Raziel tried to move back as he was surprised by the now moving statue but he stumbled with a wooden chair that appeared out of nowhere, forcing him to sit back as chains appeared from within the chair and made sure he couldn't move.

• "Now" -, the creature known as Discord said before he decided to sit on a spiked iron throne that squeaked when he sat on it, - "as I was saying before the previous chapter ended: who are you and why are you invading my playground?"

Raziel took a moment to think what he was hearing, trying to comprehend what was in front of him but his mind was unable to properly analyze what he was looking at. He understood what this creature was capable off but not who he was nor where did he come from, the idea of facing it wasn't one Raziel felt very keen to do so, he decided to bide his time so he could properly prepare.

• "Raziel is my name, I am the Soul Reaver, capable of shifting between the Physical Realm and the Spectral Realm. Hopefully that will answer your first question but I apologize on not being able to answer the second question for I was not aware that Canterlot was your playground. Perhaps a bigger presentation of yourself would aid me to understand who are you to make such preposterous claim."

Discord gave Raziel a bored look as a little book appeared on his paw.

• "I wasn't expecting you to talk in an even more boring way than Celestia herself and, apparently, I'll have to give you the ABC on who are you talking to" -. And, as he threw the book at Raziel, which made a little poof with shining dust as it exploded, he reappeared next to Raziel while wearing a tuxedo and giving him a little card and talking at a very fast pace. - "Hello there, I'm Discord, the Spirit of Chaos and Lord of Disharmony. I used to rule over Equestria before those two boring princesses appeared and decided to stop me and my fun. I love chocolate, breaking the rules of physics, having fun at the expense of others, experimenting with new toys, breaking the will of those who love harmony, long walks on the beach and whatever other thing fanfiction writers like to add into my personality whenever they try to impersonate me."

Everything around Raziel disappeared as Discord put himself back on where his statue's pedestal was located but there was now a giant throne while he was wearing a royal red coat with a golden crown on his head.

• "And, as I am returning to my position as ruler of Equestria, I just cannot have either you or the other invader going around messing around with my fun so I would like to ask you to go back to wherever you came from or else I'll do it by other means at my disposal."

Raziel started to analyse his words carefully and see how strong where the chains holding him down before answering. This creature certainly wasn't the Elder God but it was very close to be as dangerous as it but, there was something on Discord's words that Raziel took notice off...

• "Other invader? So you are aware of the squid invading Equestria?"

Discord's eyes bulged at this.

• "Squid?" - He then started to take note of those words. - "That is an interesting choice of words you have there, so I'll take it you know each other?"

• "That parasite almost destroys to my home world and I was sent here to put an end to its life before it starts to plunge Equestria into the same decay and corruption that my home Nosgoth was victim off."

Discord put his claw on his head as his mind thought of what he could do about with this piece of information and the answer literally came in the form of a light bulb on the top of his head.

• "So, let's see if I get this straight" -, the draconequus said in a very diplomatic manner, - "you came here to seek for the squid and, once it's gone, then you'll leave?" - As Raziel nodded, the lord of chaos tried to suppress a maniac grin. - "Excellent, so why don't we do this, I help you out to find and remove that creature so, in exchange, you can leave this place as soon as you can? I'm certain that searching for it must be quite tedious for you."

Raziel was shocked at the speed Discord decided to help him, which meant there must have been something to look for.

• "My apologies for my skepticism but, why would you decide to help me on this when you know so little about who we are or what do we plan to do? Is there something you are keeping from me that would put our conversation into jeopardy?"

• "Has anyone told you that your way of speaking is boring and outdated?" - Raziel couldn't but notice how Discord had a few levels of annoyance on his voice but that was quickly replaced with his usually casual tone. - "Fine, this isn't the first time I've heard of it. It came to me a few months ago and asked me for help in exchange of releasing me but I told it to kick up a bucket and if what you told me of that thing is true, then it's on our best interest to get rid of it so let me help you to help me to help you: I can track it down, so you can take it back home and then I'll return you to your home world so you can finish it there.

Doesn't that sounds good enough for you? With that creature gone, you won't have to worry for either this world or your own from falling victim to that Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni anymore. What could you lose from this?"

Raziel took a moment to think at the proposal and realize that, should he accept this deal, he didn't actually have something to lose but, his experience from Nosgoth told him, that this was just too good to be true. For a brief moment he wondered what could possible be there for him to lose but he quickly realized that, to know what kind of deal this was, he didn't have to ask what was in this for him to lose, but rather what was for Discord to win with this treaty.

• "Your proposition seems to be well made, Discord, but before I could accept this, I would like to ask, what is here for you to gain?"

Discord's eyes starting to move from side to side as his mouth could only squeak a shocked 'excuse me?'

Raziel then went through the chains as if they weren't there and started to move besides Discord as if evaluating him.

• "Do you really think I would believe your intentions are pure?" - Raziel then started to look at Discord with an analytical gaze. - "Why would you provide me an unilateral help?"

Discord tried to look around as if trying to search for an excuse but he relented.

• "Fine" -. he then started to become transparent as he spoke, - "you saw through me" -. He then reappeared besides Raziel while holding a glass filled with a liquid that Raziel couldn't figure out what it was. - "I suppose I shouldn't be blue, after all, you aren't exactly as foolish as the ponies" -. He then moved the glass towards him but, after noticing that the liquid wasn't moving, he decided to throw the glass but it stopped moving as it broke into pieces in the middle of the air. - "Alright, I'll tell you my plans."

Discord then transported in front of Raziel while wearing a black robe and while having a blackboard behind him.

• "I'll now give you a brief lesson of how my powers work so you'll, hopefully, understand why I am being so nice to you."

This black board then came to life and started to draw Discord with much detail while showing him as someone who was helping the world by throwing his magic across the world and making it work by itself.

• "You see, my powers allow me to make some changes in the environment, such as allowing the weather to work by itself, the animals are capable of working by themselves and I was the one that was making everything funnier but" -, the black board then started to create some crude drawings of both Celestia and Luna challenging the very well made drawing of Discord. The drawings then started to fight with the ponies being the clear winners but Raziel couldn't stop from noticing how it was making it look like if the princesses were the bad ones, - "those two butt heads, with their speeches of harmony and other boring stuff, decided to seal me into stone and upset the natural balance."

Raziel took a moment to think about this before asking.

• "And how do I enter into this picture?"

Discord simply pointed at the blackboard, who quickly made a regular figure of Raziel.

• "Like that."

The blackboard then started to draw the Elder God's eye as Discord tried to throw his magic at them and showing that his magic has little to no effect on them but the Elder God was starting to change the world surrounding it to its liking as it started to suck the magic from everything surrounding it.

• "As you can see, this thing (as well as you) are eating the magic on Equestria. Not only the inherent magic from them but all around you and this is a huge problem for all of us. Now, thankfully, I still have enough power to send you both back to where you came from but, if this thing grows more, it will start to devour everything and not even I will be able to stop it since my magic will be too weakened to affect it."

The board as well as Discord's robes disappeared as his paw was once again offered.

• "So, deal?"

The more Raziel tried to find a problem with his reasoning, the less he could find to refuse to this time limited deal. It wasn't as if Raziel trusted Discord (after all, he was calling Celestia and Luna the villains of the story) and more of worry over allowing the Elder God to destroy everything if he didn't found it quick enough but he couldn't accept. He knew there was something wrong in Discord's words and only by talking would Raziel find the problem.

He then remembered his discussions with Twilight about how the Reaver's magic could affect Equestria and he had an epiphany.

• "And why would I have to accept your deal when I already have a plan to stop that parasite?"

Discord's face briefly showed him annoyed but that quickly changed to his usual grinning face while his voice showed that he was getting exasperated with Raziel's denial to accept the deal.

• "Oh, come on, what do you mean with a plan?"

• "It's simple" -. Raziel continued. - "All I have to do is to give part of my magic to the Elements of Harmony and they would then erase that creature from existence. Why do I have to accept your offer of moving it back home when I already have a deal that will ensure its end?"

Discord then turned around and mumbled to himself: "For the first time in centuries I find someone who isn't a boring parrot about harmony and it's not making it happy."

He then turned around, now disguised as a salesman, and made one last attempt to make this peacefully.

• "Look, as long as I am free, you don't have to worry on that thing out there trying to invade other worlds and I'm sure you can finish it back home since it still hasn't recovered from whatever you did there. Besides, why would you need those elements when their bearers aren't avaiable?"

Raziel looked at Discord with contempt on his eyes and asked with such a cold tone that it froze Discord on ice.

• "What do you mean by that?"

By the time Discord thawed himself out, he realized that he made a wrong comment, so it was time to talk.

• "Well, if you insist."

Discord then made a puppet show where he started to move around some ponies shaped with the form of Twilight and her friends.

• "You see, Sunbutt over here called them to try to use those elements against me."

A puppet with the shape of Discord then appeared and started to touch each pony, removing them of their color.

• "So I decided to make sure that they cannot even use their elements" -. The puppets then started to move towards Ponyville while fighting with each other. - "And while Nihilist Sprinkle here hasn't been affected by my magic as of yet, even if she solved my riddle and is able to find the Elements of Harmony, there's no way for her to use them which lead us back here."

Discord then literally dropped his nice face and started to look at Raziel with contempt and willing to fight.

• "I've been playing the nice guy so far but, if you don't accept, then I'll force both you and that piece of sushi out of this realm even if that means using all my magic to do so."

Raziel looked at himself in the deep predicament that was facing him as of now. He was well aware that Discord had the advantage here but it would be unacceptable to leave his equestrian friends so he did what he knew was right. He looked at Discord directly into his eyes, with no fear to bear, and draw the Spiritual Reaver directly at him.

• "If that is the case, then prepare yourself creature, for you are about to know why I am the Soul Reaver."

Discord's smile separated from his disappearing body as he answered.

• "Alright then, you'll see why I am the Spirit of Chaos."

Pieces of Discord's body appeared (the paw in front of Raziel, the claw behind him, the lizard's leg on his left and the pony's leg to his right) and shot all at the same time a series of yellow blast that Raziel quickly avoided by jumping but Discord's arms quickly appeared and gave Raziel an elbow that threw him down to the ground as his tail whipped him to the nearest statue.

• "Come on, you make it look like you aren't even trying."

Before Raziel could try to recover, Discord's body reassembled and started to throw a barrage of objects that Discord himself created. Chairs, tables, clocks, scrolls, statues, spears, etc. There was no limit of what Discord threw at Raziel and, knowing fully well that the fight would be boring if Raziel remained trapped under all of that, Discord quickly snapped his fingers and made all the objects surrounding Raziel to blow up.

As Discord saw the smoke rising up from the power coming from him, he started to smile with glee at the idea of actually being less restricted than usual. More often than not he couldn't use all of his powers since the other races wouldn't be able to resist so much chaos so he would have to use his magic to play mind games and see how his... playmates... reacted to whatever he did. The mind games were much more enjoyable, sure, but it was nice to find someone with whom he could play a bit rougher compared to the usual pony.

But Discord's fun started to melt as he noticed Raziel standing up very slowly, clearly weakened from all those attacks and, before Discord could have the time to say or do anything, he raised his arm and aimed at Discord. The draconequus was planning to ask what was all that about but the answer came to him in the form of a shock wave that stopped his body from moving.

Raziel then started to aim his Reaver at Discord, concentrating a great amount of power, much to Discord's concern and shot it in the form of a big white sphere of energy that caused Discord a huge amount of pain. Discord could feel through his whole body how the magic was trying to disintegrate him as considering him a vile entity that had to be vanquished and the only thing stopping this attack from destroying him was the fact that this was a simple energy blast and he had more than enough magic to recover from this attack but, still, it caused him great amounts of pain.

Raziel, meanwhile, thought for a brief moment, as he saw Discord's body going down to the ground and the creature started to pant as if he was tired, of how Discord was shown that he wasn't going to leave without a fight but the chaotic entity decided to show it's true strength as he snapped his fingers once again, making the land to reshape itself to constrict Raziel's body to make sure he couldn't escape this time with vines that held down his arms and the ground absorbing his legs.

As Raziel tried to release himself from Discord's new trap, the Spirit of Chaos decided to reincorporate himself back to the air as his hand started to concentrate more and more of his own magic while his eyes showed nothing but anger towards Raziel.

• "If you wanted to play the Big Leagues from the very beginning, you should have said so" -. His two hands then started to concentrate into a giant sphere that became smaller as his hands started to put more and more pressure into it. Raziel could see how the magic was started to distort the area surrounding him and, as the magic ball became smaller and smaller, the affected area increased more and more. - "That way I would show you how to give a proper magic strike."

Discord then threw the magical blast towards Raziel and it didn't even got to touch him before all the area surrounding him started to fall apart and collapse in itself, destroying the separation between the two realms as Raziel could see what was happening through all of Equestria without even needing to shift from the Spectral Realm as it could be felt how everything was distorting and reshaping by itself. There was no way for him to tell what was happening to him before the blast could even touch him.

Pain though, it was all Raziel could feel as the energy attack hit him and tried to reshape him but Raziel could feel how his inner magic as well as his own being was resisting Discord's magic even though it was that resistance what caused Raziel so much pain.

By the time the pain ended and the magic surrounding Discord's attack was gone, Raziel managed to reincorporate himself only to see that he was no longer on the Castle's Gardens. He was now within the castle, still on the Spectral Realm, and it was also showing signs of being under Discord's influence as Raziel found himself to be on the roof while the ground was fragmented into various pieces that were floating around the place, making it look like Raziel would need to jump through the floating grounds to leave the chamber, if it weren't because the doors were blocked by granite and the windows were shut down. Raziel then looked at the center of the chamber he was now standing in, and noticed a portal to shift between realms.

Raziel was more than eager to use the portal but he then realized that he was too weakened to even try to use it and there were no souls nearby to fill him with energy. Then Discord came with a face showing no signs of stopping his rampage anytime soon.

• "Now that I've found you, are you willing to go for a second round or are you going to accept my deal? I can repeat that attack as many times as I want so don't even think of facing me again."

Raziel's mind was trying to find a solution to his current conundrum. He had no intention to to accept that deal but Discord made it very clear that he was strong and smart enough to defeat him with little to no effort. There wasn't much Raziel could do but his mind quickly came up with an idea that was so desperate and so contrived that he really hoped it would work against the Spirit of Chaos.

• "A deal through coercion isn't more than way for cowards and those who lack of enlightenment in their minds to talk."

• "I don't know what that meant but I feel offended by that."

• "What you are tying to do won't bring any benefits on the long term and it would be foolish to think otherwise."

• "So you are still going to resist?" - Challenged Discord as his arms started to concentrate energy once again. - "Alright then, I'll make sure to make this trip as unenjoyable to you as possible."

• "Alright then" -, Raziel responded with defiance on his voice, - "but before you make your first attempt, I would like to confirm something."

Discord looked at Raziel with an intriguing look as he asked what did he want to confirm.

• "You said that one of your titles is the 'Spirit of Chaos', isn't it?"

Discord pull a list out of nowhere as he sought for his titles and confirmed it.

• "Yes, 'Spirit of Chaos' is one of my titles, why?"

Raziel then started to move one of his claws towards his scarf while Discord suspected nothing of it.

• "If that is the case, I would like to show you something."

• "Wow! Stop there Edward Grey!" - Shouted Discord as he started to cover his eyes. - "This isn't that kind of show!"

Raziel ignored his words and opened his scarf, giving Raziel the much desired results that he was hoping for as Discord's body started to be pulled into Raziel's mouth.

The lord of chaos himself didn't notice it at first, he was distracted by Raziel unfolding his scarf, but he then started to feel his energy leaving his body without his permission, he then started to feel himself being pulled by a mysterious force and what was initially dread turned quickly into fear as he noticed how his body was being completely pulled into Raziel's mouth. That fear was then turned into terror as he saw what was beyond Raziel's mouth and he was forced to quickly escape from that place.

• "My apologies but I don't like to be that close when we have only been on our first date."

• "Are those the words of a beast that has realized that it cannot control everything with pure magical strength? Perhaps you should use this as a lesson of why cowardly tactics will never work for the likes of you."

Discord's response told Raziel what he needed to know: this battle was over for the time being.

• "Don't get into your high horses Casper, I'll deal with you once I reshuffle my cards. For now, I'll let you enjoy your royal visit while I go to play with my other sources of fun in Ponyville."

Raziel's mind quickly flared into anger as all he could do was to shout at the air.

• "Come back you malformed rat, running away once you realize your prey can fight back. May your cowardice be your ruin."

But there was no response to Raziel's insult. All that was left in that chamber was him and the portal to shift with the difference now that Raziel managed to recharge his energies from what he absorbed from Discord.

This time around, Raziel managed to get close enough to the portal and use it to go back to the Physical Realm and, to his surprise, he managed to see how the room started to reshape into how it was supposed to be like: The floor went back to the bottom, the windows closed and turned into their correct positions and the doors went back into a place where Raziel could cross them with no problem, allowing him to move through Canterlot Castle freely.

He wasn't sure of how long he went through the abandoned halls in the castle but Raziel was certain that there had to be someone in there which also begged the question of what happened to all the guards and servants? He should have stumbled upon someone by now and he didn't find a single soul in the castle.

In the end though, Raziel managed to find someone in the Castle as he got to Princess Celestia's chamber and found the Princess of the Sun sending letters through her magic. For how long she was doing it, it was hard to tell but the princess wasn't planning to stop anytime soon, not even if certain wraith decided to open a conversation with her.

• "Greetings, Princess Celestia."

The princess barely gave Raziel a look before responding.

• "Greetings, Raziel. I would like to properly salute you but, as you can see, I am quite busy at the moment."

Raziel decided to take a look at the medium sized stack of scrolls that Celestia was transporting with her magic at a decently paced speed.

• "I can tell. And what are this scrolls?"

• "This are Twilight's friendship reports."

Raziel raised his eyebrows as he heard this, remembering what Twilight once told him when he asked about her relationship with Celestia.

• "And why are you sending them off?"

• "I am sending them to Twilight."

Raziel tried to rationalize the idea as he saw how the stack of scrolls was now low in quantity, failing to understand, he decided to ask.

• "And what do you expect Twilight to learn from this?"

Celestia briefly stopped as she gave Raziel a calm but serious look, as trying to put into words the description of her actions.

• "Not as much learn, but rather to remember."

Raziel wondered what Celestia meant with that but, considering what those friendship reports were, it wasn't hard to figure out.

• "You hope that she will remember what made her to befriend the other elements in the wake of Discord's mind games?"

Celestia stopped for a brief moment as her eyes widened in shock at Raziel's words. She gave him a brief look and noticed that he wasn't under Discord's influence, which brought some curiosity to her.

• "Oh, so you already met him?"

• "Yes, unfortunately I did. He tried to make a deal with me" -. He then noticed that the last scroll was sent, allowing Celestia to rest as she looked at Raziel with curiosity on her face as she waited for him to continue. - "He told me that he could send both me and the Elder God back to Nosgoth but I refused to abandon you all and, from what I can see, I did the right decision."

Celestia briefly wondered what he meant, asking Raziel to go on as she rest and hoped for Twilight to figure out a way to defeat Discord.

• "More often than not, the kind of deals those the like of Discord tend to make usually are never meant to be on the behest of both sides of the deal. His intentions, as clever as his mind could be, would only bring him defeat from those he underestimated."

• "I see" -, said Celestia with a smile as she wondered what was Discord planning to do with Raziel out of the picture. At least she would be able to do something else in case Twilight failed, - "and I supposed you managed to defeat him?"

• "Sadly, I did not" -. Seeing Celestia's face filling with worry, Raziel quickly decided to quell her worries. - "Do not worry, I managed to scare him away once it was discovered that I could devour him as if he were a common soul on the Spectral Realm."

As much as Celestia felt more trust towards Raziel, the idea of eating Discord (or even destroying him) wasn't one she wasn't fond off. She still believed that friendship was the best way to solve a problem and that included Discord, all she actually needed was somepony willing to be patient and kind to him but that was an issue for a future date.

• "Do not worry" -, said Raziel, - "I only did that to scare him away, my intentions were not to devour him but, should he try to fight me, I will not hesitate."

It still didn't make Celestia to feel better, but it was a step forward in her opinion and it brought her an interesting question.

• "And, if it were under your terms, would you make a deal with Discord?"

Raziel took a moment to think about it. With that kind of power, Discord would certainly be a great ally but there was no way to ensure he would follow his word or that he was trustworthy. Perhaps if Raziel threaten him by using him as an edible but that wouldn't ensure Discord to stay loyal to them. Still, it was worthy to consider.

• "Perhaps if he could be provided with something that he found more enjoyable than simply torturing his victims with his powers. I am certain that he would locate the Elder God with no problem and he would then help us to defeat it but I doubt I could provide him with something worth to just track him and behave."

Celestia took a moment to let his words sink and meditate on them.

• "You put a lot of faith in your apprentice."

Raziel's words took Celestia out of her thinking and payed him back attention. He was looking through a window in the direction where Ponyville was located.

• "Excuse me?"

Raziel kept on looking at Ponyville as he answered.

• "You know Twilight so well and trust so much in her into stopping Discord that it's baffling to say the least. Very few were the times when I witnessed something like it."

Celestia took a time to ponder on what Raziel could imply and remembered his memories of what was expected from him. She briefly wondered what was the difference between her and those who manipulated Raziel but that thinking was interrupted as a rainbow wave went through Equestria (with Ponyville as the epicenter) and fixed everything back the way it was supposed to be.

• "And your faith in her was properly corresponded."

Seeing Raziel looking at the window so lonely, Celestia decided to get close to him and put her hoof on his shoulder and responded with a kind voice.

• "Not only faith, it was also hope, the same hope you have that we'll defeat the monsters trying to destroy all of this and, if we defeated Discord, then we'll defeat the biggest monster of all."

Raziel only gave Celestia a neutral look that was hard to figure out even to the Princess of the Sun but that didn't stop the two of them from going to Ponyville to celebrate Discord's defeat... well... Celestia celebrated. Raziel just stood within the library and other places where he could remain on looking at the party being celebrated while he could remain outside of it since those kind of celebrations weren't of his style.

Still, that didn't stop his friends from checking up on him from time to time.

• "Wow, you actually decided to face Discord on your own once you realized what he was doing to us?" - Shouted Spike while the other mares were asking him to stay quiet, just in case any onlooker didn't accidentally saw Raziel. - "Sorry, is just that it's so cool to think that you managed to face Discord and scare him away."

• "I'll suppose you missed the part of how he almost pulverized me."

• "While we stopped him, we are so awesome."

• "Rainbow, please, while I don't want to diminish the glamour of our victory, please remember how Discord managed to defeat us just by using simple mind tricks while Raziel actually fought him in brute combat. I doubt you could even scratch Discord if you tried."

• "Hum, could you, please, not argue about it? Sorry, is just that I don't think we should be fighting over who did the most damage against Discord."

• "Fluttershy is right, this is the time to celebrate our victory from that meany pants who wanted all to feel yucky and boring which is why we are all here to try to cheer Raziel from his usual gloomy self and while I cannot bake any type of sweet to make you feel better because you cannot eat sweets which is very sad because you cannot eat anything that isn't a soul I would like to ask you if there is anything I could do to cheer you up so-"

• "Alright Pinkie, darling" -, said Rarity as she put her hoof on Pinkie's muzzle, - "I understand your main point and do concede on the second one" -. She then looked at Raziel expectantly and asked. - "Raziel, darling, even if you cannot eat anything, there must probably be anything we could do to make your stay better. Perhaps a few gifts we could provide you?"

In that moment, Pinkie's muzzle was opened and she finished what she was saying.

• "-I could give you part of my soul so you could feed."

Everyone looked at her with shock but Pinkie didn't understood what she said.

• "What? I mean, if Raziel could partially take some part of those human's energy, then maybe he could do the same with us?"

Raziel briefly wondered about the possibility of it but Twilight quickly dashed that idea.

• "Pinkie, we don't even know about the consequences of allowing Raziel to put his magic into us, even less if he feeds on it. That is a bad idea."

Pinkie then started to look at Twilight with the face of a puppy, at which Twilight responded.

• "Look, just let me see on a controlled environment what could happen and, if it's safe, then I'll allow you to feed him with your energy, alright?"

Pinkie started to smile again and simply said her usual 'oki doki loki'.

After seeing all of that, Raziel decided to simply calm them and answer to their words of cheering.

• "I thank you all for your kind words. Your gratitude towards me and my actions, as little as they could be, brings joy to my soul. Now, while I enjoy your company, I do not want to stop you from enjoying this celebration so feel free to go back with your fellow ponies."

• "Alright then, sugarcube, but just remember that if ya' need some company, you can talk to any of us."

The ponies then started to go back outside the library and into the celebration. One by one started to leave until it was only Twilight and Raziel the ones left, something that Raziel decided to ask about.

• "Twilight, is there anything you would like to discuss with me?"

Twilight started to look at the outdoors as if what she was about to discuss was supposed to be a secret.

• "Well, it's just that, after seeing you departing, I was trying to analyze how your magic could have affected me beyond just being able to see and hear the Elder God and I wanted to share with you some of my theories before leaving to the party."

Raziel, seeing no problem with this, decided to indulge her by listening to her ideas.

• "You see, when Discord started to use his powers in Equestria, I managed to stop one of his magical manifestations but I was considering that a coincidence until I heard you stating that your attacks caused great amounts of pain. My main theory is that part of the Reaver's magic is now influencing mine but I cannot tell for sure how."

Raziel gave it a thought, knowing well that Twilight was going to ask him for help to experiment on his magic before making sure that it would be safe to put the Reaver's magic into Twilight's friends.

• "Well, I hope you find the answer to this soon, I'm certain that you will."

Twilight beamed a smile at Raziel as she decided to take this moment to hug Raziel (much to his shock) and leave to enjoy the party but not before stating.

• "Don't worry, I will find the answer to this and I will figure out if it's safe for Pinkie to feed you while still being alive. I promise you won't regret it."

And she left to the party, leaving Raziel alone as he saw the party moving, wondering how much time left he has before the monster decided to take over Equestria. That was what his mind was thinking about as he decided to shift between planes and move through Ponyville without being noticed.

As he passed through Discord's statue though, much to Raziel's surprise, it started to talk with no hints of anger or grudge towards Raziel.

• "It's not too late, you know very well what that thing will do and your so called 'friends'" -, Raziel couldn't ignore the hint of mockery on Discord's voice as he said that word, - "are only wasting your time. If you ever need to do this quickly, I'm here to send both you and that squid back to where you came from."

Raziel took his words and answered with no problem.

• "I would consider your words if it weren't because my time isn't wasted. My friends are doing what they deem best for all of us and I don't plan to betray them for a quick solution that won't defeat that monster."

The statue didn't move but its silence said more than enough for Raziel before Discord finally asked.

• "Are they really that worth it? Why are you putting your trust and hopes in some feeble ponies that are so easy to manipulate and mislead?"

Raziel wanted to make a long speech about the importance of having someone to trust, of how the few figures that he could ever trust even back in Nosgoth (Janos, Vorador and, to some extent, Kain) and how having allies has always made even the harshest of journeys to be easier than being on your own but, knowing that he simply wouldn't understand, Raziel preferred to leave and simply respond:

• "The day you meet someone willing to defend you and put up with your mischievous nature will be the day you understand how crucial having a friend actually is."

He then turned around and added before leaving.

• "And hopefully, when you finally understand, we'll be able to make a proper deal."

Author's Note

As I was writing this, it came to me that there probably are fics about Discord being the actual good guy and Celestia/Luna being the bad ones/the ones who ruined everything by inervining with their ideas while Discord was only doing his job of making the world something similar to ours. Whether or not he derailed from his job varies.

I wonder if I can use this somehow...

Writing Discord and make 4th wall jokes, just like making any type of dialogue with Pinkie Pie and the sole idea of Zecora talking, has been one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life and I hope to never do that again so, next time I write Discord, don't expect me to make him as fun as I did here (and I doubt it was even funny) and, yes, Discord will come back and be a thing. I have some plans with him.

Once again, if you like what I write, please feel free to donate to my Ko-Fi, it really helps me to keep on writing this.