//------------------------------// // Episode 1- Hole in the Wall // Story: Hooves at Arms // by TrippyTyme //------------------------------// Somewhere deep in a void where the sky is a mush of colors and islands drift freely from their earthly prison is the residence of Discord, King of Chaos and Destruction. Recently, he had just finished his spring cleaning or in his case, ‘spring dirtying’ for his cottage home. With his mind long dead from boredom, he called up Fluttershy to strike up some small talk. Because seriously, after his ‘‘Reformation’’ and Twilight bringing an end to Starlight Glimmer’s `time traveling temper tantrum, etc, etc, he simply had nothing to do…..nothing to feed on. He and Fluttershy took up occupancy in the living room, each sitting in a lounge chair adjacent from each other over small coffee table adorned with cookies and tea. “Fluttershy…” he began with a sigh, slouching his tubular being. “Got any ideas on what to do?” The cream mare brushed aside her hair with a hoof, “I don’t know Discord, but it’s nice to have some peace once in a while. Maybe you can try coming to my place, Angel would love the company. I mean i-if you want to that is.” Discord raised a brow and spawned a pony plushie, pointing to it in discomfort “Too bad for the ponies out there, my name is frowned upon.” These words brought pity to FlutterShy’s caring heart; surely there was something for him to occupy his time without putting anypony in danger right? Hastily racking her brain, she came up with a quick one, “Do you like reading? She spouted, reaching for a cookie. With a sip of his tea in reverse, he threw the plushie out a nearby window breaking it like brick. “Why of course my dear,” he chimed. “I especially love reading the little animal poems you do. They are beautiful just like you.” The timid equine choked on her baked good, quickly sucking down some tea to wash it down, blushing in embarrassment. With a weak voice she croaked, “Thank you, but do you like writing t-t-them?” Discord paused for a moment and snapped his finger only to be engulfed by a white shade of light and returned with a green cap and a pencil between his ears, complete with reading glasses. He then snapped them again to have and old vintage typewriter appear out of thin air, floating beside him. “If it’s for you, I’ll write anything.” He smiled, setting the typewriter; ready to jolt down his words of wisdom. Flattery from the draconequus mouth did not mix with the mare’s shyness in fact; words seem to die as she opened her muzzle with blood rushing through her cheeks. Regaining her composure or whatever exists of it, she spoke. “Well….w-we can start by coming up with a plot a-and some main characters…” “This doesn’t look too hard.” Discord mused, rubbing his chin with a sigh, “Maybe I’ll give this a go to pass the time.” Fluttershy grabbed another cookie with a sip of tea, “Remember now, when you come up with your characters, they must have some form of a background…” Taking heed to her words, he levitated motionless and thought for few minutes well before his mind drew up blank. Throwing his arms up in submission, he turned to his company who was laughing at his display. “What’s so funny?” he asked. “You are.” She replied gingerly. “Hmph!” the creature scowled, clearly offended. This added to Fluttershy’s laughter with a tear escaping her ducts followed by an unnerving snort causing both parties to go silent. Soon they both burst out into cheerful glee before finally dying down. “All fun and games FlutterShy,” Discord continued, floating the typewriter atop the coffee table. “But how do you do it? I can’t even make past the first step.” “All you have to do is think outside of the box.” his partner stated as matter-of-factly. “I’m sure Discord; King of Chaos can come up with something worth his time.” The Dragon hybrid claws snapped like clockwork and as if on command, a box appeared between them. From here, he searched the box, from within a box, to another box and eventually until his whole being gobbled up from the seemingly infinite well of boxes. Emerald eyes stared at the abyss of cardboard, still somewhat amazed by Discord’s random antics. Her expression soon began to paint the emotion of worry but was soon rewarded with the returning form of her friend. He emerged with a stretch, meeting with FlutterShy, “Golly Gee Willikers Flutters!” he shouted, nearly spilling the table’s contents. “I think I’ve got it!” “Got what?” she questioned. Discord lifted the mare in his arms, giving her a quick spin. “If I increased to 1.21 gigawands, I can rip a hole in our time space continuum and then be able to think outside of the box quite literally!” FlutterShy deadpanned in confusion as she met with his crystal red orbs. She knew that majority of times his rambles are of that of a senile old man, but she didn’t want to take any chances, so she had to be a killjoy. “No!” She said firmly, placing a hoof on his chest. “I thought I told you no dimensional traveling! Need I remind you of what you did to Tree Hugger?” “So?” Discord spat in retaliation, “It isn’t like I banished her or anything…” “But you almost did!” He dropped his ears in disapproval yet coming to a realization that she was right, he didn’t mean to scare anypony, all he wanted to do is fit in. It was all because of some petty misplaced jealousy anyways. Thankfully his sadness was short-lived as an idea put his mind under siege. A light bulb materialized between his horns , shining high and bright. “Well it seems I may have something… he growled with a grin forming on his features, but sadly, killjoy FlutterShy just had to muscle in on his fun. With nothing but a cold stare and a pout, she made him give into defeat. “Oh come on!” He pleaded in a childish tone, unscrewing the bulb from its invisible lamp and replaced it with a halo. “See? There no reason to make such a face is there? A raised brow and folded forelegs was all he got in response, clearly not buying any of his charades. Discord waved a hand in dismissal, “Fine, have it your way...” “I’m sorry Discord, but you always take things too far and end up hurting somepony.” “But-but those ponies were just at the wrong place at the wrong time! Plus they called me names!” FlutterShy broke free of his clutches and flew up to his face, thrusting a hoof in the direction of the window, “There’s a mail-stallion floating in that vacuum of your void all because he didn’t give you the right mail!” At the same time, the mail-stallion came gliding on pass them, he shrugged in a begging way but Discord flipped him off with a dagger sharp glare. “Discord, weren’t you suppose to send him back!?” FlutterShy squealed. “I did.” He replied. “But then he had the nerve to say that MY address was not valid! Can you believe that?” Before they could even continue their pointless chatter, an alarm clock ringed out of thick puff of smoke, startling all but Discord; who simply grasped it and turned it off. “Oh my, would you look at the time!” Discord gasped sarcastically, thankful something came up to get the cream nuisance out of his hair. “It appears you’re going to be late for the meeting with Twilight!” The timid mare’s eyes shot open in shock, “Oh r-right, I almost forgot. She’s waiting for me at the castle.” “She certainly is!” Discord chipped in, ripping open a portal that led directly to the castle’s front doors. “You can’t keep royalty waiting can you?” With a tear through space and time ripped open through the living room’s front door, causing the mare to crane her neck towards it and noted that it lead straight to the castle’s table room with Twilight nowhere to be seen. Fluttershy went into slight daze from the hole in space that levitated before her eyes, was he trying to brush her off? Could be but she didn’t wanted to give too much thought; she didn’t want him to think she doubted him or something. Pushing those feelings aside, she hovered a bit closer to Discord for a quick hug and farewell warning. “I guess you’re right.” She spoke flatly as she made her way back to her reality. “But remember, no dimension traveling.” Slick as an eel, the Draconequus puppy eyed, pointing to the halo that floated freely above his head. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” A smile slipped across his friend’s features briefly, “Good.” With that, the portal closed and the King was once again alone in his domain but the tides were in his favor, he had something to do, something to feed on. Snapping his fingers and doing it all by himself, the typewriter went from the coffee table to his hands in seconds. Charging up for another rip through reality as Fluttershy’s disembodied voice began to ring his head like an alarm, “But remember no dimensional traveling.” It howled with epenthesis. Wondering why he was hearing this, he looked up and saw the halo still hanging freely above his head. “Yeah, yeah,” he mumbled in disappointment, snapping his fingers, morphing the type writer into a post modern computer booting up Pondows XP. He then logged into PonyHoof to see what’s popping. One may ask “Where this technology did come from?” Well, we cannot just simply explain Vinyl Scratch’s DJ system she’s got set up at home, can we? Not to mention, a fully functional night club in Manehatten directly above Rarity’s store. Forth wall aside, He guided his cursor to the search bar, taking off the dimensional safety option so he literally rack up any and every living being there is, too bad only he had this option no, only he had the power to summon beings from a different plane of existence. Besides a few posts from Lyra’s anthropomorphic counterpart rambling on about magical talking ponies being real and such, there was no one that caught his interest. After skimming through dimensions, he found one that was particularly void of life with only one planet appropriately named ‘‘Earth’’, sprawling with life intelligent enough to understand common speech. Opening up Universe Maps in another tab, he zoomed in on this planet, all the way down to street view. To his surprise, these beings were similar to the ones in Sunset Shimmer’s universe but there were some small but noticeable differences. Instead of having skin tones that rivaled the color spectrum complete with matching hair, these only had from the whitest of the white then to the blackest of the black and some in between. They came in all shapes and sizes, small, medium, large, slim solid or fat, they have it all. There also seemed to be miniature versions of themselves walking them, it had to be foal or something of sorts and their general appearance looks like a hairless monkey with clothes on. But what really blew his mind is when he navigated to a more populated area. Buildings soared higher than he had ever seen, with a network of roads flowing beneath them. Metal pony-less carriages rolled in a neatly organized line much like the taxi ponies in Manehattan but more efficient and speedy. Flashing lights flutter everywhere, far more advanced than any lighting system here in Equestria. Sweeping his lion paw through his grizzled hair, he gave one last glance before returning to PonyHoof and went through Earth’s page which had a blistering 4.4 billion of those things living there calling themselves “humans’’. Not wanting to burn his life search for the one he wants, he lazily scrolled and selected one at random. Now, all he had to do was kick back and relax but first he get rid of this annoying halo. FlutterShy is going to be impressed for sure. Meanwhile on Earth, a human was his way to pick up his daughter from school, driving along the twisted roads that lead the way. His stead being a cherry red hard-top 90’s Miata he bought back when he was high school wasn’t the best but it got the job done and it’s quite fun to drive given a few upgrades and quite easy to support and cheap. It took him 2 years to build to what is now from its GReddy turbo to the hydraulic handbrake that erected out of the floor finished off with a roll bar and a coiled over suspension. Other than that, the interior was pretty much stock besides the radio being ripped out and replaced with gauges and the handbrake, perfect for a weekend warrior. Yet we didn’t come here for cars, we came for some character background and character background is what we are going to get. But there was nothing note worthy of his life to speak of, he graduated from school, got a few degrees in college, got a job as an IT manager, got a girlfriend, had a child and is now fighting for custody of said child and that’s about it. It seemed like an average life to him, just an average Joe like any other person. His name is Tyrone Archer, is just another 26-year-old father working that 9-5 to support his daughter by putting bread on the table. He wore his usual uniform from work, being a plain blue T-shirt sporting his name and the company he worked for. Navy blue jeans complemented his shirt paired along with black and white sneakers. Jet black hair flowed from his cranium to his neck, tide neatly into a cornrow with a balbo beard etched across his face. His skin has soft touch of brown with his eyes being only a few shades darker. Now he wasn’t Nicolas Cage handsome, but he is somewhat pleasant to look at. Still on the light, he whipped out his s5 to check the time and it was 3:15, school should be getting ready to wrap up for today. He tossed it to the passenger seat as the turned green revving the car to life and slurred whistle trailed behind. The rest of his drive was going to a tad long and uneventful so he decided to have some fun by needlessly pumping his engine so he can hear the spool of the miniature jet underneath the hood. A bell echoed off in small school-house, signaling to all that chains of education can now be broken for all are free to do what they pleased. The rectangular building standing only two stories tall with its walls painted a formal yellow. Windows lined each level with entrance at the north of the structure covered a shelter with an off ramp to allow vehicles weave in and out easily. On the east side was a French door that gave way to a playground in which flooded with children eager to go home. They all wore tanned yellow shirts with the girls being covered with an aqua one piece dress complete with yellow and aqua knee-high socks. The boys followed a similar fashion with the only difference being a long aqua pants topped off with formal footwear. However, there was one student that curiosity caught the attention of. This pupil stayed behind sitting obediently at her window side desk, swaying her feet to and fro, patiently waiting in a classroom. Her ember orbs watched the clouds float in scattered formation slowly but surely forming a thundercloud that was relatively large to block out a portion of the sun. Godly rays seeped through window and radiated off her fair mango skin that matched well with her coffee stained bob hair. Her features resembled that of in static sketch, small narrow lips, a stubby nose and big eyes. The bright orange walls are decked with math and English posters with a few cartoon characters sprinkled here and there. Desks were organized in 5x3 rows facing the chalkboard in the front and center of the room with leading to a hallway on the right. The homeroom teacher was busy filing up today’s grades and was well dressed in business attire named Ms. Johnson was growing worried that this girl had no friends or was being bullied. Stacking up the last remaining paper then rubbing the board clear of today’s lessons she spoke, “What’s wrong dear? Don’t you want to go outside with the others?” The little girl nodded, “No, I’m waiting on Daddy.” “Are you sure? You can play while you wait for him you know?” Slightly annoyed, she slouched on the table, “Don’t wanna…” She grumbled. A few minutes of awkward blew over before the screeching of sneakers made its way through the halls trailed by a voice, “Yo Liz! Where you at?” it called, “Time to bounce!” Before the child could even raise her head, the owner of the voice was already by the door her father, giving his daily greeting to the teacher. Liz bolted her Hello Kitty to shoulders like greedy hobbit and swarmed to his hugging arms. “Daddy!” She squealed happily. “Hey pumpkin, how you doin’?” He returned lovingly. “She really must like you.” The teacher commented, grabbing her stuff. “She’s been seated at her desk since the end of class.” “She’s only like that ‘cause I’m the one that lets her have her way.” The parent replied meekly, giving Liz a pat on the head. The teacher chuckled but Liz’s attention was immediately killed by the need to hit the bathroom. She told the boss above on what needed to be done before disappearing in the halls, leaving the adults. Without a second thought, she found the ladies room and went to business skipping out moments later. Suddenly a cold, eerie chill shot down her spine with the clash of thunder making its presence known with loud bang strong enough to make the ceiling creak with the heavens unleashing a trickle of rain. Sure, she wasn’t scared of lightning but it still startled her to an extent. But still she couldn’t shake off this chill so she glanced around to find its source; being a door a couple of paces behind her, the fire escape. Like a clichéd fairy-tale curiosity got the better of her as she took quick but cautious steps towards it. She pushed the big silver bar on the door’s handle and gave way to the south side in the back of the building, facing a dead-end road and essentially a blind spot. Her grip slipped away from the handle, slamming the fire escape and cuts off all chances of retreat. Fear rippled through her with the chill growing more potent by the second. Her ember orbs locked directly ahead of her, looking at black hole plastered across a brick wall big enough to fit a flat-bed with ease. Instead of simply back away the strange force that seemingly called out to her like a normal person, she drew closer to the black void and eventually stuck her hand inside. Her 6-year-old mind blew into a million bits as her hand vanished into the hole but when she tried to withdraw, the fought back and pulled her deeper into the abyss. Now shoulder deep and no way to get out, she screamed as loud as she can before being swallowed up with the portal regurgitating a shoe. Meters away, Tyrone’s father senses started tingling when he heard his daughter’s cries for help, cutting his conversation with Ms. Johnson short and sprinted towards the sound with her in tow. Morals were thrown out the window when the first he checked was the ladies bathroom. He swept that place inside out with the skills of a seasoned S.W.A.T team but came up blank. Ms. Johnson caught his attention by guiding him through the fire escape, showing him the shoe the child left behind with a terrified look drawn on her face. Tyrone whipped his head to the left-nothing but empty bush-to the right is the road that they’re standing on that flowed out to the main and straight ahead is brick wall that had some graffiti on it. “Quick, call the police!” He roared, bubbling with rage. “Someone’s ass gone get beat.” “Got it!” She hollered back, making her way back in the school building, telling every staff member about what happened all the while Tyrone already circled around in his car. He chucked himself out and stomped in anger, throwing the shoe toward the black hole in the wall. Destroying the rules of physics, the shoe got eaten by the portal, leaving the human at a loss in the now drizzling rain. It didn’t take him too long to piece together of what had happened to Liz as he flew back in his Miata and sparked his engine to the waking world. In the heat of the moment, he slammed the shifter and lined up with the portal and took a final breath. Drawing the Cross on his chest, the car lunged in the portal, torn away from his concept of reality and plunged into a new one with a loud boom being the last thing he will ever hear from this world.