Klade's POV
At the moment I was currently walking alongside Trixie up one of the several mountains that were located around Los Pegasus. We had originally left the city at around two in the morning, and by now the sun was just starting to rise, signaling that morning was coming. I didn't know when we were going to rest at this rate, and I figured that asking Trixie would be hopeless since I was sure that she would be determined to not waste anytime at all; if there were to be any breaks, it would be announced by her. We were probably only around a quarter of the way up the mountain, although there was no way I was able to tell anyway since it was still pretty dark and there was alot of mountain foresty tree stuff blocking my view. With or without Trixie though, I most likely would've been doing this anyway since that tower needed to be destroyed.
If there was one thing that was really starting to bother me, it was the fact that I still hadn't received any telepathic response from Duston. I had sent that message yesterday, and it had probably been over eighteen hours specifically since when I had sent it. I had contemplated whether or not it had actually sent, but that seemed more like wishful thinking - I was sure that it had went through. Either way, I wanted to find out what happened in person as soon as possible. The last thing I had heard involving him was how Discord told me he was going to kill him, which was making the increased separation of any evidence disproving that more and more worrying. I didn't believe that he would be able to kill him at all at first, but as more time went on, the more skeptical I was becoming and the more it was invading my thoughts.
'I don't know what I should be more mad at: Discord for killing him, or Duston for actually letting himself be killed by that asshole. Once I get back to Ponyville and I talk to Twilight I'll know for sure. For all I know, he could've been trapped somewhere just like I was. I hope that isn't the case though; he'd be dead by now if it was, implying nobody rescued him first.'
The trek up the mountain was mostly silent - so much so that Trixie kept constantly glancing back at me just to make sure that I was still following her. This had continued for awhile, until eventually she seemed to get fed up with it.
"Are you at least going to say something?" She asked with a frown. "We've been walking for hours and you've barely said a damn thing."
"Is it bothering you that much?" I replied. "I don't usually talk that much."
"Like I hadn't noticed already." Trixie rolled her eyes, looking over me before continuing. "Say, what was that plan B you did back there anyway? What was it supposed to do? Or rather - what did you want it to do? Because it clearly didn't work."
"I was shooting at the orb at the top, hoping that would destroy it." I proceeded to pull out the pistol that I had created. "With this."
"Oh, that thing. Wait..." Trixie looked at it more closely. "That looks different than the one I saw on you when I dragged you out of the cave. Actually, now that I think back to it, I don't remember seeing that black thing that emitted light on you either. Where'd you get those from?"
"I created them through magic." I answered, to which her eyes suddenly started to wide with interest afterwards.
"Can you create more of these... things? Different kinds, perhaps?"
"I can create anything I want." Before she could begin demanding how to do that, though, I quickly continued. "However, pony unicorns can't use the spell. The book that I learned these from is filled with magic that ponies can't use, but my human magic can use apparently."
Trixie frowned. "What kind of logic is that!? Since when is there different kinds of magic?? Trixie has never heard of such a thing!"
"If you don't believe me, I'll show you the book when I get the chance. I borrowed it from the Canterlot Library."
"Well then that will be the next thing you do after you restore my reputation." Trixie replied. "But there's something that doesn't make sense... surely you cannot create anything."
Since we had traveled quite a ways from the city, I decided now would be a good time to test out if I was out of the tower's area of effect. I began to focus on one of those plastic water bottles from back on earth as we walked, fleshing out the details in my mind. Once everything was ready several seconds later, I felt an all-too-addicting click in my mind, where the bottle then formed in the real world. I watched Trixie's eyes go wide as I grabbed it from the air, and I un-capped the tip, drinking out of it.
"You can create water? But that's... then how did you almost die in that cave? You could've lived forever in that place if you can just create your own necessities!"
"Something was blocking my magic." I replied after I finished drinking. "The food and stuff I created never was able to match up with what baking something in the real world tasted and felt though." 'She said cave... that must've been where I was at, some underground ditch in a middle of a desert. Thanks Discord.'
"But how is that even possible anyway? That would mean you could live just about anywhere and never have to worry about dying from starvation or something."
"Didn't Discord make those chocolate milk clouds at one point?" I asked. "He seems to be able to do it too. Either way, I never did test out if it's actually true that you can survive solely off that magically created stuff, so I wouldn't know for sure."
"Hmm..." Trixie paused for a second before continuing. "So, just what do you create anyway? Like that thing you were just showing me - what does it do other than be really damn loud?"
"In short, it fires a projectile at an extremely fast pace." I answered. "So fast that it has the possibility of going right through ponies, or anyone else, like Discord."
Trixie looked at me in disbelief. "You mean to tell Trixie that little thing is capable of such power?"
"Yeah." I replied. "The only reason Discord isn't dead yet is because I gave him a second chance to redeem himself and stop his chaotic ways. I'm not doing that again though."
Trixie blinked. "That's... pretty nice, actually, even for someone like you." Since I didn't reply to her compliment, she continued. "What else can you create though? If you really can create anything... then shouldn't you be able to just create something that can stop Discord?"
"What do you mean?"
"Something like... a button, and when you press the button, Discord dies."
"That's not possible." I answered. "Everything I create has to be bound to what's physically possible in reality, otherwise it wouldn't work. I could make the button for example, but pressing it won't do anything since it wouldn't be possible for it to just 'kill' Discord out of nowhere."
"Hmm, of course that's true. Trixie had already guessed that so she was just clarifying if what she thought was true."
'Of course Trixie, that's exactly what you were doing.'
Our trek up the mountain continued for the next few hours. Eventually I had noticed that we were high enough for me to see the tower being emitted from Los Pegasus, and by that time it was almost noon. Since it didn't seem necessary to be at the very top of the mountain, I decided to speak up about it.
"Around here should be a good place." I exclaimed. "We can see the tower from Los Pegasus from here."
"Oh? I was wondering when you'd say something about that." Trixie replied. "So just what do you plan on doing from way out here anyway?"
"Just watch and find out. It's probably going to take around half an hour to get everything created though, so you're gonna have to wait a bit."
"Ugh." Trixie rolled her eyes. "Sure, I'll wait - not like I have a choice anyway."
From there I scouted out a good location nearby to begin setting up. Once I found some ground that had a nice base - a large flat rock more specifically - I began to imagine a white lawn chair in my mind. Once I had created it, I used it to sit down so I could begin on the real stuff.
'Railgun time.'
I proceeded to spend the next half an hour creating the weapon in my mind, and then separately creating the computer panel that I would be using to control that weapon. I had multiple railguns all across Equestria - some of which that even shot nukes out - which were all controlled within my base at the Foal Mountain range. I normally would've just used one of them instead of going through the effort of creating one by scratch, but considering my clones had been manipulated by Discord, I decided not to go there. My base is where I normally housed them all, and I wouldn't feel comfortable going inside without doing some serious scouting first to make sure there weren't any traps.
Eventually I had finished creating the weapon through my magic, and I turned to look at Trixie, who was just staring at me with a deadpan expression.
"Please tell me you are finally done."
"Yeah. It's time to fuck up that tower."
Trixie's ears perked up at this, and I turned to face the computer panel as she walked over to me. "This is some pretty complicated looking stuff." She spoke as I heard her trotting around and examining the thing I made. "Do you have to know how it works to make it? I'm assuming that you do."
"Not really, actually. The spell is more complicated than that." I replied. "I was curious about it too, so I read the 'fine print' that was in the book. Supposedly once the object is ready to be created, the spell peers into your subconscious mind to get the knowledge necessary to do the finishing touches. It looks at how you want it to be made, and then does its best to satisfy that want." I paused for a second before continuing. "Of course though, things don't always work out. I've gone through lots of trial and error where I have to keep making the same thing over and over until it comes out the way I want it to - but that's only for the heavy duty stuff."
"So... you don't even know how this works?"
"The general idea is good enough. Don't worry - I've made these before. Now," I proceeded to create two pairs of ear-muffs. One was for me, and the other I designed for Trixie's pony ears. "This is gonna be loud as fuck, so you're gonna want to put these on."
Trixie nodded, and from there she levitated the mufflers over onto her head. I proceeded to focus my attention back to the computer panel - more specifically the monitor that was displayed in-front of me. It had finished doing its system checks by now to make sure everything was working properly, and through the monitor I was able to see a video feed of what the railgun was looking at. From there, I targeted the black metal tower at Los Pegasus, where the camera then zoomed in and locked on directly to the glowing orb at the top. 'Weapon is ready to fire' Showed up in yellow, red-tinted letters in the middle of the screen, and I glanced back at Trixie before confirming the launch. The lights on the long, narrow barrel of the gun began to brighten, and then shortly afterwards a projectile cannoned out through the center at extremely high speeds. Instead of watching through the monitor, I decided to observe in person since I was right there, where I watched the projectile steer towards the tower. It made direct contact with the far-away orb in less than a second, completely obliterating it in an explosion. Taking off the ear-muffs, I proceeded to look at Trixie.
"Shit be epic." I spoke. Trixie was staring with wide, surprised eyes at what she just witnessed, taking a few seconds to reply.
"...Okay, Trixie admits, she is a little impressed, but that is all!" She looked at me. "Now, let us head back immediately so you can begin restoring Trixie's reputation."
"We'll be going back a different way." I replied, much to her confusion. Before she could ask about it though, I continued. "I'll create something that can fly us over there - it should only take a little over five minutes."
"..Five minutes to get there, or five minutes to create it?"
"Both, probably. I'll drive it really fast."
"Magnificent!" Trixie clearly seemed to like that, and I proceeded to begin creating the next device. I imagined one of the small two-person airplanes that I had already previously created back when I flew with Rainbow Dash and did crazy shit in the air with her. Upon thinking about it, it made me realized just how much I missed hanging out with her.
'It's definitely been awhile. She's gotta be wondering what the hell happened to me since it's been so long - all the more reason to get this reputation shit over with.'
The airplane was created a few minutes later. We were on a mountain though, which meant no flat ground anywhere, but I had made up for that by adding rocket thrusters to the bottom of the plane which would lift us up. I approached it and then jumped inside, turning my head back to look at Trixie.
"Get in on the seat behind me." I stated.
"You don't need to tell me, I'm not stupid." Trixie abided and climbed on, and I started the plane afterwards, warming it up and getting it ready. Instead of the usual controls that a plane like this would have, however, it was a Playstation 3 controller. Once everything seemed to be in order, I activated the bottom rocket thrusters, which abruptly launched us into the air. From there I added to the throttle, giving us momentum and sending us forward until the plane was able to fly by itself. It always felt great whenever I did this - a complete parallel to that dormant, pitch-black cave that I had been trapped in for so long. I didn't even want to think about that hellhole. The air was blowing right against me with ferocity and it was nice - I had already thought over how epic it must've been to be Rainbow Dash and flying through the air constantly like this.
Eventually we began to approach the cloud city, when I suddenly realized we had a problem: I didn't know how to land this thing. Every time I had made one of these I always just did some crazy theatrical bullshit where I would jump out and let it crash somewhere, and I never did get around to actually learning how to properly land one. As I began to get myself ready for another wild landing, I abruptly realized that I had completely forgotten to make a parachute before I took off flying, leaving me stuck in the plane for the time being.
"Uh, you're passing by the city Klade." Trixie spoke up. "What are you doing?"
"Hold on." Making sure there was nothing I could run into, I quickly began imagining a parachute, until it appeared in-front of me about forty seconds later. From there I turned the plane around, and I stood up from my seat, putting on the parachute and then turning to look at Trixie. "I'm going to have to hold onto you - we're both jumping off."
"What!?" Trixie frowned. "We're way too high up to be jumping off! Are you out of your mind you stupid monkey!?"
"We'll be fine. I've got something made that will make us fall nice and slow; now hurry up before we pass the city and I have to turn this thing around again."
Although clearly not willing, Trixie agreed, and she shakily began to try standing up on the seat. She couldn't seem to make it over to me though, so I did that for her, stepping over onto her seat and then grabbing onto her. Right before I was about to jump off though, I realized I was forgetting something else. I quickly imagined and then created a pair of dark sunglasses for badassery points.
'Time to abort.' I put on the shades and then back-flipped out of the plane, making sure to stay held onto the pony as I began steadying myself so that I could face the ground. I could hear Trixie screaming in horror as the wind rushed violently against us, and I activated the parachute a few seconds later, abruptly yanking us up as it slowed our descent. Trixie's screaming stopped shortly afterwards, only to be replaced with shouting.
"DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN WITHOUT GIVING TRIXIE A WARNING NEXT TIME!!!!!! SHE WASN'T READY!!"
"I'll leave you on the plane next time if that suits you better, don't worry."
"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!!!"
We slowly glided down until we arrived seemingly right in the city square of Los Pegasus, where ponies gazed at us in horror - more specifically at me - before pointing and screaming.
"IT'S HIM!!!"
"RUN AWAY BEFORE HE GETS YOU!!"
"IT LOOKS LIKE HE ALREADY HAS SOMEBODY!! AHHHHH!!!" The ponies screamed as they ran away from me and hid, and I set Trixie down, stepping out of the parachute and taking it off.
"What kind of hero's welcome is that? We just saved this city!" Trixie frowned. "Idiots!"
"I'd be confused too if the enemy looked like an exact copy of me." I replied as I took off my shades and put them away. "Not sure how I'm going to be able to convince them otherwise."
"You probably won't be able to, but I will. They should listen to me." Trixie stepped out further and then cleared her throat. "You're all idiots!"
'Wow that's a great start.'
"This isn't the creature who put up the tower." Trixie continued. "That was done by his evil clone, who was being manipulated by Discord. But me... with my help, we were able to destroy the tower!"
'Yeah Trixie you helped alot. Definitely.'
"Why should we believe you?" One of the mares spoke out, poking her head from behind a bench. "I've never even seen you before and I've lived here my whole life!"
"Don't believe her!! She's lying!" Another mare called out. "I saw that monster kill my husband right in-front of my eyes. If she's with him, then she's just as bad as he is!"
"I don't think this is working." I exclaimed quietly to Trixie.
"Just shut up, I have this." Trixie responded. "Why would we lie!? The tower was just destroyed like twenty minutes ago."
"I would NEVER forgive him for what he's done to me!" The mare screeched out with her voice cracking. "H-he's killed so many of us... none of us have any reason to EVER forgive him for this!"
"But that wasn't him, you idiots! That was his clone - I would know because I've been with him the whole-"
"ENOUGH OF YOUR LIES!!!" The mare screamed out. "I'll go there and kill him myself if I have to!"
"Lies!?" Trixie started to frown. "How dare you accuse me of such! Do you have any idea who I am!? I am the Great and Powerful Tr-" Before she could finish, I teleported us both out of there.
"..Ixie! Huh? What just happened?" Trixie blinked and looked around. "Where are we?"
"I teleported us onto a nearby rooftop." I replied. "That clearly wasn't going very well."
"You idiot!!" Trixie cursed out. "I almost had them convinced! Bring me back there right now!"
"No." I bluntly replied. "Either way, I came up with a better idea while I was standing there. I just hope that little event down there didn't just ruin this idea."
"But... Ugh, fine." Trixie groaned out. "What is this new idea? It better be good."
"Well, they don't seem to be very willing to believe us; however, they may not have to. You can set up an event where you pretend to have captured me, and then you kill me - you'll be seen as a hero afterwards."
Once Trixie got what I was saying, she began to nod her head. "That is actually... well, it's alright." She clearly didn't want to compliment my idea. "But how would we do such a thing?"
"I can create a bunch of fliers saying that there will be an event at the city square tomorrow morning at nine." I responded. "Then you'll just have to show up dragging me in a cage."
"I see. And I will just.. pretend to kill you at this event?"
"Well, I guess it doesn't have to be me. I should actually be able to use my clone, if he's still here. If not I'll just have to make a new one - should only take about an hour."
"Trixie likes this plan!" She began grinning, but then quickly stopped. "However, I assure you I could've thought of the same thing given the time."
"Yeah, you sure could have." There was obvious sarcasm in my voice, catching a glare from her. "Anyway, I'm going to start making the fliers now. Once I'm done, you can go spread them around the city while I go see if that clone is still around."
Trixie nodded, and from there I began to imagine a bunch of tall, paper fliers. Once I had about a hundred of them imagined, I made them all at once, all neatly organized in a pile. I handed them to Trixie and spoke up.
"I'm going to teleport you back down now. If anything happens from somebody recognizing you from what just happened... well, clearly you should be able to handle yourself, am I right?"
"Yes, of course!" Trixie looked at the fliers. "Trixie shall play her part perfectly."
"Great." I proceeded to teleport her back onto the ground nearby, leaving me alone on the roof. "Now... time to see that evil clone is still hanging around here."