Equustale

by neorenamon

Twilight and Chara stood outside the door of Zecora. Flowey grumbled about the long trip all the way over. It was well past noon by the time they arrived.

"The time is now well past four," muttered a voice behind the door, "Now my dinner I must ignore."

"Uh..." said Chara.

"Yes," answered Twilight, "She always speaks like that."

"There's nothing creepy about that."

"Well I think it's more of a..." said Twilight as the door opened.

"Do I have it right?" noted the zebra as she looked out, "Are you called Twilight?"

"Yes, I am," she replied.

"Well greeting and how do you do," she said evenly, "I believe you're new around here too?"

Chara looked about as she noted, "This doesn't exactly look like the kind of place you'd find a zebra living."

"And you brought a friend I see," added Zecora as she leaned further out the door, "What manner of being might you be?"

"Oh, I'm what you call a human," she replied as she scratched the side of her head.

"What am I?!" asked the irritated flower, "Chopped daisies over here?!"

"I am tempted to balk," said the zebra softly, "at the flower that does talk."

"Ya think the face would have been the dead giveaway," he grumbled.

Chara smacked him in the back of his flower head.

"OW!!" he said, "What was that?!.."

"Manners," she snarled in a low growl.

"Well I've heard that you have some extensive knowledge of potions and medicine," said Twilight as she ignored what happened behind her head, "and my new friend here..."

"With friends like you... OW!" said the flower before he got smacked again.

"... is currently not their... normal selves."

"Yeah," said Chara, "He's usually a lot cuter, furrier and cuddlier when his magic is at its normal levels."

"I am NOT cute!" hissed the flower, "I am not!.." Flowey stopped talking when Chara raised her hand to strike again.

"So when his magic is not low," mused Zecora, "His form is different as you know?"

Twilight and Chara nodded.

"Then why don't you all come inside," said Zecora talking the flower's comments in stride, "I'm sure the trip here has been a long ride."

They walked in.

"I should go and see," she added, "about making some tea."

"Sounds good," agreed Chara as she smacked her hand over Flowey's mouth.

"Mmmppphhh..." he grumbled into her hand.

"Long have I spent to labor and toil," she continued, "to know even magic plants need good soil."

"Well it does make sense that the soil of the land contains low level magic the plants used to grow," agreed Twilight, "It seems that the concentrations of soil magic are markedly higher in places where magical plants grow."

"So you're saying sticking Flowey in good potting soil will making him turn back to Prince Asriel sooner?"

"We can plant him in the ground of my garden back around."

"Hhhmmm..." replied the flower.

"I can also make a potion that I know," added the zebra, "by which plants shall larger grow."

"I don't suppose you have Earl Gray?" asked Chara as she looked about at the tribal features along Zecora's walls.

"That is strange, I must say. Who is this one called Earl Gray?"

"It's just a kind of tea that... ah..." replied Chara as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, "it's not important."

"She's from another dimension," interrupted Twilight, "I'm sure... there's a bunch of things... different there."

"While there's surely things not the same, there's many things with another name."

"Yeah," agreed Chara, "I guess tea leaves are still tea leaves."

...

Meanwhile...

...

"Uh..." said Fluttershy as she looked about, "This isn't exactly my cottage..."

Frisk was savvy enough to know they were in some kind of nightclub. She was keeping one hand on the back of Fluttershy's neck and mane as they stood there.

"Well since we're besties now," said Discord with a toothy grin, "I thought I should show you one of my favorite hangouts."

She noticed he used his magic to change into a zoot suit complete with a wide brimmed fedora hat. It was so magical that even Frisk could sense it was a rather bright red in color. He walked up to the front stand.

"Table for three... entities, my dear," he said to the creature behind the stand.

"Well I haven't seen the likes of you in a long while," hissed the golden naga waitress with four feathered wings. Frisk noticed that under her top, she clearly had two pairs of considerable breasts. She even had two pair of roughly human arms sprouting from her sides just under the cobra-like hood around her head.

"Well duuUUuuUUuude," he replied in a strange voice, "I was into like some really gnaaarrrly stuff and like I got stoned for a long time."

"You always did like to experiment," she giggled.

"It was like some really good nyborg that lasted like a thousand yahren!"

"I totally gotta try that!" she hissed with a grin.

"Oh, like I'm toootaaally out."

"Bummer," she sighed, "You want a booth or bar seating?"

"Oh a booth would be nice," he replied as his voice returned to what passed for normal.

Frisk watched the waitress slither towards the dining area when she realized she was floating several inches above the floor as her body undulated. Her wings were tightly folded against her back as she moved.

"Oh... my..."

Frisk and Fluttershy were gazing upon a scene that made the bar scene in Star Wars' first movie look... positively tame by comparison. The ceiling was so high, it had cloud cover. There was different levels of light around each table from brighter than the sun to darker than the darkest night. The customers came in an almost unimaginable variety of shapes and sizes ranging from fairies the size of her thumb to colossal abominations larger than Gojira, the King of Monsters. Yet every seat and every table was the appropriate size for the being sitting at/on it.

They walked towards a huge table nearly ten stories tall. Just as Frisk wondered how they were ever going to manage, it shrank down to a size more compatible with them. Even the chairs and bench seating reduced in size as well.

"I know you're going to love it here," he sighed as he sat on the bench seat in back and gestured for Frisk and Flutters to take a seat next to him. He placed Frisk between so she wouldn't have to reach far to touch him should she be so inclined.

"A waitress will be along shortly to take your order," said the waitress as she turned to slither back to her station.

Discord picked up a menu as he said, "Order whatever you want. It's my treat."

They also picked up their menus which seemed to be in the language they were most comfortable reading.

'Must be psychic paper,' mused Frisk.

"I guess."

"Well well," said a nearby voice, "If it isn't my half brother, half loser."

"Anarchy," growled Discord under his breath.