The walk out of Everfree was, thankfully, more uneventful than the walk going in. Everyone was in high spirits, even the five that were suffering through some exhaustion. With the vines gone and the sun and moon back in their proper place, the preparations for tomorrow's celebration could continue, though not without a few temporary repair jobs along the way. While most of the Ponyvillians in the group would have loved to stay and assist with all of that, it was generally agreed amongst them that all ten of them wanted to get on a train and go back to Canterlot with Celestia, Luna, Twilight and Spike.

"You really think that after all of this," Rainbow Dash started to complain, "those snooty tight wads in Canterlot are going to make a fuss if Twilight's not there? Why can't she just celebrate the Summer Sun Celebration here in Ponyville?"

"Unfortunately, most of Canterlot has a hard time accepting the fact that there are other cities and towns out there," Celestia explained, grimacing slightly. "They barely acknowledge the existence of Ponyville, and I assume that has something to do with Twilight and her castle."

"But that's why it's important for Twilight Sparkle to be there and be seen," Luna added. "Hopefully when the elite of Canterlot finally accept her as royalty, they might take a more vested interest in Ponyville."

"So... politics?" Twilight asked with a rather tired and disgusted air.

"Scoff if you must Twilight," Luna continued. "But when Ponyville becomes a center of cultural development and growth, I imagine you'll be thankful for the political sway a visit or two like this to Canterlot will bring you. Think of it as a chance to get the rich and powerful to actually be responsible for once and invest in you and your neighbors’ home."

"Yes, who wouldn't love more stuck up ponies like the Rich Family living in town," said a bush the group was just making their way past. Like a rapidly growing tree, Discord rose out of the bush with a smug look about him. "We could always do with a few more Diamond Tiaras and Silver Spoons, am I right?"

"Discord," Celestia said, her face slipping from happy to annoyed in barely a fraction of a second. "I don't know whether to be glad or furious that we ran into you here. We need to have a little talk about today's events, because I'm sure you have a lot to say about them."

"Talk about what?" Discord shrugged, then pointed over to Twilight and her friends. "As I told them after they threw some baseless accusations my way earlier today, I haven't made any attempts to cause chaos at all for some time now."

"While that may technically be true," Celestia said, her temper starting to flair. "I know how much you love to dodge the truth when given even the slightest bit of leeway. You could have easily put together something like this a while back. So give me a straight answer to this, Discord." Celestia's eyes had started to redden and her hair was moving around like fire instead of gently swaying in a nonexistent breeze. "The vines, did you plant them? Yes or no."

Discord looked around at everyone's faces, most of them either teetering on the edge of anger or way past that and into full on rage. Fluttershy was looking desperately at him, not wanting to hear an affirmative to Celestia's question. All of them were staring daggers at him in some shape or form however, as if daring him to admit that he'd betrayed their trust in him.

"Yes," he finally said, sighing in defeat. "I planted the Plunder Plant vines."

A sound akin to a tree snapping in half was the only warning Discord got before Twilight teleport tackled him in the chest. The force of the impact forced the air out of his lungs and sent him to the ground. Then Twilight landed right on his ribcage and leaned her head in close to his, showing him her pure white eyes and flailing ethereal hair.

"YOU IDIOT!!" She cried out, her voice echoing around her with intense volume. "You could have told us about this! You could have stopped the vines! We wouldn't have had to give up the Elements if you had! We have nothing now! No way of protecting Equestria if something like you threatens it again! Was this your plan?! Put all of us in danger so you'd never have to be put in stone again?!"

"Woah now, Twilight dear," Discord started as he grabbed Twilight's horn and hoisted her up as he got back to his feet. "If you'll let me explain,"

"Let her go!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she and the others advanced on Discord with murderous intent on their faces.

"Everyone please!" Discord said, holding up his free hand defensively. "If we could all just sit down and talk about this,"

"You were supposed to be our friend!" Fluttershy cried as her tears started to flow freely. "I thought you'd changed!"

"Ha!" Rarity scoffed. "Changed? Nothing's changed! He's still as boorish and self centered as the day we met him! He's been leading us on the whole time!"

"I ain't gonna stand for that nonsense any more!" Applejack said through gritted teeth. "Elements or no Elements, I'm gonna knock that big stupid snaggle toothed grin clean off his face!"

"It was a mistake to let you out of your imprisonment," Celestia growled as cold fury and burning hatred radiated off of her in equal amounts. "If you think I'm going to listen to one more lie from you, then you've got another thousand things com-"

"I SAID SIDDOWN!!" Discord howled, sweeping his now glowing hand around and forcing all of them backwards into a seated position. They tried to rise up again, but their haunches had been glued to the ground by magic. All they could do was glare up at Discord with seething hate as he held them all captive. "I am talking! And you will listen!"

Discord's visage had seemingly changed to match his current level of anger. His hair had spiked upwards, his already sunken in eyes got even darker, the fur around his face and neck became ruffled and unkempt, and his snarling mouth revealed two rows of sharp, dragon like fangs and teeth. No one was willing to glare at him for very long as these changes made the formerly jovial face look absolutely terrifying. After a moment of enraged hyperventilation, Discord took one last deep breath and wiped his hand over his face, changing it back to a more calmed expression. He slowly lowered Twilight to the ground, where she gave him a disgusted look.

"Sit," Discord said calmly to her, gesturing her towards the others before adding, "please."

Twilight, after hesitating for a moment, walked over and sat next to Celestia, before joining her in trying to make Discord's head explode by glaring intently at him. Discord coughed once, ignoring the anger he'd gained from his captive audience, and launched into his explanation.

"Now, as I was saying. Yes, I planted the seeds that grew into the vines. Yes, I very well could have told you that little detail, but that would have lead to you threatening to trap me in stone again if I didn't undo the mess they'd caused. But even if I had told you and you issued an ultimatum to me, I still wouldn't have gotten rid of the vines."

"Is chaos really that important to you than?" Luna asked with a scowl. "You'd rather everyone lose if you can't win?"

"Oh, heavens no!" Discord laughed, his light hearted demeanor returning. "You all are just the happy casualties caught in the crossfire! I only need the Beast to lose if I can't win!" Discord snapped his fingers and a large projector screen appeared next to him. "Since the day that wretch dragged its ugly face out of the earth centuries ago, it's done nothing but cause misery and despair for every living creature. When I do that, it's funny, and doesn't end in the death of thousands and the near extinction of several races. What's the point of chaos if no one's around to witness it? So you can see why I'd be willing to do just about anything to destroy it."

The screen started showing a countdown, like it was from an old time movie, then it showed Celestia and Luna , wearing saddle bags and looking ragged. Twilight recognized the scene from her potion induced vision of the two of them fighting Discord. The footage skipped a bit until it showed the actual battle, focussing on the Persona's leaping around for a moment before panning over to Discord eating from the bag of seeds.

"My original intention for the Plunder Plants," Discord explained, pulling out a pointer and directing their attention to the seeds that were being scattered about. "Was for them to ensnare the Princesses, the Tree of Harmony, and the Beast, should anything happen to me that I hadn't counted on. The vines would drain away all of the Princesses magic and use it to strangle the life out of both the Beast and the Tree."

The film showed several cartoonish depictions of Celestia, Luna, the Tree of Harmony, the beast, and the vines. The vines wrapped up all four of them and then poofed into white clouds, leaving skull and crossbones where the beast and the Tree were, and a very tired looking Celestia and Luna, all the colour having been drained from them.

"All obstacles in the way of taking my place as the undisputed ruler of Equestria would be dealt with in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, there were two things I failed to anticipate: the strength of the tree and how long I'd have to wait before I was set free. My plunder plant seeds should have sprouted a week after I planted them, but it would seem that the Tree of Harmony did its job of controlling the forest a bit too well."

Footage of the seeds trying to sprout under the Tree of Harmony played, some magical force holding them back.

"I imagined it would take maybe a decade or so before I managed to free myself. Even if Celestia and Luna were still in power at that point, the loss of their magic would have made them a cake walk. But instead, I woke up not ten or twenty years later, but over a thousand years later. Worse still, I find out that not only did my seeds not sprout, but the Beast and the Tree of Harmony were still chugging along their merry way. I don't think I need to remind all of you what form my plan of vengeance took after that. I will admit, my little temper tantrum last year might have done more harm than good, I should have immediately started making efforts to permanently kill the Beast. But, instead, I used what little time I had to focus on my lesser enemies. I ignored the rampaging elephant headed straight for us and for that, I am sorry."

"Sorry?!" Rarity indignantly screamed. "You wanted Equestria all to yourself! You warped our minds so that we couldn't use the Elements! You turned all of Ponyville on its head! What gives you the right? If the Beast truly was your intended target this whole time, then why drag everyone else down with it, if not to take Equestria for yourself?"

"One question at a time please!" Discord said, before smirking in a very unamused way towards Celestia and Luna. "Though to be fair, that's a question for your princesses as well." The two ponies in question twitched in unison, as if Discord had struck a rather uncomfortable nerve. "Now where was I? Oh yes, then came your rather generous offer of redemption, my subsequent rehab with Fluttershy, Twilight's accession, blah blah blah. I'd resigned myself to the fact that we were out of time. The Tree of Harmony was on its last limbs, and without Personas or the Princesses' willingness to surrender their magic to me, we really had no way of even trying to stop the Beast. So I decided, better to live in ignorance and enjoy the life you have left, rather than worry about what terrible fate awaits at the end."

"You knew from the onset that the Beast was active again?" Twilight asked. "Why didn't you say anything after the first incident? Wayfarer got his Persona, didn't that prove we still had a chance?"

"Actually, from what I can tell, the Beast has been active for nearly ten years now, But the reason I continued to remain silent even after Wayfarer got his Persona was that I didn't think it mattered. Again, it took over twenty Persona users to defeat the Beast the first time, what good would one or two do against it? No, some part of me thought it was a kindness to keep you ignorant, at least until the status quo changed in your favor. Which brings us to today."

The projector screen showed the Tree of Harmony, without the Elements, shining brightly. Suddenly, the tree's glow flickered and died, and then dozens of vines began sprouting out of the ground and wrapping about the tree.

"I was just as surprised as all of you to find that my plunder plant seeds had finally sprouted, I'd thought they'd withered away long ago. And so I was faced with a bit of a dilemma. I knew that eventually someone would point the blame to me, and I'd be expected to fix everything. However, with the Tree of Harmony out of power, simply removing the vines would have given the Beast a red carpet walkway to the surface. I couldn't let that happen, and I had a sneaking suspicion that getting hit with your rainbow special beam cannon might undo it as well. So I did what I do best: I bent the truth. I led Miss Sparkle here into believing that the Curse that created Everfree in the first place was the more likely suspect, encouraging her to seek out the Tree of Harmony and recharge it with the Elements."

"But why didn't you just tell us?" Twilight said. "Why set up this elaborate gambit to trick us when you could have just told us what we needed to do?"

"Because if I admitted to letting the plants grow, indirect kidnaping of the princesses, refused to fix the problem myself, and then told you that the only way to put everything right was to give up the Elements, you wouldn't have believed me. If I got you to figure out on your own what needed to be done, you would have done it in a heartbeat. And I was right wasn't I? So now the vines are gone, the Tree of Harmony is restored, the Princesses are back with us, and best of all," Discord pulled out his stethoscope and started listening to the earth again. "I still can't hear the voice of the Beast, meaning either it's dead or just mostly dead." Tossing the doctor's tool away, Discord rose up and snapped his fingers, releasing everyone from their seats and causing the projector screen to disappear. "As thanks, I expect my face to be printed on special edition thirteen-bit coins."

Everyone was quiet as they stood up again. They all looked at each other with disgruntled faces, Celestia and Luna in particular looked more than a little miffed about the whole situation. None of them resumed their rush to try and cause Discord any sort of bodily harm though.

"I still want to be mad at him," Applejack said to Rarity.

"Quite," she responded, nodding.

"Oh come now ladies," Discord said picking the two up in his arms. "Take joy in the fact that you were right about me being a manipulative cad, I know I would!"

"Discord," Celestia said calmly, pulling Rarity and Applejack out of his grasp with her magic. "You're sure you can't feel or hear the Beast anymore?"

"Positive, although that doesn't necessarily mean we can drop our guard just yet. We still have some evil hoodies to take care of, and I'd keep an ear or two to the ground for a good long while just to be sure said horrible beastie doesn't pull a surprise rebound and get the drop on us."

"Noted. What about the labyrinth under the castle?"

"Hmm..." Discord hummed as he absentmindedly tapped his feet against the ground. "Nope, that one is still there, might even have a few straggling Shadows skulking about. Definitely want to have that cemented over before Twilight's little house warming party."

Celestia sighed, clearly exhausted, both by today's events and by the thought that there was still more to come. She looked up at Discord and said something she never thought she'd ever have to say to the chaotic lord.

"Thank you, Discord." Everyone, including Discord himself, gawked at her as she continued. "And I'm sorry. You're a mystery wrapped in an enigma, and even that doesn't rightly do you justice. I've long since abandoned all entertainment of the idea that I might one day understand you and your actions. But it's clear to me that, in your own special way, you are fighting on our side. I just wish you wouldn't make it seem like that wasn't the case in times like this."

Discord grimaced and scratched the back of his head, trying hard to avoid Celestia's eyes. "I'm... sorry as well. At least for the whole, trying to dethrone you and plunge Equestria into eternal chaos bit. You have to understand, I was having a total psychotic break at the time."

"Would you... like to talk about it sometime?"

Discord's eyes rolled around until they were staring at Celestia. He raised an eyebrow at her and deflected the question with his own. "Shouldn't you be headed back to Canterlot? Maybe before the stuffy nobles start losing their minds?"

"...Another time then," Celestia sighed as she started walking back into Ponyville. "Come along everyone."

The procession of ponies proceeded past Discord, most of them averting their gaze from him out of annoyance, though a couple, namely Celestia and Pinkie, did give him an acknowledging nod or smile to him. Fluttershy stopped and gave him a brief hug, before wiping away the last little residue of her tears and following the others away. Twilight also stopped to give a mumbled apology to him for attacking him, but left still just as annoyed as the others.

Wayfarer was the only one left, but something kept him from accompanying the others. He looked up at Discord curiously, a thought coming to him as two glared at each other.

"Something on your mind, half pint?" Discord asked raising an eye at Wayfarer.

"Well, you said before that you thought it was a kindness to hide the truth from us, but from what I can tell, you've never really been one for courtesy. So why would you care, after everything you've done to antagonize them?"

Discord considered Wayfarer for a moment, then sighed. "Things... have a tendency to break when given the right amount of pressure. But just because they're broken doesn't mean the pieces aren't still there."

"So... you're saying you're broken?"

"Hmph, aren't we all broken in some way or another?" Discord turned away from Wayfarer, sternly looking in the opposite direction. "Your friends are waiting for you, go on, shoo, vamoose, allez-vous en!"

Wayfarer hesitated for a moment, but nodded and left, following after his friends before they could move out of sight and leaving Discord to stew in his thoughts.

"Happy Summer Solstice Mr. Strong Wind!" Court Drama cried out joyfully as the pegasus in question entered his office. Gust Strong Wind flinched at the loud greeting, he was still on edge after the chaos of yesterday. He recovered quickly and gave a smile back to his boss as approached his desk.

"Same to you sir," Strong Wind said before dropping his smile and taking a more formal stance. "I have the reports in from Canterlot and Ponyville, I was wondering if-"

"Oh please, Gust," Court Drama said, waving a hoof dismissively. "Today is a day for Celebration! Work can wait until tomorrow. On days like this, stallions like you should be out on the town, getting sloshed with cider and mead!"

"I have plans to go bar hopping with Vivid, Firebrand, and Infinity later."

"See! There you go!"

"But sir, I really think you should see this." Strong Wind pulled some folders out of his saddle bags. He opened one of them and placed it on the desk in front of Court Drama. "There was a massive spike in our Shadow readings out in the Everfree Forest. Two of them to be exact, one C level rupture, and then an A level about an hour later. Though personally," Strong Wind pointed at a graph with two noticeable spikes on it, with the second one going right off the page. "I think we may need to rewrite the scale."

"And you're sure these are accurate?" Court Drama asked, his joyous tone dropping entirely in favor of a more serious scowl.

"Well unless all five of the sensing crystals I left there earlier this month have all simultaneously failed at the exact same time, then yes, I'm sure."

Court Drama stared down at the graph for almost a full minute before he stood and started to pace around his office, contemplating the ramifications of the data they'd gathered. After a few dozen laps around his desk, he went to the voice pipe on the wall, sliding it open and speaking into it.

"Would someone please send the Fortune Teller up to my office ASAP please? Thank you."

He then went back to pacing as they waited, mumbling things under his breath as he continued to occasionally pick up some of the files that Strong Wind had brought and perusing through them. They didn't have to wait long before the doors opened again. A mare with a light blue coat and bleached white, bowl-cut hair walked in. She wore a dark blue sleeveless dress and matching blue shoes and hat. She walked with an air of aloofness, her yellow eyes wandering around the office without a care before landing on the two stallions and smiling at them.

"A most wonderful evening to you gentlemen," she said pertly. "What need did you have of summoning me here?"

"Well miss," Court Drama said. "I don't know if you were aware, but there was an incident yesterday."

"Are you referring to how the sun and moon dueled for control of the sky?" The mare said excitedly. "Oh, what a wondrous display it was! Power struggles such as this are oh so rare, but it seems as if the sun has claimed dominance at the moment, the moon will have to wait her turn I guess."

"Uhmm, yes, well that wasn't the only incident that happened yesterday." Court picked up the graph and showed it to the mare. "It would seem that for a brief time, the Beast was above ground. It isn't even a new moon, and yet the barrier was weakened just enough for it to pass through."

"My my my," The mare said as she took the graph to examine herself. "Someone seems to have made quite the farces... flatus? Fricassee? Oh that word always seems to give me trouble."

"Fracas?" Strong Wind suggested.

"Yes! That is the word! Thank you, Gust."

"Please," Court said. "I wanted to ask for your advise. It seems obvious that the small group of independent Persona users in Ponyville are the ones who took down the Beast before it could fully rise again. But the town is becoming a hotspot of activity. Any other crevasse where Shadows lurk would normally only be a problem at new moon, but this one seems nearly twice, if not three times, as active. I ask you, as our oracle and fortune teller, do you have any suggestions on what we should do?"

"Well offer them your aid of course!" The 'oracle' said with exuberance. "Assemble the troops as it were, and go forth into battle!"

"Thank you, oracle," Strong Wind said, tossing a slightly annoyed side glance at court Drama.

"Alright, alright, Strong," Court said. "You get your wish, we'll assemble the Caravan and then you can take a minimum T.A.R.O.T. squad into Ponyville to provide assistance to the independents."

"Excellent!" the oracle said. "I shall accompany you, it'll be nice to read the cards for some other Persona users for a change."

"Are you sure?" Court asked. "Ponyville isn't exactly a cultural hub, I thought you said you preferred to be where there were lots of people?"

"No, I said I liked to be where all the excitement is!" She took a very dramatic pose, stepping forward and tossing her head and mane upwards, a boisterous smile plastered across her face. "And I, Elizabeth, and my fabulous T.A.R.O.T. Theatre performers will bring much excitement to Ponyville's already very exciting life!"

Author's Notes:

And thus we come to the end of the Summer Sun Celebration arc. I'm going to take a bit of a break from writing for a bit, but when I come back I'm going to do some serious editting of the first dozen chapters. Reading through all of them I realize that there were a few ideas I had while writing them that are now obsolete and I'd like to take them out. I'll probably have all that done right after Thanksgiving, and then I'll be submitting the story to Equestria Daily. Also, I have a new cover image to replace the old one, thinking about replacing it every year with an homage to one of the Persona game's cover arts.