"You seem to be a mare short, Twilight Sparkle." Nightmare Moon cackled, the smug and self assured look upon her terrifying visage sending cold shivers down the spines of those who stood against her.
Indeed, Twilight felt despair set in as she took stock of the mares that had followed her, despite her efforts at deterring them. Her heart sank as she was finally able to see the foolishness of trying to use Elements of Harmony on her own. Unfortunately, they were paying the price for her arrogance.
Still, she and her companions stood resolute, but were beginning to crumble, shaking in fear with their hopes of victory quickly dying. Twilight, desperation quickly making itself known to her as she saw her friends sag, defeated looks on their faces, sought for one last chance at stopping their now gloating opponent; figuring that they had nothing to lose in one last ditch effort to summon the power of the Elements and stave off their certain demise, Twilight pushed aside her fear for the sake of the others and attempted to rouse the hopes of her compatriots .
"Okay, girls, we might be short an Element, but we still have enough to show Nightmare Moon that she shouldn't mess with us!" Twilight shouted out, attempting to raise their flagging spirits. A chorus of hopeful cheers met her, as her friends, renewed at her words, moved to once again stand by her side, no longer hiding in her shadow. Emboldened, she once again tried to call upon the power of the Elements, desperately hoping that they would receive a miracle.
Luckily, the forces she and her friends called upon were, in their own way, aware of her plea. Although not quite aware in a way the sentient beings of Equestria would understand. They had enough cognizance to see that, without aid, the extinction of life was all but assured. Not being able to exert a particularly large amount of power on the world, and their original option for the bearer of Laughter having elected to stay behind rather than follow the others into the forest, they had only one choice left. Re-purposing the power that held him in stone, they summoned him.
Twilight and her friends found themselves lifted into the air, any shock they may have felt dulled by the soothing glow of the aura that now surrounded them. As they began to pulsate, Nightmare Moon looked on, no fear evident upon her face, softly laughing to herself as she took in the desperation of the mares, a heavy thud took her by surprise though and looking around she found that a statue of a familiar foe had appeared, inexplicably, near where her foes had begun to rise. Gaining a baffled look, she took a few moments to think of why this would happen, assured that in the interim, she was in no danger from the Elements.
Her puzzlement quickly turned to horror, as the statue, which now seemed to be crumbling, was enveloped in the same energy that was radiating from the bearers. Nightmare desperately tried to scramble away, but was unable to escape as a rainbow-colored beam came rushing toward her. She shrieked in terror as she was consumed by the power of the elements.
With the mare in the moon defeated, the girls, took stock of their situation, any thoughts of celebration, were quickly cut off as a groaning sound grabbed their attention. Looking around, they spotted the statue that had distracted Nightmare Moon, no longer a statue, a creature was raising itself from the stone remains, groaning and grunting with evident pleasure at once more being able to move. Puzzled, the girls looked over the strange beast that had joined them, the first thing they noticed was the sheer oddness of it, seeming to be a mismatch of creatures, with a serpentine body, a talon and a paw, and two mismatched wings, all connecting to the head of a rather nasty looking pony.
After the immediate surprise faded, looks of disgust were shared between them, each of the mares finding the creature horrendous to behold. Twilight was first to regain her bearings, shaking off the expression of confusion and distaste from her muzzle as she recalled the time she had spent in Canterlot, wracking her brain to place the image that seemed so familar. "I've seen you before!" she exclaimed, drawing it's attention to her.
The mares quivered, as the creature's gaze fell upon them, it's eyes, yellow with pupils of red, studying them intently. After a few moments, it spoke, voice clearly identifying him as a male.
"Oh? Have you? Well, I've seen you, Twilight Sparkle, so close to Celestia. But never had I suspected that she would send you out to tie up her loose ends; I always assumed you were some kind of pet." He drawled, voice raspy, having been unable to speak for many years. Finding little interest in the mares, his bored gaze shifted to his own body as he began examining the necklace that had appeared around his neck.
Twilight, confused by his words, drifted to the most obvious question. "What are you?" she asked, ignoring his mocking of her position.
"I am Discord, king of Equestria!" he shouted, a dramatic flourish of his paw emphasizing his words. Seeing the confused looks upon the faces of the mares, his face, a thing that spoke of horrors unknown to the world, morphed into one reflecting sadness, although still quite horrific. "It is a terrible thing, that Celestia has apparently kept hidden the joys I spread across the land, allow me to enlighten you."
Discord snapped his fingers, an expression of surprise overcoming his features as nothing happened, eyes widening in terror, he continued to snap them, frantically mumbling to himself about being a bit rusty.
"Just ignore him dear, the beast is clearly mad." Rarity said, coming forward and standing next to Twilight, she scoffed as Discord continued his antics, abhorrence of him evident as she stared at him condescendingly. "The Princess will deal with him. Although, he seems rather distracted anyway." Indeed, Discord kept manically snapping his fingers, looking increasingly desperate as he did so.
Twilight was about to respond, but was cut off as a beam of golden light went flying toward Discord, before dissipating harmlessly upon contact with a wing. Looking around for the source of the beam, Twilight was delighted to find that the Princess had appeared at the window of the castle, but was surprised to find a steely expression on her face, with her horn pointed toward Discord.
Seeing the futility of her approach, Celestia gave up and raised her horn. Giving a glare to Discord, she spotted Twilight and quickly made her way closer to her while occasionally shifting her gaze worriedly to Discord, who had taken notice of the ray that had hit him and was now snapping his fingers even more frantically.
"What happened?" She all but shouted, distress clear on her face as she stared at the mismatched creature, fear in her eyes as she warily looked upon him. "What is Discord doing here?"
"I don't know!" Twilight said with worry in her voice. Having never seen Celestia so scared, Twilight quickly started to inherit the panic that her mentor possessed. "We just... we used the elements..." Comprehension dawned on Twilight's face, although the details eluded her, the necklace Discord had gained matched the ones the others had.
"I guess... he's the the bearer of Laughter?" She offered a sheepish grin, not quite sure why what was happening, but picking up on the apparent seriousness of the situation.
Celestia gained a crestfallen look. "That's not good." She said bluntly and sighed, before explaining. "Discord is a draconequus and he was a tyrant who placed Equestria in a state of perpetual unrest before I turned him to stone with the power of the elements , but we can't turn him back into stone if he uses one of the Elements now. At the very least, he seems to be unable to use magic." A vindictive grin came across Celestia's muzzle as she said this, taking pleasure from her foe's frustration.
Twilight looked upon Discord with a new-found wariness. While she tried to comprehend how such an insane creature came to rule Equestria, Celestia made her way over to where Nightmare Moon once stood. The attention of the mares drifted to their ruler, gasps of surprise coming from them as Celestia poked at a small blue filly who had escaped their noticed due to the more attention grabbing event in the room.
"Is that Nightmare Moon again?" Applejack asked, tiredly preparing to once again fight.
Discord, who had given up snapping his fingers, gave a snort, disdain in his voice as he said. "That's the name she goes by? You can relax, you did a good enough job weakening Luna that Celestia won't have much trouble finishing her off. Although, anyone who takes a name like that deserves it. "A cynical laugh escaped him, unnerving the rest of the bearers as he callously joked about death.
Discord was proven wrong in his prediction, as Celestia, instead of vanquishing her, nuzzled the filly, who was now profusely apologizing to the white mare. Once finished, a few more hushed words passed between them and Celestia approached the mares once more, Luna following closely behind her, cowering in fear from behind her sister.
"Twilight Sparkle." She said, as the mares bowed before her, before quickly rising at Celestia's bidding. "The rest of you." She added, not knowing their names and feeling too overwhelmed to care. "This is my sister, Luna." She gestured to the filly behind her, who seemed to be too busy using her sister as a shield against Discord to properly greet them. Celestia, apparently unfazed by her sisters actions, continued gravely. "Using the Elements seem to have had unforeseen effects. Somehow, Discord was released from his prison."
"Stop being such a bore," Discord said, attempting to circle around Celestia to get closer to Luna, who was doing her best to avoid him, whining in piteous fear as she ran from him. "I got this necklace, just like the rest of them." He started to pose, puffing his chest out to show the necklace off, finding some delight in Celestia's inability to stop him. "Clearly, I'm part of the friendship club now."
Celestia rolled her eyes and sighed. "Yes, unfortunately, Discord seems to be immune to magic and unable to use it himself. This does leave us with a problem, the only solution I can think of is to keep him close to the Elements at all times." She looked apologetically at Twilight. "I'm sorry Twilight, but, for the time being, I think it would be best if you stay in Ponyville with the other bearers."
"Oh, that's okay, if you think it's for the best." Twilight chirped, a smile growing on her face as she contemplated being able to stay with her new friends, earning her an odd look from the Princess.
"Right... Well then, let's head back to into the town."
When the group reached Ponyville, they quickly found that Pinkie Pie, with seeming precognition, had organized a party celebrating the return of Twilight and the others. Once a large enough group of ponies gathered around the Princesses, Celestia grabbed their attention and made an announcement.
"Ponies of Ponyville! Nightmare Moon has been defeated! My sister, Luna will now be ruling alongside me, as she once did, a thousand years ago." She gestured to Discord, the cheers of the ponies quickly turning to confusion as they took notice of the draconequus. "This is Discord, he was found in the forest and will be living in Ponyville for some time."
As the group of ponies dispersed, heading off to celebrate the avoidance of eternal night, Discord chose not to comment on Celestia's downplaying of his achievements. He stayed with his fellow bearers as they once more gathered around Celestia, eager to see if she had anything new to add.
"You should all go enjoy the festivities now, my sister and I must get back to Canterlot." She focused her attention upon Discord as her gaze hardened, making her displeasure clear. "You, are to stay within the borders of Ponyville for now. Twilight, if you find that he is doing anything odd, you are to send me a letter immediately." With that said, she and Luna took off, flying in the direction of Canterlot.
"Well, excellent news! I don't intend to find out what happens if I get too far from the Elements. So, who shall I be bunking with?"