From the outside, the stone imprisonment of the Spirit of Disharmony serves as proof of what the power of friendship could do to everything that could threaten the harmony that existed in Equestria. It was the Elements of Harmony that sealed the god of chaos to his fate once again. But on the inside, a furious battle raged as the spirit tried his best to breach the stone walls around him. He was focusing all of his energy to his talons in a desperate attempt to shatter the stone and set himself free once again.

Six short years had passed since his last escape. Everything was working perfectly. His beautiful destruction was near unstoppable until those wretched Elements sealed him away again. The pain of turning to stone was still fresh in his twisted mind. There’s no words to describe the pain as your internal organs slow down and is turned to cold stone in a painfully slow process. When he was free, the Elements would feel the same pain that he had experienced twice. His energy had been slowly returning to him over the years in his prison and it was nearly time to break free and spread the beauty of destruction once more.

He was going to crack the stone and teleport away, or that was how he thought he would get away. He never gave a thought to the protective spell that was thrown in to prevent any breaches from the inside. With a loud crack, his lion paw was free. He channeled his energy to it and felt the stone around his arm was starting to crack and give away. He had finally channeled enough energy. As he focused on a distant location, the protective spell was starting to attack him. It tried to kill the energy that was building up inside him. A loud grunt escaped as he had to double his effort to teleport away. The protective spell was far from forgiving. One mistake and all his work would be fruitless. He noticed a flaw in the spell, he could bypass it by pushing some of his energy through it. That way the protective spell would go after that stray energy and in that moment of weakness, he could make his escape.

It worked, but just before he teleported away, a sharp pain struck his head, making his body numb. He didn’t waste any time and disappeared in a bright flash. As soon as he could feel contact with the ground beneath him after his escape, he collapsed and writhed in pain. What was happening to him? The thought rushed through him. It felt like his insides were twisting, stretching and tearing apart at the same time. The same pain echoed through his limbs. His horns felt like they were about to break off at the base in any moment. It felt like his eyes were being carved out right from his skull. But the worst pain of them all originated from his head. It was a massive headache, it felt like his brain was thumping, trying to break its way out of his skull. He screamed as he clutched his head with his talons. His eyes were screwed shut. After what felt like an eternity, he passed out from the pain. His ancient body couldn’t take it anymore and gave in under the pressure. He wasn’t dead or dying, fate was just never very fair with him.

***

It was the morning after his escape, he cracked one eye open and was instantly blinded by the sun.

‘Ughh... Note to self, make sun darker’ He groaned as he rubbed his eyes with his hoof. Wait, hoof? His mouth hung open as he saw that the arm that once was his eagle talon was now a leg with a pony’s hoof. The same was with his other arm and his legs. His coat was the same goldish grey that his head and neck had used to be. After further inspection he had found out that he still had wings, but the tips of the new feathers on each wing were a different colour. The same colors that his old wings used to have. He also had a horn, but he couldn’t see it. He looked around to see that he had teleported to some kind of clearing with a small stream running across it. He walked unsteadily to the stream and drank some water. When he lifted his head, the water was clear enough so that he could see his own reflection.

‘Lookin’ goooood...’ Discord said as he turned his head around and inspected it from all angles. The yellow in his eyes were gone, but the pupils were still crimson. His snaggletooth was gone and replaced by a slightly sharpened tooth in its place. His mane was almost black, with a silver white streak close to his left ear. His horn seemed like it was a normal unicorn horn, but it was cyan and white. The same colours that his old horns had. His new body didn’t look old or torn by time, it looked like it was the same age as that Element of Magic, Twilight Sparkle.

He tried to use his magic, but all he recieved was a headache. ’The unexpected transformation must have drained my powers again’, he thought. ’Oh well, it will replenish soon enough but until then, I can have some fun on my own.’ He stretched his newly acquired wings, gave them a few flaps for practice and took off at a slow pace.

-----

‘Princess!’ A unicorn guard shouted as he ran through the throne room, gaining surprised looks from everypony inside, including the royal sisters. ‘Princess.’ He bowed to the princesses in front of him. Celestia stood up and walked down to him.

‘What is it? Has something happened?’ Celestia asked as she trotted the last distance to him.

‘The royal... gardens...’ He tried his best to catch his breath when he talked to one of the rulers of Equestria.

‘What has happened within the gardens?’ Celestia realised that this could be something big, and she feared one particular answer.

’D-Discord has escaped again.’ The guard said, he had maintained his composure, but the fear was visible in his eyes. A collective gasp echoed through the massive hall, everypony knew what that demon was capable of.

It was the answer that Celestia feared. Her jaw tried to drop, but she managed to prevent it. ‘Alert the guards, all divisions must be ready to act at any given point. Go!’ Celestia said in an authorative tone. This was serious. Who knew what Discord would do this time? With a quick ‘Yes ma’am.’ The guard ran out like he did before, only focused to complete his task.

-----

Discord was lying on a cloud and stretched his back while yawning. He had been napping during the situation in Canterlot and a few hours before that.

'‘Now I’m sure why those pegasi have cloud-beds and homes...’' He said in a satisfactory tone. His powers hadn’t quite replenished yet, so the former draconequus was just lying around and doing nothing. His thoughts wandered to the the Elements of Harmony. With his new form, he could easily sneak into the town and spy on them and when his powers were restored, he could launch a sneak attack against them. He stood up on the cloud and jumped off it, heading straight for Ponyville.

Edited by frieD195