Lord Tirek approached Lord Discord, this was not the first time they have had this conversation
"Why are you are still here?" Asked Tirek, he knew the answer but couldn't quite understand the thought process behind it
"I still care about them, and about her, and i told you this before T" said the cranky draconequus "and i also told you before that HE has not yet found a way to kill me thus far, and so i am still here"
"Right, right" the minotaur sat in a rock besides Discord "remember when you betrayed them with me and i ended up betraying you?" Discord just nodded "those were the days! how many iterations ago was that?"
Discord looked over a rock he etched with countless engravings "seventeen thousand and twenty eight iterations ago" Discord had been around to try and fail to protect ponykind from obliteration that many times, each time the Infinite Multiverse would fall apart he was there to patiently mend it back together and begin another iteration doomed to failure; and yet he still cared, he cared far too much to let go and move on to another Reality Bubble, he had to keep going, for whatever caricature of his friends remained, and for whichever twisted copy was birthed anew of the one pony he cared about most, and couldn't spend a day without thinking about damn near to tears, this iteration's "Fluttersky" was particularly terrible, she was shallow and manipulative and spoiled rotten and an immoral hired assassin, yet was carried in life by her delightful looks and beautiful voice and refined time management skills, and all those other things that made Discord want to go back, seventeen thousand and twenty eight iterations back.
"Awful long time huh? Man, does it ever fly! How did the last battle with the Big G go?" Asked Tirek, knowing the answer was going to be soul crushingly delicious.
"He beat me to a pulp and i am back into my personal hell, there, are you happy now?!" In this last attempt to fight off Grogar and his army, he was experimenting feeding his good friend The Smooze every last shiny thing in Equestria and having him block the powers of the Army so he could take out Grogar more efficiently, this plan was made futile by Grogar blowing up the Smooze and taking Discord out...again
"Uh, right, yeah, ok" blabbered Tirek, he wasn't the best with words, or with being friends, even after all this time
"Thank you for your enlightening words T, now if you could leave me alone for the day, that would be great, i need to practice poking a goat's eyes out" said Discord with a vacant stare
Tirek left without further word
Discord slowly walked back into his observatory carved out at the peak of the inside of his mountain, and from there he saw a lot of things
A fancy schmancy mare trying to run from garbage food
Two business owners in a silent yet nuanced romance
A useless mare pretending to have a heart attack just to be unemployed for longer
And somepony who resembled his...his best friend, but was acting much like a big piece of shit
Discord finally went back to training
