> Seven of Six: A Screaming Butterfly
>  by SpectralFury
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> A Screaming Butterfly
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Destiny shattered to pieces.
    Discord shivered in excitement within his stone prison. Technically he couldn’t, as he was a statue at the time, but mentally, he just found out his millennial birthday came early. Chaos was flooding the timestream; predestined events and paths were unravelling at an unprecedented rate. Someone had just made a decision so profound that the entire world had been affected.
    Discord, being an entity of chaos, saw such uncertainty as power to be consumed, and consume it he did. Pulling the ambience into himself, he pushed and struggled against the binding spells that held him firm, the magic already weakened by centuries of neglect.
    Alas, it was still not enough. Despite his newfound strength, Discord remained trapped within his artistic prison. However, that did not mean his influence was nil. With a mental gesture, he projected himself out into the world. Next to the statue of his noodly, chimaeric self, a ghostlike copy appeared.
    “Ugh!” he cried out, stretching and bending his serpentlike frame. He didn’t have any joints to pop, being an astral projection, but it was the thought that counted.
    “It is so good to be free of that dreadful prison.” He looked over to his still trapped self, frozen into a dramatic laugh at his enemies’ serious dispositions. They were absolutely hilarious, at least for a few seconds. Being turned to stone by those Elements of Harmony was the most shock he had ever experienced.
    “Well, I suppose I should get to work,” he said, raising a lion’s paw to snap all manner of chaos into existence, but paused.
“Or...not,” he mused, considering his actions. He was still cut off from his primary power source, after all. Instead he was running on the ambient chaos left over from whatever just happened. It was finite, and if he ran around like he used to, altering reality at whim, he would quickly find himself exhausted and still trapped in stone. At least with his projection he had some manner of freedom. His statue didn’t even have his eyes open, and staring at blackness for 1500 years got very old, very quickly.
    A bit curious, he took a look around. He was in a statue garden situated near a white and gold palace. It was a bit gaudy, but it seemed that Celestia had finally gotten past her ascetic phase. The Everfree castle was so dreadfully plain.
    However, the castle wasn’t important. What was important was planning. As strange as it sounded for the Lord of Chaos, Discord was not completely shortsighted. He needed to restrain himself, lest he find himself without the relative freedom that had been granted to him. He needed information, vision, and a plan.
    What better way to start than investigating the scene of the crime? With a snap of his fingers, he disappeared.
    His next sight was clouds. Lots of clouds. He looked around and quickly recognized the signs of a pegasus city. The winged ponies were everywhere, some flying, some sitting on the fluffy clouds, some just going about their day. Nothing seemed amiss, but Discord knew better.
    Chaos had flooded this place. With a deep inhale, he absorbed the ambient energy into himself. No sense in letting it dissipate, of course. After a minute of gorging, he almost felt as if he were free, but from the resistance his prison still gave him, he knew better. It was still not a good idea to go spending it willy nilly. He still had no way of regaining anything he spent, and if he made a nuisance of himself, Celestia would find out, confront him, and eventually wear him down.
    No, it was time to play the long game. Mostly.
    He flew through the sky, invisible to the ponies that called this place home. The epicenter of change was ahead of him, and he needed to see what had just happened to rattle destiny so violently.
    What he found was intriguing and infuriating.
    Sitting on a cloud were a dozen pegasi. One was a yellow and pink filly, crying her eyes out, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out why. Four ponies were busy slamming their hooves against a chunk of purple crystal, at the center of which was a very surprised blue and rainbow filly.
    Discord snarled at the scene. In all the thousands of years that he had been alive, he had never deliberately harmed a foal. Oh, they got hurt from time to time in his chaotic world, but this…
    This was crossing the line.
    He flew over, and with a flick of his eagle claw against the crystal, it shattered to pieces. The small filly immediately began gasping for air as she was picked up and hugged by one of the other pegasi. Apparently whoever cast the imprisonment spell didn’t properly charm it to put the victim in stasis. Instead the poor thing had been suffocating.
    Discord couldn’t have been more outraged. He had every intention of dealing with whoever dared break the rules. They were the rules that he had applied to himself, naturally, but he didn’t care. Having a child murderer on the loose was unacceptable. Chaos was about change and fun. Death was neither of those.
    With everyone distracted, it was all too easy to snatch one of the crystal shards. With a snap of his fingers, he summoned some manner of technological device, and shoved the shard into a slot. It began beeping, showing him the source of the evildoer’s magic.
    "Odd." It pointed him back to Canterlot. He pressed some buttons, getting a gauge on what exactly he was dealing with. What he found wasn’t encouraging.
    An alicorn had cast that spell.
    Which was completely out of left field, as he would have certainly heard the celebration for that. Celestia was far too controlling to not bring any new power players underneath her hoof. Perhaps it was a new one? Or simply one Celestia didn’t know about? Or were they openly defying Celestia? If so, why focus their power on this nobody filly?
    It mattered not. Discord wouldn’t suffer that kind of threat to his future subjects. Only he was allowed to torment them, and in a manner properly suited towards chaos and disharmony. Not this...lethal stuff.
    In a flash, he reappeared over Canterlot, Equestria’s capital city. The device beeped more insistently as he rotated, focusing on the area around the palace. Perhaps he was wrong, and this new alicorn was pulling the wool over Celestia’s eyes? He sped towards the source, ever more curious. Buildings flew past him as he advanced, finally coming upon a school.
    “Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns,” he read off the front. “Odd place for a violent alicorn.” Shrugging, he phased through the wall, heading directly towards his target.
    What he found was unexpected. Heading out of some manner of classroom were three unicorns. A mare, a stallion, but what had his attention was a tiny purple filly. He pointed his device at her, the object screaming that the little one was the source of the crystal magic that had encased the pegasus.
    “That doesn’t make any sense,” he murmured. “Hmm.” He silently followed the three, listening in. The filly was practically in tears for some reason. Maybe she got caught doing something naughty?
    “Don’t worry, Twilight,” the mare said. “You said your written test was perfect, right?”
    The little one, Twilight, nodded weakly. “Yeah, but I failed the practical exam! I couldn’t even get my horn to light.”
    The stallion nuzzled his daughter. “It’s alright, sweetie. You were just nervous. I’m sure that it will balance out; lots of foals get stage fright, and I’m sure they take that into account. Even if you don’t get in this time, there’s always next year.” He looked over to the mare. “That being said, having a foal hatch a dragon egg seems a bit demanding.”
    The mare frowned and nodded, her brow furrowing slightly
    Hatch a dragon? With unicorn magic? Discord thought. It was nearly impossible for an adult to do so, let alone a filly. What kind of school were they running here?
    The kind that made villains, it seemed. The little unicorn filly, Twilight, looked absolutely devastated. The kind of devastated that festered and became gangrenous. The kind that fueled a dark magic user with old pain. Still, it didn’t entirely make sense. His device said that she was responsible for assaulting the pegasus, yet that was obviously wasn’t true. Not only was she too busy taking some kind of test, but she wasn’t even an alicorn! He bashed the thing against the wall. Perhaps something was loose?
    Alas, it continued to insist that the filly was the source. Impossible. The filly couldn’t be in two places at once, be both a unicorn and alicorn, and be both unable to light her horn and cast an impressive (if deadly) crystal prison.
    Unless…
    “Oh,” Discord quietly said. “That would make sense.” Time travel. The single most effective way to cause chaos, from a certain point of view. The amount of change that happened less than an hour ago was massive. While it was possible for simple free will to cause a jolt like that, this was looking more and more like an informed and calculated strike.
    In the future, this unicorn would travel back in time to stop whatever the pegasus was going to do. She succeeded, it seemed. Discord couldn’t even fathom what the act was, but it didn’t matter.
    The filly would eventually grow to be a threat to his toys. But he couldn’t simply get rid of her. That was against the rules, and it would cause a paradox. She needed to go back in time to attack the pegasus, so Discord could absorb the chaotic fallout. So he should let her be.
    Or should he?
    “No,” he murmured. That option was completely off the table. Or was it? Taking the little pony under his wing would let him guide her properly, and it wouldn’t cause a paradox if she was told to go back in time…
    Or had he already done so? Was it a predestination issue?
    “UGH!” He slapped a hand down his face. Even he shrinked away from messing with time. It was the fastest possible way to get a headache, and reweaving reality to fix mistakes was always tedious work.
    “Alright, let’s do this the proper way.” He conjured a coin. “Sun, I leave the filly alone until after she messes with time. Moon, I take her under my wing and make her my chaotic little minion, and have her go back in time just to satisfy causality.”
    He flicked the coin into the air. He tracked the little gold piece as it went up, tumbling over and over, down towards the ground, landing...bouncing?
    Discord frowned. It ended up landing on its side.
    “Oh for Elysium’s sake, fine! If you’re going to be that way, I might as well make sure the little brat is loyal to me.” And it would give him something to do until he was freed from stone. In fact, if she was clever enough, she could cause enough chaos on his behalf in order to get him out.
    Discord steepled his fingers. “Oh yes...that could work.” He chuckled quietly as he followed the little family home. All he needed to do was say the right words, and that little unicorn would be eating right out of his paw.

===

    All of Twilight Sparkle’s hopes and dreams had been shattered like glass.
    Everything was perfect. She had excessively checked her list, after all. She was on time,  had studied,  brought her favorite quill, and had ensured a number of other miscellaneous things. The written test went as smoothly as possible. She had plenty of time to triple check her answers and even go over the rune sequences for all the spells she would ever need for the practical exam.
    Or so she thought.
    They had wanted her to hatch a dragon egg! She didn’t even know that was possible. She thought that she had studied, but she was wrong. As soon as she saw the test, she had immediately started panicking. She had no idea what to do, and so she just shoved magic into her horn and hoped for the best. But even then, she completely choked. She couldn’t even get more than a spark to pop out into existence.
    In the end, she failed. Hard. A zero. A blight upon her record.
    She was doomed.
    With a storm cloud hanging over her head, she entered her room to sulk. Not even ice cream had been able to cure her ill.
    No, she needed answers. Sitting on her desk was the list of topics she had been expected to know. She knew that dragon hatching wasn’t on that list, but she had to be absolutely sure. She had to make sure that she actually forgot. That somehow, she had missed it in the fifty-six times she had gone over the list. The school could not have possibly missed this.
    With a deep breath, she hopped up into her chair and started reading.
    “No, no, no,” she said under her breath. She slowly went over the whole list, not finding ‘dragon hatching’ anywhere.
    So she checked again.
    And again.
    “Where is it?” she whined.
    “Where’s what?” asked a masculine voice.
    “Huh?” Twilight turned and looked behind her, finding nothing. “Is somepony there?”
    “Down here.” Twilight flinched and looked back at the pamphlet in confusion, finding…
    “Wha?” There was a crude drawing on it of a strange being, made up of the parts of different creatures, all attached to a noodly body.
    “Hello!” he said cheerfully.
    Twilight yelped and jumped out of her chair, backing up and eyeing the paper warily. It took a moment for the tiny pony to reclaim her wits, and she slowly approached the paper “Hello?”
The drawing smiled and waved. “Sorry if I scared you. I considered just popping in, but that probably wouldn’t have been the best of first impressions.”
Twilight blinked. She had heard of moving images before, but nothing that spoke back to her. “Um, thank you?”
“You’re quite welcome, my dear. Might I join you up there in the four dimensional world? As you can see at the moment I’m rather...rigid.” He smirked.
Twilight pursed her lips. “Umm...I don’t know. Mom and dad say that I’m not supposed to let strangers in the house.”
The drawing clicked his tongue. “Well, then let’s fix that, hmm? I am Discord, Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, at your service.” He gave a graceful and deep bow, or as well as a drawing could give.
“I’m...Twilight Sparkle,” she said uncertainly.
“Well then, now that we aren’t strangers, might I come in?”
Twilight hesitated. Chaos and disharmony didn’t sound that nice, but he was being very polite. It would be rude of her to deny him after that. Plus, mom and dad were downstairs, so if something went wrong, they were only a shout away.
“Alright.”
Discord smiled and somehow reached towards the air, an eagle claw and lion paw rising from the paper before he pulled himself out of the drawing. With a pop, he succeeded, and began lazily floating in the air. He was...big, bigger than Princess Celestia even. Twilight watched, slack jawed, as he floated there with a gentle smile, her eyes flicking to his mismatched limbs, horns, and serpentine body.
“Hello, Twilight Sparkle, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said, reaching with an extended paw.
“Hi,” Twilight quietly said, matching his paw with a hoof and shaking. “Are you a chimaera?”
“I am a draconequus,” he corrected. “Which is a kind of chimaera, yes.”
Twilight smiled, and in an instant a quill and paper was in her magical grip. Not bad for a failure, Discord thought.
“Can I ask you some questions?” she asked.
Discord hummed and stroked his beard, pretending to consider it. “Oh, I suppose. What did you want to know?”
Twilight beamed. “How old are you? Are there any other draconequui? Do you belong to a nation, nomadic herd, or are you solitary creatures? What do you eat? Can you use magic?”
Discord gently pressed a finger on her lips, silencing her. “In order: roughly 500 million years, yes, we’re usually solitary, anything, and yes, like this.” He snapped his fingers, and all the answers appeared on Twilight’s paper.
Twilight gasped at the unfamiliar magic. “Wha- how- what kind of spell was that?”
Discord smiled. “It wasn’t a spell.”
Twilight blinked, confused. “But all active magic has to be contained in a spell, or it doesn’t work.”
Discord shook his head. “Tsk. I’m afraid you have been misinformed.”
“But Star Shine’s My First Spell says so, and it’s the most popular book on the market for beginners.”
Discord blew a raspberry. “Books are only as informative as the creatures that wrote them.”
Twilight bristled at the insult to her prized literature. “How would you know?”
Discord snorted. “Five hundred million years old, remember? I’d say my experience trumps your little author’s by several factors.”
Twilight’s face went red with foalish anger for a moment, and then abruptly disappeared. Her eyes drifted off to the side as she thought about something, until something finally clicked. “You know a lot about magic!”
Discord nodded, a grin slowly forming. “Mmmhmm?”
“Can you teach me?”
Too easy, he thought. Still, it wouldn’t serve to appear too eager to teach the brat. “Eh…” He gave a false frown. “I don’t know. It’s not very often that I take an apprentice. Celestia usually handles the one-on-one training.”
Twilight’s eyes went wide as saucers. “You know Princess Celestia?” she asked in wonder.
“Oh, yes.” A wooden pole with a stuffed toy mockery of Celestia’s head on it appeared, and Discord started dancing with it. “Celly and I go way back. Why, I even helped her for a few decades back when Equestria was still but a foal.”
“What’s she like?”
A spike of anger grew within Discord, but he beat it down. “Well she’s...kind, generous, and likes a good joke,” he said, counting with his fingers. “Why, once she and I replaced all the swords in the guard barracks with bouquets of flowers.” He sputtered for a moment before bursting into a full belly laugh.
Twilight eagerly listened to the creature’s words. “She sounds fun! But…if you’re her friend, why haven’t I heard about you?”
The laughter suddenly ceased, causing Twilight to flinch and step back. Discord leaned forward, his somber look disguising the old rage he held due to his imprisonment. “Well, even the closest of friends can drift apart. She and I...had a falling out. We fought, and I ended up imprisoned.”
Twilight’s fearful look turned into a rather pathetic frown. “But...that wasn’t nice of her.”
Discord shook his head. “No it wasn’t, my little pony. No it wasn’t. But that’s all going to change!” His joyful mood was back in an instant. “You see, Twilight Sparkle. My prison is weakening. It’s how I am speaking to you right now.”
Twilight didn’t seem so sure. “But, I mean-” She hesitated. “If you’re in prison, doesn’t that mean you’re bad?”
“Not at all!” Discord assured. “Oh sure, most ponies that end up in prison deserved it, but I can assure you that I have not once ever willingly harmed another creature outside self defense.” For a certain definition of 'harm,' of course. His wings shifted to pure white, and a golden halo appeared over his head.
Twilight looked at him for a moment, thought heavy in her expression. Finally, it broke, and her face softened. “Okay! I believe you!”
The changes disappeared, and Discord spread his arms wide. “Fantastic! Now that there’s no animosity between us, we can return to our previous topic. My knowledge, and your desire for it.”
Twilight jumped forward, her tail swishing eagerly. “Oh yes, can you teach me, Mister Discord? Pleeeease?”
He had to admit, the little brat was actually sort of cute. “Well…” He stroked at his beard, faking uncertainty. “I don’t know. I can’t teach just anypony, they have to have passion and desire.”
“I’ve been studying for a year straight!” Twilight proudly proclaimed.
Ugh, we’ll have to break you of that. Can't have a bookworm for a minion. “That is commitment,” Discord said. “Let’s see.” He snapped his fingers, conjuring Twilight’s written test. It had already been graded, but he still went over it. “Hmm…” For a seven year old filly, she was surprisingly knowledgeable. Some of the stuff was masters level, back in the day. It was possible that it was elementary stuff now, but he only had his own experiences to base it off of.
“Well, according to this, you scored perfectly.”
Twilight gasped and beamed. “I did?”
“Quite,” Discord said, showing the results. The resulting prancing was amusing to watch, and he allowed her this for a few seconds. “How did the practical portion go?” He already knew, but had to play the part.
Instantly, Twilight fell to the ground like a wet sock. She was already tearing up, and told him about the dragon egg. About how she studied and practiced for weeks every spell in her beginner's books. After he asked her to demonstrate a few, she did them flawlessly. She truly was a prodigy for her age.
“You know, I think I might know what went wrong,” Discord said.
Twilight looked at him like a lost puppy. This was simply too easy.
“I think you were set up to fail.”
He watched passively as the little pony broke. “W-what?”
Discord nodded softly. “Yes. I mean really, even an adult unicorn would struggle with hatching a dragon egg. I don’t know why they had you take such a ridiculous test, but it’s the only explanation.”
Twilight sniffled. “B-but...what if it was a mistake?”
Ugh. “I suppose it could have been…” he said dismissively. “But really, who makes that kind of mistake? It was obviously a test for a filly.” As the little filly sunk deeper and deeper into despair, he slowly approached, curling around her protectively.
“But w-why would they do that?” She wailed.
“Because they’re afraid,” he whispered into one ear. “Of your potential,” he finished in the other.
    Twilight sat there, slack jawed. “Huh?”
    “One of the many unfortunate lessons that everypony learns is that those in power are afraid to lose it.” He tutted. “I’m sorry, my dear, but I’m afraid that the unicorns- no, Celestia herself, is afraid of you. So she’s trying to keep you down.”
    Twilight sputtered. “Bth- but Princess Celestia would never do that!”
    “She did it to me,” Discord purred. “She didn’t like how powerful I was, so she turned me to stone.”
    The little filly’s ears drooped. “T-turned you to stone?”
    Discord nodded solemnly. “Indeed. If you go to the palace statue garden, you can see me, if you want. However that’s neither here nor there. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s watching somepony hurt a foal. So, I’ve come to a decision.”
    He stood back up to his full height, looking down serenely at Twilight. “Before you lie two paths, Twilight Sparkle.” He opened one hand, showing an adult Twilight, petitioning to a rather ominous looking silhouette of Celestia. “You can go through life, scraping by. You can learn what you can from whatever school will take you. You can try to make a name for yourself, and fight the inevitable tidal wave that will rise to meet you. You might win, or you might not.” He shrugged.
    He opened the other hand, showing a Twilight standing tall and matching Celestia on even footing. “The other path lies with me. I can teach you things that only a select handful even know about. By the time you’re an adult, you’ll be more than a match for any other unicorn on the planet. You’ll have anything you want. Fame, power, money…” He shot her a sly grin. “An entire collection of the world's books?”
    The reaction was instant. “Yes! Yes please!”
    Discord dismissed the illusions and wagged his finger. “Ah, ah, ah! As willing as you are, it would be rude of me not to name my price.”
    Twilight started to deflate. “Price? I mean I have some bits saved up, but-”
    “Oh you are absolutely adorable!” he said, pinching her cheek. “I’m afraid I’m not interested in money, my dear. Instead my request is simple.” With a flash, he was suddenly in irons. “I languish in my prison, forever trapped in a single position and in isolation. I need somepony to help me break free. Promise that you’ll do this, and I’ll let you become my apprentice. I’ll teach you not only how to excel in your studies, but a power that very few are even aware of. I can’t do this alone. Help me, Twilight Sparkle, you’re my only hope.”
    “YES!” Twilight screamed. If it weren’t for the silencing ward Discord had put up, the little thing would have attracted her parents’ attention long ago. As it stood though, she was alone and easily manipulated. Such a shame.
    With a snap, Discord was now free and in a business suit. Another snap, and a scroll popped into existence, and unfurled. “Perfect! All I’ll need you to do is sign this, and we can begin.”
    To Discord’s irritation, the filly had a sudden spurt of wisdom and started reading the thing. “Is there a problem?” he asked flatly.
    Twilight winced. “No problem! It’s just that mom says to always read a contract before signing. Something about burning?” She tilted her head.
    Discord groaned and snatched the thing away, before erasing some of the ink and replacing it. He wasn’t going to enslave the unicorn, but there went some of his rather special clauses. “Sorry, I gave you the wrong one. Here.”
    Twilight read the ‘new’ contract, her eyes dancing across it with ease. “In short, in return for eventually helping me escape, I will mentor you in magic, unicorn and otherwise. I won’t demand anything of you that would be considered dark or evil. However to ensure everything stays secret, you won’t be able to speak of me to others. If you ever back out, I’ll be nice and simply erase your memory of me and anything special I taught you.” There were other things, but those were the main points.
    Twilight stepped back. “But mind magic is bad!”
    Discord sighed. “My dear, you’ll have to learn that with a few exceptions, no magic is inherently good or bad. It’s about intent. You can hurt with the lighter spells just as easily as you can help with dark. Memory erasure is a neutral act. If I wanted to be mean I could erase everything inside your little purple head. Instead I am simply demanding a refund if you decide to back out. If you don’t pay, I don’t pay, capiche? It’s no different than returning a broken toy to the store.”
    Twilight pressed her lips together, looking at him quite intently. Discord inwardly scowled. What happened to the naive young filly five minutes ago?
    “Alright,” she said, bringing up a quill. A moment later, and her rather well written signature was on the document. Discord quickly followed suit, and the contract flashed.
    “Excellent!” he cheered. “Now let’s begin, shall we?”
    “Wait, now?” Twilight squeaked.
    He nodded. “Of course! No time like the present. Now this should be easy for you; it’s a reading assignment.”
    Twilight beamed. “I can do that!”
    A book appeared, titled Chaos Magic 101 by Discord. A wheel of eight arrows pointing outward was depicted on the front. “Here you are, my dear. Just give this a read, and commit it to memory.”
    “What if I need help?” she asked.
    He gave a soft laugh. “Worry not, my little apprentice. Though I may be busy, I’ll always have an eye on you. If you need me, I’ll appear shortly after you call my name. Now, I’m going to go make sure you actually get into Celly’s little school. We can’t have you becoming a prodigy without an excuse, can we?”
    Twilight nodded. “Yes, that makes sense. Good idea!”
    “I will return when you have finished the book,” he promised, and disappeared.
    Twilight couldn’t stop smiling and giggling. She had a teacher! One even older than Princess Celestia! And he was going to teach her special magic!
    She eagerly opened the book and set to work.
    The first lesson in learning how to cast chaos magic is to get in the right mindset. Cast off any concepts of organization and embrace impulsiveness and whimsy.
    Twilight just stared in horror. This was going to be harder than she thought.