Warning: the following chapter sits under a darker theme than previous Molestia entires, due to treading a thin line on consent. I'm putting this disclaimer up for those of you who might be opposed to such a story to avoid labeling my story with a "dark" tag. Discretion advised

The Chronicles of Princess Molestia Chapter 8
Chaos Never Sleeps

Out in the darkness of nightfall, outside the walls of Canterlot castle, a group of pegasi quietly drifted through the air, towing an assortment of storm clouds behind them. The group of ponies worked to place them in an orderly arrangement across the sky, blotting out the light of Luna’s moon shining down on the ground below. Once all their clouds were in place, each pony delivered a swift kick to their respective cloud, and sped away as a loud crack of lightning emitted from each one. The sounds from the dark storm clouds filled the sky with a menacing grumble following the burst of light.

As the lightning flash across the sky, it illuminated the garden of statues below, bestowing a rather fearsome appearance to one statue in particular. The statue was of a creature with the head of a large pony, but his body was made up of many different animals, all placed onto one very chaotic chimera of sorts. This statue had once been free to move on its own, and not once, but twice threatened to put the harmonious land of Equestria in a state of turmoil and chaos for ponykind. And both times he had been imprisoned by the very force that stood as an opposition to the very chaos he represented: the elements of harmony. Their powers had worked to keep the creature confined to an eternal prison of granite, trapped in front of the capital of Equestria forever more.

Though his gaze was fixed in a perpetual state of horror, reflecting the moment he had realized his confinement awaited him once again, the lightning around him helped strike a more intimidating glare to any who would have passed by on such a stormy night. The sound of thunder rumbled throughout the sky, masking what some would hear as a very low chuckle.

Princess Celestia stepped out of her closet, and looked about her room. Where is it? She thought to herself, lifting a hoof and pushing away a hairbrush that was floating in front of her face. I need it if I want to get anything done today! She hunched down on all fours and lifted the bedspread draping on the floor to look under her mattress, only to see an endless swirling white void staring back at her. Hm… no, not here. She casually let go of the sheets, and turned to walk out of her room, being careful to step over the top of her doorframe.

“Mom?” Celestia called out, ascending the stairs at the top of the ceiling, until she reached the kitchen. “Mom, are you there?”

“Over here!” a regal voice called out behind her. Turning about quickly, Celestia was greeted by the sight of a tall alicorn with a faded golden coat, and long brown mane, finishing stacking chairs atop one another. “Good morning, sunshine. Did you have a nice waffle?”

“Yes, I slept rather well.” Celestia replied with a smile. “Do you think you could help me find something, mother?”

“Of course!” the alicorn replied as she placed the last chair on top, and flew over to land in front of Celestia. “I have all the pancakes in the world to help my little princess. What can I help you find?”

“I seem to have lost my… um…” Wait, what was I looking for again? Celestia thought. Did I… did I even know what I was looking for to begin with? She looked down at the floor and tried to gather her thoughts, when she noticed that the floor beneath her was a dark brown material and was sticky to the touch. She raised her hoof to her mouth and licked up the sweet substance. Chocolate…? Why is the floor made of chocolate?

“I’m sorry sweetheart.” Celestia’s mother put a hoof to her shoulder as she spoke. “I’m sure you’ll remember if you give it enough muffins.”

“Okay, thank you moth-!” The thought suddenly clicked in Celestia’s mind as she looked at the brown haired alicorn in front of her. Mom? No no, this can’t be right; mom is… gone. She’s been gone for thousands of years now. What is she doing here so suddenly?

The brown haired alicorn in front of her looked to her right at a clock on the wall, its frame slowly ticking around its hands. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry sunbeam, I need to get going. I promise I’ll be back soon, okay?” She placed a kiss on Celestia’s head, and trotted past her towards the front door, leaving a very confused sun princess in her wake.

“O-okay. Goodbye, mom.” Celestia watched her mother step through the door of the kitchen, then quickly tailed behind her. However when she stepped through, she found herself in a large meadow; turning back to see that the room she had just stepped out of had vanished. A sense of fear began to trickle down her spine, before she took a deep breath and let it out. “Get a hold of yourself. You’re obviously dreaming.”

An ominous laughter echoed through the air, sending a shiver up Celestia’s spine. “So sure are we?” A wicked voice called out to her. “What if you were unable to wake from a dream you were so sure was real? How would you tell the dream world from the real one, hmm?”

Celestia’s brow furrowed as she heard the voice speak. She knew his voice all too well. Out of all the foes who had threatened Equestria, he still managed to get under her coat. She knew that wherever this creature roamed, trouble was never too far behind.

“Show yourself, Discord!” the princess shouted.

Just behind her materialized a tall creature with a snakelike body composed of a numerous variety of creatures that didn’t belong on one body. The creature took hold of his tiny sunglasses with the eagle claw on his left arm and pulled them away from his yellow eyes. “Hmph; spoil-sport.” He rolled the glasses between his talons until they took the shape of a ball and popped the object into his mouth.

“What do you want, Discord?” Celestia asked, turning to face him properly

“Oh come now, what’s with that tone?” Discord asked, drawing nearer to the princess. “I just thought I’d pay you a visit, because I missed you so much!” He lifted a talon and drew it under her chin as he drawled on. Celestia turned her head away and shook his claw off of her.

“In my dreams, though?”

“Pretty neat isn’t it?” he replied, blowing a large dark bubble. It burst in front of her face causing her to flinch. When she opened her eyes, she found the chimera had vanished from her sight. “It’s a little trick I learned while I was snooping around your sister’s room last time I was free.” Celestia looked about to find the source of his voice, until she felt a slight weight on her back. She turned her head to look, and saw a miniature Discord walking along her spine, and laying back against one of her wings. “I didn’t have much of a chance to practice it though since I was busy with your student and her friends, but since I’ve been cooped up for so long I’ve had plenty of time to perfect it.” Celestia raised the opposite wing and brought it down hard to swat at him. Lifting it up, she noticed the underside lacked any evidence that she had hit her target. “And once I learned how to enter the dream plane, you were the first one I wanted to visit!” Discord continued, his voice very close to her ears. She looked again to see where he was hiding, and noticed out of the corner of her eye that her flowing mane now occupied his mischievous grin.

“Forgive me if I’m not flattered…” Celestia said, clutching the end of her hair and pulling it down so that Discord was now eye level with her. “That the being who has threatened Equestria and its subjects twice now has decided to invade my dreams.”

Discord gulped and offered a nervous smile. “Point taken!” he replied hastily, vanishing from her hair and regaining his proper form in front of her. “I wasn’t exactly in a place to ask, you know. I was just going crazy from being locked up in there for so long, hearing and seeing everything around me without being able to move or react to it.”

“You mean you’re aware of your surroundings while you’re in stone?” she asked.

“I know, tortuous isn’t it?”

A new sense of dread crept up the princess’s spine. All those years gone by, her afternoons spent sauntering in the statue garden, those lesson’s she had given Twilight, and the field trips she had authorized for the education of schoolfillies, Discord had been conscious the entire time, watching everything in front of him; watching, plotting, contemplating his phantasmal escape and how to exact his revenge.

“But really princess, I’m here right now, and this spell requires a lot of concentration. It’s not like I can just roam about the nation and turn it upside down while I occupy your dreams to keep you distracted; that would be exhausting!” Discord put his lion’s paw to his head and threw his head back in dramatic fashion.

“I know you, Discord. You’ll spread confusion and disarray wherever you go for your own personal fun. The fact that you’ve broken free of your prison tells me that we’re already in danger. And as soon as I wake up, Twilight and her friends will put you back in stone where you belong.”

An ominous wind blew through the air, fanning the tall grass that sourrounded the both of them. Discord’s face suddenly looked forlorn. He put his mitts together and turned his head down, keeping his eyes up at the alicorn before him. “So, you’re not going to trust me no matter what, is that it?”

“No.” Celestia said resolutely. “I am not.”

“Fine then.” Discord turned away and sat on a stump in the middle of the grassy meadow, resting his arms on his thighs with his head in his mitts. Celestia watched him from behind as his shoulders raised from him taking in a dejected breath of air. “You know, you’re right: when I first broke free, I did think of all the fun chaos I would unleash this time around, and what pranks I would play on ponies I came across. But then a weird thought crossed my mind. I thought, what’s the point?” Celestia felt confused as she listened; she had never heard Discord talk in this manner, with his voice so hopeless and sad. “I go run amok, you gather Twilight and her friends, give them the elements, and they put me right back where I was before. I’d have a moment of freedom and fun just to have it taken away from me again. I thought maybe this time around instead of making trouble, I’d start off on friendlier terms.” Discord turned slightly and looked at Celestia. His yellow eye glimmering a bit as she stared back at him.

Celestia kept her guard up. She knew that deception was all a part of Discord’s game, and that he could be very well lying to her to gain her pity; however, when she had seen him glance at her, she had detected genuine sorrow in his face. She couldn’t help but wonder if his confinement had really given him time to reflect on his ways.

“Why, Discord?” Celestia asked warily. “Why are you here?”

“Because, you were always the most fun to be around. It's the one thing that doesn't seem to have changed these past few millenia.”

“I hardly consider fighting with you over Equestria to be fun.”

“Okay, so I play a little rough.” He admitted. “It’s not like I’ve ever had any other friends of mine to have fun with.”

“You… you’ve never had any friends?” she asked, her voice a touch softer than it had been since Discord had first appeared.

“Just look at me.” He replied. “Ever since I was first manifested in this world, it’s been ‘Eek, a chimera! Everypony run for your lives!’ I’m not some pretty princess who gets to make as many friends as I want all day long.”

Celestia’s heart sank. She kept her reserve, being in the company of her most powerful adversary; but for the first time in her life, the princess actually felt sorry for him.

“I see.” She replied, searching for how to continue properly. “I suppose a life without friends would make someone very bitter, wouldn’t it?”

“I suppose.” He acknowledged.

“That bitterness might make you see the world as a very bleak place; One that you don’t feel like you belong in.”

“Ah, too true.” Discord laid his head back, a long comfortable one armed recliner appearing underneath him as he lay down and shut his eyes. “This lonesome life has taken a toll on my poor mind. Nopony to confide in, no shoulder to cry on, to share any laughs with…”

“And because you don’t belong…” Celestia continued, looking down at him with a face full of condolence. “You want to make it into something you can belong in. That’s why you’re constantly using your powers to turn everything you see into chaos, isn’t it? You’re just trying to make a world you can finally belong to.”

Discord’s eyes opened suddenly. “Hey, easy; that’s hitting a little close to home, don’t you think?” he asked.

Celestia looked into the eyes of her enemy once again. Deep within Discord, she could see a sense of affliction being projected from them. All at once, she was overwhelmed with grief.

“Discord… I’m so sorry.” Celestia began. “The entire time I’ve known of your existence, I’ve only chalked you up to being a force of nature that only had a taste for mischief and strife. I had no idea you were suffering so much on the inside.”

Discord offered the princess a knowing smile. “If it makes you feel any better, you’re not the first one.”

“That doesn’t excuse anything. Maybe if I had been more compassionate instead of rushing to meet you in battle, things could have turned out differently for us.”

“Do you think we could have been friends?”

“Perhaps we could have been.” She said with a half-smile.

“Well… is it too late for us to try?”

Celestia averted her eyes from Discord. Her feelings conflicted inside of her as she contemplated how to handle this new dilemma. A deep rooted feeling of distrust told her not to give him an ounce of compassion, to remain vigilant and find a way to keep him entrapped and from harming anypony else. But a new feeling inside her made her remember that there were other ways for a princess to resolve conflict than through struggle; she needed to conduct herself, and to resolve things through a peaceful solution if it was ever present.

“I suppose it isn’t.” She replied. Discord quickly teleported close to Celestia’s side and wrapped his arms around her, the sudden contact making her jump a bit in defense, but only for a moment before she realized his grasp was not threatening in the slightest.

“Oh, joy!” he exclaimed. “You don’t know how happy this makes me!”

Celestia giggled softly. “I wouldn’t say we’re there quite yet. The bond of friendship isn’t formed instantly.” Celestia gently pushed him away from her. “But… we’re off to a good start.”

Discord turned his head and snapped his claw. The meadow that surrounded them began to dissipate, and take on a new form. The tall grass shrank, and broke away into an expanse of grains of sand. The sound of seagulls in the distance and rushing water filled her ears as a bright blue wave overcame the sand a few feet away from them, reflecting the bright glare of the sun up in the sky.

“Oh my goodness…” Celestia marveled at the beautiful beach that had materialized around them. “It’s so beautiful! I had no idea you could make something like this.”

“I thought it would be fitting.” Puzzled, Celestia tilted her head at him. “A beautiful retreat for a beautiful princess.”

Celestia thought back to their earlier conversation, and what else had been said. “Oh! You think I’m pretty, do you?” she asked with an alluring grin, lifting one of her wings up to shield part of her blushing face.

Discord nodded, brushing up to her side . “But I suppose you get that a lot.”

“I do, actually.” Celestia giggled. “But it still makes me happy when I hear it; especially to hear it from you.”

Wrapping his arm around Celestia’s back, the chimera continued. “It’s true. I’m quite jealous of you.”

“Well…” Celestia leaned her head down and looked up at him. “You’re not so bad looking yourself.”

“You’re just saying that.” He chuckled, looking back down at her.

“No I mean it.” She looked up into his eyes as she explained. “Maybe all the parts of you don’t match up, and that might put other ponies off. But each separate part of you builds a unique whole, and believe me… it’s quite handsome.”

Discord leaned his head in, his face a mere inches away from her. “Do you really think so?”

“I do…” she replied, before they closed their eyes, and their lips finally made contact. Celestia could hardly believe what had just happened: she kissed her arch nemesis, she had pecked him on the lips. She opened her eyes to confirm that he was still in front of her, and saw him open his eyes just after she did. Any lingering thoughts of reserve melted away as she met his lips again, with a deeper impact. She broke their contact a moment, and tilted her head to the side, letting them draw in on each other’s mouths as she gently pushed her weight onto him. Discord raised his right arm up and held the pad of his lion’s paw against her soft white cheek, laying his back against the sand, and let her hooves rest on his shoulders while she lay on his chest.

Celestia could feel Discord’s long, thin tongue slithering around her mouth, while her own brushed up against the back of one of his fangs. His scaly right leg pulled up and brushed against Celestia’s swirling tail. He snapped his left claw once again, before placing it on Celestia’s back and running the tip gently down her back. The sand underneath him began to rise and left them both up, forming into a large formal bed. The beach surrounding them gave way and took the form of a dark bedroom, illuminated by the warm glow of surrounding candles. Feeling him scratch her lovingly, Celestia let out a warm purr of approval into his mouth.

“My, my…” an effeminate voice sounded behind her. “What an affectionate princess.”

Confused, Celestia turned about to see who had spoken out. She saw dark slender creature, just as tall as her, and with a build that resembled an alicorn. Unlike Celestia though, there were apparent holes in her legs and throughout the rest of her body, as if she were decomposing. Her long horn was jagged and misshapen, and her wings were thin and insect-like.

“Chrysalis?” Celestia asked, sounding uneasy.

“Don’t be afraid.” Discord reassured her. She felt her neck being pulled a bit towards him, by a collar she wasn’t aware she had been wearing. “She’s just like me; a misunderstood soul, who just wants to accept your friendship. She won’t hurt you.”

“She… she won’t?” Celestia asked, turning to look at Discord, who now wore a collar she knew had not been there before. She looked back at the changeling queen, still feeling a bit skeptical.

“That’s right.” Chrysalis confirmed. “I heard you were handing out friendship, and I thought I’d take you up on your generous offer.” As she approached the white alicorn on top of Discord, Celestia noticed a doll riding on her back; a doll with a black mane and metallic armor. The doll seemed so familiar to her, but she couldn’t place what or who it reminded her of. Her thoughts of it began to cease once Chrysalis placed a hoof on Celestia’s back. The sun princess closed her eyes and hummed as she was pat ever so gently.

“Oh, I think she likes that, Chryssy.” Discord observed, moving his claw away from the alicorn’s back, and up to her ear to allow Chrysalis more access. “Well do you, your majesty?”

“Mmm…” Celestia purred and closed her eyes as Discord scratched her ear.

“Discord, she’s adorable!” Chrysalis proclaimed. Celestia whined a bit, and buried her head into Discord’s chest. “Oh, and she’s bashful too! What a cutie. Come here, little Celly.” Chrysalis leaned in and kissed the back of Celestia’s ear, eliciting an aroused whimper from the princess. Opening her mouth, the changeling queen let her tongue slither out of her mouth, and encircle Celestia’s long alicorn horn. The sensation of the thin wet tongue wrapping around and constricting her horn made Celestia shiver, and moan out as her ethereal tail jumped up to expose her privates to anything behind her.

As Chrysalis continued to work the shaft from Celestia’s forehead, the eyes of the doll on her back began to glow with an unsettling red light. Out of the ground rose a number of crystal structures, slowly jutting out and increasing in size, soon towering over the three creatures enjoying one another’s embrace. Celestia remained oblivious to the structures above her as she reveled in the changeling’s tongue around her horn, and Discord petting her face. The dragonequus ran his talon underneath her chin and turned her head to face him, so that their eyes locked as they gazed into each other deeply.

“How do you feel about our friendship now, princess?”

“Yes… yes…” murmured.

“We are friends now, aren’t we?”

“Yes… friends.” She replied.

“You know, we could have fun like this more often…?”

“M hm.”

“And it wouldn’t just have to be when you’re asleep. We could do this whenever you wanted, for as long as you want. All you’d have to do, is set me free…” Discord reached down and gave Celestia’s rump a nice squeeze with his claw.

“Yes!” Celestia cried as she felt somethng warm and thick poke her underneath her stomach. “I’ll set you free! I will!”

“Good, good… that’s what I want to hear, my little pet.” Discord bucked his hips up to Celestia, the thing between them throbbing against her stomach. He slid his claw underneath her rear, prompting her to stand herself up a moment.

Celestia raised her tush into the air, even with Chrysalis still encircling her horn with her tongue. Her eyes opened for a moment, and she noticed her reflection in one of the crystal columns in front of her. However, something was wrong with the reflection that looked back at her.

In the reflection large white… creature. Not an elegant beautiful alicorn, but a lumpy featureless white mound, with a tiara at the front of its form and mess of swirling gray jutting out of what had to be its head. Looking at the creature in her reflection filled her with a sense of dread and forced her to gasp. When she opened her mouth, the creature open its jaws and bared its grisly fangs, letting out a trail of slobber down its mouth. She could hear somewhere in the area, it made a low growling sound, as if it were eyeing its next meal. But the most horrifying thing she noticed was that the creature she saw was being mounted by a grinning changeling queen, while it in turn straddled a very malicious looking dragonequus.

“Stop…” Celestia murmured.

“What’s the matter, princess?” Discord asked, caressing the alicorn’s ample rump with his claw.

Celestia shook her head, trying to clear a haze that she had been unaware of until just now. “Let go of me, Discord; right now.”

“You’re just anxious, that’s all.” Discord reassured her, applying a bit of force on her rear to keep her from pulling away. “Just relax and-!”

“I said no!” Celestia exclaimed at him, her eyes filling with magic. “Let. Go. NOW!” Lowering her head down so her horn was a mere inches from his face. The tip of her shaft illuminated and burst with a brilliant flare of light, right before Discord’s eyes. The dragonequus released a painful roar as he ripped his hands away from Celestia’s body and covered his eyes. The form of Queen Chrysalis instantly vanished, and Celestia jumped away, several feet from Discord, and shook her head to clear any lingering haze. The bedroom dissipated around her instantly, leaving them in an expansive white void that stretched on forever.

“I can’t believe I was foalish enough to not see it before.” Celestia stated, her wings flared and her stance ready for movement at any time. “You hypnotized me! Was that your plan from the start?.”

With his eyes still buried in his mitts, Discord used his wings to pull himself off of the ground and stand himself up. “What’s the big deal?” he growled. “I thought you could use an encouraging boost.”

“One does not gain friendship by manipulating others against their will!” Celestia kept her eyes fixed on Discord, feeling the hairs of her white coat stand on end, she remained hunched and looked for any sudden movement from him.

“Isn’t that what you did to your precious student? Didn’t you manipulate her into your little plaything?”

Celestia’s mouth hung agape at his remark. Her eyes glossed for a moment as her lip trembled. She looked at the blind dragonequus, and clenched her teeth hard, enough that it made an audible grinding sound. “You… you take that back!” She exclaimed, charging a blast of white magical energy at him. The blast hit Discord in his chest, and knocked him a yard away. He landed on the floor with a thud, and writhed in pain. “I didn’t manipulate her!” Celestia took flight and zoomed over to him, charging up another blast from her horn. “I am nothing like you!!” She released energy from her horn and hit him again, pushing him into the white featureless ground which he lay on. Twitching on his chest, Discord weakly pushed himself up and rested on his right arm. Celestia landed on the clear white floor and strode towards him with grim determination on her face. “I am going to unmake you for that. You’ll consider being trapped in stone for an eternity a blessing.” Another ball of energy formed on the tip of her horn, and she released it towards her target. Discord turned and put his arms up, stopping the blast from hitting him, and flung it away into the distance.

“You know what?” Discord said with a snarl, a frenzied smile upon his face. “I’m glad it’s come to this! I wasn’t getting any satisfaction in being soft and gentle with you; I’d prefer it rough, just like old times!” Discord pushed the palm of his claw up and summoned a glowing red fireball, meeting Celestia’s fierce gaze. The two rekindled foes stared each other down, waiting for the other to draw first. Suddenly, a cobalt flame erupted from behind Celestia, and a group of dark shadowy tendrils wrapped around her legs and restrained her from moving. Celestia struggled against the tendrils, keeping her gaze right on her enemy with blithering fury. “Let me go this instant!”

Discord relaxed the claw that held the flaming magical energy and let it fade as he tilted his head up towards the sky. “Oh, you big cheater!” he said to nopony in particular. “We’ll have to pick this up another time, your majesty. But don’t worry, you’ll be seeing a lot more of me lately; especially in your dreams. Ta-ta!” He said, blowing a mocking kiss at his opponent. Celestia pulled herself forward, trying desperately to break free and engage him in combat. Her struggles were in vain as the darkness clouded her sight, and drowned out her foe, as well as her desperate cries of his name.

“Discord!” Celestia screamed as she bolted upright, her body no longer restrained.

“Tia, breathe.” Luna’s voice called out from beside her. Celestia turned her head to the side and saw her sister, her dark starlight mane tied behind her, and her face staring at her older sister intently. “It’s over; he’s gone.”

“Princess…” a softer voice called from behind. Celestia turned and saw a small purple unicorn with the most dismayed look on her face, her eyes welling with tears.

“Twilight, dear, what’s wrong?” Celestia asked, leaning in so she was eye level with her student.

“Y-you started shouting and thrashing in your sleep…” she stammered, visibly startled. “ I-I tried to wake you up, but you wouldn’t respond to me.”

“Forgive me for the crude extraction sister. Twilight and I were worried about you; I felt I had to pull you out of your dream as quickly as possible. .”

“I was so scared…” Twilight sobbed.

Celestia still had the image of being pulled away from Discord, fury blinding her senses. Her heart still beat fast with the thoughts of retribution she had in store for him. But hearing her student’s frantic breathing and whimpers drove them away as her motherly instincts from many years ago took over and nudged her to comfort her frightened student.

“Shhhh, sh sh sh, it’s okay Twilight; it’s okay. I’m fine. Don’t be scared.” Celestia wrapped a wing around Twilight and held her close to her body, while she let a hoof drape over her purple mane. “It was just a bad dream. I’m right here Twilight, I’m alright. I promise.” Twilight’s breathing slowed, and she sniffled a few times before she settled down.

“It was more than just a bad dream.” Luna stated “There was a… force of some sort preventing me from entering your dreams as easily as I should have been able to. It was like it was keeping me out.

Celestia continued to hold Twilight in her forelegs as she considered Luna’s explanation. She looked up and out the window, just above the statue garden. She leaned down wiped Twilight’s cheek of her tears and kissed her on the head.

“I’ll be right back.” She said aloud, shifting in her large bed and stepping off the front edge of the bed, being careful not to trip over the bunched up flowery sheets.

“Where are you going?” Twilight asked desperately.

“Just need to send a message. I’ll be right back, I promise.” Celestia turned to face the window leading outside.

“Tia.” Luna called out to her flatly. Celestia looked over her shoulder to her sister, who stepped up from bed and sauntered over to her side. “Did he… do anything to you?” she asked in a hushed tone, low enough that Twilight couldn’t hear.

“No.” Celestia replied.

“Are you sure?”

“ I was handling myself just fine, even before you showed up.” Luna winced and turned her head to the side. Celestia grimaced at her sisters withdrawal. She hadn’t meant to snap at her sister, who had only been looking to help her. “Thank you, Luna.” She said, placing a kiss on her dark cheek. The two ponies stared in confusion as the alicorn jumped through the window and glided down to the statue garden below.

Touching down on the cool night grass, Celestia stepped towards the statue in front of her. She looked towards the statue, shrouded in the dark of night, until a bright flash of lightning flashed across the sky, and illuminated the marble chimera before her. Once she was close enough, she sat down and looked upon his form, still trapped in the stance from his previous encounter with the elements of harmony.

“For the longest time, I thought that as long as you were here in this marble prison, you were no longer a threat to anypony. I felt secure and never paid you any mind after Twilight and her friends sealed you up once again. But what you just did has confirmed something for me: that even though you remain encased in this stony prison, you and I have unfinished business.

A low rumbled emitted from the sky as the sun princess stayed silent for a moment.

“I believed you in my dream when you said that you’d never had a friend. I understand what it feels like to be lonely for so long. And even though I still consider you a threat to Equestria, I believe in second chances. I believe that everypony, no matter how horrible of a crime they have committed, deserves a chance to redeem themselves. And I believe that goes for you as well. However…” Celestia stood up and stared intently on the statue in front of her.

“However, it will not be tomorrow that I will release you from your prison. It will not be this week. It will not be until I have decided that the time is right. Perhaps I’ll wait until I see a need for your powers. And that chance may not come for a very long time.” A flash of lightning lit up the sky and brought light to the statue’s face once again. “I realize that might not sit well with you; you’ll want to be free now. And you might invade my dreams again to get what you want. I understand. But now I need you to understand something else.”

Celestia stood up and drew closer to Discord, merely inches from his frozen face. “For a millennium, you have been confined to this state for what seemed an eternity, with no chance of release. This is one kind of torture. But now things are different; I have offered you a chance to find freedom, the first chance for you in centuries. But with that comes a new kind of torture; the possibility of having it taken away. I will not just leave you here, so that you can wait for another chance to escape yourself; no, I’ll make sure that you don’t come back.”

The princess stepped to the side of her frozen foe, and circled around him ever slowly. “You know, as much as I trust my royal guards, unfortunately they are not perfect. Some thieves do slip past them now and then.” Celestia stopped when she was behind Discord, and crept up behind his neck. “It would be a shame of some hooligans with a taste for destruction were to, say, waltz into my garden, and pick up a statue to their liking, and just for fun drop it off of a nearby cliff, smashing it into little… tiny… pieces…” Celestia stepped around Discord and stood in front of him with her back towards his face.

“Give it some thought: you don’t really have anything else to do for some time. Goodnight Discord.” Celestia turned back to look at Discord over her shoulder, and a smirk appeared on her face. Her flowing tail rose up high to expose her soft white mare lips at the statue, and she dipped her head to the ground, giving her rump a taunting wiggle as she stuck her tongue out. “Stay out of my dreams, if you know what’s good for you.” She said, before lowering her tail back against her rump, and taking flight back up to her room to join her lovers watching from her window.

Author's Note

And there we go, another chapter finished. Hope you guys are still enjoying these, I'm finally starting to feel a little motivated to write again after making some positive decisions in my life. Big thanks to karrakaz for the helpful pointers and discussions on how to properly display this story, and thanks to everyone who's still following me despite my lack of updates.