Discord took a deep breath, smiling as he took in the fresh air of the Everfree Forest. “Ah… Breathe in that fresh air, Screwball.” He said to the pink filly next to him, the small earth pony tripping over a stray root. “Tell me, what does it smell like to you?”

The pink filly frowned, sniffing the air around her. Her nose scrunched up as a foul scent invaded her senses. Grimacing, she answered the draconequus besides her. “Dirt, wood, and animal dung?” She said, feeling a bit unsure of her answer.

Discord sighed, shaking his head sadly. “My little pony, you’re missing the point.” He then hummed, pulling on his goatee as he tried to think of a way to make her see what he was trying to show her. Picking up the filly, he brought her closer to him, holding her tightly. “Just look around you, what is it that you see?”

Screwball tried to worm away from his grasp, after a few seconds, she slumped against his chest, giving up on escaping. Looking around the forest, Screwball tried to find whatever it was that he was trying to show her. “Trees, grass, a ton of plant life.” She then narrowed her eyes, seemingly glaring at the woods. “Some dirt too… I think I see the dung I smelled earlier.”

Discord groaned, letting go of the earth pony, and causing her to fall onto the ground with a yelp. “No no no! You’re just not getting it, Screwball!” The draconequus took a few steps forwards before spreading his arms wide, gesturing at the woods surrounding them. “Just look around you, can’t you see?” He didn’t bother waiting for the filly’s response and just continued talking. “The clouds, they move by themselves! The plant life here, it grows on its own accord! And the animals, they don’t need anypony around to take care of them!” He laughed. “This place is completely untouched by pony kind, and is just full of chaos!”

Picking herself up from the ground, she patted on her green shorts, trying to get rid of the dirt that clung onto them. Raising her head, she raised an eyebrow at him. “I guess I can feel the chaos… But it's just a boring forest, nothing really interesting happens here, and the energy here is nothing compared to the energy that you give off sir!” Screwball said cheerfully, smiling at him.

Discord rolled his eyes. “I know that. Nothing can create more chaos than I can.” Snapping his fingers, he forced the trees to open up a path for them, and casually walked through. “But something out here seems to be trying their best to match up to my skill level.”

Screwball’s swirling eyes widened in shock. “Something here close to your level? But what could possibly have that much control over chaos?!” She asked, turning towards her creator with worry.

“That is what we’re here to find out.” Discord answered, snapping his fingers to get rid of the obstacles in his way.

Screwball did her best to keep up with Discord’s speed, jumping over a stray log, she began thinking about her father’s enemies. “Ummm… Sir?” She said, nervously calling out to him. “Do you think it might be that Sparkle unicorn and her friends?”

Discord scoffed, dismissing the possibility. “Impossible. Don’t you remember the last time we saw each other?” He let out a laugh. “Twilight had completely given up on trying to stop us, and her friends have all split up.”

Screwball frowned as she shuffled forwards. “But sir, don’t you think it's a bit unwise to dismiss her? I mean, what else can be causing all that disturbance? Maybe she’s trying to fight fire with fire?”

Discord rolled his eyes. “Oh please. A pony can't use chaos magic.” He then chuckled. “The very thought makes me laugh.”

The filly frowned harder, her eyes narrowing. “You mean, besides me right?”

Using his lion paw, Discord patted the little filly’s head. “Of course my little assistant, besides you.” Just as Screwball opened her mouth, Discord covered her mouth with his paw. “Now now, little filly, that's enough thinking for one day. Honestly you sound just like that Twilight, you worry too much.”

Pulling herself away from him, she sighed dejectedly. “One of us has to worry, isn’t that why you made me? So I can worry about everything while you have fun?”

“Come now Screwball! No need to be so stiff! Be more excited, more enthusiastic!” Discord cried out. “Where’s your sense of adventure?” Noticing that there was no more ground in front of him, he snapped his claws and created a bridge on the edge of the cliff. The two walked towards the other side of the cliff, noticing the large abandoned castle in front of them. “Just look at this Screwy! How can you not be excited? We’re about to raid Sunbutt’s old castle! Just like old times!”

“Old times for you, I wasn’t even born yet.” She muttered, staring nervously at the large imposing castle. “Besides, I don’t think you even gave me a sense of adventure.” Screwball gulped, grabbing the edges of her beanie and pulling it down so it would cover her eyes.

“Have you found anything yet?” Discord shouted, wearing a grey bushy beard, and an explorer's outfit.

Screwball sighed, turning towards her father. “Nothing yet!” She yelled, closing the book in her hands.

“Well, keep looking!” The draconequus yelled back as he started walking towards the next aisle in the old castle’s library. “One of these shelves must lead to a secret room.”

Rolling her eyes, Screwball placed the book she was reading back into the same spot she grabbed it from. The pink filly continued to look around, not really looking for any secret lever. Stopping suddenly on the third shelf, she picked up a large, thick book in front of her. Blowing on the dust that obscured the cover, she read the title out loud to herself. “The Complete Collection of Pomany FairyTales.” Flipping over to a random page, she sat down. “Rapunzel.” Whispering the title of the story to herself, she glanced at the illustration of the character. “She’s pretty.”

“Screwball!” Discord shouted, the shout echoing throughout the library, startling the filly.

Jumping up from the ground, she began panicking. Looking down at the book, she quickly picked it up and stuffed it into her backpack. “Coming!” Screwball ran towards the direction of the shouting, spotting her father tapping his hoof impatiently. “Sorry sir! I was busy looking for that secret lever!”

Discord rolled his eyes. “Nevermind that, this is taking too long.” He snapped his claws, making all of his explorer gear disappear. Grabbing the grey beard, he threw it to the side. “We don’t have all day, after all, we’re missing all of the fun in Ponyville!” Snapping his claw, he got rid of all of the books and bookshelves, causing Screwball to try to hide a grimace at the books’ disappearance. Once the room was clear, he began turning his head, scanning the entire room for any hidden passages. His eyes lit up, spotting a single staircase going downwards where a bookshelf used to be. “Ah that was much faster! I should’ve done this from the very beginning.” He then began walking towards the staircase, waving his paw over to Screwball. “Come on now Screwy! Chaos waits for nopony!”

Looking around the now empty room, the filly sighed, her shoulder’s sagging. “Yes, sir.” As the two walked down the steps, Screwball couldn’t help but shiver, feeling the chaotic energy around the air grow more intensely with each step they took. Glancing at her father, she couldn’t help but notice the confused, and slightly serious look on his face.

“Well now isn’t this interesting.” Discord muttered to himself, pulling on his goatee as his mind started to wonder. Once the pair reached the bottom of the staircase, their eyes landed on the many pedestals around the room, most of them were empty, but the one that really caught their attention was the one in the middle of the room. In the middle of the room was a large golden ring, on the head of the ring was a large green diamond cut emerald.

Screwball couldn’t help but gape at the amount of chaos energy pouring out of the diamond on the ring. “W-what is that?”

“That my little assistant is a good question.” Discord said, floating over and picking up the ring from the pedestal, narrowing his eyes as he glared at the diamond. “Whatever it is, it's leaking a tremendous amount of chaos energy.” As he stared at the ring, he started to subconsciously put the ring on, ignoring the cries from his assistant. Instantly, Discord’s eyes snapped wide open, a scream forcing its way out of his mouth as he was flooded with newfound power.

“Dad!” Screwball yelled, discarding the formalities as she stared at him with worry and fear.

His knees buckled from the strain of the energy, causing him to go down on all fours as his screams slowly stopped. Raising his claw, he stared at the ring with wonder in his eyes.

Screwball ran up to his side, hugging him. “Dad! Dad are you okay?”

Discord nodded, absent-mindedly patting the filly on her head. “Of course I am Screwball.” Getting up, he continued to stare at the ring, a smile forming on his face. “Screwball do you know what this is?!” He asked, startling the filly with his manic expression. The filly slowly shook her head, not being able to respond. “This is the answer to our problems! It was just like you said Screwy, even with their friendship destroyed Twilight could still find some way to stop us that I was previously unaware of!”

He chuckled, raising the claw that held the ring. “But with this, I just know I can stop any sort of harm that tries to get me! I can stop it all before it hits me!” Discord let out a booming laugh. “With this ring, nopony can ever stop my reign of chaos ever again!”

As Discord continued to laugh, the filly couldn’t help but worry. Screwball shook her head, not wanting to spoil her father’s fun only joined him in his celebration.

As the duo made their way out of the Everfree, Screwball made sure to keep an eye on her father the entire way, something about seeing him so fixated with the gem just unnerved her.

As soon as they exited the forest, Discord stopped, raising a paw to signal her to stop walking as well. Turning around, the draconequus frowned, staring at the woods they just came out of. “You know Screwball, you were right. These woods are rather dull, besides its independence, there’s nothing really special about this place.” A wicked grin then spread across his snout. “Why don’t we change that.” Raising his claw, the gem on his ring started glowing brightly, the entire forest was also covered in the same glow.

Screwball took a step back as she witnessed the landscape change before her. The entire dirt road leading up to the forest became a dark brown and orange checkerboard pattern, sections of the ground rose to the air and floated up a few feet off the ground. All of the trees in the area shot up, becoming taller and losing branches, at the end appearing to resemble palm trees. Deeper into the woods, she could see hills rising, and even several loop-shaped hills. Scattered around the forest were red totem poles, all of them bearing a design that resembles her father. Bright patches of flowers grew around the area, with the flowers bobbing up and down every so often.

“Say goodbye to the Everfree Forest, and say hello to…” Discord began, catching her attention. Tapping his chin, a literal lightbulb appeared above his head. “Green Hills Zone.” He said, smiling as he mentally congratulated himself.

“It looks so colorful… so pretty.” Screwball said, gaping at the sudden change.

Discord nodded, smirking at the filly. “Certainly much better than that old dark, spooky forest isn’t it?” Not waiting for a response, the draconequus turned around, walking back towards his chaos capital. “Come along now Screwy, our subjects are waiting for us!” The two didn’t take another step before they were interrupted by someone yelling Discord’s name.

“Discord!”

The two chaotic creatures turned around, spotting the group of six mares running towards them. Screwball’s eyes widened in panic when she spotted the elements around their necks, she quickly ran behind the draconequus and hid from their view.

Discord couldn’t help but smirk. “Really? This again?” He laughed.

“That’s right!” Applejack yelled, clenching her first. “You couldn’t break apart our friendship for long!”

He rolled his eyes, scoffing at the pony’s words. “Oh spare me the friendship speech.” He said, gagging. “I have much better things to do than to listen to you ponies drone on and on about friendship.” The ring around his claw began to glow. “So why don’t we skip the pleasantries. After all I have a date with chaos!” Pointing the ring towards the six mares, all of them couldn’t help but panic as they were picked up by the elements on them. Turning towards his assistant, he smiled. “Take notes Screwy, when dealing with annoying pests, it's best to identify the weakness first, and strike it with extreme prejudice.”

Twilight’s eyes widened when she felt the raw amount of power pour out of the ring, the artifact itself seemed to be on par with Discord in terms of sheer power. “The ring! Where did you get that?!”

Discord scoffed, rolling his eyes. “As if I would tell you, I wasn’t born yesterday Sparkle.” His eyes narrowed as he then smirked at the six helpless ponies. “Now why don’t we have some fun?” The ring began to glow brightly as it prepared his spell.

Thinking quickly, Twilight’s horn began to glow. Just as a beam of energy was fired out of the ring, the lavender unicorn quickly teleported them all away from the incoming beam. Appearing just a few feet away from the draconequus, Twilight quickly got up and pointed at him. “Rainbow Dash, get that ring away from him!”

“Leave it to me!” The pegasus called out, speeding towards him. "I'll get that ring off of him in no time!" She confidently boasted, giving them all a smirk.

Discord frowned, snapping his claw and poofing away the pegasus’ wings. He smirked when he saw her crash onto the ground, an inch away from him. Leaning down, he patted the pony on the head. “Too bad, you were so close!”

“You stay away from her!” Raising his head, Discord was pulled forward by Applejack’s lasso, the rope tying itself onto his horns.

Discord growled, snapping his claws and turning the rope into a bunch of bubbles. “No roughhousing! Were you raised in a barn?”

“Well I was!” Discord jumped in surprise, not expecting the pink party mare to appear behind him. Not giving the draconequus any time to react, Pinkie Pie pulled on the string connected to her party cannon, blasting the chaotic being with confetti.

As Discord coughed and gagged on the confetti that got inside his mouth. He didn’t notice the ring on his claw being pulled out by Rarity’s magic until it was too late.

“I got it!” Rarity cried out in delight, levitating the ring towards them.

Discord’s eyes snapped wide open as he turned towards her with a glare. “Oh no, you don’t!” Just as he was about to snap his claw, he let out a pained yelp when he felt the pink party pony pull on his wings. “Argh! Stop that!” Discord turned towards his assistant and scowled. “Screwball! I could use some help here!”

Screwball looked around in panic, her fear keeping her rooted in place. Noticing the yellow pegasus shyly walking towards her, she jumped back and cowered, pulling down on her beanie to cover her eyes. “G-go away!”

Fluttershy pulled back in surprise at the response before slowly walking forwards. “Umm, please don’t be scared, I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to talk.”

The two of them took a step back in surprise when the golden ring was tossed between them. Looking up, both Fluttershy and Screwball saw the white unicorn screaming as her fur and mane were ruined by a cotton candy cloud’s chocolate rain.

Noticing his protege standing near the ring, Discord smiled. “Screwy! Grab the ring quickly! Use it to get these crazy ponies off of me.” He yelped when Pinkie Pie bit down on his lion paw, causing him to shake his arm in an attempt to get her off of him.

“Fluttershy, get the ring quickly before Discord’s minion grabs it!” Twilight shouted from the sidelines of the fight.

The two ponies looked around in fright, neither of them liking the sudden attention they gained. Looking down the two of them reached for the ring at the same time, their hands briefly touching, causing Screwball to pull her arm back and cling onto it as if it was burned.

Fluttershy leaned back in surprise. “Oh, I’m sorry, did I startle you? You don’t have to do this, you know?”

Screwball took a step back, not being able to form a response as fear gripped her. She was startled once again when she spotted the rainbow-haired mare run towards them, an angry expression on her face. Being startled by the expression, the chaotic filly’s body flashed in a bright light before disappearing, teleporting away from the area.

“Screwball come back here!” Discord yelled, throwing the party mare off of him. His eyes widened when he saw Rainbow Dash grab the ring. Being fueled with frustration and anger, the draconequus leaped towards the pegasus, tackling her to the ground and causing the ring to fall into the bushes next to them. “That's mine!”

Before either of the two mares could respond, they were suddenly teleported away, the two reappearing by Twilight’s side. Before they could speak, Twilight quickly cut them off. “Quickly! We have to use the Elements before he puts on that ring!” The two pegasi nodded, understanding and agreeing with the plan.

As Discord continued to look for the ring, the group of mares activated their elements, causing them to start floating up in the air. Symbols of their elements began flying over the area as the spell was charging up.

Leaping off the ground, Discord laughed, the ring on his hand. The draconequus’ back was to the mares as he continued laughing. “You lose ponies! Chaos will reign forever!” He turned around with a wide smile, only for the smile to die as the symbol of kindness flew by him. “What?” He looked up and paled at the sight of the elements at work. “Oh no…” Before he could react a rainbow beam was shot towards him, not giving him enough time to escape. Discord screamed, losing all feeling on his feet, looking down only confirmed his worst fears, he was turning back into stone. “No. NO!” He screamed, looking down at the palm of his paw, he gave a shaky smile. “The ring, the ring can save me!” Laughing, he put the ring on his claw, ignoring the cold sensation that was going through his arms. Just as he was about to snap his claw, his smile died, as horror replaced it. Both his claw and the ring had already turned into stone. Turning towards the sky, he let out one last scream in defiance as his head was quickly surrounded by stone, his scream stopped abruptly once the petrification spell was completed, leaving behind a stone statue where the once-living draconequus was.

All around them, all of the damage caused by the chaotic being was being reversed. The cotton candy clouds were changed back into normal clouds, the pink skies were blue once more, all around Equestria Discord’s changes were being reverted to normal. The six mares couldn’t help but cheer as they witnessed everything going back to normal.

As soon as the rainbow effect faded, Fluttershy frowned. Turning towards Twilight, she tapped her on the shoulder. “Umm, Twilight?”

Twilight turned towards her friend with a smile. “What is it Fluttershy?”

“Everything was supposed to turn to normal right?” She asked.

Twilight nodded. “That's right! All of Discord’s chaos should be gone!”

Fluttershy’s frown only deepened, as she turned around and pointed at the forest. “Then what about the Everfree?” The rest of the mares couldn’t help but gape as the chaos infected forest remained unchanged, not a single part of the forest had reverted back to its original state.

Twilight took a step back and worryingly looked between her friends. “We need to find the princess.”

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone, I just want to thank you all for taking the time to read my story. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and you did or didn't, please tell me why so I can improve! I also want to thank my friends, Wayward Shadow and Kye Belmont for helping me by catching my mistakes, fixing my errors, and keeping me on track.

These past few years I haven't been active on the site, and while my profile says I'm online every day, really I just never log off and only occasionally check-in. The most I did here was help my friends write their fics, and after spending time as the Co-Author for my good friend DarkSpider for so long, I got inspired to write my own fanfic once again! And for those who follow me, I'm sorry to say but I don't think my other fics will be continued. The reason for this is simple, I started them years ago, and I had a plan for them back then that I no longer have. Heck, a lot of the ideas I had for some of those fics I just don't simply agree with anymore. Maybe one day I'll go back to finish one of them, A Koopa's Story I've been meaning to go back to, though the problem with that is that I wish I started it differently.

Once again, please tell me what you think, and I hope you all have a good rest of the day!