> Gem-Cord > by Discorded SheepcityUSA > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Freaky-Looking but Strangely Cool > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There were not enough words to describe the absolute mess that Ponyville was in right now. The ground had been given a checkerboardish, purple pattern, cotton candy clouds flew nonsensically across the skies and raining down chocolate milk on unsuspecting victims, and buffalos dressed in tutus danced ballet through town. The little town of ponies was in, for lack of a better word, a state of complete unrest and chaos. It was perfect. Among the madness sat the very creature responsible on a dark red throne in the middle of Ponyville, laughing out loud at the ponies’ misery and the chaos he had unleashed upon them. At the very sound of his laugh, the sound of thunder echoed in the skies and a flurry of pies began raining down onto the city streets, amusing the master of chaos even further. To say that Discord was pleased with himself would be an understatement. He’d finally managed to escape his stone prison after nearly a millennia, taken Ponyville for himself and re-created it to his personal taste, and even gone as far as to take the very mares that threatened to imprison him again out of the equation. Seeing them fight each other like that would have been worth it alone, but seeing the ringleader of the group, Twilight Sparkle, finally abandoning all hope? Delicious. Just as Discord was recalling the day’s events, a cotton candy cloud passed him by and stopped right at the side of his throne. Feeling a little parched, Discord summoned a glass and held it below the cloud, filling it up with its chocolate rain contents from the top, down. “Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing~” Discord mused to himself, putting a paw to his chest. Just as Discord was about to take a drink though, he heard the absolute last thing that even the God of Chaos himself would have expected to hear. “Not as wonderful as friendship!” a very recognizable voice shouted confidently at him. Discord quickly turned to see the very six mares that he had thought he’d gotten rid of stepping forth to oppose him. ‘Hm. Some ponies just don’t learn from failure I suppose. Oh well, might as well give em a show.’ Discord thought to himself with a roll of his eyes. “Oh this again.” Discord said with a growing smirk, putting his glass of chocolate milk to his lips. The glass portion then quickly vanished into his mouth, leaving the chocolate milk portion seemingly frozen in his claw. Discord took one look at it, shrugged, and absentmindedly threw it behind him. Not even moments later, an explosion was heard in the distance. “That’s right! You couldn’t break apart our friendship fer long!” Applejack yelled, stomping a hoof on the ground. Still very much unintimidated, Discord only reached out a lion finger, which glowed a little. “Oh Applejack, don’t lie to me.” Applejack’s Element of Harmony started to glow the same color as Discord’s finger and dragged her over to him, her struggling proving futile against Discord’s magic. Applejack was now levitated in front of Discord, giving her a sadistic grin. “I’m the one that made you a liar~” Discord then reached out his eagle claw, and the rest of the ponies, save for Twilight, were dragged upwards towards him. Their struggling only made Discord snicker. “Will you ever learn?~” He asked the mares, an obvious taunting and condescending tone present in his voice. Twilight now feared greatly feared for her friend’s safety and the pained look her friends were making at being seemingly violently dragged into that position only made her feel worse. She had to act now or else Discord might bring them harm. Thinking quickly, Twilight teleported to her friends and used her magic to summon a glowing, pink bubble around them, using it to float back down to safety with her friends. As the bubble made contact with the ground, a portion of the purple, checkerboarded pattern returned to the state of natural grass. Discord was a little shocked by this, and quite frankly, a little irritated that Twilight had to go and mess up his playtime with his new toys. Nevertheless, he had to remain looking confident, so he quickly put a finger to his lips and made gave the ponies an amused and taunting face. “I’ll tell you what we’ve learned Discord! We’ve learned that friendship isn’t always easy, but there’s no doubt it’s worth fighting for!” Twilight yelled confidently, stomping both hooves down in front of her. Her friends quickly trotted by her side, all of them smirking and ready to face Discord. Discord fought the urge to heave at that. This speech of Twilight’s was almost sappy enough to make him wretch in disgust. Instead though, Discord teleported down to the mare’s level and stuck out his tongue. “Nnnngh, gag! Fine, go ahead and try to use your little elements, frenemies~ Just make it quick” Discord taunted, teleporting back to his throne. “I’m missing some excellent chaos here!” ‘Maybe once you fail again we can give peace a chance and you six can get out of my hair.’ Discord thought to himself. “Alright ladies, lets show him what friendship can do!” Twilight shouted, her friends surrounding her and ready to fire… All except for Pinkie Pie. “Waitwaitwait!” Pinkie shouted, making everypony, Discord included, flinch a little. They all looked to the left and saw Pinkie Pie quickly indulging in one of the chocolate milk clouds with her tongue hanging out of her mouth in delight. ‘Well at least SOME ponies have good taste.’ Discord mused. If she wasn’t one of the wretched mares trying to get rid of him, he probably would have considered taking that one on as an apprentice of some sort. Ah well, it is what it is. Once Pinkie had finally drank her fill of chocolate milk, she hopped back beside her friends, fully prepared to face Discord. Now that her friends were assembled together, Twilight lit up her horn. A bright purple, magical aura surrounded the group of ponies and began to charge. Discord, still very much unafraid, only yawned in response. ‘I guess these ponies just don’t know when they’re beaten. Though it is rather amusing to watch them struggle to dethrone me. Oh well, perhaps this last little defeat will get it through their thick sk-‘ Discord was suddenly torn from his thoughts when he heard a slight “Whoosh” sound fly by his ears. Quickly opening his eyes, Discord looked around and saw that several glowing lights in the shapes of the Elements of Harmony were flying around him, one that would’ve made contact directly with his head if he hadn’t ducked out of its path. Now wearing a very confused and disturbed look, Discord leaned forward in his throne. “Hm? What’s this?” Discord asked nopony in particular. He looked onward to see that the Elements around the ponies’ necks were glowing brightly and shooting the glowing, cutie-mark shaped lights around him. Discord’s eyes widened and ears folded in realization. The Elements were working again. “…No…” The group of ponies was lifted up into the air, all of their eyes glowing a bright white color, and the aura around them growing ever brighter and stronger. And then, after a few more seconds of charging, a bright rainbow erupted from them and flew across the sky. The rainbow then reeled downwards like a speeding roller coaster and was heading straight for its target. Discord himself. At this point, Discord was paralyzed with fear, far too much to try to escape. It was as if his body wasn’t listening to him as he told it to try and flee from the magic friendship rainbow of death. All he was seemingly able to do was scream. “NOOOOOO-“ The rainbow had finally hit its mark, and all of a sudden, Discord’s entire world went black. Beach City could be considered far from normal. If one were to simply look at it, it would appear just as any normal, beachside little town. Not heavily populated, right by the water, it overall looked very calm and serene… This is very misleading. For a very long time, some of the most bizarre things imaginable have occurred in this small little town due to the presence of four specific residents. They may have lived there for a VERY long time, but they could still be considered “From out of town” Though “From out of planet” would probably be a better word. At least for two of them. For the specific two that were actually born on Earth though, their lives were just as unusual as the ones that were not. Right now though, they were just enjoying a relatively simple afternoon where they were enjoying each other’s company and indulging in donut holes in front of the local donut shop. And overall having fun with it. Sitting at a table in front of said donut shop was a young boy with curly black hair wearing a red shirt with a star symbol in the middle of it, blue jeans, and a pair of sandals. The other was a purple-skinned, long-haired woman, not much taller than the boy himself, wearing a black tunic with purple leggings that had black star patches at the knees. The most noticeable feature of the woman however, was the purple gemstone sitting at the very top of her chest. The boy at the table had a bag filled with donut holes held tight in his hand and had an ever-growing smile on his face. “Alright, Amethyst, are you ready?” he asked the woman. The woman identified as Amethyst gave the boy a slight smirk and a chuckle. “I’m ALWAYS ready Steven.” Steven nodded and reached into the bag, pulling out a small, glazed donut hole, and held his hand that was holding it back. “Alright…Fire in the donut hole!” he shouted as he tossed the glazed desert at Amethyst. Amethyst’s smirk grew and a very bright, white light surrounded her, her shape appearing to change from the inside of it. When the light cleared, in Amethyst’s place was a small purple frog that had her gemstone at the top of its chest. Amethyst had shapeshifted. With the donut hole coming her way, frog-Amethyst quickly shot out her long tongue and latched onto it, pulling it into her mouth quickly. She then returned to her normal form and chewed on the donut hole with a satisfied look on her face. Steven seemed to be ecstatic over this as his eyes were practically beaming with wonder. “Woooah, nice catch Amethyst!” “Hehe, hey well ya know. It’s a little too easy when you can shapeshift.” Amethyst said, shrugging her shoulders a little. Steven smiled a little at that. Out of all of his friends in the Crystal Gems, Amethyst had to probably be the most fun to hang around. Mainly because she was the most like him and was the most laid back of the group. It almost felt like the same way he hung out with his dad. Heck, Amethyst even had the same long hair. Steven reached into the bag for another donut hole for himself, but noticed something very strange when he felt around in it. The bag was completely empty. Steven looked in the bag with a confused look on his face, and sure enough, his fears were confirmed. “Whaaaat?! How could we already be out of donut holes? There were so many in there a second ago.” Although a little miffed that they were out of donut holes, Amethyst tried to keep her humor up for Steven’s sake in this situation. “Hehe, hey maybe some kind of evil Gem monster snuck over and took them when we weren’t looking.” Steven blinked a little and tilted his head. “…Do Gem monsters even eat?” Amethyst shrugged. “Hey, I’m no monster, but I’m a Gem. I eat all the time. I don’t HAVE to but still. Eating’s fun.” Steven put a hand under his chin and kept his eyes glued on the bag. “Gotta agree with you there…still, what happened to the rest of our donut holes?” Just as Steven asked that, both of them heard a light “Poof”, followed by a slightly loud rustling coming from the side of the Big Donut building. Amethyst’s head perked up at the sound and she got up from her seat, ever so slowly walking toward the source of the sound. Steven cautiously followed her, and both of them found that it was coming from the dumpster. This was confirmed when they saw the dumpster shaking a little and heard the “Poof” sound again, only this time, they could see a small flash of light coming from the dumpster. “Ummm…Amethyst I think something’s in there…” Steven said a little nervously. Amethyst, knowing that Steven could be in danger from whatever was in there, put a hand to the gem on her chest, making it glow a little. She then pulled back, now drawing a whip from the gem that had small, purple gems studded on it. Now with her weapon in hand, she approached the dumpster even closer and looked inside, fully prepared to smite whatever monster was inside. Well, there was a monster in the dumpster alright. It was just not what Amethyst was expecting at all. Whatever it was, it was without a doubt one of the strangest creatures she’d ever seen (and considering what herself and the other Gems face on a regular basis, that’s saying a lot). It had some kind of strange, snake-like body with a reptile-like tail, a goat hoof and a reptilian leg, a lion paw and an eagle claw, an oversized blue bird wing and bat wing, a deer antler and goat horn, and the head of some kind of horse. And given the small size and huge, cartoonish eyes the creature had, Amethyst could pretty quickly figure out that this thing was probably still in its child years. The creature looked up at Amethyst with a slightly irritated look in addition to puffed out cheeks. “Mmmph…do you mind? I’m-Mmmph-trying to eat here.” It said in a squeaky voice that was slightly muffled from his mouth being full. Amethyst noticed that the creature was chewing on donut holes, presumably the same ones she and Steven had been eating. Normally, she would have been ungodly mad about this, but she was a little too focused on the fact that this thing could talk. “WHAT THE WHAT?! IT CAN TALK?!?” Amethyst practically yelled. The little monster then stood up in the dumpster and crossed his arms. “I’m not an “It”, I’m a “He” thank you very much.” It said with the same look that Amethyst couldn’t label as angry or sarcastic. Steven seemed to be just as shocked at seeing this new creature as Amethyst was, as he was staring wide-eyed at it with an open mouth. “…Woooooah, what is THAT?” He asked. “I don’t have a clue but…wow it’s freaky looking…and strangely cool. It’s like someone took a bunch of animals and stuck them in a blender.” Amethyst said, looking him over and taking note of the creature’s interspecies body parts. The monster rolled his eyes at the pair’s curiosity. “Yes yes, I’m a wonder, I don’t need to be told that…although I don’t mind the occasional praise~” the creature then smirked and seemed to snicker a little. “I’d LOVE to tell you all about me, but frankly, I can’t.” Steven almost immediately looked disappointed. “Awwww, why noooot? You’re so cool looking!” Steven whined. “Well the thing is…I don’t even really know enough about myself to tell you.” He said with his ears lowering to his head and his mouth turned into a frown. Amethyst and Steven both looked at each other for a moment before turning back to him. “Soooo like…you have amnesia? You seriously got nothing?” Amethyst asked. The creature shook his head. “Very little. Just the fact that I can do this.” The creature then snapped its fingers and the entire dumpster he was standing on was engulfed in a bright flash of white light, making Steven and Amethyst, with Amethyst tightening the grip she had on her whip. When the light cleared, the dumpster was completely gone, and in its place was a big cube of cherry-flavored gelatin, with the creature still standing on it. “Impressive huh?~” it said with a smirk as he started to bounce up and down on the gelatin with a big smile, holding onto his feet as he did so. If Steven and Amethyst weren’t stunned by the sudden appearance of this thing before, they definitely were now. Whatever the creature was, it had just turned a dumpster into gelatin with seemingly no effort on its part at all. “…..Uuuuh…and you’re sure you have no other memories at all?” Steven asked. The creature put a lion paw to his chin and had a look that conveyed he was thinking hard about him, though he never stopped bouncing up and down. “Hmm…just my name.” The creature cleared his throat. “Discord, spirit of chaos at your service sir and madame.” Amethyst raised an eyebrow. “Spirit of chaos huh?” Her eyes then lowered down to look at the cube of gelatin and them back up at Discord’s very odd anatomy. “…Yeah I can see where that comes from.” Steven looked up at Discord and smiled big, mainly happy to meet a new friend, but also that he was able to do some pretty cool things with whatever powers he had. It was a spectacle alright. “Nice to meet you Discord. My name’s Steven, and this is Amethyst.” “Yo.” Amethyst said putting up a hand. Discord himself was then engulfed in the same white light that the dumpster was and disappeared from sight and reappeared in Amethyst’s hair. “You don’t mind if I just sit here do you? I’ve spent hours sleeping in that garbage and it was soooo uncomfortable. Hours I tell you!” Although Amethyst was a little weirded out by Discord wanting to stay inside her hair, she figured it couldn’t do any real harm. “…Alright…but I want something for letting you stay in there.” Discord rolled his eyes a little. “You want that big cube of gelatin don’t you?” Amethyst said nothing but nodded in agreement. > Meeting the other Gems > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Discord may not have seemed much like it, but he was actually rather nervous about his entire situation. He had literally no memory besides that of his name and title, and he was in a very strange place inhabited by strange creatures that he also didn’t recognize. Of course, it’s not as if his own body was all that normal either, but it was still unusual. He liked unusual. Though he still had to ask himself if having a shiny rock planted in the middle of your chest was normal in this world. Even still, he had to act unafraid of anything and confident, should any of these creatures be hostile or meat eaters. It was all he could think of at this point. Outside of just generally having fun and making the best of this whole thing of course. Not even five minutes after they had left the Big Donut, Amethyst had already evicted Discord out of her hair because he had sneezed a little, which somehow caused her hair to temporarily catch fire. The problem was easily solved by dunking her head in the nearby beach water, but still. It shouldn’t have happened. So Discord was now just sitting on Steven’s shoulder, snickering at Amethyst’s singed hair. “Awwww come on Amethyst, he said he was sorry! It was an accident!” Steven whined a little bit. “Nice of you to stick up for him Steven, but you’re not the one with the singed hair.” Amethyst said crossing her arms and giving Discord a sour look. “I’m watching you, you little punk.” “You have nothing to worry about Amethyst. I’ll be a good boy I swear~” Discord assured her, giving her a look that neither Steven nor Amethyst could label as genuine or not. That was one thing that was starting to really grind Amethyst’s gears. Discord was, for the lack of a better word “A huge smartass”, which when given her nature to do the same thing, was NOT going to work when she already filled that position. Even though Discord didn’t seem to be really all that malicious, he was still really starting getting under her skin. “You know, when I hear “God of Chaos” I don’t really think of someone this, I don’t know…small and squeaky.” Amethyst said with a bit of a scowl of annoyance. Upon seeing the look on Amethyst’s face, Discord jumped off of Steven’s shoulder and wriggled his way into his shirt, poking his head out of it. “Steven, protect me, she’s going to wring my little innocent neck!” Discord shouted in a voice that seemed to be trying overly hard to sound distressed. Steven gently patted Discord on his head. Where Amethyst seemed to be getting a little annoyed with Discord, Steven had been very understanding about the whole situation. Even though Discord may look a little weird (even by the standards of what Steven was used to seeing with the Crystal Gems) he still liked him. He seemed overall pretty funny. Though if it was one thing about Discord that bothered Steven a little bit, it was that he seemed to act almost TOO funny. If someone was in the same situation as Discord right now, he figured they’d probably be a little more freaked out. After all, not knowing who you are or why you’re somewhere you don’t understand could probably make anyone scared to death. But Discord didn’t seem like it. Why not? Is this sense of humor of his some kind of act? If one thing was for certain to Steven, it was that Discord was an enigma. Eventually the group had finally made it across the beach and approached a structure that from Discord’s perspective, looked pretty out of place compared to the rest of the town. It was what looked to be a temple of some kind that was in the shape of some kind of giant woman with eight pairs of arms and a second face on her forehead. The strangest thing surprisingly wasn’t this enormous temple in the middle of the beach. That honor went to the very out of place house at the base of the huge structure. “…Very…interesting living arrangements I see...” Discord said looking up at the enormous stone woman of the temple. “Well duh, what’d you expect when we were saying we lived in a temple?” Amethyst asked, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t know, I don’t get how this place works. I mean, is this a normal place to live for the species of this dimension?” Amethyst only snickered a little. “When it comes to this planet, we’re about as far from normal as you can get.” Discord looked back up at the temple with slight signs of a smile coming on his face. “I’m happy to hear that. Normal suuuuuucks and it’s booooriiiiing.” Discord lifted his head back a bit and drawing out his words longer than usual. Steven laughed a little and carried Discord into the house at the base of the temple, only to see nothing but a typical-looking household. Living room, kitchen, nothing all that out of the ordinary… Except for maybe the weird-looking crystal panel off to the side along with a door with several other gems planted on it. Now THAT was going under the list of weird and cool things Discord had seen today. Just as Discord was considering what purpose they served though, one of the gems on the door glowed brightly before the entire door split in two and opened up, allowing two figures to walk through, both of which were obviously much taller than either Steven or Amethyst. One was a woman with a pointed nose wearing a blue leotard with a gold star on the front with a hairdo that was also pointing out but to the back. Much like Amethyst who had a gem somewhere on her body, this one also had one; a pearl on her forehead. The other was another woman with a visor covering her eyes, a cube-shaped afro, and a deep orchid and cerise colored jumpsuit; by far this one looked to be the most muscular of the group and had garnets as her signature gems on her palms. In the pointy-nosed woman’s hands was a long, two handed sword that she seemed to be carrying with very little effort. She then looked down at Amethyst and gave her a sort of deadpanned, accusatory look. “Care to explain why I found my sword in your room under a pile of decade-old pizza boxes Amethyst?” Amethyst only rolled her eyes. “Does it annoy you?” “Greatly. Getting the moldy cheese off the hilt was infuriatingly difficult.” “Then that’s why it was in my room. Come on Pearl, you know me by now~” Amethyst said, snickering a little. The woman identified as “Pearl” groaned a little. “Don’t mess with my swords again Amethyst; it wasn’t funny the first hundred times you did it, it’s certainly not funny n-“ Pearl stopped midsentence when she got an eye-full of the small mass of fur, scales, and feathers currently sticking its head out of Steven’s shirt. After seeing this unusual creature, she promptly dropped her sword in shock. “….Garnet, you see that thing too don’t you?” The very tall woman now known as “Garnet” looked down at Steven and Discord and stared silently for a few moments before speaking. “…Oh I see it alright.” “Oh right, look we found this poor little guy in a dumpster at the Big Donut! Isn’t he cool?!~” Steven asked as he pulled Discord out of his shirt and held him up for Garnet and Pearl to see. Discord was not happy about being held like a baby. It was degrading as all hell; so he only crossed his arms and pouted. Pearl said nothing and only stared at Discord for a few moments with widened eyes. She curiously circled around him, taking in his unusual body structure and scratched her chin as she observed him. “…Well…he’s something…but I just don’t know WHAT. He has no gem so he’s not a corrupted gem-creature. But his body parts are so…inconsistent!” Pearl said, still looking Discord over. As one could imagine, Discord was not enjoying the fact that Pearl was getting uncomfortably close just to stare at his otherworldly anatomy, so he snapped his fingers. Without any warning a brick wall appeared in between the two of them with the words “Personal space. Respect it” spray-painted on it. Of course, this caught both Pearl and Garnet incredibly off guard, making them back away a little in shock. “W-What in the…H-Hoooow?!” Pearl asked in a startled voice, eyes even wider than they were before. Garnet however, while just as startled, didn’t bother to ask questions. Her palms glowed a bright purple color before the light enveloped her hands completely and seemed to grow. Once the light cleared, her hands were covered by oversized crystal gauntlets. She then used said gauntlets by punching through the wall with all her might, completely obliterating it. Now standing before the rubble of the brick wall, Garnet looked intimidatingly down at Discord. If it was any time for Discord to be legitimately freaked out, it would be when a seven foot tall creature with giant crystal fists is towering over him, considering who-knows-what. Just looking at the gigantic woman from where he was standing nearly made Discord pee himself in fear. “...How did you do that? What kind of power do you have where you can just create solid matter out of nothing?” She asked calmly. Discord, still very much afraid quickly shook his head and snapped his fingers. “GAH LEAVE ME ALONE!” He yelled. At the snap of his fingers, Garnet had disappeared from the floor and reappeared on the ceiling, standing upside down and looking down (or from her perspective, up) at her teammates. “…Steven…Amethyst…explain your little friend please.” She asked, again rather calmly. Pearl looked up at Garnet, and was visibly losing it, hence the face that she was holding onto her head. “THIS IS NOT HOW PHYSICS ARE SUPPOSED TO WORK!” Pearl screamed, obviously mortified by the whole display of nonsense. > What to do? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It took a while for Steven to calm everyone down after what’d just happened. Discord was close to crying his eyes out in fear at the mere sight of Garnet, and Pearl had been in near-hysterics trying to figure out what was even going on. Nevertheless, Steven seemed to be good at getting everybody to relax, Discord included. Steven managed to calm him down by putting him back on Amethyst’s head, which he seemed to find a lot more comfortable than Steven’s considering how long it was. Unsurprisingly, Amethyst wasn’t entirely happy about this, as she was crossing her arms now. “Is everybody alright now? Everyone’s perfectly calm?” Steven asked the group. Pearl was the one to answer that question after taking a couple of deep breaths and trying to let the scenario sink in. She’d managed to recover from the initial shock Discord had presented with his ability to bend reality, but it still baffled her. “Y-Yes Steven, we’re all j-just fine…it’s just that everything I’ve ever known about logic and physics has been completely thrown out the window, n-no big deal, ehehe.” Pearl said with a little bit of an uneasy smile. “You’re welcome.” Discord said, stretching out on Amethyst’s head and letting out a quiet little yawn. “That isn’t a good thing.” Pearl groaned a little putting a hand to her forehead in annoyance. Regardless of the creature’s intentions for being on Earth were (After being on Earth for so long and never seeing anything like this, there is no way she would be convinced this was native to this planet.) “Well at least your name is somewhat fitting.” “So, you’re saying you’re a spirit of chaos but that doesn’t answer a lot. What species are you?” Garnet asked in an ever so slightly questioning tone of voice. Discord looked Garnet over a little, as he had been trying to avoid facial contact with her the entire time. He was hoping over a few minutes that his fears of her size and strength would hopefully subside. Nope. Instead of answering right away, Discord sank into Amethyst’s hair to hide from her, much to the obvious displeasure of said gem. “Did I say you could go back in there?” Amethyst asked with a little bit of a sour look. “Well excuse me for being so untrusting with things I’ve only just met.” Discord said from inside in a sarcastic tone. “I’d rather appreciate it if I could stop being grilled about this. I can’t tell you my life story if I don’t even KNOW about my life; and believe me, I’d love to sit here for hours and tell you about all my amazing accomplishments and feats. But I can’t.” Steven frowned a little. “…Well you make a good point. But scared of Garnet? Come on, she’s not going to hurt you, she’s as nice as can be.” Steven responded with a little smile. “Unless you try to kill us. Then you’re out of luck.” Amethyst added. Understandably, this didn’t exactly reassure Discord much and Amethyst could feel him shaking a little in her hair. If Discord wasn’t afraid of Garnet before, he was now. If he posed any kind of threat to her friends, even unintentionally, Garnet would probably squash him. All it’d take from his perspective was one single misunderstanding, and he would probably be pounded into a bloody pulp. Discord’s fear was actually really starting to make him lose some of his focus, as displayed by a little white flash of light. When said light cleared, Pearl was shown to now have an oversized pair of beaver-like teeth. Pearl’s headache grew ever stronger. “Amethysth, don’th do thath! The lasth thing we need is for his powers tho be even more unstable!” Pearl scolded Amethyst. Making this sound somewhat firm was a little difficult though, seeing as how Amethyst was now trying not to snicker. “I-I dunno Pearl, I think it’s an improvement.” She said, desperately trying to contain her laughter. Just then, Amethyst felt something nudging and tugging a little at her hair. Whatever it was had managed to pull Discord out onto the floor. When Discord looked up at what had dragged him out of his hiding place, the absolute last thing he’d expected to see staring back at him was a big pink lion with the most unreadable expression he’d ever seen. The Gems didn’t look to be all that disturbed by the lion’s presence, so it looked like he was a regular around here. It didn’t stop him from being slightly worried though, because for all he knew, this thing could be contemplating over whether or not Discord would taste good. “…U-Um…nice kitty.” Discord said, petting the big cat’s mane. The lion didn’t really seem to pay attention to Discord’s petting in particular but instead turned his attention to the limb Discord was using to do the petting. His lion paw. In which the lion wasted no time in gently pushing his entire face up against it, whether out of affection or any other instinct, pretty much nobody outside seemingly Steven could tell. Discord though, seemed very not okay with this. “H-Hey…buy me dinner first.” Discord said with a slightly uncomfortable look on his face. “Awww, I think Lion likes you.” Steven said with a smile coming to his face. Discord, while he appreciated any form of attention, was really not familiar with this world and its life, but he knew a predator when he saw one. For all he knew, this might not even be affection at all, but just Lion taking in the smell of a future meal. Those teeth were NOT made for eating grass. Discord didn’t think twice before quickly climbing up Pearl’s back and onto her head and away from the huge pink lion on the ground. ‘Suddenly the giant one doesn’t seem as terrifying. At least I can say she won’t try to eat me.’ he thought to himself. Pearl looked annoyedly up at Discord and then pointed to her newly-formed beaver teeth his magic had given her. “Oooh whoops. Sorry bird-lady.” he said, trying to keep his cool again. He snapped his fingers and with a slight “poof”, Pearl’s teeth were back to normal. “Mmmph” Pearl groaned a little, feeling her teeth with her tongue. “Well it’s obvious your magic is very strong, but unstable and…the obvious definition of ‘chaotic.’ You realize we can’t just let you go anywhere on your own like this.” Discord looked down at her with an annoyed and yet adorable scowl. “And why not? Like you said, I’m a tough guy. I can take care of myself.” “You’re a child, Discord. One of the most emotionally unstable things to exist. If things get too rough out there for you, it’s likely that your magic could go completely out of control and you could tear apart reality itself. It’s for everyone else’s sake too that you remain here, not only yours.” Garnet said with some sternness to her voice. “I’m pretty sure that’s the complicated way of saying there’s a chance the sun could blow up if you cry too hard or something.” Amethyst added again. To be honest, Discord kind of got on even her nerves. She didn’t really want him there that much due to their first encounter resulting in a scorched set of hair, but it was probably for the best for everyone. Like it or not, Discord probably wasn’t going anywhere. “Mmmph…fine. Sooo I take it I’ll be staying with one of the short ones?~” Discord suggested. While Steven looked to be enthusiastic about having Discord live in his part of the temple, Amethyst very visibly cringed at the thought of it. If Discord was this random and weird already, he would probably eat all of the trash she had in her room. That’d be the worst thing possible that could come out of it, besides the fact that he somehow managed to actually annoy her of all gems. Pearl though shook her head. “Ooooh no. Not a chance. I don’t trust you quite enough to let you around Steven full-time yet. And I don’t think I want Amethyst giving you any ideas about what to do with that magic of yours. You’re already a handful as it is.” She said. “No, you will be staying in my room where I can keep an eye on you.” Discord shrugged a little. “You know what? Fine. I don’t really care…just do me a favor and keep me away from the tall one…she’s fricking terrifying.” “…Well that was rude.” Garnet said, not much real offence being found in her voice. Not even a full ten minutes after Pearl introduced Discord to her room in the temple, and Pearl was already regretting having Discord stay in there. She probably should have just let him stay with Garnet or Amethyst when she had the chance, but no she just had to open her big mouth. For Discord had already turned all of the water in Pearl’s room into orange cream soda and was now jumping in and out of it while making dolphin noises. Pearl meanwhile, was not amused in the slightest, and was losing her grip on reality as she watched this unfold, trying and failing to figure out a way to fix this. “DISCORD THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANT WHEN I SAID TO MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME!” Pearl screamed, pulling her own hair. For a moment, Discord popped out of the orange soda water with a pair of swimming goggles on and floated above it. “But…I’m in my element.” He said with a pouty face. Just then, out of the sugary and orange abyss came forth an enormous whale that looked to be made out of living white chocolate. The whale let out a loud “meow” as a spout of orange soda erupted from its blowhole and headed straight for Pearl… Pearl came out of her room, now completely soaked and sticky from the soda and holding Discord, who was equally soaked. Her face displayed she felt a mix of annoyance, horror, and utter defeat. Steven, who was still sitting on the couch with the other gems, Lion now by his side, was in awe at the sight of this. “Woah, Pearl what happened?!” He asked. Pearl didn’t even answer, but instead walked right over to Amethyst, and put Discord in her lap. “…Amethyst, take him.” She said, her eye twitching slightly. Amethyst’s eyes widened and she looked down at Discord, who looked back up at her with a big grin and a wagging tail. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME, WHAT?!?!” Amethyst yelled. Garnet didn’t say much, but adjusted her visor upon seeing this. “I saw this coming a mile away to be honest.” > Soul Searching > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the big mess that Discord made in Pearl’s chamber of the temple, it was decided that Amethyst would be taking him in, since Pearl didn’t seem to quite trust him enough to let him stay with Steven full time just yet. Given what he’d just done, she was pretty much in the right to believe her decision was the proper one. Amethyst however, was not very happy with it. “Woah, that smell is something else alright. Blech.” Discord said with a scrunched nose as he caught wind of the awful smells that plagued Amethyst’s room that was practically being devoured by mountains of trash. The smell was so bad from his perspective that his head shriveled up and disintegrated into dust, followed by a new head popping back into place. “Hey, you asked for this when you messed up Pearl’s room buddy. Credit where it’s due that was pretty awesome, but if you touch anything in MINE then you’re really not gonna like what happens next!” Amethyst growled. She’d been accumulating all this stuff for nearly centuries and she wasn’t gonna let some little freak screw with anything and claim dominance over her room. Discord put up his mix-matched hands defensively. “Okay yeesh, jumping to conclusions a little too fast aren’t ya?” Discord asked, suddenly with a pair of glasses poofing onto his face. “You wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses right?” Amethyst let out an annoyed grunt. “You know I’m not gonna immediately trust a guy with a title like ‘God of Chaos’ don’t you? Not to mention in the few hours I’ve known you, you’ve burned my scalp and made fun of my size.” Discord’s glasses disappeared from his face and he crossed his arms. “Gimme a break, I’m a kid. I’m just joking around. Besides, you’re gonna take a height comment seriously from ME?” he asked, shrinking down to the size of a rabbit. “I mean, I’m not really one to talk, now am I? Here I was thinking you were the fun one.” Another annoyed grunt came from Amethyst. “Don’t put my awesomeness into question EVER. Look, we’ll get along as long as you keep your face outta my face. You get it?” Discord grew himself back to normal size and nodded with his eyes shut. “Oh understood completely Amy.” “And if you wanna keep your teeth, you won’t call me that” “Right, right sorry.” Discord said as he climbed onto an abandoned and dirty mattress next to one of the bigger trash piles and laid down on it, trying to get comfortable. It didn’t take him long to realize that Amethyst didn’t seem to be going out of her way to find anywhere overly comfy to sleep. “…You uh…gonna find a mattress or…” Amethyst shook her head. “Nah, I can sleep pretty much wherever.” She said. Not even a second after that statement. Amethyst dropped to the ground face first and loud snoring could be heard coming from her. Discord only looked at her in disbelief for a moment. Even with someone as magically strong as he is wouldn’t be able to find comfort on a cold-looking floor like this one. Truly this woman…rock was not one to be taken lightly. ‘…It really is a shame we’re at each other’s throats right now. I know I’m a chaos spirit but…come on, throw me a bone.’ Discord thought to himself. If he was really honest with himself, it really did tear him up that the only one that seemed to give him the time of day right now was Steven. The other gems were too suspicious of him to give him a chance at being…well he didn’t really know. Friends maybe? When he really thought about it though, it was his own fault. He’d already established himself as not very deserving of their trust. He really hated to admit it, but with a face like his, and with the magic he possessed he didn’t really blame them for mistrusting him. Discord sighed a little sadly and looked down next to the mattress he laid on and saw that there was a small puddle not far from it. Looking into it, he saw his reflection and realized just how hideous he would look to an outsider. Those bright yellow eyes and that one tooth jutting out of his mouth would probably be considered horrifying. Not just that, but even for a kid, he still had that sleazy and con-artist look about him which would immediately pass him off as someone that’d pretend to be a good friend, only to steal your wallet the second you had your back turned. He had to be more than that, he HAD to. For all he knew, before he lost his memory he probably could’ve been some epic war hero or some scientist that’d somehow cured some terrible disease. It was dreaming big for a child, but this was different. Not every kid needed to think about what they’d ALREADY done with their lives instead of what they were going to do when they grew up. It was so unnatural for someone his age to have to even think about something like this. From his perspective though, if everyone was only going to see him like a conniving and sneaky little monster…well then there didn’t seem to be much point in trying to be anything else. Discord sighed again deeply. ‘Just remember one thing mister God of Chaos. You are not scared. You are NOT scared.’ He thought to himself as he tried to lay his head back down on the mattress. With some of these thoughts being kept at the forefront of his mind, sleep was going to be near impossible. That, and the mattress he was laying on wasn’t exactly what one would consider luxury bedding. Just as he thought. He wasn’t getting any form of rest from the lumpy and dirty mattress or any of his more personal demons. It was getting beyond exhausting. He’d been trying and trying to relax for a few hours now and had had little success. “Ugh…insecurities…this is why I can’t have nice things.” He grumbled quietly to himself. Just then one of his ears picked up a very subtle and quiet sound coming from outside the door to Amethyst’s chambers. Curious, he sat up and looked at the door, trying to figure out how to go through it, seeing as he didn’t have a gem to help open it. “Hmm…Oh, duh. Doors are for losers anyway.” He said to himself in realization. He snapped his fingers to teleport himself into Steven’s room of the temple. When he did though, he wasn’t prepared for what he saw in there in the slightest. Standing on the warp was a very tall figure that appeared to be green in color. Whatever it was had its back turned so it had not seen Discord yet, but the position allowed him to see the back of the figure’s head, showing off its very distinct shape of triangle-like hair. Discord squinted a little and noticed that the figure had some very strange fingers that weren’t attached to what he assumed was the creature’s hands. The thing that really set Discord off though, was that whatever this thing was, was currently holding Steven in its arms and appearing to struggle to keep him quiet and restrain him from moving out of its grasp. “M-MMMPH!” Steven’s yells were muffled out by the creature’s arm being pressed against his mouth. “Urgh, keep quiet!” It scream-whispered in a malicious but clearly feminine sounding voice. Now Discord had the right to panic. His heart rate immediately began to increase when he saw that his new friend was about to be kidnapped right in front of him. He was prepared to snap his fingers and do away with the creature, but before he got the chance, the warp lit up with a bright blue light and both Steven and the figure were completely out of his sight now. To say the least, Discord was fully terrified. There was no point in trying to deny that right now given the situation. Steven was just taken who knows where and he had no idea how this warp thing worked. This was no time for self-doubt of his bravery or soul-searching. He needed to wake the gems up immediately.