The Element of Chaos

A few weeks later in the Everfree Forest, a very happy Pinkie Pie lay in a checkerboard meadow, staring up at a magenta sky as birds mooed from somewhere in the peppermint trees behind her. The new line of cupcakes had turned out to be huge success. So huge, in fact, that Pinkie was forced to take on more shifts in order to keep up with demand. Thank goodness for Discord! He was so willing to help her out in the bakery that the Cakes ended up hiring him as a part-timer, and despite the slightly bumpy start to his baker career, after about a week or two, Pinkie felt like he was finally starting to get the hang of things. Today was the first day they had had off in a very long time. It was nice to finally get a chance to relax and have some good chaotic fun.

She sighed. She wished that she could have spent some time with all of her friends, but he still didn’t want anyone else to know about his powers. She couldn’t imagine why. Her friends were very accepting people after all. Of course they would love Discord! He was strange, yes, but the good kind of strange. The kind of strange that came with candy trees and chocolate rain. Wait a second. She jumped to her feet. “I never tried the chocolate rain!” She rushed over to Discord, where he lay in a hammock gently snoring. For a moment, Pinkie thought of not waking him, but then she wouldn’t get chocolate rain and that just wouldn’t do. “Dizzy! It’s an emergency! You’ve got to wake up! I just realized something horrible!”

Discord woke with a start, knocking off his sunglasses and nearly falling out of the hammock. “What? What is it? Did the cupcakes burn?”

Pinkie shook her head. “Silly Discord. We’re not at the bakery!”

“Oh right,” Discord said slowly, looking around the clearing to see what could have caused Pinkie to create such a ruckus. “Why did you wake me up then?”

“Huh?” Pinkie had been distracted by a part bee part butterfly thing (butterbee?) that had flown in front of her. So cute! She quickly turned her attention back to the matter at hand. This was important. “I never got to try the chocolate rain,” she shrieked. “It’s terrible Dizzy! Terrible! What if I had gone home without trying it? I may never have gotten another chance! And then I would have to go my entire life wondering what it would have tasted like – “

“Pinkie,” Discord put up a hand to stop her, but she didn’t notice.

“-what it would have felt like to have chocolate rain from the sky from cotton candy clouds-“

“Pinkie.”

“ – I WOULD BE SO SAD! I wouldn’t throw parties anymore or eat candy or cake! I would just sit in my room –“ Discord snapped his fingers and pink rainclouds covered the clearing, immediately shutting Pinkie up. Her mouth watered as the first chocolaty drops of rain splashed onto the ground. Throwing shouts of joy up into the air, she bounced and slid over what was quickly becoming a very slippery chocolate covered checkerboard meadow, and flopped down on her back in the middle of the glorious cocoa madness, her mouth open, and tongue outstretched to catch every last morsel. No words could adequately describe what she was feeling at that moment. It was brilliant. Chocolate – marvelous, delicious, fantastic, tantalizing chocolate – was everywhere, and she could drink as much of it as she could possibly want.

She was soon drenched in the stuff, and despite its deliciousness, she quickly realized that it was fall, and even though it had been warm enough when the sun was out, she was now cold – extremely cold. For a while, she ignored it, not wanting to leave the scrumptious goodness that was chocolate rain, but then she realized that she couldn’t enjoy chocolate rain anymore if she caught hypothermia and quickly jumped up. Shivering, she slid over to Discord’s hammock which was the only dry area in the clearing. A small halo of cloudless sky shone sunshine onto his sleeping face. He looked completely relaxed and incredibly warm. Maybe he wouldn’t mind if she just slipped into the hammock with him. He was sleeping anyway so she might not even wake him up. At least, Pinkie thought he was asleep. It was a little hard to tell with the dark sunglasses. Careful, so as not to wake him from his possible slumber, Pinkie started climbing into the hammock. Almost immediately, the apparently not sleeping Discord lifted his sunglasses and raised a curious eyebrow at her. “Pinkie, what are you doing?”

“I-I-I’m c-c-cold, a-a-and y-y-you’re n-n-not,” Pinkie replied, teeth chattering as she snuggled as close to him as possible. He was so freakin’ warm.

Discord squirmed at her touch. “Gah! Pinkie you’re cold and wet! Stop!”

“Shhh,” Pinkie said softly, throwing an arm around him and nuzzling into his chest. “Just let it happen.” Discord suddenly felt very conflicted. On the one hand, a beautiful girl had her body wrapped tightly around his, making him feel things he hadn’t felt in an awfully long time. On the other hand, she was also absolutely freezing! After a moment, he snapped his fingers. Her clothes dried and a thick quilt appeared on top of them. Even the hammock felt just a tad bit larger to accommodate for her. “Thank you Dizzy,” she mumbled as the warmth seeped into her body. She suddenly felt very sleepy. A nap would be nice. She felt Discord relax underneath her after a bit, and put his arm around her.  Soon, she fell into a deep slumber.

Discord on the other hand, was very much awake. The power this little pink fluffball had over him was deeply unsettling. Not that he minded her snuggling up to him in a hammock. No, that was quite nice actually. Although it did make his heart do a weird fluttery thing, but that could be easily ignored. No, what bothered him was that Pinkie had somehow convinced him to get a part-time job at the bakery. He just couldn’t say no to her!

“It’d be the funnest thing in the whole wide world if my bestest best friend could work there with me!” she had told him after school one day. Discord gave a smug grin. ‘Bestest best friend,’ did she say? He was movin’ up!

“Well of course it would be, my dear Pinkie! I do know a thing or two about fun, after all,” he preened.

“Does that mean you’ll do it?” Pinkie grinned.

“Weeelll,” Discord hesitated. As much as he liked Pinkie, he really, really hated the bakery.

“Pleeeaaase!” Pinkie was looking at him with those eyes again. He just didn’t understand. How did she get them to look so desperate and sad and hopeful and -

“Of course I’ll do it Pinkie!” Wait! Why did he just say that? He was supposed to say no! “I love the bakery!” What? No he didn’t! He hated it with a fiery passion!

“This is so exciting! I’ve never had a job with a friend before! I mean, sometimes Applejack helps out in the bakery, but never anything permanent!” Pinkie gasped. “Oh my gosh! We should have a party to congratulate you on your new job! Oh, but you don’t like my parties do you? Ooh! Maybe we can have a mini chaos party with just the two of us! That’d be fun! Right? Then you can show off your magic some more and make it as exciting as you want! Oh this is going to be the best thing ever in the history of best things!”

And so it was, that Discord spent every afternoon in the bakery – afternoons where he should have been figuring out how to get to the other dimension and steal the crown, but instead he was stuck making sugar cookies. If only that idiotic Sunset Shimmer would open his e-mail. It’d been weeks already! He’d have to figure out some other way to get to the crown, and soon. He had been lucky so far. As of yet, he had been the only one to come to Ponyville seeking the Elements, but he doubted that his luck would hold out for long. There were a lot of monsters out there that would do anything to get their hands on the Elements. He looked down at the top of Pinkie’s head and thought of the Element of Laughter that she held. His arm around her tightened. She fidgeted a little and yawned sleepily.

“Is something wrong Dizzy?” Pinkie asked, moving to look up at him.

He shook his head. “No. Of course not. Go back to sleep Pinkie.” She nodded and put her head back down onto his chest.

After a moment Discord said, “Pinkie? Can I ask you a question?”

“Mmhmm,” Pinkie replied sleepily.

“When I first met your friends, why did you tell them I was from New York?” The question had been bothering him for a while now.

“Well I couldn’t very tell them you were a demon sent from Hell to cover the world in chaos,” Pinkie answered.

Discord’s eyes grew wide. “How did you know that?”

Pinkie yawned. “Just a hunch.”

She knew. She knew his true identity this whole time and still wanted to be friends with him? Still trusted him enough to fall asleep next to him in a hammock? Not only that, but she had lied to protect him. One thing was certain. No matter who might come, no one was going to take the Elements – especially Pinkie Pie – away from him.