A missing Draconequus and a broken mind.

Discord's mind groggily protested in vain as he was brought unwillingly back to conciseness. 'Urg, I haven't felt this bad since I got out of that statue.' Discord tried to float himself in the air and had to hold a gasp at the pain it cause. 'Scratch that, this is far worse.' Falling back onto the ground of his chaotic lawn and rising under his own steam to his feet/hooves or whatever the hay was down there. 'That felt surprisingly easy, maybe my magic just needs a rest.' As he thought that he looked up at the sky imagining the caricatures of himself and the most beautiful mare in Equestria. A little smile came back to the Draconequus as he remembered the he should have a reply to his letter by now. Then he groaned again, he had been planning to round up his letterbox before it arrived but had slept past the time that he could do that and no doubt the letter would have materialised within Norbert already. Now to find Norbert the post box. Discord wandered around the island his house resided on. He knew Norbert would be there as Norbert couldn't fly and the bridge was down but that still gave him quite a search. 'Why did I think it was a good idea to make a post box that would attempt to hide my mail from me,' Discord asked himself this question every single time he had to hunt down the living red cylinder but didn't have it even in his heart to replace the little scamp.

One day about a month after Mortem and Twilight had gotten together, Discord had tried to take Norbert to meet Fluttershy's animal friends in order to try and make his relationship with her vengeful rabbit at least an uneasy cease-fire as opposed to having to magically stop carrot, melons and even an anvil once from hitting him in the head every time he paid a visit to his friends house. It hadn't gone quite as planned. Norbert had never been to Equestria world before let alone in the middle of a crowded town like PonyVille. Discord had appeared outside sugar cube corner hoping that the walk from there to Fluttershy's cottage would tire out the post-box and make him slightly more cooperative. Norbert however had other plans it seemed. He had ran a mock, consuming at least a hundred bits worth of cake and chocolate at sugar cube corner before darting off towards the friendship castle. Discord shook his head in despair and blinked into the throne room catching the postbox with a load of books Jammed into his letter slot. Discord quickly made himself invisible as the Princess of Friendship who looked anything but friendly chased after Norbert as he ran out of the room into one of the many corridors, firing a few spells at him all of which either missed entirely or simply bounced off achieving absolutely nothing. The irritated Alicorn followed after him looking determined. As is was the morning Mortem had evidently still been asleep until now, Discord knew from his interactions with the God that he was not in any way shape or form a morning pony. He appeared in the door way as he wandered in wearing his pony form magically floating a cup of tea in front of him and intending to find out what had caused his mare friend to be running about and firing stunning spells when he was trying to wish her good morning and trying to give her tea. As he was about halfway across the room he stopped and morphed suddenly into his human body wearing nothing but a bath robe and a light grey shirt. He turned his head to the still invisible Discord in the corner and locked eyes with him. He audibly sighed and brought Lucerne into existence in his palm. Discord considered blinking away but knew Mortem would catch up with him eventually so he just stood and waited for the inevitable counter spell to his invisibility.

"Going to tell me why I didn't get to bring Twilight a cup of tea whilst she studied?" He asked after revealing the Chaos Lord. He looked annoyed but not angry. Discord knew exactly how Mortem looked when he was angry and still remembered having the boulder hit his face at something close to twice the speed of sound.

"Just thought I would drop in and bring Norbert," Discord said sweetly a little halo appearing above his head alongside a set of white robes. Mortem just looked at him with a face reading something along the lines of 'One day I am gonna hurt you a lot.' Discord caught the expression but didn't react, 'You know as well as I do brother that boulder was a lucky hit.' In truth it was but only because it was the first one Mortem had thrown, they had been at the bottom of a meteor crater so he had plenty more to cast at Discord if need be.

"Why are you here Discord, you know just ignoring whatever this "Norbert" is." He said this with a little more annoyance forming in his eyes. Mortem didn't actually have any overt dislike towards Discord since his reformation but he really enjoyed bringing Twilight a cup of tea in the mornings as she would always lean against him and nuzzle into his neck as she finished whatever part of the book she was reading. It was part of the daily cycle he and Twilight had established. He would like to say it has come about naturally but it hadn't. Twilight being Twilight she had, the day he had initiated more than a friendship, sat him down and discussed such things at great lengths. Little things like the tea where not negotiated but her spending the morning studying was before them having lunch together and spending an hour honing magical abilities together where. After this he would often have some task from Celestia and Twilight would have something similar so they would both go about that for the after-noon.

"I will have you know Norbert is a perfectly nice post-box." Discord couldn't resist the chance to annoy his brother. Mortem magicked his tea cup over to a nearby side-table near Twilights throne as he was pulled from his thoughts of how wrong that schedule had gone when they discovered they both had a hard time leaving the other one in bed alone. He then faced down to the ground, exhaled and rubbed his temples. He was about to explode at the Draconequus for his attempts to annoy him but his anger was annulled by his favourite voice in Equestria.

"Mortem have you seen a post box running around." Twilight asked him getting his attention immediately. She had lost the creature somewhere in the upper floors after giving some chase. Discord smirked, he wouldn't obey a direct order from Celestia and Luna if he disagreed with it and yet he attentively listened to Twilight at the time. "Oh Discord why are you here... Wait a minuet you wouldn't know anything about a rouge book stealing post box would you?" The tone of her voice made it evident it was a demand for an explanation as opposed to a genuine enquiry.

"I don't have the vaguest idea what you mean, Princess..." Discord replied a smug tone in his voice as the angelic circlet appeared back above his horns. He preformed a mock bow as he said the last work knowing how much it would irk Twilight who was still not a huge fan of being considered royalty. As he came back up he caught a dangerous flash in Mortems eyes and decided he could reap chaos on some less powerful ponies. Not that he would drop his mantle of course. "Norbert is a model citizen, I am sure he just forgot to check them out is all."

Twilight sighed picking up Mortem's tea cup and sipping it to calm herself. Mortem looked slightly irritated by this but held his tongue as he wasn't about to take Discord's side. "Discord, just get yourself and you little Chaotic pet out of my castle so I can get back to studying. Also Mortem aren't you supposed to be meeting my brother about new training today."

Mortem groaned audibly, "I was hoping you would forget I had agreed to that." He shook his head dejectedly. He was hoping to skip that obligation and spend time with Twilight. He had planned to send a letter to Shinning Armour with some suggestions and some excuse but apparently his better half was not going to allow that. He cringed at the incoming monotony before turning into a shards of painted paper which promptly burned to nothing. Discord mentally cringed at how overly dramatic that was, if Discord something was overly dramatic then there was a problem.

Twilight despaired for the complete lack of acceptance of responsibility of her colt-friend. 'Quite why he decided to only ever be nice to me I will never know.' After dispatching her household god of death she turned to the god of Chaos who had rudely interrupted her studying. "Go on, out. And take your damn pet with you." As she said this a broom flew over from the other side of the room and started to brush at Discords feet. Twilight didn't hold any ill feelings towards the Draconequus but she did find his antics quite annoying and had been about to get to one of her favourite bits of the day.

Without another word Discord Magically relocated Norbert to under his lion arm and flashed away. He was gonna appear at Fluttershy's cottage but instead decided to try and set things right at sugar cube corner first. After all outside of Fluttershy pinky was the most friendly of the elements towards him. He appeared in the shop and started to practice magic. He fixed the damaged doors and counter, picked up the knocked over chairs which Pinky her self was in the process of correcting. After doing so he placed a bad next to her with about three times the cost of the stolen stock and quickly said "Sorry about that." to the pink mare who was about to talk before Discord disappeared again.

Finally at his destination of Fluttershy's cottage he knocked his customary eight time in a little rhythm. A few seconds later Fluttershy opened the door and beamed at him. "Discord" she sang flying up to his neck and throwing her hooves around his neck fast enough to wind him. It had been a while since she had last seen the Draconequus and as such the timid part of her brain had taken a temporary back seat.

"G-glad to see you to Flu" coughing "ttershy" he spluttered as she released him realising what she had done in her excitement and blushed landed. She was about to appologise before noticing the creature under his arm. "Hardly fly my mixed up flank. Why I bet you could..." He stopped when he realised Fluttershy wasn't listening as was instead staring at Norbert.

"Discord what kind of creature is that?" she asked staring inquisitively at the postbox which responded by darting a tongue out of his letter box/mouth and licking Fluttershy's face to which she giggled. Discord realised she liked his weird companion so he placed him down just past her thresh hold and he proceeded to scamper up to Fluttershy licking her again. She laughed again and started to pet him. 'That is quite remarkable, a creatures appearance being strange or frightening really doesn't even begin to phase her.' Discord glanced down at his own Mismatched body and smiled. 'Much better than Twilight, why she hardly knew Norbert and she was already trying to attack him.' Fluttershy's voice brought Discord back to reality. As opposed to her normally delicate voice she sounded angry and for a second Discord's heart stopped, literally, in worry that she was angry with him.

"ANGEL BUNNY, WE DO NOT THROW THINGS AT FRIENDS." Discord was relieved to have his heart running again and noticed that there was a doorstop on the floor near where Norbert had been and he was now hiding slightly shaken looking behind Fluttershy's back legs. "It is one thing with Discord who can defend himself, It is quite another when you are throwing things at a harmless little... Creature." She eventually settled on as she had no idea what species if any discords pet belonged to. There was a fairly good chance it didn't and was just a another weird creation of his. Discord shot a smirk at the rabbit who was sulkily walking away. As soon as Fluttershy turned back to the Draconequus angel promptly gave her and Norbert the finger. However he then looked at Discord and noticed a very hostile flash in his eyes and scurried away. "Sorry about him Discord, you know how defensive he can be."

"Don't worry about it my dear Fluttershy" Discord said as he wrapped his snakelike body around her and took pleasure in there closeness. At the time he wasn't aware why he loved this so much but he still could think of nothing better than holding Fluttershy like this.

A noise nearby caught Discords attention tearing him away from his thoughts with a familiar panting. Sure enough there was Norbert near the Pool. Discord Flashed on top of him and grabbed him with a new anticipation . Norbert didn't struggle. A horrible fear set into Discords heart. 'He always struggles when he had a letter for me.' Discord's eagle talon shook as he opened the incoming mail compartment and as he saw the empty compartment he felt a cold, hard entity appear where his heart should be and felt his body course with a new darker chaos magic. Despite the power trip worth magical spike Discord felt nothing but sorrow. 'She doesn't like me, not even as a friend any more.' He clicked his fingers and appeared in an empty part of the chaotic vortex which was his home dimension. Rage filled his mind when he spotted the star that had made the light in Fluttershy's eye in his constellation. He vented some of his magical power towards it and watched it turn black and crack. It collapsed into a ball of ash, as Discords heart followed suit. Sombrely he raised his talon. "I may not be able to put myself back into a statue but this will do. Without her I don't want any freedom in Equestria." Discord looked at his pocket watch and summoned a calendar. "3:42 AM SIXTH OF FEBRUARY, FINALLY EQUESTRIA YOU GET YOUR WISH. NO MORE DISCORD." With that he clicked his talons and a grey reinforced box covered in black iron chains appeared around him. Subtly a black shadow started to creep out of the box clinging to the underside of it. The shadow crept in a sinister fashion and shook occasionally as if it was chuckling.

--7AM the same day friendship castle--

Fluttershy could hear voices as she woke from her Slumber. "Did anyone see her leave?" Said Rainbow Dash with a worried tone to her voice.

"No she was sat reading when I fell asleep I think" Replied Rarity.

"Me too" replied apple Jack.

"Me three" Pinky pie cut in.

"What is wrong girls? " Fluttershy asked finally having managed to fully wake herself up and took in stock of the room. Everything seemed fine then she noticed the problem. "Oh where's Twilight?"

"We don't know sugar cube." Stated apple jack casting her eyes about the room as if she expected to see the Alicorn hiding on one of the bookshelves.

"Here I am girls." Twilight said in a quiet voice knowing they would all realise exactly where she had been when she used the door that lead between her quarters and the throne room.

"Oh that's where you where." Said dash in a charged voice arching an eyebrow and smirking at the Blushing Alicorn. Twilight was displeased that she was about to face a ribbing for sleeping with her colt friend but she supposed she had put rainbow on the spot by revealing her balcony activities with Soarin. However she then felt something behind her that she did not expect. Mortem was walking up to her, this surprised her as normally he would refuse to get out of bed until at least 10.

"Oh nothing like that Dash, Unlike Soarin I can keep my hooves of my mare friends flanks for one night. In fact yesterday must have been hell for him." Dash faltered at Mortem's words. 'For Celestia's sake does every pony know?' Twilight dug a hoof into his ribs for teasing her friend so cruelly.  Mortem smirked turned to the girls as a whole saying. "I would love to sit and chat about music and boys or whatever you get up to at these meets but Celestia had Luna tell me something is amiss by one of the portals to the Chaos Dimensions and wants me to look into it for her. I suppose I should get cracking if it is important enough to send Luna into my head." As he pulled his old paper trick Fluttershy stiffened as she remembered the letter.

"Oh no!" She said in what for her was an uncommonly loud voice, which was still fairly low by most ponies standards. She hopped out of her throne bed and dashed out of the room with intention to go and fine the Chaos god's letter.

Her friends followed her but didn't go a third as fast letting her get a big head start. When they finally found her she was staring at a scroll of paper with a few tears in her eyes and sitting deathly still. "Fluttershy what's wrong?" Twilight asked her concern evident in her voice. She Mutely turned around and gave Twilight the the Letter. As Twilights eyes travelled down the page at super-pony speeds her face fell further and further.

Dear Fluttershy

I am writing  to tell you of something that has been gnawing at the heart you brought back to life for some time now. Every time we are together I cannot focus on anything and until recently I had absolutely no why this was happening. However I cast my Chaotic mind on our past experiences. How kind and patient you where when I was resisting your reformation efforts. How It made my soul feel like it was going to crack and fall away when you walked away on that uncommonly icy day at sweet apple achers. How you looked when I sided with Tirek. How you forgave me. How you tolerated my Jealous nature towards Tree your other friends. How through it all you still forgave me and helped me be a better friend to you and the girls. I am not and will never be non chaotic but being around you makes me love the ordered nature of life for its own amazing Beauty. If you would like to be more than Just a friend to me please send me a letter saying so, or if you want to stay friends please do the same. I would love to see you but I know you have to go to the friendship council meet today and you have taught me it is rude to but it as such I will give it until the end of the day for a reply by letter as you should have plenty of time. I cannot wait to here from you. I love you Fluttershy.

You Chaotic pal and infatuated admirer Discord.

"Twilight, I never replied to that letter. He must think I don't even want to be friends with him." With that Fluttershy Looked utterly Dejected and Twilight was about to put a hoof out to her before she rose her head with knew devotion shining in her tearing eyes. "We have to find him."