Princesses of Equestria

Chapter 22: Discord's Secret

"I beg your pardon! Have we met?" was what Discord tried saying to the homicidal sphinx that had him by the neck, but it came out more like "Ahbugorpadn! Habwimut?" instead.

Silence.

Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle and everypony else froze in shock. A hair's breadth from strangling Discord outright, Intellectus glared at them. "Ahem." Deliberately enunciated through a full mouth. "Last, last question. Why have you brought—"

Snap.

Bored, Discord teleported with a fingersnap and a puff of smoke.

Intellectus reeled, coughed, snatched through the haze, and found himself holding a life-size animatronic decoy draconequus.

"What a twist!" it said.

Nearby, the actual Discord massaged his throat. "I beg your pardon! Have we met?"

Chink. Sphinx magic seared, and hundreds of ethereal chains bound Discord in an eyeblink.

Oh, puh-lease.

More bored, he tried slipping out of them. He couldn't. Discord tried turning them into jelly. He still couldn't. He tried turning them into something escapable. They wouldn't. Which was insane. Impossible. Irrefutably inconceivable!

Bah. If you're going to channel any part of Twilight, channel her brains, not her alliteration addiction. Obviously, these aren't regular chains. So what are they?

Discord scanned them. The results made his head spin. What he'd taken for series of primitive telekinetic bindings was, in fact, a labyrinthine network of locks, trillions at least, quattuorodecillions at most, shrinking down to sub-subatomic size.

An enchantment of such complexity could not have been conjured on a mere whim. It had been forged in the smithy of Intellectus's mind for, in Discord's estimation, the better part of a millennium. Forged for one sole purpose: trussing the Prince of Pandemonium up like a turkey.

Even as he thought that very specific phrase, which he'd gotten from a very specific source, Discord found himself panicking, instinctively throwing open the floodgates of his magic's ocean-deep reservoirs. Suffice to say, a thousand years of mental preparation trumped an instant's panicked thrashing.

Decisively.

Discord's tide of chaos energy surged out, hit Intellectus's unyielding bonds, surged back in, overloaded spectacularly and ... well. Everypony got a free peek at Discord's insides for a second. They winced, and Spike stifled the urge to vomit, but Intellectus spoke on, unmoved by the grisly spectacle.

"Why have you brought this vile despoiler here," he began again, voice rising with each snarled word, "and what force on Queen Eponia's earth would make you think I'd permit the chaos god who demolished my institution, terrorized my charges, and traumatized my friend to break the sacred Heartstone again?!"

Wheezing from his outburst, Intellectus waited for a reply. The only response was seven frightened stares, and a resigned sigh from Discord.

"Ah. I suppose we have m—" A chained muzzle shut him up.

"WELL?!" Intellectus roared, making everypony jump.

Swallowing her fear, Twilight strode forth and answered. "He's reformed."

"He's brainwashed you," growled Intellectus, jabbing a claw at her forehead.

"No!" cried Fluttershy, rushing to Twilight's side. "She's telling the truth!"

"Look," said Rainbow Dash, gliding in to flank Fluttershy. "Celestia asked us to help Discord. We thought she was nuts of course, but Fluttershy stuck up for the jerk and let him bunk at hers."