite, enjoying it like she didn't had one in a long time.

They enjoyed the apple-forest and nature some more for about an hour before Twilight decided to pack her stuff and get back to town "I will bring everypony here, the crystal Empire is saved", thanking Discord about a hundred and two times – which she counted on a list, just to be sure.

"So, ready to go?" Applejack asked him.

"Ladies first" he replied, zapping her right away into her office.

Discord stepped into Twilight's house, as she was busy packing some books.


"What about your eye...?" 

The question hung in the room, while the unicorn tried to pack way to many books into a way small pocket as she gave up on it and sat down, her back towards him "so, you noticed?"

"You know... i could..."

Twilight shook her head, responding with a bitter sweet tone in her voice "No, its alright... its a part of who i am."

There was probably no harm telling him. It would be the least she could do to return his favor... so she started to tell her story "...it was during the siege: the Queen and her changelings had pushed into the Castle... Cadance had told me to hide, but i refused.... i didn't want leaving her alone....." the pony laid her head on the side, giving him a glance over his should "Cadance and Shinning Armor fought them as good as they could – so i tried to help too and got into the fight... but... i- i... didn't do to well,... my magic was not strong enough and a bunch of them got onto me, starting to suck on my emotions for the ones i love..." she giggled a little sad about the irony "...usual changelings don't kill their victims, so they can feed of them later again... but there was just to many of them, they got lured by my feelings like moth to the light...." she had to pause, it got hard to continue for her "...i ...could had died in this moment – but Cadance had almost defeated the Queen, when she noticed what happened to me." the unicorn bit her lip at this part, like she would go trough the paint of this moment once again "she let go of the Queen and used her last power to blast away the changelings of me- saving my life, ...but the strike hit me as well" as she touched her face with her hoof "that's when the Queen got up and hit Candace from behind... and it was my fault... if it not had been for the love between her and Shining armor, the Chrystal Empire had fallen that day". The pony took a look around "i guess, i wanted to make up for it somehow.... but i wasn't to big of a help after all" as she gave him an apologizing smile. 

Discord now could see them – one was a shimmering purple, matching to the rest of her body.

The other one was also purple, but had a noticeable gray tone to it.




"Twilight, i could not had done it without you" Discord said warm.

"What do you mean?" 

"Your love convinced me, to do the right thing." giving her a small nudge on the chin.

Twilight began to smile a bit "I guess you are right..." as she smeared above her face "I still wish i was stronger... all i know is magic-poition brewery, ain't to useful as you might noticed."

Discord rubbed his chin, like a professor which thought about a complex mathematical problem "well i cant help you on that much but..." a thick brown book appeared in his hand "but maybe this will." handing her the book over.

The cover was a mish-mash of skewed letters, written in crayon "Magic 101 for dummies" – this made her laugh quite loud "hahaha... thanks a lot" she smiled at him, but as she opened the cover to take a first look inside, to be surprised to find another cover below the first one "All about Magic _by Star Swirl the Bearded _first edition_", written in thick gold letters - making her eyes grow wide.

"OH sweet Celestia! Thank-" this was when she noticed he was gone "-you." holding the book thigh to her chest.

Applejack was in her office, the desk had been replaced and a bunch of workers was about to fix the rest of the damage which had been done to the room. 

They didn't notice her appearance till she spoke up "Could ya please fix that later – a guest is coming soon" 

The stallions turned around "oh, Mrs. Apple, we are terrible sorry" one of them said.

"Its alright, you can fix it tomorrow, but leave now..."

The three nodded and left the room immediately. 

About five minutes later Discord appeared in the room. 

Applejack looked towards the remains which used to be her book shelf, revealing a hidden safe behind it. "I never was much of a bookworm anyway" she started, while her partner sat down on the other side of the table, putting down the file on it. She smiled on him and gave a nod towards the small folder "Ya know, that one had cost me a lil´fortune, but i guess it was worth it after all..."

"So, you read it?" 

She shook her head "Got it the minute before ya came in."

This made the draconequus laugh "So, you didn't knew anything? You bluffed!?"

"Like the devil" she grinned.

This was goodbye he assumed, about to grab the file - when she put her hoof on his claw "ya should know a last thing... that seller is gone- so if ya wont find what you´r looking for... please don't harm anypony, we honestly tried" now pulling slowly back her hoof, so he could take the file. 

Discord stood up, returning the grin from before "What kinda friend you think i am?" - then he was gone. 

The Spirit of Chaos sat one of the skyscrapers holding the thing folder in his hands and didn't dare to open yet, this might was the hint he was looking for, getting him all excited about it as he opened it.

The first thing he saw was another photo of her, this time posing to the camera, giving a wink and pointing her hoof to the camera – almost like she meant him. 

He took the photo and put it carefully down to his side, reading the first actual information sheet there was...

-Name: Fluttershy

-Gender: Female

-Fur: Yellow

Nothing he knew already, so he started to skip trough the information's,

-Mane, Age, Cutiemark, Favorite dessert... and so on. 

Pretty basic stuff, but right now he was absolute sure this was his Fluttershy the file was talking about.

As he was trough the first side, he put this carefully aside as well and things got a little more interesting.

-Born: Cloudsdale

-Job: Artistic flier – this one made Discord frown in confusion. 

She sure was a pegasus but... of everything he had encountered until now: THIS one was the cherry on top of the ice cream. There was no way his shy wife would do something like this ... it must had been a flaw in the file.

The rest of the site also didn't reveal to much, only places where she had been – which was quite a list of small towns ...

Putting away once again the side, carefully on his stack.

This was the last side, so he made sure to take a close look, giving him self a pair of reading glasses on his nose, but got disappointed on the first line already.

-Living right now: No fixed residence.

As he was about to read the next line, fate struck.

-Upcoming flying performa...

If he had payed any attention to his surrounding he had noticed Celestia, which had abandoned her chariot, diving down at him for an surprise attack – unleashing a powerful beam of her horn, blasting Discord of the roof. 

Like a meteor he crashed down onto one of the main roads of Manehatten. Pony's all around the impact zone started to panic and run, many shouted for police and fire horse, only a few dared to raise their heads out of cover - not sure if that was some kind of accident or attack.

The Princess hoped this would knock him out until she could cast the spell which would turn him into stone. Getting this ready right away probably had made him aware to her appearance, giving him chance to flee.




Celestia landed graceful nearby, her wings spread wide, as she waited for the dust to settle.

It didn't take anything to get the attention of the remaining pony's nearby, so she just spoke up "Leave this area now! Its to dangerous to stay!" 

Now even the brave started running, nopony dared to resist a direct order of her, clearing the place in a matter of seconds as a claw appeared out of the crater, scratching over the concrete. 

Discord rose out of the hole, stumbling onto the streets. For most this impact had been lethal without a doubt, only the most powerful creatures could hope to recover from this – let alone being able to still walk upright. Aside alicorn's, the draconequus was one of those rare exceptions.

"OUcH!" this attacked had hurt a lot, as his body was covered in concrete and dust, causing small clouds to appear on his very step, but still he didn't bother Celestia to much, as he searched the ground for something he had lost...

"Discord, surrender now and i promise y-"

He waved her off with a "Bbzzzzzsstt! Shut up!" cutting her off, as he had finally found what he was looking for, or at least what was left of it.

There was a small rest of burning paper, on which he put quickly out the flame... holding it up in order to read what was left, but there wasn't much.

Most of the paper had been burned in the blast, so the line he had read before was incomplete:

-Upcoming flying performance in: Ya#h###... 

The rest was a black hole, still smoking a little. 

"C...CccAnt you just ONCE! ONCE! Leave me ALONE!? ONCE I SAyyY!

Shouting loud enough to make him self heard all over the town. 

The Princess didn't reply anything more than "Let us settle this, where nopony else will get hurt"

Discord rose his clenched claw... it took only a single snap - and everypony was gone. 

A town of ten-thousands of souls – had become a ghost town.

Far away- next to a "Welcome to Manehatten!" sign the citizens reappeared, leaving everypony confused to what just had happened.

Some of the pony's got torn out of a shower, one couple was right in a romantic dinner, a mare was searching for her lost child and soon there was a mass panic between all of them, making the current situation even worse.

Applejack made her way slowly to the front of the crowd and sat down, as she knew what was going to happen. At first there was just silence, as a soft wind blew above their heads coming out of nowhere, then it began: the downfall of their beloved town.

A single explosion could be heard, quickly followed by dust clouds and trails of smoke crawling up - from the buildings which had been struck, as more explosions followed, spreading over howl blocks.

Other pony's now also noticed what was going on over there; as beams and balls of lighting danced above the city - in between the skyscrapers, to occasionally hit something in their path, setting it on fire or simply blowing it to bits, causing it to rain tons of concrete down on the streets they had been on moments ago- as howl buildings started to crumble to the ground.

If anypony had been in this town, it would had been suicidal, staying inside as well outside, nothing was sacred from this carnage.

A few singled out energy blasts gone way off - heading for the sky and even right into their direction, until the they got stopped in mid air by a giant force field which seemed to cover the howl town. The field shimmered like a soap bubble beneath the impact but withstood blast after blast, slowly fading into invisibility again, in the pauses between strikes.

The few eyewitness, which had seen Celestia before their surprising teleportation, spread the word about her - causing it to become a wild fire and soon everypony in the crowd knew there was a fight going on, between the Princess and some really dangerous enemy, quickly followed by wild speculations who or what it could be.

Meanwhile a few pony's, maybe stubborn... maybe brave.... maybe just plain stupid... could not resist to try to get a closer look – running towards the town. Unfortunately at the towns border they ran head first into the same force field which had hold of the magic from escaping - hurting them self's in the process. Some returned to the crowd... others just sat down in front of it like in trance and a few still didn't gave up to get inside, walking vainly along the border in order to find a weak-spot.


Quill now recognized Applejack in the corner of her eye "AJ, what had happened?

Applejack turned her head slowly, her face being pale "Manehatten".
> Royal Pain
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Royal pain

Celestia was prepared for battle. Willing to put all necessary gears in motion to win.

Unlike her appearance in Ponyville, she had let go of all her royal insignia for this; her crown, her collar and horseshoes had been gone, but she was far from being bare.

As many threats had shown their face in Equestria – forcing fighs on her and at times brining her close to the edge of defeat, she knew her next fight could be her last as well. 

So the princess had called out to all over the land for the best blacksmiths there are. 

Only five of them had proven worthy for the task.

Those chosen blacksmiths worked harder as nopony before them in the history of Equestria, in order to make the impossible happen. They was supposed to live in the palest, but refused to, so they could stay at the royal forged all day. The forged of course wasn't ordinary either, since it was half the size of the princess palace, having five separated smelting furnace which was kept running by hundreds of workers until the task should be finished and guarded by a full size army of loyal pegasus. This one in a kind forge just had been build for this one occasion, to craft the most powerful armor there could be and it was a full success.

Under the wise lead of Princess Celestia herself, the day came when the furnace lit up a last time, unleashing the heat of suns into smelting forms, filling them with enchanted metals, so rare – half of them just had been discovered for this task.

There was no parade, no mentioning in any history book, not even a single word lost about it anywhere – when the five proudly presented what they had done.

The royal armor was made of parts:


 	


The 	first 	one being massive horseshoes – the bottom of those was forged out 	of a black metal, hard enough to smash trough anything without even 	getting a scratch.


The 	second 	was golden leg armor, not any less massive, but as strong as the 	horseshoes, still light and flexible to keep her agile – gapless 	connecting the first to the  	


third 	part was body-armor, in the same golden metal- which showed an 	alicorn head on her chest, able to resist all kind of magic, which 	she had made sure her self of by testing it – blowing a small 	mountain to bits just for this matter


the 	fourth 	part seemed fragile on first glance, but was essential to protect 	her flight ability -   	


coating her wings along the parts where her bones used to be located, letting the feathers untouched, to ensure her maneuverability


 	


the 	fifth 	part could easily be mistaken for a crown at first, but was also 	made out of the same thick golden metal and unlike the crown – it 	was crafted around her ears, leading down to her cheeks to guarantee 	a big sight of field, but still be able to block of hits to the head 	 	


The howl armor was way to heavy for any ordinary pony to carry and covered in one of a kind ornaments,  multiple times showing the sun in between - so there be no doubt for who this armor was crafted for.

If it was for this alone, the armor was already the most precious artifact there is, but as Celestia received it, she knew she had to go even further than this, as she added the final pieces:

				The Elements of Harmony

The Elements where fordged by her alicorn magic into the armor – one at her left flank... one at her right flank... one at her left shoulder... one at her right shoulder... the fith into her chestplate... and the finally one was crafted into her crown - shining bright red like a rubby. 

This last element was unlike the others, not hidden inside the indestructable steel – but for pratical reason outside, since this one was not meant to protect her unlike the others- this one was used to reinforce her already incredible magic powers.

Combined this pieces, the elements and her alicorn power, rose them self to howl new levels, multiplying her strength, speed, agility, magic and even her willpower outside any scale.

In any other world, Discord could had taken Celestia apart – quite literally, playing her to his will,

but right here and now she was quite a match for his powers, probably even more than that...

... still, he had a chance. Discord was unpredictable... ruthless... and right now – raving mad!

"I see you got a new dress Celi! Wont save you!" he screamed as he threw another energyball at her. The ball was about half a meter in diameter and fast as a speeding bullet while performing a slight screw motion and glowing in a cotton candy pink – which belittled his incredible destruction power until the impact revealed there was nothing innocent about it.

As Celestia had about half a second to react to this new attack, but didn't even need a quarter of this time to doge the shot and returning fire by one of her yellow/blue flashing beams of her horn – as the element on her top kicked in and gave it a red sparking glow around it – but failing to hit since Discord had teleported him self out of the way.

The energyball hit a building in the middle, the explosion blew huge chunks out of it, blasting parts all over town - as twelve floors of this building crashed to the ground. Celestia's beam had a similar effect, cutting clean as a hot knife through a building and parts of the streets below, deep down into the earth - causing a line of fire to burst up like the crack was a volcano.

Celestia knew everything she would destroy, could be rebuild – as long she would win this battle.

On the polar opposite, Discord knew he just had to destroy her – and nothing more than that.

The armor might seemed to be to much even for his unlimited powers, but Celestia itself still was just an lousy alicorn – when its about his standards. As the armor withstood several direct hits, absorbing or reflecting shots by Discord, the princess inside had shown to suffer every time a little bit. If he could keep up his paste, he would win... but if she was able to land a direct hit on him, there was no way to tell if he could get up again, since he lacked that fancy armor of hers.

Discord made a swift move, dancing around a few buildings as he rapidly threw five more balls in her general direction like curve-balls, not going straight – but still landing in a long bow close to her, as they exploded like fireworks next to her, shaking her trough harshly.

The princess withstood this attack and countered with a similar one, firing three glowing beams of light after him as one hit his tail and set it on fire.

"OUCH!" he screamed, as he hurried to lick his fingers and put out the flame like a candle.

He got his paste up again, diving down between a housing complex to get lose of her as he slid from house to house like a snake, finding his path and searching the sky for the alicorn as she zoomed above his head on the constant search for him. Discord reacted quickly and his skin became the pattern of the brick wall he was pressing himself against, making her lose his tracks.

Only a few seconds passed as he jumped out of cover for another surprise attack, Celestia noticed right away – her six sense was battle-prove as she had fought many times, still she was little to late.

The draconequus made a grab motion, despite Celestia being around fifty meters away, he got her in his grip as around her body magic started to glow before she could put out a counter spell. He rose up another hundred meters quickly and started to spin around himself and the alicorn along with him like a hammer thrower – she being the hammer about to get thrown, as she got released at his highest spin velocity.

With a -swoosh-  the alicorn flew uncontrolled trough the air – smashing into a nearby building and out of the other side, followed by office furnishings and concrete.

"You getting old!" Discord shouted laughing at the big hole she had left behind "why don't you reti..." but before he could finish his line, his eyes got wide as a bright flash came back trough the hole, setting the building in fire in the process and hitting him right on his chest. He had barely time to turn his body, so the shot didn't hit him directly and he got thrown away.

Discord crashed into a building trough the roof and another few floors deeper, until he landed back first on an elegant bright red couch, with golden frame.

As fire ran wild inside his body, making him yell agony "the -worst - possible -PAIN!", clenching his teeth, as paw grabbed for his burned chest, while his griffon hand covered his pained face.

The chest was burned, all around his side, as well his shoulder and part of his stomach... 

at first it looked quite bad but as he was able to get him self up, knowing she would look after him soon, if not blowing up the howl house in order to get trough him.

It was like lightning had struck him, the wound still had this kind of sparkling sensation to it, as he placed his paw onto it, casting a healing spell as well removing the left over energy of her attack.

Alicornmagic of this level would not just vanish into thin air unless it had used itself up in order to do what ever it was supposed to do, in this case it was meant to destroy everything in his path, so as he channeled the left over energy, the couch got set on fire and the golden frame molt down like water.

The energy was gone and the wound was healed, this had only cost a few seconds of time which he didn't had, still his side felt numb and he had to pump his hand in order to get a feeling back.

He got him self out of the building onto one of the landmarks: a giant golden horse head on top of a building as he spotted Celestia hoovering nearby.

The horsehead came to life on the touch of his finger with a deafening - neigh, turning itself to Celestia with a big huff as the howl building leaned forward like it was his extended neck and in an impossible fast motion, devouring the princess in a single bite. 

Discord didn't took his time to watch the howl thing as he was already gone when the horse head sparked fire out of his eyes, giving a last roaring neigh before exploding into a ball of molten metal.

Celestia spotted him as he tried to find cover behind a skyscraper, it was the biggest one around and there for perfect, but was already hit at some point and the big golden apple on top had stopped spinning. 

There was to much places he could hide behind, lurking for a new attack, so she let go of her last concerns as she charged up her magic and the element of magic started to glow.

For a fraction of a second the howl world got dark, as all light around seemed to get sucked into the blast. It cut right trough the building from top to ground, thick enough to atomize the first thirty floors in the blink of an eye, before getting thinner the next twenty floors, leaving behind burned walls on the edge of the beam until it cut trough the rest of it when she finished the attack – making the building appear like a tree which was hit by a dozen lightning strikes onto the same spot.

The Big Apple Tower was no more. The done damage was devastating to the structure of the building, as it started to lean slowly towards the ground, casting his shadow above everything which was going to get hit, gaining speed as its inclination rose to the point the metal strives inside the concrete snapped like piano strings. Ninty floors came down to the ground, crushing its own remaining floors – as well four other buildings below it, causing a giant smoke cloud covering half the city in a thick mix concrete and dust, hiding the swath of destruction which had been on the other side of the building, since the beam didn't had stopped – cutting down a bunch of stores and minor skyscrapers, literally melting the streets to a steaming mush river of tar, partial burning.

Discord was more than surprised to find out which extremes Celestia's was willing to take.

If he had floated just a few meters higher, the blast had cut straight trough him, unable to avoid it. Still he had been to close to the blast, so a part of the energy had spread onto him like an static discharge, making his howl body feeling numb, as well his wound started to burn again.

He had a hard time to focus his vision, as two alicorn's was in his line of sight for a moment, making him rub his eyes with his arm, as he tried to avoid another charge of her, using short span teleports. 

He would like to get him self on the other end of town, but the alicorn magic he hold inside his body made this an impossible task. 

He was pure chaos from deep within. She was harmony. Mixing this elements was meant to short circuit his system. Not just his magic, his howl body started to break down. His vision and magic was bad enough, but also his lung had a hart time keeping up, making him choke in a bunch of times and last but not least he noticed his left arm not just felt numb anymore, he could barely move it, let alone perform any task.

"Discord.............. " the word hung above the city in the same strong voice he had listen to for about a thousand years, still it was different. When Celestia's voice was like warm sunshine, this time it lacked the warm tone it used to have, making it incisive enough to run trough every bone causing pain. "..... surrender and your life will be spared!".

His reply came like an echo from all sides around her, making it impossible to trace his location.

"Spared!? HA! ... you call being turned to stone a life!? You can stick your offer up your royal nose... princess!" spatting the words as he had a bad taste on his tongue.

He stood in some destroyed street, as his view wandered around in oder to distract him from the pulsing pain in his chest, while he tried to heal him self once more... with partial success. 

There wasn't to many of the town left.

As he looked down he found molten tar and took the time to take a finger full to nibble on it "Not bad..." he tried to remember when he had the last time a peanutbutter and tar sandwich, but couldn't. 

At least a third of the towns building had been completely destroyed, even more buildings had been hit by collateral damage or stood in flames which slowly spread since there was nopony left in town to put them out... same goes for the streets connecting the districts.

Central road was now about six meters deeper and filled with a wild mix out of boiling tar, molten iron and building pieces, framed by burning ruins left and right.

He had to think of something and had to do it fast. In the first minutes of the fight he was on the winning street, but after her lucky hit, he started to stumble down -turned to stone avenue-.

In a close combat fight, he probably could use a direct blast to finish her off... to bad he could not use his claw to do so, he had a quite deadly tennis serve with it, but his arm felt to unresponsive to handle the necessary power.

His lionpaw on the other side was just fine. He made appear one of his energyspheres a few times and disappear once again. Good enough. Than an idea struck him, as he made appear a few more times an energysphere in his paw before getting him self up into the air again. 

This time there was no sneaking up as he got on eye level with Celestia, just a few hundred meters distance between them – facing one another like cowboys in a duel at sunset.

Nothing was said, not a muscle was moved as the two opponents just took a close look on one another. 

The royal armor was partial burned, but still unbroken. Celestia her self on the other hand tried to hide an expression on her face. Her hair just hung down and wounds could be seen where the armor didn't covered her body. 

Discord him self didn't look any better right now. There was burned flesh and other minor wounds scattered around his body – panting even more than Celestia and his claw hing stiff down his side.

There was no sign or anything, as both reacted at the very same moment – as she sent another cutting beam in his direction, while he threw an energyball, similar to the start of the fight,

but this time was different. On the first encounter both was able to avoid the blasts coming at them with ease, this time they reacted a lot slower. 

Celestia got hit by the pink ball straight to the chest, as well Discord did.

The alicorn was blasted backwards, barely able to hold her self up in the air, while Discord fell towards the ground like a stone, crashing somewhere between the houses beneath.

The alicorn kept her guard up, performing a flyover above the crash site - until she had spotted him laying on the ground, so she landed quickly next to him. The draconequus was on all fours and slowly about to get up once again, but the princess would not let him do so.

Her armor began to glow where the elements had been hidden inside, as a sphere of white light started to shine around her, forming rings of energy along. Discord was up on his feet but barely could do two steps when a rainbow coloured beam of light hit him straight, making him cry in argony as his body was turned into stone.

Celestia observed the statue of the banished god for a minute, before she collapsed onto her knees, trying to get some rest.

"Its done..." she said to her self thoughtful, closing her eyes to focus on this moment.

There was a soft glow surrounding her body and the ground beneath as she started to cast a healing spell on herself. As alicorn she knew about a thousand spells some say, but almost nopony ever had seen her perform magic. Usual she avoided using magic in public, since she felt the need, to give everypony the feeling to be equal.

A soft wind blew through the street as her ears caught a sound of crumbling stone in front of her. 

The statue slowly fell to pieces. At first the horns partial fell down, followed by an arm, while cracks started to spread all over it, like it would age on a rapid rate, turning to dust.

She had no idea what was going on. This spell was meant to keep him banned into stone, not to kill him, so she did her best to get up and got herself a few steps closer as his voice once again seemed to come from everywhere "My turn..." as the head of the statue landed on the ground, to reveal the inside of the statue was completely empty- it was just an shell!

There was no time to react. All around Celestia, inside the buildings, energyballs light up - striking at her one after another. At least two dozen of them hammering onto her, hitting every square inch; brutalizing her body like never before. Not even two seconds after the firestorm had been worn of, the real Discord came from above, crushing trough the statue of his to deliver the finally blow with an oversize iron boxing glove, which also had a pink glow to it – striking her directly onto the unicorn symbol in the middle of her chest, giving it a crack as she was thrown down the street to crash into the one building, which had been spared from the destruction - until now. 

There was a loud impact and more destruction - which at this point didn't stand out anymore.

It was just one more ruin next to another one and so on down the street.

The only thing which made this one special was, that it probably was the last building which was obliterated, since the fight just had ended and the winner was him.

The draconequus took a look on the crumbled statue, than into the remains of a broken window, which lacked of a reflection "to bad, he was such a head-turner..." he sighed, when suddenly his reflection jumped around the corner of the window, waving his hands to the audience, making him cheer with glee "Bravo! Bravo! Magnificent performance" the double blushed and waved it off embarrassed as the real Discord threw a bouquet of roses into the mirror and got caught by the reflection. It hold up the roses as well a small golden trophy in his other paws and was bowing down all around, like there was a bigger audience as screams and whistling was to hear from all around.

The original was going on his way to search Celestia. 

The building front was gone, so Discord would not be to surprised to find her a few buildings further than this. Getting inside required to push aside debris of building parts and bookshelf's, but he didn't bother to do so and teleported straight behind this mess. The air was filled with burning papers, dancing in a balmy breeze all around him.

The remains looked like some kind of tourist agency... brochures where laying on the ground, next to some thin books about Equestria, most of them covered in dirt and unable to read. The walls (the ones still standing) hung full of posters, showing exotic places and had partial pin boards on them. 

On every step he heard the sound of cracking wood and concrete below him, but at least he had a good light here, helping him on his search, since the sun had plenty space to shine in trough holes everywhere, while parts of the ceiling fell to the ground all around him, giving the impression this building was about to collapse. The search was really short, for once it wasn't to big of a store and on the other hand the swath of destruction gave the direction, as he found Celestia laying on top of something what might have been a bookshelf.

The wall behind her told the story of the impact: it was pushed in around half an meter and cracked, but didn't collapse like the building front, which he found to be a kinda impressive construction – given the force it had to withstand.

The alicorn was laying in front of him and didn't seem to move at all, since the armor gave him a hard time to tell if she was still breathing, so he decided to give her a small nudge with his goatleg, as she opened her eye partial.

"So... you are still alive?" Discord said, making it sound like he wasn't sure what to make of it.

Celestia knew there was no way she could get up for the next hours. 

This was just an last respite she figured, preparing her self to die with calm dignity.

Discord felt awkward about this, like he had seen it before, as an old thought caught up to him, when he was turned to stone the first time, he had imaged this moment... he had spent hundred of years doing so, creating all kind of scenarios in his head, but most of the time it was something like:  Defeating Celestia, taking over Equestria and making it his playground forever.

He tried to repeat this thought a few times, but it didn't sound as good like it used to- back than... almost like something essential was missing. It was gnawing on him from the edge of his mind right now... maybe he just could turn Celestia into stone - giving her a taste of her own medicine? Was that it? No... not quite. Still not a bad idea, which he put in another part of his mind on a to-do-list for another time. There was nothing wrong here, so why he felt bothered all of a sudden?

He had won a fair fight between them, at least by his understanding of the term fair.

At this point he sat down in front of her, crossing his arms and legs, going trough his main-checklist:

Step 1, causing chaos... as he took a glance over his shoulder. Done that.

Step 2, defeating Celestia when she shows up - now giving her a glance. Done that.

Step 3, causing more chaos... hm. Sounds kinda fun. Should do that.

Step 4, Living happily ever after. At this part he started to struggle... odd.

He ripped out a few sides from a book nearby and ate them frustrated, starring down on Celestia which observed him as good she could. The longer he starred back at her, the more he felt she had neither any idea what was going on right now.

"What?" he asked her, but didn't got any response... making him frown, since she passed in and out fainting partial, breaking her focus "Oh, don't be such a drama queen!".

In all of Equestria was only a hand full of immortal creatures and Celestia was one of them. Also she knew him for quite some time, so it might been worth a shot to try something different.

As his paw touched her face, Celestia closed her eye in anticipation for him to finish what he had started, but the feeling which streamed through her was way different from what she had expected – as she felt more alive...? Which was kinda confusing to her "What have..." cutting her self off. Celestia's mayor head and neck wounds had been healed and she felt some energy in her body again, even was able to sit up, but still not enough to get up on her hooves or even think of continuing the fight, so this was a option by any means. Discord would win with a single gesture. Still the expression on his face made clear, if she even would hint... on something like a -Thank you- he would reverse his healing spell ... twice.

So, he just sat there in front of her, slowly rubbed his paws like a impatient kid, waiting for some cookie to cool down. Impatient was probably the second word coming to mind, when it was about to describe Discord, so seeing him just sitting there, waiting for something to happen was somehow really disturbing, making her unsure what to do about it.

If she said something wrong, he might would change his mind once more? Maybe this was another one of his tricks ... maybe he wanted to corrupt her as well? There was no way to be sure, so she just jumped into the blue, since there was nothing more to lose, than she already was willing to give "What do you want?"

His paws hold still when he tried to respond, his mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish but he could not quite find a way to start it "I... actually..... i- i don't know" suprising himself saying so. The draconequus got up and started to walk slowly up and down in front of her, like it would help i'm to get on tracks, waving his hands while doing so.

"Then, what do you know?" giving him another little push, hopefully in the right direction.

"Isn't this obvious? I am supposed to bring magnificent chaos... and you... pesky harmony ...of course i guess i'm a lot better on my part" as he made a complacent gesture around him "...but there is still something missing and it drives me nuts! What am i missing!? ...tell me!"

Celestia´s eyes got wide as she kept listening to him, rumbling on about the topic, but it took only a few heartbeats for her to think about it, since she knew this problem better than anypony else. 

Oh, it had been so long time ago... more than a thousand years... but it felt like it had just been yesterday, a very strong dejavué was crawling up inside of her and she could not shake it off.

It was just like it was back then. A fight between two immortals, meant to be to end with ones death.

She had fought it and she had won... but she didn't kill her enemy back then; instead she had used the Elements of Harmony to turn him into stone for a thousand years to come.

Discord had been defeated, the land had been saved and harmony restored, but she felt wrong about it-...but why would she? Something had been missing, a single piece putting everything together.

It had turned out, to get rid of this weird feeling was more luck than anything else, since she received help herself and didn't want to image how long it would had took without. Days? Weeks? Years? ... longer? There was just no way to tell.

There was one more thing which could make her shiver about this memory: a trivial -what if- ... 

what if she didn't had found it back than? Would she had been able to figure it out on her own? 

Most unlikely... and there withing was the the core of the problem. Discord never had anypony willing to help him on this or anything at all. She could let him get consumed by it to the point of breaking apart, but probably would break the world along with him...

He might been evil, he might been her biggest foe and still could end her life, but she decided not to give in to this dark thoughts ... she had to give him the answer... or she might would lose it herself.

"You want to bring chaos to Equestria" she began.

"Of course! I just said that! Are you deaf?" the question was cynical to the point being poisonous.

She waited a moment for him to calm down, as he was kicking debris around until he was able to listen to her again.

"And when everything is chaos... ?"

He turned around and bent down to her, waving his finger "Well, i ..." was all he could say before he was stuck, reaching once more an dead point. He would make chaos, or not?

Everything he could think of would lead him back to the start. Chaos for chaos sake – this was the pattern he was following all this years, but having a pattern... was this really chaos? 

How could it be...? 

Chaos was meant to be unpredictable! 

To make no sense! What fun would there be had otherwise? 

But the harder he tried to accomplish this goal, the more predictable he became, the more sense it made why he did, what he did! 

It was a loop and he found himself stuck right in its center. There was no way out. His life was nothing less than pathetic. A joke without punch line. Had it always been like this and he didn't notice until now?

One of the few remaining walls got blown into pieces, but he didn't feel better. He just did what he had to... like a worker, going trough his routine until he would bite the dust. 

Of course... being immortal made this task a lot more tedious.

How could his greatest victory taste so pale?  

"Discord..." she spoke up to get his attention a last time.

He was more than stunned to find her standing upright when he gave her a glance.

If there was anything about Celestia even more impregnable than her armor, it probably was her iron will.

She was shivering and he got quite a good idea how much pain it must been, to force her self up, as he was thinking about to give her another blast so she could not try some kind of attack or trick, holding ready a energyball about the size of an orange in his paw, but something about her had changed, she didn't look threatening anymore to him. Maybe it was just the horrible state she was in, to weak to hold her own weight properly, having one of her legs bent to get a better hold... but the thing which was giving her away was - her eyes.

There was no more lust to fight. She was not broken or unwilling to do so if she had to, but right now... her glance was somehow... merciful? 

"... i know what you are missing." she claimed, panting.

His paw stifled the energyball in a short hiss "What-is-it?" as he payed close attention towards her.

She gave him a heartwarming smile, using a big deal of strength in order to say this one clear as she could "Somepony to love".

The draconequus thought that was the biggest pile of nonsense he ever had heard – which technical should be a good thing towards him, but almost made him choke right now.

"What? Are you out of your mind Celi!?" giving her a angry frown "like you got anypony on your side! You are talking ....!" trying to find of a fitting word to express this phenomenalwrong statement!

"Truth" she suggested, as she slowly sunk to the ground again, not able to hold her self up anymore as pulsating sparks of pain run through her spine. If the town wasn't already torn to the ground, he sure had done it now! Since this was most outrageous to even think about something like this, let alone say it straight to his face. He was on fire, literally.

"You are alone! How could you possible know!?" he accused her of lying.

The benevolent smile from before came back on her face "I'm not..." she explained "i love every single pony there is... and they love me in return... and this..." she felt how her systemic circulation gave in and became unsteady and started to gasp "its what makes me...  makes me fight... raise the sun..." her sight started to blur "makes" she tried to blink but, felt so tired and wanted to sleep "my life, worth while."

Like a tsunami wave of recognition washed over his mind as he pulled out a burned piece of paper out of his imaginary pocket, like a magician would pull out a hidden card.

His hand stroke through his white hair "how could i forget?" his mind felt blown as he stumbled across the room, raising a pushed over chair from the ground with his magic in order to sit down. He had to sit down and it felt so good to sit like he didn't had sat in decades.

When they had started this fight, he had not just turned to his old habits, he had completely forgot everything. This wasn't him anymore. It felt so wrong right now, but for a howl other reason and this time it was the "right one" to feel wrong about. 

She was absolute right. This is why he was here, this was what it was all about "Fluttershy" he said to himself.

He gave Celestia an glance, but she was once again just laying on her side, breathing hard and unconscious. 

His eyes was wandering around the room. There wasn't much left to be looked at.

As he took a look through the gaping hole towards the street, watching a skyscraper which still was about to tilt slowly it also came to his mind where they even had fought.

A howl city was destroyed... for a piece of paper, which he now hold up to his face.

Than an idea struck him, as a light-bulb appeared above his head, making him search the ground until he found what he was looking for. It was just some common brochure about travel destinations, nothing special. 

He flipped pages and read up what ever was written in it, skipping the colorful pictures and smiling pony's in between, also the advertisement – keeping focus on the available places.

"Filly Delphia"

"Apple Losa"

"Smocky Mountain"

"Baltimare"

he flipped pages till he almost was through when he found what he was searching for, holding up the burned paper once more.

-Upcoming flying performance in: Ya#h###... 

Giving the brochure another glance "Visit Yanhoover! The west coast breeze"

He jumped up from his chair in excitement, the chair he had sat on fall over again as he made two big steps towards Celestia and rose her from the ground with his powers, waking her up in the process "YOU ARE GENIUS!" he yelled grabbing her head in order to give her an fat kiss on the mouth, making her eyes go wide and broad awake... and even blushed, kinda enjoying it a little. Nopony should ever find out, but this... felt like her very first kiss.

"Fun talking to you, got to go!" he said, like he was late for work and with that - was gone. 

Celestia slowly sunk down to the ground, her heart was racing and her blood pressure had skyrocket for a few seconds, but then was slowly going back to normal, after the first adrenaline rush was over.

The force field around town had vanished when Discord had delivered his last hit and the few pony's near the barrier had noticed right away, running into the town center in order to see what was going on, the others had followed quickly into the ruins once called Manehatten, but the town was nothing alike they remembered. So much had to be repaired or even rebuild from scratch. It was hard to tell, if that was even possible.

A bunch of pony's got right away into fire fighting, putting out some buildings which had been still on flames, helping the ones that knew what to do.

As the pony's spread about town, checking what had happened to their homes and stores, also the store owner and his wife found their way into what they assumed had been theirs, but it was hard to tell by the damage done.

His wife went to the left of the store, while her husband was going to the right, looking for things that might be worth to be saved when suddenly his wife shouted "SWEET CELESTIA!"

"Yeah i know, its quite bad here too..." he replied, as his wife shouted again "No, no! Come over here, hurry!!” being panicky. 

Her husband immediately run over to see what all the ruckus was about "Why do y-" his jaw dropped before mumbling incredulous "Sweet, Celestia...". 

It was really her! In his store! What an unbelievable surprise and honor. 

He threw himself next to his wife onto the ground in order to show his respect towards her, as they noticed the princess was not in her best shape. 

"Honey, get some water, quick" he ordered and she did. The faucet in the backroom was destroyed, but the water still run out of the broken conduit onto the ground and into a crack underground.

She picked up a cup from a small cupboard on the ground and filled it up to the tip.

The stallion took this moment to check for her condition "Your highness, are you awake?" feeling big relieve when the alicorn opened her eyes, giving an almost unnoticeable nod. 

When the wife had returned, they gave her the cup which she drank slowly, making both pony's grin in glee. 

After half an hour and some more cups of water the princess asked him to help him up, but it was an impossible task. The princess it self might was quite tall, even taller than any stallion, but still elegant in therms of body-shape... but her armor on the other side was thick dense steel and way to heavy to get up and impossible to remove.

Her husband run out onto the street, gathering every strong stallion he could find. Begging, bribing and partial threaten any strong stallion he could find in order to follow him, to the point he had a small crowd collected around him, some just came along out of pure curiosity what the fuzz was all about. 

His wife kept guard of the princess, making sure she didn't faint again by talking to her, telling her about all the travels she had taken part in with her beloved man and about the store they had been in for so long. 

As her man returned with half a dozen stallions, which reacted similar to him, mumbling her name in reverence, like saying it out loud could bring misfortune above them. 

The stallions forgot about the bribes and threats - they knew this was way to important to be this fussy about anything else in this moment and focused on the work laying ahead.

Not even twenty minutes later hundred of pony's had gathered around the infamous store, clearing the path of debris and had put up an medical tent, as well doing anything helpful they could think of, but most of them just sat there patiently, since there was nothing they could do, what hadn't been done already, holding company to one another.

The mass got silent as the Princess Celestia slowly walked outside the store, propped by four of the strongest stallions this town had to offer, while doctors and nurses lead the way and started the treatment as soon she was inside the tent.

As time passed thousands already had been gathered around this spot, sitting on the street or in nearby buildings, but there was not a single pony who dared to cut in line in order to do something ungracefully. Most of them waited silently, only a few where whispering, but there was one exception and she was sitting right in the middle.

A single earthpony was playing on a cello, using only her hooves to pluck the strings... and sung, while she did so. The song was an ancient ballad "Spirited Away" or as some pony's knew it "Always with me". The mare stood on a big pile of concrete, so most could not just hear, but also see her – but she could not see them in return, since she had closed her eyes to focus on the music. The mare had gray fur, a long shiny black mane and pink eyes - a melody note on her flank and wore a pink bow-tie on a white collar, as her strong melodic voice was carried through the streets, attracting even more pony's to come by and listen, while the some spectators started to sing along in harmony.
> Into the Spotlight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Into the spotlight

Yannhoover was not even half the size of Manehatten, but famous for its exotic white beaches, extensive festivals and the most xenophilous pony's you could find in all of Equestria. 

It was really a great place to live and even better if you are an performer. All stars had made their first big contract in this town and since there was so many smaller and bigger, as well some wana-be-stars around, designers and talent agents could be found everywhere, looking for the next big deal.

In the north of the town was the show-district, which hold the biggest stadiums around, big enough for hundred of pony's to fit in and enjoy the performance given to them.

Some of those stadiums had roofs, able stay warm inside when the weather was bad or winter came close, others stood open for very same reason - to let the sun in when the weather was good and enabling flying performances to get the necessary space to fly.

Only one stadium at a time would get closed, in order for a quick restoration, keeping them open almost day and knight to hold of shows which tried to out perform one another and the next one was about to start in only a few hours. 

The open air stadium was crowded, but not with paying customers, right now there was just a big staff working in order to ready up the place for the fourth coming performance of the day. 

A few mares cleaned up the mayor area and seats, while stallions brought in the decoration.

Smaller mixed teams got ready to resupply the snacks and drinks, while behind the stage the costume and make up crew was constantly busy to change last details.

The leading costume mares was quite annoyed right now, one of the stitch-work had got lose on the last performance and nopony had noticed until now.

Prim Hemline was upset as usual when something was not going according to plan.

"Where is my stitch girl!? Bring her here immediately!" she gave orders towards one of the five mares which circled her all the time, ready to carry out every order in a hurry "we got less than an hour to fix this mess, or there wont be time for the make up!"

She took a very short moment to sigh "We never had those kinda problems with the costumes from Ponyville... that pony knew to stitch..." but as times changed, the pony sadly had canceled the contract for some reason - leaving her behind with those amateurs.

Meanwhile a blue pegasus pony checked a last time her room. She had a rainbow colored mane and purple eyes and she wore a black fabric protection above one of her wings

It was quite a day ahead, their biggest show was going on stage and everything had to work as planned, so they could get it on the big tour to other city's after. Filly Delphia, Manehatten and most important Cloudsdale. 

She got to her safe and put in the secret combination, but not before checking left and right twice to get extra sure nopony was looking, to store a hoof full more bits into it.

The safe was almost full of bits, even for some rich pony's a noticeable amount. It had taken years to gather all those bits and when they got finally on tour, she would need a bigger safe for sure! 

It was a question of months till she could fulfill her dream using those, giving her a thick grin.

The door got shut and she took a deep breath "focus Rainbow... lets get out there and kick some tail!" talking to nopony in particular then herself, as she left the door to get to her star.

"Hey, how s it going? Is Fluttershy ready yet!?"

Prim kinda had a love and hate relation towards Rainbow Dash, for once she liked her to be always on guard – keeping track of what was going on and never afraid to lay hoof on her self to make it happen, or even to step on other ponies hoovetipps for that matter. 

She was a lot like her self in this regard, which was also the reason she could not stand her to much. A big show like this needed a pony in charge, it needed herself in charge... to have a mare that was this similar around was just annoying, forcing Prim to keep a close eye on her, so orders would not get mixed up. Also there was always the possibility Rainbow Dash could be after her job, in their kind of business this was a comon practice, making her a dangerous Allie. 

"We are on schedule, Mrs. Dash" Prim assured "Why don't you let us do our work?"

"I would love to, but she has to do her warm up soon, what about that?"

Most pony's had burst out into yelling after weeks of arguing with her, but Prim kept it professional. 

"Fine Mrs. Dash" turning to her helpers "Featherwing, Rose, you help our star out of the costume... we will fix it, while Mrs. Fluttershy does her warm up."  turning to Rainbow again "Anything else?" holding her neutral expression.

"Uhm, no... i guess. I will wait on stage then..." giving a nod to the yellow pegasus which was about to get undressed the fifth time today and tried to be patient about it.

Rainbow got out on the stage, the crew had done a good job to change the scenery from the -Spring Dance- to the -Night Fang- setting – one of their most famous shows was going to replaced today. It was a proud moment for everypony working on this. Putting up a new show was always a risk. A lot of things could go wrong and even if they didn't, the audience just might not liked it at all.

"Ey boys, how s going?"

Greeting the workers cheerful, which always been glad to have her around, since she had a lot nicer way of putting out orders than their other boss "quite good Mrs. D., almost done!" a brown stallion replied as he put some firework charges around the marked area.

"Display, what about the red charges?"

The stallion looked up from his work once more "What about them?"

"What about them!? You almost set her costume on fire you egghead!"

"Oh that,... yea changed the angles on that, Mrs. D.... wont happen again... but, the rest looked great, didn't it?"

"Well, yeah it did... but don't make me kick ur butt" she winked at him, making the worker chuckle as he finished his work.

The yellow pegasus stepped outside, finally undressed except some basic layers of white coat, which should make sure the costume wasn't rubbing to much above her skin while she was doing her high-g performance.

Rainbow noticed her appearance right away, as some of the workers could not help to make a long neck to get a glance on her. Rainbow had to make a sharp whistle sound, using her hooves to get everypony's attention "Ey, chop chop, you get an autograph later!" now turning to Fluttershy.

"So... how is my star feeling?"

"I... i'm fine" giving her only a slight smile. 

"You sure!?" she checked "was the costume mare ruff again?" 

"No... just nervous." 

"Nervous!?" Rainbow laughed "You're doing shows all the time! And you're AMAZING!"

"Thanks..."

The blue pegasus now stepped towards the center of the big stage area, making a box motion while speaking."... and our new show will be at least 20% cooler, than anything those pony's ever have seen!! It will knock them from their hooves!"

"If you say so..."

"Oh come on Fluttershy, whaz up?"

"I ... its just..." as she took a deep breath "we haven't practiced it enough ...i think... maybe".

Now she was a little confused "But, we done nothing else the howl last month!" 

"Fluttershy... is it about the finale?" 

The yellow pegasus let her head hanging a bit but didn't respond.

"We talked about this, the finale is fine, even without the last trick...... pony's will love it... they will love you...." giving her a soft nudge on the shoulder "like i do"

"Oh. Okay" she said shyly, as she got her smile back and her cheeks going red.

"That's the spirit! ... so lets go trough your warm up, don't want ya strain a wing".
Fluttershy got off the ground and started to spin slow curves and minor loops after a few minutes, while Rainbow gave her some notes from the ground one some of the moves, as she noticed once more an worker was just starring onto the yellow pegasus. 

"Ey!" clopping her hoof a few times on the ground "don't make me fly over there buddy!" 

The biggest star of the town had just arrived on top his royal candy cotton cloud. 

being pretty much a god between mortals was as royal as you could get, so it was just fair to act like it. This town sure would hold the answers he was looking for and it had to hand them over with a curtsy, an apology card and maybe some flowers as well, to make up for it. Three was his lucky number after all and if not, he would just snap and make happen "four" was coming before "three" from this day on.

Of course this time he would try to avoid this minor accident from before to happen again. 

The last thing he wanted to happen is to bury his special somepony below a skyscraper... heaven sake. The thought alone made him want to slap himself, summoning a double in front of him, to which he hold his cheek. The double was about to slap him once, as the original avoided the slap and gave him one in return, just to make it disappear after watching the dumb face of his. "Technical it counted" he grinned. Yes he was in the spirit of things... the chaos spirit to be precise.

Since he had not quite a idea where to start and the town still being quite big, he decided to try camouflage once more, ending up in a side street in his former appearance... but it was not quit good enough as he reminded himself. His fur color became a deep brown and his mane was just white, his eyes became clear white with dark red pupils. Simple enough.

Almost he had forgot: a cutiemark was a must have, making it a raining cotton candy cloud.

For his next step he made a giant mirror appear, his reflection just was staying there like on the farm as he made a sharp gesture towards it, like a parent sending his kid to his room. 

The reflection rolled his eyes and stepped out of the picture for a moment as a bright flash was to see, just to return as his exact copy, turning him self once 360° to show off it was not cheating.

"If you ruin this Mr., i bring you back to Celestia" and he sure meant it, making the reflection gulp.

Now he just needed one more thing for his little charade... some fool he could borrow for a few minutes. He walked out of the side street to pick the first pony to come by, which turned out to be a simple earth pony. She had bright yellow fur, a mane out of a lighter and darker green tone as well green eyes and a chicken on her flank, walking down the street and starring big eyes on everything around her like a numb nut. 

"Hey, you!"

"You mean me?" blushing at his sight. He sure was some attractive stallion! What a great town she had to admit... barely a few hours here and already about to get picked up. 

"Yes, you... come over here..."

"Oh, alright Mr. Handsome!" she cheered with a big grin.

"Mr. Handsome?" he thought to him self, yeah he could get used to that.

As the naive mare got around with him on his corner he tapped her head to put her under his spell, making her a always smiling but even more mindless marionette. 

"You follow me and do as i say..." making the mare nod silently.

He noticed the pocket on her back, this might would turn out to be useful he figured, but he had to make a slight adjustment to it. He removed all the unnecessary stuff from them into a nearby trashcan and made appear two black flat boxes which fit in perfectly.

"Lets go" he ordered, the mare once again did a mindless nod and followed on his side like a trained dog. The mission was simple enough, find his wife by any non-violent means necessary... and if that wont work. Well he will rethink the options and shake everypony in town until they talk.

Much as the note had given away, if it was right, she would be in this town and perform somewhere. So he just had to check the shows in town and would stumble onto her eventually. 

After an hour of search he knew it wasn't that easy as he made it out to be. There have been like a thousand smaller and bigger shows going on, how the heck he was the one to find them?

He stumbled down the main road, as he found something familiar on a sign, it said tourist information on it, so he got him self in right away, but the place was quite crowded and the waiting line long. 

Discord clopped his hoof-tip two times on the ground as two big snakes appeared out of thin air in front of him "Oh noes... dangerous snakes!" he said overly dramatic "Better run!" 

The pony's spotted the snakes and a panic was caused in ten seconds flat – making the pony's rush out of the information onto the street. 

Just as the information mare itself was about to run out, the door began to glow and shut close.

"HELP! I'm trapped!" the mare hammered the door "help!" but it was like the door was mute, no pony outside did care or even notice her hammering. 

"What the matter" he asked innocent.

"Snakes there are snakes! She shrieked, while trying to make out the reptilians. 

"Cant see any, but you could answer me a tinzy tiny question right?"

"But the snakes!" she still worried, jumping onto her table.

"There are no freaking snakes!" he shouted at her but the mare would not listen.

"I hate snakes, don't let them bite me!" 

"Servant!" he shouted to the mare of his and pointed towards the information mare.

His marionette got up to the table, grabbed the mare and shook her a few times, until he said "Enough" 

The information mare now was a little more focused than before.

"No snakes here, now sit down, i got a question!"

The blue mare scanned the ground a last time, hung her head about the table corner below it and than slowly got down to sit down on her chair again, checking quickly a last time behind her, before bringing her mane back to shape with a fast move of her hoof. 

"Next please, don't cut in line, i will answer your questions soon" rattling of her routine, having an a stupid overly nice smile put up onto her face, still giving short glances onto the ground.

Discord took a look around, there was one else besides the three of them - this girl was even a bigger numb nut than his servant. He had to find somepony with an IQ above an tiny bolder. 

He facehooved "Oh Fluttershy, where are you" about to turn to the door to find some other tourist spot, while behind him the mare swung around on her chair, opened a file cabinet without having to search to slap a flier onto his side of the table. "Fluttershy, artistic flier, WingStarDome, next performance in twenty-three minutes... anything else i can do?"

Discord spun around as soon he had heard the name, but wasn't even fully turned when the mare had rattled down those facts.

He ran up to the table and starred at the flier. It was the same photo he had received earlier, but this time with some advertisement below "See the great Fluttershy performing her new show -Night Fangs- , only now in WingStarDome!"

He tapped a few times on the paper "This is today? here? for real? NOW?" 

"Fluttershy will perform in twenty-one minutes, artistic flying at the WingStarDome". She repeated her self, almost sounding like a broken record.

"What direction is the dome!? I must see this!"

The mare pointed on a map "Here, ...but this particular show is sold out, if you want me to get cards for next month, or replacement like..." turning around to pick quickly another card out of her cabinet "The great Trix... oh" her only costumers had been vanished.

She shrugged and put the card back into the cabinet... now since there was some space to breath, she could get out her sandwich and take a quick bite she figured, opening the drawer on her table.

"AH! SNAKE!"

Discord and his assistant ran as fast as they could trough the masses of pony's. It was not easy to get passed them, since only half of them got in the right direction, the other half was about to leave the area or crossing paths by walking from dome to dome.

Of course he just could use his magic here, but he didn't know where exactly to teleport and the most other spells would end in mass panic, in which he most likely would lose track of her once again - not to speak about his mind being quite stuck on the second gear.

The dome came in sight and it was just freaking huge. It just had about twelve floors in high, but its diameter was like putting the BigAppleTower flat on the ground a few times ... before it had been blown to pieces.

One third of the front was scattered with entry's, about two dozen in order to handle the fan rush, one more third was there for emergency exits and staff, bringing in and out all the necessary goods to support the dome all around the clock. 

The last third was on the back side, having only a hoof full doors for the VIP arrival, leading to a separated part of the dome on the highest ranks, which provided the best view on the show.  

Since there was no way to get past the crowd on the front or the security on the sides, he tried to be a little more elegant about it - heading for the back entrance. 

He ran past a billboard, a white light flashed behind it and Discord now had a smooth black tuxedo, a black tophat and a red bowtie around his neck. The same happened to his assistant, giving her a white gala-dress, a golden bracelet and crystal hair-slide. 

The duo got close to the entrance and slowed down to get in line, only a hand full of pony's. 

Some of them tried to argue about to get let in, but get send away in a harsh manner as they walked by them, still complaining in a snobby tone "Unbelievable! I'm a Duke! ... they will hear from my lawyers!".

Discord could not help him self than tapping two times on the ground, making a stone and a mud paddle right in front of the stallion, as tripped and landed face first in the puddle "OH noeess! My beautiful clothes!" making Discord giggle.

"Next!" one of the green bouncer grunted as the awkward duo stepped in front of him.

Two guards stood in front of him, both at least one head bigger, muscular and grumpy. 

His colleague, another big black stallion took a close look on the mare, giving a slow accepting nod. 

Now he took a close look on the stallion on his side, laying his head a little on the side... "A bowtie?"

The brown stallion acted smooth "Bow-ties are cool!", but failed to impress.

"No they are not..." the stallion said in a bored voice "...please show your cards, Sir"

Discord could make up a card, but he was not just in plain sight, but also still quite clumsy with his hooves and last not but least, quite a smartypants and prepared upfront.

"Uhm... Honey, would you please give him our cards?" putting a confident smile, but the mare to his side didn't move, she just stood there and gave him a blend look. 

Right now he kinda missed the mare from the tourist information. 

"The pocket, honey..." now the mare moved, reaching inside the elegant silk bag she was wearing, handing over the boxes insides to the bouncers, one each.

"If you try to bribe us..." the guard starred as he opened the box along side his colleague, making their eyes grew wide "... you are welcome!" moving aside at once, after hanging both a VIP-pass around their necks.

Discord still wasn't quite pleased "I want that" pointing on the guards backstage-pass. 

"Uhm... i'm not sure i can give you that."

He cheered at the guard "Well, we trade then!" as he tapped on his chest, as suddenly the guard was wearing his bowtie, there for Discord had his backstage pass around his neck.

"Hey!" the guard grunted, but the strange stallion put his hoof on his shoulder, pushing him down on his butt with ease, despite the guard trying to hold against it with all his strength to the point of breaking out in sweat. 

"You seen my generous side,... how about the other one?" giving him a devilish smile as something shimmered in his eyes, almost looking like his pupils are burning, before he let go and turned around to get inside, leaving the guards behind in an awkward silence.

The disguised draconequus was now inside and had no more need for his company, leaving her out of his spell.

"OH, where am i....?" as she noticed the stallion next to her "Ohoho.. Mr. Handsome, where are we?" she giggled "uh! Where did this come from!?" now noticing the incredible dress on her, along side the pass "gosh, i'm a VIP? How did this happen!?" jumping up and down in place.

He didn't bother to answer any of those questions and wandered of, making the mare behind him sulk sadly "where you going Mr. Handsome!?" as another stallion noticed her outstanding appearance "Hello Madam, how would you like to see the show with me?"
This stallion was even more handsome than the one before, having a greyish amber fur, a stiled dark gray mane and baby blue eyes – his cutie mark being money bags. He wore a blue suit and a fitting red tie with a money sign on it.

"I would LOVE to!" she squeaked, grabbing on to her new Mr. Handsome, heading towards their private balcony.

Discord walked unimpeded through the dome as he heard the a roaring all around him, than another one followed. The show must been about to start he figured, doubling his speed until he came on a crossing, picking a direction without slowing down and it turned out it was the right one, as he came to a hold sliding when he noticed a bright light on his right. 

It was like he had died and the gates of heaven was about to call him. He slowly walked towards the light until he reached the border to the other side - and got stopped.

"Wouu there buddy, what yu think you are doing?" 

"If that isn't Rainbow Dash..." 

"The one and only! And now tell me where you thought ur going?" 

He found him self surprisingly calm in this moment "To Fluttershy"

"What are you? Some groupie of her?" giving him a close look "ain't you a little to old for that?"

He gave a dry laugh ".... maybe. Where is she?" 

She got close to him, almost touching noses "You go nowhere buddy, she is on stage ...and if you even THINK about blowing her show, buster... " raising her hoof threatening.

The stage. The stage! 

He just dared to turn his head in the direction of the stage and already got a hoof in his flank, sending him hard down to the ground "Told ya!"

This puch wasn't half bad for a regular pony, but he had worse today and compared to that... it was like she had tried to tickle him.

Outside, the sunset was about to happen as the sky turned slowly red, as he noticed somepony in a  sharp contrast coming down from above, in a slow long curve... landing about hundred meter from the center.

It was an angel... dressed in a white summer gown which sparkled in theo sunlight like a diamond. She just stood there, while all around three big spotlights came to live, circling over the place in a soft motion to play with her shadow, but avoiding her touch - like a playful wind breeze as the music started to set in and the luminous figure began to move towards the center, which was enlightened by a bright fourth spotlight, waiting for her to step in.

At first there was just a guitar, playing a few lost notes, letting them wander around till they got lost in the distance... then there was a second guitar to be heard, playing along to the first one, guiding the way with a more rhythmic pattern. It was majestic. 

The mare moved elegant and carefree towards the middle, smiling towards the audience, but to nopony in specific, like she would enjoy a warm day in the sun, until she stopped in the center of the fourth light, while the other tree spot lights now circled the biggest one around in a steady slow motion.

As suddenly a stallion started to sing with an strong, full voice and the song changed stile in a heartbeat, the guitars got cut off and a piano started to play, spontaneous accompanied with a short drum beat - and on this very beat - right behind the angel, on the edge of the light, landed a giant black bat in an instant, which nopony had seen coming.

The yellow pony spun around in shock, to be horrified by the creature of the night.

---A sight for sore eyes, to the blind would be awful mare-jestic---

Suddenly - Another beat, two more bats came down left and right.

---it would be the most beautiful thing---

more beats, more bats as the pony started to back of almost surrounded by dark ugly creatures all of them half her size.

---that they ever had seen---

Now the pony was surrounded, at least a dozen of drooling and spitting bats around her, spreading their wings and showing their teeth.

Discord tried to get up as the blue pony jumped on his back "Relax, its part of the show!"

So he laid there and watched. 

---it would cause such surprise, it would make all of their minds electric!---

The bats jumped forward as the yellow mare rose up into the sky, leaving the bats behind for a second as they also got after her, while the piano music caught up in speed, following her as she spun around the sky, trying to avoid the bats which seemed to be scattered everywhere.

The pony now increased it speed drastic, but the bats got more and more - their count had multiplied since the start and there was no end in sight to their sheir endless raising numbers.

---how could anypony tell them - that some things are not what they seem?---

As the mare managed to get distance between herself and the hunters.

The drum´s gave a flood wave of beats, while the piano kept his stedy speed- keeping the tension, when suddenly the bats swarm started to form into something even more sinister.

The guitars came back with this, giving the music more strength and passion.

---in such disbelief, i thought i was asleep when i met youuuu...---

As the angel turned around and was shocked to see what was after her.

The swarm had formed itself to one single giant bat, starring at the small pegasus, which returned the sight overwhelmed by fear.

---my heart liquefied and i neighed – oh! this must be a dreaammmm...!---

She could not else than trying to get desperately away from it, racing in the first best direction there was, but the monster charged after, slowly closing distance and unable to get shook off her tail, despite her best efforts! Where ever she flew - the bat blocked off her escape way. 

It merged in and out of the night sky like a specter - forcing her more than once, to pull hard role to the side, missing it by just a few centimeters, as she struggled more and more to hold her self in the air, but she had to, somehow!

The drum beats just rained down as it would represent her heartbeat, racing in panic

---if i forget to set the alarm and sleep on through the dawn - don't remind me---

The giant bat turned around in a long circle, to merge once more with the shadow of the night, as the mare looked quickly all around herself, since there was no way to tell where it migth would come from, when she suddenly saw the beast coming from below.

The pegasus tried to fly off again... higher and higher towards the stars, but the bat followed into the climb, chasing voracious after her, but she was able to make up some distance, using all her strength in the process, just to become slower again, when her wings just could not hold up anymore...

---i'd rather be dreaming of somepony, than living aloneee!---

... and with this words the pegasus let go and stopped flapping her wings, as she became weightless for a moment, turning backwards into a head first dive, holding her wings tight to her self – racing towards the giant bat which was just a couple hundred meters below her, stretching his monstrous mouth in order to eat the pony, with a single bite.

An heartbeats later, the small pony and the giant bat collided in mid air, as the drums set out and an electric guitar started to play along, while everypony in the dome watched in horror as the giant bat got scattered -in what seems a thousand smaller ones... falling in slow spinning motions to the ground like dead leafs and right in the middle was the yellow pegasus, falling along with them...

but when all hope was lost, her eyes flashed on and she caught her self just in time, before hitting the cold ground...

The spotlights which before had focused on the bat slowly came towards her, to reveal her laying on the ground, not moving.

Discords heart had stopped beating, he didn't even dare to breath, while the piano kept tapping along.

---if you're searching the lines for a point... well, you've probably missed iiit....---

but luckily, the pony now slowly got up - looking exhausted, while breathing heavy..

---there was neeever anything thereee...---

The mare now noticed one bat had dropped right next to her... the one from the very start and like a real angel would, she felt sorry and gave it a closer look.

---...in the first place!---

With this words the bat snapped up in a surprise attack and bit her neck – an expression of pain ran over her face, as she sunk in what seemed a embrace with the bat, while the music started to fade out.

The piano cut of and the drums had stopped a while ago... now there was just a smooth playing guitar to be heard, along with whistling as the spotlights slowly moved away from the pony in the middle, like they had to give up on her... only the big spotlight seemed to stay, but fated slowly away in a pulsating manner... until the lights was gone and the heartbeat got slower... the music now just played by guitars...... single strings got pulled...... fading........ and stopped in darkness.

The draconequus was pale, almost white like his mane, eyes and mouth wide open "Somepony help her!" he yelled, when Rainbow gave him a slap "Shhhh.... now comes the best part!" 

He thought about throwing her of like a rodeo horse, but she looked sure about herself; excited about the moment and nothing was hinting, there was the slightest concerned about Fluttershy...

so he observed the stage a few moments longer to make out what was going on, but without the spot lights you could only see vague silhouette on the stage.

Suddenly there was a short beat and a mare singing energetic- powerful and quick. 

Something like cellos or so was to be heard, vibrating along her clear voice through the dome into the sky, while to blood red torches got light up near the pegasus, diving the couple into a mysterious and hollow light

---She is a shooting star

Across a midnight sky

Wherever you are

You're gonna see her shy

She is a shooting star

Across a midnight sky

Wherever you are

You're gonna see her fly y yyyy! ---

The spectators leaned forward to make out what was happening, some almost fell of their balcony's, as a techno beat kicked in on the last note and even more torches burst all around the pony into flames like an firewave spreading all over the stage to the edges, while the ones in the middle burned down.

---So hiiiighhhhhhhhhh....! ---

With that the mare spread her wings to full size, slowly rasing them towards the sky. 

The mare looked nothing alike anymore!

Her dress had turned from a shining white - into a deep black one, sparkling in the fire around her. It was much tighter and her wings now resembled bat´s one, with clear cuts and slick edges. Her heaven blue round eyes, had turned into blood red... shimmering in the remaining torch light, just to reveal fangs as she made a hiss, lurking towards the audience.

Some of the pony's now just fell shivering of their chairs - a few of the less braver ones ran for the exit.

Right when the singer set in again, she shot into the sky once more, but this time incredible fast.

--- She is a shooting star

Across a midnight sky

Wherever you are

You're gonna see her shy

She is a shooting star

Across a midnight sky

Wherever you are

You're gonna see her flyyy.......! ---

As she gained quickly attitude, bats from everywhere started to spin in onto here once again from all sides, almost like an upside down tornado - and she being the center.

---Across the midnight skyyy....!! ---

As she stopped in mid air, spreading once more her batwings - forcing all bats around to back off, spinning in a circle formed cloud to observe their new queen of the night,

when she suddenly dived down, making the bats follow her along trying to keep up the paste.

---Where were you to hold my hoof

Do the things you had to prove

Yes I need you by my side

When things go crazy ---

The pony spun down, down in a corkscrew motion, performing a single elegant looping, to come in with a sharp turn, when rings started to light up a couple meter is front of her, burning in red, green, blue, yellow – all the color's of the rainbow as she passed trough them, still followed big the swarm. 

---I just need to know you care

Guarantee i´ll be the one mare

When I wake up in the night

Will you be my guiding light ---

But less and less bats was able to hold up speed and dropped out and the cloud became thinner and thinner, as she repeated similar maneuvers just a few more times- increasing speed every time she did so, until only a couple dozen of them was left.

---I don't care how far

I'll take a train tonight

Just tell me where you are

And everything's gonna be alright ---

The queen once again gained high, while the bats danced around her in perfect symetry - forming a ring around her, when a few more dropped out to the sides, unable to fly as high she could, when she suddenly bursted into another dive - now only around half a dozen was still on her tail, spinning around her in a circle, while she spun around her own axis, passing trough a snake like parcour of  burning and rings, which had different heights – and additional six smaller rings around the main one, making the bats passed through them. 

They spun along with her, so on the next obstacle, the bat from the top ring, would now pass the bottom one. 

All of this happened in fraction of seconds and nopony dared to blink since he could miss the howl maneuver doing so.

---She is a shooting star

Across the midnight sky

Gonna fly- fly- fly 

Just to be with you tonight

She is a shooting star

Across the midnight sky

Gonna fly- fly- fly 

Just to be with you tonight ---

pony's starred as the parkour turned around hard as new rings light up only split seconds before she passed them to get in closer and closer distances in between, giving barely enough space to maneuver or even make the smallest mistake, racing trough them in high speed, using up all the kinetic energy she had collected in one swift motion, while pulling strong fast flaps in between wings to retract them while passing through the next.

---She is a shooting star

Across a midnight sky

Wherever you are

You're gonna see her shy

She is a shooting star

Across a midnight sky

Wherever you are

You're gonna see her fly! ---

All of a sudden a last ring flamed up right in front on the edge of the stage just a few meters above the ground as the batqueen and her children passed through – and like the ring had set her on fire, hidden torches on her costume light up – pulling a red carpet of glowing smoke behind her, as she  flew so close above her audience´s head, some tried to touch her - but was already gone, before even the first could hope to get his hoof up. 

---So high ---

With this she ended her maneuver above the crowd having several g-forces pulling on her body in order to barely pull up in time to avoid the edge of the dome, making several pony's duck down despite being now a couple dozen meter above them.

---She is a shooting star

Across a midnight sky

Wherever you are

You're gonna see her shy

She is a shooting star

Across a midnight sky

Wherever you are

You're gonna see her flyyy ---

Now the bats started to glow like her Queen, but in six different color's. Yellow, blue, pink, orange, purple, white, splitting up to unfold like a flower, while gaining hight along with her, creating a miracle of color's on the night sky.

---Across the midnight skyyy...!" ---

With this she performed a long loop above the stadium, when bat after bat dived towards her as she was about to perform an wide upwards spin. The bats barely missed, shooting straight past her,– and out of sight into the night behind, as she rose to the sky, leaving behind the colors traces, which now looked like a star pattern from below... build out of the six color's.

---She is a shooting star

Across a midnight sky

Wherever you are

You're gonna see her shy

She is a shooting star

Across a midnight sky

Wherever you are

You're gonna see her flyyyy....! --- 

Then an explosion sparked up behind her back, bright as the shinning fullmoon, the black mare right in front of its center, presenting her self to the world with raised hooves and spread wings, like an sinister demon! 

Than the mare started to flap her wings for one last time to gain altitude and this also was the moment when Rainbow Dash knew there was something going wrong. 

Right now Fluttershy was supposed to land in an dramatic pose - and after some more pyrotechnics... end the show.

Instead she flew higher by the second, to the point being almost out of sight.

"Ohno ... no... ... not again." Rainbow almost whispered, while she took a few steps away from him, still starring towards the firmament.

Discord blinked the first time in ten minutes straight  and quickly got up on his hooves "What!?".
Suddenly the blue pegasus had a panic attack "Somepony stop her! Stop her! Oh Gosh, Cellestia please!" she shouted in all directions, but nopony payed any attention - all eyes starred towards the sky, while the techno beat was hammering trough the stadium. 

He had no idea, what suddenly had gotten into her "Why!? Whats the matter? That's part of the show, right!?"

Grabbed him tight and shook him hard as she could "NO! Nonono!" just to pushing him away again, pointing hoof onto the rising star "She s trying a Sonic Rainboom!" 
"A what!? Can she even do that!?"

"I...... i don't know......! " 

---So highhh...!---

Both turned simultaneously to the stage, being witness of something, which only would take a few seconds to happen.

Only the moon in her back made her still visible, hoovering several kilometers above the ground, pulling down in a dive so fast, it seemed impossible such a small pony - or anypony for that matter  could perform.

Her speed doubled, tripled, quadrupled and flew right off the chart!

A mach-cone formed around her, as she passed several hundred meters in a heartbeat, but her flight became unstable just another split second later, while her speed still increased. 

The spotlights practical could not keep up with this black lightning coming down to earth, as suddenly one of her wings relented - than the other one and she started to tumble in a spinning motion towards the ground. 

The music abruptly cut out off, when the white unicorn DJ had noticed. 

The pony's on their seats had no idea, if that was meant to be real or part of the show again and just sat there like froze, starring - while she rushed down towards death.

Rainbow just stuttered, chewing her hooves "Omigoshomigoshomigoshomigosh!"

An massive flash threw Rainbow to the ground and Discord appeared in the middle of the stage - right below her, to jump up, when another bright flash of light turned him mid-jump into his real form - flying towards Fluttershy, catching her carefully less than a hundred meters before she would had hit the ground... only so he could come down to earth and land slowly on it...

He sat the small pony carefully down right in front of him and gave her a caring, long lasting hug, as the audience was still silenced.

There was not a single sound. Not a cough, no wind, or whispering. Nothing. 

Minutes passed by like this, before a single pair of hooves started to clop, which belonged to an blue pegasus, sitting on the border of the stage, tearful... but happy.

Then suddenly the rest of the crowed got nuts, cheering, shouting and stomping on the floor, to celebrate this amazing show they just had seen!

Stallions and Mares whistled and threw roses on the stage, love oaths and praise screamed towards them in a storm of fanatic cheering, reaching almost an deafening levels, as the praise got reinforced by the construction of the dome, to resound it from the walls, towards the sky, to be heard miles away.  

Only Discord didn't hear anything. 

He didn't notice a single moment except this, as the yellow mare slowly lifted her head. 

One of her contact lenses had fallen out and a blue and a red eye gave him the only look, he cared about in the howl world. 

She was simply enchanting...

He could not help himself, to tap her with his fingertip onto the nose, using a small potion of magic to restore her former self.

The pony started to glow and shimmer from top to bottom like a million firefly's danced around her...  so, when the cocoon of light faded away and she wore once again her white gown... the plastic fangs had been gone and both eyes been sky-blue once again, shimmering in the spotlight. 

Her wings also had returned to normal shape and her mane was just as he remembered, with a slight smell of spring flowers.

The pony's in the crowd got silent once again for a moment, as Fluttershy now turned slowly around, reaching out her hoof towards Discord, to lead him next to her.

She bowed down and he followed her example as the crowd now started to clop with ther hooves excited and more flowers got thrown onto the stage, while once again cheering.

Discord caugh one of them - it was a white Lilith, which he put into her hair with a skillful motion, like he had done this a hundred times, showing a warm grin. 

Both bowed once more and once more but the praises didn't stop.

The stage couple enjoyed every second of this together, as he had another idea, giving her a small wink - as he rose his free griffon claw and a pink energyball appeared in it. 

It got bigger and bigger until it was about half a diameter, then he let go and it floated slowly up into the sky like a balloon, until it was a few  hundred meters above them, just to burst like a bubble, having a similar effect like firework would, bathing the sky in his lovely pink tone to reveal the shape of a pegasus making a smooth flying motion.

Fluttershy watched this big eyed and gasped at its beauty, until the light vanished.

They both bowed for a last time and slowly left the stage towards Rainbow Dash, which just stood there with wide open mouth "THAT – WAS – AMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZING!"

Running up to Fluttershy as soon she was behind the courtain to jump at her, but a lot more carefully than on Discord, giving her the greatest hug she ever had given anypony "THIS WAS......... Super-Ultra-Extreme-'Awesomazing!" blowing her howl breath in a single, long word "Sweet Celestia!............ don't EVER do that again!" shuttering tears of glee.

Fluttershy didn't quite know what to answer on that than "... oh... okay..." 

Rainbow let go of her and sat down, her body still was shaking from the adrenaline, while Fluttershy just sat there shyly and blushed since her landing. The fans still yelled her name in the background, like a chore, as well asking for a encore, like they couldn't get enough.

"Please, don't ever do that again..." Rainbow started once more, having calmed down a little "I don't want you to end up like me! Or worse!" 

This made the yellow pegasus lose her smile.

"You are the single most important pony there is!" giving her a slap with her hoof "you stupid nut!" as she shattered tears, while Discord had snapped forward for a second when she had hit her.

Fluttershy didn't seem angry, as the mark appeared on her cheek, letting hang down her head "I.. I´m sorry ..really... i ....just thought...."

"You thought!? If it wasn't for ... him!" pointing on what ever it was "you been mush on the stage! This ain't worth a stupid show! Do you want get killed!?"

She didn't try to talk back on her, she knew she was right. They had tried this last trick so often but they never had got it to work. Of course back then there was a lot security provisions taken to make it save.

Trying it tonight was a big mistake, she had let her self get carried away... absolute unprofessional... and given the amount time they had worked for this moment - it had been the most stupid thing she could had done.

Discord wanted to spend some solace to her, he could not help to see her sad.

"Honey are you alright!?" 

Fluttershy rose her head to this familiar voice, as her man wrapped himself around her.

The stallion was white with a touch of cyan in his fur, a blue mane, green eyes and on his flank a cloud which got split by a lightning strike.

"You are amazing!" he sad proudly right before he gave her a soft kiss on the mouth, making her blush. Then the stallion noticed something "Oh, whats with ur cheek?" carefully pushing her head a bit to the side.

"Uhm, that? ... n-nothing really... i... must have hit a bat ... i guess..."

Rainbow had to bite on her tongue, in order to hold back on what she wanted to say, while her hooves scratched over the floor, to leave deep marks in the wood.  

Then a young filly stumbled two the couple "Muuum!", receiving a hug from the two of them "you have been so super! Totally fast and beautiful and scary and..." the filly started to trip over its own words, trying to express all this emotions, but it was still really young and barely found the right ones.

The filly it self had the same fur as his father, but a pink mane and deep green eyes, but no cutie mark at this point. 

Then this weird thing standing around caught the foals eye "Mumm, who´s that uncle?"

Discord just collapsed.
> Aftermath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aftermath

When Discord woke up, his head felt like Celestia had dropped the sun on it.

A tiny glass of water appeared next to him as he kept laying on his back, above the glass two pills materialized, dropped into the water and dissolved.

The draconequus picked the glass out of the air and rushed it down and threw it away. 

He was unwilling to get up and his hands remained on his face like the last twenty minutes he been awake.

Once again a glass- two pills and a rush down his throat.

It was like trying to fight a forest fire with a garden hose.

"Ey, you are up" Rainbow walked into the room as she watches the routine he had done the past minutes. glass, pills, water – no effect.

Rainbow got around on his side as she heard a really deep sigh. 

"Oh don't be such a wuz!" she said and pushed him from the gurney he was laying on.

He didn't even bother to say "ouch" as he hit the ground like a wet sag of potatoes.

The blue pegasus stepped on the gurney with her front hooves and looked down onto the draconequus. "Not quite a sunshine eh?" 

A minute passed by but he was still not moving and Rainbow began to worry a little. Maybe he was sick?

She got around the bench up to his face and sat down. He still was breathing so much was obvious. 

"Get up..." she grabbed his griffon paw and tried to pull it away from his face but he refused and it became a tug war - as she put herself into a higher gear and fought to pull it away, but he was way to strong to even make him move a little, despite his slick appearance.

"Fine!" she snarled as she moves to his other side and stepped with force on his tail, but the effect was barely noticeable. A second he shivered and his body got stiff, but there was no further reaction.

Still, giving up wasn't a option, if he wanted to play stubborn, so would she!

Rainbow walked up to his side and sat brash down on his back, like when she had tackled him before.

"Whats the matter...?" 

A glass plopped up next to her, two pills dropped into it and dissolved as he tried to grab it, she took it away "And whats that?" taking a sniff, before nibbling on it.

Her strange couch gave a sigh... he could not reach the glass, so the paw retracted back to his face. 

"Painkillers?" dumping the glass over his head, but he didn't bother.

Now she was the one to sigh.

She had seen a lot depressed pony's in her life: show business was meant to wrack pony's once in a while, but this was the worst case yet, it sure would take some time to get trough to him.

The pegasus got on her side and laid on his back like a cat would, making her self comfortable as possible, holding company to him, while trying to think of something else she could try.

An hour or two passed and Rainbow fall asleep in between, waiting wasn't quite exciting towards her.

Discord was still not moving and she figured there wasn't to much she could do about it yet... at least until she came up with some kind of plan or trick.

Also there was still the possibility, he was one of those which just needed some time for them self, just being alone to figure out what ever was stuck in their heads.

"If you stop moping, call me... i have to pluck a pullet with Fluttershy."

"Nhhggg...." he grunted.

The pegasus turned around with an risen eyebrow. Was that a reaction? 

She thought a moment about what might had caused it as she got close to his ears …

"...Fluttershy?"

He bent his neck away from her "Ngaa......"  - four pills materialized and a big glass water got dumped above them as they dropped to the ground, starting to dissolve on the wet floor.

"Uhh..." the pegasus had hit some nerve, rubbing her chin. 

She was about to give it a second shot, when the draconequus snapped his finger and the sport cabinet to her left started to levitate and flew trough the closed door. 

He snapped once more as the lamp above her head got teleported outside the dome onto the parking space, hitting the chariot of a snobby duke. 

Discord snapped a few more times like somepony trying to ignite a broken ligther as items flew across the room, changed shapes or vanished all together, when the sink flew above Rainbows head, forcing her to drop onto the ground.

"Cut it out!" Rainbow shouted at him, as she finally vanished.

"Mghmm..." 

Finally she was gone. Silence, sweet silence. 

Not even a minute later she walked once more into the room "I said: Cut it out!"

Oh, his head..... 




Right in this moment there was a pony walking trough the Palmomind dessert... it was thirsty and really could need a glass of water to make it into the next town but how are the chances he would find something like that?

"Boneless... i think we wont make it to this party..." giggling as he thought about it "... it was a blast having you around pal...".

The pony sat down and looked up to the vulture's in the sky, circling above his head, at least they would leave his rubber friend alone... maybe he would find a new super party pony to travel with some day? Life was funny sometimes. 

Suddenly a bucket of water appeared right in front of him on the ground, as well a pack of pills which missed the bucket barely and dropped into the sand beneath.

He just took it for what it was worth, giving a short praise to what ever beneficent power had done this – rushing down the miracle drink, after putting a tiny umbrella into it.

"Party on, lets go...!" he cheered, continuing his never ending travel towards the town on the horizon.




Focus. Discord grabbed towards all edges of his mind, to pull together the last bit of focus there was left – he had to get out of there before something horrible would happen... again.

The trick worked for the biggest part, Discord vanished from where he had been and reappeared in the "Badlands". 

There was just a minor flaw this time, his powers had torn a chunk out of the dome, the sickbay he had been in came along with him and everything and everypony inside with it.

"Wow!? What happened!?" Rainbow asked when her sight came back.

The room looked like before but she had a really bad feeling about it, as she opened the door there was no more dome, only a lifeless dead mountain region of brown and red rocks, jackal howling in the distance.

The door got slammed close in an instant, just to get slit open a bit again for a few seconds longer and shut close again.

"WHERE ARE WE!"

The response she got wasn't quite satisfying: Zip, blub, vsshhh, gulp, chink - silence.

Rainbow got next to him and tapped on the ground in front of him, like sitting on a bar counter.

Another glass and two pills plopped up. She grabbed this one and waited a second before rushing it down. Giving a really long sigh. "Thanks".




The hours passed and the pegasus had given up on him.

He might grunted by the mention of Fluttershy's name... but even when she tried to ask him out about her he didn't do anything more than that.

Night had the mountains in his harsh grip. Outside she could hear all kind of wildlife and the cold air slowly crouched into the room. At some point she dared to peek outside and saw a bunch of jackals... and something that could had been a mountain lion, but they just circled her room.

Maybe the animals just didn't know what to do with this strange thing in their middle, or they was afraid about what was inside... of course if they would find out one of them was just a meat morsel and the other one didn't care at all...

Still, being torn to pieces slowly became secondary, since it got colder and colder by the minute as ice crystals formed of her breath.

Rainbow managed to find a lamp and light it up, but there wasn't anything to form a fire with. 

Most stuff in the room was not flammable or would cause poisonous smoke and kill them off even faster than the cold.

She got over to Discord and shook him "Bring me back! Come on!" he still played dead man, but his mood had gotten worse it seemed. 

This is when she sat down "i'm gonna die here" she said to her self silently, starring at the ceiling.

She had spend her howl life, to put together the greatest show Equestria ever had seen...  earned all the bits she needed - to die in some no-man's-land alongside with a giant nutball!

At what point she did go wrong? How did she deserve this!? It was insane! Why was she the one to get screwed by life over and over again? 

Every time something good happened, something even worse followed after. Until now she had fought trough it, believing there would be a pay up to all of this. Was this the pay up?

Freezing to death and get torn to pieces afterwards? 

At this point she gave up.

She put her self down to the floor and laid on her side. There was no point fighting it, she could only chose how to leave the stage. Suicide wasn't her stile and eaten by wildlife sure wasn't pleasant. Sleeping away... ye... probably the best option she had.

Laying on the ground wasn't half bad the pegasus told her self. It sure had been better if the daybed had not turned into a flowerpot... but once again, life wasn't fair... not at all.

Her side began to feel numb after a while and her shivering got less. Rainbow was now rolled together like a ball, it was a instinctive reaction but no use.

Slowly the rest of her body started to feel numb... her legs, her neck, her back, her wings... she felt so tired. Maybe just a little nap would be okay. Just closing her eyes for a minute or two. 

Her vision got dark and she fell asleep, dreaming as usual to fly careless above the land.




Discord felt extreme awful. The only thing he could compare it to was Celestia's beam, but kinda like it had struck his heart with full strength.

If you lost the only thing, which had mattered to you in over a thousand years, 

what else was there to do? 

An immortal life feeling like this... was about one eternity to long.

He might just should zap him self into a black hole or so. A black hole, that would do. It was like he felt right now. 

His body felt numb, but it wasn't from the cold. It had felt like this since he had woke up. 

Physical he was just fine, but he had no strength in his body as he moved. 
All powers of the universe in his hands, but not a spark of energy to do anything.




Rainbow Dash got caught by his eye and he starred down to her. He could not quite remember why she was here or even where -here- was at all.

He had done quite a lot of awkward and amusing stuff to pony's over the years...

but killing even a single one? No. He never had done that.

Maybe he... could help her out a little?




It took not even a whiff of magic and blue pegasus had a fireplace next to her.

This sure would do. 

The welcome heat made the pony stop shaking ...and Discord kinda felt pleased about it.

Maybe a little more could not harm he assumed.

The pony now was on a couch, not laying on the cold ground anymore as the chimney heated the room. 

At least he had some company, zapping him self into oblivion could wait a minute.




As the sun rose Rainbow woke up to find her self in heaven. 

Her eyes wandered around the room, but her mind could not quite follow what was going on.

She must had died.

At least being dead seemed to have a good side to it, so she won after all, what irony. 

The room was bright and warm, the walls snow white, a big crystal chandelier on the ceiling and red heavy curtains with gold frames hung by big windows trough which the sun came in. 

Most of the furniture was made out of dark thick wood, partial crested with gold and diamonds.

The bed she sat on was nothing less than comfortable. She felt like being in Cloudsdale again, sitting on one of the clouds, which made her slide a bit around to get this dejavue out of her head. It had been many years to have this level of comfort beneath her, which had gave her often ruff nights.




Rainbow got up and walked to one of the big windows, which let to a big balcony outside.

The gate like windows swung open and she stepped out, taking a look around. 

"Oh-my-gosh!"

This place was a freaking castle! 

It was a freaking castle and almost big as the dome... no wait, it was even bigger!

Huge white towers rose all around her towards the sky, a wide entrance path was below - ready to be used by chariot's and a big wall was framing the howl property, with a broad and elegant steel gate in the middle – and this was just her first glance, there was so much more to see!

If it haven't been for those damn red brown mountains around the castle, she would never doubted she was dead in the first place.

Now she had to pinch her self ...and it did hurt... but on the other side... who knows maybe she was dead anyway and those mountains just look similar for some reason?  

Can you feel pain being dead? 

"If i was just a smarter" she thought to her self, some egghead sure could tell her.

The room she found her self in, was at least six levels above the ground and she knew a sure way to find out if this was real, so she got her hooves up, to step on the railing, before taking a deep breath.

"Here goes nothing!" jumping of the balcony, flapping her wings.

It worked, it really worked... for about three seconds, than she began to fall - screaming as loud out of her loungs she could "Wuaaaaaaaaaaah!!!" but only for about two levels, before getting levitated back into the bedroom. 

Discord was standing in the middle, food on a plate in his paw "Pardon me, i'm not that bad of a cook..." giving her a smile.

Rainbow blinked the shock away "So... i'm not dead...?" 

The draconequus giggled, pointing on the railing, like he would offer a second try.

Her mind was kinda blown and she just bursted like a steam boiler "Who are you anyway? You are insane! You think that's funny? I almost died because of you! ...twice! don't get even close to me!" raising her hooves threatening to show she meant business.

He dropped the plate and started to frown, shrinking in size as he bowed down like a balloon running out of air. 

"Oh come on! Whats the matter with you!? At first you safe Fluttershy, than you mope around... a-almost kill me! ...and ..." she made a few quick steps towards the balcony, pointing outside "THIS!?....i don't get it..... ur NUTS!"

Discord now was laying again on his stomach, his hands over his head.

Rainbow was just facehooving "Not this again... what is the matter with you!?" she didn't even took a moment to calm down and walked past the psychopath "see ya, freak..."

It took about twenty minutes and a lot of swearing to figure out, how to get outside and still it wasn't the front exit, but who cares - she was outside at least!

For Celestia's sake, there was even a large garden here with a decorative river and small lake.

What pony would like that kinda kitsch? Except... nah... throwing away the though. That was even more crazy than the last twenty-four hours.
Nopony ever would believe this story already, so better not put a cherry ontop of it.

Rainbow walked along the wall until she finally found the gate she had seen from above, but as she checked it, the pegasus got quite disappointed.

Even in bright daylight there was a bunch of predators outside and if she thought about it, she didn't had seen any clue of direction from the balcony, so she had to ask him again!? Great.

This sure would get on her -worst day ever list- and rank up at least second.




The pegasus didn't even bother to try to talk him out of his depression, instead she tried the next best thing which had proven to work, stepping on the railing - jumping of the balcony.

Discord had noticed and reacted like a snake, catching a mice and Rainbow was levitated into the room again, right in front of him.

Taking a closer look, he looked tired like he hadn't sleeped last night.

"If you want mope around some more, leave me out of it buddy!"

"The door is unlocked, so is the sky" he sulked. 

"What an great idea" making a overly thoughtful motion "maybe, i should get busted my wing and wander of into the jackals waiting outside!"

He blinked once and leaned a little on his side, to get a look on her wings. The right one seemed just about normal – leaning now to the other side, to see the other one was in some black fabric.

His paw reached out onto the wing and grabbed it thigh, as the pony bit her teeth in pain, while trying to fight his grib of "arg, let go, it hurts!" 

Discord just rolled his eyes. Stupid pony's, like most of them never had touched a history book.

A slight glow came from his paw and her wing started to feel really warm for a couple of seconds, but she still didn't stop to struggle, so as he let go she lost balanced and fell to the ground.

He waved off the insults which got now thrown at him rapidly and got him self back to the ground in his usual pose, not really in the mood to deal with her anymore.

The pony got up on her hooves, trying to loose up her wing as she noticed it didn't hurt when she moved it, so she tried it once more, still it didn't hurt as usual. It had hurt since she was a filly and stopped just like that?

"You fixed it!?" she quickly pulled the fabric of it and tried a few flaps and it felt just alright, so she tried something more complex and hoovered over the ground "this is amazing!" cheering out loud and trying a sprint trough the room – over the balcony and a quick zig-zag between the towers to get back into the room landing next to the draconequus.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" giving him a hug "Can i give you something for that? I saved a lot of bits for the Flim Flam Doctors - you can have it!"

Trying to endow a almighty being was kinda pointless, still the gesture was kinda nice, as well as her hug, so he let slide down one of his hands to give her a glance. She was smiling from one ear to the other.

It was really easy to make pony's happy and he kinda liked it at times... giving him a shiver running down his spine. Why did he care only about a hand full of them was beyond his understanding and in this special case, he hated him self a hell of a lot doing so. 

How could he dare to feel like this, when he just had lost what was most important to him?

He didn't feel by any means good... but even if he felt just a little less awful for a few minutes, he could not help to think he had cheated on Fluttershy in this regard, sending his mood back to the ground.

Discord tried to reconsider what Celestia had said to him, but it didn't make so much sense now like back then. wasn't it his beloved wife who could make him happy? Only her and her alone? Was it that easy to replace somepony so irreplaceable? 

Why life was so cruel to him? What he ever had done to deserve this... because of a few pranks?

Right now he wasn't sure of anything anymore, he felt even more lost than before his talk with the alicorn and talking to her once again probably wasn't a option.

He felt like he needed some alone time and got up on his feet. 

The pegasus had spun some more rounds across the room and landed in front of him, putting her hooves on his chest and tapping it repeatedly in tiny quick moves "you are awesome!" 

"I doubt." he said dry.

His first snap made the castle disappear. They now stood in the old boring dessert they had been in the first place. 

"Whats the matter!?" at this he vanished in a bright flash, leaving her back alone in nowhere.

The jackals and other predators now wasn't hold back by any walls and running towards her, she just wanted to fly off, but before she even had her first flap finished she found her self back in the small hospital room again – crashing head first against the ceiling, falling onto the hospital bed "Ouhf!" 

After rubbing her head a little she got her self up and got sure her wings still worked like before and they did, making her feel really relieved.

"This guy is insane..." but she could not help to keep her wings moving all the time "but kinda cool" grinning at her re-newed flight ability's.

Rainbow just walked outside the station to the main hall, the others sure be searching for her already and she was a right. A big group of pony's sat around and security had got beefed up quite noticeable. 




"Hey everypony, waz up!?" she made her usual entrance as faces turned towards her.

"Aunt Rainbow!!" the young filly screamed and jumped right away at her, closely followed by her mother "Oh thank Celestia, you are okay!" closing her hooves around her, while her man hold him self in the background.

Everypony around her started to whisper, some cheered, but most looked like a big bolder had fallen of their hearts. 

"I was just gone for a few hours, whats all the ruckus!?" she said, holding the filly casual. 

"Mrs. Dash, you are not up to date as usual i assume?" Prim Hemline said in her calm, but somehow biting tone, as she hold up a newspaper.

"Whats that?" 

"What does it look like? A newspaper of course" handing it to her assistant to bring it the few steps over to her, rather than walking her self.

The filly and Fluttershy made some space as Rainbow reached for the newspaper and sat down, reading the headline´s. She never had seen a special issue with two headlines before, which seemed more apart than this. This one sure was spreading like a wild fire all around Equestria right now.

--- Miracle saved Crystal Empire / Manehatten destroyed by Monster ---

The articles each took about half the front side and run along two more sides parallel to each other to show that not one of the articles was any more important than the other, also this issue lacked all the gossip and smaller articles and not even a single commercial was shown... nopony would had been this stupid to print his name on that kinda news.

Her eyes just flew over the sides and she read the short articles, each of them having a big picture on the second side to show everypony the prove.

"... Crystal Empire... land become green once again... thousands of trees.... saved from starvation... family's return home... big celebration planned... no explanation yet...."

That was some darn good news she had to admit, she had seen the land below from Cloudstale and knew what it had looked like when she was a filly.

It had literally turned from green to brown in just a few days and been like that ever since – the picture on the last side shown a huge beautiful area of green life, making her feel lucky for everypony living there.




Than she read the second one quickly

"Manehatten - whipped out...... thousands homeless..... Celestia wounded....... economy destroyed .... luckily no pony hurt...... day of mourning set up for Sunday... Spirit of Chaos aka Discord identified as source of destruction..." This part she had to read twice.

This was the worst news she had read since the Changeling attack, back in the day... they had planned to put a show up over there, but now there was nothing left they could perform in, other than ruins. Her hooves started to shake as her eyes caught on to the print, showing Discord – making her wave the news paper wildly.

"That cant be! That's a bad joke, right!?" but the pony's around avoided her glance. 

"You read it your self Mrs. Dash, that guy is a maniac - where is he right now? Is he still here?"

"No... he zapped us in some dessert and..... then there was .......  i mean...... no, he s gone."

How could all that possible fit together? He might seemed a little crazy, but not in that kinda way.

"Rainbow?" Fluttershy asked her out, putting a hove onto her shoulder.

She really had no idea where to start. It would sound just to crazy and giving the news they all just had received it probably was to much to handle... she could barely handle it herself right now.

"Are you okay?" the yellow pegasus checked as she got no response from her friend.




Rainbow got up on her hooves, made a phew steps forward and spread her wings out, making a short flying motion before retracting them onto her back again. The pony's around were speechless.

"He might is a maniac... but i owe him a lot."




Rainbow still had to answer a bunch of questions about him and what he done and even showed that she really was able to fly, which caused even more questions to be asked, ranging from "Is he insane?" to "What did you trade in?" and some even "You two want take over Equestria?" 

At this point it was enough. Rainbow threw out everypony which wasn't at least on her pay grade, reducing the mass from about fifty, down to twelve, which turned out to be the most understanding and calm about the situation. This was also when she had noticed Fluttershy was gone.  

She searched the place to find her finally on her favorite spot: the roof. It had a small garden on it, reserved for royal customers, but right now it was empty and she sat there all alone, right in the middle.

The blue pegasus hovered slowly down to the yellow one and sat next to her.

"Whats up Fluttershy, why you hide here?"
"I .. i just wanted to get some fresh air."

"Oh come on, i know you better than this" giving her a close look.

The yellow pegasus pushed the grass around a little with her hoof.

"Uhm.. , you think... i can try the Sonic-Rainboom again?"

This made Rainbow more than mildly confused.

"What for!? You don't need to."

"But .. i w-want to." 

The blue pegasus leaned forward to get a glance at her face, but Fluttershy kept turning her head in all kinda directions in order to avoid it, it almost looked funny from a distance until Rainbow grabbed her head and looked her straight in the eyes.

"What is going on?"

Fluttershy pushed her hooves away and got up "I will..... i want try it tomorrow again" but before she was able to walk away her path got blocked several times and even on a attempt to fly away, she could not get far until Rainbow grabbed her on her tail and pulled her down with her own weight.

"You don't try that stupid stunt again, you hear me?"

Fluttershy had rose her voice to a normal level, which was for her standards pretty much shouting "But i really want to." stepping down with her front hoof.

Her coach did this a lot better, stomping down with gusto "And i say you don't and that's final!"

Both pony's was huffing at this point, heated up by her struggling conversation, when Rainbow tried to calm her down "You never been like this, whats the matter? I was only gone for a day and you go nuts?"

Once again the yellow pony avoided her sight, but Rainbow tried again"Nothing has changed...", still her friend sulked, so she sat next to her, watching down on the busy town below them.

"Why don't you just tell me... i'm ur friend and that's what friends are there for" 

"I....." Fluttershy bit her lip.

"You...?"

She took a deep breath and almost spoke to silent to listen over the background noise coming from below "I thought you... don't need me anymore"

Rainbow had to think about this for a few minutes "I ... don't get it."

Fluttershy once again played around with her hoof, making circles on the ground like she was writing in sand, but didn't go on for a while.

"You know, if you don't tell me, i´ll go..."

"Please don't"

Rainbow hold in.

"I don't want you to leave, ever."

Now she walked back to her and put her leg around her neck "Why would i?"

"Because... you... i guess..."

It might had took a while but now the penny dropped.

"Did you think i kick you out, just because i can now fly my self?"

"............ maybe.......i uhmm... yes......." the mare said sheepishly.

Rainbow ruffled her mane "You are my friend, i never would threw you out... for Celestia s sake! I owe you even more than anypony else, you always been there for me!"

"Y... y-ou mean it?"

"Of course i mean it! You are awesome! You are not just a great flier, you are the most amazing super spectacular friend i ever had!"

This made Fluttershy blush like a tomato. 

"Hey and you know what?" she gave her a small nudge "Maybe we can do our next show together, what you think?" giving her a grin.

"That be..." she started, trying to think of a cool enough word "... amazing" 

"Cant year you!" 

"Amazing..." she said, unnoticeable raising her voice.
"Louder!" 

"Amaazing...!!" this time she had shouted like a sports commentator at the crucial goal, as her shout echoed between the stadiums over the streets -  quickly putting the hooves about her mouth.

Many pony's had heard the shout from above, starring to the roof to find the source.

Even Rainbow was surprised about the noise she had made "...you sure are". 




Far away from Yanhoover, in this small peaceful town pony's gone after her usual life, but their way of life had changed quite noticeable. Only a few days ago, raw numbers of workers streamed in and out on a daily basis, but now the stream had been cut of, still the train was far from being empty.

The workers from Manehatten had spread the word already, the ones with family and home back there didn't care to go to work, as well many volunteers who thought they could help in the crisis, giving BigMac a hard time to keep the farm running. Since there wasn't many pony's to get the work done, he had raised the loans for the ones which still came and even got him self back on the field. 

The stallion really enjoyed his work and he sure worked hard as he possible could, telling himself that, for everypony he replaced - one more could go back and help out the ones in need.

Many other pony's sattled down in town, being refugees in need. 

The hotels became overcrowded, so rooms got double and tripple resavations, but the stay was free for everypony, since Mayor Mare and the Apple Family had come together to carry the costs for shelter and food. Following this generous example, also citizens took strangers into their homes, caring for them like they belong to their family´s – to receive nothing than gratitude in return.




Only one white filly had come to town for other business. She also just had got the news on the train down here. For a moment she had thought about going back, but much as she knew everypony was okay – only the city was destroyed, so she took her bravery and waited until she was in Ponyville to leave the train.




The young unicorn made her path trough the crowd, as fast she could to one of the more rarely visited places, heading towards the Ponyville-Hospital.

The hospital wasn't to big, only three floors in high and space for about twenty patients at a time. This small town rarely ever needed that many space, having only two doctors and a few nurses working in there. Luckily there was barely a pony around the place, like to confirm the news: that may her home town was no more, but at least nopony had got hurt.




The green hospital doors got pushed open and the filly run up to the counter "Hey, Mrs..."

The nurse mare looked around but there was nopony in sight, as it called again "Hey, down here" two small hooves stepped onto the edge of the counter and the young mare´s head came in sight.

"Oh, hello... what can i do for you?"

"Is it true, is Rarity here!?" 

The nurse expression became professional and lost her smile in the process "Do you belong to the family?"

"She is my sister!" the filly shouted, holding up a photo, on which the two smiled at the camera.

"In this case, yes she is, i will bring you to her right away."




The yellow nurse brought her to a room in the first floor, giving her a few rules "please, be quite and don't take to long, she needs her rest" leaving the filly, when she was convinced she had understood.

Sweetie pushed the door open a little and knocked afterwards on it, receiving a quite "Come in" from a familiar voice, so she pushed it all open and stepped in, shutting the door behind herself.

Her sister laid on the bed and she looked ravaged. She had bandage around her forehead and over one of the ears, her mane was partial cut short, patches scattered all over her body and her right rear leg was bandaged up to the hip.

Still she was smiling like the sun, when she noticed the visitor being her sister, reaching out with her hooves "Sweetie Belle! Darling, is that really you!?" 

Sweetie Belle didn't had to be asked twice and ran over to her sister, jumping on the bed with her forelegs to get into a hug "Its really, you, isn't it!?" she sobbed in glee, when her little sister started to sob her self "Its all my fault, i'm so sorry i left... i though y-"

This was when Rarity pushed her back a bit, so she could look into her eyes "no, you sure don't have to be sorry for anything dear... i'm the one that has to be sorry... i was stupid - and stubborn... i just hope you can forgive one last time... i promise i change." giving her a shivering lip and big eyes. 

Her sister jumped fully on the bed and swung her hooves around her neck "Oh, Rarity, of course i do. You are my big sister after all..." 

The older unicorn almost had laughed, when she buried her nose in the filly mane, smirking her tears on her small checks. "...you drama queen" Sweetie Belle giggled tearful. 

Rarity whispered something to her self, like she would thank somepony. 

The younger turned her head a little "Sis?"

"Nothing Sweetie, i just was thinking of a good friend of mine." holding her tight, like she would never let go again.
> Feeling Blue?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Feeling blue?

Discord wandered aimless around in his castle, going into the kitchen to snatch him a big potion of cotton candy and milk, to find the fridge staying wide open and empty, but he didn't bother, so he closed and opened it and it was full once again. Like most items in his castle the fridge was touched by some of his magic, giving a endless supply of treats, as well a small selection of different vegetables every time you would open and close it.

He grabbed him self a bowl of carrot and cucumber slices. They tasted like they should, which was not to good towards him, but it gave him a nostalgic feeling. Fluttershy's lips often tasted like those and back than he loved this taste more than anything else, so he stuck a few more in his mouth, but it wasn't quite the same without the soft touch of her lips, putting the rest back into the fridge.

After this he walked into the living room and noticed a few pillows had been scattered around the place as well a window stood open. He must had forgot to lock it up he assumed - probably some of the critters had come in and scavenged the place for food...

He wasn't quite in the mood to clean up this mess. Its not like he was about to received guests or anypony for that matter. This castle was his and only his. 

Fluttershy would make him clean up this place, using nothing than a kind but reproachful smile.

It was like he felt her request in the back of his head and snapped once. The room was cleaned up just fine. The pillows back on the couch, the floor clean and not a trace of dust to be found.

Only the windows he didn't touch... he doesn't do windows. It was always up to her to do those, but she didn't mind since he was already a big help around the house, which - for a spirit of chaos was calumny, if somepony would find out, so she had to promise to never tell anypony else.

But right now there was only one upside he could think of: this darn rabbit wasn't around either. 

He zapped him self into his bed and laid down. Discord felt a bit tired, he had spend building a howl freaking castle, for some dumb reason he could not even understand.

This room was all he had left now. It still had some of her smell and other belongings. 

A picture of the strange couple on pick nicks, in restaurants, traveling the world ...their marriage and honeymoon... even some of their things they got from vacation, all good memory's which might or might not had happened, as he used his magic to levitate them by his face one after another, like browsing through a catalog.

All this memory's. He could not just find somepony else to replace her. 

Nopony else was so kind and perfect, making him sigh at the though of it. 

Discord picked the photo of their marriage out of the air and holding it up to his chest as he partial dozed off.


A few rooms further to his, somepony just woke up with a yawn, stretching her hooves up to the sky. 

This place was so amazing! All you can eat, comfortable beds and it was all hers.

She jumped out of her bed and walked down the floor, past Discords sleeping room and got into the bathroom for a really extended bath in this freaking huge whirlpool she had discovered earlier.

almost an hour later, she was done and got out of the tub, drying her self of with some kind of enchanted towle. She even had pulled it a few times into the tub, but it dried in a matter of seconds and was still clean and fresh.

Who ever had build this castle had thought of everything. At some point she had wondered if this was Celestia's summer seat, but the big portrait in the main hall made her scrap this thought. The potrait had shown a really beautiful young mare and some awkward monster on her side. It must been some kind of modern art she figured, which made sense to her, since only a rich snobby pony could afford a place like this. Celestia of course wasn't snobby, she knew that for sure – so she was of the list. This also probably been the reason why it was left to begin with: who ever owned this place, must have dozens of castles everywhere and visit them quite rarely for this matter! 

She opened the fridge to find some salad and french dressing, but wasn't in the mood for that, so she opened and closed it a few times till there was a nice apple pie on a plate, which she took to the amazing oven she had found, to slide in the pie "Mmmh... how long?" she shrugged and typed in five minutes, as the pie inside the oven started to spin around it self, until the time was up, stopping with a short -ping- 

She grabbed the warm pie and tried to take a bite, but it was steaming hot on the inside, burning her tongue "ouchh!" making her lose grip and the pie dropped to the ground with a metal noise. 

"My pieeeee...." she sobbed.

All the castle rooms had been made quite big and open, so it was easy for a small shy pony to talk upstairs without having to shout to much, since the echo helped her out on this. The disadvantage on this was that noise was also carried over the castle as well, waking up Discord out of his doze.




"More critters?" he snarled. If one of them turned out to be a bunny, he would release some stress on it. The spirit of chaos appeared in the living room to take a look around. The windows still had been closed and everything was alright, when there was glass shattering in the kitchen. "Stupid plates".

What pony in his right mind would dare to walk into a empty castle, let alone in Everfree Forest - having his face hanging from the walls? It sure had to be really brave, or really stupid.

He would find out and tell it a lesson about privacy - turning it into a... lets say... well something. Maybe he just would kick it out... or at least ask why it was here.

It was awkward to feel so lonely all of a sudden, he had been alone almost all the time of his everlasting life and a big portion at this being turned to stone. Such thoughts rushed by, when ever he let his guard down for just a moment and it became quite irritating.

Scuffling across the room to the kitchen entrance letting his head hang around the corner, to find a pink mare with dark pink mane and blue eyes, trying to clean up the mess she had made.

"Pinkie?" the mare frightened and spun around to make out who had caught her "i'm sorry i...." 

Like Discord would predict her reaction, he levitated her from the ground before she could start running. This happened all the time, it was almost like Equestria was a land populated by chicken.

"Eeeeeeeeeek" was her first reaction, which was already shut by his paw on her mouth.

"Its alright, i don't eat you, i don't poison you and ...what was the last one again... right... i'm not interested in your soul or anything" spinning this down like a broken record.

He sat the pony to the side and started to use his magic, in order to clean up the mess she had made.

The pie levitated onto the table and put itself together, same happened to the dishes she had manage to throw down. Apparently she had tried to put the remains onto a plate or so. 

After the initial shock was over, there was only confusion left as she watched him finish the cleaning and even started to fetch some other things to put onto the table. Two plates, forks and some whipping cream, as well two glasses of milk, one of them being chocolate and a flower in a vase. The last one was a habit, which he had not thought about.

He sat down and made a inviting gesture towards the chair on the opposite side of the table, to add a irritated "Please?"

She sat down, he served two slices - one each and started to eat, as she joined in slowly, making it quite awkward, but casual breakfast.

"So... what brings you here?" he asked between bites.

That guy wasn't mad at her at all. Usual the house owners would had thrown her out at this point already. "Uhm... i kinda... the gate was open and i needed a place to stay...".

He knew the gate would only open for one of the mane six, so far it was true, but she had left out the part when she had broken in, since the rest of the castle only would open to Fluttershy or himself.

"You are traveling?"

She didn't seemed quite sure what words to pick, so she just gone along with what he said "Yes, i... started a few weeks ago..." 

He frowned a little at this "I assume you leave soon?" 
"Actually, i'm not in a hurry, didn't quite pick my destination yet" she said sheepishly.

Discord swallowed his last bite and began rubbing his neck, trying to make it sound less awkward as he could, which wasn't easy - giving his appearance "My castle has plenty space... you could stay, if you like..."

"Really?" 

He shrugged "Sure..." trying to crack a small smile "just stay away from the forest, its dangerous" pointing in the vague direction with his lion thumb.

"It is? But, the castle stands in the middle of the forest, is it even save then?" 

Like to prove him right all of a sudden there was a shriek outside, followed by a painful howling. 

"Nah, nothing gets past these walls" he assured.

"Okay?" she replied, as a long awkward pause set in and both nibbled on their second piece of cake.

Pinkie was the one to speak up again "..and what do you do around the place?"

"Uff..." he didn't wanted to answer that question really - or he would had to explain him self for the next few hours and it wasn't quite his favorite topic right now, so he just said nothing and shrugged with his shoulders once again.

"Wanna... play something?" she suggested. 

He shook his head and got up, heading for his room. 

Maybe he was to old for games, he sure was about fifty, at least that was what he looked like. Maybe he was even older than that, like really really reallllly old... and about sixty, so she figured that's why he wasn't in the mood.

Pinkie was kind enough to clean up the dishes and got outside on her self, enjoying the sun and fresh air. 

The garden was quite beautiful, flowers everywhere, the greenest trees you could image and some critters as well a small lake with colorful fishes inside.

She walked over to the lake and took a closer look inside to find the fish looking up towards her, like they waited on something to happen. As pinkie took a look around, she found nearby a bucket with -fish food- written on it, so she threw a few hooves full into the water, as a dozen of hungry fish came up to pick the food from the surface. "You guys are sure hungry" she said, simply turning the bucket upside down to empty it completely, but it just didn't empty. 

She shook it hard as she could but there still came food out of it, so she turned it around and took a look inside, it wasn't empty at all, but the lake now had about three buckets worth of food swimming in it "ops..." rubbing the back of her head.

Well, the fish now had food for weeks or so, so she tried to get a look on the rest of the garden, walking around looking to find a wooden swing in a big tree.

She sat down and tried to push her self from the ground, but it she barely could reach it, so she started to use her legs, to get some momentum, swinging them back and forth and leaning in the rhythm forward and backwards until the swing rose higher and higher. 

"Yeeeehehhhhh" she cheered as the swing reached the highest point and swung down again, past the ground and up to the sky, to repeat this process with glee. 

Every time she swung down and rose on the other side, face first to the sky, she could get a good look above the garden and his borders. It was really huge, like a forest hidden within a forest, when she noticed apple trees in a further distanced corner.

Meanwhile Discord sat on his bed and watched outside one of the windows, following the Pink earth pony with moderate interest. 

The lake part had made him smile for a moment and now he watched her running towards the apples trees. Pinkie tried to pluck one of the apples, by jumping up and waving her hooves in the air, but wasn't even close to get one. 

Now she walked a few circles around the tree, like to observe his weakspots and got ready to buck it like one a farm worker would. On her first attempt she was to far away, doing the buck motion and landing flat on her stomach, since her hooves didn't even reached the tree.

Her second try wasn't much better, she bucked, but was that close to the tree- her hooves landed to far up on the stem and she roled head first over to land on her back.

The third try looked okay, but was to weak to shake even a single apple down the tree. Maybe a fourth of fith attempt had done it, but it looked for a moment like shad given up on it.

Discords eyebrows came together when the earth pony suddenly stopped and turned on the spot like a soldier, wondering what happens next. 

The pink pony run head first towards the tree and slammed against it, rolling on the side and rubbing her head. Still, not a single apple was on the ground.

"She had to give up at some point... right?" he thought to him self.

The earth pony got up again and walked slowly out of sight, as he found him self to press his face against the window, in order to see around the corner a little better, when suddenly the pony charged even faster towards the tree. 

Discord snapped his fingers just in time, before she could hit it – the tree jumped up on his roots, making Pinkie ran straight beneath it to the other side, just to break down her hooves to leave a break rail behind. 

This time Discord had to giggle at her. This face of hers was just to hilarious!

The pony walked up to the tree, which was now teasing her with an apple, but pulled it away every time she reached out for it.

It looked like she got really angry after the fith time and actually bit the tree in one of his roots! 

The appletree suddenly run away - the pony chasing after it "Gimmme your apppleeees!" she screamed, as Discord could not hold back anymore and burst out in laughter. 

He decided to get closer and got down into the garden, as the tree passed by him right in front of his nose, the earth pony close on his feet. 

"Stop that treeee!" she screamed as she chased it around the lake, which was full of really fat fed fish, swimming barely under the surface.

It was even funnier up close! 

The tree came around a second time and he decided to end this, holding out a leg, making the tree stumble over it - the mare jumped immediate on it, grabbed his stem and shook it fierce, like she would try to choke it. Of course chocking a tree was kinda pointless, since it had no throat.

The draconequus got over to the squabblers and lifted Pinkie from the tree. Now the tree was able to get up and brushed some of the grass from it. 

On his right Discord hold back the earth pony who wanted to jump on the tree again, while he hold out his other hand to the tree, which plugged one of his apples and handed it over. He passed the apple to Pinkie Pie, calming her down a little, so he let go.

The mare looked a moment on the apple, walked over to the tree and gave it a kick to one of his roots, as the tree hold his root and jumped up an down and Discord had to get in between once more so the two didn't burst into some really awkward fight. 

"You, back!" he pointed, and the appletree, which left his crown hanging, moving slowly back to his place, as Pinkie showed her tongue towards it, when the apple floated out of her hooves and got stuck into her mouth, but instead of complaining, she chewed joyfull "Mhhh, what an juicy apple!" licking the juice from her lips. 

The apple tree turned a last time and stretched his stem forward, like being proud on this compliment, before burring his roots again in the ground and being normal like the others.

This pony sure was something. 




"Maybe... you want try my rolercoaster?" he suggested innocently.

"Wholerwoaster?" she asked with her mouth full of apple.

"Ye, its right over..." he snapped behind his back "there" and pointed his fingers into a direction she didn't had looked right now. As she turned her head there sure was a giant rolercoaster with a few carts, a triple looping and two screws, all connected with sharp curves and running between five and about fifty meters in size on its highest point.

"Yeeehh!" the pony cheered and run right for it, while Discord just slowly hovered after her.

The pink energy ball jumped into the cart and secured her seat, when he hovered over to the console. "Ready?" 

"Come on, drive with me!" 

"I should not ..." 

"Are you chicken!? Buak buak buak!" waving her arms like she had wings.

With a flash he sat next to her and the machinery started to work on his own, as the car got pulled up the first speed bump in about fifty meters high, than it rushed down like a speeding bullet, pulling up a few meters and getting into the first screw, making three or four quick turns around it own axis, just to get into a long curve, once again building up some energy, as it accelerated once again to dive down into the triple looping, the pony on his side screamed the howl time "Faaasssterrrrr !! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!" 

Discord on his part hold tight to the safety bar around his chest and bit his teeth together.

The ride now got into something like wave motion to suddenly go into a left right combination, shaking the two passengers, to spin seconds later in the second screw, which was at least twice as long as the first one, becoming tighter as it came to the end.

The carts pulled into a last high left turn, making them almost lay on their side – as it came down and slowly came to a hold on the start. 

This ride was about two or three minutes long.

When the safety bar rose it self, he got out of the cart and to notice how soft his knees felt right now, giving him a shaking stand. 

Pinkie didn't seemed affected at all and run for the picture machine, pulling out the photos of the ride.

"Hahaha. Look! Told ya - you are chicken" holding up the picture of him with a grimace, her cheering on his side. 

"I'm not!" he claimed, having trouble to keep his stomach in place.

"One more time!" she screamed, running for the cart as he stopped her "sorry, its ... closed" making a sign appear on it which said -out of order-

"Funbreak" she frowned.

"Me? No... i just wanted to... get with you on my .... waterslide" he grinned.

"I didn't see any slide" she said confused.

"Well you didn't see the rolercoaster either!" being a smartypants.

But the Pink pony didn't get it, and turned her head all around in order to make out the slide, but there wasn't any.

"I cant see any waterslide, you sure you got one?"

When she looked at him, the lake suddenly expanded and a huge slide appeared, with several slide possibility's. Some with big rubber rings, one with small foam surf boards and a classic slide, which spun around it self and even had a small looping in the middle, to end in a ramp so everypony could perform a water bomb on the end of the slide.

"What you mean!? Its right there!" 

She turned her head and didn't question, how she possible could had not seen this. "Amazing!!" she screamed out and ran for it, like she had for the coaster earlier.

Discord once again had to swallow, as he peaked over his shoulder, making the roller coaster vanish. Never ever again.

The two enjoyed the rides on the water-slide a lot more equal this time. 

Discord had got into some black bathing pants and had given her a blue bathing suite for mares as well some dive googles and a snorkel. 

After performing about her twelfth slide of the day, Pinkie was swimming on her back a little, when a shark fin appeared next to her "Eeek! Shark!" she screamed, trying to puddle to the shore in panic, when the draconequus came up from under water and started laughing at her "Uuhhhaaa.. who's chicken now!?" as he got splashed into the face from her, escalating quickly into a splash fight.




Discord was now sitting on a blowup throne, which had a shadow spending rubber palm on his side, while Pinkie just laid on her stomach on a blow up crocodile, hanging her hooves in the water.

"I think i call you... Gummy!" the mare said to her new float, now talking towards her new friend.

"That was the most fun i ever had" she grinned exhausted. 

"Same here" he said partial to her and himself.

The mare now got quite severe "You mean it!?"

"Of course i do and i know a bit about having fun" making a lazy attempt to splash her with water, using his hoof.

Pinkie´s smile was now broad as it could get, taking two thirds of her face, making him rise an eyebrow at her, but she just giggled at him.

"It was nice spending some time with you" he said and the mare took a hoof to turn her float a little as she sat up again "... you really don't mind spend time with me?"

Discord slid down his sunglasses a bit "Come again?"

As one of her hooves stroke coy over her blank flank "most pony's avoid me cause of that..."

He had noticed this back in the kitchen already, but didn't ask about. It just didn't seemed important to him - she was Pinkie Pie after all and given all he had been trough, he didn't want to look this gift horse into the mouth, or flank for this matter.

"No." shaking his head "Look at me" spreading his arms, to show his awkward appearance. 

He didn't had said anything special, but her grin was now even wider than before and she giggled, while she squeezed the crocodile, making its eyes pop out. Now both giggled and laughed together, for no reason at all.




The pony and the draconequus spend the coming days like this and Pinkie Pie had caught on to the might of his magic ability's. 

He created fireworks, a Ferris wheel, auto-scooter, tennis and soccer-field's and many more things for her, so they could play all day long, having much fun as possible. 

They just had finished a game of mini-golf, when Pinkie sat down on the swing in order to rest a little, letting her legs hanging down. Discord pushed her a little playful, making her swing back and forth slowly, like he had so often with his wife.




Then he noticed something in the corner of his eye, which sure had to come, he just wished it wasn't so soon. The last days had been ointment to his soul and only at night, when he slept alone, he still felt awful. Dreaming of his wife and how much he missed her, making him tear up every morning when he got out of bed. Forcing him to fight down this feelings on a daily basis.

Pinkie once had noticed and made pancakes with funny faces on it, which cheered him up right away. 

A few nights ago he even had slept in her bed, when she had fallen asleep after a really expended pillow fight. Of course he had hold back to put his paw on her side, but it was still really soothing to have somepony on his side, as he watched her silhouette for hours before he fall asleep, just to continue doing so a little longer in the morning.




About a hundred meters away a big elegant pony landed on his ground, followed by another one.

Of course no regular pegasus pony could possible get past his force field that easy, but those two wasn't any come along regular pony's – both been alicorn princesses. 

The first one was Princess Celestia. She had recovered completely it seemed, once again wearing her incredible annoying armor, which still had the battle-marks he had done to it. 

The second one was Princess Cadence. The pink, candy maned alicorn wore something similar, but a lot lighter and simpler in appearance. It sure was enchanted as well, but probably could withstand only a few of his blasts... not to forget there are only six Elements of Harmony in all of the world, so it lacked this feature as well.

Still, this meant serious business. One alicorn was hard to defeat and Candace possible could tip the scale in their favor.

Discord stopped the swing "I'm sorry, playtime is over".

Pinkie rose her head, looking upwards at Discord, following the direction of his sight to find the princesses standing nearby. Most pony's now had thrown their self into the dirt, praising their royal rulers, but Pinkie just waved towards them "Hellooo!".

"Gimme a moment, okay?" he asked polite.

"Uhm. Okay..." 


He rose his hands like a robber would, showing he was unarmed. Of course in his case he could not ever be unarmed, since unlimited powers flow through every fiber of his body, most certainly including his hands.

The two alicorn's tightened their stand, spreading their hooves apart and lowering their heads in order to point their horns at his chest.

"Lady's ... lady's... please, i got a guest." making a short motion towards the earth pony, which was swinging below the tree. 

"Release her now Discord" Celestia demanded.

"Release? She ain't a prisoner! She is my g-u-e-s-t..." speaking the last word really slowly, like she could misunderstood him the first time.

Cadance gave Celestia a short glance "Guest?"

He gave her a short unfriendly nod and put his focus back to the more threatening alicorn.

"I wont make a scene, i just want to say goodbye..."

This time Celestia was the to give a glance towards the other alicorn, like to check on her opinion, receiving an almost unnoticeable nod.

"No tricks Discord" the white alicorn warned him.

"Me?" acting like she had pulled a joke, but cut the act when he noticed neither of them found it to be funny. "Just gimme a minute."

He turned around and got back to Pinkie, which stopped swinging on his arrival, he grabbed the pink pony and put it down on the ground, under the watchful eyes of his visitors. 

"Pinkie, you know who those two mares are?"

Pinkie put on her thinking face "Is that, your sister?" pointing on the white mare.

He laughed at that "No... its... haha... its not my sister..." spilling some tears of laughter and giggling some more after, before his face got serious again.

"This- is princess Celestia" pointing on the white mare with a well mannered gesture "and this is Cadance" waving in her vague direction, leaving out her title as well.

This was when Pinkie's yaw dropped and her eyes grew big as pancakes.

"THIS IS THE PRINCESS!?" 

He did his best to calm her down again, sticking a strawberry cream lollipop into her mouth.

"Mmhhhhhh". It was her favorite taste. As he tried to get her attention again.

"Listen carefully, ...i got some important business with them, so i be gone for ...a while." he paused a moment, as he put on a honest smile "It was fun playing with you."

Giving her an unexpected, but short hug.

"So, you cant play with me anymore?" she asked sadly, putting down the lollipop.

He shook his head slowly. "Sorry".

The pink earth pony shrunk a little in size, her only playmate was about to go.

"Hey, why the long face?" putting his finger below her chin "i come back some day... and then we play twister, okay?"

This cheered the pony up a little. She had asked him a bunch of times, but for some reason he had refused to play it back then.

"And i tell you what, as long i'm gone, you can have my place, okay?" as he snapped once "It will only and only open for you now... and the path to town will be save for you to use, so don't worry about that either." 

She gave him a hug "i will miss you."

"You done something, nopony else could have done Pinkie - you cheered me up ... and that's why are B.F.F." he said, patting her mane, while had her hooves wrapped around him.

She glanced at him with wet eyes "B.F.F. ? Best... friends... forever?"

"Maybe even a little longer" he grinned, as he put the pony back on the swing.

The draconequus turned around and walked back to the two alicorn's, which had loosen up their battle stance a little. 

"What!?" Discord snarled "just lets go" as he gave a last glance over his shoulder and the three vanished in a bright light by the snap of his fingers.


Pinkie was sad he was gone, but also really happy about what he had said.

Nopony else could had cheered him up and this made her feel proud and special deep within, as suddenly a short flash of light on her flank and her cutiemark finally had appeared.
> Rock, Paper, Friendship!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rock, Paper, Friendship


She finally had her cutie mark - three colorful floating balloons.... but nopony to share it with. Nopony to celebrate with. 


Pinkie kept sitting on the swing for a while, but only barely moving back and forth, still starring on the spot he had vanished. It was just an ordinary spot of grass. 

Without her playm... friend, it wasn't fun to swing anymore, so she got down to walk inside the castle, heading into the main hall which connected all rooms to one another.

It looked even bigger now and it was all hers. She looked around and didn't quite know what to do. The castle would maintain itself for the most part, since it was stuffed full with all kind of magic, so a single pony had no problems, to clean the rest in minutes. Still, it was a castle after all and freaking huge for this matter to live here alone. 

She got to the kitchen and took a look into the fridge, but even after opening it a few times, nothing really appealed to her, so she let go and closed it for now. 

The pony walked into the living room and the chimney light up itself, warming up the room just right. It even reacted when she talked to it, turning the flame a little bigger or smaller... 

Right now it was only burning on a low flame for decorating manners. 

She sat down and enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere as she looked onto the picture above the chimney. 

"Brighter" she said as the candles on the walls reacted in a similar matter like the chimney, enlighten the room, as she leaned forward. Of course she had noticed this picture the first time around and seen it often in the past days, but it was only now when she started to wonder, who was that mare on his side?

They had been so busy having fun, there was no worry in the world.




Pinkie jumped up from the couch and rushed up the stairs, taking a short orientation look, to head to the one door she had been unable to open until now. 

When she had snuck into the castle, she had assumed it was locked, that's why she had used the bedroom on the end of the hallway which had -Angel- written on a door-sign. 

That pony on the picture sure must had been a friend of him, like herself, that's why -Angel- had an own bedroom, she figured. 

She grabbed the handle and pushed it down, but this time the lock snapped open and she stuck in her face curiously trough the slide, checking for monsters, before pushing the door fully open.

It was just another ordinary bedroom. No, it wasn't ordinary at all!




For starters the bed was at least three times as big as Angels... the room also was a lot bigger, at least five times and looked like all kind of artists had worked day and night to make it graceful as pony possible. 

Everything was crested in elegant gold notes, and kept in a smooth white tone. A big mirror stood in the corner, having a thick wooden frame, which had painted wooden flowers all around it – which somehow moved like a soft breeze was blowing onto them. On the ceiling was a big chandelier, made out of diamonds or crystals and it was really large, but strange enough made out of really thin and swung parts, it seemed impossible it would not break apart and rain down in splinters, it must been enchanted as well and speaking of the ceiling... it showed the sky, but it wasn't just a picture of one painted on it, no, far from it! 

It literally was like she would watch the blue sky outside, as pink and white clouds slowly passed above her head, casting their soft shadows on the ground. 

This made her mouth stand open for a while, until it formed a word "Light?" - and the chandelier obeyed and light up from the middle to the outside, like a tiny sun had rose on this already wonderful summer sky. Little did she knew, at night the sky would show stars and the chandelier become the moon in the center.

The pony walked in and took a closer look. The floor had a wide soft whine red carpet and the walls a leaf green with a forest painting on it, seeming so real she wanted to wander in for a pick nick, as the painting slightly moved like the wooden flowers. It was like she was standing on a flower meadow, in the middle of an enchanted forest. It even smelled like it! As she noticed a fine and sweet note hanging in the air. From all the rooms in the castle, this was the most stunning for sure. 

Other rooms might had some fancy magic, like a whirl pool, the fridge, a jukebox or something Discord had called -PV-, which turned out to be a funny little box with pony's inside... but this room sure got the cake. If she would had to guess: it probably had cost at least half the castles worth.

A picture of Discord came into her sight. She knew he had been here almost every night, making her feel a little disappointed. He was so nice towards her, but kept a room like this for him self?

Then she found another picture next to the first one, showing the yellow mare from before, in a green gala-dress, she was even more beautiful on this one. Plenty more pictures followed, some showing them on travels and exotic places, some with other pony's she didn't knew, but not a single one was without them smiling playful and happy towards the camera. Strange enough a few showed a mare which looked like her twin sister... could he have mistaken her with this pony? Maybe that's why he was so nice... but that mares cutiemark was hidden behind her friends, so... hmm... no, couldn't be it. Just an coincidence she figured.

She wandered a little more and jumped on the bed. Oh that was a bed she could spend hours laying on, soft as a cloud! Making her self fall backwards onto it, when something really uncomfortable poked into her back, so she grabbed below to find another picture of the two friends, showing a party of some sorts. 




He was dressed up in an elegant black smocking, with a red tie and black top-hat. 

She had a white long dress and a yashmak on her head, which was pulled back to reveal her face and some kind of ring around her neck on a chain. Pinkies nose got closer to the picture: that wasn't a just a dress - it was a WEDDING DRESS!! "This pony is his WIFE!?" she shouted loud enough to be heard in the howl castle, scarring of some birds nearby. How in the hay... , so she was his family? This explained everything! ...but caused even more questions.

He had locked him self often in this room and ...she wasn't around - neither had he mentioned her once. Maybe she was... he had lost her?

Now she felt really bad for him and shortly after bad for her self.

She missed her own family too and seeing the way he acted in the morning, she could image how much her own family probably missed her as well. 

Pinkie put the picture carefully on the bedside cabinet and closed the door behind her, as she run down the stairs to the fridge. This time she wasn't picky, grabbing everything that was inside, to put it into a bag and after she grabbed some other things as well - run off home, leaving the castle behind. The big iron gate, which had opened itself, shut behind her and something like a giant bubble flashed up for a moment, before fading into invisibility again.




It took her almost a howl days to get back home, but it had been a lot easier than running away.

For one thing her friend had made sure she would not be poor, as he had shown her a small chest which would create one really valuable crystal per day.

The chariot stopped and the cartpony asked for his payment, for this kinda long trip it would be around fifty-two bits. She gave him the crystal as his eyes got wide. This crystal was worth a half years effort. "Keep the change!" she yelled over her shoulder as she run of towards her parents farm. 

Pinkie slowed down at the door, as it suddenly became kinda scary towards her.

The gray old house had nothing of the castles grace. It was small and lacked any sort of stile, like it was impossible to build something even more plain and the door, it looked disconcerting, like she would knock by some stranger. 

She rose her hoof hesitant but, before she could even tap the door once it swung open and her mother stood in the middle. She was a gray furred mare, with greygreen mane, blue eyes and glasses hanging around her neck on a chain, which she put quickly up her nose.

"Pinkie, is dat you!?" Pinkie didn't hesitate now and jumped on her mother, throwing her on the back to give her a hug. 

"Pah! Come fast, Pinkie is back!" she shouted as a stallion came from the rock field rushed into the house, trough the back entry. He was a little bigger than his wife, having a dull brown fur, a gray mane and sideburns, wearing a big black hat as well black tie. "Pinkie!" now he got over to her, picking her up for a big hug. 

"Whe´r have yu been!? We wo´ried sick!" 

"I missed you too... i'm sorry i run away"

"We are yust glad ur back" her mother said in a caring tone as she shattered some tears of glee, alongside, as well her father did. 

Now her sister came into the room "Oh, Pinkie you are back" she said in a somehow monotone voice, but walked over to give her sister a casual hug. "Missed you". The mare was gray and had purple flat mane and eyes green as a sapphire, wearing a blue/gray dress with a black belt.

Maud didn't quite show emotions on the same level as her, but Pinkie knew better - she sure meant it and was the first one to notice "Pinkie, your flank" giving it a close look, making the others aware as well. 

"Ouh, my baby finally has her mark!" her mother cheered. 

Her father was a little confused about it "those are some strange rocks" making Pinkie giggle at him.

Maud could not help to correct him, "Dad, those are balloons" 

"Ohh.. i see." he might didn't had expected this kind of mark, but he sure was happy it finally had happen, as the put his arm around their mother to share his glee.

The pink earthpony only could been happier ,when her other sisters had been around, but her parents told her she was on a rock study trip.

"Oh, this reminds me" she started and dug around in her pocket "i got a present for you Maud" handing her over one of Discords favorite marbles, which he had given her.

The marble was transparent and inside it kept changing color's all the time, in a wild mishmash of white, yellow, orange, blue, purple and pink - her sisters favorite. 

"Its... nice", she said once again - in a dry tone.

"I knew you love it!" grinning at her sister.




Her parents owned a rock farm and on the next day Pinkie got to work on the fields again. 

She wasn't forced to do so, but she liked to spent time with her sister, which was really into rocks. There was nothing she didn't know about rocks, just by taking a look or smell at them. Sometimes... or in fact often Pinkie had wished she had such a special gift like her, but she wasn't as good, no matter how hard she had tried. Still now she knew what made her special, so she didn't mind as much anymore. Cheering others up, this was what she was meant to do and it made her feel a lot more confident than before.

"How was your travel?" her sister asked.

"It was not to exciting for the most part... well, unless the last days, those been a blast!" 

Maud blinked once slowly.

"I have to tell you!" she grinned. 

About four hours later of fast babbling Pinkie was done telling her everything about Discord, the castle and the princesses and how exactly she got her cutiemark.

Maud blinked once more slowly, the first time in four hours.

"You been with this guy? I thought he is dangerous." putting her head slightly on the side.

"What!? No he isn't... he is funny and nice and a little sad - but really funny!" 

"Pinkie, i think i should show you something"

The two sisters walked back into the house, into Maud´s room. It was gray in gray, some pictures showed her petrock – bolder. The only pitches of color been photos of Pinkie or presents she had given her, which stood carefully placed all around in the room, making it the opposite of Pinkies.




"Here. You might should read this" handing her the newspaper from last week. 

Now Pinkie was speechless.

"I'm glad you are alright, but maybe you don't tell our parents".

Giving her another casual hug.




This night Pinkie could not possible sleep. 

It wasn't just the room she was in, compared to the castle, she was quite literally sleeping on stone right now, but her thoughts could not make all of this fit together. 

He could not be the monster they said, he was the nicest and funniest guy she ever had met, but why else would the princesses come to him... so it had to be true, or not?

She got up from her bed and walked over to her sisters room, like she used to when she was a filly, every evening, when the sun was going down- casting scarry shadows into her room. 

Pinkie walked up to Maud's bed and snuck under her blanket, waking her up in the process.

"Pinkie?"

"Is it okay when i stay tonight?"

"Sure."

She grabbed her big sister´s hoof and put it around her waste, like some would wrap them self into their blanket - cuddling up with the gray mare, but the pink pony started to fidget around after a while.

Her big sister Maud always been reassuring towards Pinkie, making her calm down when ever she was afraid at night. She was the single most amazing pony there is after all, not just for her big stone knowledge, she also was really strong and fast if she wanted to, which she had earned by working with rocks of all sizes over time.

Once she had scared of a bunch of bully's, by simply shattering a near by tree with a single blow of her hooves, but she actually never harmed anypony else, being usual quite peaceful.

The gray mare could not help to notice, her younger sister still wriggled around. Most of the time Pinkie would tell some story's or talk about things she had seen, like some cute little bug and fall asleep doing so – and given she had seen so many new things and didn't babble right away it was quite unusual behavior.

"Pinkie, whats the matter?"  she asked in her dry voice.

"Ouh sorry Maud, i cant sleep... i cant help to think of Discord... i hope he s alright".

"He blew up a City."

"I know, but he didn't hurt anypony! And he s actually really nice..."

"He´s to take responsibility for his actions"

Pinkie moaned at this "I guess he was angry..." she said thoughtful.

Her sister didn't respond on this. Knowing nothing about him, which she had not read in the newspaper, when Pinkie spun around, looking her sister in the green eyes, which got illuminated by the bright fullmoon night.

"Maybe he was sad?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe he missed his wife..."

"That's no reason to such things."

"But she was his family, don't you would be sad when i was gone, like forever?"

"Pinkie, of course, i told you."

"You see! You should have seen her room, he had built for her..." losing her self in the thought of this impossible sight, but lacking the words to describe it, since her vocabulary wasn't quite big "it was amaazzzzzziing..." stretching the word for half a minute.

The gray mare understood what she tried to say, pulling her sister a little closer to calm her down, which rubbed the head onto her chest like it was a pillow.

"Maud..."

"Mh?"

"I´m glad you are here."

"Me, too."




Days passed and everything had returned to normal. 

The Pie family kept check of the farm and nothing special ever happened around here.

They got up in the morning, got over to the field and collected some rocks for them to sell and put out new ones, like they did ever since – and their grand parents before that and their grand parents parents before that and so on.

Pinkie had noticed how repetitive and boring this life was, even before she had met her new friend – in fact, it was the reason how she got to meet him. 

She had thought often about it, since she was back - at times it seemed funny how things turned out after all, but not today. Today she missed him a little more and the memory became bitter sweet.




Back than, it was just like any other day, when her father was busy with an special marmor delivery and she was the one to bring in the mail. In between the usual letters from other parts of her family there was also a bright pink flier in between the gray envelopes.

It was a advertising for a big town party, showing balloons and cake and happy pony's dancing, making her eyes grew wide in astonishment. 

She wanted to go to it so badly, but she wasn't sure if their parents would let her go, so she gave it a shot and just run for it without asking. 

On her first attempt she almost got lost on the way, since she barely got to town, having been teached home-school, but than she finally had found her way and joined the party.

At first it was really great, everywhere was cake as promised, the music was upbeat and she even got to dance along with the others, until some of them started to point at her and giggle. She didn't notice at first but more pony's joined in and some even talked up to her and one another "ain't you a bit old to be a blank-flank?" "I'm not sure you are invited" "Hey, who let that grown blank flank in here?" "Is she sick?" "Maybe its contagious!".

This when it came back to her, like it was in school, when all the filly's and colts had their marks, but she still didn't and even their former friends started to make fun of her.

Pinkie did the only thing she knew and run away. She just headed for the towns border and kept running until she found her self to be lost, but she didn't want to return anyway, knowing that those pony's still would be near by. 

It was quite a while later, as she found her self lost in some woods, to discover a really funny looking path - made out of colorful stones which would lead her to a really strange looking castle. This was when she met him. He was just like her, he was different.

Discord didn't had done anything like all those mean pony's she hat met before, he was just nice towards her and they laughed together at the most stupid things! Like when he gave some frogs blue feathered wings and they flew away. This made her smile.

Little did she know, that today would be as fateful back than - and once again the mailmare would be the one to start it with a seeming harmless piece of paper and her sister was the one to get it.

"Thanks" she said calmly to the blond maremail, which gave her an awkward smile and flew off.

Pinkie sat in the kitchen, eating her porcini soup, when Maud came in and sat down next to her, sorting out the letters. Most of them belonged to family, one tried to sell a big bathtub for an reduced price and the last bundle was the newspaper. 

Her big sister noticed Pinkies lack of appetite "Not hungry?"

Pinkie shook her head, using the spoon to build a mushroom pile. 

Maud had noticed this kind behavior more often the past days and got a little worried and kept trying to cheer her up.

"Wanna play -Game of Stones-?"

Once again she shook her head.

The gray mare took the newspaper and gave it a look, maybe there would be something good  interesting towards Pinkie, like a Menhir-Convention, when she found something about stone, but not quite what she had hopped for - making her blink and put down the paper of the table.

"Well, i think father would like to read it" she got up and thought about leaving, but Pinkie still didn't ate and dropped the porcini´s one by one into the soup with a small splash. 

Maybe she should tell her, but how are the chances it would make it worse?

Still, she was her sister after all and from what she saw, he was somehow important to her,

so saying nothing wasn't any better than lie her straight to the face.

Maud got over to Pinkie and put on her serious face, which pretty much looked like any other face to most pony's, but her sister recognized right away.

"Pinkie, we need to talk."

"What about?"

She put the newspaper onto the table and slid it over to Pinkie.

A single look on the main cover was enough to give her a shock.




Maud had to tell in their parents, since Pinkie didn't snap out of it.

"What´s de mader?" her mother asked upset "Honey, are you allrig´d?" starting to pet her mane, as her father came in "What is all the ruckus abut?" as the mother just shrugged and shook her head.

Maud was the one to speak "Its Pinkies friend, princess Celestia has punished him..." showing both the newspapers headline.

-Discord turned to stone, Equestria save again!-

The picture below showed the draconequus, being solid rock, standing in some big garden.

"...but don't worry Pinkie, he isn't dead" Maud said towards her sister, as she tapped on the picture. 

"How you know?"

"Rock studies." 

Pinkie jumped up into a celebrating pose, like a marathon winner would and hold in for a second.

"I must go, he needs my help!" 

"Hey dere foal, slow down, you just have come home..." the adult mare said, receiving backup from her husband "She is right, yu just came home and now yu want to leave for that monster?"

"He ain't a monster" Pinkie said grumpy "he is my BFF - best friend forever!" crossing her hooves in front her chest.

"Yu cant even tell me the path to down, how yu want to travel to the princess?"

"Rig´d. I even doubt she had time to see you".

Her parents had a good point. Celestia was really busy. On a regular day she had at least a hundred visitors, most of them with important concerns, so it could take months or longer to get approval for a visit, let alone being allowed in the castle, since making a request didn't automatically mean she would see anypony. A dozen of secretary´s worked around the clock to check and plan out each day to her best use – unless there was an emergency, which needed her attention. 

"Pinkie, they are right." 

being talked down from her parents for her own good, that was nothing new towards her, being used to it since she was small, but even Maud got on their side. Pinkie felt stabbed in the back.

"You too Maud!?" 

"Its for your best." 

Her pinks lips began to shiver, as she ran past everypony in the room and locked her self up.

Nopony went after her.  Her parents thought this was one lection she had to learn her self, you cant just change the world with good intentions, some things happen for a reason... this time the reason was quite obvious and it was not to be dismissed out of hoof.

When it got late, Maud brought her a bowl of food and a chain of rock candy and placed it in front of the door, knocking two times shortly to let her know she was there, so when the sister came past the door later, at least the rock candy was gone.




Pinkie sat in her room and chewed the candy her sister had made. It was really sweet and crunchy. She always did this to cheer her up and it worked this time as well.

While she was about to eat the last rock, she could hear the others talking below her. The house wasn't to big, a little smaller and it might had fit into one of the castles rooms, so she could hear fragments of the conversation. They talked about her and him, but despite putting her ear onto the ground, she could not quite get everything, since the rest of her family usual kept their voice down. 

The bits she could make out was her father raising his voice for a minute, as he talked about Canterlot, how long and dangerous a trip would been - not to speak of the costs getting there.

Her mother was also upset, but she could not understand her part quite, but it was similar and if Maud was down there, well - she didn't express emotions like the others, so there was no hope she would raise her voice at any point.

After a while Pinkie gave it up and walked up and down in her room, trying to think of something and making time pass faster, but the hooves of the clock seemed to stand still. 

"Oh, they do stand still" she said to her self, getting over and to wind up the old table clock.




It was about an hour after midnight when the clock rang, but it was almost silent, since she had put it bellow her pillow. The earth pony got up and grabbed her bag from the corner she had prepared, it included a self drawn map, a small lamp and some rock candy.

Pinkie tried to walk on the tips of her hooves in order to make no noise, opening her door just a little bit to take a look down the hallway. Nopony was left, neither right, so she got to her bed and put in some her toys to make it look like she was still sleeping in it, heading back to the door to check once more. The path was clear.

Pinkie did make sure she almost crouched on her belly, while passing her sisters and parents room, to maker her way really slowly downstairs, feeling like a ninja that snuck around in an enemy castle.

She grabbed the old door nob and turned it really slowly, while it made a creak noise – the pony bit her teeth like it would help to make the sound less noisy. 

The door latch now jumped out of its place and she started to open the door, transforming from a ninja to a diamond thief, who was trying to open a safe, without making the alarm go off.

Right in front of her was the cold dark night and a long journey with little to no chances of success and every journey, no matter how big it was started with a single step of an hoof, so she put it down on the border of the door as a light shined from behind, making her turn around.

"I knew you would try" 

"Maud?" she reminded her self to keep her voice down "Please don't tell them, i have to..."

"But Pinkie, you barely know him."

"I know he is my friend and he needs somepony" 

Maud shook her head a little, her sisters was stubborn as granite.

"Then i come with you."

Pinkie smiled from ear to ear, while her sister wrote a short note towards their parents.

-We are on rock studies, coming back soon, Maud-

She really wasn't a pony of many words.


The two sisters headed out, towards Canterlot... little did they know, that this newspaper had caused similar reaction's in other corners of Equestria.
> Knocking on Heavens Door
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Knocking on heavens door


Pinkie had payed for the train to Canterlot, since she still had some of the crystals.

Maud even asked for one, but she didn't want to spend it, she only gave it a really close look, biting and smelling on it to specify what kind of crystal it really was and give a proper calculation about its worth. "Its worth a lot". 

The two had got to town and despite Pinkie being on mission, she could not help to run into one or two big fancy stores, selling candy and other funny things. Maud just kept walking towards the castle, to be caught up and left alone by Pinkie a dozen times.

"Pinkie, what are you doing?"

Her sister carried four huge bags filled up with candy, toys, streamers and many more things, starting to slow and huff below the weight. 

"Sorry, i'm nervous!"

Maud stopped and took the four bags on her back like they been just empty paper. 

Her sister showed her relieve in a big smile "Thanks" but already was looking for the next store.

"Pinkie." 

"Oh right, sorry again... still nervous."




It would only take one more street to pass and they would reach the castle entry, when Pinkie spotted a sad looking filly, sitting on a nearby park bench... she was orange and had a pink mane with purple eyes, but lacked a cutie mark yet.

"Hey there, whats the matter?" Pinkie asked the young one.

"The others making fun of me, cause i cant fly yet" moving her tiny wings in an attempt to lift up, but unable to get of the ground fore more than a couple seconds.

"Oh, you poor thing, but you know what, today is your lucky day!"

"How could it?" the filly frowned.

Pinkie waved her sister closer, searching through the bags, while throwing balloons, streamers and other fun things into the air all around them, making the young one looking confused, when the mare squeaked "Founnnd it!"

She pulled out a brand new scooter from the bag. 

It was the pro-scooter-6000. It had a deep blue color with flames painted on its small side flaps and a bright red handles, connected by a shining steel pole instead of a wooden one like cheaper models would have.

"Here, its all yours!"

The filly was amazed "Really!?" 

"Giveee it a tryyy" handing it over to her, to see the young pony make her first shaking attempts to steer the thing, but it wasn't so easy to hold balance, while pushing your self with one hoof.

"Maybe you need a little more practice" Pinkie assumed.

"She could use her wings" Maud suggested.

"You are genius Maud!" Pinkie cheered "Try your wings, flap them! And flap them fast!" 

The foal did as told and got the hang of it really fast, as she used her small wings to give her self a boost, while having both backhooves right on the scooter, able to gear a lot better now – spinning a bunch of quick circles and a small jump around them.

"Amazziiing!" Pinkie cheered as other pony's around noticed the stunt show, as well some of the other filly's which had been flying nearby.

Now the young one was the center of attention and not an outcast anymore, driving back in front of Pinkie Pie and her gray sister.

"Thank you so much!!" she almost shouted, hopping up and down on her new scooter.

The pink pony got sheepishly "Awwww... don't mention it" waving it of a little, while blushing as well, right before cramming once more in the bags to put hand her a fitting helmet and safety equipment and a attachable flag – showing a lightning strike on it. Now the filly was ready to become a big scooter star... or at least to have a lot of fun for a long time.

In the background a few more filly's had landed to show in envy at the presents, when they also got waved over by Pinkie, which split her the remains of the bags onto them "And don't be mean to another... and now go and have some fun!" giving them a little push towards park, as the crowed ran of, lead by the cool scooter girl.

"That was nice" Maud said.

She might had lost all her precious toys, but felt now so much better than before, she could burst in glee.

The sisters made her way to the other side, walking over a big round place, which was made, so chariot's could take and release passengers and pony's had space to meet up, before heading to the main gate.

Surprisingly enough the place wasn't to crowded, probably most pony's assumed what her parents already had told her, that without proper invitation nopony would even get past the first wall.


When they was about to walk by a white mare, she spoke up to both of them in a unfamiliar accent "That was really generous of you two" 

The two turned to the mare, which probably just had got out of a chariot her self, having a similar looking filly next to her, carrying a fashionable backpack. 

"Uhm... thanks, it was fun watching the kids" the pink one responded.

"If i may introduce my self, i'm Rarity and this is my lovely sister Sweetie Belle" pointing on her, who was about to put down the backpack with a -whomp-

It probably was quite heavy. 

"Sweetie, don't be rude" the older said.

"Sorry, the bag is quite heavy" now turning to the others "Hello, i'm Sweetie Belle" even performing a small curtsy. 

"I'm Pinkie Pie! And this is my sister Maud!" putting a hoof around her and pressing her cheek against hers, like to prove how alike they look. 

"Hello". 

"Ouh, they are sisters too" Sweetie said, but her sister just rose a eyebrow "Of... course." looking at the two non-a-like pony's.

"Weee are going to the princess... what about youuu?"

"Oh, we also had a quite important matter to talk about, with her" Rarity declared with a noble move of her hoof, as she performed it slightly to fast and had to bite her teeth together.

"You okay sis?" 

"I'm fine sweetie" forcing her self to a smile.

"My sister had an accident, i she should be in bed right now"

Pinkie looked asking at her sister "Maybe a boulder hit her" – this made sense. Maud never was wrong and the other two didn't deny. 

"Hey we can go together!" Pinkie suddenly cheered, jumping circles around the other three "Okay? Okay? Okay?"

"Okay, okay" the white filly chipped in, before she was stopped by her older sister "We would be glad to join."

"Glad to join" her sister repeated it, like a parrot" but having a grin on her face.

"Yay! Then lets go!".

The white mare slowly got up and stumbled towards the gate, where some ruckus was going on, while the filly tried to lift up the bag again, before Maud walked back and lifted it up on her own back, with a swift move.

"Wow, you must be really strong!" 

"I guess."

On the gate sat a yellow pegasus and a blue one was shouting at the guard.

"You got any idea who this is!?" she shouted, while pointing on the shy pony on the ground "That's the greatest flight-artist in all of Equestria!" 

The guard, a big gray stallion in golden armor, didn't care at all. Not even watching her into the eyes, while denying access to the castle.

"Can you believe that guy!? He must been standing here for the last decade or so, he has no idea!"

"M..maybe we should try later?"

"Later!? Are you kidding me? I wont let you get bullied by this squarehead!"

"But he is not bullying me" the shy pegasus said.

"He s blocking our path, he sure is and i will teach him if he doesn't move soon" as she performed some quick jabs with her hooves, hoovering half a meter over the ground. 

"Ha! How rude" the white mare said mocking "some pony's got no manners" 

"You talking to me, Missy?" the wild pegasus asked.

"Oh please, let me show you how a lady handles this" as she made her path to the guard and gave it her best attempt to charm him "Oh hello, you are quite some good looking stallion, why don't you... leave your post for a while and we get to some place nicer" letting her hoof slowly slide down his armor, while making big eyes, blinking at him with a moue. 

The guard still didn't move at all. 

"Hahaha... good try!" 

The white unicorn withdrew... "well, must been my slightly rumpled appearance..." as she used her hoof to fix her mane a little.

Now it was Pinkies turn to try her best.

She walked straight up the the guard, gave him a serious close look into his eye and took a deep breath.

"I got balloooons!" holding up a really nice red balloon in his front. 

This time the guard actually moved, but just to give a short, but none the less, really confused glance towards the pink mare.

She let go of the balloon and it flew up to the sky as the guard allowed itself to look after it, without moving its head, just to return to his lion pose – starring straight forward.

"Gave it my best" she shrugged, walking back to her sister and the others.

The pegasus looked at the four new candidates "So... you all want to the princess as well? Well tough! It looks like nopony is going anywhere!"

"We just have to think of something...." the shy pony said "... maybe" 

"Royal guards don't fall for our kind i fear, unless somepony has an invitation... which we don't have, do we?""

All of them shook their heads except one. 

The one that did, that seventh pony of the group - looked like it was stuck somewhere in between the others, when it was about stile.

For once her orange fur was shiny and her hooves were in perfect shape, but she also wore an old cowboy hat on her head, which didn't seem to belong on her well tamed yellow mane.

"I sure do, so would ya please so kind and step aside?" the cowgirl asked, as five pairs of eyes starred onto her with envy ... and one more without any expression at all.

"Hey, than you could let us in, right?" the blue pegasus asked right away.

"Please" Rarity added, trying once again her big blue eyes, this time on the mare.

"If, maybe... that's no trouble for you, please" the shy one said.

"In in in in in!" the pink one got excited.

The filly just tried to mimic her older sister, giving her best shivering lip impression.

The gray just sat there and done nothing. "I can wait here."




"I´m sorry, honestly, but i cant." 

It somehow didn't sound like a cheap excuse and the group let her heads hanging when the mare stepped between the pony's to the guard, to hand him a golden pass. 

The guard took a close careful look on it and checked some kind of visitors list after, before stepping aside with an short "You may come in". 




"So much about that" Rainbow cursed.

"Maybe we find somepony else who is more generous?" Rarity suggested quickly after, so the last spark of hope would not get stomped, by this blue brick.

"But what about Discord!?" the pink one frowned, as she swung her hooves around her sister.

The Cowgirl stopped in tracks "Sai, what again?" she turned around "who said that...!?"


The eyes of the pony's now jumped back and forth between Pinkie and the orange mare.

"That last part, who said that!?"

Maud gave her sister a small nudge to make her aware, when her sister came up sobbing "i just.. said -what about Discord-"

Her eyes grew wide and she had to lick her lips, having a dry mouth all of a sudden.

"Anypony else... does know him... ?" she asked, letting her sight wanders slowly around. 

An awkward pause set in, as Rainbow was the first one to lift her hoof, followed by Rarity and finally Fluttershy. 

All of a sudden all pony's felt connected, at least the ones which had direct contact. Only Sweetie Belle and Maud didn't feel to really belong, both had just been here to support their sisters.




Applejack put her hoof in front of her mouth for a moment. Like to make sure to say nothing wrong. "I´ll be back as fast i can, please wait." the orange mare said and run of into the castle.




"Well, this gets an seven on my awkward scale!" Rainbow said.

"Meh, just a two" Pinkie added. 

Rarity had no idea what kinda scale the two are talking about. Had it something to do with weight? Looking down on her self. This darn hospital food.

The group waited almost half an hour and the mare hadn't returned.

At first everypony wanted to talk about him, but Rarity had made a good point, its maybe not to wise to talk outside about him... somepony might would get the wrong impression... probably causing mass panic in the process... so they tried to past time in other ways.

Pinkie Pie probably had the hardest time doing so, since she would like to ask this incredible familiar looking yellow pegasus a few hundred things, but right now the others been right - it was better to keep a low profile for now or she might would never see her friend again. 

So she let go and got back to some happier toughs.

Pinkie and Maud shared some of their rock candy with Sweetie Belle, which really seemed to enjoy it "itsh a bits crunsshy, but rly goosd" trying to make her sister give it a try, which refused to get those sticky rocks any where near her.

The blue pegasus and her yellow friend had started to train some basic moves for their new flight show, going trough the same steps over and over again, just to add one when the other moves had become perfect in synchronous motion. 

"I´m not quite sure if she really comes back" Rarity said worried. 

"But she said she would!" Pinkie replied stubborn. 

Rarity didn't want to bring the others down, but found a hard time to keep up her own patience "Sorry Darling, but some ponies are just liars" giving a sigh.

"Maybe she is right" Maud agreed. 

"Oh please, just a little longer" she begged her sister, which gave her a single nod on this.

Sweetie Belle could not help to gaze at this kind of family bond. 

Her sister sure had tried her best the past days, but it sure would take a long time, until they had this level of bonding she figured.

Rarity noticed how she starred at the other two, while they played an Pie-Family game, using a small rock, they had found somewhere nearby.

She just had to try something... so she put her hoof around her sister, carefully, when the younger reacted a little strange towards her unusual attempt, as her sister pointed on the two artists, which started to spin flying screws around another, to perform a half looping and began to fly another screw upwards, even faster this time.

Sweetie sure loved it. Maybe she would not take this long after all?




The castle guards all looked quite similar to one another, almost like they would be brothers, so it would take a close look in order to tell them apart. So when a guard called them in, they just thought the first one had changed their mind for some reason.

The new guard led them right into the castle. It was really big and let alone the walking took almost fifteen minutes to get to their destination. Know they knew where at least half of the waiting time was spend on.

The castle had huge places, gardens and towers reaching almost as height like the mountains behind them, giving an spectacular sight where ever they looked.

Many more guards was found everywhere on the walls, walking patrols and at times doing some random checks, as well leading other groups in and out - giving everypony the feeling to be part of a giant bee hive. Still the guards wasn't any close to be the most common pony's around, since hundred of servants of all kind walked past them, being busy. Gardeners, housemaids, backers and so on, making sure everything was just right for everypony inside this impregnable walls.

They came across some kind of small lake with fountains framing it, surrounded by trees, all which looked identical to one another and later on there was some kind of hench-maze in the distance and some stone statues as well, making every pony in the group shiver. Those might been also real pony's, turned to stone?

Like the guard could read their mind, or maybe he was told to mention it, he assured those are just ordinary statues, made by payed artists and given as presents towards the princess.

Still, who knew if the guard told the truth, so the pony's could not help to feel watched by the status as they walked by and Sweetie Belle accidentally slipped "Maybe the princess turns us into stone as well" before she even understood what she just had said, making her sister really nervous, as she tried to act natural "well, at least i will be pretty art..." closing with an unconvincing laugh.


The guard pushed open a gate and stepped aside, to get into the same pose like the gate gaurd, pushing out its chest and starring straight forward.

Everypony just walked past the guard, except for Pinkie, which walked back, gave the guard a close look and licked his cheek for some inexplicable reason – but he didn't move.

"You guys are odd..." she stated and happily caught up to the others, when finally the guard pulled a face and wiped of the spit "GOTCHA!" Pinkie shouted, jumping around the corner of the door, when the guard quickly got back in pose, slightly blushing. The pink pony grinned pleased and caught up with the others once more.


The inside of the castle reminded Pinkie a lot on Discords. Everything looked magnificent and clean, but it was a lot more consistent in his architecture, which made it kinda boring to look at,

still the others found it to be quite impressive and Maud even counted the number of different rock types used. Twelve, in this room. Twenty-one total.


The red carpet lead them straight to a audience room, some of them had thought to meet Celestia right away, but there was just a purple mare sitting in it, having the orange cowgirl from before next to her.


"Please have a seat" the unicorn said, pointing on the remaining chairs. Pinkie ran from seat to seat, unable to decide which one to pick, "Oh this one has better light, but this one looks so soft, no wait- i want sit next to the unicorn, but ending up between her sister and Rarity, since took to much time, running circles around the table.


The orange mare put her hooves onto the table, my name is Applejack, leader of Apple Inc.,

this is a good friend of mine, Twilight Sparkle and the reason you are all here.

Twilight looked a little embarrassed "My brother is married to princess Cadance" rubbing on her neck.  

Rarity leaned a little towards her sister, whispering "...told ya", as the filly nodded upon her wisdom.

"I think it would be the best to introduce us to one another" and so they did, everypony said clearly his name and mentioned how they got to know Discord ...except Fluttershy which just mumbled her name... until the round was done, back to Twilight.

"I see..." it was just as she had assumed, nothing of this made sense at all.

Right after her first quick look up for AJ and the encounter with the incarnated history, she had digged every single sheet of paper – from kids books, to ones which been copies others- reaching back a thousand years and even checking on old citizen´s for story's about their grand grand... grand fathers.

All of which had pointed out one fact: Discord was evil to the core.

Behind all his pranks and wacky appearance, he just enjoyed most to see pony's suffering.

Applejack of course had mentioned his minor attack on the workers, but also news about a miraculously recovery. 

Only state of being was the destroyed town, but once again, no pony had been hurt in the process.

If he would had been the same... the one from the books... the pony damage had gone into the thousands, or higher. 

Just thinking about it... no... she could not. It was just to horrible.


The pony's had started to wild across the table, when she unsuccessfully tried to get everypony's attention. -whomp- - everypony turned heads towards Applejack, which had knocked on the table.

"Thanks" Twilight said, turning to the rest of the group, after taking a look up on a clock above the door "we are gonna meet princess Celestia...", giving a moment for everypony to respond, some of them haven't thought to come this far at all "in one hour she will take time for us, to speak with the ones that have met him..." pausing once again before continuing "she also had noticed his new behavior and that's why she is willing to see us, asking questions and hopefully find some answers."

The white filly now was the one to whisper to her sister "...and then, stone!" making her moan silently, when Sweetie and Rainbow started to giggle at this.

"Everypony has to be on their best behavior" Applejack said "giving a serious glance towards the jokesters, as well the emotional one, in order to silence all of them.

At least some of them knew how to behave. The yellow and gray mare just sat on their chairs and starred at each other, but the shy one seemed to get more and more nervous, since the other mare didn't had blinked once the entire time, like she tried to pierce her with her looks, when she could not take it anymore and jumped onto the floor, covering her self up "stop it!"

Pinkie looked at her sister "Maud?"

"The sculpture, its basalt." pointing on a statue behind Fluttershy's chair.


Applejack had to sigh, putting her hoof up her face "Sweet Celestia".
> A true true Friend
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A true true Friend

Everypony was really nervous. A dozen of guards had escorted them trough the castle, through a majestic looking part which was bright and colorful, as light shined through big colorful windows, giving everything a touch of an rainbow. 

Even Pinkie was impressed, despite what she had seen in Discords castle, when they got to the last door and once again, all guards got left and right into their pose.

The castle hold an entire army, without a doubt. Every single one of them was well trained and disciplined, tall as Applejack's brother, and fearless enough to charge in no matter what danger. Only the prime-royal guards been even better than that, which was also the one to pull the royal chariot.

All those guards, which been a few hundred of them - in fact didn't guard the princess at all.

Not once, she had told a single one, to do so. 

Those guards had been here in order to protect everypony around them instead. 

They should take care of her guests, take care of the castle and everypony in need of help.

They would spread out on her command in times of crisis, securing the area, bring the wounded out of danger and help to defeat, what ever evil is threatening Equestria.

This was the only reason for them being here and the princess was always thankful towards them.

The pony's stepped inside the throne room to find nothing else than pride elegance. 

The room itself was beautiful and had the same soft touch of rainbow like, the others - shinning right onto the center which was a big golden throne, on which her royal highness- princess Celestia was sitting.

Her mane slowly waved like it was in a soft breeze, her wings slightly spread to welcome her new guest, giving the most enchanting smile you ever seen. Like a mother would, when she looked down on their beloved kids. 

She gave everypony an elegant nod, as they slowly entered the room, unable to take their sigh of Celestia, like they had been bewitched. 

Only Twilight seemed a little more used to it and could not help, to look onto the others instead. She  thought back on her first time, meeting the princess and how she had the same expression on her face.

The princess shifted some of her attention to Twilight, which made a small motion towards the others, making the princess giggle a little.

Twilight sat left to the throne. The others lined up in front of it, only the two sisters stayed back some more, as well Fluttershy – hiding behind the group.

"You can come closer" she said with her warm voice and all of them obeyed, even Fluttershy found her hooves almost moving by them self, sitting down next to Rainbow, which put a wing around her.

The princess wore as usual her crone, as well the royal horse harness. 

Nothing on her gave away the fight she had been in recently, despite the wounds she had received during it, which had healed completely. Also her battle armor was no where to be seen. Little did they know, the builders had been gathered to renew it to its former glory. 

Of course those had not been the same ones, the real builders died centuries ago, but their grand children as well some new ones had proudly taken place, it was the biggest possible honor.

The little crack Discord had punched into it, would take at least one month to repair and costing amounts no pony else ever could pay, but what was the safety of every living being worth?

Her eyes wandered above every single one of them. They seemed to have nothing in common. 

Earth-, pegasus and unicorn pony's sat close to each other, forming a picture of harmony.

"My dear Twilight told me, you all have encountered the spirit named Discord and wanted to tell me about it." her tone had not changed, but it was still somehow mournful. She sure loved everypony, no matter of disposition.

She got up and walked down the small path to the group, looking with her shimmering purple eyes for somepony to pick out.

Rarity took a breath, stretched out her chest and stepped forward "May i, your highness"

"Please." 

The white mare gave a little wave towards her sister to get on her side, but struggled how to start.

"I... uhm..he... excuse me, i'm a little excited." she said, rubbing her hooves shyly.

"Take your time" Celestia assured her. 

The mare started once more, but felt guilt right on her first line.

"I ... was at home, in my boutique... had been there for... well, i actually don't know and my sister..." giving her a glace "i had scared her away and felt really guilty about it, still do... but back than, it was in fact so bad i had not eaten for days..."

Until now Rarity had left out this part in order to spare Sweetie Belles feelings, but right now she had to come out with the full truth and hope she would understand.

"...this was when he came by. I guess.. i mean- i know he had saved my life back then." as she put her hoof onto her chest "He had brought me to rest and fed me after wards, but i mean ... actually he saved me later once more, from my stubborn self... he reminded me on what was really important..."

Rarity winked Sweetie Belle to her, putting her hoof tight around the young mare "...my little sister.”

It was the most generous thing ever a pony did to me." with this sad she could not help to tear up, as black lines run down her eyes. 

Her little sister could not else than drop some tears on her own, being glad Rarity was still around for that matter. "I know he done evil things, but, i truly consider him a good friend of mine."  giving the filly a cheerfully glance, trying to wipe off some of the make up.  

"Me next!" the pink earth pony stepped forward, while the other two got back in line, Sweetie giving her sister some hold, since her leg was still hurt.

"I think we met" Celestia said "...and i see you found what makes you special".

Pinkie blushed a little, but got surprisingly serious "Yes i did ... and he had helped me! You see, i was run away from home and just wanted to go to a party, but everypony was really mean to me..." as she frowned on that memory "and then i found his castle and ... have you seen it from the inside? Its amazing... and then he showed up and he wasn't mad at me! No! He gave me cake and was really really nice... we played games! I won most of them" she grinned now "he didn't make fun of my blank flank once the entire time... he even liked me for it! Can you believe it!? I was so happy! It was the most fun i ever had... but then... well you took him away" once again her mood jumped back and her lip began to shiver a little "i'm not mad at you. I know he did something bad... but you know what he had said to me? I mean before you took him..." giving Celestia's big eyes.

"I don't, my child" 

"He said to me, -i was the only pony who could had cheered him up- and i was ... i was so happy, i mean i was before, but than i knew what made me special! I felt like... like.... my heart had turned into cherry pie!" giving the biggest grin of her live. It was so contagious, everypony in the room had to join in "you see" giving a look around in the room like it would prove her every word. "He is my bestest friend for ever and ever". 

Celestia nodded confirming at this, as Pinkie got back to her sister Maud, which smiled proud onto her sister, when she cuddle her self up onto her side. 

"Guess we are next!" Rainbow declared and stepped forwards, just to turn around and pull the yellow pegasus with her. 

The blue pegasus tried something like a curtsy, but used both hooves like somepony would do push ups, the yellow one managed this a lot more elegant, using a single hoof and bowing "Your highness".

The pegasus spread it wings far "I haven't spend to much time with him i guess, but the time we had together, was awesome!" 

"He showed up on our show... i mean on her show..." pointing on Fluttershy "... you see, i'm uh, was her manger not long ago... and she was performing in Yanhoover, in the WingStarDome, you might heard off?"

"In fact, i did".

The pegasus grinned proudly, even the princess had heard about it – it was a dream come true.

"Uhm, Rainbow" Fluttershy, gave her a hint.

"OH, sorry... ye.. it actually was on our new big show, everything was great, you should have seen it, Fluttershy was brilliant and the crowd was stunned " rasing her hooves like she could grab the moment "but than, she, well she overdid it a little and lost control.

The shy pony spoke up "i tried a... a Sonic Rainboom, but my wings..." she stopped as she noticed Celestia looking at her closely, so Rainbow stepped in again "ye her wings – they gave in and she rushed towards earth like lighting strike to get crushed like a ant onto the ground" punching one hoof into the other to show the effect it would had done, making the yellow mare almost faint "but than that guy – i mean at first he was a pony, but he run like the devil... uhh. He wasn't a devil, i mean ... " 

"He was fast" Fluttershy suggested.

"Yeah that's it" nodding towards her "i never seen anything move as fast as that and he caught her before ... you know... " making once more the crashing move "he probably had saved her life!" 

"Yes, it was really kind of him..."

"He even saved the show" Rainbow mumbled, starting to rub the back of her head slowly "but, i then uhm, he was kinda awkward... he came back stage with Fluttershy, i mean he had searched her and then he got unconscious for no reason".

Rarity rose a hoof, like a child in class "may i ...?"

The others looked at her "he also asked me for all of you... in specific her" pointing hooves on Fluttershy.

"Me too, as well ma workers..." Applejack added.

Fluttershy was confused, nopony had told her about that.

"Hey, you should had seen his room! It was full of pictures from all of us... and a lot big ones of her" also pointing on Fluttershy "You are his wife, right!?" 

At this the yellow mare almost got unconscious her self, when Rainbow hold her up, fan some air with her wings.

"Stop pointing at her, she doesn't know him! Also, i wasn't done!" giving everypony an angry glance.

The pony's around her got silent and waited for her to finish, before trying to solve the puzzle again.

"Okay, where was i ... ye.. later he woke up and he was really depressed. I mean, REALLY depressed... he snapped me into some mountains. 

"What kind of mountains?" Maud asked

"Uhm... red ones?" 

Maud just nodded like she exactly knew where she had been.

"But that's not the point!" waving off the comment "i mean it was cold there and i was almost freazing to death... he was there too, he had zapped the howl room there... and now comes the strange part, when i woke up: He had made some freaking castle to keep me warm! A freaking castle, can you believe!?" taking a look around to stare at a lot of confuse faces "thought so, could not believe it either" shrugging at this "that's why I kinda... accidentally .. jumped out of the window" trying to get past the embarrassing part quickly "but he caught me and then the most awesome thing ever happened – he repaired my broken wing!" once again proudly spreading her feathers "I couldn't fly since i was a filly! And he just fixed it like that and send me home! Just like that!" she just had to shake her head. It still sounded nuts, no matter how often she would tell the story, it would sound absolute unbelievable "best day ever!" 

She crossed her hooves in front her chest "and that's why, we think we owe him a lot... he sure acted like a true friend - without hesitation!".

The yellow mare had managed to get up.

"L-like Rainbow said... he is our friend." Fluttershy added in her whispering tone.

"It sure is unusual behavior..." the princess said.

"don't you believe us?" Rainbow asked as snippy, as much she dared.

Celestia smiled at them "I do believe you two, but the Discord i got to know was different to the one you have encountered."

"Celestia" Twilight said informal "there is something really important i have to tell you too..."

"What is it, my dear?"

She took a deep breath to get into focus, like she always did before explaining something "In fact, its something everypony has to know and by that... i mean Equestria."

The other pony's had no idea what had to come and not even after those touching and strange story's,  could had prepared them for the thing that would follow.

"Discord was the one, to restore the Crystal Empire."

Everypony's jaw dropped on this one and even Celestia could not help to be really surprised.

"You are sure, Discord had done this?"

Applejack came to Twilight's support "He sure did, i seen it too, with ma own eyes!"

The two briefly explained how he met the two... about the deal... and how it came he had restored balance. Twilight even had the book around he had given her, just in case they would not believe.

Celestia reached out to the book, touching carefully the cover "I recognize this book... once, i had the original - until it got destroyed a long time ago." she looked her straight into the eyes "Twilight this book holds unique magic within, please be careful with your studies." 

"Don't worry, i sure am - and i already learned something!" she had to show her the trick she had learned as her horn glowed and she teleported across the room in an instant with an -pfuff pfuff- noise, from corner to corner to appear right in front of her again. 

"Wuhhu!" Pinkie cheered at this funny trick, it was almost like when he had done it.

Celestia felt proud for the young mare, she was really talented. If she just had noticed earlier...

"Well, ther is one more thing" Applejack said. "Ya know, after we had our trip, i asked him not to hurt anypony... i mean, i don't know wa he blew up the city, but not a single pony got hurt, right?" as she felt really stupid "oh, sorry, i mean, except yu, ur highness,... sorry..."

"I know what you try to say and i agree. City's can be rebuild..."

"Yea, thad what i meant!" cheering up to much, just to apologize once more for the outburst.

"I may got no idea what made him so mad..." shaking he head a little sad "... but he sure hold on tho his word! And that's what friends are for, ain't that right Twi?"

"I think you are right" Twilight confirmed. 

After hearing all of this, Celestia had to rethink her judgment about him, including the destruction of the city. She already had wondered, why he didn't bother to fight back right away or even had searched for her in the first place...

Last but not least, he had spared her life, just before he... vanished.

Just to add a last detail on all of that; he had surrendered without a fight or asking for any therms of surrender, in order to take his punishment.

The first time she had met him, he had fought like a lion until the end - destroying all of Equestria in the process... until she had discovered the Elements of Harmony, which had made her able to stop him for the past thousand years.

"I still think, Discord is a really dangerous being, for anypony around..." as the pony's already looked disappointed on those words "... but, hearing all of this – and in conclusion with my own experience, i'm willing to give him the benefit of a doubt."

Pinkie could not help to jump up and throw some left over confetti, she just had hold back for this very unlikely case. "YAAAAAYYYYYYY!" grabbing her sisters hooves to spin her along, while she jumped around her.

"Oh, could use a spa right now, don't you?" Rarity asked Sweetie Belle.

"Yeha!" the cowgirl said, throwing up her old cowboy hat.

Rainbow performed a triple back looping on this stunning news and even Fluttershy had to express her excitement with a really loud shout "........... yay........." - which was basically room voice level.

Twilight only allowed herself a little tripping on her hoof tips. "Thank you so much!" 

As the others heard her say this they all stopped with what ever they just did and bowed down deep, even Rainbow made sure to get it right this time. "Thank you princess" they said in unity.

"Actually i have to thank all of you, showing to me, that even a being like Discord can change".

Some of them had to blink a phew times, when Celestia bowed down for them, to expressing her gratitude.

Rainbow leaned towards Pinkie "Ten?" - which just nodded slowly.
> Walking down Memory Lane
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Walking down memory lane

Celestia didn't took them right away to Discord, instead she let everypony take a break to get them self fresh and replenished, sending them into some kind of spa rooms.

Inside the room they got treated like they been princess them self, receiving all kind of luxurious they could image. Massages, food and – for Rarity some new make up.

Of course Fluttershy was the main topic, but Rainbow hold the others back like a dog fighting for his young ones, since she could not possible now what was going on, to which the others agreed and let go in order to give her a break and she sure needed it.

After a few hours, they got called to the princess once again, to meet her outside in the garden, right in front the hench-maze. When everypony was gathered around, the princess walked first towards the maze, but despite the mixed opinions what would happen next – "Uh a maze, this will be fun!" "I hope we wont walk for hours, wont we?" "Why don't we just fly into the middle!?" all them were wrong.

Celestia barely had stepped in, as the walls started to bend them self apart to form a straight path towards the middle, making the howl thing really easy and a little boring, but Celestia explained to them, this maze was magic and without her showing the way, they would get lost and never get out again, also it was impossible to fly above it, which the blue pegasus found out to be true, since she could flap her wings as much she wanted, but nothing happened- asking Fluttershy to do alike, with the same result.

Despite the straight path, the maze had turned out to be quite long still, probably leading outside the castle walls or some kind of other magic which made it appear smaller at first, to fool possible intruders.

The princess even had considered bringing along her armor, but not just was it in repair, which meant it would take days in order to cool off from the furnace heat, but she also was confident – with this group of friends on her side, he would behave. Everypony earned a second chance.

Finally they reached him.

He just sat there on a podium, like he had deep thoughts - his head resting on his fist.

Celestia got in front of him and the other lined up a few meters behind her.

"Be aware, if he gets out of control - i will have to fight him" she warend the others.

Then the alicorn's horn started to glow in a bright light. Celestia might needed the Elements of Harmony in order to turn him to stone... but the releasing spell was a lot easier, so she didn't need them right now. 

The statue began to glow and cracks formed all around it, as parts began to fall down like he lost a second skin, revealing partial his former self below, when the last rest burst of in all diretions, raining down on the nearby pony's.

Maud picked one of the pieces and stuck into her pocket, receiving an asking glance from Twilight "Its rare." Maud said dry.

The draconequus still sat in his pose, twitching his eyes like he had been fall asleep doing so, as he began to stretch him self in all directions. 

"Has it been a millennium already?" trying to get focus, but a group of color's danced in front of his eyes and the pink one suddenly got bigger and knocked him over "Diiiiiiiiscooord!" 

Literally nose on nose, even a blind had recognized Pinkie Pie.

"Are you stone too!?" suddenly touching him self, than grabbing her face and pulling on her cheeks to get pieces together "OH you silly!" she grinned, jumping of his chest, pointing on the others "we are all here for you!" 

He got up and took a look around, seeing most of the pony's he had encountered, to find Celestia standing right next to them and she didn't even wore her fancy armor, making him rub his head "Oh,  this spell must got to my head!" 

"Discord... those brave pony's told me about your actions" the princess waved gracefully towards the small group "so, i have decided to give you a second chance.

"Ohh ... i understand... so if you don't mind" he got back in his pose "just zap me and get out" he frowned.

Sweetie Belle has seen this guy the first time and could not understand what her sister was talking about, he seemed so..... grumpy.

"But we all got a bunch of questions for ya" Applejack started.

Discord turned his back towards her.

"Hey! Cut the act, we just came for you!" Rainbow said.

"We wanted to thank you, sweetheart" 

Luckily Rarity could not see him twisting his eyes on that line.

Pinkie put her hooves on his shoulder and shook him "Whats the matter Discord? ain't we friends anymore?"

"We are Pinkie..." he mumbled.

"We all are your friends" Twilight said "We might don't know to much about you, but what you done for everypony is even more than words could describe".

This made his ears shrug, like a cat listen in on a mice nearby, as the others all confirmed what she just said, to turn his head when Fluttershy agreed.

Rarity knew to read para-language better than anypony else, handling picky customers all her life "Discord, i think there is something you have to tell us" pausing to correct her mane "What´s this about you and her. You do know her, don't you?" 

"Oh, b- but i don't" the yellow pegasus said right after.

So not even being turned to stone could save him from pony's chewing up his ears?

Maybe they should trade roles... he wouldn't bother to nag on poor boring statues.

"I did know her" he mumbled "but that was in another life".

"You are an immortal Discord, so am i. We both know the threads of destiny are meant to last forever... and your´s is bound to this very special group of pony's right here and not even your magic could change this."

He could not stand if she talked metaphorical like this... despite her being absolute right. Being immortal gave plenty time to notice things normal creatures never could, since their life´s being just an blink in the eyes of eternity. 

Making him also think about his six sense, all those countless lights in the back of his head. The once just getting started and the others - slowly fading away... some of them unnoticed. 

Should he blink and let this moment pass by like this?

"Could somepony have changed it?" Twilight asked towards Celestia.

This made Discord laugh. At times even this bookworm found a good line "Hahaha..."

"Whats so funny?" Twilight asked.

"Ye, whats so funny!?" Pinkie also wanted to know.

"Twilight, tempering with fate itself is really dangerous, not even Star Swirl the bearded considered to do so. Neither did i... or Discord."

Rainbow pulled a face "You sure about him?"

This made him turn around "Do i look nuts!?" he shouted angry "You birdbrain got any idea, what could happen if you just changed the tincy tiny thing in the past!?"

The blue pegasus just shrugged a little afraid of his reaction.

Discord snapped his fingers and made two hand sized blue shimmering pony's appear, one on his left paw, one on his right paw. One being a mare, one being a stallion. 

They almost looked like citizens of the crystal empire Twilight thought to her self.

"Pretty!" Sweetie Belle said. 

"I will explain it to you, that even this filly will understand... as well her" giving Rainbow a glance.

"Hey! Cut it off!" 

Then he started his little puppet theater.

"Lets say those pony's" holding up the miniatures "are your parents...".

The small blue schemes began walking through the air, starting a few meters left and right from him, trotting towards one another  - to pass by in the middle, giving one another a short glance, to continue their path towards the other side.

He took a look if everypony was paying attention and made appear a tiny blue rock between his finger tips, just to place in the middle of the path the pony's had taken. "One more time!" he cheered and the two once again trotted towards the middle.

Once again the mare and the stallion passed by one another, giving one another a short glance, but this time the stallion stumbled about the tiny rock and fell flat on his stomach, making the mare walk back and help him up, as she took the wounded stallion with her.

"I... don't get it" Rainbow said "this was just an accident!"

Suddenly Pinkie felt offended "HEY! This is how my parents met!" giving a frown "...i´m not an accident!" sobbing about that insensitive comment. 

The princess put a hoof carefully on Pinkies back "Of course you are not... what Discord tried to say was - that it was meant to be the two met, it was their destiny." 

This cheered Pinkie up again, smiling in glee. 

He pointed towards the alicorn "You see!? if you change the smallest detail, you could wreck anything! I could end up destroying my pretty self - not to speak of..." giving the yellow mare a smile "my howl world". 

"You still didn't told us, what it all had to do with her, or us, darling" Raritys brought back the main topic.

"Rarity is right, something must have been changed."

"So, she is not your wife?" Pinkie asked confused.

"She is married, to a stallion and has a chillldd!" Rainbow explained irritated, since it was about the fifth time "ain't that right" giving her a nudge, which made the mare blush "h-he s a good man and i love our little filly" saying it in a proud tone and a undeniable happy smile.

"If something has changed, it only did not affect him, ...so if we could find out, could you fix it?"

Once again Discord burst in laughter "finding out! Haha!" slapping his paw on his leg "did you sleep on my little show? How possible could i figure out whats wrong, could be a single sand-corn on the wrong place... on any point of history!" but when he was finished, he didn't found it funny anymore.

"Id has to do with us, right?" Applejack said. 

"You are right AJ, its like princess Celestia said,... if our destiny had changed, we are the key".

The draconequus waved a around with his paws "technical spoken, that's right, still – how should i know whats wrong?" as a light flashed and he wore mare clothing for just a moment "I´m not ur mother!" pulling a face on her.

Celestia stepped in between the two "Then what is different?"

"Except everything!?" it nagged, but she didn't fall for his attitude and waited patiently.

The draconequus got back into his thinking pose, trying to narrow it down, making faces while browsing his mind for about ten minutes...

He pointed on Rarity "she seemed to be a lot more wind up in work, even for her standards"

Now Applejack "she lived in Ponyville, not Manehatten" just to add "sorry about that by the way"

Smiling on Pinkie "you always knew to cheer up anypony"

"And she" pointing on Rainbow "quite a flying showoff..."

"Uhm... Twilight was an alicorn princess, as well Celestia's student or so" dropping this bomb like it wasn't to important and - last but not least coming to the yellow mare.

"And you... you was everything i could had wished for." giving her a beloved glance.

"Not to forget- this mane six" as he picked counted them quickly with his finger "been the representatives of those pesky Elements of Harmony"

This was a howl lot to swallow for one blow, he sure had not exaggerated about -everything-

Twilight was one of the more shocked pony's "Alicorn!?" 

"Twilight, you always been very talented, if i had found you out sooner, who knows what you might had become" Celestia said with a hint of guilt in her voice.

"Maybe that's whats wrong, maybe i should be ... an alicorn!?" she asked towards the two immortals, but she could not answer it and he just shrugged.

"You tell me whats gone wrong first!" pointing claw on the babbling pony's, which had problems of their own.

Rarity got curious "If i may ask, when did she became an alicorn then?" 

"Uhm, when? Mh... it was before my marriage with.. uh.. well, she wasn't a filly anymore." he cut off, when he noticed the uncomfortable glance of Fluttershy.

It took a lot more of those kinda questions in order to narrow it down. 

They tried to find the first thing which had gone wrong to his knowledge - until everypony got to the point, when most of them had received her cutiemark's. Everything before this sounded alright, despite his really scattered knowledge.

His wife Fluttershy often had told him story's about her friends, making him listening for hours, just to hear her sweet voice some more - back than he didn't found it to important what she told about her friends ...her company and luck was all he was interested in. 

Who had thought this would change one day, giving him the chance to restore order. 

Order - this word. It still was on his list of words which made him sick, but had slipped a few places lower.

So now the pony's took turns in order to tell something about their faithful day, when they received their cutie marks. 

Twilight was the one to go first "It was after i failed to pass exam for Celestia's Shool for gifted Unicorns... i still tried to get into it, since everypony told me i had a hoof for magic, but i tried to change my approach, since performing regular magic didn't work out to well and i had read every book around. It was when my parents wanted to cheer me up and bought me a chem set... and i really had a lot fun with it – in fact i became really good at it and forgot about performing magic for a while..." she tried to think of what happened next "it must been when my big brother got quite sick after one of his travels ...i wanted to make a potion to help him get better, but they didn't work and..... yeah... than i had an idea – i combined my magic and my potions with one another and they became a lot stronger! He was back on his hooves in less than a day. This was when i discovered my magic had a value to other pony's and this turned up" showing her flank with the magic sparks on it.

"Wait, did you invent the magic painkillers!?" Rainbow asked.

"Yes, in fact i did. Why you ask?"

It was a little embarrassing to admit, but she did it anyway "Well, had to take them for years, because of my busted wing, good stuff!" 

"Glad i could help" Twilight smiled.

Rarity was the next in line "Uhm... well, its quite long ago, i hope i don't foget something. It think it was ... there was some fashion show or... no wait... it was a school play.. and i made the costumes. Right... my first big attempts on fashion! I still got them on my attic, you must see them, they are so lovely!" she had to harrumph after noticing the strange faces around her "but well - they wasn't quite perfect at first and i didn't know what to add, as my horn started glowing and pulled me out of town towars some nearby mountain. I knew what ever it was, it would change my life. It would be the one thing that made my fashion special! But when i my horn stopped glowing, there was just a big stupid rock in front of me. Of course i didn't know what to do. I´m not into stupid rocks..."

Maud gave her sister a glance, wish assured her "she didn't mean it."

"So i tried to get home again, but my horn didn't let me and i ended up in front of the same boulder! Can you believe? Of course i was calm and well mannered about the situation..."  as she remembered how she yelled and kicked the stone over and over again, until it slipped down the hillside behind it, to shatter into thousand bits - giving her a triumphant feeling.

"...and... i managed to open it" she said proudly "inside the rock had been diamonds! I knew this was the one missing parts for my dress, it was my destiny!" representing her flank in a well trained pose. "I guess, this also was when i started to think... that i had to work really hard for success...". 

Her sister pulled her right out of this thought, leaning on her side, receiving a kiss on her forehead. “... but not anymore.”

Applejack watched the sister and felt like she had to be next "Well, when i was a filly, i didn't want to spend ma howl life on the farm, so i packed my stuff and left ma family... going to Manehatten to life with ma Aunt and Uncle Orange, to try ma luck. I knew i would find out who i be there, 

but the high society life turned out to be a lot harder... i didn't felt like i could fit in with all those snobby pony's around me – making me got really home sick, missing BigMac and the others. 

It was one day i wont ever forget... i sat in ma room and was watching outside the window towards Ponyville, wondering what ma family could been up to right now... and just a little later i noticed a blue filly below ma window. She was barely older than me and it looked like it had a bad day, so i got down downstairs and talked to her – turns out she was homeless, run away from an orphanage, so i brought her in and begged my Aunt and Uncle if she could stay, which agreed, but just after we both promised to study hard in order become somepony" making AJ raise up her forehooves, like a rodeo horse "I felt so happy for her... it was like ma Granny always had told me, -family is to care for everypony-! And with ma new step-sister on my side, i knew we could do even more than that!" pointing on her cutiemark "and that was when i got my cutie mark". 

"I think Discord found her also to be quite... smashing" giggling at her own comment.

He had to think a second that..."that pesky secretary?"

Applejack's grin got even wider as she proudly nodded "that's her!"

Pinkie found a hard time to talk about her youth, but gave it a shot anyway, since she might could help out her new BFF doing so. "When i was little i worked on my parents rock farm, with my sister Maud. We had a fun time doing so... but when i got older, i also had to go to school. My parents said i should become smart and study and i tried and at first it was fun too... but soon all colts and filly's became their cutiemark in class – all, except me. I tried to be nice, but nopony didn't want to speak with me or get even close. They started to make fun of me because of that and i didn't want to go there anymore. pony's told me i might be sick... and i was send to many doctors.." at this she frowned "...finally i was pulled from school, they said it might be better this way... i would distract the others... and my parents would teach me. 
I tried what ever i could, but i never could figure out what made me special to anypony, until i met my new friend" showing her mark and the sun rose on her face, shinning warm and bright at Discord "now i know: even if some pony's seem mean or scary to you, they might just need a friend that cheers them up!" 

Discord could not help to wave it away shyly. 

"Last but not least!" Rainbow said "but me and Fluttershy got the same story"

"We spend a lot of time together" Fluttershy mumbled. 

"Well i guess it all started on the day she got bullied... some brick heads picked on her once again"

"Oh, it really was nothing..." 

"It was! Nopony makes fun of my friends!"

"But..." 

"No buts... except this butt-heads... which i challenged to a race!" 

At this Fluttershy even more silent as usual.

"So we stepped on the start line and flew off - i was fast as a speeding bullet! Zooming trough the sky's in zik-zak, showing those big mouth amateurs how it is done! It was the greatest day of my life, i never was fast and about to win the race, putting then into their place once and for all. There was just one more ring to pass and then straight for the finish line! So i dived down fast as i could, when something flashed in front of my eyes and i lost control..." 

"It was awful" Fluttershy said sadly and Rainbow didn't sound to excited her self anymore "Ye... i crash landed in a nearby tree and broke my stupid wing... luckily she was nearby and brought me back to Cloudstale" trying to give the yellow mare a smile.

"But i had busted my wing and busted it good"

"They said, she was to young and her wings wasn't fully grown, so it would not heal as good"

Rainbow sure was angry "Ye, eggheads... they couldn't help me! Other pony's also had broken wings, but theirs healed... so unfair! Can you image how it is to be a flightless pegasus!? It blows!" 

"There there" Fluttershy said, putting her hoof around her shoulders. 

Now Rainbow was able fetch her cool again and go on "...but i had an idea, since she wasn't a good flier and i could not fly my self anymore, i thought i could coach her! So instead of two flightless pony's, we become one awesome!" 

"Training was really hard" Fluttershy said assuring.

"But it payed off and she even had the great idea to get animals in our act! Where you even had the idea for that?"

"Oh, that.. uhm... i didn't tell you? When the race started, you blew me from my cloud... and i found all those lovely critters nearby, right before i heard you crash down... even the critters got afraid... you might don't remember, but some birds helped me to get you back to Cloudstale" pointing on her cutiemark "this was when i noticed the animals really did understand me!"

"Oh... right! Now i remember! I guess my wing had made me forget that, i´m sorry..."

Fluttershy shook her head "its alright, i understand..."

"Thanks. Uhm... where was i ... oh right, the show. Just image, Fluttershy had been the weakest flier and we trained secretly and after the Equestria games got dropped, it was crushing for the Cloudstale moral – so we had to make it special and we sure did! It even was in all newspapers! Everypony was amazed and even forgot about the games...! This was when i knew, we could make the impossible happen!" pointing on her flank with a big grin.

Discord could not help to raise his paw "Come again!? You never performed your puny Sonic Rainboom your self!?"

"Duh, no! How could i, i had a broken wing!" Rainbow nagged.

Discord waved with his arms "I mean at the race!" 

"You mean ... i...." the blue pegasus wasn't quite the fastest thinker, but even her gears got into motion by now.

So if she had just been a little faster, if she just could had hold her speed a moment longer, she might never had broke her wing after all? She would had become the world greatest flier right away!?

Discord made a jump into the air "That's it! Your Rainboom! You never done it!" cheering like he had invented the fire. Rainbow could not help to feel as enthusiastic about it. 

"This was the one thing connecting all of you, of course!" as he grabbed Pinkie Pie and threw her up in the air, like parents their kids.

He let of Pinkie and used his magic to pull all of them close, even Celestia – to give them a group hug, stretching his arms further than it even should be possible. 

"I'm a genius! I figured it out!" he shouted, to receive an awkward stare by around a dozen pony's "...with a little help from my friends, of course" giving an apologizing shrug.
> Love -faster then light!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Love – faster than light!

Discord didn't zap him self away like he usual would, instead he had spent some more time with every single one of them, as they gathered around for a last time, when he hold his heroic speech, dressed up like a nobleman on his own funeral.

"This might goes wrong... but if it does, you probably don't have to worry about me ever again... but if i shall succeed... which is likely since i'm amazing" as he licked his finger tipp and slid over his eyebrow "everything will be alright again, for me... and everypony else of course!"

They knew what this meant. 

Many of the things that had gone wrong in the past would never had happen in the first place. Still they had some doubts, there wasn't just bad times, many good things happened as well and Twilight even had offered Discord to live with her in the crystal Empire.

He would be praised as national hero, beloved by thousands - as soon the word had spread, about what he done... and there was also a chance, he could find another special somepony she had told him. 

It was a noble and good meant offer, but he had refused. "There is no other pony for me. Never."

She already had predicted this answer.

They even could convince him to restore Manehatten, like he did on the crystal Empire, despite blaming Celestia for at least half the damage! Oddly enough he didn't bother to restore a single window in any of the towns buildings. "I don't do windows" he had said, what ever that meant.

"So there is just one thing to do. Wish you all a good bye" as he performed a overly dramatic gesture. 

"Byeeeee!"

"Good luck, partner!"

"Take care, wont you?"

"Do it- don't try!"

"Write me!"

"Uhm... bye"

"Well... maybe there are two things left" he grinned, as he got in front of his yellow mare, kneeing down to get down to her size "may i?" reaching out with his soft lion paw. 

Fluttershy looked desperate to her new friends, but they just shrugged about it, not knowing what to come... still she put her hoof into his paw - as he slowly leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek, making the mare blush as the others didn't know what to say.  

"You made my life worth while." with this words, he was gone. 

It flashed once more and he was in the past, right away trying to fetch his breath.

This kinda trick was even exhausting for his degree of powers, as he had to sit down for a moment, wiping off the sweat on his forehead. "It better works..." he said to him self, trying to fetch his breath. If he would make even the smallest mistake everything could become even worse than before and since time travels turned out to be really complicated, even more so than his little puppet theater made out to believe... 

He could not just zap back and forth to try over and over again, in order to make it right.

Everything he would change now, would become the new feature – so the one he just had left, wasn't into his reach anymore, as soon he affected anypony's life. Then he only could wait for decades to see if everything was back to normal or not - and might end up even more clueless than the first time... without any chance to find out what to do. 

-Lost in time- as Celestia had put it, when they had their finally talk.

He still could feel the huge drain the travel had caused, but for regular magic he still had plenty juice, so he didn't bother to lose any more time and snapped him self to Cloudstale, so he would not miss the event. 

After a few tries he found the school and even had spotted a young yellow filly which he was absolute sure to be his past future former wife.

Discord knew why he never ever wanted to touch time magic, it gave him a headache.

The draconequus had put on another disguise than -Mr. Handsome-, which seemed inappropriate... turning into a filly he had seen flying by, giving himself a cotton candy pink fur and half hue/half deep pink mane, as well green eyes...quite a sympathetic color pattern he had to admit... with this he could blend in and pretend to be a student like any other around here.

Despite his, once again brilliant disguise, Discord was trying to stay out of sight from anypony in the first place, since even a single glance towards him may could blew history for good. 

The young Fluttershy was so diminutive... he had seen her old filly-photos, but she was even more adorable close up: Not even half her adult size, wearing a brace, while her long mane was hiding most of her young face and her flying practice was like to watch a newborn butterfly.

She struggled to get of the ground and took almost a minute to do so – when she finally lifted of she seemed surprised about her own skills, grinning at this great accomplishment and reaching out for the next step, to get past a cloud-ring which was about five meters above her... so she flew slowly up and tried to get through, stepping on the rings inner part, but she somehow managed to stumble over it and lost balance. The foal stopped flapping her wings for some reason, fell down and slid along cloud beneath like a slide to leave it in a wide bow, tarring of a flag from a post she had almost hit in the process - slumping onto the next cloud layer below.

Then there was laughter, coming from two colts: one of them with brown fur, dam mane and blue eyes. The other one was orange furred, had a brown mane and green eyes. They hoovered over to her and started to make fun about her little mishap.

Even if she was not yet the Fluttershy he knew and loved, he still could not help to grind his teeth... one day he would give them a payback! How could they bully such a cute ma... filly...

but not even a minute later Rainbow Dash showed up as well. The blue pegasus looked almost like her older self, but only half her size and her mane was - if even possible, more ruffled than usual. The blue filly landed in between the yellow one and the two jerks and tried to defend her honor from much he could make out from this distance. 

"Oh this must be it" he said, using his hands like binoculars, which somehow worked.

The quartet took off and flew away, as he made him self hurry to get after them.

The young ones headed to the school sports ground, or better put, the flying arena... which was made to train young pegasus ability's – dealing with clouds and learn proper flying, using different round courses to do so.

Of course the bullies made a lot of ruckus about the howl thing and gathered some of their loyal sheep's as audience on the way there, when the three flier's got to the start line, there was about a dozen more filly's cheering for this event in a small cloudbox nearby and it promised to become a quite memorable race.

Rainbow versus the two bullies. 

Fluttershy was the one to wave the flag, standing in on a small cloud. Discord would liked nothing better than stuff him self with cotton candy right now, not just he didn't had some in a while, but the tension was almost killing him – still there would be time later, now he had to focus, as the flag quickly came down and the trio raced off in a rush.

At first, he almost jumped after Fluttershy, which fell of her cloud as the flier's passed by, but since he knew this fall would not dare to hurt her, he managed to fight down the tension to do anything about it.

This was one of the hardest things he ever was forced to do... - nothing at all. 

With some hesitated he zapped him self a little further ahead in order to follow the race, as he had lost track of the flier's for just about a second, making him curse mentally. 

His eyes searched the sky all around him. "For chaos sake! It cant be so hard to find this fuzzballs!" he thought to him self, as the three just rushed by his cloud, passing another ring. 

This was also the moment when he realized he had forgot the wings on his back! How foolish of him - adding quickly this detail. Luckily none of the flier's seemed to have notice since they was way to busy racing for the first place. "Lucky me" he told him self, keeping his eyes on the competitive flier's.

The course was going from a long bow into a zick zack, as one of the bullies didn't caught the turn and slammed into a cloudpillar and was out of the race, as Rainbow passed him and continued her way, while the false pink filly did her best to zap him self from cloud to cloud, stalking his prey.

He had to admit, she had not exaggerated to much, even as filly she was really quick on her wings, but one of the bullies took a short cut and tried to push her out of the way as both dived down towards the last ring on the track. 

Rainbows speed doubled and tripled in a matter of seconds, pushing the bully aside, which lost control of and spun down to the ground. "Serves him right" Discord grinned until he noticed he would just land in a small lake below. "Meh..."

"Focus!" he slapped him self - it was any second, when she would perform her first Sonic Rainboom! 

Making him search in panic for everything what could remotely caused that bright flash she had described. The clouds? All white and soft... 

Her speed had tripled, as just another second had passed.

The sky!? Clear, not even a single bird in it...

He already could see the mach-cone forming!

The ground!! There! A black mare! and without a doubt she was and unicorn of some sort, charging up her horn.

He almost had overshot her, pumping to much magic into his teleporation spell - blowing the mare right from her hooves as he appeared next to her, making her charge go off into the wrong direction, cutting of clean a tree branch. 

An instant later he rose his head once again to the sky - as Rainbow Dash´s cone was changing color, when she passed the last ring, bouncing of the air to break the color spectrum all around her in an massive explosion – followed by a rainbow colored shock wave - spreading quickly out over the land.

She had performed her first Sonic Rainboom and shot ten times faster then before trough the air, pulling a  rainbow-stroke along with her towards the sky. It was amazing! 

Not even he could fly that fast... and she was just a filly right now!

It somehow even touched his sense for chaos, as he saw the sky split up in all those strange color's... made him think - maybe there was a little more to her, than he did gave her credit for?

Then his attention got back to the mare, which just had stood up, hiding her face below a coat.

He returned slowly to his former form, as the cute little filly was all of a sudden about two meters in size and looked like the personified devil!

"YOOUuuuuuuuu! He pointed with his lion paw at her, as his griffon paw formed a pink energy ball, pulling the deadliest tennis serve he could, but the mare jumped quickly aside, as the ball did hit the ground - blasted away a huge chunk earth in every direction,  to leave a perfect round crater. 

Even before the first strike had landed, he already made a second one follow up, but this time - unbelievable - the mare managed to redirect the shot with a quick punch, making it land on a nearby tree, which got incinerated like a match. 

The mare starred at him for a second with blue green shimmering eyes into his red yellow ones.

Discord was huffing. Not because of exhaustion - more than pure rage. 

Unlike on Celestia, here would be no holding back. He would shred her to pieces, 

put her back together again - and repeat the process twelve more times just to be sure!

Suddenly the mare conjured a bright flash, making lights dancing before his eyes as he fixed his visions half a second later the mare had already run of – so he followed her quick as he could, which wasn't a easy task. She also used some kind of short teleportation spell, zapping herself about twenty meters ahead at a time in a wild zick zack pattern, making it hard to predict where she was heading.

One time he almost had got her, as one of his balls strafed her slightly, setting her coat on fire, out of which she teleported right away.  

If she was able to deflect his magic and cast spells on his own, he had to wonder why she used so short teleports!? Technical she should been able to skip half Equestria with this kinda powers, unless...

Than he saw it. She was running straight as they left a forest. Just about fifty meters head was some kind of black rift standing in landscape, green and blue sparks bursting all around it. 

It must been some kind of portal – of course! She must use a huge chunk of her magic in order to hold it open! The mare did a last teleport and jumped into it- so did he without hesitation, but snapping once more moment before he passed trough, fixing the damage he had done... just to be sure, as the portal collapsed right behind him.

The portal had spun him around and bend his body, tearing on him on all levels, to get spit out on the other side, landing flat on his stomach. 

"I.... hate time travel.." he grunted. One time was bad enough, but two times on one day made his body burn like it was on fire. 

This time he didn't had used his own powers, which was good and bad for different reasons.

The good part was - he still had some breath left, in order to make this mare pay for the next three or four century's... or when ever he got tired of it... if he ever would get tired of it.

The bad part was, since it wasn't his own magic, the portal wasn't made for him, causing heavy side effects. 

If he would had been something like a normal pony - he would be dead by now without a doubt. Passing trough the portal just took couple of seconds, but he had literally lost at least a hundred years of life time doing so... so when a young pony had jumped into it, it could talk about luck, to come out as a wrinkled one on the other side. 

Additional to this, the forces within had tried to tear him apart and keep him inside, pushing his body to limits, like he just had received the beating of a life time – now he could image how Celestia must had felt, after his last strike. Tough little princess.

Discord got up. He knew exactly where he was. The was only one path like this and his castle rose high above him, blocking of the sun to cast a long shadow over the land around him.

He had seen her, he had felt her magic. There was no way she could hide, no matter how far she ran  away... he could track down this light of her. 

Yes, this little blue/green spark dancing in the back of his head... he would lick his fingertips and put out her candle.

Not to far away in Ponyville, Fluttershy was about to say goodbye to their friends, which all sat in the castle making breakfast. She had thought Discord would had picked her up by now, but this wasn't the case... giving her somehow a bad feeling. Her friends tried to tell her he might just want give her some space, or he had sleep in long, but she wasn't convinced about this. 

"I, better look after him." she said shyly.

"don't worry, it was fun having you here, now go and look after your troublemaker" Twilight said with a wink. 

The others made some smaller jokes and said good bye as well, when there was a dull bang coming from outside, making everypony alarmed.

"W-what was that?" Rarity said confused.

"I don't know, but it sure didn't sound good..." Applejack pointed out.

Only one mare cheered "Maybe fireworks!?"

Twilight ran straight for her telescope, taking a look around, when she found a big dust cloud raising. She adjusted it some more and pointed it a little deeper "it must bee near your castle Fluttershy!"

Another dull bang followed, this one was even louder than the first one, making the windows rattle, as the dust cloud grew in size, as other pony's in town began to panic.

"Oh my!" Fluttershy said with big eyes, as she spotted trails of black starting to raise along the dust.

"Whats going on!?" Rainbow asked, but there wasn't any time to talk.

"Hold on to something!" Twilight said and charged up her horn, to perform a group teleport – making the six friends appear nearby the castle. 

The first thing Fluttershy and the others saw, was the last castle tower got blown to debris on the bottom, as it slowly began to tilt the side and crashed down, but not before it was hit a second time – unable end his fall with some dignity.

"Oh my.... Angel!?" but to her relieve the tiny bunny showed up just a moment later, unharmed, as she picked him up and hold him tight, now searching for her man. 

She was worried about him sick as well, only reason she searched for her beloved bunny first was, that he was just a small bunny – and he the spirit of chaos... so it was way more likely, he could take care of him self.

Than the group spotted something above the castle, it was Discord, throwing balls down onto it and burning parts of the forest when ever one of his wild shots spun to far to the side.

Twilight teleported right away in front of him, as he froze in motion, so his devastating charge would not hit her.

"Twilight Sparkle!?" taking a close look, to check for wings. "Alicorn...?"

This comment was just random. "Yes... - and what in Celestia's name are you doing!?" pointing on the fire pit below. 

"Renovating" pushing her aside to charge up another ball, to throw it below, heating up the pit to an degree, even stones started to melt, forming almost something like a small volcano from the looks of it.

"Discord .... !"

He turned and spotted the source, throwing his last energyball careless above his shoulder somewhere into the forest. Twilight barely managed to cast a spell in order to defuse it, before the howl forest would burn to the ground, along with the castle.

Like a magnet he felt attracted towards this pony below, rushing at his wife.

"Oh Fluttershy my dear! Are you alright!?" trying to give her a hug, but she backed off.

"Am i alright!? What have you done!" she shouted, pointing horrified at the ruins.

"Oh this? don't worry, i send all the critters to your old house..." waving it off like it was a quite normal thing to do.

Fluttershy already felt a little better, at least her critter-friends been save, but she still had to sit down since her lags didn't stop shaking "But why did you destroy our home!?"

"He is huuhuu..." Rainbow whispered to Rarity, spinning her hoof on the side of her head. 

Discord pointed at her "Am not! But i have a bill to pay! So if you excuse me..." giving his wife a quick smooch on her lips "please wait, i'm done in a minute" and with that he was once again above the castle, bursting some more charges down.

"Maybeee... there was a monster under his bed?" 

"Don't be ridiculous!" Applejack said towards Pinkie.

"But i'm so good at it." Pinkie frowned.

Twilight didn't know how to react. 

Technical spoken he was on his land - only destroyed his own property.

No living creature was in any danger and despite his really strange behavior, he didn't seem a danger to anypony right now... 

So should she stop him, or would this just make everything worse... getting into a fight with Discord never was a good idea, so for now she got down to her friend Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy, cant you make him stop? He listens to you..." 

The yellow mare was desperate "I... i'm sorry, so sorry.. h-he wont listen... i d-ont understand." 

Then suddenly Discord stopped on his own, just to dive down into the flames, making Fluttershy almost lose consciousness, as Twilight hold her up, until her other friends got a hold onto her.

"Just wait here..." the alicorn teleported her self once more above the castle, looking down into the direction he had took. There was a big gap between the flames, some underground construct showing and if she looked a little closer ...  flickering around it... could this be a force field? 

This sure wasn't just his basement... there was something really fishy going on.

"Girls... i think you should see this!"

With this said she teleported everypony in a flying bubble above the castle as they all been witness about the black gap in between the fire.

"I assume this isn't your basement?" Twilight checked.

"We don't have a basement..." the yellow pegasus shyly confirmed, which made sense... she was quite afraid of the dark and a spooky castle vault was the last thing anypony could get her into, but right now she just had to get after him "Please, bring us down!" she said without any hesitation.

What ever was in this tomb, her husband might been in danger.
> Kind Chaos
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kind chaos

Right before the group got down into the gap, Twilight used a magic burst to put out the flames around them, so the fire would not spread further while they being down there.

The magic sphere softly landed inside the mysterious vault and bursted like a bubble, as they all took a last look to the ceiling and the sun shining in, while drops of lava slowly fell from above, to land all around them with a -hizzzsss- as it hit the cool ground below.

"We better get moving" Twilight said, charging up her horn in order to cast light into this dark realms, as the group followed the noise coming from the distance.

The noise sounded like somepony was hammering against a huge gate, as the echo scattered through this underground labyrinth, giving them a hard time to know which way to pick.

At times they just had to wait a few more of those strokes to make out the right path, when they began to get closer, since they could already her his voice. 

Strange enough, Fluttershy was the first one to run, as the others got in gear, alongside with her.

Then they found him, he was wearing some kind of oversize boxing gloves, which had a strange pink glow to it. Twilight rightfully assumed it was charged up with the magic from before, as he hammered onto some kind of gate, right about to blast it to pieces with his uppercut hit.

"Disscoord" she cheered, he was still alright. The draconequus spun around "What!? I told you to wait!" as she jumped him and he closed his arms around her. He could not be mad, since he had done just the same thing when it was about her... so he just enjoyed the moment, slowly stroking her mane, but received a hoof-slap on his cheek. 

"I was worried sick, what you have to say for your self!?"

He put her carefully down and rubbed his cheek "Ouch".

Fluttershy was using physical violence? This made the others raise an eyebrow.

"Not quite ladylike" Rarity shrugged, while Rainbow laughed at it; but before he even had a chance to explain it self, the chamber he just had opened was flooded with a green/blue light, as a old voice echoed out of it.

"My guests finally have arrived... welcome to my lair.... ha...ha...ha..."

The voice was colt as ice, sending down a shiver everypony's spine. It felt so unnatural.

"Who was that!?" the cowgirl asked. 

Discord stroke above his arms like pushing up some sleeves, turning to his wife "stay put, i handle this" stomping into the chamber.

Slowly followed by the crowed, which was checking their surroundings.

The room was really big and almost completely dark, making it seem like it would expand endless into all directions, since Twilight's light failed to reach it borders. 

In the center was some kind of shrine. It was about five or six meters in high, on the very top stood two big glass balls, both about two meters in size and filled with some kind of magic smoke inside.

The first one was pink, slowly and gently moving inside, like a soft breeze.

In contrast, the second one kept changing color's and spun wild around like a trapped storm.

Right between the spheres, stood the black mare from before, partial illuminated by them, but not enough to make out any details.

"I´m so glad you could make it" she lied, once again giving everypony the feeling the temperature just had dropped a few degrees.

"This time, you wont get away!" Discord once again pointed his finger warning towards her.

The mare giggled "But i already have" as she gestured towards the two balls next to her.

Twilight stepped next to Discord "Who is this?" 

"Nopony!" as he surprisingly shot a one of his spinning energy balls, right up the podium to burst into a bright explosion, making his grin go wide and devilish, but fated a moment later.

The mare was unharmed and not even the glass spheres seemed to have a scratch.

"How dare you to be still alive!" he nagged as he charged up three more balls, with the very same effect- none at all.

As the dust settled the dark mare laughed and her green/blue eyes started to glow as she charged up her horn, sending down a shot similar to his, but it was glowing like the portal from before – black in the middle, with green/blue sparks around it. 

Discord quickly pushed away Twilight and jumped aside him self, as the sphere landed where they had stood and blast a howl into the ground. The crater wasn't clean and the edge looked like some kind of acid was melting it.

All around the room small green and blue flames started to light up in mid air, but still not enough illuminate the whole room, like it would swallow up the light the further away you got from the shrine.

Pinkie tried to touch one of the flames near by, but it wasn't hot at all, it felt more like she would stick her hoof into a frozen lake. "Eeek.." 

"Pinkie, keep ya hooves from this darn magic" Applejack warned her.

Rarity was the first one, to make out what kind of mare was standing above them "Uuewh, a changeling!" pointing on this familiar shape, but the mare laughed onto her comment, slowly stepping down stairs, while the two immortals got up on their feet, when the mare stood right in front of them "Whats the matter ...don't you like me?" as she strum with her eyelashes and made a moue, followed by an evil grin.

"You are right Rarity, she is a changeling..." giving her a close look "...but its not Chrysalis...".

"Chrysa-who?" Rainbow asked.

"The Queen of Changelings" Twilight explained.

Discord just rolled his eyes, like this was the time for an history lecture.

"You all are, not-even-close..." presenting her self in an almost elegant pose "...i just..." with this she licked her lips like she would remember an taste"... lend this body".

"Then who are you!?" Twilight demanded "Show your true self!".

The mare looked a little sad to the alicorn "Oh, Twilight Sparkle... of all the pony's... i thought, at least you would remember me?" shaking her head in disappointment "... so much studies and still so clueless" the black mare said "Maybe i should give you a hint!" with this said, the changeling mare began to glow in a blue light and grew half a meter in size, her wings became feathered and the holes in her hooves, which had been common for a changeling, closed up.

Her horn also had changed, from a black spike, into a unicorn one with blue stripes running up, when finally the short ruffled mane changed into something which looked like the night sky, floating constant in mid air. Her eyes lost the green shimmer and had a sharp cyan tone now and her final shape was the one of an alicorn. Her flank, showing the white moon, as well the emblem on her chest. 

The pony's could not believe their eyes, as they all rubbed their eyes and Pinkie as well Fluttershy searched cover behind Rarity and Applejack.

"NIGHTMARE MOON!"

"That's not possible! We banished you!" 

The mare burst in laughter, which lacked any kind of amusement to it "Banish me!? You just robbed me of my precious body!” her voice now became more forgiving”...but... i found replacement!" with this she waved one of her wings, sending a shokwave to blow the pony's of their hooves and charged right onto Discord, giving him a quick body check.

As Twilight got right away in battle stance, shouting towards her friends "Get cover!" blasting of one of her purple alicorn beams at the mare, which teleported out of the way to give a counter to this, while Discord got up from the ground and got into battle as well. 

The mare spun a mid air screw around to avoid the shots countering with one of her own, which Discord redirected with a tennis racket, but they never hit any walls and got swallowed by the darkness.

Another purple beam was about to hit Nightmare Moon, but she reached out her hoof towards it, as it got split up to burst around her, scattering all over the room, almost hitting the allied spirit.

"You mind!?" 

"Sorry!" 

Nightmare Moon used her magic onto the ground below Twilight, turning it to quicksand all of a sudden, which was quite a surprise, making her unable to move, as Discord zapped him self right in front of her to deliver one of his infamous boxing blows, but he was to slow and swung into the air, as she gave him a horse-kick into the stomach.

The princess had managed to escape the quicksand, using her wings and managed to deal a hit upon Nightmare Moon, which returned the favor right away, sending a green beam onto the alicorn.

Discord got up in time to grab her by the throat "HA!" and wanted to punch her right away, but her shape became almost liquid and she slipped his paw with ease, to become solid again, backing of in a quick move of her wings, bursting a charge towards him, as well another one towards Twilight, which had role aside to dodge it.

"This ain't just alicorn magic!" Discord declared, knowing best what s an alicorn was capable of and what not.

"I think you are right!" Twilight shouted, while she performed a long loop around the room, as her horn started to glow and her blast cut a long cicle formed crater into the room, which she managed to avoid, when suddenly a swarm of black bats formed around her to jump on the alicorn, sticking like glue and sending her falling to the ground, unable to free her self.

Discord had put up long enough with her, he spawned five of his balls and juggled them for a moment as they became one big ball, which was even bigger than himself, as he grabbed it like a bowling ball to throw it in a impossible quick motion towards the black mare. 

She seen this attack coming tried to avoid it, but the ball followed her across the room, as she performed a quick looping, fetching the ball from behind with the tip of her horn – as she charged up the blow her self, corrupting it to shimmer black and green within- to send it straight back from where it came.

"Oh Poo..." 

The ball hit Discord right in center and send him to the ground, unable to get up again.

It hurt even worse than Celestia's blast, but felt strangely familiar, on the edge of his mind.

Nightmare Moon more landed and took a look around and it was a satisfying one... the two most dangerous opponents had been shot down and she wasn't even sweating. 

The other pony's charged toward their defeated friends, but she didn't bother with those, they had no element of harmony or anything else that could be dangerous to her.

The main group ran for Twilight, only Fluttershy ran towards Discord.

Her friends hooves pulled onto the sticky fake bats and managed to get the Alicorn free, as Fluttershy asked for help and the group got in motion towards the draconequus.

He was hit really bad, coughing and partial burned everywhere, but the most damage was invisible as Twilight just knew to good.

If you used magic in a raw form like this, it would destroy the spirit within the creature, flowing trough it like lighting – and overcharging everything within. It was pure luck he was still alive.

Twilight could feel her anger boiling up inside, as she turned to give another shot towards Nightmare Moon, but her beam got countered by hers as she hold against it. At first it seemed to work, but than the black mare pulled back the beam into her own favor, sending down a green pulse and sending the alicorn to the ground, similar burned like Discord.

"You think you are a match alone, when the two of you failed!? How foolish!" the evil alicorn declared, but Twilight wasn't done and got up on her trembling legs.

"This... magic of yours... its not just alicorn...!"

"Oh, its not?" she replied, putting a hoof onto her lips like a lady would, if caught on a fauxpas.

"Its chaos..." Discord squeezed out, about to get up with some help of Fluttershy and Pinkie.

"ain't he the only one with that!?" the blue pegasus said confused, pointing onto the draconequus.

"You are right, darling" Rarity said, but was sending a asking glance towards Twilight, which was about to put the puzzle together.

"You drained his powers! Using... this changeling body!"

Nightmare Moon gave a few slow claps with her hooves on this one "Celestia would be so proud, you sure earned a gold star for this one...." her tone being sweet poison.

Now Discord also knew what all that time tampering was all about!

Alicorn powers, channeled trough an changeling body... it was not just strong enough to suck out his love, which they had a overwhelming amount, thanks to his wife... but even strong enough to drain his chaos itself! 

Of course despite his powers been quite unlimited, he still would had noticed... so she needed some distraction, while she slowly fed om him like a leech.

She may could had caused the same effect with a lot less effort, but now came the brilliant part about it! If he was separated from his friends and his beloved one - his emotions would skyrocket of the charts, making it a fest meal... but even more so, doing what nothing else could had done:

Creating the most pure chaos there is, by tempering with destiny itself!

He might never had told anypony, not even his wife, ... but when ever he used his powers he knew where they came from. Everything that was chaos, every fallen leaf, every messy home and misbehaving pony gave him strength from all over Equestria, streaming through his veins!

Chaos was everything around him and he was breathing it like fresh air.

Oh she sure had stuffed him full with it, just to take it away once again, making him laugh at this genius plan of hers... what irony! Sweet sweet irony... the three most powerful things he had came across in his everlasting life – chaos... friendship... and love... and they would be his doom after all! 

Still, he knew one thing she could not have thought of. being who he was, he was unpredictable, without a doubt... but what had to come, he surprised himself with.

"May i point out" he coughed in pain "your flaw!?" the draconequus said. 

"Flaw! Ha! My plan is flawless and you all will be witness when i take over Equestria!!" 

Oh she was so confident in her self, but her smile fated as she noticed there was something wrong with him... she was linked to hispowers and emotions... she knew what felt right now, but there was no word to describe what was going on... this was new.

Discord started to glow as the others pulled back from him, gathering around Twilight.

"Oh boy..." The cowgirl said...

"What is he doooing, Twilight!?" 

"I ... i have no idea!"

His voice echoed all over the chamber as his became pure light "YOU THINK YOU CAN STEAL MY CHAOS? MY FRIENDSHIP!? MY LOVE!!" it was almost deafening to listen "THAN I RATHER GIVE IT AWAY; TOWARDS THE ONLY ONE WORTHY!!"

The group sat there frightened to the bones, as Twilight bravely stepped forward, to receive this absolute unexpected gift. She was the most magical talented alicorn there is, might even more so than Celestia some rumored... using her fight against Tirek as prime example, since she had hold onto and used the magic of thee alicorn's against him - even if just for a short time.

Who else could be more qualified to have the burden of his wild and unlimited powers on his shoulders!? This would be her most unique experience and rewrite all history books: from-this-day-onwards!

Twilight spread her wings and braced her self, as the beam of energy shot away from the draconequus, but just about a meter before it reached the Alicorn - it bent itself around and hit the pony behind her. "What the.....!?" she gasped, as Discord fell back to the ground, now being just a ordinary mortal like anypony else and the other pony's behind her backed away from the one in their center.

"Flutter-shy!?" Twilight stuttered confused, while an transformation was about to happen.

The small yellow mare was about to transform in something else, not even Discord had an idea how it woul turn out.

At first Fluttershy she grew in size, becoming even taller than Celestia was, which already was a head bigger than most stallions... while her soft pink mane began to grow along with her, becoming deeper in tone, until it was red like running blood - hanging down her side, but in a way wilder fashion, than before.

While this transformation took place, the mare hissed and her eyes glowed, revealing her teeth canines to grow into vampire like ones - as the light started to pull back, her pupils had a deep  black core with a red iris around them, in the same blood red tone, shimmering in an constant flow of energy dancing behind it.

Last but not least her wings turned from feathered, to become way bigger and bat like as well her ears did. The magic was even strong enough to change her cutiemark, which had turned from pink lovely butterfly's into a swarm of red bats, which seemed to dance trough the night.

Only Applejack found words to describe this insane transformation "Not again..."

The vampire mare rose on her back hooves - to hiss towards the sky, like a werewolf would praise the fullmoon above it, as the legs from everypony around her just gave in and send them shivering onto the ground.

The new nightmare mare came down to the ground again, checking the new surrounding she had found her self in. Nothing looked familiar, but there was a pulse inside her chest, beating like two hot suns just had met and molten into one, giving her a restless feeling as she showed her fangs again, like it was a challenge to everypony in this room, when she caught a black mare in the corner of her eye, standing just a few dozen meters away from her in which seemed in a battle stance.

Flutterbat turned towards her and got into the same pose, lowering her head and raising her shoulders, almost like a wild bull would, before charging into his target, scratching her hoof above the ground. 

Twilight tried to block her way "Fluttershy! Can you hear me, its me Twi-" but just got thrown aside with a swing of her hoof, as the mare charged forward onto her designated enemy!

Nightmare Moon didn't waste any time and shot a bunch of beams toward this monster, but they just glistened off like water on an lotus leaf – which she didn't had expected to happen and got an full on body-check, hitting her with the force of a train, as she crashed onto the ground about fifty meters away from the point of impact. 

The vampire stopped hard in their tracks and came to a sliding standstill, once again clopping her hoof like a bull, to dash forward one more time. This time Nightmare Moon avoided the attack in the last possible moment - teleporting right above her, sending down an energy blast into the mares back, which squeaked like a bat as the impact hit it, but didn't even tremble, as she passed by below her... she spun around and took a deep breath, to release some kind of supersonic shriek, forcing the half-changeling to cover her ears, alongside anypony else, as even the mysterious glass spheres received cracks, giving the bat the opportunity to charge upwards – performing another body-check and as she had passed by, a mid-air horse-kick to the head, right after - sending Nightmare once again crashing onto the ground with even more brute force.

The black mare wasn't that easy to defeat, no, she had waited to long for this day and came up on her hooves again, to swipe away some green blood running down her head.

"Is that all you can do!?" she challenged her "I show you what REALpower is!"

With this said the two glass spheres shattered into pieces and the smoke pulled towards the black mare, spinning around her until the it was only one wild mishmash of color's and the circle got closer when it charged up her body, healing her wounds instantly. 

Nightmare Moons now had some kind of dark aura, as black and pink sparks danced all around her body. Her horn began to glow in a constant blue light, despite her not using any kind of magic right now and her cyan eyes seemed to have blue fire burning behind them, as well her mane had changed from a constant soft blue flow to a mishmash of blue and green flashes running fast through it.

Once again she shot a beam of energy towards the yellow monster and this time it had a notice able effect, as the mare yelled in agony, when the energy burned the fur on her chest. When the blow was over the mare seemed to lose his temper and began to buck like a wild horse as she stopped and swung her wings towards the black mare. In between her wing tips a red flashing energy sickle had formed and raced above the ground, cutting apart everything in his path, wish barely missed the, almost cutting off one of her wings. 

Nightmare Moon performed flying curve, almost to fast to follow, as she became nothing more than a blurry shadow, racing trough the dark room, but it seemed like the bat could follow her every move with ease, throwing some more sickles towards – cutting the shrine into half like it was made of butter, in order to hit the mare flying behind it - while counter fire was coming back onto her in form of loosely aimed green/black energy bolts – most of them hitting the bat in a barrage of flashing explosion, but despite her wounds - she just seemed to get even more mad, unwilling to give up!

Once again the mare hissed sharply and started to flap her wings like she was about to lift of, but kept her self onto the ground, as the air around her and the rest of the room started to spin around like a class five tornado. Twilight barely managed to hold everypony onto the ground, using the same bubble she had before, but Nightmare Moon was mid air, so she was unable to hold onto anything and got sucked in. 

"THIS MUST BEE OVER TWO THOUSAND WINGPOWER!!" Rainbow shouted above the massive noise coming along, while keeping her head down. 

The black mare finally was able to cast a force field around her self and stabilize flight, hoovering in the eye of the storm, as she notice the other mare was gone, when she looked up – to find her charging down. 

Nightmare quickly tried to reinforced the shield, but it was no use - the bat destroyed it with a mighty blow of her glowing hooves and ripped her out of the sky onto the ground with a massive -whomp- sending a shock wave across the room, which also dissolved the tornado.

The black alicorn was nailed below the big yellow monster, as she tried to get up, but both front hooves came down like a sledgehammer, onto her left and right wing, causing massive amounts of pain, as she felt the bones breaking inside, making her shout in agony "NYAaaaaaa!" biting together her teeth, but still unwilling to give up "YOU CANT WIN!!" she still yelled at her, as the mare hissed in reply towards the sky, while Nightmare Moon desperate shot blast after blast - upon the monster above, partial hitting her self in the process, since she was way to close, making the room flash up bright as day every time she did so.

The vampire bat lowered her sight, while her opponent still cursed "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!" blasting all she had in strong and stronger charges, as the yellows head snapped like a snake, right onto her neck, making her struggle like a trapped mice, still blasting beams all over the room, piercing holes trough the ceiling – making the sun shine into the chamber, one of them got deflected by Twilight's force field bubble, which gave in after it, as the other pony's got thrown around from the remaining force, but ended up mostly unharmed.

"Nahhhhhhhhhhhh...........!" Nightmare Moon yelled in pain, while every charge got weaker and weaker until her horn stopped glowing at all... she didn't even had enough strength to keep her false form anymore - turning slowly back into her stolen changeling body.

While she had lost every spark of magic, the bat seemed to gain it, as Fluttershy grew even more, her mane became like running fire and the bats on her flank turned black- while all her wounds healed during the draining process.

The pegasus didn't stop, before there wasn't a single drop of energy left in her victims body, before she finally let go - to leave the motionless changeling laying beneath her like that.

The yellow monster rose her front hooves once, hissing triumphant towards the sky! 

Twilight somehow felt sorry on the sight of this. For poor Fluttershy, as well Nightmare Moon. 

When the mares hoof came back to the ground they shattered the stone beneath, searching for her next challenger, but there was just one worthy victim around.

Most pony's had guessed the bat-pony would had some kind of nightvision, but would be wrong on that... it was more like some kind of heatvision instead - showing the juicy energy inside of creatures, making one of the present pony's appear quite... delightful.

Twilight knew there was no point, in trying to run away - or get into a fight, so she tried to talk towards her, make her remember who she was.

"Fluttershy! Its me Twilight! I'm your friend! We all are! You can stop now!" while the group gathered around the alicorn and got into the idea. "Honey, please stop it!" "Ya don't have to do this!" "We taste horrible!" "Lets be cool about it, okay!?"

About three meters before she would plunge her teeth into the alicorn, Discord stepped into her way 

"Fluttershy..." spreading out his arms to cover the pony's behind him.

Of course he had no powers to stop her. His physical form might was intimidating, but actually not much stronger than a regullar stallion, since his magic had provided for a lazy life.

Still the mare stopped to give him a closer look and came to the conclusion: he barely was good enough for a zip of energy.

Fluttershy got another step closer, examined his faces curiously... being on eye-height to him for the first time without any tricks or so.

She slowly put her head onto his shoulder, but than - surprisingly bit into his neck.

"URGH..." was all he said, as Twilight felt forced to use her magic, charging up her horn.

If she would feast on him, like she had on Nightmare Moon - Discord actually could die,

but the draconequus waved painfully his paw towards Twilight, so she wouldn't dare to hurt his beloved wife.

The vampire mare gave a taste to the little energy there was... and it tasted incredible familiar, giving her an odd dejavue and pictures began to run trough the back of her head. Pictures she could not understand, which seemed impossible... and still ...

Bloodred eyes started to wander from his neck up to his yellow red ones, which looked at her from the corner of his eye, making her slowly let go of him. 

He didn't bother to cover up the wound, she had left behind - as blood run down his side, while his paw and claw reached out for her face. 

The mare pulled back a little, but as soon his first fingertip touched it, she hold still and more fingers followed the first one.

It was like his hands would belong, slowly stroking along her cheeks, it was a welcome feeling making her rub her fur against them.... and the ocean of energy inside her chest started to calm down, to become silent... until the waves stopped moving all together... leaving a calm mirror behind in which his picture reflected, when he looked deep into her beautiful eyes. 

The color didn't matter... blue... red... green... they were still the same eyes, he could lose him self into, for what seemed to be an eternity.

The mane six starred at this picture, they also had a strong dejavue...

usual it was Fluttershy who tamed the wild beast, but this time the roles been reversed.

The vampire mare was almost lost in the enjoyment, having a wild smile on her lips, while she turned her head slowly from side to side, when he stopped his hands, making her look angry towards him again. 

Discord just smiled at her, what a wild beauty she is. She always was.

He leaned forward, as the almighty mare reacted somehow scared about this situation, but he didn't let go and quickly placed his lips onto hers.

The pictures from before now bursted into the front of her mind, sharp and crystal clear - like she just lived trough all the moments at once, flooding her consciousness, making her almost drown in glee from within.

Suddenly the mare began to glow white on this never ending kiss, while she slowly started to shrink in size and turned back to her normal form... until he was just holding his small and kind wife in his arms, still having his lips on hers, till he let go a minute later.

The mare had no idea what was going on and she really didn't care, blushing like it was her first kiss ever. 

"D-discord... w.. what is going on?" the pegasus blinked at him.

"You defeated Nightmare Moon my dear..." he said in a warm, but casual tone.

"Nightmare Moon!?" she became frightened right away, rolling her self together and pulling  herself close to his chest.

"Oh don't worry." he grinned as he turned around to show her - pointing at the battered changeling laying on the ground, breathing flat and unable to get up ... still silently cursing.

"I... did- i did do this?... i-i'm so sorry!" 

Oh Fluttershy, she could not harm a fly, making Discord burst in laughter.

"You barely touched her... don't worry - she is fine!" waving of her worries.

"...and so is everypony else, as well Equestria!" Twilight added, pointing onto her friends, before getting down into a royal curtsy "...thank you Fluttershy".

All her friends bowed and thanked Fluttershy in a playful manner, as the yellow pegasus got red like BigMac and buried her face onto her husbands shoulder.

Discord would had liked to hold her just a tincy bit longer like this, but there still was one more thing to do, he had promised himself... so he to put his wife carefully onto the ground.

"Just give me a minute, honey..." he smiled "there was somepony really really nasty..." using his thump to point towards the changeling on the ground, which tried to crawl away.

The draconequus rose to his full height, stretched out his chest and walked over to her like a soldier would, using long sharp steps until he was right behind her, stepping on her tail and crack his fingers, when he began to talk, using a sugar like voice doing so.

"If this isn't little leech... remember me...!? You know: the fool, you tried to make me!?" with those words said, his face got dark and she doubled her efforts to crawl away, without any use.

Twilight ran onto his side "Discord, wait, i hope you don't want to... killher... maybe we could... uhm, reform her instead!?" pleading for his rationality... provided he had such a thing in the first place.

He shook his head, making clear this situation was not negotiate able "Twi... three things"

"First. I don't kill... not my stile." with that a flat hat materialized on his head, showing his powers had returned.

"Second. I wont negotiate about this!" with this a golf club materialized in his hand – but this time it wasn't his usual putter... it was a driver ...which was used for long shots.

"Third. Somepony will get punished ..." giving her a glance, which made Twilight back of immediately.

Discord looked up to the sky, but the sun shine got into his eyes, how should be perform a clean hit disturbed like this?

He snapped his white gloved claw and suddenly it was midnight outside...

Celestia and Luna sure would nag at him for doing so, but – this was worth it!

Discord made his pose lose up a little and shook his hips to get a better stand, checking his aim a last time, as he rose his club above his head - when Nightmare Moon shrunk in size in front of him, as she found her self trapped inside an transparent golfball, a second later.

She hammered against her new prison, while yelling with a titchy voice towards him "I will get my revenge! You are all doomed! "You cant hold me prisoner! I will c-"

As she suddenly was cut off, when the draconequus used all his strength and magic on this one blow- blasting the ball through the gap in the ceiling, right into night the sky – making it break the sound barrier several times, while pulling a pink firetrail, to vanish seconds later at the star hung firmament...

Twilight's eyes followed the extra ordinary strike as long she could, mouth and eyes wide open.

"I think..." she blinked once "- you missed the moon?"

But Discords grin ran from ear to ear "didn't aim for it..." as she got a look, at this incredible devilish expression on his face, making her shiver, just to look up once more to the sky... 

but she didn't dare to ask where the ball was heading instead.

The equipment vanished into thin air, before he picked up his wife onto his arms and gave a last glance towards the others, which had a similar expressions to Twilight, on their faces.

"What!?"

They all shook their heads and Pinkie Pie performed her -zipp my mouth, lock it up, dug a hole, buried the key, built a house up top the hole - and move into the house- motion.

He just gave a short and quite forced smile towards the group and the lovebirds vanished.
> Apple Tree
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apple tree

Its been a few days since this event, as Discord and his wife sat in their little lake house, but this time Angel was along with them. Surprising enough the rabbit behaved for once, so Discord didn't pay to much attention towards him... except once, as he used his magic to make a golden carrot appear. Of course it was eatable and just a decoy to get that pesky longear out of the house for a while, since it never ever could finish eating it, sitting with Fluttershy in front of their new chimney, cuddling up under a soft red blanket, as he explained to her what actually had happened, having pride swinging in his voice.

"You should had seen your self! That wana-be-alicorn had not the slightest chance! I could not had done it better my self... oh, she wont dare to come back ever again!"

The yellow mare listened carefully and felt a excited about it. Fluttershy could not remember or even image to be this strong and wild – able to defeat something scary as Nightmare Moon on her own!

"...but why didn't you chose Twilight?"

"Well... i... didn't felt like it".

She gave him a serious glance and made him sigh.

"Fine. If you must know: ...she could not had handled it, like you did."

"W-what you mean? She is so good with magic and su-" as he put his finger onto her lips.

"I didn't say it was about the magic... it was ..." how could he put it delightfully "it was about you." He tapped her nose once, which made it tickle a little, so she rubbed it with her hoof. 

It was to cute to watch. 

"You see, my powers ain't just any ordinary come-along-alicorn-magic... they are..." as he leaned down to place his lips close to her ear, to whisper the most secret thing ever told anypony "...chaos." 

Discord now continued to walk up and down in front of her, which was absolute necessary for his  explanations.

"You see, the poor TwiTwi... she would been corrupted in a matter of minutes, Rarity probably seconds... and the others i don't know..." giving her a short glance, raising his eyebrows "unlike you... i knew, you would not be corrupted that easy... after all, you are the kindest pony there is...!"

Now his wife began to understand what he was trying to say, making shrinking a little in size 

"... i´m not, anything special..." shyly rubbing her hooves on one another.

This made him laugh and he had to get up "ain't special!? Are you kidding me! I ran through all of Equestria, blew up a howl city and time traveled twice ... just to get you back!" his voice now became a lot softer "and i would had traded all my powers to keep it that way" as he kneed down and kissed her hoof upwards until he was kissing the side of her neck, making her giggle.

"Had not done it for anypony else ... my beloved Fluttershy!"

"Oh Discord" she blushed. 




Than she suddenly came back to what he just sad "Wait... y-you blew up a city?" 

His mouth opened but it was more of a croak than words "Ieiiiiiiiiii..................."

when suddenly a tingling feeling run down his spine "Sorry, got to go!" giving her a quick kiss on the forehead, zapping himself quickly back to Ponyville.




"Huff... close one" he sighed, as he noticed the filly that had summoned him, they probably stood somewhere in the middle of apple acres, all around them hundred of apple trees as far the eye reached.

"Oh, its you" raising an eyebrow "what you want?"

Apple Bloom hold up his card, he had given her "Ma wish..."

"Wish?" he thought about it for a while, playing on his goat beard "Ohhhh... wish. Sure." as he felt quite generous today. After all this trouble, doing something this simple, was quite a nice change up. "Okay, what you want?" rubbing his hands in preparation for something ordinary.

"I want ma granny to be young forever!" 

His jaw dropped a moment "Come again!?" 

"She is really old and i ... i don't want her to go..." the filly frowned.

Discords hand stroke over his head to stop on his neck, rubbing it a little, as it came back to his mouth playing a little with his beard.

The yellow filly became snippy as he obviously didn't fulfill her wish "You said you can do anything! No questions asked!" she shouted.

Why he had to be the one to break it down to her? Did he look like his father or so? Of course not!

"Just, one question okay?"

"Fine, but just one and then, you do it!"

He rose his hands in defeat "Fair enough...." he paused for a moment, trying to give it a dramatic effect "... did you ask her?"

Apple Bloom failed to understand "Ask her what? What you mean...?"

"If she wanted to be young again! You didn't... !"

"Why wouldn't she?"

He sat down next to the filly and put a hand on her back back, which gave him a suspicious look, like he tried to talk him self out of their little deal.




Her darn sister Applejack should had talked about this stuff a long time ago he figured... element of honesty? Pah, quite easy! As long nopony asked - just keep your mouth shut and there you go!

As much he knew AJ, she would treat Apple Bloom like a baby, until its to late... and since he had lost his own parents under similar circumstances... back than nopony had told something like this ever could happen... so he decided to rather take chances, than sending that little brat unprepared down this awful road...




He snapped fingers and an apple came flown down a nearby tree. He took a bite out of it, while the filly watched him eating, as he offered it to her as well "No thanks...". When he had finished eating, he spit two seeds onto his hand. Taking one per hand, between forefinger and thumb. Showing it to the sitting filly "What you see?"

"... spit?"

"Uhhg... seeds!"

"Ohh..."

"Look..."

Two small holes formed in front of him and put in one seed each.

"I thought you have to snap for that?"

"I don't. And now pay attention" as he performed a short motion from the left to right above the two holes, like a magician would on his top hat, making the holes close up, but nothing else...

"Nuthing happens" she said, after just a few seconds.

"Just wait a darn minute!"

The filly starred with him onto the ground, not sure if he tried one of his stupid pranks on him.

Then small green plants started to grow out of the two spots, both becoming tiny apple trees in a matter of seconds, wearing even tinnier apples on them, making the filly stare on them with big eyes.

Discord rose his finger, and tapped onto the left tree and it shrunk in size, now being just half as old than the other tree - than he snapped his fingers and time seemed to pass just for those tiny trees, like every second would equal about five years. 

The left tree didn't move at all, while the right one grew up and dropped apples over and over again, until it was old and tired. The other one hadn't dropped a single apple, since it never got old enough to do so.

"So?" Applebloom asked as the first part of his little example was done.

So naive.

"Look!"

He snapped once more and the time elapsed once again, when suddenly a few smaller trees started to grow around the first one, until it died away in their center, while the first one still stood alone – frozen in time for all eternity.

The young filly looked at this process for a while, repeating it self over and over again,

as she suddenly started to cry and he stopped the example.

"I´m... sorry...." he said, putting again his paw on her back, as she put her face onto his side, making his fur go wet with tears. "i'm really sorry..."

"But you said..... y-you said you could..."

"Yes. I could."

She looked up to him, sobbing.

"But this one is not up to me to decide... neither to you..."

The poor filly put her head again on his side and kept it there for a while, as he stroke her mane slowly, holding her company.




After a while, he performed the same gesture from before, as the small forest vanished and he got up. Apple Bloom had almost calmed down totally, despite still sobbing a little.

"I guess... i don't need this anymore" as she pushed his card over the grass and he picked it up, to take a look at it.

-Discord, Spirit of Chaos : Your local source of mischief-.

He lifted his other hand and flicked his finger one time against it. 

"Here, you might need it one day..." he said, as he passed it back to the filly again, giving her a short nod to the card, so she read what was written on it.

-Discord, Spirit of Chaos : Your local friend-.

This gave her a little smile on her face.

"Just don't... tell anypony..." he said a little sheepishly.

The filly got up and gave him a hug "Thanks"

"I... uhm..." 

He returned the hug until she let go... 

then Apple Bloom left him alone, walking back to the farm, to spend some more time with her family, in particular Granny Smith. 




Still, Discord now was the one to stare on the ground, where his little example had took place. Of all the curses he had in his repertoire... being immortal was the worst.




Everything was meant to go at some point.

It was just natural to grow up together, making the hours count, making them special and let go when it was time. 

This was the kind of bitter sweet pain everypony had to go trough... the one thing that made the next generation stronger, ready to step into the future on their own hooves and still... 

...not everypony could take it.




Those suffered on something called "Broken-Heart-Syndrom".




Most of the time, it struck upon love couples, which had spend their entire life together, 

so when one of them died away, so would the other one soon after.

Nopony could explain how or why... but it was like the partner would lose his will to life.

Despite being perfectly healthy, his body would refuse to continue... until one day his heart just would stop beating, unable to take it any longer.




Still, it was not just meant for old couples. 

Young ones, married, unmarried and even pony's which acted like foes could get caught by it, as long their bond was strong enough. It was an disease without cure.




Discord was a living legend... far over thousand years old, like Princess Celestia.


The difference being, she had spend her time being free, loving every single pony there was and receiving nothing but love in return – which had made her life worth while ever since.

Loved by ten-..., might even hundred-thousands every day... generation by generation... this was the only power strong enough to withstand a broken heart... but what he had to show for himself?


He had spend a big share of the time in a cold stone prison, hated by history ever since and despite his "reformation" to the good side, most pony's still feared him or used his name like a curse. 

There was only one exception to this, Fluttershy.

Their love to one another might even was stronger than anything else in all of Equestria.

Strong enough to replace the love of thousands, across all of time... 

at least this was what he felt like, despite his lack to express it with words.




Only problem being... it would not last forever. 

He was immortal. She was mortal. 




He already thought he had lost her at times... but the very idea she wasn't even alive anymore... - it would kill him.




There was just one solution and he had thought about it often, still he was nervous and needed a last advice before he was heading out for the final step. 

Literally nothing could prevent him to reach his goal and if it would mean to end the world, he would.


Discord rose his paw and was gone in an instant, to reappear inside Twilight's castle, right in front of Spike which bumped into him "Woah!" the young dragon shouted, waving his arms in order to keep balance "w-what you doing here!?"


"None – of – your – business" he said dry, before he started to wander quickly trough the castle, unable to hold his paws still.  

The dragon could not else to get curious.

Usual if pony's searched for Twilight it was for advice, or in her new role as Princess of Friendship. 

Discord wasn't quite that guy who was willing to take advice and ... friendship? Not quite either... also there was something familiar in his behavior he knew him self just to well, so he followed him for a bit.

Spike had his brave moments and this was surely one of them, when he dared to speak up to Discord, which was probably his first time doing so "...do you need love advice from Twilight?"




This was a line he wished he had buried alongside his tongue, next to the diamond dogs, as Discord spun around, pointing a golfclub at him.

Twilight had told Spike every single detail what Discord had done to Nightmare Moon... and even tried calculating her precise course afterwards... wasn't quite the same solar system anymore, to put it nicely!




Spike rose his claws in defeat and froze like this. 

Discord slowly put his golf club on the little dragons chest "one day i will solve your mess... but right now, get lost!" as he tapped it with the club, sending him outside the castle in a bright flash.

The young dragon was still not moving for another twenty minutes, until he dared to shake and fell flat on his stomach, but could not else then wonder what he mend by "Fix... my mess?" 


Like it could be any different he found Twilight in the middle of the new library, which also hold a big Telescope and the pink Alicorn was running between books and checking the telescope several times, to make little adjustments once in a while, paying no attention to her surroundings.



"Oh Spike, can you hand me the ruler... i think i can tell on which planet he had send her..."

The ruler was handed over, but he refused to let go "Spike you have to... oh..." this was when she noticed it wasn't a baby dragon, but a grown draconequus standing right in front of her.



"Discord?.... and where is Spike!?" she asked.

He waved it off "gone".

Twilight's eyes grew wide and she run to the telescope, checking the sky right away.

"Uhhhhhh..." he sighed "just outside the castle! Sweet chaos..."

"Ouh... sorry. A moment i thought you still would be angry..."

He grabbed her cheek "Twi... we are friends... i don't send friends...away..." as he paused to reconsider his words "...not this far..." to paused once more "... usual."

Just to wave off his own words "but that's not why i'm here... i ....i... neeeeed.............yoour........... "

Twilight was wondering if he was sick or something, since he seemed to choke on his attempt to speak.

"..... your .........." as a blackboard and chalk appeared in his hands and he wrote something on it "advice" just to throw it careless in a corner and sit down with a long “huffff...”.




This was more than serious! She put all books away and made sure every window and door was shot. If of all creatures he would come to her for advice, this must be a one of a life time thing.

Twilight sat down next to him and took a last deep breath "So... how can i help you?"


Discord still didn't feel quite comfortable with this situation, so he snapped his fingers and his chair became a red couch with golden frame, while she suddenly sat in a big armchair - her hair had become a dutt and there were glasses on her nose, like somepony in a psychiatric session. Twilight being the doctor, the lord of chaos, the patient.

Still he avoided her sight and didn't start right away.


"You have to tell me your problem, or i cant help you."

"Its..." he still was grinding his teeth "about... Fluttershy..." he squeezed out.

"She is alright, right? She is not a bat again or di-"

"She is fine! What you think!? ... also its not... quite like that." putting his paw on his head, as there appeared a tiny glass of water, two pills dropping into it, which he rushed down.

"Relationship... problems?" Twilight dared to ask.

"W-what?... NO! I'm a great husband! I mean: look at me! And she is ... well... she..." 

There was to less data to get any clue out of his jabbering "Than what is the problem?"

"The problem is... uhm..." maybe he just needed another angle "... is that... you are, an alicorn..."

"What has me being an alicorn, to do with Fluttershy?"

"Well, you see... you are not a unicorn anymore ...and she is still... just a pegasus... a pretty one of course... but..."

"OH.........." now she understood "oh.............." this topic "ouhh..................... uh..."

An awkward silence hung between the two. Discord didn't want to say anymore and Twilight didn't know how to start either, since this situation was suddenly really complex.

"Well... i guess... i think what you try to say."

"You do!?" he rose him self for a moment, to slump down once again "of course you do." shrinking a little in size, literally.

"Its alright Discord, you are not the first one with this issue, in fact i have thought about it my self for a while now."

"You did?"

"Of course. I mean... i didn't because of my a special somepony or so" blushing at this line "but still because of my beloved friends, including Fluttershy."

This made Discord listen carefully

"You see... i knew right away, what it meant to become alicorn - so i tried to figure a way how to handle it, but right now i haven't come up with a plan my self."

"Wait! What about your friends? don't they know!?"

The alicorn was a little ashamed to admit "most of them, didn't quite think about this yet and i wanted to keep it that way, until i have an idea how to handle this."

"Great just great" Discord thought to himself "the one time i need advice, and the bookworm is clueless!"

"Wait a second!" he said, "What you mean by ... most of them? So, not all of your friends are that st-... simple minded?" 

Twilight gave him a serious glance, but just continued "No, in fact there is just one other pony which had similar concerns... our Fluttershy."

Discord spun around on the couch and looked at her in disbelieve "Fluttershy!?"

"She also asked me for advice, because of you... she knows you are immortal and what this means."

"What she said!? Come on Twilight, don't leave hanging!" with this he pulled out a hangman's noose "She wont leave me, right!?"

"Calm down... its alright, she wont" 

This line alone almost made Discord melt, as he blew all air out of his lounges, letting his body become soft as rubber.

"But as i was about to say, she knows you are immortal... i could not give her to much advice either, but... she said its alright for her, she will spend her time together with you."

At this line Discord jumped up and performed a little Irish dance, despite this would not solve his problem. It was still great news.

"DISCORD please..." 

"Uh!? Oh... sorry." he sat down on his couch again.

"The point is, she really loves you, no matter if you are immortal or not... she will give you anything she has to offer and... as much i seen earlier, you would do the the same, right?"

"Of course!" 

"...but this wasn't your worry, this ... isn't why you are here, right?"

He took a checking look around in the room and snapped his fingers as the windows and doors became iron shots and only magic light illuminated the room, giving Twilight a deep look into her eyes, as he reached out his claw "this never ever leaves this room" 

She willingly reached out her hoof and shook his claw "I promise, on my duty as princess and our friendship." 

"Well, i guess this will have to do." he said grumpy.

The following words he tried to speak as calm as he could "I wanted to ask her... if she would like, to become - immortal".

Twilight leaned her head forward and also to side "You what?" blinking a few times.

"Do i speak gibberish!?"

"No you don't, but..." she paused here to sort her thoughts "i didn't know you can do that"

"Of course i can! I can do anything! Hello! Almighty!" as he hold up a dictionary with his picture below the word.

"Discord, this is a incredible request you got there, you are aware of that!?"

The smartypants glance he gave her was summing up quite much anything.

"Okay, you are" she rubbed her hoof on her head side "but what if she, doesn't want to? You cant force such a thing upon her or talk her into... she might is your wife, but she is also my friend..."

"I... wont." he let his head hanging "I just..." he said shyly.

Twilight got up from her seat and stepped on his side to put her hoof on his shoulder "I understand and i tell you something... i think the only thing you can do about this is, to talk to her about it next."

She was right. It was the very same question he had asked Apple Bloom before. 

He could not decide this, neither could Twilight... there was just one pony that could do so, her.

"Thanks Twi..." he mumbled. 

"You are always welcome" as she gave him a warm smile. 

She sure was a good friend of his, one you could always count on.




The draconequus got up on his feat as Twilight talked to him once more.

"Discord, i think i know why you chosen me to talk about this and i'm glad you did...

and I think that, I now also know how to handle this my self. Thank you." as she gave him a little nod.


He kinda felt odd about this. He was the one to ask for advice and she was helped with by doing so?

Friendship is was strange thing... even more unpredictable than chaos. He could not else to grin a little. It was kinda... magic.


Now he felt confident to do the final step. 

The butterfly's in his stomach danced like on the day she said "yes".


He also gave a short nod towards Twilight and was gone, but the alicorn was still locked behind the iron curtains "What the .... DISCORD!"
> Halo
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Halo

A bright flash of light appeared in the lake house and Discord appeared in front of Fluttershy alongside with thousands of flowers, covering each square centimeter of the room.

Not one was alike the other: simple tulip, roses, to daisies, over lotus and probably a bunch of his own creations. Absolute stunning... an ocean of color's and soft smells floating the room, like she would sit in the heart of mother nature.

"Oh my... Oh my...!" was all Fluttershy could bring out at first.

"I´m back" he said, pointing out the obvious, but unlike when he was gone, he now wore a smocking, similar to the one he had on their wedding.

"Discord, what is this all about?" she tried to process, as her big eyes still wandered around to see as much as possible from this miracle.

"I ... got a question for you..."

"Is it about the town?" she asked a little concerned.

"Town? OH nonono! Forget about that! Its fixed and technical never happened!" he assured serious.

"You ain't sick, right?" as she touched his front head with her hoof.

"No... i'm fine. Just... let me finish." putting down her other hoof onto her lap.

"Uhm okay....... what... is it then?" she asked, but her head still moved occasionally across the room.

"Its kinda a ... " he stopped to look at her for a moment... as she got more and more lost into his little gift, it was so heartwarming to watch.

He got close to her and kneed down, like he had on his proposal, taking carefully one of her hooves, which brought back her attention to him, making her blush.

"Its not quite a request... and of course not a demand... but..."

"W-what is it then?" she asked worried.

"I... cant life without you" he admitted.

"I´m sorry, i-i don't understand..." she said shyly "we are already m-married..." she stuttered.

He nodded at this with a smile, but somehow it was a sad one.

Fluttershy leaned forward to get a closer look at him "Whats wrong Discord?"

He gave her puppy eyes "I just wanted to make this last forever" as she gasped for air "D-d.. did T-twilight..."

Discord nodded short "We talked."

"She t-told you, how... how could she?"

He stroke over her hoof and grabbed it again softly "I was the one, who asked her for advice about this..." he admitted.

This was something she hadn't expected. Fluttershy sure knew how much Discord loved her, let alone what he had done with the room right now and all the days before that... it was a clear sign, but he... had talked about hisfeelings... with Twilight!? 

Not even she had expected this one to happen.

"Oh... i ...." she was speechless.

"My beloved Fluttershy... you know i'm ... a tincy bit older than you are..." he started in his usual humor "... and i probably get a tincy bit older one day... but ... without you, i..." he had to bite his lip for a moment - while Fluttershy now really would like to run away... but her heart was out of rhythm and even if... she could not leave him behind for what ever reason.

"...you are the one pony, which makes my life worth while" he smiled warm as tears run down his face "i could not go on without you".

Fluttershy could not else to cry her self on this. This was the most romantic thing he ever had said and he sure meant it. She also never had seen him cry before, except when he played dramatic, but this time he meant it, as she felt it deep inside.

Her hooves reached around his neck and pushed it against her chest to hold him thigh, as he grabbed her tiny pegasus body to cuddle against.

"I know, someday, you will miss your friends and... so will i..." he admitted "but i will be always there for you... and even a tincy tiny bit longer than that" saying it clear as he could "... i even would do windows" to add this line mumbling into his goat beard.

It was the biggest decision any living being could have.

Becoming immortal was usual a one way ticket. 

For him, as born immortal, there was no way out, he was stuck like the alicorn's. 

He could transfer his powers and alongside his immortality... 

but as he said before, who else could handle it?

There was nopony else like Fluttershy on the howl wide world... 

so he had to carried this burden on his own.

If he had been an alicorn or just something else- anything else... it might had worked in a different way, but in his case, this magic was not just a gift and curse, it was also part of his personality and the little bond he had to his lost family. 

Letting go for even a moment was like getting stabbed in the chest, even when she was the one to carry it.

He was right. She would miss her friends if they would go one day.

Only Twilight would last forever and Spike probably would also become several hundred years old. One day she had to let them go... the one way or other... and she really loved every single one of them as much, as they did love her in return... or she loved him for that matter. 

Still there was one thing she could not bring over her big heart and this was, knowing he would suffer for all eternity when she was gone. 

It broke her heart in the very same way, like it would break his, so... she said - yes.

Discord blew the house up in joy, but not into pieces - far from it!

The howl house and everything inside crumbled down in even more flowers – not a single one looking alike, as the set free energy spread out like one of Rainbow Dash´s Sonic Rainbooms, just on an Equestria wide scale, for everypony to see - this one in a millennium miracle. 

The shock wave was colorful and rushed above everypony's head with an incredible speed and as it touched nearby clouds they grew in size, became a soft pink and started to rain. 

Unlike the usual pink clouds Discord had summoned over the years, this one didn't spit chocolate milk or water... - those made it rain flowers as well, in order to celebrate this unspeakable great news, every single one of them unique like a snowflake, one more beautiful than the other at that, while the wind carried their lovely smell in the furthermost corners.

Only one other pony in Equestria knew what this meant and could not else to cry a little her self with a heart full of joy, as she stood on the balcony and watched the pony's below her, walking onto the streets.

Still, the rest of Equestria paused in what ever they being doing to witness this wonder, going outside to enjoy this amazing sight, catching some of the flowers or just letting them rain upon them. Some filly and colts even made something like snow angles in them, which of course been then flower-angles, while photographs and artists alike rushed into their ateliers to capture this moment and writers got their presses ready to be the first to print news and new books about this. 

It was surely a remember worthy day for everypony. 

A sign of true love. Who had thought the Spirit of Chaos ever would do such a thing? He sure didn't.

Discord and Fluttershy laid on top of a big soft stack of flowers, more comfortable than their former cloud bed and enjoyed the company from each other. He laid there and starred into the blue sky as she was laying with her front hooves upon his chest, having his lion paw around her hip. 

To be precise Discord didn't stare directly into the sky... he looked her into the blue eyes, which was for him the very same thing, watching her while she enjoyed the flower rain, who slowly came down onto the lake and trees around them.

The only one to be still nagging was Angel Bunny. His magic carrot also had dissolved into flowers.

It was about a week later as Discord had announced when it would happen, since Fluttershy asked him to have her friends along with them. At first he told her, it would not be to much of an show act... and to be fair, he really had no idea how it would work out, since this was the first and last time he would perform this kinda magic. 

Tempering a little with age was nothing. It was all within their expected lifetime... but this was far from ordinary. This was biggest magic his powers could afford and given what he was capable of, it quite said a lot.

Much as he knew... there was even a chance it would take away a part from his own immortality... he might would not age regularly and after a few millennium, both of them could get old together... but right now, there was no way to know for sure, only time would tell.

Discord of course agreed to anything she asked for without hesitation and the howl week he spread nothing than joy everywhere, being the luckiest being alive. Not a single prank. Not even a tiny one... which might was even more impressive than the flower rain ... even a certain white unicorn admitted.

The celebration was meant to be private with only her and her friends along, but then the family's and friends of family's asked and Fluttershy could not deny a single request, until it was just "open for everypony- just don't you dare to make a ruckus!" as the poster promised, with some fine print below that, which would take a magnifying glass to read.

The location was quite simple, it was once again right at the Neighagra Falls, being the best location he could think of. He was even kind enough to give most of the pony's a lift, as she just took minutes to swap from town to town to get to prefixed locations and take anypony along with him which was there... if somepony was accidentally still there, he didn't bother. He just grabbed onto them with his magic and hurried to get back to drop them off. 

The first calculation of Twilight was about one thousand-three-hundred guests, but after Discord had just visited a fourth of the locations, the alicorn threw away her calculator.

How many pony's really been there, nopony did know.

Discord could not help to feel somehow charmed by this. 
Pony's coming willingly to something he does? 

He sure had a long strange life in front of him and it just started...

The crowd was collected – the close guests in the front lines of course and even all of the four alicorn's gave him the honor... the press on the sides and other guests scattered around. The few ones that could not behave, well... those had to wait on top of the Canterlot Mountain for him to catch his temper again.

Fluttershy was in protest at first, but he had hold up one of the poster, pointing on the warning beneath. In the fine print, it strictly said: top of Canterlot Mountain for two days.

You could not argue with that.

For this event, Fluttershy was wearing a white summer gown which sparkled in the sunlight like a diamond, which Rarity had made under Discord's instructions.

"This idea is marvelous! How did you come up with this!?" she asked, while stitching excited the last details on it.

"Well... i once seen a angel wearing it" he grinned, receiving a more than dazed glance from the fashionista.

Everything was set and it was quite an event for some reason. 

Maybe it was the flower rain... maybe it was the romantic aspect... maybe some just wanted to see the magic act ...or the alicorn's... maybe it was a little bit of everything?

After all it was the first time anypony besides the Princess was eye witness of a mortal redeeming immortality.

Fluttershy walked up a long red carpet between the lines, like a bride to her spot on the front on a small spot of grass, which was a few meters higher than the rest of the platoue, as Discord just already waited there for her, dressed in an outstanding smocking.

The pegasus sat down in front of him, the crowd in her back, while he stood to meters in high in front of her. It never would be not odd to look at those non alike lovebirds.

She waited patiently, as soft piano and violin music started to play in the background, led by a mare with a melody note on her flank and a pink bow-tie on a white collar, playing a big crystal Cello, using the song "Paradise", but without any of the lyrics and more soothing at that.

Discord did lose up his fingers and neck a little and gave it a try. 

He had tried to practice the right channeling of the magic a few times and had a vague idea how to do it, but he didn't bother to study it ... he was a natural talent he told him self... alongside with some other praise.

The draconequus stretched out his chest a little as the crowd got silent and his paws began to glow. At first it was more a flickering until the flashing became faster and steady in the process...

the glow was white and had sparks of chaotic color's in between, but despite shining bright it didn't hurt watching it - like it would when you look into the sun or anything similar...

watching it caused more something like a soothing warm feeling inside everypony's chest, which made it almost impossible to look away. 

Now came the hard part Discord knew... as he tried to lead his paw and claw to one another, but they pushed one another away like polar magnets. 

The energy in his griffon claw was sparkling mostly white with sparks of pink, while the energy in his lion paw was somehow black, with six other color's dancing around it.

Celestia later should mention this wasn't pure chaos... it was also harmony coming together.

Of course only one of those magic powers was his specialty, so he tried to push harder, breaking partial out in sweat doing so, as his hands started to spark up more and more, like to shorten energy cables, throwing sparks all around them and when ever one spark hit the ground, depending on color... a flower grew instantly in his place or the grass beneath became a piece of candy right away.

Pinkie Pie tried to run for some of that once, but got pulled by Applejack. "Hold ja hooves still!" she sharply whispered... "later there will be cider..." she added to cool her down.

"Cider!?" Rainbow now started.

"Shhh!" Rarity made clear.

But despite his best efforts, it looked like Discord could not quite pull the magic like he wanted to. When his paw and claw almost had met, the forces struck one huge spark, hitting a fir tree behind them, which turned into something half candy cane, half cherry tree, so he was forced to let go and his hands stopped glowing, as he leaned forward to fatch his breath, putting his had onto his knees.

Most of his magic would just use a snap of his fingers and in fact not even this,

making the crowd mumble and he felt a little embarrassed, but he got a small nudge from right in front of him, as his attention shifted back to what was really important right now.

Oh this beauty.... how could he struggle right now, if she was his motivation? 

He must been distracted by the others. Ridiculous!

Discord grabbed his smocking and ripped down the sleeves... 

but this one wasn't self made. It was also stitched by Rarity.

"NOT THE SMOCKING!" she cried out, just to receive a dozen "Shhhhh..." silencing her up, while her lip was still wobbling about the hours of work which just got ruined. 

This time Discord wanted to start with a little more juice, problem being: if he done so, there was nothing left to make sure not everypony would get turned into cotton-candy... and eaten by Pinkie Pie afterwards, so he waved Twilight to him, whispering something into her ear, pointing a last time to the sky, than performing a "zip ur mouth" motion. 

The unicorn simply nodded and trotted back to the other princesses and whispered the same thing into their ears, but without the last motions he had made.

The crowd wasn't quite sure what that was all about, as now Discord gave it a second try.

A little more juice... this was his therm for -all i have and if i blows up this lousy planet, so be it!- 

This time his hands flashed ten times brighter and the small sparks now began rapidly to grow, when all four alicorn's lowered their heads and conjured magic of their own, creating a magic bubble about fifty meters in diameter around the couple on the altar, just in time, since the sparks had now the dimension of lightning strikes. 

The pulsing was gone and the light now bright like he would hold to sun in his hands, once again, one almost white with pink glow, the other one black and sparkling in white, yellow, orange, pink, blue and purple. 

The yellow pegasus still sat there, her head raised and looked at her husbands face, not even blinking down at the magic of his, like she wasn't afraid at all, despite being in the center of this storm dancing around her, while sparks shot right next to her into the ground, to change color and material it was made of in all kind of crazy stuff, just to get returned to flower grass in the next lightning strike.

Discord put everything he had to bring his hands together, but it was even harder than before since the energy load was even bigger now... "OH COME ON!!" he tried to cheer him self, clenching his teeth as his veins got visible on his head, when suddenly there was somepony else cheering along with him "Yaay....!" it was hif wife, trying her best to overtone the noise he produced as she tried once again "YAaaay!"... this time significant louder.

"DO IT YOU WUZZ!" Rainbow screamed towards the stage.

"Rainbow!" Applejack scolded her.

"YOU CAN DO IT, DON'T YOU!?" Now Rarity was the one to scream and not quite ladylike.

"Diiiiiisscooooooooooooord!" Pinkie shouted, waving small flags with their faces on them.

"Well, what the buck..." Applejack gave in "MOVE YOUR BUNS ALREADY!"

"Oh come on!" Twilight cursed, while fought to hold up the force field with her alicorn sisters.

Discord huffed like wild stallion, as the screams and thunder spread from the crowed, alongside his way "Discoooord! Yaaaaay!" Fluttershy still led the crowd.

It was just was he needed, making him gather some more strength he didn't even knew he had, enabling him to pull his arms closer to the middle, falling on a knee in a process as his legs gave in below the depletion, as the magic melted into one another to cause a bright almost blinding flash this time, giving the four alicorn's a hard time to hold up the force field as the light suddenly pulled back after this last outburst, leaving behind the ground beneath them in a wild fire of wonderfully flowers, made out candy and other elements.

The crowd starred, at what just had happen... when their sight came back and Discord was about to get him self up on both his feet once again, a little shaky at that and tired looking.

In his paw he hold the most powerful and indescribable beautifully looking ring of light you could image. The alicorn's let go of their field and observed now alongside everypony else the miracle in front of them.

It was an Halo, of an Angel.

Just looking at it gave everpony such a deep warm feeling, like they just had fallen in love for the very first time. It was an exciting tingling feeling all around, like butterfly's dancing inside from top to hoof, as couples and friends hold tight to one another now... giving a fairly good impression how an eternity of luck might would feel like. It was a blessing to be witness.

The Halo was forged and he was able to hold it just with his fingertips now, like he was about to place a crown on somepony's head - which he obviously planned to do. 

One last time he raised the crown up and everypony made a long neck, having wide open mouths. The music started to play again, just in time to dignify this moment, when he slowly lowered his hands towards his Queen of Chaos.

Fluttershy gracefully lowered her head a little and closed her eyes as he let go of the ring, just a little above her head and it hoovered over her head by itself.

The energy just stood in place for a moment and she turned around.

The white gown, the natural beauty and this magic halo. It was like a myth, forcing pony's to pinch them self's to be sure not to dream right now. It was like they all received a glance at the afterlife.

Then the energy slowly started to float along the young pegasus body, as she began to glow in a soft yellow tone, but as well all around her in every color there was and a few new ones in between. She spread her wings, as the glow floated over them in slow soft waves above the the tips to vanish slowly, making them appear twice as big for a phew moments.

She looked even beautiful than an alicorn, living in the crystal empire, since it wasn't even crystal... it was pure love in form of energy, shining in all spectra of the light.
Not a single pony could stop them self from crying at this beauty, as well the alicorn's teared up, most of them with some dignity. 

After about a minute the light faded and Fluttershy was back to her regular appearance.

She still was gorgeous as always and in fact, she would never be not gorgeous in her now everlasting life. 

Discord stepped next to her and kneed down. She may was for ever his, but he still was about a meter taller in size, lowering himself in order to give her a kiss on the lips, which was shocking for most viewers. 

Like it would be the sign to do so, everypony started to clop their hooves and throw confetti, while whistling and cheers got loud and her friends rushed towards the stage, alongside the alicorn's, which walked a little more gracefully up to them. 

Princess Celestia gave an heartwarming smile and graceful nod to the couple, Princess Cadance giggled like a young foal, holding on to Shining Armor on her side, while Luna had got quite sentimental and was blowing her nose into her royal handkerchief, trying to fetch her self.

Pinkie was searching the ground for candy, while Rainbow tried to create a new word for what she just seen "supermagnifitastic... nah not good enough! It has to be about 40% cooler!"

Applejack had put down her hat and bit on the edge in order not to cry, since she felt quite sentimental right now, to cuddle up with Luna doing so, while Twilight could not help to ask Discord a thousand questions about how it was to handle this kinda magic and Rarity was about to give Fluttershy a close look.

"Well, i guess you wont need the spa anymore.... " Rarity said a little jealous to the bride, before giving a glance to check, if her husband was paying attention, just to whisper quickly something into her ear "i guess i was wrong about ...not the romantic type"

"Oh i heard that one!" Discord grinned, making the unicorn lower her head a little ashamed.

Now Pinkie was done with collecting and rushed back to Fluttershy, her checks full of candy "Hwey!? whey ain't youwn an aliorwn?" she said confused.

Celestia was the one to answer this "alicorn magic is pure harmony, but Discord also used chaos of his own."

"Oh Celi..." he said as he put an arm loosely around her neck "You say i used harmony? Pffwww... don't be silly!" stepping now away from her "I´m amazing! I don't need such a thing, isn't that right Fluttershy!?" to receive a cheerful nod at this.

"So... she is not magic now?" Spike asked.

Discord got to his wife and put his lion finger carefully below her chin "oh, she sure is..."

"What Spike meant was, if she is now capable to use chaos like you." Twilight clarified.

"OH that you mean... uhmmm..." he gave her a close look but she just blushed and shrunk a bit in size "nah, she is fine!" he grinned.

"I... i feel wonderful..." Fluttershy mumbled. So much attention was a bit to much for her to handle "...Discord... may we go home now?" she asked shyly.

"Of course my everlastingdear! And i will rebuild the castle in the blink of an eye and twice the size!" he promised and with that and any further good bye they both vanished in a bright flash.

"I think... she cancontrolchaos" Twilight said, making the pony group giggle at this.

As Pinkie Pie rose her hooves "Hey! How we get home now!?"