"Mind tellin' me what you're doin' in my apple orchard?"

Discord opened one eye. Applejack was looking up at him with a skeptical expression, which was funny considering that he hadn't yet said anything for her to be skeptical about. "Sleeping," he said, voice still hoarse from having barely woken. "I'd think that was obvious."

"Thought you were sleeping at Twilight's castle lately."

"Is it such a crime to want some fresh air?" Slowly, carefully, he untwined his limbs from the tree. He ached. His thinking tree really had been much more comfortable for sleeping in; the branches had give and flexibility that the apple tree branches simply didn't, so rather than feeling refreshed, he felt as if he'd been tangled in a knot all night.

Well. At least it was some variety. He hadn't slept well since the day Tirek had betrayed him, but at least this was a different kind of sleeping badly than nightmares or sleeping on a harmonic crystalline floor.

"You about near gave my brother a heart attack when he came out here this mornin' to work and found you. I don't mind you sleepin' in one of our trees if you ask, but you didn't."

Discord made a face. "Isn't it enough that I have to ask for an escort anytime I want to go somewhere even slightly more interesting than Ponyville? I have to ask if I can sleep in a tree as well?"

"Plenty of trees 'round here are public property. You could've slept in one of them if you wanted."

"Yes, because I love the notion of being exposed to random passersby in Ponyville while I'm asleep and vulnerable. In case you hadn't noticed, Applejack, you have the only orchard in the town's limits. I knew if I slept in a tree it would be one of your family that found me."

Applejack rolled her eyes. "Yeah, fine, but that's why you ask. If Granny Smith'd gotten a startle from you being there, she really could have taken a heart attack."

"That mare will never be startled by anything I do." He grinned. Greensmith was quite possibly the last Apple left in Equestria who remembered the old bargain. He hadn't had any of Eris' Kallisti apples � as far as he knew, Ar was sleeping on all of them, someplace � so he'd acquired his own golden Apples, back in the day. Funny how the family was known now for honest dealing and straightforward behavior, when once upon a time they'd used their power as one of the largest and best-known Earth Pony clans to secretly manipulate the newly formed Equestrian government. He hadn't had any trouble getting some of them to act as his agents in exchange for some level of protection from his chaos. Greenie Smith hadn't been interested in renewing the bargain, but she'd known of it, and by extension, she'd known him better than her grandchildren ever had. If he'd known, the day he'd broken loose, he'd have had some much more interesting things he could have done than make her want to dance.

"Maybe so, but next time ask."

"Only if you invite me in for breakfast."

"What in tarnation makes you think there's any breakfast left? We ate up hours ago. Farmers get started early. You want breakfast at this hour, go to Sugarcube Corner and buy some. Or go back to Twilight's; Pinkie's probably in the kitchen baking up a storm. That mare just can't get used to not working in a bakery."

"Oh, fine. I'll go have Pinkie make me breakfast. She appreciates me." He flashed out, and reappeared outside the castle, rather than inside as he'd been planning. Oh, right. Harmonics again.

At least he wasn't forced to walk. If he concentrated, he could levitate himself still, though he felt less like a balloon drifting on air currents, the way he normally did when he floated, and more like a gyrocopter, struggling constantly to stay afloat and balanced. Discord drifted into the kitchen, where he found a large stack of waffles covered with strawberries, blueberries, mushrooms and hot peppers, and a dish of scrambled eggs mixed with peaches and cream. There was a sign on the counter. Discord peered at the sign, studying it for several seconds before giving up and snapping his talon. Immediately the sign read itself in Pinkie's voice. "Discord! I missed you at breakfast so here is yours! Spike and Twilight and I are sorting things so if you want to be unhelpful it would be terrible if a whole lot of new food supplies and cleaning supplies and things ended up all over the kitchen!"

Discord laughed out loud. "Reverse psychology? That's adorable, Pinkie." He considered actually doing it � the hilarity of "helping" by getting food supplies, and strewing them all over the castle randomly (kitchen would be setting his sights too low) appealed, and right now, the thought of actually doing something that helped seemed strangely appealing in and of itself. Wasn't that what friends did? Help each other? That was why he'd rescued Twilight's books, right? And she and Pinkie would be happy if there was food, and also deeply irritated, at least in Twilight's case, at having to put it all away?

But the problem was, he couldn't conjure it � nothing he made outside the castle would survive the harmonics, and he couldn't make anything inside it � and the alternative was going and buying food. From ponies in Ponyville. Who all knew what he'd done. When he didn't actually have any bits on his person. Celestia had been paying him a stipend so he could cover things he wanted to buy rather than conjure, like going to restaurants, and he'd been getting a small but steady income from Stellar Eclipse, a tradespony who was selling copies of the lamp he'd made for Fluttershy as novelty items and paying Discord 70% of the profits. But all of his bits were stored in his pocket dimension, and he couldn't go there without getting one of the Bearers to help him.

Wait. Celestia had said one of the Bearers, or one of the Princesses. Twilight was both, and he wasn't going to go near Luna at the moment, or near Cadance after he'd taunted her husband right before Tirek had stolen the unicorn's magic � besides, he hated the fact that Cadance always seemed to know what he was feeling. What was the point to having shields that kept alicorns out of his heart and mind if Cadance could just waltz through them? She claimed it was because love was as chaotic as it was harmonic, and that she had to know both types of magic to master her domain, but Discord had never seen her use chaos magic, so he wasn't sure he bought that.

But Celestia herself had smiled at him, when he gave her apology flowers. Surely Celestia would accompany him to go get money so he could buy food for Twilight's castle? How could she possibly reject one of his exceedingly rare noble impulses? At the very least she should lend him some money until he was off town arrest and could go get his own bits.

He raised a paw, prepared to snap... and stopped, sighing in exasperation as he remembered that he couldn't actually go to Celestia in the first place, because she was in Canterlot, which was not Ponyville.

Well. That wasn't insurmountable. But first, waffles.

Outside, he tried to conjure up some amusing shrubbery to decorate the exterior of Twilight's castle with, but a glare from a couple of passing ponies snuffed out the creative impulse like a candle flame squeezed between his fingers. He sat down heavily, legs drawn up and arms wrapped around them, more or less holding himself in a sitting position rather than just using his muscles, or magic. After a few moments of circling around the question of what he could do to entertain himself in his mind, over and over, he lay down against the grass and observed the clouds. Surely, if he altered some clouds, nopony would be paying attention? Oh, wait, no, there were pegasi up there. Ugh.

"Cloud watching? That seems a sedate pastime for you."

It was Celestia's voice. He tilted his head backward, which, since he was lying flat on his back, involved raising his neck so that his head dangled upside down. "I see you got my message."

"Indeed I did," she said dryly. The message had said, "Celestia, I am actually thinking of doing something helpful, but if you don't come here right now and help me do it, I probably won't, and won't you feel awful knowing that you could have aided me in my quest to make amends and instead you sat on your rump and ate cake and the fleeting opportunity to see me actually be helpful for once would be gone, perhaps never to return? You don't want that guilt on your conscience, I'm sure. I'd come see you but somepony doesn't want me leaving Ponyville." He had illustrated it with a picture of a cake in a circle with a line through it.

Discord sat up, grinning cheerfully. "So! You've come to help me be helpful?"

"I am curious as to what you had in mind."

"Well, I was going to go buy food to stock Twilight's castle, at Pinkie's suggestion. But all my bits are in my house, which isn't in Ponyville, and so I thought to myself, 'Oh dear! How will I ever purchase the supplies for Twilight without running afoul of either Celestia's anti-counterfeiting edicts or her demand that I remain in Ponyville? After all, all of my friends are too busy to come with me to get my bits!' And then I thought to myself, 'Oh, but Celestia is my dear friend! And since my lack of money is entirely her fault, surely she'd be willing to help me!'"

"Why don't you just use magic to create the food?" Celestia asked mildly. "Is there something about the castle that makes your magic problematic?"

Damn Celestia. She was far too insightful. "What makes you think that?" Discord said indignantly � not that he was actually indignant, since her speculation was absolutely true, but he had to throw her off. "It's a ... how do I put this? A penance thing. Making food with a snap is too easy. You told me to stay in Ponyville because you wanted me to deal with the ponies my actions harmed, so... going out to buy food from ponies should count, don't you think?"

Celestia's eyes widened. "I hadn't expected that from you," she said. "I apologize. I didn't realize you were actually taking this making of amends seriously."

He glared. "You don't think I'm capable of feeling sincere regret, do you?"

"No. That's wrong, I'm sure you're capable of it. It just surprises me when I see it, because for centuries, I never saw anything like regret from you." She closed her eyes. "I remember the Discord who wept because of all the animals who died when you sank Marelantis. I remember how you grieved for a pegasus soldier who was caught in the tornado you were using against the dragons. But I thought for many years that that part of you was dead and gone forever."

"I thought it was Luna who thought that I was really dead."

"Luna believes you never came back, yes � or, more precisely, that Discord never came back and that you are not the same being as the chaos mage she called her brother. I knew better... but you changed. You changed so much, Discord. The seeds of who you became were always in you, even from the day I met you, but it's as if when you returned all the worst parts of your personality were exaggerated to the point where they filled you completely, crowding out all of the positive aspects of who you once were."

He swallowed. "So you think I'm nothing but evil, then?" He couldn't keep the anger out of his voice.

"If I'd thought that, I would never have had Fluttershy try to reform you." She sighed. "Sometimes I believe that it's nonsensical to describe a being as evil. Beings do evil things, or good things, or things in between, and most of us do all of those things, in different proportion. Then I remember Sombra � and for that matter Tirek � and I remember that yes, there are those who choose to do so much that is evil, and so little that is good, that they can be described as evil. You never fell into that category. But you were unpredictable in the extreme, and many of the things you did were evil. I know you know what it's like to fight one that you once loved, obviously." A wry smile flickered on her face for a moment. "But do you have any idea what it's like to see one you loved change so very much?"

"Do you have any idea how much you've changed? Yes, I absolutely know what that's like. I saw it with you, I saw it with Luna. You're barely recognizable as my Tia anymore, you know that? And Luna is worse � she seems to have forgotten how to laugh. How does the Element of Laughter forget that?"

"Nightmare Moon hid herself from me for months while plotting my destruction, pretending to still be my loving sister. And, obviously, she turned on me. Luna was Honesty, Loyalty and Laughter, and Nightmare Moon stripped her of all three. Honesty and Loyalty, she has recovered, but Laughter... is taking some time."

"Whatever." Discord waved a paw dismissively. He hadn't wanted to get into a conversation about emotions in the first place. "Can we go and get my bits now?"

"In your dimension, correct?"

"Yes, that's what I said."