The next morning I was in a particularly good mood, gently snoozing on the bed when I was awoken by Gilda gently shaking me awake.

"Griff, hey Griff, get up."

"Huh? What? What's up?"

"You're... uh.... leaking."

"I'm what?"

She gestured to the inside of our room which was filled with a red haze that I quickly concluded was coming from me. It was the same style, colour, and feeling as my magic that appeared to be.... seeping out.

"Uh huh.... well, this is new."

"Griffin." Gilda gave me a stare.

"I'm sure its fine."

"Doctor, now." The stare turned to a glare.

"... Alright, alright, though I doubt anyone on the isles will know what's going on, I should get in contact with Dr. Exotic. Feather me up."

A quick flash of magic from Gilda and I was ready to fly to the mainland. Changing form didn't seem to stop the leakage though.

The flight to Baltimare was relatively fast, though by the time I arrived the haze had stopped coming out. The moment I arrived, I was swarmed by reporters.

"Griffin! A comment, if you will?"

"Huh?"

"After your private bout with Princess Celestia, you dropped off the map. You've been spotted on Signal, in the Crystal Empire, all over, nopony could get in contact with you."

"I was busy. You know, doin king stuff."

"So, you weren't hiding from the possible backlash that comes from challenging the ruler of Equestria?"

"Nope, and she's not the ruler, she's a ruler. There's two more, if you'll remember." That seemed to answer all his questions.

"Griffin!" Another called from the crowd. "What about the judgement on Signal? There's rumors that you nearly killed one of your own."

"He was guilty of murder. I fully intended to."

"Then what happened?"

"What, you've never heard of mercy? It's this new trick a little diamond dog pup taught me. I have to say I like it. Tends to solve problems with a lot less heartache."

Another rabble of questions, which I decided to avoid by flying away, as most of the reporters were ground based, and the few fliers took the hint, though I did mention to one of them that I was looking for Dr.Exotic, and gave them my autograph as payment for buzzing off. I didn't know where her office was, and she did say I wouldn't find her, that she'd find me. So, I figured the morning paper would be the easiest way to get a hold of her.

That being said, I now had some free time. What do people do with their free time? Spend it with friends.

"Dissscooooooord, come out to plaaaaayyaaaaaaaayyyyy." I called into the empty sky. A house appeared in midair. Discord poked his head out of the second story window, wearing a scraggly orange wig.

"Discord can't come out to play today." He called in an old woman voice. "He's been very naughty and has been grounded."

"Oh? What did he do?" I asked, interested.

"Betrayed all his friends."

"Well, that's no good at all. I think he needs a good talking to. Can I come in?" The front door opened to reveal a swirly purple abyss that sucked me in. I watched as all of reality twisted and warped while I passed it by, before appearing inside a very disorganized house. Discord sat at the kitchen table, standing atop the tablecloth, which was on the floor.

"Hey buddy.... soooo..... wanna talk about it?" Discord was now wearing a helicopter hat and a striped shirt. I feel like this entire thing is the setup to a bad sitcom.

"Well, it happened when Tirek showed up."

"Yeah?"

"Celestia wanted me to go capture him. I found him easily enough, but then... I let him convince me to work with him instead. It wound up biting me in the tail when he turned on me."

"So... what did he say?"

"Well, he made me remember the old days, causing chaos wherever I went, wrecking havoc. I got to thinking that if he took over Equestria, I'd be able to do what I want again. It was true, for a while anyway. Then as soon as he didn't need me anymore, he took my magic and threw me away. I can't help but think you'd do the same thing. Discard Discord, if I didn't have my magic to do nice things for you."

"Yeah, you're probably right." I replied quickly.

"What?" Discord seemed totally confused.

"What can I say? I'm a horrible person. I'm trying to become better, but as it stands, I won't let anything get in my way or hold me back. Even people I call my friend."

He just sat there, mouth agape.

"So, if you think about it, even though you made a mistake, you realized it and tried to make it better, which makes you a fair bit better than mean old Griffin, doesn't it?" I took the helicopter hat off his head and plonked it on my own. "Gee golly mister! I sure am sorry I fucked everything up! You think you can forgive me?"

He couldn't help but laugh. The best cure for misery is more of it, generally someone else's self-deprecation.

"Seriously though, we've both made mistakes. If your friends forgave you for it, then why are you still worried about it? It's not like you're going to do it again, right? I mean, it may not be much, but I've started to do the same. Know what? I'll make you a deal. If either of us loses their way again, the other one has to come and smack them upside the head. How about it?"

"Deal." Discord let out a chuckle and shook my claw. Feels good.

"Great. Now then, I gotta go see the doctor for a bit."

"Yeah, you're leaking. Might wanna get that checked out." Discord snapped his claws together, and I flopped belly first on Dr.Exotics desk at her office, knocking all the crap off it onto the floor.

"Um.... paint me like one of your French girls?"

"Yes! Alright, get off my bucking desk and into examination room 3."

"So, you have no idea what's causing it?" Exotic asked as she stood in the red miasmic, cloudy haze that filled the room.

"Nope. I just spent a few days relaxing, had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, and overall I'm just feeling good about life on the whole. I've also been getting better at controlling my magic, but I can't figure out why it's doing this."

"Hmm......"

"Hmm?"

"No not Hmm?, Hmm......"

"Oh, Hmm....."

Yeah, Hmm....."

"What are we even saying?"

"Nothing, I was just humoring you." This doctor, I don't even.

"So, diagnosis?"

"Well, you're not an uptight stick in the mud anymore, as far as I can tell, your relaxation has cause the, bottleneck, on your magic to relax also. It's like a valve. You're used to forcing it open, now it relaxed on it's own. Instead of being pushed out like you normally do when you want to use it, it's kind of just.... flowing. Should be more manageable, in any case."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Well, your magic is an extension of your will. All this..." She waved her hooves around in the air haphazardly. "Is flowing out because you're felling... well.... good. Because of that, as far as I can tell... say, do you want ice cream? I could really go for some ice cream right now. Chocolate fudge mocha..."

"I.... think I'll pass, and I think I understand what you're getting at."

"Oh well, suit yourself." She opened a mini-fridge she had hidden under her desk and pulled out a tub of the frozen dessert. "It's healthy, by the way. The magic thing I mean. Not good to keep everything pent up all the time. Yeah.... I think I'm gonna take the rest of the day off and enjoy the sunshine. Oh, but if you get all mopey and depressed again, it'd probably be a good idea to shut the valve. Griffins are naturally in tune with the weather, like pegasi. You might rain on everyone's parade, literally."

"I'll keep that in mind."

With that, I left her office and headed up into the sky. I wasn't entirely sure where I was, but I wasn't really worried about it. To get back home to Gilda, all I had to do was go east.

Look to the sun. Dance on the wind. I faced eastwards and felt the wind change direction, easing my journey home. I allowed myself to float on the gales, never flapping my wings more than once, more to keep them from getting stiff than to gain altitude. I wasn't in any rush. I'd do a little loop here or there, drifting on the wind, letting it take me where it will, trusting that it would see me to my destination safely.

Considering that, for the most part, Equestria doesn't have wind and it has to be generated by pegasi, I should have been more intrigued by that, but I didn't bother to think about it. For however long it may last, for the moment I was charmed and I figured I'd best just enjoy it, rather than confound myself trying to figure out the 'why'.

I made it back before nightfall. My magic had stopped seeping out, but I was still in a rather good mood, though a little tired.

"So? What's the verdict?" Gilda asked on my return.

"Well.... it's happy go lucky juice, coming out in cloud form. If it happens again, you should probably roll around in it."

"I think I know something that would make us both happy." She snuggled up to my side and wrapped her tail around mine, purring softly. We both turned to look at Seth, who was making gagging noises at our display. We immediately stopped our romancing, then spoke in unison.

"Well.... that's a problem."

Author's Notes:

Merry Christmas everyone! I'm in a remarkably good mood today, and I figured, in the spirit of the holidays, Griffin should be as well.

Despite it being like, September or October at this point in the timeline.

In any case I liked this chapter a lot. I normally don't write things that are too happy, and this was a little difficult for me, though it was a welcome change of pace, for a little bit.

Now here's the part where I apologize for not updating more, and then make excuses.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been busy house hunting. That's right! I'm very near to moving out and owning my own place! For Christmas, I got cutlery, spatulas, pots and pans. (The first thing I thought of when I opened the frying pan was whacking someone with it, then saying 'Stout Shako for 2 refined!'