Discord of Tomorrow

by ChaoticConduct

Rating: everyone
Tags: Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Drama, Comedy, Starlight Glimmer, Fluttershy, Adventure, Discord, The Smooze
Length: 9946

After Discord failed to break up Twilight's friendships, he decides to trade places with a future Discord where the Elements would no longer exist. A future where, unknown to him, Discord has been reformed...

Discord has failed to break the friendship between the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Desperate and with a rainbow of friendship blasting towards him, he teleports himself to a future where the Elements of Harmony are no more so that he could trade places with his future counterpart.

What he didn't know was that in this future, he has been reformed and the ponies there think he's somehow lost his memory and are determined to refriend him. Gag!

Meanwhile, the reformed Discord is teleported to the past, facing very hostile ponies and a world of Chaos his past counterpart had created. Chaos is a wonderful thing and he was all up for having some fun but what was the point if he had nopony to share it with?

Published 2017-09-09 04:50:30 UTC
Last updated 2017-10-19 17:43:14 UTC

Chapter One

PAST

“No, no, no!” Discord screamed in his thoughts. This wasn’t supposed to happen! He ruined these ponies’ friendship. How could they unite after all the work he put into corrupting them? It shouldn’t have been possible!

How exciting!

Being turned into stone? Less exciting. He would rather die. There was only a couple of seconds left to decide on a course of action or else he’d be stuck in that prison until all the Bearers of the Elements died off!

If only the Elements didn’t exist. If only he had been able to destroy them, then he’d be free to roam forever. How unfair!

The rainbow light was getting closer.

Elements of Harmony, how disgusting. How unnatural! Chaos and Order… There should not be anything to tip the scales! The Elements favored Order even though Harmony could not exist without Chaos and he should be punished for thinking Chaos was more fun?! He needed to level the playing field, he needed to get rid of them. Go back in time? Possible, but not advised since changing the past ruins the Harmony and the Elements wouldn’t allow it, especially when at this very moment, their power was coming toward him…

The future, however…

Surely the Elements couldn’t last forever?

There must be some point in the future where they were destroyed or stopped existing or… or…

Oh but it was so risky.

Teleport to the future… well, he had done it before, and he could do it again! He knew how to recover this time. His future self would not be happy with him, they never were, but he just needed to switch places and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. It was every Draconequus for himself! Even if that Draconequus was himself.

Seconds ticking down, Discord summoned all the magic he could. He needed a future… where the Elements were no more. His magic locked on to something and he snared it like a hook. He gave it an experimental tug. It would be a solid transfer.

The six ponies ahead of him were still glowing and floating in the air. So, so sure of themselves. They were completely unaware of what he was planning.

How utterly hilarious.

He couldn’t help but laugh as he teleported across time and everything flashed white.

PRESENT

“I must say, you’re a wonderful host, Fluttershy! Smooze here has never felt so welcome,” Discord said, patting his globby green friend on what could be called a head. Slime dribbled off his talon and he discretely wiped it on Angel bunny and frowned. “Perhaps I should have hosted it, seeing as it seems to have made itself quite at home here…”

“Oh, it’s no problem at all!” Fluttershy said. “I’m honored to host the Smooze’s first tea party. It certainly seems to be enjoying my teacups.” She looked at a few of her teacups floating inside of Smooze with a hint of concern, though the Smooze gave her a goopy smile. She gave it a smile in return but it was quickly wiped away when the Smooze proceeded to suck her teacup away from her and into itself.

Discord raised an eyebrow and snapped his fingers, summoning a new teacup for Fluttershy into her hooves. She smiled at him gratefully and poured herself another serving. Discord took it upon himself to float two sugar cubes into her cup. A smaller Discord, a copy, slid up her teacup with a spoon and began to stir it for her. When Fluttershy thanked him, he saluted her and used the spoon to catapult himself into the larger Discord’s cup, splashing his face.

“Really,” Discord scoffed when his smaller incarnation settled himself inside as if in a hot tub, donning sunglasses and holding a small iced tea complete with an umbrella. He dumped him out and onto the floor. The smaller Discord blew a raspberry at him and disappeared in a flash of light just before the Smooze could absorb him.

“If you don’t mind me asking, where does Smooze live?” Fluttershy asked.

Discord clapped his hands together. “Oh! Now that’s an interesting story! You see, Smoozy here was causing a brouhaha out in Maris and Celestia had me reign him in!” He leaned forward and wrapped an arm around Fluttershy, nuzzling her cheek. “I had the brilliant idea to take a page from your book and attempt to reform it! Of course, all our viscous friend needed was a proper place to stretch itself so I invited it to live in my realm!” He left out the part where Smooze did not quite have the mental capacity to know it was doing evil and therefore a reformation was not required. All he did was the equivalent of sweeping Smooze under the rug in his house.

“You’re roommates? I had no idea!”

Discord withdrew and pursed his lips. “Ah, well, ‘roomies’ isn’t quite right.” In a flash, he was wearing a red sweater and black tie and was kneeling to tie the laces on his new shoes. “We’re more like friendly neighbors.”

Smooze jiggled, clearly pleased to be the topic of discussion. Fluttershy couldn’t help but giggle when the Smooze gave Discord a big sloppy kiss. Discord laughed loudly and wrapped his mismatched limbs around his friend in a hug, coating his new outfit in slime. When Smooze oozed out of his grip, Discord turned towards Fluttershy, a mischievous glint in his eye. Her eyes widened and she flapped her wings to lift herself off her cushioned chair but it was too late, Discord already tackled her, flipping her in the air as she squealed and hugging her tightly to him, making sure to get as much goop as he could on her.

“Discord! Stop!”

Still laughing, he ruffled her mane as she pawed at his face with a hoof, trying halfheartedly to push him away. Below them, Smooze absorbed Fluttershy’s tea set and table, growing so it could reach them and envelop them both.

Discord, however, decided that Fluttershy more than likely reached her limit in this nonsense. He released her and wiped some goop off her face. She gazed at him for a minute, an expression of amusement with a touch of exasperation on her face, then looked down and stroked the Smooze with her hoof, smiling at it sweetly.

“We simply must invite Smoozy to future tea parties!” Discord said, delighted with how their little gettogether was going. Fluttershy looked around her cottage at the slime coated walls and Discord followed her gaze. Smiling sheepishly, he snapped his fingers to vanish his outfit and the goob he left on Fluttershy and left the cottage sparkling clean. “Perhaps not our next one.”

“Perhaps not,” Fluttershy agreed.

“I believe now is the time for teacakes?” Discord asked, materializing a plate from air. His eyes bulged when Smooze engulfed them. He jerked the plate out of Smooze with a growl, baring his teeth when he realized that the teacakes had been devoured by his soon-to-be-dead-ex-friend.

Fluttershy waved a hoof. “Now, now, there’s no need to worry. I have some extra snacks in storage.”

“Dear Fluttershy, so patient, so kind! Unlike somepony…” When Fluttershy turned away to pull something from her food storage, Discord elbowed the Smooze as hard as he could, but the Smooze remained oblivious as the elbow went straight through it. Discord pulled his elbow out, covered in goo with a pout.

Fluttershy turned back toward him, two plates in her hooves. “Ok, Discord, I have carrot-lime teacakes or ginger-“

What else Fluttershy had, Discord wasn’t able to find out because in that moment the world tilted in front of his eyes and he felt his own magic begin to drain from him as though Tirek had returned and had decided to feast on him from behind. His vision blurred and he lurched forward, unable to keep himself floating anymore. His face smacked into the ground and everything flashed white and tasted like plaid.

Just as quickly as his magic had been drained, it was returned.

Embarrassed and confused, Discord lifted his face from the ground, sprouting several heads to look around at his surroundings for how Smooze and Fluttershy responded to his tumble. Smooze was jiggling in place, for once no smile on its face and Fluttershy… was nowhere to be seen.

“Fluttershy?”

Discord floated into the air. Smooze slid to the side next to the wall but Discord paid him no mind. The state of the cottage had his full attention.

It looked wonderfully… chaotic. His mouth turned up into a grin. The floor was checkered and the furniture was alive, jumping around and chasing each other. There were a few animals still inside, giant mice and tiny cats. Bunnies with grotesquely long legs and tortoises that zipped around at high speeds. Outside he could see day and night switching back and forth, chocolate rain was falling from pink cotton candy clouds.

Discord opened the window and stuck his head out to take a better look outside, chuckling. He wondered if that feeling of power draining was actually more of a chaotic outburst. The resulting chaos would explain why he was able to recover his power so quickly. Since he was a Spirit of Chaos, that meant the more chaos there was around him, the more powerful he became to create even more chaos. He was his own battery. But… as wonderful as Ponyville’s revamp was, he had something more important to deal with.

“Well, Smoozy, we have a problem on our hooves,” Discord said, slamming the window shut. He closed the blinds that hadn’t been there a second ago and the room was bathed in a black and white palette. The Smooze just stared at him (as well as it could without eyeballs), ignorant of the large hat with a fancy feather on its head and fluffy boa around its nonexistent shoulders. “You are here, and she is not. There’s a world of Chaos out there and somepony should be blaming me for it and there is not. Since Fluttershy is one of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s friends, she could be in danger.” He bared his teeth and lowered a detective hat to shade his eyes so his glowing red irises were more obvious. “That simply will not do.”

Discord snapped his talon and the cottage was returned to normal. “Just like Fluttershy likes it,” Discord thought. Another snap and he shrunk the Smooze and had it placed in a jar attached to a rope wrapped around his own neck. He pat the jar with his lion paw.

“Comfy?”

Of course, he got no verbal answer and he didn’t wait for one. Instead, Discord locked onto Fluttershy’s magical signature (the one all creatures had, Unicorn or not) and teleported to her location in a flash of light.

Crack!

“I don’t understand how the Elements of Harmony could fail. This doesn’t make sense,” Twilight Sparkle said. She paced back and forth in front of her friends, obviously worried. Discord’s laugh echoed in her mind and she shook it away.

“Maybe somethin’ busted them,” Applejack said, tapping her element with her hoof.

“Or maybe Discord corrupted us more than I thought,” Twilight said, stopping and looking at all of them. “Maybe our friendship wasn’t… maybe it wasn’t powerful enough…”

“That’s pafooey!” Pinkie said. She grabbed Fluttershy and held her close. “We’re the bestest best friends there is! I don’t feel like a grumpy pants anymore and you are all acting like my best friends, just like you always do!”

“This is probably some kind of Discord trick,” Rainbow Dash growled, stomping her hoof and snorting. “We gotta find Discord and take him down! I say we do it the old fashion way!”

“We know he’s around somewhere,” Rarity said, narrowing her eyes and glaring up at the pink cotton candy clouds. “His chaos is still afoot and I will not stand by and allow him to make a fool of us again!”

Twilight frowned and resumed her pacing. “This might be more difficult than we imagined. Discord knows we have the Elements. If he escaped so easily this time, it might be because this was all part of some big master plan for all of Equestria. For all we know this could be the start of something worse! Whatever we do, we must hold onto the Elements and we need to stick together! Discord could pop up at any momen-“

Crack!

“Hello, everypony!” Discord cried, limbs outstretched as he popped in front of them in a flash.

Fluttershy shrieked and hid behind Pinkie Pie who was grabbed by Rarity in horror. Applejack and Rainbow Dash jumped ahead, chests puffed out and displaying their Elements. Twilight leaped into a better position in front of her friends, horn charged with magic and pointed straight at Discord’s chest.

Discord didn’t even seem to notice as he put his arms on his hips and peered down at them, grinning.

“And here I thought my friends were in trouble again!” Discord said. He wasn’t surprised that they appeared to be angry at him. He noticed this side of Ponyville was also transformed into a chaotic paradise and clearly these ponies weren’t happy about it. He stretched his neck out to the side to peer at Fluttershy. “My dear, you really shouldn’t pull that vanishing act, you know.”

She squeaked and covered her eyes. The other ponies took a better position in front of her to shield her from view.

Discord raised an eyebrow. Had he looked angry when he said that? That hadn’t been his intention…

“Discord!” Twilight shouted. “You shouldn’t have shown up again! This time we’ll put you in stone forever! We won’t miss!”

This caused him to laugh. “Oh, Twilight, you are a hoot! Put me in stone? Quite the threat you make to a friend. Tell me, how in Equestria are you going to put me in stone when the Elements of Harmony were used to… to….” Discord’s eyes bulged as they landed on the crown that laid upon Twilight’s head. He quickly leaned back, baffled. He couldn’t find the words to convey his thoughts, all he managed was a weak, “Twilight?”

She seemed to gain some confidence in his fear and stomped both hooves in front of her, bracing herself. “Come on girls!”

Her friends scrambled into position, Elements displayed proudly around their necks.

‘Betrayal,’ Discord thought frantically, eyes wide as he backed away. His heart was thudding in his chest and his mind spun, trying to find a reason for this. It didn’t make sense and for once he didn’t like it. Of course this would happen. Why did he think otherwise? They just used him, they didn’t want to be friends, not really. They just wanted his magic to… to…

‘Fluttershy wouldn’t let them betray me…’

He winced and looked at the ponies in front of him again, though his vision blurred. Magic of Friendship. GAG! If that magic existed they wouldn’t have needed the Elements, they wouldn’t have needed him. It was all a lie.

‘Something’s not right…’

He tried to focus. His eyes landed first on Twilight Sparkle. More specifically, her back.

‘No wings... Wait… No wings!’

Discord’s mouth dropped.

These ponies weren’t his friends! At least, not yet.

He almost sagged in relief. There was no time, however, since Twilight was now charging her Element.

Discord wasted no time and he teleported as far away as he could.

Chapter Two

PRESENT

Traveling through time to the future using chaos magic was extremely similar to being shot across Equestria from a gigantic slingshot except this time Discord wasn’t wearing goggles or a helmet. Wind was whipping around him and his surroundings sped past him in a blur. In fact, he was pretty sure he went through a couple dozen houses and a season antagonist or two. Everything came to a sudden stop and he smacked face first into the ground at the center of Ponyville, leaving a deep crater.

His magic was almost completely drained but he forced himself to shoot into the air, barely sparing the citizens a glance, and disappeared into the temporary haven of the Everfree forest. Just as he oriented himself to dive into the trees, his flying ability went out and he dropped down through the branches and leaves until he came to a stop at the bottom branches of a crooked tree

Discord groaned and let his body hang limply along the branches of the tree that had caught him, looking very similar to the vines around him. His magic was practically gone. He knew it would be, of course. Traveling to the future didn’t come without its consequences, but he was a Spirit of Chaos. His magic would return to him eventually due to the natural chaos that occurred in this land and the Everfree forest was perfect for that. As soon as he recovered a bit more power, he’d be able to create his own Chaos and be back to full strength.

Still, it would be a boring recovery. He dragged his paw down his face, wiping it off and onto the ground. Oh, how he’d love to see how Celestia was doing without those precious Elements. He would usher the land to a beautiful era of Chaos where he could force Celestia and Luna to be his own personal entertainment. How fun it would be to see the strongest ponies in the land reduced to clown ponies! He chuckled and wrapped his tail around a branch, sliding the rest of his body off the tree so he could hang upside down and extend his neck to slam his head onto the ground where his face lay. All body parts and features accounted for, he retracted his neck to normal length and flapped his wings lazily, pushing himself forward and back so he could begin swinging, completely unaware that he was being watched.

Twilight Sparkle was making her way through Ponyville back to her castle, flipping through the pages of a brand new book she levitated in front of her. In her saddlebags was a takeout order for her and Spike. She fully expected to spend her afternoon reading in her bedroom, free from the hustle and bustle in Ponyville. Something seemed to be going on in the middle of the town but she was much too invested in her book to take a look herself.

It wasn’t until she was only a few meters from her castle door when she took notice of a yellow and pink pony flying towards her. It took her only a moment to realize it was Fluttershy.

“Twilight! Twilight!”

Twilight shoved her book into her saddlebag and waited for Fluttershy to get close. “Fluttershy, what’s wrong?” she asked. It was rare to see Fluttershy quite this flustered without warning.

Fluttershy stopped in front of Twilight but in her anxiety continued to shuffle the dirt under her hooves.

“Discord… he’s gone!”

Twilight frowned. “Gone? What do you mean, ‘gone’?”

“We were having our Tuesday tea with the Smooze and he just vanished!”

After she heard that, some of Twilight’s own anxiety drained, although she was still concerned for her friend.

“Doesn’t Discord disappear like, a lot?” Twilight asked, tilting her head. “He can get pretty random.”

“This was different. We were in the middle of tea. He never leaves without excusing himself.”

This time Twilight couldn’t hide the expression of disbelief. Excusing oneself seemed to be something too polite for Discord to do but perhaps she didn’t know Discord as well as Fluttershy. She took a deep breath and smiled at Fluttershy reassuringly. Twilight herself may not see Discord’s disappearance as something to cause alarm, but it was something her friend was clearly worried about and she would do her very best to ease her friend’s fear.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy. I’m sure he’s fine,” Twilight said, touching her shoulder reassuringly. “Its possible that something important popped up and he had to leave right away.”

“Do you think maybe Princess Celestia summoned him?”

Twilight smiled. Fluttershy seemed to be calming down and was now thinking logically. “Now that you mention it, I’m sure that’s what happened.” She gestured to her castle with her horn. “Come inside, we’ll write a letter to Princess Celestia and ask where Discord is and when he’ll be back.”

“Twilight, you’re back!” Spike said when the two ponies walked in. He eagerly accepted a sack of lunch that was levitated toward him. He opened the bag and shoved his claws inside, pausing when he noticed who was accompanying Twilight. “Um, is something wrong, Fluttershy?”

“Spike, we need to send a letter to Princess Celestia,” Twilight said, using her magic to lift a quill and piece of parchment in the air. Spike looked at his sandwich longingly, then put it back in the bag so he could give Twilight and Fluttershy his full attention

“Discord and the Smooze have gone missing,” Fluttershy explained, looking down at the ground.

“What’s this about Discord?” asked another voice before Spike could respond. The three looked up to see Starlight Glimmer had entered the room. She closed the door behind her and joined them. “He’s missing?”

“The Smooze too?” Twilight asked, looking up from the letter she was writing and giving Starlight a small nod. That was a bit more concerning. What purpose would Princess have for the Smooze? She made sure to include the Smooze’s disappearance in her letter.

“Doesn’t Discord go missing often?” Spike asked. “I mean, I don’t think any of us even know where he lives.”

“He lives in a pocket dimension where his chaos can run free,” Starlight said. She blushed when Twilight looked at her with a surprised expression.

“It’s a lovely house,” Fluttershy added and then turned her attention to Spike and Starlight, ignoring Twilight’s disbelieving stare. “Discord just disappeared in the middle of our Tuesday tea party. I waited to see if he would return but he never did. I’m just so worried. It’s not like him.”

Twilight rolled up her parchment and had a ribbon wrapped around it, stamped with a seal. She levitated it towards Spike.

“Got it.” Spike plucked the scroll from the air and sent it to Princess Celestia in a burst of green flame.

“Discord is the master of Chaos,” Starlight said, walking to Fluttershy’s side and nudging her a little. “He can take care of himself. I’m sure he’s fine.”

“I’ll feel much better once Princess Celestia responds,” Fluttershy said, shuffling her wings and gazing at Spike hopefully.

Twilight and Starlight exchanged glances.

Twilight cleared her throat and smiled. “So, while we wait, why don’t you tell me how you know where Discord lives, Starlight? I don’t even know where he lives!”

“He invited me over there not too long ago but I don’t actually know how to get there on my own,” Starlight said with a small smile. “Everything just floats around in a really dark void. There’s plants and I could’ve sworn I saw some animals too. It’s all pretty crazy but I really wouldn’t mind going there again. He said something about teaching me about chaos magic.”

Twilight scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. I can't believe he actually tried to make you his student.”

Starlight shrugged. “Actually, it was rather interesting. Discord had a really strange way of teaching.”

Despite her disapproval, Twilight was interested. “Discord has never talked to me about his magic before.” she said. She tapped a hoof to her chin. “Did he actually teach you Chaos spells?”

Starlight looked reluctant to go into detail, well aware that she may have just presented Twilight with a new research topic that Starlight would inevitably get sucked in.

“First rule of Chaos magic is there is no rules. The second is there is no spells,” Starlight said. “I didn’t learn how to actually do anything with chaos magic. Discord just does and uses his magic to do. The best he could do was tell me actual spells he learned to cause chaos without using actual chaos magic.”

“It must be due to him being a Draconequus,” Twilight said. “This is worth looking into another time. Reality warping powers like his could greatly benefit Equestria if used by somepony responsible.”

Starlight grimaced. “I don't know, Twilight. All that power…” she shook her head. “It feels like nopony should wield it, like it'd be impossible not to let it get to your head.”

Twilight nodded thoughtfully. “I suppose I can see what you mean. Discord can be a pain, but his own nature keeps him from…” she tossed a few words in her head, attempting to find a suitable one.

“Completely enslaving us and controlling each of our every single action from the day we’re born to the day we die and solving every conflict in existence so our lives go without growth or change and life is meaningless?” Starlight suggested. “I guess it's a good thing he's the Spirit of Chaos. Unpredictability is what he lives for.”

“He did take over Equestria, though,” Twilight said. “Twice. Almost three times. You know, it was probably almost four times.”

“Causing Chaos,” Starlight said, smiling as though what Discord had done hadn't been terrible.

Twilight rolled her eyes. Guess you had to be there. She was about to go into detail but was interrupted by Spike burping up green flames and a scroll. She caught the scroll with her magic and immediately opened it. She read over quickly and then lowered it, frowning.

“Well?” Fluttershy pressed.

“Celestia hasn’t heard from Discord. She says she’ll let us know if she comes across him and she doesn’t think there’s a cause for alarm yet,” Twilight said. “You don’t have any way to contact him directly, do you? Or a way to visit him in that ‘pocket dimension’?”

“Discord has only ever teleported me there himself. I don’t know for sure if there’s a door or a gateway or portal or… or anything,” Fluttershy said. She perked up. “There has to be a way, though! I know the mailpony has visited him before. To deliver his letters.”

“Even if there isn’t a standing portal, I’m sure we can make one,” Starlight said. Her horn began to glow. “I’ve been working on a spell. If I combine it with-“

“A spell!” Twilight cried. “That’s it! We have a spell to summon Discord!”

“How convenient,” Starlight grumbled, the light in her horn going out with a spllt.

“But Twilight, last time we had to use the Elements of Harmony to summon him and… we don’t have those anymore,” Fluttershy said.

“I might be able to do the spell on my own, if I just-“

“You could just ask around town,” Spike suggested. “Maybe somepony’s seen him.”

The three ponies in the room looked at him at the same time. Starlight cleared her throat. “We do seem to be overreacting a bit. He hasn’t been missing too long, has he?”

Fluttershy blushed. “He’s… he’s only been gone for about an hour.”

“So, he could already be back at the cottage,” Starlight reasoned.

Fluttershy drew an imaginary circle on the ground with her hoof as she considered the possibility that she was overreacting. She didn’t need to know where Discord was every second of his life, did she? He was probably very busy…

“If something important did come up, it might be something in Ponyville,” Twilight said. “Like an appointment or he had to meet somepony… Does he have any other friends in Ponyville?”

“Um… well there’s the girls… and Spike and Big Mac,” Fluttershy said. “Other than that… He’s not very good at making friends on his own. Oh, please don’t tell him I said that!”

Twilight smiled at Fluttershy reassuringly. “Then its settled. We’ll check with the others and ask if they’ve seen him. Fluttershy, you go to your cottage in case he’s come back and we’ll meet you over there, alright?”

Fluttershy nodded and slunk out of the castle. When she closed the door, she spread her wings and took flight, making her way back to her cottage.

Chapter Three

PAST

Discord had fully intended to teleport into his pocket dimension, safe from the power of the Elements.

Instead, he ended up back at Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Oh, that’s right, I haven’t created my home yet,” he mumbled, looking around at the cottage as if expecting his dimension to be tucked away in a corner. Everything in the cottage was just as he left it, completely normal and safe from the chaos outside. A little voice in the back of his head said he should probably revert Ponyville back to normal but eh, that could wait.

At this very moment six brightly colored ponies were probably attempting to hunt him down and turn him back into stone. He shuddered. No doubt that’s why his past self swapped them in the first place. There wasn’t much Discord could do to the Elements when they were being used against him and he never really had a chance to study them himself.

Now that he thought about it… what was stopping him from just…

Snap!

Five necklaces and a crown flashed before him, each with an Element of Harmony embedded in it. He bit the inside of his cheek, one hundred percent sure that Fluttershy would not appreciate him finding any humor in how easy that was. His body trembled. He couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing.

“I can only imagine the looks on their faces!” he cackled. He pressed his paw and claw against his cheeks and used the most effeminate voice he could think of. “’Alright girls, let’s find Disc- Oh no! Our Elements are gone! What are we going to do?’”

Discord sunk to the ground, clutching his stomach and laughing. After a few minutes he lay limp, wheezing and wiping tears from his eyes until he was sure he calmed down. He sat down and levitated the Elements closer to himself, adopting a more serious expression as he examined them.

He could feel fear in his gut but did his best to keep it down. These were Elements of Harmony and he was just a part of that as anypony else and his intentions weren’t bad. Not this time. He took a deep breath and tapped the Element of Kindness with a claw. It sang one note and then went silent. No rainbow beam had been shot at him. He did the same to the Element of Magic. It played a different note and then again, nothing.

Grinning, he donned a music conductor’s outfit and plucked a baton from nowhere. He cleared his throat and tapped the baton against a wooden stand he had materialized in front of him. An audience of other Discords went silent and gave him their full attention as he began tapping each Element, using each note they sang to play a song that sounded very similar to a theme song the Discords couldn’t quite place.

“That’s quite enough of that!”

Discord winced, vanishing his outfit and peering guiltily at one of his copies that was wearing spectacles. The other Discords coughed into their paws and looked all around the cottage except at them.

“These are the Elements of Harmony!” Specs said. “Not toys!”

“Oh, you’re no fun,” Discord said, pouting. He levitated the Elements around him and let them clasp onto his torso. The Element of Magic went on top of his head and he peered at himself in a mirror, admiring his reflection.

Specs slapped the crown off, causing Discord to almost fall over as he scrambled to prevent it from hitting the ground. He clutched it in his paw and held it closer to his chest, ears flattened against his skull as he stared at his (questionably) mature counterpart reproachingly.

“This is serious!” Specs growled.

“Hardly,” Discord laughed. “I have the Elements! What threat do these ponies hold over me? I can do anything I want as long as I keep these out of their hooves!”

“Threat? Anything you want?”

“Well, yes-“

“Those ‘ponies’ are your friends, in case you’ve forgotten.”

Discord sputtered and his audience glared at him. “I- I meant… Of course they are! Um, will be…” He cringed and looked at the Element he still clutched. The ugly, heavy feeling of guilt swirled in his stomach. He sighed and snapped his fingers, vanishing his Discord audience and transferring the Elements from his body onto a pillow he made for them on a table.

Specs gave him an approving nod and sat down on one of Fluttershy’s chairs.

“What am I supposed to do?” Discord asked him, throwing himself onto Fluttershy’s couch. “My friends aren’t my friends anymore! I manipulated them and ruined their home and they probably hate my guts!”

“You also stole the Elements of Harmony twice now.”

“Well I’m not going to just let them turn me back to stone!” Discord snarled, red eyes flashing.

“You’ve hardly given them a reason to reconsider doing that to you,” Specs pointed out, nodding at the window. “Not very friendly, don’t you think?”

Outside, Discord could see the edge of Ponyville, plagued by Chaos. Buildings were floating upside down and ponies were slipping on soapy roads. In the distance he could also see the rainbow pools of Cloudsdale were tainted brown from cola rain and the weather factory stuffed with cotton candy clouds. Just in the moment he looked out, the sky had flipped between day and night twice.

Chaos felt so good. It felt like years since he last let his powers spread over Equestria like this. Nowadays he kept it to a minimum, ponies preferring when he altered himself rather than their home. He wouldn’t lie to himself, using Chaos magic to change his appearance and make visual gags was just as chaotic and their reactions were just as fun.

It just didn’t feel the same though.

“Why should I be friendly?” Discord asked. “In my present I had magic and friendship. Here I have only magic.” He levitated the Elements of Harmony from their pillow, using his magic to juggle them in front of himself. “Limitless, unrestrained, wonderful Chaos magic. I should make the most of it.”

“What about Fluttershy?”

“No matter what I do here, I won’t see my friends. My Fluttershy,” Discord said solemnly. “I can’t take myself back, I don’t know how. I’ve thrown myself into the future several times, never once thinking of what became of my future selves that were thrown to the past and I know that not one of them were able to reverse it otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

“I imagine they never did have a reason to.”

“What?”

“Certainly, other Discords had no reason to go back to their original timelines,” Specs said. He was now sipping a cup of tea nonchalantly. “We have no way of knowing they even tried.” He lowered his tea cup and stared at Discord intently. “You, on the other hoof, have a reason to try and go back. Your friends are there and they’re stuck with a Discord who wouldn’t hesitate in making their lives absolutely miserable.”

Discord shot up into the air. “Oh my me, you’re right! I’ve got to get back!” The thought of what his past self was doing to Fluttershy and his friends made him both scared and furious and was the only reason he needed to abandon his fleeting idea of unrestrained Chaos.

He summoned up some magic, dissipating Specs in the process and attempted to grab a future and drag himself to it. Never had he tried to find a specific moment and it proved to be even more difficult than he thought. His magic would stab at several different futures and he’d give them experimental tugs but none of them felt right. There was no way to see what exactly he was going towards. The more he tried, the more magic he depleted and the more he had to pull from the Chaos he had spread in Ponyville.

He didn’t care how much magic he used, he just needed to get back. Now.

“Our Elements are gone! What are we going to do?!” Twilight cried.

“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness,” Fluttershy panted over and over as Applejack rubbed her back.

“Come out and face us, Discord!” Rainbow Dash shouted, flying in a wide circle around her friends. “We’re not afraid of you! We can take you on with or without the Elements!”

“Coward!” Rarity screeched to the air, stomping her hoof. “Charlatan!”

“Now, now, calm down everypony,” Applejack said. “Panicking and screaming ain’t gonna solve our problems.”

“The Elements of Harmony are the only way to stop Discord. Last time he hid them from us as a game because corrupting us was fun. He’s wised up this time. We had our chance and we failed,” Twilight said. She bowed her head and squeezed her eyes shut to prevent her tears from falling. “I’m so sorry… If I had just placed enough faith in our friendship and tried harder, we wouldn’t have wasted any time. We could’ve stopped this.”

“Aw, it’s not your fault, sugarcube,” Applejack said. “Discord got the best of all of us.”

“Just wait ‘til he shows his face around us again!” Rainbow Dash growled. “I say we show him what we ponies can really do when you mess with us!”

“Where is that vile trickster, anyway?” Rarity asked. “I’d think he’d be rubbing this defeat in our faces by now.”

“Maybe he got tired and went home?” Fluttershy suggested hopefully.

“No way, he’s busy running all this!” Pinkie Pie said from under a cotton candy cloud that was dousing her in chocolate milk. “Say what you want about him but this guy makes a mean cup of chocolate milk!” Rarity cringed in disgust as Pinkie unhinged her jaw and pointed her muzzle up so her mouth could fill up with chocolate milk. She gagged when Pinkie gurgled in pleasure.

“Oh, he’s mean, alright,” Twilight said, wiping at her eyes with a hoof. “Next time he appears we’ll be prepared.”

“Prepared how?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Twilight pointed at the library. “We’re going to study.”

The Golden Oaks Library was still a mess from the friends’ earlier scuffle over the book that Discord had hid the Elements in but Twilight knew which books she’d be looking through. She levitated several books from the shelves, making them circle her as she flipped through all the pages and made notes on a scrap of parchment.

“What are we, uh, studying?” Applejack asked, poking at a few books still on the shelves.

“Spells,” Twilight said. “Any spell that might be useful.”

Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head. “No offense Twilight, but Discord’s magic seems kinda… out of your league.”

If Twilight took any offense to this, she didn’t show it. “That’s why we’re going to be creative. Discord thinks ponies are all boring and predictable and love order. The last thing he’ll suspect is us playing dirty.” She shut one of the books she was reading and looked at her friends smugly. “In fact, I doubt he knows we’re capable of it.”

Rainbow Dash and Rarity had both perked up at this. “What’s the plan, Twilight?” Applejack asked.

“Last time Discord saw us, we had the Elements and were united to fight him. He won’t expect us to stop hanging out with each other without him corrupting us. When he thought he won, he came to me directly and began to gloat and tried showing off this ‘Chaos Capitol of the World’ for attention. I don’t think he’ll show us the Elements, its too risky, but he will get close to us himself. If he does, I might be able to put a tracking spell on him,” Twilight said. She pulled out a blackboard with her magic and began drawing on it with a piece of chalk. There was a crude picture of Discord and random locations. She connected them all with squiggly lines going back and forth. “With that spell on him, we can see where he goes when he’s not causing Chaos. Wherever he goes, that’s probably where the Elements are.”

“What if he just gets bored with us and moves on to other places in Equestria?” Rainbow Dash asked. “If we fight, he’ll just think his job is done and leave and we’ll never be able to even track him in the first place.”

“We have enough evidence to prove that Discord can’t resist gloating. I know he’ll want to rub it in our faces. At the very least he’ll check to see if our friendship is broken. I’ll have to be careful when I cast the tracking spell. I’m looking up anything involving stealth as well.”

Rarity took a few steps over to stand next to Twilight, peering at a few books herself. “It sounds as though we have a very small window of opportunity,” she said. “I think if I attempt to learn a few of these spells, it’ll give us more of an edge!”

“You? Learning spells not related to clothes?” Rainbow Dash scoffed.

Rarity harrumphed and stuck her nose in the air. “I’ll have you know that my magic is very precise and subtle. I may not have the same skills as Twilight but I am more than capable of studying new spells!”

“Alright, I’m hearing a bunch on how to find the Elements, but nothing about how we’re gonna get them,” Applejack said.

“What if they’re in a fortress?” Pinkie Pie asked. “Or in a mountain guarded by a dragon?” She gasped. “What if they were with us all along?”

Fluttershy looked down and tapped at her neck to make sure the Element of Kindness wasn’t just invisible. Rainbow Dash snorted to stifle a laugh and Fluttershy blushed.

“Discord can use magic to take the Elements. I don’t see why we can’t do the same as soon as I know where they are,” Twilight said. “This time we’ll make sure to put as many magical locks on them as we can so he can’t take them away again. Even his magic has to have limits. That’s why we’re going to find every spell we could possibly use. Anything useful!”

Twilight’s friends nodded and each went to their own sections of the bookshelves. Slowly a pile of books in front of Twilight and Rarity grew and both unicorns were flipping through the pages that had been bookmarked and made notes on the spells they found.

“It’s getting late,” Fluttershy, who had been keeping an eye out for Discord, whispered.

“How the hay can you tell?” Rainbow Dash asked, tossing another book onto the pile.

“Oh, um, the sun is going down.”

“Fluttershy, the sun and moon have been going up an’ down all day,” Applejack said. She shook her head and walked to the window to peer out.

“It’s been daytime for a while now… this is the first time the sun is going down normally,” Fluttershy said.

“And you didn’t think to say anything?” Twilight asked, joining Applejack and Fluttershy by the window. Rarity remained where she was, practicing a few of the spells they had found.

“I didn’t want to bother you…”

Twilight had stopped listening and was instead glaring up at the sky, waiting for it to switch between night and day as it had been doing for the past twenty-four hours. Nothing happened. Aside from a few cotton candy clouds here and there, the sky looked rather normal. She jerked back when a cotton candy cloud fell to the ground in front of the window with a splat.

“You don’t suppose Discord got bored already, do you?” Applejack asked.

“I hope not,” Twilight whispered. She looked away from the window and at all her friends who were staring at her anxiously.

“No more chocolate rain?” Pinkie Pie asked, eyes wide.

“Doesn’t look like it,” Applejack replied.

Twilight pawed at the ground, wondering if they’d be able to pull off her plan. They hadn’t even figured out how to contact one another when they were found by Discord! It was clear to her that they were running out of time if they wanted to catch him here in Ponyville.

“We have to move now,” Twilight said. Her horn lit up and duplicated the notes on spells she and Rarity had written. Rarity took her copy and nodded, studying it intently. “Girls, keep an eye out for Discord and each other. He won’t win this time.”

Chapter Four

PAST

Fluttershy left Twilight’s library alone and terrified. She was very, very aware that Discord was still out there. She wanted more than anything to just go home and hide under her bed until this was all over but Celestia was counting on them.

She squeaked in terror when she slipped on the soapy road and landed on her face, sliding forward a few feet. A couple, much braver, ponies were skating on the road to get to their own homes. Fluttershy hobbled to her feet and attempted to do the same but as soon as she pushed herself forward, the soapy road vanished and again she fell over.

“Ow,” she muttered, gazing at the stone road that had reappeared. She didn’t trust for it to remain a stable walking path and flapped her wings to raise herself into the air and fly home instead. Luckily there were no longer any cotton candy clouds or chocolate milk rain, leaving the sky perfectly clear. She wasn’t the only pegasus taking advantage of the clear skies. There were a few helping their earth pony friends down from their floating houses or heading back straight to Cloudsdale.

As Fluttershy gazed at a few of the ponies, she noticed some of the floating houses began to wobble. She stopped and looked on in horror as one by one, houses fell out of the sky and onto the checkered and polka dotted ground. Ponies screamed and scattered, desperate to avoid the falling debris. The ground, which had been turned into multiple lumpy hills, was now flattening itself back to normal, throwing several ponies off balance as they ran. Ponyville was now in a completely different state of chaos.

As much as she wanted to help, Fluttershy grew concerned over her own cottage and all the animals she housed there. The idea of one of them being squashed by her home had her fighting back tears and she flew toward it as fast as her wings could carry her.

To her surprise, her cottage seemed…

Perfectly normal.

She landed in front of the door and raised a hoof to open it but was forced to the ground by a white blur. She would have screamed if she hadn’t recognized it had been Angel Bunny who had tackled her. Thankfully, his body had returned to normal. She didn’t have much time to think it over because Angel was bouncing up and down on top of her, squeaking frantically and pointing at the door to her cottage.

“Good heavens, what’s wrong, Angel?” Fluttershy asked. She realized that was a dumb question. What wasn’t wrong today?

Angel pulled up one of his hind legs and pointed to it frantically, then made a long gesture. He hopped off Fluttershy and jerked a paw at the door again. When Fluttershy just frowned and stood up, he displayed his buckteeth and used his paws to make a downwards triangle motion from his mouth and twitched his ears up so that they almost looked like horns. Afterwards, he pulled at his fluffy tail so it became just a smidge longer and bounced up and down, flapping his arms like wings.

“A…. animal?” Fluttershy asked.

Angel smacked himself in the face and took a deep breath and nodded. He pointed at Fluttershy.

“A pony?”

He nodded but then straightened his ears to look like horns.

“A… a ram? A goat? A deer?”

Another nod. He showed his buck teeth and made clawing motions with his paws.

“F-Fangs and claws?!”

Usually Fluttershy cared for all animals, but this seemed to be a predator that Angel was very scared of so his continuous nodding was beginning to make her shiver. He then began flapping his arms like wings, still showing his teeth as if fangs.

“Bat? A dragon?”

He pointed at her wing.

“Pegasus. No, a bird?”

He slapped his limbs to his side and went on the ground, slithering toward her.

“A-A snake?”

Fluttershy gasped when it all became clear. The head of a pony, horns, antlers. A snaggletooth and claws. A bat wing and a Pegasus wing. The body the shape of a serpent. This wasn’t multiple animals, it was all one being.

“It’s-It’s Discord,” Fluttershy whispered, her entire body trembling. “Angel you’ve seen him? Where is he?”

He pointed at her cottage door and Fluttershy’s legs gave in.

Discord. In her cottage. Why there of all places? She could feel the tears of terror welling up in her eyes and desperately tried to calm herself down. She had to stick to the plan.

“A-Angel,” Fluttershy called softly. “You have to get Twilight or Rarity. They have a plan.”

Angel gazed at her worriedly, reluctant to leave her.

“I have to stay and make sure he doesn’t move. Just hurry. Hop as fast as you can! Please, be careful.”

Her closest companion saluted her and darted away down the road to Ponyville, leaving her alone. Fluttershy swallowed and look back at the door to her cottage. It blurred and tilted and she squeezed her eyes shut a few times to keep everything focused. She had to keep an eye on Discord. Take a shuddering breath, she went to the side of the door and peered through the window.

She had expected the inside of the cottage to be a chaotic mess. Instead, it was just like the outside of her cottage. Normal, except for the creature floating in the middle of it who was far from normal as far as appearances went. She couldn’t tell what he was doing, but his body was surrounded by an aura of magic and his eyes were swirling black and indigo. He looked possessed and it did nothing to ease Fluttershy’s fear. What did was what she spotted on the table.

The Elements of Harmony.

Fluttershy gasped softly. They were right there! All the power they needed to seal Discord up for good was right in the middle of her home resting on a pillow. The Element of Kindness seemed to sparkle when her eyes landed on it specifically. A part of her wanted to creep inside the house and steal the Elements right out from under Discord’s nose but another part knew that she’d never be able to pull it off.

She squeaked loudly when the aura around Discord pulsed and spread out to Ponyville. From where she stood she could see the polka dots and checkerboard patterns had vanished and the natural Equestrian foliage had returned. What in the name of Celestia was Discord doing?

‘Is he… trying to put things back to normal?’

That seemed out of character for him but aside from the collateral damage, Ponyville was almost back to the way it was before. If he was really trying to put everything back to normal, she was sure he would have been able to do that with a snap of his fingers. She turned back to look through the window and saw the aura around Discord had dissipated. He was blinking his eyes multiple times until they swirled back to their original colors and met hers dead-on.

Fluttershy bleated and fell from the window onto her back, legs sticking out straight and stiff, frozen in fear.

There was a crack and a flash and Discord was hovering over her, long neck arched so that his face was only inches from hers. A jar that held some green goop hung from his neck and tapped against her chest.

“Oh ho, if it isn’t Fluttershy,” Discord crooned.

She tucked her hooves closer to her chest and stared up, terrified. Her thoughts had come to a halt and it was impossible for her to find her voice. All that went through her mind was his evil chuckle and her wings disappearing and him yelling at her and corrupting her to be the opposite of her true nature. She had no idea what to do and he seemed to be waiting for a reply she could not give.

“Somepony once told me that spying wasn’t a very polite thing to do,” he added. “No, not very polite at all. Downright rude even.”

Fluttershy whimpered.

He drew back immediately and gave her an odd look, then shook his head and sighed.

“I suppose you’re wondering what I am doing in your home of all places?”

She could barely manage a few squeaks and instead settled for a curt nod, completely thrown off by his conversationalist tone.

“I seem to have misplaced myself. I am very far from home, you see. I must return posthaste. A few friends of mine may be in terrible danger.”

Fluttershy’s ear twitched. Friends? Discord had friends? She still couldn’t find her voice to press for more information. She also couldn’t decide if this was a trick. How could Discord have friends if he had been imprisoned in stone for so long?

‘He looks sad, though…’

Sad or not, he caused Equestria and Celestia and her friends a lot of grief. He was mean.

“Anywhooo, I ended up at your cottage by mistake. I had no idea you’d be home so soon,” he continued. He flashed her a grin. “Tell you what, I’ll forgive your spying if you forgive me for trespassing into your home! How does that sound?”

She had no idea what to say to that. All that came out of her mouth were squeaks and whines. His grin faltered and he began to look frustrated with himself. His ears flattened and he cleared his throat.

“I’ll just get out of your mane then,” he said, floating a bit further back.

Fluttershy began to panic. He couldn’t leave! Not right now, not when this was a perfect opportunity to put that spell on Discord or even manage to take the Elements from him.

“Wait!” she screeched, shocking him and making him flip in midair to look back down at her.

She forgot she was still on her back and quickly righted herself. Discord was still floating in place, waiting (surprisingly) patiently.

“Wait?” he pressed.

“Yes! Wait. You have to stay for um… um…” Fluttershy kicked open the door to her cottage, her eyes darted around to find anything that’d make him stay. They landed on an empty teapot and she darted toward it, lifting it up high to show him. “Tea!”

“Tea,” Discord repeated. He floated into the cottage.

She nodded so hard she practically felt her brain rattle around in her skull. “Yes! Tea! It’s tea time and-and you can’t leave!”

“You want to have tea. With me.” She was awful at lying when she was terrified. It was obvious to her that Discord didn’t believe her for a second. She could not for the life of her figure out why he was going along with it. “Do you regularly have tea with anypony who trespasses on your property or put Ponyville in a state of pure chaos?”

“All-All the time!”

Fluttershy could have sworn she heard him chuckle as he went past her to take a seat on one of her cushioned chairs. It took a lot of willpower to get herself to start preparing the tea for her unusual guest and she was reluctant to turn her back towards him. She also knew she had to keep him from getting bored or else he’d either turn her house upside down or leave before her friends could get here.

“Do you have a preference of tea?” she asked after leaving her kettle over a fire.

“Anything you have is fine,” he said, waving a paw and looking around the cottage as if he hadn’t spent who-knew-how-long in it already. His eyes went over the Elements of Harmony and he frowned, snapping his fingers and vanishing them with a flash. Fluttershy tried not to show her wince and disappointment but she knew he caught it and that thought made her tremble even more. What if he got angry that this was all a ruse?

“Perhaps this is a bad idea,” Discord said, standing up from his seat.

“No!” Fluttershy shouted. In a fit of boldness, she rushed forward and used a hoof to firmly push him back into his seat, staring him straight in the eye. “Stay!”

Discord sat down roughly, eyes wide with surprise and mouth gaping as he stared at her. She was almost confident he’d stay in place until he blinked and snapped his mouth closed, scowling.

“Did you just try using The Stare one me?” he asked, sounding insulted. He stood up from his seat once again, this time at full height and the reality of his size crashed down on Fluttershy. She gasped and backed away swiftly. She hadn’t even been aware she was using The Stare but she knew it was true. Worst of all, Discord knew she tried using it.

He took a step forward and she cowered before him, covering her eyes with her hooves. “I-I’m sorry. I-“

“…This was definitely a bad idea.”

‘This is it,’ Fluttershy thought. ‘This is it. He’s going to destroy me.’

Crack!

“Fluttershy! Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy peeked from under her hooves from the familiar voice. Discord was no longer in front of her. It was a white unicorn. Rarity.

Fluttershy’s eyes watered as she stared at her friend and she scrambled to stand up straight.

“Fluttershy, you were so brave!” Rarity said, closing the distance between them and wrapping a hoof around her.

“Rarity,” Fluttershy whispered, unable to believe it. Angel was balanced on Rarity’s back and hopped onto the floor to hug Fluttershy’s leg. “What… happened to Discord?”

“He vanished,” Rarity replied. “I only just got here in time to see you stand up to that creature. It’s quite a shame the stare didn’t work but it did buy me just enough time to cast a spell.”

“You did it? That’s great!”

Rarity glanced at the ground. “I do hope it works. He didn’t seem to feel a thing. Like I told Rainbow Dash, I’m not at the same skillset as Twilight and that was a rather difficult spell.” She took a deep breath. “The only thing we can do now is wait and see. Perhaps Twilight will be able to reinforce the spell if she comes across him. More importantly, dear, are you alright?”

Fluttershy shuffled her wings and stretched her legs, making sure each of her limbs were accounted for. “I think so.”

“I wonder why he chose to come to your cottage of all places? I was sure he’d visit Twilight first.”

“He said he was misplaced.” Fluttershy frowned as she recalled what Discord said. “He said he needed to get home. His friends were in danger. It was so strange.”

“He certainly didn’t seem to be in any hurry when he was waiting for you to serve him tea of all things.” Rarity nodded to herself. “It must have been some kind of deception. A part of a scheme he is devising. We must keep our heads straight and tell the others what’s happened at once.”