Chapter VII – Road to Reformation (Part 2)

Chaotic Love

Chapter VII – Road to Reformation (Part 2)

Discord groaned as he walked down the road leading out of Sweet Apple Acres and towards Ponyville, he clutched his stomach and let out a sigh.

“Shouldn’t have eaten all those apple dishes...never been so full in all my life.” He muttered.

He leant on a wall of a random building to rest a moment and sighed again, the lunch wasn’t all that bad. They had all sat around the family table and conversed politely, Discord made some jokes and did a few simple tricks as to not drain his limited powers and overall it was nice. The only problem was he kept being given dish after dish after dish by a very insistent Granny smith; he had to get Applejack to stop her after chomping down on his tenth slice of apple pie. He hadn’t really wanted to eat that much originally because of where he was going to after he had spent time with Applejack which was Sugarcube corner, he groaned again as he started off.

He made his way through Ponyville being greeted now and again by some of the townsfolk, he replied back with a grunt or a small wave as he trudged his way over to Sugarcube Corner. Caramel watched him go by past his stall, Discord looked over and stopped.

“Afternoon Caramel and how are you this fine day?” He asked.

“I’m ok, yourself Silver?” Caramel said crossing his arms.

“Oh you know, I’m doing pretty good, had a very enjoyable night last night. “Discord smirked hoping he would rise up.

“Well…that’s….nice…to hear.” Caramel replied through gritted teeth, Discord merely grinned at him.

“Mhm, well can’t spend all day chatting, I need to head over to sugarcube corner.” Discord smiled at him.

‘If Silver is out by himself…that means Fluttershy is on her own, Hehe alright.’ He thought.

“Ok then Silver, see you around then?” Caramel said.

Discord said bye and walked past another man with light black hair, he took a turn into the alley nearby to get there quicker but stopped, he decided to turn back and taunt Caramel a little bit more. As he got to the end of the alley he heard Caramel’s voice and hid himself to eavesdrop.

“Watch my stall for me will you Baritone? I’m gunna go win our bet.”

“Niiiiice, remember what you need to do.” Baritone smirked.

“You’d think I’d forget to take one? Especially of her?” Caramel smirked back.

“So you reckon you can get her in bed tonight? Just like that?”

“Yeah shouldn’t be too hard, I’m sure she can make an excuse to Silver or something. Besides, once she’s had a go with me she isn’t gunna ever touch Silver again.” Caramel laughed.

“So you gunna call her after you’re done?” Baritone asked.

“Dunno, depends on how good she is I suppose. Or if I’m in the mood for a quick fuck.” Caramel replied.

The two shared a laugh before Caramel headed off towards Fluttershy’s cottage; Discord stood there his fists clenched tightly, his whole body shaking with rage. He had never felt like this before, he growled loudly and quickly made after Caramel. He stuck to the alley ways and waited for Caramel to appear, he carefully lent his head round the wall to see Caramel approaching holding a bouquet of flowers. He closed his eyes and listened for him, as he heard the sounds of footsteps getting closer her snarled and shot his arm out and grabbed Caramel by his shirt and yanked him into the alley way, pushing him into the wall hard. Caramel cried out in surprise and looked down at Discord.

“OW WHAT THE FUCK-“

Discord interrupted him by slamming him into the wall again; Caramel gritted his teeth with a wince.

“Hey Caramel, sorry about that…so I couldn’t help but over hear your conversation with Baritone…” Discord said calmly, a grin on his face.

“Y-yeah? A-and?” Caramel gulped, Discord’s grin making him nervous.

“And I was just wondering…what was all that about a, what did you say now?” He looked away and tapped his chin.” Ah yes…a bet.”

Caramel gulped again squirming in Discord’s grip as he continued.

“Now…be a good chap and tell me what that bet was...”

“W-we made a b-bet to see if I c-could sleep w-with Fluttershy.” He replied stuttering.

“And what did Baritone remind you to do?” Discord said, still with his eerie grin.

Caramel gulped again, he didn’t want to tell him what the deal of the bet was, and he remained silent but winced when Discord applied pressure on him pressing his back into the wall more.

“T-that….I t-take a p-p-photo of h-h-her…” He swallowed once more. N-naked t-to s-show the g-guys…” He finished with a whisper.

Discord was silent, his mind raced through images of Fluttershy enjoying a normal day and then her face. Innocent and happy, a little smile on her face. His grin faded and was replaced with a snarl. He dropped Caramel and grabbed him by the throat and tightened his grip, all Discord could see was red. Caramel chocked and tried to break free of his grasp but was unable, he whimpered as a growl rumbled from Discord’s throat.

“Listen closely Caramel because I am only going to say this once…if you EVER so much as go near her with that intention, I will personally make your life a fucking misery until the day you die…Understand?”

Caramel whimpered and Discord slammed him against the wall again.

“I SAID DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!” He growled.

“YES I UNDERSTAND PLEASE STOP!” Caramel choked out.

Discord dropped him to the floor and Caramel gasped for air as he coughed, Discord took a step back his breathing rapid and looked down at the man. His rage had subsided and he stared down at Caramel, Caramel scrambled to his feet and took off for his home quite happy not to do the bet. As he disappeared Discord slumped against the wall and slid down suddenly realising what he just did.

‘What….why did I just do that?’

“Because you are weak Discord…” A voice rumbled around him sounding like his own.

Discord eye’s widened as he looked around trying to find the source of the voice, he couldn’t see anyone else in the alleyway with him.

“Who said that? Show yourself!” He shouted into the alleyway.

He received no answer and slowly made his way back out of the alleyway holding his head in one hand, he briskly made his way towards the location of Sugarcube corner.

‘What the hell was that all about? And why did they sound like…me?’

His thoughts were interrupted as he walked straight into the closed door of the shop and promptly fell onto his backside; he rubbed his nose and cursed the door for being in his way. He stopped when he heard the door open and looked up to see Pinkie giggling down at him.

“Whatcha doing down there silly?”

“Enjoying the comfortable ground.” Discord replied with sarcasm.

“Yeah it can get comfy.” She giggled ignoring his sarcasm. ”But were burning daylight here! And you promised me cupcakes!”

She helped him up and led him into the store, when he entered he was greeted by Mr and Mrs Cake.

“Hello there...’Silver’.” Mrs Cake said with a raised brow.

“Silver.” Mr Cake nodded.

“Silver, meet Mr and Mrs Cake. They own the shop!” Pinkie giggled introducing him to them.

“Pleasure to meet you.” Discord replied.

“So, you two ready to leave?” Pinkie asked.

“Wait leave, where are they going?” Discord asked.

“Well there going to take the twins out for the afternoon and let us run the shop.” Pinkie giggled.

“Well we didn’t have much of a choice, Pinkie said that you were going to come round and wanted to run the place with you. And to be honest, no offence, we don’t really want to leave our children around a man who once threatened to turn Equestria into a world of chaos.” Mr Cake said.

“Ah none taken Mr Cake, can’t blame me for trying though right?” Discord shrugged.

Pinkie and Discord said their goodbyes to the Cakes and got to work, it was rather slow that day with only a couple of customers coming in. At one point Baritone and Caramel came in but upon seeing Discord who gave Caramel a death glare they immediately left, Pinkie had tried to get Discord to tell her why they left but he kept giving her excuses or teased her by saying they smelt her cooking at it put them off.

“This is sooooo boring!” Pinkie groaned.

It had been about an hour since Caramel and Baritone had entered and no one else had been in since, Pinkie was leaning on the counter bored out of her mind as Discord sat in a chair, his eyes struggling to stay open.

“Agreed…anything you want to do?” He yawned with a stretch.

“Weeeeeell….OH I know….no wait….uhm…OH! You can show me how to make those cupcakes you promised!”

“Uhm…I can’t.” Discord chuckled and rubbed the back of his head nervously.

“But…but why?” Pinkie said her lib wobbling.

“Well, I said that to stop you from getting upset earlier. That and you need to be able to do magic to get the enchantment right.”

He raised his eyebrow as her hair flattened and she slumped onto the floor visible upset, he sighed to himself and closed his eyes.

‘Do…do it for her.’ He thought.

“Well if you want…we can do it together?” He suggested.

“How?” Pinkie asked with a sniffle.

“If we make the cupcakes, I’ll provide the enchantment at the end how does that sound?”

Pinkies face lit up and her hair returned to normal as she suddenly grabbed him dragging him into the kitchen behind the counter with a manic grin.

They quickly got everything set up and Pinkie insisted on Discord wearing a white apron and a tall chef’s hat, he had protested but eventually gave up when Pinkie kept producing them from thin air. He didn’t question it, not after the clothes incident but instead chuckled. The two began to prepare to bake the cupcakes when Discord had an idea and a mischievous grin formed on his face, he quietly snapped his fingers and the bag of flour Pinkie was using disappeared, thankfully she didn’t notice it. He snapped his fingers and it reappeared above her floating, he grinned as she began to look around for it.

“Hey Discy have you seen the flour? I was sure I got it out…” She asked.

“Can’t say I have Pinkie, and I…wait…Discy?” He asked curiously.

“What? It’s a nickname silly!” She giggled at him.

Discord smiled to himself, no one had given him a nickname before, well, not a nice one anyway. He shuddered before he could relive that memory and focused back on preparing, he gave a grin leaning on the counter.

“Hey Pinkie, I know where your flour is.”

“Where?”

Disocrd snapped his fingers and the flour tipped over and poured all over Pinkie, she gave a startled squeak of surprise as she became covered head to toe in white flour. Discord couldn’t help but burst out laughing at her shocked expression.

“All over you!” He chuckled.

Pinkie looked at her reflection in a frying pan and began to laugh uncontrollably, snorting now and again as she leant on the counter for support.

“Hehe good one Discy! I look like a ghost!” She giggled, waving her arms around in a spooky fashion.

“Pinkie the friendly ghost.” Discord added with a chuckle.

Suddenly Discord was hit square in the face by a ball of flour and coughed, spluttering as some of it went in his mouth. He looked over to see Pinkie giving him a determined grin holding a bag of flour in one hand and was standing in a battle pose.

“But…you are going to regret pranking me! Prepare yourself for battle!” She declared grabbing another handful of flour.
Discord cracked his knuckled grinning madly, he went to click his fingers but another ball of flour hit is hands.

“Ah ah ah! No magic Discy, or are you too much of a chicken to not use it?” Pinkie grinned making chicken noises.

“Oh it’s on!” Discord declared.

“Like Donkey Kong!” Pinkie giggled.

“What?”

“Nothing, now…PREPARE FOR BATTLE!”

Mr and Mrs Cake were strolling back to Sugarcube corner having enjoyed the afternoon out, any worries they had about Discord and Pinkie being alone in the shop had since faded and had enjoyed spending some time with their children. The children were fast asleep in their pushchairs and the parents were looking forward to closing up and enjoying a nice evening together watching a few of their favourite shows.

They entered the shop and their jaws dropped at the scene before them, Discord and Pinkie where both behind their own makeshift barricades each wearing a cooking pot on their heads for ‘protection’. The whole shop was nearly covered in pastry dough, flour, icing and pretty much everything that would be used in baking. Discord and Pinkie looked up from their hiding spots both covered in flour and various other ingredients, Mr and Mrs Cake tried to form a sentence but all that came out was incoherent babbling.

Pinkie and Discord looked at each other, then themselves, then the kitchen and burst into laughter at what they had done.

‘I knew he wasn’t such a meanie-pants after all.’ Pinkie thought as she tried to control her giggling.

She didn’t even care they hadn’t made anything in the end.

“Are you ready Tia?” Luna asked.

“I am Lu-Lu.” Celestia replied.

The two princesses were in Celestia’s bedroom, Luna had been preparing for hours on being able to project Celestia into the dream walker spell. Because it would take more magical energy to project someone who wasn’t able to do the spell themselves, all of Luna’s time inside the dream state would be on keeping the spell going so Celestia would be in charge of protecting them in case anything went wrong. In the room with them were two guards of whom the Princess trusted with their lives, they were ordered to wake them both up if they looked like they were in serious distress.

“Then let us begin…”

Luna closed her eyes as her horn appeared and began to glow, She and Celestia were overtaken by darkness and appeared in a large area that had nothing in it and was pure black, Luna re opened her eyes and as she did the area changed and formed a long corridor with different doors on each side. She turned to her sister and smiled.

“Welcome to the dream state Tia.” She said.

Celestia looked down the hallway in wonder as they preceded each of the doors and a picture of a different person, Luna explained that each of these doors led to the dream or nightmare of that particular subject and if the eyes were open, they were awake. They walked down the hallway for what seemed like hours before coming to another hallway, Luna led her down it and Celestia noticed that the walls of the hallway darkened as they walked further into it. She saw several pictures of the kingdom’s foes including Chrysalis; eventually they came to a stop by a door that had the image of Discord on it with his eyes closed indicating he was asleep.

Luna looked to her sister and she nodded in reply and she opened the door stepping inside, Celestia followed her and closed the door behind her. Once inside Luna’s horn glowed again covering them in an invisibility spell that would hide them from dream Discord, they walked further into the dream, slightly confused as to why it was nothing but a vast space of blackness.

They eventually stopped seeing a table slowly appear a bit in front of them, followed by two chairs. Slowly, a white mist formed around them both and suddenly disappeared, leaving two copies of Discord. The one on the right of the Princesses was in the form they both recognised, his coat, horns and wings present and he had a mischievous grin on his face. In front of him was a different looking Discord, from the scroll they had gotten from Twilight they could tell he was in the form that he used for Silver Tongue.

“What the hell?” Silver Tongue asked.

“Oh come now, face to face with yourself and that’s the first thing you say? For shame Discord.” Chaos Discord smirked.

“No I mean what the hell am I doing dreaming about you, about me for?” Silver glared.

“Well…I represent the side of you that is still…normal…still pure.” Chaos purred.

“I’m still myself you idiot, I have to be in this form otherwise-“

“Otherwise what?” Chaos interrupted. “You’ll be drained of your powers? Boo hoo fucking hoo, we are fucking Discord! The Lord of Chaos! You know how to get rid of that ring…they know how.” Chaos smirked at him. “But you won’t do it, and as yourself I have to wonder why I would do that. It’s very rude and hurtful to yourself Discord.” Chaos sniffled forcefully.

“Shut up! I can’t take it off, thanks to that stupid requirement.” Silver shouted back.

Chaos laughed and appeared beside Silver giving his shoulders a little shake.

“Yes you keep telling yourself that Discord baby.” He said pinching Silver’s cheek.

“Get off me!” Silver growled shoving Chaos of him.

“Tch…I’m just trying to be friendly.” He summoned two glasses of chocolate milk and offered one to Silver. “Drink?”

“Pass, now just get to the point as to why I’m dreaming of you.” Silver demanded with clear irritation.

“I’ve already said it my boy, about how you refuse to go to them and get the ring removed.” Chaos gave him a toothy grin.

“Because, they will want something in return. And I am not going to bow down to her.” Silver growled.

“Ah but that’s not the reason is it? I am you Discord, I know what goes on in our head…you won’t do it because of…her.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Silver lied.

“It’s…Fluttershy…she’s the reason you won’t do it.”

“Shut up! It’s not that, why the in the hell would I, Discord, Lord of Chaos refuse to help himself be free for the sake of some girl?” Silver declared.

“You’re a terrible liar Discord, even worse than that Apple bitch.”

“Applejack.” Silver growled at him.

“Whatever.” Chaos said with a shrug of his shoulders. “But it’s true isn’t it…you’re having conflicts with yourself about her, aren’t you. Just look at that incident with Caramel earlier.”

Chaos held his hand up and a large ball of energy appeared, it then began to replay the events of the market from the viewpoint of Discord the moment he started eavesdropping. Celestia and Luna nearly gasped as they watched Discord assault Caramel over what he planned to do with Fluttershy.

“What about it? He had it coming.” Silver leant back in his chair.

“Did he? One thousand years ago you would of lept at the fucking chance to pull that kinda stunt off!” Chaos shouted. “Stop kidding yourself Discord! You honestly think these people want to be your friend? From the moment we were born we were treated like scum, just because of what we are. We are unique Discord, and so everyone feared us, called us freak, unnatural. We have no friends Discord, we have never needed them. No one truly cares about us except us…you need to get that into your fucking head Discord.”

“You're…wrong times have changed, people have changed. Fluttershy trusts me so why the fucking hell shouldn’t I trust her!?” Silver shouted back.

“Because of the first…and last person we opened ourselves up to…” Chaos replied coldly and looked in the direction of Celestia. “And you know how that ended…”

Celestia’s eyes widened, Silver hadn’t moved his head and was still unaware of their presence but the dream Discord looked directly at her and she felt herself go cold. She had put that day into the furthest part of her mind and that’s where she wanted it to remain, she never wanted to remember that again. Silver clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, that was a day he would never forget in his life.

“So I’ll ask again…why don’t you just help yourself and go to them?” Chaos continued turning his gaze back to Silver.

“You know why!” Silver slammed his fist into the table.

“NO I DON’T! GO TO THEM AND GET HER TO TAKE THE FUCKING RING OFF!” Chaos roared.

“ENOUGH!” Silver roared and threw a ball of magic at Chaos.

Chaos merely smirked and batted it away and tutted, Silver growled at him and clenched his fists as Chaos chuckled once more.

“No matter what you say Discord…that feeling in the back of your head? The feeling when you use magic? The feeling when you commit a chaotic deed? That feeling of malice and rage? That’s me, I’m a part of you and nothing is going to change that Discord, we are what we are…you need to remember that…trust no one…”

Chaos chuckled darkly as he slowly faded out of the area, Silver shook with anger and roared out in frustration tossing the table aside and crushing the chair s to one another. He fell to his knees and gripped his hair and roared out in frustration again, and then the Princesses saw something they never thought they would ever see.

A single tear falling from his face…

Author's Note

[Edited version to come, any errors feel free to let me know.]