There were no clouds in the sky and the sun shone brightly on the snow piled up in the pristine parking lot of Canterlot High. The middle of winter break made it obvious that no one had entered the school recently. But anyone who bothered to get close to the window would have heard an impossible sound, quiet snickering that trailed from window to window on the second floor.
“There, and there and… there!” Discord counted all the half-full cups of water with his fingertips, careful not to disturb their balance on the band room doors. “Nothing better than soaking wet musicians,” he grinned as he strode to the window and popped out.
His toes barely fit on the ledge beneath the window, but a strong grasp on the frame let him edge his way to the next set of panes. Painstakingly, he inched frozen fingertips under the outside of the window and shimmied it up enough to slide a lockpick in. Twist, twist, twist, pop! And he pushed it open just enough to slide in, all thin lines and a thin jacket against the cold.
In the darkness he was not a very striking figure. Standing over 6’ but made of skin and bones, there were no illusions of Discord as an athlete. His clothing was bright, all neons and denim, and the lights flickered on when he flipped the switch with a nicotine-stained finger.
Quiet pervaded the school at times like this. No studnets, no teachers, no mascots, no teams. Just Discord in a locked room, balancing cups of water on the inside of doors to prove that the impossible was the only possibility. These were his moments. School was order and rules and instructions. And Discord lived for those moment of chaos when he could break everything apart.
The last door in the science room was a little taller than the others and even he had to stretch to reach. Spilling the water just wouldn’t do; it would dry before anyone else came back. And that was just a waste. He smiled to himself as he balanced on the toes of his ratty doc martens to nudge it into place.
Footsteps from the hallway jerked Discord from his reverie. The cup tilted and spilled, soaking him from head to toe in freezing water.
One incoherent and quickly silenced shriek later and he was huddled next to the door, barely resisting the urge to look out the little window. Those footsteps felt like the foreshadowing in a horror film and Discord had no plans on being the star of one. The villain, sure. But not the hero or the victim. Those were the parts he had meant for his fellow students and teachers. Especially that student leader Celestia and her pesky little sister.
But the footsteps kept coming closer as Discord screwed his eyes shut. This was the disaster he’d been waiting for. Each year, he’d snuck in and created a different kind of chaos. Freshman year had been the shaving creaming filled lockers, followed by a sophomore year of skunk smell bundles hidden in the air vents. Junior year had been unexpected, the first year of the second floor, and the greased patches had taken half a day to trip anyone, but had also taken nearly a month to clean off and sent teachers and students flying into February. This was his senior year, his triumph, dozens of little pranks hidden in every room that would take months to find and even longer to actually disarm.
Now the time had come. Getting caught had never had such high stakes before. This was a disaster! There as no way he could get caught, get removed and still sneak back with enough time to place all the pranks before winter break ended. The few days he would detained, watched more closely, would be disastrous to his plans. It just couldn’t be! Failing after four years of success… no. Unacceptable. Beyond unacceptable. Absolutely unforgivable.
