I was Discord, if only for all of three seconds. Immobile, encased in stone but soon I will be free. I see outside of my prison as my powers come back to me, and what I see makes me ~~fearful~~ curious. A new god, schmoozing it up with the Princesses. I can see the world is embracing a small amount of chaos. ~~Do I dare hope?~~ It couldn't hurt to make sure it stays that way myself. But Elfilis is a factor I cannot predict. His powers ~~could only be chaos~~ were strange and unknown ~~and yet he was not feared~~ so I will have to be ~~careful about how I introduce myself~~ ready to assert myself as the stronger being.
As much as I wished to ~~show the Elements the truth of the world~~ play with the silly ponies, they would better serve as ~~peace offering~~ hostages negotiation tools. The actual Elements will need to go, just in case, and Celly will need to be ~~shut up~~ indisposed. Little Luny ~~has so much potential~~ has been through enough will be no threat to me.

The only cog left unaccounted for now is the new gods changeling. It had been so long since I had seen one so ~~happy~~ colorful, so she was clearly very loved by him. I decided that I would keep her away from the battle ~~if I valued myself~~ if I valued my life if I valued my soul to prove to myself- unless it was absolutely necessary.

My skin cracked, my mind roared, and I could see the world through my own eyes once more.

It was time to-

And then I was Elfilis again.

I blearily opened my eyes, trying to see through the blurry haze. I felt someone gently but firmly lift me by my arms, placing me down on my knees.

"Hey, Elfilis? You okay? It's me, Superman. I got you." I turned to him slightly, focusing as hard as I could to see his face. It stayed mostly blurry. "Hey, did it work?" It took me a moment to remember what he was refering to.

"...Mm...Mostly." I slowly stood up to my stubby feet, Superman carefully supporting me as I placed most of my weight against him. I didn't seem to have my flight to support me at the moment. Supermans face changed to what I think was concern, but it was hard to say.

"Mostly?"

"He's... yeah he's gone. Just... not how I intended." It was a much gruffer voice that took over for my living crutch.

"Clear answers, if you wouldn't mind." I saw Batman's dark figure carefully stepping through the field of junk surrounding me, and I didn't even bother trying to see what his expression might be.

"I was trying to flush him out, give him no place to go but out. Dude choose to stay, sink with the ship." His voice got... not rougher I think, but more commanding.

"So he's dead?"

"No... no. It wasn't me-him, sorry. It was a mini-me. Him. Fuck. Give me a second..." I closed my eyes to try to collect my thoughts, ignoring the way the hands on me became more firm, tense. The sounds of more feet pushing through the sand reminded me that Martian Manhunter was also standing by. "Alright. When the mini-whatever popped, I think I... Integrated it?" I didn't want to say ate, or consumed. "His memories are in here now, though only like an hours worth at most. The original him, Discord, is still back in my dimension. He's planning on... well to be honest I haven't a clue. He thinks about three things at once sometimes. The only thing I know for sure is that he's basically bunkering down until I get back." Seriously, his thoughts were contradictory and muddled, and his feelings were volatile.

"Hm. Mind explaining Gooey?"

"... Like, when something is melting?" Superman huffed out a laugh as Manhunter clarified for me.

"The creature you created. He has introduced himself as Gooey." Oh. That wasn't what I meant to do.

"Right, sorry. Gooey is... adaptable? He can morph into different shapes to accomplish different tasks or use different abilities. Unless you mean personality wise, in which case I would say that he is very kind. Gooey can be oblivious, and silly, but he's a nice guy who just likes making friends."

"It is impressive that you kept such a specific concept in mind with an invader distracting you." Yeah, like I wasn't trying to make Kirby again.

"Eh... it was close enough. I don't suppose you all have some magical super healing ability do you? I... I don't think there is any immediate danger back home, but I don't want to give that time to change." The martian turned away from me to stare at Batman.

"His mind is recovering quickly, but I would not recommend he push himself to use his abilities at this time. And he appears to be honest as well, I can detect no lies at this time."

"Gee, I can just feel the trust building." There was a moment of silence before Batman spoke up.

"... I think you'll be fine faster than you realize."

"... He didn't say that out loud did he? Thats a new one."

Batman watched as Elfilis greedily took the bottle of water from Flash, quickly downing it all. He didn't even flinch as the scarlet speedster appeared in the desert, so he might have experience with super-speed. Martain Manhunter left earlier, with only the smallest hint of embarrassment showing. Batman understood, it was a feeling he often fought with when anyone managed to sneak up on him. Except Alfred. Their was no shame in being snuck up on by him. Bruce stopped his train of thought as Flash spoke up, either about to make an insighful observation or make a fool of himself.

"Well you're a big guy. Nice towel by the way." Fool it was.

"Thanks, I hate it."

"What? Not a fan of big blue?" It was, rather humorously, a Superman themed towel.

"I'd rather just not have to wear it."

"Oh. You mean like...?"

"I want you to know that if you ever put clothes on a dog, that I will never forgive you." That... Was not actually where he thought this was going to go. Bruce also tried very hard not to think about Bat-Dog, lest he give Elfilis ammunition against him.

"Huh. It's the fur isn't it? Neat that we both have dogs on our planets though..." Batman saw where Flash was coming from. That would have been suspicious, but...

"Flash, he's from another dimension. Different rules." Bruce liked that about Clark, he wasn't just physically super. He had a decent level of perception and intuitiveness as well.

"Oh! That kind of alien. So, what? Are all humans replaced by flying nudist deer like you?" Well, Batman supposed that if the Flash died here then he would know for sure where Elfilis stood.

"No. It's full of ponies." He tried not to smirk at the open dumfoundness on the speedsters face.

"Ponies? Seriously?"

"Yep. At least where I live. I know there's also minotaurs and griffons and dragons and all kinds of other mythological creatures." That, that was a potential inconsistency that Batman caught.

"How do you know those creatures are myths to us?" Mostly myths, so long as you weren't a superhero. Regardless, he put his hands on his utility belt as Superman crossed his arms. Elfilis was... Shaking, he realized. Trembling. The steel thermos collapsed under his grip.

"... I think I used to be human." And now Bruce was entirely out of his element.

"... You have my condolences. You don't remember?"

"No. I only remember waking up in a cave, in a body I recognized but I knew wasn't supposed to be mine. It's... Something I thought I had comes to terms with, until i met some humans in another dimension. I haven't really... Had the chance to think about it. Or talk about it yet. With anyone." Well damn. Now the interdimensional being was spilling his guts out. Bruce never felt like the good guy when that happened. "I... I think I'm going to be back now." Three things happened at once. Batman turned around, as he was about to call Gooey over so he could go back with Elfilis. Then he heard Superman begin to speak.

"Wait, are you sure-" And his voice was cut off. Batman turned back to see a trail of glass in the sand with clouds of dust kicked up around them, undoubtedly from where the Flash really pushed his speed. However, the trail ended abruptly with no where to go, in the same spot that Superman and Elfilis had been standing only a moment ago. Only a Superman themed towel laid on the ground.

"... Dammit Clark."

I had no idea what I was looking at. Canterlot, the city itself, was in a state of constant movement. Ponies were running away from various animated objects, stores were literally competing by tossing display peices out of their windows at eachother, and what looked like Daroach and Storo teleporting and jumping their way towards a walking boat. And that was just what I knew how to put into words. As I thought though, nothing seemed to be outright hostile. The ponies running away from hat stands and umbrellas would get stuck in place as the ground moved them backwards, but the pursuing furniture would stop and wait for them to get off the treadmills before continuing the chase.

"I'm guessing this isn't how the city usually looks?" Seriously? I turned and looked behind me with the corner of my eye. Sure enough, the Flash and Superman were here with me. Superman looked physically uncomfortable, like he ate something bitter but Flash was at least pretending to still be his carefree self.

"... No. No it is not. Since you are here, would you mind making sure no one hurts themselves in this mess? I think everything here is meant to scare them, but confronting Discord would be easier if I knew you two were out here to make sure." Flash gave me a thumbs up and vanished in blur of motion. Superman stayed for just a moment longer.

"You're sure you've recovered enough for whatever is about to happen? You passed out not ten minutes ago."

"So long as I don't try to create anymore beings of great power I should be fine. Things without souls or a history are barely a drop in the bucket for me, and I'll likely be using my other abilities if this turns into a fight."

"That's the other thing. You looked like you were on the warpath before, now you sound like you're trying to give this 'Discord' the benefit of the doubt." Well, the first time I was on the 'warpath' I nearly killed pregnant Chrysalis. And besides that-

"I have an hours worth of his thoughts. Before he was an unknown who hacked my Dream and was keeping me away from my home. Now, Discord is a being who is at least capable of thought and understanding, even though he's convinced himself otherwise."

"And at most?"

"His thoughts were fucked up enough I wouldn't be terribly surprised he was possessed. I know that's happened at least once before. Regardless, I think I know enough to keep him off balance when or if we come to blows." He finally nodded before flying away, though he left me with some parting words.

"Alright, but shout for me if things get hairy. I'll be there faster than you can blink."

Twilight carefully walked around the guards who were stuck moving across the tiles like chess pieces. She had managed to duck out of sight of the entity that was causing this mess two more times before it seemed to give up the chase entirely, but she still kept the spell over her eyes just in case. Being able to see it's Dragon energy appear moments before it itself arrived had proved invaluable, but now it also allowed her to see the forms of what could only be the Princesses up ahead. She had tried to reach her brother, but he was stuck in checkmate and wasn't able to come with her. Cadence was nowhere to be found, either staying too far away for her spell to find her or being trapped in an area that was entirely saturated with chaos.

Finding the Princesses was good news though, and as she finally entered the same hallway as her mentor and her sister, more good news followed. Two cloudy-white pegasus shapes, two earthy-brown pony shapes, one gray unicorn shape with just a dash of lavender in the horn, and one large mass of bright pink that could only be Carina.

She had found her friends.

Twilight reluctantly turned off the spell and carefully made her way to Celestia and Luna, making sure to whisper to not surprise them.

"Princess. What's happening?" Celestia and Luna turned away from the throne room doors they were peeping into the keyholes of when she found them, and Twilight felt her heart rate spike. Celestia's head was solid stone, frozen to an inappropriately serene expression, and Luna looked like she had gotten into a nasty fight. It was Spike who got over it fastest, whispering frantically from his place on her back.

"Oh my gosh! What happened to you!?" Luna just frowned as she wiped some dried blood off her lips. She didn't bother with whispering.

"Discord has escaped his prison, and has evidently decided to take some form of revenge on us." Twilight gulped down her nerves, she didn't have time to panic.

"Discord... Who is he? Besides the one whose responsible for all this?"

"He is the spirit of Chaos. We had used the Elements of Harmony to seal him in stone long ago. The prison must have weakened when the Elements chose new Bearers, but I suspect he might have fed upon the natural disorder of the past week to escape early."

"Is he the reason I'm an adult now?" Everypony jumped at the young, unfamiliar voice. They did not notice the large golden changeling join them in the main hall. "Can he like, undo that? Because this is really uncomfortable. I don't have enough life experience to be an adult yet." It was Twilight who connected the dots the fastest.

"Aurum! What!? How did-!? Are you okay? How do you feel?"

"It is so weird knowing things that I know I shouldn't know. Especially since knowing that I know things I shouldn't know is, in and of itself, something I shouldn't know. Also, being born? Traumatizing. I would very much like to grow up the natural way that means I don't remember all that crap."

It wasn't hard to find my way to Discord. All the signs in the city pointed me his way, and there were movie posters on a theater that showed him sitting in the throne room. The movie was rated E for Elfilis and had outstanding reviews. Evidently he had settled on intimidation through a show of power. I highly doubted he had intended on me knowing his plans though. I pushed my way through the castle doors, closing them behind me with the butt of my spear.

It was even worse in here, and I had to avoid ponies floating and bouncing off the walls in bubbles as well as fly over an army of brooms that took up the entire corridor. I did eventually make it to the thrones entrance, and was pleasentky surprised to find friends. They weren't in the best condition, but they weren't in cages. It was the unfamiliar changeling who notice me first.

"Hey look, its the teleporting dude." Celestia nodded her petrified head in greeting, while Luna smiled crookedly at me. Twilight wasn't paying me any attention though, bugging Spike about something.

"It is good to see you are back Elfilis. Are you okay? Your Dream is not as easy to sense right now."

"I'm fine, but what about you? You're the only one I've seen who is actually hurt." Discords memories made it seem like he was going to effectively ignore her, so seeing her bloodies nose and crusty scalp was a shock to me.

"Nothing he did was inherently harmful, but I reacted very poorly to your Dream disappearing out from under my hooves. Metaphorically." Celestia looked like she would've argued with that had she been able too, but I was willing to accept it for now.

"Alright, just take care of yourself. I have to go see the dumbass in the throne room, he's waiting for me." There were some raised voices but I waved their words away. "Trust me on this please. I'm not rushing in and running on instinct this time."

"Are you sure?" Luna looked very conflicted, but I stood my ground for this one. I knew what I was getting into.

"I am. Just stay here, relax, and tend to your wounds please. You look terrible." I vaguely heard her say something sarcasticly as I walked past them. I braced my free hand on the doors, took one last deep breath... And decided that I had space to fuck with everyone.

I shouted, "DELIVERY!" And I watched the ponies not set in stone gawk at me as I rapidly started knocking on the grand doors.

I was still mostly Elfilis, promise.

Author's Note

Do you know how often I think,
"I should ask this or say that on the authors notes" and then forget what I was going to write by the time I get here?

Everytime.

This was also difficult to write, in part because of real life and in part because it's still Discord's bullshit.

I remembered this time though. Should I change my stories rating or has it actually earned its Mature rating?