Chapter 6

"The Whole Truth Comes Out"

After he had been knocked out by Princess Luna, Discord was taken back to Twilight's castle where he was then placed in a cage until it was time for him to be confronted by all four of Equestria's princesses as well as his one true friend. As he was brought into Twilight's throne room, the rest of her friends watched as the royal guards brought Discord inside with looks of horror and shock deep in their faces. They had learned of Discord's intentions through both Twilight and Fluttershy upon their return from the Tree of Harmony.

"I can't believe that Discord would do such a thing," remarked Applejack as the cage containing Discord was carried inside. "Yes, he did betray us, but he learned by his mistakes."

"I agree wholeheartedly," added Rarity as the doors of the throne room shut in front of them. "Choosing to no longer exist in Equestria is…is…."

The fashionista unicorn struggled to come up with the words to describe what to say as the thoughts continued to circle throughout her mind as well as those of the other ponies.

"Well, its not worth it," sighed Rainbow Dash, kicking one of her legs against the wall. "Teaming up with Tirek and betraying all of us is one thing. But choosing to turn yourself back to stone forever is unheard of. Perhaps maybe we were too hard on him. Don't you guys all agree?"

All the ponies nodded in agreement with what the element of loyalty had said. It was very true to the fact that they were all being too hard on Discord. In their minds, they thought he was still the same old master of chaos from when they first encountered him. Now, they were seeing a real creature of Equestria with real feelings coming out before their eyes.

"Yeah," said Pinkie Pie sadly, her mane deflating somewhat in sadness. "We were being too hard on him and he's feeling down because of it."

"We have to do something about it, girls," replied Rarity. "Really we should. But, there is one question that still remains."

"What is that, Rarity?" asked Applejack.

"If Discord is willing to change for the sake of Equestria, shouldn't we change the way we feel about him?"

This made everypony fall silent in thought. Rarity was right about what she had said out in the open. If Discord was now willing to be accepted by all the ponies, then they had to stop being antagonistic towards him. They had to see that he was a changed creature after having learned what would happen if he betrayed somepony. They all saw it happen to Discord firsthand when Tirek revealed that he was only using Discord to get more power and not for being a friend as Discord had wanted to begin with.

Meanwhile, Twilight and her fellow princesses were all gathered in the throne room waiting for Discord to awaken from his forced slumber. The cage that he was in was only used to keep him from transporting from their sight. Fluttershy stood next to the caged master of chaos as he opened his eyes and looked to reveal that he was in the throne room of Twilight's new castle with only Fluttershy and Equestria's four princesses for company.

"I see you are awake now, Discord," said Celestia as she walked towards the now awaken draconequs. "Do you realize where you are now?"

Discord was silent for a minute as he was still waking up and after a moment, he finally began to realize where he was.

"You have me in a cage like a common criminal in Tartarus," he remarked, looking around. "If you want to send me there now, all you had to do was use the same portal Tirek used against you."

"You are in my new castle, Discord," said Twilight, joining her mentor at her side. "We are very worried about you and we need to understand why you are acting the way you are."

Discord wanted deep down to leave and return to the tree, but that was not going to be possible now as he now had an audience in front of him.

"We are not intending to send you to Tartarus, Discord," said Luna, looking at him directly. "But, what are you doing has caused us concern for your very existence. You seek to bring harm to yourself for what you have done and we are trying to prevent you from doing that. Why do you intend to do what you are intending to do?"

At that moment, Discord closed his eyes and with Fluttershy holding his paw tightly with her hoof, took in a deep sigh and knew that he had to come clean over his intentions one way or the other.

"Because I fear that I could something like this again," he confessed, nearly to the point of crying. "I realized that Tirek wanted nothing more but to use me in order to gain more power from the ponies that I have befriended. If there was ever another villain who would seek to make me their accomplice, then everything that happened now would happen again. If I ridded myself of Equestria, then maybe you would avoid a repeat of what had happened."

This caused the four princesses to take in what they had heard from Discord. They had to get through to him somehow and make him understand that he was needed not just in Equestria, but in their lives as well.

"Shining Armor was right," he continued from inside the cage. "I am a traitor and always will be a traitor."

It was at this point that Princess Cadence got up and joined Celestia and her sister-in-law in front of the cage.

"You are not a traitor, Discord," said Cadence, having heard about what her husband had told Discord.

"How could you say that, Princess Cadence?" gasped Discord, his eyes wide open. "I did betray Equestria and I must face the consequences somehow."

"You have suffered enough and the only one who is hurting is yourself by acting this way," said Cadence, trying to sound reasonable. "We believe now that you were merely misled by someone who gave you a false promise. If there is anyone to blame for what happened in Equestria, it's Tirek and him only."

"Cadence is right, Discord," added Twilight, placing her hoof on the cage. "Ridding yourself of Equestria will only make things worse instead of better. When I saw you and my friends in those bubbles, I knew that all of you were important to me than ever before and I chose to see you free from Tirek along with my friends rather than keep our alicorn magic hidden."

This made Discord's eyes pop wide open as he was now learning the truth behind what the princesses had done. While he and Tirek were in Canterlot, he felt a strange feeling of imbalance and knew that something was wrong, but kept it hidden from Tirek.

"So that's what you did," gasped Discord, now understanding the truth. "You surrendered the most powerful magic in Equestria to free me and your friends. Why would you do that when you had a chance to beat Tirek?"

"Because I knew that I couldn't beat Tirek with the power that he had absorbed," replied Twilight. "There was one type of magic that could beat him and that was the magic of friendship, a magic far greater than any type of magic that exists in Equestria, whether it would be our combined Alicorn Magic or your own Chaos Magic."

Discord was now beginning to understand why he was being cared about by the ponies he had betrayed the most. He knew that all the negative feelings inside of him were just as misleading as Tirek himself.

"But, if there is one I would have to credit for helping us defeat Tirek, it is you, Discord," continued Twilight as her friends now listened in from outside the throne room. "When you gave me the final key to open the chest. Had it not been for you, Tirek would have conquered Equestria and all would have been lost. You are more than a friend, Discord. You are like a member of our family: you, Fluttershy, me, my friends and my fellow princesses."

Discord was now beginning to have his eyes well up with tears upon hearing those words. He had never had a family before, and only thought in his mind, that he would live alone as a creature of chaos.

"You are important to us, Discord," added Celestia, speaking up for the first time. "Equestria is based on the balance of harmony and chaos. Without the chaos that you produce, Equestria would have been imbalanced. I chose you to initially capture Tirek because of your ability to sense magic. If there is ever a time when we need you for a task and you were not here, who would I turn to for help? But most importantly, now is the time for you to fully learn the magic of friendship and who better to teach you than the ponies who care about you the most?"

This made Discord start to cry silently and he produced a tissue to blow his nose and wipe his eyes. All the princesses started to surround him and admire the realization that Discord was experiencing.

"I can't believe that you said all those things about me," cried Discord as Fluttershy smiled up at him. "You truly care about me as a member of your family."

"That's what you are, Discord," said Twilight, smiling warmly. "And you always will be to us."

"Besides, who would I share my picnics and tea parties with?" added Fluttershy, who flew into the cage and gave him a big hug. "We still have our cucumber sandwiches to share together, don't we?"

"Yes, we do, Fluttershy," cried Discord, hugging her tightly as the cage disappeared around him. "Yes, we do."

It seemed at that moment, that the magic of friendship was now beginning to swirl throughout Discord as he learned that there were ponies who truly care about him and that they couldn't live without his antics or his presence.

But most importantly, as the rest of Twilight's friends entered the throne room and joined in the celebration, Discord had finally found what he had been looking for and that was something that Tirek could never take away from him.

At that moment, throughout his soul searching, Discord had fully learned and embraced the magic of friendship.