My Little Universe: Season 5

by EquestrianKirin

New Chaos in Town

"Dun-di-du-du-du-I'm-humming-a-song-la-di-da-da-da."

In his own little corner of the world, Discord was casually taking his own little stroll around the neighborhood, dressed up in a little fancy tuxedo, cane and top hat included. At first, it seemed that he was going through ponyville, a nice little tune in his step and a few occasional swings of his cane as he did so, but after a bit the world suddenly stopped and Discord hopped off of it. Guess he had enough on his treadmill, and with a pull of his fancy handy window hook, the scene pulled away and he was soon back at his house, treadmill disappearing after a tap of his cane. Go figure from the being of chaos, right? Anyway, after his little stroll through pretty much nowhere, Discord went on over to his kitchen, after tossing his hat, coat and cane on a conveniently placed coat rack, and started to handle some of the dishes. Though, his way of handling them was taking a clean dish, scrubbing it in the sink, and making it dirty again before placing it aside.

"Oh, things sure had been rather dull lately," Discord commented, going through about fifteen dishes. As he kept on going, suddenly a lightbulb popped over his head.

"I'll give Fluttershy a call! That Pegasus sure'll be free to play with ... ooo, a snack," Discord said, taking the lightbulb and biting into it like an apple before tossing the rest out the kitchen window. Still, calling up on his little letter buddy would give him something else to do. He went over to his phone, which was hanging up on the wall, and he quickly got it out and gave it a quick dial up. Discord waited a moment or two before it began to ring up, or at least it felt like it did. Discord felt the phone vibrate, his eyes looking around a little. However, one of the eyes took a look down towards his tail, much like a chameleon would, and soon Discord found it wasn't the phone vibrating, but instead his tail. The vibrating traveled up his tail, through his legs, up his back, and soon Discord found himself shaking up a storm, dropping the phone to the floor he was shaking so much. This shaking lasted up to about twenty seconds until Discord finally stopped, sitting on the ground in a daze. Once discord came to his senses, a suspicious look then came up to his face.

"Oh. That can't be right," Discord wondered, stroking his goat beard. After a little bit, Discord reached into his ear and pulled out his own little magic key (clean as a whistle of course), and got it into the lock of his door. One portal open later, and the draconequus was off on his way to check the situation.

~~~~~~

"Sadie! Sadie!" called Lars from the front desk. A regular day at the big donut, but with customers not coming around too much, business had been rather slow. Regardless, Lars was getting pretty bugged with Sadie randomly going off on him (ironic really).

"Why am I left with all the work?" Lars groaned. Though, the teen wasn't doing very much to begin with, and instead was checking out a magazine and listening to some music off some headphones. A regular worker, him. As he just sat there, feet kicked up on the counter, the front door rang up, and his latest customer then walked in: Buck to be exact. Of course, with music blasting in his head, and eyes to the magazine he was reading, Lars didn't even notice him come in.

"Hey, donut kid," Buck said, but Lars didn't hear anything, or see anything off his magazine. Buck was patient though, and waited a little bit, for what he was sure will come around. After a minute though, Buck decided to play with him, and brought his finger up to turn the page for Lars, only then did Lars actually notice him.

"Buck Dewey!" Lars gasped, stumbling off his seat. Buck gave Lars a minute to correct himself, Lars quickly jumping to his feet, hiding the magazine and headphones for a moment and quickly getting himself.

"Hi Buck, how's it going, what'll it be?" Lars asked, trying to look cool but freaking out seeing him there. Buck took it in his stride.

"I wanna order ... you. To come to dinner. Me, Jenny, and Sour Cream are having a potluck. You know, like parents do, only we'll be doing it. You should bring some food too because that's what you do at a potluck. It's funny," Buck said.

Did Lars hear him right? Buck, the coolest kid in Beach City, just invited him out to hang with the rest of his gang? Lars was lucky to even think up what to say. Lars had to think.

"Yes, so funny! Sure, I-I'll be there!" Lars got out. Buck smiled.

"Cool." With that sinple statement, Buck then went off and left the big donut. Lars kept a cool smile on his face until he was sure that Buck was out of sight, and by then ...

"UGH! Why'd I say that?" Lars thought, his head meeting with the counter table. The moment was simply up and out of nowhere, and now Lars was caught up in it. Lars tried to think, specifically on something he could just drag along over to this potluck, ANYTHING that'll work.

"Oh wait, donuts! Maybe that'll - wait. Wait, no, that's not good enough. Oh come on. Sadie, think you ca - wait she's not here, UGH!" Lars went over into the back to try and figure something out. Well, he had to try something out, besides, what other chance would there be to hang with the cool kids in this kind of event anyway? Lars paced a little bit at first, trying to think, and soon he ended up opening the door to the back again, when -

*BAM*

Next thing he knew, Lars found himself getting slammed by something, big and fast, It all happened very fast, and Lars himself didn't have any remote time to react to any of it. What he ended up finding himself in was in the coils of discord, who he himself was slightly dazed by the sudden crash, and wrapped around Lars like stray rope. A rather rough landing, but he was there.

"Oh, do excuse me," said Discord.

"GET OFF!" yelled Lars, tossing the draconequus off of him. Discord landed over by the front desk, Discord bouncing back onto his feet like a spring.

"Oh NO, not another one! What're you doing here?" Lars asked, not wanting any magic biz going on in the big donut right now. Discord quickly got himself together, cleaning himself off of any dust.

"Oh, just dropping by. Eh, while I'm here, you didn't happen to notice anything chaotic, or overly-magical as of late, have you?" Discord asked.

"Aside from you, no," Lars said. Discord felt a bit disappointed on that answer, suddenly conjuring up a list from nowhere, and a quill, marking off a picture of Lars on his list of Beach City residents. Oh well, it was his first shot at it anyway, he shouldn't be discouraged yet.

"Oh poo. Well there's other fish in this big ocean, ta-ta," Discord said, opening up the front door to go. Though his way of doing that was to close the door, and just faze on through it. Lars could breath a sigh of relief he didn't have to deal with that magic today, and his mind returned back to the potluck. He wasn't sure what exactly to bring over to the potluck, but he knew one thing for sure.

"It must be perfect."

~~~~~~

As Discord was doing his little investigation, Lars had his mind wrapped around this whole potluck event. He basically said he'll go to Buck Dewey earlier, and now he was pretty much stuck with it. If he wanted to make a good impression on the coolest kids in Beach City, he had to get his act together before.

"MAN, why did I say that? I got nothing to bring. Come on, Lars, m-maybe that Pinkie Pie can make you something to bring," Lars figured. Buck never said he had to make the meal for the potluck himself, so that did sound a bit easier for him to do. His walk back to his house at least wasn't too stressful, to put the term lightly, and not many out to bug him on it either. The last thing he needed was some nosy kid breathing down his neck for his feeling sharing. During his walk around Beach City towards home though, he had to make a way past Greg's carwash to do so. For the carwash itself, it did appear to be a little bit busy with a few cars lined up for Greg to clean away at. As for Greg, he was a bit busy with his work, hose in hand and sponge in the other, wiping down the car of his latest customer. Normally, he'd not bother with it much and continue his stroll home, but as he started to near, He found one person was doing less car-washing, and more spying, hidden away just over by Greg's parked van. It's more on who it was that got Lars a bit confused: Buck.

"Buck?"

"Sshh," Buck quickly said, turning back to Lars, finger over his lips as he shushed him. Since when was Buck into spying on people? He quietly pointed over to the carwash, getting his attention to the scene. All he could see though was Greg finishing up Kofi Pizza's car.

"... Have you been with those moms, or ..."

"Over there," said Buck, hushed, and focusing Lars's head so he could see what Buck was seeing, a bit clearer at least. As Greg was finishing up this customer's cleaning, which turned out to be the last one, Greg was ready to go and clean up a little bit, putting the hose up over by the carwash wall. But, it wasn't exactly Greg himself that the two were looking at, but instead the focus was up to the 'It's a Wash' elephant sign. Or rather, whatever was slithering out from behind it, and watching Greg from it's perch until it knew for sure that they were alone.

"Oh, what a busy day. I earned my paycheck today," Greg told himself, wiping off some sweat off of his head.

"Yeah, I'd say so. Though your scrubbing's a little sloppy."

Not a voice Greg knew, and seeing the bigger shadow just over him got Greg to turn around to see who was talking to him. One thing Greg could say right away was that this was no ordinary customer. In fact, it wasn't even human for that matter: a huge, long, grey snake! Naturally this was no ordinary snake either: this one was actually a little classy, wearing what looked like a sort of voodoo hat, lined with bones including a small rat skull at the center. Fangs were evident on this snake, poking out just so slightly off the side of its jaws. And the size of this snake easily matched to the largest anaconda. Greg stayed silent, the sponge dropping out of his hand.

"OH! ... HI THERE," Greg said, eyes wide and fixated on this giant snake as he tipped his hat to Greg with his tail.

"Name's Slang. Grootslang. And see you had fun cleaning those cars, eh?" said Grootslang, slithering over to the hose on the wall as his tail flipped up the sponge, balancing it on his tail like a basketball player would for a basketball.

"Well, it is my job," said Greg, trying to get his sponge back, just for Grootslang to toss it over back to the hose, which was where Greg was going to put it in the first place.

"Sure it is, sure it is, and I suppose your kid's plenty proud of ya too, huh?" Grootslang noted, nudging him as he said so. Greg wasn't too sure about this thing, especially after that statement.

"Eh ... I'll just continue cleaning now," Greg simply said, backing up from the large snake. However, Grootslang slithered up behind him, and Greg ended up stuck in a slight coil.

"Don't be a stranger, Greg, your kid's told me lots about you already," Grootslang hissed, a sly grin on his face.

"Whoa, what? Really?" Greg asked, legitimately confused. Grootslang nodded his head.

"Oh yes, he sure had a lot to say about you: you being number one dad, you doing such a good job at your music hobby," said Grootslang, complimenting him on it. Greg felt a little flattered about it actually.

"Eh, I dabble a little when I was young," Greg said, rubbing the back of his head, but this just got Grootslang chuckling in his hiss.

"Oh, he also mentioned about your little lack for him lately? What pops, too busy to hang with him?" Grootslang hissed, changing the tone very quickly.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh you know, so much has happened to him over these last few months, and here you are chilling out with your sponge and hose. He's been running around here, Equestria, Homeworld, wherever and getting into all sorts of trouble. I mean, he just got into court for murder just two days back, for Celestia's sake! ... And where were you when this was going on?"

"N-Now wait a minute, the Gems don't want me involved in that kind of stuff!" Greg retorted, shaken up on what Grootslang told him, but then Grootslang started to act all dramatic, taking his hat off with his tail and placing it over his chest, looking forlorn.

"WOOOOW! So you'll abandon your kid for their sake? OY, what a pain on his heart if he heard you say that. Brings a tear to your eye."

"But they never told me that, really. How am I supposed to do anything for something I don't know?"

"DOUBLE WOOOOW! You're gonna have me baling any minute now," Grootslang wept, a tear even slithering down his face. Grootslang was surely antagonizing Greg, even if he never knew anything about anything. Now Greg was getting a mix of guilt and anger towards the snake.

"Now listen here, you -" Before Greg could get his word in, Grootslang gave a very loud hiss, opening his jaws and pulling out his large, sharp fangs as intimidation. The jumpscare factor was enough to make Greg stumble back, slipping over the soapy water on the pavement.

"Geesh, Greg, I'm only making a point. I mean, your the dad, you know what's best for your own son, do you? Or did you alienate your own kid that much? Just some food for thought. OH, and one more thing." Grootslang reached into his hat, and pulled out a toupee, putting it over Greg's bald spot. It didn't match his natural hair, but it still covered. Grootslang smiled, patted it down to be sure, and then slithered off on his way.

"There. Snazzy, no? Well, I'll leave you to your thoughts now, have a good day Greg." and with that final word, Grootslang slithered off out of sight, and left Greg to ponder and question about what Grootslang had just said.

"... Maybe I should visit Steven," Greg pondered.

Nearby, Lars and Buck had basically overheard everything, and once Grootslang had slithered far enough away, Buck started to walk back down the road, thinking about the situation they had just witnessed. Lars was still lost the moment the snake even showed up, his mind still trying to properly process things. Lars sat down by Greg's van, back to the vehicle.

"Eh ... So that happened."

"A lot of things happened lately. ... Lars, think you can tell the Gem moms of Steven's? This sounds much like their work," asked Buck. Lars hopped up to his feet on the request. As if getting invited to his potluck was crazy enough, now he was asking a big favor out of him! He needed to step up his game now.

"Oh, sure thing, be right there and back before you know it, eh Bingo bongo!" Lars said, point-and-shoot gesturing with his fingers. Buck nodded, and he started to walk on his way. Lars high-tailed it back the way he came to get to the Crystal Gems and tell them what was up.

""Bingo-Bongo"? What does that even mean?" Lars thought as he went.

~~~~~~

Speaking of, back at the temple, things had still calmed down a bit and had returned to normal. With their previous encounter with White Diamond, the Crystal Gems were pretty much left stuck on Earth, this time for good. Though, to be fair, since the Crystal Gems had been doing so for thousands of years anyway, it really didn't come across as anything too dangerous, and everything ended up back to how they were for the most part. In the Beach House in question, Steven, Connie, and Twilight were both taking time to check out Twilight's recent monster guide as Rarity and Jade were working on some inspiration designs for outfits. Seemed pretty normal enough, but they paused for a moment when the Warp Pad activated nearby, Garnet, Fluttershy, Pearl and Rainbow just coming back.

"Hello there, dears. How'd it go?" asked Rarity, placing down her sketchbook.

"Not too good. We've tried looking for Jasper at the typical Gem sites, but there's not a trace of her anywhere," Pearl informed, looking a bit disappointed about the search.

"Hope she's ok," said Steven.

"You and me both, sport. It's pretty dull around here without that orange fighter living things up," added in Rainbow, landing down over by them. Yeah, looking for Jasper had been just as troubling as their search for Malachite, as troubling as that was to even say. Just as they thought their troubles were over, no less, and Jasper was now missing again.

"Is Lapis out yet?" asked Twilight.

"No, she's still stuck there. Poor Gem," said Fluttershy, regrettably. The incident with Malachite was surely getting itself to Lapis, last time they checked, but despite Blue Diamond, she still didn't bring herself to come out. So, in a way, they only got one half of the original problems solved.

"Don't worry. They'll be alright," Garnet reassured. They only hoped so. ...

"*knock**knock*

"Hey, anyone there?!"

It was at this point that Lars finally showed up. He still was a bit frantic, not to mention tired from his backtrack to get to the temple. Being closest to the door, Pearl went over to the door, and it didn't take long for the group to see Lars standing there, the kid trying to catch his breath for the run back here, hunched over.

"Oh. Can I help you?" Pearl asked.

"Hold on. *huff**huff* I'll be with you *huff* in a minute," said Lars, trying his best to catch his breath first before he would say something. At least his memory was still in tact on him. To Steven, this was a rather interesting surprise.

"Lars! Welcome to my home! This is the first time you've been over, I think," Steven said, recalling little memory of Lars to actually. Lars though wasn't interested in that.

"OK, Gem moms, you here? Eh, you!" Lars then pointed to Garnet.

"Yes?" Garnet simply asked, looking down to him.

"OK, you may or may not believe me, I don't blame you really, but something freaky is going on in Beach City right now," Lars said, though he was still trying to come to terms with actually buying it himself. A giant, sentient, talking snake slithering around Beach City?

"Can't be: me and AJ already settled that feud between those Pizzas and Fries," Rainbow pointed out.

"The what - NO, forget that! K, look, there's this ... giant snake? I-I guess? That's going around town. I just saw it mess up your dad's mind pretty good," Lars said, though he didn't feel confident about it at all. He expected them to look at him like he was crazy, but the reactions were actually more humble on this report, Garnet, even with her visors, appearing just as humbled as well. She was right up to Lars, looking down at him.

"I need you to be honest. Are you telling us the truth?" Garnet asked, looking Lars in the eyes to be sure. Being so close, Lars could even see her three eyes through her visors, which didn't help his nerves.

"EYEEEEIIII'm pretty sure I am," Lars said, correcting himself from his surprise. Garnet straightened up and thought it over for a bit.

"WHOA, wait a minute, no! We found some snakes, but we clobbered them last time we saw them!" Rainbow insisted.

"Actually, you lost them," Pearl reminded as well, not something Rainbow wanted to remember either.

"No we didn't!"

"Enough," Garnet said, quieting them both. Bickering amongst eachother wasn't gonna fix anything. After that, Garnet started to walk out the door.

"I'll handle it," Garnet simply said, as she started to head off towards the city. The others went outside and watched her go. Well, sounded like that was taken care of, one way or another, and Lars breathed a sigh of relief. His favor to Buck was taken care of too, but there was another thing that came back in his head.

"What did he say to my dad?" Steven asked.

"I dunno, something about him being a bad father and how you chewed him out, er something," Lars replied, taking a rest on the fence of his porch. Steven couldn't believe it.

"What?!" Steven gasped.

"Steven never said anything like that, ever," added Connie.

"That lying coil of rope, come on!" Rainbow said, ready to fly off after the snake.

As if their pre-existing problems weren't enough.

~~~~~~

Back in town, Discord was still doing his own little investigation on the extra magic looming around in Beach City. So far though, even with all his magic and law-breaking skills, he wasn't having no more luck than the next guy. Going around town in his detective outfit, magnifying glass included over one of his eyes, Discord was sweeping over through Dewey Park, and around the nearby buildings for something, or some sort of clue. He popped up out of a street light bulb, crawling down the pole and moving along the ground like a snake, magnifying glass in front of him and keeping his head on the ground. Odd to see for any passersby, though none of them dared to ask what was even going on with Discord. As he was crawling around, he ended up sliding into a sewer manhole, only to reappear from a hole inside a tree (as Discord would do).

"Nothin," Discord groaned, shaking off a squirrel off his head. He slithered out of the tree and soon was up and standing again. So far, he wasn't getting much of anywhere, despite looking up plenty of Beach City up and down, and now he was starting to get impatient.

"Really, how hard can it be to find chaotic magic around here?"

"AAHH, SNAKE!"

"AND, nevermind."

Talk about timing. Discord zoomed over towards the source of the noise, keeping himself hidden behind a light pole, and only poking his head out while the rest of his body stayed completely hidden. A scream like that in a place like this was surely something worth checking out for this draconequus.
Down the road, some of the locals were either racing off past Discord, or moving to the otherside of the street in a hurry, slithery snake Grootslang actually casually slithering through town. One look on the snakes face said he didn't care how much his presence was freaking everyone out. As Discord watched, Grootslang slithered down the sidewalk for a bit until he stopped in front of one of the stores, giving a sly smirk before slithering on inside. The store in question, as it turned out was right next to the theater, entitled "Miroslaw's Jewelers". And indeed it lived to its name: displays of many a necklace, ring, and other forms of jewelry were in Grootslang's sight, plenty o delight for the snake. And lucky for him, a young male worker was working the front, wiping the counter and apparently too distracted in that to even notice Grootslang come in. Grootslang tapped the front bell to get his attention.

"Ah, hello sir welcome to Mirosla - aaaa?!"

"Hey there, kid. Miroslaw himself, right?" Grootslang asked, followed by a little hiss to the boy's face.

"Eh ... n-no, that's my dad," he stuttered, tugging at his collar a little bit as Grootslang started to look around at the variety.

"My oh my, the option! Let's see now ..." Grootslang slithered around and examined each and every jewel in the area. So many options peaked the snake's interest. However, he then took sight of one, particularly big one on display on the right wall, Grootslang's eyes widening and a big smile stretching across his face, his tongue flicking in and out.

"I'll take the biggest, shiniest jewelry you got!" Grootslang insisted, looking less threatening and more excited, though it didn't help the lad out in his situation. He tried to get his nerves together, trying to look professional for the snake, as he started to gathered up what he would consider the largest jewels they had, placing several pieces of jewelry on the front counter. Grootslang's eyes boggled as the lad made up the value of it.

"OK, so that about ten pieces so it'll be ... three hundred dollars and seventy cents," the boy confirmed.

"These will do LOVELY. OH, look how they sparkle," said Grootslang. However, he swept them up with his tail, and immediately started to head for the door. Despite the situation, business is business, so a whistle escaped the boy's mouth.

"Wait. Y-You forgot to pay for that," he said, Grootslang stopping.

"I forgot to what?"

"Uh. You forgot to pay," the boy repeated, causing Grootslang to slithered back.

"I forgot to what?"

"To pay. Y-Yes, you forgot to do that."

"... I forgot to pay?"

"YOU! FORGOT! TO -" Grootslang whipped his tail in the air to shut the boy up, the snake's ears ringing from the yelling.

"I heard what you said. I said I'll take the jewels, and I'm taking them."

"Eh, no, no, no, t-that's not how it works. I, uh ... uh ..." The boy trailed off in thought as Grootslang leaned in towards him, his eyes locked to him. The boy gulped, tugging at his collar again, as Grootslang slid the jewels into his hat, making them disappear inside. Grootslang stuck out his tongue, which flicked the boy's face a number of times.

"Think those fuzz will believe you if you tell em a giant snake stole your jewelry? Keep that in mind, fancy pants. See ya later," Grootslang hissed. And with that, the snake slithered out, leaving the young storekeep lucky to stay unharmed after all that. Grootslang snickered to himself as he went off on his way, putting the hat back on his head.

"AND WHERE'RE YOU GOING?"

Looking ahead, Grootslang found Discord standing right in front of him, dressed up as a police officer. Grootslang's face met right with Discord's, to the point of touching. Grootslang backed up a little bit.

"And who're you, stranga?"

"Excuse me?! I'm Discord: the ONE and ONLY spirit of chaos this side of the universe," Discord made clear, his own name showing up above Grootslang's head, the letters bouncing off of his hat after Discord finished talking. Grootslang shook his head, and readjusted his hat.

"Spirit of chaos? Then what's with the cop act?" Before Grootslang got an answer, Discord 'hand-cuffed' Grootslang's neck with his tail with a snap of his claw. A bit of a last minute decision, but it got him apprehended, anyway.

"Oh, call me reformed or whatever you want. Now you're comin with me before you cause anymore trouble."

"Not a chance, coppa." Grootslang stretched with the tip of his tail and tapped the icon on his hat, much like a button. After a little shaking, Grootslang suddenly ended up zipping into the hat, a poof of smoke blinding Discord for a moment or two. Nothing but hand cuffs and the hat left.

"Hey! Out of there!" Discord yelled.

"Come in and get me, overgrown jigsaw puzzle," Grootslang threatened, his tail shooting out and whipping his head back and forth. The final whack literally made his head spin around like a top. Discord grabbed his head and screwed it on correctly, his eyes needing a moment or two before they stopped too. After that, Discord dove into the hat right after Grootslang, but he only found himself in a dark void of sorts, though on the outside the hat remained still.

"K, rope, where're you?!" Discord shouted. Outside the hat, another figure wrapped his tail around the top of this hat, and tied it shut. The tail snapped off like a twig and grew back in little time at all, only to reveal Grootslang somehow slipped himself out and got Discord stuck in the hat. Also it turned out it was just a spare hat as well, Grootslang snickering and placing his real hat on his head and slithering away.

"Eh? Wha?! HEY! LEMME OUT! HELLOO?! ANYPONY THERE!" Discord yelled. The hat was getting knocked around due to Discord's attempts to bust out, the hat falling over to the side. What an embarrassing thing to be stuck in. Lucky for Discord, someone did eventually show up and got the hat to open, Discord shooting out like a rocket and landing on a nearby light post.

"You're after him too, huh," said a voice, Discord laying in a heap and looking up to whoever released him. Turned out, the figure was Buck Dewey, though this time he was joined by Garnet, Rainbow, and Rarity.

"Good day to you too," said Discord, picking himself up and getting himself together (metaphorically and literally). Garnet looked around alongside Rainbow for Grootslang, but the only thing remaining was a single scale on the ground not too far away. Investigating, Garnet started to go and follow what trail there was left, picking up the scale as she did so, seeing a bizarrely familiar color tint to it.

"How the hay did you end up in that hat?" Rainbow asked, getting the more obvious questions out of the way. Discord sprung up to his feet.

"Like I'm supposed to know the exact tricks Grootslang was even up to," Discord groaned.

"Actually ... yeah."

Yeah, that didn't make him feel any better. Garnet did eventually come back to the others with the odd scale in her hand, something many of them which got sight of fairly quickly.

"Grootslang. That's new ..."

.......

Sometime later, they were over back at the Beach House, with the scale placed down on the table as Twilight was busily going over the bestiary she had with her. A good time as any to check this over. The others got Discord back as well, taking the spare hat with them as well for some sort of extra evidence to see what they could figure out. The Alicorn skimmed through the pages of the bestiary, trying to find out this 'Grootslang' creature brought up to them by Discord.

"Grootslang, Grootslang, Grootslang ... AH, there it is!" Twilight said, finally finding it. The picture of a Grootslang met with their faces, matching their Grootslang almost exactly (minus the hat of course), and showing it in a threatening stance with jaws wide open, curled up on a pile of jewels, not too far off from what their Grootslang stole from the jeweler shop in town.

"What do we got?" Buck asked.

"Well, it describes it as a giant snake with fangs the size of elephant tusks. Extremely powerful, cunning, and has an extreme fascination towards various gemstones, especially Diamonds," explained Twilight. Well, considering their last encounter with the Diamonds, Grootslang's appearance made the culprit WAY too easy.

"That was easy," noted Garnet.

"What was?" asked Twilight, but Rainbow got in the way first.

"Does it say how to defeat one of those things?" Garnet questioned, Twilight looking back into her book.

"Eh ... Well, it does say a victim can bargain a Grootslang with gems, but that's about it," Twilight said. Disappointing to hear really, but it did get them thinking a little bit. Jasper was missing, Blue Diamond too, and conveniently a Grootslang showed up in town and robbed a jewelry store in broad daylight with little trouble at all.

"... When's the potluck, Buck?"

~~~~~~

"Come on, where is this place?"

Meanwhile, with his little favor done, Lars was off and on his way through Ponyville and heading over to what he thought would be his best bet on the potluck later on. He had a good feeling about this, though that was mainly because he didn't tell anyone back at Beach City where he went, he'd rather be caught dead than found here far as he was concern. Still, his knowledge about Ponyville altogether just wasn't good. He managed to find Ponyville itself, that was for sure, but the exact spot wasn't exactly in his head, leaving him walking around in circles. Well, he was at least, until he heard the sound of a door opening up and with a happy customer.

"Thank you, come again."

Sugarcube corner, just the thing Lars was looking for. Again, no one said he had to make the food for the potluck himself, so long as it was good enough for the cool kids to enjoy. However, when he got up to the door, he wasn't the only one who wanted a little something to go from here: about several ponies all lined up and awaited for their orders to be filled up by Mr. and Miss. Cake, though hearing a fast working chef in the back did say that they had some extra help. Guess Lars had to wait it out.

"This better not take long," Lars mumbled under his annoyed breath, as he was forced to wait in line. Being taller than everyone else, he got a clear view on the work being done by the workers at the desk. What he could say was that orders were coming out a lot faster than the Beach City restaurants could ever do. One, two, three customers were being handled very fast, and pretty good much to Lars's convenient need for an order. In no less than five minutes, the human was right up to the front counter. Mr. Cake was at the front counter to take his order, but the yellow pony did look a little surprised to see a human up to the front instead of a pony.

"Oh! Visiting from outta town?" Mr. Cake asked.

"Eh, yeah. Ok, look, I don't have too much time so just give me whatever is popular," Lars said, impatient already. Mr. Cake took a moment to check over the options they had for today. Looking through the orders, and thinking over the month they've got, Mr. Cake nodded his head.

"The Pumpkin Rolls are a pretty popular this time of year," suggested Mr. Cake.

"Yeah, sure, just how much would it be?" Lars asked, readying his money.

"Fifteen bits," Mr. Cake said, hoof out and ready. Lars wasn't sure if money was the same, so he just gave the chef human money: which is a five and a ten in dollars. At first, Mr. Cake paused and just looked at the money given to him, Lars resting his elbow on the counter and waiting for the order. Since he was in a rush, Mr. Cake didn't push Lars about it and decided to take it instead for pay. Mr. Cake wrote the order down and went back to the kitchen to put the order in. At first, Lars wondered how long this was going to be, but surprisingly the order was done and finished. By the look of it too, it appeared to be pre-made, and not too long ago either as it was levitated from the kitchen and to the front counter. Once more, when Lars took a look to who actually brought it out: a unicorn instead of the pink pony.

"Thank you, Velvet, just place it there," Mr. Cake instructed, Velvet Sugar placing the dessert in place.

"Wait. Do I know you from somewhere?" asked Lars, scratching his head. Velvet Sugar turned to Lars soon after placing the Pumpkin Roll down on the counter. The treat itself looked like a giant dessert roll, orange in color with white filling.

"Might have: I've visited Beach city time to time, but I got a job here now," Velvet said, remembering her latest visit to Beach city and selling her spiked desserts to the people.

"I thought that pink pony was the chef here," Lars commented. Velvet rubbed the back of her head.

"Pinkie? Yeah she still does, I'm just filling in until she gets back. I'm sous-chef of Sugarcube Corner," Velvet answered. At this point, Mr. Cake got the amount in correctly, despite taking a little bit to collect the right amount of change for human change to bits.

"OK, thank you for your business, have a nice day," said Mr. Cake as Lars took the Pumpkin Roll and began to head off for home. Well, he had what he needed, all he had to do was wait for the potluck itself.

~~~~~~

With everything pretty much set up, and with time closing in, Lars was off and on his way towards the Potluck location. With the large Pumpkin roll in hand, wrapped up and everything, Lars headed off towards Sour Cream's house, where the Potluck was going to be at. Lars couldn't be anymore nervous if he tried, though he was trying to help his nerves up and keep a good view for when he would get there. Still, Lars just was shaking in his shoes.

"Come on Lars, keep it together. I-It'll be fine," Lars told himself, getting closer and closer to the place in question. It's not that he didn't know the way, but more if this will even be good enough for the Potluck itself. Would this be good enough for them? Buck, Sour, Jenny, those three were the cool kids on the block, and he was just some low-grade far as he was compared. He took one hand and wiped off some of the sweat from his head, a little distracted where he was going. Unbeknownst to him, just ahead, one other little figure was waiting for him just along the sidewalk, behind one of the fences. All it took was a tail out, and ...

"Whoa!"

*Splat*

Well, that did it. Lars got up to his knees, only to find the Pumpkin Roll completely splattered on the pavement! If he wasn't nervous before, he surely got freaking out now. Lars scrambled over to whatever was left of the roll, now nothing more than a mess of bread, plastic wrap and white frosting. Now what was he supposed to do?!

"No, no no no, come on!" Lars gasped, trying to fix up the dessert, but only making even more of a mess out of it.

*hissssss*

And there was no time to even do that. Looking down at his foot, he found the one who messed up his treat: Acid! The snake slithered out into view, barring her teeth at him. Lars spun around, eyes locked onto one snake, only for another to slither up behind him and hiss in his ear, making him stumble back.

"Hello, Laramie," said Cyanide in a kiss. As if seeing a talking snake wasn't freaky enough, now he had two talking snakes to deal with. Smaller, sure, but still!

"AH, okay, y-you're talking. T-Two talking, deadly, snakes," Lars said, shuttering a little as the snakes slid up to eachother, Acid hissing in his face.

"Yes. Isn't it a little late for you to be out by yourself?"

"I-I uh, well, maybe?" Lars said, not sure what else to say. Cyanide took a look over to the ruined treat, shaking her head in disappointed.

"Oh dear, look at that. And just before your Potluck too," hissed Cyanide.

"C-Can you get off me? Please?" asked Lars, Acid coiled up on his chest at the moment. Acid did slither off of him, heading over to the creation. She gave the treat a little lick, though she was quick to show her disgust, spitting out what frosting was on her tongue.

"Disgusting. This is probably a favor," Acid stated.

"You think you'll impress anyone with this?" asked Cyanide. Lars didn't feel much better about it, but he did end up getting to his feet, now given the chance to.

"Yeah, no, I dunno, now if you just excuse me -"

"Excused.~"

Wouldn't you know it a third snake would show up? Acid and Cyanide looked back to the larger snake, and Lars found himself surrounded by Acid, Cyanide, and Grootslang himself! Lars jumped out of his own shoes the moment he saw Grootslang, almost tripping over Acid and Cyanide again. Trio of snakes, and they all were eyeing him down, even if one of them could only meet him eye-to-eye.

"Fancy." commented Acid and Cyanide.

"Hey, kid. Out for a walk?" asked Grootslang, his tongue flicking out and hitting his face. Lars whacked the tongue away, spitting a little bit.

"I'm out!" Lars finally said, ready to make a run for it the other way, but Grootslang moved in the way, making Lars bump right into him. The hit made Grootslang's hat fall onto his head, covering his head. Lars, with his head stuck, tried to get the hat off of him as the snakes snickered. Grootslang just gestured Acid and Cyanide to go off with a wink, both smaller snakes slithering away as Grootslang went over to Lars and popped off the hat.

"You think that's all you need to do?"

"Why, any normal human would!" Lars said, but got more uncomfortable when Grootslang slithered up right up to him.

"Right, right sure. Laramie, me boy, you wanna be hip with the kids do you? Why don't uncle G.Slang give you a few pointers, eh?" Grootslang offered, but Lars wasn't going to trust a forked tongue for a moment. Then again, he can't exactly go away either so, he was kinda stuck. ...

"Not a chance."

"HEY, the girl scout's here!"

Saved! Not too far away, Grootslang and Lars saw Garnet finally showing up, the Gem fusion leaning against the nearby light post, having some sort of package in her hand. Grootslang wasn't so easily taken aback by Garnet's arrival, but Lars took the distraction opportunity and made a bolt for it. Or at least, he tried to, just for Grootslang to wrap the tip of his tail around his foot. Lucky for him, Garnet wasn't having any of it and stomped on his tail, forcing him to let go. Lars scrambled to get away from the giant snake, letting Garnet handle the problem. No way was he going to stick around to see how this would end.

"Watch the tail!" Grootslang yelled, keeping his tail away as he saw Lars run off and hide. Garnet placed the package down by her feet before confronting the snake.

"Grootslang, you're coming with me," Garnet said, summoning her Gem weaponry.

"What for? Messing with a few people?"

"Kidnapping Blue Diamond," Garnet announced. Grootslang felt taken aback by that remark.

"What? Who?" Grootslang questioned, only for Garnet to present the grey scale to him.

"My Diamond went missing not too long ago, and we found this at the scene. You got the motive," Garnet informed. Grootslang felt insulted.

"Oh please that could be anyone's scale!" Grootslang retorted. Garnet simply grabbed him by the tail and compared the scale to the one on him. Albeit a bit bigger, it was a perfect match in smoothness and color.

"Don't lie to me. We know Grootslangs have a fondness for Gems."

"Oh what, just because I'm a Grootslang I stole Blue Diamond? Wow cool, species-iest," the large snake scolded, not amused by the accusation in the slightest. Garnet wasn't too thrilled about it either, nor with the supposed lying.

"OK, no point in lying Grootslang. We found your scale at the scene, and you've already robbed the jewelers earlier today," Garnet pointed out. Grootslang paused for a moment, his tail slowly reaching for his hat on the ground. With their eyes locked onto eachother, Garnet didn't really notice much of anything.

"Sign me up for some cinnamon strudels, will you sweetie?"

And wouldn't you know it, Grootslang got sucked into the hat again, disappearing out of sight! Garnet tried to grab him, but before she could get him, the hat this time disappeared in a flash of light. Not even Garnet's future vision could've stopped Grootslang ahead of time with how quick his exit was altogether. Disappointing to be sure, but at least she knew who the culprit was. Once that was all done with, Garnet looked off ahead, finding Lars hidden off behind one of the buildings. Garnet walked over to him, taking the package and presenting it to him.

"This is for you. I'm sure the potluck will work better for you now," Garnet said with a smile, before walking back the other way. Lars wasn't sure what was in the package, but he took a little look inside and he got his answer: a fresh pumpkin roll! It looked even better than the one he had before, the smell of pumpkin, frosting and bread hitting him pretty strongly. PERFECT!

All Lars did was smile slightly before heading off to the Potluck.

Author's Note:

WHELP, the snakes are causing even more trouble, aren't they?... wait, is that a Voodoo Snake?! OOOOOOOOO .

On a side note: It took longer than you think to map out Beach City and put the story to how it makes sense (took me twenty minutes to figure out where Lars's house was to the carwash for that to work). And a little fun in Miroslaw's Jewelers - actual place in SU by the by - which now that I think of it would be the first time we're in here, so take it what you will.

Comments

[LionelCorp315]

I was little upset that it took so long and I was tempted to ask about it. But now I'm glad I didn't because here it is. I love this chapter and I am just glad that it is out now. It is good to have patience.

[ShogunWriter106]

Well well well... It's snake hunting season time...

[EquestrianKirin]

8433006
yeah, sorry, this one kept stalling on me. I'll try my best to speed things up a little bit

[EquestrianKirin]

8433333
Those serpents will be snake-skin boots when they're done with em

[LionelCorp315]

8434419
It's cool. I'll be here waiting for the next chapter.

[EquestrianKirin]

8436742
k then

[GamerDroid23]

Well this was a unique chapter to come back to after a long hiatus, and it's not the only one, either. I got some major catching up to do.

[EquestrianKirin]

8488824
have fun with that then

[Bluebottle27]

I always picture Dr Facilier from the Princess and the Frog when I read Grootslang talking (and his top hat). Did Dr Facilier have a hand in Grootslang's creation at all?

[EquestrianKirin]

9092858
Actually no but I see the resemblance now you say that x3. The real inspiration is from the Bijou Snake from Courage the Cowardly Dog. He's a voodoo snake :3