She turned her head and was shocked as his bright red irises was as if had pierced her. "gAH!" she jumped back unexpectedly.

He merely smirked. "Why hello to you too, my comrade! I'd say- I hoped we had met sooner! I could've been loose ages ago! Haha!" he chuckled to himself mightily.

"W-what is that supposed to mean? How did you....?"

Discord snapped a talon, and with a flash she was teleported into his arms, carried like a baby. "Eh I'll explain soon. For now however....."

"Discord!" a piercing yell from a distance sounded.

He rolled his eyes. "A cliché to be sure at this point." He sighed. "Alright then. Let's pounce."

Running towards him were the alicorns, their horns glowing, ready to strike at any time. He merely yawned as they came closer, and with a snap, he produced a herd of oranges to roll towards them, which immediately stopped them in their tracks and they suddenly backpedalled themselves. Unfortunately however, he got the best of them as they lost their footing and struggled their way through the oranges.

He merely chuckled. Crystal however was mortified. "Hey!! Stop that!" she tried to struggle her own way out of his arms, however of course due to heir size difference, he didn't budge at all. He peered down at her, and smirked. Crystal's eyelid twitched. "What's so funny!?"

"....hmm, nothing," was all that he had to comment. "Welp! This was fun!" he reverted his focus back to the princesses, who were swarmed by oranges at that point. "Though tis' is much entertaining, I think I'd hit the hay now. It was tiring on its own just to get to this point." And with that, he snapped his talon. He mumbled something before he did however, which only Crystal could pick up.

"I hope you like flannel~"

They disappeared in a flash. Following that, the princesses heaved a sigh of relief as the oranges that swarmed and toppled them miraculously reverted to the lifeless state of normal oranges, and fell off of them. They were frazzled at that point, their manes sticking up and whatnot. It was expecially tiring as their magic couldn't function while they were being toppled. That and Celestia had warned her sister beforehand not to actually strike first.

However he escaped, they needed to know. And from the looks of it earlier, he probably had ulterior motives than just to be set free wrecking havoc again.

Well, whatever it is, they- well at least Celestia hoped, that he might've changed a little. He indeed acted softer with their unexpected guest. She hoped it meant something.

Dear Gods, what have I gotten myself into.

They sat on a bright neon couch, upside down in a very disorganised living room, sipping apple juice. The living room walls were made up of all sorts of colourful wallpaper, from flannel to florals to animal patterns to children blanket type animal patterns with little cows and chickens. The couch was abnormally soft, however although it is quite comfy, the neon green and yellow colouring isn't exactly up to par with Crystal's eyes. Either that or Discord had already been blind and bright colours can't harm his eyes even more.

"...you live here?"

"Gorgeous place, I know I know, I'm flattered honestly," he placed his teacup down on its plate, and it floated away.

"....why did you bring me here?"

"Why, I did say we were gonna pounce, weren't we?"

"Why did you bring me along- w-what do you mean "we"?" she stammered. "I'm not the big idiot that decided to plan this stunt, why do I have to pounce too?"

He smirked, thinking wisely about his words before speaking again. "....if I say that you had your part in my escape, how would you react?"

"Surprise. Cause for sure, that's a damn lie. I had nothing to do with this," she stated matter-of-factly.

"Well surprise surprise indeed, my little buddy in crime, without you, I couldn't have done what I did," he sipped casually.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Discord paused for awhile, thinking wisely about his next few words. "..are you familiar with Chaos magic?"

She thought for awhile. "I never thought about it. Never thought about chaos having its own category of magic. Magic itself is pretty chaotic in itself. But I assume you know alot about it, Mr Discord?"

"Well, I'd like to say I am quite the expert, yes...." he smirked. "You are right. Magic itself is quite chaotic. However, what differentiates chaos magic from normal unicorn magic would be the volume of essence. How much of chaotic essence remains in magic? A small, very small dot. Normal magic is a mixture of plenty of other matters, therefore neutralising it. Chaos magic however, is purely concentrated chaos. A wild and messy brand of goodness if you haven't mastered the arts."

She didn't expect to be given a lesson, although she was very interested in the sudden topic. Chaos magic, huh. She hasn't even mastered her own, what is to be considered, "normal" magic apparently. She doubt that handling chaos magic could be easier. "Mm....well, what does that got to do with my magic?"

"Well, let's just say yours isn't as neutralised as you had thought..."

"...you mean I'm wielding basically chaos magic too?"

"Not quite, but for the most part, it is a rather large portion of it. No wonder you have trouble mastering it. Although, it would expectedly be more difficult since the magic comes from an entirely different origin, aka your pendant."

"My...." she started to realise she was quite lost in his words. She didn't expect him to be so articulate- even she couldn't understand. "....uh, what?"

He shook his head and sighed. "It's normal to not understand, avoid giving yourself a headache. How about I put it into more literal terms? Unicorns and the kind are born with magic, and we would refer to that generally as "soul" magic. Yours however is extracted from a dingy rock, an opposite entity. Take as an example of controlling your limbs. Controlling your legs, wiggling them, are far too easy. However, controlling others? Eh, not so much. You can if you try guiding them, but overall it won't be easy."

"....okay.... so I have difficulty mastering magic because it's not connected to me in a...spiritual level?"

"You could say that. Now! Why would this be relevant, you might ask?"

I've been asking this for the whole lesson, she thought.

"Well, it's simple. What encased me in stone?"

"....alicorns?"

"Are you really as thick headed as they come?" he deadpanned. Crystal huffed at that. He rolled his eyes. "The elements of Harmony. And if you don't know, Harmony and Chaos are true opposites with each other." He snapped his talon and conjured a pot of popping oil and a glass of water. "And it's known well that....." he poured some water into the pot, which the oil reacted to wildly as it sizzled and popped and splashed. "...water and oil don't mix."

"You managed to escape through using chaos magic?"

"Perfecto! And with you lounging around in the garden, you were close enough for me to sense and extract only the concentrated chaotic energy from your magic. I am full on chaos, baby. And I work like a magnet," he beamed proudly. "I presume you're able to come up with your own theories now?"

"You collected enough for you to be able to create a reaction of imbalance, making the harmony magic go all haywire and let you off?"

"Well whatdayya know? You do have IQ afterall," he joked.

"Hey!" she called out angrily. Discord merely yawned at that.

"....oh deary me, I think we can end the night for now," he snapped his talon and their tea set disappeared. The couch too slowly turned back upright from being upside down the whole time. Crystal was amazed at how she didn't feel at all light-headed from the stunt. "Welp, off to bed! See you tomorrow then." Before he could walk away, Crystal stopped his abruptly.

"Wait, what do you mean "off to bed"? You don't expect me to stay here?? I- I can't just abandon the princesses without a word!"

He rolled his eyes. "Oh relax! They're big girls- they can handle it." He snapped his talon and a blanket with two pillows appeared. "Sleep on the couch for the night- I'll think of something tomorrow maybe."

"But-" before she could say anything, again he snapped and this time came tumbling down her saddlebag right in front of her.

"Ah ah! No buts unless they're under the covers!" and with that, he snapped himself away, the lights slowly dimming as the curtains of the living room drew themselves closed.

She spent most of her night thinking about the day. How are the princesses doing? Are they worr d for her or anything? Did they notice your missing baggage?

Under the covers, she wondered how it is like back home. Did the others notice her absence? Do they care? What are they thinking now? Are they worried?

Maybe they thought she went for a short vacation somewhere.

Worse case scenario, they freak that she offed herself somewhere.

She wouldn't do that. Nah...she wouldn't.

She started reminiscing about them, her childhood friends. Oh how simple those times were. She wished she could return back then. She wouldn't be living the same comfortable life she has currently, but it didn't matter as it went over her head back then.

As she did, slowly she succumbed to sleep, dreaming about happy times.

Hope you liked it:)

[22/ 1/ 2020]
-rewritten-