Dating isn't just for mortals...

Things couldn’t be more perfect for the Princess of Ponyville. She was holding a lavish gala in her castle and she was greeting the nobel guests as one by one they lined up to praise her. She had her beautiful husband Prince by her side and everypony was having a wonderful time. And none of her friends had caused a mass panic like when they had all gone to the gala together.

But she was confused by a sudden knocking sound that seemed to reverberate around the castle. Three short knocks followed by somepony calling her name...

Rarity awoke in her bed, somepony knocking at her bedroom door The princess dream again...hope Luna doesn’t mind seeing ponies have dreams like that The knock on the door confused her again as she lifted her sleepmask off her eyes. Sweetie Belle wasn’t staying over but it was a voice she recognised.

“Rarity, can I talk to you?” Discord gently called out.

Rarity was about to scream out what in Equestria he was doing inside her house in the middle of the night, but she caught herself. Okay, he had invaded her home, but had not entered her private bedroom. So that was sort of progress towards him respecting personal boundaries which she and the others were slowly teaching him.

“Discord, is that you?” she replied sweetly, trying to control the edge to find the most pointy thing she had in the room.

“Yes Rarity, I need to talk to somepony!”

“Can it not wait till morning?” Rarity’s reply was a little more curt.

“Oh, right, yeah” Discord replied sorrowfully “Sorry to wake you, I’ll come back tomorrow.”

Rarity bit her lip as she heard Discord start to walk away. She needed her beauty sleep, but given how polite Discord was being, it would be wrong to turn away a friend. Afterall, she wouldn’t have turned away Fluttershy, Twilight or the others…

“Discord, wait!” Rarity called out “Come in and lets talk shall we?”

Discord slowly opened the bedroom door and peered in. Rarity sat up in bed but kept herself covered by her sheets and had her hooves crossed - not the most welcoming of postures but she was a little annoyed at the late night, or early morning, interruption.

“Sorry to disturb you, but I need to talk to somepony and your the best pony for the job.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow “Me?” but patted the side of her bed none the less indicting Discord should sit.

“Yes, you are very knowledgeable about many things. When it comes to relationships and the such I think you’ll be head and shoulders above Fluttershy or Twilight. Applejack is good for an honest opinion but is not so up to speed with Canterlot politics. And whilst Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are the go-to ponies for pranks..”

“I see. Van I safely assume from that explanation that this visit has to do with what happened in court today?”

“News travels fast nowadays” Discord laughed, but there was no joy in it.

“It does when you’re part of the nation's defences.”

Discord gulped “Does that mean the friendship council has been briefed ready to… well… whatever… to me?”

Rarity gasped “No no no...I didn’t mean it like that. We were briefed about the possible tensions with the Griffon empire”. Rarity uncrossed her hooves and placed one on Discords paw “We would never do anything to harm you. Your our friend.”

Discord smiled back “And I have no intention to harm my friends, or anypony, anymore”. He then went on to describe to Rarity his relationship with Celestia, and the conversation earlier that night.

“I see” Rarity mused “I hadn’t appreciated that your friendship...relationship had grown so intimate...or serious!”

“I know...and I have trouble doing serious.”

Rarity thought carefully about what she was about to say “You’re being serious now. I mean, you haven’t done anything whilst we’ve been talking to cause any form of chaos.”

“Your a friend whos helping me...why would I want to annoy you?”

“See..maybe you can do serious when you want” Rarity replied a little knowledgably “You do realise it was just your ego getting in the way today, right?”

Discord sighed “It was more than that...I think...I’m just so confused.”

Rarity yawned “Why don’t you sleep on it and we can talk more in the morning? Sweetie Belle’s away so you can use her bedroom to sleep in.”

“You...you don’t mind me staying over? Despite me being public enemy number one?”

“Discord, Darling” Rarity replied sweetly again “You’re a friend, so my home is always open to you. Just...don’t tell Spike you stayed overnight, he might get the wrong the idea” Rarity half laughed.

Discord smiled back “Don’t worry, I just have eyes for one white pony...and she has wings before you come back with a sarcastic reply!”

Both smiled at each other. Discord apologised again for waking Rarity up and left her bedroom, leaving the unicorn to her un-needed beauty sleep.

The next morning Rarity woke up and remembered she had a house guest. She put on one of her robes and went to see if Discord was awake and to offer to make breakfast. However, reaching Sweetie Belle’s she saw a note stuck to it.

“Dear Rarity

Thank you for your hospitality last night, and apologies for waking you up. However, just being able to get it off my chest opened my eyes to what I must do, and I have left immediately. Sorry for not bidding you a goodbye but I didn’t want to wake you up.

With friendship, Discord

Ps - I got breakfast in for you.”

Rarity went downstairs to indeed in the kitchen was a plate with two of her favorite pastries on it. She started making herself a cup of tea and wondered what Discord was up to as she bit into the chocolate croissant.

The guards of the Griffon empire were struggling to prevent themselves trembling with fear as Discord walked through the palace of their king. The god of chaos had appeared in their capital city earlier that morning, and had immediately headed towards the palace. Reaching the gates, he requested an audience with their ruler and too afraid to block the powerful creatures request they granted him access.

The king had been informed and quickly had his armour on. He waited for his visitor in his grand hall, along with a squadron of his elite fighters. The doors opened and Discord walked into the room, flanked by a pair of guards on each side. Discord slowly walked up to the king.

“King Ragejaw, thank you for making time to see me”

The griffon king did not reply, but his muscles tensed up ready to fight. Discord looked around at the room ready to fight him

“I think you may have misunderstand my intentions here. I have come to apologise for the incident a few days ago. You see -”

Noting Discord was exactly where he had wanted him to be, the grand mage throw his bomb at the draconequus, the explosion interrupting his speech...

Princess Celestia and Luna entered the Griffon King’s throneroom to a formal fanfare from the Griffon guards. King Ragejaw was sat on his throne, looking a little smug. He stood up and walked towards the two ponies, a swagger in his steps as was usual with the proud, aggressive, if sometimes foolish, griffin race.

“Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, to what do I owe the visit of two such esteemed guests?”

“King Ragejaw, thank you for seeing us” Celestia bowed slightly. but still stood taller than the griffon, much to his invisible chargin. “It has come to our attention that you have one of your citizens in your jail?”

“One of your citizens...you mean Discord?”

“Yes, Lord Discord, God of Choas. Do you have him?” Luna replied.

“Yes, we apprehended the evil tyrant and he is now locked up in our dungeon.”

“Apprehended?” Celestia’s eyebrow raised a tadge.

“He invaded our country, and we are treating him as a war criminal” the king replied smugly.

“Invaded? What did he do exactly?” Celestia asked

“He crossed our borders, that is enough!” the King almost shouted back.

Luna stepped forwards “So, a citizen of Equestria has been locked up for simply entering an allies territory? I believe that goes against the peace treaty of 578.”

“Our borders are our borders - and we are more than capable of defending them against anyone...or anypony!”

Luna’s mane started to flow a little faster “578 anmm in the Equestrian calendar of course. Do you know what anmm stands for? After Nightmare Moon...you know, when I became more powerful than any other creature in the world…”

The Griffin king and Luna seemed to be eying each other up, but luckily Celestia always kept a cool head. “Princess Luna, King Ragejaw, please no posturing right now. The treaty that was forged by blood nearly six hundred years ago is too valuable for either side to lose.”

Luna seemed to calm down a little at her sister's words, but the griffin was still as riled up. Celestia returned to the topic at hoof “But tell me King Ragejaw, aren’t you surprised that such a powerful and dangerous beast hasn’t broken out yet?”

“We have ways of containing magic now” the king laughed back, a little too gleefully. He gestured to the floor near where the two Princesses were standing “My researches have found runes that nullify all kinds of magic!”

The two princesses looked over with other with a look of some surprise, and the king took the opportunity to continue “You see, dear ally, that the Griffon kingdom is not as powerless as it was when you last forced a peace treaty onto us.”

Luna looked over to where the runes were inscribed. She walked into the centre of the ring, and with a simple flash of magic they disappeared. The griffon king, along with his right hand mage, jaws almost hit the floor as their top-trump against Discord and the alicorns seemed to be rendered useless.

Luna laughed “Ha! These runes would barely hold back a unicorn foal, certainly not powerful enough to contain Discord!”

“Then...princesses…” the arrogant tone of the king had disappeared in an instant as he realised that he was powerless against the Princesses as all previous kings had been “How did we capture him? And how is he still contained?”

“That is a very good question” Celestia mused, eying the Griffon king a little.

The guards led the two Princess and their king down to the dungeons. As they approached a cell at the end of the corridor, the same runes were visible on the floor and door. The princesses didn’t even bother to ask as there horns lit and all the runes disappeared.

“You know it is against our peace treaty to develop any magic designed to interfere with Equestrian magic” Celestia spoke as plainly as she could.

“Apologises, Princess Celestia, Luna. We - we just were worried about Discord after his release”

“Of course, King Ragejaw, I’m sure that the design was just meant for Discord...” Luna replied

“...And that the threat made against our nation was just a slip of the tongue” Celestia added

The griffon didn’t know where to look, knowing he had been thoroughly exposed. There were lots of stories over the years warning the kings not to try to take on Equestria, and the peace treaty was always seen as more favourable to the griffons given they had never won a single battle against Equestria.

Now he knew why.

He motioned for the guards to open the cell, and led his two guests inside where Discord was lying on a hard bench. As they entered the small cell, Celestia and Luna could both sense something different. Celestia went running over to her special somepony and she cupped his head in her hooves.

“Discord...where is your magic?”