(A/N – A buddy of mine suggested that Forgey should've been called 'The Trollmaster'. Thought that was worth sharing…)

'Aw shit…' he thought.

According to Celestia's memories: Discord was a serious problem a long time ago, before Celestia was even called a princess. And if he's getting out of his prison, that spelled bad things for all of Equestria. And the only one close enough to help was him…

'Damn.' He thought.

He had 3 options. Number 1: flee to Celestia's bosom like a coward. Number 2: walk casually to Celestia and inform her of the situation like a reasonable person would do. Or, Number 3: run bat-shit crazy to Celestia while yelling the whole time and doing some sweets stunts along the way…

'I choose number 3, Rainbow would approve…' he thought.

He took a deep breath and then screamed as loud as physically possible, "CELESTIA!" causing the local architecture to shake and the hedges and statues around him to lean away from him.

He then took to flight and flew as fast as possible to the front entrance of the palace, all the while doing spins and barrel rolls through the air. Instead of taking the easy route and fly above everything else, he stayed close to the ground and dodged and weaved amongst the local snobbish ponies. He actually managed to knock a few out just by flying past them at a ridiculous speed, much to the locals' chagrin, though he loved that.

The Royal Guards at the front gate saw him coming, and likely heard him from earlier, and let him pass uninterrupted. He found his way through the castle to find the throne room. Upon reaching the doorway to the throne room, the doors were closed.

Instead of doing the sensible thing of opening them, The Forgemaster spun on his forelegs and kicked the doors with his hind legs with all his might. He shattered the gates and blew them right off of their hinges, spraying bits of door throughout the throne room. To say that the ponies inside were surprised would be the biggest understatement of the century. Well, it was really only the one noble who was surprised, the guards glanced in his direction but stayed at their posts and Celestia retained the calm demeanor she was known for. Apparently, nobles didn't understand just how powerful he was yet, evidenced by the freaking out white unicorn in the room.

"Shit… that's Blueblood.' He thought.

The Forgemaster stalked across the room quickly, moving towards Celestia, who appeared interested. Blueblood used this time to regain his composure from the shock of the sudden entry of a giant pony, as well as the sneering, arrogant visage that the Canterlot citizenry seemed to always have.

"Commoner! You will pay dearly for that! Guards, seize him!" the bloody fool said.

Not a single guard even so much as twitched in their direction.

The Forgemaster wasn't having a particularly pleasant day, and let the fool have it, "Listen here you little shit. I am happy to be a commoner, because I have something that you never will: social skills, brains, a sense of self-worth, knowing the worth of a bit. Nobles, with the exception of a miniscule fraction that borders on the tens of trillions of 1 percent of the population of nobles, are all arrogant, foolish, assholes. You aren't intelligent, you have no social skills, you have the personality of a damn mule, no offense." He said to the mule that was standing nearby, who replied with, "None taken."

The Forgemaster continued his rant, "You are a coward, you have no significant strength in your body, the only thing that you can claim is your slight fortune, which I have eclipsed with a single invention and a lot of hard work. You aren't even a real prince: you are the grandchild to the 152 degree of the foal that was the child of the mare that married Celestia's cousin before they had even met. You are in no way related to the royal family by blood. And you just made the mistake of insulting the one stallion in Equestria who needs to fear no legal recourse for anything short of murdering you in a most gruesome fashion. In a word: you are a complete and utter idiot, get out of my throne room."

The Forgemaster then continued his walk towards Celestia, completely ignoring the fact that he had just completely destroyed Blueblood. He did, however, notice the looks of awe on all of the guards' faces, as well as quite a few smirks. Apparently, the fool was detested by the guards just as much as The Forgemaster detested him, and they had been wanting to do that to the 'Prince' for a while.

Celestia, on the other hand, looked slightly miffed at him, probably because he had called it 'his throne room'. But, he had a feeling that her mood would change when he told her about Discord. The Forgemaster had just opened his mouth to inform the Princess of the developing situation when, true to form, the idiot behind him spoke.

"You- you dare!"

The Forgemaster was entirely fed up with listening to the slack-jawed fool, and decided that a show of power would cow the fool into leaving.

With a small pull of magic, every weapon that was in every guard in the room's sheath was hurtling towards the stupid noble. He stopped them a centimeter from the idiot's skin, every inch of him blotted out by the sheer number of dangerous implements surrounding him, making him appear to be a large pincushion of weapons from the outside.

"Do you want me to kill you?" he asked, deadpan.

The panicking noble barely managed to squeak out in a high pitched and trembling voice, "W-what?"

"It is a simple question, one with serious consequences, however. You say no, you live, and if you say yes, you die. Now answer the question."

"No, please let me live!"

"Then you are going to shut the fuck up and get the fuck out."

The Forgemaster released the fool from his sharp and pointy prison and sent the weapons back to their rightful owners, who were looking at him with a look that spoke volumes of how much they hated dealing with that particular stallion. Said stallion was no fleeing for his life, with his tail between his legs. The Forgemaster didn't know that ponies could do that… good to know.

Now, however, The Forgemaster was safe to deal with what he came here to do, even though yelling at Blueblood totally made his day, or maybe his week.

"Celestia, we have a problem. I just came from the Canterlot gardens, and I'm afraid that Discord's getting loose."

Celestia's eyes widened in shock before she regained her composure, "Are you sure?"

"Deadly."

She sighed, "I will contacts the girls, only the 'Elements' can stop him again."

Celestia used her magic and brought up a quill and a parchment. She immediately began writing, ignoring The Forgemaster's pleas to write the letter himself.

"Damnit Celestia, all you need to do is write, 'Get your asses down here, all of you, rapido!'."

Celestia rose a single brow at him, but continued writing.

After a few more moments, the letter was done and sent to Twilight.

"And now, we wait."

The Forgemaster grumbled, muttering, "In my day if you had to wait for something then something was wrong. This demon is going to give me a headache, I can feel it now."

wWwWwWw

Celestia was pacing on the landing of a set of stairs, while The Forgemaster was lazing about at the bottom of the steps in human form, as there were no guards nearby. Apparently, Celestia paces when worried, but The Forgemaster lazes when worried, if he even was worried, it was hard to tell. They had both been in the room ever since Celestia said that they had to wait for the girls, a move that was completely anathema to The Forgemaster's usual manner of finding whatever caused him grief, and killing it. The Forgemaster had even recovered from his bad mood after dealing with that obnoxious fool Blueblood. Thankfully, the wait wasn't too long as the girls they were waiting for slammed the door open and ran into the room.

Twilight was leading the pack, "Princess Celestia, we came as fast as we could!"

"Not fast enough, I was waiting for almost 15 minutes, damnit! Also, not even a hello? What the hell?" The Forgemaster gets snippy when grumpy

As Twilight glared at him, Celestia decided to be diplomatic, "Thank you, Twilight. Thank you all."

"Is this about the weather? And the animals' weird behavior? What's happening out there? Why isn't my magic working? Is there–"

Celestia raised a hoof to stop Twilight's jabbering, but The Forgemaster took a different tact to reach the same goal.

"Shut the fuck up, Twilight. God damn, give the mare a chance to explain."

Twilight glared at him even more, "She is Princess Celestia, and you will address her-"

"However I want, up till the point she tells me to stop. Now quit arguing with me, we got some serious stuff to tell you 6."

Celestia nodded, and waved them towards her, "Follow me."

The 6 ran up the steps as The Forgemaster stood, cracking his back. The noise appeared to either scare the 6, or completely gross them out as they stopped to stare at him.

"I know that you all are dying to know about human anatomy later, but we can discuss that later, in private for you Dashie, "He winked at her, making her giggle,"But for now we need to follow the head honcho."

He stepped up the stairs to follow Celestia, with the girls right behind him. Soon enough, they were walking down a long, long hallway filled with beautiful stain glass windows, each depicting a certain achievement, event, or some other occasion.

As they walked down the hall, The Forgemaster was making humorous comments on the different windows they passed, the jokes made more accurate because Celestia had been there and he had her memories. He even got a laugh out of Celestia once or twice.

He had just made the comment on whether or not the hallway had a window depicting Celestia's first birthday party when Celestia stopped them.

"I've called you here for a matter of great importance. It seems an old foe of mine, someone I thought I had defeated long ago, has returned. His name... is Discord."

Fluttershy had gone off to the side and stood under a window depicting the very same creature that Celestia had just named, making her squeal and run behind Twilight. The Forgemaster cooed at the sight and picked up Fluttershy, giving her a hug saying something along the lines of, 'She's so adorable!'

"Discord is the mischievous spirit of disharmony. Before my sister and I stood up to him, he ruled Equestria in an eternal state of unrest and unhappiness. Luna and I saw how miserable life was for Earth ponies, Pegasi, and unicorns alike, so after discovering the Elements of Harmony, we combined our powers and rose up against him, turning him to stone."

Rainbow was happy at the telling of the story, even though the actual complete retelling was far, far more… upsetting.

"Alright princess!" she said.

The group continued down the hallway, with Fluttershy safely tucked away in The Forgemaster's grip. She was smiling happily at the treatment.

"I thought the spell we cast would keep him contained forever but since Luna and I are no longer connected to the elements, the spell has been broken."

"No longer connected?" Twilight asked.

The Forgemaster stepped in, "Yeah, you lot are now. I thought that was kind of obvious, to be honest." He scratched his chin in thought.

The girls acquired sheepish looks on their faces when he explained that to them. Now that they thought about it, it was pretty obvious.

Celestia was taking the group to the end of the hallway, where a large metal vault was located.

"This is Canterlot Tower, where the Elements are kept inside since all of you recovered them. I need you to wield the Elements of Harmony once again and stop Discord before he thrusts all of Equestria into eternal chaos."

Pinkie Pie zipped away as Twilight asked, "But why us? Why don't you-"

"Hey, look! We're famous!"

Twilight was interrupted by Pinkie Pie who was standing underneath a window showing the 6 present mares, The Forgemaster, and Nightmare Moon. The 6 mares had beams of pink blasting at the Nightmare while he was holding her in place with large claws ejecting from his hands. Thankfully, he had clothes on in this window. If he ever had to tell the story anywhere near this particular window, some questions and discrepancies in the story might need changing.

'Ah… good times.' He thought, 'I should really find an excuse to use those claws more often…'

"You six showed the full potential of the elements by harnessing the magic of your friendship to beat a mighty foe. Although Luna and I once wielded the elements, it is you who now control their power, and it is you who must defeat Discord." Said Celestia as the group looked the stained glass up and down.

The group of mares appeared to think for a moment, but Twilight began to speak for the group, "Princess Celestia, you can count on–"

Pinkie burst into the scene, "Hold on a second! Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain, you guys. Chocolate rain!" Pinkie's eyes appeared to bulge from her skull slightly.

Twilight ran over to Celestia and whispered, "Don't listen to her, Princess. We'd be honored to use the Elements of Harmony again."

The Forgemaster sniffed in mock sadness, "I don't get an element…"

Celestia and the others looked at him, Celestia in exasperation and the girls in slight pity, as though they didn't notice the sarcasm.

He continued, "Screw it. I'll make my own: hugely powerful magical artifacts are my specialty, after all." He scratched his chin, "I think I'll name it 'The Element of Badassedry'."

He laughed at the indignant look on Twilight's face, and the others laughed along with him, now satisfied that he was joking.

Celestia rolled her eyes and went over to the vault. She stuck her horn into the slot and, ignoring The Forgemaster's soft cry of 'Ooo, dirty', charged a spell through it, making the door light up with blue lights. The door took a moment, but then opened in a bright flash of light. The open door revealed a single, gem encrusted case.

"Ooh. You can keep the Elements. I'll take that case!" declared Rarity.

"Hey Celestia, how well would that work during sex?" said The Forgemaster at approximately the same time as Rarity.

The girls all blushed a deep red, except for Rainbow who grinned as though she liked the idea. Celestia rolled her eyes at him and ignored the question.

The Forgemaster then reached and dragged Rainbow to his side, saying, "I guess I'll have to figure that out for myself…"

This caused them all to blush and look away, even Celestia. Fluttershy was hiding behind her mane and squealing slightly.

The couple laughed at the awkward moment he had caused, evidently Rainbow had no qualms about joking with others about sex, though the others probably didn't share her sentiment. He, on the other hand, was happy that he had found someone who wasn't afraid of flaunting her sexuality. A vast change from girls he had once known.

After a few moments of helpless embarrassment and a round of laughter from the couple, Celestia regained control of the situation, "Have no fear, ponies. I have total confidence that you will be able to defeat Discord with these!"

Celestia used her magic to levitate the beautiful case from inside and opened it, revealing to all of the ponies that the box was, in fact, empty. The girls all gasped, previous awkwardness erased in the face of this new development. Celestia dropped the case in her shock. They all stood slack-jawed at the box. Pinkie, however, was happy with the development.

"Oh, well. If anyone needs me, I'll be outside in the chocolate puddles with a giant swizzle straw."

The Forgemaster spoke, "Well… looks like we're doing this the old-fashioned way. My favorite!"

He drew his sword, 'War, Eternal', and began to sharpen it with the whetting stone he carried on his person at all times.

This continued for several minutes before the grating sound managed to snap the ponies out of their funk.

Twilight stated the obvious, "The elements! They're gone!"

"No shit, Captain Obvious." He said, earning a glare from Twilight

Celestia, on the other hand, had resumed her pacing from earlier, "That chamber is protected by a powerful spell that only I can break! This doesn't make sense!"

A chuckle was heard that seemed to come from everywhere at once. The Forgemaster was immediately on his feet, holding sword in a combat stance.

"Make sense? Oh, what fun is there in making sense?" said the dark voice, undoubtedly Discord.

Celestia seemed to be thinking the same thoughts as The Forgemaster was, "Discord... Show yourself!"

The chuckling rang out again.

"Did you miss me, Celestia? I missed you. It's quite lonely being encased in stone, but you wouldn't know that, would you, because I don't turn ponies into stone."

Discord appeared in the form of a stained glass window figure, and began to travel amongst the various windows. The Forgemaster conjured flame into his left hand, preparing to let out a fireball at the demon at any moment.

"Enough! What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?" Celestia was angry.

"Oh, I just borrowed them for a teensy little while." The demon said in response, now occupying another window, with a flick of his wrists he made the Elements of Harmony in his window disappear.

Celestia pawed the ground as though preparing for a charge, "You'll never get away with this, Discord!"

"Oh, I'd forgotten how grim you can be, Celestia. It's really quite boring."

Rainbow bristled at that, "Hey! Nopony insults the Princess!"

Rainbow then charged at the window. When she hit it, Discord disappeared, before reappearing the moment after Rainbow had impacted the window, not even making a crack.

"Oh, you must be Rainbow Dash, famed for her loyalty, the Element of Harmony you represent."

"That's right! I'll always be loyal to the Princess!" Rainbow said in response.

The demon disappeared, saying, "We'll see about that."

Rarity spoke up in distaste, "I can't believe we're wasting our time talking to a tacky window."

"The beautiful Rarity, representing the element of generosity, if I'm not mistaken?"

Applejack intervened, "So you know who we are, big deal."

Discord grew in size, "Oh, I know much more than that, honest Applejack."

Twilight chimed in, "You seem to know our strengths, too?"

"Yes, Twilight Sparkle, and yours is the most powerful and elusive element, magic. Fluttershy's is kindness and Pinkie Pie's is a personal favorite of mine - laughter."

Fluttershy grew scared that Discord knew about her. Pinkie appeared to be holding back a laugh with her hoof, which Twilight noticed.

"Pinkie!" she yelled in disapproval.

She laughed before saying, "He's standing on your head!"

The Forgemaster looked, and she was telling the truth; Discord was doing the moon walk on Twilight's head.

The demon began speaking again, "Ah, but who are you? Oh yes, you are a mystery… Some days you are a pony, and some days you are a human. Which do you prefer, The Forgemaster or Crimson Hammer?" he asked before laughing again.

The window Discord had been occupying was suddenly shattered by a powerful fireball that left Te Forgemaster smoking hands.

Discord appeared in another window, and looked in mock concern at the destroyed window, "My, my, quite the temper we have, don't we?"

"I refuse to listen to the lies of demons. Prepare for extermination under code 12a, subsection 78, referring to the destruction of all demons without a master." The Forgemaster readied another fireball in his hand.

"Hmm? Me, a demon? Don't make me laugh." Discord then proceeded to laugh uproariously.

The window he occupied was shattered again by another fireball.

"Stop stalling, Discord! What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?" Celestia yelled out.

"Oh, so boring, Celestia. Really? Fine, I'll tell you, but I'll only tell you my way. To retrieve your missing elements just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the elements back where you began."

As Discord was speaking, the various windows he went traveling through were being destroyed as quickly as Discord traveled through them by The Forgemaster who unleashed fireball after fireball at the demon.

Fluttershy spoke for the first time since arriving at the castle, "Can we go home now?"

Applejack asked an important question, "What do you reckon he meant? Twists and turns and ending back where we started?"

Twilight went to the window repeating part of the riddle under her breath, "Twists and turns... twists and turns... twists and turns! That's it! I bet Discord hid the elements in the palace labyrinth!"

"Bull shit! He said that we'll find the elements where we began. That's Ponyville for you 6."

Twilight shook her head at him, "No, didn't you hear the riddle?"

"No, I didn't that's why I quoted the riddle to prove my point."

"He said, 'Twists and turns' that obviously means the labyrinth!"

"Gods damn it, I have met riddlers before: the cardinal rule of riddles is that you have a bunch of useless information to disguise the things you need to know to solve the riddle, Twilight!"

Twilight glared a death-glare at him and said, "We are going into the labyrinth, and that's final."

The Forgemaster sighed and put a hand to his face, slowly rubbing his forehead with thumb and forefinger, "You're wrong, Twilight. I know this for a fact. But, if you're so adamant on wasting my, and your, time, I might as well come along to make sure you don't die, or something."

Celestia nodded towards him in thanks, "Good luck, my little ponies. The fate of Equestria is in your hooves."

"Thanks, Princess. We won't let you down." Twilight replied.

The Forgemaster followed after them, groaning quite loudly.

wWwWwWw

The group went out the side doors of the palace, and went to the palace labyrinth.

The Forgemaster was muttering something about how much better his labyrinth was than this one, but the others didn't hear him quite clearly.

As the group approached the large entranceway, a positively shivering Fluttershy asked, "W-We have to go in there?"

"Nope! Dopey Discord forgot about these babies! I'll just do a quick flyover and we'll have the Elements in no time." Rainbow flew up into the air, after no more than an instant of flying, her wings disappeared into a bright light and Rainbow fell to earth, "My wings!" Rainbow yelled as she noticed her vanished wings.

Fluttershy too lost her wings, and the unicorns present lost their horns.

It was actually quite entertaining to The Forgemaster, and he was chuckling under his breath, especially when Rarity and Twilight yelled at the same time, "Your horn! My horn!" and then squealed like a bunch of school girls.

The Forgemaster was standing next to Applejack and Pinkie Pie when his wings disappeared. The 2 earth ponies with bored expressions, obviously thinking that he was going to freak out like the others had.

He just shrugged and said, "I didn't need 'em anyway."

After a few moments of the girls squealing, Discord interrupted them by appearing in a flash of green light, accompanied by a loud noise. Discord reared his head back and laughed as lightning flashed in the background.

Discord ruined the evil impression by saying, "You- you should see the looks on your faces! Priceless!" he then laughed some more.

Twilight yelled at the beast, "Give us our wings and horns back!"

The Forgemaster spoke up, "Keep 'em, I was comfortable with them anyways."

Discord laughed uproariously when he said that, but said while moving throughout the group and invading personal space, "You'll get them back in good time. I simply took them to ensure there's no cheating. You see, this is the first rule of our game: no flying, and no magic."

Discord backed off when The Forgemaster took a swing at him with his sword.

"The first rule?" asked Rainbow, heavy emphasis on the 'first'.

Discord teleported and lounged in the crook of a hedge, "The second rule is everypony has to play or the game is over, and I win."

Discord then played with his fingers in an evil manner before springing up and screaming, "Good luck, everypony!" and teleporting away.

The Forgemaster perked up and said, "Good luck girls, I'll be in Ponyville."

He began to walk away with the girls staring at his back.

He hadn't taken more than a dozen steps before Discord yelled out, "No! You're breaking the second rule!"

The Forgemaster, in the calmest voice possible, said in return, "You said everypony must play, I am not a pony: I am exempt from the rules you have put forward. I am leaving."

"No! You have to play!"

"Discord… demon, if you can change the rules whenever you want then the game isn't going to be fun."

Discord seemed to think for a moment, "That's true." He then began to laugh very hard.

Discord laughed for a few moments, but after a while stopped, wiping a very real tear from his eye, Discord asked, "But won't you please play?"

"Fine." He leaned in towards Discord, who leaned towards him as well, and whispered, "But just for the girls, but don't tell them that."

Discord laughed once more, and agreed before disappearing once more.

He walked back towards the group which was gathering in the entrance to the labyrinth.

As he approached, Rainbow asked, "I thought you got out of this?"

"I did, but I asked to play instead." He said to her.

She gave him a confused look, but nodded. Twilight gathered the group to take the plunge into the maze.

"Never fear, girls. We have each other!"

"I'm still not a girl." The Forgemaster said, ineffectually.

"Yeah! Like Twilight said, there's nothing we can't overcome if we all stick together!"

Twilight walked the group towards the maze entrance, "All right, girls, let's do this!"

Under his breath, The Forgemaster said, "Damn you Twilight."

The group all took a single step forward, and all except the only male present said, "Together!"

As soon as their hooves, or foot, hit the earth, hedges grew in between the members of the group, separating them from the others.

After a moment of all-female shrieking, Twilight said, "Stay calm, girls! Everypony head to the middle as fast as you can, and we'll regroup there!"

As the ponies gave various forms of accent, a loud voice came from far deeper in the maze, "If you're wondering why I'm not responding: it's because I am a male, damnit! Also; this is a bloody maze! You can't make a plan on where you are going to all regroup at; it's a fucking maze for gods' sake!"

wWwWwWw

The Forgemaster was on a trek through the maze, as the others were. His, however, was marginally easier for him to take. He had been in labyrinths before, hell: he had made the world's finest! Then again, it did have a monster in it… nevertheless; any labyrinth to him simultaneously brings up old memories and a form of nostalgia.

The Forgemaster was contemplating just how the demon would plan on getting to him, and steeled his mind to any attack. He locked down his mind as best he could, making it as a fortress. He wasn't sure whether or not the demon would attack his mind, or merely utilize physical illusions: but it is best to be prepared.

Finally, after several minutes of walking, he stumbled upon a large open field within the maze, with a single bench in the center of it. Knowing the trap for what it was, The Forgemaster continued to the exit of this area as fast as possible, not even glancing at the illusions presented to him.

Apparently, the demon didn't know what made him tick, and The Forgemaster wasn't about to divulge that information. He knew that the demon didn't understand him because the various illusions around him had a wide variety. He was sure that the others' traps were more specific. He could tell that Discord didn't understand him by the fact that Discord was telling him that.

"Hmm, what makes you tick? Is it loyalty? No. Kindness? Hay no! Generosity, laughter, honesty… no, no, and no! Magic? Hmm, maybe. Hahahaha! I'll find out soon enough, human."

There were illusions all around him, some with death, some with fun, some with friends, some with other humans praising him as a hero, others with ponies doing the same. Though, the humans didn't look quite right, probably because the demon only had one template to work from and didn't understand that human women are structured differently than men. The various humans that tried to get him to stop all looked eerily similar to him in some ways.

But, there was one vision that gave him pause, just for an instant before he turned away from the illusion, but a pause there was. It was a vision of an older Rainbow Dash and him as a pony snuggled up next to each other on a park bench, 3 young foals playing in front of them as the couple looked on proudly, each with traits from their parents. 2 colts, 1 filly, 1 had a black mane while the other 2 had rainbow manes, 1 was a light blue color, 1 was a dark red, and 1 was a purplish combination of the 2. Truly, for a moment it made his heart ache. He ignored the feeling and continued his stalwart march out of the death-trap.

As he took a step out of the open area, he was confronted by a snarling grey Fluttershy, a smirking grey Applejack, a struggling grey Rarity carrying a large stone boulder, an upset grey Pinkie Pie, and a worried normal-colored Twilight.

"Oh, Forgemaster, it's so good to see you: the others have been acting strangely." Twilight said as a greeting.

He blinked owlishly at her for a moment, before turning his attention to the others, "Twilight, look closely at them: do you see anything different?" he pointed at the other 4.

Twilight blinked once or twice before doing as he asked, she turned back and said, "No, they look normal to me."

He groaned, "Maybe that's why I never see grey in pony architecture: maybe ponies literally can't see the color grey…"

Twilight looked at him in confusion, "We can see the color grey; we just don't like to use it because it's so bland and lifeless…"

He pointed at the others, "Then how can't you see… you know what? Forget it. If you can't see it, then you never will. I'm totally going to skin Discord alive, though."

They began to wander aimlessly for a few more minutes, somehow Twilight managed to begin carrying the boulder instead of Rarity.

Twilight was chanting under her breath, "Must… find… Rainbow Dash. As a team... we're unstoppable. Rainbow Dash won't let us down."

Applejack stopped and pointed up at the sky, "Well, looky there. Rainbow Dash is flying away. She's abandonin' us."

The Forgemaster looked up and noticed that what Applejack had said was true, which came as a surprise, to be honest, Applejack rarely spoke the truth anymore. The Forgemaster noticed the grey coloring on the normally blue mare and sighed, the demon had gotten to her too.

Apparently, Discord had made them into the opposite of their element type. Fluttershy was a bitch.

'Wow, never thought that I'd ever say those 2 words in the same sentence.' He thought.

Rarity was an aggressive boulder hoarder, Applejack was lying a lot, and doing a terrible job at it by the way, and Pinkie was snapping at anything that so much as chuckled.

Twilight looked up and said, "Now I know that's a lie." She then noticed Rainbow flying away and gasped, "How can it be?"

Suddenly, a large thunderstorm appeared and thunder and lightning filled the air. Then, the entirety of the labyrinth fell into the dirt, creating a massive crater for some reason. It is rare to find a maze that goes underground, but he knew for a fact that this maze was all above-ground… so why did it make a crater? A question to be answered another day, it seems, because Discord flew out of a large cloud of dust and was speaking.

"Well, well, well. Somepony broke the "no wings, no magic" rule." Discord snapped his fingers and with a bright flash of light, all those ponies that had their additional appendages taken from them had those selfsame appendages appear back on them, "Game's over, my little ponies. You didn't find your precious elements." Discord conjured up an umbrella and opened it, revealing that it was opposite of normal, "Looks like we might be due for a big old storm of chaos!"

Discord then began to laugh evilly as lightning flashed behind him, cutting an imposing figure.

The laughing stopped when The Forgemaster blasted him with lightning of his own, with his outstretched palm smoking and his sword drawn; The Forgemaster looked ready for battle.

"C'mon, draconi-cunt. I will end your life right here and now!"

Discord just stared at him for a few moments, absently rubbing his smoking forehead: The Forgemaster had quite the aim with magic. Suddenly, the unpredictable demon just laughed some more again, making The Forgemaster's instincts scream to take his skull.

Pinkie interrupted him before he could kill the demon, "And what are you laughing at?"

Discord wiped away another very real tear from his eye, "Ho, you ponies are just the most fun I've had in eons."

Pinkie got in his face quite rapidly, "Well, quit it! You'd better think before you laugh at the Pink...ie Pie!"

Fluttershy took that as a challenge, "Oh yeah? Well ha, ha."

"Quit it!"

"No. Ha, ha." Fluttershy said again, curtly laughing exactly twice.

"Quit it!" Pinkie was getting furiously mad now.

"No. Ha ha-ha ha ha." Fluttershy continued to bait Pinkie.

The Forgemaster rubbed his forehead and groaned, "You lot are acting like children."

After a conversation that The Forgemaster couldn't make out, Rarity ninja-kicked Applejack and began to fight her up and down the crater.

"Girls, why are you all acting like this? We need to stick together." Twilight said, trying to piece the team back together.

"Do you really not know, or are you blind to the facts?" asked The Forgemaster.

Discord conjured movie theater seating and was eating popcorn in it, he was also laughing quite loudly, "It's just too entertaining."

"Stop it, Discord. You're not playing fair." Twilight said, confronting the demon about playing fair instead of killing it.

"I'm not playing fair? Perhaps we haven't met. I'm Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony. Hello?" Discord said in response.

"He's right, Twilight, that was a pretty stupid question."

"Shut up, you're supposed to be on my side!" She then pointed at Discord, "And you, how are we supposed to find the Elements of Harmony when you took away the labyrinth before we could get to the end?"

Discord actually looked perplexed for a moment, "Oh, wait, did you...?" he barked out a laugh, "How funny! You thought the Elements were in the labyrinth?" Discord took her and teleported away for a moment, coming back not 2 seconds later with Discord whispering into Twilight's ear, "I never said they were in the labyrinth."

"But...but..." Twilight mumbled.

Discord said, "Keep trying, Twilight Sparkle. Maybe the magic of friendship can help you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some chaos to reek."

Discord then teleported away, probably to do the very thing he had promised to do.

The Forgemaster said to Twilight, "I told you where they were: Ponyville. Yet you ignored me. I find that people who ignore my advice either die, or come to listen to my advice after."

The other ponies were getting into an argument in the background, while Twilight was having a moment of revelation.

The Forgemaster looked at her and said, "Get this lot back to Ponyville. I have to go get some anti-demon weaponry from my place."

He teleported to Ponyville while Twilight was saying, "The Elements are in Ponyville! C'mon girls!"

The Forgemaster warped into his home, which was mercifully free of any of Discord's nonsense. Likely because of the runes he put around the house to give the laws of physics more of a foothold. Originally intended to keep Pinkie out of his house without his permission, it seemed to work equally well on Discord.

The Forgemaster opened the door to his armory and quickly picked up the one thing he was sure would damage the beast, and kill any other lesser demon. He had recently re-forged it into Equestria. It was a personal gift from one of the more popular gods back home. It was one of the weapons he had given one of his servants, and when The Forgemaster had assisted in a battle that that god was going to lose, giving him the edge needed to win no less, that god had given the blade to him.

It was the sword of the Archangel Gabriel.

It's always nice when people have a monotheistic religion, instead of a pantheon. That means that the one god gets all the benefits of having all of the people worshiping him, instead of having the power gained be dispersed amongst more than one god. This made monotheistic gods very, very powerful.

As he was inside his home, he noticed that the sun and the moon were switching places every 25 seconds or so. He hooked the holy blade to his belt and went to the library, certain that the other 6 ponies would be there.

He arrived just as Twilight was screaming at the other 4 ponies present, "Get back! All of you! This is my book. And I'm going to READ IT!"

"Jesus, woman. Read your damn book and quit it with the yelling."

He approached the group and sat down next to Spike, who was standing on guard next to Twilight.

Twilight glared at him, but then opened the book, she gasped as she found all 6 of the Elements of Harmony inside the hollowed out book.

The Forgemaster leaned over her shoulder to see what she was gasping at, "You gotta be shitting me. Discord can't hide Elements worth shit."

"The Elements!" Twilight yelled.

"I already said that, Twilight."

Spike ran up, saying "This is great! Now you guys can defeat Discord and put everything back to normal!"

Twilight and Spike ran towards the other girls, who were lazing about in a manner reminiscent of him, "See girls? We did it! We found the Elements of Harmony! Together!"

"Damnit, I am a man! I have a penis! I have testicles! My muscles and bones are slightly denser than yours. Quit calling me a girl!"

Twilight seemed to ignore him, till he poked her in the nose, saying, "Quit it!"

"Okay, fine, jeez…"

Twilight looked back at the group of ponies, none of them had even moved, "You don't even care, do you?" she asked.

They all replied simultaneously, "No!"

Twilight sighed, "I never thought it would happen. My friends... have turned into complete JERKS!"

Twilight then passed out the group of Elements forcefully and with the aid of magic, saying, "Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! And big crown thingy! Come on everypony, let's go!"

Spike came forward with a very interesting observation, "But Twilight, aren't you missing somepony?"

"Nope. We've got the liar, the grump, the hoarder, the brute, and the human. That just about covers it." Twilight said, pointing to each member of the group.

"But what about Rainbow Dash?" asked Spike.

Twilight thought for a moment before grinning, "Congratulations Spike, you're the new Rainbow Dash. Now let's go!"

The Forgemaster said to spike, deadpanning, "Rainbow Dash, I would like to break up with you. I am not interested in members of my own gender."

The Forgemaster then walked away, leaving a befuddled Spike behind him, who caught up with Twilight after a moment.

"B-b-but what if she finds out I've been impersonating her? That won't end well." He complained.

"Too bad, you're Rainbow Dash. Now let's go defeat Discord so we don't ever have to talk to each other again!" Twilight ran out the door, with all of the others following behind her.

Rarity was trying to bring her boulder with her, so The Forgemaster just picked it up and threw it through the window. It crashed outside next to the others. When he went outside with Spike to join the others, they found that Discord was there waiting for them.

"Well, well, well, I see you've found the Elements of Harmony. How terrifying!" Discord said, clearly mocking them.

"Discord! I've figured out your lame riddle. You're in for it now!"

"I certainly am. You've clearly out-dueled me, and now it's time to meet my fate. I'm prepared to be defeated now, ladies. Fire when ready." Discord put a target over his body.

Discord dodged when The Forgemaster threw a fireball at him, "Hey! That's not the Elements, no fair!"

"All is fair in love and war!" yelled The Forgemaster.

Twilight tried to get the others into position to fire the Elements, they did so but barely. When Twilight tried to use them, it failed drastically, and they all fell to the ground.

"Ugh, we'll do this the old-fashioned way then! Feel my blade demon!" screamed The Forgemaster as he dove in for the kill.

His blade glowed white in the face of demons, as it always does.

He aimed a slash at Discord's wing, though the demon dodged. The demon laughed at him while he continuously threw slashes at the beast. Just one hit and the holy energy in the blade will purge Discord's soul of… well… pretty much everything, really.

Discord kept on dodging, until suddenly he teleported away. The Forgemaster found him no more than 12 paces away, completely covered in plate armor and wielding a large sword and shield.

The Forgemaster ran straight at Discord, yelling, "Demons and heretics will fall by my hand!" as he did so.

Discord blocked his first thrust with his shield, and counter attacked with his sword. The Forgemaster was fortunate enough to have the good sense to put his clawed gauntlets on back at his house, and used them to block Discord's attack. With his right hand wielding a holy blade, his left hand ejecting claws, and his eyes burning with fury The Forgemaster looked, and was, ready to kill.

The Forgemaster aimed a kick at the demon, who disengaged before it could connect. Following up on his advantage, The Forgemaster slashed low with his blade, trying to cut Discord's legs off. Discord merely teleported away again, this time appearing behind The Forgemaster. The Forgemaster swung left with his claws, and simultaneously dodged the thrust that Discord planned on putting into his spine. He managed to clip Discord's skull with his claws in the exchange of blows.

Discord hissed in pain and backed off slightly. The Forgemaster then rained blow after blow onto the demon's shield with his sword, as the demon hid behind it, he left huge gashes on the thick metal, though it still managed to keep back the barrage.

The entire time this fight was happening, The Forgemaster was yelling battle-cries that would scare a 20 year veteran of war right out of their boots.

Things like, "I'll rip your arms off and beat you senseless with them!", or "Let's see what your innards look like, demon!", and "I'm going to make Discord-skin boots out of you!",or "I will drink your blood and eat your bones!", and The Forgemaster's favorite, "Burn, maim, purge, kill!" which was repeated over and over again in a chant.

For his part, Discord mainly laughed at The Forgemaster, which only served to fuel his wrath.

These 2 titans of battle continued their duel for several minutes, neither tiring, and neither backing down. One armed with holy wrath, the other armed with chaos and disharmony.

Eventually, however, the 6 'Elements' showed up to help. Rainbow Dash was there with them, and they all appeared to be their normal colors. Applejack was even holding Rainbow back from joining in the fight.

Discord decided to start up a conversation with those 6, even though he was in the middle of a life-or-death duel with a most formidable opponent.

"Isn't Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing?" Discord said, trying, and failing, to bash The Forgemaster with his shield.

"Not as wonderful as friendship." said Twilight while The Forgemaster tried to stab Discord's eyes out with his sword.

"Or your head on a pike, demon!" The Forgemaster yelled out, voice full of malice and anger, sounding as demonic as the demon he was fighting actually was.

The other backed away slightly at the way his voice sounded.

"She's right. You couldn't break apart our friendship for long!" said Applejack as Discord kicked The Forgemaster in the chest but only received a slash on the leg in return.

"Oh, Applejack, don't lie to me. I'm the one who made you a liar. Will you ever learn?" Discord then laughed and dodged a swipe from The Forgemaster.

"I'll tell you what we've learned Discord. We've learned that friendship isn't always easy. But there's no doubt it's worth fighting for." Twilight gave her little speech while the pair traded numerous blows.

"Your blood too, demon! I'm willing to fight for a taste of that!" The Forgemaster then cackled madly.

The ponies were getting scared at the way their friend was acting, but fought through that and got into position to use their 'Elements'.

"Fine, go ahead, try and use your little Elements. Just make it quick, I'm a little busy here." Discord then aimed another slash at The Forgemaster.

Unfortunately for Discord, The Forgemaster caught it. He grabbed the blade with his armored gauntlet and drew the demon in close. The Forgemaster then took the demon in a large bear-hug, crushing Discord and trapping him within his grasp. The Forgemaster wrapped all of his limbs around Discord, and began to apply pressure to the damnable fiend. The plate armor Discord wore soon cracked under the pressure being exerted.

"Shoot the bloody thing! Now!" yelled The Forgemaster as he grappled with his slippery opponent, who was yelling out in pain over the treatment.

The 6 mares' eyes turned bright, white and they levitated into the air. After a moment, a large rainbow burst from the 6 and traveled straight towards the grappling opponents. As the rainbow hit Discord, a loud explosion ensued. The blast threw The Forgemaster off of the demon and threw him into the sky. However, Discord was being turned to stone once more.

The Forgemaster managed to right himself in the air before he became a paste on the ground. He flew back down to the group of ponies who had gathered about Discord's statue. The Forgemaster took one look at it, spit at it, and then walked away.

The Forgemaster was confused. The actions of Discord do not at all reflect Celestia's memories of how he should have acted. That was the reason he had responded with violence, he had 'first hand' knowledge of just what was going to happen if Discord went free. But he was wrong. Everything Discord tried was low-scale, smaller than usual.... weak. He thought on it for a while and came to a realization.

Discord was severely weakened by his time in the stone prison.

He knew that he wasn't going to last much longer.

He knew that he was dying.

He wanted to go out with at least a little more fun in his life.

Discord used most of his power resisting the prison, and even more getting out. He was too weak to regenerate his own power without severe amounts of chaos.

He couldn't break the hold that 'Harmony' had on the planet.

He just wanted one last hurrah before he passed.

…

He could respect that.

wWwWwWw

Celestia decided to reward the '6 heroes' with a celebration. The entire throne room was packed full of happy ponies. All of them had gathered to cheer for their heroes. The 6 mares walked down a red carpet to the sound of trumpets, with Celestia and a bandaged 'Crimson Hammer' waiting at the end. As the 6 stopped in front of Celestia, she began to speak.

"We are gathered here today to once again honor the heroism of these six friends who stood up to the villain Discord and saved Equestria from eternal chaos."

Celestia channeled some magic into her horn and unveiled another stained glass window depicting the 6 mares with their Elements defeating Discord.

The large red alicorn that was also occupying the dais spoke to the 6 ponies, "I think you lot did a pretty good job." He then whispered, only for them and the princess to hear, "That was really, really sloppy though." earning glares and looks of indignation from the ponies.

The ponies all cheered and the 6 heroes stood on top of the dais for a few moments, basking in the cheers of their fellows, before withdrawing to a room located behind the throne. As it turns out, the room was a banquet hall and it had 9 places all set and ready to eat at. They found Princess Luna there occupying one of the seats already.

All those present quickly found a seat at the table. As it turned out, The Forgemaster got into a seat directly across from Princess Luna and right next to Rainbow Dash. All those present immediately began to eat.

"I was wondering where you had gone, Luna, I haven't seen you around in a while." The Forgemaster remarked to the night princess.

Luna looked at him strangely for a moment, "We're sorry, but we do not know who you are."

"Ah, the royal 'we', it's been a while since I've heard that one, you don't have to use it in front of these ponies, you know. You may know me better as The Forgemaster."

Luna looked him up and down, "Ah, a transformation spell. Good job, too. If you hadn't told us, I mean, me then I wouldn't have known the difference. And as for where we were, well, we were mainly just learning about modern day Equestria… the transition has been quite difficult."

"I'm sure that you'll get used to it in time."

She sniffed,"Maybe…" she then eyed him closer, as though something were wrong, "Wait, you're an alicorn!"

"Yep!" he said happily back to her.

"But I heard that a red alicorn had taken command of the Royal Guard… that isn't you, is it?" the others seemed to have taken an interest in the conversation.

"Yep!" he said in the exact same way.

"How?"

"I asked Auntie Tia!" he then started to laugh at his own personal joke, though no one joined in with him, mostly they were confused.

"Auntie Tia?" Luna repeated slowly.

"Yeah, that's her at the end of the table." He pointed down the table towards Celestia.

"Let me tell you the story of how I became the Lord-general of the Royal Guards. A long time ago, there was a pony named Crimson Hammer…"

When The Forgemaster tells a story; you get the exact story, verbatim. But when The Forgemaster tells an embellished story, all of a sudden that quick trip to the park with your parents on a hot summer's day becomes a tale of intrigue, espionage, and sudden attacks by dragons. Suffice to say, the ponies were entranced. Even Celestia listened to the story, even though she was there when it happened and knew every word to be a lie or an exaggeration.

The Forgemaster ended his entrancing story by saying, "And that's how Commander Shepherd defeated the 'Reapers'."

The Forgemaster then ate from the food on his plate before the ponies present could get over their confusion over what he had just said. They had been mystified, but now they were just confused; except for Pinkie, who noticed a tactic she used often and was giggling.

The meal continued from there, The Forgemaster refused to tell anymore stories, however, much to the displeasure of those present.

Celestia offered to let the 6 'Elements' as well as The Forgemaster stay for the night. The 6 mares almost squealed in delight when Celestia announced that.

After several more minutes of eating and talking and telling stories, night had fallen, with Luna's aid, and the party was winding down.

When The Forgemaster stood from his position at the table, he announced that he was going to retire for the evening. When he turned to leave, however, he noticed the look that Rainbow was giving him. It was a look of hunger, which was strange considering she had just eaten… wait.

He held his hoof out towards the cyan pegasus, "Rainbow Dash, may I escort you to your room for the evening?"

She smirked and said, "Hay yes!" she placed her hoof on his and was assisted to her feet.

"Alright, lead the way, Dashie!"

And the 2 walked away from the dinner party and to Rainbow's room for a late night dessert.

(A/N – Don't think that just because I did the Discord episode that any of the season 1 episodes are not going to be done, they will. Eventually.)