//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: A Very Discordant Dinner (With A Side of Chicken) // Story: A Second Chance // by Admiral Producer //------------------------------// The lighthouse in Maretime Bay was in a particular state of frenzy. While her friends were off running errands and buying gifts for each other, Sunny Starscout worked tirelessly in the kitchen to prepare meals for the numerous guests that would be arriving in the evening. She was tired and sweaty, but she knew that if she didn’t cook the meals, then no one else would. As she was getting the last batch of cookies out of the oven, she heard the sound of doors slamming open and a very excited Izzy came running inside. Her eyes were practically sparkling with joy and she wore the biggest grin on her face as she skidded to a halt in front of her best friend. Sunny stopped what she was doing and turned towards her. “Hey there, Izzy. You kinda startled me back there. Try not to slam the doors next time, okay? We just got this place fixed.” Izzy nodded, taking a few exhausted breaths to calm herself. “Sorry, Sunny. But I was just too excited to tell you the news! Discord’s coming over tonight for dinner! He said yes!!” “That’s…great!” The earth pony congratulated her, though her face seemed to reflect the exact opposite of joy. She tried to hide it under a smile, but it was still noticeable. “Looks like I’ll be cooking for him as well…and here I thought I was finally done.” Fortunately, Izzy seemed to notice that she wasn’t in the best jolly mood at the moment and wasted no time in reassuring her that everything would be okay. “It’s okay!” she said quickly. “I mean, he can generate his own food out of thin air. You don’t need to do anything.” Sunny sighed with relief. “Well, that’s good. I forgot he had that snapping thing with his paw. You didn’t pressure him to come, did you? I know he must be going through a lot.” “Weeeeeeelll…” Izzy blushed with embarrassment. “I might have been a little too pushy in regards to my invitation. But at least he agreed, right?” “Yeah I guess,” Sunny answered. “I just don’t want this to be overwhelming for him in any way. You saw how…not himself he was last time we encountered him. Clearly, he hasn’t celebrated the holidays in hundreds of moons and he might not be used to it.” Izzy frowned. “Well, he did seem a bit hesitant. You don’t think…” She looked up at her sadly. “…that he feels forced to come because of me, do you?” “Well, I don’t know what went down with you two, so I wouldn’t know. All I know is, this will be the first time any creature that isn’t a pony steps into my house, so we gotta make the best impression on him!” The unicorn instantly brightened upon hearing that. “Oh yeah! Do you think he likes friendship bracelets? Because I got some cool ideas that I think he’ll love!” “If he’s up for it,” Sunny told her gently. “Then go ahead. But I’d caution against doing too much at once or forcing anything upon him. We want Discord to feel comfortable here first and foremost. That’s all there is to it, okay?” “You got it, Sunny!” Teleporting back into the land of ponies was certainly an interesting experience, Discord had to admit. With just a quick glance, he got to see just how much the world had truly changed around him. In the place of rural towns and suburbs were industrial buildings and factories. There were theaters and hardware stores, and a sheriff’s department to top it all off. It was a bit overwhelming for him to witness as all he saw was the Equestria that he used to know; the simpler times where friendship was magic, there were other creatures inhabiting the land, and ponies got along with one another no matter what. To his left, he saw an earth pony mare walk her little colt home in the frigid evening weather and he couldn’t help but feel sorrow. Everything still felt like what he knew and loved, but it wasn’t at the same time. He stumbled in the direction of the tall lighthouse on the top of the hill. It was a beacon of hope on the outskirts of town, welcoming all of those with open hooves to its borders. He swallowed his nervousness and adjusted his tie before heading towards the door and knocking on it. At first, there was no answer. Then, the sound of hoofsteps could be heard from inside and the door slowly opened and a familiar orange head peeked out from the other side. She was covered in dough in every part of her body with the exception of her face and she gasped upon seeing him. “Discord!” Sunny realized, a look of surprise in her eyes. “Um, hi there. Sorry about the mess on me. There was an accident in the kitchen and…we weren’t expecting you until much later. Seriously, Zipp does not know how to bake.” “Oh don’t worry about that, dear Sunny Bunny,” Discord replied. “I can take care of that for you right now.” He snapped his claws and in an instant, the food on the earth pony vanished faster than it had appeared. “Whenever you need to clean up, call the Lord of Chaos.” Sunny chuckled. “I certainly will.” She glanced behind her and shouted as if she was addressing someone else. “Izzy! Guess who showed up an hour early!” “Discord’s here!!” Within seconds, Izzy was at the door and hopping excitedly in place from one hoof to the other. She stared at him with the most adorable smile and Discord couldn’t help but feel his heart melt for her. “You made it!!” “I certainly did, my dear Fluttershy-I mean Izzy,” Discord answered her, correcting himself instantly. When he saw the confused expressions on their faces, he tried desperately to change the subject. “Um…I brought a tie.” “And it looks absolutely perfect on you,” Izzy complimented him. “Come on! Come inside!” She opened the door wider and gestured for him to follow her. He did so and headed inside the lighthouse. In an instant, his senses were assaulted by the noises of loud holiday carols coming from the radio and the chatter of multiple other guests that were walking towards the table, some of which included a light purple pegasus mare with a crown on and a burly grey earth pony stallion. He awkwardly waved to them, only to have the favor be returned by blank stares and noticeable coughs. That was when he knew that not everyone knew that he was showing up. They had never seen a creature like him before and he could tell that some were even apprehensive of his presence. “Don’t worry about being awkward, Discord. You’ve done this so many times before.” “I’m aware of that, Fluttershy, but this is the first time that we’re having a Hearth’s Warming Eve party with nearly triple the amount of guests. I’ll never fit in with these guys!” “You got this. Just be cool and act natural.” “Act natural. Right. Easy for you to say.” Discord said out loud. Sunny and Izzy stopped walking upon hearing him say this and turned their heads to look back at him. “Huh?” Sunny asked. “I don’t remember saying anything.” “Nothing!” he lied with a big grin. The two skeptical mares turned back towards the front and he took this chance to break away from them and attempt to be social. He walked up to the imposing stallion, who noticed him come and stopped his conversation with the pegasus queen. “Do I know you?” the stallion asked him suspiciously. “The name is Discord! The Master of Chaos!” Discord introduced himself in a flamboyant manner. “I’m sure you know who I am.” “Actually, I don’t,” the stallion answered. “‘Name’s Alphabittle. I’m the leader of Bridlewood. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Discord.” “Pleasure’s all mine.” Discord reciprocated before snapping his claws. Within an instant, Alphabittle’s horn transformed into an egg that was slowly hatching. Alphabittle saw this and his eyes went wide with terror. “What the?!” Alphabittle demanded. “What have you done to me?!” “Oh hush,” assured Discord nonchalantly. “The effects will wear off in 24 hours. You won’t be needing that horn until then. This is how I express my gratitude.” The egg then hatched into a small yellow chick, which then promptly flew away from him and around various corners of the room as it searched for a way out. Alphabittle looked mortified at the sight and promptly ran from the area as fast as he could while screaming his head off. With that out of the way, he headed back over towards where Izzy was. The unicorn was sitting in the main living room, tinkering with the friendship bracelet that was on her right hoof. She smiled upon seeing him and stood up to her hooves. “Isn’t this so fun?” Izzy asked excitedly. She looked at him again with those adoring eyes and Discord couldn’t help but bask in her unbridled enthusiasm. “Oh it definitely is,” he answered with a mischievous smile. “The best night ever if I might add. Dear Alphabittle won’t be needing his horn for a good while, that’s for sure.” Izzy seemed concerned upon hearing this news. “Wait…what did you do to Alphabittle’s horn?” “See for yourself!” Discord exclaimed, gesturing to his right. Izzy followed his point and saw the chick slowly growing bigger by the second and terrorizing a group of fearful pegasus royal guards that were attempting to get it to stand down using their spears. “I’m…not sure that’s entirely safe,” she said, a hint of uncertainty in her voice. “Maybe we should open the door to let it out? I don’t want that chicken to ruin Sunny’s night.” “Nonsense,” Discord assured her. “I can assure you that Carlos is totally harmless. He won’t be hurting anyone. As the guest of honor, I command that he stays.” “If you say so.” Izzy responded, frowning a little bit. Her smile instantly returned once she looked at her hoof, however, and she appeared to remember something. “Oh, I almost forgot!” She reached into her mane again and pulled out a green friendship bracelet with pink beads. “I made this for you. Try it on!” Discord froze in his tracks. “You…made this for me?” Izzy nodded enthusiastically. “It’s a sign of our friendship! Come on…please try it on in front of me? I wanna see how it looks!” Not wanting to disappoint her, he took the bracelet and put it on his lion paw. Upon doing so, he felt a pang of guilt overcome him once again. He remembered the day he first ate dinner with Fluttershy and the others during his reformation training, and how the pegasus had defended him and even called him a friend. “Oh…I’ve never really had a friend before.” “Well now you do.” “Discord?” His flashback was interrupted by Izzy’s voice and he looked at her again, only now noticing the worry in her eyes upon seeing him begin to tear up. “Oh,” he said, trying his best to change the subject before the mare could begin questioning whether he was okay. “I…I love it! It really does fit me very well.” “You were crying,” Izzy pointed out. “I was beginning to worry that you didn’t like it. I could always get you something else-“ “No no no,” Discord held out his paw to stop her from panicking. “Don’t worry, Izzy. This is a gift that is perfectly fit for a draconequus such as I. How did you know I liked green?” Izzy blushed. “I was just guessing.” She shifted awkwardly for a moment before regaining her composure. “I’m so happy you love it, Discord!!” “Oh love it would be an understatement,” Discord told her as her smile grew wider and wider. “This is the best gift that the Lord of Chaos could ever receive!!!” Before Izzy could respond, there was the sound of a bell dinging and everyone turned their attention towards Sunny, who was standing at the entrance to the kitchen. “Dinner time, everypony!!” Sunny announced proudly. “Chocolate chip cookies are on the house tonight!!” The table was soon crowded by the town leaders and their servants, as well as Sunny and her friends. Discord sat right beside Izzy at the end of the table and wasted no time in digging into his batch of cookies. As he ate, he began to notice the unicorn inching closer and closer towards him. He gently pushed her away and she seemed to take the hint as she apologized to him right after he did so. The dinner table was quiet and peaceful until the pegasus queen broke the silence. “I must say,” she stated. “This first Hearth’s Warming celebration in so many moons has been a blast so far. I feel like we should implement this holiday into Zephyr Heights tradition!” “That’s wonderful, Queen Haven!” Sunny answered. “I was honestly nervous about hosting this party, but so far it’s gone perfectly! Nothing wrong at all aside from one accident during preparation.” “Aside from the fact that I’ve lost my horn?!” Alphabittle countered, glaring intensely at Discord. “Seriously, none of you have realized something wrong with this picture?!” “I’m honestly just noticing this now,” Zipp chimed in, her face reflecting suspicion. “What happened to you, dude?” “That chimera over there,” Alphabittle explained, pointing an accusatory hoof at Discord. “stole my horn and turned it into a baby chick!! Gimme my horn back now!” Discord scoffed indignantly. “Well for your information, Mr. Grumpy Grump, I am a draconequus, not a chimera. And no, I did not turn your horn into a baby chick. I turned it into an egg, which then hatched into a baby chick. Big difference.” “That’s still the same thing!!” Alphabittle roared. “Who even invited you over anyway?!” “I did…” Izzy answered meekly. When the elder unicorn gave her a furious look, she was instantly on his defense. “You don’t know him, Alphabittle! He’s actually very kind on the inside and-“ “KIND?!!” “Whoa whoa whoa,” Sunny said, holding out both of her hooves in an attempt to diffuse the rapidly escalating situation. “Okay, let’s all try and have a nice dinner and we’ll solve the situation later. Discord, please give Alphabittle back his horn.” Discord rolled his eyes. “Fine. You know having a horn isn’t everything, don’t you?” He snapped his claws and the horn reappeared on Alphabittle’s head, although now it was where his muzzle was supposed to be and not on his forehead. Alphabittle groaned. “I give up on you ponies.” “And I just livestreamed all of that!” Pipp stated with a proud smile. “I call it: ‘Alphabittle And The Case of The Runaway Horn!’” “Pipp,” Zipp warned her. “I don’t think you’re supposed to do that. That’s his business.” Izzy turned to look at Discord, concern clearly showing from her eyes. “Discord, can you please put Alphabittle’s horn back in the proper place? We’re trying to have a nice night here.” “Well if he would be a bit nicer to me,” Discord replied in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. “Perhaps I would consider it.” Izzy sighed with exasperation. “Discord, please?” Upon seeing her stare at him with a pleading expression, he finally relented. “Fine. But we have to find Carlos first so I can turn him back into an egg.” “Wait, who’s Carlos?” Hitch inquired. Just then, a bloodcurdling scream could be heard from the other room and a purple pegasus guard ran towards the dining table, a look of pure terror on his face. Behind him was a giant angry rooster stomping and trying to bite his tail off. It was Carlos and he had now grown to his full monstrous size. “WHO IN HOOFNESS’S NAME IS THAT?!!” Haven yelled, pointing with a shaky hoof at the towering Carlos that stood near the table and blocked the exit. Discord gulped. “Perhaps I made him grow too big.” “You WHAT?!” Sunny yelled, standing up from her stool. “You have some serious explaining to do, mister!” “RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNN!!!!!!” The guard shrieked at the top of his lungs. The guests all stood up and scattered at once in every single direction, trampling each other in a mad dash to escape. With Carlos distracted for a moment, some were able to push past him and run straight, while others went through the kitchen. Sunny transformed into her alicorn form and began blasting at the rampaging chicken, who simply dodged her attacks by moving his head from side to side. She yelled with fury and continued to blast Carlos over and over, eventually managing to land a hit on his beak. He screamed and stomped on the dining room table in a fit of rage before moving on to the other fleeing ponies. Sunny watched this all go down with a mix of anger and fear. Meanwhile, Izzy and Discord had taken off and were running for their lives when Carlos smashed through one of the walls and cornered them near the door. Izzy looked at Discord with pure terror in her eyes. “We can’t let him into Maretime Bay!” she shouted. “Can you snap him back into an egg?” “I-I need more than a few seconds to do that!” Discord shot back. “I can’t do it when we’re about to die! This is all my fault! All I wanted was to make you happy, Izzy! I didn’t want to go to this party. It was just too much pressure. I knew that I’d never fit in here! Not after so many moons!” Izzy gasped, tears of sadness filling in her eyes. “You didn’t want to come?” Discord closed his eyes and nodded through tears of his own. That was when Carlos began to reach down and open his massive beak up wide in order to take a bite out of them both. He glanced down at his friendship bracelet and remembered how Izzy had made that just for him as a sign of their true bond. She had gone out of her way to invite him of all creatures because she believed in him. She saw the good in him, even when he couldn’t see it in himself. In that moment, he knew that he had to take a leap of faith. He couldn’t let Izzy die. Not his new best friend. He would not fail her like he did Fluttershy. He would save her. As he opened his eyes and stared at Izzy’s trembling, sobbing form, his eyebrows narrowed with determination. He slowly got to his feet and stood defiantly against the monster he had created. He briefly glanced at the other ponies to his right, who were all huddled in another corner and watching the display go down, before returning his attention to the front. Carlos reared his head back and let out a bellowing roar, fire spewing out of his beak that burned a gaping hole directly through the ceiling. Discord then slowly raised his claw into the air and blasted the rooster back with his chaos magic. Carlos stumbled, roaring with fury. He launched himself at the Lord of Chaos, who blasted him back again. The rooster punched at the ground and unfurled his wings, only for Discord to do the same and catch him in a bubble of magic. Carlos screeched and fought against his creator that was holding him hostage. Discord smirked and felt his old confident self return for but the briefest of moments. As he was doing this, Izzy looked up from the ground and her eyes went wide upon seeing him standing up for her like he was. “Now I think it’s time we bring this chicken dance to a close,” he told his creation smugly. “I call my final move: the mating call!!” And with that, he slowly reached out his claw…and snapped. The cloud of dust fully cleared away and Izzy stood up to her hooves. Once she could see properly, she wasted no time in helping Sunny and the rest of her friends aid the remaining guests. They all looked as bewildered as she was, and she couldn’t blame them. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself before looking at Sunny, who was standing beside Hitch and talking with a few other traumatized guests. “Is everypony okay?” she asked cautiously. Sunny looked back at her and nodded solemnly. “They should be.” She then glanced around the destroyed living room, which was now covered in egg yolk. “The whole party is ruined…my first time hosting a Hearth’s Warming Eve party and it was a complete disaster.” “Are you kidding?” Queen Haven countered, walking over to the distraught earth pony and smiling. “That was the best first Hearth’s Warming celebration that I’ve ever been to!” “It was?” inquired Hitch in a bewildered tone. Haven nodded. “I haven’t felt this much adrenaline running from a giant rampaging rooster in ages! Whatever Discord did, he should write it all down and do it again next year! Right, everypony?” Everyone else clamored in agreement and started singing Discord’s praises for saving their lives. Izzy smiled back upon seeing them now embracing her new friend, but her frown quickly returned once she realized that the Lord of Chaos was nowhere in sight. “Hey,” Izzy asked, her expression filled with worry once the reality of the situation became clear to her. “Where is Discord?”