I looked around and double checked the note I'd gotten from Discord. "Meet me in the biggest janitor's closet in the Crystal Castle. I'll show up just as you're about to leave." The closet in question was actually very spacious and full of things that the janitors used to keep the castle clean. From what I’d heard, it was originally a guest room, but had been repurposed because there wasn’t enough space for janitorial supplies before, and that particular room was rarely used by guests before it got renovated anyways.

I gave the letter some extra thought, then decided to take it at face value. "Well, I guess Discord's not here. I'm going home."

The door to the closet opened behind me. "Sorry I'm late," Discord said. "Traffic was. . . You're looking away from me."

A smirk crossed my face and I turned to the chaos spirit. "I thought you'd show up if I said I was going to leave. So if anything, you're early!"

He dramatically gasped before checking his watch. The watch's arms shrugged before it leapt onto the wall and crawled through the doorway, vanishing like a ghost. "Well played, Inova. Well played. You made a fool out of me."

"Thank you, thank you." I swept a wing in front of me and bowed at the praise. “But really, you made it too easy.”

A suction cup arrow came out of nowhere and landed on Discord’s chest. “Oh, you wound me with such language!” He dramatically fell over on the floor.

The overly dramatic motions got a brief chuckle out of me. "So, what was it you wanted to talk about?"

Discord slid into the room and closed the door behind him. “Your dear Aunt Woona told me that your dreams have been a bit chaotic recently, and not the usual kind of dream chaos, or my kind either. She’s probably worried about nothing, but in her infinite wisdom, out of everyone she could have picked, including herself, she sent me here to check on you.” He snapped and he was suddenly sitting in a plush chair while I ended up with my plot in a mop bucket. Thankfully, it was dry and empty. “So, tell Doctor Discord what kind of madness is manifesting in your mind.”

I adjusted myself a bit to get as comfortable as I could. “It’s a new H&H campaign. We’re playing the villains and our objective is to cause chaos. I’ve come up with a plan that can’t be stopped, no matter how many bad rolls I might get.” A whole session of bad rolls that Tzentacles somehow survived, yet still managed to cause chaos, had proven that theory.

Discord was very interested. “And what, pray tell, would this unstoppable plan of yours be?”

I gave him a smug grin. “Now why would I tell you that? I’ll just leave you guessing.”

“Is it because I did some bad things a couple times? I’ll have you know I’ve been reformed for longer than you’ve been alive.”

“True, but this is my little project. I’d like to see how far I can take it. It’s already making my friends confused when I do or say anything. I’ve even mastered the sinister grin.” The sinister grin crossed my muzzle as I mentioned it.

He was quiet for a bit before he started laughing. “Hahahahaha! This is rich! A Princess causing chaos! I love it!”

“Does that include what I did to the Canterlot nobles?”

He laughed so hard, the sides fell off his chair. “Oh, you have no idea how much of an impact that’s had around the world. In fact, I could even show you what’s happening in, say, Griffonstone right now.”

He got my interest. “Oh?”

He reached across the room and wheeled me over next to his chair, snapped, and the closet darkened. “Here we go!” There was a click and the sound of a projector starting up came from behind us. On a screen that wasn’t there before was Chef Borke, and there were some griffons washing dishes and kitchen utensils nearby.

“So, who are they?” I asked.

“Griffon nobility. In the wake of what you did, they clamored to do the dishes in the castle. It was so bad, Gilda actually had to find tasks other than dishwashing for them.” He summoned a small black device and pressed a button, changing the scenes. “Some of them got sent to maintain the castle grounds, a few are cleaning things in the castle, there’s a newfound respect among most of them for the castle staff, and we’ve gotten off topic.”

“Can I get out of this bucket now?”

“Under one condition.” He pushed me back to where he’d pulled me from before the closet was lit up as normal. “When your campaign is over, tell me about this unstoppable chaotic plan of yours.”

It was an easy offer. “Deal.”

He snapped and I was back on my hooves, free from the mop bucket. “Just say my name and that it’s done, and I shall appear. It had better be good.”

The smirk returned to my face. “Oh, it will be.” I started to leave the closet, but stopped when I had a forehoof on the door. “By the way, this entire conversation went exactly as I planned it.”

He scoffed. “Oh please. As the spirit of chaos, I am the embodiment of things only sometimes going according to plan. Your little schemes hold no sway over me.”

“That’s exactly what I’m counting on.” I left the room so Discord couldn’t see my smirk turn back into a full sinister grin. As I walked down the hall, a few laughs escaped me. It felt like I’d gotten one over on Discord by words alone, and it felt great.

Discord started thinking dangerously hard in the janitor’s closet. “She says she planned the whole thing, but that’s impossible since I never told her what we were going to talk about. Then again, she did trick me at the beginning. . .”

The janitor walked in. “Excuse me, I need something behind you.”

“Oh, sorry.” Discord stepped aside to let the stallion get what he needed. “And she said she was counting on her plans holding no sway over me, which would then mean I’d act exactly as she thinks I will. . .” A light bulb came on over Discord’s head before going up and replacing a burnt out one in the ceiling by itself. “You sly mare! Oh, you are going to be so much more fun once you have real authority.”

Author's Note

The original version of this chapter involved a surprise trip to Griffonstone, the presence of bacon, and Inova correcting her history teacher after an historic event.

And now, a question: when you imagine Discord thinking dangerously hard, what do you see in your mind? I imagine an electric guitar and blasts of fire.