Boncord: The Director's Cutby Hoers IncognitoChaptersAct 1Act 2The lost chapter.Act 3Act 1One After the initial capture of Bugbear, Bon Bon (aka special agent Sweetie Drops), was assigned to do consulting work for the Canterlot anti-monster agency. This is around the same time that Discord was enlisted to help re-capture Tirek. The timing of these two events of course no accident. "Princess Celestia thinks YOU, a mere pony, an earth pony with no magic at that, can teach ME a thing or two about dealing with MAGICAL threats." Discord chided. Bon Bon simply rolled her eyes. Not even an introduction. A laughable attempt at a first impression she thought. She hadn't even made her way to the security checkpoint at the headquarters to check-in and in a flash of light she was standing beside the towering draconequus being insulted straight to her face. Perhaps she would cut straight to the lesson. "Well clearly you're right. I have nothing to teach you. Take the day off. I'll just make up a report for Princess Celestia saying we did some training together and I'll take the day off too." Bonbon shot him a conspicuous wink and just as quickly he vanished in another flash of light. Not long into his 'day off' Discord found himself confronted by a very unhappy Princess Celestia, ambushed in the middle of a nap. "If you aren't going to take this job seriously then perhaps you can better serve Equestria in the royal statue garden!" Her voice boomed angrily. She meant business. "She ratted me out?" his voice cracked with surprise. Perhaps he needed to brush up on his nuances he thought. He also felt an ironic little spark of respect for Bon Bon for as quickly as he could have snapped his fingers she had devised a clever ruse to put him on the defensive. A successful ruse at that. Discord snapped his fingers and there Bon Bon was standing with him and Celestia. "Well played." He patted her on the head. "If your playbook goes beyond just tattling then maybe I CAN learn a tiny little thing or two from you." Bon Bon just gave him an icy expression. A being as powerful as 'The Lord of Chaos' was not one she could afford to give any tells to. "I'll handle him from here, Princess" she bowed respectfully. "What did you learn?" She asked Discord curtly once Celestia had made her way. "Not to trust you." He said mockingly. "Then we're on the same page. Are you hungry?" Bon Bon asked. It was coming up time for supper by now. "Oh I know the perfect place in Ponyville!" Bon Bon noted an uncharacteristic longing in Discord's eyes as he snapped his fingers, the both of them materializing on the streets of Ponyville by a little outdoor bistro in the marketplace. "Funny. I've spent most my life in Ponyville and I've never come here. You sure know your way around here for somepony who can be anywhere he wants." "Well sometimes I come here with F-" he glared at her and rolled his eyes. "This is just another ruse so you can profile me isn't it? Aren't you supposed to be training me? Not capturing me?" "Dinner's on me." Bon Bon flashed him a fake smile and walked in ahead of him. "Not with your usual company?" The waiter pony asked Discord as he lead the two of them to a table. Bon Bon snickered at him. "I didn't come here to be mocked."Discord grumbled. "You're lucky I'm not one to walk away from a free meal." "You're worried about confronting Tirek." Bon Bon stated coldly. "What makes you say that?" "You're still here." She grinned slyly as she flipped through the menu. "From what I know about him he can steal the strongest and most destructive of magics with ease. It's no wonder he escaped and every wonder how he was ever even caught in the first place." Discord explained. "Even if I had him in chains I'm not even sure Princess Celestia herself could lock him back up without trouble." "You must feel like a lowly earth pony up against the lord of chaos." Bon Bon smirked. "Any recommendations?" she continued. "That's what I'm supposed to be asking you." Discord belted. "I'm talking about the menu." It was impossible for Discord to maintain his rasp demeanor as he thought back to his many visits to the restaurant with Fluttershy. Bon Bon noted his surreal expression as he spoke up. "The double hayburger with the side salad always fills me right up." he recommended. "Sounds like a taste you'd inherit from a pony" Bon Bon pressed. "What I'd really like to know is what you're playing at with all these personal questions." he protested, blushing slightly. "Sometimes to win a fight it's important to know who and what you're fighting for." she explained. They paused their conversation as the waiter came by and took their orders. Bon Bon could see as the waiter made off that Discord looked eager to speak. "And who do you fight for? Any special somepony?" He countered. She hesitated for a moment. She wasn't sure if she should let her guard down with her present company but it was something she wanted to talk to somepony about for along time and she couldn't hold back her reply. "Yeah. Well. Things are a little gray with where we stand sometimes it seems. If you went asking around these parts everypony would have a different answer for you." She gave out a longing sigh and placed her hoof atop the table fidgeting around with her empty plate. Discord gazed off at the fading light in the silky dusk that shrouded the humble little outdoor bistro. Stars were beginning to emerge and he could see Fluttershy in the constellations. He reached across the table and placed his paw on Bon Bon's restless hoof. She blushed. "We have more in common than either of us anticipated." he said softly. They both sat silent for a moment and then their eyes wandered toward each others. As their eyes met they both let go of each other and reeled themselves in, quickly forcing themselves to look away. "Looks like our food is here." Bon Bon deflected as the waiter pony approached from the other end of the scene. "Yes." He laughed meekly. "I'm so hungry I could eat an entire dimension." From there a very silent meal followed. Dinner seemed like a good place to discuss strategy for the battle ahead but both Bon Bon and Discord were at a loss to confront their conflicted hearts. It wasn't until their plates were empty once again that Bonbon had fought back her nerves to speak up. "So who do you fight for?" Bon Bon asked. "My first and best friend." He placed his hands together and fidgeted. "But a word like 'friend' just doesn't cut it?" She asked. Casting her eyes out to the stars. Discord nodded. "But there are those who would shake their fist and sneer at you if you called it anything else?" Bon Bon nodded back."And you just want to scream it from the rooftops." her voice became more empowered. "But you don't. It's not your nature to hold your tongue but it's what they want. And most days it's not too much to ask." His voice became forlorn. "But some days it just hurts! Who cares what anypony else thinks!" Bon Bon shouted as she jumped up to attention. Everypony at the restaurant now looked in their direction and the room fell silent. She blushed when she saw all the eyes beaming toward her and sunk back down. "And it just seems like no matter how many times you run it through your head it seems there is no easy answer. Like how to subdue an enemy that has you hopelessly outmatched. And yet you've done it a hundred times." Discords mind returned to the inevitable confrontation with Tirek. "That's when you have to get creative. Know your friends. Know your enemies." Bon Bon resumed her cool demeanor, relieved by the change in topic. "Know your friends... There's a book deep in the top secret section of the Canterlot archives." Discord snapped his fingers and the book appeared in his hands. "Put it back." Bon Bon said. "But why?" "Just do it". Discord snapped his fingers and the book disappeared again. "Now let's go sneak in there and get it." Bon Bon said adventurously. "That just seems like a waste of time when I can-" "Do you think I just clapped my hooves together to send Bugbear to Tartarus? I don't have magic. I didn't have that choice. And there might come a time when neither do you. But I know in good time Tirek will be back there to keep him company." She explained. "Can I at least take us to Canterlot so we aren't up all night?" Bon Bon nodded and Discord snapped his fingers. They ended up in a hedge just outside an old unassuming brick building. "Up there!" Bon Bon pointed her hoof at a window on the second floor and then pulled a grappling hook from her pack. She twirled the rope and cast it up. The barbs on the hook bit into the window sill. She gave it a quick tug to make sure it was secure. Bon Bon went up first. The window was locked from the inside. Discord caught up. Bon Bon cocked her head to the side to quietly point out the situation with the window lock. Discord used one of his claws to cut a small hole in the window glass so that they could unlock it from the outside. "At least your special somepony knows this is what you REALLY do when you're out at night." Bon Bon whispered to Discord as they pulled the rope up and climbed through the window. "There's a big difference between managing the forces of chaos and petty burglary." he whispered back in protest. She hushed him and motioned at a glow down the hallway. Guard unicorns were on patrol. The duo ducked into the darkness and waited for the lights to pass into another row. Each floor of the archives was row upon row of shelves containing all kinds of historical records. "The top secret section is in the basement level." Discord whispered. Bon Bon nodded. They slowly and quietly crept their way to the stairwell and down the stairs. At the basement level they were confronted by a heavy metal door. "How do we get by this without magic?" Discord quizzed. Bon Bon casually poked her hoof at Discord's mouth to silence him and then reached into her pack and pulled out a lockpick set and went to work on the door's lock. 'How does she do that without fingers?' Discord thought to himself. Eventually there was a click and Bon Bon swung the door open. They both crept in and then closed and locked it behind them. "I bet even those guards aren't allowed in here." Bon Bon said with a sigh of relief. The shelves in the top secret area were fewer in number and less of them contained the usual record folders and more of them were stacked sparsely with strange artifacts and musty tomes. "So why don't you just tell her?" Discord pried her as he poked around the artifacts on one of the shelves. "Because I'm not supposed to. It's a top secret position." She insisted. "Not so top secret that you can come in here without breaking in which I'd wager you aren't supposed to do either." he said mockingly. "And yours. She doesn't even know just how deeply you feel does she? She's given you her heart but you hold off on an answer, I bet." she snapped back. "A draconequus and a pony. It seems more absurd than two mares. Besides how do you know my special somepony is a she?" "Ponyville is a small town. Small towns just love to pass around juicy gossip whether you ask for it or not." He explained. "Great. I'm the talk of the town. All the more reason I could never tell her. It's too dangerous for her to know." "What if something happened that made it more dangerous for her NOT to know? Hypothetically of course" Discord quizzed. "Over there. That book looks familiar." She pointed her hoof at a book on a shelf that looked like the one he had materialized earlier. She breathed a sigh of relief at a chance to change the subject again. "Ah yes." Discord picked up the book and started casually flipping the pages around. "Princess Celestia's own study notes on the elements of harmony. So long ago she probably doesn't even remember this ragged tome even exists." he chuckled nostalgically. "Good now let's get out of here." She motioned for the door and he followed, book in hand. Just as they reached the door a piercing alarm sounded and armored hoofsteps began to clatter through the halls and into the stairwell. "Looks like they found our handy work upstairs." Bon Bon looked around. "And it looks like the only way out is the way we came." "Perhaps now is a good time to let me use my magic?" Discord grinned and Bon Bon nodded. "Where to?" he asked. "Anywhere but here!" He snapped his fingers and the two of them vanished in a flash. They reappeared at their table in the restaurant but it was much later and everypony had long since gone home. Both their hearts still throbbed with exhilaration. "I can almost understand the thrill of doing things your way." Discord joked. Bon Bon smiled. "I said almost" he corrected. Bon Bon jabbed at him playfully with her hoof. "You had fun, admit it." they smiled at each other. "Goodness, look how late it is." Discord looked up at the night sky and motioned to snap his fingers. "Wait!" Bon Bon said. "Why do you have to snap your fingers to do magic? Aren't you an all powerful lord of chaos?" she asked playfully. "I don't HAVE to snap my fingers. Surely you of all ponies understand the need to do things with a little... panache." Bon Bon gave Discord a quick hug. Both blushed; even she was surprised by her actions. "I guess we can pick this up in the morning." she said. "If you're not ready to sleep just yet I was planning to do some more sneaking around... and well.. I've found your unique perspective kind of helpful." he smiled and gently raked a claw through her mane returning her hug. "Kind of?" she smirked. "Sure I'm in." they both let go of each other. Discord snapped his fingers and the two of them re-materialized in Tartarus. A feeling of dread washed over Bon Bon's heart while for Discord it just seemed like any other intrusion. She wasn't expecting such a stark change of venues. Before them was the now empty shackles that once bound Tirek. "Not one for subtlety. What are we doing here?" Bon Bon trembled as Discord eyeballed the shackles. "These shackles should have prevented his escape. They are enchanted to block tampering by magic." He explained. Bon Bon slipped a hoof into one of the shackles. Discord didn't follow her thinking and just stared, flustered at the sight of the bound pony. "But we hardly know each other." he joked meekly. "I'm not that kind of pony. See if you can get these shackles off with your magic." Discord snapped his fingers and the shackles loosened and fell to the floor. "He absorbed the enchantment..." Discord scratched his head. "If that's the answer you're looking for now would be a good time..." Bon Bon urged. The two could see Cerberus looking over, catching their scent across the open expanse. Discord snapped his fingers and the two re-materialized in an unlit room. Discord fell on his back with a thud and Bon Bon immediately on top of him. "I told you I'm not that kind of pony." Tiny bars of light came through sparse boards on the walls around them and she could see just enough that she was staring into Discord's eyes. "It's not me!" Discord insisted. "Tirek must have left an enchantment of his own on those shackles." "So we're his prisoners!?" Bon Bon trembled. "No. We're in a boxcar." Discord said calmly. "A boxcar?" Bon Bon was confused. "A boxcar. Sometimes I come here to think. I felt Tirek's enchantment 'go off' when I teleported us out of Tartarus. It was like he reached out to me and grabbed the magic right from my hands. I panicked and sent us here. The Ponyville train station." "You do your thinking in a boxcar?" Bon Bon giggled, relieved that the situation wasn't as dire as she had imagined, still on top of Discord. "Where else would the Lord of Chaos go to think? A library? You can get up there's plenty of space for both of us you know." Discord wriggled beneath her. "Getting a little too excited are you?" Bon Bon giggled again as she got up and started examining the gaps in the boards on the walls. "It's barred shut from the outside and I'm going to need some time to recover before I can get us out of here." He sighed. "Might as well get comfortable. I hope you're not afraid of the dark." Bon Bon produced a lantern from her pack and lit it, bringing a dim wash of orange light to the boxcar. "You should know by now you're not going to win this one with magic." she smirked. "But it looks like we aren't getting out of here without it." she sighed and slumped down against one of the walls. Discord sat next to her and just stared at the flickering lantern. Bon Bon reached her hoof over and placed it on his paw. "I'm new to this whole love and kindness and friendship business..." Discord said quietly. "but I've watched from the sidelines for centuries and it's times like this that play tricks on the heart." he continued, turning his head to face hers. Her heart pounded as she slung her hooves around his long neck and pulled her face up to his and delivered a passionate kiss. Discord could not sort the excitement from the guilt and the pain of his own heart racing out of control. "But Fluttershy..." he thought to himself as he pulled his face away. His retreat only fueled Bon Bon's desires further and she pursued him with another kiss, her hoofs now wandering. She was already lost in the moment and Discord's mind grew tired racing in circles pondering the meaning of love and lust and was powerless but to surrender to his base desires. The boxcar rocked with the throes of passion. In the end though they both lay together in an awkward silence. "Are we supposed to talk about our feelings now?" Discord was the first to break the silence. "What just happened was- Look, I love Lyra." she sobbed in response as she positioned herself further away from him. "I don't understand." Discord said. "You put some kind of spell on me didn't you? I knew you couldn't be trusted!" Her sadness became anger in a flash. "What we both did we both did because we wanted to." Discord snapped back. He gestured his hand toward Bon Bon and the boxcar stretched to twice it's length, placing her at the other end. "I now have two world-shattering secrets to keep from her. This one for sure she will not forgive me." she went back to sobbing. The gravity of the situation began to hit Discord. "Then Fluttershy..." he said quietly. "How can a being so ancient be so naive?!" Bon Bon snapped. "What about you and I? Our feelings for one another?" "We hardly know each other. And this is as well as we ever will! I'm requesting a discharge from this assignment first thing in the morning. Then I have to tell Lyra. I can't keep this from her." She stood up. "Your magic is working again, let me out." she cried. Discord snapped his fingers and the boxcar returned to normal and Bon Bon stood outside. He could hear the patter of hooves on the ground as she ran off into the night. He let out a forlorn sigh. Bon Bon had left her pack behind, her lantern still flickered on. He pulled a handkerchief from her pack and sniffed it. It still held the subtle scent of her perfume. Discord felt conflicted by both his longing toward Bon Bon and his guilt about Fluttershy. He needed a distraction. He pulled out Celestia's notes on the Elements of Harmony and went to work. Before long the inside walls of the boxcar were covered by his own notes. "A-ha." he gloated to himself, certain that he had solved the mystery of the Chest of Harmony. He thought perhaps it at least would be key to a plan-B should his confrontation with Tirek fail. And in perfect parallel to life it seems the answer involved tough lessons and even tougher decisions. To simply give the Mane-6 the answer would negate his findings so he would have to be a little more cryptic about it. Dawn began to break and there was a knock on the side of the boxcar. "Excuse me. Discord." a soft, sweet, familiar voice called to him from the outside. It was Fluttershy. He wasn't ready to talk to her about his indiscretions. "How did you know I was here?" He asked indignantly. "Just a guess" She was barely audible through the side of the boxcar. "Did you forget? You were supposed to meet me at my Cottage before dawn. We were going to go to the hill and watch the sun rise. You sound mad" "I was up all night working. Princess Celestia has me working on a top secret assignment. I probably shouldn't even have told you that much. We should take a rain-check." He belted out curtly. "Okay sorry... I'll leave you to your work." her soft, slow steps beat off into the horizon. He swear he could hear her sobbing. 'Was one silly little sunrise really so important to her?' he thought to himself. He felt that clearly he had a lot more left to learn about friendship. Perhaps this was just the beginning of his own tough lesson on tough decisions. The sunrise became like a ticking clock. Soon Bon Bon would tell Lyra and hearts would be broken. Bon Bon waited for Lyra on their favorite bench. She thought perhaps such a setting would lessen the impact of what she was about to confess. But as she waited the dread only grew. Dread became anger when Discord appeared before her. "What are you doing here?" She snapped. "Have you told her yet?" He asked softly. "I will as soon as she gets here. It's better if you're not around." "Splendid. I'm not too late." Discord cupped his hands together. "What do you mean?" A look of grave concern washed over Bon Bon's face. "Soon everything will be made right." Discord boasted with an ominous glee. "What did you do!?" Bon Bon demanded. "Well I went back to Tartarus to take one last look at Tirek's shackles after staying up all night solving some silly riddle about keys. And I could hear rattling against the bars of a distant cage. It would seem Bugbear could smell your handkerchief that I had with me. He is very unhappy with you it seems. Your dilemma about having two world-shattering secrets to confess echoed in my head. And I thought how if he was after you, you would have no choice but to tell Lyra about your... unique profession." "You didn't..." Bon Bon trembled. "Well I couldn't just teleport him out of the cage. It's enchanted to block magical tampering." He explained as Bon Bon breathed a fleeting sigh of relief. "Then I thought about my little key riddle again." He scratched his chin. Bon Bon's eyes widened with fear. "I used the enchantment Tirek left on his shackles to short-out the enchantment on the cage and it opened up just like a key." he continued, sounding proud of himself. Bon Bon just stared quietly at him. "Relax. I have powerful friends. When Bugbear makes his way to Ponyville after you I will alert them. No harm will come to anypony." His words brought no comfort. "What about my other secret?" Bon Bon trembled in fear of the answer. Discord held out Bon Bon's forgotten pack to her and she reached out her hoof to grab it from him. As she took her pack Discord reached out and touched her forehead. "When you wake up you won't remember us ever having worked together. How can you carry guilt for something you don't even know about?" He snickered. Bon Bon gasped sharply for air and rolled out of bed, hitting the floor with a thud. "BON BON!" Lyra shouted with concern, waking up to the sound. "Are you okay?" It was now night. "I don't know. I feel like I just woke up from an awful nightmare. But I don't remember dreaming about anything. In fact the whole day is a blur." Her voice sounded weak. Her head throbbed with pain. "Well you did drink an awful lot of cider on our picnic today!" Lyra giggled. She helped Bon Bon back into bed and wrapped her hooves around her comfortingly. "I love you." Bon Bon said with a smile. "I love you too." Lyra kissed her softly on the cheek. Discord watched the scene unfold in the form of a fly on the wall. A tear rolled down his cheek. "I'll confess to Fluttershy when the time is right. I will lose her as a friend. The rest of them will see no reason to keep me around." He thought to himself. But for now he had to focus on his confrontation with Tirek. Author's Note This was the first of three stories. Act 2Two Fluttershy waited patiently atop the checkered picnic blanket on a popular hill just outside Ponyville. There were many picnics going on that afternoon but the hillside was so broad that there was plenty of breathing room for everypony. In a flash of light Discord appeared before her in fancy attire. "Just on time my dear, sweet, Fluttershy." he bowed and offered up a bouquet of white and blue daisies which she grabbed with her mouth and then placed down beside her. "These look lovely, Discord. Thank you." "Oh it was nothing." he chuckled modestly. "It's very brave of you to wait out for me here all by yourself on such a busy day. Dare I ask what the occasion is?" Discord smiled as he pinched his beard. Fluttershy meagerly pushed a small, wrapped gift toward Discord across the blanket with her hoof as she began to speak. "Um. Well I. I wanted to thank you for watching Angel bunny for me while I was in Manehattan. He told me you two got along perfectly the WHOLE time." She beamed proudly. "Hehe. You know me. A glutton for self improvement." Discord spoke quietly as he picked up the small gift box and shook it beside his ear. "I mean it." She insisted proudly. "You've really come such a long way since we started seeing each other. Open it." she smiled meekly, nervous how he would react to the gift. "Well you complete me." he smiled at her as unwrapped the box and opened it up. He pulled out a golden pendant from it. "Discord + Fluttershy" was embossed on the rear and a heart on the front. His heart sank as Fluttershy began to speak. "You complete me too. Which is why I want to be each others special somepony for a very long time. Forever." Fluttershy blurted the words out past her nerves. That word. "Forever." It struck Discord like a wrecking ball. In all of his self improvement and adapting to the pony way of life now an important oversight barred his path. "Forever." It was a word that carried wildly different implications for a mortal versus an immortal. To Discord the last several years had been a mere blink of an eye. One scene blurred into another forming a grand mosaic of thoughts and experiences and one missing tile where he had yet to confess his indiscretions with Bon Bon to her. For Fluttershy in her limited years the thoughts and experiences and emotions were all vivid and striking, each an entire mosaic of it's own. "I-I can't accept this." Discord stammered as a look of fear and dread washed over his face. "I'm not the perfect special somepony you think I am." "What do you mean?" Fluttershy's joy from the moment began to fade. "Several years ago I worked on a top secret assignment with Bon Bon." Discord pointed down the hill where Lyra and Bon Bon were enjoying a picnic of their own. "Her and I had an affair together." his heart quivered as he continued. "This isn't funny Discord." She shuttered."This is no time for a joke." "I'm afraid it's not." A tear ran down his face. "How could you do this to us?" Fluttershy bursted into tears and slumped down as a feeling of weakness washed over her. "I don't understand." She jabbed him with her hoof. "How could you keep this for so long? Why are THEY fine with it?" She motioned down the hill at Lyra and Bon Bon still happily gazing into each other's eyes. "I erased her memory of it. No memory. No guilt for her to live with I figured." Discord explained. "That's evil!" She cried out. "Fluttershy, please." Discord reached out and placed his paw on her back. "Don't touch me!" She batted his paw off and galloped away down the hill crying. Discord hung his head. His heart pleaded with him to chase after her but he knew now he could only bring her pain. The golden pendant had fallen on the picnic basket in the commotion with the lettering on the back side facing up. His chest felt heavy and he strained to draw air. He picked up the pendant and looked for the emptiest spot on the horizon and began to walk. As Discord wandered aimlessly he felt an unfamiliar terror. In all of his thoughts and experiences there lay no clue as to what the future now held for him. A new grand mosaic began to form before him and this experience was not just a single tile but the sum of many. He lost track of time as he wandered. But suddenly he felt a great energy overcome him. Everything went white. He was being teleported against his will but to where and by whom? "Is there another Lord of Chaos in town?" He thought to himself as he began to re materialize. It must be. Such a teleportation would otherwise take an army of angry alicorns to pull off. The whiteness faded and before him stood the least preferable of his speculations. He was in the Canterlot throne room. The four princesses glared at him with a look that could pierce through mountains and Fluttershy hid behind them staring down at the floor. "Discord!" Celestia's voice shook the entire scene. "You stand accused of high crimes against Equestria!" Luna piped in. "I can't believe you would do something like this." Twilight sighed. "Do you understand why you are here?" Cadence asked. "Fluttershy..." Discord wimpered. "What you did to this poor Filly's heart is none of my concern!" Celestia snarled. "But to have tampered with a ponies memories while working in service of Equestria is a serious charge." Celestia pointed to Fluttershy "And it's only by her heartfelt plea that you aren't back in the royal statue garden this very moment." Celestia motioned to Fluttershy. "You have to make things right somehow. " she sobbed as she stepped forward. "Give her back her memory." "Memory curses are highly forbidden." Celestia explained. "But we can't reverse what you have done." "Hold on everypony!" Twilight interjected. "Reversing a memory curse even after a few days can be dangerous let alone a few years. Maybe Discord's magic is different but she still has to reconcile the lost memory with years of new ones. I can't endorse this" "A valid point, Twilight." Celestia sighed. "But the offender must be punished!" Luna insisted. "Discord. You have until dawn two days from now to seek whatever advice you must and then report to me with a plan to make things right." Celestia demanded. Discord nodded. He reached out toward Fluttershy and began to utter her name but in that moment was teleported back to where he was wandering moments earlier. Fluttershy wanted him to restore Bon Bon's memory. Twilight was against it. Perhaps the rest of the Mane 6 wouldn't be so divided on the issue he hoped. "Hold on now!" Applejack blurted boisterously. "This here is best two out of three." "Oh, come on!" Rainbow Dash objected. The two of them were at Sweet Apple Acres playing a game of horse shoes. Rainbow Dash prepared for her next toss and as she released Discord appeared in it's path knocking it to the ground. "Discord..." both said in an unwelcoming tone. "What do you think YOU'RE doing here?" Rainbow Dash demanded. "That counts as your toss by the way sugar cube." Applejack gloated. "Oh, come on!" Rainbow Dash protested. "Well I don't see anything in the rulebook about being blocked by a big ole pile of trash." Applejack snarled. "Good one." Discord said as he literally shrunk before them. "I suppose you've heard." "You're darn tootin'" Applejack replied. "If you go anywhere near her again..." Rainbow Dash made a fisticuffs gesture with her hoofs. "That's not why I'm here." Discord explained. "I'm to seek advice on how to make right erasing Bon Bon's memory and then report back to Princess Celestia." "Well that seems mighty obvious dontcha think? Give back her memory. The honest thing." Applejack Gloated. "I completely agree." Rainbow Dash added. "Lyra has a right to know that Bon Bon was 100 percent unloyal." "But they're so happy together. oblivious. Not only will I be hurting Bon Bon but I'll be hurting Lyra as well." Discord protested. "Well that joy is all a lie!" AppleJack protested. "Three to one now. I think I see where this is going." Discord sighed. "Well sounds like you got your answer." Applejack said curtly. "Yeah, so beat it!" Rainbow Dash insisted. Discord listlessly snapped his fingers and disappeared. "Make sure your streamers aren't blocking the sponsor's banners, darling." Rarity smiled. "Right!" Pinkie Pie saluted as she strung up some streamers around the inside of the Ponyville town hall. "This is going to be the BEST. FUNDRAISER. EVER!" she screamed excitedly. "Simply the most fabulous!" Rarity hung her hoof as she boasted. Her horn glowed as she magically strung up some ponish lettering underneath the streamers. "Featuring the musical stylings of Lyra Hearstrings" it read. Pinkie pressed a pin in to holdup a streamer and behind it was Discord's chest. He deflated like a balloon as it pierced him. "Oh it's you." Pinkie said. "What are YOU doing here?" Rarity demanded. "I've come to seek your advice." Discord calmly explained as he re-inflated and stood normally. "I need to know if restoring Bon Bon's memory is the way to make things right." "Absolutely not!" Rarity snapped. "But why?" Discord and Pinkie Pie gave her a confused look. "What if Lyra finds out about... You know... right before her big performance. We've worked so hard on this fundraiser it will be simply ruined!" she explained. "Ooh. You're right!" Pinkie piped up. "They're so happy together!" "Even if it's all a lie?" Discord sighed. "Look, darling. You gave her a second chance as a gift. And even if it wasn't the right thing to do" Rarity spoke softly. "You can't just TAKE A GIFT BACK!" Pinkie screamed. "Well it's a hung Jury now." Discord sighed and hung his head. "Well thanks girls." "BYE!" Pinkie said excitedly. Discord thought it odd as he teleported away of how much warmer a reception he received this time around. The day had escaped at this point and he had only tomorrow left to figure this out now on his own. The next morning Fluttershy walked meekly through the inner grounds of the friendship school as she prepared herself mentally for her next class. "Hey misses Shy!" Gallus called out as he swooped down and landed in front of her. "I finished that essay. I know it's a few days late but if you'd let me explain..." "Oh. That's okay, Gallus." she said softly as she grabbed a small stack of papers from him and put it in her saddle bags. "Oh.. so we're cool then?" He scratched the back of his head. "Yes." She said quietly. "Is everything okay?" He quizzed. "Yes." her eyes started to well up with tears. "What happened?" He insisted. "It's grown up pony stuff." She sobbed. "A broken heart?" Fluttershy answered his prying with a meek nod. "Hey you know how it's hearts and hooves day in Griffonstone? Everyone's crying." He laughed akwardly. Fluttershy just stared back at him. "I'm not being very helpful am I?" "You tried to show you care. That's nice of you." She sniffled. "Well I have a class right away. Take care." Gallus patted her on the shoulder and soared off. Fluttershy went to pull the essay out of her pack to look it over and Discord appeared animated on the pages. "Fluttershy..." He said. "I don't want to talk to you right now." she sobbed. "Why did you stand up for me to Celestia?" "Because I love you." she burst into tears. Some of them landed on the paper causing Discord's image to smudge. "I love you too. I'm so sorry." "I know you love me. And I know you're sorry. But that doesn't mean things can just go back to the way they were." she cried. "I know..." he sighed. The essay turned back to normal as he left. Discord found himself at the picnic hill watching Bon Bon and Lyra together. "Hey check this out." Lyra put a music box down on the blanket at opened it up. A melancholy melody sounded as the figurine twirled. Bon Bon watched intently. She was familiar with the music box so she wondered what Lyra was getting at. When the song on the music box finished Lyra wound it back up. She placed her hoofs over Bon Bon's ears and started it up again, letting her hear it after the first two notes had already played. "No way! That's so weird." Bon Bon said as she raised an eye brow. Discord had no idea what was going on. All he knew is that he had squandered his last day to figure this out thinking in circles. He had to figure this out fast. "I asked the orange one, the purple one the blue one..." He muttered to himself. "Of course! The other purple one!" He snapped his fingers and appeared in Starlight Glimmer's room in the Castle of Friendship. She was nowhere to be found. "Oh, great." he sighed. Discord snapped his fingers and teleported outside Trixie's wagon and knocked on the side. "Trixie!". He called loudly. Whispering could be heard from the inside and then Trixie opened up the window and stared unimpressed at Discord. "Oh. It's YOU. The great and powerful" She yawned loudly "Trixie needs her beauty rest. Please come back in the morning." She shut the window. Discord knocked again. "I really need your help right now." Starlight Glimmer popped up at the window next. "Oh there you are." Discord exclaimed. "I was wondering when you'd come to me. I was hoping you would when I heard what was happening." She sighed. "It just seems like there's no easy answer." Discord complained. "Why don't you just send them an anonymous fruit basket?" She said with a yawn. "Would that really make things r-" "NO!" she shouted."So what if they're happy right now? Sometimes life hurts. But you can't just give up there. Sometimes life seems hopeless but you can't just give up there. If I hadn't made all of the mistakes I made I would be a completely different pony than I am now. You never gave Bon Bon and Lyra a chance to be the ponies they would have been. You can't know if they would have been better off or not. You stole their choice over their own destiny." She snapped. Starlight Glimmer was right he thought to himself. No matter how dangerous or painful it was the only way to make things right was to give Bon Bon back her memories of that fateful day. The next morning Bon Bon and Lyra laid down with each other on their picnic blanket looking each other intently in the eyes. "I have rehearsal soon." Lyra said. Bon Bon wrapped her hooves around her tightly. "But I never want to let you go!" she giggled. "You'll see me again before the fundraiser, silly!" Lyra giggled back. "Here. She'll keep you company in the mean time." Lyra plopped the music box down in front of her and they both smiled. The two kissed and Lyra sauntered off gleefully. Once Lyra was out of sight Discord appeared before Bon Bon. "Bon Bon." He called her attention calmly... "And you are?" She raised her hoof to her chin in contemplation. "You're that Discord that everypony warns about..." She realized. Discord reached over and touched her forehead. Suddenly Bon Bon flashed back to the day her memory was erased. "When you wake up you won't remember us ever having worked together. How can you carry guilt for something you don't even know about?" Discord snickered. "What's going on?" Bon Bon said, dazed. "Oh, you dropped your bags." Bon Bon saw that he had handed her pack to her. "Thanks." She said with a vacant expression. "It's simply been too long since you and Lyra had a picnic. Don't drink too much cider." Discord disappeared just as Lyra showed up. "Your note said you had something important to talk to me about!" Lyra said in a concerned tone. "It's been too long since we've had a picnic!" Bon Bon exclaimed. "It's only been a week you weirdo." Lyra giggled. "Well let's go." Bon Bon realized her pack was full of picnic supplies, so she laid out a picnic in the grass nearby. She packed an awful lot of cider it seemed. "You!" she snapped angrily at discord as the picnic scene faded from her conscious. "How long?" She whimpered. "It's been a few years." Discord explained repentantly. "A FEW YEARS!? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" she screamed. "I know now how wrong it was of me to steal that from you." "It's all been one big lie this whole time..." Bon Bon began to cry. Discord knew it was time to leave her be. He watched helplessly at a distance as Bon Bon paced nervously awaiting Lyra's return from rehearsal. When she showed up he couldn't bring himself to listen in. But he didn't need to. Lyra's reaction mirrored Fluttershy's. She grew weak. She slumped down. She cried. She yelled. She ran away. Bon Bon froze for a while but then carried off listlessly into the yonder. Discord went over to the picnic blanket. The music box was still sitting there. He kept playing it out and rewinding it. The song was always the same melancholy progression as the world carried on around him. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were going around Ponyville with a disapproving look affixing "performance cancelled" addendums over flyers and billboards for the fundraiser; the world made by his dishonesty now collapsed around him. "You did the right thing." A voice spoke softly. It was Starlight Glimmer. "Then why doesn't it feel that way?" Discord asked in a frustrated tone as he rewound the music box once more. "Sometimes the right way isn't always the happy way..." She answered. "When I was a little foal I had a music box just like that." she said watching him rewind it. "Check this out." Starlight covered his ears as the song began to play, and removed her hoofs after a couple of notes had passed. The music sounded different this time. Instead of invoking a sense of melancholy it felt a little more upbeat. "But how?" He asked. "I'm sure a music pony could explain it. But I'm not a music pony." she laughed awkwardly. "The notes haven't changed though..." He scratched his beard. "It's because of how the mind perceives the ratio of change between the different notes." another voice piped in. Oavia had been walking by and happened upon the scene. "So it's all a matter of perspective?" Discord scratched his beard. Octavia pulled out her Cello and started to play a classical melody. "You could have snapped your fingers and set my village free- But without the lessons what kind of pony would I be?" Starlight Glimmer began to sing. DJ PON-3 was also passing by and happened upon the scene. She unfolded her portable DJ station and mixed in some more contemporary sounds. Discord scratched his chin. "If you can't beat em, join em" he thought and started to place imagery into the groups minds. They saw Fluttershy having fun practicing aerial acrobatics with Rainbow Dash and Gallus "Some ponies win, some ponies lose- The perils of a destiny we choose." Starlight continued singing. "You have to take the good things with the bad- Take the triumphant with the sad." Starlight continued singing as Rarity replaced the addendum on the fundraiser billboards with "The Ponytones: Featuring Fluttershy!" they then saw Fluttershy and the Ponytones in dress rehearsing together. "But that is just the perils of a destiny we choose." They then saw Applejack tearing up looking at a picture of the Apple family parents. "Not every pony makes it through all of life's upsets." Starlight's singing and the music became more solemn. Applejack put the picture away as Apple Bloom runs to her and she kisses Applebloom on the forehead. "That doesn't mean we have to live a life full of regrets." Her tone became more hopeful. The music went into a refrain and Trixie showed up and threw a hoof around Starlight. "You know if it wasn't for Trixie's misdeeds she never would have met this special pony while preparing for the humble and penitent trixie's equestrian apology tour!" she shouted. "That's a mouthful" Discord observed. "It was a working title!" She retorted. "Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry- Sometimes we're meek sometimes we're spry" Starlight sang as the music picked up again. "Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose- But that is just the perils of a life we get to choose." They all sang together as the music ended. "Bon Bon!" Discord jumped up and shouted. He quickly snapped his fingers and teleported beside Bon Bon. She was standing at the edge of a ravine with tears in her eyes. "I know it's not all your fault..." she said quietly when she noticed him arrive. "I'm a terrible pony. If I really loved Lyra how could I have done that to her?" She stared down at the rocks below. "Every pony makes mistakes." he said calmly. Discord held out the music box and opened it up. The melancholy melody began to play. "Does it make us evil? I'm not even sure I can answer that." he sighed. "Just step back please. I'm not asking you to pretend like nothing ever happened. We made this mistake together. Let us figure it out together." he pleaded with tears in his eyes. "I'm just so angry. It's just so frustrating!" She shouted creeping closer to the edge. "Sometimes it's our heartbreaks that inspire us to become stronger and better ponies." Discord said as he projected the image of Applejack and Applebloom into Bon Bon's mind. "Maybe you won't ever be together with her again but I know you love her. If you die now you will never know if she makes it or not!" he shouted. Bon Bon looked at him and then back down at the ravine as he creeped a little closer. She then burst into tears as she threw herself back into his arms. Discord began to cry too. "You could have just snapped your fingers and turned the ravine into jelly..." she cried. "That's the perils of a life where we're free to make our own choices..." he said crying. The lost chapter.Three Bon Bon sat quietly on the bench where she once shared many afternoons with Lyra by her side. It was a strange sight for all to see her there so forlorn and alone. Discord stared intently upon the scene from far away and sighed. "You know part of your punishment is that you were supposed to provide Princess Celestia with regular updates on Bon Bon's progress." Twilight Sparkle insisted as she approached Discord. "Haven't I?" Discord asked. "She hasn't heard from you in over a week!" Twilight pressed her hoof against her forehead. "Well every time I show up Bon Bon refuses to open up to me!" Discord protested. "Have you tried approaching her normally instead of just appearing out of thin air, unannounced?" Twilight sneered. "Why would I do it that way?" Discord scratched his beard. "Because that's how PONIES do it." She slapped her forehead with her hoof again. "In fact this looks like a perfect opportunity to try it out now." she said insistently. Discord sighed as he walked down the long path to Bon Bon. "Hey." Bon Bon said meekly as Discord arrived. "Didn't see you in my breakfast this morning." she continued as she turned her head to him. "Well I figured maybe you'd appreciate a more subtle approach." Discord sighed. "How is the memory reintegration going?" He pressed. "Subtle approach, huh?". She motioned her head over to where Twilight was still standing and staring over at them. "Straight to the point." she sighed and paused for a moment. "Is it selfish of me to wish you'd left me in that happy little world of lies?" She snapped. "Not at all." Discord sighed. "You would have had years to deal with these feelings if it wasn't for me. Not just a couple of weeks." "I can't ignore my responsibility in all this." Bon Bon sighed. "Right now I'm just worried about Lyra. She packed her things and left and nopony in Ponyville has heard from her. That or they're protecting her from me. I don't know." Tears came to her eyes. "Can't you tell me where she is? At least if she's alright?" Bon Bon pleaded. Discord shrunk down and sauntered into a doghouse that appeared beside the bench. "I'm in Princess Celestia's doghouse as it is. The last thing I need is for her to hear that I've been using my power to go around eavesdropping on ponies." Discord protested. "Some all-powerful being you are." Bon Bon turned her nose up and huffed at him. "Having great power comes with great responsibility you know. At least if I want to live freely in Equestria." Discord snapped his fingers and appeared normally again. "I just don't see how you can act so casually about it one moment and then complain about being asked for the tiniest little favor the next." She complained. "You know, being an eternal lord of chaos with penultimate magical powers isn't all it's cracked up to be. But I wouldn't expect a silly powerless little earth pony to understand." Discord chided. An angry expression came over Bon Bon's face. She pressed her hoof into Discord's chest and leaned up into his face. "I've spent my whole life facing down creatures like you." She snarled. "And if I had magic as powerful as yours I'd make a better lord of chaos than you ever could." Discord looked to see that Twilight was no longer watching them and then snapped his fingers. "We'll see about that". Bon Bon backed off and her face dropped. "What?" "I played Earth Pony with you back at the archives when we first met. Now you're going to play Lord of Chaos with me." he snickered. "I don't feel any different." Bon Bon whimpered. "Where's Lyra?" Discord winked to her. "Manehatta-" Her jaw dropped. "Lyra!" she called out. She stomped her hoof on the ground and disappeared in a flash, re-appearing a short distance away. She glared at Discord. "I'm not THAT insane you know. Your powers will only work if you remain within 10 paces of me. I won't have you getting me in any more trouble over this 'tiny little favor'" he muttered. "If ponies start going on about an earth pony running around using magic all hoofs will be immediately pointed at me!" Discord complained. "I got this." Bon Bon stomped her hoof on the ground and a horn came protruding out of her mane. "Not bad..." Discord scratched his chin. "I still can't afford having anybody recognize you. You need a costume... a disguise." Discord snapped his fingers and a mane identical to Rarity's appeared on his head. "It needs to be Haute Couture, tres chic, debonaire..." he raised the pitch of his voice. "I don't know what ANY of that means..." Bon Bon groaned. "Neither do I. Let's try this." Discord snapped his fingers and a suit appeared on Bon Bon. He held a mirror up for her to see herself. "Not bad..." She replied. "Not disguise enough!" Discord snapped his fingers again and she had bushy eye brows and a mustache. "Really?" Bon Bon glared at him. "Do you want to go to Manehattan with me or not?" "Fine." Bon Bon rolled her eyes. Discord snapped his fingers and they appeared in Manehattan atop the towering Empire Hay building at the base of the spire. "I've always wanted to visit this place." Discord beamed gleefully. He used his claws to remove a handful of bolts from the spire. "What are you doing?" Bon Bon raised her eyebrow at him. "They're for my collection." He boasted. "You collect bolts?" "You really never know what the next hot collectors item will be! You have no idea how many fads I've missed over the centuries!" He said in a very disingenuous tone. Discord snapped his fingers and they appeared down on the streets. "Can we go find Lyra now?" Bon Bon groaned impatiently. "I have some official chaos business to tend to first!" He snapped insistently. "Official chaos business?" She asked skeptically. "Yes now if you help me out we can go do your thing sooner." Discord handed her a map. "I need you to help me steal all the street-lamp bulbs marked with an 'x". "Stealing lightbulbs?" Bon Bon rolled her eyes. As they finished harvesting the last light bulb and placing it in a bottomless saddlebag Discord had conjured up for Bon Bon he picked up something from the ground and held it triumphantly in the air. "Finally!" he sighed in relief. Bon Bon came closer and saw that the object of interest was a simple hairpin. "Really!?" She boomed angrily, shaking the ground around them. Every pony on the street stared at them. "Can we do something I want to do now?" she complained. "Very well." Discord sighed. "In fact, It's all you now. Let's see your chaos." Discord Shrunk and hopped into one of Bon Bon's saddle bags. Bon Bon immediately stomped her hoof on the ground and they appeared inside an apartment. She was face to face with Lyra who immediately let out a blood curdling scream. Discord snapped his fingers and they appeared out on the street again. "I know I'm not the one to be giving lectures on subtlety but you certainly failed there." he sneered from the bag. Bon Bon stomped her hoof on the ground and a piece of paper appeared floating before her. "Looks like she made a reservation. For two." her face drooped. "Well why don't we break for lunch." Discord winked at her. The duo found themselves in a fancy downtown restaurant seated some distance from Lyra. After a short while a pony with a nearly identical manestyle and cutie mark (apart from some differences in coloration) to Bon Bon came in and sat down with Lyra. "What could she possibly see in this mare?!" Bon Bon seethed. "She doesn't even look like her type!" Lyra and her companion touched frequently across the table as they conversed and giggled. The two had even leaned to each other for a kiss. "She was never THAT open with me in public!" Bon Bon could barely contain her jealousy. "And what are you going to do about it?" Discord winked. "Wouldn't it be a shame if their food TASTED TERRIBLE!" Bon Bon laughed maniacally to herself as she stomped her hoof. "I wish I could hear what they were saying..." Bon Bon sighed. "Well you have the magic now. Just be careful when it comes to chaos magic. Silly parlor tricks like teleportation and transfiguration come free of charge but the rest tends to yield...unexpected results." He laughed ominously. Bon Bon stomped her hoof and they appeared tiny, sitting on the base of a candlestick at Lyra's table. "The food here is a little disappointing." the mystery mare complained. "My show tonight will definitely make up for it!" Lyra exclaimed. "I'll be there for you snookums" the mystery mare replied. The two then broke into a lengthy verbal canoodling match. "I think I'm to be sick" Discord whispered to Bon Bon. "I have to use the little fillies room for a second." the mystery mare excused herself. Bon Bon found herself staring up at Lyra's relatively gigantic visage from the candlestick. She let out a sigh. After a while she stomped her hoof and they were on top of the other mare's head in the washroom. She was just getting ready to turn on the tap to wash her hoofs. "Oww!" She cried as Bon Bon stomped her hoof. Discord and Bon Bon appeared out on the street just as a geyser of water erupted from the faucet. "This is stupid." Bon Bon cried. "I have no right to be so jealous." "You're certainly getting carried away." Discord nudged her with his elbow. "Maybe you should put me back to normal." Bon Bon sobbed. "Oh it's not that simple. The spell I cast on you won't wear out until tomorrow morning's sun starts to peak above the horizon." Discord snickered. "What!?" Bon Bon lashed at him with her hoof and Discord went flying some distance with the impact. "Let's just lay low until then. Why don't we go back to Ponyville?" Discord urged. "I kind of want to see Lyra's performance tonight." she sighed. "Please make sure I don't get too carried away with this magic." Bon Bon pleaded. "Don't worry. I've already got you covered." Discord winked. Discord and Bon Bon were about to cross the street when a Taxi pony came screeching to a halt, nearly hitting them. "I'm walking here!" Bon Bon stomped her hoof and a shock wave shot through the ground, smashing the Taxi Cart. Onlookers nervously backed away from the scene. "I'm sorry!" She shouted looking around trying to dispel the stares. She galloped off out of sight. Discord sighed and snapped his fingers. Bon Bon was hiding in a dark alleyway sobbing to herself. "Well things are certainly chaotic now." He jested. "I'm getting you out of here before we lose plausible deniability." Discord reached for her. "NO!" Her skin began to smolder like lava as she batted his hand away with her hoof. The sky began to grow dark as black clouds swirled into a towering mesocyclone above the city. "Well I'm just going to keep my distance and then you can't-" Discord began to walk away and realized that he was now attached to Bon Bon with a chain of magical energy. "I thought you said you weren't that kind of pony." Discord snickered. "Well then I'm keeping you right here." Discord produced a large ship anchor and casually tossed it onto the ground. Bon Bon sighed, crossed her hoofs and slumped down onto the ground. The storm clouds continued to gather over the city as the night came on. "The show!" Bon Bon jumped up as she saw a familiar mare walking past the alleyway (Lyra's date from earlier). Rain poured from the sky but only where the mare tread. She looked drenched and in a state of capitulation about the unnatural weather pattern. "You're not going anywhere!" Discord fumed. The two began to float slightly above the ground as Bon Bon scrambled to get traction to run off. One of Bon Bon's hoofs turned into a hand momentarily and she snapped her fingers, restoring gravity. She then stomped her hoof and a spire of earth shot out of the ground underneath Discord breaking the anchor chain and knocking him back. Discord glared at her. He transformed into a dragon and spat a gout of flame at Bon Bon. The flames broke on a shield of energy around her. She thought hard about the endless catalog of fearsome creatures she had faced throughout the years and there was only one conclusion. She transformed into a dreaded GammaWyvern, 25 hoofs tall, an upright standing wyvern with an extra pair of arms. She took a swing at Discord with her gigantic claw, knocking him out into the main street. Lyra's love interest looked back at the commotion and paused for a moment, and then carried on her way. "This game is over!" Discord shouted as he conjured a pair of anti-magic shackles and lunged at Bon Bon. With a loud clink he found himself bound by them. "Clever. Looks like you win." He said calmly as Bon Bon shrunk him down and threw him in a pouch at her side. Lyra's marefriend had already gone into a nearby building. Bon Bon went crashing through the wall and everypony inside stared in awe as she snatched up the mare. "She's mine! Stay away!" she bellowed out in an otherworldly voice. "No!" Lyra watched helplessly from the stage. All the while Discord slyly used his tail to maneuver the hairpin that he had found earlier into the key hole of the shackles and went to work. Bon Bon took back to the streets with the mare in hand. She looked around and none of the street lamps were lit except for a narrow and direct path to the Empire Hay building. Police unicorns had gathered around and started firing horn beams at her to no effect as she stomped toward it. Inside the pouch Discord freed himself from the shackles and then raised a pocket watch to his face. He then pulled out a tea cup and took a sip. The mare struggled to try and free herself from Bon Bon's clutches as she began scaling the side of the building, a large crowd gathering on the streets below. As she finished climbing up onto the roof level she found Lyra there waiting for her. "Unhand Sugar Drops, you fiend!" She demanded. "Sugar Drops!?" Bon Bon scoffed in her unearthly voice. Lyra tossed a grappling hook up to the spire and used it to swing toward the hand that was holding Sugar Drops. As she arrived she tossed a smoke bomb and when the smoke cleared and both mares were free on the other end of the rooftop. "Where'd you learn to do that?" Sugar Drops smiled at her. "I don't think I'm supposed to tell you..." Lyra explained. The two hugged each other as Bon Bon took notice and started to move their way. "Lyra, there's something I have to tell you. My name's not Sugar Drops. It's special agent Candy-Gram. I work for a secret anti-monster agency based out of Canterlot." She dressed herself in secret agent attire as she explained. "That's so heroic!" Lyra swooned. "OH COME ON!" Bon Bon bellowed and she started stomping toward them quicker. "Get down to the street and find somepony who can deliver this message to Canterlot on the double. This monster clearly wants a fight." Sugar Drops gave Lyra a kiss on the forehead, handed her an envelope and then turned her attention to Bon Bon. "I've had enough of you and all your irony!" Bon Bon screamed, swooping her claw downward toward Sugar Drops. She dodged out of the way as the mighty claw smashed against the rooftop and tossed a grappling hook around Bon Bon's towering leg. Discord checked his pocket watch again and then yawned. Bon Bon took another swing at Sugar Drops as she made her way towards the spire. As her claw got close Sugar Drops tossed a smoke bomb at it and reappeared at the spire and fastened the rope holding the grappling hook. "Looks like you're... all tied up." Sugar Drops smirked. Bon Bon roared as she pulled hard against the rope and the Spire broke free from the roof top with unexpected ease. Sugar Drops jumped off of the spire onto Bon Bon's back as it flew past her and over the edge. She clung for dear life as the weight of the spire dragged her over. Bon Bon dug her claws into the side of the building to slow her descent, sliding down under the weight of the spire. Sugar Drops looked around and breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Lyra hand the envelope to a burly unicorn in royal Canterlot armor. "Twilight Sparkle!" Celestia's voice called out. Wresting Twilight from a dream. "Have I been a bad filly again?" The half asleep Twilight asked meekly. "This is no time for baseless accusations!" Celestia protested. "What's going on?" Twilight asked as she got out of bed. "A GammaWyvern is attacking Manehattan. My agent in the area reports that this one is too powerful for her to handle." "How did a GammaWyvern get all the way to Manehattan without anypony noticing?" Twilight quizzed. "We can figure that out later. I've been unable to get ahold of Discord or special agent Sweetie Drops, the only pony I know of that has experience with a GammaWyvern." she sighed. "I'll gather the girls." Twilight offered. "There's no need!" Celestia explained as they transported to the map room in the Castle of Friendship in columns of light. "How?" Twilight asked. Sunburst and Starlight Glimmer stood around the map table as everypony arrived in their own beam of light. A column of pale blue light ascended from the Cutie-map and a great projection of Starswirl's face appeared in it. "Starswirl, what are you doing here?" She quizzed. "I'm talking to you remotely." Starswirl explained. "We've reconfigured the magical matrix of the Cutie-map" Sunburst added. "You should be able to access the powers that were granted to you by the Chest of Harmony through it now". Celestia explained. "I should be able to communicate remotely and guide you." Starswirl stated. "Let's go, girls!" Twilight exclaimed as they disappeared in a beam of light, re-materializing on the streets of Manehattan. Many buildings were smashed up around them. As Sugar Drops and Bon Bon had been tussling for a while. One of the buildings, a tavern, had it's wall ripped open and the band on stage stared out at the scene as Twilight and the Mane 6 materialized. "Who are these heroic ponies?!" One of them quizzed. The lead guitarist shrugged his shoulders in reply and started shredding a repetitive heroic guitar melody. "Go, Go, Pony heroes!" The singer began singing as the Mane 6 transformed into their powered-up forms. Bon Bon took notice and started stomping towards them. The 6 combined their energy and fired a mighty beam at her and it was barely enough to knock her to her knees momentarily. "It's not enough." Twilight sighed. "That's not all she's got." Starswirl's voice piped in. "Combine your magical focus in front of yourselves." "Right!" The 6 all nodded simultaneously. Their magical energy began to form into a giant purple alicorn made of pure magical energy. Their jaws dropped in amazement at the sight. As the Magic alicorn finished forming together they found themselves inside a common operator compartment. The alicorn lowered it's head and fired a mightier beam at Bon Bon as she finished her charge, knocking her back a ways and onto her back. But she just got up and started charging towards them again. "We need to use the friendship blast!" Starswirl exclaimed. "Aye aye aye!" Sunburst interjected. "There's too many bystanders. If we use the friendship blast here we risk hurting them!". "Girls, lure GammaWyvern out into the open and then use the friendship blast!" Celestia urged. "I got this!" Rainbow Dash boasted as she reached for a control lever. The mighty purple alicorn began hovering and emitting a trail of rainbow. It flew in circles around Bon Bon, agitating her and she made chase as it flew off towards the horizon. The alicorn fired another beam at Bon Bon, knocking her to the ground and then landed ahead of her on the road. The two forces stared each other down. All this while Discord continued to patiently check his watch. "Are you ready, girls?" Twilight asked. The rest of the mane 6 nodded to her and they each pulled a lever in front of them. The alicorn began raising it's hoof to it's nose as it began building up a tempest of magical energy. Bon Bon could only look in terror. Discord intently checked his watch. "Oh, all this excitement and I almost forgot!" Celestia piped up and her horn began to glow. The scene became brighter as the sun crept up toward the bottom of the horizon. Discord raised his hand, ready to snap his fingers. The sun began to peak over the horizon right as the massive energy blast from the alicorn reached Bon Bon and Discord snapped his fingers. In a flash of light they were gone and the storm clouds cleared from the sky welcoming a sunny morning in Manehattan. The Mane 6 reverted back to their normal forms. "THAT. WAS. AWESOME!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "I never knew we could do that." Fluttershy said meekly. "Oooh, Let's never do that again!" Pinkie Pie squeeked gleefully. "I reckon I see no reason to ever talk about this again." Applejack said. "Darling, all this excitement has messed up my mane." Rarity complained. "Then it's settled." Twilight smiled as the Mane 6 all came together for a group hug. Discord and Bon Bon appeared normal back on the bench in Ponyville. "I feel so embarrassed with myself right now." Bon Bon sighed. "But." Discord urged her on. "But it was such a relief to find out that Lyra is doing okay. And to literally confront my inner demons." Bon Bon and Discord embraced each other in a hug. "And I'm glad I finally got that timing down." Discord laughed. "Finally?" Bon Bon whimpered. They then both laughed and learned in to each other for a kiss. "Sweetie Drops, Discord!" Celestia called out as she approached them. They both blushed and pushed away from each other. "I was looking for you two all night!" She said with concern. "We just stayed up all night walking and talking." Bon Bon smiled and looked back nervously at Discord. "Yes, that's it." Discord chuckled nervously. "A GammaWyvern, like the one that destroyed your village when you were a little foal was attacking Manehattan. But you'll be relieved to know it won't be bothering anybody again." She explained. "And it looks like you two learned some kind of friendship lesson. I'll be looking forward to your letter about it." Celestia winked at them and then flew off regally back towards Canterlot. "You know if she ever finds out that was us in Manehattan she'll banish us both to Tartarus for eternity." Bon Bon said. The two embraced again and laughed. Author's Note This story was an apology to the readers of the first two who felt that I didn't make Discord Discordy enough. Act 3Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Act 1One After the initial capture of Bugbear, Bon Bon (aka special agent Sweetie Drops), was assigned to do consulting work for the Canterlot anti-monster agency. This is around the same time that Discord was enlisted to help re-capture Tirek. The timing of these two events of course no accident. "Princess Celestia thinks YOU, a mere pony, an earth pony with no magic at that, can teach ME a thing or two about dealing with MAGICAL threats." Discord chided. Bon Bon simply rolled her eyes. Not even an introduction. A laughable attempt at a first impression she thought. She hadn't even made her way to the security checkpoint at the headquarters to check-in and in a flash of light she was standing beside the towering draconequus being insulted straight to her face. Perhaps she would cut straight to the lesson. "Well clearly you're right. I have nothing to teach you. Take the day off. I'll just make up a report for Princess Celestia saying we did some training together and I'll take the day off too." Bonbon shot him a conspicuous wink and just as quickly he vanished in another flash of light. Not long into his 'day off' Discord found himself confronted by a very unhappy Princess Celestia, ambushed in the middle of a nap. "If you aren't going to take this job seriously then perhaps you can better serve Equestria in the royal statue garden!" Her voice boomed angrily. She meant business. "She ratted me out?" his voice cracked with surprise. Perhaps he needed to brush up on his nuances he thought. He also felt an ironic little spark of respect for Bon Bon for as quickly as he could have snapped his fingers she had devised a clever ruse to put him on the defensive. A successful ruse at that. Discord snapped his fingers and there Bon Bon was standing with him and Celestia. "Well played." He patted her on the head. "If your playbook goes beyond just tattling then maybe I CAN learn a tiny little thing or two from you." Bon Bon just gave him an icy expression. A being as powerful as 'The Lord of Chaos' was not one she could afford to give any tells to. "I'll handle him from here, Princess" she bowed respectfully. "What did you learn?" She asked Discord curtly once Celestia had made her way. "Not to trust you." He said mockingly. "Then we're on the same page. Are you hungry?" Bon Bon asked. It was coming up time for supper by now. "Oh I know the perfect place in Ponyville!" Bon Bon noted an uncharacteristic longing in Discord's eyes as he snapped his fingers, the both of them materializing on the streets of Ponyville by a little outdoor bistro in the marketplace. "Funny. I've spent most my life in Ponyville and I've never come here. You sure know your way around here for somepony who can be anywhere he wants." "Well sometimes I come here with F-" he glared at her and rolled his eyes. "This is just another ruse so you can profile me isn't it? Aren't you supposed to be training me? Not capturing me?" "Dinner's on me." Bon Bon flashed him a fake smile and walked in ahead of him. "Not with your usual company?" The waiter pony asked Discord as he lead the two of them to a table. Bon Bon snickered at him. "I didn't come here to be mocked."Discord grumbled. "You're lucky I'm not one to walk away from a free meal." "You're worried about confronting Tirek." Bon Bon stated coldly. "What makes you say that?" "You're still here." She grinned slyly as she flipped through the menu. "From what I know about him he can steal the strongest and most destructive of magics with ease. It's no wonder he escaped and every wonder how he was ever even caught in the first place." Discord explained. "Even if I had him in chains I'm not even sure Princess Celestia herself could lock him back up without trouble." "You must feel like a lowly earth pony up against the lord of chaos." Bon Bon smirked. "Any recommendations?" she continued. "That's what I'm supposed to be asking you." Discord belted. "I'm talking about the menu." It was impossible for Discord to maintain his rasp demeanor as he thought back to his many visits to the restaurant with Fluttershy. Bon Bon noted his surreal expression as he spoke up. "The double hayburger with the side salad always fills me right up." he recommended. "Sounds like a taste you'd inherit from a pony" Bon Bon pressed. "What I'd really like to know is what you're playing at with all these personal questions." he protested, blushing slightly. "Sometimes to win a fight it's important to know who and what you're fighting for." she explained. They paused their conversation as the waiter came by and took their orders. Bon Bon could see as the waiter made off that Discord looked eager to speak. "And who do you fight for? Any special somepony?" He countered. She hesitated for a moment. She wasn't sure if she should let her guard down with her present company but it was something she wanted to talk to somepony about for along time and she couldn't hold back her reply. "Yeah. Well. Things are a little gray with where we stand sometimes it seems. If you went asking around these parts everypony would have a different answer for you." She gave out a longing sigh and placed her hoof atop the table fidgeting around with her empty plate. Discord gazed off at the fading light in the silky dusk that shrouded the humble little outdoor bistro. Stars were beginning to emerge and he could see Fluttershy in the constellations. He reached across the table and placed his paw on Bon Bon's restless hoof. She blushed. "We have more in common than either of us anticipated." he said softly. They both sat silent for a moment and then their eyes wandered toward each others. As their eyes met they both let go of each other and reeled themselves in, quickly forcing themselves to look away. "Looks like our food is here." Bon Bon deflected as the waiter pony approached from the other end of the scene. "Yes." He laughed meekly. "I'm so hungry I could eat an entire dimension." From there a very silent meal followed. Dinner seemed like a good place to discuss strategy for the battle ahead but both Bon Bon and Discord were at a loss to confront their conflicted hearts. It wasn't until their plates were empty once again that Bonbon had fought back her nerves to speak up. "So who do you fight for?" Bon Bon asked. "My first and best friend." He placed his hands together and fidgeted. "But a word like 'friend' just doesn't cut it?" She asked. Casting her eyes out to the stars. Discord nodded. "But there are those who would shake their fist and sneer at you if you called it anything else?" Bon Bon nodded back."And you just want to scream it from the rooftops." her voice became more empowered. "But you don't. It's not your nature to hold your tongue but it's what they want. And most days it's not too much to ask." His voice became forlorn. "But some days it just hurts! Who cares what anypony else thinks!" Bon Bon shouted as she jumped up to attention. Everypony at the restaurant now looked in their direction and the room fell silent. She blushed when she saw all the eyes beaming toward her and sunk back down. "And it just seems like no matter how many times you run it through your head it seems there is no easy answer. Like how to subdue an enemy that has you hopelessly outmatched. And yet you've done it a hundred times." Discords mind returned to the inevitable confrontation with Tirek. "That's when you have to get creative. Know your friends. Know your enemies." Bon Bon resumed her cool demeanor, relieved by the change in topic. "Know your friends... There's a book deep in the top secret section of the Canterlot archives." Discord snapped his fingers and the book appeared in his hands. "Put it back." Bon Bon said. "But why?" "Just do it". Discord snapped his fingers and the book disappeared again. "Now let's go sneak in there and get it." Bon Bon said adventurously. "That just seems like a waste of time when I can-" "Do you think I just clapped my hooves together to send Bugbear to Tartarus? I don't have magic. I didn't have that choice. And there might come a time when neither do you. But I know in good time Tirek will be back there to keep him company." She explained. "Can I at least take us to Canterlot so we aren't up all night?" Bon Bon nodded and Discord snapped his fingers. They ended up in a hedge just outside an old unassuming brick building. "Up there!" Bon Bon pointed her hoof at a window on the second floor and then pulled a grappling hook from her pack. She twirled the rope and cast it up. The barbs on the hook bit into the window sill. She gave it a quick tug to make sure it was secure. Bon Bon went up first. The window was locked from the inside. Discord caught up. Bon Bon cocked her head to the side to quietly point out the situation with the window lock. Discord used one of his claws to cut a small hole in the window glass so that they could unlock it from the outside. "At least your special somepony knows this is what you REALLY do when you're out at night." Bon Bon whispered to Discord as they pulled the rope up and climbed through the window. "There's a big difference between managing the forces of chaos and petty burglary." he whispered back in protest. She hushed him and motioned at a glow down the hallway. Guard unicorns were on patrol. The duo ducked into the darkness and waited for the lights to pass into another row. Each floor of the archives was row upon row of shelves containing all kinds of historical records. "The top secret section is in the basement level." Discord whispered. Bon Bon nodded. They slowly and quietly crept their way to the stairwell and down the stairs. At the basement level they were confronted by a heavy metal door. "How do we get by this without magic?" Discord quizzed. Bon Bon casually poked her hoof at Discord's mouth to silence him and then reached into her pack and pulled out a lockpick set and went to work on the door's lock. 'How does she do that without fingers?' Discord thought to himself. Eventually there was a click and Bon Bon swung the door open. They both crept in and then closed and locked it behind them. "I bet even those guards aren't allowed in here." Bon Bon said with a sigh of relief. The shelves in the top secret area were fewer in number and less of them contained the usual record folders and more of them were stacked sparsely with strange artifacts and musty tomes. "So why don't you just tell her?" Discord pried her as he poked around the artifacts on one of the shelves. "Because I'm not supposed to. It's a top secret position." She insisted. "Not so top secret that you can come in here without breaking in which I'd wager you aren't supposed to do either." he said mockingly. "And yours. She doesn't even know just how deeply you feel does she? She's given you her heart but you hold off on an answer, I bet." she snapped back. "A draconequus and a pony. It seems more absurd than two mares. Besides how do you know my special somepony is a she?" "Ponyville is a small town. Small towns just love to pass around juicy gossip whether you ask for it or not." He explained. "Great. I'm the talk of the town. All the more reason I could never tell her. It's too dangerous for her to know." "What if something happened that made it more dangerous for her NOT to know? Hypothetically of course" Discord quizzed. "Over there. That book looks familiar." She pointed her hoof at a book on a shelf that looked like the one he had materialized earlier. She breathed a sigh of relief at a chance to change the subject again. "Ah yes." Discord picked up the book and started casually flipping the pages around. "Princess Celestia's own study notes on the elements of harmony. So long ago she probably doesn't even remember this ragged tome even exists." he chuckled nostalgically. "Good now let's get out of here." She motioned for the door and he followed, book in hand. Just as they reached the door a piercing alarm sounded and armored hoofsteps began to clatter through the halls and into the stairwell. "Looks like they found our handy work upstairs." Bon Bon looked around. "And it looks like the only way out is the way we came." "Perhaps now is a good time to let me use my magic?" Discord grinned and Bon Bon nodded. "Where to?" he asked. "Anywhere but here!" He snapped his fingers and the two of them vanished in a flash. They reappeared at their table in the restaurant but it was much later and everypony had long since gone home. Both their hearts still throbbed with exhilaration. "I can almost understand the thrill of doing things your way." Discord joked. Bon Bon smiled. "I said almost" he corrected. Bon Bon jabbed at him playfully with her hoof. "You had fun, admit it." they smiled at each other. "Goodness, look how late it is." Discord looked up at the night sky and motioned to snap his fingers. "Wait!" Bon Bon said. "Why do you have to snap your fingers to do magic? Aren't you an all powerful lord of chaos?" she asked playfully. "I don't HAVE to snap my fingers. Surely you of all ponies understand the need to do things with a little... panache." Bon Bon gave Discord a quick hug. Both blushed; even she was surprised by her actions. "I guess we can pick this up in the morning." she said. "If you're not ready to sleep just yet I was planning to do some more sneaking around... and well.. I've found your unique perspective kind of helpful." he smiled and gently raked a claw through her mane returning her hug. "Kind of?" she smirked. "Sure I'm in." they both let go of each other. Discord snapped his fingers and the two of them re-materialized in Tartarus. A feeling of dread washed over Bon Bon's heart while for Discord it just seemed like any other intrusion. She wasn't expecting such a stark change of venues. Before them was the now empty shackles that once bound Tirek. "Not one for subtlety. What are we doing here?" Bon Bon trembled as Discord eyeballed the shackles. "These shackles should have prevented his escape. They are enchanted to block tampering by magic." He explained. Bon Bon slipped a hoof into one of the shackles. Discord didn't follow her thinking and just stared, flustered at the sight of the bound pony. "But we hardly know each other." he joked meekly. "I'm not that kind of pony. See if you can get these shackles off with your magic." Discord snapped his fingers and the shackles loosened and fell to the floor. "He absorbed the enchantment..." Discord scratched his head. "If that's the answer you're looking for now would be a good time..." Bon Bon urged. The two could see Cerberus looking over, catching their scent across the open expanse. Discord snapped his fingers and the two re-materialized in an unlit room. Discord fell on his back with a thud and Bon Bon immediately on top of him. "I told you I'm not that kind of pony." Tiny bars of light came through sparse boards on the walls around them and she could see just enough that she was staring into Discord's eyes. "It's not me!" Discord insisted. "Tirek must have left an enchantment of his own on those shackles." "So we're his prisoners!?" Bon Bon trembled. "No. We're in a boxcar." Discord said calmly. "A boxcar?" Bon Bon was confused. "A boxcar. Sometimes I come here to think. I felt Tirek's enchantment 'go off' when I teleported us out of Tartarus. It was like he reached out to me and grabbed the magic right from my hands. I panicked and sent us here. The Ponyville train station." "You do your thinking in a boxcar?" Bon Bon giggled, relieved that the situation wasn't as dire as she had imagined, still on top of Discord. "Where else would the Lord of Chaos go to think? A library? You can get up there's plenty of space for both of us you know." Discord wriggled beneath her. "Getting a little too excited are you?" Bon Bon giggled again as she got up and started examining the gaps in the boards on the walls. "It's barred shut from the outside and I'm going to need some time to recover before I can get us out of here." He sighed. "Might as well get comfortable. I hope you're not afraid of the dark." Bon Bon produced a lantern from her pack and lit it, bringing a dim wash of orange light to the boxcar. "You should know by now you're not going to win this one with magic." she smirked. "But it looks like we aren't getting out of here without it." she sighed and slumped down against one of the walls. Discord sat next to her and just stared at the flickering lantern. Bon Bon reached her hoof over and placed it on his paw. "I'm new to this whole love and kindness and friendship business..." Discord said quietly. "but I've watched from the sidelines for centuries and it's times like this that play tricks on the heart." he continued, turning his head to face hers. Her heart pounded as she slung her hooves around his long neck and pulled her face up to his and delivered a passionate kiss. Discord could not sort the excitement from the guilt and the pain of his own heart racing out of control. "But Fluttershy..." he thought to himself as he pulled his face away. His retreat only fueled Bon Bon's desires further and she pursued him with another kiss, her hoofs now wandering. She was already lost in the moment and Discord's mind grew tired racing in circles pondering the meaning of love and lust and was powerless but to surrender to his base desires. The boxcar rocked with the throes of passion. In the end though they both lay together in an awkward silence. "Are we supposed to talk about our feelings now?" Discord was the first to break the silence. "What just happened was- Look, I love Lyra." she sobbed in response as she positioned herself further away from him. "I don't understand." Discord said. "You put some kind of spell on me didn't you? I knew you couldn't be trusted!" Her sadness became anger in a flash. "What we both did we both did because we wanted to." Discord snapped back. He gestured his hand toward Bon Bon and the boxcar stretched to twice it's length, placing her at the other end. "I now have two world-shattering secrets to keep from her. This one for sure she will not forgive me." she went back to sobbing. The gravity of the situation began to hit Discord. "Then Fluttershy..." he said quietly. "How can a being so ancient be so naive?!" Bon Bon snapped. "What about you and I? Our feelings for one another?" "We hardly know each other. And this is as well as we ever will! I'm requesting a discharge from this assignment first thing in the morning. Then I have to tell Lyra. I can't keep this from her." She stood up. "Your magic is working again, let me out." she cried. Discord snapped his fingers and the boxcar returned to normal and Bon Bon stood outside. He could hear the patter of hooves on the ground as she ran off into the night. He let out a forlorn sigh. Bon Bon had left her pack behind, her lantern still flickered on. He pulled a handkerchief from her pack and sniffed it. It still held the subtle scent of her perfume. Discord felt conflicted by both his longing toward Bon Bon and his guilt about Fluttershy. He needed a distraction. He pulled out Celestia's notes on the Elements of Harmony and went to work. Before long the inside walls of the boxcar were covered by his own notes. "A-ha." he gloated to himself, certain that he had solved the mystery of the Chest of Harmony. He thought perhaps it at least would be key to a plan-B should his confrontation with Tirek fail. And in perfect parallel to life it seems the answer involved tough lessons and even tougher decisions. To simply give the Mane-6 the answer would negate his findings so he would have to be a little more cryptic about it. Dawn began to break and there was a knock on the side of the boxcar. "Excuse me. Discord." a soft, sweet, familiar voice called to him from the outside. It was Fluttershy. He wasn't ready to talk to her about his indiscretions. "How did you know I was here?" He asked indignantly. "Just a guess" She was barely audible through the side of the boxcar. "Did you forget? You were supposed to meet me at my Cottage before dawn. We were going to go to the hill and watch the sun rise. You sound mad" "I was up all night working. Princess Celestia has me working on a top secret assignment. I probably shouldn't even have told you that much. We should take a rain-check." He belted out curtly. "Okay sorry... I'll leave you to your work." her soft, slow steps beat off into the horizon. He swear he could hear her sobbing. 'Was one silly little sunrise really so important to her?' he thought to himself. He felt that clearly he had a lot more left to learn about friendship. Perhaps this was just the beginning of his own tough lesson on tough decisions. The sunrise became like a ticking clock. Soon Bon Bon would tell Lyra and hearts would be broken. Bon Bon waited for Lyra on their favorite bench. She thought perhaps such a setting would lessen the impact of what she was about to confess. But as she waited the dread only grew. Dread became anger when Discord appeared before her. "What are you doing here?" She snapped. "Have you told her yet?" He asked softly. "I will as soon as she gets here. It's better if you're not around." "Splendid. I'm not too late." Discord cupped his hands together. "What do you mean?" A look of grave concern washed over Bon Bon's face. "Soon everything will be made right." Discord boasted with an ominous glee. "What did you do!?" Bon Bon demanded. "Well I went back to Tartarus to take one last look at Tirek's shackles after staying up all night solving some silly riddle about keys. And I could hear rattling against the bars of a distant cage. It would seem Bugbear could smell your handkerchief that I had with me. He is very unhappy with you it seems. Your dilemma about having two world-shattering secrets to confess echoed in my head. And I thought how if he was after you, you would have no choice but to tell Lyra about your... unique profession." "You didn't..." Bon Bon trembled. "Well I couldn't just teleport him out of the cage. It's enchanted to block magical tampering." He explained as Bon Bon breathed a fleeting sigh of relief. "Then I thought about my little key riddle again." He scratched his chin. Bon Bon's eyes widened with fear. "I used the enchantment Tirek left on his shackles to short-out the enchantment on the cage and it opened up just like a key." he continued, sounding proud of himself. Bon Bon just stared quietly at him. "Relax. I have powerful friends. When Bugbear makes his way to Ponyville after you I will alert them. No harm will come to anypony." His words brought no comfort. "What about my other secret?" Bon Bon trembled in fear of the answer. Discord held out Bon Bon's forgotten pack to her and she reached out her hoof to grab it from him. As she took her pack Discord reached out and touched her forehead. "When you wake up you won't remember us ever having worked together. How can you carry guilt for something you don't even know about?" He snickered. Bon Bon gasped sharply for air and rolled out of bed, hitting the floor with a thud. "BON BON!" Lyra shouted with concern, waking up to the sound. "Are you okay?" It was now night. "I don't know. I feel like I just woke up from an awful nightmare. But I don't remember dreaming about anything. In fact the whole day is a blur." Her voice sounded weak. Her head throbbed with pain. "Well you did drink an awful lot of cider on our picnic today!" Lyra giggled. She helped Bon Bon back into bed and wrapped her hooves around her comfortingly. "I love you." Bon Bon said with a smile. "I love you too." Lyra kissed her softly on the cheek. Discord watched the scene unfold in the form of a fly on the wall. A tear rolled down his cheek. "I'll confess to Fluttershy when the time is right. I will lose her as a friend. The rest of them will see no reason to keep me around." He thought to himself. But for now he had to focus on his confrontation with Tirek. Author's Note This was the first of three stories.
Act 2Two Fluttershy waited patiently atop the checkered picnic blanket on a popular hill just outside Ponyville. There were many picnics going on that afternoon but the hillside was so broad that there was plenty of breathing room for everypony. In a flash of light Discord appeared before her in fancy attire. "Just on time my dear, sweet, Fluttershy." he bowed and offered up a bouquet of white and blue daisies which she grabbed with her mouth and then placed down beside her. "These look lovely, Discord. Thank you." "Oh it was nothing." he chuckled modestly. "It's very brave of you to wait out for me here all by yourself on such a busy day. Dare I ask what the occasion is?" Discord smiled as he pinched his beard. Fluttershy meagerly pushed a small, wrapped gift toward Discord across the blanket with her hoof as she began to speak. "Um. Well I. I wanted to thank you for watching Angel bunny for me while I was in Manehattan. He told me you two got along perfectly the WHOLE time." She beamed proudly. "Hehe. You know me. A glutton for self improvement." Discord spoke quietly as he picked up the small gift box and shook it beside his ear. "I mean it." She insisted proudly. "You've really come such a long way since we started seeing each other. Open it." she smiled meekly, nervous how he would react to the gift. "Well you complete me." he smiled at her as unwrapped the box and opened it up. He pulled out a golden pendant from it. "Discord + Fluttershy" was embossed on the rear and a heart on the front. His heart sank as Fluttershy began to speak. "You complete me too. Which is why I want to be each others special somepony for a very long time. Forever." Fluttershy blurted the words out past her nerves. That word. "Forever." It struck Discord like a wrecking ball. In all of his self improvement and adapting to the pony way of life now an important oversight barred his path. "Forever." It was a word that carried wildly different implications for a mortal versus an immortal. To Discord the last several years had been a mere blink of an eye. One scene blurred into another forming a grand mosaic of thoughts and experiences and one missing tile where he had yet to confess his indiscretions with Bon Bon to her. For Fluttershy in her limited years the thoughts and experiences and emotions were all vivid and striking, each an entire mosaic of it's own. "I-I can't accept this." Discord stammered as a look of fear and dread washed over his face. "I'm not the perfect special somepony you think I am." "What do you mean?" Fluttershy's joy from the moment began to fade. "Several years ago I worked on a top secret assignment with Bon Bon." Discord pointed down the hill where Lyra and Bon Bon were enjoying a picnic of their own. "Her and I had an affair together." his heart quivered as he continued. "This isn't funny Discord." She shuttered."This is no time for a joke." "I'm afraid it's not." A tear ran down his face. "How could you do this to us?" Fluttershy bursted into tears and slumped down as a feeling of weakness washed over her. "I don't understand." She jabbed him with her hoof. "How could you keep this for so long? Why are THEY fine with it?" She motioned down the hill at Lyra and Bon Bon still happily gazing into each other's eyes. "I erased her memory of it. No memory. No guilt for her to live with I figured." Discord explained. "That's evil!" She cried out. "Fluttershy, please." Discord reached out and placed his paw on her back. "Don't touch me!" She batted his paw off and galloped away down the hill crying. Discord hung his head. His heart pleaded with him to chase after her but he knew now he could only bring her pain. The golden pendant had fallen on the picnic basket in the commotion with the lettering on the back side facing up. His chest felt heavy and he strained to draw air. He picked up the pendant and looked for the emptiest spot on the horizon and began to walk. As Discord wandered aimlessly he felt an unfamiliar terror. In all of his thoughts and experiences there lay no clue as to what the future now held for him. A new grand mosaic began to form before him and this experience was not just a single tile but the sum of many. He lost track of time as he wandered. But suddenly he felt a great energy overcome him. Everything went white. He was being teleported against his will but to where and by whom? "Is there another Lord of Chaos in town?" He thought to himself as he began to re materialize. It must be. Such a teleportation would otherwise take an army of angry alicorns to pull off. The whiteness faded and before him stood the least preferable of his speculations. He was in the Canterlot throne room. The four princesses glared at him with a look that could pierce through mountains and Fluttershy hid behind them staring down at the floor. "Discord!" Celestia's voice shook the entire scene. "You stand accused of high crimes against Equestria!" Luna piped in. "I can't believe you would do something like this." Twilight sighed. "Do you understand why you are here?" Cadence asked. "Fluttershy..." Discord wimpered. "What you did to this poor Filly's heart is none of my concern!" Celestia snarled. "But to have tampered with a ponies memories while working in service of Equestria is a serious charge." Celestia pointed to Fluttershy "And it's only by her heartfelt plea that you aren't back in the royal statue garden this very moment." Celestia motioned to Fluttershy. "You have to make things right somehow. " she sobbed as she stepped forward. "Give her back her memory." "Memory curses are highly forbidden." Celestia explained. "But we can't reverse what you have done." "Hold on everypony!" Twilight interjected. "Reversing a memory curse even after a few days can be dangerous let alone a few years. Maybe Discord's magic is different but she still has to reconcile the lost memory with years of new ones. I can't endorse this" "A valid point, Twilight." Celestia sighed. "But the offender must be punished!" Luna insisted. "Discord. You have until dawn two days from now to seek whatever advice you must and then report to me with a plan to make things right." Celestia demanded. Discord nodded. He reached out toward Fluttershy and began to utter her name but in that moment was teleported back to where he was wandering moments earlier. Fluttershy wanted him to restore Bon Bon's memory. Twilight was against it. Perhaps the rest of the Mane 6 wouldn't be so divided on the issue he hoped. "Hold on now!" Applejack blurted boisterously. "This here is best two out of three." "Oh, come on!" Rainbow Dash objected. The two of them were at Sweet Apple Acres playing a game of horse shoes. Rainbow Dash prepared for her next toss and as she released Discord appeared in it's path knocking it to the ground. "Discord..." both said in an unwelcoming tone. "What do you think YOU'RE doing here?" Rainbow Dash demanded. "That counts as your toss by the way sugar cube." Applejack gloated. "Oh, come on!" Rainbow Dash protested. "Well I don't see anything in the rulebook about being blocked by a big ole pile of trash." Applejack snarled. "Good one." Discord said as he literally shrunk before them. "I suppose you've heard." "You're darn tootin'" Applejack replied. "If you go anywhere near her again..." Rainbow Dash made a fisticuffs gesture with her hoofs. "That's not why I'm here." Discord explained. "I'm to seek advice on how to make right erasing Bon Bon's memory and then report back to Princess Celestia." "Well that seems mighty obvious dontcha think? Give back her memory. The honest thing." Applejack Gloated. "I completely agree." Rainbow Dash added. "Lyra has a right to know that Bon Bon was 100 percent unloyal." "But they're so happy together. oblivious. Not only will I be hurting Bon Bon but I'll be hurting Lyra as well." Discord protested. "Well that joy is all a lie!" AppleJack protested. "Three to one now. I think I see where this is going." Discord sighed. "Well sounds like you got your answer." Applejack said curtly. "Yeah, so beat it!" Rainbow Dash insisted. Discord listlessly snapped his fingers and disappeared. "Make sure your streamers aren't blocking the sponsor's banners, darling." Rarity smiled. "Right!" Pinkie Pie saluted as she strung up some streamers around the inside of the Ponyville town hall. "This is going to be the BEST. FUNDRAISER. EVER!" she screamed excitedly. "Simply the most fabulous!" Rarity hung her hoof as she boasted. Her horn glowed as she magically strung up some ponish lettering underneath the streamers. "Featuring the musical stylings of Lyra Hearstrings" it read. Pinkie pressed a pin in to holdup a streamer and behind it was Discord's chest. He deflated like a balloon as it pierced him. "Oh it's you." Pinkie said. "What are YOU doing here?" Rarity demanded. "I've come to seek your advice." Discord calmly explained as he re-inflated and stood normally. "I need to know if restoring Bon Bon's memory is the way to make things right." "Absolutely not!" Rarity snapped. "But why?" Discord and Pinkie Pie gave her a confused look. "What if Lyra finds out about... You know... right before her big performance. We've worked so hard on this fundraiser it will be simply ruined!" she explained. "Ooh. You're right!" Pinkie piped up. "They're so happy together!" "Even if it's all a lie?" Discord sighed. "Look, darling. You gave her a second chance as a gift. And even if it wasn't the right thing to do" Rarity spoke softly. "You can't just TAKE A GIFT BACK!" Pinkie screamed. "Well it's a hung Jury now." Discord sighed and hung his head. "Well thanks girls." "BYE!" Pinkie said excitedly. Discord thought it odd as he teleported away of how much warmer a reception he received this time around. The day had escaped at this point and he had only tomorrow left to figure this out now on his own. The next morning Fluttershy walked meekly through the inner grounds of the friendship school as she prepared herself mentally for her next class. "Hey misses Shy!" Gallus called out as he swooped down and landed in front of her. "I finished that essay. I know it's a few days late but if you'd let me explain..." "Oh. That's okay, Gallus." she said softly as she grabbed a small stack of papers from him and put it in her saddle bags. "Oh.. so we're cool then?" He scratched the back of his head. "Yes." She said quietly. "Is everything okay?" He quizzed. "Yes." her eyes started to well up with tears. "What happened?" He insisted. "It's grown up pony stuff." She sobbed. "A broken heart?" Fluttershy answered his prying with a meek nod. "Hey you know how it's hearts and hooves day in Griffonstone? Everyone's crying." He laughed akwardly. Fluttershy just stared back at him. "I'm not being very helpful am I?" "You tried to show you care. That's nice of you." She sniffled. "Well I have a class right away. Take care." Gallus patted her on the shoulder and soared off. Fluttershy went to pull the essay out of her pack to look it over and Discord appeared animated on the pages. "Fluttershy..." He said. "I don't want to talk to you right now." she sobbed. "Why did you stand up for me to Celestia?" "Because I love you." she burst into tears. Some of them landed on the paper causing Discord's image to smudge. "I love you too. I'm so sorry." "I know you love me. And I know you're sorry. But that doesn't mean things can just go back to the way they were." she cried. "I know..." he sighed. The essay turned back to normal as he left. Discord found himself at the picnic hill watching Bon Bon and Lyra together. "Hey check this out." Lyra put a music box down on the blanket at opened it up. A melancholy melody sounded as the figurine twirled. Bon Bon watched intently. She was familiar with the music box so she wondered what Lyra was getting at. When the song on the music box finished Lyra wound it back up. She placed her hoofs over Bon Bon's ears and started it up again, letting her hear it after the first two notes had already played. "No way! That's so weird." Bon Bon said as she raised an eye brow. Discord had no idea what was going on. All he knew is that he had squandered his last day to figure this out thinking in circles. He had to figure this out fast. "I asked the orange one, the purple one the blue one..." He muttered to himself. "Of course! The other purple one!" He snapped his fingers and appeared in Starlight Glimmer's room in the Castle of Friendship. She was nowhere to be found. "Oh, great." he sighed. Discord snapped his fingers and teleported outside Trixie's wagon and knocked on the side. "Trixie!". He called loudly. Whispering could be heard from the inside and then Trixie opened up the window and stared unimpressed at Discord. "Oh. It's YOU. The great and powerful" She yawned loudly "Trixie needs her beauty rest. Please come back in the morning." She shut the window. Discord knocked again. "I really need your help right now." Starlight Glimmer popped up at the window next. "Oh there you are." Discord exclaimed. "I was wondering when you'd come to me. I was hoping you would when I heard what was happening." She sighed. "It just seems like there's no easy answer." Discord complained. "Why don't you just send them an anonymous fruit basket?" She said with a yawn. "Would that really make things r-" "NO!" she shouted."So what if they're happy right now? Sometimes life hurts. But you can't just give up there. Sometimes life seems hopeless but you can't just give up there. If I hadn't made all of the mistakes I made I would be a completely different pony than I am now. You never gave Bon Bon and Lyra a chance to be the ponies they would have been. You can't know if they would have been better off or not. You stole their choice over their own destiny." She snapped. Starlight Glimmer was right he thought to himself. No matter how dangerous or painful it was the only way to make things right was to give Bon Bon back her memories of that fateful day. The next morning Bon Bon and Lyra laid down with each other on their picnic blanket looking each other intently in the eyes. "I have rehearsal soon." Lyra said. Bon Bon wrapped her hooves around her tightly. "But I never want to let you go!" she giggled. "You'll see me again before the fundraiser, silly!" Lyra giggled back. "Here. She'll keep you company in the mean time." Lyra plopped the music box down in front of her and they both smiled. The two kissed and Lyra sauntered off gleefully. Once Lyra was out of sight Discord appeared before Bon Bon. "Bon Bon." He called her attention calmly... "And you are?" She raised her hoof to her chin in contemplation. "You're that Discord that everypony warns about..." She realized. Discord reached over and touched her forehead. Suddenly Bon Bon flashed back to the day her memory was erased. "When you wake up you won't remember us ever having worked together. How can you carry guilt for something you don't even know about?" Discord snickered. "What's going on?" Bon Bon said, dazed. "Oh, you dropped your bags." Bon Bon saw that he had handed her pack to her. "Thanks." She said with a vacant expression. "It's simply been too long since you and Lyra had a picnic. Don't drink too much cider." Discord disappeared just as Lyra showed up. "Your note said you had something important to talk to me about!" Lyra said in a concerned tone. "It's been too long since we've had a picnic!" Bon Bon exclaimed. "It's only been a week you weirdo." Lyra giggled. "Well let's go." Bon Bon realized her pack was full of picnic supplies, so she laid out a picnic in the grass nearby. She packed an awful lot of cider it seemed. "You!" she snapped angrily at discord as the picnic scene faded from her conscious. "How long?" She whimpered. "It's been a few years." Discord explained repentantly. "A FEW YEARS!? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" she screamed. "I know now how wrong it was of me to steal that from you." "It's all been one big lie this whole time..." Bon Bon began to cry. Discord knew it was time to leave her be. He watched helplessly at a distance as Bon Bon paced nervously awaiting Lyra's return from rehearsal. When she showed up he couldn't bring himself to listen in. But he didn't need to. Lyra's reaction mirrored Fluttershy's. She grew weak. She slumped down. She cried. She yelled. She ran away. Bon Bon froze for a while but then carried off listlessly into the yonder. Discord went over to the picnic blanket. The music box was still sitting there. He kept playing it out and rewinding it. The song was always the same melancholy progression as the world carried on around him. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were going around Ponyville with a disapproving look affixing "performance cancelled" addendums over flyers and billboards for the fundraiser; the world made by his dishonesty now collapsed around him. "You did the right thing." A voice spoke softly. It was Starlight Glimmer. "Then why doesn't it feel that way?" Discord asked in a frustrated tone as he rewound the music box once more. "Sometimes the right way isn't always the happy way..." She answered. "When I was a little foal I had a music box just like that." she said watching him rewind it. "Check this out." Starlight covered his ears as the song began to play, and removed her hoofs after a couple of notes had passed. The music sounded different this time. Instead of invoking a sense of melancholy it felt a little more upbeat. "But how?" He asked. "I'm sure a music pony could explain it. But I'm not a music pony." she laughed awkwardly. "The notes haven't changed though..." He scratched his beard. "It's because of how the mind perceives the ratio of change between the different notes." another voice piped in. Oavia had been walking by and happened upon the scene. "So it's all a matter of perspective?" Discord scratched his beard. Octavia pulled out her Cello and started to play a classical melody. "You could have snapped your fingers and set my village free- But without the lessons what kind of pony would I be?" Starlight Glimmer began to sing. DJ PON-3 was also passing by and happened upon the scene. She unfolded her portable DJ station and mixed in some more contemporary sounds. Discord scratched his chin. "If you can't beat em, join em" he thought and started to place imagery into the groups minds. They saw Fluttershy having fun practicing aerial acrobatics with Rainbow Dash and Gallus "Some ponies win, some ponies lose- The perils of a destiny we choose." Starlight continued singing. "You have to take the good things with the bad- Take the triumphant with the sad." Starlight continued singing as Rarity replaced the addendum on the fundraiser billboards with "The Ponytones: Featuring Fluttershy!" they then saw Fluttershy and the Ponytones in dress rehearsing together. "But that is just the perils of a destiny we choose." They then saw Applejack tearing up looking at a picture of the Apple family parents. "Not every pony makes it through all of life's upsets." Starlight's singing and the music became more solemn. Applejack put the picture away as Apple Bloom runs to her and she kisses Applebloom on the forehead. "That doesn't mean we have to live a life full of regrets." Her tone became more hopeful. The music went into a refrain and Trixie showed up and threw a hoof around Starlight. "You know if it wasn't for Trixie's misdeeds she never would have met this special pony while preparing for the humble and penitent trixie's equestrian apology tour!" she shouted. "That's a mouthful" Discord observed. "It was a working title!" She retorted. "Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry- Sometimes we're meek sometimes we're spry" Starlight sang as the music picked up again. "Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose- But that is just the perils of a life we get to choose." They all sang together as the music ended. "Bon Bon!" Discord jumped up and shouted. He quickly snapped his fingers and teleported beside Bon Bon. She was standing at the edge of a ravine with tears in her eyes. "I know it's not all your fault..." she said quietly when she noticed him arrive. "I'm a terrible pony. If I really loved Lyra how could I have done that to her?" She stared down at the rocks below. "Every pony makes mistakes." he said calmly. Discord held out the music box and opened it up. The melancholy melody began to play. "Does it make us evil? I'm not even sure I can answer that." he sighed. "Just step back please. I'm not asking you to pretend like nothing ever happened. We made this mistake together. Let us figure it out together." he pleaded with tears in his eyes. "I'm just so angry. It's just so frustrating!" She shouted creeping closer to the edge. "Sometimes it's our heartbreaks that inspire us to become stronger and better ponies." Discord said as he projected the image of Applejack and Applebloom into Bon Bon's mind. "Maybe you won't ever be together with her again but I know you love her. If you die now you will never know if she makes it or not!" he shouted. Bon Bon looked at him and then back down at the ravine as he creeped a little closer. She then burst into tears as she threw herself back into his arms. Discord began to cry too. "You could have just snapped your fingers and turned the ravine into jelly..." she cried. "That's the perils of a life where we're free to make our own choices..." he said crying.
The lost chapter.Three Bon Bon sat quietly on the bench where she once shared many afternoons with Lyra by her side. It was a strange sight for all to see her there so forlorn and alone. Discord stared intently upon the scene from far away and sighed. "You know part of your punishment is that you were supposed to provide Princess Celestia with regular updates on Bon Bon's progress." Twilight Sparkle insisted as she approached Discord. "Haven't I?" Discord asked. "She hasn't heard from you in over a week!" Twilight pressed her hoof against her forehead. "Well every time I show up Bon Bon refuses to open up to me!" Discord protested. "Have you tried approaching her normally instead of just appearing out of thin air, unannounced?" Twilight sneered. "Why would I do it that way?" Discord scratched his beard. "Because that's how PONIES do it." She slapped her forehead with her hoof again. "In fact this looks like a perfect opportunity to try it out now." she said insistently. Discord sighed as he walked down the long path to Bon Bon. "Hey." Bon Bon said meekly as Discord arrived. "Didn't see you in my breakfast this morning." she continued as she turned her head to him. "Well I figured maybe you'd appreciate a more subtle approach." Discord sighed. "How is the memory reintegration going?" He pressed. "Subtle approach, huh?". She motioned her head over to where Twilight was still standing and staring over at them. "Straight to the point." she sighed and paused for a moment. "Is it selfish of me to wish you'd left me in that happy little world of lies?" She snapped. "Not at all." Discord sighed. "You would have had years to deal with these feelings if it wasn't for me. Not just a couple of weeks." "I can't ignore my responsibility in all this." Bon Bon sighed. "Right now I'm just worried about Lyra. She packed her things and left and nopony in Ponyville has heard from her. That or they're protecting her from me. I don't know." Tears came to her eyes. "Can't you tell me where she is? At least if she's alright?" Bon Bon pleaded. Discord shrunk down and sauntered into a doghouse that appeared beside the bench. "I'm in Princess Celestia's doghouse as it is. The last thing I need is for her to hear that I've been using my power to go around eavesdropping on ponies." Discord protested. "Some all-powerful being you are." Bon Bon turned her nose up and huffed at him. "Having great power comes with great responsibility you know. At least if I want to live freely in Equestria." Discord snapped his fingers and appeared normally again. "I just don't see how you can act so casually about it one moment and then complain about being asked for the tiniest little favor the next." She complained. "You know, being an eternal lord of chaos with penultimate magical powers isn't all it's cracked up to be. But I wouldn't expect a silly powerless little earth pony to understand." Discord chided. An angry expression came over Bon Bon's face. She pressed her hoof into Discord's chest and leaned up into his face. "I've spent my whole life facing down creatures like you." She snarled. "And if I had magic as powerful as yours I'd make a better lord of chaos than you ever could." Discord looked to see that Twilight was no longer watching them and then snapped his fingers. "We'll see about that". Bon Bon backed off and her face dropped. "What?" "I played Earth Pony with you back at the archives when we first met. Now you're going to play Lord of Chaos with me." he snickered. "I don't feel any different." Bon Bon whimpered. "Where's Lyra?" Discord winked to her. "Manehatta-" Her jaw dropped. "Lyra!" she called out. She stomped her hoof on the ground and disappeared in a flash, re-appearing a short distance away. She glared at Discord. "I'm not THAT insane you know. Your powers will only work if you remain within 10 paces of me. I won't have you getting me in any more trouble over this 'tiny little favor'" he muttered. "If ponies start going on about an earth pony running around using magic all hoofs will be immediately pointed at me!" Discord complained. "I got this." Bon Bon stomped her hoof on the ground and a horn came protruding out of her mane. "Not bad..." Discord scratched his chin. "I still can't afford having anybody recognize you. You need a costume... a disguise." Discord snapped his fingers and a mane identical to Rarity's appeared on his head. "It needs to be Haute Couture, tres chic, debonaire..." he raised the pitch of his voice. "I don't know what ANY of that means..." Bon Bon groaned. "Neither do I. Let's try this." Discord snapped his fingers and a suit appeared on Bon Bon. He held a mirror up for her to see herself. "Not bad..." She replied. "Not disguise enough!" Discord snapped his fingers again and she had bushy eye brows and a mustache. "Really?" Bon Bon glared at him. "Do you want to go to Manehattan with me or not?" "Fine." Bon Bon rolled her eyes. Discord snapped his fingers and they appeared in Manehattan atop the towering Empire Hay building at the base of the spire. "I've always wanted to visit this place." Discord beamed gleefully. He used his claws to remove a handful of bolts from the spire. "What are you doing?" Bon Bon raised her eyebrow at him. "They're for my collection." He boasted. "You collect bolts?" "You really never know what the next hot collectors item will be! You have no idea how many fads I've missed over the centuries!" He said in a very disingenuous tone. Discord snapped his fingers and they appeared down on the streets. "Can we go find Lyra now?" Bon Bon groaned impatiently. "I have some official chaos business to tend to first!" He snapped insistently. "Official chaos business?" She asked skeptically. "Yes now if you help me out we can go do your thing sooner." Discord handed her a map. "I need you to help me steal all the street-lamp bulbs marked with an 'x". "Stealing lightbulbs?" Bon Bon rolled her eyes. As they finished harvesting the last light bulb and placing it in a bottomless saddlebag Discord had conjured up for Bon Bon he picked up something from the ground and held it triumphantly in the air. "Finally!" he sighed in relief. Bon Bon came closer and saw that the object of interest was a simple hairpin. "Really!?" She boomed angrily, shaking the ground around them. Every pony on the street stared at them. "Can we do something I want to do now?" she complained. "Very well." Discord sighed. "In fact, It's all you now. Let's see your chaos." Discord Shrunk and hopped into one of Bon Bon's saddle bags. Bon Bon immediately stomped her hoof on the ground and they appeared inside an apartment. She was face to face with Lyra who immediately let out a blood curdling scream. Discord snapped his fingers and they appeared out on the street again. "I know I'm not the one to be giving lectures on subtlety but you certainly failed there." he sneered from the bag. Bon Bon stomped her hoof on the ground and a piece of paper appeared floating before her. "Looks like she made a reservation. For two." her face drooped. "Well why don't we break for lunch." Discord winked at her. The duo found themselves in a fancy downtown restaurant seated some distance from Lyra. After a short while a pony with a nearly identical manestyle and cutie mark (apart from some differences in coloration) to Bon Bon came in and sat down with Lyra. "What could she possibly see in this mare?!" Bon Bon seethed. "She doesn't even look like her type!" Lyra and her companion touched frequently across the table as they conversed and giggled. The two had even leaned to each other for a kiss. "She was never THAT open with me in public!" Bon Bon could barely contain her jealousy. "And what are you going to do about it?" Discord winked. "Wouldn't it be a shame if their food TASTED TERRIBLE!" Bon Bon laughed maniacally to herself as she stomped her hoof. "I wish I could hear what they were saying..." Bon Bon sighed. "Well you have the magic now. Just be careful when it comes to chaos magic. Silly parlor tricks like teleportation and transfiguration come free of charge but the rest tends to yield...unexpected results." He laughed ominously. Bon Bon stomped her hoof and they appeared tiny, sitting on the base of a candlestick at Lyra's table. "The food here is a little disappointing." the mystery mare complained. "My show tonight will definitely make up for it!" Lyra exclaimed. "I'll be there for you snookums" the mystery mare replied. The two then broke into a lengthy verbal canoodling match. "I think I'm to be sick" Discord whispered to Bon Bon. "I have to use the little fillies room for a second." the mystery mare excused herself. Bon Bon found herself staring up at Lyra's relatively gigantic visage from the candlestick. She let out a sigh. After a while she stomped her hoof and they were on top of the other mare's head in the washroom. She was just getting ready to turn on the tap to wash her hoofs. "Oww!" She cried as Bon Bon stomped her hoof. Discord and Bon Bon appeared out on the street just as a geyser of water erupted from the faucet. "This is stupid." Bon Bon cried. "I have no right to be so jealous." "You're certainly getting carried away." Discord nudged her with his elbow. "Maybe you should put me back to normal." Bon Bon sobbed. "Oh it's not that simple. The spell I cast on you won't wear out until tomorrow morning's sun starts to peak above the horizon." Discord snickered. "What!?" Bon Bon lashed at him with her hoof and Discord went flying some distance with the impact. "Let's just lay low until then. Why don't we go back to Ponyville?" Discord urged. "I kind of want to see Lyra's performance tonight." she sighed. "Please make sure I don't get too carried away with this magic." Bon Bon pleaded. "Don't worry. I've already got you covered." Discord winked. Discord and Bon Bon were about to cross the street when a Taxi pony came screeching to a halt, nearly hitting them. "I'm walking here!" Bon Bon stomped her hoof and a shock wave shot through the ground, smashing the Taxi Cart. Onlookers nervously backed away from the scene. "I'm sorry!" She shouted looking around trying to dispel the stares. She galloped off out of sight. Discord sighed and snapped his fingers. Bon Bon was hiding in a dark alleyway sobbing to herself. "Well things are certainly chaotic now." He jested. "I'm getting you out of here before we lose plausible deniability." Discord reached for her. "NO!" Her skin began to smolder like lava as she batted his hand away with her hoof. The sky began to grow dark as black clouds swirled into a towering mesocyclone above the city. "Well I'm just going to keep my distance and then you can't-" Discord began to walk away and realized that he was now attached to Bon Bon with a chain of magical energy. "I thought you said you weren't that kind of pony." Discord snickered. "Well then I'm keeping you right here." Discord produced a large ship anchor and casually tossed it onto the ground. Bon Bon sighed, crossed her hoofs and slumped down onto the ground. The storm clouds continued to gather over the city as the night came on. "The show!" Bon Bon jumped up as she saw a familiar mare walking past the alleyway (Lyra's date from earlier). Rain poured from the sky but only where the mare tread. She looked drenched and in a state of capitulation about the unnatural weather pattern. "You're not going anywhere!" Discord fumed. The two began to float slightly above the ground as Bon Bon scrambled to get traction to run off. One of Bon Bon's hoofs turned into a hand momentarily and she snapped her fingers, restoring gravity. She then stomped her hoof and a spire of earth shot out of the ground underneath Discord breaking the anchor chain and knocking him back. Discord glared at her. He transformed into a dragon and spat a gout of flame at Bon Bon. The flames broke on a shield of energy around her. She thought hard about the endless catalog of fearsome creatures she had faced throughout the years and there was only one conclusion. She transformed into a dreaded GammaWyvern, 25 hoofs tall, an upright standing wyvern with an extra pair of arms. She took a swing at Discord with her gigantic claw, knocking him out into the main street. Lyra's love interest looked back at the commotion and paused for a moment, and then carried on her way. "This game is over!" Discord shouted as he conjured a pair of anti-magic shackles and lunged at Bon Bon. With a loud clink he found himself bound by them. "Clever. Looks like you win." He said calmly as Bon Bon shrunk him down and threw him in a pouch at her side. Lyra's marefriend had already gone into a nearby building. Bon Bon went crashing through the wall and everypony inside stared in awe as she snatched up the mare. "She's mine! Stay away!" she bellowed out in an otherworldly voice. "No!" Lyra watched helplessly from the stage. All the while Discord slyly used his tail to maneuver the hairpin that he had found earlier into the key hole of the shackles and went to work. Bon Bon took back to the streets with the mare in hand. She looked around and none of the street lamps were lit except for a narrow and direct path to the Empire Hay building. Police unicorns had gathered around and started firing horn beams at her to no effect as she stomped toward it. Inside the pouch Discord freed himself from the shackles and then raised a pocket watch to his face. He then pulled out a tea cup and took a sip. The mare struggled to try and free herself from Bon Bon's clutches as she began scaling the side of the building, a large crowd gathering on the streets below. As she finished climbing up onto the roof level she found Lyra there waiting for her. "Unhand Sugar Drops, you fiend!" She demanded. "Sugar Drops!?" Bon Bon scoffed in her unearthly voice. Lyra tossed a grappling hook up to the spire and used it to swing toward the hand that was holding Sugar Drops. As she arrived she tossed a smoke bomb and when the smoke cleared and both mares were free on the other end of the rooftop. "Where'd you learn to do that?" Sugar Drops smiled at her. "I don't think I'm supposed to tell you..." Lyra explained. The two hugged each other as Bon Bon took notice and started to move their way. "Lyra, there's something I have to tell you. My name's not Sugar Drops. It's special agent Candy-Gram. I work for a secret anti-monster agency based out of Canterlot." She dressed herself in secret agent attire as she explained. "That's so heroic!" Lyra swooned. "OH COME ON!" Bon Bon bellowed and she started stomping toward them quicker. "Get down to the street and find somepony who can deliver this message to Canterlot on the double. This monster clearly wants a fight." Sugar Drops gave Lyra a kiss on the forehead, handed her an envelope and then turned her attention to Bon Bon. "I've had enough of you and all your irony!" Bon Bon screamed, swooping her claw downward toward Sugar Drops. She dodged out of the way as the mighty claw smashed against the rooftop and tossed a grappling hook around Bon Bon's towering leg. Discord checked his pocket watch again and then yawned. Bon Bon took another swing at Sugar Drops as she made her way towards the spire. As her claw got close Sugar Drops tossed a smoke bomb at it and reappeared at the spire and fastened the rope holding the grappling hook. "Looks like you're... all tied up." Sugar Drops smirked. Bon Bon roared as she pulled hard against the rope and the Spire broke free from the roof top with unexpected ease. Sugar Drops jumped off of the spire onto Bon Bon's back as it flew past her and over the edge. She clung for dear life as the weight of the spire dragged her over. Bon Bon dug her claws into the side of the building to slow her descent, sliding down under the weight of the spire. Sugar Drops looked around and breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Lyra hand the envelope to a burly unicorn in royal Canterlot armor. "Twilight Sparkle!" Celestia's voice called out. Wresting Twilight from a dream. "Have I been a bad filly again?" The half asleep Twilight asked meekly. "This is no time for baseless accusations!" Celestia protested. "What's going on?" Twilight asked as she got out of bed. "A GammaWyvern is attacking Manehattan. My agent in the area reports that this one is too powerful for her to handle." "How did a GammaWyvern get all the way to Manehattan without anypony noticing?" Twilight quizzed. "We can figure that out later. I've been unable to get ahold of Discord or special agent Sweetie Drops, the only pony I know of that has experience with a GammaWyvern." she sighed. "I'll gather the girls." Twilight offered. "There's no need!" Celestia explained as they transported to the map room in the Castle of Friendship in columns of light. "How?" Twilight asked. Sunburst and Starlight Glimmer stood around the map table as everypony arrived in their own beam of light. A column of pale blue light ascended from the Cutie-map and a great projection of Starswirl's face appeared in it. "Starswirl, what are you doing here?" She quizzed. "I'm talking to you remotely." Starswirl explained. "We've reconfigured the magical matrix of the Cutie-map" Sunburst added. "You should be able to access the powers that were granted to you by the Chest of Harmony through it now". Celestia explained. "I should be able to communicate remotely and guide you." Starswirl stated. "Let's go, girls!" Twilight exclaimed as they disappeared in a beam of light, re-materializing on the streets of Manehattan. Many buildings were smashed up around them. As Sugar Drops and Bon Bon had been tussling for a while. One of the buildings, a tavern, had it's wall ripped open and the band on stage stared out at the scene as Twilight and the Mane 6 materialized. "Who are these heroic ponies?!" One of them quizzed. The lead guitarist shrugged his shoulders in reply and started shredding a repetitive heroic guitar melody. "Go, Go, Pony heroes!" The singer began singing as the Mane 6 transformed into their powered-up forms. Bon Bon took notice and started stomping towards them. The 6 combined their energy and fired a mighty beam at her and it was barely enough to knock her to her knees momentarily. "It's not enough." Twilight sighed. "That's not all she's got." Starswirl's voice piped in. "Combine your magical focus in front of yourselves." "Right!" The 6 all nodded simultaneously. Their magical energy began to form into a giant purple alicorn made of pure magical energy. Their jaws dropped in amazement at the sight. As the Magic alicorn finished forming together they found themselves inside a common operator compartment. The alicorn lowered it's head and fired a mightier beam at Bon Bon as she finished her charge, knocking her back a ways and onto her back. But she just got up and started charging towards them again. "We need to use the friendship blast!" Starswirl exclaimed. "Aye aye aye!" Sunburst interjected. "There's too many bystanders. If we use the friendship blast here we risk hurting them!". "Girls, lure GammaWyvern out into the open and then use the friendship blast!" Celestia urged. "I got this!" Rainbow Dash boasted as she reached for a control lever. The mighty purple alicorn began hovering and emitting a trail of rainbow. It flew in circles around Bon Bon, agitating her and she made chase as it flew off towards the horizon. The alicorn fired another beam at Bon Bon, knocking her to the ground and then landed ahead of her on the road. The two forces stared each other down. All this while Discord continued to patiently check his watch. "Are you ready, girls?" Twilight asked. The rest of the mane 6 nodded to her and they each pulled a lever in front of them. The alicorn began raising it's hoof to it's nose as it began building up a tempest of magical energy. Bon Bon could only look in terror. Discord intently checked his watch. "Oh, all this excitement and I almost forgot!" Celestia piped up and her horn began to glow. The scene became brighter as the sun crept up toward the bottom of the horizon. Discord raised his hand, ready to snap his fingers. The sun began to peak over the horizon right as the massive energy blast from the alicorn reached Bon Bon and Discord snapped his fingers. In a flash of light they were gone and the storm clouds cleared from the sky welcoming a sunny morning in Manehattan. The Mane 6 reverted back to their normal forms. "THAT. WAS. AWESOME!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "I never knew we could do that." Fluttershy said meekly. "Oooh, Let's never do that again!" Pinkie Pie squeeked gleefully. "I reckon I see no reason to ever talk about this again." Applejack said. "Darling, all this excitement has messed up my mane." Rarity complained. "Then it's settled." Twilight smiled as the Mane 6 all came together for a group hug. Discord and Bon Bon appeared normal back on the bench in Ponyville. "I feel so embarrassed with myself right now." Bon Bon sighed. "But." Discord urged her on. "But it was such a relief to find out that Lyra is doing okay. And to literally confront my inner demons." Bon Bon and Discord embraced each other in a hug. "And I'm glad I finally got that timing down." Discord laughed. "Finally?" Bon Bon whimpered. They then both laughed and learned in to each other for a kiss. "Sweetie Drops, Discord!" Celestia called out as she approached them. They both blushed and pushed away from each other. "I was looking for you two all night!" She said with concern. "We just stayed up all night walking and talking." Bon Bon smiled and looked back nervously at Discord. "Yes, that's it." Discord chuckled nervously. "A GammaWyvern, like the one that destroyed your village when you were a little foal was attacking Manehattan. But you'll be relieved to know it won't be bothering anybody again." She explained. "And it looks like you two learned some kind of friendship lesson. I'll be looking forward to your letter about it." Celestia winked at them and then flew off regally back towards Canterlot. "You know if she ever finds out that was us in Manehattan she'll banish us both to Tartarus for eternity." Bon Bon said. The two embraced again and laughed. Author's Note This story was an apology to the readers of the first two who felt that I didn't make Discord Discordy enough.
