Chaos' Old Friends

That evening, Discord appeared near the Everfree forest, far away from where most ponies strayed. He snapped his fingers and a cloud table with three cloud cushions appeared, all floating at least 6 inches off the ground. On either side of one cushion were two cloud cauldrons on pedestals. He poofed up three cloud cups, only one of which had a handle. They filled themselves with a steamy brown liquid with tiny cloudberries floating in it. He dusted off his hands and sat down on the cushion in front of the cup with a handle. Soon, two shapes broke from the trees of the Everfree forest and walked towards him. “Dema, Wolfy, how nice it is to see you again!” he cried, turning to them. The closer one, a scaly black cat with leathery wings and a long spade tail, hopped onto the cushion between the pedestals and puffed a bit of shadow fire into each one. The other, a muscular black wolf with leathery wings, a short spade tail, and a rather unnecessary amount of fur, hopped into the other seat. The cat, scowling at Discord, grabbed the cup in front of her with her tail and held it close to her. She kept her ears folded tightly against her head.

“I want answers Discord.” She said angrily, sipping the drink.

Discord nervously fiddled with his claws. “Why, whatever do you mean, Dema? I find it hard to believe I have answers you don’t. You have always been smarter than me.”

“You know what I mean. Why did you turn evil? What happened that fucked up your mind? Why…” she paused, growing softer and sadder. “Why weren’t you there when we came back?” She looked down and stared into her cup, moodily swishing the drink around.

Discord sighed. “Oh, alright. But I’m only telling this story once, and I’ll only give you a short version, so put those ears of yours to use,” He reached out and tapped her ears, forcing her to flick them forward. “After you disappeared, I started getting depressed. I thought I had done something wrong and you didn’t want to see me again. I stopped helping ponies, and started doing the bare minimum of raising the sun and moon. Then one day, in a particularly foul mood, I saw a group of foals playing a game. They were having such fun together, being friends. I snapped. From then on, I spread some very horrible chaos all over the land. Then, Celestia and Luna came. They used the Elements of Harmony to lock me up, so I wouldn’t cause any more harm. I was alone, trapped in a rock, for a thousand years.” The more he talked, the sadder he sounded.

Wolfy, who had picked up his cup and sipping at it quietly, spoke up. “Well, we weren’t trying to abandon you. A Holy War had started, and we had to fight in it. The reason we’re here, in fact, is because we fought on the side of the Angels and got exiled from our home because of it.” As Discord looked alarmed, Wolfy held up a paw. “Now don’t go trying to apologize. That place has gone to pot since we left, and I’m glad we don’t live there anymore. It’s much nicer here.”

A back appeared on Discord’s cushion, and he leaned against it. “So, when did you two get back?”

“Around five hundred years ago. I couldn’t believe when I found out you weren’t the ruler anymore, and I was furious, as you can probably guess, when I found out why,” Dema sighed. “But I guess we can’t really blame you fully, now can we? Events just spiraled out of control.”

“Well, you’re just going to have to find some way to always be around me to make up for all these lost years, now aren’t you? Ooh, I know, you could become hedge sculptures and I could visit the garden often!” Discord clapped his hands, then chugged his drink.

Dema rolled her eyes and took another sip of her drink. “I almost forgot how much I missed your cloudberry tea, Discord. And we’re not becoming hedge sculptures. One, we have to be able to move, and two, gardeners would be trying to clip us all the time. No thank you.”

“Well then, you could become cooks or something!” Discord said, magically refilling his cup.

Wolfy snorted. “Yeah right, like either of us can cook.”

Dema perked up. “Discord, would you say that the Princesses might believe you would need supervision?”

“Well, it is a distinct possibility. I mean, she does try to have me followed often when I leave the Palace, though it rarely works out.” Discord said thoughtfully.

“Perfect! Wolfy, you need to write a letter to the Princesses and propose to them the idea of us being Keepers for old Discord here.” Dema said, grinning. She downed her drink and disappeared in a puff of smoke. A second later she appeared on Discord’s head, smaller than earlier. “So, old boy, I assume all the promises and such we had in the Before Times will get re-established?” She leaned on her paw and looped her tail over Discord’s stag horn.

“Well, I don’t know… I am enjoying this whole ‘escape your supervisors and have fun’ thing, and if you two are around, I’ll never be unsupervised.” Discord said teasingly, tickling her chin with a claw.

Dema wrapped her tail around Discord’s wrist and hung from it, holding onto his paw. “Now Discord, if we’re supervising you, and no one’s supervising us, it’ll really be all of us unsupervised together. Besides, the Princesses are probably pretty miffed about your escapes.” Dema stared at him from her upside down and backwards position, her red eyes glinting in amusement. Wolfy chuckled at the two having their odd conversation and drank more of his tea.

“You have a point. Alright, all our former deals and such are re-established. I’ll put in a good word for you with the Princesses. Ooh, maybe you could send me back with the letter!” He casually removed Dema from his paw and put her back in her seat, refilling her cup of tea from a non-existent teapot.

Wolfy looked around for a few seconds, and then said, “Well, I’d write the letter now, but there seems to be a distinct lack of paper and quills.” He gave a meaningful look at Discord.

“Oh, of course!” Discord snapped his claws and a paper, quill, and inkpot appeared in front of Wolfy. Wolfy finished his tea then picks up the quill with his tail and starts writing. Dema and Discord talked about what had happened since they last saw each other. Discord talked a lot about Fluttershy, while Dema talks about her travels with Ferahn. Soon, Wolfy’s finished writing. He calmly rolls it up and breathes a spell on it that prevented it being opened by anyone but the Princesses. He tossed it to Discord, who poofed up a basketball hoop over his hand and cried, “Wolfy makes the winning basket! And the crowd goes wild!” A crowd of Discords appeared behind Discord, cheering their heads off. Dema started laughing, and actually rolled off the cushion. Wolfy sat up on his hind legs and clapped his hands together, shaking them in the air, causing Dema to laugh harder. The extra Discords disappeared, and the real one bowed. “Well, friends, I must be off. Celestia gets crabby when I come back after dark. Tata!” and with that, Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared, as did everything he’d created. Wolfy fell to the ground and let out an “ooph!” He slowly pushed himself up and started checking his fur.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you were actually a pride demon instead of a tracker demon, Wolfy.” Dema chuckled.

“Oh, shush you. If I were to guess what kind of demon you were, I’d say wrath before messenger. Have you seen yourself when you’re angry?” Wolfy finished his check and glared at her.

“No, but I hardly doubt I’d be paying attention. Come on, let’s get home. Ferahn’s probably been driving Zecora crazy.” Dema brushed past Wolfy and headed back into the forest.