The door gave a dramatic groan as it slowly swung inward, and Celestia hesitated on the threshold. Alicorn of vast power or not, even she hesitated in the face of Discord’s powers – especially within a space he had taken over.

She had told him to make himself at home, after all.

Her first glance at what was once a fine guest suite in the eastern tower gave her every reason to believe he had done so. The roof was gone, a kaleidoscope of whirling, aurora-like patterns hanging high above instead. A vast perfusion of plants and other growths in every color save green it seemed filled the space from her eye-level down, the light from some of the luminescent cultivars vying with sunlight streaming in from a window that was not only not facing in any direction that aligned with the sun, but if she recalled correctly was facing an internal wall. “I like what you’ve done with the place.”

“I highly doubt that,” Discord replied as he tossed a miniature bullseye at a pony-sized throwing dart hanging from a wall, where it embedded next to two similar discs with a dull ‘thunk, “I think one of your maids had a panic attack when she saw the plants...”

“Miss Neat can be somewhat high-strung at times...” Celestia commented before she continued more loudly, “Have you put any thought into my proposal, Discord?”

“A little,” Discord replied with a shrug as he tossed another disc, “I also thought about dying my coat plaid or snogging Chryssy for a lark,” Another disc, another thunk, “Not like there’s any rush – neither of us is going anywhere. Besides, I like to keep my options open.”

“Well,” Celestia said as she stepped through the miniature jungle and into the clearing Discord had set up camp in. The usual four-poster bed stood in the center, a few other pieces of furniture in a rough circle around it and all covered in a thousand baubles and trinkets of brass and glass in a dozen colors – purple, pink, yellow, blue, and more. Celestia gentle pushed one aside, the strange device coming to life with a whirr and a melodic series of rings, as she pulled a scroll out from under her wing, “It seems one option is about to close to you – Twilight sent you a letter.”

Discord finally looked away from his target practice, remaining sprawled across the bed as he glanced up at Celestia with an arched eyebrow, “I take it you read it?”

“Of course,” she replied as Discord took the scroll, “It came to me via Dragonfire, same as all of my Faithful Student’s letters. Why would I assume it was for anyone else?”

“Besides the label?” Discord asked as he unrolled the scroll and began to read it, “Perhaps because you can’t send a letter to a Draconequus via Dragonfire usually – but you’d have to actually ask about me to...” he trailed off as he read further into the letter;

Dear Discord,

It’s been a while since you left and things here in Ponyville have settled down. Many of the buildings you created for the festival are still standing, that funny group in the hoods occasionally asks around for you, and dealing with the anomalies has become nearly routine. Fluttershy misses her tea time with you. My research isn’t quite the same, either. Your reasons for leaving are your own, and I can understand that drive - the past is an important thing, and our pasts often help shape our futures. But take it from somebody who has spent too much time digging into old books and lost lore before - losing sight of the present can be just as bad as forgetting the past. No matter where you go next, I hope you realize that the work we did together was amazing - something you should take some pride in. It just seems unfortunate that you won’t be here for the culmination of our work.

I wish you the best of luck in whatever your doing now, and I hope you find the answers you’re looking for. But, if you ever fancy a spot of tea, a bit of light reading, or just a chance to relax, remember that you have friends in Ponyville that will welcome you back with open limbs.

Your Friend and Colleague,

Twilight Sparkle

P.S. - My Reversion Ritual spell is finished, and I will be performing it Tuesday evening at six; if you can make it, you are welcome to come.

“It’s seems my Student as opted to end your current relationship with her,” Celestia commented as she brushed off a corner of the bed and took a seat. Discord, meanwhile, was still staring at the letter, “Discord, you mustn’t blame yourself for this – your time with my student could only end in one way, and this way everyone can move on with their lives with minimal… fuss.”

Discord blinked at the letter owlishly before falling back onto his bead with a ‘pomf’.

“Really, Discord,” Celestia said with a sigh, “This is for the best. The longer you had spent carrying on in Ponyville the way you had been, the more likely something was to go wrong. This way, there are no hard feelings – you can still go to Ponyville and see Fluttershy, and Twilight is understanding. A clean, professional break-”

Celestia was cut off as Discord suddenly began laughing… hysterically. Celestia frowned, “Discord, I’m trying to be serious-”

“I know!” Discord managed to get out between bursts of laughter, “That’s why it's so funny!”

Celestia’s frown turned into a scowl, “Discord, would you stop-”

“Laughing?” Discord interrupted, “No. You actually think this is Twilight telling me to get lost, isn’t it?”

“The letter is clearly Twilight stating that the two of you should go your separate ways,” Celestia said, glaring at Discord, “What else could it be?”

“It’s Twilight saying we can go our separate ways, not should,” Discord replied, waggling one claw at the princess, “big difference,” there was a flash of smoke and Discord was suddenly in a tweed suit and glasses, “But if you want a grammar lesson, I’m more than happy to oblige.”

“I have no need for-” Celestia was cut off as she found herself suddenly shoved behind a desk about two sizes too small for her towering frame.

“So, where should we start?” Discord said as he materialized a chalkboard out of the ether, “Because I’m not that picky.”

“Discord,” Celestia said with a sigh, “I know that you enjoyed your time toying with my student, but it is quite obvious that time has come to an end.”

“Oh, really?” Discord said, one bushy eyebrow arching until it was a claws-length above his head, “Let’s see if you can prove it!”

And then the two of them were seated at a table across from each other, two connected clocks with buttons atop them sitting in between them on one side and Twilight’s letter spread out in the middle on top of a checkers board. A black knight piece, a wooden tile, a polished white stone and a little green-backed ceramic tile holding down the corners, “I’ll even let you go first,” Discord said with mock-politeness as he slapped the button atop the clock closest to him.

Celestia sighed as she settled into the chair, “You, of all beings, must understand just how kind a soul Twilight is. My student enjoyed her work with you, and with good reason – you are a rare example of a magic she, or anyone else, has ever seen. But this letter is just her ending things the only way she knows how – by polite letter, wishes of fair winds, and an offer of shelter should the need ever arise. It is an offer she has made to many before,” She looked across the table at the draconequus, a look of austere pity on her face, “Why would you cling to such a fantasy?”

Discord simply stared back across the table at her, only breaking eye-contact at random intervals to glance knowingly at the clock by Celestia. After half a dozen iterations of this, Celestia rolled her eyes as she slapped the clock with a hoof.

“Well, thanks for at least sticking to your character,” Discord started drolly, “It would have been a shame if you’d chosen now of all times to become interesting.”

“If you think that petty insults-” Celestia began to reply indignantly, but Discord cut her off with a surprise rubber duck to the face.

“Ah-ah-ah; still my turn,” The draconequus said with a ‘tsk’, “Now, where was I? Oh, right – You saying exactly what I was expecting you to. Which is why I can just point out that, given how I left, she used ‘our’ quite a lot,” He slapped the top of the clock and leaned back with a smirk, “Your move.”

“You and your silly games...” Celestia muttered in what she likely thought was a low enough voice for Discord not to hear before she continued more loudly, “She used such phrasing because she’s honest; it was a joint project – as an academic she would never dream of robbing somebody of credit when it is due.” With a soft tap, she hit the clocks switch and waved to Discord politely.

“A fair point, I suppose,” Discord said with a shrug, “But you ponies love to take credit. ‘my darling foal got an A on a spelling test’ or ‘my town has stood since the Lunar Rebellion’ - ‘my town’, ‘my friends – even...” he smirked at the alicorn, “’My little ponies’. It takes work for you lot to be properly selfless – even Twilight said ‘my research’ at the start. Had to tie herself to it. But she could have thanked me for helping with her research, could have said my work added greatly to her research, or just thanked me for providing the basis for her research – but she said our research, didn’t she?” Another slap of the clock.

“I… will admit,” Celestia said slowly after a long moment, “Twilight enjoyed her time with you more than I expected… but that is now past,” Celestia stared across the table at Discord, “You made sure of that, on your last visit. This letter is her politely cutting you loose.” Click.

“You want to think that, don’t you?” Discord said, smiling sadly at her, “That your precious student couldn’t actually want to be around bad-old-me, not anymore. But, if that was really the case – if all she was really doing was being polite, why the invite for tea? And why...” he tapped a claw on the P.S. “...did she give me the time and date for her ritual? Checkmate, Diarchists.”

“Enough!” Celestia burst onto her hooves, the table flying across the room and crashing into the wall, “My student has finally found a way to put you and this entire debacle behind her, to finally find a way back onto the path of her life, and you still continue to muse about dashing back to her and throwing things into shambles again! Her current condition is due to you, and I never should have allowed her research! I allowed you to work with her because that was the only way to get her back, but her work is done. Twilight Sparkle is my student! Not your… your… entertainment!”

He sighed as he cracked his back, smirking at the alicorn, “You’ve always gone on about how special Twilight is, but I’m starting to think you don’t know the half of it,” Discord hopped onto the bed suddenly as he manifested a trunk and started tossing random nicknacks into it, “Well – got to pack. Ponyville calls.”

“Discord, this is not a joke!” Celestia said as she glared at him, “I do not want-”

“Yes, yes,” Discord waved at her dismissively, “You’ve made your opinion of me well known – repeatedly. Just about everyone has, really. You distrust me and think I’m going to wreck all the things again. Your sister thinks I’ll try, but is certain Twilight and-slash-or her friends would stop me. Even Fluttershy thinks my chaos is a ‘phase’ or something I have to work out of my system. Everyone else is somewhere on that whole spectrum of dismissive distrust,” he waved vaguely before slamming the chest shut and seating himself on top of it to stare at Celestia with a smirk, “Your ‘Faithful Student’, though? She thinks I’m an annoying, ill-mannered, prank-happy demigod with too much time on his claws. But she doesn’t treat me like some sort of walking time-bomb. She actually lets me be me – all chimeric fur-and-scaled chaos-using three meters of me,” He sat down on his trunk and looked at Celestia, his expression becoming so solemn so suddenly that Celestia couldn’t help but pause, “For the first time a centuries, I’ve got somebody who will do more them put up with me. I have somewhere I can actually be – but you can’t accept that such a place could be by your precious student’s side. So, who’s really projecting?”

“Discord, you can’t go,” Celestia said firmly, almost desperately, “If you leave, your past-”

“Will still be my past,” Discord said with a shrug before his usual smirk returned, “I’m sure you’ll find something else to try to bribe me into at some point. Anyhow – got to go. Tata!”

With a sudden snap of his claws, Discord vanished in a puff of smoke and confetti, leaving Celestia standing alone in a barren castle guest room. She stared at the floor between her hooves for a long moment before slamming down one hoof, “Dammit!”

A half-day’s train-ride away, another alicorn was having an equally stressful day. The field out behind the crystalline tree that was Twilight’s palace had been transformed, the formerly lush green grass displaced by curving rows of freshly turned earth, crisp lines of chalk standing out against the ground. Torches and bowls of incense were arrayed in geometric patterns around the outer edge of the circle. Inside the circle, a circle of copper just wide enough for a pony to stand in, gems on stands reflecting and refracting the light of the torches. It was a spell the likes of which Ponyville had not seen since the return of Nightmare Moon, or the transformation of Twilight Sparkle.

The purple draconequus herself was pacing around the edges of the circle, pausing at every stand and feature, crouching down to study the line-work or leaning in to study the bowls and the slowly smoking alchemical agents within them. Every now and then, she would dip one claw into a bowl and test the solution or tap at a crystal and let it softly ring before saying something softly under her breath and moving on to the next feature.

This had to be perfect, Twilight thought to herself as she continued her inspection. She would only have one chance at this, and failure could be… worse than disastrous. The sorts of magic involved here were the type that would make most unicorn’s hair turn white, both literally and metaphorically. Most of her professors from back in her school days would put this firmly in their ‘Thing I don’t work with’ category – then again, she was fairly certain she was on a few of those lists herself these days. The thought made her chuckle softly, a brief pause before she continued checking her ritual.

“Remember a funny joke?”

“No, I just-gah!” Twilight jumped at the sudden and unexpected voice, spinning around to face its source, “Fluttershy! When did you get here!?”

“Oh, um...” Fluttershy kicked at the dirt nervously for a moment, “...Two circuits ago? You looked busy, so I didn’t want to interrupt you...”

“No, no,” Twilight reassured her as she double-checked the closest stand, “You’re fine.”

“Oh, okay,” Fluttershy nodded shyly, “So, um… what was so funny?”

“Huh?” Twilight looked up again, blinking owlishly before she caught on, “Oh, that – just something funny about my school days,” She fiddled with a crystal for a moment before adding, “Actually, Discord would probably take their horror at this project as a point of pride...”

“He is… odd, like that,” Fluttershy nodded, “But he’s nice in his own ways.”

“He always took my blankets,” Twilight muttered as she checked a gem for cracks, “While I was using them! And then he’d make a fort of something and have my dictionaries and thesaurus's fight… again. Trying to get him to stay on task is like trying to corral parasprites on espresso,” She sighed, “I will admit though that he had his moments.”

“I saw you still had his flowers growing in front of the castle,” Fluttershy said with a nod.

“Poison Joke is a very useful plant!” Twilight shot back defensively, “And it would have been rude to throw out a gift and I couldn’t let them just die, so...” she coughs awkwardly as she goes back to her inspections, “It's just practical, that's all.” After that, a silence fell across the clearing but for once for Twilight it was a companionable one.”

“Do you… really think he’s gone?” Fluttershy asked hesitantly as Twilight moved into the inner array and began checking the copper ring, “I mean, he’s always been free to come and go, I guess, but I was always sure he’d come back around sooner or later. Now though...”

“It’s Discord,” Twilight replied simply as she worked, “Nobody can keep him in line for very long – not even Celestia, I think. And I can’t see Discord letting himself get into a rut. He’ll be back.”

Twilight had her back to Fluttershy, so she didn’t see the soft smile the yellow pegasus gave her as she spoke, “You sound really confident in him.”

“I’m confident that Discord will be Discord,” Twilight replied, tapping on the ring at random spots with a very peculiar looking tuning-fork, “I’m just expecting him to be himself.”

“Most ponies would say that's dangerous,” Fluttershy commented as she carefully examined a torch taller then she was.

“Well, most ponies are stupid,” Twilight replied without looking up from her work until her mind caught up with what her mouth had just said, “Ah! I’m sorry!” Twilight quickly spun around to face her friend as she frantically apologized, “I have no idea where that came from!” Twilight gave a pained groan as she thumped her head against the nearest hard surface – which just so happened to be the ground, “Stars and Stones, I really have been spending too much time with Discord.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re more comfortable expressing yourself,” Fluttershy said with a soft smile, “Keeping things in is never good, I think…”

“Discord would agree with you there,” Twilight said with a sigh as she pulled herself up, “He revels in getting others to drop whatever facades they have – patience, manners, common social edict…”

“He’s a lord of chaos,” Fluttershy said, her smile becoming wry, “It’s just something he has to work on.”

“One - he’s not just a lord of chaos,” Twilight pointed out as she set back to work, “He’s The Lord Of Chaos. Two, I think you might be misreading things.”

Fluttershy blinked owlishly as she watched her friend, “oh?”

“Chaos – actual, proper, chaos – is just noise,” Twilight explained as she carefully ran her claws over the copper ring, checking its fixtures, “Easy to ignore and tune out. Discord doesn’t do ‘tune out’ - he subverts, reverses, toys with and generally erodes one's understanding of a situation. He likes taking our lovely little illusions of order and harmony and poking it full of holes because he can. Because watching ponies panic over a stampede of bunnies isn’t just about the looks on their faces for him; it's about how he can show them that their world is… fragile, even when they act like it isn’t.”

“It sounds like you learned a lot from him, Twilight,” Fluttershy said after a long moment.

Twilight looked up from her work, considering Fluttershy’s words for a moment before replying with a shrug, “I guess I have.”

“So, do you agree with him?” Fluttershy asked as she watched Twilight work, “Do you think everything is just made up?”

“No, I don’t,” Twilight replied as she paused and adjusted one of fittings dotted along the ring, “Because I’ve always spent all of my time reading books and scrolls about legends and myths and a thousand ways our civilization can and has been threatened – or even destroyed. We usually learn from the close-calls, even if we sometimes forget the for a while. I think that’s something Discord never really understood – that we learn the most when things begin to change, and that’s how we grow as ponies.”

“Well, maybe he knows it now,” Fluttershy replied with a small a small nod, “So, how much longer are you going to wait?”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, a puzzled look on her face as she looked up at her friend.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy replied quickly, “I just thought that you were waiting for Discord to show up...”

“What?!” Twilight stammered, “I wouldn’t … I mean I… He’s...” Twilight clammed up suddenly before taking a deep breath and managing to compose herself, “I included the planned time and date of the ritual in my letter. Whether or not he shows up on time is up to him.”

“Wasn’t the ritual supposed to be after lunch?” Fluttershy asked as she glanced over at the sun, sitting just on the horizon.

“I got nervous, okay?” Twilight admitted, “I mean, I could blow up. I don’t wanna blow up.”

“I suppose,” Fluttershy said with a nervous nod, “I was hoping to see him again though...”

Twilight glanced out across the fields, toward the setting sun, before sighing, “Me too, Fluttershy. Just give me a chance to send Spike and Flash out to-”

“Hey!” Twilight and Fluttershy both looked up in surprise as the shout, turning to see the young dragon and the pegasus guard approaching, the rest of the element-bearers close behind them, “We close to show time or not?”

“It seems we are, Spike,” Twilight replied with a small smile as her assistant got closer, “How’d you know?”

“Well, it was either now or you do the whole thing in the dark,” Spike replied with a shrug, “And as I told Flash here, you weren’t going to do that.”

“I find it highly unlikely that the Princess is so paranoid about this ritual to think that the reduction in visibility due to switching to candles would actually be a factor.”

“Actually,” Twilight began, “With large scale rituals like this, shadow-patterns can obfuscate ground-based sigil patterns, increasing the probability of missing-” he paused as she realized that Flash Sentry was staring at her in semi-concealed surprise, while Spike was just smirking. Behind him, the other four girls had their own flavors of smirks on, “Oh, yes, har-har,” Twilight said with a roll of her eyes, “Everyone mock the draconequus who’s been drawing in the dirt and computing eleven-dimensional spell matrix’s all day!”

“Well, to be fair sugarcube, you were suppose to start this shindig a’while ago,” Applejack commented, the orange earth pony dusting a odd-colored ember from her stenson as she spoke, “If he was gonna’ show...”

“See, told you!’ Rainbow Dash said as she flitted over to the other mare’s side, gently ribbing her, “Miss Draconeuus is still pining for her ‘partner’,” the blue pegasus barely suppressed a chuckle before turning back to Applejack, “Twenty bits, pay up.”

Twilight blinked owlishly at that, “Did everypony know about this?” She was answered with six ponies and one dragon awkwardly hmming and hah’ing as they all tried to not look in her direction. Twilight brought a claw up to her face with a groan, “Oh for the love of Celestia...”

“Darling, if I may be blunt,” Rarity spoke up, finally ending the strange quasi-silence, “It’s patently apparent that you and Discord have become familiar with each other, even if not to the extent that some of us might think,” She glanced at Rainbow at this, and Twilight couldn’t help but give an amused snort, given Rarity was usually the one making the dramatic assumptions. Rarity didn’t seem to notice as she continued, “But you are the Princess of Friendship – why wouldn’t you hope your friend would come back?”

“Yes, well,” Twilight said with a sigh, “It looks like my hopes were misplaced,” She gave the setting sun one final glance before giving a resigned sigh, “I’m going to start the initialization phase – you all, uh, might want to step back.”

The six ponies and one young dragon all judiciously took several steps back… several long, long steps. Twilight rolled her eyes as she turned to her spell array, raising both forelimbs, claws open and outstretched as she began to chant, "Nettles in the shadows,” she intoned, overlapping sub-harmonics weaving through her words as she channeled her power, “a wheel of hollies. Ten-folds and twenty-folds,” The world responded to her words, dust slowly beginning to whirl around her as the torches of the spell-circle burst into roaring blue flames. A dozen criss-crossing shadows turned the neat circle into a mind-bending array of geometries that seemed to roil and shift between moments, “ weaves the spider's thread of the nest to the branch."

The torches burst into full-on bonfires, a solid ring of fire swirling around the array for a few long moments before snuffing itself out in a burst of wind that swept out across the field. In its wake, a ring of molten glass ringed around the array still glowed faintly. The fires had compressed down into glowing spheres, a dozen of them along the outer edge. Twilight took a deep breath, letting her eyes slip closed as she felt the spell finally stabilize. That was the first hairy bit handled – the array should be stable until activation now, assuming her math had been right. Which it always was. There was one last thing she had to check though, before she finished this.

She wasn’t likely to see it again any time soon, after all.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and surveyed the spell before her.

Her last viewing of the Strings turned out to be a doozy, it seemed, as what looked like an entire city’s worth of filaments appeared to be both converging and diverging from a whirling black void that was the center of her spell array. The fact that the epicenter of her spell and the exact spot she intended to stand was an infinite maw of malignant roiling darkness wasn’t nearly as disturbing to her as it probably should have been. Instead, she was more curious as to what the little strings coming off said void were. It made the black sphere look almost… fuzzy. The strings converging on the point were likely probabilistic causality chains that the spell was altering or breaking. But the hairs from the sphere were something else. Some form of data conservation? Secondary manifestation of the spells scalar influence? Perhaps-

“Hey, Twi, you okay?” Applejack spoke up from behind her, breaking her out of her reverie.

“Sorry,” Twilight said as she shook her head, clearing her thoughts, “I got distracted.”

“What, by that?” Rainbow Dash asked, waving one hoof lazily at the glowing column at light, “We see something like that – what? Twice a month maybe? It’s not that-”

The spell suddenly Exploded, a frothing column of glowing, silvery-white fluid bursting upward with a loud ‘woosh’ before retracting and stabilizing into a rippling sphere of water floating maybe a hoofs-length above the ground.

“...Okay,” Rainbow Dash said after a moment, “That's actually not bad.”

“Fascinating,” Twilight said as she edged closer to the sphere, “Absolutely incredible. You can actually see the fluctuations in the event horizon...” Her hoof stretched out to touch it, but she hesitated.

“Problem, Darling?” Rarity asked as the others watched her.

“Well, this might decide to suck me in if I touch it, so...” Twilight replied with a shrug.

“Well, isn’t that the plan?” Rainbow replied, “Come on, get on with it!”

“Hey now!” Applejack snapped at the pegasus, “Don’t rush her. Or do you want to go through the creepy glowing magic portal yourself?”

“I like my coat where it is,” Rainbow replied with a shrug, “So no thanks.”

“Not helping, girls!” Twilight shouted back at them, exhaling slowly as she took one more looked out past them toward the road. She’d waited as long as she could. It was time.

“Alright everyone, stand back,” Twilight said as she stepped forward, “I don’t want you getting caught in any feed-”

“I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!” Every one turned as a small plume of dust appeared on the horizon and rapidly grew closer.

“Is that...” Rainbow began to ask.

“No, impossible!” Rarity quickly replied, before adding after a pause, “...actually, that would make it more likely, all things considered, wouldn’t it?”

The plume of dust rapidly resolved into a familiar serpentine shape, his legs moving fast enough to be a blur, "All right, I made it! Good morning, everyo-”

And then the Lord of Chaos, Master of Entropy and bane of Equestria’s existence for countless centuries tripped.

There was a resounding thud as his face hit the ground, more akin to a felled tree then anything, and then silence.

“Is he...” Fluttershy began to ask as she gulped nervously, “Is he dead?”

“I highly doubt that,” Applejack replied even as she hesitantly nudged at the body, “This is Discord we’re talkin’ about after all...”

“So,” Rainbow said as she examined him herself, casually lifting one of his forelimbs and letting it drop, “Dibs on his wallet.”

“Rainbow Dash, the nerve!” Rarity nearly shouted, a look of indignation written across her face, before she gave a small ‘humph’, “As if Discord would even have a wallet.”

“Third rear pocket on the right,” Twilight replied through the claw she’d buried her face in, the other pointing vaguely, “Given the time of month, it's probably a kettle or something.”

“Uh, Twi, he doesn’t have any pockets,” Applejack pointed out, “Or, heck, pants.”

“Like that would stop him,” Twilight replied as she walked over, kneeling down next to the comatose serpent. With little hesitation, she hoisted up his head and examined him. His tongue lolled out as she tilted his skull back, popping one eye open before letting the eyelid shut with a snap, “Ugh – such a baby,” Twilight grumbled as she grabbed one oh his ears and stretched it out before calmly speaking into it, “Discord, Hubris Comics canceled ‘Far Trek’”

“THE BASTARDS!!” Discord shouted as he sat bold upright, his mane briefly bursting into flames as he flew to his feet before quickly going out, “Wait, no, no – I’m cool, I’m cool...” He took a deep breath before turning to Twilight, “’Sup?”

Twilight gave him a lopsided smirk, “You have horrendous timing, you know that?”

“Well, you know me,” he replied with a shrug, “Always have to make an entrance.”

“Yes, well, Entrance done,” Twilight sighed as she turned back to the spell, Waving him toward the others, “Now stand over there while I finish with the spell...”

“What!?” Discord exclaimed as he gesticulated wildly, “Just like that? Not even a ‘how do you do’? I ran here from Canterlot, you know! Actually ran, too – your freaky spell managed to block my abilities.”

“Our spell,” Twilight corrected, glancing over her shoulder at him, a small smile finding its way onto her face, “...I was wondering if you were going to come.”

“After that letter, how could I not?” There was the soft ‘bamf’ of displaced air and a heavy thud, and Twilight finally turned around to see Discord laid out on a chaise lounge, one arm dramatically draped over his eyes, “My dear, sweet, Twilight, so desperate to see me again, I-Ow!” he was cut off as small rock bounced off his snout.

“Cut it out,” Twilight chastised him, “Everypony is already staring and Rarity doesn’t need more ideas,” she gave the couch a light poke, causing it to vanish in a puff of smoke. Her other claw reached out to grab him before he could fall, pulling him onto his feet as she spoke, “So, what happened with Celestia?”

“Oh, you know,” Discord said with a shrug, “Threats, attempted coercion, a bit of cryptic horseapples – the usual. She’ll get over it.”

“Will you?”

Discord paused at that, thinking for a moment, before jabbing a thumb over his back and saying, “Is there a reason they’re so far back, or did they finally get tired of you burning their eyebrows off?”

Twilight just shook her head before gently shooing him in that direction, “If anybody should worry them about their eyebrows, its you – now go wait with them while I finish this up,” Twilight turned and managed three steps before she felt Discord’s claw wrap around her arm, “What are you-”

“It depends,” Discord said, and at Twilight’s raised eyebrow, he continued, “If I’ll get over it, it depends on you,” Twilight looked at Discord, and she could see the hints of fear in his eyes, “On what you do when you come out of that thing. I...” He let go of her arm as he stepped back unsteadily, “I’ve been a solo act for over ten centuries, Twilight – I don’t think I want to be alone again.”

Twilight replied wordlessly, smiling softly as she reached out and grabbed him, pulling Discord close as she wrapped him with both wings and forelegs, “You silly, stupid old goat,” she said softly as she reached up to gently kiss him on the cheek before spinning him around to face the gaggle of ponies and dragon watching their exchange with a mixture of confusion, awe, and maybe a little horror, “You won’t be.”

And then Twilight gave him a hard shove, sending him tumbling into said gaggle. A half-dozen pairs of hooves, wings or claws caught him as he stumbled to a stop. Footing regained, Discord looked back toward Twilight.

A moment of silence passed between the two, and with a nod Twilight ended the wordless exchange, turned around, and walked into the light.

Author's Notes:

1