Surprisingly, it wasn't Rainbow Dash who was the first to break the silence.

"Are you serious?" asked Princess Twilight, incredulously. "I mean, oh for the love of Celestia, of course you are. Of course you are! One time when I would prefer you to be joking, you are serious!" She didn't even know when she started pacing back and forth. The only pony in the room moving at all in that moment.

Discord was silent and still, afraid to say anything more. Fluttershy was paralyzed. Rarity has been clinging to Applejack's side for a while now and Applejack wasn't objecting, sitting in stunned silence. Pinkie Pie started giggling uncontrollably and fell over to the floor.

Spike observed Twilight pacing, deeply concerned, and leaned in to Sunburst.
"Sunburst?" he whispered. "You have any idea where Starlight might be?"

"What? Ah, Starlight... Well, she's probably in her office no..."

"The original Starlight, Sunburst." Spike interrupted him "Not a clone, not a magical projection, not an alternative version from parallel universe, the first and only, extraordinarily magically gifted Starlight Glimmer"

"Oh. Oooh... " Sunburst remembered and flinched in embarrassment. "I... I'm afraid not. I... honestly am not sure if anypony knows where she's faring now..."

"Well, wherever she is, she better shows up soon." he frowned "We're gonna need her help"

"You have a boss?!" Rainbow stammered out. "You get to write reports, answer every now and then..." She squeked. "You get to..."

"They're not my boss, Rainbow" Discord denied the truth. "More like an... onlooker. A guardian if you will."

"That... That is a lot. A lot!" continued her monologue Twilight, unfazed by everything happening around her. "I need some time to process that!"

"I'm afraid you don't have much."

It was a monotone, colorless voice, yet it shook the entire assembly to the bone. They all (including Twilight) turned to the corner of the room.

There stood a weird, quadrupedal creature with two long, skinny arms. Twilight recognized him as a centaur. Black and grey fur, simple white jewellery, two small white buds on the head that must have been horns. He would look puny and pathetic were it not for his eyes. Half closed, still they ticked every passing second with a deadly, merciless, joyless precision. The ticking seemed so perfectly synchronized with the very flow of time it hadn't even occurred to the group it had been making that sound for a longer moment now. Suddenly, the ticking was unbearably loud.

Discord jumped to the creature, overjoyed for a distraction.

"Zeit! Old buddy old pal, you too!" he shouted, evidently loud on purpose. The centaur squinted his eyes, without approval of this silly moniker. "Why, it's been ages since our last meeting! One would think you of all creatures could find time for an old friend? Tell me, why would you ever ever leave me for so long without a hint as for your whenabouts?"

"Because I hate you?" Zeit suggested calmly. His voice had become somehow less monotone.

Discord smiled a particularly venomous smile.
"The feeling is mutual, you senile clerk of a primal force" he hissed.

Zeit didn't as much as blink.

"Ah'm sorry" a new voice joined the conversation "This all 's very interestin' indeed, an Ah don't wanna spoil th' mood, but I hafta ask - an forgive mah callousness - What the hay is goin' on?!

"Oh, thank you Applejack dear" Rarity chimed. "I was going to ask that very same question, darling! What is for Celestia's sake going on?"

In a dry and overtly formal gesture, the creature pressed it's palm to its chest."I am Zeitgeist, the embodiment of time, the onlooker of this universe's temporal fields"

In. Out. In. Out. Breathe Twilight, breathe! Stars damn it!

"How come we've never met you before?" asked Pinkie, ever so enthusiastic about a possibility of a new friendship.

"I prefer to stay away from ephemeral affairs of the mortals." answered Zeitgeist, ever so negative about friend calls and party invitations. "I, also, prefer to spend as little of myself as possible on interactions with my colleague, Discord... " He relaxed a bit. "Not out of spite, but because he makes my work ...unreasonably difficult."

"Oh, don't say that, Zeit pal!" Discord interrupted "Everypony likes a little challenge from time to time! Though you could have some point about my timing. Is my intrusion perhaps a bit ill-timed?" The mischievous glint in his eyes was visible with a naked eye. "You don't suggest spending time with me is a waste of your... "

The centaur extended two straight fingers and Discord froze. "I swear to all Forces High Above, you repeat that word once more and I will freeze your tongue still" Zeitgeist shoved the draconequus aside, unfroze him; then resumed: "I was tasked by the aforementioned Forces High Above to see to it the timeline will not be deranged on the..." There came but a tiny flinch. " ...time of Discord's absence" he finished, somehow reluctantly.

"I am s-sorry, but, eh..." Sunburst joined the conversation, stammering "What does the Spirit of Time have to do with the Chaos Conundrum?"

"Why, it's actually quite simple, my nerdy unicorn friend" Discord supplied, helpfully. "What do you think happens in the time of my absence?"

"Eh... I... I don't know, there is... a little less chaos magic around?"

Discord leaned over, making the distance between his muzzle and Sunburst's face uncomfortable close.
"Let me rectify myself here - what do you think happens in the time of me and my magic's absence?" A pause, mainly to let Sunburst readjust his glasses. "I mean like, complete absence. None of it left in the universe of Equus."

Wherever Twilight's thoughts were gone, they came back now to tackle the problem. She didn't like the numbers that started to swirl around her head.

Sunburst opened his mouth in an expression of bewilderment.
"Well... Um. Yes, I suppose... It would have... serious consequences for all of us?"

"I couldn't put it any simpler, Little Sunblown!"

"That's not my name..."

"Whatever." he waved his paw dismissively. "And as you all can probably imagine, in the complete absence of chaos magic from thousands if not millions of universes at the same time the entire multiverse would collapse within minutes."

"Well, mighty shame it is, cuz Ah wouldn't mind a little less of Chaos in mah life" Applejack declared.

"It's better that you learn to appreciate Chaos, dear Applejack. Either me, or Tiānmìng"

That name, alien as it was, brought Twilight some irrational anxiety.

"Who now?"

More dismissive paw-waving "Another story for another time."

"Now, come on!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash. "You can't just suggest there is, like, another bad guy out there, whose flank we could kick, and then just move on!"

"Oh, but we can, little Dashie" stated Discord matter of factly. "The situation now is so tense that even I can't allow myself any more digressions. Wouldn't you agree, Zeit?"

"Ruefully, I must agree." Zeitgeist agreed. "We already have the attention of Masters on our heads, last thing we need is a talk about Them."

For a tiny, tiny millisecond time seemed to speed up a little, as if trying to spite someone meticulous enough to notice.

"Forgive my morbid curiosity, but... Ehm..." Sunburst didn't shut up. "If the multiverse should collapse within minutes, how c-come it just... doesn't? When all of the chaos lords gather in one place? H-how do they ehm... regulate this?"

"Simply." Zeitgeist supplied. "They freeze time in all of universes affected"

"Oh. Hehe... ehm... Of course!, how could I not think about...?" He corrected his glasses, which didn't need correcting, in a futile attempt to convince himself that it truly wasn't anything unusual to violate laws of physics to such a fundamental degree.

Oh, what a sweet and silly pony Sunburst was.

"This sounds... terrifying" Spike commented.

"Ah didn't understand nothing y'all just said, and somehow that makes me even more scared!" Applejack declared.

"But how does it influence other worlds? What about multiverse-wide causality?" Twilight questioned. "There are so many magical laws violated by such an action..."

"Oh, sure. You eggheads just keep talking about theory" came an annoying, overconfident voice of a cyan pegasus. "I wanna know it, so you spill it, Discord - where are their butts for us to kick?"

Discord snorted, loudly and noticeably.
"Oh, adorable little Dashie! Your adorably simplistic solution would be your adorable, pointless doom!"

"Wha...?"

"A mortal being, like you" he booped Rainbow Dash "is considered by the Masters to be 'cute'. As much as a flinch of your muscles in their presence is enough to attract their attention. And their attention alone is more than enough to melt your senses and make you deteriorate into a steaming puddle of organic matter."

Dash's confidence quickly disappeared, replaced by horror and disgust. Silencing her and leaving with a particularly clueless expression on the face brought Discord a lot of vengeful joy.

"Discord!" that was Fluttershy, finally speaking up "Cut it out! We do not need more panic! We need solutions!"

"Well then" he chuckled, and the chuckle came dangerously close to a madman's cackle. "Good luck finding any, because I know of none!"

He is so scared thought Twilight. He can barely keep in the panic. How scared should we be?

"Now, Discord, whatever do you mind?"

"See, this universe is recognized as my property, my home. As long as I don't break any unwritten laws of the Multiverse, you are safe from any incomprehensible eldritch horrors that lurk out there. But now, that my actions have drawn the attention of the Masters, I'm afraid there is nothing neither you, nor I can do about it. It is simply beyond our reach." He slumped, visibly resigned. "It is, I'm afraid, my sole responsibility to face the interest of the Masters." He spread his arms just so helplessly. Everypony (and one dragon) in the room were staring at him tense and expectant "I know this is a bit much."

"A bit much." Rarity's ice cold voice fell on the silence that had been laying around the room like the blade of a guillotine, slicing off its head. "You tell us one splendid morning that our entire universe is in mortal danger and we can do nothing to save it! You call this 'a bit much'?!"

Chaos descended.

"That's it! I'm getting my End of the World emergency party set right now!"

"The world is ending?!, but I-I didn't even finish..."

"Th' harvest is 'bout to begin!..."

"I don't wanna deti... dit... whatever he said... *sniff* ...into a puddle... Bua-aaah!"

"Great, now you all have made Dashie cry, happy about it?!"

"The... Eh... Twilight, you... you know what to do, right...?"

Rarity's voice once again cut through the crowd, her hoof extended accusingly.
"You, you are nothing but trouble, draconequus! Why, we should have never freed you from your stone prison!"

A black bolt of shady energy slithered through space to meet the little white unicorn face to muzzle and sneer with barely contained anger.

"Why I'm sorry darling, but it's you who demanded answers in the first place!" he hissed. "Do you possibly believe it's better to just sit down and cry about it?!" His voice began to raise dangerously loud and the little unicorn shrunk down, intimidated. "You think this situation is any less stressful for me than it is for you?!"

In that moment his eyes flared alight with fury and and his voice distorted as if stretched in all directions.

Who do you think stands responsible for the mess we all find ourselves in?!

"EVERYPONY JUST STOP!"

Silence fell. Like a terrible dark phoenix about to go out in frenzy of purple flames, Princess Twilight hung up in the air, wings spread wide, flashing bolts of magenta and white power.

They all watched with awe, mixed with a healthy dose of common fear. Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were scared. Spike and Sunburst were scared too, if less so. Rarity was still rather shaken, but her eyes were full of unhealthy fascination with a beautiful, dominant mare in front of her. Applejack's eyes - even more. Zeitgeist waited, because, from a certain point of view, that was all he ever did. The silence that hung above the group was so heavy, so absolute, begging to be filled.

Discord remained silent too, frozen in place not by elemental time powers, but genuine fear. His head low and his arms spread wide. When the haze of fury lifted on his mind, dark thoughts danced behind his eyes. Shame have party-crashed a friendly get-together in his psychic palace and her gang was just getting started. He just realized that she has been there for quite some time now. When did she get in?! Probably when Twilight stared at him and demanded answers. Shame wasn't a new feeling for him, but a one that had never visited him quite as often. Not without a reason - he really didn't like her.

He would never admit it, but there was one pony other than Fluttershy capable of awaking his shame. He closed his eyes and braced for impact.

Twilight touched the floor again. The flames flickered and went out. Her sight was once again devoid of deadly power, but the command it still carried could make armies halt their advance. The stellar heat was now gone, but not the regal glory of a rightful leader, of true royalty.

She had analyzed this situation thoroughly, and no matter how she shifted the pieces, there only seemed to be one real solution to this puzzle.

"I think we should trust Discord on this one."

A collective "What?!" rolled through the group. Discord dared to open one eye.

"Keeping in mind his past wrongdoings, he is still the only one here with any insight knowledge on the matter." she explained. "And, if he was perfectly honest with us - and I see no reason for him to lie - there really isn't much we can do about this. I think we should trust Discord to face this problem alone with Fluttershy. The best we can do is to hope for them on this dangerous mission."

Discord opened his second eye, and then a third, just to make sure he was not hallucinating. The rest of the group was too stunned to react in any meaningful way.

"Perhaps we owe Discord an apology for unfounded accusations...?" she sent a heavy glance to Rarity.

"Um... I'm... I'm sorry Discord, darling... What I said was... most inadequate in that situation." stammered the unicorn "I want you to know... I didn't mean any of those things. I beg forgiveness"

"That's... that's okay, Rarity" mumbled a bit dumb-founded Discord. "I acted just as low. I am... equally s-sorry"

Twilight turned directly to him. "Discord, you might have not been very tactful about this and frankly, a little mean to some of us here, but I know that you tried your best. And besides..." She then looked directly into his eyes... "I know the weight of the crown, Discord. I can understand your stress. It can be a crushing feeling, having this much power and yet being this... helpless. You got a friend in me, Discord."

Discord felt his eyes water. Instinctively, he turned it to lemon juice, so he would feel the need to wipe it clean.

"We're all friends here, Discord" she said in a reassuring voice. Small and scared just like everyone else, but determined to lift up their spirits and lead with an example. "We will support you in this difficult time. We know you can do it!" She smiled warmly. "I believe in you."

Discord was speechless. He didn't know anymore what he had expected, but definitely not this. Suddenly, his mind was clear and his eyes wet. He shivered and, before he even knew it, found his body hugging the alicorn by her neck. Everyone just stared.

She seemed surprised at first, but, after a moment of hesitation, she returned the gesture.

"Thank you, Twilight. Thank you" he whispered.

They just stayed this way for a little while.

Author's Note

It's fair to say that I took my time with the second chapter of this story.
The reason for that was my anxiety, perfectionism and the need to fight with severe depression. I couldn't finish writing this overwhelmingly chaotic chapter, second-guessing myself and introducing more and more corrections until it became seemingly hopeless.
In the meantime, many momentous things happened in my life, I quit university, I rejoined it, I moved to another city with my family, we adopted a dog, I found some new hobbies. All of that pulled me away from this story to the point that I pretty much accepted it being canceled. I couldn't find time to finish these three next chapters even though I've always known well what was supposed to happen there.
Then, one day, I did finish it and it left me at odds with myself. The initial reception on my story was not great. It was very discouraging for my self-doubting, self-loathing self. But I know that some people did enjoy it. I kept re-reading these three encouraging comments and,eventully, I decided that if as much as one person out there would find my idea interesting, it's worth sharing. It's worth putting it out there.
Even if I get stuck again at chapter 6 or 7 and abandon the site for months again, that's okay. Even if this story forever remains incomplete, that's okay. Progress is not linear in one's struggle against their own inner demons, and even an incomplete story is a win for me here. I am writing this because I believe it's worth sharing, but mostly, I'm writing this for myself.
So thanks to DesertDragon79, taterforlife and sunflowering, who left the comments under chapter 1. It really meant a lot, it really did. If by the time I publish this you've all moved on and cannot be bothered to get back to this fic, that's okay, I don't blame you. It's been over one and a half year, after all. Thank you all for that little bit of courage I needed.

The third chapter is already finished and I will publish it in two weeks' time.