Chaos' Old Friends

That evening, 2 pegasi and an earth pony foal came to the castle. The female pegasus was purple with a black mane and tail similar to Vinyl Scratch’s and a winged messenger bag cutie mark. The male pegasus was blue with an incredibly spiky mane and tail that was blue and purple and a breeze blowing over three paw prints for a cutie mark. The earth pony foal was a darker blue with a roughly cut mane and tail that was striped black and purple. The 3 headed for the throne room. When they reached their destination, two guards told them that Day Court was over several hours ago and Night Court wasn’t due to begin for a couple more hours. The female pegasus stepped forward and said, “We realize that. We are the ponies that were hoping to help keep Discord in line.”

As she finished talking, Discord appeared in front of her. “Now what makes you think that I need to be kept in line?” he asked indignantly.

The pegasus raised an eyebrow. “There are millions of reasons. For the sake of time, I won’t be listing them. Will you tell the Princesses we’re here?” she said, sounding almost bored.

One of the guards looked between Discord and the pegasus and said, “We were not told there were going to be any interviewees for anything this evening. Discord, if you arranged a sudden interview, you shall be in trouble.”

“Now wait just a second! Princess Celestia gave me a letter! Just let me get it…” Discord said, twisting around and looking for something. After a few seconds, he pulled out a rolled up piece of paper with a red ribbon around it. “Ahah! Here it is!” He waved it in the air before handing it to the guard.

The guard unrolled the scroll and read it before handing it back to Discord. “Alright. It seems you’re all approved for this..”

“I told you so! Now, if you’ll excuse me…” Discord said, disappearing.

“hmm. I think he forgot something.” Said the male pegasus, putting a hoof to his chin.

“Oh? And what would that be, Nosey?” asked the female pegasus.

“Why, Lettermane, he forgot to say anything to us. He’s likely to be gone for several minutes, you know. Now we’ll just be standing her awkwardly during that time. I think Discord needs more manners lessons.”

Lettermane smiled. “You know, I think you’re right, Nosey. I believe if we get this post that will be the first thing to happen.”

They did indeed end up standing there for 10 minutes. When Discord reappeared, he had a singe on his right arm. “The Princesses are waiting in the throne room. Come on, the faster you interview, the sooner we can have fun!” Discord said, waving them towards the throne room door.

Lettermane cleared her throat. “Now, Discord, you do realize we can’t walk through a closed door, and you haven’t asked these gentlecolts to open the doors for us. You will have to be polite.”

Discord was speechless. “Lettermane, you aren’t telling me…”

Nosey and the earth pony foal snickered as Lettermane nodded sagely. “Oh yes, Discord. I’m saying you will have to use a little thing called ‘manners’, because I’m sure these fine gentlecolts won’t answer to anything less.”

The guards seemed to be resisting the urge to snicker as well. “Oh, fine.” Discord grumbled. He turned to face the two guards, who immediately did their best to erase all traces of laughter from their faces, and succeeded quite well. “Will you two…”*grumble grumble*”please open the doors for us.?” Discord asked, annoyed, crossing his arms and shooting glares at Lettermane, who kept a complete straight face through the whole thing.

The two guards grinned. “Why of course, Discord, it would be our pleasure after such manners.” And with that, they opened the doors. After Nosey and the foal had stopped laughing at Discord, they all walked in.

Discord grumbled some more before saying to Lettermane, “I still don’t see why you made me do that.”

“Because, Discord, manners will get you farther than Chaos. Or have you forgotten when I told you that so many years ago?” Lettermane replied, not even glancing at Discord.

Discord made a face and said, “Of course I haven’t forgotten. I still don’t like it, though. I’d like to think I’ve done very well with Chaos instead of manners.”

“Against ponies. Now you’re with ponies. You’re going to have to be nice.” Lettermane said, coming to a stop.

Discord turned his attention to the throne not 20 feet in front of them. “Celestia, Luna, I would like to introduce you to my friends. This is Lettermane, this is Nosey and… Well, to be honest, I only met this little one today, so I don’t know what his pony name is.” He said, pointing at all 3 of them in turn and coiling around the earth pony.

“… Wait I just realized we forgot to give you a pony name.” Nosey said, turning to stare at the colt who was trying to put all of Discord’s coils on top of his head like a hat.

“I knew we were forgetting something. We’ll have to think of one later.” Lettermane said, looking from the earth pony to Nosey.

Celestia blinked and said, “Excuse me, are you saying your foal doesn’t have a name?”

Lettermane turned back to Celestia. “He has a name, just not a pony name for his pony form. His real name is Ferahn. Now, you don’t mind if we shift into our normal forms, do you? We couldn’t use them to come here because we didn’t want to cause a scene. Frightening ponies is NOT something we want to do.”

“I believe that would be preferable, yes.” Celestia said, exchanging a glance with Luna. Lettermane nodded at the two next to her and was enveloped in black fire, reappearing as a sleek, scaly black cat with a spade-tipped tail. Nosey and Ferahn were enveloped in what appeared to be normal fire, reappearing as an oddly fluffy black wolf with a hardened spade on his tail and a small black fox with 4 tails, each topped with a spade.

“Allow me to reintroduce ourselves. I am Dema, and my friend here is Wolfy, and of course, my kit’s name is Ferahn.” said the black cat, nodding at the wolf and the fox in turn. Suddenly, Discord disappeared and reappeared much smaller on Dema’s head. “And this is Discord.” Dema added flawlessly, pointing at Discord with her tail.

Celestia cleared her throat. “So, why do you believe that you are qualified to look after Discord?” she asked, floating up a stack of papers and a quill. Discord snorted.

“I’ve worked with him before. I know how to… curb his chaotic tendencies. For example, he thinks things that stay the same constantly are boring, which is why he has a tendency to constantly change around the appearance of statues and such.” Dema said, calmly wrapping her tail and the tiny Discord and considering him before placing him on the floor next to her.

Luna looked slightly shocked. “How didst thou know Discord has been changing the appearance of our statues?”

“Because he’s Discord. He did that back when he ruled, too. The statue garden never looked the same day-to-day.” Dema chuckled.

“Those statues often tended to be rather hilarious. I remember at one point, when one of the chefs had recently had a foal, the statues had a whole party set up in the garden.”

Luna and Celestia glanced at each other surprisedly, and Celestia scribbled something on her paper.  “Are you saying that Discord did something nice for the ponies under his rule during his reign?” Celestia asked.

“Very often. Discord was not originally mean. His main problem was that he did not, and still likely does not, understand what is good and bad in the eyes of ponies. Wolfy, Angie, and I often helped him to understand this.” Dema said, looking at Discord as he rapidly grew to normal size.

“Who is this ‘Angie’ thou speakest of?” Luna said, leaning forward slightly.

“Angie is a friend of ours. We don’t get to see her often, because her job keeps her extremely busy. It wasn’t always like that.” Dema said, her voice getting softer.

“A sore topic, so I suggest we stop talking of it. And don’t even get started on the past!” Discord said, pulling an apple out of his ear and eating it. Dema flew up to Discord’s shoulder and pulled another apple from behind his wing, holding it in her tail as she spiraled back down to the floor.

“What exactly do you need to know for me to get this job?” Dema said before biting into the apple.

Both princesses seemed taken aback by Dema’s blunt words. Celestia blinked and said, “Well, I do not even know if I can trust the words you have said so far. I will require something that proves your sincerity.”

The apple vanished in a puff of blackish-grey fire. “How about this; I, Dema, High Demon of the 1st Holy Demon Fareth, swear upon these Holy Runes that bind me, to be truthful in my dealings with you, Princess Celestia of Equestria, and you, Princess Luna of Equestria.” As she spoke, several glowing blue runes appeared all over her, and they glowed brighter as she completed her statement. “Do you, Princess Celestia, and you, Princess Luna, recognize that these runes as a sign of my sincerity?” she asked, cocking her head at the duo as she spoke.

Celestia and Luna were surprised, but quickly gathered themselves. “I, Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria, recognize these runes as true and binding, and believe in your sincerity.”

Luna forgot her training and slipped into the royal canterlot voice. “WE, PRINCESS LUNA, CO-RULER OF EQUESTRIA, RECOGNIZE THESE RUNES AS TRUE AND BINDING, AND BELIEVE IN YOUR SINCERITY.” As Luna finished her statement, the runes glowed so bright they were almost blinding before fading away completely.

“You’ve certainly got some new tricks up your sleeve.” Discord said, bending down to stare directly at Dema. He’d been staring at her in shock ever since the runes appeared.

“We all have them, Discord; we just don’t show them off.” Wolfy said, barely turning his head.

“I want one!!!” Discord said, pouting.

“No you don’t. You’d die of boredom in the process. Now be quiet, the adults are talking.” She said, putting a paw on his head and gently but firmly pushing him away.

Celestia surveyed this group with newfound curiosity. Finding a demon that was bound with holy runes was ludicrous, and now she had three sitting in her throne room, interviewing for a job handling Discord! When Dema brought the conversation back to the “adults”, she spoke up. “Since you hope to get a job keeping Discord from doing wrong while he stays here, I would like to know how you plan to do that.”

“Simple. We plan to redirect his chaotic impulses towards beneficial actions. I have even planned out a punishment for him should he decide to cause trouble.” Dema said, tapping Discord’s side so that he stood at an angle and walking up his back to sit on his head. She was smaller than a pony, so she was able to sit between his horns.

Luna perked up. “What, pray tell, is this punishment?”

“He will have to reorganize a bookshelf when he behaves. The amount of books depends on how bad his transgression was.”

Ferahn got a very confused and unhappy look on his face. “Mama, will you just speak plain Equestrian for once? I couldn’t understand half of what you just said, starting with that “beany-fishes” thing.”

Wolfy sniggered a little and Dema shot him a look. “What? Beany-fishes sound kinda funny! I mean, what would that even be? I fish made of beans? A fish shaped like a bean? Maybe a fish that tastes like beans?” he said, putting a paw to his chin and rambling.

Dema walked over and gently closed his mouth with a paw. “You gots to stop ramblin’, Lupay.”

“But I’m a rambling colt, Dema!” he said, sounding like he was about to crack up.

“Sorreh, Lupay, but you just gotsta!” Dema said, grinning. She turned back to Ferahn. “Anyways, I was saying we’d get Discord to use the chaos he wants to use on good things, and when he does something wrong, he has to reorganize a certain amount of books, depending on how badly he messed up.”

“Oh, ok. Thanks, mama!” He said, moving close enough to rub his head against her chest.

Dema chuckled lightly. “Anytime, my silly little kit.” She replied, bending down to hug him close.

Luna leaned towards Celestia and whispered, “They certainly seem like they’d do a good job of keeping Discord occupied.”

Celestia smiled slightly before turning back to Dema and her friends and cleared her throat. “Well, you certainly seem to have all of this figured out. However, I have no way of knowing if you really have the best intentions for this kingdom. To be sure of such, I believe you should be allowed this job for a probationary period, where we shall watch your interactions and make sure you are fit to keep Discord out of trouble.”

Dema’s face broke out into a large grin. “Thanks, Princesses, you won’t regret it.” As she finished speaking, Ferahn yawned massively. “Oh, that brings a new question; will we be returning to our residence or will a residence be provided for us?”

“For tonight, I ask you to return to your home. We shall have a room prepared for you tomorrow.” Celestia replied.

“Alright. Come on, you two, let’s get you home before you collapse of exhaustion.” Dema said, nudging Wolfy and Ferahn to their feet. “Bye Dscord!”She said over her shoulder as together, the three left the throne room.

“Discord, you know… quite a lot about those three, yes?” Celestia said, descending her platform to stand near Discord.

Discord’s head snapped around to look at Celestia. “hmm? Oh, yes. I could tell you all about them if you like.” He replied.

“I would like that, yes. I noticed that as the interview went on, Ferahn and Wolfy seemed to get more tired while Dema got perkier. Why is that?” she asked, tilting her head slightly.

“Ah, that would be because Dema is what is called a night demon, or a demon that can’t see in the light and is far more accustomed to doing everything in the dark. Wolfy and Ferahn are both day demons, or demons that can’t see a thing at night and are accustomed to doing everything in the light. For Dema, a new moon is like high noon. Rather useful to have a group of demons with both night and day demons in their group. Helps keep the party going after the sun goes down. Speaking of which, shouldn’t the sun be down by now?” He said, a mischievous glint in his eye as he looked out the window. Celestia jerked around to look out the window and realized the sun had been perched on the horizon for 10 minutes now. She quickly teleported to her balcony and lowered her sun, making room for Luna’s moon.