//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Guns Ponies and Equality // by CroakyEngine //------------------------------// Travelling at sundown wasn’t the wisest idea, especially in the decay filled suburbs of Jason’s home. The setting sun cast wonderfully creepy shadows from the old, industrial plants that stood in disrepair. The barely functional lamps were only turned on two hours before midnight in order to save power, making most streets completely dark after the sun disappeared. Amongst this utterly depressing scene walked a young man in his early twenties, hands in his pockets as he strode through the streets, cars occasionally illuminating his back brightly as they passed him. Jason wasn’t outstanding, and the only thing that stood out about him was his beard that finished off in a little twisted braid. That, and the piercing blue eyes that his associates said he had, though it always eluded him when he glanced into a mirror. He had a simple leather jacket and jeans that kept him warm from the harsh winds that came in with the first month of winter. The most out of place thing, though, was definitely the huge grin he had upon his face, even as his right hand patted his black sidearm holster in a celebratory manner. A newly purchased Beretta ninety-six lay within, along with two magazines of ammunition strapped beside it. For once, Jason didn’t feel a rush to get to his small, claustrophobic apartment and instead just enjoy the night air. After wandering for nearly an hour, his stomach rumbled loudly and he was reminded that his lunch wasn’t very substantial; a small bowl of watery noodles with packet of ‘curry’ sauce squeezed on top and a single boiled egg. Still, it was better than breakfast, which was a bowl of stale vegetables squished together into an unholy orgy with some mayonnaise sauce. The street wasn’t very well clean or sanitized, and the trash littered everywhere that it could physically get into. Nearby, a small fenced off area represented what was once supposed to be a s small playground. He hesitated, as for a moment some ominous feeling overcame him. Perhaps over confident, Jason walked down the street as it was a shortcut to his home, if he remembered correctly. As soon as he walked through, a trash bin fell over behind him, causing some cats that must’ve been living there to scramble away. Jason tensed slightly, his hand shifting towards his holstered gun. A slight scrap and shuffle to his right redirected his attention. “Who’s there?” asked Jason with a frown. Relax Jason, it’s probably just cats and rats scuttering about. Forcing himself to take a deep breath, he let the smile come back to his face. He turned around and- A terrifying, monstrous face grinned at him. Jason let out an admittedly girlish scream, backpedalling backwards so fast that he fell over onto the ground, before getting up and running away. His breathing was fast and rapid, trying to draw in as much oxygen as possible. What the fuck was that?! The FUCK was that?! FUCK! The last thought came when he came around a corner to face a dead end in a street. What was worse was that he couldn’t remember any other openings on his way here… or much of anything else really. He looked up and gulped when he saw the smooth concrete wall of the eight-storied building at the end of the alley way tower over him. Slow footsteps, came from behind him and Jason shakily turned around. The monster, because that’s all it could be, was a mismatch of a dozen different animals. It was standing upright on mismatched feet with a goat’s head, mismatched horns, a chicken’s claw and lion’s paw for hands and lastly had what looked like bat wings on its back. Perhaps what scared Jason the most was the joy in its uneven pupils and its leering smile, with one of its two front teeth broken. “Hello there, human,” it whispered in a light, masculine voice, and Jason jumped. It can speak?! Almost as if reading his mind, the creature scoffed and continued. “Yes, of course I can speak. I’m not some illiterate imbecile, you know.” Jason’s mouth dropped open in pure shock, but he was knocked out of his reverie when the creature took a step closer in his direction. Jason’s mind immediately noped out and his right hand went straight to his handgun. Let’s see how you like the taste of brass! In a practiced motion, he pulled out his handgun from its holster and took aim at the impossible abomination. However, the creature snapped its fingers - in an extremely human like manner – and the barrel of the gun twisted into itself, aiming at Jason himself instead of the creature. With a sharp yelp, he scrambled back from the gun, only to stare at in disbelief again when the gun stayed in its same position in the air despite there being nothing to support its weight. “T-That’s impossible! What the hell are you?!” exclaimed Jason, taking steps away from the smirking monster. What is going on, no this is all a dream, it has to be. Let’s go through a checklist. A giant freak that can somehow talk to me- check. Yep, I’m in a dream. While Jason panicked within his own mind, Discord spoke in a satisfied tone. “Ah, finally we can get to introductions. Monsieur, I am le dieu de la discorde, king of chaos, entertainment extraordinaire, or Discord,” announced the creature, who identified himself as Discord, before turning to face again with a leering smile. “And of course, you are Jason, the most insignificant example of your species. Loved by no one and missed by no one.” Fear temporarily forgotten, Jason’s face lit up bright red in anger at the insult as he glared angrily at Discord. The fucking chimera just dissed me! “And who are you to talk? You looked like the offspring of your mother after she banged everything in the animal kingdom!” countered Jason, though he immediately regretted the decision when he saw a dangerous glint glimmer in the mad creature’s eyes. And so this is how I die, after offending a demon with bad humour, thought Jason sullenly, waiting for his death to come and hoping it would be swift. A second passed, and he raised his head in confusion to see Discord chuckling. “Ha, you humans and your sub-par comedy. It was a good try on your behalf, and for your attempt I’ll even consider not turning your legs to Jell-O for my humour is bad!” Without any warning, Discord appeared behind him and placed a bird’s claw on his shoulders. “That’s enough chit-chat for now. Time to zip you up since I’m a little short on time!” Suddenly, Jason was unable to move, even as he watched Discord turn his mouth into a zipper and pulled it across to sewn his mouth shut. He screamed in fear, but it didn’t have any effect on the zipper beyond causing it to twitch a little. HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?! Jason screamed within the confines of his own mind “Ah, much better. Now you see, Jason, or Mr Faust, if you prefer, I have a special offer for you; to travel to a far-away land and cause as much delicious chaos as- hmm, what’s the term? Oh yes, as much chaos as humanely possible. Do you agree to this?” Jason, beyond his own accord, started to move up and down. He tried as hard as he could to resist and speak, but the effort was clearly in vain. The damned bastard… just wait until I can get my hands on him without getting ripped apart. “Ah brilliant, and here I thought you didn’t want to go. Glad we cleared that up!” Discord smirked and leant in close, with his disproportional pupils staring at him with maniac intensity. “Now you see, I understand that going to a completely new world is tough, so I have given you a few ‘tools’ to help you, per se. The first is the ability to understand, speak and write any language you encounter, because it would be far too boring to watch you learn everything. The second is that I made you slightly tougher to kill, since I went through all this trouble. Lastly… well, I’m just going to keep a secret for now. It’ll be fun seeing you figure it out. Any questions?” Discord waited with faux anticipation, only to be met with Jason’s glare, no longer bothering to futilely resist or speak up. “Guess you really don’t like Q&As. No problemo, my friend! Now you see, you’re not going to be stuck there forever. In fact, when you have created enough chaos for me, I will send you home, with all your ‘gifts’ as well,” said Discord, smiling smugly as Jason scowled. Several moments of silence later, and hostile awkward silence filled in the vacuum before Discord slapped his forehead. “Oh right, you’re still mute.” In an almost comical fashion, Discord reached behind his back and pulled out a TV remote control, pressing an obscenely big button labelled ‘unmute’. The zipper on his mouth at once disappeared and Jason could move again. He gasped in a huge breath, and felt around his mouth, opening and closing it like a goldfish. When he was self-assured enough, he spoke what was on his mind for the last minute. “Go suck a piece of shit,” swore Jason, his imagination overworking as he imagined yanking the creature’s testicles up his intestines and yanking it out of his throat. “How creative,” commented Discord. An alarm suddenly started ringing, and Discord checked his pocket watch, which had appeared out of nowhere and threw it away afterwards. “Well, Jason, it’s been very fun talking with you, but I’m afraid I have places to be, as do you.” “No wait-” A giant, swirling vortex appeared in front of him, not at all like the slow, dramatic version displayed in movies. A sudden sound, though, pierced the quiet night. The sound of police siren getting increasingly louder. With a hopeful gaze, Jason sucked in a breath and screamed as loud as he can. “HELP-” And he was bodily kicked into the vortex hole. As he tumbled through darkness, he could hear Discord saying “Toodles! And have fun!” Instead of making some vow to take revenge, the last thought that passed through Jason’s head was a lot hastier and profanity filled. SON OF A BIT– The next thing Jason knew, he was lying face first on the ground, with soft grass brushing up against him. His body felt immensely sore, and it felt like his limbs have been detached, put in a washing machine and then slapped onto his body again. For what felt like an eternity, all he could manage was a muffled groan. Let’s run some damage control, he thought sullenly. My name: Jason. Sex life: negative if that was possible. Possibility of sex life improving: zero percent. Reason: some freak zapped me to another world. Jason sighed, but the noise came out sounding like he was noisily making love with the ground. With some effort, he finally hoisted himself up. Firstly, he noticed that it was the middle of the day, and when Jason looked around him, he felt weak at the knees. He was in the middle of a small clearing with countless trees surrounding him, along with exotic greenery of every kind. It almost seemed like something out of a Disney fairy tale, of a wild, yet peaceful forest. Birds chirped in the air, along with the buzzes and clicks of other animals that joined to make a relaxing ambience that soothed Jason’s stressed mind. “The bastard wasn’t kidding after all,” said Jason. He waited for a few seconds, almost wishing someone would suddenly jump out and exclaim ‘you got pranked, bro!’. He gave up after it was clear that wasn’t going to happen, and took a deep breath. “Alright, Jason. You are alone, in a forest, with likely no other humans nearby. It’s just like all those movies,” Jason said to himself, thought it didn’t sound at all convincing. He knew nothing about forests beyond common sense, and the closest thing to it he had back at home was a small park filled doggie landmines. He looked up at the sky, and there was… the sun. Just a normal sun that he saw every day on Earth, albeit perhaps a little larger. A slight jingle in his pocket reminded Jason that he had stuff in them before, and he carefully emptied them out onto a patch of grass. All in all, the entire didn’t include much; a cell phone with medium battery and no way to charge it, a small solar powered torch, a wallet full of useless cards and money as well as the keys to his apartment. That, and of course the handgun he acquired along with its ammunition. He toyed with his cell phone, and sighed upon starting it. “No signal, figures,” muttered Jason, slumping down against a nearby tree. The air was a little chilly, and Jason was quite glad that he had been wearing one of his warmer clothes when all this had happened. He touched the bark of the tree behind him, feeling its texture when an idea struck. He stood up and looked at the tree he had sat against. The tree wasn’t extremely tall, and Jason felt he could survive if he fell. After several awkward attempts, he managed to wrangle himself up onto a decent sized tree with its thick branches. When he broke over the treetops, though, he had to take a small moment of silence. Whoa. “Whoa,” he agreed with his mind, afraid to break the awe of the moment. It was definitely a full-on forest, and it extended for as far as his eyes could see, with its edge on his far right, at least miles away. Mountain ranges with snow-capped tips decorated the distance, some even touching the clouds itself. Jason frowned slightly, squinting closer at the clouds. After blinking several times, he was sure that the clouds were way lower than they were supposed to be, and looked much more solid as well. Shrugging at the weird sight, he cautiously climbed down from the tree and started towards the direction of the forest edge. If there is any sort of civilization here, it must be beyond there. They say the first stretch of a journey was the trickiest, but they often forget to mention the number of times you accidentally faceplant into barbed vines. It did, however, make him glad that his strong and durable boots kept his feet safe from the thick barbs and the tough undergrowth. If not for it, there was no doubt that his feet would have become a pincushion for everything sharp you can find in a forest. He brushed aside some leaves, and jumped back when he saw what looked like a giant Venus fly trap with lethally sharp teeth. Wisely turning around, he hauled ass and got the hell out of there. DEAR GOD. I came so close to dying there. Several times, curious earth-like birds that he couldn’t recognize perched on tree branches, watching him curiously. Once Jason was almost tempted to shoot one down for food, but decided against it for preserving his bullets, the only protection he had. Once, he even came across a small stream, and he gratefully drank his fill, though he did a double spit take when he saw a small family of frogs silently watching him no further than an inch from his face. Almost as if acknowledging his attention, the largest one of them croaked loudly. Jason blinked. The frogs blinked back. Ooooookay, no creepy frogs thank you very much. No longer feeling comfortable to drink at the stream, Jason hurried up on his way. Though his thirst was quenched, the problem of food still persisted. After several long moments of spectating wild mushrooms with utter disdain, he decided not to risk the chance. Luckily, later he found some berries not utterly vomited over by bright, lethal colours. He picked a few to eat, and it didn’t seem to have any adverse effects besides being impossibly addictive. On top of that, it seemed to be rather fulfilling, though it came nowhere near replacing real food. Eating as much as he could without getting sick, he stuffed the rest into his pockets and hoped it wouldn’t all get mashed. While he ate, a silly thought came to his mind. He remembered his boss earlier, yelling at him for mistakes that weren’t made by him and set impossible deadlines for him. Such was the life of a programmer, and it was the one thing he was glad to be rid of. However, without computers or any sustainable digital device, his skills were completely useless, and he could only rely on the little knowledge he knew about surviving in the wild. The rest of the day went by fast as Jason turned his mind to focus on clearing a path for himself. When night had finally fallen, Jason felt dead on his feet, but trudged onwards anyways. Unlike walking on the flat, paved roads of cities, trekking through a wild forest felt much more exhausting. He was glad that he regularly exercised, because that was likely the only reason he was still able to move. Luckily, nearby was a convenient cave that he cold shelter inside. It went only about a dozen metres inside, and came to a rocky stone wall. After a closer inspection that showed no recent signs of animal presence, he gathered some moss that had been growing on the ground to form a makeshift mattress. For ‘dinner’, he voraciously consumed half of the berries he had collected and it took all of his willpower to not eat the other half. He chewed enthusiastically on the delicacies and savoured their almost unnaturally sweet taste. It’s not so bad after all… Perhaps I can survive for a while like, no work, no bills to pay. Feeling rather up beat for the first time since he arrived, he walked outside the cave and laid down on the grass to twiddle with his phone. The lack of any internet connection, though, meant that he couldn’t really do much. After a few minutes of playing various mobile games, he stopped and instead gazed at the night-time sky. Even with his limited knowledge, Jason knew immediately that it was not the right sky. Neither Ursa Major nor the Big Dipper were present, and closer inspection found that even the moon was different, too big and too low. It did nothing but hammer in the fact that he was, in fact, not on Earth anymore. Suddenly not feeling as keen to star gaze, he slinked back into the small cave and laid down on some moss, and slept. Within moments, his sluggish and exhausted mind drifted off into the abyss and his body received its much-needed rest. Maybe this is all a dream, and I would soon wake up… Distant shouts and commotions awoke Jason from his slumber. The hell is that… At first, he groggily rose up, long since being familiar with his rowdy neighbours that liked to get smashed at ridiculous hours, but it turned into increasing confusion as he noted that his environment was too dark, too dank and too cold. Shit, how smashed did I get last night- The memories flooded back into him, the creature called Discord, and how he ended up here in this new world. The confusion and horror of the memory was quickly followed by the crushing disappointment that he was still here, and not in a hospital bed after falling and hitting his head. Suddenly, he just wanted to curl up and cry. Now that all the leftover rage from yesterday was gone, he realized how little chance he has of returning to his home. What sounded like the sound of a building collapsing echoed to within the cave and interrupted his self-pity session. In fact… the sounds he heard before were not dying down, and instead growing louder. As the sounds continued on, and Jason’s eyes flashed alight with an idea. Those were definitely not natural sounds, so it must be some sort of civilization, maybe even a city! With adrenaline suddenly rushing through his body, Jason strapped on his holsters again and checked that the little number of items he had were secured before setting off. His movements faltered, though, when he realized that the civilization might not even be human, or worse completely hostile. He remembered Discord mention about a function that allows him to understand other languages, so that was definitely possible… His hands tightened on his belt and he gave a scowl as he shook him head to shake off any thoughts of doubt. What was else was he going to do anyways? Foraging and surviving in a forest until the last of his days? And what the hell did the freaky chimera bastard even meant by ‘causing chaos’ anyways? Upon reaching outside, the sun was alright bright and high in the sky. In the distance, he could see a small column of smoke rise up, exactly where the sound was emanating from. Civilization… A bright and hopeful smile on his face, Jason started to run towards the direction with a new vigour, ignoring cuts of branches and brambles of vegetation that he zipped by. A few times he tripped over, staining his trousers and sleeves with mud and dirt, but he got up and continued onwards. Slowly, but steadily, the number of trees began to decrease, and the land became flatter. Signs of civilization started to appear; tree stumps, cut vegetation, and even a rough dirt trail with what looked like wheel tracks ingrained into it. I’m going to make it to a civilization… I’m going to get out of here! WOOO-HOOO! Finally, he broke through the tree lines and into the open, and he immediately flattened himself to the ground when he saw something fly past him. A second later, he recognized it as a crossbow bolt, and he pressed himself further into the ground. Shit, SHIT! Stupid! Now I’m going to die because I was too impatient to scout out the place first. DAMN IT JASON! Jason’s heart thundered in his ears as he waited for something to happen, with death and pain at the forefront of his mind. When nothing did happen, he cautiously crawled towards the nearest bush, careful to not elevate any part of his body above the tall grass. Okay, slowly. Maybe they haven’t seen where I dropped down. Or maybe they have the memory of a goldfish, and completely forgot I existed. Yes, I like that last idea very much. Once he was safely hidden behind the bush, he rose up into a crouched position and peaked out at the village. Paddocks and farmland ringed the outside of the village, growing what appeared to be apples and wheat, though Jason couldn’t be sure. Old fashioned stone houses with thatched roofs dominated the village, and fractured cobblestone roads were laid in between them. Several houses had completely collapsed, with others caught alight with fire. However, it was the inhabitants that drew Jason’s attention. The only way he could describe it, at the risk of sounding like a complete and utter madman, was multicoloured ponies armed with medieval era weapons fighting each other. Just where the fuck am I? Jason stared in further disbelief when he saw more ponies with wings flying about in the air, fighting ponies on the ground. At first, he didn’t recognize them, but then he remembered something he learned in high school. Are those- Are those FREAKING PEGASI?! Pretty soon, it became obvious that the fight was between the winged variant of ponies – pegasi, if his rusty memory of Greek mythology was correct – and the non-winged type, with the latter losing badly. Okay, I am definitely not on Earth. There is no way these creatures can exist without humans knowing about it. WAIT! What if it was all a government conspiracy. Yes, the government fed me drugs and offered me up to these ‘ponies’ as sacrifice… The increasingly hysterical part of his brain rambled while his remaining and undeniably shrinking sanity was relieved to note that they haven’t seemed to notice him. The bolt ‘fired’ at him before was likely by accident as the ponies seemed far more interested in fighting each other. He glanced around, but there was no doubt that the smoke and sounds originated from the village, for there was nothing else he could see. Okay, no matter what, I need to get out of here. Maybe I can travel further along the forest and skirt around the fighting. Yes… Subconsciously, he patted the bulky handgun in his holster, an action that made him feel a little bit saner and safer. He watched the colourful furry creatures battling each other for a minute longer, before preparing to sneak away in the undergrowth. Just before he did, though, a scream tore out from the village, sounding exactly like that of a young girl’s. His eyes narrowed as he swiftly turned back to the village. The chances of another human – a human child at that – was incredibly low, but if there was… This is dumb, and you know it. This is really DUMB! Stop! The sane part of his mind kept screaming at him, but regardless he pushed himself up from the ground and started to jog towards where the fighting was the strongest. “Damn me and my bloody conscience.”