„Five months! It has been five months. Are you certain that he will wake up?” Luna looked dubiously at her sister, who just sighed.

“I know, Luna.” Her voice was unusually loud, but she calmed down quickly. “I’m sorry for that, Luna. I am just worried. Queen Chrysalis will come in one month, and we have not yet talked to Discord. I wanted to wait with that until Aren wakes up, but it seems like we have to change our plans.” Celestia looked down at the floor.

“Aren, Aren, Aren. Do you even realize how much you rely on him?” Luna asked. “What’s with the time before he came? We managed to rule our land for 4000 years without him. Why do we have to rely on him now?” Celestia pondered about this for a while.

‘Do I really rely on him that much?’ After a while, she realized that Luna was right. At nearly every decision, which has to do with the upcoming battle, she always wished that Aren was here. Why? She was able to rule over the land for multiple thousand years without him. It was not like there were no problems. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, Sombra. They were able to vanquish all these threats without his help.

Why does she feel so uncertain suddenly? Wait, it’s not suddenly. She always felt uncertain about her decisions. Every time, her subjects had a problem, she always questioned her own decisions. ‘What if I decided wrongly? What if it would have been better to take the other solution?’ Always the self-doubt. Luna looked worried to her sister. She didn’t think that the last sentence would silence her, this effectively.

“Sister, is something wrong?” She asked with folded ears. Celestia sighed once.

“You know, sister. I was always uncertain about my decision. What if I made the wrong one? The consequences could be dire if the situation is bad enough.” Luna looked at her sister for a while, but then began to chuckle. Her sister was confused by the sudden change in mood.

“I think, I know the problem. You have just too much responsibility, for one pony. One pony alone can’t take this without a pause. I think you simply need a vacation.” Celestia didn’t look convinced.

“Are you sure?” Luna chuckled again.

“It’s normal to doubt yourself if you made a decision that affects something very dear to you. If I had to decide, what you would have to do for the rest of your life, I would always ask myself if I did the right thing. It’s what makes a leader to a great leader.” She got closer to her sister. “It’s what makes you, you.” And again a giggle from her. “I couldn’t imagine a Celestia that decides everything on a whim.”

Celestia also chuckled a little. “I think you’re right, Luna. This also explains why I rely on Aren so much.” Luna raised an eyebrow. She’s talking of him, again. “It’s because he seems to know what he’s doing. Every time he does something, it seems like he has a plan. He looks so confident in his decision. I think that’s the reason why I relied on him so heavily.”

“His confidence made it seem like nothing could go wrong. I think deep inside, I just gave him all the responsibility, so that I could live without worry. I didn’t see that this is exactly the same thing that my subjects do. They come to me if they don’t know what to do. They trust in my judgment, and no matter what I decide, it always seems like the right one to them. They think I’m infallible. It’s just so hard to always be the highest instance. Having no one higher than you, that could give you advice. Always needing to decide it alone.” Celestia sighed, and for a short time, it seemed like she had tears in her eyes.

Luna embraced her. “Why didn’t you tell me? I could have helped.” Celestia returned the embrace and stayed silent for a while but answered in the end.

“I thought I could handle it. I thought that I would be able to rule the majority of the land alone. By the sun, was I wrong. I should have come to you earlier.” They stayed embraced for a long time. When they parted, Luna spoke up.

“So, what about Aren? Have you finally realized that we don’t need him?” Celestia shook her head.

“Luna, I understand that you don’t like him, but I won’t throw him out of Equestria. But you are right in one point. We do not NEED him, but this is no reason to deny his help. We need to do our best to protect our land. I could not look myself in the eyes anymore, when I know that I didn’t do my best to protect my subjects.” Luna sighed. She wasn’t able to convince her sister to banish Aren, but she got a step closer.

“That’s alright, sister. As long as he doesn’t cause too much damage, I think I can manage to have him around.” Celestia smiled again.

“I’m happy to hear that, Luna.” And then she sighed. “I think I shouldn’t rely on him that much. It’s nice to have some help, but I shouldn’t put all of my responsibility on him.” Celestia got up. “I think it’s time to take the responsibility back in my hooves.” She got up and walked to the door. “I think we have a certain somepony to ask for assistance.”

Lunas’ eyes widened. “You don’t mean…” She looked in Celestias’ eyes and saw that she was right. “We can’t ask him now. We haven’t prepared.” Celestia just chuckled.

“Oh don’t worry. I didn’t plan to ask him unprepared.” Suddenly she summoned a parchment and a feather. “I just send Twilight a message, and she will be here in no time at all.” She scribbled down on the parchment and then sent it, by burning it. “Good she should be here in about-“ Suddenly a purple light appeared in the middle of the room and a lavender unicorn came out.

“You said you need me, Princess?” The worried unicorn said. Celestia looked at her sister and chuckled a little.

“Yes, I would like you to gather your friends and come to the sculpture-garden. We will speak with Discord.” Twilight had a shocked expression on her face. That suddenly? Regaining her composure, she nodded fast.

“I will do as you ask, Princess.” Then she vanished again with a teleportation-spell. Celestia and Luna made their way to the sculpture-garden, and there they waited for some minutes and talked a little about different things and finally the six friends arrived.

“Hello, my little ponies. I’m glad you could come.” The six ponies made a short bow. Celestia told them that they didn’t need to bow in her presence, since they see each other nearly every day. The six friends walked up to her and looked around. Sculptures wherever they looked. A pony with a flag that resembles victory. Three fillies that played with each other. Two dueling stallions. Even sculptures from plants were among them. Didn’t seem to make any sense in a sculpture-garden surrounded by real plants.

And then they saw it. The statue they looked for. The horror stricken face of the creature made them remember the hard times they had while fighting him. Forgetting yourself is extremely serious, and it leaves unpleasant memories. It’s not easy to forget being manipulated into being the opposite of oneself.

And now they had to ask this fiend for help. It just didn’t seem right. The Princess suddenly used a spell, and out of nowhere the Elements Of Harmony appeared and landed on their necks/heads. Then the Princess turned to Discord. “Everypony ready?” The Elements nodded.

“Sister, I think I don’t want to see him right now.” Luna said slowly. Celestia looked at her sister with a sympathetic smile.

“I know, what he did to you, and I understand that you don’t want to see him.” She walked closer to Luna. “You don’t need to be here. We can manage our own.” Luna smiled a little.

“Thank you, sister. I appreciate that.” With that said, she turned around and walked into the castle. The six friends didn’t know what the two royal alicorns meant, but it was something they didn’t want to ask about. Luna and Celestia seemed sad about something that had to do with Discord. Well it’s not like he did ever do anything good.

Celestia looked at the six friends and saw that they were ready. She just hoped that the presence of the Elements Of Harmony would keep him contained. ‘Well, here goes nothing.’ Celestia started using her spell to release Discord. It was a difficult spell. Breaking the prison of something, that was sealed away by something as powerful as the elements, would naturally be exceedingly hard.

After a short while, cracks began to appear on the statue. A pulse could be heard, and its’ chest began to illuminate in the tact of the pulse. Suddenly there was a dark laugh, but Celestia couldn’t go back now. She decided that she would release Discord, and there’s no going back now. With a last blast, the stone exploded and out of them flew an asymmetric being and shot into the sky.

“YYYYEEEESS!” Discord screamed while fireworks were exploding behind him. Suddenly he morphed to a train and drove through the air on a rainbow trail. The train then drove into a cloud and then transformed into a seed that embedded itself in it. A tree then started growing out of it. When the tree reached its’ peak, it started to sprout fruits of glasses with chocolate milk.

Behind the tree, Discord stepped forward and picked a fruit and began to drink it. When he finished drinking the glass around the chocolate milk, he took the chocolate milk and flew down to the garden, beside the place he stood for such a long time. He made a hole, put the stiff chocolate milk into it and buried it with dirt. He then patted on the ground on top of it.

“Now you need to grow big and strong.” Suddenly a tree sprouted out, but instead of chocolate milk glasses, it sprouted yellow beans with hairs growing out of them. Discord just groaned and turned to the serious looking Celestia. “You never know what tree comes out of a chocolate milk seed.” With a little chuckle, he got closer and snipped with a hand and suddenly all the ponies were sitting on a chair. In front of them was a humongous table filled with random fruits and salads.

“Could you inform me of the events that have transpired?” He asked slowly with a particularly snobbish voice while wearing a tuxedo, a monocle and a top-hat while drinking a glass of rainbow juice. Suddenly he started spitting flames but then cooled down. “Spicy, just like I like it.” He told the ponies with a smile while holding his glass.

The ponies still looked as serious as a father who just heard a joke about his dead child. When they didn’t answer him, he just sighed and drank again from his rainbow juice, which was now suddenly tomato juice. “Well, how about you tell me how you came to the brilliant idea to free me? Judging by your efforts you made the last time to capture me, I thought that you would want me to be in stone forever.”

Celestia sighed. This was always the hardest part. “Discord…” She slowly started. “We need your help.” Suddenly Discord put one of his eagle-claws into his ear and drilled in it. After he pulled his claw out, he had a plate with vanilla-pudding and a spoon on his hand. “Excuse me, could you repeat that. I seemed to have something in my ear.” He asked while putting the pudding down.

Celestia sighed. “I asked for your help, Discord.” Discord shook his head violently.

“Oh I’m sorry Celestia, but I simply couldn’t hear you over the two thousand years of stone imprisonment that shouts at me to just end your life. Could you repeat that again?” He leaned back and played with his two “hands”. Suddenly Celestia stood up and smashed her forehooves on the table, which then transformed into scared dogs that started running away.

“Stop with the games, Discord. You heard me.” Discord just shook his head while saying ‘tsk tsk tsk.’

“Now look at what you did. Do you know how hard it is to get those dogs to stay still?” He stood up from his chair and walked around while smiling. “Well, I could always take the easy way…” He turned around. “BUT I DON’T TURN CREATURES INTO STONE!” He suddenly screamed extremely loud.

The ponies winced at the random outburst. They never saw Discord this furious. “I rather die, than go back into stone imprisonment. Being fully conscious for thousands of years. Never able to blink or change your view. Always the same view. The 2348 leaves on that tree, with the 187 wrinkles of the bark. The 46,125 plants of grass. Not being able to move, just forever seeing the same thing. I can’t even sleep while imprisoned.”

“Then you come to me, after over two thousand years. After you put me through the cruelest thing possible and then you say that you want me to help you? Give me one reason why I should help you, after what you did to me.” He looked absolutely livid. Celestia didn’t even flinch, in comparison to the elements.

They knew that they needed to stop Discord when he was running wild, but they didn’t realize what they put him through with their actions. Even if he ran wild and made the lives of everypony bad, he still didn’t deserve to be put into 2000 years of complete static. Now Celestia opened her mouth and said something.
“It was necessary to stop you. I agree with you that the method was not the fairest, but we had no other choice. It’s either you receiving unfair punishment or my subjects feel sorrow for the rest of their lives. It’s an obvious choice. Like I always say, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Celestia walked closer to Discord. “And I would do it again if you go out of control again.” Discord just smirked.

“Well that’s all nice and stuff, but I still didn’t hear a reason for me to help you now.” He pointed with his index-claw(?) at Celestia.

“Because if you don’t help us, everypony will die in about 4 ½ years.” Discord raised an eyebrow.

“Who would kill every pony in Equestria?” He asked.

“His name is Oran, and he comes from the multiverse. He said that in about 4 ½ years, he will attack us and trust me when I tell you, that he has the ability to do it. He did it once before about 1001 years ago. He slaughtered my guards and made me look at my subjects dying horrible deaths.” Five of the six friends looked shocked. They heard in the changeling-hive that everypony died, but they didn’t hear the details. Celestia then realized that there still were the Elements Of Harmony and that they heard everything.

She cursed silently under her breath. How could she forget them? Discord looked impressed, but still smirked. “That’s a very nice story, but you still didn’t give me a reason to help you.” Celestia looked confused.

“But I just did.” Discord started laughing, but composed himself pretty fast again.

“Oh no, dear Celestia, you didn’t. You tell me that he will kill all of YOUR ponies. I don’t see how this concerns me.” Celestia shook her head and stomped down with one of her hooves.

“Don’t you have any remorse? How can you just look away, when a whole species dies?” Discord just shrugged.

“Well if this species is responsible for me going through the worst time in my immortal life, then I have no problem with this.” Celestia looked taken aback. She knew that Discord was the spirit of chaos, but she didn’t think that he wouldn’t even care in the slightest about the ponies. He never killed one of them. That was why she thought that he would, at least, care in some way.

Celestia slowly shook her head. “Discord…” She slowly began with a sorrowful voice. “What happened to you?” Discord just turned around and looked at her with a crooked eyebrow. “You were not always like this. Why did you start to have fun on other ponies’ expenses?” Discord just shrugged again.

“Ponies change, Celestia. Not everything stays as you want it to be.” He just slowly stated with a hint of anger in his voice.

“That’s not you! Yes, ponies change, but you changed too much. You were chivalrous, friendly and honorable. Luna once asked you for a beautiful flower, and you flew into the world. When you realized, that you didn’t know what flower she wanted, you flew through the whole world and picked one piece of every kind of flower in the world.” Celestia smiled a little at the memory.

“I also remember the time, when you made a little moon out of the most expensive jewels you could find. You worked years on that spell, and when you finished it, you made Luna a little moon. I never saw her, this happy before in my life.” She looked up at him. “She still has it in her room, and whenever she looks at it, she feels sorrow.”

The ponies giggled. They couldn’t imagine Discord being this romantic. Discord just looked disgusted. “Oh, gag. Stop reminding me of that mushy stuff. You know exactly that this is all in the past, and my statement still stands. I won’t help a species that imprisoned me for thousands of years.” Celestia looked kind of devastated.

“That’s not the fault of the ponies.” She shook her head and looked with teary eyes into Discords’ eyes. “If somepony is at fault for your unfair treatment, then it is I. You can’t punish the ponies for something they didn’t do. If you have to punish somepony, then punish me.” Discord raised an eyebrow in interest, and the ponies gasped. Twilight instantly ran to Celestia.

“Princess, you can’t do that! You can’t sacrifice yourself for something that was necessary to be done.” Twilight looked teary eyed. “We need you, Princess.” She looked up at her mentor, who just looked back at her student with a pained expression and engulfed her in an embrace with her wings.

“Twilight, I know that you don’t want this, but if sacrificing myself saves my subjects, then it is a deal I would accept anytime.” Tears were now running down Celestias’ cheeks. “I would give my life if it means that my subjects get to live to see another day.” The other ponies looked pained and also had teary eyes. Fluttershy was being patted on her back by Rarity and Rainbow Dash looked away with a pained expression. Applejack had her hat over her face, and Pinkie Pie just looked down at the floor with her flat mane.

Celestia broke the embrace with Twilight, who now had a shocked expression on her face. She gritted Celestias’ legs. “NO! You can’t go! We need you!” Celestia looked down at her student, and it felt like her heart broke. Why does this little pony have to go through so many hardships? If anypony in the world would have earned to live a life without any problems, it would be her. She got forced into partaking of the planning of the war. She heard all the details of the war with Oran. She saw death in the Everfree Forest, and she will see much more death in 4 ½ years.

A mortal mare couldn’t possibly take this much hardship and be okay with it. And now her life-long mentor would leave her behind. How did she deserve that? Celestia used her magic to pull Twilight away from her legs and levitated her over to her friends.

Walking up to Discord she began to talk. “If you help us against Oran, You can do whatever you want with me, after the battle.” She looked up at the smirking Discord. “BUT I want you to promise to me that you leave Equestria after this, and let my little ponies live a normal life.”

Discord first didn’t react, but then he began slowly to laugh. His laugh got louder and louder until he was laughing like a maniac. He made a fist with his claws and pulled them to his beck, and when it arrived there, an explosion erupted behind him. “YES! FINALLY JUSTICE!” He then began to laugh again, but this time calmed down pretty quickly. Walking to Celestia with a smile he chuckled a little again.

“I’ll accept your terms, Celestia.” Celestia looked relieved, but the ponies were now full out crying. They lost their Princess just now. It felt like a doctor would come to tell you that one of your family was diagnosed with cancer and would die in 4 ½ years. How could Discord be so happy about this? How could he not be moved by such a demonstration of sacrifice and love?

Discord chuckled a little. “Well then, I’ll go back to my old room in the castle. You know where you can find me, and like I promised, I won’t harm a soul while I’m here. Until later… Tia.” He smirked at the last word and then poppet out of existence. Probably teleporting to his old room. When he was gone, Celestia broke down to her knees and began to weep. She cried for many reasons. For once she sacrificed her life, and she also wept about how different Discord was. How could he change so much?

Twilight instantly ran to Celestia and embraced her in a hug while crying furiously. The other ponies soon followed, and for the first time in their life, they shared a group hug with Celestia, who just continued to be overwhelmed by her feelings. They stood like this for several minutes until the princess calmed down again. She looked down at the ponies with a sad smile.

“Thank you. I really needed that.” The ponies just looked teary eyed at their princess.

“Do you really need to go, Princess?” Pinkie Pie asked slowly. Celestias’ expression changed to pained again.

“I am very sorry Pinkie, but I won’t go back on my word, but don’t fret. I am still here right now, am I not?” She asked with a smile back on her lips. Pinkie looked up at her and slowly nodded while wishing away the moisture in her eyes.

“Right!” Then her mane got poofy again. “And I will make certain that these last four years will be the best in your life!” She stated motivated. The other ones also slowly calmed down, everyone except for Twilight. They slowly made their way out of the sculpture garden, and then life continued.

Discord held his word and didn’t disturb anypony while he stayed at the castle. Discord and Luna never talked to each other, and whenever they saw each other they just pretended they didn’t. The six ponies continued their lives and lived like every other day, with the exception of Pinkie Pie who made triple the amounts of parties and always invited Celestia to them. She actually held her word and did her best to make the last four years for her, the best in her life.

And like this, another month passed, and it was time for Chrysalis to arrive. When she arrived, she got greeted by Celestia. Chrysalis seemed to have changed a bit. She wasn’t the arrogant Queen anymore. She seemed more like a quiet, thankful Queen now, and she seemed more cooperative. When they arrived at the strategy-planning-room, three other beings were in there. Princess Luna, Discord, and Twilight Sparkle. Celestia showed Queen Chrysalis her seat and she went to her own one. She looked around everyone in the room, and a small smile crept on her face.

“It seems like everypony is here.” Then she looked over to Chrysalis, who was eyeing Discord strangely. Discord seeing this, flew over to her, suddenly wearing a tuxedo with top-hat, and landing besides her.

“Discord, Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, I believe we haven’t met yet. Delighted to make your acquaintance.” Chrysalis just crooked an eyebrow, when discord made a polite bow.

“I am Chrysalis. Former Queen of the Changelings.” They both shook their… appendages… and now Celestia said something.

“Former Queen?” Chrysalis looked to Celestia with an unimpressed look.

“Well I need someling to rule over my Changelings while I’m not there, so I raised a new Queen.” Then she began to smirk. “I will just go back, devour her and be Queen again in four years. This is not the first time I did something like that.” Celestia, Luna, and Twilight looked a little disgusted by this but didn’t make a comment.

“Now, since everypony is here, I can finally conclude that the first phase of our plan is officially over.” She looked over to Twilight, who checked a point on her checklist. “Now we begin with phase two.” She looked worried around the gathered immortals. “Some of you may not like this part, but it is necessary.” She took a breath. “We need to be trained in battle.” Chrysalis and Discord both looked with an ‘are-you-serious?’ expression at Celestia.

“Did you just say training?” Discord asked with a raised eyebrow. Chrysalis just shook her head.

“We have here the combined power of the whole planet, and you want us to train?” She also asked with a raised eyebrow. Celestia sighed. She knew that they won’t accept this so easily.

“Luna and I fought against him over a thousand years ago. We even used the Elements Of Harmony against him. We couldn’t even make a scratch. He resisted every spell we used against him, and he dispersed the beam of the elements. We didn’t know how he did it, but we know now, because of his apprentice that currently helps us to prepare the fight against him.” Discord and Chrysalis looked again confused.

“His apprentice?” Discord asked. “Who’s that and why didn’t I meet him already?”

“His name is Aren, and we called for him six months ago. He showed us how Oran was able to disperse the beam of the elements, and he also showed us that we still need training. He showed us that power in a battle isn’t worth anything if you don’t know how to use it in one.” Chrysalis shook her head in disbelief.

“Power in battle is worthless? I don’t believe this.” Celestia sighed again.

“Two months ago, I battled against the guards that were trained by him in a sparring fight. I don’t like to say this, but I lost against three mortal guards in a fight. None of them even unicorns. They were two earth-ponies and one pegasus. I didn’t even hold back. That’s when I realized that we need to be trained in combat. If I even loose against three trained mortals, then I can’t imagine how I would fare against an immortal, who was trained in combat.” Chrysalis and Discord looked impressed but were still not convinced.

“Then why haven’t I met this apprentice of Oran?” Discord asked.

“He is currently in a coma. He was in it for nearly six months, and we don’t know when he will wake up.” Celestia changed her expression to a smile. “But I have a substitute for him.” She turned to the guards. “Let him in please.” The guard saluted and opened the door. In walked a purple pegasus captain.

“This is Purple Edge. He was the guard with the best scores in Arens’ training, and he also handled the training of the guards for the past five months. He is the only one that-“

“Can is say something, Princess? It’s pretty important.” She got aborted by Purple Edge. A little taken aback by the sudden intrusion, she nodded.

“I quit.” Celestia shook her head.

“What did you say?”

“I quit. I won’t train anypony anymore.” Celestia was shocked. What now?

“Could you please tell me, why you quit?” She wanted to know at least the reason.

“Because he doesn’t need to train anyone anymore.” A voice from the hallway came.

‘Could it be?’ Celestia thought and looked to the hallway. Her expression changed to happiness, just like Twilights, and Lunas’ to annoyance, while Chrysalis looked like she just remembered something and Discord just confused. In walked a certain human with an apple in his hand. When he entered, he took a bit from it.

“Hi, name’s Aren. I’m Orans’ apprentice.” He looked around the room and noticed Chrysalis. “I bet you are the Queen of the Changelings.” He inspected her from head to hoof. “Yep definitely an emotion-eater.” Then he changed his gaze to Discord, and he raised an eyebrow. His expression looked like one of confusion and, could it be, worry. He then looked at Celestia.

“What’s an arcadian doing here?”

Author's Note

Phase 1 is over. Now it's training time. I haven't decided yet how much chapters of training and battle explanations i will make, but let's just see how it works out.