//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Begin the Hunt // Story: The New World // by jt45fan //------------------------------// Chapter 5: Begin the Hunt “So, Discord is living in your head?” said the purple unicorn sitting across from me. The rest of the Mane Six, and Lyra, had arrived with my friends in tow, saying that my friends had made a miraculous recovery from their ‘memory problems.’ After we explained the TARDIS to the ponies, we explained what was happening to them. “Not quite.” responded the Time Lord scanning my head with his sonic screwdriver. “It is only a portion of him, but it has gained its own quasi-independence from the original being.” “That’s what I was trying to say.” I said to the ponies surrounding me. “I don’t care what it is!” yelled Diana. “Get it out of his head!” “We might be able to.” said The Doctor as he looked again at his screwdriver. “It hasn’t latched on yet. If you can get in there and kill it in your mind, you should, at least in theory, be free of it.” “That might be a problem.” I responded to the time pony. “Last time I was in there, I dueled him with swords, he sort of killed me.” “Well this time you have him at a disadvantage.” said the short black pegasus that was my friend Mo. “How?” I asked him. “Because he surprised you last time. This time you can surprise him.” he said to me. “But how do I surprise something that is privy to my thoughts?” I responded. “By having help from someone who’s mind he isn’t in.” said the timey wimey pony next to me. “What?” everypony asked the Doctor. “If I’m right, the TARDIS should be able to get inside John’s head. When we get in there we could help John defeat Discord.” he explained. “But what if your not right?” asked Fluttershy. “Well, you see, we get trapped in the Abstract Plain, and sort of die a slow, agonizingly painful death.” the Doctor sheepishly responded. Everypony looked around the room, thinking if the Doctor was wrong they would die, causing the TARDIS to take on a somber mood. I spoke up, saying “This is a volunteer thing. I don’t want anypony to die because I made them help me.” Diana took a step forward. “I’ll go, no matter what the cost.” she said, determination in her voice. “I guess I have to go now that somepony else volunteered.” said the Doctor, unsure of his fate if he was wrong. The mane six turned to talk to one another, and after a moment they turned back to face us Twilight saying “We have experience fighting Discord. We’ll go in and help you.” Ryan and Devlin took a step towards me, with Ryan saying “We don’t have anything better to do today.” “Traveling with The Doctor, hell yah!” hollered Shamus from behind them. That left just Mo, who at this point was nowhere to be seen. I left the TARDIS to look for him, The Doctor calling out “Get back here soon, we need to get moving.” as I left. I spent a half an hour looking for him, eventually passing by Lyra’s house. I entered the abode, expecting to ask Lyra the whereabouts of Mo. I didn’t expect to hear Mo in there. “I just can’t face him now.” he said to the seafoam green unicorn across the table from him, in a sad voice. His back was to the door, so he didn’t see when I walked further into the room, before saying “You can’t face who, Mo?” He jumped. When I say he jumped, I mean he physically jumped out of the chair, and he then lunged at me, in what seemed like a practiced motion. He stood over me ready to punch my face in, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make a quick joke. “You still gun shy after that food fight, huh?” I said to my high strung friend, referencing the one school lunch that went bad, but to be fair I still have bad dreams about mashed potato flying through the air. Who knew it was so hard to get it out of hair? “Sorry man, you scared me.” he said as he helped me up. When I was up he asked “You were looking for me, weren’t you?” “I kinda was.” I responded to him. “I won’t be much help.” he said, keeping his head down. “But every little bit helps.” I said to him. “Besides, who better to have on your side in a battle than Napoleon?” I said, trying to egg him on with the short joke. It worked. “Maybe Hannibal,”he responded as he readied himself for combat.“but I’ll help you.” “What do you mean by ‘battle’?” asked the other pony in the room, who I had almost forgot about. “I’m not trying to overthrow the government, if that's what you’re worried about.” I said to her to stay her fears. “But you still haven’t explained what is happening.” Lyra said. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” I said to her trying to get her to drop the topic, but I failed. “Try me.” she said. “Ok, but remember you asked.” I said to her to warn her. “We’re entering my mind, in a space warping phone booth, in order to fight a demon that has taken up residence in it, causing my and my friends to lose our memories of being human.” I was expecting her to call me crazy, and kick me and Mo out of her house, but instead she said “Ok, can I go with you?” Now it was my turn to over-exaggerate, my jaw hitting the floor. “This demon is going to be very deadly, are you sure?” I asked, hoping she'd say no. “Yes, I would enter the mind of a human, how cool would that be!” she responded to my dismay. “Fine.” I said dejectedly, as I turned to walk back to the TARDIS. _____________________________________________________________ “Is everypony ready?” asked Twilight. After all of the ponies answered affirmative, The Doctor walked over to me and said, “You need to get out of here, stop a recurring loop and all.” I nodded to him and walked out of the TARDIS, leaving the bustle behind me. I then got comfortable and fell asleep. I sat up on the top of a hill. I stood up and looked around. To the north-west was an old fort, the rest of the area was made up of freshly mowed soccer fields and woods. However Discord was nowhere to be seen. It took me a moment to realize where I “was”. I was the last place I truly waged battle, Old Fort Niagara. The last time I was “here” was my younger brothers Boy Scout campout several years ago. Two different troops wanted to use the hill at the same time and soon enough an organized fight broke out, with most of the scouts using foam bats and other such stuff. My little brother’s troop asked to take command and we drove the larger, other troop off the hill with a pincer attack, my little brother led a frontal assault as I took a small portion of the troop around back to hit them from behind. It work beautifully, driving them off the northern half of the hill forcing them to attack uphill. We carried the day. Breaking me out my reminiscing was the strange sound emanating next to me. After moments the TARDIS appeared next to me, and I opened the door expecting to see thirteen fully conscious ponies. Instead I found twelve unconscious humans and one fully conscious, Tenantesque, Timelord. “You would not believe how painful that transformation was. Good thing they were knocked out by then.” he said to me. “So you’re made of tougher stuff?” I said to him. “I’ve done this before.” he said. “Fair enough.” I said. By this time the other, well, now people, were waking up. Ironically, the one I would have the most issues with first. The ex mint green unicorn that was Lyra rolled onto her back and sat up. She was wearing a windbreaker the same color as her coat, as well a pair of jeans. Before she could say anything I said “Calm down.” After about a minute she did, by taking deep breaths. “Now look at your hooves.” She did, and she looked at her new hands for a second. She then let out a squeal before falling unconscious. “Well that was different.” said the Doctor before exclaiming “I’ve got pockets again! Ohhh they're so useful.” At that point Shamus woke up and went to pull himself upright. He looked as usually did, a good six feet tall and wore his old, long coat, as well as short sleeve t-shirt and carpenters shorts. He reached for the control panel of the TARDIS before saying “Not the jiggly lever.” and reaching to the left. He then walked over to us and said “What a trip.” After that we heard a feminine groan, not one of sensuality but of soreness. I turned to face the source of the noise and I saw a woman which, well, some back home would have considered a stunning beauty, standing up. She wore a simple white blouse and a skirt, which was accentuated by her blue hair. “Rarity?” I asked, trying to guess who it was who woke up. “Yes, darling. Now what are we doing?” she responded to me. “Right now, we’re waiting for the others, then we’re going to hunt down Discord. Ok.” I responded to her question. “Yes.” she said, rather curtly. At that point Mo got up. And he looked mildly disappointed. He was still only five foot two, and still had his old Harley-Davidson t-shirt and jeans. I elbowed The Doctor and said “Hey you should fire this up and go back to St. Helena. It looks like Napoleon escaped.” “Ok, that was good.” Mo responded as he walked up next to me. He seemed to be in better spirits than when I left. Right to the left of where Mo was knocked out, a small, yellow and pink body began to stir as well. What was obviously Fluttershy woke up and walked over. She was small. I mean absolutely tiny. Hell, she was even shorter than Mo. And she was slim. Even her yellow sundress, with butterfly prints on the heim, looked huge on her. She looked around and saw us. The quiet ex-pony looked over each of us, figuring out who we were. She gave her good friend, Rarity a nod of recognition. But when she saw Mo, she gave him a quick smile. I then looked at my short friend and saw a small blush on him. Stuff in my head started clicking, where they were in comparison to each other, Mo’s better spirits, the smile. Waiting, waiting, running Mortified.exe. I don’t know whether to be proud of my protege or reprimand him. Before I had a chance to make a decision, Diana woke up. I rushed over to her and helped to pull her up. She was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, the same thing I was. After I helped her get up we walked over to the rest of my meager army. After all, most of my friends would defer command to me in combat, and the ponies had no experience so they would probably follow me as well. Diana walked up the raised platform that held the controls, where the others were waiting. As I ascended the steps, Twilight woke up. She had on a purple sweater and a mid-length skirt. To be fair, she looked like a nerd goddess. Seriously, if I wasn’t dating Diana, I would have made a pass right there. But I more restraint than that, as well as a healthy fear of the spurned girlfriend, so I bit my tongue for the time being. What? She is nerd, she is my people. I turned around then to see a pink shirted girl with pink hair jumping onto the platform from the other side. ‘I wonder who that could be’, I thought as I rolled my eyes. But she then pulled Devlin up over the railing. He waved at me after he got up after falling onto Pinkie. Smooth bro. Oh, and he had a ponies shirt on, one with Fluttershy ‘yelling’ Yay! That should be interesting. Applejack walked onto the platform under her own power as well, accompanied by Ryan. She had on a White t-shirt, as well a jean jacket, a pair of jeans and her Stenson. “Nice hat.” the Doctor said to Applejack as she drew closer. “Thanks.” Applejack responded. Ryan had on a similar ensemble, minus the Stenson. Everybody had woken up, at one point, except for... “What the buck is going on here?” I heard the familiar voice of my new roommate say. She was underneath the platform that held the controls of the TARDIS. “Don’t touch anything!” yelled the Doctor down to her. “Why?” she yelled back up. “Because there is a lot of extremely delicate equipment down there!” was his response. He then leaned in close to me and asked “Can you help her out? You seem moderately responsible.” I jumped down to the level below, causing ire from the Doctor, and saw Rainbow Dash sitting there, her foot trapped between two wires. She looked, well, she looked damn good as a human. She had hair down to the back of her neck, still the colors of the rainbow, a blue zipper up windbreaker with a black t-shirt underneath, and a pair of jeans. She was tugging at the wire trapping her foot before she looked up and asked “Are you going to help me or not?” I rolled my eyes before I started to work untangling her foot. “Thanks.” she said I succeeded. I lead her up to where the rest of us were waiting. “Now what do we do?” asked Mo as I got back up to the central platform. “We plan.” I responded. And that is what we did. I went over every element of our duel, and Twilight went over everything she knew of the draconequus. Soon we had a plan, but we would need some equipment. “Give me a moment.” I said as I left the TARDIS. After a moment the weapons appeared. There was a menagerie of them, some assault rifles, two shotguns, a pair of sniper rifles, two swords, and four revolvers. “John, what are these?” asked Twilight as she eyed the new weapons with suspicion. She then looked at me and then asked a second question. “Where did you get that armor?” when she saw the armor on that I wore in my first fight against Discord. “Those are the weapons that we will use to kill this copy of Discord.” I said as I thrust an AK-47 into her hands. “And this is the armor that will protect me from Discord.” I answered her second question. “But didn’t that armor break last time he fought you?” asked Diana as I gave her an AK-47 as well. “Good question.” I said to my girlfriend. “The answer is that last time he created the armor, so he knew where it’s faults were, which was the whole piece. But I liked the design, so I remade it, with no faults.” I then turned to Mo, holding a Barrett 50 cal and said “Hey man, the round this fires is bigger than you!” He grabbed it out of my hands and said “Give me that.” “Hey, Fluttershy, can you use this? It’ll keep you as far away from the fighting as possible, yet still able to help.” I asked her, expecting her to say ‘no’. “Yes.” she said, surprising everybody present. “I think we need to stop that meanie pants. If I can help I will.” “Thank you.” I said to her as I handed her the weapon that looked heavier than her. “Be careful,” I warned her, “that bucks harder than Applejack.” “That I doubt.” Applejack responded to my comment. I handed her, as well as Ryan a Spas-12 and said “Shoot it.” “How?” she asked. So I showed her how to properly shoulder the firearm and fire it. She did and said “Whoa nelly that bucked.” I then picked up the spent shell and took a spare round from Mo and said “This is what you shot.” as I held up the spent 12-gauge shell. “This is what that shoots.” I said as I held up the 50 caliber rifle round. “I could see how that could buck.” Applejack said in awe. I handed the remaining AK-47 to Devlin, Shamus, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. But when I got to Pinkie Pie I thought ‘an AK just isn’t her style.’ In moments the Russian assault rifle morphed into a Russian Anti-Tank weapon. I handed the RPG-7 to her and said “Good hunting comrade.” in my fake Russian accent. “Don’t worry sir, the Red October is in good hands.” she then said to me in a perfect impression of Sean Connery. Wait did a pony just quote Earth pop culture. Wait it’s Pinkie, were fine. That left me and Rainbow Dash unarmed still. I picked up two of the Smith & Wesson .38 Specials and one of the swords, and handed them to her. “Why are you giving me these antiquated weapons?” she asked. “Two reasons,” I responded to her, “one is that these are by far the most badass weapons ever made. The second is because, if I’m right, you should know how to use these weapons better than the others, and I’d rather have someone who can use this stuff to be on the front lines with me.” I then turned to the rest of my ‘army and said “Now we put my plan into action.” “How?” asked Twilight. “We hunt him down in this.” I said as I summoned a Ford Mustang, covered in pictures of Rainbow Dash. Then I heard Mo say “Shotgun!” And “Fuck!” was Rainbow Dash’s response.