12

Littlefoot slowly cracked his eyes open, his eyelids almost immediately protesting the movement. He scanned the side of the room he was facing, which hadn't changed during the approximately seven hours he had slept, aside from the fact that it was now dark. No burns, no holes, no broken objects, everything was in fine condition. He sighed in relief.
It was harder to fight them off than it usually is, he mused to himself, That shouldn't be happening.
Very early on in his godhood, Littlefoot had discovered that his control over his memories diminished greatly when he slept, allowing them to break free from their chains easier and take over. Thus, Littlefoot spent his nights fighting their influence. Of course, that meant he couldn't dream…but that was actually a good thing. Of late, his dreams were nightmares of blood and death. If anything, that was worse.
For the second time in his life, Littlefoot thought of asking for help in his struggle. Surely the Princesses could aid him? Or perhaps the smaller ponies?
Absolutely not. What they would see…they would not understand it. It would drive them away…make them fear me…maybe even hate me.
He needed to think. There had to be a place where he could be alone…
Littlefoot's now-open eyes slid towards the window, beyond the buildings of Ponyville and into the Everfree Forest. According to the locals, it was not well traveled by ponies, due to having a nasty reputation for harboring monsters and spirits.
Sitting alone in an idyllic forest at night with the high chance of getting to spill blood?
Perfect. Perhaps he could even finally plant his flower.
Littlefoot finally turned on the rest of his senses, and froze when he felt warm, moist breath on the back of his neck. He could also feel a pair of legs hugging him close.
What…the…#$%?
He slowly eased his eyes along the side of his head (as in, LITERALLY SLID THEM ALONG HIS HEAD) and came eye-to-nose with Luna, who had her nose buried in the back of her neck. She was holding him in the way siblings might hold each other if it was cold, or if they just wanted to be close.
He was quietly hoping it was the first option.
Littlefoot brought his eyes back to normal, and turned incorporeal, letting Luna's legs fall through him. He floated up out of the bed, and mentally searched around for his armor. There- the lower levels of the library. Littlefoot allowed himself to float downwards, passing through both the upper floor and the ground floor, and into the oddest looking basement he had ever seen. It was covered in strange machinery, with glowing lights galore. In the corner, hooked up to one of the machine, were his armor and sword.
Unacceptable.
Littlefoot turned corporeal again, and quickly strode over to his gear. He didn't actually NEED it right now, trusting in his magic and his fists, but his armor did have something he wanted. He bent down and stroked a finger on a small spot in the hard-to-reach back area. It popped open, revealing a slot, and Littlefoot reached in and pulled out his creation. Being inside, it was furled up, but even now it looked beautiful. And once he took it outside…
Littlefoot turned to the machine, and waved his hand. It sparked a few times, then it shut down
He didn't know why his gear was being studied, and he didn't care. No mortal could be allowed to know the properties of the metals that made up his armor, or the special magic that went into it.
That done, he held the flower to himself, and teleported himself to the edge of the Everfree Forest. Almost immediately, the flower opened up, revealing its delicate petals and glowing with the night light.
Beautiful. Now he just needed a place to plant it, where it would spread its seeds and create even more of its kind. With this goal, Littlefoot set off into the forest.
After ten minutes, Littlefoot's thought finally wandered away from the present and into other things. The flower, the locals of this world, the cleanliness of the air…
Luna…
What did he really feel for her? Was it the same love he used to have for Ali? Yes, it felt like that but…deeper. It appeared that she had the same feelings for him, or close enough.
A new thought struck him: if he became friends with Luna…what would it do to his memories of his old friends? Would he be betraying them?
Deeper and deeper he went into the dilemma. Was he ready to try to get a close female friend? What was the age difference between them? Was it better than being with a mortal, who would certainly die long before he got wrinkles?
Could he protect her from himself?
Suddenly, his foot caught onto something, and Littlefoot turned incorporeal before he could fall flat on his face.
"What the hell?" he said out loud, turning to see what he had stumbled on.
It was a statue. In a forest. All on its own.
He was failing to see the logic for this.
Well, I should probably bring this back, he thought, turning corporeal and bending to pick up the statue.
But as soon as his hand touched the statue, he jerked his hand back.
This…this is a live creature!, he thought. Littlefoot bent down again, but this time actually got a good look at the…thing.
It truly boggled his mind. The creature appeared to be a mix of several different creatures. Long sinewy body and reptilian head, odd-looking horns, one large fang, a paw on one hand, two clawed appendages, some sort of foot...what in Heaven? Even stranger, its position was in one of futile protection against…something.
(guess who?)
Well, I won't learn much this way, Littlefoot thought, But if I do this…
Littlefoot placed a hand on the head of the stone creature, and inserted himself into its mind.

Discord mentally sighed as something tripped over him…again. Then his mental head perked up as he got a partial view of the offender.
What is that?
The creature bent down, and Discord saw a hand reaching towards his face. They touched, and the hand jerked back into surprise. Discord wondered if the creature knew what it was looking at.
Then, the hand reached forward again, touched, and Discord could only see darkness.
Wait, not total darkness…something was coming into view…it was somewhat familiar…
Suddenly, Discord found himself back in Ponyville, right as those six young fillies were preparing to use the Elements on him.
What's going on here? I'm not doing this!
The event played through in painful fullness, all the way to being turned to stone and left to sit in the forest for who knew how long?
Then the memory re-wound, back up to the point where the Elements were being used, and…paused.
That settled it. Someone- or something- had invaded his mind.
Took you long enough, another voice resounded through his mind, Now be quiet.
Discord found his entire life flashing by: creation, rise, his long rule, defeat at the hands of the Princesses, being a statue for what had seemed like eternity, being freed, his game with the girls, being turned to stone again.
Hmmmm…., the intruder said, It would be too cruel for me to just leave you like this…but you kinda deserve it…maybe…
There was a flash, and Discord found himself back in the forest.
"What was that?" he said out loud, and then reality kicked in. He could move!
Then a large hand closed around his throat and lifted him up. Discord soon found himself looking into the eyes of a creature of Death.
"Let's have a little chat, Discord…"
"No thanks", Discord said, and teleported a few feet away in the air, "But now I-"
"Are not going anywhere", came the voice of the stranger behind him. Discord whirled around, and there it was, muscular arms crossed, fire-eyes flared, and a large tail lashing back in forth, a cruel barb on the end. It glistened with some sort of poison.
Due to being what he was (a deity of sorts), he had an innate ability to tell other deities from the mortal races. And right now, with those burning orbs burrowing into his soul, he knew he was facing another god.
That was bad.
"Yes, yes it is", the other god responded.
Then he just…vanished.
Discord's mind practically screamed RUN!, he started to fly away, but something stabbed him in his spine, and he arched back in pain. He tried to scream, but he suddenly realized he couldn't feel his vocal cords.
Or the rest of his body for that matter.
Discord fell to the ground like a stone, leaving a small crater in the ground as he impacted. The dark form of the other god lowered slowly, hovering just above him. In his mind, Discord battled to gain control of his arms, to use his only effective offense. His arms flailed around a bit, but overall they refused to obey him. Meanwhile, his opponent finally touched down, stalking over to his paralyzed victim.
"Now then", he said, bending down over Discord, "Let's be a bit civil about this…"
Seconds ticked by, but finally, Discord felt a bit of control in his left arm. Seizing the initiative, he flung the arm up to the leering face of the other god, and touched an outstretched finger to his face. Discord would have laughed in joy, but he still couldn't feel his vocal cords.
There was a flash, and Discord felt his power transfer into the other god.
And nothing happened.
What? That should have worked!
Discord watched in silent fear as the god took his arm, and snapped the bone inside. Tears welled up in the Chaos God's eyes as pain coursed through him. But he knew that his opponent was far from done.
"That was not very nice, Discord. I believe a reprimand is in order."

Later
Luna woke up slowly, and immediately sensed several things wrong.
1. It was night-time, and the moon hadn't risen! Oh no, I'm late!
Luckily for her, Celestia had taken care of the night, for the moon was high in the sky and all the stars were out.
2. Littlefoot was nowhere in sight. Several worst-case scenarios immediately began to form in her mind.
The third problem wasn't as quick to become obvious, but as she became aware of her position, she noticed she was in the large indent Littlefoot had left…which meant…
She had been cuddling him!
Oh Dear Father! What did I do?
Maybe he hadn't gotten far. If she was lucky, Littlefoot would most likely be somewhere in or near the border with Everfree Forest, and-
"INCOMING!"
CRASH!
Luna barely had a second to move before a large missile zoomed past her and crashed into the wall. Almost immediately, Twilight Sparkle and her friends (including Pinkie Pie, somehow) rushed up to the room, unkempt and wide awake.
When the initial shock cleared, their jaws dropped as they saw what Luna had almost been hit by.
It was Discord.
But he looked much different than he had been before being turned to stone. Blood flowed out from finger-sized holes in Discord's bodies, all of his limbs were bent where they shouldn't have bent, and his body appeared to be one enormous bruise.
Discord groaned, and the girls instinctively backed away. But his head was the only part of his body that would move, and thus no threat.
Fluttershy, always the kind one, quickly rushed to his side, ignoring the fact that she was approaching the master of Chaos.
"Oh, Mr. Discord, what happened? Who did this to you?"
Discord's eyes slid towards her, slowly, and he gestured at the gaping hole in the house. The ponies (and gryphon) wheeled around, and saw a blood-spattered Littlefoot floating just outside.
"Don't get too worked up, Fluttershy", Littlefoot said as he touched down, "I was just giving Discord here a small taste of what it would be like to, ah, displease me."
Luna inwardly gasped as Littlefoot spoke. There was not a hint of sadness, anger, or joy in his voice. It was empty and soulless. And cold.
Very, very cold."
Littlefoot began to walk towards the broken form of Discord. Fluttershy quickly placed herself between the two, but the Longneck simply walked through her like a ghost. Discord gurgled in fear as he was lifted in the air.
"Here's the deal Discord. Instead of dealing with you the proper way, I'm giving you a third chance to be free. You WILL use this chance to live…somewhat properly, going off the standards of this world. If you do not, I will give you a guided tour of the inside of the planet. IF you're lucky. But just to make sure…"
Littlefoot placed his free hand on Discord's head, and there was a red flash. To everyone around him, Littlefoot appeared to have somehow become bigger.
"There. You can keep your immortality, and a few select powers, but I have taken and absorbed your Chaos-causing powers into myself. Everything you could do, I can now do…and probably do better."
Littlefoot released Discord, who slumped into the floor, unable to do anything to protect himself.
"Blink once if you agree with me."
One blink.
Apparently pleased, Littlefoot bent down, and there was another flash, green this time. Discord's limbs righted themselves, and instead of gurgles came out actual sounds, starting with, "Owwwww…"
Littlefoot turned, and seemed to finally realize that there were other creatures in the room with him. "Oh, I didn't know you were all still here. Well, since you are…"
Littlefoot's eyes turned to Fluttershy, who was halfway between cowering and standing at attention.
"From what I've gathered, you are the local caretaker or animals." Littlefoot gestured at Discord, "He's about seven different animals, maybe more, and in need of aid. Please handle that duty."
Littlefoot then turned his head and locked eyes with Pinkie Pie, who was giving him a smile that only a truly cold-blooded killer could resist.
"Please stop smiling like that at me. It is irritating."
Completely ignoring him, Pinkie Pie bounced her way over, and held out a hoof.
"Hey, I'm really sorry about the whole heart attack thing, and I want to apologize!"
Littlefoot stared at her for a moment longer, and grabbed the hoof.
And was hit with 5000 volts of electricity.
To Luna's horror, Littlefoot didn't flinch at all as he was zapped by the clearly-overpowered joybuzzer. In fact, she could see the electricity flowing towards him, as if he was draining it into himself.
And he was becoming very unhappy.
"Littlefoot…", she began, but the reptile was focused squarely on Pinkie Pie, whose hoof was now caught in a crushing vise.
"Did you just try to electrocute me?"
"Oh dear", Luna sighed.