As Fluttershy was getting the living room of her cottage cleaned up and finished feeding her animals outside, she had a lot that was on her mind. It had been a day since her trip to the Kirin Grove with Applejack and now, she was slowly getting back into her normal everyday routine. The pegasus was thankful that Twilight was able to find substitutes for their classes at the School of Friendship while they were away, but now that she was back, Fluttershy knew that she was going to have a little bit of trouble trying to catch up with everything that she had missed while they were gone.
Of course, as the pegasus was thinking through this, she heard a knock at her front door. Which was strange, because she was not expecting any visitors today. “W-well, who could that be?” She asked herself, trotting over to the door to see who was outside. Curling her right forehoof around the handle of the door, she slowly opened it. Peaking through the small crack to see who was on the other side.
Yet, when she noticed a rather familiar face, that was when Fluttershy opened the door even more and let out a teensy sigh of relief. “Oh, h-hello Twilight.”
“Good morning, Fluttershy,” the princess of friendship greeted her from outside her cottage, “How are doing this morning?”
“U-uh okay,” she shyly replied back. Even though Twilight was a friend, she did not expect to have any visitors this morning. Especially after coming back from a trip to solve a friendship problem. “Just t-tidying up a bit. H-how are you?”
“I’m doing alright this morning,” Twilight responded, “Mind if I come in?”
“O-oh okay,” the pegasus nodded, opening the door for her friend as the alicorn trotted inside. “W-would you like for me to make some tea?”
“Sure, if you like,” the comment from the alicorn lead to Fluttershy trotting over to the kitchen. Preparing a kettle of water to boil as well as preparing the tea tray that Fluttershy would have ready for whenever guests would come over. It took a bit to make sure that she had everything, but it was when she set the tray down on the table in the living room that Twilight had a question for her. “So, how did your trip go?”
“W-well…” the pegasus shyly looked away for a moment, thinking over what she wanted to say before redirecting her attention back to Twilight. “D-despite my doubts, i-it was actually quite different from what I e-expected.”
“Different how?” Twilight then asked, tilting her head. She was curious by what Fluttershy meant, especially considering that the pegasus was rather nervous about wanting to go originally since they were heading towards the ‘Peaks of Peril’. Not to mention that Fluttershy tried to say that Twilight should be the one to go instead of her, even though the cutie map called both her and Applejack there in the first place.
“W-well, when we first got there, Applejack and I tried talking to a few of the Kirin that were around, but… most of them were silent and didn’t speak at all,” the pegasus told her, “It was only after Applejack and I met a kirin named Autumn Blaze that we learned the reason why-”
By this point, they now heard the loud whistling of the kettle as Fluttershy got up to go retrieve the tea kettle. As Twilight set up a pair of tea cups with her magic and the pegasus carefully poured the right amount of tea into them, the alicorn took the chance to ask the question. “What was the reason why?”
“W-well, r-remember when you told us about the kirin and the nirik before we left?” the question was followed by the alicorn nodding as she poured a bit of milk into her tea along with two sugar cubes, “Well… t-the thing is… the kirin are the nirik.”
That had Twilight stop what she was doing, baffled by what Fluttershy was telling her as she tried to wrap her head around what her friend just told her. “W-what-?”
“It’s true. They are the n-nirik. A-autumn told us that things used to be peaceful, but when two kirin got in an argument with each other, their bodies lit up and almost b-burned their home down because of it,” the pegasus told her friend, taking a small breath before continuing, “Afterwards, their leader Rain Shine had every kirin take an oath of silence. They stepped into a stream that had them suppress their voices and emotions.”
“T-that sounds horrible. C-couldn’t they just talk out their differences?” Twilight asked, going back to mixing the contents of her tea with a teaspoon.
“W-well, that wasn’t easy. Applejack and I h-had different solutions for how to solve the problem, but i-in the end, it all worked out thanks to Autumn,” Fluttershy assured her, “Even Rain Shine thanked her for helping the other kirin realize that anger is just a natural part of who they are, and Autumn was really happy that we could help them.”
Twilight took a moment in order to process this, before taking a sip of tea as she looked back at her friend. “Well, I’m glad that your friendship assignment went well. Though, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that a nirik is just a flaming kirin-”
“HOLD UP!!”
The booming voice was loud enough to shake the house as some of Fluttershy’s fur stood up on end. Both of them recognized the voice of Discord almost immediately. Though, what they did not expect at all was for the spirit of chaos to come out from Fluttershy’s vacant guest room wearing a light cyan shirt with long sleeves, a navy vest that you would only see stallions wear during prominent social events in Canterlot and a blue tie. Which, was much different than the clothes that he would wear for an event like the Grand Galloping Gala.
“You met a kirin!? One that doesn’t try to electrocute you if provoked?!!”
That had both ponies look at each other for a moment, puzzled beyond belief as they looked back at him. “Discord, what the hay are you talking about? Also, what in the world are you wearing?”
“What, you saying that it’s against equestrian law for me to look decent?” the draconequus retorted, before taking a breath, “More to the point, one of you actually met a kirin?”
“Y-yeah… Applejack and I did,” Fluttershy said, before looking back at him, “We went to a place where there was a whole village of them.”
That had the excitement that was on Discord’s face earlier immediately disappear, before letting out a groan. “Aw man, so it’s not the one I was thinking of,” he sighed, before turning around and beginning to walk away, “Oh well, carry on I guess-”
“Hold on a minute,” the alicorn spoke up, stopping the spirit of chaos in his tracks before he could go anywhere. “What kind of kirin were you thinking of exactly? Matter of fact, why are you so eager to leave?”
That had Discord let out a small breath before looking back at her, “Look, princess, I can play twenty questions with you any other day in the week. But right now, I have something important that I need to do-”
That came off as a bit suspicious to both Fluttershy and Twilight for multiple reasons. One main reason was because Discord was not exactly one to take a lot of things seriously and if he did so, it would be seen as completely out of character. If anything, it would be more likely for him to say that he had something important to do as an excuse in order to leave.
But it was as Discord turned back around that both of them notice something fall out of the pocket that was on his vest. It was about the size of a small card as Twilight grabbed it with her magic before the draconequus could snatch it up. She was going to ask what it was, but the first thing on the paper answered that question immediately.
Because it wasn’t a paper that was in her levitation spell. It was a business card. One that had a style to it that looked like the promotional material for a Zebrafican Safari and Discord’s name on it. But everything else was, to put it simply, baffling. “Discord… can you explain to us why this says that you are the founder of a place called the Evergreen Cafe?”
Discord himself, at first, was silent. All before letting out a breath as he looked back at both Fluttershy and Twilight. “That’s because I am. I have been the owner of the Evergreen Cafe for the last few years.”
Now even Fluttershy was surprised by this. Not just because of the fact that Discord had an actual job that he didn’t care to tell them about, but that he was the owner? This was BIG, even for him. “W-why didn’t you tell us sooner? We could’ve had lunch together! This is a big accomplishment, Discord! Why did you hide it from us?”
That had the draconequus let out a sigh, before looking back at them. “Well, the cafe I own is not like anything you would find in Canterlot like that tea shop Rarity likes or Joe’s donuts. It’s… a bit complicated to explain, but I have a reason as to why I kept it from you?”
“Would that happen to involve what you were saying before about the Kirin?” Twilight now wanted to inquire, a bit curious because she wanted to know if what he was talking about had anything to do with it.
“Actually, yes-” the draconequus explained, before he heard a buzzing noise as he pulled out a pocket watch from his vest and realized something. “Oh man, I’m going to be late. Look, I have to go, can we discuss this later-?”
“How about we just come with you instead and you can explain on the way over?” Twilight then asked.
“Don’t you have… oh I don’t know, important princess things you need to do?”
“It’s sunday. I never have anything important scheduled on sundays.”
That had the draconequus blink, before actually coming up with a proper response to the alicorn. “Fair point,” with a snap of his talon, the card that Twilight was holding immediately shot back into his hand, before he looked back at both of the ponies behind him. “You can come. Though, there’s something that you should keep in mind while we’re there.”
“W-what’s that?” Fluttershy nervously asked.
“Well, Evergreen is mostly a place for rather specific creatures… many of which are thankfully not from here,” the spirit of chaos explained as he had a door with an odd shaped crest appear from out of nowhere at the end of the hallway. “As our slogan goes, the taste is just as wild as the customers.”
As they went through the door that appeared in Fluttershy’s cottage, both ponies found themselves stepping into a place that neither of them expected at all. They found themselves walking into a grassy plain that was around what they would assume was the restaurant. The sign ‘Evergreen Cafe’ was hanging over the entryway with what looked like two torches on opposite sides of the main door and a pair of crossed utensils underneath along with a neon sign of what looked like a cat with an eyepatch folding its front legs. Similar to the ones that you would see on the front of certain hotels in Las Pegasus. The cafe itself was much different from that of something they would see in Ponyville and took up some more open space, with smoke coming out of the chimney that was standing up in the back.
“This is your cafe?” the alicorn asked the draconequus as she looked around and took in the sight of everything that was around her, “It’s a bit different from what I was expecting. I mean, aside from it being bigger, I don’t really see too much that makes it stand out.”
“Trust me, my little pony, you have barely seen anything yet,” Discord advised them, before going down to their level near the ground, “Which reminds me. I need both of you to hold still for a moment.”
“Wha-?” Before either of the two ponies could say anything, the spirit of chaos lightly touched Fluttershy’s forehead and Twilight’s horn with the index claw on his eagle talon. They both felt a small brief chill of magic as the alicorn looked back at him with narrowed eyes. “Discord, what did you do?!”
“Woah! Calm down princess. I just placed a communication spell on you two, geez,” the draconequus explained, backing up and holding up his hands to the point that they were parallel with his shoulders, “It’s so that way you can hear what any of the guests here are saying. I’m not going back to my old ways, I swear.”
At first, both of the equestrians were a little confused by what he meant by that, before letting out a sigh. They were not sure if he was entirely being truthful, but if this was indeed a communications spell, then it would be helpful to kind what they were saying. After thinking it over some more, they gave their friend the benefit of the doubt and let him guide the two of them to the front entrance. Discord even went as far as to open the doors for them, bowing playfully as a sign of respect as both of them trotted inside.
The first thing that they saw upon coming in was something both of them honestly thought that they would never see. They saw cats, but not like the abyssinians that they met before when on their journey to stop the Storm King. No, these cats were mostly around the size of a house cat like Opalescence. Though, unlike Rarity’s pet, they were all standing on two legs and some even wore clothes that were similar to the vest that he was wearing.
“Hello there, meowsters,” Twilight and Fluttershy were startled by the sound of the voice as they turned to see that one of the cats was standing on a chair near a podium at the front of the restaurant, “Welcome to the Evergreen Cafe!”
“Y-you can speak?” Twilight blinked, still trying to process what they just heard.
“Why of course we can! You sound like you never met a felyne before-” the felyne stopped, before noticing the draconequus that accompanied them as they straightened up. “M-meowster Discord! We were wondering when you would arrive!”
“Sorry for being late, Mittens,” the draconequus apologized, scratching the back of his head, “A couple of my friends wanted to come along and visit. Fluttershy, Twilight, this is Mittens. She greets our guests as they come in and helps answer any questions they might have around the facility.”
“It’s so nice to meet some friends of the head meowster,” the felyne replied, “Oh and before I forget, one of the orders we put in for ingredients has arrived. Chef just needs you to sign off before he can start making some purrfect dishes.”
“Alright, I’ll head on over,” the draconequus said, before looking back to Twilight and Fluttershy, “Excuse me, but I have to go take care of this. Do go ahead and try to make yourselves comfortable in the meantime.” On that note, the spirit of chaos walked over to the door at the other end of the room that had the sign KITCHEN above it as both equestrians took a moment to try and take in their surroundings. When Discord told them that the slogan was that the food was as wild as the customers, they didn’t think that he meant it literally. For there were several different creatures that were in the room that neither of them could recognize, and all of them looked fierce and predatory. Even a couple of the creatures that were working with the felynes looked rather intimidating.
Even as they took a moment to sit down at a couple of stools along the drink bar at the back of the canteen, they couldn’t catch a break. Though, the creature that they saw this time was something they were a bit familiar with. “Well hello there,” They heard a voice from the other side of the bar. One that sounded sort of similar to a few friends that they happen to know in Equestria. They were looking at what appeared to be a light cyan unicorn with a couple patches of fur that looked like lightning bolts, but with a blue horn. They also had a blue lightning bolt for a cutie mark and a patch of white fur along their chest that matched their mane and tail. “I haven’t seen you two before. Would you happen to be new around here?”
Both Twilight and Fluttershy looked at the unicorn in shock, equally surprised and a slight bit relieved. But the pegasus herself wasn’t entirely too sure. “Y-you’re… an Equestrian?”
“What’s an Equestrian?” it asked, tilting its head in confusion, “Is that what the creatures where you’re from are called?”
“W-well, kind of yeah. A-are you saying that you aren’t from there?” Fluttershy asked. Both her and Twilight were rather puzzled by the answers that the unicorn behind the table was providing them. Even more so when all the creature did was shake their head.
It was then that Twilight decided to take it upon herself to ask a couple of more questions. “Um… I don’t mean for this to sound rude Miss…”
“Kiri,” the unicorn replied back to them, “Or at least, that’s the name I picked for myself to make things simple.”
“Okay, Miss Kiri,” the princess rephrased her question, “I’m sorry if I sound a bit blunt, but if you aren’t an Equestrian, then what exactly are you?”
“A Kirin, obviously,” Kiri chuckled as if the answer to Twilight’s question was rather obvious, “And before you ask, my boss Discord said that I should take on this form while the cafe’s open. He didn’t think it would be a good idea for an Elder Dragon to be scaring away potential customers.”
Several things in that sentence immediately caught the two of them by surprise. Mainly, there was the fact that she called herself a kirin. Which probably meant that this was the kirin that Discord was talking about before. Yet, there was one thing that still didn’t quite make any sense to them. Something that Fluttershy found herself asking about. “A-an e-elder dragon?”
“Yeah. You never heard of them before? What about Fatalis? Valstrax? Kushala Daora?” Kiri then asked, which only got a pair of blank stares from both of them as she began to clean the countertop. It looked like she was wiping up the counter that was in front of her by holding a towel with a spell. But when Twilight looked closely, she could see bolts of electricity crackling around her horn. “Seriously? No Elder Dragons? You two must come from a rather weird ecosystem then.”
“How… can you be a dragon though? You don’t really look like one,” Twilight told her.
“It’s more like a title really. You don’t have to specifically be a dragon to be an elder dragon,” Kiri told them, “But enough about me. Is there something I can get for you two? Maybe a drink?”
Both the pegasus and alicorn looked back at each other, before turning to the wall that was behind Kiri and tried to have a look at some of the items that were on the board. However, it was a little hard in order to make out some of the words that were on there.
As they were looking, Fluttershy soon had a question for the kirin. “E-excuse me, but what’s the fourth item on the first row?”
Kiri paused for a moment, before looking back to the pegasus to provide an answer. “That’s the Goldbloom tea,” she replied back to the pegasus, “It’s one of the newer additions that we put on that’s pretty good. Rather sweet too.”
“C-can I try that one then?”
“Sure thing, miss…” Kiri paused for a moment, before realizing something as she looked at both of them. “My apologies, but I just realized that I didn’t get either of your names.”
“O-oh, I’m Fluttershy.”
“I’m Twilight Sparkle,” the alicorn replied, “Oh and I think I would like to try some of this tea as well.” Kiri herself nodded her head, getting right to making the tea for them as she took a few gold colored flowers and began to work on making the tea. Of course, as she was doing that, they watched as one of the waiters that looked like a black panther with a black beak, red markings around its eyes and what looked like wings on its front claws come on over. It also had a tail that had feathers that looked like spikes.
“Hey Kiri, I got an order for some chai tea at table 3,” he told Kiri, before looking to the two ponies that were sitting at the bar, “Hey, aren’t you the two that came in with Discord earlier?” both ponies nodded, before the creature extended a claw to both of them. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Nargacuga, but everyone just calls me Narga.”
“I’m Twilight and this is my friend Fluttershy,” Twilight responded back to him. “It’s nice to meet you.” Narga was going to add on to what he was saying earlier, but around that time, Kiri had the tea tray that he needed to bring out prepared and ready. Complete with a cup to drink out of. Thanking Kiri, Narga carried the tray over to the creature that was at the table. The creature was an orange reptile with blue trimmings and a head that looked bigger than most normal dragons, it was also wearing a red tie and reading a newspaper of some kind.
At first, it looked like things were okay. Narga set the tray down, poured the tea into the cup and set it down by the beasts left claw. However, within seconds after the creature took his first sip, it smashed it into the table and shattering the cup. “DID YOU JUST SERVE ME TEA?!”
Seconds later, the creature let out an ear piercing role that was loud enough to startle both ponies as it tackled the waiter to the ground and the teapot shattered shortly afterwards.
Tigrex- Turf War 30p
Nargacuga- Turf War 30p
When Kiri finished making the tea and saw what was happening, all she could really do was just let out a heavy sigh. “Oh for the love of-. Not again!” It was not long afterwards that Discord himself immediately came from out of the back of the kitchen to find what was happening. Immediately, he was not impressed.
“Five… minutes,” he said, just as Tigrex up from off the floor and was now holding Narga in a chokehold, “I stepped away for FIVE MINUTES and this happens!” As the fight between both creatures continued with Narga on the losing end of the battle, Twilight watched as a flowery like dragon that was colored white and light pink was watching with a rather scared look on their face. They were holding a cup that was labeled ‘Bubble tea’ and shortly after Twilight noticed them, the creature went for the exit.
Mitsuzune has left the locale
“Dang it! You even scared Bubbles away!!” Discord grit his teeth, “Okay, time to break this up now!” Putting his thumb and index claw to his mouth, the draconequus let out a whistle, which at first did not seem to really be noticed. But the howling from outside was heard shortly afterwards, followed by a giant wolf hybrid with lighting crackling around it bursting through the wall and knocking the Tigrex off of Narga.
Zinogre has entered the locale
“Hey!! What’s your problem, buddy!?” the Zinogre snapped, “What did Nargy do to you that gave you the right to attack him?”
“He GAVE ME TEA!! That stuff’s disgusting!!!” Tigrex roared back at them as Narga was slowly coming back up. Using the space at the drink bar to Twilight left to help get himself up.
“B-but I thought you liked some chai tea-”
“I said that I liked TAI CHI!! There’s a difference!!” the brute wyvern growled, before picking up his newspaper and going to sit at another table. Several felynes were already gathering up cleaning supplies to clean the mess that was left on the floor. All while Twilight was still trying to wrap her head around what she just witnessed.
“Are… things like this normal here, Discord?” she asked the draconequus.
“Not always, but they do happen on occasion,” Discord explained, “Fortunately, most of the time, I have Zino here try to break things up before they escalate too far-” Of course, it’s while he was speaking that the draconequus happened to notice something, “Uh… wasn’t Fluttershy sitting next to you?”
As she turned her head, Twilight soon realized that the pegasus that was sitting next to her was no longer at her spot. Much to her surprise at that moment, the alicorn realized that the pegasus was actually approaching the wolf wyvern that Discord called ‘Zino’. “F-fluttershy, what are you doing? Come back-!”
Of course, the fact that the pegasus didn’t seem to be listening to her did not help at all when she got closer to the Zinogre, “Aww, he’s so cute!!!”
“Careful Shy. I just made sure that he didn’t have any of those zappy bugs crawling around, but he still can-”
Much to the surprise of Discord, Twilight… and practically everyone that was in the room, Fluttershy’s response got the Zinogre to roll over on its side like a dog that wanted belly rubs. To which, the pegasus was obliging and rubbing its static fur and belly with her hooves. It’s only response being satisfied panting as it enjoyed the pampering and praise that Fluttershy was giving him.
“Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy?! You are! Yes you are! Yes you are!!”
Zinogre- Snuggles 100p
Fluttershy- Snuggles 100p
“Woah… okay, I definitely did not see that one coming.” the draconequus admitted, before looking back to Kiri. Twilight herself, after seeing Fluttershy make a new friend, decided to taste the tea that Kiri made for them before it got cold. After drinking it once, she found the taste of the tea to be rather sweet and soothing. Almost like some of the tea that Zecora would make when she would visit her hut in the Everfree.
Kiri herself, was trying to not pay attention to the snuggle session that was playing out in the middle of the cafe and instead turned to Twilight. “So, what do you think?”
“This… is unlike anything I’ve ever had,” the alicorn said, her face beaming a bit, “I like it a lot. Thanks.”
“No worries. Many other customers enjoy the Goldbloom Tea because it’s something different from the items we usually serve,” Kiri replied back, before setting the rest of it off to the side. “I’ll save the rest of the tea for your friend when she’s done with Zino. In the meantime,” Around now, she turned to face Discord, “Was there something that you wanted to do, boss?”
“Well, now that you mentioned it, I wanted to give Twilight and Fluttershy a tour around the restaurant, but it looks like Fluttershy’s… well, occupied at the moment,” the spirit of chaos let out a sigh, watching as Fluttershy was now scratching Zinogre’s ears, “I guess I can just show Twilight around in the meantime… Though, before I do, are we having any big guests stopping by later Kiri?”
That had Kiri channel a small amount of magic to pull up what looked like a clipboard as she analyzed what was on the paper. “Well, we’re supposed to be having a couple of them, but one of them cancelled on us. Her reason being that some hunters broke her horns off… again and refuses to be seen outside her domain without them.”
“Ah right, the golden tsundere. It’s been a while since I last heard from her.”
“Wait, hunters?” Twilight asked, “What do you mean?”
“Let’s just say that in the ecosystem where a lot of us are from, there are hunters who would hunt us just so they could possibly use our fur, skin, scales and everything in between to just dress up in fancy clothes made out of them,” Kiri summarized for her, rolling her eyes in the process, “Personally, I’m still not sure why they would do something like that. I mean, what are they even trying to show from doing that?”
“That’s probably one of life’s biggest questions right there,” the draconequus added, before looking to Twilight, “So, you ready for a grand tour princess?”
“I guess,” the alicorn responded back, “Though, what are you going to show me?”
“Well, most of the things that really make this place come alive happen behind the scenes,” he told her, walking over to the same door that was where the door to the kitchen was, just as a couple of felynes walked past him as they were carrying what looked like a bowl of stew that had many different ingredients stirring around inside. “Though, fair warning… the head chef’s rather… eccentric to say the least.”
Part of Twilight wanted to ask if Discord could clarify a bit more on what he meant, but she never had the chance. Because the moment that she walked over to him and they both stepped through the door, Twilight heard a new voice call out to her. “Hey! Dissy, what have I told you about bringing in customers back here?! This is a kitchen, not a marketplace!”
The one that was snapping at Discord in particular was another felyne. However, this one looked more muscular than the others. It had a chipped sword on its back and looked to have a scar over its left eye and a red bandana on its forehead along with white fur across its body. Of course, when it noticed Twilight, it’s reaction to her was not one that she expected. “And who’s Peggy over here?”
The princess twitched a bit after hearing that name, before looking back at the chef. “Um, My name is Twilight-”
“You don’t look like a Twilight to me,” the chef replied, before pointing at Discord with a paw, “and if Dissy can call a Plesioth ‘Kevin’ and a Seregios ‘Steve’, then I’m calling you Peggy.”
Twilight’s eye slowly began to twitch shortly after hearing that. Which was a sign for Discord in order to quickly change the topic. “So chef, did you get all the new ingredients that we brought in sorted out?”
“Already having my crew tending to that right now,” the felyne smirked, “As for the meat, I already sent a majority of it to be tenderized.”
That small sentence had Twilight’s eyes widen for a moment, before looking back at Discord. “Y-you use meat for your meals?”
“Twilight, many of the customers that come here are carnivores that want to try and tear off a piece of one another to survive. So instead, I try to provide meals so that we don’t have them trying to kill each other here,” He explained to her, “Don’t even get me started with Jho Jho.”
“Who?”
“That’s the nickname he gives for the Deviljho that comes here every so often. They’re known in pretty much every ecosystem for devouring literally everything they come across,” the chef rolled his only eye for a moment, before looking back at the two of them, “Though I’m not entirely sure why some of them would think that eating their own dismembered tail is a healthy snack.”
Before Twilight could even ask, all three of them heard the sound of something getting hit, along with the sound of explosions going off. Which, made the alicorn jump, but the spirit of chaos and felyne seemed unfazed by it. “Well, looks like he started his tenderizing routine.”
“How do explosions have anything to do with that?”
“To be honest, the exploding is a bit more of a byproduct of what he does. I have to make sure to enchant our shipments so that they don’t explode when he’s working. You’ll see what I mean in a minute.” Discord told her as he led her down the hall. Providing for her a set of earplugs so she wouldn’t lose her hearing when they got closer. When hearing the explosions originally, Twilight thought that this was because of some guy using dynamite or some explosive spell on the food.
Instead, she was thrown off guard at the site of another monster. One that was mostly a dark marine blue and had the distinct features of a wyvern, but had no claws on its arms. Instead, it looked like he had a pair of fists and a massive horn on its head that were colored green. When he was punching the meat and the ground around it, a green colored slime was released… which changed yellow… and then red before setting off an explosion.
“W-what is that?”
“That’s Brachydios, but I just call him Brachy for short,” Discord replied back, “He helps make sure that the meat is tenderized so that some of our customers don’t get picky.”
“O-okay, but what’s about the slime? How did that-?”
“Blow up?” Twilight’s only reply to the draconequus was a nod as Discord took a moment to explain. Pulling out a small little notebook that had the worlds ‘Monster Handbook’ labeled on the front, “Well, according to what I have here, Brachy uses his saliva as a primer to make the slime on its arms explode after some time. It’s also the reason why we had to put him in his own little workshop here so that way he doesn’t blow up the restaurant.”
A few seconds after saying that, both of them noticed Brachy looking back at them, but his tongue was sticking out on one side as he waved at both of them. But that only lasted for a few short moments before he got back to punching some more things. “Of course, tenderizing the meat is only just one part of it. We also have one more who helps with carving the meat as well.”
Twilight wanted to ask, but her better judgement told her not to. With everything that she had seen so far, it would be better for her not to ask too many questions and just continue on with Discord’s tour. On the way to the next section of the kitchen, the two of them passed by what appeared to be a photo wall. Each picture showing Discord next to another customer that he had met and possibly each employee because there were pictures of him with Kiri, Narga, Brachy, Mittens and the other felynes too.
As they reached the end of the hall they were walking through, both of them approached another workstation. Though, this time, it was more of an open space rather than a secluded one like where Brachy was. Inside was a wyvern with dark red scales with two blue bony plates running around its back with a long tail. The back half of the tail resembling a giant sword as the creature soon noticed the two of them. “Hey hey, Boss man! I was wondering when you would be back here!!”
“I know right? Man, I might leave for only a few hours, but anytime I come back it feel like weeks have passed,” Discord smiled, fistbumping the creature’s claw. “Oh right, I almost forgot. Twilight, this is Glavenus or Glavy if you want to keep it short. He helps carve the meat that we bring in.”
“And not just simply carve it! No, I am a master of my craft,” he smirked, bringing the back end of his tail around to his mouth. Clamping down on his jaws as the tail began to heat up and look like molten metal before letting out a roar, “Now allow for me to give you a demonstration!!”
“Hunh? W-what was that just now? Fluttershy asked herself as she and Zinogre were by another table in the cafe. Though, at this table, there was a green dragon that was beginning to shiver the moment that they heard the roar from the back of the shop. “Rathy? R-rathy, are you okay?”
“N-no… n-not again… Not that sound. A-anything but that,” the dragon stuttered, it’s left wing shivering in place, “P-please, no-!”
“H-hey, hey! Listen to me… e-everything’s going to be okay,” Fluttershy told the dragon, having it look back at her and Zinogre, “N-nopony-, I mean… no one is going to hurt you while we’re here.”
Fluttershy- Comfort 75p
Rathian- Comfort 75p
Twilight only had a short amount of time to place a heat resistant spell on herself before Glavenus quickly got to work. His tail cutting away at meat and bone like a knife cutting through butter. Dicing up each section of meat before moving onto the next one that waited for him. He had to be careful and not take too long because if he did, the meat would burn up and taste like ash and smoke. No creature would want to have something like that, especially when they were coming here for top quality meals.
In a matter of moments, five huge hunks of Aptonoth meat were diced up into pieces of different sizes and shapes. Something that, even though she felt queasy at first, Twilight was rather impressed by. “Wow, you seem to be a master of your craft.”
“Damn straight! I can do plenty of things with this bad boy,” Glavenus smirked, before asking a question, “Say, Twilight right? Would you happen to like popcorn?”
“O-on occasion, why?”
“Well, let me show you something else I can do with this tail,” he told her, having his tail heat up once more before throwing out what looked like a bunch of seeds onto a metal plate in front of him. Carefully, he had his tail hover over it, but not too close. The heat radiating off the tail was enough for each one of the seeds to pop like popcorn kernels as each seed was soon a piece of popcorn. “There you go, one free snack of Might Seed Popcorn on the house! Hope you enjoy it and come by sometime again!”
Upon seeing that, Discord snapped his talon in order to place the popcorn in a special bucket for her to hold as they walked out of the kitchen. “Well, that’s just a few of the people I got helping me run this place. Though, like I said, the food is just as wild as the customers. If you want, you and Fluttershy can stick around and have the chance to meet a few. You did say that you didn’t have anything scheduled since it was a sunday.”
Part of Twilight felt like she shouldn’t have said that earlier as she looked back at Discord. Letting out a sigh as she held onto her popcorn bucket with her magic. “Sure… why not.”
Over the course of the next few hours, Twilight and Fluttershy both met numerous different monsters. With each one being stranger than the last. They met a white fanged beast that had electricity running through it’s fur that Discord referred to as ‘Tobi’, two different lion like elder dragons that were coming to the Evergreen Cafe in order to celebrate their anniversary without being interrupted by hunters, a saber tooth cat beast Discord named ‘Bari’ that froze his own drink every time that he let out a sigh, and a giant wyvern that the spirit of chaos called ‘Dodo’ that liked to feast on a buffet of rocks. Though, even though meeting each beast was a bit intimidating, they felt a bit more comfortable once they took the time to talk to them and find out more.
Eventually though, it got the time where Discord had to close up for the night, much to the dismay of Fluttershy, the Felynes… and Zinogre. The draconequus himself led them back to the door that he conjured earlier with his Chaos Magic, before looking back at both of them and patted Fluttershy on the head. “You two take care now, alright? It might be a little while before I come back with how busy this gets.”
Both of them nodded, before stepping through as the door closed behind them. Much to the surprise of both ponies, they found themselves back in the center of Fluttershy’s cottage. The tea that they were having was still there as they saw steam fly up from Twilight’s cup and there was still daylight outside. Hours had passed in the Evergreen Cafe, but it looked like no time passed at all here.
At first, Twilight wanted to ask why. But after everything she had seen today and all the creatures that she met, she decided to leave that for another day. “Well, that was eye opening,” she told herself, before taking a moment to finish the tea that was there before looking back at her friend, “Thanks again for the Tea, Fluttershy. I’ll see you at the school on Monday.”
Fluttershy nodded, looking back at Twilight as she waved goodbye. Though, as she closed the door, a small breeze blew through an open window as the pegasus noticed something float out of her hair. It looked like some kind of card, similar to the one Discord had dropped earlier as she examined it. Though, when she turned it over, she found something on the back side that surprised her.
Congratulations! If you are reading this, then you bare possession of a free VIP meal voucher courtesy of me, the owner of the Evergreen Cafe. Since you are a Very Important Pony to me, this meal voucher can be used to come back as many times as you like. Even if it’s just because you want to be friends with all the creatures that come here.
We hope to see you at the Evergreen again soon! -Discord
Fluttershy took a moment in order to process all of this, before deciding to put the card away in a very safe place in her room. Even though life might be busy for her, she was definitely going to come back. Especially if it meant that she could see all the cute animals again-
“Uh… h-hello?”
The sound of the voice spooked Fluttershy, not sure who that was as she slowly moved to the edge of the door and peeked around the corner. Her eyes widening at who was now in her home.
It was Mittens. The poor felyne must’ve followed Fluttershy back through the door to the cottage… and with no way to go back, was now stuck in her home. “O-oh dear.”