As Eris slept, she dreamt.
She wandered alone in the forest. She was cold and hungry, she had killed a squirrel in order to get at its meager store of nuts. But that had been hours ago, her stomach growled impatiently at her. She cursed her parents for abandoning her when she was a filly. She knew neither why they did or how long she had lived in the forest but she knew that if she ever found them again she would waste no time in inflicting ten times the pain on them she had suffered through while in the forest.
Her ears perked up as she heard shuffling footsteps up ahead. She slunk forward in the underbrush keeping to the shadows until she knew what creature she was up against. Reaching the edge of the foliage, she sat and listened. The stepping noise was strange one step made the sound of a claw against wood, making Eris believe it was a cockatrice, but another sound lead her to believe it was a pawed creature, like a manticore. Cautiously the unicorn stuck her head out between the bushes, the light glinted in her dark purple eyes and she blinked furiously trying to regain her vision. When it returned to her, she could not believe what she saw.
A long snakelike body, with feet of both a bird and a lion. It’s arms were the same, one taloned and the other, a paw. It’s head was like a goat’s and it had the horns of a gazelle and a deer. It stroked a tiny goat beard as it passed around the clearing mumbling to itself. But it was the eyes that fascinated Eris the most. They were golden discs with small red pupils, they had both a madness and a beauty about them that Eris could not explain in any words she knew. Granted, the few words she did know where from the constantly swearing woods stallions that she would steal food from.
She inched closer to the strange beast. Hoping to catch a whisper of what it was saying.
“Quite the pickle you’ve gotten yourself into Discord, yes quite the pickle,” the creature’s voice was high and nasal, with a tone that sounded as if he was used to being obeyed. “Yes you're free from that abysmal stone prison but what’s the fun in that if you can't do anything with this? Not allowed to use magic for ‘Evil?’ I’m not Evil, they're all just boring!” A bed appeared in the middle of the clearing and the creature collapsed onto it dramatically, sighing. “This is going to be a very dull Reign of Chaos…”
Eris moved closer to see if she could get a better look at the strange convoluted creature, she stepped up onto a small mossy log when suddenly, CRACK! The log broke under her with a ear splitting snap and she tumbled into the clearing in full view of the beast.
“Well, well, what do we have here?” The creature said slithering off the bed and getting closer to the terrified young unicorn. She hissed at him and snapped viciously at his encroaching paw.
“Now, now, no need to be rude,” the creature said. He then snapped his fingers and Eris’ mouth was sealed shut with a zipper. She struggled, pulling at the zipper but to no avail.
“What’s a little creature like you doing this deep in the Everfree forest hmmm?” The beast began pacing around Eris, chuckling menacingly to himself as he watched her struggle with the magic zipper. “Are you a little spy Celestia has sent to watch me? Well?” He snapped his taloned hand again and the zipper unzipped and disappeared Eris looked around wildly wondering where it had gone.
“Now then, answer my question.”
Eris growled at the creature, the fur on the back of her neck pricking up. The beast sighed and covered his face with his paw.
“I see now, you’re a wild one aren’t you?” He moaned. He looked down at the little chocolate colored unicorn. “Guess I have nothing to worry about from you.” The creature folded the bed up into a suitcase and pulled a small hat out of nowhere and began to walk off. But Eris followed close at his heels. The creature attempted to shoo the unicorn away several times, one time attempting to use magic. But Eris just dodged the spell and kept walking.
“Look, kid,” the creature began, kneeling down next to Eris and putting on a pair of dark glasses. “I’ve gots ma’ own problemos to attend to ya see? I can’t have a little kiddy following me around!”
Eris in response sat down on her haunches and stared stubbornly at the creature, attempting to see through the dark lenses of the glasses. The creature glared back and the two sat there for a while, each waiting for the other to break. Finally the creature moaned and stood up.
“Those ponies are a bad influence on me,” he said shaking his head he turned away and beckoned to the little unicorn. “Looks like I’m going to be the one godfather tonight.”
***
“This will do nicely,” the creature said as they reached another clearing. A single fat old tree sat in the middle of the clearing, dejectedly, as if worried that the other trees would not accept him. The creature stepped up to the tree and began rubbing his hands together furiously, then he stuck both hands in a hole in the wood and pulled, making a small opening in the trunk. He turned to Eris.
“Well go on,” he said pointing to the opening. Cautiously Eris climbed up into the hole and fell into the tree. It was bigger on the inside. The room was round and the walls were made of rough tree bark. Eris paced around the room (surprised that there was enough room to pace in) taking it all in.
“You won’t be needing a bed.” The creature said suddenly at her side, Eris jumped and skittered away. It was a statement, not a question. “But I will provide you with a few things.” Suddenly several bookshelves popped into existence and, seeming of their own will, filled themselves with books. Eris stepped up to one on the floor, and sniffed at it. it was a big thing, it smelled like trees and something else, faint and bitter. Cautiously she put the thing in her mouth, and hurriedly spat it out. It was definitely not for eating! The creature groaned and picked up the thing.
“Looks like I’m going to have to teach you a few things,” he grumbled “First, I am you master Discord and second, this is called a book, you read it, not eat it. All right?”
Eris wrinkled her nose up at the book.
She hated books.
***
After several weeks Discord had pounded the rudiments of reading and spell casting into his young apprentice. Eris had even learned (with difficulty) to speak. But she rarely did, her stubborn and independent attitude made for poor student material and Discord seemed to think lack of food and water was appropriate punishment for misconduct. But master Discord was not a bad teacher. He fed her and let her stay in the tree. He even showed her how to find her way in the forest with the stars and sun. He was also very wise in the ways of Chaos Magic, able to answer any questions the young unicorn had for him. Although his favorite answer was: “you’re not ready to know that.”
One day while Eris was studying a particularly difficult and dull book, her master popped into the tree house and slithered next to her.
“I have a special lesson planned for today.” He said grinning. Eris slammed the book shut with a quick spell and turned to Discord eagerly. Her master’s lessons were never easy, but any excuse to stop reading that book would be welcome.
As per usual, Discord pulled a chalkboard out of seemingly nowhere and began to write across it: The Elements of Harmony.
“Aren’t the Elements just a myth?” Eris asked.
“Not at all!” Discord said turning away from the chalkboard, the chalk, ignorant of his letting go, continued to write on the board. “The elements are very real, and are our most feared enemy, or more accurately, their Guardians!”
“Guardians?”
“There are six elements correct?” Discord asked. Eris nodded. She rattled off the names of the six from memory.
“Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty and Magic.”
“I’m glad to see some of my training has stuck with you,” Discord said. “Yes those are the elements, and each element has a respective pony who can use it and its powers. They are called Guardians.” Eris watched a rough sketched of six mares appeared on the chalkboard.
“The Guardians are always six mares; each one exemplifies one of the Elements.”
A farm mare, a wild haired pegasus, a curly haired earth pony, a sophisticated unicorn and a shy long haired pegasus (draw with greater care and detail than the others).
“These are the current Guardians; learn their names and their traits.” Discord said, grabbing the chalk out of the air and proceeding to munch on it causally.
“But there’s only five…”
“Bright little one, aren’t you?”
Eris beamed at the comet at first, until she saw the cynical expression on her master’s face.
“The sixth one is a special case.”
Discord waved his hand across the board wiping away what had been there before and began to draw a sixth pony. One with both wings and a horn.
“This,” he said, with a tone of disgust in his voice. “Is Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic, and a young Alicorn princess. She is your most dangerous foe.”
Eris spent the rest of the day studying the elements and their properties. but Discord wasn’t satisfied with just that, he had her learn not just the individual powers of each of the elements, but what time of the day they were most powerful, what parts of the body the governed, what color they were, what emotions countered them, even what Old Gods were represented by each one.
At the end of the day, Eris, gleefully collapsed into the pile of stolen blankets that she had made a nest out of.
“Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty and Magic,” she muttered to herself. She grinned. At this point she probably knew more about the Elements then the Guardians themselves did. Then she closed her purple eyes and went to sleep.