//------------------------------//
// Chapter 249 - Equestria: Ten Years Later? 
// Story: Dadonequus Discord (Book 2) 
// by CrazedLaughter 
//------------------------------//

The doors opened once more, the brothers staring, waiting, as Discord steps through, holding a rope with you and Scootaloo bound and gagged at the end of them like bags. Discord just tossed you both to the side as you both squirmed and whined like worms. Discord sat down and gestured towards the brothers. “My apologies, these two had the inane and insane notion that this was a bad deal.” Discord scoffed and pointed over at them. “As you can see, I had to deal with them myself to make sure there are no more delays.”

Flim stared at you for a moment, he seemed to have some satisfaction in seeing you in that state. “I see, and if you don’t mind me saying so, I always believed your son always spoke all sorts of silly dribble.”

Flam, genuinely shocked with Flim’s attitude, cooly and calmly tries to correct his brother. “H-however, he is still his son, brother. A bit of respect, remember, he is still but a colt.” Flam suddenly seemed to become more reluctant all of a sudden, or perhaps seeing you both tied up like that seemed to tug at some sort of heart string. And yet he said nothing more, obviously not wanting to piss off Discord.

“Yes, I apologize, I misspoke. In any case, Lord Discord, do we have a deal? Not to push, but we have been rather patient, I think.” Flim said.

“Of course we have a deal.” Discord said with a grin as he took the quill and span it along his talons and placed it down on the parchment. “How could I resist such a generous offer.” And upon saying that, Discord just kept his talons there, unmoving.

Flim’s right eye began to twitch, as he seemed to be expecting something to go wrong once again. “Is something wrong, Lord Discord?”

“Not particularly, but I do have to admit, my son’s concerns on these vague penalties are troublesome. It almost makes me feel as if, somehow, my magic won’t be up to the standard of quality you two are expecting.” Discord said as he slowly looked up at them.

“We can certainly assure you that anything from the great Lord Discord will be more than enough.” Flam said, hoping to encourage him to sign.

“Yes, but there is still that chance, no? No, instead, I think a showcase of what I can do is in order. How about I show you two a grand preview of my work.” Discord said as he glared at them, pointing upward as the ceiling of the room began to melt into a clear starry night sky.

Flim and Flam stared upwards for a moment, and began to not only become enthusiastic about the idea, but even encouraged it. Flim looked to Discord and bowed towards him. “We would be honored for such a fatantabulous show, I’m sure what we’re about to see will not only be to our standard, but the Equestrian standard for all.”

“That’s right! Though, we still must ask to be allowed to make some alterations. I don’t mean to offend, but we do have to make sure the show caters to our adoring patrons.” Flam added.

“Oh, of course, of course! What say you, my duo of distractions?” Discord asked as he looked at the two of you, the both of you only able to bounce and mumble. “That’s what I thought. Now then, please, you two, stare upwards into the sky while I work my magic.”

The brothers nodded, and continued to stare into the sky. Slowly, the sky suddenly began to swirl with clouds, becoming colder, as snow began to lightly drop into the vault chamber. The brothers continued to stare until a snowflake landed on Flim’s nose, which seemed to prompt him that something was wrong. “Lord Discord, you might want to move those clouds away, how are we… And he’s gone.” Flim said as he looked back down, seeing that all three of you were gone.

“Brother? Gone?” Flam asked as he slowly looked forward as well, shocked to see they were gone. “Gazooks, they are gone!”

“I should have known.” Flim said, smacking his hoof on the glass case with a growl. “All that work, the formalities of making sure we call them 'lord' as we refer to ourselves as brothers at all times, the constant mocking from that little upstart! Flam, my mustached partner, I told you this would not work! Look, he even left us without a roof!”

“Now, Flim, calm yourself. I had a contingency plan for such a thing. That Good News mentioned that Discord would do anything Fluttershy said, correct? It’s obvious that Discord was enticed until something, just something, his son said prompted him to fool us. So what if we pitch our offer to her instead? We’ll make the penalties clear and minor, and she’ll make sure Discord uses his magic to make the most amazing shows in Equestria! All we need to do is be completely honest and lay all our cards on the table and we should still have a shot at this.” Flam explained to him, trying to calm his brother down.

“Were we not honest enough? It isn’t like we were trying to entrap him. That contract was simple enough to get us what we want by giving him what he wanted. All that humiliation, for nothing!” Flim said, looking up at the dark clouds. “He is going to at least get us a new roof! I won’t stand for this!”

“Relax, Flim, relax. Things will be fine! I’m sure telling Fluttershy what he has done to us will win us a few sympathy points. The plan is still on and…” Flam looks backward to see that the vault was open and empty. “OUR VAULT IS EMPTY?! FLIM! WE’VE BEEN ROBBED!”

“That thief!” Flim said as he rushed towards the open vault. “I swear, if he took everything, then we will take this to the highUMPOMF!” When Flim jumped up into the vault, he slipped upon the suddenly frozen floor of the cold and desolate vault.

“Flim, are you alright?!” asked Flam, as he worriedly looked beyond the vault’s threshold to see his fallen brother, no bits in sight.

“N-no…” Flim said as he slowly stood up, slipped, then crawled along the icy floor like a worm until he was able to crawl out through the vault’s threshold. “Confound it all, now he’s just toying with us! He thinks he can do whatever he wants, but nopony is above Princess Celestia! Come, Flam, let us write a letter to her and…” The cold draft from the open ceiling finally began to take its toll as Flim and Flam felt a sudden chill in their bones. “...Let us bundle up to protect ourselves from this terribly chilling cold.”

“Agreed. This night air is too frightfully chilly, which means if he causes any discomfort to our guests, that simply means more compen-sa-tion?” When Flam stepped into the office through the double doors first, he was left speechless and astonished by what he saw.

“Flam? Whatever is the-'' But Flim too was left speechless upon entering the office. The place had been ransacked. Desks were destroyed, paintings slashed, walls broken, frozen over, or crumbling. Even more eerie were painted messages such as ‘The end has come!’ and ‘The wendigos are upon us!’. 

“Flim? I’d say we were robbed, but this doesn’t seem like a robbery. These messages, this destruction. Something is amiss…” Flam said as he reluctantly began to pull open some cabinets, searching for anything that may be inside, as most were empty.

“Flam, this is just a trick, just like that blasted Deathclaw! He’s merely trying to scare us.” Flim said as he opened a dresser to find some coats, though that too was empty.

“Perhaps, but from my understanding, that Draconequus is more into jovial mischief than… Whatever this seems to be.” Flam said, still searching, until finally, he comes upon something. “Hm? What’s this? Flim, come over here, I found something.”

“What is it?” Flim said as he came near, before getting annoyed, waving his hoof in dismissal. “The brochure? Flam, that is hardly important.” But something was wrong, when Flim noticed Flam unmoving, he reluctantly called to his brother again, with worry in his tone. “Flam? Brother dearest? Is something the matter?”

“Flim…” Flam held the brochure up, pointing at it. “This is an advertisement for the tenth anniversary of our Hearthwarming celebration.”

“What?” Flim asked, utterly confused as he magically snatched the brochure and took a look at it himself. He began to read through it, and as he did, he began to become pale with dread as he looked at the messages on the wall again. ”Flam… Is there a reason why this states our past nine celebrations? Celebrations we never celebrated before?”

“I don’t know, Flim. I-I…” Flam went silent for a moment, heading towards the exit of the office as he brought his ear to the door. “Flim, do you hear that?”

“No. What is it?” Flim asked.

“Nothing… And that’s the problem. Where are the cheers of our patrons? The thrilling sounds of our rides? The ding dongs of our games?” Flam asked as he shakily put his hoof on the handle of the door.

“F-flam, wait! W-wait!” Flim shouted as he pulled his brother’s leg from the door. “It could be a trick! I-it has to be. W-we can’t possibly be in the future! It isn’t possible!”

Flam gulped hard as he looked at his brother with terrified eyes, it seemed Flim had already figured out what he was thinking. “Flim, do you remember what we learned of our alternate selves? That other timeline?”

Flim began to become more frantic, shaking his head. “Don’t say it, Flam! Don’t say it!”

“N-no, you’re right! That’s impossible. Time travel is a myth. Hogwash, really. We are going to open this door and nothing will be wrong.” Flam said as he hesitantly put his hoof on the door, and froze. “N-nothing.”

“Flam…” Flim could say nothing else, afraid of what the outcome could possibly be.

Flam looked towards him, and tried to gather his confidence. With a deep breath, he opened the door. However, what they expected was beyond all expectations. The main lobby was in shambles, covered in snow, doors unhinged, most of the attractions and shops boarded up, and snow just eerily dropping in from some clouds above as some of the clouds that made up some of the lobby remained a near solid black. “Flim?”

“Flam. This… This isn’t real, right? This is simply impossible!” Flim said as he stepped past the threshold of the office and took a closer look. All the plants in the lobby were either frozen or dead, there was no sign of life anywhere, and torn or worn posters of the Hearthwarming celebration painted the walls. “What is this?! Tenth celebration?! We never had one!” Flim shouted out as he began tearing the posters from the wall, only to trip on something during his manic episode.

“Flim! Calm down! There is noAAAAAAAAHHH!” Flam suddenly fell backwards in fright when he saw what his brother had tripped on.

“Flam?! Flam, wAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Flim, jumping back up from fright, witnessed a great horror. A skeleton! A pony skeleton! He had tripped on a long gone pony! He hugged onto his brother for comfort as he stared at it in horror. “Flam! Flam! Do you see what I see?!”

“I do! And I don’t want to! Quick, we must make great haste to the exit!” Flam, along with Flim, ran towards the entrance to the resort. However, when they reached the doors and opened them, there was nothing but a hall of skeletons awaiting them, with the exit blocked off by a giant wall of ice. “GYAAAH!”  The brothers screamed as they slammed the doors, looked at the receptionist booth, and saw a skeleton hanging from the desk, causing yet another scream of fright as they ran blindly into the fun park part of the resort.

Tripping over each other, they fell over on yet another skeleton, rolling onto the floor with each other until they crashed  onto a fallen roller coaster car that had crashed onto the ground at one point. Flim and Flam hid under it, and began to look around. There was nothing but more skeletons, rides in heavy disrepair or just fallen apart. Flim began to shake, still in a panic. “It’s all gone, Flam! Everypony is gone!”

“G-get a hold of yourself, Flim! I-It’s a trick! I-it has to be!” Flam yelled out, unable to believe his own words as he shook alongside his brother.

“How is this a trick?! What sick, twisted individual would do this?” Flim yelled out.

“You two did.” Said a voice.

“W-who said that?!” The brothers cried out together, looking forward, seeing a cloaked figure in front of them. They then slowly looked up, to see a familiar pony standing before them. Or at least, was familiar ten years ago.

“A-Anon?” Flim and Flam said together.

Flim, seeing you, filled him with rage. He knew it! He felt it, anyway. He pulled himself from the fallen over car and looked at you with fury. “I should have known! What have you done?! Where is your father?! You both are in big trouble!”

You just stared at him. You had grown, you were older than before, you only nearly stood at the same ground he did, rather than be so small like before. “What are you talking about? My father was here the whole time, doing that crappy celebration you both have done for the past ten years! There’s nopony left!” You said, yelling at him with tears in his eyes. “Everypony is gone! My aunt is gone! I need to find him, he’s the only one who can fix things now!”

“Y-you’re kidding, right? That can’t be right! I only saw you a few minutes ago! And you were… smaller.” Flim said, having trouble gulping from the terror rebuilding itself upon him.

You slowly shook your head. “The fuck are you talking about!? You idiots, are you fucking with me?! This is your fault, both your faults! I can't even stop this myself with my horn, I can’t use it for some reason. Getting past that ice wall was already hard enough. You both are so oblivious. You killed harmony! You turned Hearthwarming into some sort of NGHYAAAAAH!” You screamed out in pain. In less than an instant, a caramel-colored wendigo with a purple mane passed through you, freezing you in place as a body of ice. The wendigo then stared at Flim and Flam with menacing eyes.

Flim didn’t even notice it, he was frozen in terror from watching you turn into ice, just like that, with no way to avoid it. “A-Anon? Anon? I-I’m done now, I know this is a t-” When Flim slowly reached over and taps you, you shatter into pieces, causing him to turn white as his eyes meet that with the wendigo’s.

“Flim!” Flam called out, grabbing at the collar of his brother’s shirt and running in a random direction. “W-we need to escape! The wendigos! They’re real! W-we need to find Discord! We need to… Oh no…” Flam had pulled Flim into the arcade, and despite having been more steeled than his brother, the sight before him was simply too much.

The arcade was a frozen horror show of what once was. Frozen families, fillies, colts, still at play, turned to ice sculptures before they realized what had even happened. The brothers could only stare, in shock and horror, a terrible feeling starting to settle within them.

“F-flam, these sculptures. They were... They were alive once, weren't they? It's almost... It is almost as if they didn't realize what happened. They didn’t even know about the wendigos.” Flim said in a shocked whisper.

“Completely unaware…” Flam said silently, as a tear began to descend from his eyes, freezing before reaching the ground. “But how? All of this, at the blink of an eye.”

Flim was silent, deep in thought, deep in horror, his eyes shook with a deep horror from a terrible revelation. “Discord said he’d give us a preview. Flam, y-you don’t suppose he really sent us into…”

“The future? I already said that's impossible! Oh... Oh Celestia." Flam was starting to grow terrified of the absolute truth. "Oh no, no, no, he didn’t! Flim, do you know what this means?! He must have sent us here to see a wonderful celebration, but he must have not realized the horror… The horror we wrought. Flim, how could we?! We didn’t want this to happen! We didn’t! We just wanted to make bits! Do you hear me?! This wasn’t anything more than a business venture!” Flam shouted out, as if he was trying to convince the world of their intention.

But that shout was too loud, it seemed, as all the ice statues in the arcade began to shatter. The brothers screamed from the sculptures of foals shattering, and ran back out through the food court, where more skeletons sat around on the seats.  Decorations either were torn up, barely hanging, or were strewn all over the floor.  “No! No! It isn’t our fault!” The brothers cried out as they hid behind a nearby fountain.

“Flim… What do we do now? It is only a matter of time before that wendigo finds us.” Flim whispered.

“I don’t know, I-I don’t know. Our only hope lies with Discord. He had to have been here, correct? Then all we have to do is try to find him.” Flam whispered back.

“But where? Where can he be? “ Flim asked, as he began to look around.

“P-perhaps… Perhaps he’d be where we’d place the Hearthwarming tree. Yes, he has to be there. All we have to do is think of where’d we place it for the celebration.” Flam surmised, as he kept a look out for the wendigo.

“Wouldn’t that be out in the lobby? I didn’t see it there. What if we never put one up? What if it isn’t anywhere? What if… What if we deserve this?” Flim asked.

“Don’t talk like that, Flim! W-we can still fix this!” Flam said, getting louder and guilt ridden in his speech.

“How?! We caused this! We ended Equestria! Just like our alternate selves! Those foals were right! We should have never tried to turn the holidays into some business venture! Especially since we were so good at it! We did this! You heard Anon, we’re the ones who caused this!“ Flim shouted, his guilt turned into frustration.

Flam said nothing, he began to grab at his head, screaming, scared out of his mind. “Graaagh! Flim! I don’t know what to do! How can we even reason with a wendigo!? No! No! We did, we did cause this! Oh, brother of mine, how could we be so short sighted?! Those foals, those poor foals! We… We have to fix this! We need to find him, no matter the cost!”

“R-right, but, Flam, where? Where can he be? It isn’t like he’s going to fall out of the-AGH!” Flim shouts as a giant tree falls from the sky, along with a rather large figure, shattering on impact. When a part of it rolled over towards the brothers, utter hopelessness came upon them. “Is that…”

Flam grabbed onto his brother, shouting in horror. “It’s his head! It’s his head! We’re doomed! Doomed!” Flam shouted out as he quickly kicked the frozen head of Discord away, looking at the shattered tree that fell. It quickly clicked a thought in his mind, and he slowly looked up to see the wendigo, joined with another, swirling above them. “F-Flim… I think they heard us.”

“W-what do we do?” Flim asked, staring up, frozen in fear.

Flam said nothing, he saw the wendigos staring at the both of them, and he knew they were done. One was the caramel one from earlier, the other vaguely looked like you, in a sense. To Flam, however, he knew he and his brother were done. Finally, he looked to his brother, as the wendigos began to spin around them, slowly causing them to freeze. “Flim, perhaps for only a few, not all, but a few of our business deals, we had done terrible wrongs. Nonetheless, It has been an honor working alongside one as classy and sensible as you.”

“Flam?” Flim began to panic as he saw his brother freezing up faster than himself. “Flam! No, don’t leave me! No!” But before he could say anything else, Flam completely froze, leaving him alone, as he was unable to move due to his own body slowly being crept upon by freezing ice. “Flam! I’m so sorry! Equestria! I’m sorry! I’m actually sorry! Please! No! Let my brother go! Please! No more double deals! No more fine print! No more careful wording! We didn’t mean to cause this! Please!” But the wendigos ignored his begging as everything but his head had become frozen. “Flam! I’m scared! Flam… I swear, please, I’ll change! We’ll change! We promise! WE PROMISE!” Flim screamed as he closed his eyes.

“Whatever are you yelling about?” a voice asked.

“W-what?!” Flim opened his eyes, seeing he was hugging onto an equally frightened and unfrozen Flam. “What?! Flam?! FLAM!” Flim hugged onto him tightly with affection. “You’re alright!”

“As are you! Flim, what happened?! Where are we?!” Flam asked, crying into his brother’s legs.

“We’re… We’re back at the vault chamber, and… Discord?!” Flim was astonished, everything had returned to what it once was, with both you and Scootaloo still on the ground, tied, groaning and shaking like worms. “D-Discord?”

“What in the name of Celestia happened?! All those ponies, all that pain… Those wendigos! Anon! We destroyed Equestria! What… What happened?!” Flam asked, utterly confused as to what happened. 

“You what now? Oh, you must mean ‘destroying Equestria’ as some new-age lingo sort of thing. As in destroying all expectations, correct?” Discord asked as he twirled the quill. “Whatever you saw, it must have been amazing. Then again, given it is MY work, then there is no doubt about that at all. Now then…” Discord placed the quill on the contract “Since you both seem more than thrilled, I am ready to sign.”

“No!” The brothers screamed in fright as they pulled away the contract and tore it to the tiniest of pieces with a mixture of their magic. 

“W-what?” Discord said, astonished by their reaction. “Excuse me: one, I am to be referred to as Lord Discord, remember? And two, you can’t change the contract now, I’m ready to sign.” Discord snaps another contract into existence and prepares to sign, only for the brothers to scream and tear it up where it floats with their magic. “Alright, what seems to be the issue?”

“The issue?! Didn’t you see it?! Didn’t you see what we caused?!” Flim shouted. 

“No, because that wasn’t the point. The point was for you two to see what I can do, remember?” Discord said with a coy smirk.

“We saw what it was, and it-it…” Flam stopped, and thought deeply. He was scared, scared to have Discord anywhere near him or his brother. The fact Discord didn’t even seem to realize what he showed them is what seemed to terrify him the most. The only way he was going to get rid of him, was to just go forward as a business pony. “It was the worst quality celebration we have ever seen!”

“Flam?” Flim looked to his brother, confused by his words.

“What, Flim? It is the truth. No wonder those two didn’t want him to do it, he's simply awful.” Flam said as his eyes met Flim. He began to do some gestures with his hooves, a hidden code of gestures the brothers had come up with when they needed to say something to one another during a deal without letting on to anyone else what they were saying.

Flim was confused at first, but when he read it as ‘Just go along with it and get them out of here’, he knew what he had to do. “Yes, in fact, we’re canceling the whole thing and refunding all our patrons. In fact, we’ll even donate an extra half of what we return to local charities to help cheer up those less fortunate than us for this Hearthwarming, er, all Hearthwarmings."

“T-that’s right, and you, ‘Lord Discord’. You need to untie those foals immediately. They were right all along, and we were just utter idiots for not listening to them. In fact, we’ll do more than charities, we’ll be donating ten percent of our profits to schools from now on as well. We’ll even donate to that new school of Princess Twilight's, I’m sure her students will appreciate it.” Flam said.

“But then what am I supposed to get Fluttershy?” Discord asked nonchalantly.

“GET OUT!” The brothers shouted, pointing towards the door. Then realizing they just yelled at a terrifying being in the first place, they both meekly said. “...Please?”

“...” Discord just stared at them for a moment, and held up his empty cup. “One for the road?”

The brothers began to twitch, then fell over crying, begging Discord to just leave them alone. Sobbing, huddled together from the trauma, unable to forget what they saw.

Discord just stared at them and shrugged. “I guess not. I must say, the service here is terrible. One star to the both of you. I am never coming back here. Goodbye!” He said, a subtle smirk growing on his face, as he snapped his tail, causing you, Scootaloo, and himself to disappear from the room.