//------------------------------//
// 3 - Assemble The Team - I Am The Firestarter 
// Story: Displaced and Disorderly 
// by Miki 
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“What tha’ hell?” Carolyn exclaimed as the blue mare leapt and swung her floating fiery swords at Discord. Discord easily side-stepped the telegraphed attack.

“Look, I am sure we can reason this out,” he said as he dodged another swing.

The crazed blue mare stumbled on the follow-through of her second attack, but quickly wheeled around and continued to swing over and over again.

“No more Drifting. No more alternate worlds. No more transformations. NO MORE!” she roared as she swung both swords in a double blade attack towards Carolyn. Carolyn saw the attack coming and brought her wing-sabre up to parry the blades and push them aside.

“Look, chill out ya' hoople! We’re not ya' enemy!” she yelled before Discord grabbed her by the leg and threw her out of harm's way. He then snapped his finger and with a boxing glove wrapped talon, he punched the blue mare square in the muzzle and knocked her away. The mare stumbled and tripped as her swords dissipated, clearly nauseated from the sudden and unexpected motion.

“Stay back you idiot! She’s beyond reason right now,” he said as the boxing glove disappeared. He looked back at the crazed mare with a tired expression as she began to work her way back to her feet. The mare stumbled and tripped again, clearly still disoriented, and Discord knew he had but a moment to regroup.

“She will attack anyone who presents themselves as a target when she’s whipped up into a frenzy like this. The only thing we can do is wait until she tires herself out and calms down.”

He then looked back over at the pair.

“You two need to run and hide for now. Observe how she fights and find her weaknesses. Find openings, but do not capitalize on them,” he then clapped his paw and his talon together as he summoned a sword of pink fire for himself, “and let me handle her for now.”

The two did as they were told and ran away to hide behind a nearby rock formation, then he then sighed as the unicorn charged again with with her twin swords in tow by her side as if they were wings.

“It is a pity that I can’t simply turn those swords into glitter or something,” he mused as he parried another pair of strikes from the enraged mare, “that would make this so much easier.”

He then countered with a strike of his own that was swiftly dodged. Then she disappeared and reappeared behind him.

“Although, spraying glitter everywhere would be pretty funny,” he said as he looked over his shoulder at her with a mischievous grin, snapped his talon, and blue and white glitter exploded everywhere. It blinded the unicorn and she reeled back in stunned confusion as Discord whipped his tail around and batted her away. He shaded his eyes and watched as she traveled through the air like a fiery blue comet.

“Oh-hoo, home run,” he chortled as she landed a respectable distance away with a thud. Then the area in the distance where the unicorn landed was scorched as a battlecry rang out and echoed across the canyon.

“Inner Flame!” she roared and then she charged again to close the distance. When she was close enough, she leapt forward with a flower of her swords, the swords even more blinding than before, and swung over and over again. Each attack was telegraphed and easily parried by her chuckling opponent.

“Oh come now firebug --” he said as he swung his own pink fire sword at her, staggering his attacks with quick jabs of his free hand. She dodged to the side, took the jabs on the chin, and swung again. The attack was parried and swept away.

“-- you're better than this,” he chortled as he counterattacked in earnest, still swinging and staggering his attacks with more quick jabs. The mare dodged and ducked each of his swings with blinding speed and continued to take the jabs on the chin, then wheeled around with another swing of her swords.

“Stay your tongue, beast,” she growled. The swords were parried over and over until Discord brought his own sword to bear and locked her in a contest of strength. They glared at each other as each one tried to gain the upper hand against the other. The mare strained and grimaced as she poured every ounce of her telekinetic strength into the struggle, but Discord barely even budged. The mare telekinetically removed one of her swords and attempted to strike him in the side, but Discord summoned another purple fire sword of his own and parried that as well, locking them back into their contest. The mare glowered at his mischievous grin, the illogically colored swords of flame only adding to her fury as he wordlessly taunted and teased her. Until finally, he spoke.

“Listen, as entertaining as your little tantrum has been --” he said before he disappeared in a flash of light. “-- I am ending this pointless quarrel.”

He reappeared behind her, bereft of the swords, and grabbed her by the neck. He then picked her up and slammed her against ground, pinning her down.

The mare’s swords disappeared with the strike and she cried out as she hit the ground. She struggled and squirmed as Discord held her down by her neck, yelling and ranting all the while.

“Change me back and send me back to Outpost Citta this instant,” she demanded as she continued to squirm.

Meanwhile from their hiding spot, Carolyn and Taki watched in awe at the sheer power that was on display.

“Fuckin’ Kings,” Carolyn said.

“By the twelve,” Taki mused.

“Geez,” Carolyn said, “and I thought I was hot-headed. Guessin’ this is the sorcelator that snake-boy mentioned.”

“No kidding,” Taki responded, “lookit how he fought her though.”

She jabbed quickly a few times with her paw and chuckled.

“Master Hammond showed me that move weirdo was using. Ya chip away at their defenses and eventually they get too tired to take much more. Fire horsey didn't stand a chance!”

Carolyn cocked an eyebrow at the explanation.

“Ya think?” she said sarcastically as she looked back at the struggling mare.

“Still, that’s some powa’ she has,” she mused, “way beyond anythin’ I've seen a Psion do.”

Back at the fight, the fiery blue mare's squirms and struggles were growing weaker and weaker as fatigue caught up to her. “There now,” he chided, “calming down firebug?”

The mare slowly stopped squirming against Discord’s grip and was breathing heavily, clearly still exhausted.

“Save it,” she said between staggered breaths, “I'm going to defeat you and you are going to send me back.”

The temperature of the air surrounding the pair then rose rapidly as the mare pulled out her trump card.

“青い火山,” she growled, and the two were quickly engulfed in a pillar of blue plasma. The intense heat scorched the wayward tufts of grass around them and the nearby water on the edge of the river flashed into steam from the heat. Discord’s cohorts in hiding exclaimed in shock as their only ticket home was seemingly incinerated in the fiery display; but as the fire died down, Discord was revealed unharmed, still holding down the mare with his paw. The mare, meanwhile, was lying still and breathing heavily, clearly exhausted and seemingly unconscious. He let go of her neck and brushed away some of the wayward glitter that still adorned it, then stood up and snuffed out a small flame burning on his goatee with his talon. He arched his back and stretched his arms over his head with a mighty groan, then looked over to his hidden cohorts.

“It’s alright now,” he called over, “she won't be doing much of anything for a while.”

At that, Carolyn and Taki left their hiding spot and cautiously approached the pair. Then they stepped back in shock as the blue mare stirred. She shakily rose to her hooves and leveled a still furious glare at Discord, breathing deeply and heavily, her breaths punctuated by the occasional dry cough. Her eyes had faded from the solid white to reveal brown irises and her mane and tail no longer were subject to the updraft from before. She summoned a floating fire sword and weakly swung it at him, but it dissipated before it could make contact and she fell forward, still breathing heavily and coughing.

“Like I said, it will be a while,” he repeated.



“Takamitsu Katsumi,” Discord said. The file from earlier was open on his lap as he sat on a rock with his leg crossed.  His thick reading glasses were on and his backside was protected by an inflatable donut with the wound wrapped in a white bandage. All four legs of the blue unicorn were encased in a solid block of diamond and her horn was wrapped in what appeared to be a cone made of a strange shimmering black stone that occasionally glowed with a blue glow as the unicorn strained. Carolyn and Taki eyed the mare with no small amount of unease as she struggled against her bonds and glowered at her earlier opponent, but they turned and paid attention when Discord announced her name.

Discord lazily snapped his talon and as they did with Carolyn, papers fluttered out and surrounded him. He twirled one of the papers around to reveal a picture. Carolyn and Taki examined it, then Carolyn whipped her brownish red mane around to look at it. Then she looked at the white mane and tail on Katsumi, then at the brown hair of the picture and was left utterly confused.

“Former fire Magi, former human twice over now, current resident of earth, and wielder of all manner of fire magic --” he explained before he snapped his talon and the papers fluttered back into the file. “-- at least that is what you used to call it on Tellus. What is it they make you call it now? ‘Applied Quantum Mechanics?’”

Katsumi huffed and looked away from everyone in response.

“You tell me,” she said tersely, “since you seem to know so much about me already.”

“Listen,” Discord huffed, “this would all go much more smoothly if you simply cooperated. I'm all for rebelliousness, but I know you're more reasonable of a person than this.”

Katsumi whipped her head around and glared at him.

“Why should I be reasonable to the creature that pulled me from my home and turned me into --” she stammered as she looked at her legs through the diamond block,”-- i-into this!”

“Because he plans on sending us back,” Taki interjected before she busied herself with grooming her paw.

“Precisely,” Discord said.

“Maybe,” Carolyn said with a raised a hoof, “ya’ ought ta’ explain why we’re here in the first place now since ya’ have all’a us here. To tell ya tha’ truth, I'm a bit pissed as well about all’a this.”

Discord groaned as he snapped his talon and more papers fluttered out of the file, each one containing pictures that made everyone present gasp. Carolyn’s eyes were drawn to a picture that depicted all manner of ponies, clearly dead and decomposing, shambling about a city in the mountains. Katsumi glared at a picture that depicted all manner of otherworldly eldritch abominations ransacking another. And still another picture drew the attention of Taki that showed the lumbering and colossal form of the Primal Titan standing over a completely decimated city with a cheering army of Kobolds surrounding him.

“This is but a small sample of the damage that these creatures have caused to this world, and this is why I have brought you all here,” he said before he snapped his talon and the pictures each floated over to their respective individuals.

“Because these creatures are not of this world, our magic is ineffective against them,” he said as he looked at Katsumi and Taki, “not even the most powerful spells cast by the most powerful unicorns did anything to them.”

Then he looked over at Carolyn with a grim expression and Carolyn locked eyes with him in turn.

“And for every being that dies to these creatures, the Gravemind from your world claims their bodies and turns them into another Shambler in the undead horde. Their numbers have grown beyond what the Royal Guard is capable of handling and while we can blast them apart as many times as we want, the gravemind will simply reclaim the gore and recycle them into new bodies.”

Discord rose to his feet and with a snap of his talon that bore all of the finality of a being handing down an ultimatum, the file and his glasses all disappeared. The images and the explanation left a sobered look on all present and Discord gave them a moment to let the true gravity of the situation sink in.

Carolyn’s face, once bearing an expression of shock and disbelief, contorted into anger. “How big is it?” she seethed, “is it below us right now?”

“The Gravemind is, thankfully, contained within one location; however for how long we can not be sure,” Discord sighed, “Guardsmen are dying one by one in the effort to keep the horde contained and we cannot afford to keep adding to its number. For every body and mind it claims, it looks like its tendrils snake out even furth--”

“-- fuckin’ Kings I know what tha' Gravemind does!” she snapped. “Ya’ don’t need ta’ say it.”

Katsumi had resigned herself to closing her eyes and meditating over the details. “And the Drift Creatures your world has encountered,” Katsumi asked, “are the Drift Wave Events they come through isolated as well?”

At that, Discord shook his head. “What you call ‘Drift Wave Events’ have been happening sporadically all across the planet. There is no way to know where the next one will happen or when.”

“B-b-but why? Taki protested. “I already punched Titan and claimed his crystal! Me an load-sa other fighters who helped me out! What’s he doin’ back here!?”

“You would know more about that than me, Taki,” he replied.

Taki pouted and tapped a device that was housed in her ear with her paw, “Hey, Lazy Knights! Ya guys there?! Got a new Quest I need some help on. Could use a meathead.”

Her ear twitched as she waited for something and the others watched in confusion. Her ear twitched again as a minute passed in silence. Discord made to speak, but Taki shushed him with a raised paw and exposed claws. Then five minutes passed. Still nothing. Then Taki lost her patience. “I know yer there ya jerks! A’lig A’tor, I totally know you’re there! I could really use the help! A Marauder? A Paladin? Somethin'!” she growled.

“You won’t get an answer, likely,” Discord said with a sigh, “Equestria exists in a separate plane of existence from Eorzea, Earth, and what used to be Earth, so whatever that thing is most likely can’t reach these ‘Lazy Knights.’”

Taki ripped the device from out of her ear and tossed it on the ground with a scoff. “Well that sucks; no backup,” she said as she went back to grooming her paw.

“That is why you have these two,” Discord said as he pointed to Carolyn and Katsumi, “they will be all of the backup you need.”

Taki stopped grooming mid-lick then without pulling her tongue away, she looked at Carolyn, then Katsumi, then Discord. Then she got up and paced around, inspecting each and every one of them. She circled around Carolyn and sniffed her wings and batted at her scrap armor.

“Crappy lookin’ armor, crappy attitude, slouchy slouch --” she said, then she eyed the red “Rush” keychain dangling from her saddlebag and made to bat at it. Carolyn foresaw it and twitched. “Kings'll rock ya; Pray fa’ Justice,” she said as her bladed right wing glowed blue and swung at Taki's neck. Discord groaned as he feared yet another coming fight, but Katsumi chuckled in realization at the exchange.

Taki’s paw flashed as she parried and redirected the attack with a mischievous grin, “-- not bad on the reflexes though. What else can ya do?”

Carolyn withdrew her wing as the glow faded and she scoffed. "I'm often the one pullin’ people outta tha’ shit when they go down and I can keep ya’ from dyin’,” was her terse response. “I ain't no frontliner.”

“Ah, so you're a healer, nice,” she said.

“I ain’t no Sawbones or Doc neither, so don't expect no miracles there kitty cat.”

“Noted,” she said with a nod before she looked at Katsumi.

“And we already know what you can do,” she said before she turned back to Discord, “so with Discord here, it looks like we got ourselves a good Light Party! Count me in! Let's put the punchy punch on these creeps and get ourselves home alive!”

“Do we really have a choice in the matter?” Katsumi deadpanned which elicited a silent nod from Carolyn.

“Splendid,” Discord said with a smile. He snapped his talon to summon a quill and parchment, wrote out a quick note, then with a wave of his hand it disappeared.

“Our first stop, Canterlot,” he said before he snapped his his talon one final time and all four of them disappeared in a flash of light.



Celestia,
I’ve gathered them all up and they are ready to fight. The plan is, at present, proceeding as expected and we will arriving at the outskirts of Canterlot momentarily. Be ready to open a hole in the shield on my signal.

And for goodness sake, stay alive!

Hugs and kisses!
Discord <3