Ah’m used to eatin’ with others. Ah’m a family mare, after all. Loud chewin’, burpin’, poor manner, all that stuff and more. Ya’d think ah’d hate it. No, ah love it. Ponies ought to be who they are. They shouldn’t hide behind some masks and pretend to be fancy all the time. So Rarity, bless her heart, can keep her frou-frou stuff. The same for everyone else. As long as a pony kept true to themselves, ah could eat with ‘em just fine.
That didn’t mean everyone would do. Like now, just sitting across from my ‘boyfriend’, eatin’ apple pie. It just feels so strange. This was the guy who tried to take over Equestria a year ago. Now he’s my boyfriend and we’re just eatin’ together? Like nothin’s off about this? This ain’t right.
Now ah’m doin’ it again. Thinkin’ somethin’s wrong. Stupid is what it is. Real stupid, Applejack. Ah sighed inwardly. He just made me so nervous sometimes. This whole thing was just so new. Ah didn’t know what to do. So ah just ate in silence, so did he. Maybe he’s still nervous. He doesn’t show it, but Discord’s good at lying. He turned me into one after all. Ah snorted. He wasn’t like that anymore. It wasn’t right to keep bringin’ that up.
Discord was mine now. Ah’d whip him into shape. Least he’s got an Apple’s appetite. He chowed down like his life depended on it. Slirping up the last one, he patted his extended stomach and burped. “Now that hit the spot. I don’t know how you do it, but your pies are the best thing I’ve ever had. That’s saying something given my mother’s cooking. She’s so good, you’ll go ‘crazy-” his eyes twirled in their sockets. “-over them.”
“Aw shucks,” ah blushed slightly. Why does he keep havin’ to be so nice? “It’s nothin’ special.” Ah took a deep breath. There was a reason ah let him eat in with me today. He wasn’t goin’ to like it.
“Nothing special?” Discord just stared at me like ah lost my mind. “My dearest Applejack, these pies are simply to die for.” He suddenly slumped over and A GHOST him came out of his body. “That’s a fact.”
Ah jumped back a little in my seat in surprise. He just had to do stuff like that, didn’t he? Ah snorted and glare at him. “Don’t do that.”
Discord’s spirit chuckled and went back into his body. He straightened himself out. “I’m sorry. I just can’t help it.” He booped my nose. “You’re just so cute when you’re surprised.” He wisely took his finger off me. “Of course, you’re always cute. My cute, little apple.” He chuckled to himself.
Ah growled, blushin’ harder than ever. “Sh-shut up, ya idiot. Ah want ya to listen up and listen good.” Was ah really gonna ask him ‘bout this? Ah shouldn’t. That beast got what she deserved. That didn’t sit right with me though. Not a bit.
Discord put his hands behind his ears as they grew five times their size. “Hmm?”
“Sweetkill,” ah said, causin’ him to tense up and stop his body mashup. “Is she okay?”
Discord frowned. “I don’t know why you’d ask that. She tried to kill you. If anything, I would think you’d do your best to forget about her.”
“‘Cause ah just don’t like the thought of her sufferin’, alright.” Ah snorted. “Forgive me for havin’ a conscious.”
“She tried to eat you,” Discord narrowed his eyes. “Don’t you remember that? You barely survived. If I hadn’t shown up, you’d be fertilizer right now.”
“Everyone deserves a second chance,” ah said it more to convince myself really. Yeah, Sweetkill was terrible, but ah’m sure there was more to her. Sometimes, she’d just talk a bit about what was aggravating her, or’d lazily lay around the Swamp and say ah wasn’t worth the effort. “We gave ya one.”
“You shouldn’t have,” Discord slammed his fist into the table. My jaw dropped. Did he really just say that. “Ponies have always been so trusting. You want everyone to be your friend so badly you let monsters like me run among you.”
“Yer not a monster,” ah shouted.
Discord just rolled his eyes. “Oh really? Tell me, what did I do the first time I was released?” Ah couldn’t answer him, so ah turned away. Ah really didn’t want to think about ‘that’ day, ever again. “Exactly and that was just me playing nice. I could have done so much worse and I should have. I should have done more to stop you all, but for some reason I didn’t. Call it an influx of insanity, or perhaps it was because I had at least an ounce of sanity left from being stoned for centuries. You can thank Celestia for that. Reading to me every day, thinking I’d change...and doing all these silly voices.” He gagged. “It’s like she still thinks I’m that little kid she used to babysit. I’m a grown up, Celestia!” He shook his fist in the air, a angelic spotlight lit up his frame. “And I ought to be treated as such.”
Ah chuckled. It’s just like him to get off track like that. Ah took his paw in my hoof and smiled up at him. “Ah have to agree with the Princess.”
Discord was in a clown costume, because of course he was. “Do I look silly to you?”
“Ya make it obvious,” ah pointed out. My boyfriend, tickles me pink to think that, scoffed and the costume vanished. “Ah just want ya to undo whatever curse ya placed on her.”
“Why should I?” He crossed his arms.
“No kisses fer a week,” ah smirked when his eyes widened. We haven’t kissed lip to lip yet, but he always got so poofy when ah kissed his cheek or nose. Discord always loved those.
“First it’s no cuddles and tea time from my bestie,” Discord grumbled. “And now no kisses from the missus. What has my life become?”
“Oh just get goin’, ya idiot.” Ah pushed his paw back and glared at him.
“And there’s the Tsun,” Discord grinned and held up his paw. “When I get back, I’ll make sure to kiss that right out of you.” He poofed off.
Ah growled, flushin’ red because of anger. That was it. He couldn’t just kiss me whenever. Not yet, anyways. “Stupid god.”
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Another plume of fire shot up into the sky next to us and yet, we were getting colder. The first few days were ‘okay’. We could still kill some of the giant rats and the fire kept us freezing. It was getting harder to feel warm now. Our fur wasn’t growing back for some reason and this cloud wouldn’t stop snowing. Maybe I didn’t know how fur worked all that well. My sisters always had fur. I never did. Maybe they’re doing better.
I can feel them shivering just as bad as me, so I think it’s safe to say that isn’t true. It’s harder to move now. My sisters were getting worried. They kept me closest to the fires and I loved them for it. A part of me knew we weren’t going to make it. It’s so cold, it’s hard to speak. The snow won’t stop and fire doesn’t melt it fast enough anymore.
I was about to try speaking again, when we heard something. It sounded so strange, yet so sinister. Was it someone chuckling? If it was, I hoped they stayed far away from us.
“Aww,” a familiar voice spoke from all around. “You’re freezing. Isn’t that a shame.” I shivered in fear. He was mocking us. “You girls were harder to find than I thought you’d be. Though, I wasn’t really trying to find you. Either way, this is your lucky day.”
We all gulped and tried to make ourselves smaller. Maybe he’d just go away. What more could he take from us? No, I don’t want to know what that monster could do. It popped out from the air in front of us and we screamed. It’s horrifying.
The one known as Discord pouted. “I am not that ugly.” He shrugged. “Oh who am I to care what you think. I’m just here to undo a curse and leave.”
“Wh-what?” My tiger sister spoke up. She was always the bravest of us.
“Didin’t you hear me?” Somehow, my tiger’s sister’s ears were those megaphones turned backwards. Discord leaned forward and shouted, “I’m undoing the curse!”
The ringing went through all of us. We just back in shock, while we rubbed our sister’s ears. “Why? You didn’t seem like you wanted to see us, let alone help us.”
“I don’t want to help you,” Discord opened the side of his head and a bunch of small marbles rained down. I know what marbles are from that one pony merchant a few years back. We didn’t get to kill him, since he just teleported away after trying to sell us marbles. Discord clutched them as they rained down. “You see these?” He closed his head back up. “Each one is a different manner of torture I envisioned when I saw you trying to eat my mare.” His grip tightened. The marbles glowed all sorts of colors. “Each one is cruel and unusual in so many ways that not even I can list them.” His grin sent shivers down our back. “This isn’t even including my father’s realm. Oh, I could have just chucked you there and let all sorts of manner of daemons tear you apart for eternity.” He chuckled, which sounded off. “Quick and easy and Applejack wouldn’t be the wiser.”
“Pl-please,” I whimpered.
“Have mercy,” my goat sister spoke up.
“Mercy?” Discord titled his head so much that it twisted around back into a tilt. “Mercy?” His eyes were ablaze with purple fire and… we were small. He grabbed us in his paw like we were just a pup, which apparently we were pup sized now. “Where was this mercy when you tried to eat Applejack, hmm? I know I’m cruel, but I’ve never killed anyone.”
“W-we were hungry,” my tiger sister spoke up.
“It’s true,” my goat sister nodded. “There’s just so little eat around here.”
“You have giant rats,” Discord growled and his grip tightened around us. “I find it hard to believe you need a pony to survive.”
“Please,” we cried. “We won’t do it again. We’ll never hurt another pony again. We promise.” After what happened, I don’t think any of us could even look at a pony without having a heart-attack. Do we have just one heart, or three? I couldn’t think about that right now, because of my fear.
Then we were full sized and WE HAD FUR! Yes! No snowy cloud. We were warm and cozy and YEOWTCH! Fire! Fire! Why did we have to sit on the fire springs? Why did it have to shoot us up into the air?
Oof.
...Why is the ground so hard?
“I’m glad we came to an understanding,” Discord chuckled and was dressed like that witch trick or treater foal we tried to eat once. Again, she escaped. We have terrible luck with ponies. “I honestly would have preferred to let you freeze to death in a fire swamp, but eh, ponies have morals to live by.” He cringed on the word ‘morals’. He jumped on some broom and waved. “Arrivederci!”
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We were still hungry. That beast ‘Discord’ scared away all the creatures when he came by. Just like he did last time. It’s like he gives off this aura that drives him away. We can wait for them to come back. That’s probably the best option. We’re still weak from all that cold and no food for days. We’re strong enough to break a rat’s back though, so we shouldn’t worry about the killing part.
Then we heard the familiar sounds of somepony coming. They were even trailing a cart behind them. Usually, we’d have set up an ambush for the stupid pony. Now, we just screamed and dived into a bush. We didn’t want ‘her’ to see us. No, not ever again. She could do what she wanted, but she had to leave us alone. The sound were getting closer and we started to shake. She was going to hate us and hurt us. She was going to get that beast to curse us once more. Why wouldn’t she go away.
The cart stopped before us. This was it. We were going to die. We were too young to die. We haven’t even mated yet. Actually, that’s a lie, but no cubs came of it. We waited for her to find us. We weren’t that hard to find. How could you not? The bush was shaking with us.
She didn’t find us. The cart just started off. Why didn’t she attack us?
“Hey Sweetkill,” the mare called Applejack yelled.
We growled. She knew we were here and she was going to mock us. We might as well answer. So we stuck out our head and said, “What?” Then we smelt something oh so good~ Looking down, we saw an apple pie. Why was there an apple pie in front of the bush? Did she drop it and want us to give it back?
“It’s on the house,” she said and we just stared at her in shock. She was giving us free food? After what we had done? Was this pony mad? “Consider it an apology and maybe a truce between us. What’ya say?”
We just stared at the pony. She wanted a truce? No more fighting? We shouldn’t believe her. She was with the beast. We should kill her for that. We should kill her for the stupidity.
“I’m hungry,” I hissed.
“Quiet,” my tiger sister spoke. She didn’t move us to kill the stupid pony. Maybe we should believe her. It wouldn’t hurt. So we took the pie. Better it than nothing.
“See ya next time, Sweetkill.” She waved us off with her hat before going on.
We wouldn’t kill the stupid pony. Another predator would get her for being so nice. We wouldn’t. Biting into the pie, we knew we would never. This pie was just so… so much that we couldn’t help ourselves. We scarfed it down. If Applejack gave us more pies, we might help her against other predators.
We are really clever when we want to be.