Chocolate milk continued to pour from the sky as the Friendship Express chugged its way up the mountain to Canterlot. Angel stared out the window, heedless of the strange looks she was getting from her fellow passengers as she contemplated her next move.

Everything should work out fine, she thought, turning back to the laptop in her lap and typing away at some new code. Even if I don't interfere, everything turns out fine in the end. But... She pulled up another window, this one a web browser displaying a website that she felt was worth further research. There are plenty of stories on FiM Fiction where he does something different, or where he's worse than in the show, or where Twilight doesn't manage to snap out of it. And if this is some alternate Equestria, who's to say that things are going to go exactly the way they did in cannon? Hell, the episode order is already way off! What else might be different? Angel sighed, switching over to another tab and restoring the page down to examine it side by side with her code.

Whatever happens, she thought, editing some details as she examined a detailed sketch of a bird's wing structure, I need to do what I can to prepare.

"Good luck, everypony!"

Discord gave off a maniacal laugh and vanished in a flash of light, leaving the six ponies looking around in confusion.

"Never fear, girls," Twilight said, face filled with determination. "We have each other."

"Yeah!" added Rainbow. "Like Twilight said: there's nothing we can't overcome if we all stick together!"

Nods and smiles were exchanged as the six mares lined up at the entrance to the maze. "All right girls," Twilight encouraged. "Let's do this!"

As one, the six ponies took a single step forward, shouting out, "Togeth-"

"waaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTT!!!!"

The six ponies turned to see a distant figure flying towards them. Well, more like drunkenly flopping through the air in their general direction. Rainbow narrowed her eyes, squinting as the figure dropped to the ground and started running. "Hey, isn't that Ange-"

Rainbow's words were cut off as six walls of hedge rose suddenly from the ground, five of them dividing the mares from each other as the sixth cut them off from the outside of the maze. Rainbow stumbled back a few steps, blinking and looking around. "What the-"

"OOF!"

Angel groaned, pulling herself out of the surprisingly solid wall of foliage. She shook her head before glaring up at the hedge. "Rats," she muttered, holding her arm out to the side. "Looks like we're doing this the hard way. Hand Sonic." She raised her newly materialized blade, readying herself to strike.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Angel groaned, glaring over her shoulder at the draconequus that floated behind her. "Yeah, well, I didn't ask you, Discord. Now if you'll excuse me?" She turned back to the hedge, shouting a battle cry as she swung her blade through the foliage. She raised her arm for a second strike but paused as she saw the plants knitting themselves back together. "What the-"

The branches and leaves twisted together before her, forming themselves into a giant hammer. Angel's arm dropped as she began to slowly back away, chuckling nervously. "He he, um, no hard feelings?"

*SLAM*

Discord snapped his fingers, creating a soccer net out of thin air which Angel promptly flew into. "GOAL!" he shouted. "Hedge one! Freaky monkey thing zero. Oh, I do love this game!"

"Of course you do," Angel muttered, climbing to her feet and glaring at the hovering chaos spirit. "I don't suppose you'd let me into the maze to join their game instead?"

"Now where would be the fun in that?" Discord asked, flipping onto his back to backstroke through the air around Angel. "After all, I created that game specifically for those six mares. Letting you in would give them an unfair advantage."

"You mean it might actually make things fair," Angel countered turning to keep an eye on him.

"Precisely!" Discord flipped onto his stomach, draping himself lazily across the top of the goal net. "After all, the point of this game is for them to face their virtues and see that they aren't all that they're cracked up to be. Honesty and Laughter hurt as much as they help. Caring about anyone other than yourself means that your Loyalties will always be divided. And Generosity and Kindness are just so weak and easy to abandon as soon as they come across wealth or criticism. By the end of this little game, the Elements will be useless even if those silly ponies do find them!"

So, the same game as in the show, huh? Angel thought, a grin creeping onto her face. I can work with that. "Pht, please. You really think it's going to be that easy?"

"Oh, I don't think so," Discord replied, leering right back. "I know so."

"Stop stealing Weird Al Pony's lines. That's his job." Grinning wider at Discord's befuddled expression, Angel continued. "And I wouldn't be so sure if I were you. Kindness is pretty hard to shake, and Fluttershy there is one of the strongest ponies I've ever met."

"Fluttershy? A hahahahaha!" Discord rolled off the net, pounding the ground with a hammer that he'd grabbed from his ear. "Oh, that's a good one, my dear, but Fluttershy will be a cinch; just point out her flaws. And then convince her that her friends will all leave her because-"

"Wait!" Angel interrupted. "Ugh. Now that isn't cool. Ripping off the Living Tombstone is just needlessly cruel."

Discord rose back into the air, glaring down at Angel. "Excuse me, but making reference to things that no-one understands is my schtick."

"Really?" asked Angel, trying to hold in her giggles as a wicked idea crossed her mind. "I thought your schtick was knock-knock jokes."

"Knock-knock jokes?" Discord gasped, placing a paw over his heart. "Why I never! You severely underestimate me, whoeveryouare. Why knock-knock jokes are so common. So easy. They're the most basic of jokes!"

"You're the most basic of jokes."

Discord stared at Angel for a moment, jaw literally on the floor as she struggled to hold a deadpan expression. "...I feel that I have lost somehow. Touche, little primate. Touche."

"Thank you," Angel replied, taking a deep breath to get rid of the last of the giggles. "But seriously, you don't stand a chance against Fluttershy. Why, I bet you have to force her to turn dark."

"It's more gray than dark, actually," Discord muttered. "And I'll have you know that I could turn that mare into the cruelest witch in Equestria with both claw and talon tied behind my back!" His arms popped off, tying themselves into a know before settling across his wings.

"Prove it," Angel challenged. "I bet you can't turn her even the slightest bit gray before the rest of her friends find her."

"Really?" Discord grinned, rubbing his feet together eagerly as his hands were still tied up. "Shall we place a little wager on that, then? If I win, you tell me exactly how you bested me just now and become my personal maid. Cooking, cleaning, helping me spread chaos throughout Equestria, the whole nine yards."

"And if you lose?" Angel asked.

Much to Angel's discomfort, Discord's grin widened. "If I loose," he said, "I'll do two things for you. The first will be to fix those pesky wings of yours."

Angel winced, her wings twitching as she remembered her hastily cobbled together code and her attempt to fly to the girls' aid. "And the second thing?"

"I'll tell you why you need to be more careful with your choice of pets."

"What?" Angel glared at Discord, raising her blade again. "What about Spot? What do you-"

"Ah ah ah," Discord replied, shaking one of his toes back and forth. "No telling unless I loose. But I'd start on that chaos wreaking if I were you. Fluttershy's friends will reach her in less than twenty minutes, and I guarantee I'll have her turned in three." The tuft of his tail twisted to form a hand which snapped its fingers, causing Discord to vanish.

Angel sighed, walking over to the net and sitting down, leaning her back against it as she pulled her laptop from her bag. "Might as well do something useful while I wait," she muttered, pulling up Angel Player again and deleting her modifications to the Angel Wings' code. She created a new folder, titling it "Angel Horn" as she also pulled out a book she'd borrowed from Twilight on unicorn anatomy. "I've got those wings in the bag now, but this one will take a while." She winced as her mind conjured images of her head exploding or turning to goo. "And probably a looooooot of trial and error."

"Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy turned around, relieved to see the butterflies she'd been following fluttering behind her. She was so relieved that she didn't even realize how strange it was that they were speaking Equestrian. "Looks like you've been left behind by your so-called friends, huh?"

"Oh, no," said Fluttershy, shaking her head and smiling. "I'm certain they're doing their best to find me."

The butterflies narrowed their eyes before they began circling her head. "Well, it must be so upsetting to know how weak and helpless they think you are."

"Not at all," Fluttershy replied happily. "I am weak and helpless, and I appreciate their understanding."

The butterflies hesitated, taken aback by her response. "Yes, well, I'm sure it burns you up, I mean, that they're always pointing out your flaws, right?"

"Not really," Fluttershy answered, closing her eyes as she smiled serenely. "In fact, I think I'm awfully lucky to have friends who want me to be the best I can be."

The butterflys' eyes twitched as Discord groaned inwardly. Alright, he admitted, maybe this will take a little bit longer than I thought.

Applejack galloped through the maze, barely slowing down at the turns and not hesitating at the forks. She'd been through her family's corn maze every Nightmare Night for as long as she could remember, as well as a few others at various fairs and family reunions. She'd find her way to the center no problem.

As she barreled past another fork, something caught her eye. She stopped and doubled back a bit, raising an eyebrow as she caught sight of it again. Three red delicious apples sat on the ground with not a tree in sight. She approached them cautiously, wondering how they'd ended up in the maze, and was surprised when they started rolling away from her.

"What in tarnation?" she asked, giving chase. The apples led her through fork after fork, corridor after corridor, before finally rolling into a small orchard. "Where am I?" she asked, looking around. The orchard had various different apples growing in it, along with a small pond and three piles of red, green, and orange apples.

"Applejack, thank goodness!" Applejack turned, a relieved smile on her face as she saw Twilight running up to her. "I thought I heard your voice over here!" She looked around the orchard, raising an eyebrow. "Huh. I don't remember there being an orchard in this maze."

"I reckon it has somethin' to do with Discord," Applejack said, pointing to the three apples at her hooves. "I found these a ways back, and they started rollin' over here as soon as I got close to 'em. You think he somehow put this here orchard here for some reason?"

Twilight looked around, glaring at the trees and apples. "Probably, but I have no idea why." She shook her head. "Anyway, we should probably get going. We need to find the Elements and the rest of the girls before Discord does."

"I mean, your best friend from Cloudsdale made fun of you for being afraid of your own shadow, not to mention bringing in another friend to snap and roar at you when you were just trying to help some poor, defenseless ducks get through town."

Fluttershy frowned at the trio of mice that had crawled out of the hedge after the butterflies had left. "Now that's not fair," she admonished. "Rainbow Dash had no idea that Gilda was going to be so mean to everypony. And besides," she blushed, looking down and to the side, "I, um, I actually was afraid of my shadow back then." She shook her head, standing straight and confident. "But Rainbow's also the one who helped me to see that I was just being silly. She's also been helping me with a lot of other fears, too! I really couldn't ask for a better friend."

The mice groaned in frustration, diving back into the hedge. Fluttershy tilted her head to the side before shrugging and continuing through the maze, a little less scared now that she'd remembered some of Rainbow's coaching. The animals here are a little weird.

"Okay, I know for a fact that these are new."

Twilight and Applejack looked around cautiously as they walked between the tables, each one with several smiling balloons tied to it. "You think this was Discord's doin' too?" Applejack asked.

"Oo, I hope so!" Twilight and Applejack jumped, shouting in surprise and turning around to see Pinkie smiling at them. "This is the most fantastic balloon garden I've ever seen! Well, it's the only balloon garden I've ever seen, but it's still pretty neat! Hey! Maybe I should make a balloon garden for Ponyville once we get back. I bet everypony would love it!"

Twilight sighed in relief, rolling her eyes as she smiled indulgently. "Sure, Pinkie," she said. "We'll get on that as soon as we're done dealing with Discord. But let's focus on finding the others for now.

"Well, sheeeeeeyucks! I sure do love me some apples! Apples apples apples. I apples love apples to apples talk apples about apples apples apples. Why, if there's any foods other than apples, it's only to make apples taste even better by comparin' them to apples!"

"You see?" the bluebird asked, the two bird on either side nodding along in agreement. "She's always going on and on about 'apples this' and 'apples that.' Why, I don't see how anyone can stand it."

Fluttershy giggled. The pony before her obviously wasn't the real Applejack, though she did look just like her. "Oh, she's not that bad, Mister Bluebird. I mean, she does talk about apples a lot, but they're very important to her and her family. In fact, I think her family is why she worries so much about her apples. Although," she giggled again, "she maybe does talk about them more than she needs to. It's a little bit..."

The birds grinned. "Annoying? Irritating? Makes you want to run over and stuff an apple into her mouth to get her to shut up?"

Fluttershy blushed a bit. "Actually, I was going to say 'cute.'"

The birds faceplanted into the ground.

"I was expecting an audience with the Princess, not outdoor sports. Oof!"

Rarity rubbed her forehead as she looked up at the imposing stone wall in her path. She crossed her hooves, glaring at the obstacle before her. "Hph, I was sure this was the right way."

"Rarity?" Rarity's ears perked up as she heard Twilight's voice on the other side of the wall. "Rarity? Is that you?"

"Twilight, darling!" Rarity called. Oh, it's so good to hear from you. Have you found the others yet?"

"Eeyup," Applejack's voice called out. "Pinkie and me are here with her. Still haven't found Fluttershy or Rainbow yet, but I'll bet my boots Rainbow's waitin' for us at the center."

"Hm, most likely." Rarity scanned the edges of the wall before sighing. "It's no use. There's simply no way around this thing. I suppose we'll just have to separate again and hope to-"

"Hi-YAH!"

Rarity jumped as a loud thud followed Pinkie's shout. She stared in fascination as a series of huge cracks quickly spread across the wall before the whole thing came tumbling down. Pinkie stood on the other side, rubbing her forehead as Twilight and Applejack stared open-mouthed at her. "Wow," she said, shaking her head. "That rock was a LOT softer than I thought it would be."

"...I'm just going to chalk that up to Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie," Twilight muttered.

"Probably for the best, Darling. Now, let's hurry up and find-"

"Oh, for goodness sake!"

The girls shared a startled look before rushing off in the direction of Discord's voice.

"Cry! Rage! Oh, do anything but just stand there and smile you... you... GAAAAH!!!"

Twilight and the others turned a final corner before the sight in the clearing before them caused them to stop and stare. Fluttershy was backing slowly away from Discord who was raging and ranting as he rolled on the ground, his arms literally tied behind his back.

"D-D-Discord?" Fluttershy stammered. "Wh-what are you-"

"STOP IT!" Discord shouted, glaring up at her. "Just stop being so Celestia-damned nice! I can't take it anymore!"

"Fluttershy! Are you alright?" Twilight turned to see Rainbow rushing towards them, moving aside so she could see what was going on.

Discord looked up at Rainbow's shout, his eyes lighting on fire. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" He leapt into the air, his arms coming untied and reattaching themselves. "Fine! Fine, she wins! That hairless simian wins her bet!" He slithered down through the air, coming face to face with Fluttershy who squeaked and leaned back. "I hope you're happy." Discord snapped his fingers one more time, causing Twilight and Rarity's horns and Fluttershy and Rainbow's wings to reappear. Discord shot into the sky, muttering under his breath as the maze sank into the ground, leaving the six mares standing alone in a crater.

"...so, did we win?" Rainbow asked.

"Okay. That should do it. I hope."

Angel swallowed nervously as she closed her laptop, placing it to the side along with the anatomy book. She'd spent the last fifteen minutes working on the most basic part of a unicorn's horn, the central shaft that drew in and focused magic. It had taken a bit of creative workaround since Angel herself didn't have the natural magical wellspring that ponies possessed, but she'd managed to craft the shaft such that it would, in theory, draw magic in from the surrounding environment. All that was left was to test it.

"Here we go," she muttered, standing up and taking a deep breath. "AH. Part one: central shaft. Test one: gathering magic. Angel Horn!" Angel felt the familiar sensation of her body changing, a spire of bone extending from her skull as skin and sinew rearranged themselves around it. Angel breathed a sigh of relief. So far, so good. "AH 1.1.1, magic draw. Beginning test." Angel concentrated on her new horn, recalling the feeling of her body modifying itself and hoping that magic worked in a similar manner.

To Angel's surprise and relief, the thin horn began to glow. A red aura surrounded it and Angel began to feel energy building in the new appendage.

"I did it," Angel whispered, a grin slowly spreading across her face. "I did it! Woo hoo!" She jumped up and down, grinning like a maniac and crossing her eyes to look up at her glowing horn. "I'm doing magic! I have magic! I... I..." Angel trailed off, worry starting to eclipse her excitement. "Um, how do I stop it?"

"Fine! You win!" Discord reappeared in a flash of light, dismissing the net and glaring angrily at Angel. "Fluttershy is..." Discord's face went blank as he stared at the sight before him. Angel lay sprawled out on the ground, her neck ending in a bloody stump and the remains of her head splattered all across the field. A single eyeball dangled by a bit of sinew from a nearby statue that was speckled with shards of bone. A book lay near the corpse, splattered and dented, along with a strange object made of plastic which was surprisingly untouched.

"Well," Discord said, face scrunched in disgust, "this certainly isn't my brand of chaos." He floated over to the curious plastic object, picking it up. He noticed a set of hinges on one side and opened it, figuring that it must be some sort of box or book. Inside he found a pane of glass covering one section while the other held a set of buttons, each one labeled with a letter, a number, or a word or two. The glass suddenly lit up, showing a field of blue with a white box in the center, the word "password" written over the top.

"Password?"

"I'm not going to tell you what it is."

Discord let out a noise that sounded like a goat's bleat before falling onto his back, his mismatched limbs sticking straight up. Angel looked down at him, eyebrow raised, a thin horn on her head, and her face suspiciously not splattered all over the place. "Scared the spirit of chaos," she muttered, taking her laptop from his talon. "Score one point for the Undying Angel."

"Your head was gone," Discord said, staring up at her.

Angel typed out her password quickly and brought up Angel Player again, going over the code for the Angel Horn. "Yeah, and then it came back. It does that." She shuddered before going back to typing. "Definitely going to need to figure out a way to vent the power. Finally figured out how to stop taking magic in, but it was already causing a lot of damage by then so I figured I'd go all the way."

"You were dead," Discord said, turning over and slowly pulling himself up a rope that appeared out of nowhere until he was upright. "You were dead. And now you're not. That is a fine trick indeed."

"Eh," Angel shrugged. "Done it six times already. The 'fine trick' would be making a horn that works as well as those wings you promised me." She paused her typing, grinning up at Discord. "Oh yeah, how did things go with Fluttershy?"

Discord finally snapped out of his daze, glaring down at Angel. "How did you know?"

"Oh Discord," Angel said, shaking her head, "you should know that a magician never reveals her secrets."

Discord crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow as a small smirk crept onto his face, kicking his frown off before settling down where it had been. "Is that so?" Discord asked, his frown growing arms and legs and shaking its angry little fist as Discord. "Because I just so happen to now know that you will come back if I kill you. That opens up a lot of possibilities for chaos that I haven't ever been able to indulge in." He reached down and picked up his frown, pulling it open and pulling a wood-chipper out of it.

Angel's eyes went wide and she swallowed nervously. "That is a very thorough and well-constructed argument," she squeaked, quickly pulling up Netflix on her laptop and cueing up the Season 2 premiere. She pressed "play" and handed the device to Discord, stepping back to wait while he watched what had and could have happened.

"Well well well," Discord said, lounging across a cotton candy cloud as the finale wrapped up. "I must say, that was quite the entertaining show. I do have a problem with the ending, though."

"Shocker," Angel replied, sitting next to him. At some point during the show, she'd gotten more comfortable with the chaos spirit and had decided to join him in watching the episodes. They'd even shared a bucket of popcorn that tasted like, of all things, popcorn. "There are six seasons of this, focusing on those six and their various adventures. You even start featuring again beginning in season three when you get reformed."

"Reformed?" Discord asked, disgusted by the notion.

"Don't worry," Angel replied, tossing some more popcorn into her mouth. "You're just as chaotic as ever, just not trying to take over Equestria anymore. You even get a sudden but inevitable betrayal in there at the end of season 4."

Discord harrumphed, crossing his arms. "Well, I suppose I will have that to look forward to."

"So you're planning on playing along?"

Discord shrugged, rolling off the cloud and stretching his mismatched limbs. "I suppose so. If it all ends with me free and doing mostly whatever I want, I can take a few restrictions. By the way, how do they manage to do it?"

"Fluttershy."

Discord glared at her, hands on his hips. "Oh, that's just not fair. Let me guess, I play along with reformation until she promises not to use her Element on me, I go too far causing her to lose her patience and say that we aren't friends anymore, and I celebrate for a moment before realizing that I actually liked having a friend and sincerely repent."

Angel blinked a few times before nodding. "Actually, exactly that. How did you know?"

Discord rolled his eyes. "I just thought of the sappiest, most juvenile thing I could think of and forced it out of my mouth as quickly as I could."

"Fair enough," Angel admitted. "I mean, it is a show for little girls."

"Must not focus outside of Equestria then," Discord muttered.

Angel tilted her head, staring at him quizzically. "Not really, no. Why? What's it like outside of Equestria?"

Discord hesitated, sizing Angel up before answering. "Why don't you ask your changeling friend?" he asked, a grin splitting his face and causing the top half to fall off and into his waiting paw. "After all, you two are close enough to share a bed, surely he'll let you in on the story."

"Share a..." Angel's eyes went wide as she remembered what else Discord had promised her. "Wait a minute, Spot's a changeling?!"

"Unless you're letting someone else sleep in your bed with you, you naughty thing." Discord popped the top half of his head back on before stretching his arms in front of him. "Well, I guess it's time to give your wings a makeover. The Twilight Gang is due in Ponyville any minute now, and I intend to have some fun with them before they blast me into stone for a season and a half."

"Fans call them the Mane 6, actually," Angel corrected.

Discord threw back his head and laughed. "Oh, I'll have to remember that one. I bet it will go right over their heads!" He grinned at Angel, holding up his paw with the fingers poised to snap. "Time to fly, Miss Angel." And with that, he snapped his fingers.

"Um," Angel shifted her wings a little, "they don't feel any different."

"That's odd," Discord muttered, snapping his fingers a few more times. "Something's keeping me from modifying your magic."

"Oh!" Angel quickly pulled up Angel Player, bringing up the data for the Angel Wings. "It's not magic; it's science. I write a code in here which alters reality around and within my body to generate desired effects."

"Really?" asked Discord, leaning in to look over her shoulder only to cry out in terror and teleport into a nearby statue's arms. "Wh-wh-wh-what in the name of chaos is that?!"

Angel looked from her computer to Discord and back again. "Um, that's the code. That's the language that my computer uses to know what to do."

"Are you telling me," Discord whispered, cowering back as if he expected the computer to attack, "that in order to fulfill my promise, I have to wade through a sea of perfect order? A system that allows no room for interpretation or creativity? A language where the one receiving it has to do exactly what it's told, exactly the way that it's told, and with no deviation or interpretation from how it's told? And I have to USE that perfectly lawful and ordered language?"

"Um... yes?"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Author's Notes:

One of my favorite things about programming is that if you type everything in exactly the way it's supposed to be, everything does exactly what it's supposed to every single time. It is perfectly predictable and logical.

In other words, it is Discord's worst nightmare. By the time the Mane 6 find him, he'll be a sobbing wreck curled into the fetal position. Poor guy.

Like. Comment. Follow. I'm not going to be doing crossovers in the near future of the story, but if you're interested in colabing sometime down the road, shoot me a PM.