Commander Twilight Sparkle crumbled as she stepped off the train and into Ponyville Train Station Spike walking besides her as she made her way down the platform. “Come on Twilight cheer up, I’m sure it’s something important if the Princess asked you to meet her outside of Ponyville.” He said as he walked beside her.

Twilight sighed as she trotted in quadruped mode do to not being on duty, the Princess had been very clear that this was not part of her duty as commander of the EDF so Twilight had gone with walking like a pony. “I know Spike, it’s just….I was enjoying watching the prototypes be put through their paces.” She said. Twilight had been watching the EMSD put the prototype tanks through an obstacle course of sorts to see which version would be worked on and which abandoned.

This time only one of them caught fire which was a huge improvement over last time where all but two caught fire, and in one case the shell exploded in the barrel when it tried to fire, luckily it was a training round so only resulted in the barrel exploding and some minor burns to the crew inside. Needless to say Twilight had that version scrapped immediately as she wasn’t even going to have anything that risked the tank crew. She had just finished telling the researchers such when the thing decided to burst into flames while no one was near it and it was turned off….then it fell apart. She seriously question who came up with such a poor design for a tank.

She did have to admit she was annoyed at the research team as while they were coming up with semi workable tanks they were having trouble getting helicopters down, they couldn’t wrap their heads around the concept of something being able to lift off the ground without magic, that and the fuel for the tanks didn’t work for helicopters so they needed to design a new fuel as well.

Over all that was a real mess and she hoped they’d figure it out eventually, she had left the major in charge of overseeing the test runs and to report back to her what happens and her own thoughts on the models.

Twilight found her thoughts shifting to the major. Since Chrysalis had come to Twilight about knowing what she was two months ago, things had been different between the two of them, for one the Changeling Queen was terrified of the unicorn mare, for good reason. But also Twilight had someone she could relax around the Queen and not have to keep up the façade and it felt so good to be able to voice her thoughts to someone rather than just burying it all, she knew that wasn’t healthy, and Twilight had to admit, she had less violent thoughts towards people she met, though when she did she just voiced them to Chrysalis. At first the Changeling had reacted in horror and fear at Twilight shifting voice, and yes Twilight was fully away she shifted between three different voices when fully relaxed but the Queen had gotten used to it when she realized Twilight wasn’t going to attack her unless she did something stupid, which she had been keeping her word so no reason yet.

Twilight had to admit, she was glad the Queen had found out as it gave her someone she could be herself around and slowly she was feeling she didn’t need to keep a close eye on the officer. That was a weird feeling for Twilight, actually trusting someone with the truth, it was a huge risk but…Twilight trusted the Major to an extent over the past two month she had proven to be worthy of that trust so far.

Twilight was drawn from her own head when she saw her friends were gathered outside of town as well and waving to her. Twilight blinked in surprise behind her sunglasses at this. “Hey girls, what are you doing here?” She asked when she joined them.

“Don’t rightly know sugarcube, ah got a letter from the Princess asking me to meet her outside of Ponyville.” Applejack said.

“Yeah so did I.” Rainbow Dash said as she hovered around the group.

“Yeah I was in the middle of baking some super-duper cupcakes when I got my letter.’ Pinkie said as she bounced around and was about to go off rambling when Twilight primitively put her hoof in the pink mare’s mouth.

“I got one as well, I hope nothing is wrong….”Fluttershy said as Twilight wiped her hoof on grass.

“I believe we were all invited by the Princess though she didn’t give any reason for it in her letter.’ Rarity said.

Twilight nodded. “Same, all mine said was that this had nothing to do with the EDF and now my curiosity is peeked if she called you all as well.” She said trying to think of what was going on. She didn’t have long to think before she saw the Royal Sky Carriage in the distant and approaching them with another sky chariot following behind.

Twilight stood with her friends as they watched the Royal Carriage land and Princess Celestia stepped out prompting her friends to bow while she saluted. Celestia smiled. “Rise my little ponies, and at ease Twilight.” She said as she approached the group. “I am glad you were all able to make it as I have a task for you six.” She said and the group looked on expectantly. “I would like you six to reform Discord.”

“What!?”
“Oh my.”
“Eep.”
“Really?”
“Tarnation.”
“The fuck?”

The five mares all looked at Twilight. “What?” She said and they just shrugged it off and looked back at the Princess.

“Now, now my little ponies, I know this is a big task I ask of you but I know you can do it.” She said with a reassuring smile. “And don’t worry you will have the Elements of Harmony as a backup just in case he starts to get out of hand.” The Princess said as she levitated over a case and opened it reveling the five necklaces and one tiara lying within. The Sun Princess lifted each artifact out and levitated them over to their respective owners, Twilight having to remove her cap to place the tiara on her head noting it contrasted very sharply with the dark green military uniform and pistol on her flank.

Once each Bearer had their Element the statue of Discord was removed from second sky chariot and placed before them. “I have created a spell to release him when you are ready.” The Princess said as she levitated over piece of parchment to Twilight. “Good luck my little ponies, I know you can do it. “She said with a smile before turning to the Royal Carriage and climb inside.

Before anyone could question her leaving Twilight spoke up. “You can count on us ma’am.” She said with a salute. With a smile and a nod the Princess’s carriage lifted off and flew back towards Canterlot. Twilight turned her attention to reading the spell and committing it to memory, it wasn’t too complicated she noted.

“Twilight you can’t possibly be ok with this?” Rainbow Dash asked flying up beside the mare.

“I am, it’s not like we don’t have the Elements as a fall back plan if things go wrong and she did cast a spell on them so he can’t take them from us again.” Twilight said reading. “Least we can do is try to complete this mission before we start complaining.” Twilight said and not waiting for a reply started to cast the spell. Within seconds she executed the spell and the stone prison around Discord shattered and the Spirit of Chaos gave an exaggeration stretch and yawn.

“Ah, you have no idea how good it feels to be able to move again. “He said and snapped his fingers, producing a glass of milk that he began to drink.

“Discord we have been tasked with--“Twilight began before being interrupted.

“I know I know, I heard what sunnybuns said, you are to reform me.” He said quoting the air, his glass floating beside him and appeared to still being drank.

“Wait you were awake in there?” Twilight asked in surprise, she never thought he was actually awake in there and unable to move, that seemed like something she would do not Celestia.

“Just for the past day, In order for that counter spell to work Sunnybuns had to weaken my prison a bit.” He said with another stretch this time his arms popping off to do it as he walked away well that made more sense for Celestia said with a bit of disappointment, though she did file away the idea of turning someone to stone while they are fully awake in the back of her head for a raining day.

Discords arms reappeared on his body as she walked around the group looking at each of them. “Now then shall we get this whole reformation thing started? I want to see how you all plan to…..” Discord trained off as his eyes fell on Twilight and his face took on a serious look as he started to walk around her before getting right in her face stroking his beard.

“Can I help you?” Twilight asked with a slight glare as her personal space was invaded.

Discord looked at the other in the group his face still serious. “Excuse us, me and Sparkle need to have a private chat.” He said before snapping his fingers and Twilight found herself standing on cloud in some distance from Ponyville by her estimate of the terrain.

“What the hell?” Twilight asked glaring at the God of Chaos as he sat back on the cloud as if it were a throne.

“It seems a lot has happened while I was imprisoned if you are anything to go by.” He said as he eyed her.

“What are you talking about?” She demanded.

“Well for one you have the same power as an Alicorn, your limbs are Cybernetic and you carry a weapons that certainly doesn’t belong to Equestria or any of the other races on this planet.” He said. “Oh and there is that whole other thing concerning your mind.” HE said waving a hand as if brushing it away.

Twilight blinked at him. “What…do you mean?” She asked carefully.

He leaned forward and placed his fingers together. “You know exactly what I mean “Commander Sparkle.” He said very seriously with a slight hint of a warning in it. “You are probably one of the most dangerous things on this planet next to me, the difference is I want to have fun and you want to watch the whole world burn.” He said as he was suddenly in a purple suit with white makeup on that made it look like he was smiling when he wasn’t.

Twilight stared at him before she slowly switched to bipedal and removed her sunglasses, reveling her eyes were red and glowing as she placed them in her storage locker. “So what are you going to do about it? Hmm?”

“Nothing.” He said as the suit vanished. “I said you could and want to, not that you will and are. And that is the only reason I am not going to toss you into another dimension or a black hole.” He leaned forward and was suddenly wearing an EDF uniform. “You may be that way but your drive is to protect Equestria from an invasion that may or may not happen with no way to predict where it could come from so you are doing everything you can to prepare for it and that is the only reason I won’t take action, but don’t get me wrong, if you do slip further I will stop you.”

Twilight had to blink at this. “Wait….you are telling me you’d do everything in your power to protect Equestria…from me if need be? That does seem like you.” She said staring at him, still in combat mode.

“I am the God of Chaos not death. I want to have fun and I can’t do that with a corpse of a planet.” He said. “I am thousands of years old Sparkle and have seen catastrophes you cannot begin to imagine befall this plant and have stepped in only when absolutely necessary.” He said and suddenly was in a Federal Army uniform. “And if no for you I’d most likely step in to deal with the invaders to send them back home before they could do any permeant damage.”

Twilight stared at the God; this was not going how she had thought it would in any sense of sense of it. “What you ponies don’t seem to understand is yes, I am the God of Chaos and Disharmony but I don’t want everyone dead, I just want to be entertained, cause some chaos, make it rain chocolate milk and such. Yes everyone else complains, but they survive it even if they are miserable with my fun.”

Twilight watched the God of Chaos for a while before switching out of combat mode. “Ok, since you no so much about what is going on oh God of Chaos I have one question for you.”

“Oh? And what is that? “Discord asked going back to how he was before they started talking; in this case hi cloud throne was now a Twilight desk from her office under Golden Oaks library.

Twilight ignored it and smirked. “Want a job?”

Discord blinked several time before walking over and lifting one of her ears and blowing in it, some dust coming out of Twilight other ear. She was going to pretend that didn’t happen. “Come again?” he said.

“How would you like a job with the EDF where you get to cause chaos.” She smirked.

He walked back in front of her and looked down at her. “You would want me to join you highly disciplined military group and cause chaos? Somehow those two don’t fit together.” He said as he suddenly had two words in his hands on large puzzle pieces and was trying to put them together even though they did not fit.

“Well you’d be more of a guest instructor but basically you get to create your own obstacle courses of sorts for my Recruits to run through, you be free to do whatever you wanted as long as it doesn’t harm them to much or mess with their equipment. You’d get the chaos and fun you want and I get soldiers more prepared to hand the unpredictability of battle. Its win/win for us both.” She said with a smile.

Discord considered her for a while scratching his chin. “You really are crazy you know that?”

“So I’ve been told.” Twilight said waving a hand like a certain human she used to know. “Point is do we have a deal?”

He looked at her for a few minutes then smirked. “Sure why not. “ He said as he was suddenly dressed like Mendez and Twilight had to blink at that. “So I guess that means I am reformed?”

“Oh hell no, that mission is still in progress and will be for some time I’d imagined, we just have taken steps towards completion.” Twilight laughed.

He smirked at her. “Also I do want to tell you two things Partner.” He said. “First there is a town north west of Ponyville, deep in the desert and miles away from any other town you might be interested in checking out.”

Twilight nodded. “Noted, and the second?”

His smirked faded and he looked at her. “Nightmare Squad and the rest of them made it out of the labs with minimum casualties.”

Twilight lay prone on the edge of a steep hill looking through her binoculars at the small cluster of buildings a few hundred yards away. After Discord returned them to her friends Twilight informed them of her deal with the God of Chaos much to their disbelief, and they began to try and reform him. Despite their best efforts only Fluttershy seemed to make a connection with the God and managed to actually get him under control. For the most part Twilight had just introduced her friends to her large collection of colorful vocabulary and the many ways one could combined them as she tried to deal with Discord antics, if not for their deal and the fact Twilight doubted she could actually harm him she would have several blasts from her shotgun into him.

After all of that Twilight reported mission complete to Celestia though personally she still had it listed as In Progress as she wasn’t sure Discord was fully reformed yet but for the most part he was. After Discord accompanied Celestia back to Canterlot Twilight had enjoyed a nice dinner with her friends and then met up with Chrysalis in her officer where she took the report about the trial runs and then vented about discords antics throughout the day. The Queen had actually seemed to feel sympathy for the mare having to deal with the God of Chaos.

After her rant about what she’d like to do to Discord if she could she had bid the Queen good night before retiring to bed. The next morning she dispatched some scouts to the area Discord told her about and sure enough after half a day they found a small settlement that didn’t appear on any map and after Twilight did some digging had no record of existing.

After brining this to Celestia she had granted Twilight clearance to investigate as she found it odd anypony would hide a village of that size.

And thus Twilight was prone in a desert overlooking a village she had no idea what to call with a Rife Team and two Pegasi Sharpshooters. She was close enough she could actually see the ponies in the town clearly. They looked like normal everyday ponies going about their day like in any town and Twilight was going to fall back and turn this over to the Royal Guard, till she took a second look and saw they all had the same Cutie Mark and one of the creepiest smiles the mare had ever seen and she had seen her own smile when having fun a few times.

She slipped back away from the hill. “You” She pointed at one of the sharpshooters. “Fly back to Manehatten and alert the garrison, I want three more Rifle teams out here, six wings of sharpshooters and four Flame Troopers mobilized, you can guide them here.” She said and the Pegasus saluted before taking to the air and flying back to the city leaving the rest of his wing, two other pegasi, behind with Twilight.

“Set up a perimeter and stay out of sight of that town, I don’t want them being alerted that we are here.” She told the remaining soldier who saluted and spread out to watch every direction while they waited for reinforcements.

She really needed to find an alternative to boosting their radios since Celestia wouldn’t allow her to put satellites in orbit as the presents of the EDF was already straining some of their relationships with the other nations, especially the Griffins as they were quickly being past as the dominate military force on Epuus.

It would give her something to think on while they waited.

Starlight Glimmer was sitting in her house at the head of the town relaxing on her couch. IT was just a bit after lunch and she was thinking about how to expand her town of the Markless when there was a knock on the door and she trotted over and opened it to see who was at the door.

Upon opening it she saw Sugar Belle at the door, the happy smile of her town on her face though she looked a bit concerned. “What is it Sugar Belle?” Starlight asked.

“There are new ponies in town.” The pink earth pony said.

Starlight smiled at the new. “Well then let’s meet these new comers.’ She said as she walked passed Belle before she could continue to speak. The unicorn mare was looking forward to expanding her village.

What she saw when she was outside her home made her freeze and he smile fall from her face. The town was filled with new ponies and some sort of pony-like creatures all wearing dark green armor and half the ponies of her town were standing in the middle of the street with a group of the dark green armored ponies and bugs watching them while more went from house to our and knocked loudly. Looking towards the sky Starlight saw groups of Pegasi flying in circles around the edge of town and she could tell they were watching to town.

“Wha-what’s going on?” She asked looking at Sugar Belle beside her who still wore her smile though looked nervous.

“I don’t know Starlight, they just showed up and started knocking on doors and asking everypony to gather in the middle of the street. They said they were the “Equestrian Defense Force” and that they were doing a safety inspection.” The Earth pony replied.

Starlight’s mind went into overdrive as she tried to figure out who these ponies and bugs things were as she had never heard of this “Equestrian Defense Force” as last time she checked Equestria only had the Royal Guard so this group must be new and do to the isolation of her town, word had not reached them yet of this group. She was trying to think what could have happened to Equestria for this new group to appear when her thoughts were interrupted by a voice above her.

“Hello down there!” A mare said from behind and above Starlight and when she looked towards the voice she saw a purple unicorn wearing a dark green uniform and dark sunglasses standing on to roof of her house and waving down at her with a smile that could only be described as friendly.

Starlight’s jaw hung open and not getting a response the mare jumped off the roof and landed with a loud thud, her hooves making small craters in the soft ground and she didn’t seem to be bothered by impact in the slightest as the smile never faulted.
The uniformed mare faced her fellow unicorn. “Hello, I am Commander Twilight Sparkle of the EDF and judging by the placement of your home I’m going to assume you are the leader of this village?”

Slowly Starlight nodded as she regained her composure as four other ponies, all wearing some sort of black suits with gas masks and helmets, as well as tanks of some kind on their backs came around the corner of her house and stood behind the Commander. “Yes I’m Starlight Glimmer and allow me to welcome you to—“Starlight was cut off as a piece of parchment was shoved in her face.

“This is an order from Princess Celestia authorizing the EDF to inspect this village and the surrounding area to make sure it is up to code as she is concerned for the wellbeing of her ponies do to the fact this village appears on no maps and there is no record anywhere of this village.” The parchment was pulled away from Starlight’s face before she could see anything but the royal seal to reveling the face of the Commander mere inches from her own so all Starlight could see was the other mare’s sunglasses covered eyes. “That won’t be a problem now will it?” She asked in the nicest friendliest way possible.

<

<<O>>>

After Action Report of “Our Town Incident”

Upon arrival in Unidentified Villages EDF Forces began question the town’s residences, subsequence question reveled that something was indeed wrong as every sing residents believed Cutie Marks to be evil and had all given up their own Cutie Marks in favor of “True Harmony.”

Search teams discover a cave within a mile of the village, name was never able to be confirmed as all residents simply referred to the group of buildings as “Our Town”, and inside EDF forces found a type of vault holding dozens upon dozens of Cutie Marks, exact number still unconfirmed as the investigation is ongoing.

A staff of sorts was found within the cave and town residents said it was the “Staff of Sameness” and was a magical artifact, initial investigations determined it to be just a stick but it was taken for further study to confirm.

After the disconcerting of the Cutie Mark Vault the leader of the town, one Starlight Glimmer, attacked her guards and somehow managed to remove their Cutie Marks resulting in the soldiers being reduced to a weakened state before she was subsequently shot by a Pegasi Sharpshooter.

Suspect lived and was given first aid by a medic before being taken into custody as a threat to Equestria its citizens. During her arrest it was Suspect still had her Cutie Mark and had used make-up to cover it up to look like the rest of the town.

Residents of the town responded with shock and anger and had to be quelled do to risk of a riot.

EDF forces were left in the town to processes the remaining residents while Suspect was transported to garrison in Manehattan to be prepared for trial. While in transit suspect attempted an escape and ended up falling down a very steep and rocky hill resulting in all four of her legs being broke, he face suffering sever bruising and lacerations as well as a few broke ribs. Do to the fact the medics were left behind in the town suspect was not able to receive medical attention till reaching Manehatten and had to be carried as gently as possible by magic.

Suspect is awaiting trial while residents of town are being prepared to be reintroduced to society and will be provided with psychological aide to deprogram them of “Markless” Conditioning

Author's Notes:

Well I probably failed with Discord speech patterns but I tried my best.

also His talk with The Commander is a bit of my thoughts on the character and in my opinion what he would do if there was a true threat to life on the plant and I know people wont agree with it or probably like it.

Also I wonder which exclamation is Twilights when they were informed they were going to reform Discord?

I Also should mention I think there maybe only one more interlude and at most four chapters left of this story before the Epilogue, maybe fewer chapters. And I think its clear what the next Interlude is going to cover.

Anyways hope you enjoy this Interlude and how Twilight handled Discord and Starlight Glimmer.