Hi everypony and welcome back to another chapter!

I'm very sorry for the long wait, I've been having a little trouble lately, I'll keep working though.

I'm glad to see my last chapter did so well, thank you all for your support for the past few years, it means a lot. I won't lie, I've had it rough for a while and probably still am, there even came times where I considered wrapping this whole thing up and giving it a rest, but I don't want to because I promised to see this story through to the end and because it wouldn't be fair on you guys.

But here we are, chapter 70, I didn't think I'd get this far. In fact, I thought it would be finished by now lol

Anyway, here's the next chapter, enjoy.

Chapter 70: Chaotic Control

It's been a week since I got temporally paralysed in a desperate attempt to heal my broken leg. Funny how I set off to heal one leg and ended up losing two, irony if there ever was any.

After I healed, I started getting back to work and let things go back to normal after the Zelga insistent...or at least as normal as it gets.

However, I wasn't completely at peace. Discord was still on my mind. I hadn't seen him the whole week, not since I last saw him. He was so angry at me when I told him to tell Celestia the truth about him still having all his powers.

At first, I wondered if he had told her, but as the days went by without any sighting of him, I started to wonder if I would see him again like...ever.

All the while, there still hasn't been any new information regarding the True Order. We searched the entire Library, we searched Twilight's old Library in Canterlot and we searched Canterlot's Library, there was nothing on them at all. Finding anything on them seemed hopeless at this point, but we knew they were out there and they'd strike again soon.

Twi and I figured we could go back up to Canterlot to check out the Starswirl the Bearded section and see if it had anything on the Order.

Canterlot

After a short train ride, Twi and I finally arrived in Canterlot, eager to get to the castle and check the archives. We didn't have our hopes up, but it couldn't hurt to try. We brought Spike along with us, in case we needed and extra set of hands...or only set of hands, seeing as though we didn't have any ourselves.

We walked through the streets as we made our way to the castle, all the while, I looked around for any signs of Discord. But everything seemed calm, so calm that it seemed like Discord had disappeared completely.

Twilight noticed my wondering eyes and nudged me a little. "Something on your mind?" She asked curiously.

I looked at her before I looked down at the ground as we kept walking. "It's nothing, Twi, I was just...looking around." I said, trying to hide my true intentions.

"For Discord?" Twilight asked with a raised eye-brow.

I should've remembered that Twi could read me like a book. "*sigh* yeah...I was hoping he'd be around here somewhere. Causing some kind of trouble or something like that." I said, still looking around for him.

Spike then came up between us with a firm look on his face. "Hopefully he's fled the coop! I knew we shouldn't have trusted him! He lied this whole time and we totally fell for it!" He said with an angered look on his face.

I may have forgot to mention that after I told Twi, I told Spike as well...which he then shared with the rest of our friends before I could, making them think the wrong way about it. Thanks a lot Spike.

Twilight glared down at Spike. "Spike! Hush!" She said firmly before she looked at me with a calmer look. "I know you want to make things right with him, but if he thinks we've told anyone the truth, he's probably hiding in the castle. You know, to avoid any newly-found hate aimed towards him." She said, trying to help me feel less worried.

I turned my head to face her again. "Maybe...I hope so...I mean, not the hiding part, the part about him being inside the castle. At least then I know where he is." I said with my ears lowering a bit. "I hope Celestia took the news better than I did." I said, hoping the worst didn't happen.

Twilight smirked in amusement. "Well knowing Princess Celestia, she would've taken it better than I did." She said before we thought back on that day.

A week ago: Zecora's hut

A week ago, Twilight and I went to Zecora's hut to try and find out why my legs weren't working. That was also the time where I had to tell her the truth about Discord.

Which then led to this.

"What do you mean Discord lied?!" Twilight yelled right in my face, making me fall back on my wheelchair.

Present day

"I suppose that's true." I said, agreeing with her.

Twilight giggled. "Yeah, can you imagine Celestia yelling that loud? Like if she had her own Royal Canterlot Voice like Princess Luna?" She said, smiling with amusement at the thought of such a thing.

I chuckled at the thought. "I wouldn't want to be around to see that." I said.

"Me neither, in all my years of being her student, I've never seen that." Twilight said before she looked away to think back. "But then again, I think she did once." She said.

"Really?" I asked, wondering when Celestia ever spoke like that.

Twilight turned her head to face me again. "It was a while ago, before I met you. I was going crazy because I hadn't sent a friendship lesson to Celestia in a while, so I decided to make a problem to one and...well...she was pretty mad when she found out what I had done." She said, smiling sheepishly knowing how over-the-top crazy she was back then.

I thought back and realised she was talking about the events in the episode 'Lesson Zero', where she indeed going over-the-top crazy. "Really? What happened later?" I said, acting as though I didn't know."

"Well things happened and everything was fixed afterwards." Twilight said with a small smile. "But I tried to avoid going crazy like that again." She said.

I thought about it and remembered how creepy that episode was when I first watched it. "Yeah, please do." I said, dreading ever facing against that.

Twilight giggled in amusement before we kept on our way towards the castle. All the while, I hoped Discord would be there so I could settle things between us.

A few minutes later

After finally reaching the castle, we approached the gate to the castle grounds and expected Celestia to be waiting for us inside. We had told her we were coming, so it's only likely she'd be waiting to greet us as usual.

As we got closer, I turned my head to face Twilight with a serious look on my face. "Do you think the archives will have anything on the True Order?" I asked.

Twilight looked at me with uncertainty. "I'm not sure. If there was any record of them anywhere, we probably would've found something by now." She informed me.

"Well regardless, we can't give up." I said before I turned my head to face the castle as we got closer to it. "The True Order certainly won't." I said with a sharp glare in my eyes.

"I know, I'm just saying we shouldn't get our hopes up, this might be another dead end." Twilight said, turning to face the castle with me.

I didn't want to admit it, but it was a possibility. The True Order was like the subject that should never be spoken or something, it was most likely not going to be mentioned here. "Maybe...but this is our last hope, so lets just hope we get a lucky break." I said as we entered the castle grounds.

But suddenly, the doors to the castle opened and Princess Celestia came rushing out. We stopped where we were as we watched her gallop past us. "Princess? Is everything alright?" Twilight asked in concern.

"I don't have time to talk right now, Twilight, I have important matters to attend to." Celestia said before she spread her wings and took off into the air.

"Wait! Princess! This is important too!" Spike called as he tried to run after her, but she didn't respond as she kept flying away. Soon enough, she swooped down to another part of the city a medium distance away from where we were.

We were all confused and concerned, what could be happening that would make Celestia leave so suddenly? "What's going on?" I asked out-loud for Twi and Spike to hear.

"I don't know...maybe something came up." Twilight said before she returned her attention to the main doors to the castle. "But maybe she knows more." She said.

I looked over to doors and saw Luna coming out of the castle with a concerned look on her face. We walked over to her and check in on what was happening. "Princess Luna! We just saw Princess Celestia run off in a hurry, is something wrong? Is there danger?" Twilight asked in concern.

Luna shook her head. "No, there is no threat. My sister is just worried. Discord has been missing for a few days now, she is concerned he may have gone into hiding somewhere." She said, informing us on what was troubling Celestia.

Twilight and I looked at each other before we looked at Luna. "Discord's run off? When?" I asked with both curiosity and concern.

"I do not know." Luna said before she looked down at the ground. "This is very unlike him. Usually, he's always somewhere around the castle with my sister or those foolish dogs he's always bossing around. I don't know what could have caused him to flee so suddenly." She said with wonder in her eyes.

I wondered that myself, but I didn't need to, I already knew what caused him to do this. It's either he didn't want to tell Celestia the truth and disappeared to avoid it, or he did tell her and he's hiding in shame. I thought of telling Luna this information, but it seemed as though she didn't know about discord's lie yet, so I decided to keep it under my hat for a bit. "Same here, it's not like her to run off without telling anyone what was wrong." I said, trying to hide the truth.

However, not everyone was fooled, Twilight looked at me with a confused yet firm look before she returned her attention to Luna. "Maybe she's searching for Discord, she's probably asking ponies if they've seen him." She said, thinking of an explanation.

"My thoughts exactly, Twilight Sparkle." Luna said before she looked over to the part of the city where Celestia landed. "I wish there was a time where that creature didn't cause my sister such discomfort." She said out-loud.

I was silent for a moment before I stepped forward. "Don't worry, Luna, we'll find Discord and sort all of this out." I said with a gentle voice before I decided to change the subject to the topic we came here for. "Anyway, Twilight and I wanted to search through the Starswirl the Bearded archives for anything about the True Order. You know, those guys we told you about." I said, reminding about them.

Luna then thought back and remembered that we had mentioned them a few times and so on. "Ah yes...if I recall, you said Thorn and Zelga were part of them." She said before giving me a curious look. "But what makes you believe they will be any information on them is Starswirl's reports?" She asked curiously.

Twilight and I looked at each other again before we looked at Luna. "We don't, we're just checking and hoping we find something." Twilight said.

Luna was slightly surprised by this. "Oh...I see...well, I suppose any plan is better than no plan." She said before she turned around and went back into the castle. "I'll escort you to the archives." She said while looking back at us.

"Thanks Princess." Twilight said as we entered the castle and followed her through the lobby.

Instead of going up the large stairs like we usually would, we turned to face two large doors. Luna opened the doors to reveal long hallway stretching to contact to the next wing of the castle.

As Luna, Twilight and Spike started walking down the hallway, I stayed behind in the lobby. I would've followed them, but I had other plans.

Twilight noticed I wasn't following and stopped to look back at me. "Matt? Aren't you coming?" She asked curiously.

I gave her a warm smile while shaking my head. "No, you go on ahead and search the archives, I've got a different lead to check out. I'll come find you when I'm done, ok?" I said with a soft voice.

Twilight gave me a confused look, but she also gave me the answer I was hoping for. "Oh...Urrr...ok, just be careful." She said.

"I will." I said before I turned and walked away from the entrance.

As I did, Twilight turned and continued to follow Spike and Luna down the hallway. She didn't know what to make of this, I didn't mention a second lead before and I would've told her if there was. Something didn't sit right about it, she knew I was up to something. But there wasn't time to be concerned about that, she had to focus on the task at hand, she could only hope I'd stay out of trouble with whatever it was I was doing.

-Meanwhile-

After separating from the others, I made my way through the castle until I reached the ballroom. I walked across the ballroom until I reached the exit that led to the gardens.

I opened the doors and went out into the gardens. I then stopped in the middle, the warm sunlight shined down on me as my hooves sunk in the grass. I looked around to see if anyone was here, but it looked as though I was alone.

"There has to be some guards around here somewhere." I said to myself, wondering why there were no guards anywhere.

Just then, my ears perked as I heard giggling and chuckling. I turned around and looked around, but saw nothing, until a bush rustled and I could hear the laughter again. I walked over to the bush and listened closely.

"Star, what if someone finds us?" A female voice asked.

"Don't worry, Illume, there's no one around today. We have the castle to ourselves." A male voice said before the rustling continued.

At that point, I knew who I was eavesdropping on and decided to have a little fun with then. I chuckled deviously before I took a deep breath. "Star Beam! Illume! Front and centre!" I said, using my best caption voice.

Within an instant, both Star Beam and Illume yelped in surprise and they leaped out if the bushes. They both stood sharply as they saluted. "Captain, we were just...huh?" Star said in confusion when they realised it was me.

I smirked and raised my eye-brow. "Yes?..." I said, loving how awkward and amusing this was.

Star and Illume stopped saluting and Illume took a step forward. "Matthew? Was that you?" she asked curiously.

I couldn't help but laugh a little at this. "Yeah. Sorry about that, I just had to see what would happen." I said, still laughing a little.

Star and Illume then gave me a pair of unamused looks. "That was so not funny, Matthew." Star said with an annoyed tone.

"It was pretty funny, man." I argued before my laughter finally died down. "Ok...anyway, I heard you say there were no other guards here today. What's that about?" I asked curiously.

"Oh...that. You haven't heard?" Star asked, looking at me like he was surprised that I didn't know what was going on.

I titled my head. "Heard what?" I asked curiously.

"Celestia sent most of the guards across the land to look for Discord, he's gone missing and Celestia wants him found as soon as possible." Illume said, walking up to me.

"Discord again?" I said, sounding like this topic was getting old. "Celestia is definitely going through a lot of trouble to find him. Has she sent every guard?" I asked.

"Not every guard. We along with a few others and the captain stayed behind to protect the Princesses, just in case something would happen. But Equestria is a big place, it takes a lot of ponies to cover it all, Princess Luna even got some of her guards doing it." Star informed me.

This was starting to get weird, Discord's gone for a week and Celestia sends out a world-wide manhunt for him. "Why is Celestia so determined to find Discord? Is she trying to catch him or something? Did he do something to...you know...tick her off?" I asked, hoping nothing had happened to led to that conclusion.

Star shook his head. "No, nothing like that...I don't think...she's just concerned about him, I saw it in her eyes when she told me about this. She also said something about him being...unpredictable...and wanted him back so they could work things out, whatever that means." He explained, wondering what any of this meant.

I thought about it for a moment and knew what was happening. Discord must've told Celestia the truth and something happened between them, Discord must've stormed off afterwards and now no-one can find him. "Well...hopefully he'll turn up soon." I said, still trying to hide the truth from ponies that wouldn't want to know it.

Illume turned her head to face Star. "I know he's a pain and all, but I'm actually worried about him, he usually turns up by now with some kind of crazy motive. What if he's in trouble?" She asked with a concerned tone.

Star looked at Illume and gave her a comforting smile. "Don't worry, Lume." He said, using his nickname for her. "He's a Spirit, I don't think anything can take that guy down."

I stepped forward. "He's right, Discord may not be the toughest guy I know, but he knows how to get himself out of a bad scrape." I said, trying to put Illume's worries at ease before I turned to Star. "Anyway, I need you to do something for me." I said.

Star looked at me with a wondering stare. "Oh? And what would that be?" He asked.

"I need you to take me down to the Canterlot Dungeons." I answered in a serious tone.

Star was surprised by this. No one had ever asked to be willingly taken to the dungeon before, he never thought anyone would. "And...what's your business down there?" He asked with an uneasy voice.

"Important business." I answered before I turned my head away from him. "There's someone who owes me some answers." I said with a low groan.

Star and Illume looked at each other before they returned their attention to me. "I don't think I'm authorised to do that, Matthew, I'd have to take it up with the Princess." He said.

I was a little struck with nervousness by this, I didn't really want the Princess to know about this, what I wanted to do down in the dungeon was my own business and I wanted to do it myself. "You can't!" I blurted out before I tried to talk in a calmer voice. "I mean, the Princess is out, I saw her fly out into the city before we arrived." I said, trying to get him to reconsider.

Star raised his eye-brow. "Really?...Well, I suppose I'd have to talk with Princess Luna then. In the absence of Princess Celestia, she is second in command." He said, stating a counter proposal.

I had to admit that he had me there, but I still didn't want anyone finding out, it was bad enough that I had to ask someone for directions. I had to think of another argument to change his mind. "No…umm…Luna's busy as-well, she's helping my wife in the Starswirl Archives." I said, hoping it was a good enough argument.

Star was silent for a moment, giving me a strange look. "Ok…then I'd have to tell Princess Cadence. Last I checked, she was in her chambers." He said.

I tried to think of another argument, but I was drawn a blank. It all seemed lost until Illume stepped forward. "Sorry Star, she's gone too… something about meeting someone in the Sculptor Gardens." She said, thinking back to when Cadence told her that in her chamber before she left.

Star looked at her with a frustrated look. "Ok, I can't tell Celestia, can't tell Luna, can't tell Cadence! Is there anyone I can go to?" he asked in a loud tone before he exhaled to calm himself down. Once he was calm, he returned his attention to me. "Is it really that urgent that it can't wait until we have proper permission?" he asked curiously.

I took this chance to slip through this situation and nodded. "Yeah, I need to get down there right away." I said, trying to convince him to take me to the dungeons.

Star and Illume looked at each other again before Star sighed. "Very well." He said before he turned and made his way towards the entrance to the ballroom. "Follow me, Matthew." He said as he entered the castle.

I rushed after him until I was behind him, I followed him into the castle and we made our way out of the ballroom into the next wing, leaving Illume alone in the gardens. Feeling the cold chilly breeze of loneliness against her body, she sighed heavily. "I guess our date will have to be put on hold until later, right Star?" she said to herself out-loud, feeling as though Star walked out on her again.

Illume made her way to the entrance, but was stopped by the sound of one of the bushes rustling. She stopped and turned her head around to see where it was coming from. "H-Hello?" she called in a slightly scared voice, but received only silence.

Illume stood there for a moment, waiting to see if anyone would present themselves, but there was no one. She started to think that maybe it was just a rabbit or something, so she decided to shrug it off and go inside.

Illume entered the castle and closed the doors behind her, she felt the warmth of the indoors air melt the cold off her body, but when she turned around, she saw a dark figure standing at the end of the ballroom. This startled her a first, but she calmed down once she saw who it was. "Oh, its just you…where have you been?" she said with a small smile.

The figure remained silent as it started walking towards her. As it got closer, her calm look turned into a troubled one. "Why are you looking at me like that?" she said before she became scared. "Wait! What are you…no! Stay away! No!" she screamed before she suddenly disappeared in a flash of light.

A few minutes later: Dungeons

After a while of walking from one wing of the castle to the next, Star and I finally made it to the castle dungeon where all of Canterlot's trouble-makers where kept locked up. As we walked down the long stone stairs, I kept looking at Star, hoping he wasn't suspicious about why I wanted to go down here.

But all the while, he was silent, didn't ask any questions or say anything regarding this. I thought it would make it less awkward if I said something, particularly something not involving this. "So…you and Illume, how longs has that been going on for?" I asked curiously, trying to break the silence.

Star turned his head to look at me and grinned. "Illume? Huh, that's been going on for years. I met her in the academy, she was a little rough at first, but in the end, her rough attitude became kinda cute. We started dating within a month." He said with a smart-ass smirk.

I returned the smirk. "Love story if there ever was one." I said in response to that. "So has there been any news lately? Any gossip?" I asked curiously.

Star thought for a moment, but couldn't think of anything. "Nothing I've heard of…in fact, Canterlot seems pretty quiet lately." He informed. But upon saying that, a thought immediately came to mind. "Wait! There is something! We've been getting reports that ponies in the city are starting to disappear one by one." He said in a small out-burst.

I looked at him with confusion. "Disappearing? As in, they're being taken away?" I asked, starting to wonder what was going on to cause this.

"Probably." Star replied. "Or maybe they're just leaving the city for a while, some believe it's still not safe after that whole thing with…Zelga, was it?" he asked.

I thought about it and it did seem likely. After the Thorn attack, many of Canterlot's citizens didn't return straight away, they waited a while before deciding it was safe to come back. "I suppose so, but I'd better look into it, just to be on the safe side."

"Be my guest, it's always good to have an extra pair of experienced hooves helping out." Star said as we both continued to make our way down to the dungeon, remaining silent all the while.

Once we reached the dungeon, Star opened the wooden door which led into the cell room, which held a large hallway of cells with ponies and other creatures inside them. Star and I walked down the cell block, passing many cells along the way. I looked into a few of them and saw ponies, griffins and even horses. They all looked tough, one even had large muscles and what looked like a tattoo, how he got a tattoo on his fur, I'll never know. "How many prisoners do you have down here?" I asked, staring at them all like animals in a zoo.

Star didn't turn around as he answered. "Hmm…not sure, quite a lot, whoever causes serious trouble in Canterlot gets sent down here." he said as we kept walking.

I was a little unsettled by all of this, the prisoners looked disturbed and had a strange glare, like they wanted to hurt me. As I passed one of the cells, a claw shot out from the bars and grabbed my right front-leg, I spun my head around to see what it was and saw that it was a griffon with dirty feathers and a mussel on his beak. He hissed at me and gripped my leg hard.

Startled, I tried to pull my leg away, but the griffon had a tight grip on me. Star soon noticed this and rushed over before he slammed his hoof against the bars, scaring the griffon and making it retreat to the back of the cell.

With my leg now free, I stepped away from the cell and took deep breathes to calm myself down. "Yeah…best stay away from the cells, the prisoners aren't commutable around strangers." Star said before he turned and continued to make his way down the cell block.

"No kidding." I responded as I followed behind, staring at the griffon in the cell before I returned my attention to Star.

After a minute or so, Star and I eventually saw someone up ahead facing one of the cells. He was white and was wearing big pieces of armour. As we got closer, we were able to make out that it was Shining Armor. I wondered what he was doing down here, shouldn't he be up-top helping Celestia? It looked as though he was talking to someone inside the cell and I had a strong mind of who it was.

"Why did you do this? Why did you betray us? We were friends, the three of us went to the academy together, we graduated together!" Shining said loudly, full of anger and grief, as he watched the prisoner pace back and forth inside the cell. "Didn't we mean anything to you?" he asked.

"Ha! Are you kidding me? My only goal was to earn the trust of the guards and Princesses and then swipe the Elements when I could." The pony said before he stepped out of the shadows and revealed himself to be Blaze Horn, still pretty beaten up of my fight with him and still had the Horn Block sealed around his horn, preventing him to using magic. "You and Midnight Gaze were merely…keeping me entertained through all those years." He said with a despicable smirk.

Shining bared his teeth and breathed heavily in anger. "So you didn't feel a single ounce of sympathy when you told Thorn the location of Luna's castle and caused the death of many of her guards, including Midnight!" he said, snapping at him with the last part.

Blaze continued to smirk as he walked up to the bars and looked Shining right in the eye. "Not…one…bit." he said darkly.

Shining tried with everything he had to contain his anger. Here he was, talking to a pony he once believed was one of his closest friends through the bars of a prison cell, and all he wanted to do was go in there and knock his lights out for the horrible things he's done. "You betrayed us, you betrayed our trust and friendship…ponies like you should be in Tartarus." He growled.

Blaze threw his eyes. "Don't you get it yet, Shiny? I was working with my mother since the beginning, I enrolled into the academy so I could get close to the Princess and steal the Elements. I didn't betray you because I wasn't on your side to begin with!" he said in a loud tone.

Shining didn't know what to feel. Anger, sadness, regret for not seeing it sooner. He stood there, feeling like an utter fool and that he had failed Midnight. If he had noticed this sooner, he could have prevented his death.

Blaze saw that we was having a hard time coming to terms with this and grinned darkly. "Yeah…you're finally getting it." he said before he decided to get to him more. "By the way, in case you forget, I know all about your little secret, how you're…seeing…one of the Princesses. I wonder if she knows about all this stuff about me…maybe, if you were to suddenly disappear, she would need a shoulder to cry on." he said with a devilish grin.

Shining growled loudly before his horn glowed and gripped Blaze's mane, he was then yanked towards him and his face pressed against the cell bars. "If you even think about going near her, I'll see to it that you never reach Torturous alive, do you hear me?!" he said with a death glare.

"Captain!" a voice said near him. Shining released Blaze and turned his head to see me and Star walking over to him. "Is everything alright?" Star asked with us stopping beside him.

Shining took a few breaths to calm himself down before he spoke. "Yeah, I'm fine." He said before he turned his attention to me. "Is there a reason you brought a civilian down to the dungeon? Especially when it's an off-limits zone?" he asked, looking at Star with a firm look.

I gave him a confused look. He's never addressed me as a civilian before, it was like he had forgotten who I was completely.

"Sorry Captain, but he said it was for important business. I was going to ask the Princesses if it was ok, but I couldn't find them." Star explained before he looked down at me. "I did suggest waiting until I got proper authorization, but he said it was urgent." He said.

Shining looked at him for a moment before he looked down at me, giving me a suspicious look. "Did he now?" he said before he returned his attention to Star. "Thank you Star, I'll take care of things from here. You're relieved." He said, waving his hoof.

Star gave a nod. "Yes sir." He said before he turned around and made his way back up the dungeon hallway, heading back towards the stairs that led back up to the surface.

We both watched him go until he started going up the stairs. Once he was gone, I turned to face Shining and looked at him with a raised eye-brow. "Civilian?" I said, repeating what he said. "You do know who I am, right? I'm not exactly your average pony." I say, wanting to remind him that I wasn't just any random pony.

Shining gave me a gentle look. "Sorry Matt, but I had to keep to my duties as a Captain, you know?" he said, hoping I'd understand. "Speaking of which, I'm gonna have to ask why you're down here." he said.

I understood that he, as a Caption of the royal guard, had to know. "If you must know, I'm here for answers." I said before I turned my head to face the cell that held Blaze horn. "From him." I said with a small growl.

Shining looked over to Blaze and gave me a doubtful stare. "I've been trying to get him to talk all day, he just keeps brushing it off and changing the subject." He informed me.

"I've got other methods." I growled before I returned my attention to Shining. "Open the cell." I said to him.

Shining was shocked by this order. "Excuse me?" he said in surprise. "Did that fight with Zelga leave you crazy? I can't open the cell, Blaze will try to get out!" he stated.

"No he won't, I won't let him." I said before I stepped aside so Shining could get to the cell door. "I need you to let me into the cell." I said in a serious tone.

Shining was still for a moment before he sighed. "Ok, but I'll have to lock it behind you. Don't worry, I'll be right out here if you get into trouble." He said as he walked up to the cell door and used his magic to unlock it with the key.

"Perfect." I responded as I waited for him to open the door.

After a moment, there was a click noise and Shining used his magic to open the cell door. He then stepped aside to let me enter it. Once inside, Shining closed the door and locked it behind me. "I hope you know what you're doing." Shining said, watching from the other side of the bars.

"I've dealt with worse." I said to him before I returned my attention to Blaze. "Isn't that right, Blaze? Or did you forget about Thorn and Zelga?" I asked, giving a strong look.

Blaze had his back turned to me, but as soon as I said that, he spun around and gave me a dark glare. "No, I haven't…I think about them every day." he growled before he sat down. "So is that what you came here for? To gloat? To tell me that I'll rot behind a bunch of bars for the rest of my days? Well save your breath, Shiny here already gave me that speech." He said in a rough tone.

"Actually, I'm here to ask you a few questions." I said before I sat down a few feet away from him. "Questions about your mother and what she was part of." I said, not taking my eye off him and preparing myself for anything he might try.

Blaze smirked as her threw his eyes. "Of course…Dear mother reveals something to the great Matthew and he's suddenly on the case." He said before his smirk went away. "Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe everything doesn't always have to be about you? Since you killed my uncle, it's been Matthew this and Matthew that! If there's a problem, Matthew can fix it! *Feh* You must think of yourself as some kind of god." He said with a hateful stare.

I frowned and thought about what he said. I knew I had been getting a reputation since I defeated Thorn, but I didn't want it to start with. I didn't think of myself better than anyone and I wanted to make that perfectly clear. "I didn't ask for my fame, just as Twilight and her friends didn't ask to be the ones who control the Elements. It…just happened. I just wanted a peaceful life with the girl I love, with the friends I love." I said before I glared sharply at him. "…But you're family got in the way of that! They threatened us, tortured Twilight and the others, and tried to make the world a living Hell!...After I beat Thorn, I made a decision…to protect the ones I love no matter what. All they had to do was surrender and leave us alone, maybe if they did, they'd still be alive!" I said in a loud voice.

Blaze then shot up onto his hooves in anger. I immediately got up as well, ready to defend myself. He may not be able to use magic, but that doesn't mean he wasn't still dangerous. "Well maybe they couldn't! Maybe they would've died either way! Because if that was the case, a death received by you is more of a mercy than the death they would've received later." He said in an enraged yet slightly frightened tone.

Upon hearing that, I began to wonder what he was talking about. What would kill them later and why would it be worse than what I did to them. I mean, Thorn was impaled and Zelga was crushed, what could be worse? "What do you mean by that? Was there something trying to kill them?" I asked, wanting to know as much detail as I could.

Blaze huffed and turned away. "No…in fact, I think I said enough…you should go, you have other problems to deal with." he said in a groan.

I growled and stepped forward. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what I want to know." I said before I decided to stop listening and started interrogating. "Tell me about the True Order! You were part of them, who are they? What do they want?!" I asked, stomping my hoof against the ground.

Blaze chuckled. "What do they want?..." he said before he turned back around to face me. "What they want is to fix the damage done to this world, to make this world stronger." He said with a large grin.

I took a step closer to him. "By terrorising other ponies? By killing them? By destroying everything they've worked so hard to build for themselves." I asked, not believing they wanted to fix anything.

Blaze's grin turned twisted and crooked. "Like I said, they want to fix the damage…but they can't do that without cleansing the chaos done to it first. Can't make an omelette without breaking a few misguided heads now, can we? Hahaha." He laughed darkly.

I was starting to get frustrated with his attitude. Acting like he was the one being wronged, like I was the problem, like he was part of something to make the world better, how he talked about people's lives like they were expendable and diseased. "There's nothing wrong with this world! Its perfect the way it is, thanks to ponies like Celestia." I said in their defence.

"Celestia!" Blaze scoffed. "Celestia is the major part of the problem! He teachings and guidance has led ponies to believe things such as love and friendship are a strength, but all they do is make them weak…take your wife, for example." He said while smirking again, knowing he was entering a dangerous area.

And he wasn't wrong, I was starting to lose my cool the moment he entered that area. "Shut up…" I growled, giving him my only warning.

"Celestia's teaching has tainted her, made her soft. True, she can hold herself up in a fight, but she would've accomplished more if she had gone down the same path we did…just imagine what she could've done had she joined us." Blaze said with darkness in his eyes.

With that, I shot up against him and pinned him against the wall. "Twilight would have never joined you! She never will! And if you so much as look at her with that idea in mind, I'll gouge your eyes out! You hear me? I'll gouge them out!" I said with pure anger and hatred as my coat started to turn dim with bits of shadow appearing on it.

Shining saw this and tied to enter the cell, but a dark aura formed around the lock, preventing him from entering. Realising he couldn't get in, all he could do was watch from behind the bars. "Matt! Get a hold of yourself!" he said, trying to get through to me.

Blaze saw my body changing and grinned. "That is interesting…all that darkness in your body, it's starting to take a hold of you. It might just be the hit to the back of the head I just received, but I think if you keep this personality around, he just might take you under his wing just like he did with me." he said, not looking intimidated at all.

"Who is 'he'?" I asked loudly. "How many more of you are there? How many?!" I yelled as I grabbed his throat with my hooves and hoisted him up.

Blaze coked a little due to the pressure against his throat, but he managed to find the strength to answer. "T-Two…there's only two…" he said before he grinned again. "But you won't beat them…Thorn was weaker than my mother, but she wasn't the strongest amongst us…" he said, struggling to talk.

Growled and lowered him so his face was right above mine. "And who is the strongest?" I asked, looking him straight in the eye.

Blaze glared and chuckled. "Sorry Mattie…spoilers." He answered.

I growled again before I threw him against the wall and dropped down onto my hooves, while he fell down onto the floor. I breathed deeply, my inner-self trying to regain control of my body. I grunted and closed my eyes tight, desperately trying to calm down. My coat started to regain into colour and the shadowy patches started to fade away. Once it was all gone, I opened my eyes wide and gasped loudly, taking in as much air as I could.

I took some deep breaths before I looked down at Blaze, seeing him on the floor while rubbing his throat with his hoof. I'm not sure I forgot anything or not, everything just felt like a blur. I lifted my hoof and looked at it, thinking about this…creature…that lurked inside me. I returned my attention to Blaze and gave him a firm look. "What is that thing?...what's inside me?" I asked, not sure whether to be scared or not.

Blaze looked up at me and smirked. "The dark magic of the True Order…think about it, remember how powerful Thorn and Zelga were? Do you really think all that power just simply went away? No, it needs a home just like everything else…and where better to go that the pony who struck down their old masters?" he said.

I grew concerned by this, knowing the power of both Thorn and Zelga were inside me. I didn't how to feel, scared that this power was waiting to take me over again, angry that I didn't predict this sooner, doubtful that I could have such a power. But most of all, I felt a little concerned that it saw me worthy to possess me, did this mean I was as dark as the power itself? "H-How do I get rid of it?" I asked, not beating around any bushes.

Blaze chuckled before he gave a single laugh. "Ha! You can't! That power is stronger than anything you or your wife can dish out. Only a pony of great power can remove it…sorry to say, you won't find any on your side, not even Celestia is that powerful." He scoffed.

I could feel my anger start to rise again, something about his smug face just pushed me in a bad way. But I knew what would happen if I lost my cool, so I took a breath to calm myself down. "I'll deal with that later…right now, I want to know where the next member of the True Order will appear…and you're gonna tell me right now!" I said in a demanding tone.

Blaze smirked as he slowly stood back up. "Don't worry about that…in a matter of time, he'll come to you, just like they always do." he said with a menacing look.

I was about to speak again, but suddenly, the ground started to shake and there was a loud cracking sound, like there was a large earthquake. It was big enough to make us lose our balance and fall to the floor. Dirt and rocks fell from the ceiling as the shaking got worse, we all had to shield out heads with our arms to avoid getting hurt by anything that fell. But after a moment, the shaking stopped completely.

We all waited a moment to make sure it was safe before we removed our arms from our arms from our heads and stood back up. I turned around to Shining Armor and walked over to him. "You ok?" I asked in concern.

Shining rubbed his head with his hoof before he looked at me. "Yeah, I'm fine…" he said before he looked up at the ceiling, wondering what was going on up on the surface. "What was that?" he asked.

I wondered the same. "I don't know…an earthquake maybe?" I asked.

Shining returned his attention to me. "On the side of a mountain, not impossible but very unlikely." He said with a raised eye-brow. "Besides, we've never had anything like that around her before." He stated.

I wondered what this could mean before I heard chuckling behind me, I spun around and saw Blaze get back up onto his hooves with a large grin on his face. "Like I said, you have other problems to deal with. Wouldn't want your dear wife getting hurt up there, would we?" he asked.

Part of me wanted to punch him so hard that it would make him pass out and finally shut up, but he had a point, an earthquake that large could've caused damage to the city. I had to get back up and check on Twilight. I returned my attention to Shining and made my way towards the cell door. "He's right, we need to check on the others." I said.

With the dark power now gone, Shining was able to open the cell door. I exited the cell and shining closed the door behind me. "Come on." I said as I made my way back towards the stairs that led up to the surface. Shining gave one last glare to Blaze before he followed me.

"I'll be waiting." Blaze said with a mocking smirk. "By the way, tell the cook I never got my slop or whatever it is you serve to the prisoners around here." he called as he walked up to the bars to watch us leave from the other side. As he did, he soon noticed that the door wasn't locked, it was open slightly.

Blaze grinned as he decided to take this chance. He walked up to the cell door and slowly placed his hoof on it and prepared to slowly push it open. But suddenly, Shining's hoof on the other side pushed against it and slammed it shut, Shining used his magic to lock the cell before he gave Blaze a firm look. "Yeah, not gonna happen." He growled before he turned and rushed away, trying to catch back up with me.

"Dang it!" Blaze said as his stomped his hoof against the floor. He then sat down on the floor and crossed his arms, pouting at his continuing imprisonment.

A little while later

After returning to the surface, Shining and I quickly made our way to the Magic Archives where Twilight and Luna. We galloped through the hall ways, passing many panicking maids and workers, plus some guards who were trying to control the situation.

I worried for Twilight. The Archives weren't what they used to, they could've collapsed on top of them or worse. I needed to get there as soon as I could, I'd take off into the air and fly there if I had to. But this proved unnecessary when I saw Twilight and Luna up ahead, galloping towards me. Once I reached her, I immediately wrapped my arms around her and locked her in a hug.

"Thank God you're ok." I said, glad that she was still in one piece. I then released her from my hug and placed my hoof on her cheek. "Are you ok?" I asked in concern.

"I'm fine." Twilight answered. "But what happened? It felt like an Earthquake, but we've never had an Earthquake here before, it's like it was totally random." She said, trying to figure out what happened.

"I know, I don't know what it was either." I said before I turned my attention to Luna. "Was anyone hurt?" I asked curiously.

Luna shook his head. "No…at least none that I am aware of." She said before she walked past us and started making her way down the hall. "I am sorry I must go so suddenly, but I must find my sister, she will need my aid in the city." She said before she rushed away to leave the castle and find Celestia as fast as possible.

While she left us, I looked back at Twilight. "I know this probably isn't the best time to ask, but did you find anything on the True Order?" I asked, most curious about what information she might've dug up.

Twilight shook her head. "No, I didn't find anything. Out of all the places, I thought for sure Star Swirl's archives would've had something about the True Order…" she said before she changed the subject. "But yeah, this isn't a good time to ask, we need to check on the ponies in the city, they could've gotten hurt." she said before she rushed past me and went down the same hall as Luna.

Shining and I looked at each other before we followed her. We made our way through the castle until we reached the main exit, upon exiting the castle and entering the courtyard, we saw many citizens in a panic over the sudden Earthquake. We all left the courtyard and went into the streets to see how bad the damage was.

It was a wreck. Ponies in panic, buildings half crumbled, guards trying to take control of the chaos it caused. Fortunately, the damage wasn't so bad, but still bad enough to cause mayhem. "Do you think Celestia's ok?" I asked, turning my head to Twilight.

Twilight looked over to me with a concerned look. "I don't know. I mean, she's a strong pony and she can take care of herself, but she's not entirely indestructible." She answered.

I gave her a thoughtful look before I placed my hoof on her shoulder. "Go find her, she'll probably need your help." I said to her, thinking of her concern for Celestia's safety.

Twilight looked at me deeply. "Are you sure?" she asked with wonder. "I admit, I'm worried for the Princess, but she's capable of handling herself. You two might need me." she said, thinking of what might happen in her absence.

"Not as much as the Princess might." I argued. "She'll need you to help calm everyone down and keep things under control in a proper manner." I said before I turned my head to face Shining. "While Shining and I will do the same, but…not as much in a proper manner…I suspect." I said before smiling nervously at her.

Twilight threw her eyes. "Fine." She said in a groan before she moved closer to me and kissed my cheek. "Just stay safe, ok?" she said with a slightly concerned voice.

I smiled at her. "I'm supposed to tell you that." I said before I turned to face Shining. "Ready to go?" I asked him, feeling ready to handle riot control.

Shining nodded. "Yeah, the citizens are most likely to head to the train station to leave the city. They'll trample each other if we don't control it." he said with a strong tone.

"Right." I said with a single nod before I returned my attention to Twilight. "Find Celestia, make sure she's ok and for God's sake be careful." I said as Shining and I began to move away from her, making our way to the train station and leaving Twilight in the street.

Twilight remained there until she saw us start to gallop down the street. Twilight sighed deeply before she grew a strong look, she then turned and started galloping down the street in the other direction to find Princess Celestia.

While she did, a strange shadow lurked in the darkness and snickered as it watched Twilight run towards a venerable area.

-Meanwhile-

Shining and I kept galloping down the street, passing more panicking ponies, most of them rushed and pushed past us while others stayed near their homes. I looked at them all in pity and sympathy. After we got control of the riots, I'd have find out what caused all this in the first place.

As we kept moving, Shining turned his head to look at me. "We're nearly at the train station, it should just be up ahead and to the left." He said before returning his attention to the path ahead.

"Ok, hopefully the damage isn't that bad, maybe we'll get a break for once." I said as I did my best to keep up beside him, huffing to keep my breath.

But as soon as we got close to the turning point, we were halted by a large herd of ponies rushing around the corner and running towards us. Shining and I were startled, but we stayed where we were while they all ran past us. They looked even more scared than before, like something at the train station had spooked them.

"This is horrible! The city is floating! We're trapped!" A scared mare yelled as she rushed past us.

Upon hearing this, Shining and I looked at each other with complete confusion. "Floating?" I said to him, like I was asking him what it could mean.

Shining was silent before he gave me a serious look. "Come on, we need to get to the train station and see what's going on." he said before he trotted away from me, turning down the corner towards the station. I rushed to catch up with him quicker and I followed him there.

Once we finally reached it, we saw a bunch of ponies gathered around the station. They were all standing in front of a long line of guards, stopping them from going any further than they needed to. "We have a situation here, you all need to keep back for you own safety." A guard said, speaking loud enough for the crowd to here.

With that, they all started ravelling, yelling over each other. They all kept saying how it wasn't safe here anymore and that they needed to leave. Shining and I pushed our way through the crowd, trying to get to the barrier of guards. "Excuse me…sorry…sorry…excuse me." I said as I carefully pushed my way through the crowd, keeping behind Shining at all times.

After finally exiting the crowd, Shining and I walked over to the guards to try and pass them. "I hate walking through crowds, makes me feel like I'm being crushed." I say, shaking off the uncomfortable feeling it gave me as we approached the guards.

Shining ignored my comment and stopped in front of one of the guards. "What's the situation?" he asked in a strong tone with me standing beside him.

The guard saluted before he spoke. "It's rather complicated, sir. The city is…well…look." He informed before he turned around and started heading towards the station. Shining followed him, passing between two other guards along the way.

I tried to follow him, but I was stopped by the two guards spreading out their wings and blocking the way. "No civilians are allowed past this point!" one told me in a deep voice and a firm look.

I would've pushed through them easily, but I didn't want to cause a bigger fuss than there already was. I looked over their wings and saw Shining still walking away from me. "H-Hey Shining…a little help over here?!" I called, feeling a little stuck where I was.

Shining turned his head around and saw the situation I was in. "Oh right…*clears throat*…its alright guards, he can pass." Shining said, talking to the two guards.

With that, the said two guards closed their wings to unblock my path. "Yes sir!" they both said at the same time.

With my path now clear, I slowly walked past the guards. "Thanks." I said quietly to them before I rushed over to Shining. "So what do you thinks going on?" I asked curiously to him.

Shining shrugged. "I don't know." He said before he turned away and continued following the guard towards the station. "But I have a feeling we're gonna find out." He said as he entered the station through the front entrance, with me following behind.

The guard led us through the building until we came out to the tracks. However, everything seemed normal, we looked ahead and simply saw the same sky we always did while at the station, we had literally reached the end of Canterlot, up ahead was nothing more than the train tracks and a long drop down the mountain. "Umm…were we supposed to see something?" I asked in confusion before I looked over to the guard.

The guard looked down at me with a troubled look. "Come over here." he said before he jumped down onto the tracks and walked across them.

Shining and I saw this and grew concerned. "Whow! Wait! That's dangerous, man! The train could come any minute." I said, looking over to the direction the train usually comes to make sure I could see if it was coming.

The guard then stopped and looked back at us. "Trust me, its not coming." He said before he turned away again and walked up to the small wall that kept ponies from accidently falling off the edge.

Shining and I were courteous, but we managed to get across the tracks quick, we walked over to the guard and stood beside him. Whatever was happening, it was simply over this wall. Shining and I carefully looked over it and saw what everyone was in a panic about.

The ground beneath the city was moving, literally moving, it was like the city was flying across it. It didn't even look like we were in the same area, I couldn't see Ponyville or any of the normal sightings anywhere. "What in Equestria?" Shining said out-loud, finding this hard to believe even though he was seeing it.

"Yeah, this is weird." I said before I turned my head to face Shining. "I should fly up and check this out, I'll be back in a sec." I said, trying to think of a way to see things properly.

Shining looked at me and thought about it for a second before he answered. "Ok, just be careful, we still don't know fully what's going on and I don't want my brother-in-law getting hurt." he said.

I gave him a single nod before I spread my wings out. "Here we go." I said before I jumped over the wall and started dive from the city.

Once I did, Shining and the guard quickly looked over the wall to watch me drop from much height. "Is that guy crazy?!" the guard said in shock, finding it hard to believe I actually did that.

Suddenly, I shot up in front of them and flying up into the sky, flapping my wings hard so I could get up there fast and see what was happening to Canterlot. "I'll get back to you on that." Shining responded as they continued to watch me fly up higher and higher.

I kept flapping my wings, the wind getting a little thin due to the height and speed I was going in. But eventually, I was high enough to look down at the city. Once I did, I couldn't believe what I saw. The city was floating, a giant chuck of the mountain it was once part of was still attacked to the back of it, but the mountain itself was a few miles back, the city had moved from there.

I didn't know what to make of this. It was like someone grabbed the city and pulled it from the mountain, now it was hovering in the sky, slowly moving across the lands. Once I had gotten all that I needed to see, I quickly dove down back to the city to return to Shining and report what I found out.

Along the way down, I saw something coming up what was left of the train tracks, like a small train. This confused me, there shouldn't be anything coming up tracks, let alone a train, but there was and it was heading towards the station. I flapped my wings harder to dive quicker.

Once I had returned down to the station, I landed near Shining and walked over to him. "Its worse than we thought." I said as I approached him. "The entire city is in the sky, floating across the land on nothing." I informed him, stopping in front of him.

Shining looked at me with a shocked and confused look. "What are you talking about? The city can't be floating." He said with disbelief.

"I know, but I'm telling you, its floating in the middle of the sky." I said before I turned my head around to look down the tracks. "Also, there's something coming, a train or something." I said, waiting to see whatever it was come up to the station.

Shining was even more confused, but he looked down the tracks with me. "If the city really is floating, do you think the train made it across before it was broken off?" he asked curiously.

I thought about it for a moment, remembering what I looked like from so high up. "I don't think so, it looked a little too small to be the train, it's something else…or someone." I say, sharpening my eyes as I continued to wait for whatever it was to arrive.

Shining and I continued to wait, watching the tracks for a sign of anything. But finally, after a short while, we saw something coming up the tracks towards us. From such a distance, we were having trouble seeing what it was, it was an odd shape, it didn't even help once it started to get closer, it just made us more confused.

Eventually, it did get close enough for us to make out and, once again, my eyes were set upon something I found shocking. It was Discord, riding on a small train while wearing a conductor outfit, big striped hat and all. His mini-train whistled as it came to a slow stop in front of the station. "Hello Matthew! How lovely it is to see you again." he said with a bright smile as he get off the train and made it & his outfit disappear in a flash of light.

I felt relieved to see him ok, especially since I heard he had possibly left. But I also felt a little heartache, due to what happened during our last encounter. "Discord!…" I started as I took a step towards him. "Thank god you're ok, I heard some things happened between you and Celestia…"

Discord's smile faded away a little. "Yes, she had quite a bad reaction to what I told her." he said before he snapped his fingers and a poster of her appeared in front of him. "It was sad, really…I saw her as such a close friend." He said, placing a paw on the poster and dropping his ears in sadness.

I felt bad for him, knowing I was the one who forced his hand and possible ruined his relationship with Celestia. "I'm sorry Discord…I promise you, we'll find a way to make it up with her…but first, we need your help." I said before I walked over to the wall that I dove off. "The city is floating in the sky, we don't know what caused it or why, but I know you have the power to put it back. If you do this, everyone will calm down and it'll give us a chance to talk to Celestia with no problems." I said, trying to convince him to help us.

Discord was silent before he snapped his fingers and the poster was set alight, the flames burned up through the poster until it was completely gone. "And…why would I do that?" Discord asked, turning around to show me his sinister grin.

Confused by his words and shifted by his face, my ears lowered slightly in discomfort. "Umm…because it would help everyone feel better…it would definitely help everyone see the new you, including Celestia." I said, giving him a pretty good reason to do it.

"…What new me?" Discord said before he snapped his fingers.

I wondered what he was doing until I heard something flash behind me, I spun around and saw Shining and the guard trapped in giant bubbles. They had a look of shock as they bashed their hooves against the bubbles, desperately trying to escape from them.

Upon seeing this, I quickly turned back around to look at Discord. "Discord, what are you doing?! Let them go!" I said loudly.

"Oh I think not, my dear old friend, I'll need them for the party." Discord said before he snapped his fingers again, making Shining and the guard suddenly disappear.

I saw this and gasped before I faced Discord again. "What did you do to them?!" I asked in a loud tone, frightened of what Discord was trying to pull.

Suddenly, Discord appeared behind me and lowered his head down in front of my face, so now I was looking at his upside-down face. "Like I said, I need them for the party." He answered. I was about to speak again, but Discord stopped me by placing his lion finger on my mouth. "Tut, tut, tut, I know what you're going to ask me. 'What party?' Am I right?" he asked with a large smirk.

I remained silent with his finger still on my lips, waiting to hear what else he had to say.

"Of course I am." Discord said before he easily flipped his body over mine and then spun around so he was facing me properly again. "Well to answer you're unasked question, it's a special party, a celebration really. A little event I'm hosting in the castle later tonight." he said before a party-hat appeared on both our heads.

I grabbed the party-hat with my hoof and took it off. "And what is this party a celebration for, may I ask?" I asked, deciding to play along as long as he kept talking.

Discord looked at me with slight surprise, but a sinister smirk appeared on his face. "My return to chaos of course!" he said before she snapped his fingers and released a swarm of flying-pigs into the sky. "After all, who do you think sent this city adrift? I always thought this kingdom was so high it might as well be in the sky, and now it is." He said as he started hovering up into the air.

I was stunned by this, his words and the look on his face sent an uncomfortable chill down my spine. "W-What?" I asked, not sure if I could believe he'd do this.

"Oh…did I disappoint you?" Discord asked with giving me shiny sad eyes, which he immediately sent away. "I seem to doing that a lot these days." he said darkly with a small glare before he snapped his fingers.

In a flash of light, a metal bucket appeared on top of my head. I looked up at it curiously before it spun upside down. Knowing what was coming next, I closed my eyes and waited for something it land on top of me. I then felt something soft of damp hit my head and fall to the floor, I opened my eyes and looked down at it to see it was just a single fish. I gave it a confused look before a whole pile of fish dumped out of the bucket and buried me, and even then the fish wouldn't stop coming out. They eventually stopped and I was left buried under a large pile of fish.

I was soon disgusted by the smell and decided to get out, I dug my way up to the top of the pile and my head popped out of the top. Once it did, all the fish's faces turned into that of Discord's face and laughed at me.

I chose to ignore this and looked up at Discord with sorrow. "Discord, please don't do this, we can fix all of this if you just let me help you." I said, hoping he'd see reason.

Discord crossed his arms and turned away from me. "I'm afraid not, Matthew. You see, I feel like no matter what I do, I'll always be treated as the same Discord I used to be. So I decided that if that's what they'll only think of me as, then I might as well play along." He said before his head spun all the way around to face me. "By the way, I do hope you'll attend my party, you and all your other friends….I definitely know you're dear wife will be attending." He said with a large grin.

After hearing this, I gave him a shaken look. "Twilight?...What do you mean? Why would she…." I stopped talking when I saw the devious smirk on his face, like he was waiting for me to finger something out. And it didn't take long for me to do so. "…What have you done?" I asked, scared of his answer.

"Leaving your pregnant wife alone in a big wide city where buildings are crumbling down and panicking civilians are stampeding through the streets…not your best plan, if you ask me." Discord said before he pressed his fingers against each other. "Anything could happen to her." he said before chuckling darkly.

With that, I instantly became scared for Twi's safety. I wanted to shout at Discord, demand him to tell me what happened to her, but I had no time to waste. I spun around and bolted away from the station, rushing back into the city to find where Twilight was last.

As I ran through the streets, I saw that Discord's chaos was already taking a large toil on the city. Lampposts were coming to life and walking away, the ground was turning to goo and trapping ponies caught in it, and the sky was filled with his classic cotton-candy clouds. As you would expect, the ponies weren't taking it all well.

As I kept galloping through the street, Discord came running up beside me in a work-out sweatshirt and a head-band, huffing and puffing as he tried to stay beside me. "Like what I did with the place? I call it 'Discord's starter', I know it's not a very good name, but it's nothing special, the real work begins later on." he said with a mischievous grin.

I glared at him before I huff and started to run faster, wanting to get away from him and find Twilight as soon as possible. I managed to out run him, but knowing Discord, it wouldn't be long before he'd catch up. For the next half-hour or so, I rushed around the whole city looking for her, I passed many panicking ponies and more of Discord's handiwork, I even saw a pony being chased by a statue riding a living sofa like a horse.

But after a long search, I couldn't find any sign of Twilight or Princess Celestia, I eventually ran out of energy and came to a stop in the middle of the street. Out of breath and fearing the worst, I sat on the ground with my ears hanging low. I heard the cotton-candy clouds above me rumble before it started raining chocolate-milk hard. It was drenching me, but I didn't care, Twilight was gone and I was scared that Discord had taken her, just like he took Shining Armor.

Suddenly, I felt the rain above me stop and I looked up to see Discord standing beside me in an umbrella-hat, he was also holding an upside-down umbrella above my head. "Oh dear, I'm afraid I forgot to tell you that Twilight would be attending my party a little early, same for Celestia, Luna and your dragon friend, I didn't want any of them to miss a single second of it." he said as he fill a glass full of the chocolate-milk rain and drank it.

I glared up at him, seeing the monster I used to see in him before he apparently chose to reform himself. I stood up fast and continued to give him an angered look. "Discord, release everyone you took and return Canterlot to normal RIGHT NOW!" I yelled in a strong tone, showing him I was interested in playing his game.

Discord them returned my glare and threw the glass and umbrella away, allowing the rain to fall down upon me. "Oh how perfectly original! Big bad Matthew, barking orders like a real tough guy and expecting everyone to feel intimated. Well here's a little news flash for you, have you ever considered that maybe you don't always have to be the hero all the time?! That maybe you're not as much of a big shot as you think you are?!" he said in a firm tone. "Well I'm going to show the world that you're little hero-act can be stomped out! This is one catastrophe that Matthew will not resolve!" he growled before he snapped his fingers and a flying taxi-cart shot over to me and scooped me up from behind.

"Of course, you and your other friends are still invited to the party, I wouldn't want you to miss this for the world." Discord stated, his angered look turning into a bright one. "But you won't be able to return here until its ready, so don't be trying to fly back up here before them." he said before he snapped his fingers and a checkered racing-flag appeared in his hands. "And…you're off." He said before he waved the flag downwards.

With that, the taxi-cart I was in shot off down the street and rose up into the sky above the city, it then flew off with great speed, leaving the dominated city behind. The taxi was going so fast that I was held back against the seat, my eyes watered due to the wind strongly blowing against my face. But despite this, I was able to see a little bit ahead of me. Soon enough, after a few minutes, I saw Ponyville ahead and the taxi started lowering down towards it.

I then closed my eyes tightly and braced for impact, not expecting this thing to slow down at all. But surprisingly, once the taxi entered the streets of Ponyville, it pulled to a sudden stop. Due to this, I was thrown from the taxi and hit the grassy ground hard. I groaned in the slight pain this gave me as the taxi behind me fell apart into pieces.

After a moment of taking all of this in, I weakly stood up and tied to keep my balance, but the speed of that taxi ride left me shaken, I stumbled a little and nearly fell down again. I looked around and saw a bench a few feet away from me, I carefully made my way over to it and fell down onto it, allowing me to relax for a minute and pull myself together.

I looked around the town and saw most of the ponies were just carrying on with their day, others were looking over to me, having seen me pretty much crash-land into town, and the rest were looking up at the Canterlot mountain with concerned faces. I too looked up at the mountain and saw the large chuck taken out of it, the mountain looked so different without the city attached to it, almost like it used to mean something but now looked soulless.

While I had this minute to myself, it gave me time to think. Part of me couldn't believe what was going on, Discord had betrayed us and had taken all of Canterlot hostage, including Twilight and Spike. I didn't know what I was going to do, Discord was powerful and could turn the tables to his side no matter what we did.

I took a few breaths before I decided it was time for action. If I was gonna beat Discord and get everything back to normal, I'd need to rally the girls and get a plan together, I was going to need their help. I got down off the bench and looked around to see who was closest. Looking over the roofs of the cottages around me, I saw the pointed roof of Carousel Boutique.

"Right then." I said under my breath to myself before I quickly took off to reach Rarity's house, hoping that she'd be home.

Later that evening: Library

After gathering the rest of the Mane 6 and returning to the Library, we all sat in the front room as we discussed the situation at hand. "That two-timing, double-crossing jerk! I knew we should never have trusted Discord!" Rainbow Dash said with an angered tone as she threw her hind legs back and kicked the centre table.

This made the wooden horse-head nearly fall off the table, but Rarity caught it in her magic and placed it back onto the table with care. "True, this is a shocking moment for all of us." She said, giving Rainbow a firm look for her crude act before she looked at the rest of us. "I mean, we placed our trust into Discord and he turned his back on us to return to his old ways. But we're missing the big question…why did he do this? Was this his plan from the start?" she asked, wondering that herself.

Fluttershy's ears lowered a little before she spoke. "I…umm…I don't think so, he didn't seem like he was planning this, he actually seemed pretty nice since he decided t change." She said, trying to find a way to defend Discord's actions.

Applejack turned her head to face her. "Maybe, but we have to remember that Discord is a master when it comes to lyin' and misleadin'. He could've easily been playin' nice just to lower our guard." she said, countering Fluttershy's argument.

Fluttershy looked over to her. "But what about all of the nice things he's done since then? Remember when he tried to be as good as possible to prove he wasn't the one who was stealing the Elements? Why would he go to all that trouble if he was gonna turn against us anyway?" she said, convinced that she had a strong point.

"It would be a good way to throw us off his plan." Rarity said, walking over to her. "I'm sorry darling, but I'm afraid Discord may not have been as honest with us as we believed." She said, placing a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder.

"Yeah!" Pinkie said as she zipped over to them. "Like if I was going to make a super-frosted cupcake for a surprise, I'd totally act like I wasn't making, even though it's impossible not to be excited about something like that! It's a super-frosted cupcake, and anything that's super-frosted is…well…super!" she said with a small smile.

Rarity turned looked at her with an unappeased look. "Pinkie, darling, that's not helping very much." She said, rubber her hoof against Fluttershy's back.

I then walked up to them to get a word in. "Actually, I agree with Fluttershy." I said, surprising the three of them. "Discord's doing this because he feels like everyone still sees him as the Discord he used to be, no matter what good he did for us. He told Celestia that he lied about losing his powers and I suppose she didn't take it very well, that's most likely what triggered this whole things." I said, explaining what was going on to them.

"How do you know that's the reason why Discord betrayed us?" Rainbow Dash asked, hovering over to me with an unconvinced look on her face.

I then looked up at her. "Because Discord told me that himself." I answered. "He said that if everyone kept treating him like a monster, then he might as well act like one." I said before my ears lowered. "And…it's my fault this is happening." I said, feeling guilt wash over my soul.

Applejack came over to me. "Why do you think that, sugarcube?" she asked.

I looked at her with the guilty look still on my face. "After I found out about Discord's lie, I told him to tell Celestia. If I had just forgiven him right away, this wouldn't have happened." I said before I looked down at the floor. "I put Twilight in danger, I put everyone in Canterlot in danger before I was too stubborn to see that Discord really had changed, whether he lied or not." I said, thinking of what might've been if I hadn't been such a dick to Discord.

Applejack placed her hoof on my back. "Now don't go beatin' yourself up, Matt, you couldn't have known this would happen." She said before she looked over to everyone else. "Right now, we just need to focus on how we're gonna fix it." she said.

"I know how we're gonna fix it!" Rainbow Dash said strongly. "We go up there and lock him up back in stone! We'll be like 'zap, zap'! And he'll be like 'Ahh!'." She said, posing expressions as she made those noises.

Rarity gave her an unimpressed look. "Well as good of a plan as that is, and I say that sarcastically, I'm afraid it's terribly flawed." She said.

"And why's that?" Rainbow Dash said as she flew down to her and looked her right in the eye.

Applejack then walked over to them and answered for Rarity. "Because, even if we could get up to wherever Canterlot is floatin' right now, we can't turn Discord to stone without all the Elements of Harmony." She said before she gave Rainbow a firm look. "And in case you've forgotten, we're short of three, they won't work unless we have all of them." she said, trying to trigger that memory into Rainbow's mind.

Rainbow looked sheepish for forgetting, but soon shook it off and crossed her arms while in mid-air. "Well…I forgot about that." She said before she looked down at Applejack. "But do you have a better plan? How else can we stop Discord?" she asked in a loud tone.

"I don't know, Rainbow, that's what I'm tryin' to figure out." Applejack said while giving her a strong glare.

"Maybe we should just try talking some sense into him." Fluttershy suggested as she walked over to them.

Rarity looked over to her with an uncertain look. "Fluttershy, sweetie, that may work on other ponies, but this is Discord we're talking about. He's not exactly the most reasonable...umm…whatever he is." She said, not believing Discord would be turned back to our side so easily.

Applejack was quiet for a moment as she gave it some thought. "Hold on, Rarity, Fluttershy might be on to something, Discord's only actin' like this because he's got the wrong idea about things. Maybe if we just explained to him that it was a misunderstandin', maybe he'll-"

"Oh no! Don't go soft on me now, AJ!" Rainbow said, strongly going against where Applejack was going. "Discord betrayed us, we need to take him down for good this time!" she said, punching one hoof against the palm of the other.

"Rainbow, for once can you think things through before you try pickin' fights?" Applejack said, giving Rainbow a sharp glare.

"I must agree with Applejack." Rarity said, speaking up again. "It would be foolish to even attempt to go up there with Discord in control. Even if you could get into the city, he would just send you right back here with just one snap of his fingers." She said, explaining the flaw in Rainbow's attack plan.

Rainbow looked at her with a frustrated look. "Why is it my plans are being trashed?! I don't see any of you coming up with anything better, besides from your 'talk reason into him' plan. You said it yourself, Rarity, Discord won't listen to reason." She argued.

Before anyone else could speak up, Pinkie popped up between them. "I'm telling you, super-frosted cupcakes are the best!" she said in a strong tone, not really having anything to do with what we were talking about.

I stood there, listening to the five of them bicker among themselves. I knew they had good or smart intensions, but all this arguing amongst ourselves wasn't going to help, it wasn't going to get Twilight back and free the others. Eventually, I finally had my last fill of it. "Hey!" I said, but my words fell of depth ears. "HEY!" I yelled.

Their arguing immediately came to a stop when my sudden shout gained their attention. "None of this is helping!" I said strongly. "Twilight needs us now and instead we're arguing about how we should take action. We need to be smarter than that." I said, walking up to them.

"…Agreed." Rarity said with a single nod. "But besides from Rainbow's attack plan and Fluttershy's negotiation plan, I really don't see any other way we can stop Discord, especially without the Elements of Harmony." She said while looking at me with hopeless eyes.

"What we need is somethin' that's just as powerful as the Elements, maybe someone knows a different way to defeat Discord." Applejack said, trying to think up a new plan.

"Doubt it!" Rainbow blurted. "Princess Celestia was the only one who knew all of Discord's weaknesses and she's gone, there's no one else." She said as she landed beside Applejack.

I gave this some thought, trying to think of anyone outside of Canterlot who would have as much knowledge as Celestia and know how we could stop Discord. It didn't take long for me to think of someone. "Actually, there might be." I said before I made my way towards the front door. "I just hope he's home." I said before I grabbed the doorknob with my hoof and opened the door.

"We'll come with you." Applejack said as she and the others came up behind me. "If we're doin' something, we're doin' it together." She said.

I looked back at them and was silent for a moment. There was no time to argue and I felt we should stay close for now, just in case Discord wanted some of us up there early. "Ok…but stay close, ok?" I asked.

After getting a nod from them, we all made our way out of the library. I closed the door behind us before I led all of them towards the Ever Free Forest.

Meanwhile: Canterlot ballroom

Within the ballroom of Canterlot, Discord sat upon his throne while watching the chaos he had created around him.

The entire room had been altered to his liking. The floor was waving like steady water, the windows had been replaced with stained windows showing images of himself to make him look like a king, and the large pony stature had been replaced by a stone fountain of three horrifying sea-ponies.

But Discord wasn't the only one in the room. In front of him, the Diamond Dogs rolled around in piles of gems and jewels, like they needed to be smothered in their scent.

Twilight and Luna were both in a giant bird cage hanging from the ceiling and Spike was being forced to continuously run along a giant hamster-wheel. In the centre of the room sat Celestia, without her horn or wings, she acted calm and brave in the face of this uncomfortable environment.

Discord drank more of his own chocolate-milk rain before he sighed happily. "Ahh, isn't this much just grand? Equestria will be so much more interesting now that I'm in charge." He said before he threw the glass away and looked down at Celestia. "I know that you like it though, finally, no more having to look over your shoulder in case I was pulling some sort of traitorous trick." He said.

Celestia remained silent for a moment before she spoke. "I never had to…because I trusted you not to." she said, giving him a firm look.

Discord looked unconvinced. "Because you believed I was weak." He said, twisting her words. "But after I confessed the truth to you, you turned your back on me, saw me as the Lord of Chaos once again." he got off the throne and hovered towards her. "Well guess what, my dear, you can see me that way all you like. Why? Because I am the Lord of Chaos again!" he growled with anger in his eyes, followed by a hint of heart-pain. But he shook it away as he smiled with glee. "By the way, do you like what I've done with the place so far? I didn't go very big because I wanted to save the rest for later." He said before he suddenly disappeared.

Discord then reappeared beside the stone fountain. "How do you like the fountain? I know it has nothing to do with yours-truly, but I thought I'd do it in memory of three special girls I once knew." He said before he looked at the three stone sea-ponies. "the Sirens, they were always so talented. I always wondered where Starswirl sent them, such a pity." He said as he patted his hand against the fountain

Celestia ignored the question and tried to reason with Discord. "Discord, this is a misunderstanding." She said, giving him a concerned look. "You're upset, you're letting your emotions get the better of you." she said, hoping it would help him think clearly and see reason.

However, Discord just brushed it off and crossed his arms. "Don't try to sweet-talk me into submission, that little trick won't work on me any longer." He said before he snapped his fingers and a giant clock appeared on his chest, it had a mini-Discord inside and its arms walked as the clock's hands, slowly ticking. "So far, everything I've done has been nothing. But after midnight tonight, I will unless my full chaotic power upon Equestria." he said before the clock disappeared.

"You don't need to do this, Discord." Twilight said as she walked up towards the bars of the cage she was in. "I know Matt was hard on you, he told me everything. But trust me, he feels really bad about that, he's even been looking for you to apologise." She said.

Discord suddenly appeared in a flash of light in front of the cage. "I know, he told me so himself. But what makes you think I was ready to forgive." He said before he gave her a sinister grin. "Maybe you should tell him to forgive and forget quicker next time, instead of rushing to judgment and ruining someone's one chance of a change of life." he said before he made a bag of birdseed appear in front of him and he started throwing hands-full of it at them.

"But what is this about a party later tonight, Discord?" Luna said, using her wing to shield herself from the seeds. "You keep us and rest of the city prisoners, yet you are planning some big event for us? Why is this?" she asked, relieved when Discord finally stopped throwing seeds at them.

"Oh! I'm so glad you asked." Discord said before streamers and confetti rained down from the ceiling as a large banner unravelled above him, which read 'Discord's return to chaos!'. "You see, Luna, I want to make sure everyone is present when midnight comes, so they can witness all my chaotic glory….which reminds me." he said before he disappeared in a flash of light.

Discord then reappeared in front of Celestia. "Dear Princess Celestia, could I ask something very important of you?" he asked as a small black bow-tie appeared around his neck.

Celestia looked up at him with a slightly ill look. "I suppose there's not choice, but first, can you return the floor to normal, all this waving is making me nocuous." She said as she looked back down at the waving floor.

Discord rolled his eyes. "Fine." He said before he snapped his fingers and the floor returned to normal. "Anyway…Celestia, would you do me the honour of being my lovely date for the party?" he said, holding his lion-paw out to her.

Celestia looked at his paw before she looked up at him. "You imprison my subjects, my student and my sister in this chaotic nightmare and you expect me to accompany you to an event where you'll take control of the entire land? I don't even plan on attending, let alone be you date to it." she scolded.

Discord looked disappointed, but a small grin soon appeared on his face. "Well I tried doing it the classy way, but now I think I'll do it my way." he said before he lowered his head down to Celestia and looked her right in the eyes. His pupils started to spin until they were at a hypnotic speed. "I think you'll reconsider that decision, my dear, you wouldn't want to miss something as grand as this." He said.

Celestia's eyes slowly widened until she started to fall into his trance. Her eyes turned yellow and soulless until a small smile grew on her face. "No…I wouldn't…" she said like a drone. "Of course I'll be your date." She said.

"Sister!" Luna said loudly in shock as she and Twilight watched what Discord was doing to her. "Do not fall for his tricks!" she said, trying to snap her out of it.

"This is low, Discord!" Twilight said while glaring down at Discord. "It's enough to make us all watch as she take over Equestria, but to make hypnotise Celestia into being your date to it? That's just sick!" she said.

Discord then rose away from Celestia, leaving her in her trance, and looked up at the caged ponies. "Maybe, but this night needs to be perfect, and that's what it will be no matter the cost." He said.

"Discord, you're better than this now." Twilight said while giving him a broken-hearted look. "You were good, you were our friend. You're overreacting to a simple mistake, this isn't you at all." She said.

Discord's ears fell in thought of this, like she was finally starting to get through to him, but before he could respond, Rover walked up in front of him. "This is exactly what Lord Discord is. He has been planning this for the past week." He stated.

"Yes." Spot said as he and Fido joined them. "He even told us to kidnap ponies and lock them up until the party started." He explained.

"And in return, we get gems, jewels, treasures!" Fido said with excitement as he looked back at the pile of treasure that Discord had given them. "Lord Discord was meant to be free to spread his creativity across the land, and no-one could stop him, not even pretty pony princess." He said while pointing at Celestia.

With their words sinking into his head, any chance of turning Discord back on their side was taken away. "You guys are right." Discord said with a dark smirk appearing on his face. "I am meant be free to do whatever I want whenever I want." he said before he looked up at Twilight. "And that's why you're wrong, Twilight, this exactly what I am meant to do, this is exactly what I am meant to be." He said in pride.

At that moment, a bright spot-light shot down above Discord and be began to sing.

Discord: "Gosh it's such a hoot to see them quaking

When I'm king, they'll treat me with respect

I can't wait to watch their poor hearts braking, so much for politically correct…"

With a snap of his fingers, the room turned brighter with colourful lights shining everywhere to give the room a more musical feel.

Discord: "Up 'til now, I've pulled my punches. I intend to eat their lunches! No more Mr nice guy, not for me!

If you think that I'm hard hearted, let me by, I haven't even started!"

Discord then made the siren statues come to life and start singing in the background with him.

Discord and Sirens: "No more Mr nice guy! No siree."

Discord: "Soon as my witchcraft has zinged 'em! I'll gain control of the kingdom!

As for dear Matt, well that's tragic. 'Cause I'm going back to that old. Black. Magic!

Good behaviour is so much duller, time to show my one true colour! (With Sirens)Baby! Mr nice guy's history!

Vengeance is what I believe in. I don't get mad, I get even!

Celestia will be at the ball 'cause I will bring her, and a zapped up a date (With Sirens) who's a real dead ringer!"

Discord then zapped the still hypnotised Celestia with a bolt of magic and she was given a beautiful red dress, her mane was held back into a stunning pony-tail and a glistening gen necklace.

Discord: "Up to no good, I love plottin'. 'Cause I'm so good when I'm rotten. No more Mr nice guy, wait and see…"

Sirens: "Wait and see."

Discord and Sirens: "I'll become that nasty, naughty, petty, spiteful! Wicked, wayward, way delightful! Bad guy I was born…to be!"

Rover: "One more time!"

Discord: "Lying, loathsome, never tender! Indiscreet, repeat offender! No more Mr nice guy, that's not meeee!"

Sirens: "Doot, doot, doo."

"Yeah!" Discord said loudly in cheer as a bunch of party cannons appeared around him and fired cream-pies and confetti into the air. But in that instant when the song and music ended, there was a large flash and everything returned to normal. The canons where gone, the sirens had returned the solid stone and the room regained its natural colour.

"Thank you, thank you!" Discord said in amusement as he bowed a few times before he looked up at Twilight and Luna. "Now I had better go check on the preparations for the party…don't go anywhere." He joked before he disappeared, leaving the three ponies in their situation with the Diamond Dogs returning to ravel in their treasure.

Twilight looked at the bars of the cage before he horn glowed, she then shot a powerful beam at the bars in an attempt to break them, but the power surrounding the cage just absorbed the magic. "Its pointless…this cage is too heavily powered for us to break." She said before she looked down at Celestia. "Discord's thought all of this through, he's not taking chances this time." She said.

"Do not lose hope, Twilight Sparkle, I am sure Matthew and your friends will find a way to defeat him and return everything to normal." Luna said as she walked up to her.

Twilight turned her head to face her. "I know they will." She said before she looked back down at Celestia with concern. "They'll never give up on us, especially Matt." she said, hoping we'd find a way to fight back against Discord.

Meanwhile: Moleyair's home

It took a while and a few rough spots, but we all managed to get to Moleyair's hole in the ground. In the absence of all the Princesses, Moleyair was the only reliable source of information and guidance.

It wasn't easy getting here, especially with Fluttershy's fear of the forest constantly making her freeze in terror. But in the end, we managed to pull through and reach Moleyair. Unsurprisingly, he was expecting us.

We all sat by a large stone table as we watched Moleyair make everyone some tea. "So, Discord went through with his plan to take over Canterlot, that's unfortunate." He said as he brought a tray of steaming cups to us.

"You mean ya knew about this?" Applejack asked with a raised eye-brow.

"Yes, but at the same time, no. There were multiple paths Discord could've taken, but he chose this one, I just didn't see it clearly until it actually happened." Moleyair explained as he pasted a cup to her.

"Well what do we do about it?" Rainbow Dash asked with impatience. "Celestia was the only one who knew how to take care of Discord, but she's gone now." she said as she also received a cup.

"And without the rest of the Elements, we can't turn him back to stone." Fluttershy said. "Matt said that you might know another way to stop him…is it true?" she asked curiously.

Moleyair was silent for a moment before he sighed, stroking his small grey beard. "A terrible shame when good person turns bad, especially when they were trying to change their ways." He said out-loud before he looked at us. "Yes, there is another way…but I'm afraid they're not very pleasant." He said.

We all wondered what he meant before he walked over to me. "They all include you, Matthew. You're the only one whom Discord will let near." He said before he looked at the others. "Discord believes Matthew was the cause of all this misfortune, he wants Matthew to see everything he does, just to show him what his misjudgement has brought upon Equestria. If anyone can stop Discord now, its Matthew, the rest of you won't even get close to him." Moleyair explained.

"Alright, but what does Matthew have to do to stop him?" Rarity asked before she took a sip of her tea.

Moleyair then looked at me. "Matthew, you have two options…Discord isn't capable of taking away your Element, the only Element that can function without the others, you can defeat him the same why you defeated Thorn and Zelga." he explained.

I gave this some thought and didn't really like the idea, the thought of having to fight Discord with the kind of power and brutality my Element can inflict was too much. Discord was overacting and basically destroying Equestria, but I didn't want to hurt him. For Moleyair, I didn't have to tell him what I was thinking for him to know. "Yes…it is a bad choice, but there is another." He said as he placed his claw on my arm.

I looked at him with interest before I watched him walk away towards a chest. He whacked it with his staff before the lid flung open, Moleyair reached into it and started searching around. "Now let's see, where is it? Did I even put it in here? Very unlike me if I didn't." he said to himself as she drug through the chest.

We all watched awkwardly as Moleyair continued to search through the chest, sometimes picking up strange objects and tossing them aside. But eventually, he found what he was looking for. Moleyair spun around to show that he was holding a large bronze collar with symbols carved into the sides, it looked a lot like the Horn-Block, but much bigger. "This is a tool I made for situations such as this." He said as he brought it over to the table and placed it down in front of me.

"What is that?" I asked, looking down at this strange relic.

"It's a lot like the Horn-Block I gave you to subdue Blaze Horn, but it goes around the neck rather than a horn." Moleyair said before he looked up at me. "If you can get this around Discord's neck, it will render him powerless, allowing you to capture him before he can do anymore damage." He explained.

I looked down at the collar and thought about it. It was a better option, but it would reduce Discord to a weak and helpless creature and humiliate him. Moleyair was right, both options weren't very pleasant.

"I know it's a hard choice to make. Hurt Discord or strip him of everything he has, both risk losing him as a friend forever. But listen." Moleyair said before I gave him my full attention. "If you choose the right path, everything will be as it should be…but to do so, you must know when to act…and when to not." He said, speaking in riddles like always.

Everyone else looked at each other in confusion. "Anyone get a word of that?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Nope." Pinkie responded before they returned their attention to me.

"But how will I get it around Discord's neck? As soon as he sees it, he's gonna know something's up and will probably turn it into a life-float or something." I said, slowly picking up the collar and feeling how heavy it was.

"That's where this comes in." Moleyair said before he reached into his robes and pulled out a small bottle full of blue liquid. "This potion will protect you from Discord's magic. Drink this, and he won't be able to even touch you." he said as he placed it down in front of me.

I looked down at the potion and sighed heavily, knowing there was only one suitable choice. "…I suppose the collar is better than fighting him." I said before I grabbed the collar with my hooves and slipped my head through it, that way I could carry it around my neck.

"Do not let anger guide your actions and decisions, Matthew. Just remember what I have told you and you will succeed in bringing Discord back into the light." Moleyair said with wisdom.

I nodded to him. "I will, Moleyair." I said before I grabbed the potion with my mouth and stood up. "We better get back to the Library before Discord shows up. If he sees us out here, he might suspect something." I muffled with the bottle in my mouth.

Moleyair tapped his staff against the floor. "Yes, go, make heist! There is much to prepare for." He said, practically shooing us out the door.

The girls then stood up with me before they started following me to the lift that would take us up to the surface. But I soon stopped, letting the others walking past me and I then looked back at Moleyair. I took the bottle out of my mouth so I could speak properly. "Moleyair…I have to know…did Discord ever have bad intentions when he joined us? Was he plotting this from the beginning or is this just a sudden change of heart?" I asked, not sure if I wanted to know the answer or not.

Moleyair was silent before he walked over to me. "In a way, don't we all have bad intensions sometimes? Don't we all have these evil plots that we sometimes want commit, but we can never do so because its not who we are?" he said before he gripped his staff tightly. "But to answer your question…no, he wasn't planning this. After you and the others befriended him, he decided to change, even though we always wanted to be the same Discord he once was. I'm afraid these sudden actions of his are the result of an injured heart." He said, looking up at me with his shiny black goggles.

Part of me was hurt by this, because I knew it was my fault he was acting like this, because I pushed him into confessing the truth to Celestia. "Ok…I think I know what I have to do." I said before I grabbed the bottle with my mouth again and followed the others towards the exit lift.

"I do hope so, Matthew." Moleyair said as he looked down at the floor.

Later that night: Library

After we returned to the library, we waited hours for Discord to take us to Canterlot. Everyone seemed restless, nervous and uneasy.

Rainbow Dash was pacing back and forth with her tail whipping every time she turned, Rarity kept looking through Twilight's clothes to check them for any tares or miss-stitches, Applejack and Pinkie kept playing card games, and Fluttershy kept staring out the window to look out for anything that might tell us Discord was on the way.

As for me, I was upstairs in the bedroom preparing for Discord's arrival. I stood in front of the bed, looking down at the collar, the potion and my saddlebag. I gently lifted the collar with my hooves before I carefully placed it in the saddle back. I then threw it onto my back, it was a little heavy, but I could manage for a while.

I then looked back down at the bed and grabbed the potion with my hoof. I sighed a little before I grabbed the cork with my mouth and pulled it off. I then spat it out before I started drinking the potion to the very last drop. Once I was done, I shivered at the sour taste before I placed the bottle down. "Nasty." I said to myself before I took a moment to consult myself. "Ok…I can do this…" I whispered to myself.

I stood there in silence for a moment before I turned around to face Twilight's make-up desk. I walked over to it and grabbed a draw knob with my hoof, I pulled it open and looked down at a file inside. I slowly grabbed it with my hoof before I lifted it out of the draw.

In this file contained a very important piece of paperwork. I sat down on the floor and used my other hoof to open the file. I read the paperwork inside and sighed heavily. "…I hope this works." I said before I closed the file and slipped it into my second saddlebag.

"Matt! Everything ok up there?" Applejack's voice called from down stairs.

I turned to look down at the stairs. "Yeah, I'm coming down now." I said as I made my way down the small set of stairs before I walked over the main set. I then walked down the rest of the stairs to get back down to the living room.

After I reached the bottom of the stairs, I looked around to everyone to see how much in a mess they were. Everyone seemed so on edge, doing meaningless activities to try and pass the time. I looked over to Rainbow Dash and saw that she was struggling with it the worse.

Feeling bad for her, I walked over to Rainbow Dash and watched as she paced left and right. "Hey Rainbow, you ok?" I asked in concern.

"Yeah, peachy." Rainbow grumbled as she kept pacing, not looking at me at all.

I didn't want to troubler her like this, but this was a very delicate situation. If she causes trouble up in Canterlot, it could ruin this whole thing. "Rainbow, I know you're upset about this whole thing, but when we get up there, just let me handle Discord." I said, trying to give her easy instructions with a gentle tone.

Rainbow then stopped pacing and glared in my face. "What the hay do you mean?! Do you really think I'm gonna sit back and let that creep toy with us?! When we get up there, we're gonna teach him a big lesson." She said.

"Do that and any hope of stopping him will be gone!" I said firmly before I calmed myself down. "Look, it doesn't matter anyway, Discord will stop you if he sees you coming for him. Like Moleyair said, he'll only let me get close to him." I then placed my hoof on her shoulder. "I just need you to keep a cool head tonight, ok? I need you to help Twilight get to a safe place when the time comes, we don't know what Discord will do when I try to catch him." I say while looking her in the eyes.

Rainbow still looked at little frustrated, but she knew I was right and groaned. "Ok fine, but make sure you get him good, for me!" she said before she stormed away to the other side of the room and dropped down onto the floor.

I decided to leave her be for a while and walked over to Fluttershy who was still looking out the window. "Any sign of anything yet, Fluttershy?" I asked curiously.

Fluttershy turned her head to face me. "I can see Canterlot in the distance." She stated before we both looked out the window and saw Canterlot, still floating in the sky a long distance from town, we could see the pink clouds above it as it continued to drift slowly through the air. "It's been there for a while now, I think Discord's getting ready for whatever he's planning." She said.

"Right." I said before I looked at Fluttershy. "Good work, Fluttershy…it'll be alright, ok?" I said as I rubbed my hoof against her back. "Discord's upset, but he won't hurt anyone, he won't go that far." I said gently.

Fluttershy looked at me and smiled a little. "I know he won't." she said before her smile went away. "But…try not to hurt him…please." She said with worried eyes.

I looked into them for a moment before I answered. "I'll try." I said before I wrapped my hoof around her and hugged her gently, which she soon returned.

After a moment, we broke away and I looked over to Applejack as she returned to her card game with Pinkie. "Are you guys ready to help the ponies escape?" I asked as I made my way over to them.

Pinkie and Applejack looked up at me and nodded. "Yeah, we're ready! But how are we gonna get them out of Canterlot? The train's gone and not every pony can fly?" Applejack asked with wonder.

"Yeah, I mean, we could take the hot-air balloon up there, but its gonna be hard squeezing everypony onto it." Pinkie said as she tried to think of a way to fit the Canterlot ponies onto the basket of the hot-air balloon. "Maybe Moleyair has a shrinking potion." she said as she rubbed her chin with her hoof.

Applejack and I stared at her with awkwardness before we shook it off. "Ok…well…we don't need to worry about getting them out of the city, just try to get them out of the castle." I said, returning my attention to Applejack.

"Will do." Applejack said with a confident smile while giving me a nod.

"Okie dokie!" Pinkie added as she saluted me.

With that, I looked around at everyone else. "I know it's gonna be tricky, possibly quite hard." I said, loud enough to get everyone's attention. "But as long as we stick to the plan, we'll stop Discord and get everything back to the way it was before." I said, trying to build everyone's courage and hope.

They all looked at each other with hopeful smiles, expect for Rainbow who was still lying down on the floor. But before any of them to take this moment in, the room started to shake lightly, like there was a small earthquake. Then, all of a sudden, there was a bright flash of light that blinded us all a little, making us look away with our eyes covered.

Once the light died down, we all returned our attention to where the light came from and saw a large tanning-bed sitting in the middle of the room. We all looked at it with curiosity before it opened, revealing a very well-tanned Discord lying inside. "Ah! I certainly know how to brighten the place up. I could sense the dullness all the way from my throne." He said as he climbed out of the tanning-bed.

Discord removed the pair of goggled from his eyes, revealing the pale tan-line around his eyes. He then looked down at me with a sinister grin. "I hope you didn't get into any trouble since we last spoke? I know how hard it is for you to avoid it." he said before he grabbed one of his antlers and pulled on it, there was then a toilet flushing noise and his tan dropped down his body like water flushing down a drain.

"No trouble yet…but the day is still young, Discord." I said, giving his a sharp firm glare.

"Oh, I bet." Discord said before he slithered around behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders. "And don't worry about Twilight, Matthew, I've made sure to keep her and Luna comfortable all day, I never even laid a claw on them." he said as he gently rubbed my shoulders.

I then stepped away and spun around to face him. "You better not have hurt them in any way, Discord…otherwise I'm gonna have to make things even." I growled.

Discord waved his hand. "No need for that, Matthew, your wife is quite safe." He said before he stood up straight. "So, are all of you ready for my party?" he asked as he looked around to everyone.

Everyone was silent until Rainbow shot up to his face. "Do you think we're playing your little games, you big back-stabber?!" she said with anger in her eyes. "What this whole thing for anyway?" she asked.

"Well I might as well tell you." Discord said as his tail came up and gently pushed her away. "This party of mine is a celebration to my return to chaos. There'll be games, food, and once the clock strikes midnight, I will unleash every bit of chaos around all of Equestria." he explained before he grinned. "And without the Elements, there will be no way to stop me." he said, feeling as though he held all the cards.

At that moment, Fluttershy flew up to Discord. "Discord, please don't do this. I know Matt was a bit hard on you and he's very sorry for that, but does the rest of Equestria have to pay for a simple mistake?" she said with a gentle smile, hoping he'd stop all this.

Discord looked at Fluttershy and smiled. "Oh dear Fluttershy, you're always so good at trying to make me feel better." he said as he gently grabbed her and held her in him arms. "But I'm afraid it won't work this time." He said before he tossed her away. Fluttershy squealed in fright before she spread her wings and caught herself in the air, she looked at Discord with watery eyes before she slowly lowered down to the floor.

"Everything will go exactly the way I want it to go." Discord said before he looked down at me. "So I don't want you to cause any trouble, Matthew. Don't think I've forgotten about you're Element, how you can make it appear whenever you want." he said with his arms crossed while giving me a firm look.

I returned the look. "Well I'll try, but trouble always seems to find me, it's a bit annoying really." I answered.

"Yeah, I bet so." Discord grumbled before his smile returned to his face. "So is everyone ready to go?" he asked with cheer.

"No." we all answered at the same time with a groaning tone.

"Wonderful!" Discord cheered loudly before he snapped his fingers and we all disappeared in a large flash of light.

Canterlot ballroom

In another flash of light, we all appeared in the Canterlot ballroom. We all felt a little dizzy from the sudden trip, but we soon shook it off. "I hate it when he does that." Rarity said as she held her hoof against her head.

I shook off the uncomfortable feeling before I looked around to see where we were. From what I could tell, we were in the Canterlot castle ballroom, but it looked a lot different, thanks to Discord.

I saw the windows, the stone fountain, and the floor that had a black and white spiral fashion. There were also some other stuff, like fish with white feathered wings flying across the ceiling and musical instruments playing by themselves in front of the fountain. There were quite a few ponies here as well, some were civilians and others were guards standing by the doors. They all looked slightly scared and concerned.

"Discord really did a number on this place." Applejack said as she walked up beside me. "If this is his way of holdin' back, I'd hate to see what he has cooked up for the rest of Equestria." she said, looking around at Discord's work.

"Yeah." I said before I turned my attention to the ponies and saw Shining Armor standing by the main doorway, he was wearing his guard gear and holding a spear with his hoof. "Shining!" I called as I rushed into the crowd to try and reach him.

After pushing my way through the crowd, I finally reached Shining. "Shining! Are you ok?" I asked in concern.

"I'm fine…I'm glad you're here, Matt. Maybe now someone can do something about Discord." Shining said, sounding as though he was struggling to talk. "Matt, listen…I can't move…Discord's done something to control our movements…if anyone tries to escape or leave, we're forced to stop them…we can't control ourselves." He said with only his eyes being able to move.

I looked around at the room and looked at all the frightened ponies. Discord had really gone all the way to make sure he'd get what he wants, he seemed very determined this time. "It's ok, Shining." I said as I returned my attention to him. "I'm gonna fix this and return everything to normal. But have you seen Twilight?" I asked, worried for her safety.

Shining's eyes then shifted upwards. "She's fine, I think…she's up there." he grunted.

I then spun around and looked upwards, that's when I saw Twilight, Spike and Luna in the giant bird cage hanging from the ceiling. I gasped a little at this before I flew up to the cage. "Twilight! Are you alright?!" I asked with concern.

Twilight rushed up to the bars. "Matt! Thank Celestia you're here! Discord's planning on plunging Equestria into total chaos at midnight! You have to stop him!" she said in panic.

"I know, Twi, I'm working on it." I said before I looked behind her and saw Luna standing on the other side of the cage. "Luna! Are you ok?" I asked.

Luna nodded. "I am alright, but Discord has my sister under some sort of trance, we could not break her out of it." she said before she looked around at the cage. "We have tried to escape, but this cage has been cursed." She said as she returned her attention to me.

I backed up and looked at the cage. The bars seemed pretty thin. With enough force, I might be able to break them loose. "Stand back, I'm gonna ram it." I said before I flew backwards a little and prepared I ram the cage.

Twilight's eyes widened with panic. "Matt! Wait! Don't touch the-"

But Twilight didn't have time to finish her sentence as I shot towards the cage and rammed against it. But upon striking it, I received a powerful electric shock which made my mane, tail and wings stiffen up. When it was done, I was left frozen in mid-air, smoking and singed. A single electric wave travelled across my body before I dropped down from the area, leading me to hit the floor hard. "Matt?" Twilight's voice called from the cage.

"I'm ok." I answered with my face flat against the floor. I weakly stood back up before I looked up at the cage. "I take it the cage is protected by some spell?" I asked, knowing it was obviously the right answer. I was proven right when they both nodded. "Right…then just hold on, ok? I'll take care of everything." I said, feeling as though I was lying to them and myself a little.

Looking around at everything, I could see Discord was out to prove something, like he wanted to show the world what he was truly capable of. I had some minor doubts that I could talk any sense into him.

Suddenly, I was thrown off my thought by the sound of trumpet horns being blown. I spun around and watched as the crowd broke apart to reveal the Diamond Dogs standing in from of the main entrance, blowing hard on the horns in the paws until they stopped. "Ponies and…umm…ponies…presenting the Lord of Chaos and the soon-to-be ruler of Equestria, Lord Discord and his date, pony Princess Celestia!" Rover announced as he stepped aside.

Fido and Spot then grabbed the handles of the doors and opened them, revealing Discord in a dark-blue suit complete with a red cape. Celestia was standing beside him in a red dress and her hair was held back in a pony-tail. I took a good look at her and saw that her eyes were glowing yellow, her gentle smile was creeping me out a little as well. "Hello everypony! I hope you're all having a wonderful evening." Discord said as he walked in with his arm around Celestia neck.

Everyone watched them with unease as they walked by. Some looked scared, others gave him hateful glares. As for me and the others, we all looked at them with concern, mostly for Celestia's sake and for how much Discord was pushing his chances.

"What has he done to Princess Celestia?" Rarity asked, focusing her attention on Celestia.

"It looks like she's hypnotised or somethin'." Applejack said before she looked at the others. "Celestia would never agree to be part of this. Discord must've done somethin' to her to make her more…agreeing." She said as she returned her attention to the odd couple.

Discord and Celestia walked up to me and Discord grinned widely. "Sorry I had to run, Matthew, but getting this beautiful doesn't happen on its own…I also had to get Celestia ready as well." He said before he rolled his eyes. "You should've seen how long it took her to get ready. Mares, am I right?" he said with an amused smirk.

I ignored his comment and took a step closer to Celestia. "Princess? What's happened to you? Are you ok?" I asked in concern, looking into her bright yellow eyes.

"Of course I am…I'm with Discord." Celestia said like a soulless drone while keeping her small smile.

I was in slight shock at what she said, but in the state she was in, I wasn't very surprised. I then turned my attention to Discord with a firm glare. "Hypnotising Celestia into not only coming to this, but into liking you against her own will…that's low…" I scolded.

Discord crossed his arms as he rolled his eyes again. "Well she wasn't playing along at first, she needed a little persuasion." He said before he made a flower appear in his hand before he placed it behind one of Celestia's ears. "Besides, I like her a lot better this way, she's much more fun." He said as he looked her up and down.

I then took into the air so I was at the same level as Discord. "Discord, I'm gonna give you one chance to stop this now. If you don't…I'm gonna have to make you." I warned in a calm tone, trying to keep my angered emotions to a minimum.

Discord looked at me with an un-itinerated face. "Oh, I'm so scared…what are you going to do, use your Element to trap me? Or perhaps even kill me like you did to Thorn and Zelga?" he said before he glared sharply at me. "You pretty much already did when you tossed me away, forced me to ruin the life I was trying to make." He said in a low growl as he lowered his head down to me so low that it forced me to land back down on the floor.

"You did that yourself!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she and the rest of the girls rushed over to us. "Matt didn't force you to return to your old habits! You just decided to do that!" she claimed with most of the others agreeing with her. "Get you're Element here, Matt, show this creep who's boss!" she said with aggression.

Fluttershy's eyes widened in shock. "No!" she said before she looked at me. "Don't hurt him, Matt! There may still be a chance!" she said, practically begging me.

Rarity then stepped forward and looked at Fluttershy. "Usually, I would agree with you, dear." she said before she looked up at Discord. "But this sort of thing cannot simply be ignored! Keeping these ponies captive! Turning the Princess into a mindless puppet! And making everyone watch as you take over Equestria! This is all just too cruel to let slide." She said furiously.

Discord glared down at them. "I knew you all would be trouble!" he said before he snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, the stone Sirens on the fountain came to life and flew through the air towards us, they then stopped and hovered in front of the girls. They backed away a little at the Siren's growing faces, but were surprised when they started hosing them with water from their mouths.

The girls covered themselves from the water as they backed away more. "Stop it! Oh, my hair is going to curl!" Rarity said as she did everything she could to shield her hair from the water.

The three Sirens made sure to the keep them away as Discord returned his attention to me. "Did you think I wanted this? I'm simply playing with the cards I'm dealt with! Everyone thought of me as a monster! You, Celestia, every last pony in this very room!" he yelled as his voice echoed through the room. "I tried to change, to prove everyone wrong, I truly did. But I suppose you can never truly change! So now…now I'm in charge, I'm calling the shots and I'm going to do what I was probably always meant to do." he said with a monstrous smile.

"You're wrong, Discord! You can change! You can make people see you differently, you just need to stop all this!" I said loudly as I stomped my hoof against the floor.

"Stop?! But the party has just started!" Discord said before his fingers snapped and the entire floor turned to solid ice. "Now everypony dance!" he said loud enough for everyone to hear.

All the ponies in the room struggled to keep their balance on the ice floor. Some wobbled in place, others fell flat on their faces, this kind of movement was probably Discord's messed up idea of everyone dancing.

I too struggled to stand until I took into the air again, I stayed in the air as I returned my attention to Discord. "Everything you do right now ruins your chances to be with us again more and more, you need to get a hold of yourself and think things clearly!" I said loudly.

"I don't take orders from you!" Discord said in a louder tone before he grunted. "You know what, I was going to play fairly and wait for the clock to run down by itself, but because of you and others, I think I've run out of patience." He said before he snapped his fingers again.

At that moment, a giant clock appeared in the air, showing at least one hour to midnight. "Let's say we speed things along, shall we?!" he said before he spun his talon-finger around in a circle. As he did, the hands on the clock started to move faster until they finally came to a stop…at ten minutes to midnight.

I went wide eyed with shock at this before I looked at Discord. "Discord, don't! Please!" I said, almost begging for him to stop.

Discord chuckled. "So sorry Matthew, but as soon as midnight comes, Equestria will be mine to play with as I see fit…and there's nothing anyone can do to stop me." he said with pride.

I breathed heavily through my bared teeth before I reached my hoof into my saddlebag and pulled out the collar. "I have this!" I said as I opened it wide.

Discord stared at it for a moment before he laughed loudly. "Hahaha! What is that supposed to be? A shackle collar?" he said in amusement.

I started hovering towards him. "Close…it's a Magic Block Collar, the same make as the Horn Block I used on Blaze Horn, but its made for creatures without horns…creatures like you. As soon as this goes on your neck, you'll be powerless." I said, explaining how much trouble he was in.

Discord's smug smirk grew on his face. "Really? Maybe you shouldn't have told me that." He said before he snapped his fingers, expecting it to go away. However, it didn't, nothing happened in fact. Discord was a little confused by this before he snapped his fingers again, but it came up with the same result.

I hovered there for a minute or so as Discord kept snapped his fingers, getting more frustrated with each failure to make the collar disappear. "What's going on? Why isn't this working?...Are my batteries low?" he said before he opened a small hatch in his arm and pulled out a pair of batteries, which he then shook against his ear.

"Wow, that potion actually worked…good job, Moleyair." I thought before I started getting closer to Discord. "I'm sorry Discord, but…you've forced me to do this." I said as I get even closer to him.

Discord started to back away, his face showing slight terror as I got closer. It seemed like he had lost control, like he finally had something to worry about. Discord then started snapping his fingers again, trying to make anything happen to me, but nothing happened. "What have you done to me? T-This isn't possible!" he said with a frightened look.

Discord's back then hit the fountain where the Sirens once stood. With nowhere to go, he lowered himself down until he looked like a frightened cornered animal. "No! This was supposed to be MY night! MY time! You can't do this to me! This is just…cruel!" he said with his ears flat against this head.

As I got closer to him, everyone watched as I started to get the upper hand. Twilight, Luna and Fluttershy watched in concern, wondering if I'd actually manage to go through with turning Discord into a powerless coward. Rainbow and Rarity watched with firm looks, thinking he was going to get what he deserved. While Applejack and Pinkie just watched, planning to be fine with whatever I'd do.

As I prepared to clamp the collar around Discord's neck, my eyes shifted up to his face. I have to say, it ached my heart to see him like this. His face was terrified, I didn't know if he was scared of the collar, losing all his power…or simply of me. I took this moment to think about what I was doing.

Here I was, about to render Discord into his most pathetic and humiliated stage yet. True, after all he's done today, he probably deserves it, but…could I really do that to him? After everything we've been through since he joined us. I remembered everything we did together, the pranks, forming the band, the good moments, the hilarious moments. If I was to do this, to trap him with this collar, would it prove everything Discord said about me? That I'd always think with aggression instead of forgiveness? Would doing this make me a monster?

I then remembered what Moleyair told me earlier. "If you choose the right path, everything will be as it should be…but to do so, you must know when to act…and when to not." Those words ran through my head and it suddenly all made sense. I knew what I had to do to set everything right. At first, I didn't think it wouldn't work, that Discord was too far gone to be turned back…but now I could see how wrong I was. Discord didn't need punishment, he needed something to guide him back into the light…and I had the perfect thing in my other saddlebag.

I backed away from Discord and looked down at the collar. This confused everyone, including Discord. I then returned my attention to him before I threw the collar down hard. "This isn't who I am…I won't do that to you Discord, I'd never do that to my friend." I said as I continued to hover in place.

Discord was silent, shocked and confused by this before he slowly stood back up.

"Discord…I have something to show you." I said before I reached my hoof into my other saddlebag and pulled out the file I had taken from the Library. "I need you to read this." I said as I held it out to him.

Twilight saw this and her ears lowered, knowing what was in the file and what I was trying to do. "Matt…I hope you know what you're doing." she said to herself in a whisper.

Discord looked at it with curiosity before he slowly took the file. He then opened it and read the front title. "God Parent Documents?" he read in a confused voice. He then looked at me for an explanation.

"Twilight and I got it from the Town Hall the other day. it's a document that details the legal God Parents of our foal. You see, if anything was to…happen to me and Twi, this document with say who our foal will go to." I explained. "Keep reading." I told him.

Discord looked back down at the document and kept reading. "Ok…*mumble* fill out the following *mumble* Legal God Mother/Mothers: Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna." he read before he looked at me. "Think it'll have enough God Mothers?" he asked sarcastically with a raised eye-brow.

"Twi and I thought it best to keep the foal with the whole family." I said before a small feel of excitement and nervousness filled my body. "…Keep going." I said, preparing for his next reaction.

Discord rolled his eyes before he read the next line. "Legal God Father/Fathers:…" Discord's face then went blank with slight shock at the next thing he read. "…Discord…" he finished before he looked around the rest of the sheet. "M-My name's the only one on this part…" he said as he looked at me again.

"We thought about it…a lot…we thought Shining Armor would be a good candidate, but with his busy job as Captain of the guard, we didn't think it was best for the foal…in the end, we could only think of one person who would be good enough." I said before a small smile appeared on my face. "You." I finished.

Discord was stunned by this, he was utterly speechless. No one had ever thought of him to be good enough to be a God Father, no one ever thought of him to be good enough to be any kind of father. He kept reading the document over and over, making sure he read everything correctly. That's when he noticed the date of when it was signed. "This…this says it was filled out…" he began, finding it hard to believe.

"A few days after you told me the truth about your powers." I said, finishing his sentence for him. "I realised that you truly had changed…and since you were still all powerful, you could protect our foal from any danger easily. So…in a way…I was kinda glad you still had all your powers…" I admitted.

Discord's jaw hung slightly at this. He had been chosen to be a God Parent and possibly future carer of someone's kid. It was in this moment, that he truly looked around at what he had become, how much he risked throwing away. Discord's face turned from stunned to horrified, thinking of how he must've looked to all of them while acting the way he has been lately. He returned his attention to me with his ears down in sadness. "Matthew, I…I don't know what to say…I can't believe you really thought of me that way…you and Twilight…You actually saw that much good in me, and I've…" he said before he placed his claw on his cheek. "Oh…what have I done?..." he said in shame.

I then hovered closer to Discord and placed my hoof on his shoulder. "Discord…please…be the guy I need you to be…for our kid…" I said, really hoping he'd finally listen.

And as the clock struck midnight and rang in slow bell gongs, my hopes were answered, Discord lowered his head in shame as a large magical wave left his body, spreading across the entire room.

As this happened, everything the wave passed returned to normal. The windows returned to the clear state, the fountain and Sirens disappeared, along with the flying fish and other such weird things, and the floor returned to normal. And to top it off, within a big flash of light, the city had returned to the side of the mountain, like it had never left.

The bird cage Twilight, Spike and Luna were trapped in disappeared, the three of them were caught with magic and gently lowered to the floor.

As for Celestia, her outfit disappeared and she had returned to her natural appearance, she had also regained her horn and wings. The trance that Discord had her under was instantly broken and she blinked a few times, feeling a little nauseous from it.

I then landed onto the floor and felt relieved by this. Not only because everything was back to normal, because I had finally made emends with Discord.

"Matt!" Twilight's voice called. I spun around and saw her rushing over to me. I smiled widely before she finally reached me and we shared a large loving hug. We then parted and Twilight smiled at me warmly. "I knew you could do it." she said.

I returned this smile before I noticed Twilight look up at something behind me. I turned around to see Discord taking a step closer to us, his ears still down in shame. "I'm…so sorry…to all of you." he said.

My ears lowered a little as well. "I'm sorry too, Discord…if I hadn't had rushed to judgment the way I did, maybe this all wouldn't have happened." I said, finally fulfilling my goal to make things right with Discord.

A small smile finally grew on Discord's face. But it didn't last long as his attention turned to everyone else in the room, all of them were watching and coming closer. "They're…never going to trust me again, are they?" he asked.

I looked out at all of them for a moment before I returned my attention to Discord. "Maybe…but maybe you can win them over eventually. It might take a while and a lot of work, but I think you'll manage." I said, trying to lift his spirits.

Discord smiled down at me. "Thank you Matthew." He said before he took a deep breathe. "Well…time for the hard part." He said as he saw Princess Celestia stepping forward, the look on her face told us she wasn't very pleased with what's happened.

An hour or so later: Celestia's throne room

After the mess was cleaned up and all the ponies from the ballroom were sent home, Celestia called me and Discord to the ballroom to speak to us about these current events. We didn't know if she just wanted to speak to us, or possibly punish us, all I knew is that she only wanted the two of us.

Discord and I both stood in front of the throne, with Celestia and Luna watching down upon us from the throne. They were both silent as they continued to stare at us, it was a little uncomfortable.

That was until, finally, Celestia sighed heavily. "Discord…I truly expected better from you." she began. "When you told me the truth about your powers, I admit, I was surprised…but I didn't give you any reason to act out the way you did." She said.

I then stepped forward. "I-It wasn't his fault, Princess…the possibility of losing your trust scared him. And I know I wasn't here when he told you, but I suspect your surprised reacted probably made him think he lost your trust." I said, trying to speak on Discord's behalf.

Celestia turned her attention to me. "I understand that, but if that was the case, I expected Discord to take it a little more maturely instead of reverting back into the Discord he once was." she said, making Discord's ears drop again.

We both watched as Celestia walked away from her throne and over to a window, where she could look down at her city and the land. "The only thing I'm glad about is that Discord didn't do as much damage as I was afraid he would, and the fact that he finally came to his senses and returned to us." she said before she turned around to look at us. "But that doesn't excuse the things he did during his rampage. Trapping my subjects, forcing them to watch you try to take over the land, and hypnotising me into being a puppet…these sort of things can't go unpunished I'm afraid." She said with a firm tone.

Discord and I looked at each other nervously before we returned our attention to Celestia who was walking back up to her throne. "Discord, for your crimes against this kingdom, you should be imprisoned." She said. But at that moment, she looked at him with sympathy. "But I know that your actions came from a broken heart, one that I possibly aided in creating, so I won't do that…" she said before her look became firm once again. "Instead, I am forbidding you from using all your magic! You can still us some, but I don't want to see floating houses, candy clouds and other such things! Am I understood?" she asked.

Discord was silent for a moment before he looked down at me. I looked up at him and gave him a single nod, telling him to accept the deal. Discord sighed before he looked back up at Celestia. "Yes…you're highness." He answered.

With that done, Celestia turned her attention to me. "Now Matthew, I know you had a hand in making Discord stop, but from what I've heard, he did all this because of your harsh judgment upon him. You were the one who told him to tell me the truth, which then led to all this mayhem." She said with a raised eye-brow.

"Y-Yes Princess, but I-" I started, but was stopped when Celestia raised her hoof to silence me.

Celestia then lowered her hoof and continued to speak. "Now your punishment won't be as firm as Discord's, but it's one most suitable. My subjects are scared, scared of because they know Discord is still in the city and roaming unsupervised. We may still see the good in Discord, but they don't see it as clearly. So until further notice, Discord will be moved to your Library to stay with you and Twilight." she instructed.

I was surprised by this, Discord hadn't stayed in the Library since he joined us. I looked up at him and then back at Celestia. Knowing there wasn't a way to change her mind, I nodded. "Yes, Princess." I submitted.

"And furthermore, I am placing Discord under your care until he is welcome back to Canterlot! He isn't to go anywhere without your supervision or at least informing you on where he is going first." Celestia said before she looked at Discord. "If he strays from this instruction or if he disobeys any of these agreements, then I allow you permission to place that Magic Block Collar on him." she said in a still firm tone.

I then looked up at Discord to see the slightly worried look on his face. I felt bad for him being punished like this, but we knew better than to argue with royalty. "I understand, Princess…but I don't think there'll be any need for it." I said as I returned my attention to her.

"I hope you're right, Matthew." Celestia said before she looked at Discord. "I'm sorry I have to do this to the two of you…but you must understand that I need to do what I believe is best for my subjects." She said with a look of slight sorrow in her eyes.

"We understand." Discord said before he bowed his head a little.

"Good." Celestia said with a small smile. "In that case, you are both dismissed, I'm sure you both have a lot to prepare for in Ponyville." she said.

With that, Discord and I bowed one last time. "Yes Princess." We both said at the same time before we turned around and started making our way out of the throne room.

As we left, Celestia and Luna watched. "I hope Matthew and the others will be able to help Discord back on the right path." Celestia said with a small look of concern.

"I saw how Discord acted when Matthew showed him that document." Luna said as she walked up beside Celestia. "If Discord wants to prove to Matthew and Twilight Sparkle that he can be a suitable God Father, I believe he will do anything." she said.

Celestia looked down at Luna. "I hope so, Luna…I truly do." she said before they both returned their attention to us and watched us leave the room.

Later than night: Ponyville Library

After we all returned to Ponyville, I explained Celestia's orders to Twilight. At first, she wasn't very pleased about it, but she knew that there was nothing we could do to change Celestia's mind. It was official, Discord was going to be staying with us for a while.

Everyone else seemed a little uneasy by this, knowing Discord was going to be in Ponyville for a while. Fluttershy was ok with it, but I think the others were planning to keep a close eye on him until he's able to return to Canterlot.

Once we got back, everyone headed home, including us. Me, Twilight, Spike and Discord went back to the Library and immediately went to bed. It was way past midnight and we were all very tired.

Jeff and Peewee had wondered what was going on, but we were too out of it to get into it. We promised to tell them all about it in the morning, but right now, we sleep.

After putting Spike to bed, setting Discord up in the guest room, and putting all the things I took back where they once were, Twilight and I climbed into our bed and rested against it. "I've been begging for this all night." I said, loving the feeling of finally being able to relax.

"Yeah." Twilight said as she lied beside me, giving me a sweet loving smile.

I turned my head to face her and stared at her, she stared right back while keeping the smile. A smile grew on my face before I finally had to speak. "What?" I said in amusement.

"I'm just so proud of you." Twilight said as she moved closer and nuzzled against me. "You had the chance to trap Discord and make him powerless, but you chose the better option…that's the kind of thing that makes me love you so much." She said before she placed a small kiss on my cheek.

I blushed at this a little before I wrapped my arms around her body, holding her closer. "I just thought…maybe if Discord knew what we planned for him, he'd see a bit more light." I said before my smile went away a little. "I didn't know if it would work or not…glad it did though." I said, thinking of what might've happened if things went sideways.

Twilight moved her head away so she could look me in the eyes. "I know it wasn't an easy choice, but…maybe this is good for our foal and Discord. Our foal will have a powerful guardian, and Discord will have a new reason to stay on our side." She said.

"Maybe." I said as my smile returned and I looked at her. "But right now, let's get some rest. The little guy's been through a lot." I said as I rubbed my hoof against Twilight's pregnant stomach.

Twilight then smirked. "'Guy'? It could very well be a girl, you know." She said.

I smirked back before I held her closer, we both smiled lovingly at each other before we leaned closer. "I love you Twilight." I said as I looked deep into her shimmering eyes.

"I love you too, Matt." Twilight responded as we moved closer to each other.

We both closed our eyes and prepared to kiss each other, both our lips soon came into contact with something…furry. Realizing it wasn't the usual feeling, we both opened our eyes and went into shock at what we saw. Discord was lying between us and we were both kissing his cheeks. "Oh…tender." He said with a large grin.

Upon seeing this, Twilight and I quickly pulled away. We started spitting and wiping our mouths in disgust. "Ah! So uncool, Discord!" I said before I grabbed the sheets and started wiping my mouth with it.

Discord then leaned up on the bed. "Sorry, I just felt a little lonely in that guest room and I was wondering what you two were up to. Then I heard all the nice things you were saying about me and decided to get in on the love." He said with a smirk.

We both then looked up at Discord with frustrated faces. "Discord, get back in your room, this bed is ours!" Twilight said firmly.

Discord then looked down at her with his firm disappearing. "But I feel like I've had a nightmare and I want to sleep with the two of you, you know, to comfort me." he said.

"Don't push it, Discord! Otherwise you're sleeping in a box downstairs." I said strongly.

Discord then frowned and huffed. "Fine." He said before he floated up out of the bed and started hovering back towards the guest room. "Whatever happened to hospitality?" he asked himself before he went back into the guest room and closed the door behind him.

With him gone, Twilight and I moved back into place and lied down on the bed. "The next few days are gonna be very…very…long." Twilight said before she rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes to sleep.

I sighed before I rested my head more against the pillow. "Tell me about it…but they definitely won't be boring." I said before I closed my eyes to finally get some sleep.

Part of me couldn't sleep because of the possibility of how hard supervising Discord might be, but the rest of me found it easier to sleep because we had finally gotten our friend back from a dark place.

Yeah, these next few days were going to be very interesting.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

The song I used in this chapter is 'No more Mr nice guy', from the movie "Swan Princess". I don't own anything.

Also, I'm sure you're all very familiar with the Gaston song from Beauty and the Beast, I've been working on my own version of it featuring Discord. This Parody, which I have written myself, will eventually make its way onto this story, possibly after the next few chapters. Please let me know what you think of that.

So far, S7 has been very good, I was just a bit surprised by the lack of a 2-parter, hopefully the final will make up for that, but let's not rush anything.

Pony News: A few episodes for S7 have been announced. The next one should be about Fluttershy, something about things not going the way she expected or wanted.

The next one after that, I think, is about Big Mac having a crush on one of Starlight's old friends, and with help from the CMC, he will try to compete with another stallion trying to win her heart. I'm looking forward to that one the most.

There are some other episodes, but I haven't looked into them yet.

As for the MLP movie, I don't know if anyone of you know, but a small trailer was released a while ago. The animation looks great, kind of like The Moon Rises, which is probably what we were all hoping for.

No doubt the movie itself will rock!

End of Pony News:

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The next chapter will be released as soon as possible.