Eris was more than satisfied with herself. The human was on his way to Earth and was no longer her problem for the few next weeks. They were finally back in Ponyville from the pink hellhole of love called the Crystal Empire. To be more exact, they were now back in Fluttershy's small cottage at the edge of the little town. If someone took pictures of the interiority of the cottage and compared them with those of the last ten years, they would barely notice any difference.

Fluttershy loved her small lodging like it was, with all the birdhouses, holes for the mice, and scores of distributed baskets that harboured everything from anteaters to dwarf pigs. All these animals that clashed together caused enough chaos that even Eris felt more than comfortable, and she didn't even have to move a single hoof. All in all, she was, in this moment, a very content Eris as she made herself comfortable on the sofa and observed her marefriend in the kitchen.

"Hey, Shy?"

"What is it?" called her honeyed voice.

"You know, with all the sob stuff in the Empire, I thought… Maybe… What do you think about marriage?" The feed bag that Fluttershy had been carrying fell to the floor, and in the next moment, the pegasus wrapped herself around Eris's slim body. Well, that had to suffice as an answer.

Eris awoke later, deep in the night of the same day, and bolted upright in the bed. This, naturally, did not escape the pegasus next to her, and with a yawn, Fluttershy awoke as well. "What's going on, Eris?" she asked sleepily as she cautiously rubbed her eyes with her hooves.

"There was a disturbance in the Force…" Eris murmured absently.

"Come again?"

"Somepony messed up the balance between harmony and chaos, and that’s really bad. Raava is going to kill me." Eris' head moved around until she seemed to lock her gaze on a wall.

"Oh, that doesn't sound good at all," said Fluttershy, now looking worried as well.

"It takes an enormous amount of magic to cause something like this, an act of absolute chaos or harmony. In this case, it was chaos. I can feel it." Eris climbed out of the bed and began to fly up and down. "I have to take a look, Shy. If I'm not back until noon, please tell Celestia or Luna."

Fluttershy jumped out of the bed and clamped on Eris. "That sounds like it will be dangerous! Please, wait until tomorrow and go together with the princesses."

Eris carefully freed herself from Fluttershy's hooves. "Don't be afraid, Shy, nothing will happen. I have to look at this now and see if I can fix the damage. After all, that's what I'm here for." What only a few knew was that Eris was not only a being of chaos, but its guardian as well. She would never cause so much chaos that it could disturb the eternal balance. The risk was far too great. However, somepony else didn't seem to be aware of the foolishness of doing so. "Well, see ya," she said and teleported to the place where she had felt the source of the chaos.

From one moment to the next, it seemed as though she had gone blind. It was even darker than in her bedroom, but that was fixed with a snap. "Hello? Is anyone here?" With her new candle, she looked around and examined her environment. The wall was overgrown with green moss, like the ceiling and the floor, nearly as if she was inside of a rolled-up carpet. Eris knew better. "A changeling nest. Makes sense – it came from the Broken Leylands," she told herself. But this nest seemed abandoned. She should have encountered at least one changeling by now. She scanned her surroundings but could only identify one lifeform deeper in the nest. Had somepony wandered alone into an old changeling nest? But what could be here that could cause so much chaos?

Eris snapped her claw again and teleported from one hallway to the next, step by step towards the aura she had felt. At every short stop, she looked about for a second, but there was basically nothing. It was as if the changelings had packed up their things and left. But where could they have gone? Or rather, why did they leave in the first place? After all, from what Eris could tell, everything was intact and offered ideal living conditions for the shapeshifters. She even arrived with the last teleportation in the brood chamber, only this one was abandoned as well and no eggs to be seen.

With another snap, she finally arrived where she had located the signal, but in here there seemed to be nothing. Then she suddenly heard wheezing and coughing. At once, Eris slithered through the air and found eventually the source some meters farther inside the darkness. "Chrysalis? Why am I not surprised?"

"Eris… Behind you…" was all that the changeling queen could manage, but it was too late. Eris felt as magic shot through her body and started to divide her into two halves. For Eris, the concept of pain, at least physical one, was a completely new experience, and she was overwhelmed. She writhed on the ground and pressed claw and paw onto the wound as she tried to cast over her pain, but nothing happened. Blood, her blood, ran over her extremities and bathed the green moss with a golden hue.

"I am surprised. You should no longer be alive." That voice. Eris used her waning power to open her eyes and stare her attacker, who was standing directly over her, in his face.

"I could say the same about you," she managed with a cough, which sprayed a bit of her golden blood into his face.

"Well then, let's change that." The scythe that had severed her floated next to him, rose up, and sailed down on her. With a snap, Eris vanished and the magical weapon dug into the golden-coloured moss. "She will succumb to her wound," said the attacker and looked towards Chrysalis. "Stand up – we have succeeded. She will no longer be a danger. It doesn't matter to whom she goes. With Discord out of the way, we do not need to care. Now we have to enlarge an army."

Chrysalis, suddenly filled with new strength, rose from the ground and patted the dirt from her carapace. "This body is unfamiliar," she said with certainty. "More difficult to control." She stayed silent for a few seconds. "In addition, I'll need a donor if I'm to produce eggs."

"We have more than enough options. We’re finished here, Nightmare." Both vanished in a blue light.

Celestia bolted upright as something heavy fell on her bed. In a panic, she pulled her legs under her and looked at what had disturbed her rest. "Celestia…" She caught her breath as she noticed Eris, or rather, what was left of her.

"By the creator, what… Eris, what happened?" At once, Celestia used her comforter and wrapped it around the wound of the draconequus, but the blood immediately seeped through the white blanket. Her horn glowed, but her attempts to heal her old friend were blocked, and she immediately realized that the wound was of a magical nature. "Eris, talk to me. Who did this to you?"

Eris didn't answer but slowly and cautiously pulled a feather out of her feathered wing. "Please… Give this to Fluttershy. Promise me, Celestia!"

Celestia levitated the feather on her night table. "Guards!" The door to her chambers was opened with such a force and crashed against the wall with such a loudness that half of the castle were surely awakened. Two Royal Guards stormed inwards, looked around in alarm, and finally saw Celestia standing over Eris. "Fetch the court physician now and wake up everypony listed as a member of the hospital staff!" The guards saluted immediately and vanished, galloping into the night. "Eris, please tell me what happened."

"I have seen him, Celestia… He… It's not him… He should be but he isn't…" Eris coughed and spread blood on Celestia's white coat. "He shouldn't, they aren't supposed to..."

Celestia saw how her eyes grew heavy and knew that she had only seconds left. "Eris…"

"Nightmare…" It was the last word of the being that she had known nearly her entire life had directed to her, words that filled her core of her being with fear.

Author's Notes:

Remember that there were two Blue Lights in the past? Well, I found the second one again
Would it be cruel to wish happy Easter at this point? Besides that Easter is almost over?

And to make everything even better, let me introduce my new co-author: GRRM

See you in two weeks!

Thanks to Verequus for translating this chapter.
Special thanks to JBL for proofreading and editing.