“Capper?” Tempest asked incredulously.
“At your service.” Capper straightened out his coat. “I heard you'd be coming back to help the storm creatures, and figured I'd stop by to see you.”
“Ah. It's very nice to see you,” Tempest said, walking up to shake his paw. He smiled warmly at her, and his eyes briefly went to her forehead. He hummed curiously.
“Yes, her horn is back, no need to thank me,” Discord said.
“Ah, so you healed it?” Capper asked, turning his attention to Discord. “You must be a talented magic user.”
“Oh, I don't like to brag, but... yes. Yes I am.”
“Where were you when the Storm King was taking over Equestria?”
Discord stared, then flattened his ears back, coughing. “Oh, well uh... I was out. On a little vacation actually, I uh... actually had no idea anything was happening until I got back afterward. Oops. But I suppose I can't be around to save Equestria all the time, now can I?”
“That's unfortunate, we could have used your skills. Ah well. So, would you like to drop your stuff off at my place?”
Tempest nodded. “Sure.” She trotted up to walk next to him. “You're really gonna let us stay? After what I did to you last time I was here? I mean... I was awful to you!”
“It's all in the past,” Capper replied. “Twilight told me how you were willing to sacrifice yourself to stop the Storm King from turning her to stone. Your bravery was what stopped him. You learned what friendship truly was that day and ever since, you've worked to become a better mare. I think I can trust you.”
Tempest smiled, cheeks growing warm. “Oh. Thank you. But I still want to apologize. I was unnecessarily harsh to you, I could have killed you when I took down that ship while you were on it, I'm... I'm glad you're alive.”
“Haha, it takes more than that to kill a cat. We do have nine lives, after all.” His tail ran up under her chin and she giggled as it tickled. He really was charming now that she wasn't focused on interrogating him.
Discord decided this would be a good time to properly introduce himself. He moved to walk between them, holding his hand out to Capper. “Thank you so much for your hospitality! By the way, my name's Discord.”
“Oh yes, I've heard about you.” Capper took his hand and shook it. “God of chaos, bringer of strife, and so on. Defeated by some colorful ponies and then turned to good by one of them. How sweet.”
Discord huffed. “For your information, I let her turn me to good. Evil got boring, I gotta change things up every few thousand years!”
“Whatever you say, friend.” Capper slid around him, talking to Tempest. “So tell me about your plans for the storm creatures. I want to help in any way I can.”
“Oh, well, we're going to help them reinforce their homes with better building materials, and once they don't have to worry about their houses collapsing, they can focus their attention on community building and things like that...” Tempest began discussing her ideas with him, and he nodded thoughtfully as he followed along, offering his own advice.
Discord wasn't interested in the conversation, instead taking off and flying over them to take in his surroundings. He always familiarized himself with new towns. Klugetown was large and chaotic, bustling with activity. He liked it. He wondered if there were any clubs around here. He'll definitely want some drinks every once in a while, to reward himself for a hard day's work.
He located Tempest and flew back down. They were still walking. It seemed that Capper lived on the other side of town. That was fine, it gave Discord more time to check things out. Klugetown seemed to have a decently large mining operation. There were mine cart tracks and quarries, though not much work was happening right now. He saw stalls set up in the streets selling all sorts of wares, and he made his way to the airship docks.
He hovered here for a bit, watching as a ship took off and flew into the Sea of Clouds. After a few minutes, another emerged from the mist, and took the old one's spot. It settled down and was moored, and the crew members began bringing down barrels. They seemed to have been out fishing.
Discord took a moment to chuckle at fish being brought into a town with actual giant fish people as citizens, and moved on. He wasn't able to see Tempest or Capper now, so he just teleported right to them and flew overhead. Capper jumped, fur standing on end when Discord's shadow suddenly fell on him, and Tempest laughed.
“Oh, sorry, did I scare you?” Discord teased.
Capper smoothed his fur back down. “No, I was just startled.”
“Ah, so mildly scared, then.”
He just calmly chuckled. “I suppose so. Things may have become friendlier around here, but I've still got those cautious instincts.”
“It's good to keep your guard up,” Tempest replied. “You never know what could happen.”
“Very right you are.”
Discord rolled his eyes. This guy was so agreeable.
Eventually they made their way to a windmill. Its blade spun slowly and it had what seemed to be an old water wheel spinning under it.
“What's the wheel for?” Discord asked.
Capper rubbed his chin. “That's an excellent question. Next question!” He unlocked the door and swung it open, letting them in.
They entered a decent-sized room, which boasted a bed, cushions, and tables covered with scrolls, books, and strange artifacts.
“I do only have the one bed, but you know, I can set out some blankets for myself on the floor and you two can have it,” Capper offered.
Tempest took her bags from Discord and set them down. “Oh, I couldn't do that. I can sleep on the ground, all I need is a roof over my head and I'll be good to go, hell I've even gone without a-”
“Hey, no, you're my guests, I insist you get the bed,” Capper interrupted. “I really don't mind, the blankets are very comfortable!”
“I don't know if you've noticed, but there are two of us, so one of us is going to be sleeping on the floor anyway,” Discord pointed out.
Capper looked between them. “You two are friends, right? Surely you can share it.”
“She doesn't like it when I get in bed with her,” Discord said. Tempest gave him a look, struggling not to laugh.
Capper laughed. “Oh, is that right? Well, then you two can sort it out among yourselves who gets the bed, then.”
“I can sleep anywhere, you can have the bed,” Discord said to Tempest.
“Nonsense, we're friends,” she replied. “I don't mind sharing.”
“But what about your personal space?”
“I don't mind someone being in my personal space if it's you, and I allow you to be there.”
“Oh, alright then.” Discord examined the bed. “It may be a bit small for me... but I'll make do. I can curl up. Besides, I don't need that much sleep anyway. I'll probably nap for a couple hours a night and then find something else to do until morning.”
“Sounds good. But it's too early to go to bed.” Tempest looked back toward the door. “We should head back and see what we can get done today.”
“Maybe we should meet with Curly and Grubber and start planning how we're going to fix those houses,” Discord suggested.
“Alright.” Tempest turned to Capper. “Thank you for letting us stay. We'll be back later on. Do you need anything while we're out?”
“No, no, I'm good.” He waved his paws. “You go on and get your work done. I'll stay here and tidy up a bit.”
They nodded and headed out.
“He seems nice,” Discord said.
“Oh, he's very nice,” Tempest replied.
“I'm glad you made such a generous friend. Sleeping at his place will be so much more pleasant than sleeping in the mud back at storm creature central.”
“With luck, we'll make 'storm creature central' a thriving and comfortable place to live. Honestly, there's more to do than just helping with the housing. They don't even fully have a government! We'll have to see if we can talk to Klugetown's mayor, Verko, about meeting with Curly and offering support. I want the local government to know and care about the storm creatures.” Tempest sighed. “I just hope Verko will be agreeable. I ran into him last time I was here. I was searching for Twilight and her friends then, and met Verko at Capper's place. He annoyed me... so I electrocuted him. He survived it, but it probably did some damage. He might just slam the door on me if I dared to approach him now.”
“You electrocuted a mayor?” Discord asked. She nodded, and he beamed. “Incredible! The more I hear about your past, the more I like you.”
She blushed. “Oh, quit it.”
“No, really, that's great! I commend you! Messing with authority figures is fun. Like that time I stole Celestia's tail.”
“You stole her tail?”
“Yep! Honestly I've messed with the princesses loads of time. Especially Twilight. She's so tolerant.” Discord grew bored of just flying slowly at a walking pace, so he swooped down and nudged Tempest. “Want to race back?”
“Sure.” She shifted into a trot, and when Discord shot off ahead faster than she expected, she snorted and dug her hind hooves down, launching forward into a gallop. She caught up to him, and he twisted his neck to look back at her, grinning.
“Not bad, but I'm just getting started!” He sped up.
“Hey, you can just use magic to go faster!” Tempest shouted after him.
“That's no excuse!”
She ran faster, but there was no way she was catching up to him. Still, he stayed just close enough that she didn't lose sight of him, and she followed him all the way back to where the storm creatures lived. She sprinted the last stretch in an attempt to finally catch up, and he slowed, flying backward as he watched her.
“Come on, you can still catch me!” he called. He started windmilling his arms as if doing a backstroke. “Oh, look, I'm almost there, you gotta speed up!”
Tempest smirked and jumped, and his eyes widened as she slammed into him and knocked him to the ground. She climbed off and tried to leap over him, and he blocked her with his tail and ran the rest of the way, sliding onto the street that led into the storm creatures' village.
“I win!” he crowed.
Tempest panted, wiping sand from her coat. “I guess you did.”
“Was tackling me necessary?”
“I wanted to win.” She walked by, and he brushed himself off before following.
“You are one silly pony sometimes,” he commented.
“No I'm not,” she said.
“Oh, yes you are, look at that smile.”
“Heh, well... I'll admit, I didn't get to play around and have fun when I served the Storm King. I'm trying to make up for it now.”
“That's good! You deserve to have fun.”
Tempest nodded. Then, seeing two arguing storm creatures, she trotted forward to talk to them.
“Hey, what's going on?” she asked.
“Randy took some of my food!” one shouted.
“And Harold took my blankets!” the other yelled.
Tempest looked between them, then said, “So, Randy, why did you take Harold's food?”
Randy got defensive. “He took my blankets first so it's only fair!”
“Okay... Harold, why did you steal from him?”
Harold crossed his arms. “The nights get super cold here! I was freezing and didn't have any blankets of my own! Randy hogs all the blankets, I just took one or two for myself!”
“Oh, boy.” Tempest rubbed her temple. “Alright. Did you ask him if he could give you one first?”
“Well... no, I just... knew he had a lot of them.”
“Oh brother,” Discord muttered, flying away.
Tempest patiently said, “Harold, you can't just take things from people because you think they have enough to spare. If someone has something you need, you should ask if you can have it, or offer to pay for it, or make a trade. You could have willingly given Randy some of your food, and then he could have given you blankets in return.”
The two regarded each other, before finally Randy said, “I still have plenty of blankets for myself. You can keep what you took... but could I keep the food, and we can call it a trade?”
Harold thought about it, glancing at Tempest. She nodded, and he said, “Er, yes. That's fine.”
Tempest smiled. “There we go! See, things are so much better when you talk things out and agree with each other.”
The two smiled and shook hands, and Tempest watched them walk away to one of the houses.
Discord returned to her. “Well look at that, you solved a friendship problem, just like Twilight and her friends. How does it feel?”
“Pretty good. That one was simple though. I'm sure it will take a lot more work to get these guys cooperating like they did before the Storm King ever made them view each other as rivals.” Tempest looked around the town, as the creatures went about their days. The looks they exchanged as they passed each other weren't exactly hostile, but they definitely weren't friendly. Most of them seemed wary of each other.
The door to the town hall building opened and Curly stepped out. Seeing Tempest, she called to her. “Oh good, you're back! Could you come help me out?”
“Sure!” Tempest and Discord went to meet her, and she invited them in.
“We've placed the order for the lumber, now we just need to discuss exactly how we're going to set up our houses,” Curly said as she lead them over to a conference room. It had a crudely made table in the center of it and the chairs seemed rickety. Tempest elected to just stand at the table, but Discord went ahead and flopped into a chair anyway. It groaned but otherwise held him.
“We'll be needing to buy a lot of newer furniture,” Curly said. She shuffled some papers and then laid them out. “So, here's what I've got so far, and I'd like your opinions on it. First up, the single resident house designs.”
As Tempest leaned in, she saw that there were several papers to go through. She had a feeling this was going to take a while.