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Chaos Next Door

by Sketchy Changeling

Chapter 7: Chapter 6: The Ex-Friend and the Ex-Girlfriend

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Eric didn’t go to work the following day, and neither did Azure. Neither of them felt like leaving their houses that day; they were both caught up in their anger and depression.

Eric was angry at Discord for not listening to him and ruining his relationship. Azure was mad at the then-possessed Eric for being so forward despite repeatedly telling him to stop.

Eric was depressed because Azure wouldn’t believe him about Discord. Azure was depressed because her opinion of Eric was shattered the previous night.

Celestia, on the other hand, had exhausted her depression in that hour she waited for Discord, her now ex-boyfriend. She didn’t feel much for him except contempt. Not pure anger, just contempt. For once, she found a good use for her royal paperwork: a distraction from her romantic troubles. Unfortunately, she still had brief moments of distress hitting her every so often; even her royal duties couldn’t fully distract her from her plight.

As for Discord, he decided to go to work that day for the same reason Celestia willingly buried herself in paperwork: to distract himself. Inevitably, Print Stock asked him where Eric was. Out of respect for his neighbor, he simply said that “he wasn’t feeling well.” Being the lenient stallion that he was, and considering Eric’s flawless track record over the past year, Print accepted the excuse.

Discord went through his morning with his mind bouncing back and forth between Eric and Celestia. The one time he tried to be a help to Eric rather than a nuisance, he ruined his relationship with Azure Gem. The one time he decided to treat Celestia like the princess she was, he overslept and made her even angrier with him than she already was, effectively ending their relationship. He started to wonder if this was his fate, to continually cause chaos even when he doesn’t want to.

By the time noon rolled around, Discord felt like he needed some fresh air. He told Print that he was going on his lunch break and that he’d be back in an hour. Now that he was free to roam around the city for a while, he decided to go find a place to eat.

Discord had planned to eat alone, but sometimes the world can throw unexpected things at you.

“Good afternoon, Discord,” said Princess Luna as she approached him.

“Oh, hi, Luna. I didn’t notice you there,” Discord said, preoccupied.

“That’s fine,” she said, waving it off. “How have you been?”

“Not too good…” he admitted. “I thought that Celestia would have told you.”

Luna frowned, something that she’s rarely done in recent years. “Tia’s been rather… silent since last night. She’s been keeping to herself. I’m guessing something happened between the two of you.”

“You mind talking about it over lunch?” Discord asked.

“Not at all,” the princess said with a smile.


“Wow… that’s really sad…” Luna said as Discord finished his story.

“You’re telling me,” he said with lament as he poked at his food. “Even when I don’t try to cause chaos, I end up causing it anyway.”

“This whole episode must have you feeling really messy,” said the princess.

“I think you mean ‘messed up’, Lulu,” Discord corrected. “How is it that I’ve been banished longer than you, but I’m more in touch with modern language?”

“I’d attribute it to your more outgoing nature,” the alicorn explained. “We both know how reserved I was before and right after my banishment. I only started learning the ways of the modern world after my first Nightmare Night.”

“Point taken,” said the draconequus.

“Getting back to what I was about to say,” said Luna, “I do feel sorry for you.”

“Why?” he asked. “This was all my fault. Eric wouldn’t have been mad with me if I had listened to him and Celestia wouldn’t have dumped me if I hadn’t overslept and missed our date.”

“While that is true, your intentions were pure,” she said, “you just didn’t think things through enough.”

“Well, I can’t do anything about it, now,” Discord said in defeat. “Neither of them will even look at me now.”

“If you ask me,” said Luna, “I think you still have a chance to make things right with Eric, at the very least.”

“How?” he asked curiously.

“Well, Azure may be mad with Eric, but she holds no ill will towards you,” she explained. “If you tell her that Eric was telling the truth about your spell, she may forgive him, and Eric will appreciate you trying to help him.”

“There’s no guarantee that that will work,” said Discord.

“That may be so, but even if it doesn’t work, at least you’ll know that you’ve done everything you could,” Luna said reassuringly. “If you’re really lucky, Tia will notice how far you went to help Eric and will consider taking you back.”

Discord paused for a moment, and then he smiled for the first time that day. “Heh, since when did you become so smart?”

“Since when did you become so caring?” the princess retorted.

“Touché, Lulu. Touché.”

With a new objective in mind, Discord got up and started to leave the diner, but then he turned around and put some bits on the table. “To cover the meal,” he said before taking off.

Luna smiled at Discord as he left the diner. “I can’t believe I’m saying this," she thought, "but Discord has become a worthwhile friend. I truly hope that things work out for him.”


Meanwhile, Eric was in his basement, working on his writing. At least, he was trying to work on it. Whenever he got a good flow going, his mind would flash back to Azure. He’d either see glimpses of the anger on her face, or he’d hear her light sobbing. Eric tried taking breaks for water or soda, but they didn’t help him any.

“Maybe I should go outside for a minute,” he suggested to himself. He had promised himself earlier that he would stay indoors that day, but he needed to find some way to clear his mind, and the stuffy basement air wasn’t helping him do that.

Eric got himself dressed and headed outside, but once he took the first step on his porch, he saw somepony familiar walking down his block.

“…Celestia?” he asked, just loud enough for the mare to hear. She looked up at him with an expression of distress that mirrored his.

“Oh… Hello, Eric,” she said.

“I figured you’d be up to your horn in paperwork,” he said.

“I was doing that,” she explained, “but I kept getting distracted, and I thought that I could-”

“Use some fresh air?” Eric finished for her.

“You could say that…” Celestia half-admitted.

The human and the princess stood in silence for what felt like an entire minute before Eric spoke up.

“Want to come in?” he asked. “I could use some company.”

“That sounds nice…” she said.

Eric moved to one side and let the princess into his home. Once he followed behind her and shut the door, he realized something: this was the first time that he’s had someone over to his house, besides Discord. In fact, Discord was the very reason why Eric’s never had anyone over. He didn’t want that pest disturbing him and whoever else he would’ve had over.

“Dammit, why am I thinking about Discord?” he thought to himself.

Celestia would have noticed how distracted Eric was by his thoughts, but she was rather distracted by hers, as well. Canterlot was a relatively large city, so why did she happen to walk down the same street that Discord lived on. Was she hoping that he’d be staying home from work? Was it just some stupid coincidence?

“Dammit, why am I thinking about Discord?” she thought to herself.

Eric noticed that Celestia wasn’t her usual self, and hoped that talking to her about her troubles would distract him from his own.

“Forgive me for prying, but you don’t look so hot, Celestia,” he said. “Is something wrong?”

The princess was flattered by Eric’s concern. She figured that some mild venting would be good for her.

“Well… I broke up with Discord last night,” she said.

Eric gave an exasperated sigh. “I was hoping that you wouldn’t mention him.”

“Why?” she asked curiously.

“I had a falling out with him last night, too,” he admitted.

“It seems like he can’t help but piss others off,” Celestia said with a half-chuckle. “What happened between you two?”
“Well, I was going to visit Azure last night because I was told that she stayed home from work, but then Discord kept insisting that I be more aggressive with her,” Eric explained. “I kept telling him that I didn’t want to rush anything, but he just cast a spell on me to change my personality. I ended up making myself look like a sex-crazed jerk in front of Azure, and she kicked me out.”

“Wow…” Celestia said. “Well, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“Thanks,” Eric said with a small smile, but then he let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t see why he keeps pressuring me push my relationship with Azure to a sexual level just because you two were at that level.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” she asked. “Discord and I have never had sex. Did he tell you that?”

“Not really,” the human explained. “He implied it though. He kept talking about sex like he was an expert.”

The princess chuckled. “Well, unless he’s had a marefriend before me, he’s anything but an expert.”

“So, what did Discord do to piss you off, Tia?”

“Well, he called me yesterday afternoon to set up a date,” she explained. “I was really excited, you know. After a year and a half of this on-and-off thing we had going, he finally decided to plan something romantic for me. I even wore one of my good evening dresses for the occasion. Discord told me to meet him by the fountain in the city square at eight, but I waited for an entire hour. I went over to his house, and sure enough, he was there. He tried to make up some excuse about oversleeping, but I told him that I wasn’t hearing it, and I left him.”

“Serves him right,” Eric said, “although I can’t believe he took me seriously.”

“What do you mean?” asked Celestia.

“Well, I told Discord that he kept taking you for granted and that he should try and do something nice for you for once,” he explained. “I didn’t think he’d actually try though.”

“You seem to be implying that he actually was trying to make me happy and just overslept by accident,” said Celestia.

“Well, you were implying that Discord was actually trying to help my relationship with Azure and that he didn’t mean any harm,” said Eric.

The princess and the human shared a hearty laugh; the found the idea of Discord caring about someone besides himself hilarious.

“I’m glad you’re here Celestia,” said Eric. “It’s nice to have somepony over for once.”

“I can imagine,” she said. “With Discord as your neighbor, you probably never have guests over.”

“If you don’t mind my asking,” he said, “why did you give Discord so many chances before finally breaking it off?”

The princess sighed. “I don’t know,” she said. “There was just something about him that made me want to give him those chances. There was this weird part of me that found his antics kind of… entertaining.”

“That is weird,” Eric laughed.

“Like you’re one to talk,” said Celestia. “You live next to the guy and he breaks into your house on a daily basis. How were you able to put up with that for over a year?”

Eric shrugged. “Well, after a month of looking for a different place to live and not finding a good place, I eventually gave up,” he said. “I’m not as powerful as you, so I couldn’t make some magical barrier to keep him away. I just tried to get used to it. I’ll admit, though… there were sometimes where I found myself pretty bored by myself.”

“You sound like you miss him,” the princess insinuated.

“Well, you sound like you miss him,” the human said back.

The two shared a hearty laugh, for they both knew that neither of them missed Discord.

Or so they thought…


Discord made his way to Azure Gem’s house, hoping that she was home. “Okay, Decaf said that Azure should be home,” Discord said with a deep sigh. “Hopefully she’ll be in the mood for visitors.”

Discord knocked on the door and waited. He didn’t get a vocal response, but he did hear hoofsteps approaching the door. Said hoofsteps, however, sounded soft and faint, as if Azure was sleepwalking. After nearly a minute, the door finally opened, and Discord was shocked at what he saw.

It was Azure Gem, but she was not the cheery mare she usually was; she was a ghost of her former self.

Fur matted by dried tears, a blank stare, a face that showed no emotion…

She was the spitting image of Celestia.

Author's Notes:

Another chapter done. As usual, tell me your thoughts, and tell me what you think of this chapter's title. I'm not sure that it's the best one.

Next Chapter: Chapter 7: Making Things Right Estimated time remaining: 19 Minutes
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