A missing Draconequus and a broken mind.

Discord had only been in the box for about four hours but he could already feel his sanity slipping. He had decided the best way to deal with himself was to cut off all of his senses and see what his slightly insane mind could do with him as a play thing. 'Keeps me out of the way, they'll probably make this into some kind of holiday.' There was a charged bitter edge to his voice that had not even been present before he had been reformed. He pondered this for a while having to use most of his ailing mind to get his head around it. 'I suppose before I never really cared about any pony did I? I was just on my merry old way causing chaos and messing with people.' In retrospect Discord did feel slightly guilty for braking the girls friendship, he would never admit it aloud except a doctored version maybe to Fluttershy. As he realised his thoughts had drifted back to her he slammed his paw against the wall with enough force to shatter a drakes hide. Discord never really used it much but he was actually incredibly strong when compared to ponies. Much like Mortem, Celestia and Luna he had magically strengthened muscles which meant without looking bulky he could carry huge amounts of weight without difficulty. Despite his magical power, the wall was completely unyielding and returned the blow in full shattering the bones in his paw. He winced slightly and tried to fix the bone. *Click* 'hu?' *Click* 'Come on now I have fixed worst wounds than this.' *Click*. Discord snarled audibly at the lack of progress and was surprised and a little pained to hear the bones click back into place. As muscle and tissue was forcibly moved to accommodate the set and Discord's magic did nothing to numb the pain as he wasn't expecting it. The pain would have been enough to bring tears to even Rainbow Dash but due to a combination of a lack of self care and being used to far worse injuries from his past, a wince was all he uttered. Discord was then left stunned as he looked at his lion paw. He couldn't see anything because he hadn't given himself any lights but he could sense magic seeping out in a cold clammy fashion. He examined it and felt the same coldness he had felt grip his chest at the absence of any letters. Just sensing the magic Discord could feel his mind being pulled at. He knew there was only one force that could open the box he languished in, his magic. He sent away the magic fearing if it claimed his mind he would free himself and wreak vengeful havoc.

The shadow that clung under Discords prison engorged on the new addition a did the same Sinister Chuckling. Discord could have sworn he heard that but really didn't care. He would remain in this box until he got an offer to be turned back to stone from the Elements. 'Not like any of them particularly care.' He tried to form a  counter argument to what his brain sung into his ear but his normal response that Fluttershy cared and the others would come around was useless as to the Draconequus Fluttershy obviously didn't even think of him as a friend and the others hadn't really given him an inch despite the fact he had been on his best behaviour and actively trying to make friends. The Draconequus sighed and shut his eyes as they couldn't see anything anyway. 'Maybe I can get some sleep and this will all be over when I wake up.'

Friendship castle 7:15

"But Fluttershy do you even know where he would be." Twilight asked her with a reassuring hoof on her shoulder whilst the other poured over the contents of the damning letter. Non of them had offered any kind of reaction to it but Fluttershy could tell there would be questions soon.

"I have a decent idea..." she lead on hoping she could leave it but the luck in Twilight's eyes told her otherwise. She swallowed somehow embarrassed to admit it. "Mortem said there was a problem with the gates to his realm so I would say he is there..." She tried to leave off the detail again but again Twilight's gaze asked for more. "And I kinda... have one of those gates in my bedroom wardrobe." She looked to Twilight's eyes again expecting reproach and judgement. Instead she got a slightly quizzical look that simply said 'You can explain that one later.' Twilight was honestly curious, not as to why Fluttershy had a personal chaos gate. That much was obvious, her and Discord where close friends but off all places why a bedroom wardrobe. Fluttershy blushed at her friend's fairly justified assumption, there was nothing at all sexual between her and Discord. 'You wish there was' said a singsong mock up of Rainbow Dash's voice in her head, Rainbow Dash had become something of her own personal devils advocate. She would have preferred an imitation of the Lord of Chaos to be around but a close friend was better than a strangers voice. However she realised hearing Discord saying that to her would have flushed her entire face.

Twilight was trying to stop stop her mind jumping to conclusions as the logical part knew from the letter than Discord and Fluttershy weren't in a relationship but that niggling part of her mind she often had to keep silent at times like this was loudly pondering why her bedroom of all places. "Do you think we could find him in there? Even with wings it is an odd place and Discord seems to be the only one that can get around there without trouble." Thanks to Mortem, Twilight had spent some time in Discord's realm and had found constantly having to cope with gravity changing it's polarity or it simply ceasing to exist infuriating.

"He has shown me around a few times and after Celestia found out how long to mail pony who brought him his gala tickets was lost she ordered him to make it easier for ponies to navigate." Fluttershy said with new determination entering her eyes and spurring her on. "Besides knowing Discord he shouldn't be to hard to spot." They both smiled at that and where about to start discussing plans when the others finally finished reading the letter.

"Come on ya'll, we got us a stray Draconc... Dragon... Dragen... whatever he is to find." Apple Jack seemed enthusiastic to help even if she couldn't say what species Discord was. Fluttershy felt a slight twinge of sadness that despite Discords very spirited attempts to integrate with her friends he had barely made any progress. 'He did make three attempts to Destroy life as we know it.' Mind Rainbow again. 'Quiet you!!!... if that is okay with you.' Fluttershy tried and failed to be firm with her chiding mental companion.

"Draconequus" Rarity happily chipped in with slight higher than thou smile on her lips. "However... before we advance I feel one question must be answered." She looked to Fluttershy who froze as she knew exactly what was coming and was scared to answer. "If you had replied, which of the letters would you have sent?" Always the romantic, Rarity was morbidly curious about a potential relationship between Fluttershy and Discord. 'He seems a perfectly nice gentlecolt if a touch "cut throat",' Rarity considered, mentally adding air quotes around her colloquialism. She thought about how much differently the Draconequus acted to Fluttershy than literally any pony else. 'She has a greater sway of Discord than Twilight hold over Mortem and that really is saying something.' Realising this she noted a factor of approval of Fluttershy and Discord despite the differences that could cause issues. 'Then again he certainly seems flexible.' Rarity was appalled at the uncouth nature of that thought and slightly repulsed that she had just imagined Discord in that context. 'Yes best leave that to Fluttershy.' She eventually concluded settling her stirring stomach.

Whilst the gears in Rarity's head ground away Fluttershy hummed and harred over what would be best to say to her friends. 'Tell them you love his chaotic personality more than anything else in Equestria?" posed a voice in her head which seemed a friendly version of mind Rainbow. Fluttershy knew she would never have the courage to pull and impassioned speech off and so she eventually settled on a response and choked it out. "Erm... not the friendship one..." She said the last part of the sentence so quietly that if her friends weren't accustomed to her shy nature they would have missed it. Fluttershy looked to her friends. Apple Jack and Twilight had smug 'Knew it!' grins on there faces. Rarity looked genuinely happy for her and was giving her a warm if slightly overly motherly smile. This caused some elation for Fluttershy which promptly deflated and died when she looked to Rainbow Dash. The Cyan pony looked a saddening mix of sickened and disproving. Dash quickly hid her feelings when he noticed Fluttershy was watching her and felt a pang of guilt at how far friends face had fallen but was having serious trouble understanding how someone like her could love Discord. Fluttershy was feeling horrible about Dash's obvious condemnation of Discord and Her being in a relationship. In part for not having the support of her friend and in part because of what she worried Discord would do if she or any pony else tried to stop her being with him. All thoughts where erased from her mind however as she was tackled once again by her Pink Party Pony Pal.

"Are you and Discord going to be each other's special someponies?" Pinky pie asked the mare she was now pinning to the ground. She sounded excited. Without waiting for a response she bounced off and started talking far to fast. "thiscallsforapartynowaittwohmwhattocallitcongratsonfindingyourspecialsomepony/draconquus." She was going to go on about the name for some more time but fortunately ran out of air giving the others a chance to quiet her down with a swift practised interjection.

"A party sounds good." Twilight started not wanting to dampen Pinkies fire to much with what had to be said. "Right after we find Discord and talk to him." Pinky's mane still managed to deflate losing a little of it's famous form hiding volume.

However she was not excluded from when Fluttershy turned to the whole and said "Follow me" and they all rapturously agreed and followed her towards her cottage.

Chaos Realm the same time as the girls talking and Discord's lamenting

Mortem was confused looking around the Chaos realm. He had arrived directly at the Ponyville gate and could tell why Celestia was concerned. The portals weren't alive, Mortem was sure of that. This didn't stop slight worry from cropping up when he saw the portal, he couldn't shake the idea that it was dying. Normally the framing for these was a brilliant arch of silver with an undulating red surface that acted as a spacer between the two dimensions. All one needed to do was to simply walk through. However this time the silver was a dull shine-less grey and cracks ran its surface. Alongside that the intensity of the red had dipped a lot. Not to become a soft pink colour but it had almost adopted a greyish colour with a slight hint of the red it normally had. 'That's not a good sign,' Mortem adopted a pensive look and then stepped through. He turned upside over about four times before he stabilised himself. 'Glad to see that still works. After setting all that stuff up to make this place safe for ponies he could have extended them to me!.' Mortem mused getting slightly annoyed He noticed the gate on this side which was much more angular and colourful on a good day anyway. It was in a state now, fully cracked in places and very close to failing. 'Probably shouldn't let them totally collapse.' He wasn't as good at summoning things like that as Discord was but he could easily make a portal like that stay open so he shot a quick blast of magic. 'With the portals in that state I should probably be prepared.' He hadn't bothered making himself a Pony again but had dispelled Lucerne and didn't currently have his wings. As they wasn't a particularly nice thing to have around when sleeping. He put out his palm and felt the familiar weight of the halberd, it was comforting  something even he needed when things where going wrong in this place. he then quickly added his pony wings to himself and started to try and have a controlled trip around this place, he relied on his wings not wanting to use any unnecessary strength on flying magic or gating about the place. He was looking mostly at this stage for Discord and decided to try his house. he figured this would be a good place to start as he evidently didn't know about the portals as there was one at Fluttershy's cottage as such he wouldn't be there. He also couldn't be in Canterlot as Celestia clearly couldn't find him as she wouldn't have asked the person who made the portals about their state if he was around. He was stumped however as the Chaos Lord wasn't at his house or his other chaos spots, the ones he had told Mortem about that is, that probably wasn't all of them. As such he was just pitching himself towards anything that looked like it was of a different vein than everything else around here. 'Hesitant to think normal or abnormal as everything around here is completely abnormal just in a different regard to almost everything else.' As he finished up distractedly thinking away to himself he noticed a hollowed and destroyed ash star. 'Now that can't be good can it,' he appeared next to the star and discovered it was nothing but ash all the way through now. 'This fits my magic more than it does Discord's. That's a really bad sign.' He was poking his way though the star when he noticed a box floating near what he recognised to be the portal that came out in Fluttershy's room. A memory of how he knew that particular gate came to his mind. He and Discord had both been ejected from whatever it was the girls had been up to. So like two reasonable, rational thinking gods. They had gotten incredibly drunk, laughed, fought and then laughed a bit more. Mortem had finally decided to go home at four am hoping he would be able to sneak into one of the guest rooms and find the cause for his exclusion in the morning. However he had been so drunk that he had taken the wrong portal and not appeared as he wanted in the main centre of ponyville. 'That really was a bad day wasn't it.' He still remembered loudly blundering through it to find the shy mare asleep. 'Less alcohol next time maybe?' queried a niggling voice. He dismissed it and was about to float over to the portal and the shadow looking box.

However the portal shook violently and he was surprised to see the girls with a rather confused looking spike in toe, the dragon was having the same issue Mortem had that the path finding magic in the place didn't work on him due to him not being a pony. Twilight noticed his plight and sent him back through the portal after a quick word. Mortem decided to see what they had planned and get a wider view if anything happened. Celestia's. The Girls had finally managed to get themselves completely stable and noticed the box floating complete with Shadowy aura and dark iron chains.. Twilight took the helm walking towards it whilst Apple Jack took the helm commenting. "How much ya'll willing to wager we'll find Discord in that that there." Her brain failed to give her the right words for the sinister cube so she simply pointed her hoof at it.

"Probably a good chance" Twilight said "Hm I wonder if..." She completely failed to continue with her pseudo-scientific assumptions about the cube in front of it as she was taken by surprise at Fluttershy dashing past her.

Fluttershy put her hooves against the cube and started calling Discords name over and over hoping for some kind of response. She didn't like the look of this cube, it looked as if Discord may be trapped or worse in there. However as she started to get more desperate in her callings. The other's on the scene noticed the shadow was creeping from what could be the best approximation of the underside of the cube. Twilight was going to warn her but couldn't quite manage to get an expression up to the right level of understanding to form a decent sentence. Fortunately Rainbow Dash had no such problems and rather in-eloquently shouted. "FLUTTERSHY WATCH OUT." Fluttershy was not an athlete by trade and had fairly poor reaction times, this was intensified as she naturally locked up with the intensity of her Friends warning. That was until she felt the cold of the shadow start to wrap around her midriff. She panicked and bolted away from the cube faster than her wings could normally carry her. This was both fortunate and unfortunate. The shadows had manifested it's self into a gigantic serpent at the loss of it's pray which was bad but Fluttershy was unharmed which was good. The serpents body only seemed partially whole, It seemed to flux in and out of existence, this effect was very rapid and writhing far down the body of the serpent. As it got near the head the head it seemed more stable. This was especially true on the fork like tongue which was pointing accusingly at Fluttershy who understandably looked rather perturbed by the experience. Twilight was still trying to figure out what that creature was when it spoke to them.

"Leave this place." The voice was cold and rough and seemed to physically hurt all that heard it. Mortem made doubly sure his lance was ready. "What, did you miss understand? Perhaps you will understand this." The serpent opened it's mouth and started to charge a bolt of dark looking energy. Twilight may not have been quick on the tongue but she was quick with magic when she realised her friends where potentially in danger. She conjured a wall of energy about halfway between the group and the serpent just as it released his shot. Twilight watched intently she needed to learn anything she could about this creature and it's magic would be a good start. The wall was hit and it broke. 'Wait how.' Wondered Twilight seriously unnerved as the bolt grew ever closer. She tried another wall and it went as well as the first. Twilight braced for impact and tried to throw up a final shield  but knew she couldn't get it up in time. The six ponies closed their eyes and braced for the impact with no time to get out of the way. However the impact never came. Instead there was two simultaneous explosions from behind the group. Twilight cracked an eye open and was surprised and relieved to see Mortem standing in front of her.

He wore a full set of red plate armour, it was a similar shade to that of the blades of Lucerne which was in one of his Human hands, Alongside the armour there was a black hood and cloak which flowed somewhat like a grim knock-off of Celestia's mane. He turned to the group with a stare that melted the relief in Twilight. "STAY BACK." he then waved his empty hand towards the group and they where gently but firmly blown back. Then with volume that would make Luna double take, "DIE." He charged forward in a huge arc, each time the creature fired a bolt it was sliced in half to fly into the distance or collide with one of the weird entities that was floating about Discord's realm. He got to the serpent and unleashed a furious slice. 'No one attacks my friends and gets away with it.' He thought in reality he was just snarling. He sliced and the blade went right through. Despite being slightly concerned as he had not encountered that many times before and wasn't happy about his halberd not working but he always had elemental magic. He Threw a lightning bolt and was surprised to have it bounce back and hit him hard in the chest. The force of the blow and the complete lack of prep blew him all the way back to where the group had reformed. They all locked eyes with the serpent who sent of a few more bolts of energy which this time had lightning in the mix. All of them was split on the blade and the serpent started to coil in frustration. As it's attacks failed a snakelike grin snuck onto it's face.

The noise was hellish, Mortem had to grit his teeth against the pain it caused, he realised how much it must be bothering his friends he raised Lucerne making a barrier between them and the serpent. He could feel his magic draining and a stray crackle cut him across the face but he was succeeding in shielding them from the wave of power . "TWILIGHT GET US OUT OF HERE NOW!!" The purple Alicorn charged her magic and whipped the group out of the chaos Dimension.  Twilight looked around. Spike and the other elements seemed okay but that was not shared by Mortem. As she looked to him his armour faded away and disappeared leaving his shirt and jeans behind and he fell to the floor Lucerne falling besides him before melting away into nothing.

"Mortem," she yelled aghast and ran to his side.