Breaking Habits

by Gosky3

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Discord, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Spike, Comedy
Length: 16370

After having another outburst with his chaotic magic, Discord decides to rid himself completely of it with unexpected consequences.

Trying to be friends with the Elements of Harmony while being the Spirit of Chaos can be rather...conflicting, to say the least.

After having another outburst with his chaotic magic, Discord decides to rid himself completely of it. Doing so, however, has some unexpected consequences that may affect all of Equestria. How will the Mane Six cope with a softer, now harmony-obsessed version of Discord while trying to fight a new threat that's created as a result? Can Discord break his old habits?

Published 2015-05-23 04:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-07-02 19:13:28 UTC

You Had One Job

It was a simple task. Elementary. Infantile, even: Watch over the cottage while she was gone. But Discord had honestly never been alone on somepony else’s property before; no pony would ever dare leave him alone anywhere in Equestria unless it was within the perimeter of his own home. No pony except Fluttershy, of course. She trusted him entirely to watch over the cottage, keep an eye on the animals, and make sure that nothing went wrong while she went out on a series of errands. Even Discord himself thought it was a horrendous idea to be offered such a task, however Fluttershy insisted and said that she put her full trust in him. For anypony else, the job would have been nothing. But this was Discord.

Thoughts of chaos engulfed his mind everywhere he went, and although he had learned to curb them ever since being reformed, it was still almost instinct to obey them. After all, he spent 1000 years ruling over Equestria with no inhibitions as far as chaos went. Looking around the cottage, a million opportunities made themselves clear: He could replace the bird’s wings with arms and see how they coped with it; maybe turn the chickens into eggs and vise versa; he’d always wanted to turn the tea pot just into the letter “T” (that was such an obvious one); and the walls were just begging to be turned polka-dot instead of their current monotonous color.

Discord caught his talon right before it was about to snap and make one of those thoughts a reality. “No!” he hissed, taking his eagle arm off completely with a “pop”. “Fluttershy would never approve.”

The talon started barking at him furiously and foaming at the mouth, demanding to unleash some type of chaos. After a moment of looking for a solution, Discord floated over to the couch and stuffed the claw underneath the cushions. “There,” he grinned.

SNAP!

The cottage was now covered in mismatch polka-dots all around. Discord turned to see that his tail had done the deed. Grinding his teeth, he tied the end of his tail into a knot. “Backstabbing rear end,” he remarked. Suddenly, the infamous sound of annoying squeaks reached his ears. He turned back around to see Angel Bunny bouncing up and down on the floor, clearly upset at the new mess. “Yes, yes, I know.” Discord motioned to snap it away, only to realize that his talon was still underneath the cushion. He cursed under his breath and formed another limb to snap away the chaos with.

Despite his actions, Angel was still furious over something. “What could you possibly want now? There’s not a speck of chaos in sight!” Discord complained. The bunny then rubbed his stomach before opening his mouth and pointing inside it. Discord sighed, snapped up a carrot, and levitated it over to the little devil. Angel took one look at the carrot and smacked it away. “Oh, I’m sorry, did I do something wrong? Was it not the right size? Weight? Shape? Too orange? Not orange enough?” Snap. Two large, healthy carrots appeared. “How’s two?”

Angel shook his head.

“Five?” Three more carrots popped into existence.

He shook his head more.

“Ten?”

He lifted his paw, signaling for Discord to up his price.

“Oh, for Celestia's sake! You want carrots so bad?" Snap. A giant pile of carrots appeared over Angel. He reacted with alacrity and reached out to grab them, until the pile came crashing down on him. Discord began to let out a few snickers. The bunny’s head popped out of the immense pile of vegetables around him. He was about to give Discord a piece of his mind until he realized that there was now a whole mound of carrots to eat. Gleefully, he snatched one up and took a bite; but instead if hearing a crunch, he heard the hiss of the carrot deflating. Immediately, all the other carrots deflated, proving to be rubber.

Discord burst into a fit of laughter.

Angel began letting out annoying sounds of angry gibberish and bickering. The draconequus managed to stop laughing for a moment to stand over him. “Hmm, me and you alone while Fluttershy’s out on errands. I don’t think you’re in the position to be bothering me.” Regardless of his threats, the bunny clearly wasn’t backing down any time soon. Discord leaned in closer, and a mischievous grin that could only be described as pure evil formed on his face. “But if you insist…”

Fluttershy hummed the same tune that had been stuck in her head all day as she made her way home. A small content grin was spread out across her face as she trotted cheerfully through the forest, bearing the products of her expedition, which merely included an assortment of vegetables, milk, and whipped cream. She planned on making Angel a grand dessert for behaving so well these past few days, especially considering that Discord had been visiting so often throughout the week. The two usually didn’t get along, but they hadn’t been doing that bad so far.

Those thoughts quickly vanished upon arriving home. The cottage had grown wings and was now hovering several yards above the ground. From what she could hear, everything but what she expected was happening inside. She flew up to the door and knocked. “Disc - ?” Fluttershy didn’t even get the chance to finish the name before a loud crash signaled for her to come in.

Inside, the house was a wreck: Dishes were breaking themselves, the furniture was sitting on the animals, and all of Discord’s previous ideas of chaos had become a reality. The spirit himself was playing a game of bowling, using Angel as the ball, and pin-shaped carrots as the pins. “What’s wrong, Angel? Losing your appetite?” he teased, glaring into the bunny - well, now bowling ball’s - scared eyes. Before Discord could finish his swing, Fluttershy interrupted.

“Discord! Put Angel down this instant!” she yelled, which wasn’t very loud at all in her case, but it was enough to make Discord flinch and drop Angel in the process. Angel regained his original form, though he was still dazed from the whole process and stumbled about.

Discord's expression snapped from entertained to horrified in seconds. “Oh, Fluttershy, you’re back early! My, how time flies!” He put on the widest grin that he could possibly wear, but even his charm couldn’t save him from Fluttershy’s anger this time. When she remained static despite his efforts, he dropped the smile and crossed his arms defeatedly. “Well, to be fair, I told you this was a bad idea.”

“I just can’t believe you!” Fluttershy was still livid and berating Discord while flying back and forth. He shamefully sat on the couch listening to her, though he was more unamused at this point than ashamed. He had gotten the point fifteen minutes ago, about the time when his ear had been talked off...though he'd only added more wood to the fire when his ear actually jumped off his head and walked out the door. “I trusted you, Discord, and you tried to go behind my back, and torture Angel in the middle of it all!”

By then, Discord was leaning over the arm of the chair, etching pictures into the floorboards with his claw. He was currently working on a derpy picture of Fluttershy. “Well, the little furball deserved it,” he mumbled.

“What was that?” she snapped.

“Nothing, nothing,” he covered up.

Finally, the pegasus came down to the ground and walked up to meet Discord face-to-face. “I’m more disappointed in you than anything else. You always do so well controlling yourself, and then you just...relapse. Some worse than others.”

“I’m well aware of those affairs. The seeds, the blue flu, Tirek, the smooze, blah, blah, blah.”

“You never seem to want to talk about it, though. I know it must be hard giving up your life of chaos, but - ”

Out of nowhere, Discord sat up erect, almost startling Fluttershy. “Hard? Fluttershy, my dear, it’s anything but hard. I wouldn’t trade our friendship for any amount of chaos in the world.” He gave her a reassuring smile, and she couldn’t help but smile with him.

“But I’m still really worried about you…”

In a flash of light, Discord was on the other side of the cottage, next to the front door. “Oh, don’t bother worrying about me. I’m honestly sorry. I won’t let old habits get the best of me again.” He was about to snap out of the home, but it seemed rather unfitting considering what they had just talked about, so he simply opened the door. Before stepping outside completely, Discord turned to face Fluttershy once more. “I promise.” With that, he left.

Fluttershy’s worried stare remained even after his leave. She sighed and looked towards the ground. “That’s what you always say.”

Author's Note

Alright! First (MLP-related) fanfiction!

I've had an idea for a story like this for quite some time, but I never really put the parts together until now. Even now, though, I don't know exactly where the story's going - well, I know where it's going, but not how. All I know is that it involves Discord, and that's all that matters! ...Right?

Lame attempts at humor aside, any feedback would be appreciated, positive or negative! I hope this is enjoyed by somepony out there! :D

Taking the Discord out of Discord

It was strange. Ever since Discord was reformed and discovered the magic of friendship, he’d never been happier. Having a friend was something that he’d never thought of during all those years of ruling Equestria under his chaotic fist. But once he had one, he never wanted to let her go. Fluttershy was Discord’s one and only friend, and he’d turn the world upside-down for her - quite literally, actually. He’d also frozen over Ponyville when she claimed that it was too hot; he stripped everypony of their mouths once, when she said it was too loud; not to mention the time he put actual fleas in the flea market (that one was just for fun, the name was asking for it).

Between all those…."inconveniences," including the seeds, faking the blue flu, joining Tirek, bringing the Smooze to the Gala, yada, yada, yada, his track record wasn’t that great. Fluttershy had convinced him that they were just mistakes, and that everypony makes them - that’s what makes them ponies. The only thing was that Discord wasn’t a pony. He was a draconequus. The Lord of Chaos. And no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t change that. He was quite literally created for the sole purpose of making chaos, and defying his one function was near impossible. It was like training a wheel not to roll.

Discord moaned and groaned as he twisted and turned trying to get comfortable in his Thinking Tree. It’d seemed to have lost its touch somehow over the past few months. Now it was more like his Brooding Tree, where he contemplated all the mistakes he’d made in his life and his very existence in the universe. After a while he gave up trying to get comfy and just hung on a branch like a wet piece of clothing waiting to dry, and sighed.

It was as if there was a side of him that he couldn’t hold back. The side that he once thought he wanted to be, that he was for 1000 years: the evil-er chaos-driven tyrant of Equestria. And then there was a side that he had only just discovered: the softer, kinder, pony-loving side of him that he decided he wanted to be. But he couldn’t be it. Because that evil tyrant lived inside him somewhere. He groaned in agitation. If only he could…rip that side out of him and be rid of it for good.

A toaster teleported into reality. With a “ding," a lit lightbulb popped out of it. “Of course!” Discord beamed. “If I can’t control myself, then I’ll just take the discord out of Discord!” One snap later, and he was in a laboratory.

Now bearing a white lab coat, large goofy glasses and a clipboard, Discord got to work. He started mixing random chemicals together of various colors, creating some sort of strange liquid. He jot things down on his clipboard (though they mostly included nonsensical squiggles and drawings of Fluttershy). He used electricity to fry the liquid, and sent the mix through several odd-looking machines. Finally, he looked at the data printing from one piece of machinery and examined it with great care, squinting through his glasses. After some time, he added a gem to his liquid concoction, and it turned a sickly green color. He smiled. “Perfect.” Lifting it up carefully with chopsticks, he brought it to his face.

Then, he took a bite out of it, glass and all. The remaining liquid stayed put in the broken glass despite gravity's best efforts as Discord chewed and crunched. Upon swallowing, he grimaced. “Meh,” he said before opening his palm and letting the drink fly upwards. As it crashed on the ceiling, he made his science-y clothes disappear. “Now regarding the ‘take the discord out of Discord’ thing…”

Another snap brought him to his library, which needless to say, was an absolute mess to anypony who wasn’t chaos-oriented. Bookshelves spiraled over, sideways and under as they stretched all around the vortex of disorderly knowledge. Some books weren’t even on shelves and merely floated around aimlessly. Clearly there was no logical order to where the books were located, yet by some means Discord knew exactly where to look.

“Hmm...I know it’s somewhere next to Tequila Mockingbird and Moby Duck,” he pondered as he started going through each book, tossing the ones that he didn’t want aside. Only a few moments later, he found what he was looking for. “Here we are…” The book had a big, scary skull on the cover with eyes that glowed upon being touched, plainly indicating that it should most definitely be opened. Discord brushed the cover of shiny leather, turning it dusty rather than the other way around. He then proceeded to flip through the old pages, which read of different chaos-related spells. Every once and a while, the book’s pictures would come to life, or the page numbers would change, or the words would become that of a different language. However, none of these alterations even made an impression on Discord, as he was completely used to a whole dimension of random inconveniences.

Eventually, his finger landed on a specific spell, and a grin formed on his face. “So old even I couldn’t remember it. Now…” He over-exaggerated several stretches that didn’t seem physically possible as he prepared his talon for the big moment. Then at last, he snapped...and then nothing. Irritatedly, Discord shook his claw and tried again - SNAP! - still nothing happened. After several more attempts, he gave in and sighed. “I have to do it the old-fashioned way, don’t I?” The book spat out its tongue and blew a raspberry at him. Reluctantly, he cleared his throat and read from the still-shifting page:

“Two ends of the Earth, two halves of one whole. Like black and white, up and down, north and south poles. Two sides of one coin, two parts of one form - shall now separate and be once again born.” Discord finished with a scowl on his face. If there was one thing he hated more than anything, it was chanting spells. Especially ones that rhymed. He then waited for a few moments…yet nothing happened (again). “Oh come on! I taint my tongue with that piece of obnoxiousness and nothing?” He pouted and crossed his arms.

Out of nowhere, an eight-pointed star appeared under Discord’s feet. Before he could react accordingly, the star glowed red and started spinning furiously, creating a vortex that entrapped him and rendered him immobile. For once he was actually feeling scared, and questioned whether he’d truly thought this over. Suddenly there was a sharp pain that shot throughout his body, earning a shout out of him as he closed his eyes. There was a flash of black and red, and his body dropped to the ground.

It was a while before Discord came to. Once he did, a pounding headache made its way into his head. Trying to ignore it, he slowly got up and looked around. He was still in his mess of a library. It was a wonder how he’d never seen it before: Each book was of a loud and horrendous color; all the shifting bookshelves and flying books and random pops and cracks and splashes were just plain annoying; and the shelves going every which way only made his headache worse. He didn’t even have a clue how his “system” of sorting books worked anymore. When he moved to grab the book he recalled using a moment ago, he realized it was gone. Probably lost in all this chaos.

“Wait a minute…” Something wasn’t right. He was Discord. Lord and Spirit of Chaos. Chaos. The word itself had lost its touch somehow. It made him think of everything that wasn’t good in the world, of disorder and disorganization, and everything that he'd loved just minutes ago, but for some reason didn’t now.

The memories of his previous actions started coming back to him one by one. His ordeal with Fluttershy, sitting in his Thinking Tree, coming to the library…. After a while, he put together that he’d cast a spell upon himself to remove his chaotic magic. And if that was true...then it must have worked, even better than he'd hoped! Not only could he feel the lack of chaos magic, but the thought of chaos was making him nauseous. Being in this very room was unsettling to him now. Even the word “harmony,” which used to made him shudder uncontrollably, was starting to sound like gold.

In excitement, Discord flew up into the air and excitedly admired his disgust toward everything in the room. Why was there a tree growing out of a fish’s mouth? How did a bus get into a library? Who’s idea was it to make the shelves out of cheddar? For once the puns each book’s title held made him roll his eyes instead of roll on the floor in laughter. Each and every tiny little gag and joke he put into this place only worsened his unease. He finally got why ponies were always so afraid of him and hated him and why they were so anti-chaos - look at this catastrophe! To think this was his home!

At last, everything he wanted to be and had tried so hard to be for Fluttershy only to fail, he could now be! Considering how happy and proud his best friend would be, when he didn’t send her house to the moon or turn the forest trees’ leaves into cotton candy, made him ecstatic. He had to see her at once and show off the new and improved Discord.

Without hesitation he snapped away, before he could even notice the looming darkness that was forming where the star had been earlier.

Author's Note

I feel like this needs more work, but I've read it over and over again all day and it's starting to get annoying, so I'll just post it. XD

I also feel like this sort of rushes into things, but I've always been one for getting the plot rolling as soon as possible. And besides, there's much more where there this comes from!

And finally, thanks for all the positive feedback so far! 9 likes?! Lots of favorites?! I somehow feel like I have a group of people staring over my shoulder, and if I don't make this story good there'll be pitchforks and torches! Heh, heh heh.... :pinkiecrazy:

It Doesn't Make Any Sense

The Mane Six were all gathered in the throne room of Princess Twilight’s newest castle. It was actually starting to grow on them, when only a few weeks ago it was rather overwhelming and in a way unsettling. Although they usually reserved this room for important meetings, currently they were idly chatting with one another. This was the only furnished room in the castle aside from the kitchen and the bedrooms so far, so it was the only room that was comfortable. Besides, here they could admire the gorgeous roots they had adorned the room with, and bask in all their previous memories. In fact, they were playing a sort of game where they pointed their favorite memories out. Or at least, Pinkie Pie was.

“Ooh, ooh! That’s the time where I threw a party for Twilight when she first came to Ponyville!” Pinkie had somehow climbed up the roots and was pointing to each of the memories she mentioned. “And here’s when we were all affected by Poison Joke, and I couldn’t talk all episode long! That was horrible. Remember that one?”

Applejack couldn’t help but chuckle as she thought back to that day. “And when Rainbow couldn’t fly straight to save her life?”

“Hey! At least I wasn’t smaller than my cutie mark,” Rainbow Dash teased.

The two bickered and teased each other a little more while the others watched for entertainment - all except Pinkie, who was still looking at different memories. Twilight’s gaze wandered from the two ponies to Fluttershy, who seemed to be in her own world, looking down at the floor instead of the others. “Fluttershy? Are you okay?” she asked.

Fluttershy’s head shot up, as if she hadn’t realized what she was doing. Once she became aware of what was happening, a small smile grew on her face. “Oh, I’m fine. I was just thinking.”

“About what?"

The smile didn’t last long, and it faded as Fluttershy thought about whatever had her down. “I’m just a little worried about Discord. He had another...episode today. I think I might’ve been too hard on him, though...”

“Are you guys talking about Discord?” Rainbow and Applejack had apparently settled their ordeal, and everypony’s focus was now on Fluttershy, which made her blush a little. “What did he do this time?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“He didn’t do much. The worse he did was upset Angel a little. And I did leave him all alone...he must have been awful bored. Maybe I shouldn’t even worry about it, and just let him be next time....”

“Are you crazy? Next time he’ll make a chocolate rain hurricane if you don’t stop him!”

“Rainbow!” Applejack hissed. Although Pinkie didn't seem too upset by the idea of any type of chocolate rain as she licked her lips in ecstasy.

“Unfortunately,” Rarity interrupted before any arguments started, “While I don’t appreciate how she said it, I do think Rainbow Dash has a point. You have to teach him to control himself, or there could be rather destructive results.”

“I’m worried about him more than about anything else,” Fluttershy said as she played with her hair anxiously. “I know he’s trying his hardest to break his habits...I just hope he doesn’t go too far…”

“There you are, my dear!” As if on cue, Discord casually entered through the huge doors into the throne room. Everypony’s heart skipped a beat upon hearing his voice, and exchanged baffled glances due to his odd means of entrance - or odd for him, at least. Fluttershy was the first to make note of this.

“Discord! Are you alright?” she said, with legitimate concern in her voice. She trotted over to meet her friend halfway. When they got close enough, Discord scooped her up in a great big hug.

“Better than ever, actually!” he exclaimed before letting her down and beaming at her.

“Are you sure? You seem…”

“Off?” Applejack tried to finish her sentence.

“Unusual?” suggested Rarity.

“Bizarre? Extraordinary? Idiosyncratic?!” Pinkie shouted, becoming more excited with each word.

“So, the usual?” said Rainbow rather indifferently.

“What’d I do?” Discord seemed worried as he looked around and checked himself, as though trying to see if he’d done anything without thinking.

“Nothing,” said Twilight. “You just...walked through the door.”

“And that’s what so troubling?”

Everypony nodded.

“I walked through the door?”

They nodded once more.

He plopped onto the floor and began rubbing his temples. “Maybe I don’t get ponies after all…”

“Well, it’s just that using the door makes sense. And that's not really your slice of pie, if ya know what I mean,” Applejack explained.

Pinkie jumped on top of the table. “Exactly! He usually doesn’t make sense. So making sense for Discord actually doesn’t make any sense, so he’s actually not making sense, which makes sense, which doesn’t make sense!” Despite her eccentric summary, Pinkie had only managed to make everypony even more confused than they already were.

Fluttershy turned back to Discord. “Well, if you say you’re okay, then I’m okay, too,” she smiled. “Why don’t you join us? We’re not doing anything special.”

It was difficult for everypony to get back on track as far as conversations went with the elephant in the room. Or, in this case, draconequus in the room, sitting right next to them. It wasn’t that they were uncomfortable with him around usually. It was that he was sitting there, no antics, tricks, or strings attached. Never once did he interject, or pull a visual gag, or even make a single pun or silly remark. Eventually Discord started catching on to the discomfort in the air. “I can't help but have the feeling that I’m intruding…” he said.

“Oh, no, not at all, dear,” assured Rarity. “It’s just that there’s something...different about you.”

Discord stood up as if to take the floor. “If it’s bothering everypony so much, I suppose it’s worth mentioning that I’ve turned over a new leaf. No more chaos, disorder, or bedlam is coming from these claws anymore.” There was an awkward silence. The girls’ faces either read of confusion, surprise, or both. Discord seemed to go pale and cowered a little. “What?”

“That...doesn’t make any sense,” commented Rainbow.

“Exactly,” Pinkie whispered, despite the fact that all could hear her perfectly.

“That seems rash," Fluttershy spoke up. "Chaos is part of who you are. That would be like if I stopped taking care of animals, or if Twilight abandoned her friends.”

Discord seemed almost offended by her statement, and crossed his arms. “I thought that you of all ponies would appreciate my effort. A world full of harmony doesn’t need anything disrupting it. This is for the better. Either way, what’s done is done.” Fluttershy tried to intervene, but he put up his paw. “No negotiating it." She resolved to let go of that subject for now.

“I'm not liking that idea,” Twilight still persisted.

Discord resolved to ignore any more arguments, and instead climbed on top of the table in the center of everypony. “Speaking of ideas, why don't we go on one of those friendship quests? Maybe I can be of help now.” He clawed into the shiny crystal, as though to activate the map somehow.

“The map sends us when it needs us. It doesn't work like that.”

“That's too bad,” he lay across the table. “Now that I'm on board the harmony and friendship cruise and all. Hard to believe nopony in Equestria needs help.”

“Look, I think we're all a little on edge. How about we all calm down and - ?”

Discord perked up when yet another idea came to him. "Or we could go looking for ponies to help..."

"That's not really - "

He teleported back to the entrance and started pacing back and forth with excitement. “Think about it. I could even make up for everything I've done wrong, by helping spread harmony. I can show everypony how I've changed for good now!”

Twilight facehoofed in frustration. “You're not even listening to me anymore, are you?”

“Ponyville best look out! Discord's coming to help!” On that note, the draconequus left out the door in a run, with newfound energy guiding his every step.

“Discord, wait!” Fluttershy suddenly jumped up and flew after him.

Another awkward silence filled the room as everypony stared at the door where the two had left from. After a moment, the silence was broken by Applejack. “Can somepony tell me what in tarnation just happened?”

Author's Note

This chapter feels short, but that's probably because it's mostly dialogue. I think I had almost too much fun with this. :derpytongue2:

So here's where things get a little fuzzy as far as the plot of this fic goes - the dreaded middle part. But I've got some ideas I can hopefully string together in a non-clunky manner, so we'll see where this goes.

Well, I hope those who are reading are enjoying it so far! :twilightsmile:

A Less-Than Helping Hoof

Maybe spreading harmony and friendship would be harder than Discord had originally imagined. After all, this was essentially his first time doing anything in that department, so it would take a little bit of time to get used to it. Unfortunately, it appeared that none of the Elements felt like helping him. They probably still didn’t trust him. Well, he’d show them.

Even more unfortunately, it seemed that Ponyville was as harmonious as it could be: ponies were walking about casually and conversing; fillies and colts were enjoying whatever games they were playing; the sun was shining, the clouds were cloudy. It was picturesque. That wasn’t good enough for him, though. Perhaps they looked like they were happy, but in reality their relationships weren’t doing that great.

At last, his eyes locked on a cream-colored Earth pony with blue and pink hair walking down the street. She seemed in need of a good friend! He teleported to her side, which did nothing but cause her to shriek. “No need to worry. No chaos is coming from this draconequus any time soon,” Discord smiled. “I couldn’t help but notice how...friendless you are. Perhaps I could teach you the wonders of friendsh- ”

All at once, her fear dissipated and her eyes narrowed. “Hey! You made my house fly halfway across town last time I saw you. Are you gonna pay for that?”

Discord was caught off guard by her outburst. It was right in the middle of his friendship speech, as well. He shook it off and continued. “You look like you could use a good friend. I’d be happy to introduce you to the magic of - ”

“Do you have any idea how much it costs to have your house lifted halfway across town? You know how much damage takes place when your house is shaking around in the sky?”

Once again, he found his train of thought had been interrupted. “I...sincerely apologize for that.”

“Apologies don’t pay bills. Liste. You can make the clouds into cotton candy. Can’t you make some bits to repay me?”

This was not going as expected at all. Discord had never been intimidated by a pony before. But, suddenly, it felt as if all of his confidence had faded away somehow. He didn’t know what it was. It was like he had shrank, even though he towered over the mare. “Um...are you sure the power of friendship wouldn’t help?”

“Unfortunately, friends don't pay the mortgage.”

Finally, he decided to comply with a sigh. “I suppose I could, if that’s what you want.” He snapped his talon. Out of nowhere, some wilted plants nearby sprang up and became full of life again.

“...Thanks, but there’s only so much tulips can get a pony.”

Discord blushed slightly with embarrassment. That was supposed to be a pot of gold, not magic gardening. “Sorry. Payment coming up right about...now!” With a snap, it seemed as if the mare's mane had gone to the spa and back. It was sparkling clean, put in a bun, and somehow smelled faintly of sugar.

“Is this some kind of a joke?” she snapped.

“N-no, I'm just not used to this harmony magic. It's a long story,” Discord studied his claw, as if trying to see whatever problem it was, but ultimately found no solution.

She sighed. “If you don't want to pay me, it's fine. Thanks for the flowers and mane anyway.” And on that note, she trotted off, leaving the draconequus with a face redder than Big Macintosh’s.

Never in his life had Discord felt so weak and helpless. And he’d confronted Celestia and Luna, and been turned to stone twice. Something was going on, but he couldn’t quite put his talon on it. Still trying to get over his mortification, he pondered for a moment, looking for some kind of an answer, and thought back to when he actually tried the spell. He did recall some vague memory of a darkness. But before he could fairly think it over, he heard somepony in the distance: “Discord!”

Looking off in the same direction, he saw a worried Fluttershy flying over to him. Quickly, he snapped away behind a house, just in time to see her whizz by in confusion. Now was not the time to talk this over again, he thought. This was his time to prove to them what he was capable, without chaotic temptations dragging him down. And if avoiding her and the others was necessary to do so, so be it.

Turning back around, Discord realized that he was now next to Sugarcube Corner. Knowing that not even Pinkie could have made it back here that fast (arguably), he found it safe and hastily entered. Immediately upon entry he saw that a gray pegasus was anxiously waiting at the counter. This was a perfect opportunity to help somepony else, and do it right this time!

He teleported on the opposite side of the counter. “Hello! Could I help you?”

The mare was startled for a moment but soon recovered and smiled. “Oh, hi! Do you...um...work here?”

“I do now,” he exclaimed, giving a wide toothy grin.

She seemed almost unsure for a moment of whether she should trust him, before ultimately accepting. “Um...okay then. I wanted to order a dozen muffins.”

“Say no more!” In actuality, he wasn’t quite sure if his powers would work this time round, but if he couldn’t even make muffins, then he was absolutely useless.

Surely enough, Discord proudly snapped up a dozen, out-the-oven-hot muffins without any complications. The pegasus licked her lips in anticipation of her treats, putting several bits on the counter in exchange. The box of crumby deliciousness was lifted right up to her face, before it was pulled away from her grasp. “Wait a moment... ” As if in deep thought, Discord looked at the slight imperfections and contrasts between each one. They were different shapes, sizes, each with bumps and dimples and crumbs that made them anything but harmonious. “No, no, no, this just won’t do.” The mare had to watch in shock as her muffins were removed from existence in a single snap.

“B-but they were fine! Those were perfect!”

“Ha! Those were anything but perfect. I can do better than that.”

The mare pouted, but still waited patiently for a new batch. Snap! Another delicious, amazing dozen muffins were created. They had to be the absolute best that she had seen in a long time. She was flabbergasted watching the steam slowly rise from her breaded treats, and once again put her hoof out to grab one. Yet once again, the muffins disappeared. “Stop doing that!” she pouted.

“Just hold on!”

Over and over again this happened, with Discord making a seemingly immaculate batch, her expressing great glee, and the batch being destroyed right before her eyes. Eventually the pegasus was too emotionally wasted to care anymore, and even Discord himself was getting tired of this. “I just can’t get them right using magic...we’re going to have to make them from scratch.”

“We?”

Discord wrapped his arm around her. “Well, me, but you get to watch.” One snap later, and the two had aprons and were in the kitchen of the establishment. All of the ingredients necessary had magically appeared on the counter and they - well, Discord - got to work.

It was an annoying and tiresome experience (for the poor pony at least). Everything was done to absolute perfection. A single molecule out of place was simply unacceptable for the draconequus. Not an ounce of flour was poured out of place. Not a drop of water was spilled. The batter was stirred exactly two minutes, no more, no less. The whole process took way longer than it should have, simply due to measuring and making sure everything fell into place. It was probably the most perfect and orderly that you could possibly get, yet all the mare really wanted was to taste the stupid muffins.

After precisely forty-five minutes of stirring and pouring and baking, the muffins were finally ready. Discord pulled them out with pride and satisfaction and placed the steamy goodies on the counter. “There. That’s as perfect as physically possible! By the atom!” The first thing that the pegasus noticed was how...odd they looked. Their tops were perfectly round, like a sphere. They were all the same shape, size, color, and texture. Even the crumbs seemed to line up perfectly. Nonetheless, they were muffins.

“So, we can eat them now?” she smiled in hope.

Discord let out the longest, heartiest laugh he could muster. “Celestia, no! Don’t be such a ditz!”

“Ditzy.”

“Gesundheit.”

Ignoring him, she looked back at the muffins. “...So...we’re not going to eat them?”

“What, you’re serious?" All at once, he seemed to get defensive over his design, and he wrapped around them like a mother dragon protecting her young. "No, no, no. These are beyond the very definition of harmony. We won’t eat them. Just...admire them.”

“Admire them?”

Discord seemed to not even notice her, as he simply stared, lost in his...muffin-y, perfect creations.

“Not eat them?”

No response.

“I’m...just gonna go.”

The mare flew out of the kitchen and out of the building confused, slightly scared, generally freaked out, and still very hungry.

After Celestia-knows-how-long of admiring his creation, an idea finally came to Discord’s mind. Obviously, interacting with ponies head-on wasn’t his greatest domain. But making things and objects better and more harmonious than they actually were seemed to be an angle he could take this on from. Numerous ideas came to him all at once that made him nearly squeal with glee simply thinking about them. Not moments later, he’d snapped out of the bakery to go and fulfill them.

Author's Note

It's amazing how much chaos can be caused trying to inspire harmony - oh, well. Lots of general craziness here, but much fun was had!

*checks calendar* Oh...it's been a while. Sadly I haven't been that busy and it's been more of a mix of writer's block, apprehension, and pure laziness. It took until now to really get back into the swing of things, so sorry for that. But I'll be darned if I'm not finishing this thing this summer. It won't be that long now, and now I have a better idea of what the heck is going on. :pinkiehappy:

Harmonious Chaos

Twilight must’ve run a hole into the ground pacing back and forth around the throne room. She’d sent the rest of the Elements out hours ago to try and find Discord, and none of them had come back yet with any sort of news. From his display earlier that day, the idea of whatever trouble he could cause out there nearly gave her a panic attack. Thankfully, nothing had happened so far but a complaint about extremely poor service at Sugarcube Corner. It seemed as though nothing major would be happening anytime soon.

Of course, she very soon ate her words when Spike came running into the room in a panicky manner. "T-Twilight!" he stuttered.

Her head spun around. "Spike?" In a blast of magic, she teleported in front of him. "What is it? Wait, don't tell me. Equestria's all on fire? Or in an anarchy? Or both? Did Celestia find out? Oh no, what will she think...? All I had to do was keep Discord in check and - "

"Twilight!" Spike snapped.

Immediately, the princess snapped out of her panic-induced trance. Taking a deep breath, she pulled herself together. "Sorry. I'm overreacting again. What is it?"

Spike shuffled awkwardly in place a little bit, hesitating to deliver the news. "Uh...well, actually, you were pretty spot on."

Twilight’s face fell instantaneously.

"Except everypony’s an alicorn."

Her eye began twitching as her breathing picked up.

"On the bright side, Celestia hasn't found out!"

Another flash of light later, and Twilight was out of the throne room and standing in front of the castle. In front of her was a complete disaster. It was true: every pony had a pair of wings and a horn, and was running amok wildly in either fear or thrill. Some screamed and let out bursts of magic, while others tried to cast advanced spells that only created more trouble. And, unfortunately, a small part of the town was on fire.

After getting over that one dangerous detail, she also noticed that the entire town (or, at least the part not consumed by flames) was...arranged somehow. Every house was the exact same, from the color to the shape, to the position of the door and windows. Every trunk and leaf on every tree matched. Even the very dirt itself seemed placed in some pattern somehow. It was as if it were straight out of a geometry book. Every single part of it was...immaculate. Aside from the town being thrown into some sort of anarchy, at least.

“What...what…?” Twilight seemed to be broken as she gazed off into...she didn’t even know what to call it. Was it harmony? Chaos? Some sort of demented mix between the two?

Spike hurried out of the castle, out of breath from having run all the way from the throne room to come to her aid. “Di-did…” He gasped for breath before finishing, “Did Discord do this?”

Upon hearing his voice, she came to and snapped out of her trance. “It must be him. Do you have any idea where he is?”

“I haven't seen him since earlier.”

The princess used the breathing technique she learned from Cadence to calm herself down, before coming to a conclusion. “Then we’d better go find him before this gets any worse.” She unfolded her wings and knelt down so that her assistant could get on top of her. Once he was safely holding on, the two took off into the air.

“See anything?” asked Twilight.

“Just more cookie-cutter trees and houses,” said Spike as he looked through his claws like a telescope, peering down at the anarchy-driven Ponyville below. Suddenly, his eyes locked on a pony down below and he leaned in closer. “Hey, why isn’t that pony an alicorn? Wait...is that Fluttershy?”

“Where?” Twilight’s head darted in the direction he was looking. Surely enough, Fluttershy was down below, clearly terrified from the craziness erupting around her. A crowd of ponies were surrounding her, for whatever given reason, all frantic and panicked about the situation. Without thinking twice, the princess dove in after her friend.

“Why don’t you have a horn?” asked one of the ponies.

“What’s going on?”

“Can’t you Elements do something about this?”

“So, now that being an alicorn is normal, does that mean that pegasi are princesses?”

“Uh...um...well…” Fluttershy had no idea how to answer any of these questions, and was honestly as confused as they were. She cowered as low to the ground as possible, as if trying to shrink or disappear, when out of nowhere Twilight landed next to her, along with Spike.

“Everypony, leave her out of this! We’re not sure what’s happening right now, but we’re working on it,” she exclaimed.

Even the words of a princess couldn’t calm any of the citizens down, however, and they quickly fired back up, bombarding her with questions and panicked exclamations. Grabbing her friend’s hoof, Twilight flew up into the air with Fluttershy and all three soared away from the angry crowd. Once they were at a safe distance, they stopped for a moment.

“Fluttershy, where’s Discord?”

“I don’t know. I think I saw him earlier but he ran away from me,” she replied still shaking. “He wouldn’t have done this, though...would he?”

“We’re finding that out now.”

On that note, they all continued on their small quest. But it wasn’t long until the three of them were stopped by a rainbow of colors flying past them. Following the trail, they saw Rainbow Dash attacking a group of clouds, which had become victim to this chaos-harmony as well: they were all congruent, rectangular blocks. But no matter how much she punched, kicked, and rammed into them, they reverted back to their geometrical shape seconds later. “Ugh! What’s up with these things? How does this even work?”

“Rainbow!” Twilight flew up to her side. “Have you seen Discord?”

The pegasus continued attacking one of the clouds furiously, altering its shape. “No, and he better be glad I haven’t, ‘cause when I do - ” All at once, the cloud reverted back its rectangular form, knocking Rainbow back a few feet. “Aw, I almost had it that time!”

Twilight sighed, right before Fluttershy floated up to her side to give her opinion on the matter. “Maybe you should come with us and help.”

Rainbow looked back at the cloud one more time, with hatred in her eyes, before nodding and joining the other three. “At this rate, we might as well get everypony. We're gonna our Rainbow Power to teach Discord a lesson or two!”

Fluttershy eeped. “We’re not gonna have to do that!” she squeaked before turning to her other friend. “...Are we?”

Right before Twilight was about to reply, a shrill scream reached all of their ears. The three Elements looked around in confusion, but Spike knew instantly who it was. “That was Rarity!” He spurred Twilight with the claws on his foot, as though she were a racing horse. Rather than move, she whipped her head back and glared at him. “Sorry,” he gave a weak apologetic smile. Ignoring him, she then flew as fast as she could toward the source of the cry.

Knock knock!

“Rarity? It’s not that bad,” Sweetie Belle exclaimed from the other side of her sister’s door.

“Yes it is! It’s horrible!” she whined between her cries within her room. “My shop is ruined!"

Sweetie sighed and plopped next to the door, not bothering to argue anymore. Her sister was absolutely impossible to talk to when she was like this.

Moments later, Twilight teleported right next to Sweetie, with Spike on her back, and nearly gave the little filly a heart attack. “Sweetie Belle! Where’s Rarity? Is she alright?”

Once she had calmed down a bit from the princess' sudden appearance, she replied. “She’s right in there,” Sweetie pointed at the door, “She came back an hour ago asking if I’d seen Discord, and then she ran in her room after seeing what had happened to her dresses.”

“What about her dresses - ?” It didn’t take but a moment for Twilight to answer her own question. Behind Sweetie Belle were a bunch of mannequins that had been apparently thrown out of Rarity's room. Each one had a plain beige dress on, with generic flowers and a brown sash. And, of course, they were impeccably similar in every single way. It was clear that Rarity’s own original and unique designs had been swapped out for these. And these replacements didn’t look very nice at all. Not even Twilight would have considered wearing them. “Oh...dear…”

The bell above the boutique door rang, and Rainbow Dash floated in followed by Fluttershy. “What’s going on?” asked Rainbow. “Is Rarity - ?” The two simultaneously looked at all the crude dresses that must have broken Rarity’s heart and sanity all in one, and immediately understood the situation.

After taking a deep breath, Twilight knocked on the door. “Rarity?”

“Go away!" she shrieked. “Leave me here to rot. My life is ruined!”

“This is worse than I thought…” The princess nervously ruffled her feathers as she tried to think of a solution. “But we need her to use our Rainbow Power...” Behind her, Fluttershy saddened and whimpered a little at the sound of those words. “Eh...if necessary, that is.”

Without saying anything, Spike hopped off Twilight and walked up to the door. “Rarity?”

“Spike?"

“You can’t stay in there forever.”

“I’m sorry, but I simply won’t come out and see those...those.... My work, ruined!”

Spike played around with his claws nervously as he spoke. “...We need your help if we want to fix all this. Besides, you could always make even better dresses if your old ones don’t get fixed. But all of Equestria will be a mess if you don’t help. So, please…”

There was a long period of silence, leaving everypony to wait awkwardly, wondering whether she would respond or not. Finally, she opened the door, her mane a slight mess and her mascara running from implied tears. “Fine, but this is only for Equestria.” As she looked past Spike, her eyes nervously darted to look away from the bland dresses throughout her shop. “But...could we please leave now?”

"Oh, uh, yeah."

Applejack took off her hat and scratched her head as she overlooked her apple field, which had also been a victim of this harmoniously chaotic attack. Her barn and house looked like generic cubes morseo than the home she'd lived in and helped repair for all these years. Out in the field, all of the trees’ leaves, for acres and acres, were cut into perfect spheres. But worst of all, the apples...were square. “What in the hay happened? Big Mac, do you see this?”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac curtly said. He bucked one of trees, and a flurry of cubical apples came down all at once, falling in a nice even pile on top of him. “Ugh…” he groaned from underneath them all.

She put back on her hat to go help her older brother, until she heard some of her friends. Looking over downhill, she could see them running up to see her, all apparently worried about something. “Hey, ya’ll, what’s going on?”

“We’re pretty sure it’s Discord,” Rainbow answered as she landed on the ground.

“But we’re not sure yet,” muttered Fluttershy, still trying to defend him.

“Have you seen him?” asked Twilight.

“Last time I saw him was at the castle,” said Applejack. “I couldn’t find him anywhere before I came back here searchin'.” By now, all of them were standing atop a hill, looking at the ongoing madness erupting in their town. It wouldn’t be so bad, the square clouds and the round trees and the organized grass, if Ponyville hadn’t gone crazy with their sudden alicorn status. But even living like this, anypony would go crazy with nature itself being so...orderly.

“Perhaps it’d be better if we went to the princesses - ” Rarity began to suggest, but Twilight shut down the idea before her friend could even finish the sentence.

“No! We can fix this. We just need Discord. Maybe Pinkie would know…” She held her chin in her hoof. “Coming to think of it, where is Pinkie?”

Right at the mentioning of the name, a pink blur crashed right on top of Twilight, and the two tumbled downhill in a purple and pink swirl until a tree obstructed them. She moaned and rubbed her head, trying to figure out what in Equestria just happened, while her friends chased her down. Suddenly, an eruption of laughter came from the pony next to her, who looked an awful like Pinkie. Except…. “Pinkie?!” Twilight shouted. “When - how...you’re an alicorn, too?”

“I know, right?” Pinkie tried to suppress her fit of giggles and snorts to talk to her friend. “Sorry, I’m not used to my wings yet.” She stretched her wings out so that her friend could see them and their every detail.

“But...none of us were affected by it. How come you were?”

“Because I asked Discord to make me an alicorn, too!" She tapped on her new long, elegant horn playfully. "I thought I was the only one who wasn't one, and I didn’t want to be left out on such awesome fun. Did you see the rest of Ponyville? It’s nothing but crazy partying over there!”

“Wait, so you’ve seen Discord?”

“Yeah, I caught him right when he was changing everypony. The two of us have been having a ball together! I tried to stop him once the fire started, because as far as I’m concerned that’s not very fun, but he kept saying he was just trying to help. I was going to tell you guys, but I never got a chance, until I saw you all here, and that’s when I tried flying to you and bumped into you and now we’re here!”

Still processing all of the information that had been thrown at her, Twilight started to piece together all the details, right as the rest of the crew had reached them. “So, is Discord nearby?”

“Of course, he should be getting here right…” She paused the second the draconequus flew overhead.

“Pinkie? Where’ve you gone now?” Discord called as he flew overhead. Suddenly, he looked down to see the pony he was looking for - as well as the other five who he was trying to avoid.

He gasped and started to snap away, when Rainbow flew at full speed into his chest and tackled him . “Oh, no you don’t!” The two fell to the ground, Rainbow with her hooves on top. Discord looked almost terrified, as he whimpered at the furious pegasus glaring down at him. He was about to try to make an escape, but realized it would probably be in vain, if the rest of the Elements were already here. Besides, he couldn’t avoid them all forever.

“Alright. Might I start by saying that I know things have gone a...bit out of hand?”

“A bit?” she sneered.

“Rainbow, that’s enough,” said Applejack, pulling the pegasus off him in one tug. Immediately, the draconequus sat back up but, as he'd resolved in his mind, decided to stay rather than flee.

“Discord, why did you do all this?” asked a very hurt Fluttershy, sounding as if she had been betrayed. “You didn’t, right?”

A lump started to form in Discord's throat as he tried to find an answer. He fiddled with his talon and paw. “Uh...I...it wasn’t supposed to get so complicated. I was just trying to help, I swear!”

His friend was on the verge of tears. “How does making all the trees round help?”

“Well, I admit I stretched the ‘harmony’ concept a bit much. It’s hard to tell what ponies want - ”

Fluttershy was getting more frustrated now than distressed. “Help? What about making everypony an alicorn? How does that 'help'?”

“I was thinking, if everypony were the same, wouldn’t it be easier to get along?” He forced a smile to lighten the mood, but according to all the ponies angrily staring him down, it didn't really help.

“Why not just make them all earth ponies?” Spike chimed in.

There was a moment of awkward silence as he thought about it. “I suppose that’d’ve been less chaotic, ironically...huh....”

“Could you just please change it all back?” His pegasi companion continued pressing him.

He jumped up and held out his paw. “No, wait, I can fix this without undoing it all. This will all be fine, I promise. Just give me a moment to think.” Now he was starting to become a little overwhelmed among all these ponies. But he wanted to find a solution to this. He could still make it work, right?

Hardly noticing her, Fluttershy flew up to his side. “It’s just that I don’t understand why you’re doing this!”

Discord began tugging at his ears, as if to balance out the stress, while everypony else stepped back due to the two’s argument getting a little heated. “I thought this was what you ponies liked! Maybe the opposite of chaos would be better, I thought. Anything’d be better than big, scary Discord. I did it because you all are always saving ponies and helping and spreading all this harmony-friendship-goodness and then I’m the mean old villain you all beat every time. I’m trying to change that all!”

“You’re not doing a very good job,” muttered Rainbow.

“It’d help if you would all just let me think!” With a snap, he angrily disappeared in a puff of black smoke. Everypony sat admist all the confusion, slightly fearful of what they'd do now. Some of the group glared at Rainbow for her unnecessary comment. Fluttershy started regretting the way they all went about this, and held her hoof to her mouth, ready to cry.

“Um. On the bright side, I still have these awesome wings?” Pinkie exclaimed with a weak smile.

Author's Note

RISING ACTION IS RISING.
And also, Spike being a boss.
And the feels!

Bare with me for the next chapter where things are due to get even crazier - these should be the last couple chapters, for any of those ~~crazy nutjobs~~ wonderful people who are actually reading this, unfortunately. :fluttercry:

And, after analyzing this story a little more, I've decided it's best to change this from "Slice of Life" to "Adventure". At first I thought adventure implied more of like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter stuff, but I especially from this chapter on it's moving more toward an epic story than an every-day-occurrence thing (Even though within the show this kind of stuff does happen on a regular basis. :P)

Two Sides of One Coin

Discord felt frustrated, embarrassed, saddened and altogether confused as he popped into his home pocket dimension. He growled and groaned and paced around his Thinking Tree, teleporting and hanging on the branches at random. All he wanted to do was help, and they’d chastised him! How dare they? Wasn’t it the thought that counted? Everypony makes mistakes. It was just that their mistakes usually never ended up endanger the whole country. But at the very least he was trying to help.

After only a few minutes of angry contemplation, he rested at the trunk of the tree and held his head. There was some way he could fix this, without undoing his work, right? Or should he just abort the entire thing and tag himself a failure? That would be the safest option, it seemed. So far, it was clear that even when trying to make things better and harmonious, the only thing he could produce was more chaos.

All of a sudden, he heard a subtle whisper echo throughout the void. It was so soft he wasn’t sure if he heard it at all, yet seconds later he heard it again, slightly louder. This time he flew up to try and determine its origin . Every time he heard it, he followed it closer and closer to the source, which ended up being the library.

Now wary of whatever it could be, Discord lowered himself as he crept inside. “Uh...hello?” He rarely ever got visitors, let alone an intruder. Perhaps the mailpony never found his way out after all? Again, he was starting to get scared, any shred of confidence he used to retain having been demolished. Without any of his chaos magic, he wasn’t much.

“Dissscooord…” another whisper.

He broke into a cold sweat, still unsure of what to expect. Nonetheless, there was no point in stopping now. He continued his slow trek into the library, cautiously looking back and forth while books and shelves flew and spiraled around. After a bit of wandering, he came upon the same spot where he’d cast the spell earlier, with the same eight-pointed chaos symbol that had engraved itself in the ground.

A whoosh of darkness swooped past him. He turned to look at it, but saw nothing. As soon as he looked, though, he felt a blunt strike to the back of his head, and fell onto the floor.

“That was right stupid what you said,” Applejack scrutinized Rainbow for her earlier comment.

"It just came out. I wasn’t trying to upset him!”

Twilight frantically trotted around, still trying to determine a solution. Clearly Discord wasn’t coming back any time soon now, and the longer they waited, the worst everything was gonna get. She flew up into the air to get a better view of everything once more, her sanity starting to slip a little. “Uh, okay, how about we...use our Rainbow Power and...terraform the land back to normal? Or...we just...pretend like nothing’s wrong? I mean, everything is a lot neater. It ould take a little getting used to, but - ”

“Twilight, maybe you should calm down a bit?” Spike mentioned.

She teleported in front of him. “Calm? What do you mean? I’m calm! See?!” A wicked smile that would make any filly or foal cry appeared on her face.

"Eh...whatever you say..."

Meanwhile, Rarity and Pinkie were attempting to calm Fluttershy, who was upset over the whole affair, and with everything that had happened with Discord just moments ago. “I shouldn’t have been so hard on him..."

“Come now, darling, you were reacting like anypony would have,” comforted Rarity. “He’ll come back around.”

“Yeah, and maybe he’ll bring cake, too!” Pinkie beamed. The other two stared at her perplexedly for a moment. “What? What’s wrong with cake?”

Everypony continued like that for several minutes, until a rumble interrupted whatever they were doing. In only an instant, the sky turned from blue to purple. And even though there hadn't been a single cloud in the sky, it started to rain. Nopony truly minded the precipitation, except for Rarity, who nearly screamed at the thought of her mane being ruined after just having redone it. “What’s goin’ on?” Rainbow was the first to ask.

Pinkie stuck her tongue out and tasted the rain before gasping. “Chocolate milk?” she exclaimed.

“No. This can’t be him. Not after...” Fluttershy’s ears pinned at the sight of the sudden change in weather.

Eyes fixed on Ponyville, Twilight teleported in front of the rest of the group. “Let’s go and see, then, girls.” The whole group broke into a gallop toward the town to try and see what in Equestria was happening.

It took a while, but the crew finally made their way to the center of all this newfound trouble. The alicorn-ified ponies were in even more turmoil than before, as they ran, shot magic, flew away, or attempted flying in order to get away from whatever was causing this all. The group continued through the surge of ponies, as they tried to avoid being blasted by random bursts of magic or being knocked over by the crowd. Around them, buildings started floating off the ground, and the rain continued pouring down (much to Pinkie’s pleasure).

Finally, they came upon the source of the mess. It was much worse here, at the center of it all, with odd things like anthropomorphic fish and chartreuse cheese flying around. Above where they stood were thick storm clouds, but they ironically acted as a shelter from the rain rather than being the cause of it. In fact, there was rain everywhere but underneath the clouds, where it belonged. The creator of this mess was in the middle of town, levitating and creating more nonsensical objects. Fluttershy was left shocked, while the others ran up to face him head-on.

“Discord! What are you doing?” shouted Twilight.

The draconequus turned around to face them all. “Ah, well if isn’t the Elements. I love what you’ve done with the place already. All the new alicorn ponies were such a nice touch. But I thought it could use a little something…” He snapped, and the ground turned into a pink checkerboard pattern.

Applejack stomped her hoof on the ground. “If you think we’re gonna stand by and let you do this, then you’ve got another thing coming!” she exclaimed.

“Oh, come on, what’s wrong with a little fun?” he smiled.

Running up to the him, Fluttershy questioned his actions. “Discord, what is this? I'm sorry about what I said earlier, but...but...this kind of reaction is uncalled for! What about our friendship? I thought it meant something to you now?”

“Of course, it still does!” Discord raised his talon and levitated his friend over to him, until she was embraced under his arm. “We could enjoy the chaos together. It’ll be fun!”

“Let go of her!” Rainbow attempted to bum rush him, only to be blocked by a giant box. Once she fell inside, the box closed, and was magically wrapped with paper and a bow. It fell on the ground, leaving the pegasus to try and escape from her box prison. “Hey!” Without trying to hide his feelings at all, Discord broke into a fit of laughter. The rest of the Mane Six rushed up to the box to try and save the pony trapped inside, but were unable. Spike even tried breathing fire on it, but it didn’t leave a scratch. All the while, the chaos king kept on laughing.

“Discord, stop - ” Fluttershy began. But now that she could get a better look at him, she could truly study him. When he turned to glance at her, she could see his eyes more clearly. And there was something off-putting about them. Something scary, something that didn’t feel at all like Discord. It was as if there was no heart in the being that was currently next to her, much unlike the person she had grown to know and care for. His eyes were colder, without the little ounce of joy that was always in her friends' eyes. The detail was subtle, almost unnoticeable, but not to her. “You’re...not Discord,” she suddenly accused.

“What could you possibly be talking about, my dear?” he replied nonchalantly before chuckling more. “Of course it’s me.”

With a rather powerful shove (at least, powerful considering it was Fluttershy) she released herself from his grasp and hovered in the air. “No, it’s not you. You're not him!”

He shrugged, and made several suits of cards appear. “Suit yourself.” He threw the cards toward her, and they narrowly missed her mane as they flew off into the distance. “I thought a little variation to our Tuesday Tea Time would be fun, but if that’s how you like it…” With a snap, he was sitting on top of his iconic red and grey throne. The land below him rumbled and started growing until it formed a hill, a few yards above the ponies below. “...then you could all be my peasants. That works too.”

At last, Rainbow broke free of her box prison. Twilight turned from her to their new enemy, and stepped forward, becoming leader of the group. “If you don’t stop this, we’ll have no choice but to use our Rainbow Power!”

“Oh, rainbows." The chaotic being slumped in his throne. "They make me shiver up my spine. Go right ahead.”

“Then you leave us with only one option.” She turned and nodded to the rest of the group. They all knew what they had to do. Spike merely stepped back to get out of their way. A glow formed around the main group, as they lifted up into the air. Flickers of color sparked around them and in their mane, as if they were just about to transform into their powerful counterparts. All the while, Discord merely yawned with a smirk.

Once the team was at their brightest, glowing midair, their manes started to be covered with their rainbow colors, but it suddenly stopped. There was a flickering of their glow, as if a lightbulb was about to go out, and the group fell on the ground. They all moaned and groaned as they slowly recovered. Twilight was the first of them all to get back up. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t it - ?” She noticed that, standing off to the side, was a shaken Fluttershy, who had clearly not been with the group at all during that past sequence. “Fluttershy, we have to do this if he won’t back down.”

“That’s not him. He did something with the real one. We can’t put him in stone yet.”

Applejack trotted up to the other two. “I know this hurts, sugarcube, but it’s him or Equestria.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to do this either,” Pinkie bounced over, flapping her wings. “I mean there’s chocolate milk and I have wings and all. But I don’t think anypony’s having fun. And that’s a crime!”

“But...we can’t...”

Discord popped in, in the middle of all of their conversation, and wrapped his arm around Fluttershy. “Of course she can’t. We’re still besties!” He gave a wickedly sinister grin.

"Stay away from her!” A voice shouted from behind them all. All at once, everypony turned toward the origin of the voice. Sure enough, standing off in the distance, was a figure standing in the middle of the rain. His figure was difficult to discern amidst the chocolatey goodness falling from the sky. After a moment, he walked under the clouds that were shielding them all, revealing that it was another Discord.

It didn’t take even a moment for Fluttershy to look into his eyes and make a decision even from so far away. Before anypony else could react, she glided over to and embraced him, throwing him off guard. This Discord wasn't able to return the gesture, however, as Rainbow Dash broke the duo up by ramming into the draconequus. Once they were both on the ground, the pegasus stood on top of his chest for the second time in one day. “So now there are two of you? What’s this supposed to be?”

“Rainbow, wait, it’s the real him!” Fluttershy interjected.

“Are you gonna really fall for this? This has to be a trick.”

“No, no, I swear it’s me. The other’s the impostor,” Discord squeaked. He was squeezing his eyes shut, as if anticipating for the blue fiend to attack. And it took her a moment, but between his begging and Fluttershy panicking behind her, she decided to let him go.

“Uh. Am I the only one who’s confused?” Spike was the first of all of them to ask.

The other Discord groaned and crossed his arms. “Since it appears you ponies aren’t as gullible as I thought -” His whole body started turning a darker shade. “I’m the fun part of him.” He lazily pointed to the real one, who appeared almost terrified by the sight of his other side. "I'm surprised he was brave enough to come back."

“You split yourself in two?” Twilight burst. “Why did you think that was a good idea?”

“I-I-I didn’t know it’d make another me!” Discord exclaimed.

“Well, while I’d like to sit here and discuss trivialities, I’d much rather get back to some chaos. Enjoy the boring me.” On that note, the impostor snapped away, back to sit atop his throne and continue cooking up his chaotic storm.

The rest of the heroes were left even more confused than they were before, with apparently two Lords of Chaos in their presence now. They had the so-called real Discord back, and had been reunited. But the only problem was the fact that Equestria had gone into a state of chaos, rather than of pure harmony. Life couldn't go on with goats canoeing through the air and chocolate rain pouring on all of them, obviously.

“Okay. Now we know which one to blast,” Rainbow said, extending her wings excitedly. “Let’s get him!”

“And then what happens to the real Discord?” inquired Twilight, shutting down that idea fairly quickly.

The draconequus himself slumped down on the ground. “Does it matter? I’m no better than him.”

“What?” Fluttershy walked up and placed her hoof on him. “Of course you are.”

“Why? If that thing is a part of me, then you’re better off without me,” he sulked.

“Hey, now!” Applejack stepped between the two. “Without you to calm him down, that fella up there’s just a big pain in the hindquarters. I’d take you over him any day.”

“Yeah, you’re fun and nice. He’s just a meanie,” added Pinkie as she flew in from above, still in her alicorn form.

“Chaos isn’t all bad,” Rarity spoke. “Why, I couldn’t make my clothes without it. Even if I use it in a much more...refined manner.”

“Agreed. There’s no way we’re letting anything happen to you.” Twilight joined the rest of them.

“Yeah, what everypony else said!” Spike followed right behind.

All of a sudden, everypony turned to Rainbow Dash for her input, considering they had all already spoken except her. She sat there unsure at first, but after a few moments she burst. “What? We’re not gonna off you or anything. You’re not 100% evil, even if you’re a pain sometimes. We’re kicking chaos-crazy you’s butt and fixing all this, end of story.”

Pinkie pounced on Discord with a big bear - or, pony - hug, and was soon followed by the rest of the group. He was reluctant at first, but soon accepted this genuine love from others (even if it was kind of awkward). Maybe being Spirit of Chaos wasn’t all that bad when looking at it from this angle. Though the hug didn’t last long, as it was broken by a goat making cat noises. “Okay, can we get to the butt-kicking now? This place is getting weird,” said Rainbow.

Discord pushed the others off and stood up straight, high above them all. He stared right at his chaotic counterpart, who was still sitting on his throne completely ignoring the rest of them. “I have an idea. But I’ll need all of your help.”

Author's Note

WHAT A TWIST.

So, longest and maybe second-to-last chapter. I'm at the very edge of my "before summer ends" plan but technically it hasn't ended for me and the rest is pretty much done...almost. The show goes on!

The Standoff

The chaotic half of Discord complacently sat on his throne among the storm of chaos, which had engulfed the entirety of Ponyville by now. All the color in his body had been replaced by grays, giving him the appearance of an animated shadow. Sighing, the shadow took a sip from his chocolate milk of glass and pondered what color the sky should be. He went through every possible hue imaginable - green, orange, yellow, turquoise, ruby, chartreuse... - over and over again, turning the sky into an epileptic display, until somepony interrupted him.

“Hey!” Spike shouted. The shadow turned to see a smaller dragon below his throne, along with Rarity and Pinkie on either side.

He finished off his glass of milk in one chomp before addressing them. “What? I'm busy making perfectly good chaos.” He turned back to the sky, and resolved to leave it in a cycle through various colors.

Hopping in front of the others, Pinkie chimed in. “We were just discussing the whole ‘being under your chaos rule’ thing, and got in a huge fight with Twilight and the others.” She began to mimic her friends to the best of her ability. “They were all like, 'But this Discord's evil!' and Spike was like, 'It's not that bad' and Twilight was being mean and it was horrible, so we left them!” The other draconequus seemed rather unimpressed with her reenactment of the event.

Sensing his indifference, Rarity carried on from here. “Contrary to their views, we were thinking that it wouldn’t be that bad with you ruling over Equestria from now on. In fact, it could be a grand inspiration for a new line of dresses!” She held up a sketchbook filled with wacky, nonsensical designs that any form of Discord would appreciate.

“Yeah, we were wondering if you could share some of your chaos-y ideas with us,” Spike finished. The trio put on their most inviting and photogenic smiles, as if posing for an advertisement, sincerely hoping that their half-baked idea would work.

The draconequus scoffed at their act. “I don't believe any of you for a second.” Yet in spite of his attitude, a mischievous grin slowly stretched across his face. “But I'll play your game either way.” Promptly, he teleported right next to the gang of ponies, and mockingly scoured the area for something. “So? Where's the trick? An attack, a spell, some surprise for me?” He glared at them, expecting a response, but neither Spike nor Rarity would speak up, and Pinkie Pie had been distracted by the array of colors flashing through the sky.

“Hey, tall, dark and evil!” shouted Rainbow Dash. “It's over here!” Out of nowhere, the pegasus swooped in, making the shadow have to duck to avoid getting hit by the living bullet.

“Oh, is that so? Rather anticlimactic. But, I'll take it.” He raised his talon up to conjure some counterattack, until Fluttershy zoomed past and interrupted him.

“Excuse me, sorry...” she muttered as she flew past. The two continued flying around him like overgrown gnats, keeping him from being able to take more than two steps at one time, and proving to be rather successful distractions. Each time they flew by, the impostor only got more and more frustrated.

He rolled his eyes. “Hmph. I assumed you'd at least have a plan worthwhile for me to foil,” he jeered. Once he finally found an opportunity, he snapped and trapped the two pegasi on a giant sheet of sandpaper. Cracking his talon, he prepared another spell. “Now if that's all, I’ll be sending you ponies to my brand-new licorice dungeon.”

Falling out of her previous trance, Pinkie's ears perked. “That doesn’t sound so bad.” She licked her lips at the very thought of it.

“My black licorice dungeon.”

Instantly, her face dropped upon imagining the horror of such a construction. With determination crossing her face, she raised her wings offensively and hopped in the air, as if suddenly remembering her role in this whole affair. “You’ll never take us alive. Attack!”

In response to the battle cry, a lasso swung in and wrapped around the shadow, keeping his arms at bay. Applejack was on the other end, pulling to keep her grip on him tight while he struggled. “We gotcha now!” she muttered through her clenched teeth, holding the rope.

After fighting for a bit, the shadow simply rolled his eyes. “What, now a rope’s going to hold me? Do you truly think so lowly of me?” He went to try and snap with his tail, but Pinkie put her horn to good use and zapped him with a magic blast.

“Take that!” she cried. She shot another blast. “And that! And that!” Bursts of magic fired endlessly from her horn. The shadow made several attempts to avoid them, most of which failed.

Before he was burnt to a crisp, Twilight flew in and created a bubble shield to hold their opponent temporarily. Freeing himself from the rope, he went to bang on the shield, ultimately to no avail. “I think that’s check and mate.” The princess landed next to the rest of her friends, and they surrounded their captive, just in case he had one last trick up his sleeve. Fortunately for them, it appeared he didn't.

The true Discord stepped forward, holding the same book he’d used earlier to cast the spell in the first place. “That’s enough chaos for now, I think,” he said. Book in paw, he flipped to the page with the required counterspell. “Alright, then, let’s get this over with…” Instead of continuing, he was interrupted by the sound of his other half chuckling. At that moment, everypony glared at him and took a defensive stance.

“This shield may hold me in, but not my magic,” he said.

SNAP! The entire group, save Discord, was instantly rendered immobile, and they lay stuck in their last positions like living statues. Promptly, the shield surrounding the shadow burst and he was freed once again. “So, is that it as far as your plan goes? Sort of lackluster if you were to ask me. Any other ideas?”

It was clear that Discord had run out of ideas as soon as this one had been foiled. It had been a long shot to begin with. He looked around frantically, hoping that some opportunity or plan or anything else would make itself clear. It didn’t.

“Then that plan has got to be almost as pitiful as you, honestly. How about a true draconequus-to-draconequus battle? Might I suggest a change in scenery? Perhaps - “ After another snap, they were teleported to the edge of a cliff, with waves splashing against the rocks below them. “Then again, that may be too dramatic. How about…” Their surroundings melted away into the starry night sky, and the two floated in the farthest reaches of the cosmos. “...Hmm...I’m not really in a sci-fi mood…” The land now changed to a gorgeous meadow decorated to the brim with flowers. “And this is far too happy…”

“Enough stalling!” bellowed Discord.

Acting as if he were offended, the shadow returned the environment back to the way it was - or, how it was after his chaotic alterations. “Oh. I merely wanted to make things more exciting.”

“I think they’re plenty exciting as it is.” The true Discord took a step forward.

His counterpart stepped up as well, floating in the air slightly as he spoke. “So. Let me understand your point of view. You think being the Spirit of Chaos doesn’t warrant a need for…” He stroked his beard. “Hmm, what’s the word...chaos?”

Starting to brave his own creation, real Discord flew up so that the two were on the same level. “No. I just don't think being the Spirit of Chaos has to involve hurting friends.”

Back and forth, one of them floated up just enough to be above the other, and the cycle repeated over and over again until they were hanging high in the sky. The ponies below could do nothing but watch, still as statues, as the scene unfolded. “Friends? The ones that rejected and scorned you?’

“And the ones that have stayed with me flaws and all, throughout this whole incident.” The two remained at the same elevation as they continued nearing one another. “Even through everything I’ve created.”

“Please. Do you think they really care?”

He glanced down at the others, kept in the same positions by the spell, and took an actual moment to consider. “...Yes," he said with the most confidence he'd had all day. "I think they do.”

The two deities were face to face at this point, with mere inches separating them. They stared each other down in an intense standoff for what felt like hours, although it was probably only seconds. At last, the impostor broke the silence. “Hmph. Have it your way. You can join them and wallow in black licorice.” He reached out to snap one final time and condemn them all to a tasteless doom, when Discord grabbed his talon right before the spell was cast.

A golden glow appeared where he touched his other half, and the other was suddenly paralyzed. A sudden pain seemed to flush through his counterpart's body. Thus, Discord took the opportunity as the shadow struggled, reciting the counterspell. “Two ends of the Earth, two halves of one whole. Though both differing, both part of one soul - “ His other half was trapped, but relentlessly tried to wrestle the spell in vain. “ - two sides of one coin, two parts of one form - shall join once again and be once again born.”

The two of them began radiating in a magical aura that continued to get brighter and brighter, the shadow continuing to try to move and break away from his other. After a while, a blinding flash of light engulfed them both, and extended until it covered the whole of Ponyville.

Once the light cleared, the Mane Six found themselves able to move once again. Everypony was relieved, and had to stretch after having been stuck in such awkward positions for the past few minutes. “Is everypony alright?” exclaimed Twilight, looking to make sure that all her friends were there. While the others were still dazed over what had happened, Fluttershy’s eyes immediately darted to where her draconequus friend lay. She galloped over to him in a heartbeat.

“Oh my, is he alright?” Rarity said upon noticing him. Following her cue, everypony ran to their draconequus friend, who was spread across the road motionless. Fluttershy was the first to his side, but the rest soon followed and encouraged him to get up. Nopony wanted to ask the damning question, even as tears started to flood Fluttershy's eyes. They all persisted trying to wake him, not one of them giving up hope. And it took a moment of coaxing, but soon he showed signs of life.

Groggily, Discord came to and rolled over so to as face away from the others. “My, my. Can I take one nap after saving Equestria from myself? I swear, ponies and personal space...” Ignoring his less-than-likeable attitude, Fluttershy embraced the exhausted spirit in a heartwarming cry of relief. Every one of them soon followed and joined in, until they were all in one giant, slightly uncomfortable, group hug. All Discord could manage to do was groan in discomfort.

Party Time

Just one day after another catastrophic event had threatened the whole country, Equestria was back to normal, with only Ponyville’s residents having been truly affected. And of course, wherever any opportunity arose near Pinkie, a party was soon to follow. Everypony was gathered in the ballroom at Twilight’s castle, which was decorated to the roof with streamers, confetti, balloons, and any other ornament you’d expect at one of her parties. Yet despite the festivities, a surly Discord sat off to the side, while the rest of the town was enjoying the sweets and entertainment that came with every celebration. He exaggerated a sigh.

“May I ask exactly what has occurred that demands a party in my honor?” he asked when the party planner finally came near.

“Because, silly, it’s your very first Went-Through-An-Existential-Crisis-That-Almost-Threw-Equestria-Into-Chaos party!” Pinkie declared with far too much enthusiasm.

He merely rolled his eyes and jeered, “I wonder how many times you’ve thrown one of those....”

“This happens to be the fourth one yet!” She gave a wide smile and then hopped along to cater to the other guests.

Ignoring why she’d ever had throw more than one of such a celebration, Discord’s attention was drawn to the ponies still partying among cake and friends. He wondered if even they knew why they were celebrating. He hadn’t done much to deserve this.

Right before he went into deep thought over the subject, his ears perked at the sight of Fluttershy drawing near, along with the rest of her friends. He wasn’t sure if he’d want to talk with the others, though, especially after yesterday’s events. Nonetheless, there was no escape at this point. “Why, hello, my dear,” he weakly smiled. It was at this time that he noticed the majority of them carried what looked like gifts. He almost gagged at the thought. “I’m assuming that those are for me?”

Twilight stepped forward and levitated her gift within Discord’s grasp. He glanced lazily at the wrapped box, but wouldn’t take it off her hooves. She sighed. “We realized we don’t give you enough credit for just being you. And everypony deserves that much. So, what better way to show our gratitude than with gifts?”

The draconequus pushed the box back toward her. “I appreciate the thought, but I hardly need gifts when I can create anything without thinking twice.” He snapped up a score of wrapped boxes all around the ponies.

“That’s true, but you can’t create something that has meaning.” She pulled one of the gifts open with her magic to reveal that there was nothing inside it. There was nothing inside any of them for that matter. The fake presents then disappeared, but Discord still refused any offerings.

Teasingly, Twilight nudged the present in his face. Again, he was reluctant, but ultimately decided to take it. Tearing the wrapping off in a single go with his talon, he opened it and pulled out - to no surprise - a book. Upon opening it, however, he discovered that there was nothing written on the pages. “I think this one’s defective.” He continued flipping through the dozens of blank pages, trying to figure what it was.

The princess giggled. “It’s meant to be a journal. I was thinking, you could probably conjure and read any book that you want in all Equestria. But what if you got to write your own stories and notes?” She smiled.

“...A journal?”

She nodded.

“For writing?”

Her grin only grew in anticipation. Clearly she thought this was the best gift there was to offer. Although he had a lot of criticisms, he resolved to keep his mouth shut, lest disappoint them all. “...Thank you.” He hadn’t ever thought of writing anything for himself. That could prove rather interesting, considering he’d been around longer than any of the other princesses. Then again, it was highly unlikely he’d stay in one place wrong enough to write half a word.

“Might I go next?” Rarity kindly asked before revealing her unwrapped gift: a long scarf with an erratic pattern of various colors and crystals on it. “I wondered what types of clothing might suit you, and once I got the idea of a scarf in my mind, I simply couldn’t let it go.” She took the liberty of wrapping the accessory around his neck. Of course, his immediate inclination was to take it off, but he decided to keep it on. At least until everypony left.

The rest followed in the same behavior, stepping up and presenting their gift, each of which usually served little function to him - including Applejack’s basket of apple-related treats, and Spike’s action-packed yet rather unengaging comic books. The only one he remotely enjoyed was Pinkie’s gift of cupcakes. And there was no doubt that he’d enjoy whatever gift Fluttershy offered, but it did happen to be a homemade pillow that was surprisingly comfortable.

After only a few minutes, though even that was far too long for Discord’s patience, the only one who hadn’t presented a gift of some sort was Rainbow Dash. She stood nervously behind everypony else, trying to shield herself as if they would forget she hadn’t given him anything. Unfortunately for her, Pinkie jubiously bounced over to her. “So where’s your gift, Dashie?” She jumped all around her, checking every corner of her body. “Ooh, ooh! Is it invisible?”

“Rainbow,” Applejack pressed her friend. “You brought something, right?”

Rainbow Dash meekly stepped out of the crowd of ponies. “Well...I had a gift. I mean, was going to…” So far, nopony was impressed with her excuse. After frantically looking around and finding no sympathy, she burst into a rant. “Okay, what in Equestria would you give to somepony who can make anything they want? If I knew he’d take comics, scarves, and an empty book, I’d have brought something!”

“What about a hug?” Pinkie suggested.

“No,” she and Discord replied in unison, with dead seriousness in their voices.

“I think that’d be just fine,” Fluttershy said with a smile, condemning the two to make amends after everything that had happened so far. The two of them looked at each other unsurely, awkwardness already settling in before they even made a move. Discord glanced over to Fluttershy in hopes that she would change her mind. She didn’t.

The two edged closer to one another, trying to put off the inevitable. A few more moments of sheer discomfort passed, until Rainbow broke. “Okay, this is ridiculous. Here!” She practically flew into the draconequus’ arms and embraced him for as long as the two could bear before suddenly letting go. "All right. Happy...existential...crisis...chaos thing." Rainbow angrily blushed.

"Why, thank you," Discord smirked at Dash's embarrassment, ignoring his own. But he did appreciate the thought.

There was some idle chatter among the group, discussing trivialities that only close friends would care to talk about. The conversations that lasted for what seemed like an eternity only drove Discord more and more mad. Whenever he had a minute to think, he considered whether or not he should keep his presents or throw them into some other dimension. He'd have to keep the pillow, of course. Then again, the scarf was getting rather comfy. And the apple themed desserts didn't taste that bad, either...

After a while, everypony was starting to become bored of the small talk. Soon, Pinkie brought life back to their celebration. “Well, are we all just gonna stand here? C’mon, ponies, this party hasn’t even started!” She rushed over to turn on some music and liven up the party for the town. Not long after, everypony was back into the spirit of things.

Before joining the rest of them, Discord took a moment to observe the ponies as they went to dance, play games and stuff themselves with cake. He couldn't understand how they were here all merrily, when yesterday he’d sent the entirety of the town into pure chaos. He didn't even comprehend why he himself was allowed anywhere near here. To be fair, though, he hadn’t had any spontaneous urges to turn the balloons into disco balls, or turn the streamers into snakes in quite some time. After creating a hideous world with no chaos, as well as reviving his chaotic playground that engulfed Ponyville, he wasn’t sure if his magic itself was safe to use. It didn’t seem possible for him to have a better roll in Equestria than the despot who ruined everypony’s lives.

As he continued to look, however, he started to become bored with the lackluster party favors and cliché games that’d been used time and time again in these ponies’ parties. He couldn’t bear to watch it any longer, and yet was apprehensive about only causing more of a mess. But living like this - whether holding back chaos or letting it roam free in the world - wasn’t truly living for him at all. Resolving to find some odd compromise in a magic that was meant to be unpredictable and unbalanced, he snapped and added his own flavor to the party.

Wilder decorations took form. There were impossibly-shaped balloons and floating streamers; the crystal walls became a variety of colors and were bouncy like gelatin. The treats were replaced with an assortment of odd-looking goods that didn't seem all that edible. The pony residents were immediately shocked and almost appalled by the sudden changes. Discord winced and started to regret having done anything at all. He closed his eyes, expecting an uproar of hatred from the crowd. Yet instead, he heard a roar of joy and elation.

Much to his surprise, the ponies seemed to actually enjoy the unexpected liveliness added to the party. The fillies were the first to enjoy it, ricocheting off the gelatinous walls and stuffing themselves with the bizarre sweets on the tables. Others were mystified by the strange decor, inspired by the impossible geometry of the balloons, or toying around with the magic streamers. Soon everypony was making games out of their new chaotic playthings, and having even more fun than before.

Discord had probably seen the majority of the universe’s untold secrets...and this had to be one of the oddest things he’d ever seen. “So when I cause a tsunami on a hot day I get chastised, but when I liven up a party it’s fine?” Discord defeatedly slumped down on the floor. “You ponies are ridiculous.”

Ponies were legitimately enjoying some of his creations, things that he assumed only he could appreciate - maybe sometimes Fluttershy. It wasn’t that he’d never tried entertaining others, it’s just that it’d never actually worked before. But right here, right now, he was making others happy with his nonsensical sense of humor. Even if it was only for a little while, at this party he’d never asked for. Maybe there was a balance between chaos and reality?

“Come on, Dizzy, are you gonna be a party pooper at your own party?” Pinkie yelled from across the room, where she was dancing with the rest of her friends. “Shake that tail of yours!” The others signaled him to come over and dance.

He’d usually be annoyed by the thought of spending time with any ponies other than Fluttershy, but right now he was in the mood. He teleported next to the Mane Six and began showing off some of his silly and random dance moves, including his feet tap-dancing on their own and his body twisting in all sorts of illogical ways. And he was actually having a good time for once, along with everypony else.

It was never a concept he could quite grasp. Him, coexisting with ponies? Living happily amidst both harmony and chaos? Something about that just didn’t make any sense to him.

But then what fun is there in making sense?

Author's Note

See? I said by the end of the summer...of next year. Ugh. I had to finish this, or it would've haunted me forever.

One of my biggest fears was not giving this a satisfactory conclusion. But there's no success without trying, so here's my best shot. At least it's done!