Dee's full name was Delightful, but she preferred her nickname. Dee was considered an outcast, even in the artistic community. Sure, there were plenty of eccentric poetry writers out there, but none of them wore the same flowing black dresses that she wore, or put on the heavy makeup that Dee did every morning.
After a long while of surpressing her own style, Dee finally stopped hiding after she got her cutie mark, a Neighgyptian Anhk, for her winning an award in mythological poetry. It was a bit dark for most ponies, but Dee found her work satisfying and enjoyable.
Unfortunately, Dee's long, meandering poems were only suited to very particular ponies, so it didn't exactly put oats on the table. So, here she was, trying to find another job to supplement her income.
The bar that she had found was just outside of the village of Trotville, neighbouring town to Ponyville. There seemed to be a lot of 'ville's in the area, Dee noticed. Anyways, the bar, called After Dusk, catered to a lot of... different... ponies. While normal folks drank cider at the town's local brewery, the Good Princess, misfits from all over Equestria would travel to After Dusk, looking for companionship. And excellent wine, or so Dee was told.
So, here was Dee, going to her first job interview. At a bar. A bar that she had never been in. She had lived in Trotville for a while now, but had never really found the time to go here before.
Dee opened the door. The interior to the bar was dark. As she blinked and her eyes adjusted, Dee smiled for the first time that day. Now this was a place Dee could fit in! Almost immediately, Dee spotted a stallion wearing a cape and what she thought was personally a tad too much eyeliner, a pegasus with wine-red lipstick and a slinky dress, and even a griffon with her dark grey feathers hanging over one eye!
These were Dee's type of ponies! Even if she didn't get the job, she could always promote her poetry here. Yes, these were the kind of ponies that would love her work!
A serving mare volunteered to show Dee around, but when she told the mare that she was here for a job interview, the mare brought Dee to the back room, an employee lounge, where she told Dee that she would meet the manager.
The manager did indeed show up, and interviewed Dee. She was quite nervous, but in the end she got the job. The manager then told her to show up at the same time tomorrow to get her uniform and start training.
Dee went home to get a good night's sleep. Waking up at her usual time, around noon, Dee spent most of the afternoon trying to come up with some kind of theme to put in her poetry, but ended up instead with a waste basket full of crumpled paper.
Finally it was time for Dee's first day on the job. She showed up five minutes early, and was put to work straight away serving drinks. As the night went on, however, the customers got more and more unusual.
Finally, when it was nearly time to go home, a strange... being... just seemed to pop into existance a few feet from the doorway. The being seemed to be comprised of many different animal parts, but the face was still vaguely equine looking.
"Hey! How many times have I told you, we don't serve your kind here!" The manager yelled.
The being, which Dee now recognized as a Draconequus, just rolled his eyes and turned to Dee.
"Can I just get some beer? Please?" The Draconequus pleaded.
Dee was torn for a moment. Should she do what her manager wanted he to do and turn him away, or should she follow her mother's advice and always be polite to somepony who was polite to her? Oh, who was Dee kidding! Of course she was going to serve the Draconequus! Her cutie mark, after all, was in mythology, and his species was practically a myth in and of itself!
"Sure thing! One beer comin' up! Any preferances to brand?" Dee smiled at the Draconequus.
Author's Note
I sort of based Dee on Neil Gaiman's Death, as you might have seen.
Loki was having a terrible day. He lived alone in the Everfree forest, and occasionally tried to go into Ponyvill or Trotville, only to be shunned and treated with disrespect. Sure, most of Loki's species were evil, and yes, he did have Chaos magic, but that didn't mean that they had to throw things at him!
Loki was a fairly good-looking Draconequus, warmly-coloured with a rust coloured coat and green eyes. If he felt so inclined, he could easily move back to the kingdom of Draconequui, but Loki wanted something that was very hard to find there: friendship!
And with the reformation of Discord, Loki felt that he might actually get it finally! Except, all the ponies in the two villages were very intolerant of those different from themselves. He understood, what with all the bad things that happened with other species in the last few years, such as the Changeling attack, that mean Gryffin that bullied some ponies, and of course Lord Tirek...
But it was no excuse to force others to leave the town! Loki was so tired of reigning in his natural magic that it was beginning to leak out when he was emotional, causing bursts of Chaos in his immediate region. This certainly did not help matters!
So, Loki searched for a way to calm himself down more. He had a mutual agreement with Zecora the Zebra wherein she would give him calming potions and he would help her collect some more rare and dangerous ingredients whenever she needed it. This was only a temporary solution, though.
Loki was of the opinion that if he could just make friends, maybe with a more tolerant pony, or even a non-pony, then the rest might just see how wrong they were about him.
So, he went to the local bar, the Good Princess. That did not work out very well. Loki then tried the other bar, After Dusk. This bar was much more his speed! But the owner, however, was a bit of a jerk. He constantly threw Loki out of the bar, despite him never having done anything.
This was the third time he went to the bar, and it was probably going to be his last. This was, in fact, Loki's last chance to make friends. If he didn't get any friends soon, then he would just give up and go back to the Draconequui Kingdom.
Loki teleported directly into the bar near closing-time, and almost immediately, the mean manager started yelling at him.
This was his one last hope.
"Can I just get some beer? Please?" Loki asked wearily. The pony behind the counter wasn't one that he had seen working there before, and she was a quite pretty mare, especially with that kind of monochromatic colour scheme.
She beamed at the Draconequus after seeming to be torn for a moment, and asked Loki what kind of beer he wanted.
Loki stared in amazement. What was this pony trying to do? Did she want to be friends, or did she just want to make her employer angry? Because that was most certainly what was happening, the stallion was practically frothing at the mouth now!
The mare smiled again, and told Loki to sit down while she fixed him a drink. The Draconequus sat on one of the bar stools. The pony took a while to find the cups, indicating that she was probably new to the bar.
"My name's Dee, what's yours?" The mare questioned.
"Loki. It's a very traditional Draconequus name." He answered as politely as possible.
Dee gave him a curious look. "That's interesting! Do you think that you could tell me a bit more about Draconequui? I write poems about unusual subjects, and you're definitely the most unusual thing that I've seen in a while!"
Loki had been preparing for this moment for a while now. "On one condition."
"What condition would that be?" Dee asked.
"That you be my friend!" Loki smiled his most charming smile.
Dee grinned back. "You've got yourself a deal!" She giggled.
Unfortunately, it was at this point that the stallion had decided to stop screaming at Loki and attack him instead. Since the manager was a pegasus, he delivered a powerful flying kick straight into Loki's face.
"Hey! What the buck are you doing, Mr. Narrow?!" Dee called to the stallion as he growled at the Draconequus.
"You, Ms. Delightful, are fired, for letting this... thing... into my bar!" The pegasus, Mr. Narrow, screamed at Dee.
Loki, meanwhile, was rubbing his sore jaw when he suddenly felt his magic going wild again. "Oh no, not now!" He muttered.
A bar stool suddenly turned into a duck. Loki winced as Dee and Mr. Narrow paused their argument to stare at him. The Draconequus looked ashamed.
A glass of beer started tapdancing. The cash register became sentient and gained a Manehattan accent. The very air sparked with Chaos magic!
Then, just as quickly as it had started, everything stopped. The stool, the glass, and the cash register were both back to normal. In the middle of the room, however, stood two beings. A Changeling and a Thestral.
The manager fainted.
Dee looked confused. "Why did you bring those two here? Are they your friends?" She questioned rapidly.
"Sorry... I lost control of my Chaos magic again... I'll just go..." Loki muttered, his eyes watering.
Dee sighed, and put a hoof on Loki's shoulder. "Look, Loki. Everyone loses control sometimes, it's just a part of life. But when you do, you don't just walk away from the mess. You clean it up, sometimes with the help of your friends." She smiled at him.
"Now, you seem to have misplaced these two, er, ponies? And I, as your newest friend would be happy to help you put them back in whatever way again."
Loki gulped. "Well, the thing is, I, um, can't..."
