The next day, I wake up in the field by the schoolhouse as usual. I then notice the schoolhouse is upside-down and flooded. Discord. Heh, I can’t wait to see Cheerilee’s face when she-

“H- heeeeelp!”

What?

“Help! Somepony!”

That’s... a kid!

I grow bigger, and jump towards the schoolhouse's floating, upside-down doorway. When I’ve pushed off the ground, I shrink back down and let the momentum carry me. I then end up in the water inside. I swim to the surface and I see a little filly, treading water, but failing from exhaustion.

“Help! He-*blub*”

No. No children get hurt. I Spark up and dive down into the water. Eventually I see the filly, just floating under the surface, bubbles of air leaving her mouth. She’s not moving.

Come on, just a bit further... I push forward as quickly as I can, and eventually I reach her. I grab her limp form in my arm and I pull us both to the surface. I then realize that the Schoolhouse has been flooding even further. At this point, I can’t reach the door without risking submerging the kid.

I think fast. There must be something... the coal! I retrive a lump from my pocket. It’s wet, but it should still work. I form it into a buzzsaw like I did earlier and use it to carve out a hole in the wall nearby. It lets water out, the current pulling me under. I can’t stop now. I keep my focus, making the hole bigger. Eventually I can fit through the hole, and I leap out. I tumble on the ground, rolling head over heels as I clutch the filly to my chest. She coughs up water. She’s breathing, but barely.

“Don’t you die on me, kid.” I say. “Nobody dies today.”

I Spark up and run as fast as I can towards Ponyville. It might be afflicted by more chaotic shenanigans or not, I’m not paying attention. I’m focusing on saving this filly.

I rush through Ponyville, and I stop a panicking pony. She’s about to run from me but I grab her tail. “Where’s a medical center?” She’s still freaking out. “Ma’am, where’s a medical center? This filly needs help now!”

That got her attention. She calms down a bit and points me in the direction of the Ponyville Hospital. I dash off, I feel the wind stop resisting. Not even the forces of nature will stop me from saving this child.

I reach the hospital and I don’t start slowing down until I’m already in the lobby. I leap towards the desk. Luckily, there’s a doctor who hasn’t left, he’s just cowering behind a file cabinet.

“Doctor, this child is in trouble!”

“Wh- what?” He finally notices me.

“This filly needs attention immediately!”

Once he sees the filly, he suddenly loses his fear, rushing us to an ER.

“What’s wrong?”

“She was drowning when I found her.”

“Leave her here. I’ll handle this and locate her parents later.”

“Good. I’m going to stop this.”

I finally get a look at Ponyville as I dash outside. Holy mother of god. There was obviously chaos applied here, but it seems that it’s not being monitored. That idiot.

I decide that I’ve had enough. This will end. I rush towards the library.

“Twilight!” I yell out for the librarian. I run inside and find Twilight casting spell after spell, trying to fix each new chaotic happenstance, but as soon as one issue is resolved, another makes itself known.

“Anthony! What have you done!?.”

“Something you can punish me for later. We need to find your friends.”

I’m running along, searching for the Spirit of Chaos, when I hear his laugh. Loud and clear, I can tell it’s coming from the Town Hall.

I get up onto the roof in a similar way to how I got inside the flooded schoolhouse.

“Oh, Anthony! You’ve been missing a great show! Watch this!”

He proceeds to summon a giant bowling ball, and knocks over a bunch of houses like ten-pins, smashing them to splintered wrecks.

“Steeeeeerike one, they’re out! Ahahahahahahahaaaa!”

“Discord, stop this!”

“What?”

“Stop this now. You’ve gone too far. Ponies are getting seriously hurt!”

“Oh come on, they can’t be that bad. Bruises clear up quick.”

I tackle Discord all the way to the ground. “You asshole, you caused chaos and walked away! If chaos isn’t monitored, there’s no telling what could happen.”

“And here I thought you enjoyed chaos!”

“I do. I don’t enjoy those who are too irresponsible to wield its power properly!”

“You dare!? I am the master of chaos! I am chaos!”

“Then I think chaos should have a new master!” I punch him in the face with a flaming fist.

“Agh, you little prick. My powers are limitless, do you really think you can stop me!?”

Suddenly there’s a bright flash from behind Discord. “No. No I can’t. But they can.”

“What?”

A blast of rainbow rushes forward.

“No! Noooo!”

He tries to fly off, put I grab his tail and hurl him into the rainbow. “Sorry Discord, time to taste the rainbow!”

He blinks. “Ha, that’s actually pretty fun-”

In a blast of rainbow light, he’s a statue once more, and ponyville is back to normal.

Twilight and her friends approach me. “Thanks for distracting Discord for us.”

“Yeah, that got way out of hand.”

In a burst of light, Celestia is standing in front of me. “I completely agree, Anthony.” Her voice dripping with hatred.

“I admit I enjoy a bit of chaos, but that’s a power someone should have to earn.”

Celestia sighs, nodding. “I still have no idea what to make of you, Anthony. Why did you let Discord go and let this happen?”

“I didn’t think this is what would happen if he didn’t have a supervisor. While I was around, the worst that happened was somebody got messy or bruised. But when I’m not watching, Discord just went nuts.”

“Now you understand why he can never be let out.”

“Oh, I plan on releasing him again.”

Everyone around me shared a collective “What!?”

Celestia stammers. “I know you saw what he did! Why in the world would you want that again!?”

“It’s not going to happen again. He does need a time-out though. In a few months, I want to let him out and teach him how to use chaos responsibly. That much power could be very useful. Chaos doesn’t have to be destructive. A lot of good can come of it.”

“But...”

I hold up my hand to stop Celestia’s words. “I see Discord as being similar to me. He doesn’t want to be imprisoned, so when you do it, he just gets angry, rather than learning a lesson. I want to reform him, but if we use your methods, it will only make it worse.”

Celestia sighs. “You are right, I suppose. Some ponies must be guided, not punished, if you want them to learn. It seems Discord is no different. But how will you guide him? You saw what he’s capable of.”

“Yes, but when I was with him, he was nothing more than a prankster. He didn’t have to turn cities into life-threatening hazards. He could have, but he didn’t need to.”

“Why not?”

“Because I was there. I was someone he could share a laugh with. I was a friend. He didn’t need to do anything drastic, just pulling temporary minor inconveniences on others was enough to get a laugh out of me, and having someone to laugh with is much different than having an entire continent to laugh at.”

“So what you’re saying is...”

“We reform him by befriending him. We show him tolerance and compassion. This utter hatred of him doesn’t help anyone, all it does is make things worse. If you keep imprisoning him, eventually he’ll want revenge, and do you really want a Discord who actually wants to hurt people?”

Celestia cringes at the thought. “No, we can’t let that happen. I agree. We should reform Discord. But for now, he will stay imprisoned while we try and recover from this disaster.”

Rainbow Dash speaks up. “I think he should stay locked up longer than that. You have no idea what he did to the weather schedule!”

I think for a moment. “A year. We will give him a year. After that, we will let him out.”

Rainbow Dash butts heads with me. “Five years!”

“One year!”

“Five!”

“One!”

Twilight separates us. “How about we compromise. Three years. Also, Anthony, I don’t think you should reform Discord alone.”

“What!? Why not?”

“Because, you let him out in the first place, you egged him on. Sure you didn’t intend for him to go this far, but you still enjoy his chaos a bit too much. We need somepony else as well.”

“Fine. We’ll think on who it should be after the three years are up.”

Celestia nods, and teleports herself and Discords statue back to Canterlot.

I turn to leave towards the hospital. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go check up on a certain filly.”

I walk up to the counter at the hospital, and ask about the filly I brought in during the disaster. Even without a description, this was easy as she was the only one admitted during the event.

I’m led to her room, and I crouch down by her bed. I actually get a look at her. She’s a young pegasus, with a white coat, and a cyan mane. I see her begin to stir. She opens her eyes. They’re a light lavender. She looks up at me. “You saved me...”

“Yeah. I didn’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

“My mommy said you’re a monster.”

“Well, you tell your mommy she’s forgiven for calling me that.”

“Okay, mister. Wait, what’s your name?”

I pause. I’m not sure if I want to... we’re alone. There’s nobody around. I smile and whisper in her ear. She giggles. “Heh, that’s a funny name!”

“Yeah, I know. So what about you kid?”

“I’m Cotton Cloudy!”

“And you think my name is silly?”

We share a laugh, and then a doctor comes in. “As much as we appreciate you bringing in this filly, she needs her rest, so we must ask you to leave. Besides, visiting hours ended a few minutes ago.”

“Alright, I guess I’m out of here.” I say, standing up. I ruffle the filly’s hair “Get well soon, Cotton.”

“Bye Ant-”

I stop her. “Please, call me Anthony.”

“Okay, g’bye Anthony!” Next Chapter: Chapter 21 Estimated time remaining: 32 Hours, 7 Minutes