Chapter 4

"Don't Do It, Discord!"

While Celestia attempted to warn Luna and Cadence about his actions, Discord once again disguised himself as a bird and flew down towards the one object in Equestria that would put him out of his misery: the Tree of Harmony. It was not that far from Celestia and Luna's old castle and Discord wanted to do it as quietly and quickly as possible because it was also not far from Twilight's new castle in Ponyville.

Landing at the top of the stairs, Discord slowly walked down to the Tree of Harmony which had now been lying dormant since Twilight and her friends had opened the chest. Yes, he did give Twilight her final key, but in his mind, it wasn't enough. Taking in a deep breath, Discord looked up towards the tree and prepared to end it all.

"Tree of Harmony," he said, trying to hold back tears in his eyes. "I come to you because I seek to rid myself of the ponies of Equestria. I was tasked to capture a magic draining monster and I failed because he offered me something more valuable than friendship and I believed him. Because of this, I have seen unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies conspire to eliminate me and I'd much rather do it myself right here and right now."

At that moment, Discord produced a target on his chest and looked back up towards the Tree, closing his eyes and preparing himself for the inevitable. He was now thinking of his life before this moment from his time as the master of chaos to his first defeat to his escape and re-imprisonment; his release and newly formed friendship with Fluttershy and all the way up to his betrayal of Equestria.

"Tree of Harmony," cried Discord raising out his paw and claw and bending back a little. "Into your branches, I commit myself to eternal imprisonment!"

The tree of harmony powered itself up and the elements on the branches activated, glowing a powerful light that was about to produce itself as a rainbow. At that moment, a streak came out from the tree and raised itself up in the air about to come down sharply on Discord. The rainbow came down as fast a speeding bullet and Discord took in a deep breath preparing himself for the impact.

But just as the rainbow got closer and closer, a dark purple bubble came over Discord and stopped the rainbow from hitting him.

"ENOUGH!" cried the voice in a loud roar and the rainbow disappeared as Discord opened his eyes and realized that he wasn't turned to eternal stone. Just then, another loud cry came out and Discord looked up to see Princesses Luna, Celestia and Cadence accompanied by their EUP guards staring down at him.

"I know why you are here princesses, but you are too late," said Discord, looking back up at them. "I have chosen to rid myself of Equestria after all I have done to you."

"We can talk about this Discord," called Cadence, worried for the ex-master of chaos just as much as her aunts. "Just come up and we can help you."

She was about to walk down to the tree, when Discord fired a blast of magic at her. This caused Cadence to jump back in surprise.

"Get back!" shouted Discord, refusing to move from the tree. "My mind is made up!"

"I will not allow you to do this, Discord," demanded Celestia, trying to sound firm. "You cannot rid yourself of Equestria! I will not allow it!"

She turned to the EUP guards and nodded to them and at that moment, the EUP guards stepped forward and were just about to walk down to capture Discord, but he shielded himself by producing a large purple bubble that surrounded himself with the tree of harmony.

"Get back!" roared Discord, trying to keep the guards away. "You are not going to make me leave the tree!"

This made the three princesses feel exhausted as they continued to try to talk to Discord throughout the day in an attempt to get him to come out and realized that this was becoming hopeless. They needed to get through to him and knew that there was one pony who could talk to him.

"It's hopeless, sister," sighed Luna, looking over towards Celestia. "We can't get him to move! Shall we call on Princess Twilight?"

Celestia considered the option for a moment and then produced a quill and parchment writing a message to her faithful student and youngest equal.

Meanwhile, as Discord remained holed up with the tree of harmony, Twilight and Fluttershy were sitting outside of Twilight's castle as Fluttershy was still disturbed by her friends' cold demeanor of Discord despite everything that he had done.

"I don't understand, Twilight," sighed Fluttershy. "Discord is sorry for his actions and everypony else just won't let it go. Do you think he will ever get over this?"

"I don't know, Fluttershy," replied Twilight, placing her wing over Fluttershy. "Discord did betray all of Equestria after all, and even if you and I forgave him, not everypony will. We'd just have to convince him that he is still loved."

"But how?" wondered Fluttershy, realizing the truth that her friend had just said. "He won't listen to anypony but me."

"He can listen to me," remarked Twilight, looking over to Fluttershy. "You saw him watch as Tirek took the alicorn magic from me in exchange for your freedom and realized how sorry he truly was."

Fluttershy was glad to hear that somepony else besides her would listen to Discord. But, the two ponies were just about to come up with a plan to get through to Discord when a loud burping noise was heard from inside the castle and Twilight and Fluttershy turned around to see Spike fling the doors wide open.

"Twilight, it's from the princesses and its urgent!" he called, handing the parchment over to Twilight. Twilight could not believe what she was reading and neither was Fluttershy, whose heart sank along with Twilight when they read the letter that Celestia had sent them.

"He wouldn't dare," gasped Twilight, her face filled with fear along with Fluttershy. "He absolutely wouldn't dare!"

"We've got to stop him and fast!" cried Fluttershy who immediately took flight with Twilight not too far behind. "He has so much to live for!"

For as far as the two friends knew, this was the first time that they knew of Discord's intentions to rid himself from Equestria and raced to join the princesses in stopping Discord from doing just that.

But, were they already too late?