Me and My Lord of Chaos

by Abryssle

Social Interactions

"I'm a human," I said as I turned around. Ugh. Rainbow Dash. Her bright rainbow mane was there to greet me after my 180 degree turn, and, in fact, it was her most prominent part, given she was at least two feet shorter than me. I didn't even really hate her character, normally. I was more annoyed by it. But with her in front of me, it felt like she was the worst pony i'd ever meet.

Maybe it was just thinking of having to deal with her and Discord simultaneously, I dunno.

"A human?" Dash said suspiciously. In a way, it was good that I was irritated, because the alternative to frustration probably would have been freezing up and staring.

"Yes, a human," I said. Dash glared at me. I stared down back at her, as disdainfully as i'd ever stared at someone. Or somepony, for that matter. The moment lingered on, past where it should have dissolved away into another sentence. Silent.

"What are you here to do, Human?" Dash said, whispering the word human as though humans were her sworn enemies.

"Look, Dash, I just want to-"

"Wait, how do you know my name?" Dash said, with honest confusion.

"Uh," I responded. Shit. I already failed at hiding my knowledge. "Well... Who... doesn't?" Dash was quiet for a few moments. I could basically do nothing but hope that would get accepted by her as a viable excuse; I could also have said I was a telepath, but that would be easy to disprove and establish me as possessing powers I didn't have. This did give fuel to her ego, though, which, considering it was Rainbow Dash, should-

"Are you a fan, then?" Dash said. It was incredibly obvious that she was trying to remain suspicious, but it wasn't working very well. I could hear pride underneath the fake suspicion. If there's a pony that I can deal with, really, even if I don't want to see them, it would be Rainbow Dash.

"I suppose so, yeah," I said, glancing past her.

"Well, I don't blame you. I am the most awesome pony ever, probably. Element of loyalty, a great flyer, and I helped beat ole' Nightmare Moon, and Discord!" She struck a little pose on the dirt path. I held in the squirming feeling of discomfort and fan rage I got at that. If there was any Element holder i'd question the most, it'd be you, Dash. And how much effort can it really take to use a magical artifact, anyways?

"Pretty impressive, sure," I said aloud. Discord was probably barely holding in his laughter at this point. I know that i'd cackle maniacally, given the current situation. I really wanted to leave, but I wasn't quite sure how to get out of the interaction.

She gave a small chuckle. "Yeah. I am pretty impressive."

"Sure," I said simply. I was silent a moment. Then I just started walking into town again.

I heard Dash cry out a "Hey, where are you going!" after me, which I ignored. She flew after. Naturally.

"I'm going into town," I said back, glancing to my right at the sound of flapping wings.

"Why are you heading into town?" She asked. Roughly as she had just a little bit ago. I still had no good answer.

"Just, well... you know. To be in town. To sightsee."

"Who goes to Ponyville to sightsee?" she said questioningly.

"Me." Fucking brilliant. Dash gave an odd look, but then she started heading away.

"Well, have fun with that, I guess, human guy. I'm gonna go take a nap. Training is tiring stuff." I watched her fly away into the air. I was almost into the edges of town; just barely away from where i'd start actually being likely to run into ponies.

"You handled that almost tolerably. Tolerable work, Aaron. Keep it up." I flinched at Discord talking again, still from behind me. Or my back, as it were.

"Shut up, Discord." I said as I resumed heading into town. I steeled myself as I entered what seemed to be the boundary of town. I could see a few ponies, easily within eyesight, walking around, and I knew it would only be so long til i'd get noticed and reacted too in some form or another. Really, even steel seemed an inadequate defense against being more obviously out of place in a social setting than I usually was on earth. Which was a lot.

Social interaction wasn't my thing.

The first pony to notice me was a brown-coated stallion that I didn't recognize, who paused in place and followed my motion with widened eyes. He didn't say anything, though, so I just ignored him and kept my head pointed straight forwards until the hood of my cloak blocked him entirely from my peripherals. Other ponies, naturally, also started to take note, some less silently than the stallion had. I was gathering a murmering crowd. It was terrifyingly exact in its resemblance to my feared entrance. I did the same for every other pony that spotted me as I had for the brown stallion; ignored them and kept walking until the edges of my hood blocked them conveniently from my sight.

Where am I going, I wondered. And the answer was an enthusiastic, "Who knows?" I had no idea where I wanted to end up, and really, even if I did, I didn't know the size or layout of Ponyville. I settled on just trying to look for landmarks I did know, and I could decide whether or not i'd stop when I got to one. My quietly murmering crowd followed behind me as I entered the area of town that seemed to serve as marketplace. Which meant more ponies. I would have stopped and just rested to try and fix my mental fatigue at the idea, but then, of course, i'd have to stop in front of my crowd, and the ponies in the marketplace would approach me from the front, and then I would be surrounded. Zombie movie style. Only with nonaggreessive ponies.

I kept going a while longer, ignoring the ponies that joined my small trailing crowd as I passed through the marketplace. I got past what seemed the last stand and then kept going for another minute before I stopped. I heard the actually surprisingly loud hooofsteps of all the ponies behind me gradually stop,as did their chattering, also surprisingly loud, given how much its absence seemed to enhance the forming silence. It was overwhelming, the forming silence. I turned slowly around.

"Can anypony direct me to the town library?

Several ponies pointed to their right, and several at once gave hasty directions. I heard one of them well enough to make it out.

"Thanks," I said before promptly turning left and walking to where they'd directed.

---

I was incredibly thankful that the rest of the trip to the library went smoothly. If it hadn't, I had little doubt that my heart would have exploded from overworking itself. But, as it was, the crowd had dispersed after i'd asked for directions, as if the revelation that I could talk and maybe wanted a book made me entirely regular. Or perhaps they all just thought that I had purpose in where I was going and decided to let me go about my task. I had no real way of knowing. I just accepted it as a gift.

I knocked on the library's small wooden door. It was really quite small, smaller than me by maybe a foot and a half or so. As such, my knock was more my wrist repeatedly flicking my hand against the door than the normal lower-arm-and-hand rapping of the knuckles.

It took a few seconds, and then I remembered that the place was actually a public library, and that I could just walk in. I did so, stooping to get under the top of the doorframe, which was, of course, the wood of a tree. Only in being there did how weird Equestria was begin to pummel me over the head. I paused for a moment inside, just... It was hard to explain. Letting my inner fan (who'd been, up til now, alternatingly terrified and irritated into hiding) come out and just bask in the environment. My eyes immediately started to dart around the place and soak up details, and froze when they reached the purple unicorn peering with a burning curiosity at me from halfway down the staircase to the right.

"What are you?" Twilight said, slowly beginning to descend the staircase.

"I'm a human," I said simply. I looked around for a second, and then realized that my hood was annoying now that I was indoors, with only one other sentient- well, only one other speaking sentient being in the room, and one who I wanted to talk to. So I lowered my hood.

"A human?" Twilight repeated.

"Yeah," I said back. The thought that this was basically a not quite as accusatory introduction process as my speaking with Dash was not lost on me. If I have to repeat this process again after this...

"I've never heard of a creature called a human before..." Twilight said, almost to herself. I looked at the ceiling, lacking anything to say back to that. Every damned introduction was so, so awkward. So painfully awkward. I mean, that made sense; this was part of the reason going to Equestria was so not appealing. Ponies I recognized would all be, to me, nothing less than celebrities. Heck. More than most real human world celebrities, to me.

I would, to them, be a weird alien thing that knew too much about them and seemed eerily happy just being near them.

"Well, uh. So..." I said after a period of silence.

"Where are you from? I mean, it can't be anywhere in Equestria, or i'd have read about your kind somewhere." She said that all fast. She was clearly getting excited by the possibility of gaining new scientific knowledge. Which I can't give her, I realized suddenly. I was not a good liar, I knew. I kept mostly to a policy of honesty, whenever possible. And I knew that if I said, "I'm from a different dimension," the question of me getting to this dimension would come up. And considering how I got here, the true explanation would not be advisable to communicate.

"Earth," my mouth gave out as my thoughts were focused on the matter how I shouldn't say anything related to my honest origins. Fuck.

"Earth?" Twilight said. "Hmm, i've never heard of that either..."

"It's in another plane of existence," I said. "So. That does make sense."

"You're from another dimension?" Twilight said excitedly. The utterance didn't phase her much. She released a stream of questions. None of which I could answer. "How'd you come here, then? Why'd you come here? Why are you in Ponyville's library? Oh, so many questions to get answered!"

"Uh," I said.

"Ugh, Twilight, what's going on?" Came a tired voice from up the stairs. Spike, my brain instantly thought. Indeed, I saw the small purple dragon coming down the stairs as my head turned reflexively towards the voice. The little dragon gave a small start in surprise on noticing me. "Woah. What's that thing?"

"I'm a human," I said for the third time. Or perhaps it had been more times. It wasn't something I was going to try keeping count for. No one said anything for a few seconds. I couldn't think of anything to do. And Discord wasn't helping, on my own command. Subtlety. "Yeah, so, I don't really know how I got here, so..." I said.

"Here as in this structure, or here as in this plane of existence?" Twilight asked.

"...Here as in this plane of existence," I said after a few seconds. That was a simple lie, and arguably necessary for my survival, as the truth would reveal me as Discord's... conspirator? Friend? No term that came to mind seemed to fit. Even so, the falsehood put a bad taste in my mouth.

"You look really weird," Spike commented as he reached a point near Twilight's side. I might have felt offended, but I really didn't. For one thing, I did, even by human standards, what with the ridiculously colored clothes made out of... Well, Discord, but visually, I had no idea. Also, Spike was really small in contrast to me, and it was sort of funny. Like. He was at maybe just above my kneecaps in height. It was adorable, for lack of better defining word. It was like watching a child speak in fluid, intelligent sentences. Which it was.

"Spike!" Twilight scolded. "It's an interdimensional being, of course it looks a little... odd."

"Ah, it's no big deal. I probably do look odd to you guys. Being all bipedal, and wearing clothes, and... stuff." I just sort of drifted off. I had no idea what to do. I had no idea what I had been doing. I wondered what Discord was doing. Really, the experience of being in Equestria was summarized by that; doing things with no purpose or direction.

"Well, if you were in Equestria already, why'd you come here?" Twilight asked, randomly returning to the last note of actual coversation.

"What?" I said back.

"Why'd you come to the library, uh-" She paused.

"Aaron," I volunteered. "And-" I slammed my mouth shut. -to see you? "-to get a book?" Twilight was quiet a moment.

"On what?" Spike said, seemingly oblivious to how stupid the question was.

"...uh." I had nothing. I truly blanked. It had been inevitable, I would have supposed, were my mind not busy desperately trying to think. Everything took too much thought, and it was getting to me. "I.. I don't know..." I rubbed my temples and let my eyes shut. "I'm really tired right now, after getting dragged through the dimensional barrier."

Twilight, who at this point seemed as confused as I did, if not outwardly more, didn't react. Spike yawned.

"You're not the only one who's tired."

"Spike, it's late in the morning. You got plenty of sleep," Twilight responded. Spike spoke again, but I wasn't paying attention to him. Or Twilight. How is it that the only time I stop caring too much about equestria is when i'm there? I looked at my arm, at the light tan color of the sleeve covering it. I hesitated for a moment. I heard Twilight say my name questioning as she realized my tired daze. I considered responding, but then I just thought, for once simply and unopposed by any part of myself, No. I tugged on my left sleeve sharply.

"Teleport me to somewhere secluded. I need to speak to you." I saw both others in the library look immensely confused as I opened my eyes, and then swirling darkness. My eyes were jolted by the complete transition of scenary. It was very dark, which made me happy. Making me less happy were the large, dull green trees looming overhead, the odd silence, and the wide variety of dense plants everywhere on the ground. Having no impact on my emotional state but being vaguely surprising, Discord had disappeared from my upper body.

"You know, I must say, this whole stealth and subtlety thing is rather dull, as funny as it is watching you try to be calm," Discord said from behind me. I turned around. Yes, there he was, in his regular form, face rather unamused for the first time

"The Everfree Forest? Really?" I said.

"You wanted out, you wanted seclusion. Everfree Forest," Discord said as if that was the most logical conclusion possible. I llifted my glasses off my face and lowered the lenses to the bottom of my shirt, and started cleaning each.

"Still." I held up the lense I was working on. It wasn't clean. I lowered it back down. "...So, your brilliant plan of bringing me for amusement isn't working out?" Discord gave a small irritated sound from his throat.

"It was fine until the end. But then your performance just sucked. No emoting, you weren't at all flustered, you gave nothing away. Boring, in a statement." I checked the lense. Clean. Onto the next.

"Yeah, that happens when people are constantly confused and irritated for a while." I sighed and looked up with my blurred sight over to where he hovered. "You know, just- just what did you expect?" Discord gave a small laugh.

"I don't expect. Things you expect are boring." I put my glasses back on.

"Yeah, okay. Sure. But like, I mean. It's... what'd-" I cut myself off. I was fumbling. I took a second to work the sentence in my head, and then spoke again. "Why would you even make a game where you're under the control of someone who's going to for sure be more boring than you?" Discord was silent. I kept going. "You had to have recognized that i'm not as chaotic as you. If I was as chaotic as you, i'd have been locked up by other humans, on account of that I don't have any sort of powers to prevent that from happening. I mean. Besides that, if I was as chaotic as you, then the universe would, like. Break. Or something. Because you're supposed to be chaos incarnate." I paused. This was getting long winded. I was surprised Discord had been silent the whole time, actually. But he seemed stuck. I couldn't continue, because I found my fatigued self was just watching him. "Discord?"

"I said already. I need an audience," he said calmly, out of nowhere.

"But that could just be ponies," I said flatly.

"No. The audience has to appreciate it, and ponies do not. They don't ever appreciate it. Not fully, at least," Discord said more towards his normal voice.

"And I do?"

"Yes," Discord said. "In some way or another, yes, indeed; you do."

"...Are you just lonely?" I said after thinking for a few seconds. Discord chuckled.

"You seem to be regaining your steam away from Ponyville," Discord said calmly. I took note of how he dodged that question. Really, really smoothly--so smoothly in voice and facial control it was like he was metphorically covered in lubricant--but still, he'd dodged it. "Well that's happening..." Discord snapped, and instantly the few trees within immediate reach brust into mist. Also, a bed appeared. That frightened me. "...I think I might take my exemption."

"Uh..."

Comments

[Tyrant Molestia]

wow. was not expecting that.

[Tome Turner]

Dawwww... Discord's all lonely...
So he goes to another dimension and flirts with some random guy then moves him to another dimension where he gets his new flirt buddy to wear his body as clothing... Cute!

[Sonicfury01]

So are they gonna... cuddle?