"Nothing! Three hours we're been up here and we've found nothing about Discord." Clover was resisting the temptation to smack herself on the side of head with her copy of "Spirts o thee wolrd," by Silver Shade the Misspeller.
"Come on Clover, look at the bright side. If there's nothing recorded on Discord, that means you can be the first to write about him." The Clover's face immediately lit up.
"Oh my gosh, I better start making some notes." She rushed into the nearby store room and returned with rolls of parchment, quills and bottles of ink. Placing them on a nearby desk, she started transcribing all the thoughts and theories she had had since seeing the spirit. Cookie sighed and flicked through the book Clover had left behind. She looked up at the sound of the princess entering the library,
"This is infuriating. I can't find her anyw-" She stood on the spot. "Oh, there you are Cookie."
"Yes princess?"
"Umm, nothing. Carry on."
"Your majesty! There she is!" The princess spun on the spot and shooed the guard that had been accompanying her away.
"Shhh. Go call off the search." When the guard had left, Platinum took a deep breath and made her way to the pair of them. "So how is the research going?"
"Fine. It's fine." replied Clover, far to distracted with trying to remember the exact shade of gray the spirit's head had been to pay attention.
"Err, actually, we haven't really found out anything. We can't find any reference to this Discord anywhere."
"You won't!" came a voice from the doorway. Wonderbolt limped into the library, his blue coat was covered in bright pink paint, flowers grew from the ends of his tail hairs and his helmet had been turned into cardboard. Platinum rushed to his side, he put a foreleg around her, helping him keep off his sprained ankle. "Apparently, he's only been around for a few days." Cookie gave Clover a nudge to tell her to pay attention to what she had just heard.
"A few days? Where did he come from?" the Unicorn asked. Wonderbolt sat down next to her. Once Cookie had removed the nearby books in case he started dripping paint on them, he told them what happened.
"- when we found the missing guards. The doctors think it'll take them a few weeks to recover. Lucky we found them when we did, another hour and we might not have even recognized them."
"Wait, so where's Puddinghead?" Platinum asked. She had helped heal his ankle and had finally finished picking the flowers out of his tail.
"Oh, she's still with him. They seem to be getting along."
"How did that happen?" asked Clover without looking up, frantically writing down her notes.
"Well, it started when he tried turning her head into actual pudding," Two of the ponies gasped, the other was busy writing and wouldn't be shocked until several minutes later.
"Is she alright?" Cookie asked.
"Yeah. For some reason it just covered her head with pudding instead of replacing it. After the fourth attempt he started getting annoyed and filled the whole room with the stuff." Memories flashed in his mind, his eyes unfocused and fear crept into his voice. "I've never seen anything eat like that before." He shock his head. "Once she cleared that mess up, the spirit started laughing. Last time I saw them they were discussing the merits of various deserts."
"Well, maybe if they become friends she'll be able to explain why we don't want him ruling over us."
"You know what Discord? You're alright." Puddinghead and Discord were lying on their bellies, drawing on the throne room floor with a box of crayons Discord had wished into existence. Her drawing of a cat had come to life and climbed on top of the main door. Discord's butterfly had actually detached itself from the floor and was flying around the room, breathing fire at the curtains.
"Thank you my dear. Thirsty?" He stood up and two glasses appeared in his hand. He stepped over his throne, now made from three different colored dice, and filled the glasses in the strawberry milkshake waterfall he had made a few minutes ago.
"Thanks." She took the glass and drank deeply, leaving a foam mustache on her lip. "So, how long are you planning on staying?"
"Oh, this is just the beginning. Today I've limited myself to this room, tomorrow, I'll move on to the whole country."
"Oh, well, you see. I don't think everyone will like that. Don't get me wrong, some of it's great. Only, it's all very distracting and everypony has jobs to do."
"Oh yes. I suppose you know about that more than most, don't you." He sipped at his drink, the liquid emptying from the bottom.
"What do you mean?" The pony placed her glass on the floor and sat up.
"Nothing, nothing. I'm just saying, out of all the pony tribes, you Earth Ponies seem to do the most work. Spending all day in the fields, plowing, planting, weeding."
"Yeah, but Unicorns work hard, they make up most of the doctors and scientists. And Pegasi have to look after the weather and they make up most of the army."
"I suppose, but none of that is really that difficult, not like the back breaking work your kind does." Discord slumped onto his throne, the top die's spots turned into pictures of bottles. "The way I see it, as an outsider, pony society is like a pyramid: Unicorns at the top; Pegasi in the middle and Earth Ponies at the bottom." As he spoke, a five faced pyramid appeared floating in the air. It was split into three sections, each labeled with the flags of the three tribes. The Earth pony stared at it for a few moments before replying.
"Even if it was true, which it isn't, that doesn't mean Earth ponies are worse than Unicorns or Pegasi, without the base, there wouldn't be a pyramid at all."
"Maybe, but the great thing about chaos is that anything can happen, a pyramid can be turned on its head and still stay balanced." In a flash of light, the pyramid was upside down. "I can make food come from thin air. I can make it so your people can be free to do whatever they like."
"Earth Ponies like being farmers." Puddinghead spoke quietly without her usual bounciness.
"Anyway, It's getting late. Time for bed. We've got a big day tomorrow, we don't want you falling asleep while I'm making everypony's lives better, do we?" Puddinghead suddenly yawned. It was strange, a moment ago she didn't feel sleepy at all.
"OK, nighty night Discord."The pony trotted out of the room and headed straight to up her chambers
"Nighty night Puddinghead." Once she had closed the door behind her, Discord's throne of dice turned into a swivel chair. He spun to face the only window with its curtains still burning. He looked out over his kingdom and smiled.