The Element of Chaos

Discord’s understanding of the elements was as follows: there were six of them, they were jewels, each jewel embodied a specific element of harmony, and they were extremely powerful. That was it. That’s all the information he had. He wasn’t even sure what elements of harmony the jewels embodied. Hope? Love? Selflessness? It all sounded a bit boring, to tell the truth. Could the elements really be that powerful when they embodied such weak emotions? What about anger and hatred? Those were much better. Speaking of anger and hatred, why were all the students so happy here? All of them got along so well together. The tech geeks joked with the jocks. The drama kids ate lunch with cheerleaders. There was no fighting, no bullying; everything was just so perfect. He spent a lot of time in high schools. There were so many teenagers with raging hormones and misplaced anger that chaos was always easy to create in them, but this one was different. It was all so harmonious. He supposed that if the elements of harmony really were here then the behavior of the students would make sense, but where could they be hidden? He had searched the entire school and had found nothing. His lack of progress was really starting to bug him.

The bell rang, signaling the end of classes, and students came tumbling out of the classrooms from all sides.  Discord was standing in the hallway, glaring at passing students and muttering angrily to himself, when he was tackled to the ground by a pink blob. “Dizzy! Dizzy! Guess what!” Pinkie rolled off of him and bounced excitably. “I know the perfect place we can go where you can show me your” - she lowered her voice to a stage whisper - “magic.” She stood and pulled him up with her. “C’mon let’s go!” Such was her enthusiasm, that Discord had little choice but to let her drag him along.

She took him to the outskirts of town to a large forest. A sign to the side read Everfree Forest: City Wildlife Refuge. “Hardly anyone goes in here except for me, Gummy, and sometimes Fluttershy to play with the animals,” Pinkie revealed. ”Don’t worry though, she volunteers at the animal shelter after school so I doubt we’ll run into her.” Discord almost asked who Gummy and Fluttershy were, but then realized he didn’t care. The only reason he was following her at all was so he could find out if she knew anything about the elements, and maybe figure out how she made a llama appear from nowhere this morning. That last one wasn’t quite as important though. He mostly just wanted to know about the elements, and he had a strong llama shaped feeling that she would know about them. So he let her lead him into the forest, down a winding trail until they reached a large clearing.

It was quite beautiful. Autumn blooming wildflowers of every color and shape grew in bunches in the grassy field, complementing the reds and oranges of the leaves in the trees. It was only early October, so the air was crisp, but not quite cold, especially with the sun shining overhead. Bees buzzed around the flowers and birds sang pleasant tunes in the trees. Everything there was absolutely peaceful and calm. Well, except for perhaps Pinkie who whooped and did cartwheels in the grass. Still, Discord couldn’t help but groan in annoyance at the serenity surrounding him. This was the last thing he needed after all the disappointment he had had that day. Why was there so little chaos in this town? He snapped his fingers and the ground suddenly turned into green Jell-O. The bees hovered over it in confusion and Pinkie fell over mid cartwheel. Ah. That was a bit better. He snapped his fingers again, and the trees surrounding the clearing turned into red licorice causing the birds to flap away hurriedly. While deciding what he should create next, Discord heard a giggle. He turned and saw Pinkie bouncing on the Jell-O like it was a trampoline, laughing like a lunatic. If Discord wasn’t mistaken, she looked like she was having fun. Fun? How could she be having fun? No one ever liked his chaos. It was all “Oh no it’s Discord! Run for your lives!” and “Stop it Discord! You’re ruining the balance of nature!” Well, that last one was mostly just Gaia, spirit of the earth. She was such a spoilsport.

“Discord!” Pinkie yelled, bouncing towards him. “You should come bounce with me! It’s fun!”

He stared at her in confusion. “How are you enjoying this? Doesn’t the unnaturalness of a green Jell-O field and licorice trees bother you?”

“Nope!” Pinkie said, bouncing higher than ever and doing a somersault in mid-air. “Wait! Did you say licorice trees?” She took a quick look at the red drooping trees surrounding the clearing and gasped in horror. Yes, Discord thought. This was more like it. He knew she couldn’t be that accepting of chaos. “I love licorice!” Pinkie suddenly shouted. Discord frowned.  That wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. “I was so busy bouncing, that I didn’t even notice!” She bounced over to one of the trees and began gnawing on a branch, a look of pure glee on her face.  This is getting ridiculous, Discord thought. He enjoyed chaos, but no one else was supposed to. Other people’s reactions to his chaos was half the fun! Now here Pinkie was just ruining it all. Time to end this.

He floated over to her, expecting her to at least be surprised at his ability to fly, but Pinkie simply grinned at him, her mouth full of licorice. “So you like licorice, huh?” he smirked. She nodded vigorously.  “Well how do you like this?” He snapped his fingers and the tree Pinkie had been eating grew fangs and claws. It roared at her and then flung her into the air. She flew across the field and landed on the Jell-O with a gentle bounce.

“That was fun!” she giggled, bouncing over to Discord. “Can I do it again?” Discord simply glared at her. She wasn’t supposed to enjoy that. Why did she keep enjoying things she shouldn’t be enjoying? Pinkie put out her lower lip and looked up at him pleadingly. “Please!” she said. Discord rolled his eyes. “I suppose,” he replied. Maybe the monster would eat her. He could always ask someone else about the Elements.

“You’re the best Dizzy! I’m so glad we’re friends!” she cheered, giving him a quick hug before going off to play with the licorice monster again. Deep inside of his brain, in a dusty locked file box where all of his unpleasant feelings like love and guilt were kept, Discord felt a slight tremor. She had called him a friend. He’d never had a friend before. Allies, yes, but friends no. He was the embodiment of chaos. Not many people were comfortable with that, but she was. In fact, she enjoyed his chaos. It was unheard of! It had bothered him at first, but now he wasn’t quite so sure.

And she had hugged him! What was up with that? People weren’t supposed to hug him. Especially after he had a licorice monster attack them. They were supposed to run in terror or try and fight him or something, not hug him. It just wasn’t right. Not that he hadn’t enjoyed it. She was soft, warm, and smelled like cupcakes. It was hard not to enjoy it, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that this wasn’t how people were supposed to respond to him. However, as he watched her tickle the monster with a feather and then giggle uncontrollably when the monster made its branches into a swing for her (did she just tickle torture his licorice monster?), he suddenly realized that he didn’t care about that anymore. Maybe being friends with Pinkie wouldn’t be that bad. She was entertaining at the very least. He could use someone like her in his future kingdom. And, as his friend, she would be more willing to help him out with, say, finding the Elements of Harmony and taking over the world. Well, maybe not the taking over the world part. Not right away, at least, but he was sure she’d warm up to the idea eventually. He smiled as he joined Pinkie on the tree. Yes, this whole ‘friend’ thing might not be bad at all.