Chaotic Love

Chapter IX – Road to Reformation (Part 4)

Discord happily made his way across the town, enjoying the warm sun on his skin. As he walked through the market again he noticed Caramel was back at his stall, in the need to vent his chaotic nature and to generally annoy him he approached the man a mischievous grin on his face.

“Well hello there Caramel!” He greeted cheerfully.

“Afternoon Silver, how are you?” Caramel replied equally cheerfully.

Discord raised his eyebrow curiously; he didn’t expect his response to be so happy.

“It goes well, so last night I had some tea with Fluttershy…” He began “And then we both fell asleep on her sofa, was very warm for the both of us.”

“Oh, well I’m glad to hear that, so how do you like our town so far?” Caramel replied back.

Discord frowned slightly, that was not the response he wanted.

“Uhm…I like it, it’s a nice town to be in.”

Discord looked at his face carefully, something seemed…off about Caramel, he was standing there e a cheerful smile on his face. Discord thought he saw Caramel’s eyes flicker for a brief moment, he shook his head and blinked.

“Is everything alright Silver?” Caramel asked concerned.

“Uh yeah everything is…fine…well I best be off, got a lot of things to do.”

“Ok then Silver you take care now you here?”

Caramel smiled as he went on serving a customer who had turned up, Discord walked away confused and slightly suspicious. After he was a fair bit away from him he turned round and watched the man for a moment, he could definitely feel something was off about him but he couldn’t place his finger on it. Sighing to himself in irritation he put the line of thought to one side he looked at his watch and realised he was fifteen minutes late meeting Rainbow Dash at the library, cursing to himself he increased his walking speed and hurried over to the library. As he came closer to the library he saw Rainbow outside it talking with Twilight, they both glared at him as he approached.

“You’re late.” Rainbow said flatly.

“Yes I know, my apologies I was having fun with Rarity.” Discord smirked back.

Rainbow glared at him more and clenched a fist, but Twilight who saw it as a wind up rolled her eyes and placed a reassuring hand on Rainbow’s shoulder and smiled.

“Well…whatever, we going or what?” She asked.

“Sure, what did you want to do?” Discord replied.

“Dunno.” Rainbow shrugged.

“Helpful.” Discord said sarcastically.

“Well, I got things to be getting on with my book sorting.” Twilight said. “I’ll leave you two to get on with…whatever it is you decide to do.”

“Alright Twi catch ya later.” Rainbow replied.

“I’ll see you this evening then.” Discord added.

“Can’t wait.” Twilight replied with sarcasm.

“Charming.” He smirked back.

Twilight gave a fake laugh and closed the door on the two; Discord looked at Rainbow who looked back at him. There was an awkward silence as the two just stood there, looking around and trying to say something.

“So…” Discord started. “Want to walk?”

“Sure why the hell not.” Rainbow shrugged.

They both set off and began to walk around the edge of the town; again they were both in silence until Rainbow finally said something.

“So AJ told me about her time with you, and how she thinks you are honestly trying to be a friend to Fluttershy.” She said.

“Yeah…I don’t know why but I feel better around her, it’s been a while since someone was nice to me.” He replied.

“Can you blame anyone? After what you did do to Ponyville.” She smirked back at him.

“Fair point.” Discord chuckled. “But…I wasn’t talking about that…I was.” He stopped and shook his head. “Never mind it’s not important.”

“No come on.” Rainbow grinned elbowing his side. “Spill.”

“I said never mind Rainbow.” Discord replied a little more forcibly.

“Ah come on.” Rainbow pressured. “Just tell-“

“I said never mind Rainbow!” He snapped at her suddenly.

“Jeez…alright man calm down I was just winding you up.” Rainbow scoffed.

“Sorry…it’s something I don’t want to talk about…with anyone.” Discord sighed.

“It’s cool.” Rainbow shrugged.

The two carried on their walk again in silence; it wasn’t too long before Rainbow spoke up again.

“As I was saying Silver…I’m glad you’re at least trying but, you still need to convince me. I’m Fluttershy’s oldest friend and I’m very protective of her, and you know what I’m gunna do to you if you hurt her.” She looked at him sternly.

“Yeah I know, relax I don’t intend to do that…something about her makes me not want to be chaotic…you on the other hand.”

Discord clicked his fingers behind his back quietly and a tree root appeared in front of Rainbow’s feet suddenly, she got caught on it and promptly fell over with a startled yelp. Discord smirked down at her as she got up and glared at him.

“THAT was not funny.”

“I beg to differ.” Discord chuckled.

“Alright then Silver.” Rainbow smirked. “I’ll admit it was a good one.”

Rainbow stroked her chin as an idea came to her mind; Discord raised his eyebrow in curiosity as she formed a grin on her face.

“Say Silver…I know what were gunna do.”

“Get yer apples right here!” Applejack cried out to the passers-by.

Applejack was very busy, she had been selling apples for the past few hours and business had been great as she had sold more than she needed to in order to make the days quota. She wasn’t the only vendor in the market, there was Daisy selling her herbs, Red Bartlett was selling his pears and Tinker Tailor was selling his various wares on his stall along with his wife and many others. Discord and Rainbow smirked as they entered the marketplace, they looked at each other and nodded before they separated, Rainbow walked over to Applejack as Discord went around and behind her stall.

“Fresh apples! Get your-“Applejack stopped seeing Rainbow. “Well howdy Dash, how goes it?”

“Pretty good AJ, you?” Rainbow asked.

“Not bad, say…aren’t ya supposed to be with Silver today?” She asked her.

“Was that today? I completely forgot I was meant to be with Silver today.”

Rainbow then coughed signalling Discord to begin, whilst Applejack talked with Rainbow who was pretending to play dumb he snapped his fingers. The apple sign on her stall suddenly changed to show a pear and the apples all became pears, likewise on Red Bartlett’s stall the picture of a pear changed to an apple and his pears also became apples, neither one noticed. Rainbow snickered at the change suddenly; Applejack raised her eyebrow curiously at her friends’ sudden outburst.

“Whatcha snickering at Dash?”

“Oh nothing, well I gotta go I’ll see you later AJ!” Rainbow replied before heading off.

“What is going on with that girl?” She sighed to herself. “Apples get yer fresh apples here!” She continued to cry out.
She was confused as to why people were looking over at her and snickering; she shrugged it off and continued to call out about her product only getting more looks and snickers back. She scratched her head and noticed people point at Red Bartlett’s stall snickering as he tried to sell his pears, she gasped seeing his stall covered in apples and was confused. She looked at her own stall and her eyes widened see it filled with pears; she looked back at Red and scratched her head again.

“How did he get all of mah apples?” Applejack said aloud.

At the same time Red noticed his stall had apples on it and looked over to Applejack’s stall seeing it filled with pears, his eyebrow raised up as he walked over to Applejack who in turn began to walk over to him.

“Why…does your stall have pears?” He asked.

“Ah could say the same sugarcube bout them apples.” She replied.

“Odd…well I’d say best thing is to swap stalls I guess and figure out what happened later.” Red suggested.

“Sounds good to me, I’ll just-“

She turned seeing her stall back to normal and both her jaw and Red’s dropped, they looked over to Red’s stall to see his stall was back to normal. They silently went back to their respective stalls confused at what just happened, Applejack scratched her head and jumped when one apple jumped up, bearing the same features as the previous day. It gave her a cocky bow and smirked at her.

“Yah just been pranked me dear.” It cried before suddenly taking off.

Applejack watched it surprised then her face changed to a look of annoyance and anger as she saw the apple jump into the hand of Discord who smirked at her, Rainbow next to him laughing so hard she was using a wall to keep herself upright.

“Oh they are so gunna get it later…” Applejack glared.

“Oh man her face was priceless!” Rainbow said between laughs. “So who we gunna prank next?”

Discord smirked and cracked his knuckles, glad to have a way to vent his inner need to cause chaos. As the day progressed Rainbow and Discord were laying on a cloud looking up the sky contented, they had spent the last couple of hours running all around Ponyville pranking random people, but nothing to serious.

The one prank other than the one they pulled on Applejack that she found to be her favourite was the one they pulled on Quick Scoop, the old man who ran the local newsagent. He had two boxes delivered to his shop containing several magazines he was going to put on the shelves the next day; he picked one up and went inside with it. At that moment Discord snapped his fingers and an identical box appeared in Dash’s hands who then placed it in the original spot before hiding again, when Quick Scoop came out he was surprised to see two boxes there, he shrugged and carried the one Dash had placed inside.

The pair did this another couple of times before Discord upped the ante, when Quick Scoop came out again he was startled at the sight of twenty boxes all sitting outside his shop, he quickly ran inside and slammed the door shut as the two pranksters howled with laughter and removed the extra boxes.

“You know…you’re not a bad prankster, well not as good as me or Pinkie but still not bad.” Rainbow said.
“Gee I’m flattered.” Discord said with a snicker.

“That doesn’t mean I like you though.” Rainbow replied. “Not fully anyway, I’m still concerned about Fluttershy’s well-being you know.”

“I know, can see why you are the element of loyalty.” Discord chuckled. “Well, I best be off, I assume Twilight is the kind of girl who gets pissy when people are late.”

Rainbow snorted with a chuckle at that, she gave Discord a light punch on the arm and smirked.

“Nah, but she will get pissy if you re-arrange her books. You know if you fancied pranking her.”

“I see…I might just do that but Tartarus hath no fury then a woman scorned at her books being moved.” Discord replied.
Rainbow snickered again and nodded in agreement, Discord gave her a good bye and lept from the cloud gently landing on the ground and dusting himself down. Rainbow leant over and watched him as he headed towards the library.

‘I suppose he’s not as bad as he was last time, I’m still gunna keep my eye on him but…maybe he IS trying to reform himself, either way I found myself another prankster to prank people with.’ Rainbow thought with a chuckle.

Spike grumbled as he headed for the front door, he had been enjoying a nice gemstone sandwich when the door knocked and Twilight had asked him to go see who it was. He opened the door and was greeted by Discord standing there waiting, he rolled his eyes and turned to let him in.

“Twilight! It’s Silver!” He shouted up.

“Ok Spike, get him a drink will you? I’ll be down there in a second.

Spike looked over to Discord who in return looked back at him.

“So…drink?” Spike asked.

“I’m fine thanks Spike.” Discord replied taking a seat on the sofa.

Spike shrugged and went back to the kitchen to finish his sandwich; Discord tapped his fingers on the edge of the sofa looking around the library. It was clean and tidy and the books appeared to be well organized, he stared at them and a mischievous grin formed on his face. He tried to resist at first but Rainbow Dash’s words rang like a sirens alluring music.

‘Nah, but she will get pissy if you re-arrange her books. You know if you fancied pranking her…’

He grinned and snapped his fingers; at once the books began to quickly re-arrange themselves in a random order with some of them have the spine facing inwards rather than outwards. He snickered to himself as Spike came in again, oblivious to the change.

“She still not down yet?” He asked Discord.

Discord shook his head trying not to snicker; Spike sighed and sat next to him leaning back on the sofa, he let his gaze cast upwards as he decided to ask Discord a question.

“Hey Discord…does Fluttershy have a crush on you?” He asked.

Discord was taking back a bit by the question, it wasn’t something he thought a young man would say and he thought about it.

“I…I wouldn’t know, love and relationships isn’t my strong point…” Discord replied scratching his chin. “Why do you ask?”

“Well…don’t tell anyone it’s kind of a secret but…I have a crush on Rarity so I can kinda tell if someone else is crushing on someone.”

“I suppose she could…but why me…it doesn’t make sense…I mean…I don’t think.” He muttered to himself.

“Hey Discord…do you have a crush on Fluttershy?” Spike asked not hearing Discord mumble to himself.

“Wait what who told you that?!” Discord blurted out.

“No one did…” Spike grinned. “You do don’t you?”

“No I mean I don’t think…” Discord pointed to the books. “You realise they are all disorganized.”

“Ah man Twilights gunna flip her lid if she sees that!”

Discord let out a sigh of relief as Spike forgot the conversation and dashed to sort out the books; he heard footsteps coming from the stairs and looked over seeing Twilight walking down the stairs. She looked at Spike who hadn’t noticed her and was franticly sorting the books before glaring at Discord who merely shrugged at her.

“What did you do?” She asked.

“Me? Nothing of the kind.” Discord replied crossing his arms.

“Uhuh…”

“So what do you want to do then Twilight?” He asked.

“Well for a start you’re going to help me and Spike fix these books.” She replied.

“Ok then, let me just-“

“And no magic.” She interrupted with a smirk.

“Fine, gives us something to do I suppose.” Discord shrugged, not entirely bothered.

The three began to sort out the books occasionally exchanging words and playful banter, mostly Spike and Discord winding up Twilight by talking about guy stuff, catching worms, mud wrestling the usual stuff. Discord has no real interest in the topics but it was funny to watch Twilight squirm as Spike vividly describe finding a worm with its guts out, after half an hour the books had been sorted back to normal and the three let out a sigh of relief, Spike went off to get the three a drink as Twilight and Discord took a seat.

“Well that was fun.” Discord said sarcastically.

“Your fault for mixing up my books in the first place.” Twilight replied.

“Fair enough, honestly regret it now I think the last bit of my power has been drained.” He grumbled.

“I’ve been meaning to as you about that…everyone has magic energy within themselves that the use to do whatever, such as Unicorn magic, pegasi magic that allows them to move clouds and fly and then people like Applejack who have a strong affiliation with the earth” Twilight began adjusting her glasses.

“Yes I know that.” Discord said.

“But what about you?” She asked him. “Being a draconequus do you harness magic in a different way?”

“I harness the raw energy in the air, nothing big really.” Discord scratched his chin casually.

“Wait you do what?” Twilight asked looking at him.

“Harness raw energy, I wasn’t born with my own personal magical energy like others are. I was able to take the energy from the air though and channel it into magic; it was one of the reasons for….actually never mind on that last part.” He looked up at the celling as he lent back. “It’s an old form of magic put it that way, it helps when your own natural reserve has diminished.”

“I wonder why the Princess never told me about that…” She wondered to herself.

“Beats me, back in the day I was one of the few who knew how to do it.” Discord shrugged.

He was lying to her, he knew exactly why Celestia hadn’t told her and it further angered him that Celestia had kept the art of his magic secret from everyone.

“Could…you show me how to do it?” Twilight asked him.

Spike returned with the drinks and gave them to Twilight and Discord before sitting himself down on a chair and reading his comic book, Discord paused to sip his drink thinking over Twilight’s question. There was no real reason not to show her how to do it, and besides it would be entertaining to see how Celestia reacted when she found out what he had taught her, something even she couldn’t do.

“I don’t see why not, but it’s not an easy feat Twilight, and Celestia might not approve. What with you being taught old magic by myself.” He smirked at her.

“I think she’ll be ok…I’ll say it’s for research purposes and besides, knowing how your magic works helps us if you ever go chaotic again.” Twilight giggled back at him.

“Learning how the enemy works, clever Miss Sparkle.” Discord chuckled back.

Celestia and Luna sat in the formers bed room sitting at a table that had a tea set upon it; they were both quiet and gently sipped their teas. Luna was waiting for her sister to start the conversation patiently; after ten minutes had passed Celestia sighed and placed her cup down as she looked to Luna.

“Ok Lu-Lu…I’ll tell you, but you have to promise you won’t interrupt me, and any questions you’ll save them for the end ok?”

“Yes Tia, I promise.” Luna replied.

Celestia sighed again and stood up; she walked over to the window and looked out of it crossing her arms behind her. She stared down into the Canterlot gardens at the spot where Discord’s statue once stood; she closed her eyes and sighed once more.

“One thousand years ago…one thousand and three months ago if you want to be precise…” Celestia chuckled softly. “That’s when I first met him…”

Author's Note

Well, the next chapter is going to be a flash back. I'm sorry that I'm still keeping you all waiting for what happened in the past but I promise all of the past will be revealed in the next chapter, if you see any errors please let me know and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Personally didn't enjoy writing this chapter if I'm honest.