Chapter 246 - Let's (Try) to make a deal
“Hmmm, hmmm…” Scootaloo was inspecting the drinks, being as excruciatingly slow as possible.
Flim and Flam were tense. They obviously wanted to say something, and they looked visibly upset. Yet they knew who they were dealing with, and perhaps were even regretting their decision. But Scootaloo didn’t relent, she even slightly tilted each cup to check their balance and tested the chairs for comfort over and over just to see if they’d blow it, and thus, ‘ruin the whole deal’.
“Christ, I don’t know what’s more impressive, Scootaloo keeping a straight face or the brothers’ patience. I mean, fuck, I would have exploded by now, it’s already been twenty minutes. She’s seriously milking it.” It really was surprising. She barely showed any signs of cracking up. A smile here and there, but that was about it.
“I know, I probably should have just adopted her and left you back on Earth if she was going to be this impressive.” Discord said, staring intently at the filly. Though when he noticed you suddenly gave him a grumpy look, he sheepishly raised his hands. “Kidding, I’m kidding. For the sake of the prank, let us forget I said that.”
Hm, heh, he didn’t want to cause any issues, even if he’s predisposed to causing issues in the first place. The fact he quickly apologized was only characteristic of him if it turned out he was catching his own shit. You just gave him a cool smile and nodded. “Sure, no problem. Heh, sooooooooooooo, hrm, how are we gonna do this? Because I was thinking of walking in to the tune of the ‘Imperial March’. What do you think?”
Discord just gave you a skewed stare. “...Nopony is going to get that reference. You know that, right?”
“Man, I don’t care. It isn’t like it’s something zany or anything. It is a song that demands attention, shows dominance, inflicts fear. Isn’t that what we’re going for?” You asked, just giving him a mocking version of his stare back at him. “Or is that not enough for you?”
Discord stood there in silence, and looked back at the brothers as they grew ever more tense, seemingly ready to explode at Scootaloo, or at least reprimand her. Scootaloo just kept her cool, and at that moment, she turned back towards the doors and gave a nod. Discord saw that and knew it was the cue to walk in. Discord raises his talons, and silently gave them a snap as the Imperial March from Star Wars began to play in the air, already causing the brothers to duck and flinch. Discord then began to walk forward as calmly and cooly as he could as he looked back at you and gave you a wink.
Fuck yeah! That’s more like it! You joined Discord at his side as you both stepped into the room, the music becoming more bombastic as you did everything in your power to prevent yourself from humming it. As soon as you and Discord appeared properly in the room, Scootaloo quickly bowed and pulled out both chairs for you both to sit on.
It was so damn cool, you couldn’t help but match your steps with the music as you held your head up high. Discord was going along with it too, he couldn’t resist marching down like Darth Vader. Or maybe he didn’t resist at all, maybe he was just as into it as you were. Either way, so far, you two were in sync. Flam, however, didn’t react the way you wanted as he only looked on with suspicious intrigue. But Flim? He already seemed worried, fidgeting as he tried to crack a small calm smile. Must be trauma.
The music ended perfectly from a shorter rendition of itself as you both began to sit. The moment you and Discord sat down, Discord grabbed his soda glass and splashed it over Flam. It was instant, he didn’t even take the time to drink or even look at it.
“What was that for?! What happened?!” Flam said in surprise as he wiped his face, Flim taking out a napkin to wipe his brother’s mustache.
Discord just looked down at Scootaloo and nodded at her. Scootaloo flinched for a moment, not out of fear, but from a familiar chocolatey taste that suddenly filled her tongue. She realized what she had to do. “What do you mean what happened? You served him soda! Why would you do that?!”
Flim looked back at her, baffled and in dismay. “But you were the one who said soda! How does that make any sense?!”
Scootaloo hesitated for a moment, she hadn’t actually put it together yet. While the brothers were busy with one another, you took a moment to whisper to Scootaloo a quick word about pink clouds and chocolate rain, hoping it’d be enough to get her speaking. It took a half moment more, but thanks to Scootaloo’s determination and your words, she was able to figure something out. “Are you serious?! I said soda because that is, like, the basic drink for these kinds of negotiations. If you were really super savvy business ponies, you would have realized that Lord Discord actually drinks chocolate milk. It doesn’t need to be said, y’know? You just need to have some common sense. He did take over Ponyville once. Didn’t you see all the pink clouds? It was super obvious.”
Flam took a deep breath as he used his magic to straighten his mustache, he was already clearly annoyed. “So does it stand to reason that Di-” But Scootaloo interrupts him immediately.
“Lord Discord.” Scootaloo reminds him.
“Mnnn, Lord Discord expects one of us to get him chocolate milk at this very moment?” Flam asked, being surprisingly patient despite some of his aggravation showing.
Scootaloo looked to Discord, who simply nodded at her. She then looked back at Flam and nodded. “Yes.”
“Very well…” Flam looked at Flim and pointed at the three of you. “Brother, today is a momentous day, is it not? To have Lord Discord and Lord Anon in our presence for this history changing arrangement. Truly it was our fault that we weren’t as prepared as we should have been, correct?”
Flim, not missing a beat, puts on a smile as his attitude becomes more upbeat. “Of course, brother! In fact, why don’t you make sure Lord Discord’s glass of chocolate is made with the finest Saddle Arabian cocoa while I get things going with an explanation of our grand event. We shouldn’t keep things waiting too long, considering how late it already is.”
“Too right, brother, too right!” Flam said as he began to walk out of the room. “We promise, Lord Discord, that this deal will very much be worth your time. Its quality will be as high as the chocolate drink I’ll soon bring you. And trust me, Saddle Arabian chocolate is simply divine. Me and my brother always make sure to guarantee nothing but the best, and I’m sure you and Lord Anon will be aware of that yourselves when it comes time to sign the contract. In any case, if you excuse me…” And then Flam disappeared through the doors, the doors working normally for him, as per Discord's magic.
You simply raised an eyebrow at Flim, trying to keep your words concise and to the point. “This better be worth our time. I have a rather late dinner meeting with Princess Luna I don’t want to miss.”
“Ahrm, yes…” Flim took a moment to compose himself, and then began to speak. “So, the idea is really quite simple. We wish to direct one of you, using your chaos magic, to create a Hearthwarming spectacular. Fireworks that tell the story of Equestria’s past through lights that quite literally act out the events. We want the resort to be temporarily changed to represent the three tribes, and to have it all come together as one during the closing ceremonies. With your magic, we can even simulate the effect of the wendigos during the final moments to really give our audience a chilling feeling before the climax brings warmth across the resort. It is possible to make everything feel authentic, as if they’re really there, with a thrilling conclusion through that fireworks show, it all really hinges on that. Something to outdo the shows and plays back in Canterlot.” Flim reaches into his shirt and pulls out a pamphlet “The exact details are in this pamphlet, which will detail exactly what we need from either you or Lord Discord. The contract itself is simply to make sure everything is official.”
“Huh…” You said boredly as you swirled around your soda glass. “So, uh, on an unrelated note. You know my Deathclaw friend, right?”
“D-deathclaw friend? What does that have to do with the d-deal...?” Suddenly, Flim began to sweat, gulping. “Wait, you don’t mean that thing from Nightmare Night…”
“I do. He asked about you recently.” You said, taking a sip.
“N-now, let’s n-not talk of s-such t-things. Surely he w-was a manifestation of your m-magic, right?” Flim asked, sweat becoming visible through his ‘calm’ façade.
“No…” You said in a nonchalant and monotone way, looking uninterested in the conversation. “I met him deep within the Everfree forest. Good guy, that Deathclaw. He also makes a good accountant, good with numbers and all. But yes, he was wondering about you. He said he wanted to plunge his claws deep into your head for stealing from foals on Nightmare Night.”
“N-now see here! I-It wasn’t s-stealing! A-and even then, we were desperate! I t-think both me and my brother p-proved ourselves legitimate business ponies b-by now! So, please, cease this n-nonsense!” Flim finally broke, his face showing full on terror as he stepped back in fright.
Scootaloo snuck right behind him, and started to bark orders at him. “Hey! Stop backing up! You’re upsetting your guests! You’re supposed to be confident!”
“GYAH! PLEASE! DON’T HURT ME!” Flim, mistaking Scootaloo for the Deathclaw, jumps forward from sheer fright and smacks his head on the table, knocking himself out.
“Geez, I didn’t mean to do that to him.” Scootaloo said as she slowly walked up to him, and gave his face a poke. “I kinda want to laugh, but then I kinda don’t want to.”
“Ha! You should laugh! That was awesome, Scootaloo! Way to follow up on me like that!” Like damn, she literally scared his lights out. It was hilarious, and you were pretty proud of her for it. Like, a little sister sort of thing.
“I have to admit, that was indeed ‘awesome’.” Discord said with a chuckle. “Are you sure you haven’t done this before, Scootaloo?”
Scootaloo blushed in humble embarrassment as she sat and rubbed the back of her head. “Well, er, I mean, we sometimes cause trouble on our own. Not on purpose, but, um. Erm. You really think I did good?” Scootaloo gives him another poke. “Are you sure he’ll be okay?”
“He’ll be fine.” Discord said dismissively as he raised a talon to his mouth. “Now let us be quiet, I think I hear the pitter patter of hooves coming our way.”
“Took him long enough.” You said with an eye roll as you mentally prepped yourself. “Alright, let’s do this.”
“Okay, I got this! Stay serious, Scootaloo, try not to laugh!” Scootaloo said as she slapped her face twice and prepared for Flam’s entrance.
“...Alright, I’m back, and I’m here with the highest quality ch-BROTHER?!” Flam rushed to Flim’s side as he tossed up the glass into the air, Discord able to grab it with ease with his magic as he brought it over to himself. Flam gently raised Flim with his magic, and gave his face a few gentle slaps. “Brother! Wake up! What happened to you?!”
Flim slowly began to wake up in a daze, looking into his brother’s eyes with a ditzy stare “Brother, what even is a Deathclaw?”
“Deathclaw?! Deathclaw…” Flam looked over at you with a furious glare. “Did you do this?!”
You shrugged at him. “No, but if you’re going to look at me like that, we can just walk out of here if you want.”
Flam kept up the stare for a moment more before ultimately relenting. “I… I apologize, Lord Anon.” Flam said as he stood his brother up and gave him a few more gentle slaps to snap him out of his daze. “I can assure you that we do want this deal to commence. S-surely we’ve done enough to finally get down to actual business by now. H-however, if there’s anything else you need, please don’t-” Flam is then interrupted by a splash of chocolate milk on his face. He doesn’t even react, the only indication of frustration was the growl in his voice. “What was wrong with that milk?”
Discord just gave a cool shrug as he spoke. “Nothing, but since we’re about to commence with the negotiations, then young Scootaloo was correct, I need a soda.”
Flam said nothing as he glared at Discord for a moment, Discord only smiling back at him. Flam then bowed, and began to drag Flim along to go retrieve Discord’s soda. Once he left the room, you turned towards Discord, a small grin on your face. “Wow, I’m surprised he didn’t try to tear your beard off with that one.”
“Oh, Anon, those brothers are professionals. Which is why it’s so hilarious that they won’t do anything to us, no matter what we do.” Discord said as he leaned back on his chair, fully sure of himself.
“I dunno, don’t you both find it a little weird they’re not super angry at us? I would be. How important do you think this deal is to them?” Scootaloo asked, suddenly feeling unsure about something, though she couldn’t figure out what.
“Who cares? The only thing we need to worry about is leading them on just enough to make the finale ever so sweet. Prepare yourself, you two, this is only the beginning.” Discord said as he cunningly rubbed his paw and talons together. “The real show is about to begin.”
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Hard to trust these two considering how far they would go for their own schemes on the regular, the story of wowing the crowd with chaos magic doesn't really seem to be nefarious, but its less important than what exactly they plan to do since they explicitly mention they're competing with Canterlot.
11315724
The comment was written on Jul 26th, 2019. 3 years ago lol. And I have not read the story in almost as long, so my memories about the story aren't the best and up to date. But rereading the comment I wrote, I would say I wasn't that bad. Sure, it came off as a jerk, but it has important information for any reader and writer to read and improve themselves and their works by being consistent and thinking out their lore, characters, and storyline first before writing the story itself. Since I haven't read the story in quite a long time, I have no idea if the story improved. But I have hopes that it has, and one day might peak my fleeting interests again and will be a fun read for me sometime in the future.
Imperial March wouldn't have been my first choice - something about it (the pacing, maybe?) fits a larger scale than two people entering a room.
Still, I'm not sure what the alternatives are, so... I can't say much!
Either the brothers' plans are heavily reliant on this deal succeeding or they have another trick up their sleeve.
Now for potential errors:
Missing comma before ‘however’. (?)
Uppercase ‘y’ should be lowercase.
Missing question mark. (?)
11318352
holy shit, three mistakes? I'm honored
I'm empathizing with the brothers a little. Sure, they have had their moments of utter scummines in the past, but not lately. I'd at least consider taking part in this, taking their time and stressing them out isn't that fun knowing we planned on ditching this from the start.
good
For real, heck they probably feel so close already for a ligament business, and you are being dicks at how they’re doing this after they might’ve potentially changed! Scootaloo! ACT ON YOUR EMOTIONS!!