//------------------------------// // Bastion Meets My Little Pony part 1 // Story: Characters Meet My Little Pony // by Equinoxx //------------------------------// Discord sat on his couch, having what seemed to be a staring contest with the roof. The dark reality was that he was reflecting, reflecting on how he didn't stop the Ursa major's claw, how he couldn't do anything to keep Sonic alive. 'But why?' He thought, though right after, he realized there was a better question, how? It's not as if Discord did nothing. He tried using his magic to keep Sonic alive, but it didn't work. Why didn't it work?! He even tried bringing Sonic back to life, but something stopped him... Discord had a feeling that he knew exactly who stopped him and he needed to pay her a visit, a very unfriendly visit. Discord appeared in front of Peirha. "You said nothing would go wrong." He said with narrowed eyes and a threatening growl. "To my knowledge, nothing did." Discord scowled. "You think someone dying like that is common here!? Because it's not! Not just that, but if you hadn't sent Sonic here, then he'd be fine! I'm sure Twilight and her friends could've handled it." "Weren't you the one who said no to dealing with the Ursa problem. Rainbow asked you to, but you declined. I imagine she's not very happy with you." Discord tried to come up with a rebuttal, but drew upon dead words. He was at fault, he may not have known, but he still didn't deal with the Ursa minor when he had a chance to. Then the thing he came here for came to mind. "Do you know why my magic didn't work on him?" He asked. "..." "Answer me!" Discord demanded, but he received no reply. "I can destroy thi-" But before he finished the sentence, Peirha finally responded. "You can't." "What?" "You can't. "What does that mean?!" Discord snapped. "You cannot destroy the stone." "I'm the god of chaos, I don't see why I can't." Discord scoffed, his eyes glowing a grim shade of yellow.. "I mean that you can't physically or magically destroy it." Discord raised an eyebrow. "You may try if you don't believe me." Peirha was so confident, could Discord destroy the stone? She could be telling the truth, but Discord still wanted to try. He poofed in a sledgehammer and grabbed it in his paw and claw. He raised it up high, then swung it down onto the stone, but instead of the stone breaking, it bounced off and hit Discord in the face. Discord snapped his claws, making the sledgehammer disappear from his face. He snapped his claws again, trying to teleport the stone, well anywhere, but nothing happened. 'What? But... How?' Discord was at a loss for words, he really couldn't do anything to it. "I promise, no one will die this time." Discord turned his attention back to the stone and raised an eyebrow, but Peirha said no more. Discord floated a distance away, then teleported home... 11:00 pm, first day. A lone E54 Bastion unit walked through the black forest, a yellow Cockatiel parrot named Ganymede on its shoulder. Everything seemed peaceful, that was until a portal suddenly appeared under Bastion, making him fall in. Ganymede flew off of Bastion's shoulder with the sudden movement, but when he looked down to see Bastion, he was gone. Ganymede quickly followed Bastion through the portal. On the other side, he saw that they were still in a forest, but something seemed... Different. Bastion stood up, he had fallen over when coming through the portal. Ganymede landed back on Bastion's shoulder. "Chirp chirp, tweet? (What happened?)" Ganymede asked. "Beep broop beep. Bwee brew. (I don't konw Ganymede. But this place looks similar.)" Bastion replied. They both heard a howl in the not so distance. "Tweet chirp. (We should keep an eye out.)" "Bwoop. (Agreed.)" With that in hardrive and mind, Bastion started his journey through the forest. Bastion knew there was something following them, but it was not enough to engage danger protocol's. After a bit of walking, they saw light, assumingly the exit of the forest. Before they could approach it though, they heard growling and three screams behind them. Bastion turned around and saw three small ponies run past him and out of the forest, then Bastion saw several pairs of green glowing eyes peeking out of the bushes. Ganymede flew after the fillies while Bastion converted into sentry mode. The glowing eyes disappeared, but Bastion still heard rustling in the bushes. After a few tense moments, the rustling went away. Bastion went back to recon mode and followed after Ganymede and the fillies. Ganymede, meanwhile, was watching as the fillies tried and failed to tell a yellow pony with wings about what happened. "Chirp." He sighed, to his surprise the yellow pony noticed and trotted up to him. "Do you know what happened?" The pony asked him. Ganymede did know what happened, but she wouldn't understand him, would she? He decided to give it a shot. "Chirp, tweet tweet. Chirp tweet. (Well, yes I do. These three fillies were following a friend of mine and me, when we heard a growl. The fillies ran past us and to here. I followed.)" "Do you think your friend is okay?" The pony surprisingly responded to what Ganymede said. "Chirp, tweetweet. (Most likely.)" Now he wanted to ask a question though. "Chirp tweet chirp. (How can you understand me though?)" "It's my special talent to talk to animals and critters." The winged pony responded. Ganymede found that strange, but he also didn't really care. Suddenly they heard the three fillies scream again, though when Ganymede turned around, all he saw was Bastion. 'Oh right, they probably don't know what he is.' He figured. The fillies hid behind the yellow winged pony, who was also visibly scared, but she was still standing her ground. "Chirp chirp! (Don't worry, he's my friend!)" Ganymede chirped to the yellow pony. She looked at Ganymede, then back at Bastion, then at Ganymede again, and back at Bastion one last time. She decided to trust them for the time being, as at least Ganymede seemed kind. "O-okay." She regained her composure. "M-maybe we should introduce ourselves?" She suggested. "I'm Fluttershy." "Tweet. (Ganymede.)" "Bweep. (Bastion.)" All of the ponies looked at Bastion in confusion. "Chirp tweet. (Fluttershy can understand chirps, try that.)" Ganymede told Bastion. "Chirp chirp. (Right, I am Bastion.)" Bastion re-tried. Fluttershy understood this time and told the fillies the two names. "Now tell them your names," She told the fillies. "If you want!" She quickly added. The fillies looked at each other, all nodded in silent agreement. Then turned to Bastion and Ganymede, who had just landed on Bastion's shoulder. "We're The Cutiemark Crusaders!" They all shouted, perfectly synchronized. "Ah'm Applebloom!" "I'm Sweetiebelle!" "And I'm Scootaloo!" They said enthusiastically. It sounded like it was rehearsed. "Anyway, it's getting late, and you fillies should get inside." Fluttershy told the CMC. "Okay." They all said, begrudgingly entering the cottage. 'Why do I always agree to foalsitting them when they have their sleepovers?' Fluttershy asked herself. She looked back at Bastion and Ganymede. "I have some questions, if you don't mind me asking." She gave a patient smile. "Chirp chirp. (Well I don't see why not.) " Ganymede shrugged. "Tweet. (Go ahead and ask.)" Bastion agreed. "Well first, where did you come from?" Fluttershy asked. "I haven't seen anything like you before." She pointed to Bastion. "Chirp chirp, tweet, tweetweet. (We aren't from here, if that wasn't obvious enough, but something brought us here. I think it was a portal-" Fluttershy grimaced. "-that dropped us in.)" Ganymede explained. "Chirp tweet, chirp... (And I'm a Bastion unit, specifically made to protect, but...)" Bastion trailed off. Ganymede noticed the contemplative look on Fluttershy's face. "Chirp? (What's wrong?)" Ganymede asked Fluttershy. Bastion now noticed too. "W-well I... You see, a couple of days ago a blue bipedal hedgehog named Sonic was brought here the same way... But h-he..." Fluttershy trailed off. She never liked talking about death. Bastion and Ganymede had a feeling they knew what she was going to say, or at least the basic idea. "Chirp tweet? (Is there a way we can find out more?)" Ganymede asked. "Yes, but... Could you stay here and keep an eye on the Cutiemark Crusaders while Bastion comes with me?" Ganymede nodded, then turned to see if Bastion agreed and he did. "Chirp. (Stay safe.)" He said as he flew up to a window. "Tweet? (Where to?)" Bastion asked Fluttershy. Discord was deep in thought, thinking about why he couldn't do anything to the stone, or anything regarding the cave and Sonic for that matter. He continued to float back and forth, until he suddenly felt a faint tingle of magic. Either Peirha was upping her stealth game, or whatever caused the magic to activate wasn't prone to keeping magic on it. He teleported to where the magic roughly was and searched every rock, every bush and every bird! Wait what? He re-looked over the bird. It had some magical residue on it. Did Peirha really just send a bird? Sure it was a relatively good thing, but it felt... Underwhelming. Discord floated up to the bird, who was on the windowsill, then spoke. "Why hello my little feathery friend." He greeted. The bird let out a chirp of panic, lept to the air, and hovered there for a moment. After a few seconds of simply stared at the mismatched creature in front of it, the thing spoke. "You know, staring's rude." Discord dramatically huffed. "Chirp? (Hi?)" Ganymede tested. "Yes I can understand you, but let's not get too carried away." Discord said as he turned tiny and a bigger version of himself carried him away. "Do you know how you got here? Also why are you peeking through the window?" He reappeared, still tiny, next to Ganymede. The bird looked thoughtful for a moment. "... Chirp chirp, tweetweet chirp tweet. (It's a long story, but in short, my friend and me fell through a portal. Well he fell through and I followed.)" The bird explained off the first question. "Chirp chirp. (My name's Ganymede by the way.)" "Nice to meet you, I'm Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony." He said formally, bowing. "You still didn't answer the window question though." "Chirp tweet. (I was asked to keep an eye on three fillies that are in this room.)" Ganymede nodded to the room past the window, but neither actually looked. "You were? By whom may I ask?" Discord tilted his head at a very unnatural angle, at least it would be for many other creatures. "Chirp chirp. (A winged pony named Fluttershy.)" Ganymede admitted. "Of course she would." Discord chuckled. "Where's this friend of yours?" Discord asked as he searched under a large matt of grass. "Tweet chirp chirp. Tweetweet? (With Fluttershy, going somewhere. Do you know Fluttershy?)" "Why yes. She's simply lovely! Anyhow, I'm gonna go find them, ta-ta!" And with that, Discord disappeared. Ganymede looked back at the window... He jumped into flight when he saw three pairs of eyes looking at him, the owners of said eyes then promptly hid. After recovering he landed back on the windowsill and pecked the window, trying to tell the fillies that they're already found out. After a few moments of pecking, one of the fillies, Sweetie belle he remembered, came out of hiding and opened the window. "Sorry for spying on you and Discord, mister bird, we were just curious." Sweetie belle admitted. Ganymede found it somewhat annoying that she didn't seem to remember his name, but he couldn't really blame her, it was pretty foreign to... Pretty much everyone. He nodded his head in acceptance of the apology. Suddenly his stomach growled. "Oh, are you hungry?" Sweetie belle asked. At this point, the other two fillies were in sight as well. Ganymede simply nodded a yes. Little did he know, that one choice would lead to so many shenanigans. 12:05 am, second day. Fluttershy and Bastion had made their way into Ponyville, both silent the whole way. The only noise was from every mechanical step Bastion took. All of the ponies instantly scattered upon seeing Bastion, hence the quiet. Fluttershy noticed that there weren't many ponies out to begin with. "Chirp chirp. (Well that's demoralizing.)" Bastion mused. "Sorry, it's just that the ponies of Ponyville are very... cautious." Fluttershy said, trying to lift Bastion's spirit. 'He doesn't have a spirit though... But he seems upset. How does something with no soul have emotions?' Fluttershy thought. She also noted that she didn't actually know if Bastion could be classified as male or not. "Tweet chirp? (Why are they so cautious?)" Bastion asked. "We have monster attacks very often, mostly on Tuesdays somehow." Fluttershy explained. "Tweetweet? (What day is it today?)" Bastion asked, slightly worried. Fluttershy abruptly stopped walking. Bastion turned around and saw a fearful expression on her face. "T-tuesday." She answered, now equally, probably more worried. They stood still for what seemed like hours, waiting for something to happen. Fluttershy then realized that it was around twelve midnight when they left the cottage, and appropriately facehoofed. "It's past twelve, so it's no longer Tuesday." She pointed out. Bastion also realized this. "Broo. (Oh.)" Suddenly, a wild Draconiquus appeared! Both Bastion and Fluttershy were startled, the ladder hiding behind the former in fright. The blue light in Bastion turned red as he immediately opened fire on the Lord of Chaos, unloading an entire clip into him. Fluttershy screamed as she saw the draconiquus get filled with holes, but breathed a sigh of relief when Discord promptly looked down at his swiss cheese body and took a bite out of his torso. "Hm, tastes like chicken." "B-bastion, calm down!" Fluttershy told the machine as she saw him doing something with his dangerous firing arm. Bastion turned to her, the barrel of the gun aimed directly at her forehead. After a few tense seconds of Fluttershy having to unfortunately stare down the barrel of the gun, Bastion's lights flickered back to blue. "Chirp. (S-sorry.)" Bastion apologized as he took a step back. Fluttershy let out a shaky breath, then gave a mother-like glare at Discord. "As for you mister! Discord, what were you thinking suddenly appearing in front of us like that?" She scolded. Bastion noted Discord's name. "Sorry, but I didn't expect to be shot at." Discord gave a glare to Bastion, seriously he poofed in a balloon with a glare drawn on it and gave it to him. Bastion for his part, ignored it. "Anyways, I came here to meet the newcomer, but he doesn't seem very friendly." Discord pointed at Bastion as the balloon popped. Bastion was starting to consider shooting Discord again since he know knew it wouldn't kill him, but then he realized that if any bullets went past the mismatched creature then it could hit a pony. "Chirp chirp. (It's because you startled me.)" He said quietly. "Do you not like being startled?" Fluttershy asked. "Tweet chirp. (It's a bit more than that.)" Bastion replied, looking at the ground. "You can t-" "Tweetweet. (No I can't.)" Bastion interrupted. 'An emo robot. You don't see that everyday.' Discord mused. "Let's not start getting too heavy now." He told them. Bastion nodded in agreement, he really didn't want to talk about it, especially since the ponies were already scared of him as is, and he didn't want Fluttershy turning on him either. "Okay..." Fluttershy halfheartedly agreed. She didn't want to be nosy, and maybe whatever it is Bastion doesn't want to talk about is really bad, but she wanted to help him feel better... She was also just curious. "A-anyway, Bastion and I were going to Twilight's. Appearently Bastion also came through a portal... J-just like..." She trailed off. Discord's face went from slightly serious, to very serious. Bastion wondered why they were on edge about the portal, he also wondered who this other person Fluttershy hinted to was. Discord glanced at Bastion. "What'd I say about getting too heavy?" He grumbled. "I'll keep an eye out for any threats." He said in a low voice, then vanished. Bastion was now definitely curious. 01:06 am, second day. Ganymede flew above the CMC, all currently escaping a Hydra. He wondered how he got into this situation, that was until he was nearly hit by a fire ball, then he put his attention back on flying. The four of them saw a burrow under a large rock so they all jump in. "Are we safe?" Applebloom asked Scootaloo, who was peaking out of the burrow. "Looks like it." Scootaloo replied, stepping away from the entrance and sitting down. Her friends following suit. Ganymede landed on Sweetie belle's shoulder, said fillie nuzzled him. "So now what? Do we just wait until morning?" "Guess so." Applebloom confirmed with a shrug. "Unless we wanna take our chances with tha Hydra." "I'd be fine with that rather than staying in this damp hole." Scootaloo sighed. "If ya want ta be eaten, be mah guest, but me, Sweetie and the bird," Ganymede cringed at being called 'the bird'. "Are stayin' here." Sweetie thought about correcting Applebloom on her grammar mistake, but quickly concluded that now's not the time. "Nopony should leave yet, it's too dangerous." Sweetie tried to interject. "Fine, then when you finally decide to leave this hole and find me at the mountain, I'll say I told you so!" Scootaloo said arrogantly. "Fine, but we'll at least have did it safely. S'better safe than sorry!" Applebloom shot back. Sweetie felt like she had to do something, but Applebloom and Scootaloo would probably just ignore her. Luckily, she didn't have to say anything. "Sqauck! (Stop!)." Ganymede yelled, they may not have understood him, but it definitely stopped the arguing. It also hurt Sweetie's ears. Applebloom and Scootaloo turned their attention to Ganymede, both confused as to why he suddenly squacked so loudly. Ganymede pointed at both of them, made movements with his beak to represent talking, then draped his wing over his head. It looked like what would otherwise be a facehoof. Essentially telling them that their arguing is annoying. Applebloom got what he meant pretty much immediately. Scootaloo, not so much, instead scratching her head in confusion. "What?" She asked, not sure what Ganymede's gestures meant. Ganymede had already facewinged, so he just stared at her with a tilted head. "He basically said to stop arguing." Sweetie Belle decided to summarize. "Sorry." Applebloom apologized. "And Ah'm sorry that Ah basically said Ah wouldn't care if ya got eaten." She directed to Scootaloo. Scootaloo huffed. "Well I have nothing to apologize for." She crossed her arms and turned her head away. "What-do-ya mean you've got nuthin' to 'poligize fer?!" Applebloom got riled up again. Sweetie groaned in annoyance. "Enough of this!" Sweetie snapped, startling Ganymede off her shoulder and standing up. "You two need to stop arguing before one of you do something you'll regret! We'll stay here until we know it's safe, then we can continue, but I don't want you getting hurt," She pointed to Scootaloo. "And I don't want you regretting the choice to let Scootaloo leave!" After that, she gave them a stern, but sincere look. Scootaloo and Applebloom looked at each other, then simultaneously sighed. "Sorry." They both said guiltily. Sweetie sat back down and joined the sighing group. "I'm sorry too, I just don't like seeing anypony fight." She apologized, downcast from having to yell at her friends. "It's okay, we did kinda get outta hoof." Applebloom said, thankful. "Yeah, well..." Scootaloo was probably about to disagree, but she stopped herself. Ganymede landed back on Sweetie Belle's shoulder and nuzzled her. "Thanks." Sweetie said with a small smile tugging at her lips. It was three in the morning when a knock was heard at the door of the crystal friendship castle. 'It really needs a better name.' Spike thought as he begrudgingly got up, throwing his blankets of him and heading for the front door. Of course he had to get up early because of some conundrum, even though this was one the only days he was allowed to sleep in. He decided that he now simultaneously hates and loves Wednesdays. He got to the front door rather slowly, wondering who in their right mind would knock at three in the bucking morning. He didn't even bother checking who it was through the slot in the door, instead just opening it. In hindsight, that wasn't a very safe thing to do. As he saw who was at the door, he had the initial thought to panic at seeing a giant metal... Golem? But he wanted to make sure he wasn't seeing things due to him being exhausted. He looked at the other guest at the door, who was Fluttershy, and decided to ask her if he was seeing things. "Fluttershy, is that a metal golem beside you?" He asked calmly, though that was probably due to how tired he was. "I don't think he's a golem, but his name is Bastion." Fluttershy replied. "Oh, okay." Spike turned around and kinda tried to run away in panic, but just ended up falling flat on his face. He was too tired to be scared. Fluttershy rushed to his side. "Oh my! Are you okay?!" She asked as she gently turned him over, only to find him now asleep. She giggled at how easy it was for him to doze off so fast. Bastion simply tilted his head. "Chirp tweet. (Well that happened.)" Suddenly Twilight popped in with a teleport. "My motherly senses went off! Where's Spike?!" She snarled, making Fluttershy hide behind Bastion in fear. She knew not to mess with a mother bear's cubs and Twilight is the scariest bear of all, well not literally. Twilight saw Spike and immediately zipped over to him and checked if he was okay, only to find that he was sleeping. Twilight released a sigh of relief, then saw Bastion and gasped. "What are you?!" She questioned, her voice holding an aggressively defensive tone. "..." Bastion went dead silent and his normally blue light on his head turned red. He pointed his gun at Twilight, to which she held perfectly still just in case. Several tense moments passed as they stared each other down, neither daring to make a move. Luckily for everyone in the room, Spike started mumbling in his sleep, drawing the attention of Twilight and Bastion. Bastion's danger protocol died down, making his 'eye' blue again and letting him lower his gun. Twilight saw this out of the corner of her eye and decided to loosen her defensive stance. She'd rather resolve a problem peacefully. They turned back to each other, now drawing in an awkward silence, well awkward for Twilight. Bastion on the other hoof just saw it as simple silence. Fluttershy found now was as good a time as any to make herself known. Stepping out from behind Bastion she gave a small wave to Twilight. "Fluttershy?! Are you with this, uh..." Twilight was in the middle of asking before realizing that she didn't know what the machine in front of her was. "His name is Bastion, but I don't know what he is." Fluttershy explained. "It talks?" Twilight raised a brow. "Well no, but he can make bird noises. That allows me to understand him." Fluttershy then gave Twilight a disapproving look. "And don't call him an it." "Fluttershy, to my knowledge machinery cannot have sentience. I don't even know how 'he' exists. The technology is like nothing I've ever seen." Twilight began to ramble scrutinizing Bastion's chassis. "Chirp, chitter tweet chirp. (If I may step in, Fluttershy can you translate what I say to her for me please?)" Bastion asked. "O-okay." Fluttershy said with a nod. Twilight tilted her head at the machine, Bastion, and then looked at Fluttershy. Bastion turned to Twilight. "Chirp tweet tweetweet chirp. (I am a Siege Automation E54 Bastion unit created by SST Laboratories.)" Fluttershy's jaw dropped. She had no idea if she could translate that. "Uhm, he said 'I am a Siege, A-automation?.. E54? Bastion unit created b-by SSD Laboratories?' I think." She tried. "Chirp, tweet. (It's SST, but otherwise you're correct.)" Bastion corrected. "O-oh sorry. SST Laboratories." She re-said to Twilight. Twilight took in the information and pondered if she recognized any of the names, which she didn't. "Is that dangerous?" She asked, pointing to Bastion's gun. Bastion nodded. "Is it lethal?" Bastion nodded again. "Could you have... killed me?" Bastion nodded slower. "Did you want to kill me?" Bastion shook his head no. "Then why did you point it at me if it could've killed me?" Twilight was slightly on edge now. "Chirp tweet. Chitter tweetweet chirp. (It's part of my programming. If it deems something a threat then it will make me take the appropriate action.)" "He said that it's part of his programming? And if it t-thinks he's in danger then it'll make sure he takes the appropriate action." Fluttershy translated. "Does that appropriate action involve... Killing?" Twilight asked cautiously. "Chirp. (Sometimes.)" Bastion replied without hesitation. Fluttershy's eyes widened a little and she mumbled out the translation quietly. "S-sometimes." Twilight stared at Bastion for several moments... Until they heard a knock at the door. "Who-" Twilight was about to ask who would knock at this time of hour when Discord suddenly fazed through the door. "Discord?" Twilight and Fluttershy asked simultaneously. "Why hello Twilight, Fluttershy and Bastion. I was simply scourering the area when I caught glimpse of a pegasus royal guard flying here." Discord explained. "I just thought you should be prepared." "Why were you scourering the area? Better question, why is a royal guardspony coming here?" Twilight asked. "Well I was just making sure our new guest is safe." He gestured to Bastion. "Also how am I supposed to know why sunbutt sent a pony from her personal possy?" Discord scoffed. Twilight rolled her eyes. "Then how do you know about Bastion?" "I met him earlier today." Discord answered, waving a question mark off his shoulder with his paw. "Did you see anything that could be dangerous?" Fluttershy asked. "Nope." He shook his head. "Oh, I just remembered! Bastion came through a portal, just like Sonic." Fluttershy suddenly blurted out, she wasn't loud, but it still startled Twilight. "He did?!" Twilight asked, surprise quite obviously showing. Just then there was another knock at the door, but this time everyone had a feeling they knew who it was. Twilight let out a sigh and got up to answer the door. "We probably shouldn't let the guard see Bastion." Discord smugly pointed out. To which Twilight, while annoyed by how smug Discord sounded, knew he was right. Twilight let out a longer sigh. "Okay, then just teleport him and yourself somewhere else." Twilight then continued her short trip to the door. She heard a pop and saw light travel past her, syndicating that Discord and Bastion had disappeared. She opened the door and saw a grey pegasus royal guardspony. The guard bowed. "Princess Twilight Sparkle, I have been sent here to inform you that the Changelings have attacked Vanhoover. Princess Celestia is personally overseeing the defense." The guard quickly explained. "What!?" Twilight and Fluttershy gasped. 02:43 am, second day. "General Hardwood, what is the state of the front line defense?" Princess Celestia asked the general, he had recently re-entered the Townhall to give a status report. The brown earthpony named Hardwood, general of the Vanhoover gruop of the royal guard, saluted to the Princess. "We're not doing well, the Changelings are really hitting us hard. We may need to actually use are weapons." He report solemnly. While his ponies and him may have been trained for something like this, he still wasn't sure if he could take a life. "No, we don't. continue to hold them off." Celestia replied sternly. She didn't want her subjects to have to kill anyone, it was to big a burden. "You." She pointed to one of her personal guard. "Tell my sister to send reinforcements. Also tell Twilight to be prepared in case the Changelings attack Ponyville." The guard nodded and immediately left for Canterlot. "Princess, with all due respect we've already had good amount of casualties. If we don't fight with equal force then more ponies could die!" Hardwood pleaded. Celestia hung her head and after several seconds, conceded. "Fine, but only kill if you have to." Hardwood saluted, then ran out of the Townhall to give the new orders. "I'm sorry my little ponies." Celestia whispered. 03:56 am, second day. There was a resounding poof as Bastion found that he was now in... A bathroom. "I really hate that this was the first place that came to mind." Discord mumbled. "Chirp tweet. (So how will we know when the guard leaves?)" Bastion asked. "Oh it takes just a simple spy- I mean observation spell!" Discord corrected himself. If Bastion had an eyebrow to raise, then it would be very high right now. Discord cast said spell, summoning a orb in the air as it showed Fluttershy and Twilight gasping 'what?!' "Does she need any help?!" Twilight asked the guard. "I've already informed Princess Luna to send reinforcements. And Princess Celestia wanted me to tell you to prepare in case the Changelings attack Ponyville." The guard quickly responded. 'Changelings are attacking somewhere?' Discord has had enough death for one lifetime. 'Of course my magic had to be nerfed as a war started.' He thought with an annoyed huff, drawing the attention of Bastion for a second. "If you excuse me Princess, I need to head back." The guard said. "Right." Twilight responded, clearly more in her thoughts than reality. The guard turned around and flew off into the night?.. Morning darkness? Discord decided to instantly teleport himself and Bastion back into the castle, startling Fluttershy and catching Bastion off guard. Twilight turned to Discord with a look of realization. "Oh of course! You can stop the Changelings in a tip of the hat! Literally!" "... About that..." Discord said as he scratched the back of his head. "Wait, are you going to tell us that you won't help us?" Twilight asked Discord, giving him a hard glare. "It's not that I don't want to, but..." Discord began to think on how to tell them about Peirha. "I know what or rather who brought Sonic into Equestria. I also think she's responsible for bringing bastion into Equestria too." Discord explained. "Not that I'm not intrigued, but how does this relate to you not being able to help?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. "I'm getting to that." Discord huffed. "I've been keeping an eye on her, but after Sonic-... Point is, I was somewhat angry. I teleported to her and eventually tried to make her poof away, but nothing happened. So I decided to give up after that. I tried using my magic later, but it wasn't working for some reason. I think I may know why though." He explained. "Do you think that when your magic connected to hers, that it somehow nullified you magic?" Twilight deciphered. "But how could that happen?" Twilight asked herself more than anyone. "In short, yes. But I still can use magic and chaos magic, it just isn't nearly as strong." Discord answered. "So in short, I can't help much more than anypony else." Suddenly they heard Spike start stirring from his slumber. "Oh, we kinda forgot about Spike." Fluttershy said, pointing to the small drake. "How did he sleep through all that?" Discord asked. "I guess he was really tired." Twilight shrugged. Spike's eyes slowly opened and he sat up. After his vision cleared he saw everyone in the room. He aptly scratched his head in confusion, then asked. "What'd I miss?" ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Reporting on test two, Intermission: It seems that everything is going well this time aside from the Changelings attacking. At least Bastion actually survived the first day, unlike our first guest. I wasn't expecting the bird to follow Bastion, but hey, the more the merrier. The only trouble it causes me is having to monitor two events at once. There's another thing that wasn't expected though. Discord tried to interfere with my plans, but I'm happy to note that it worked. It was capable of taking away most of Discord's power. To my knowledge, I'm safe to continue experimenting.