Wayfarer had somehow managed to get up this morning completely rested for once. The previous night had only ended after a verbal scuffle between Twilight and Celestia. Celestia, as it turned out, had been in Ponyville since the night before and had slept out in the fields under the stars, something she had said was a refreshing experience. However, Twilight was appalled that her fellow princess and mentor didn’t have a roof over her head, and so offered her the only other bedroom not taken up by another guest: Twilight’s. Celestia had tried to tell her that it wasn’t needed and that she was fine sleeping on one of the few large cushions that the Library had scattered around, but Twilight wouldn’t submit. Wayfarer even offered to vacate the guest room and take the couch, but both of them refused. In the end, they both took one of the cushions, leaving Twilight’s bed empty.

All of this had only come after Discord made another minor mess of Twilight’s library in an attempt to get under her skin. At first he’d left the others alone so that they could eat dinner in peace, but as soon as they came back into the front room of the library they found most of the walls covered in intricate diagrams detailing how exactly Discord was going to drive Wayfarer up the wall. Wayfarer had almost regretted his decision to be a “playmate” for the Lord of Chaos when he saw “Plan Q”, which took up most of the area above the fireplace and included several mathematical formulas Wayfarer was sure didn’t exist in Equestria yet. Celestia was ready to chew Discord out again when he decided to split and take all his plans with him, saying something about Fluttershy calling for him.

It had been a weird night all things considered, but now Wayfarer was up and well rested and on his way down the road to the school house, “Bright eyed and bushy tailed” as he called it. He was just making the last approach when he was joined by Rarity and her sister Sweetie Belle.

“A very good morning to you Wayfarer!” Rarity said.

“Good morning to you as well Rarity, Sweetie Belle.” Wayfarer responded. “You two are out early.”

“Yes, it IS rather unusual for me to be out and about at this hour, but our parents are leaving on a train for yet another one of their trips, so I had to go pick up Sweetie Belle. And seeing as we would have had to leave my boutique immediately after getting there in order to get her to school on time, I figured it would be better to just bring her directly to the school house.”

“But we could have dropped off my things!” Sweetie Belle said.

“And I told you we could pick them up when I came to get you this afternoon. I still have a key to Mother and Father’s house.” Sweetie Belle huffed. She obviously wasn’t fond of the idea of going to school early. “So then,” Rarity said looking back to Wayfarer. “I hear tell that you, Twilight, and some other third pony found Mister Cake yesterday. All of us were dying to know what happened and Pinkie Pie sure wasn’t a big help. Could you perhaps fill us in on the details?”

Wayfarer did his best to feed Rarity the same story they told Mrs. Cake yesterday. Mostly the truth, but just leaving out the bit about the castle. Somehow Wayfarer thought Rarity could tell he wasn’t telling her the whole story, and she probably wanted to know more about this “Sunny Skies,” but thankfully she didn’t push. Instead she moved on to the next gossipy topic on her list.

“So when can I expect you in my shop to start work on your next ensemble? I simply cannot allow such sleek designs go unexecuted.”

“When I need them, and when the money’s right.” Wayfarer said. At this point they’d reached the school and he was holding the door open for Sweetie Belle. “At the moment, neither of those have happened. Thank you for the offer Rarity, but I’ll come to you when I’m ready for new clothes.”

“Oh, Pish Posh! A dashing stallion like you deserves more than just one nice outfit. Ahh well, C'est la vie. Have a good day you two!”

Wayfarer had just finished oiling the playground’s carousel when Cheerilee released her students for recess. Immediately Wayfarer was set upon by the same foals who had asked him to play hoof ball last time, and asked him to play with them again. He was watching them go after a particularly long kick that he didn’t even think he was capable of, when he felt somepony poke at his side. He looked down to see all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders looking up at him.

“Hey girls.” He said. “Can I help you with something?”

“Ah hope so.” Apple Bloom said. “Cheerilee is having us write somethi’n about the comets we been see’n every night, but we can’t remember some of their names.”

“We were hoping you could help us with that.” Sweetie Belle said.

“Yeah, since you’re so smart.” Scootaloo said, rather sarcastically.

Wayfarer looked over at the fillies and colts he was just playing with, and they seemed to have forgotten him as they started playing keep away with each other. “Sure, I’ll lend you a hoof.”

The three quickly started describing comets and things, asking for their names and such. Wayfarer was actually surprised he could remember so many from Twilight’s little tangent about them.

“What was that first one called?” Apple Bloom asked. “The really big one that kept lead’n the rest?”

“That would be Pathfinder.” Wayfarer answered, this one he actually remembered a few more details about. “While the other Comets are known to come around at varying times, Pathfinder is only seen during the Starfall Festival, and is always the first one to be seen. It’s like the drum major for a marching band.” The three were nodding at this when something caught their attention just over Wayfarer’s head and their eyes went wide with fear. Wayfarer was about to ask them what was up when one of the other foals screamed and he spun around.

“Are you working right now?” Said Discord as he smiled down at Wayfarer. “Because I’ve got something to try out on you, Mr. ‘I’m no stranger to madness.’”

“The school bell hasn’t rung to release the students yet.” Wayfarer said calmly as the Cutie Mark Crusaders cowered behind him. “Come back then, and if Cheerilee doesn’t have anymore work for me, then I’ll come play your little games.”

“Very well then. I will withdraw for the moment, but just so you know, Fluttershy will be joining us. She said she wanted to be there in case I do something you regret.”

“That’s fine. Now go, you’re scaring the kids.”

“Moi?! Scaring children? Oh perish the thought! I’d never do such a thing!” Said children had all rushed to the school house, banging on the door and begging Cheerilee to let them back in.

“Just go, please.” Wayfarer said as his boss was almost trampled when she opened the door to see what all the fuss was about. Discord simply rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, disappearing in a bright flash.

“Is he gone?” Sweetie Belle said after a moment as she and the other two came out from behind Wayfarer.

“What was that creep doing here anyway?” Scootaloo asked. “And what was that about you playing games with him?”

“He needs someone to mess with,” Wayfarer explained. “So I volunteered.”

“What!?” The three fillies yelled.

“But he’s mean!” Sweetie Belle said.

“He’s annoying!” Scootaloo said.

“He’s evil!” Apple Bloom said.

“He’s a bad influence on everypony,” Cheerilee said from behind the Crusaders. “And I think spending time with somepony who stands up to him will do him some good. I wish you the best of luck Wayfarer. Now come along girls, I think recess is over now.” The three gave Wayfarer worried looks before they joined the rest of their classmates inside. Wayfarer sighed and went back to checking on the rest of the playground equipment for the rest of the day.

“He’s probably going to swoop me up the moment I walk out the door.” Wayfarer said as the last few kids left the School House.

“Not if he thinks you’re still busy helping me.” Cheerilee said, casting a few glances at the door, as if expecting the Lord of Chaos to come barging through at any moment. “You could come help me run some errands or something.”

“Thanks, but I’ve made my bed, so it’s time to go lie in it.” with that he made his way to the front door, silently praying to the sun and the moon.

Cheerilee waved worriedly at Wayfarer as he turned the handle on the front door. As it swung open, he cringed and closed his eyes shut, and awaited the inevitable. And waited. And waited. slowly he opened his eyes and saw that no one was there. He stepped fully out of the school house and looked around. Discord was no where in sight, but he did spot a note tacked to the fence. Slowly Wayfarer approached and tore the note away.

“Come and meet me at Fluttershy’s Cottage when you’re ready. Bring snacks.”

~Discord

Wayfarer stared at the note for a moment before sighing and starting down the path back to the center of Ponyville.

“You’re do’n what now?” Applejack said as Wayfarer paid for a bushel of apples.

“Hanging out with Discord and Fluttershy.” Wayfarer repeated

“Alright, Fluttershy I don’t have a problem with. But why would you want anything to do with Discord?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.” Wayfarer said. “I’m starting to see why so many ponies dislike him though, after what he did to Spike last night and how he scared off Cheerilee’s students.”

“Hold up. What did he do to Spike?”

“Pestered him with flying books until I said the magic word.”

“Humph, well Ah can’t say that’s as bad as the stunts he pulled when we first met, Ah do think Twilight needs to write a letter to the Princess about that.”

“If you mean Celestia, she’s already way ahead of you Applejack.” Wayfarer said as he scooped up the bag of apples and set them on his back. “Celestia agreed to let me take this chance and see if we can’t give the guy an outlet for his… um… hobbies.”

Applejack tapped at her chin, looking around thoughtfully for a moment before tossing a glare at Wayfarer. “When was this?”

“Last night,” We responded simply.

“After Mr. Cake came back?”

“Yes.”

“Did Discord have anyth’n to do with that?”

“None from what we could tell.”

“Who’s we?”

“Celestia, Twilight, and me.”

“... is the Princess here in Ponyville?”

“I’ve got to go now Applejack, thanks for the Apples. Hey can you point me in the direction of Fluttershy’s home?”

“Yeah, it’s that way, out near Everfree.”

“Thanks, see ya around.”

“Uhh, yeah, sure, not a problem.”

Wayfarer made his way back out of Ponyville, looking for Fluttershy’s cottage. He finally found it as he followed a shallow stream. Once again he was fascinated by the fact that a building had been made out of what looked like a still growing tree, only instead of a tree made for a knowledge seeker, this one looked like it was grown to house mother nature herself. As he approached the front door, several animals poked their heads out of various hiding spots, and soon Wayfarer admitted that his assumption of nature living here might not have been very far off.

Wayfarer knocked twice on the door and, after a few moments, it gently creaked open to partially reveal Fluttershy, who then opened the door all the way upon recognizing who it was.

“Oh, Wayfarer!” she said in her demure little whisper of a voice. “So nice to see you again. Discord’s been waiting for you.”

“Does he live here with you?” Wayfarer asked as he stepped inside.

“Yes… well, sort of… I mean he sort of just comes and goes. I tend to just give him whatever space he needs.”

“Which isn’t much when you’re an omnipotent being such as myself.” Discord said from the inside of a lamp that he had shrunk himself down to fit in.

“Uh huh.” Wayfarer said as he tossed the bag of apples onto a nearby table and then approached the Draconequus. “Well, let’s get started shall we?”

“Quite.” Discord said and snapped his fingers.

A bright flash of light filled the room, forcing Wayfarer to clamp his eyes shut. When he opened them again, he found himself in what looked like one of the museums from Baltimare save for the fact that it was completely empty. Discord was standing next to him, at full size, wearing a nice suit and bowtie. Fluttershy was no where to be seen, so Wayfarer assumed he’d left her behind.

“Well there goes the only thing keeping him in check around me.” Wayfarer thought to himself “Celestia give me strength.”

“You see Mr. Wayfarer,” Discord said. “After our little meeting the other day where you tried to get me to use my powers for more constructive purposes, Fluttershy insisted I do more paintings for her. I told her there wasn’t any fun in it for me, but she persisted, to the point of asking why I didn’t try painting without my powers.” Discord snapped again at this and the walls were then filled with frames and filled canvases. Wayfarer stepped forward and started to look over all of them. “I thought, ‘Why not?’ and decided to give it a whirl, though I must confess I was a bit annoyed that I couldn’t replicate the beautiful works I could with my powers, no matter how many times I tried.”

Wayfarer took a while to respond as he stared at the mess of colours and unnatural shapes that lined the walls. Each ‘painting’ seemed to get worse and worse, devolving into what looked like mud splattered all over the canvas. Slowly he turned to Discord with a very flat look on his face.

“You suck,” Wayfarer said. Discord simply sighed and materialized a garbage can and started plucking all the ‘art’ off the walls. “Umm… sorry.”

“No, no. You're right,” Discord sighed as he folded up one pictures into sixteenths, frame and all, and dropped it into the can. “With my powers life holds no challenge, but without them I doubt I’d last a day.” Something Celestia said last night chose that moment to pop into Wayfarer’s head, and he wondered if it might be a good lead to follow.

“What sort of stuff did you do before you became the Lord of Chaos?”

“I’ve always been the Lord of Chaos, Mr. Wayfarer.” Discord said as he tipped over another frame and allowed the painting to just poor out of it and into the garbage can. “It was just after I ate that accursed fruit I was able to make some REAL chaos. All the universe a stage for me, experiencing what true madness could be like. It was, as Celestia put it, ‘enlightening.’”

“Still, what did you do before that?”

“I was in a band.”

“Wait, really?” Wayfarer asked, honestly surprised.

“Yes, my old man thought it would do me some good to have a more sophisticated aspect to my life. At first it just seemed like another one of his futile efforts to curb my habit of making people’s lives more exciting, but admittedly I did start to enjoy it after a while, especially when I got a chance to compose my own work. I think that’s how I ended up meeting the royal family, Princess Solianna was one of the clarinetists for a few years and tried to convince me I had a future as a professional fool. Or was it a politician? I can never tell the difference.”

“... So,” Wayfarer asked hesitantly. “Can you still play?”

Discord dropped the can of discarded portraits and stroked his beard for a moment before snapping a Piano into being. He slowly approached it and stared at it for a while before finally sitting down on its bench and running his talon over the keys, occasionally pressing them down every now and again.

Wayfarer stood behind him, watching silently as slowly Discord started hitting keys faster and faster, adding his lion’s paw into the mix, and soon he started to play something with actual melody. After a while of experimentation, he lifted his hands from the piano, cracked his knuckles, and started to play in earnest.

The song started soft, notes cascading around like rain, before building up suddenly to a bold and somewhat demented sounding declaration of vanity. It continued to flow up and down in its intensity, but always there remained an undertone of off kilterness. The song seemed to radiate madness, but in a way that also made it irrefutably beautiful. After a couple of minutes, Discord stopped and raised his hands up once more.

There was silence for a moment, before Wayfarer gently started clapping his hooves together. Discord turned around, looking slightly confused at this.

“Catchy.” Wayfarer said. “In a twisted sort of way.”

Discord smirked at this. “Well of course. Do you think I would have impressed an amphitheater full of air headed nobles with anything less than ‘catchy’? Oh how all those stuck up and pompous types thought I was going places.” His grin only deepened as he reminisced of days gone by. “Boy was it a shock to them when they found out I was the one who planted Poison Joke in the Royal Gardens.”

“Oh jeez,” Wayfarer sighed. “Bet they loved that.”

“They actually demanded Queen Rosetta put my head on a pike. She, thankfully enough, was a good sport about it all. My only punishment was being crowned Court Jester for a year. So I guess Solianna was right, I DID have a future as a politician.”

“What about your band?” Wayfarer asked.

“Oh they went on without me. I might have been the most talented member amongst them but I’m sure they thought they were much better off.”

“It sounds like you didn’t really enjoy being a part of it.”

“As I’ve said, I found it rather difficult to work in groups to be honest. Yes I enjoyed being the center of attention, I admit that, but even when the spotlight was on me I had to return it to someone else eventually. That was the whole point of the Poison Joke scheme, to take attention away from the upcoming wedding of Princess Solianna and her harlot, Prince Artemis. Oh if you thought the nobles were mad, Solianna almost strung me up with her own two hooves.”

“You ever want to go back?”

“To ruining everypony’s day just for the fun of it? Oh you have no idea.”

“No I mean, the music.”

Discord went back to stroking his beard in thought. “That’d be a nice change of pace, but really now, who would want to come to a concert to see ME perform?”

“After what I just heard, I know I would.” Discord froze and just looked down at Wayfarer in surprise. His face twitched slightly, almost as if a genuine smile was trying to force its way out.

“Well,” Discord said, twiddling his thumbs. “Thank you.”

“Funny, and here I thought you were going to try and drive me insane.”

“Oh what fun would it be if I started trying to break my new toy the moment I got it?” Discord said, smirking to himself. “I actually want you to last my friend.”

“Now, let’s go check up on Fluttershy. I’m sure she’s probably chomping at the bit right now.”

“Why did you leave her behind in the first place.”

“I’ve spent countless hours with Shutterfly, I don’t feel I need to spend that much more now that I’ve got you.”

Discord snapped his fingers again and they found themselves back in Fluttershy’s cottage. Fluttershy had lined up a whole bunch of woodland creatures and seemed to be giving them some sort of lecture.

“Now it’s imperative that we find them as quickly as possible.” She said, her voice sounding particularly stressed as she spoke to the assembled creatures with her back turned to Discord and Wayfarer. “Who KNOWS what sort of things Discord could be doing to him right now! Oh I hope we can find them before Farey gets turned all grey!”

“Have you been talking about me with Pinkie Pie?” Wayfarer said suddenly, making Fluttershy jump in surprise. “Because I thought I told her I didn’t like that nickname.”

“Fare- I mean Wayfarer!” Fluttershy cried as she rushed forward and began circling him. “You’re okay aren’t you? You don’t feel like doing anything mean to anypony right? Or saying really bad words about anypony?”

“Hmm…” Wayfarer hummed in mock contemplation. “Nope, not feeling particularly nasty or anything.”

“Dear Fluttershy, I thought you had more faith in me then that?” Discord said in a very hurt sounding voice. “Are you saying you don’t trust me with one of our friends? All I did was show him my art work, he hated it by the way, thanks for the suggestion.”

“O-oh…” Fluttershy mumbled. “I-I’m sorry. It’s just… I was worried that something might happen after I found all your plans on my table last night.”

“Oh poppycot! Those were just silly little doodles. I’d NEVER do anything that might make our little Wayfarer go so helplessly mad that he wouldn’t be able to complement me on my masterful piano work.”

“Oh, well that’s good to… Piano work?”

“Why yes Fluttershy, he seemed to rather like my piano solo, even if I am a bit rusty.”

“You played music?” Fluttershy said excitedly, her eyes going wide.

“Why, yes, I suppose I did, might actually play more since he liked it so much.”

“C-can I hear it?” Fluttershy asked. “Maybe I could bring some of my bird friends in to join you as well?”

Discord really seemed to give this some thought, casting a glance to Wayfarer who nodded in earnest.

“I’d love to hear more.”

“Aww what the hay!” Discord said, summoning up the piano again. “Strike up the band Fluttershy! Let’s set the town on fire!”

“Oh, umm, how about we… you know… not? Why don’t we play something… nice… and quiet?”

“I make no promises my dear.”

Wayfarer ended up spending a good few hours at Fluttershy’s cottage, listening to her, Discord, and a full orchestra of woodland creatures make some of the best music he’d heard in a long time. Sure it couldn’t match an actual orchestra, prepared with actual instruments and rehearsal time, but it was, as Fluttershy put it, nice.

He returned that evening to Twilight’s library to find her and Celestia pouring over what looked like blueprints.

“What are those?” Wayfarer asked as he joined them.

“Blueprints to the castle.” Twilight said. “Me and Celestia have been looking over them to make sure we aren’t missing any secret entrances.”

“Secret entrances?”

“Yes.” Celestia said. “While you were busy, Twilight and I went to the abandoned house you two entered the Castle through and we sealed it up. Then we thought we ought to check and see if there were any other ways in or out.”

“I did add a few other entrances into the castle other than the front gates when I first designed the castle,” Twilight said. “But none of them exist outside of the walls.”

“Meaning the only way our kidnapper has of dragging ponies into the caverns below is by digging directly into them. And if that is how he or she plans to strike again, then there’s not a great deal we can do to head him or her off.”

“And without more clues,” Twilight added. “We don’t really have any leads as to who the kidnapper might be. And I haven’t seen that strange Pegasus you mentioned yet either.”

“If she is still around,” Wayfarer said. “She probably won’t be so eager to try again so soon after her last attempt failed.

“But if she IS trying to resurrect the Beast, then time is working against her. She’ll NEED to make another attempt soon if she wants to make any progress.”

“...so what do we do?” Wayfarer asked.

“I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do except keep a watchful eye out,” Celestia said, rolling one of the blueprints up. “I wrote to my sister last night and filled her in. I also asked her to warn me if any ponies start disappearing elsewhere.”

The three sat in silence for a while until Twilight softly spoke up. “Celestia? Can I tell my friends about this? If the Elements of Harmony could help us, then shouldn’t we be ready for that?”

“I’m afraid I must still advise against that.” Celestia said. “I know how devoted your friends are to you and to this town. What do you think they’ll do if you tell them what is happening?”

“They’ll probably demand to come with us if anypony is ever kidnapped again.” Twilight said sadly.

“And without a Persona, who knows what might happen to them.” Celestia said, nodding. “We’ve been lucky so far, but we shouldn’t rely so heavily on luck when Equestria’s safety is at risk.”

“Sooo… we wait?” Wayfarer asked.

“We wait.” Celestia confirmed.

Wayfarer sighed and went to one of the bookshelves, pulling out the first interesting book he could find, and settling down on the couch, ready to wait as long as he needed to.

Author's Notes:

Chapters getting shorter and updates getting later. Not a good sign.

I don't know why but I've always seen Discord as the musical type, in fact I've a sneaking suspicion that most crazy people have a love for classical music. Not that I'm implying you NEED to be crazy to like Classical music, I'm just saying that I think characters like Discord, The Joker, Kefka Pallazzo, ets. would feel right at home at a good piano or pipe organ.