"Hi guys," Chrysalis chimed as she strolled into the clubhouse, taking notice of Discord and Nightmare Moon's absence. Sitting where she had yesterday, she glanced over to Sombra, his muzzle in a book. Shrugging it off, she proceeded to hum a new song that had played on the radio that morning.
"Yo," Tirek replied. "What's the new song you're humming?"
Chrysalis paused her high-pitched melody for a moment to reply, "'Change' by Scare-a Changeilles."
"Do you wanna hear me sing it?"
"Sure," came the monotone. Chrysalis grinned.
"I don't know all the lyrics, but here's the chorus.
"Change when you wanna change!
"And let the actions fall out,
"Honestly,
"I wanna see you change!"
Chrysalis grimaced at her voice cracks and glared at the centaur stifling his laughter. She decided to take up the song again in a lower pitch.
"When you wanna change,
"And let the actions fall out!
"Honestly,
"I wanna see you change!
"I just wanna see you, I just wanna see you, I just wanna see you!
"I wanna see you change!
"I just wanna see you, I just wanna see you, I just wanna see you!
"I wanna see you change!"
Tirek gave an amused smirk. "Makes sense that you would like that song."
Chrysalis shrugged and replied, "Well it is kind of relatable. Oh yeah, what happened to Discord and Nightmare?"
"Beats me," he replied, leaning back into his chair and putting his hands behind his head. It was quiet in the clubhouse for a moment.
A bright light flashed from the book Sombra was reading and the unicorn dropped it in surprise. It grew larger and larger until it morphed into the recognizable form of everyone's favorite draconequus.
"Hey there!" Discord greeted cheerily, stepping across the table towards Nightmare Moon's chair.
"W-What happened to my book?" Sombra asked tentatively, raising a hoof in question.
Discord glanced over to him and rolled his eyes. "Nothing important. Besides, it's not like you were actually reading it either way." A pregnant look shot his way. Hopping into the club leader's throne, the young draconequus brought his cloven hoof and reptilian hind leg up to the table, taking on a relaxed position.
"Hey, Dizzy," Chrysalis called, "Do ya know what happened to Moony? Isn't she supposed to be here before all of us?"
"Idk."
Silence greeted the small room.
"What," she said in a flat voice.
"It stands for 'I don't know'."
Tirek raised a brow. "Couldn't you have just said that in the first place?"
"What, and waste all my precious time?" Discord scoffed. "My presence is far too valuable to be squandered on trivial small talk. You should consider yourself grateful that I'm still here even when Moony decided not to show up!"
Another awkward pause.
"O . . . kay?"
"Wait, she isn't coming?"
Discord scratched his chin. "I actually don't know about that."
"But you just said—"
"It's called, 'an assumption', Chryssie." Yet another brief bit of silence followed.
"Right . . ." Chrysalis began. "Well, either way, we need to get Moony here, 'cause it's her club and I'm pretty sure she won't appreciate us starting without her." The changeling paused. "Though I'm also pretty sure no one in this room knows what we'll even be doing." A series of grunts and murmurs of agreement followed. She then turned to the slinkiest club member in the room. "Discord, can you snap and make her appear? Like you did with Sombra yesterday?"
"Idk, can I?"
Chrysalis groaned and face-hooved. "Oh my goodness, just do it!"
"Well, what's in it for me?"
Chrysalis's face twisted into an ugly scowl. "Possibly another day to live?"
"Hmm . . ." Discord stroked his chin and looked up to the ceiling in thought. "Seems fair enough." He snapped his talons, and in front of the quartet, a wet, soapy, singing, and Mare-carena dancing Nightmare Moon appeared. She ceased her movements and vocalizations to stare at her friends. Her face flushed pink with anger and embarrassment. For a moment, all eyes were on her and everything was quiet. Tirek broke the silence.
"Moony, what are you doing?"
Her brow furrowed in anger as she snarled, "I think you mean what was I doing before someone so rudely interrupted me!" She turned to glare at Discord. "Don't you know better than to randomly teleport ponies when they're in the middle of taking a shower?"
"How would I have known?" Discord countered, a sly grin on his face. "Besides, if you were taking a shower, then why, not to mention how, were you dancing?" Nightmare Moon blushed even harder and looked away.
"What? I like cutting a rug just as much as the next pony."
"But while you're bathing? How is that even possible in such a small space?"
Nightmare proceeded to bore holes into the ground with her uneasy gaze. "I have my ways," she mumbled. Sombra scratched his head and shrugged.
"Anyways," Chrysalis said, using her magic to levitate Discord and Nightmare Moon into their correct seats, earning a grumble of disproval from the former, "What gives, Moony? Why'd you decide to leave us and the club meeting hanging?"
Nightmare Moon sighed. "My family and I are going to a dinner party tonight. And I was taking a shower now because we're leaving in like two hours, and I take really long showers, so my mom thought it would be best if I got it out of the way now." She brought her turquoise gaze up to her friends. "So we'll have our meeting tomorrow."
"'Kay, bye." Discord snapped to reverse his actions.
Chrysalis laid her head on the table and sighed. "What do we do now, then?"
"Hmm," Discord muttered, stroking his beard. His eyes lit up after a few moments, much like a light bulb above his head that soon disappeared. "Aha! We should have a snowball fight!"
Tirek gave a beaming Discord a deadpan stare. "You're kidding, right? It's spring."
"That's what you think!" Discord snickered, and snapped. He disappeared out of the clubhouse and came back with a paw-ful of fresh snow.
Chrysalis stared at it in disbelief. "What?" She fluttered outside, the rest of them following her, to find the twenty-foot radius around the clubhouse cold and white. Soft, wet flakes of snow drifted to the ground from above. "How did you—"
"I can't cover the whole world in snow just yet, but I'm getting there. Practice makes perfect, after all!" Discord crossed his arms and smiled proudly.
A red aura surrounded a huge clump of snow that had collected on a nearby tree branch. It slowly floated closer and closer to Chrysalis, unbeknownst to her, and with a soft plop, landed on her head. The changeling let out a gasp of surprise from the assault as well as the sudden burst of cold and stood there shivering, eyes wide, jaw dropped, mane drenched, and knees locked. Sombra struggled to keep his laughter silent as Tirek and Discord turned back to him. Inferring what had happened, the pair burst into laughter.
The only female present simply stood there, trembling, as her friends rolled around on the floor. She whipped her head back and forth to clear her mind, but all she could focus on were the cold waves washing over her, the snow soaking through her fur and chilling her skin.
"At least she's a cold mess now!" Discord cackled, nudging Sombra in the ribs with an elbow. "Get it?" Blank stares were thrown his way and Discord cleared his throat uncomfortably. "You know, like how she's normally a hot mess, only she's covered in snow now, so that would make her a cold mess?" Chrysalis glanced back to her friends and scowled.
"Aha."
The draconequus frowned and crossed his arms, grumbling, "No one ever appreciates my puns."
"I wonder why," Tirek said, rolling his eyes, earning a glare from his chaotic friend.
"Hey, my puns are pretty good!"
"You keep telling yourself that."
Discord narrowed his eyes. "Alright then, Mr. Hotshot-Pun-Man. Let's see what you've got." Tirek raised an eyebrow to which Discord responded, "I challenge you to a pun war."
Tirek widened his eyes in surprise. "Whoa, I never said I was punny either. And what about the snowball fight?"
"We can have a snowball fight anytime. Come on, Tirek! It'll be fun! Just try!"
"Not happening."
"Fine. I'll have a pun war with Chryssie and Sombra then." Sombra flinched as his name was mentioned. "You can be the judge!"
Tirek nodded his head in agreement. "That works."
Discord clapped his claw and paw, giggling, "Hooray for snow puns! Ice think this is gonna be fun!"
"Yay," Chrysalis cheered, anything but enthusiastic.
The gray colt looked hesitant for a moment but spoke up regardless. "I uh, kind of have better things to do. Lots of reading to catch up on." Tirek gave him a funny look.
"Yeah, about that," he said, stepping towards his friend. "Why have you been reading so much lately? It's not like you." The centaur frowned.
"Oh yeah, he's right!" Discord reappeared at Sombra's side and scrutinized his expression. Sombra's discomfort from the close proximity of the draconequus was blatantly obvious but given no thought. "Why have you been reading so much?" Discord directed an angry glare towards the nerve-wracked pony.
Sombra took a few steps back and swallowed the saliva steadily building in his mouth. He forced a smile and said, "N-No reason! It's j-just—"
Discord grabbed Sombra by the shoulders and yelled, "What secrets aren't you telling us, Sombra?! WHY ARE YOU HOLDING OUT ON US?!?" His glower pierced into Sombra, and in response came a scared whimper.
Chrysalis magicked the angry draconequus away from the terrified colt. "Geez, chill out, Discord! Stop being such a jerk!"
Discord struggled in her magical grasp. "Can't you see what he's doing, Chryssie?! He's keeping secrets from us! He's lying to us!"
"Oh my gosh, he's not keeping secrets!" Chrysalis strained to keep Discord away from their defenseless friend. "He's just discovered a new hobby, nothing else! I mean really, just look at him!" Discord frowned at the trembling red-horned unicorn.
"Fine." Discord was promptly dropped to the ground. Humphing, he teleported back to the gray pony. "But I've got my eye on you," Discord growled. He turned back to the entrance, revealing a large yellow and red eyeball on the back of his head staring at Sombra. "I vote for postponing the pun-war."
Chrysalis scowled at him as he huffed inside.
"Bye, guys," a voice from behind called. Chrysalis and Sombra turned to see a red and gray centaur waving to them. "This is getting boring, so I'm going home." The two waved in response.
Sombra decided to leave as well, and soon it was just Chrysalis and Discord at the clubhouse. She stalked up to the entrance and said, "Discord, I—" She looked around the inside of the tiny building. No one was there. He must have teleported home, Chrysalis thought. She sighed. Whatever.
The filly began to shuffle back home.