His question was only answered with confused looks, especially from Discord himself. Aren looked around and groaned inwards.

“Alright, I will ask again. What is an arcadian doing here?” He pointed with his flat hand at Discord. Again the confused looks. Twilight was the first to speak up.

“This is no arcadian, whatever they are. He is a Draconequus and god of Disharmony and Chaos. We –“

“What do you mean he’s a Draconequus? I recognize an arcadian when I see one, and he definitely is one.” Twilight got interrupted by him. What was he talking about? This time it was Celestia who asked.

“What is an arcadian?” Maybe this way, she can convince him that Discord isn’t one. Aren sighed once, but then began to explain.

“The arcadians live in their homeworld arcadia. They are a bunch of immortals with perfectly asymmetric body structures. The different parts of the body are always different from arcadian to arcadian. They have high magical powers and the magic they are best at is called uni-magic. Haters and jealous people call it chaos-magic, but that’s degrading.”

Aren walked over to Discord and looked at him again. “Yep, definitely an arcadian. He even looks kind of like King Parlo.” The ponies were a little taken aback. Even Celestia, who only asked about them to disprove his exclamation, could find nothing wrong about it. Aren looked a little confused at the other confused looks. Then suddenly his face changed into an “oh” expression.

“You don’t know that you’re arcadian, do you?” He asked Discord, who just shrugged nonchalantly. So this guy thinks he knows something Discord does not know, so what? He can think whatever he likes. Celestia walked up to Aren from behind.

“Aren-“ She got aborted by Aren suddenly jumping in the air, turning around and slashing with his sword to a spot behind him while making a light shriek. The whole room got startled by this. Suddenly Aren began to hyperventilate, and to look around the room in a frantic manner, but calmed down pretty quickly. With a startled look, he turned around and looked at Celestia.

“Don’t startle me like this. I nearly died right there.” Celestia looked confused and scared at the long crack beside her in the floor. The feeling definitely was mutual. Even if, the sword didn’t hit the floor, it still made a humongous crack.

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t mean to startle you. I normally walked over to you and spoke in a normal tone.” Then Aren calmed down and rubbed the backside of his head with one of his hands while laughing slowly in a nervous and embarrassed manner.

“Yeah, you couldn’t know. It’s just that whenever I share my soul with someone, I need to conserve my magical resources. Overexerting right now could make things worse. That’s why I deactivated my 350 passive omnipresence-spells. I feel kind of unsafe and vulnerable, when I can’t feel, see, and hear everything in a hundred meter radius.” He still rubbed the back of his head in shame.

Discord smirked deviously. This is going to be fun. He crept up behind Aren and inhaled deeply. Everypony that saw this got nervous. This could go south very badly. Suddenly he whispered silently into Arens’ ear “boo” and while shrieking, Aren swung his sword in the direction he heard the whisper from. Discord could narrowly avoid,being a head shorter than before, but, not his mane.

Discord looked also startled. The hair that was now lying on the floor could have been his head. Yep, he definitely didn’t want to do that again, but he still had to snicker a little. Aren turned to him with a shocked expression.

“Why did you do that? Well more like, how could you do that? I thought your species doesn’t like humor that much, especially if it’s on expenses of another person.” He raised an eyebrow. Discord just waved that statement dismissively away.

“Oh please, what is life without the certain amount of chaos and fun?” Aren just looked confused.

“Did you just say, chaos and fun?” Discord shrugged.

“Well if my ears are not mistaken.” Aren looked at him with an inspecting look. Something was not right here.

“I would like to make a test with you. It is really really important to me. I would appreciate it if you do the exact thing I want of you, is that ok? I’ll say it again, I would be REALLY honored to have you helping me.” Aren stated in a friendly and NOT sarcastic way. Discord looked confused while the ponies looked taken aback.

‘Did Aren just ask somepony nicely for help?’ Discord just shrugged.

“Alright, tell me what you need.” It would certainly be something very important if he would beg him for it. Aren looked him in the eye with a serious expression. It definitely meant a lot to him if he would be that serious about him. What could it be that he needs that hard? The silence and the tension could be cut with a knife, that’s how thick it felt. Finally, Aren spoke his wish.

“I would be really thankful if you could summon exactly half a liter of grapefruit-juice in a normal half liter glass. Nothing extra. Just the juice and the glass. Both absolutely normal.” All of the ponies looked the same. They all had the ‘what?’ expression on their faces. Discord shrugged and summoned the boring looking glass with the juice and ice-cubes. Aren looked down and shook his head disapprovingly.

“I said nothing extra. Only the juice and the glass. Both absolutely normal and this time, no ice-cubes. I’ll say it again, I will be very thankful to you.” Discord crooked an eyebrow. What’s up with that annoying guy? Getting here and demanding absolutely boring and disgusting grapefruit-juice. With a groan, he complied and summoned another one and again Aren shook his head in disapprovement.

“What’s with the little fancy curve at the glass? I said I would be extremely thankful if you could summon me an absolutely normal glass with absolutely normal grapefruit-juice.” He stated with a serious expression while looking into Discords annoyed eyes.
‘What’s up with him? What’s the problem with a bit of luxury, and why does he keep repeating how thankful he is?’ Discord groaned a little in annoyance, but summoned another one with nothing in it. Again the disapproving headshake.

“This is more than half a liter. I would be really thank-“

“I don’t care how thankful you are. What’s your problem? Why do you want this absolutely boring glass with absolutely boring and disgusting grapefruit-juice in it? Can’t you just take something different? Or at least a better glass or something with it? Why does it have to be this boring glass with this boring drink?” He stated while holding a defensive stance. Aren smirked a little inwardly but didn’t show it.

“What’s wrong? The only thing I want is a normal half liter glass with half liter of grapefruit juice. Why do you not grant my wish, even though I would be really grateful to you?” He asked in a serious tone. The ponies looked confused. What’s with the grapefruit juice and why has it to be exactly half a liter with no changes? But the biggest question was, why does Discord not create one?” Discord gritted his teeth and flicked with one of his hand.

A half liter glass with grapefruit-juice. Aren shook his head disapprovingly.

“WHAT IS IT THIS TIME?” Discord nearly shouted. Aren kept being calm.

“You have summoned the glass correctly, but this is not a half liter of juice. It’s less. I just like to have a-“

“I know I know. A normal half liter glass with half liters of grapefruit-juice.” Aren nodded and Discord snipped again, and he shook his head again.

“The glass and juice are correct, but why the drinking straw? I said nothing extra.” Discord grinded his teeth in rage. Why can’t he just wish something more chaotic or something with it? Why does it have to be exactly a perfectly round amount of juice with a boring glass? Why? Another snip, followed by a headshake. Another one. Another one and another one.

The ponies now looked at Discord. Why can’t he just summon a normal glass with a normal amount of grapefruit-juice? What’s so difficult about it? Suddenly Discord got an idea and snipped again. This time Aren didn’t shake his head instantly.

“That is a very good attempt, but why does it have to be so hot? Can’t you make it a little bit more…” He inched closer to him and spoke the next word with a mocking tone. “Normal?” At this exclamation, Discord roared and flipped the enormous table in the room. He picked up his chair and thrashed around the room.

“WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?” Every exclamation was accompanied with a punch, a kick, or thrashing. “Why can’t you just wish for something else? ANYTHING ELSE! Why does it have to be this?” Aren just smirked triumphantly. The ponies were scared by the sudden rage that Discord showed them. What was his problem? Why couldn’t he just summon it?

“Discord.” Aren called, and Discord looked at him with rage in his eyes. “You asked the wrong question. It’s not, why I ask you of this. It’s why you don’t do it. I told you often enough how thankful I was. I don’t say that you can’t do it. It’s just that you won’t do it. So how about I give you some motivation?” He asked with a smirk, and Discord looked interested again.

“If you manage to summon this normal glass, with normal grapefruit-juice with the normal amount, in normal temperature and with no changes and nothing extra, I allow you to change me in term of appearance to whatever you like for a whole hour.” This picked Discords interest. He wasn’t able to use some chaos for a month since he promised it. He could finally use up all his pent-up chaos-magic, and the only thing he had to do, was to just simply conjure a glass of juice.

“Deal.” He just simply stated and snippet his fingers. Just a simple glass with a simple fluid in a simple form in simple circumstances. Nothing he had ever problems with. Nothing that was out of his league. He could summon whole monsters on his whim. He could summon a whole ocean of grapefruit-juice if he wanted to.

Looking down at the glass, with the little umbrella in it, he just looked shocked. Just one glass. Nothing to difficult. ‘Why is it not as he asked? I can spent an hour doing whatever I want with him, so why is it not normal? Why isn’t it normal? I imagined it being exactly like he asked, so why is this umbrella in there?’ He gritted his hands around the glass.

“Why?” He silently asked. “WHY IS IT NOT NORMAL?” He shouted destroying the glass, shards embedded in his claws. “I WAS WILLING TO SUMMON THIS STUPID NORMAL GLASS WITH THIS STUPID NORMAL LIQUID. WHY IS IT NOT NORMAL?” He screamed while holding his head between his appendages. He just gripped down hard on his head and groaned with rage.

Aren just sighed a deep sigh. “Do you want to summon it, like I told you to?” Discord just looked at him with rage.

“Yes, of course. How could I let an opportunity slip for me to use chaos on you for a whole hour?” Aren then took another bite from his apple, which he still had.

“Then why isn’t it normal?” He asked simply. Such a simple question. Discord asked himself this question a lot of times. He always asked, but never answered. Now he was being asked, and he felt the urge to answer. So he thought about this. Why isn’t the glass normal? It’s not like he didn’t want it to be normal. He got promised a whole hour full of chaos. Summoning a simple glass with juice was nothing against that.

Discord didn’t move. He just gripped his head and didn’t move at all. The ponies and the changeling looked worried at him. Why is he so angry, and why is he so frustrated about this? Discord still didn’t move. Even after two minutes. The same position of frustration. Celestia wanted to speak up, but an open hand of Aren showed her to be quiet. They waited and waited. Every time someone wanted to say something, they were shown to be quiet. After nearly ten minutes, Discord finally moved.

Everyone looked expectantly at him. Did he find the answer? Discord just looked at Aren with a sheepish smile.

“I don’t know.” Aren just nodded.

“You know, but you can’t admit it to yourself.” Discord looked hurt. As if he received a spear through his heart. He had the power to summon something simple like this. He had the will to summon it. So why wasn’t it like this? He couldn’t find a reason why it wasn’t normal. There was no excuse anymore. No excuse to deny it anymore. Sighing he looked at Aren.

“I can’t.” He looked like he had seen a ghost. “I can’t do it.” Aren nodded deeply.

“Why?” Discord, still with shock in his eyes, looked down at the table. After some time he just simply answered.

“I don’t know. I just can’t do it.” He gripped his head again in frustration. “WHY CAN’T I DO IT?” He went to Aren and gripped his shoulders while shaking him. “WHY CAN’T I DO IT?” Aren just kept calm.

“I will now tell you something. After I tell you this, you will be able to do it. Do you want to hear it?” Discord looked like a junky that just got offered free heroin.

“Yes, tell me. Please!” Aren sighed.

“You can’t do it.” He just simply stated. Discord looked like he got slapped in the face. “Now try summoning it again.” Discord looked like a mix of shock and confusion but listened to him. This time it felt like he was afraid of summoning it. Afraid of seeing another failure of his power. Afraid to realize another time that he couldn’t do it. He finally flicked his claw and there it was.

A perfectly normal half liter glass with a perfectly normal amount of perfectly normal grapefruit-juice with nothing extra and a perfectly normal temperature. He looked to Aren, who just nodded approvingly. Discord couldn’t believe it. A simple summoning, but it had a huge impact on him. What did change? Why was he able to conjure it now? He looked again at Aren.

“That was easy. Why could I do it now and not before?” He just simply asked. Aren sighed.

“Because I told you that you couldn’t. Listen closely, because what I will tell you now is the truth. It may be a shock for you and the rest of the people in this room, but it really is the truth. You could only summon it because I said that you couldn’t do it. This gave you a little amount of chaos because you could prove me wrong. Using a spell to prove someone wrong, adds a little chaos to it.” Aren sighed.

“This means you were still not able to do it.” Aren stood up and looked on him with a sympathetic look in his eyes. “Discord.” He slowly stated. “You are suffering from Chaozai.” The ponies, just like Discord, looked confused at that statement. Aren continued. “Chaozai is an illness that only attacks arcadians. It first robs them of any ability to use a spell for something completely normal.”

“The victims don’t really realize this at first, because there are often only subtle changes and just think on other occasions ‘Why not?’. The sub consciousness realizes that something blocks the magic and goes into denial. That’s when the disease strikes again. It enhances your need for fun. It’s like an incredibly strong addiction. Whenever you use uni-magic, it gets more access to your brain.”

“In the final stage, it attacks your consciousness and uses different methods to change your view on the world. Suddenly it seems way funnier to transform other beings. It feels boring to help people, and it freezes the part of the emotional system, which controls remorse and judgment of what’s right and wrong.”

“Victims of this disease change and begin to act with cruelness and without remorse. They change everything into some strange beings, change the streets into something else, and do everything in their power to change everything further. This disease is very dangerous for you and every other being that is in contact with you. If you get a motivation for something strongly desired by you, it is possible to stop your addictions for a while, but only for a while.”

The ponies looked shocked. Here, he was. Discord the almighty cruel god of chaos and disharmony. The one that attacked Equestria two times. The one that got imprisoned in stone for two millennia. Everything of this just because he was sick. Ponies suffered under his cruelness, and he got imprisoned, because he had an unknown illness inside of him.

Discord still couldn’t believe it. He was ill? He couldn’t conjure this simple item because he was ill? Everything, this whole mess, his imprisonment, his inability to conjure a simple glass of juice, just because he was ill? This seemed too unreal. Discord stood up, disbelieve showing in his eyes.

“So you walk in here, we meet for the first time, then you say I am some kind of species I don’t even know of, and then you say I am ill? I am not so sure if I can believe that.” Aren sighed.

“I didn’t assume you would believe me right away, but even if you don’t believe me. I still can tell you this.” Aren smirked. “This disease is curable.” Lunas’ and Celestias’ eyes widened. It is curable? Does this mean that Discord will be his old self again? The chivalrous and generous self? It was like a dream come true, but Celestia still was afraid of asking the following question.

“Will he be his old self again?” Everyone turned to Celestia. This was the first time someone else spoke up in nearly 20 minutes. Aren just simply nodded. Her heart filled with joy. She feared that if somepony would suffer under this disease for too long that it could make irreparable damage. She felt so happy when she saw him nod, but she felt even happier for her sister. Looking at Luna who just stared like ten-million-dollars were just handed to her. Just a simple look of disbelief mixed with shock and joy.

‘Could it be over? Could we finally be together again? Did he change in the last thousands of years? Have I gained weight?’ Luna just thought in a split-second. She finally began to cry a little. Her sister lending her a shoulder to cry on, which she accepted happily. Aren suddenly clapped once.

“There is still one problem.” Everypony looked at him. “They don’t give the cure for it out like it's being offered in some market. Only the King of Arcadia can give it to the patient.” He pointed at Discord. “This means I have to take this guy to him.” Everypony sighed. They all thought it would be something more serious. Discord still looked in disbelief at Aren.

“How are you so sure that your judgment is correct? You could be mistaken, and I could be just like I am.” Aren shook his head.
“Arcadians are a proud and honorable race. It’s in their genes to be as generous and chivalrous as possible. They don’t even like to get paid because they just feel like they took money that wasn’t theirs. The biggest present you can give one is lots of appreciation and thank yous. With the amount of thanks I gave you, a normal arcadian would have gone into hell itself and would have fought against a demon in a battle of who-can-longer-stay-in-the-lava.”

“The fact that you didn’t care about this, means that your appreciation-receptors, which are unique to arcadians by the way, were damaged and not functioning. A simple side effect of the disease.” He then made an expression as if he remembered something. “That reminds me. How can you be here in Equestria and not know about Chaozai?” He asked simply to which Discord just shrugged. Now it was time for Celestia to talk again.

“We found him when he was very young in a green clearing near the city Everfree. He wasn’t older than two maybe, and he didn’t even know his own name. We never saw anything quite like him, so we thought up a name for his species and searched for his family all over Equestria. Of course, we didn’t find anything and stopped the search. We then raised him as some kind of child and gave him a name.”

“Due to his asymmetric appearance, we thought we’d call him Discord. We then lived together until he slowly started to change. After some years, he changed completely and began to run wild, so we had to turn him into stone with the Elements Of Harmony.” Aren nodded.

“Even if it would normally be an impossibility to even think about putting something as generous and friendly as arcadians into stone, I can comprehend your decision since he was suffering from Chaozai, but this still didn’t explain how he was able to land on Equestria, when he was not older than two.” Aren put a hand to his chin and pondered about this for a while.

“Well, doesn’t matter. I’m going now to Arcadia and tell the king about our little discovery here. I’ll come back later to take you with me.” He pointed at Discord, who was just thinking about how it would be to have more beings like him walking around, and how much chaos there had to be. He just simply nodded to him, and Aren quickly vanished.

They waited for several minutes until Aren finally returned. “The King wants to see you right now.” He just simply stated, while grabbing Discord and vanishing again. The ponies couldn’t even ask him something. Now they were again waiting. This time much longer. Wasting time with small-talk and acquainting themselves with Chrysalis a little more, they waited nearly two hours until Aren returned, alone.

Celestia looked around the room. “Where’s Discord?” Aren just looked confused for one second, but then began to giggle a little.

“Oh, you mean Prince Ravien?” He asked with a mocking tone. The ponies couldn’t believe what they were hearing. Discord was a prince, and they imprisoned him in stone for two millennia? They both felt a heavy lump in their stomachs. Aren began to talk.

“Well, to cut a long story short. I arrived with him in the throne-room of Arcadia, and the King instantly grabbed his son in a hug after realizing it was his long lost child. They said that he vanished after some magical instabilities in their world, and have searched for him everywhere. After 30 years, they stopped their search and declared him as dead. Man you should have seen the look on their faces, when they saw him.” Celestia smiled a little.

“So what happens now to him?” Aren laughed again.

“Oh nothing special. He will be there for the next three days. His family wanted to catch up with him and wanted to begin treating his illness right away. Oh right, I was correct in my assumption that he had Chaozai. He will be the old Ravien you knew from some thousand years ago.”

“No worries about him coming back. I made sure that they knew just HOW much we need him in our future battle. They will even teach him about how to travel through the multiverse if he wants to visit them.” Celestia crooked an eyebrow.

“I thought it was impossible to teach somepony from another world new magic.” Aren shook his head.

“Ravien isn’t from your world. He’s an arcadian, and Arcadia was travelling the multiverse for a long time.” Suddenly a yawn escaped his mouth. “Man using magic like this, while still being in my exhausted state from the coma and stuff sure made me tired.” He looked to Celestia with a tired gaze. “Could you give me bed to lie down? I don’t want to travel to my dimension right now.” Celestia happily nodded.

“Oh by the way. Tomorrow is training for the Elements Of Harmony.” He looked at Twilight. “Get yourself and your friends to the training field tomorrow at twelve midday, since I will be training the guards earlier.” Celestias’ eyes widened in shock.

“Wait you want to train them to be soldiers?” Aren just tiredly turned around.

“What? Oh no. I won’t train them like the other soldiers. I will only train them in the three points they need. Teamwork, evasion and stealth.” Celestia and Twilight crooked an eyebrow.

“Stealth?” After another yawn, Aren spoke again.

“Yeah, you don’t want to let Oran know your location before you are ready to use the elements, do you?” Twilight imagined the scenario in her head and violently shook it. “Good.” Then he turned to Celestia, Luna and Chrysalis. “Immortal battle training will start the day after Ravien returns.” Another yawn. “Yeah I will be going to sleep now.”

He then proceeded to take the table that was standing back on its’ old place and laid himself down on top of it. After some seconds, rhythmic snoring could be heard from Aren while laying face down. Celestia chuckled a little.

‘Good to have you back.’

Author's Note

Yeah, i think i'll continue calling him Ravien, i think.... i' not really sure.