Celestia took a deep breath as she entered the darkened area in the cell Discord's stone statue was now contained in. The princess figured it would be better to keep him in a more secure, yet isolated space. She sighed calmly and instructed the guards who followed her, to help her transfer the statue out to the gardens. They carefully helped levitate the statue from the firm base and brought it outside, Celestia dismissed them after it was placed in front of the main six. Once they were alone, and Celestia had set up every precaution, she looked to Twilight and nodded.

Twilight nodded back and took a deep breath herself before igniting her horn and performing the necessary spell. Twilight's element began to glow, as did the others. A rainbow connected each element finally uniting at Twilight's and soon a beam of colors shot at Discord's statue. The stone began to crack and break, before soon, Discord completely broke free and began stretching and shaking. Groaning a little as his stiff joints were moved again.

"Well, it's about time!" He said with an exaggerated dramatic pose.

"No fooling around Discord. I have a few things I need to ask you." Celestia firmly spoke, Discord raised a brow but continued to stretch, seeming bored already, although he did listen. "A series of horribly cruel crimes have been committed in three major areas in Equestria. And-"

"Oh, let me guess," Discord interrupted, arching backwards and looking at Celestia from an upside-down position. "You think I'M the one doing it? I've been trapped in that uncomfortable prison since my last time out and about. And I wasn't able to perform any magic while previously contained, so what makes you think I could've done it now?" He chuckled and snapped his fingers. With a flash of light, a hat appeared on Princess Celestia's head, it was a white cone shaped hat with the word "Dumb-Dumb" written on it. The others glared while Celestia looked unamused. She tilted her head and the hat fell off while Discord merely giggled.

"Quit fooling around discord! T-" Twilight demanded before Rainbow Dash cut her off.

"Yea! You've got a LOT of nerve considering what the Princess is doing for you!"

"Aside from them being right, Discord, I have a little proposition for you." Celestia intervened, capturing the attention of everyone else. She took a step closer to Discord and looked him right in the eyes. "We all know how much you don't want to be turned into stone again. And aside from the fact I already wanted to have these 6 to reform you someday," the girls were still a bit surprised by that but didn't have much time to dwell on it as Celestia continued. "I want you to assist us in capturing whoever is causing this disturbing course of events. And in exchange, you will have a chance at being set free on the condition that you'll also be reformed. Refuse and you'll once again be turned to stone. How does that sound?"

Twilight was speechless, as were a good amount of the others. Rainbow was going to speak but Applejack stopped her. Discord on the other hand was... intrigued by this. Capturing the culprit was easy enough, but it wouldn't take much for him to be free and never be threatened by the elements again... Granted, it would take being "nice" and some time and all but it seemed easy enough. Discord raised a brow and for a few solid seconds, he looked like he was genuinely pondering the suggestion. Eventually, he grinned and extended his clawed hand forward.

"Deal." Was all he said, but it was all Celestia needed to hear. With that, she moved her hoof to shake his hand and with that, officially sealed the deal.

The main six were still unsure about this but they couldn't argue with the princess. Even Rainbow Dash couldn't object to her but she was on her guard. Twilight snapped out of her thoughts first and shook her head quickly. "P-Princess, you are absolutely sure this will-"
Celestia looked to her student and leaned down a little to get more eyelevel with her. Her expression was gentle and she attempted to look reassuring.

"Twilight, I have my reasons for asking this of him. We've already sealed the deal, so all you need to do now, is keep your elements on you until Discord has been reformed. I'm very confident you all have the capability of doing so."
Discord couldn't help but let out a snicker, finding it pathetic that they really thought this. Not knowing certain events would lead him to actually being reformed after some time experiencing friendship with a certain pegasus with a rosy, pink mane. The main six stuck close to each other, none of them trusting Discord one bit, but still trusting Celestia enough to continue. Celestia turned back to Discord.

"Now, first, bring forth the monster who has been killing my subjects." Celestia, though calmly, demanded. Discord folded his arms and leaned back in the air as he snapped his fingers. Fully confident that the culprit would appear, but nothing came with the flash of light. All of them, especially Discord was confused. He tried again, and again, and again. Each attempt in vain as nothing came of it.

"Quit fooling around Discord! Bring them forth already!" Rainbow Dash yelled. Discord looked at her, genuinely confused, not exactly scared but definitely wondering what's going on.

"What do you think I'm doing?" He snapped back as he tried one more time. Nothing came. Needless to say, everypony was now even more nervous, or scared, than before...

Back in Ponyville, Orchid had just finished her shopping for the day and was trotting through town, basket handle in her mouth. She hummed a little song as she went through the surprisingly empty town. There were still a very small set of ponies who weren't aware of the murders going on, Orchid being one of them while most of the rest were children. Hence why she wasn't afraid to walk around and socialize even though all she did was wave as she walked by. Most ponies shied away but a couple politely waved back.

"I wonder why ponies are acting like this today." Orchid said, her voice basically intelligible thanks to the basket handle making some of her words sound funny. She saw some nearby butterflies and smiled as she got closer. The little bugs were settling on some flowers nearby and drinking nectar. Until a certain "presence" made them alert. They saw a pony approaching but something about her was off. immediately, they took flight once again and tried to fly a little higher than normal to avoid her.

Orchid not realizing their reaction was from a more genuine fear and not just getting out of the way or shock from seeing her, merely laughed a little before moving along. The butterflies decided to not stick around any longer and flew off before Orchid could even try to go after them again.

Author's Note

I am so sorry this was so short. I've been really busy and facing a LOT of writer's block lately- should I continue this orrr- like- Idk. What do you think?