Twists and Turns without Bends or Curves

“Oooh no you don’t!” Rainbow Dash said, “The last thing I want is this one in my head while I’m sleeping!” The group was back together again in Twilight’s library, only this time with Fluttershy’s dear chimera friend.

“Rainbow, don’t be like that,” Fluttershy said, “I made him promise he’d behave and he’s only trying to help.” The other four had reserved reactions when Fluttershy told the plan about recruiting Discord’s aid for the nightmares.

“While it’s kind of you to help us, Discord,” Twilight said, “I think we’ve got the problem solved.” That got an annoyed look, “Princess Twilight Sparkle, always so sure of yourself.” He twirled closer to her, “You thought you were getting rid of the Nightmare Forces when you were vanquishing that abomination, but then they reverted to your own friend, didn’t they?” Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Celestia thought that the seeds would be held down by the magic of the tree, which I see,” he looked around, “That you’ve stripped it of, and those came up too, didn’t they?”

“I see your point,” she responded, “But I still don’t see how you’re supposed to help.” He backed up, relieved to get not-as-hostile-as-they-used-to-be stares from his friends. “I’m so glad the glares on your faces aren’t nearly as harsh as they used to be when we first met!” he smiled so wide, “I could just give you all a hu-” “Discord…” Fluttershy interrupted.

“Right,” he said, embarrassed, “Well if the source of these nightmares is from the Ugly Ones as you think they are, it wouldn’t be impossible for me to track it, you see. They’re proving to be much more trouble than they’re worth, and if there are still more… well… at least we’d know where to find them.” Applejack stared at him hard, “But you don’t think that it’s them.”

He looked surprised, “I didn’t say that! It’s just that the lot of you is putting faith into the possibility of it being them.”

“Why wouldn’t it be them?” Rarity inquired, now legitimately curious.

He stared at her, “Dark magic is a vast and stretching galaxy,” he said, showing the essence of some of his own appear on the lion arm. It was pitch black and thick like tar, and quivered like it too; other forms of purple tinted energy radiated around it. “Your unicorn friend back in the Crystal Empire had control of a lot of it, remember?” That got them to stop, “And he didn’t have an ounce of Nightmare energy in him.” He could see that as much as Twilight hated to admit it, he was right.

“I would tell you go to your Lunar Savior but I don’t think she’d be in any better condition than what any of you are in,” he chuckled, “Get the dream princess weak by infecting her with nightmares. Really, who writes this stuff?”

“Alright fine,” Twilight said, “But you better not do anything to us.”

“Hey this is helping me just as much as it is you.” “You can’t be serious Twilight!” Rainbow exclaimed, “He’s not reall-” “We have to trust him some time,” Applejack rested a hoof on her friend’s shoulder, “We might as well give him a chance, especially since he knows what he’s talking about.”

“We best all stay here tonight, then,” Rarity said, “We could all leave for the train tomorrow morning together.”

***

It was unlike anything else that they’ve done before. In order to not rack their nerves, since the ponies had enough to worry about already, Discord thought it best to not be there waiting for them when they all finally met up at the end of the day. He was undoubtedly curious, though, as for the source, especially if it was going to mess with his friends. He grew angry at the thought of anything making any of them upset, and only strengthened his determination to get them well again.

He was waiting in the other one of the other rooms, since Twilight said he was a welcome guest in her new castle, bored on one of the couches. He stared up at the crystal ceiling preparing himself mentally for what he was about to do, when there was a yelp at the door. He looked up to see Spike holding a box of books.

“Oh…” he said, “Hello.”

“Discord?” Spike asked, “What are you doing here?” He sat up and stared at him, annoyed, “I’m just here to help, that’s all.” Spike glared at him. “Oh come on,” he said, and swooped closer to him, “You out of all can trust me,” he said smiling, and passed his lion paw over Spike’s scales, “Us being dragon-kin and all.” Spike grew stiff; “You’re only part drago-” Discord wiped his smile, “I’ll have you know I’m half dragon,” he said matter-of-fact-ly, “Where you do think the name dracon comes from?” and backed away from Twilight’s friend.

“Dragons don’t use magic,” Spike crossed his arms.

“Yes, that letter that appears from thin air every time Celestia sends you a message is the hard work of Twilight’s scientific research,” he said sarcastically, and crossed his arms in turn. Spike opened one eye at him, and after staring, just growled and moved on.

“Nice talking to you!” Discord called while holding an umbrella with gloves and waving.

Well at least some things don’t change.

While the ponies were still all gathered in their special room with all the chairs and such, the chaos master figured it best to poke around the library. He never got the chance to observe some of the books the mysterious box gave her. Although there were a lot of new titles that he was sure that Twilight didn’t have, it wasn’t anything he was unfamiliar with. He even found a book with the Legend of the Mirror pool as a part of a list of Magical Landmarks around Equestria, which was one of the rarer ones in her library to his knowledge.

To humor himself, he slid out a history book, with the one as far back as he could reach, which was the earlier recorded history of the Luna and Celestia. He began reading towards the “good part”. The chapter before it was all about the discovery of the Elements of Harmony from their beloved Tree, with no mention of his previous reign, which he thought was odd, since he was the only reason they actually found them in the first place.

Must be going in order then, he thought to himself. Order.

So the next chapter read:

With the extraordinary Elements of Harmony found and extracted from the Tree, Celestia and Luna had now to face yet another celebrity of Equestrian Legend: Discord, the Draconequus spirit of Chaos. His powerful magic had led Equestria astray as he took the throne as its ruler.

He stopped there for a second to squee;

Ponies were unhappy and miserable having him there. Both alicorns saw this, and fulfilled their hearts by taking up the Elements and confronting him directly. Luna described this moment:

“…[the draconequus] knew he was defeated. He had been trying to hide the Elements from us since his rule, and yet we find him out in the open. He taunted us emptily and just stood there as we corrected his existence from being the ruler of Equestria. Discord’s sinister performance was unnerving to my sister and me as we waited for something to happen in the next few days, but yet nothing did.”

With Discord being overthrown and the Royal Sisters’ rule now being implemented, a few great ponies who made the Equestrian land what it is today, emerged...

He kept reading expecting more, but nothing came.

“Well this can’t be right,” he said out loud, looking through the book, “This can’t be right.”

He tried to look for more on him, but yet that passage was all he could find. He became enraged, “I rule Equestria, turn it into chaos for moons on end uninterrupted, and the only thing said about me, is this miserable little paragraph?!” He was tempted to burn it, or dispose of it somehow, but he recalled how it wasn’t his. Now even more furious, he gently placed it back and stormed back into the room he was waiting in, and collapsed on the couch in a huff. It occurred to him an hour later after his mood dwindled to check the other history books for similar results. But what difference did it make?

He never cared for the citizens and had no governmental structure so if anything was written down about the experience from one of the residents during his reign, he had no idea where it was. The only thing these writers had to go by was the sisters’ accounts anyway.

That got him thinking.

Well at least I know not to mess up like THAT again.

***

The girls finally went off to bed; apparently they had finished discussing whatever they were talking about and so Discord readied himself. The sky was dark again; he went to the room he had the most interest in seeing: Rarity.

He lay on the floor next to her bed, and tried to pry open her mind, which was a little bit more difficult than usual, but still easy nonetheless.

It was Rarity’s boutique, but all dark, and dead. Discord frowned; the dark magic was able to use her own mind to recreate her own house? He kept going; sneaking around every corner, until he felt there was another presence close by. He froze and tried listening. There was sobbing of a familiar voice… seeming to come from Rarity. Hold on oh Generous Rarity, he thought with a smile, and manifested a familiar costume, I’m coming! He slithered into the main room where Rarity was backed against the wall in desperate tears; the poor mare was terrified. There was a barely visible translucent figure in front of her, with glowing eyes. The source, he confirmed.

He stormed up behind it as it was whispering something to her. Then it seemed to stop.

“Oo, what do we have here?” he asked out loud stretching to his full height looking at the ghostly image. It looked straight back at him, wild eyed as if it was surprised at seeing another being in the room. “You know she can be annoying at times, but she does make the best outfits I’ve ever seen!” he stretched the fabric on the costume he was wearing to demostrate, “How could you be so mean to a pony like that?”

He snapped and chains came from the ground and wrapped themselves around the figure causing her to be solid.

“How DARE YOU?!” it roared. Its purple and white mane was waving violently. Discord chuckled, as he got between Rarity and her Nightmare.

“I didn’t miss you,” he said to it, enclosing his talon around its snout, “You really spoil the good Element of Generosity’s name.” He turned his back to the writhing mass, letting go of its head, as it tried desperately to escape the chains and faced the unicorn. It took her a minute to realize who was in front of her.

“D-discord?” she managed to spit out. He smiled, “That’s quite the-” Suddenly her eyes widened, “LOOK OUT!” she screamed. He gritted his teeth as he whipped around. No time to react!

Her snout snapped shut on his shoulder as her sharp fangs tore into him. A fire of a thousand volcanoes seeped into it at once. He let out a roar that filled the entire house and shoved her away from him. She flew to the other side of the room but landed on all fours, a wicked smile stretched across her face. His costume dissolved instantly.

He gave her a furious glare, as he held his right should with his left arm. It was burning, and this pain was unlike any he had ever experienced before.

And without warning, he was back on the floor of her room with his eyes open.

What?! He looked around him, and recognized an agonizing burning sensation in his shoulder. He was back at Twilight’s castle.