"Is she serious?"

"Nah, it must be a joke..."

"Maybe they want to torture us; giving us false hopes and then crushing them to cause us more suffering. That's both cruel and impressive"

"Are we dreaming? Zero Morpheus, are we dreaming?"

"Well…"

Of course it's a dream. Discord interrupted. Do you really believe she would release us?

"Well, Celestia wants to use us. It wouldn’t be the millionth time something like that happens..."

Guys, shush.

Celestia’s crazy and ridiculous plan confused the Spirits of Chaos; as if they would do something for her after what she had put them through. The alicorn would sooner find herself incapable of feeling the taste of any dessert or sweet before they even jokingly considered the idea.

The numbness of his body slowly yielded as the magic of harmony undid its own prison bit by bit. Gradually, flesh, scales, feathers and fur replaced the cold and lifeless stone.

Discord was used to strange things happening in his dreams; with his imagination and how unpredictable chaos magic was, almost anything was possible. From realistic dreams -like the hyper realistic one that he'd had who knows how many days ago- to fantasies that broke all known logic and nonsense. For most, there were no words in any language to describe them.

... But this was something new.

As his body came back to life, a myriad of sensations hit Discord at once like a sucker punch; going from barely feeling something to perceive everything in an instant was too much for his senses. A terrible dizziness grabbed hold of the draconequus. He fell to his knees, somehow supporting himself with his claw and paw on the ground to avoid falling completely.

Infinity of sounds, a sea of scents, warm breezes and countless leaves in his fur and scales, some spit on his tongue... it was too much. He closed his eyes when they ceased to be just two stone orbs; he had more than enough with all other sensations.

This is... this never happened before.

"What's going on?!"

"Sensory overload!" Silver cried, his mind working at full power to think and find a solution in the middle of all that dizziness. "The sudden return of all your sensory capabilities is too much for your senses."

"Oh, I see, dear. So could you please TELL US WHAT TO DO?! " Shouted Eris, dropping her calm tone.

"Block all your senses!" Following Silver’s order, Discord grabbed his magic and spread it throughout his body, his world returning to total nothingness.

"... I think he did it too well; I can’t feel anything."

You try to use magic when you're that dizzy, Kevin.

"All right Discord, now listen to me: we must reactivate your senses slowly so as to not overwhelm them.

Following Silver’s words, the draconequus slowly brought his senses to life one by one.

First, taste. Slowly, he could feel the saliva on his tongue and the sulfur on his breath.

"¡Blegh! I never liked that taste of rotten eggs. Eat a mint or something."

Shut up, Meridian. Ignoring the whiny spirit, Discord continued with touch. Gradually, he could feel the grass caressing his body, and the soft breeze that moved every hair of his coat and feathers.

Then he followed with smell. Fresh grass, sulfur from his breath, ponies, a dragon, sugar and baking powder...

Wait a minute.

"Are we in the middle of a picnic or what?"

"Oh! I hope there's meat; I'm dying to eat something delicious."

Discord opened his eyes and let his eyesight return. He had to blink a few times to adjust the brightness, contrast and colors. Easier than using a remote.

He was surrounded by six ponies and a dragon, which looked at him with fear and caution. And anger. Oh, and they had the Elements.

... Don’t they seem familiar to you?

"They’re the new Bearers of the Elements!"

"They must have freed us."

"Right, Celestia and Luna can no longer use them."

"Typical of a ruler; when they can’t do something, they throws the problem to another."

"You know that very well; don’t you, queenie?"

"I’ll let you know that I did most of the field work! I lived for the action!"

"Field? I'm pretty sure you preferred the bed." Kevin joked.

"Why you little…"

Hey, since when dreams have sequels? That silenced the other spirits. For an instant.

At the next one they burst out laughing.

"Discord, dear-"

"No, Eris; let him figure it out himself." Chryssie interrupted, giggling.

Figure what out?

"Oh, nothing important. Only something obvious that you haven’t noticed yet." Kevin said.

Not in the mood to play guessing games with the tenants in his head, he decided to ignore the other spirits (as usual). Discord stood up and stretched his numb body. So sensitive were his ears that reactivating only a small part of his hearing was more than enough to listen to the upcoming conversation.

"You look familiar. Aren’t you the ponies that I beat before?" He wonderes as his claw stretched his neck up about thirty meters; like a spring, it returned to its original length with a 'BOING!'

"Hey! We are the ones that beat you! " Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Well, I won first by breaking your friendship; you fixed it -though I don’t know how- and then you... *ahem*... defeated me," Discord said quietly, not wanting to admit that he had been beaten. "Did you get me out to break the tie?"

Twilight Sparkle took a step forward and cleared her throat before speaking in a formal tone of authority. "No, Discord; you see, Princess Celestia has decided to reform you..."

"Wait, wait, wait. Was she serious?! Does she really believe that the power of friendship can change me?" Discord could not believe his ears; with a claw he cleaned one to make sure that he hadn’t misheard. A leftover piece of stone came out and he threw it away in disgust.

"But how...?" Twilight began to ask, surprised, before the draconequus interrupted her again.

"I could hear inside that damn statue. One of the few things I could do..." he muttered that last part under his breath before resuming his usual volume. "My point is: that's ridiculous! And when I, master of the ridiculous and nonsense says it, you better pay attention. I think I'd rather do something else, like... I don’t know, make it rain milk chocolate again? My sweet tooth is acting up."

Pinkie Pie launched herself towards the draconequus and held his shoulders, with the expression of a child who has been promised a delicious dessert after eating their vegetables "Oh! Oh! Oh! Do it, do it!"In less than a second, the pink pony became very serious.

"But do NOT forget the whipped cream."

2Whipped cream? But of course! Why didn't I think of that?2 Discord said, striking his forehead for not thinking of something so obvious. Patting Pinkie‘s cheek in gratitude, he laid her on the ground before searching the sky with his gaze -"First I need a cloud..."

In his arms he conjured a familiar lasso to a certain farmer.

-"Hey, that's my lasso!" Applejack said, quickly removing the object from his paws.

"Better to ask forgiveness than permission. Not that I was gonna say sorry," Discord replied, shrugging with a disinterested air.

"Could you try not to be so rude?" Rarity said with a huff. Discord turned to look at her, suddenly wearing an elegant suit, hat and monocle included. He addressed her with a sophisticated and educated tone.

"Oh, sorry madame, did I offend you? I fear that when your pieces of jewelry decided to turn me into a garden ornament -while in the middle of a song, by the way; and I'm the rude one?- they did not include my social skills. Furthermore, almost all of you have a terrible sense of humor."

That said, with his characteristic show of light he disappeared, only to reappear as a tiny version of himself on Twilight’s head, without the suit and dancing wildly.

The dragon and pink pony endured as long as they could before exploding in laughter.

"Spike! Pinkie!" The lavender pony scolded, trying to remove the draconequus from her head. She didn't have much success.

"Sorry Twilight, but he's ... hahaha... HE'S DANCING ON YOUR HEAD! AGAIN!" Pinkie managed to say before falling in another fit of laughter at the sight of Discord breakdancing in the unicorn’s mane.

After another minute of pure laugh from those two, Discord appeared before them at full size.

"Can you act serious for a moment?" Twilight practically demanded, irritated and doing her best not to scream at the annoying Spirit.

His childish attitude left him entirely; Discord straightened to his full height and crossed his arms.

"Very well; I'm serious now. What do you want?" There was no trace of joke or lightness in his voice.

The six ponies and baby dragon were shocked by the sudden change in the draconequus; and, frankly, quite intimidated. More than one was scared: out of his trickster attitude, Discord was ... imposing. Threatening, even.

He may have been letting a bit of his power manifest.

"Ahhhhh .... I think I was less afraid of him before." Spike said, hiding behind Applejack to avoid Discord's gaze; without that spark of madness and fun in them, it was difficult to see him in the eye without losing all courage.

Not every mortal could face a Spirit; they could be scary when they wanted to be. And for Discord, seeing them looking at him in fear was amusing. Maybe he wouldn't break in laughter this time and could keep the charade a bit longer...

After a few seconds of doubt and fear, Twilight took a deep breath to summon said fugitive courage; putting aside how much of a bad idea was to ask that, she went straight to the point.

"Are you going to accept?"

"Or do we have to turn you to stone again? And don’t doubt that we will," guaranteed Rainbow Dash, flying until he was face to face with Discord. Her pride and recklessness guided her.

"She’s either brave or stupid."

"I would call her reckless, dear Zero."

"And stupid." Kevin added.

Recovering his playful attitude, Discord smiled cruelly as his eyes reflected his typical desire to play and entertain himself.

"Oh, you can try; but you will not defeat me so easily this time. Especially if you're a chicken," threatened the draconequus with both a playful and slightly menacing tone. While Rainbow growled defiantly Discord raised his paw, ready to turn her into said farm animal.

"Discord!" A cry (which was barely one, due to the lack of volume) drew everyone’s attention. Fluttershy hovered in front of them, looking as severe as she could.

"Yes?" Said draconequus asked, lowering his arm and losing the threatening tone.

"Ummm ... d-don’t ... don’t you do anything to anypony!"

"What about me?" Asked the dragon, feeling forgotten.

"Oh! I’m sorry, Spike... or to Spike! Or... Or I'll use... The Stare!"

"...The what?" Discord had no idea what the pegasus was talking about.

"Go get him, Flutters!" Pinkie cheered from the sidelines.

Fluttershy took a deep breath, summoning all her courage and all the power of her will. Don’t worry, Fluttershy, you can do it...

The Stare was unleashed upon Discord. The draconequus fell back, afraid... no, full of terror. He fell to his knees, trying to cover his eyes with his paws while his body shivered and shrunk.

"No... no... NO! Not that! Stop! The horror ... THE HORROR!" Discord continued, turning white as a sheet until he broke down and burst out laughing, becoming large and colorful again again.

No one was more surprised than Fluttershy. It didn’t work?

"Forgive me, but I couldn’t resist." After a few seconds, Discord was calm enough to continue. "Did you really think that looking at me with a hard glare would make me stop? Although seeing you being so firm it was interesting; I didn't expect the Bearer of Kindness to be so... strong and confident. I keep underestimating you, and you keep surprising me."

Discord gave her a smile that reflected his interest and his approval, floating closer to her while Fluttershy flew back, stammering with embarrassment. Was that a compliment? That comment was undoubtedly sincere. But he was too close for her comfort.

"Hey!" Rainbow exclaimed, positioning herself between them to shield her friend.

"It was only a compliment, nothing else. Can’t your dear friend receive praise? Or maybe you don’t like not being the one being praised. Wanting all the attention is something I understand, after all." Two reflectors appeared, illuminating Discord and Rainbow Dash, while several disembodied voices cheered.

"Five minutes for the sky blue Pegasus to explode with rage? " Meridian commented, entertained with the conversation.

"I give her three."

"Discord..." Twilight interrupted him, noting how close Rainbow was to attack. The Spirit of Chaos got rid of the reflectors and the voices before sighing, annoyed.

-"Come on, can’t you take a joke? I'm even using my material suitable for mortal children!" He raised his claw that held a black box by the handle. On it was a paper that clearly read "material suitable for mortal children".

-"We are not children!" Spike exclaimed.

"Says the baby dragon. You could start collecting your own treasure to grow at least a head taller, you know? If not, it will take you a couple of decades to reach the egghead," he pointed at Twilight, who simply glared at him. "Don’t you want to be a great and powerful dragon that makes the earth tremble with his roar?

"He will have more than enough time to grow on his own. Whatever the case, Spike is perfect just as he is now." Rarity said firmly, hugging Spike with a hoof and bringing him closer to her. Discord could see the dragon's happiness and the hearts in his eyes with ease. He decided then to investigate later so he could plan a good joke.

"Well, he won't grow anytime soon or completely without a treasure. But whatever," he said, uninterested; the truth was he couldn’t care less if the dragon grew or not. If he wanted to stay little, it was his choice.

"Are you going to accept or not?" Twilight asked, tired of all the comments and arguments derailing the conversation.

"Well, let me check my agenda. - With those words, Discord brought a little notebook from out of nowhere notebook and began reading the pages- . Let’s see... revenge, revenge, revenge, revenge, revenge ... Wow, I’ll have to talk with my assistant; so much revenge doesn’t do good to anyone.

"I don’t know, Discord; I could use a few days of vengeance. Or years," Chryssie said. The draconequus closed the notebook and turned it into a muffin; he then tossed it aside.

Pinkie caught it in her mouth and swallowed it in an instant. Mmmmm, banana...

"I should have planned my schedule better. Well, why not? It's better than being a stone."

The ponies and dragon were not the only ones confused by his decision.

"Yeah, we won't-Wait, what?

"Why are you accepting, dear?"

Because I want to have fun. I want to see how long it takes to make that small pegasus lose her patience.

"What?" Said the draconequus, seeing how the ponies and dragon were looking at him. "Like I said, it’s better than being stone. It could also be entertaining."

Discord did a backwards hop and ended up floating on his back, snapping his fingers as he found a comfortable position.

"What was that?" Twilight asked, as everyone looked at him with suspicion in their eyes.

"Just stretching my muscles. Being a statue, as perfect as you are to be admired by others, is not good for your health; it leaves you unbelievably numb. I'm just practicing for when I do use my magic."

It was a half-truth; with the snap, he had also released some of his magic and hypnotized the beavers near them so they would make a dam and flood Applejack’s farm.

Multitasking was an useful skill to have.

Author's Note

So, here we have the next chapter.

Not much to say in this one. The parts of the episodes I don't rewrite happened as they did in canon. I just expand or change them when it's necessary for my version of some of the characters.