It was mere hours after Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis had been thwarted after their attack on Canterlot. Though the coronation was now delayed, many creatures—ponies and those from other nations—stuck around, celebrating their victory. Even Twilight and her friends went out for donuts together.
But Discord was one creature not celebrating. Oh, he was delighted the Terrible Trio had been stopped, and that he was able to help, but…he was still the one responsible for all of this. He could barely look anyone else in the eye.
He kept busy by helping Celestia and Luna carry the newly-created statue to the Canterlot Gardens. Most of Canterlot looked fine, if empty…though the closer they got to the castle, the more destruction was visible, a few houses and businesses crushed under rubble or baring chars from magical beams.
But the worst was, of course, the castle itself, the center of the Battle of the Bell. Even the gardens hadn’t been spared, many statues broken and plants trampled underfoot. It also seemed that the animals Fluttershy loved so much had run off in the danger…as if Discord couldn’t feel any worse.
Still, the three of them levitated the statue to the center of the garden, not saying anything as they set it down. Discord stared up at the statue—while he had once sneered at the idea of oh-so-good Celestia trapping him in stone, something he wouldn’t do, he couldn’t feel that bad for the remorseless villains he’d help trap. And their magic wasn’t as powerful as his, so he was sure the petrification left them unaware of their surroundings, frozen…like they were asleep.
He'd still probably ask Luna to check later, though. Perhaps once he was able to look at her more directly.
Celestia let out a tired sigh. Discord glanced over and saw that she was staring at what was left of the castle…not that he was surprised. Even Luna looked at the ruins with sadness. “It will take a lot of work to rebuild the castle,” Celestia said. “…it is good we’ve entered such an era of harmony. We now have many friends who will be willing to help us recover, just as they helped against our greatest enemies.”
Discord’s ears perked up. “Harmony’s good, but what about a little disharmony?” he asked with a little waggle of his eyebrows. The alicorn sisters gave him wary looks, and he wilted, holding his hands up in defense. “I’m only saying that with my magic, putting everything back will be a snap!”
With that, he held his hand high in the air and snapped his fingers. Magic flowed easily from him, oozing out of every pore, with the goal he gave it in mind—to put Canterlot Castle back together, as it had been.
But his magic did something odd. And not the usual sort of odd that he reveled in. No, his magic seemed to grab pieces of the castle, moving them—but only a few parts were set back in place. Others only moved a few feet or inches before his magic fizzled out and was dispersed into the wind. Some weren’t even moved at all.
The spell quickly reached its conclusion, and Canterlot Castle was…just as much in ruins as before. Possibly a little more fixed, but most of the pieces that had moved had nothing to hold them in their original spots, so crashed back down to earth anyway.
Celestia and Luna both looked at Discord, brows furrowed in concern. “…that wasn’t supposed to happen,” he insisted.
“You’re sure all of your magic was returned by the Bell?” Celestia asked, her tone concerned.
“My magic is all back, I can feel it!” Discord said, looking down at his hands and flexing his fingers. He could feel the power coursing through his veins, chaos brewing and just waiting to be unleashed. “Why didn’t that work!?”
Luna hummed in thought, using her magic to grab a nearby piece of rubble that hadn’t been moved. Her aura also fizzled out as it wrapped around the stone, and she frowned. “This is most unusual…my magic is being affected, as well.”
The three of them carefully approached the troublesome piece of rock, all of them scanning it over. It was Luna who cried out a minute later in triumph, holding up a small piece of black rock in her hoof. Discord raised an eyebrow.
“This is a shard from Chrysalis’s throne,” Luna said. “The same ones we placed around the castle, and the ones they attempted to use to trap us.” To demonstrate, her horn lit up, her magic surrounding the stone…only for it to fizzle out and be pulled in before she could begin to levitate it.
“Weren’t they all underground, in those cells they created?” Discord asked, eyebrow raising up even further.
Celestia shook her head. “The shards were broken into many small pieces, and woven carefully into the walls of the castle itself.” She frowned, looking up at the destroyed castle. “The spell that stabilized them for our purposes must have been broken when the castle was…” Her voice trailed off.
“And so now they’re all laying around the rubble chaos-knows-where and disrupting spells just enough to be annoying,” Discord said, blowing a raspberry. “How do these things even work, anyway?”
Celestia and Luna exchanged a glance before shrugging, to which Discord rolled his eyes. “Thorax or Twilight may be able to explain it,” Celestia suggested.
“Great. Wonderful.” Discord didn’t really care so much about how they worked as much as how they could do their work around them.
“Well!” Luna declared. “I, for one, would like to relax after all we’ve been through. You two may do as you please, but we are going to enjoy as many donuts as we wish.”
“Slipping into the royal ‘we’ again, are we?” Discord snarked as she started to walk away.
Luna only faltered slightly in her trotting, holding her head up high. “Perhaps. So, thou may consider it a royal decree that we shall have donuts!”
“Oh, nice recovery,” Discord said, clapping as he floated along beside her. Celestia laughed lightly, quickly catching up to them.
The calm atmosphere, the way the two allowed him to stay next to them as they headed back into the city…it made him feel better, but guilt still stuck in him like a burr. The fact his powerful magic had been waved away so easily, when he’d actually been trying to fix things, especially stung.
They met up with Twilight, Spike, and the girls in a donut shop, all ordering a fresh plate of donuts for themselves. Even Discord got something, though he filled the tip jar to the brim with a snap of his fingers after ordering.
Eating donuts made him feel a little better, as did some conversation. He especially noted when Celestia mentioned the changeling stones to Twilight, who began theorizing about how exactly they were currently affecting magic, and how they may behave at different sizes. It also seemed she was already coming up with a checklist for how to fix Canterlot, because of course she was.
Discord listened, but didn’t have much to say, choosing to sit on the sidelines and eat pastries, occasionally humming or nodding at certain points. Fluttershy seemed to pay the most attention to him, glancing over to check on him every so often…but didn’t try to force him into joining any of the conversation, for which he was grateful.
Eventually, though, everyone had eaten their fill and left the donut shop…entering a world where there was still much that needed to be fixed. While many Canterlot citizens returned to their homes, there were several ponies (mainly guards and members of court) who had been living in the castle itself, or staying there while visiting. That, and members of other nations who hadn’t yet left needed somewhere to stay.
Twilight started pouring over lists of hotels and inns and trying to figure out how many rooms were available in total when Discord was struck with an idea, a camping lantern appearing and lighting up above his head.
“You know,” he said, gesturing to the fields outside the city, where the final confrontation had occurred, and where many creatures were still standing and mingling, for lack of anywhere else to go. “I might have an idea to help out in this specific instance.”
She carefully looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “What idea?”
Well, he supposed she had a right to be suspicious. “Just something that will provide enough rooms for everyone. Nothing coming to life, definitely nothing involving villains, and no lingering magic once I’ve cast the spell.”
She carefully watched him for a few more seconds…and to his relief and delight, she nodded. “Okay. I’ll trust you know what you’re doing.”
That made a proud, wide grin spread over Discord’s face as he stepped forward, holding up his hands like a photo frame to get an idea of the scope of the land. After that, he snapped his fingers once again, letting a large amount of magic flow out of him once again. This time, though, it worked exactly as intended—tents in all possible colors and sizes sprung up throughout the field, enough for everycreature to have one of their own…he was pretty sure.
His friends all received the biggest tents in the center of the field—in colors that matched their coats and manes, and with their cutie marks blazed over the tent entrances.
The gathered crowd murmured in amazement, pouring forward and poking their heads into tents, several groups or individuals claiming tents for themselves. Discord kept his ears perked up, grinning smugly when he noted that the reactions (from what he could hear) seemed positive overall.
Unsurprising, considering he’d made each tent to be bigger on the inside, with the comforts and furnishing of a hotel room at the least…even complete with running water.
“Thank you, Discord,” Twilight said, stepping up to stand beside him, smiling up at him. “I don’t think anyone else could do something like this.”
Discord’s smug grin widened further, and he allowed himself to pose. “Yes, well, there’s only one Master of Chaos, isn’t there?”
“I don’t know,” she said, a teasing smile on her face. “For a moment, it looked like Pinkie—”
Discord shuddered at the memory, shushing her. He’d known, of course, that the party pony had a wonderful grasp of chaos, but to see her able to handle his magic? Something he’d thought impossible for anyone else? It was…unnerving to consider, if he was being honest.
Twilight stopped talking, but she still seemed rather amused by his antics. She watched as Celestia and Luna stepped forward into an empty patch, a small crowd gathering around them. Their horns both glowed with powerful magic, and the sun was lowered and the moon raised.
The crowd all ‘ooh’ed’ and ‘ahh’ed’, clearly impressed. “Ready to be able to do that yourself?” Discord asked Twilight.
“I’ve actually been considering how to modify the amulet they gave me to handle the sun and moon automatically,” Twilight said. “It’s some complex spellwork, and it’ll still take a lot of energy, but it’s an exciting challenge!”
Discord smiled fondly, following her as they headed into the field of tents, Twilight rambling about her ideas for adjusting the amulet. Their friends followed behind them all with a chorus of various yawns, several quickly claiming the tents that were theirs. It wasn’t long before it was just him, Fluttershy, and Twilight. Spike was also there, but was practically asleep on his feet already as he leaned against Twilight’s side.
“Where’s your tent, Discord?” Fluttershy asked, glancing around and stifling a tiny, nearly silent, yawn (adorable).
Discord rubbed the back of his neck. He hadn’t really thought of it, but a quick snap of his tail feathers made a new tent sprout up next to Fluttershy’s—smaller, and covered with splotches of practically every color. It also had two fake horns perched on top that matched his own. “Looks like we’re neighbors!”
Fluttershy giggled, and after another yawn, flew up to wrap her forelegs around his neck. “Thank you, Discord.” She pulled back to look him in the eye, her gaze filled with deep care. “If you need to talk to anyone, please come to me, alright?”
“I will,” he promised, hugging her back.
With that, she pulled away, fluttering to her own tent with a wave goodbye. Twilight and Discord both waved back, turning to face each other. Right now, to Discord, words seemed inadequate. Even Twilight seemed unsure of what to say.
“…I should probably get some sleep,” she finally decided to say. “And you should, too. I know Fluttershy asked you to come to her, but…you can come to me, too, you know.”
“I know,” he said with a small nod. “Good night, Twilight.”
The purple alicorn carried Spike with her into her tent, where they’d find separate bedrooms for each other…and some bookshelves, filled with books for Twilight to read. He hoped she’d like them.
He paused, looking around the clearing for a moment. Everyone seemed happy, many retiring to tents and bidding each other good night. Everything was fine…he’d made a mistake, but despite the best efforts of some, the world hadn’t ended.
After confirming to himself that things were good enough, for now, he headed into the tent he’d created. It was as small as it appeared, the inside looking like a normal tent, the only thing of note a hammock hanging across the canvas walls.
With a sigh, he climbed into it, closing his eyes and attempting to let his mind slow down.
Discord turned back and forth, over and over, in his upside-down hammock…and after an hour without rest, he sighed and rolled out, floating down to the ground.
There was no way he could sleep like this. Not with everything he’d done weighing on him…on top of the knowledge that he still hadn’t fixed the damage he was ultimately responsible for. In fact…he wouldn’t be surprised if sleeping would lead to him having nightmares and causing chaos in his sleep. Again. And wouldn’t that just be a lovely epilogue to this little chapter.
Grimacing, he snapped his fingers and summoned a large cup of tea, which he chugged down. He slowly approached the tent flap, opening it up enough to peer out at the horizon…specifically, at the silhouette of Canterlot. Without the castle, it just looked so…small.
Once Celestia raised the sun, everyone would get to work. It could take days, weeks even, to fix everything. If all the throne shards could be found and taken out, perhaps magic could be used to speed up the process…but even that task would take a while, thanks to the shards’ resistance to any locator spells, and their small size making them tricky to spot.
If he could at least get the process of repairing everything started…perhaps that would at least let him start to make up for everything he’d done.
He snapped his fingers, vanishing in a flash of light.
Discord reappeared at the edge of Canterlot. He’d found what he was sure was the start of the path the trio had taken into the heart of the city…if some of the cracked pavement and scorched buildings were anything to go by.
He started walking down the street, snapping his fingers as he went. This part, at least, was easy—nothing prevented his magic from flowing out of him, fixing everything that he could see. As though the damage had never been done in the first place.
This was so small, though. Nothing compared to the challenge that laid just ahead.
It didn’t take long for him to arrive at the castle. He was almost tempted to use another large spell to fix it, but he already knew that wasn’t going to work. Not when those shards were still all scattered around.
Still, he snapped his fingers, but with a different spell in mind as magic flowed from him.
A small army of living apples, and other assorted fruits, appeared before him, clamoring around and barking at each other. Discord placed his fingers in his mouth and whistled sharply, getting their attention.
With a flash, he was wearing a sheriff’s hat and badge, chewing on a piece of hay. “Now listen here, y’all,” he said, whipping out a ‘Wanted’ poster with an ink drawing of a throne shard. “These shards here are criminal, the way they keep stealin’ good draconequus magic. It’s up to you fruits of the unlaw to hunt them down and bring them to justice.”
A snap of his fingers, and an empty chest was teleported to his side. A sticky note on the side helpfully labelled it as ‘Justice’.
The fruits all chattered in understanding, rushing off to hunt down the shards. Discord nodded in satisfaction, swallowing the piece of hay and tossing the rest of his outfit into non-existence. He continued onward, stopping again in front of the destroyed front gates of the castle.
Spreading his magic out over the whole castle hadn’t worked—the shards had drained enough magic from his spell to make it unstable. But if his magic wasn’t around any shards, it should work perfectly fine. That meant that it he focused on small parts at a time, his repair work would actually work…
Even if working so slowly, and in so many little pieces, sounded dull.
But it needed to be done, and he needed to make amends in some way. He snapped his fingers, using a smaller amount of magic to make the front doors rise up on their own, setting themselves back into place. Several pieces were still missing, or destroyed, but he whistled a tune that made any nearby splinters fly over, wriggling over each other to reform the doors.
There were also char marks, but a summoned brush and a little touch of magic were enough to get rid of them, making the doors as good as new.
It was with a cheerful hum that he opened one door and floated inside, getting started on the foyer. It was going well enough so far…but a moment later, he felt some of his muscles twitching, a sign of a tiny magical disturbance.
But as tiny as it was, it still made him frown. He closed his eyes and snapped his fingers, teleporting fairly close to where the disturbance had occurred. He found himself in the gardens again, and looked around until he found a shard, half-buried. The loose dirt indicated that it had been recently dug up, perhaps by one of his creations.
Discord frowned down at the shard lying in the dirt. It should be getting carried back by a fruit minion...odd.
With a shrug and snap, he created another living apple, which quickly stepped forward and grabbed the stone. But as soon as it touched the shard, it...fizzled into a cloud of magic, pulled into the rock.
He snorted, shaking his head in annoyance. Of course his magical creations were disrupted by this...annoyance.
Bending down, he reluctantly picked it up between two fingers...but nothing happened to him. He snapped the fingers of his other hand to teleport back to the chest...and ended up a few feet away from where he'd intended, his magic wobbling. He glared down at the shard before tossing it into the chest.
That done, he reached into his ear and pulled out a banana, which he held up to his head like a phone. “Attention, fruit minions and monsters,” he said. “Do not directly touch those shards you’re looking for. Just…put up a neon flag around them or something.” And with a quick snap, he poured more magic into his minions, giving them the ability to summon small flags of their own.
He already knew this meant he’d have to go retrieve all the pieces himself, if not leave them for someone else to deal with. He snorted again in annoyance, cracking his knuckles and teleporting back into the foyer, getting ready for the task ahead.
The night was still young, and there was a lot of work that needed to be done.
Hours passed, Discord snapping his fingers so much he was starting to do it in a rhythmic pattern just to entertain himself. Magic poured out of him, filling the air with an almost electric feeling as bricks and doors flew into the air and settled themselves back into their proper places. His magic buzzed in his bones in annoyance, wanting to be used for something more chaotic than this.
Whenever that feeling grew too strong, he took a break from repairing to sniff out the flags his minions placed. He’d pick up the shards and stones they found, tearing a portal in the fabric of space with his claws to get back to the chest and drop them all inside.
But his main task, of course, was getting the castle back in one piece. Sometimes he grew frustrated enough with the snail-like pace he had forced himself to go at and tried to repair it all in one shot again…and though his attempts made slightly more progress, most of his magic was still absorbed instead by the shards, and many pieces fell flat.
After the fifth attempt, he’d sighed and continued working on just one room at a time, adding snail shells to fallen bricks and commanding them to inch onward to their places.
His fingers grew sore from all the snapping, and his hands were even starting to cramp up. But whenever that got too bad, he just switched to snapping with his tail feathers, or even just clapping his hands together to summon his magic. But slowly, exhaustion began to seep in, and muscles he wasn’t even using began to feel sore.
That, and he was starting to grow tired, which felt odd. He could go much longer than ponies without needing sleep or even food, magic and chaos alone generally enough to sustain him. Still, he shrugged it off, along with the slowly growing headache, and continued to work.
Eventually, beams of sunlight brushed against his eyes, startling him and making him look out through the window he had just finished repairing. The sun had just lifted over the horizon, painting the sky in all sorts of colors, the same it had for thousands of sunrises before and would for thousands of sunrises after.
He blinked in surprise. Time had really slipped away from him, and he quickly looked around to see what he had managed to do so far. Well…he’d managed to get all of the exterior walls up. Mostly. Some pieces were still missing. The throne room and a few bedrooms were back together, the kitchen was fixed, though a lot of the equipment was missing or possibly destroyed…
It wasn’t in ruins anymore, but it still wasn’t quite finished.
He snapped his fingers again, making a few stray pieces of rubble sprout wings and fly back to their proper places. One had a wing disappear and fluttered uselessly in circles, and he approached it to pick a throne shard off of the floor. He then turned on his heels, flexing his claws and trying to tear open a portal again. His arm twitched and felt even more sore as magic started to flow out of him, and he narrowed his eyes to force more out.
Suddenly, before he could open the portal, there was a flash of magenta light in front of him that forced him to come to a halt. The light faded, revealing Twilight and her friends, looking around with wide eyes. They immediately all spotted Discord and rushed over to him.
“Discord!” Twilight cried. “The castle’s back together—did you do this!?”
“Oh, saw my work, did you?” Discord asked with a grin. At the same time, though, he felt his eyelids drooping. “It’s not completely done, but I made some good progress.” He held out the shard he was currently carrying. “I also picked up a lot of these, too. They’re in a chest outside.”
Twilight looked at it, then quickly back up at him. “Have you been doing this all night?”
“Yeah! Honestly, fixing one castle? If it weren’t for these things, I could do it in a snap. But even with these things, I could keep going for days,” he boasted.
The girls all…frowned. “Um…Discord?” Fluttershy said, looking concerned. “You look…really tired. Are you sure you don’t want to rest?”
“Do I?” Discord asked, pulling out a neon hand mirror to look at himself. He had dark shadows under his eyes, which he hadn’t been expecting. “…huh. Well, I look worse than I feel!” A pause. “I still do look effortless handsome, though, don’t I?”
The girls all stared at him. Applejack in particular was eyeing him suspiciously. “…are ya telling the whole truth?” she asked. “It’s hard to believe even you can be as chipper as a chickadee after working all night.”
Discord frowned and averted his gaze, not quite able to look the Element of Honesty in the eye. “Well…I suppose I am a bit tired…”
The others all raised an eyebrow in unison. It would have been more humorous if their suspicion hadn’t been directed specifically at him. He sighed and relented, throwing his hands into the air. “Okay, I’m very tired. And maybe a little sore. How does that even happen when I’m just using my magic and not my muscles to move things?”
“That’s due to magic drawing energy from the rest of your body,” Twilight explained. “The shards of the throne probably made you use a lot more magic than necessary for your spells, and casting a lot of smaller spells over a period of time still takes a lot of magic.” She gave him a look of sympathy. “If you’ve been using your magic all night like this, you must be exhausted.”
“And have you been around any chaos to recharge?” Fluttershy asked in concern.
They both made very good points. Discord sighed, letting his arms droop as he dropped both the mirror and throne shard. “No, not really. That’s…probably why my magic took so much out of me, too.” Oh, sure, he’d done the repairs chaotically, but he was still restoring an orderly castle. He resisted the urge to stick out his tongue in front of the others.
Fluttershy stepped forward, extending a wing to drape it over his back. “This was so sweet of you to do,” she said. “And I think we all agree on that.” The others all nodded. “But you’ve worked so hard, and you deserve a rest.”
Discord opened his mouth, ready to protest…but the words died in his throat. He was tired and wanted to rest. They wanted him to rest. Why not just…rest?
A loud yawn escaped him, and Fluttershy patted his back. “Why don’t you head home?” she suggested. “All that chaos will probably help you recover magic faster.”
“Mm, it would,” Discord said with a nod. “…you’ll all be able to take it from here?”
“Of course!” they all insisted. Twilight added, “Discord, I think you finished days of work in just one night. Thank you so much!”
“I can come by later with some teacakes,” Fluttershy told Discord in a quick whisper.
He smiled and whispered back, “In that case, I’ll bring out my finest tea.” He turned, flexed his fingers, and pushed open a portal to his dimension. It took more effort than usual, and before entering, he glanced back at his friends once more.
All of them gave him reassuring smiles, Applejack and Pinkie urging him to go on. Smiling back, he slithered his way through the portal, which snapped shut right after him. He floated over to his couch…and flopped onto it, his body falling limp.
With a sigh, he allowed his eyelids to droop fully closed. Now that he wasn’t actively ignoring them, the aching and soreness in his body made itself more known. Exhaustion slammed into him like a brick wall, and he soon found himself falling into a restful, if dreamless, sleep.