Fluttershy’s cottage was as peaceful and welcoming as ever as Discord appeared before the door, his usual flair tempered with a hint of anticipation. Tea time with Fluttershy was always a highlight, a moment of serenity amidst the chaos he reveled in.
As he approached, Fluttershy opened the door with a warm smile. "Hello, Discord! Come in. We have a guest today."
Discord raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "A guest, you say? Well, any friend of yours is surely worth my time. Who is it?"
Fluttershy led him into the cozy kitchen. "An old friend of yours, actually. He arrived a little while ago."
Discord's curiosity turned to surprise when he saw Bezel, the Embodiment of Time, sitting at the table. The hands on Bezel’s clock face turned slightly as he looked up, like a smug smile spreading across his features.
"You!" Discord's voice was a mix of anger and disbelief. "What are you doing here? Get out!"
Bezel chuckled, lifting his teacup up with his pinky finger out "Oh, Discord. You know one cannot deny a guest tea at tea time."
Discord's mismatched fists clenched, his eyes narrowing. "You're not welcome here, Bezel."
Bezel wagged a finger at Discord and said, "Ah, but it's not your house, is it? So who are you to say who isn't welcome here?"
Before Discord could retort, Fluttershy stepped forward, her usually gentle eyes steely. "Well, Bezel, this happens to be my house, and you clearly lied about being Discord's friend. Whatever problems you have between each other can be solved another time, but not now. So, I must ask you to please leave my home."
Bezel sighed theatrically and stood up. "Very well, if you insist. But before I go..." He snapped his fingers, and everything froze. Everything except for him and Discord.
Discord's glare intensified. "Spit it out. What is it you want to tell me?"
Bezel leaned in, his voice a cold whisper. "The prophecy has come to pass. Chikn has assumed his true form as the Demigod of Chaos and is tearing apart the fabric of his reality as we speak."
Discord's expression hardened. "Is that so? Well, we both know that you pushed him into this. So don't try to play innocent observer here. You've got some nerve going against your true role, Bezel. You're supposed to be watching over the passage of time, keeping things in order. I have always been true to myself. Even after discovering friendship, I still go about it in a chaotic way. But you? You don't seem to care about keeping time running at all. You just want destruction."
Bezel's glass clockface gleamed with an eerie light. "Oh, but you are mistake, Spirit of Chaos. I have been very much true to my role since the moment I first became aware of that demigod's arrival. I've always been there, watching him. . . waiting for him to act. . . counting down the seconds to the glorious moment where he snaps. . ."
Discord had to lean back a bit as Bezel’s expressionless face got uncomfortably close. "What are you. . .?" Discord asked.
"And when I wasn't watching him, I was watching other places, including Equestria," Bezel continued, his voice filling with increasing glee, "So many exciting times throughout this world's history, where it cane within seconds of ending. Wendigoes, Tirek, Starlight Glimmer, Cozy Glow. Each time, just a few ticks away from oblivion."
Discord’s face paled with realization. "You. . . You’re not the Embodiment of Time. . . You're the-."
"Doomsday Clock," Bezel said as he stood up tall, "Not change, or entropy, or disorder. I'm the inevitable moment where midnight strikes and the world ends."
Discord shook himself out of his stunned state and said, "It's not inevitable. You said it yourself. All those times Equestria nearly was destroyed, it wasn't! The day was saved!"
"And yet the clock always ticks back towards midnight one way or another," Bezel said as he taped the top of his clock face with a finger, "Doomsday will come to every world in every reality one way or another. Everything ends."
"That's not something to be happy about!" Discord argued, "Even if it can't be stopped, it can be delayed and prepared for."
"Ewwww, GAG!" Bezel shouted irately, "What's the point of that? Mortal lives don't matter, so what's the point in delaying the inevitable?" Bezel twirled around like a dancer and said, "That is why, I decided to shave off a few seconds." Bezel stopped twirling and nudged his minute hand so that his clock face was close to striking midnight. "A few remarks about the void he hangs around in, a few suggestions on how he could change things, and now midnight is mere seconds away."
Discord blew a whistle while dressed in a striped referee uniform. "That's cheating!" he shouted, and he threw a red card at Bezel.
"Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo! Doesn't matter! Nothing matters!" Bezel laughed, "All that matters is that the world is going to end, and I'm going to love watching Chikn do it! You're welcome to watch it too, Discord."
Discord began grabbing books out of a pile that had appeared there, flippimg through them one after another. Each book had a pictures of one of the many villains Twilight and her friends had faced. "Haven't you been paying attention?" Discord asked, "No matter how bad things get, the heroes always win at the end. Chikn's friends will bring him back. You'll see."
"Oh, but I'm afraid they do not have the tiiiiime!" Bezel replies. And with that, he snapped his fingers again and vanished, the world resuming its normal pace.
Fluttershy blinked, looking at Discord with concern. "What just happened? Where's Bezel?"
Discord forced a smile, though worry lingered in his eyes. "Oh, he's nothing to worry about, my dear Fluttershy. Let's just enjoy our tea and relax."
As they sat down, with Fluttershy still wondering what exactly had happened with Bezel, Discord had one final thought:
"Come on, Hawt Saus. Don't let us down."
