The Flour Trick

by Grey Faerie

What Sense is there in having Fun?

After the disaster that were the Elements of Harmony, Discord was almost thankful for the lunch time rush. Most of the customers were nameless faces he had seen before but never had time to interact with. The others were ponies you could almost say he was friendly with. It was rough trying to deal with so many ponies at once, but luckily Pinkie had thought ahead and had baked extra for the display counters.

The only small problem he had at the beginning of the lunch rush was having to put the twins down for their nap.

"Wahhhh!" the twins were both crying at the top of their lungs from their playpen. "One moment." Discord asked the customer in front of him. He was wincing from their shrill cries. "Come now, I'll put you to bed." Discord tried to soothe them as he carried them up to their crib. "I think all that activity downstairs has really gotten you tired." he said with a smile.

"Pppllbb" another raspberry. It always seemed to calm him when he was with children. They enjoyed his nonsense. The younger ones though, they made his heart clench for a moment. Such innocence held no hate or prejudice. It was unfortunate that they would have to grow up and come to know those things.

"Discord!" Pumpkin called as he put them into the crib. "Alright, but then I got to leave. It's very busy down there." In the quiet of the room, so removed from the till of the bakery floor, Discord began to sing to them. When he was done, they were fast asleep. He left them then to sleep.

When he got back down the stairs, the hubbub of ponies walking around hit him. There were already a line of ponies waiting to ring up their purchases. Some were getting a little anxious about what time they have left. Discord worked quickly to get them taken care of and out the door.

He ran into a bit of a problem with a mare that smelled of wine. "What do you mean there's no alcohol in rum balls!?"

"They are made with rum but only for the taste. All the alcohol gets burned off."

"Then what am I buying these for then!?"

"Cause they taste good." Discord couldn't help but let slip comment. Luckily it wasn't a rude one.

She just looked at them and came to a conclusion. "Fine. But don't think I won't remember this." She processed to buy the box of rum balls and leave. I highly doubt you remember much at all, tipsy. Discord thought with a little malice.

The next few people were subdued and left without a problem. Three mare then came up to the counter. They were the local flourishes. "Do you have any daisy croissants in stock?" one asked, "I would like lily eclairs!" another called, the last asked "Can I have a rose hip muffin?"

"Alright, it was a daisy croissant, a lily eclairs, and a rose hip muffin." he recounted.

"No, I want two croissants- I want three eclairs!-three are you crazy, you're on a diet-I can indulge once in a while!" the two mares started to bicker. The last one, a rather flighty cream-colored mare, looked between the two and him.

"How about just two for each of you? There are other customers waiting." He said trying to mediate the situation.

"Hmmph, fine." He went to get their order and rang them up. Glad that ended quickly. I really don't need another disaster happening today.

Like before, there were a few ordinary customers until there was a problem. This one though, had nothing to do with the food.

"So, you're here again. Trying to pretend to be all goody two shoes for the princesses?"

It was a gray pony with clovers as a cutie mark. He still held a disdain for Discord; believing him to only be pretending to be good as a scheme to get everyone's guard down.

"What will it be today? Maybe a nice prune bran muffin? You're looking a little constipated." Discord said with sneer.

"Why I outta, you don't fool me! I know you're nothing but evil. I won't be buying anything while you're still here. I can only imagine what horrible things you put in the food." He retorted.

"Well you don't have to only imagine it for much longer!" He called out as he took a muffin and stuffed it into the stallion's mouth. The stallion involuntarily bite down and realized the muffin was full of live worms. He spit it out and went screaming out the door. All while Discord was laughing maniacally. It was only afterward that he realized his mistake when he saw all the scared faces of the ponies in the shop.

"Ah, um, cough, I don't allow such behavior in this establishment." He said, trying to smooth things back over. "You don't have to worry. Pinkie and the Cakes' cooking is great!" He hoped the name drop would help. Luckily it did as he saw the ponies relax. That was close. He mentally sweated. I got to watch what I do more closely. I just hope this little 'incident' doesn't get back to Pinkie.

That incident brought back to the front of his mind thoughts that had been bugging him for a the last few weeks. Thoughts that he was able to keep back by having to deal with the rush of customers. The most potent of the thoughts was about his own self identity. Did he really want to continue being the villain? Or was friendship and acceptance worthwhile? He wasn't so sure anymore.

He had always been the villain. Or more definitively, he had always simply done what he wanted. It never mattered to him if the ponies around him didn't like it. He was having fun. But, deep down, he wanted others to have fun with him. To play with him and enjoy all the wondrous things he could do. He would never admit it, but in the beginning he never realized his fun was hurting others. He didn't understand why they tried to drive him out. Then being stuck in stone for a thousand years didn't help the problem.

Now he was stuck at a proverbial crossroad. Will he conform to this world's rules and sense of fun? Or will he resist and try to make them conform to his own, and only, sense of fun?

But of course, he didn't have time to contemplate this. Now did he?

No further problems arose other than the customer not knowing exactly what to get. Eventually, lunch time came to an end and he closed the shop. It was time for his own lunch break. Discord only now realized how hungry he was. The last thing he had eaten was the muffin from this morning. He went to the kitchen to dig around for something the eat.

Without the rush of customers coming in he had a moment to ponder a question that had started to nag him.

Why? Why did I want to keep this place perfect so much? Why is it... I feel like I don't want to disappoint her? Like I want her to be... proud of me. Maybe it's just because if she's mad at me, she won't be wanting to hang out with me. But why is that so important? To be spending time with this pony. I'm just over thinking this. It's just because she's one of the only people who actually likes my chaos and really, truly, want to spend time with me. Yes! that's it. I'll just be losing a fellow playmate. A comrade in chaos. He nodded to himself. Though, strangely unconvinced by his own conclusion.

Comments

[Grey Faerie]

2388427
Haha, great catch! I swear, you can read something three times over with an editor and still miss things. Thanks for the comment and don't worry, while he maybe a little OOC at times Discord still is chaos incarnate. I've just got to get a few things out of the way and then we can have some real fun.

[Summer Sketch]

This is nice 💖