In my life, I've learned several things. One of them is that an early morning jog can be quite healthy. That is, unless it's actually a full out sprint and you are being chased by a legion from Hell. It is especially fun when there is an angry draconequus leading the charge. I would give anything to understand how they knew we were coming that night. I guess I've never really been the sneakiest pony, but how could he have known? Suppressing a shudder, I quickly looked back at the evening's attempts to break into the heart of Discord's territory, Canterlot.

Us three companions stood atop a hill, adjacent to the city of Canterlot. It was the eve of the 100th year of Discord’s rule. We were the last of the Rebellion, once swelling with numbers, now dwindled down to three. We represented the three races of ponies, along with our last hope to escape Discord’s grasp.

“Alright, lets go over the plan one more time.”

“There are three stages that we must complete tonight.”

“Stage one, gain entrance to the castle. Blaze, you will use the fake invitation we secured, Siltrix and I will descend from cloud layer using magic and wings. Blaze, once inside, make a show and cause a distraction. If you can play it off well, Discord will love it. Keep his attention. Once that has started we will sneak into the castle and start phase 2. I'll head to the royal archives and attempt to break the spell Discord has around the magic scrolls, but we need a back-up plan in case this fails. Siltrix will sneak around the guards and attempt to free the Princesses being held in the anti-magic dungeons.”

“If I cannot free the princesses, we'll use Plan 2, meaning I will find you and have you try to magically destroy the cage. Once Celestia and Luna are free, Blaze will disperse the memory spell powder to remind the ponies of their true enemy, and we will take up arms against him.”

“Phase 3, fighting Discord.”

“The princesses will fight Discord’s magical abilities, so he can’t escape or use magic for combat. The rest of us and our newly recruited guards will fight and, if possible, kill Discord.”

“Alright chums, time’s up. Let’s do this.”

Any pony worth their bits would say that every action has good and bad consequences, and this situation definitely had them. Luckily, I had managed to get the time scroll from the Star Swirl the Bearded section in the Canterlot Archives. Then again, I was being chased by Discord's main 'police' force. Not bad for my first break in, I guess.

I ran faster and faster, using a little spell that proved to be handy. It’s a good thing I spent so much time in the training ward of the secret magic school of Ponyville (it had to be secret, as Discord would never allow such a thing), but it drained my energy all the same, and I didn’t know how much longer I could run and do magic at the same time. The spell is pretty simple, causing the wind to push me from behind.

Suddenly a giant fish fell out of the sky and landed right next to me. "What the-" I started to say, and then Discord laughed. He was laughing the whole time of course, but that’s beside the point. I must say, I was never fond of his laugh. It never meant anything good. A giant rift opened in the ground and I almost fell in, jumping just in time. I kept running, determined to get away, not thinking about how unfair this “fight” was, if you could call it a fight. It was more of a chase, really. Discord had immense amounts of magic power, and could pretty much do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. The flowers around me started to sink into the ground, then made a ticking noise. Every other sound stopped. There was only ticking. The beeps got faster and faster, then I realized what was happening. My eyes widened and I braced myself as the ground exploded where the flowers were. Each detonation brought pieces of dirt and flower petals soaring through the air, along with more of the sounds that were there before. After about six explosions everything was normal again. Well, that’s not true. Nothing could really be normal with Discord in command. I’ll rephrase myself: The noises were sounding like they were before.

I was getting really tired. I had to stop doing magic while running, because I couldn’t keep up with the strain much longer. Apparently Discord could tell. There was a small 'pop' next to me, and there he was, floating along beside me with a grin.

"Tired? Don't worry, go ahead and take a nap. You're friends are taking one too, if you know what I mean."

"NO!" I yelled, but it's not like there was anything I could do. I had to turn my head and close my eyes just to keep running, fighting tears.

"Ha!" snorted Discord. "Your friends weren't as much fun. I expected more for how long you've been planning. Oop! You weren't supposed to know, were you? I had my eye on you the whole time! I just thought everything would turn out more enjoyable this way. I was right, wasn't I?" He smiled slyly.

I screamed, “Rrrgh! Shut UP!”

Discord laughed again. Then he poked me and said "I think it’s time for a game."

He popped away and I could feel myself being lifted up. “Let go, you piece of...” I said, but looking up, I saw nothing was there. I tried to grab onto the grass, but it was hard to get a good grip. I flailed around as I started to fly into the sky.

‘He reversed gravity!’ I thought to myself, and I knew I was done for. I would die once I got too far up for sure, but then a giant tube appeared around me, about ten times my height. I smacked my head on the ceiling/ground and shouted in pain. It was solid concrete, so you could say it hurt a little. I was dazed for a few seconds, but I shook my head and kept running. I couldn't stop. Not yet.

“I call this game: The Tube O’ Fun!” said Discord. “So here are the rules: Don’t mess up! Hahaha!”

A giant wall leaped up in front of me, and, surprised, I skidded to a stop. Then the ground and all around the cylinder behind me somehow caught on fire (purple, of course), and the heat was quickly advancing. I bounded off again, understanding Discord’s little game. I would have to keep running, dodging around his walls, or else I would be eaten by the inferno that was steadily coming in my direction. I thought this would be a snap, but then he tweaked the game a little. The gravity flipped again, except for instead of completely switching, it was a 90 degree turn.

“Oof!” I said as my side hit the wall. I righted myself again and quickly sped off. How could I not have seen that coming? I was in a tube, after all. Obviously this was the next step to the game. I cursed myself under my breath as Discord laughed. “You’re gonna have to do better than that!” he shouted after me.

I knew he was right. While running, I tried to think of how I could not fall when gravity was switched. ‘I can’t just land on my feet, it’s impossible to turn in the air.’

‘What if I use magic to flip in the air?’

‘No, I won’t have enough time...’

‘Well I have to do something! What if I just push off with my left legs when the gravity goes to the right and vise versa?’

‘I guess it could work... we’ll just have to tr- LOOK OUT FOR THAT WALL!’

‘Well I know to look out, you’re me aren’t you?’ I thought as I ran around the newly popped-up wall.

‘Shut up.’ So, having figured out a way to get around the new version of the tube game, I was feeling pretty confident. Kind of. Another wall appeared, and I dodged around it, then gravity changed by about 60 degrees to the left. I jumped using only my right legs, and that seemed to work okay. I was a little off balance at first, but I was fine. A hole opened up in front of me and I jumped over, a wall came out from above and I dove under. Doing a roll to keep moving helped, and then I was back up on my hooves. A jet of flame shot out from the right and I dodged left.

“Is that all you've got?” I asked Discord idiotically.

“Hehehe... not even close...” he said from all around me. It was a little creepy, I will admit.

Then gravity flipped all the way around again, and I couldn’t decide which legs to jump with fast enough. I jumped with all of them accidentally and landed extra hard on my head. “OW!” I shouted.

“Ha! Whoops!” laughed Discord. I hated not being able to see him. The disembodied voice was unnerving.

The flames were still advancing, and I needed to keep running. Then I thought gravity was changing again, but actually the tube had started rotating. It was really hard to run that way, as I had to move sideways and forward at the same time, while dodging obstacles and keeping up with ever changing gravity. I started to get dizzy, and was dry heaving a little. “This isn’t fair!” I yelled.

“Too hard? Ready to give up yet? I hope you know you can’t win,” he said.

“NO! NEVER!” I screamed, knowing that the game was pointless. It would never end, as long as Discord liked it. I concluded that in order to make the game end, I would have to destroy the tube. I used some of my precious energy to make a hole in the tube, and I jumped out of it.

“Done already? You’re no fun,” Discord said.

I realized my bad decision immediately, as gravity hadn't been facing the correct way when I was in the tube. I was flying towards some physics-defying buildings, about to go splat on one, when Discord flipped it back to normal.

“We wouldn't want our fun to end like that, now would we?” he said in his normal patronizing voice.

So tired I could barely continue, only pure will and determination to be victorious kept me going after my body began to fail. My vision started to haze, blurring to a new extreme. Fluid filled my lungs and every breath hurt like a buck to the chest.

'I have to do something now, he is just too fast and strong.'

'I need time to cast the spell. I need a distraction.'

'But how? I can’t run, I can’t attack him, I can’t do anything.'

'I can trick him.'

'Again, the question is: how? He’s the king of the tricksters. I need to disable him in some way.'

'If he can’t see, he can’t fight.’

Scraping up some will and magic in me, I began to prepare a spell. "HEY DISCORD!"

"Mmm? Yes? Done already? You wanna surren-”

"SOLAR FLARE, BITCH!" Using my magic, I create a wave of intense sound and incandescent light that exploded a thousand times brighter than the sun and a million times more surprising than any firework.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH MY EYES!!!!!! FUN'S OVER, YOU'RE DONE!!!!"

Quickly diving under a ripped up slab of stone, I grabbed the time scroll out of my saddlebag and began reading quickly, knowing I had seconds before he regained basic eye functions. With a new found fury, Discord would be out to kill, not just mess around. It was my last shot at stopping him, I had to act immediately.

The Scroll of Time Travel

This spell should not be used lightly, even casting the spell will have untold effects and may change the flow of time. Be warned, a few days back will not mess up the River of Time much, but going back too far will throw the flow off into an entirely new course. The use of this magic will indefinitely transport you back in time. So far, nopony has been able to find a spell that will bring you back to your original time. To go back for a short period of time, USE A DIFFERENT SPELL. The spell applies the use of four separate weavings of energy, and a single flaw in any will almost surely result in death. The first weave is the protection of the physical body, preventing harm upon travel. The next weave protects the mind; without this, time travel will drive the caster insane just by looking into the infinite ravages of time. The third weave creates a theoretical bridge between the dimensions, allowing for the travel of time. The final weave is the actual transport between the dimensions. Remember, this spell can and will change the flow of time, and is not to be used lightly. You have been warned.

How to do this spell: …

I finished reading as quickly as I could, and then started to perform the complicated spell. I had to stop running and jump into a ditch, because of the amount of magic it took. I was almost fainting as it was, and performing spells never helps. I concentrated as hard as I could and tried to completely clear my mind, apart from the spell. I stopped thinking about Discord, about my two dead friends that I would never see again, about how if the army behind me caught up, I would join my friends in endless darkness... with a grunt I put all my power, mental and physical, into this spell, which was most definitely the most difficult and complicated I had ever attempted. My horn was starting to spark, and glow brighter and brighter. A layer of pure energy formed, and I knew I was getting close.

“Time for bed!” shouted Discord. I could tell he was on my trail. My horn started to crackle and the glow died.

“Rrgh!” I said, frustrated. My mind had still been full of useless thoughts about what Discord would do to me when he found me.

‘Stop,’ I commanded myself. ‘Stop thinking about trivial things. Don’t be distracted. Do the spell.’ It’s a good thing I’m pretty good at following orders, (as long as I give them myself) but I did know I would have to protect myself while performing this. As I tried again, I made a small shield around myself. Then I closed my eyes and concentrated even harder than before. A layer of energy formed around my horn again, this time made of the hatred of evil. Then a second layer formed, made of determination. Third, another layer, made of pure will.

BAM! A rock flew into my magic shield, causing it to waver slightly. “Mph!” I said under my breath, but continued the spell. I couldn’t stop yet.

“I’M NOT DONE WITH YOU!” yelled Discord as he commanded inanimate objects to fly at me, using his chaotic magic. When each thing hit my shield it exploded, causing the shield to lose power and weaken slightly, yet I continued the spell. I could not give in.

Unfortunately, it seemed that he realized he couldn’t break the shield fast enough. He went for a different tactic instead. A flow of... something... started to come out of him, flying towards me, accelerating extremely quickly. It leaped at my shield and seeped through the cracks, forming at my sides and stabbing into me. It felt like a million tiny needles jabbing at me, but instead of coming back out they stayed in me.

“You will not escape unscathed!”

“You’re too late Discord!”

“Have fun stopping me when you can’t remember who I am.”

Discord began to launch a barrage of spells hitting in a circular area on my shield, weakening the area in between the shots. With a roar he fired a large bolt of energy that slammed right into the shield. As that happened, a fourth layer formed around my horn, that time made of hope, and I had only had seconds before I was teleported away. Discord’s spell broke the shield, and an ear shattering shockwave blasted everywhere. The spell hit me directly, but at that same moment the time travel spell finished, and I was shot into the past.

Author's Note

This story is written as if the Mane Six hadn't defeated Discord in his second return.