//------------------------------// // The Bait has been Released // Story: Agents of Discord // by Scarlett Haze //------------------------------// Limonade and Zecora were slowly going through the items in the room, trying to find some clue to Discord's riddle. Limonade had begun to feel the annoyance of the enclosed place, slowly becoming a tomb if they weren't able to escape in time. Limonade looked to the dark hole in the wall that Quick Fix had crawled into, worrying about what he was doing. Biting her lip, she closed her eyes and continued her prayer. Quentin had told her about his belief that there was never a god of any kind, that there was no heaven or hell, and that if they had died, then it was all over. However, she believed that there was a god, a god that gave his son to Earth to die for her sins and the world's. Even now, as she had been thrown into another land, she still held on to that belief. People would mock her, but she knew that she never had to give up. She had to keep pressing on, and she would, no matter what. "The person who makes it, sells it. The person who buys it never uses it and the person who uses it doesn't know they are." Limonade whispered, going back to her task, swearing that she was going to do everything she could to get them out, and to help Quentin in fighting against Discord. "All these things can be easily made and sold, but they can be used by whoever buys it!" She threw down a goblet in frustration, making it dent as it hit the floor. "The person using it doesn't even know? Then how can something that was bought, be unused by the buyer?" "Could you give me a lift?" Zecora asked, letting Limonade push her higher and helped reach for a box that had a bow in it. "Perhaps the answer is a gift?" Zecora was set down and she opened the box to reveal prank snakes shooting out and startling them both. With the initial scare finished, the gift box exploded into air and left a message made from the dust before disappearing, "Wrong-O!" Limonade gave a yell of frustration, and scuffed the floor, "Dumb Discord!" The room was already messing with her, and she could understand now why Quentin disliked the concept of such a being. She again looked over at the hole in the wall coffin and worriedly sighed, "Quick, I hope you're alright in there..." *** "What was the line from 'The Breakfast Club'?" I asked myself as I had slowly been crawling forward in the confined stone, "Naked blonde walks into a bar with a poodle under one arm, and a two-foot salami under the other." I recognized the situation was easily similar to when Bender was crawling in the air ducts in the school and let the irony slip in with me. "The bartender says, I guess you won't be needing a drink. Naked lady says..." I reached out a hoof to push forward with and met nothing, now regretting letting said irony follow me. "OH SHHHHIIIIII-!" I fell forward and got to see the first glimpses of light rapidly approach, and cracked my head against the stone. Instead of being welcomed with a concussion, or worse, I rolled forward and laid on the ground as I let the bump on my head well up. It wasn't as bad as having your ribs broken and then snapped back in place, but DAMN IT HURT. The cool air in the room had started becoming even colder, and I heard a little girl's voice call out. "Help meeee..." Forcing myself up, I tried to shake off whatever cobwebs I had and tried to regain my focus, hearing the voice again, "Helllp meeee..." My eyes shot open and scanned the open room, hoping to see where that cry was coming from. The entirety of the cavern was lined in ice and I had noticed my breath had become visible, today was going to be my karmic retribution day. Yesterday, tons of luck. Today, I was liable to be frozen to death. "Hello?" I called out, reaching for a spear on my right side and met nothing, turning I got to see that the weapon had broke during the landing. Turning to my left, I could see that the left side spear was at least somewhat usable still even though it was bent. Taking out that spear I pressed forward, not letting any crevice I passed without being glanced at in some way. The air kept getting colder as I continued, and soon met a wall of ice, and a dark shadow behind it. "Heeelllp meeee..." The shadow moaned out, making me nervous. I played my video games with caution at all times, and this was a situation that I knew had to be taken care of without causing problems. I set my spear down and cautiously placed a hoof on the ice, getting a feel as to how thick it was. "Can you hear me in there?" I yelled through, making the shadow shift back and then forward. "Heeelllp meeee..." The girl's voice called out again, pleading now directly at me. I could feel a lot in what she moaned, sadness, loneliness, fear, it made me want to cry. I couldn't let my emotion cloud my judgement however, I had to be sure that this wasn't a trap. I had played enough to know that if I let something out calling out like that, then either I got haunted, or killed. "What's your name? I'll help you if you tell me your name." I answered back, hoping not to hear those words again. "Luuunnnaaa..." The voice called out, I closed my eyes and started thinking things through, there indeed was somepony back there, and something made this wall to keep her in there. Gripping the spear, I threw it away and took a few steps from the wall and formed a plan. Using my wings to propel forward, I twisted and bucked the wall, making it crack. From the crack came a sound similar to a whinny, but was also akin to wind blowing. Something else was in there as well, and I knew if I made another buck, the wall was going to go down and the shadow named Luna and whatever else was in there were going to be freed. "Is there something else in there with you, Luna?!" I yelled out, the shadow now looking as it was shrinking away. "Yesss, Wendigo..." Luna cried out, now weakly. I wiped my snout and went to the spear I had, whoever this Wendigo was, I didn't trust it. With another speeding buck and rushing back to the spear, I watched as the crack soon broke the wall of ice down, revealing... an empty room. I bashed myself in the head, I must've released some freak of nature out into the world. Considering that this was in connection to Discord's secret stash room, I may have only irritated the plan to proceed faster. My frustration however was greeted by stairs that ascended in the empty icy room. This was the way out, every other area that I could see were all dead ends except that one. Still hanging on to the spear, I moved into the room and felt a presence in it. Looking above it was an icy blue, transparent horse that circled above, making the sound of the whinnying wind. And it didn't look happy at all. From it's circle it shot down at me and I had barely managed to avoid the dive bomb. Hoping to shove my spear into it, I found out that it was covered in ice and had even encompassed some of my hoof as well. I had to run, to get back to Limonade and Zecora. More importantly to perhaps something to fight this thing with. Taking a deep inhale, I felt that I was choking on something. As if a bug had managed to get shot up my throat and wouldn't get out, in fact it felt like it got bigger inside me, making me unable to breathe. I tried to cough up whatever it was, and was greeted to a sight of night blue and white spots coming from my mouth that faded away. It didn't alleviate the choking and now sudden pounding of my head, I did manage to get one breath of air before I yelled as loudly as I could from the pain as the Windigo charged forward at my stiff body. *** Zecora's ears twitched as she and Limonade heard a scream come from the coffin area, both of them recognizing the sound. "It's Quentin!" Limonade screamed, grabbing an axe and rushing towards the open coffin hole and shuffling forward as fast as she could. "Wait, Linda! You don't know what is down there! Don't rush off and die, you stupid mare!" Zecora grabbed a staff and followed Limonade, hoping to try and stop her from doing something idiotic. The two managed to make record time, sliding down the hole and into the cavern. Limonade had already ran over to Quick Fix, who was lying on the ground and convulsing furiously. Limonade tried to calm Quick Fix, running her hoof through his hair. "Quentin, I'm here, I'm here." Limonade whispered, watching his eyes shoot around furiously, his body was cold. She tried looking for anything that could be done to warm him up, and noticed the stairs. "That must be the way out! We need to get Quentin out, right now!" Limonade found herself, forcing herself to picking up Quick Fix with her neck and on her back, feeling all of the dead weight on her. It didn't stop her from taking slow steps towards the stairs, and eventually being helped by Zecora, who had pulled some of Quick Fix on her own back and the two of them began to ascend the stairs toward freedom. *** I found myself floating around in black space again, figuring to myself that I was going to have to get used to it since my head was already damaged enough as is. This time however, I was looking at somepony else that was there with me, a little dark blue filly with wings and a horn was just hanging, watching me. "Uhm... hi?" I weakly opened up, watching the filly give me a smile. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I thought I'd never get out," she cutely yelled. I was melted butter, looking at the filly bounce around me and rolling around. I did show a little concern however as to why she was here, was she a ghost? An illusion? Some really cute alternate version of me that I had just made up? "I'm none of those, Quentin! I'ma queen!" A-yep, I was dealing with another mind reader, oh goodie. I kept watching the filly go around me, making me wonder as to what exactly she really was. "You can't be a queen, unless the title of queen can be passed down to babies... And that's just..." I paused, forgetting that I was in a different place, with its own rules, its own government, and its own annoyances. "Like Discord! The big meanie!" Luna chirped up, making me now stop enjoying her little runarounds of me and rub my eyes. "I don't like him either, he brought humans into Equestria and made my other fall in love with one." The filly seemed to spurt up a few inches taller as she spoke, her voice also slightly changing to accommodate for it. "And when her sister killed them, she came to me for support. And now she's lost me. All because of the Elements." She flapped her wings and looked me in the eye, "I need to be back to her, because without me, she could do so much damage to herself. Will you help me?" I started seeing images, specifically, Canterlot Castle, two alicorns, one white with multiple colors in her mane that flowed on its own, the other the same color as Luna. The focus was now on the night blue alicorn as she slowly transformed, her color turning black, her mane becoming long and flowing, but dark blue and with white dots that resembled stars, even armor had formed on her hooves and she gained a chestplate. The entire time she was crying, and then she looked over at me, and smiled evily. The smile forced me to awaken on the backs of Limonade and Zecora, making me fall off and slide down a few stairs. I gripped a step before I continued my descent and looked up at the two mares that were leading me out of the frozen wasteland. My head still hurt like a sonofabitch, this time, not from the bump, but from the fact that I was being haunted by something calling itself Luna. "Quentin, are you okay?!" Limonade came to pick me up, and I found myself slapping her helping hoof away. "We are fine," I angrily scowled before blinking and feeling the shivers take over. We were in danger somehow, but I didn't know from what. I looked up at Limonade and shown her my fear, and in a confirmation to it, came a sound of whinnying wind from below us. "Move!" I yelled, gripping both mares in my open arms and started flying up the stairs, causing my muscles to strain from the effort I forced myself to endure to escape the windigo that now began chasing us and bringing a cold death for us all. "A Windigo! Creature of hate," Zecora had managed to turn her head to see the incoming beast and then to us. "What sort of coffin did you desecrate?!" I kept pushing, ignoring all feeling in me to give up, the creature now breathing down on me, making me catch light layers of frost that slowly began to solidify around me. Looking up the stairs I could see sunlight, knowing that we all couldn't make it as is, I gave a heavy push to Zecora and Limonade and gripped the windigo in a head lock, feeling the cold take over my entire body and the ice now encompassing me. "I'll hold it off! Get out of here!" I yelled, the ice now covering it and soon the rest of me. However, the windigo started howling in pain from my selfless act and started trying to shake me off. Somehow I was hurting it, and it wasn't happy at all about it. From my icy prison, I saw Limonade and Zecora run for the exit and now tried to make my own escape with whatever energy I could muster up. "We need us to survive," I heard in my head, the filly from before was talking to me. "We can offer little, but it will be enough." With that, my body lit up with heat, my muscles had grown larger and the windigo was now whining louder in pain. Taking the strength in me now, I forced open the ice that surrounded me and hit the ground. The windigo running away from me back to its cavern of darkness as I had begun laughing. "That's right! You don't mess with us and our power!" I found myself saying, sounding as a mix of the filly's voice and my own. I wanted to question it, I wanted to figure out why that was the case. A melting piece of ice reflected at me, prompting me to move towards it, my hoofsteps heavier than before. Reaching the ice, I reacted with surprise, I was taller, my mane seemed to be longer and more... airy? The armor I had been wearing as well now had a prominent etching of a quarter moon on it. "This is our gift of power," we said aloud. Talking now seemed as if it was taken away from me, as if whenever I wanted to speak for myself, now I was talking as if I had somepony else with me. "It will pass, watch." I felt the energy lifted away from me, as if somepony had injected me with enough sedative to keep me awake, but barely able to move. With the energy gone, I went back to the reflection, and I was back to normal. Well, about as normal as a guy turned pegasus anyway. "We are so weak, Quentin," Luna whispered in my mind, making me feel bad along with the tiredness that had now fell on me. "Please get us back to our other..." With that she stopped, I felt as if my mind was now no longer occupied by the filly and I was with myself again. I looked over at the doorway to freedom and the amount of stairs to it, making me give an upset sigh. I hate karma. *** Tyrone had now reached Ponyville, to the shock of many ponies that seemed to have forgotten that he was the Diamond Dog that was at the party that was held last night. Tyrone stopped and tried to look for Min Tea, as per his Beta's orders. He ran from place to place, scaring many ponies as they were running from the behemoth as he went about his plans. "Tyrone, over here!" Tyrone's ears perked up and looked over to see Rainbow Dash, who was waving at him to come to her. Tyrone went over to Dash and saw that Min Tea was being surrounded by medical ponies, each with a needle or rope. Tyrone saw one of the medics stick a needle into Min Tea who screamed in pain, making him jump to action. Swatting away a few of the medics, he reached down to Min Tea and heard a loud bang. A sharp pain hit his back and he howled in pain, ignoring it however, he picked up the now sleeping Min Tea and started to run away, hoping to get away and get Min Tea to Beta. His run managed to get him to a park, as his steps had become out of synch with each other and he fell, feeling tired. Looking back at where the pain was, he saw a needle poking in it and pulled it out. His breaths becoming heavy as he looked up to the nearest thing he could see, sitting on a bench in front of them. "He- He- Help." Succumbing to the drug that now went through him. "Lyra? What are you doing?!" The creme colored pony asked, as her aquamarine friend slipped off the bench. "That's a Diamond Dog! You can't trust them!" "Well, this is a pony," Lyra snapped back, showing concern for the lime green pony with glasses that was on the ground. "You may think I'm different for believing in humans, but I haven't changed my heart." Lyra picked up the pony with her magic and started to take her away. "Come on, let's get this pony to a hospital, Bon Bon, she looks terrible." Bon Bon watched as her friend began carrying the unknown pony away and gave an exasperated sigh, if it wasn't humans on her mind, it was her sense of being there for every event for support, even if one just fell in front of her in the arms of a Diamond Dog. *** Radiant awoke from his slumber, now in a lavish room with two guards that watched him as he went from the bed and looked out a window. He was very high up, so the thought of escape through a window was out of the question. His attention shifted to the guards, calculating what he could do to knock them out and begin walking towards the garden where his master waited for him. Looking back out the window, he still saw the sun was up, so he decided to wait longer before proceeding. He had been struggling against Discord's handle on him, but he finally relented. Discord wasn't evil, he was just like him, like all of his friends. He hated kissass ponies that would hide behind titles and money as he did. He hated self righteous bigots that hid behind religion and faith to carry them through as if they were constantly in a holy war, the same thing he believed. The both of them also hated being held captive for doing nothing wrong, for being betrayed by what they had believed to be trusting ponies. All that Discord wanted was control, the same thing that he was looking for. Looking out beyond the castle gardens, Radiant Radar could see the other towns surrounding Canterlot as if they were leeches, picking up the fallen scraps of what Canterlot threw away. He couldn't wait to make this castle fall, and show all of these ponies that he had believed to be loving and kind that everything needed to change. The monarchy. The control of the rich. The power of the corrupt. Everypony that would stand against Discord, his loving master and future ruler of Equestria. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ YOINK! Gotcha writing piece again! Calm down, Bait, it won't be for a moment. So, there I was, waking up from the gardens and getting myself set for Step Two, when I saw this smoke flying through the sky. Figuring it was something that was important, I shot up and intercepted it, and you know what? IT WAS! It was a note to the dear Princess Celestia from her loyal subject and student, Twilight Sparkle. I regard Twilight with some of the highest regards, kind of like you Bait, she's one of those 'I won't give up until I've lost everything' kind of unicorn. In fact, when she actually came back from my spell that I had placed on her, I was genuinely surprised, because as I said before, ponies are easy to control and keep in control, but she managed to fight it off. It's the little failures in life that keep you going. Giving the mail a once over, I had a good feeling it was going to be a good day. You and Trigger were over in the Everfree, no doubt heading towards my old base of operations. Messenger was yelling, screaming, moaning, doing it all in the center of Ponyville and making everypony there feel awkward. Conquest was nice and cozy in Canterlot Castle, being watched over by guards that were plenty mad about having to watch over something as insignificant as a unicorn that could barely do magic. Of course, when you are a god of chaos that deals with magic, you can give anypony an immediate graduation slip in magic school when you have me as a tutor. I am that good, look me up, 'D.S. Chord, Tutor for hire, payments as small as your sanity.' How do you think Starswirl the Bearded got so competent in magic anyway? I stood there for a moment, crumpling up the paper and eating it for breakfast. I was forgetting something... but I couldn't remember what it was. I had you four to help take over Equestria and bring about the Aponylypse, I was ready to bring down Canterlot Castle and have the first official sign of the end times happen, but I was forgetting something. I started counting out the amount of Elements of Harmony, as they too were necessary in my scheme. "1, Loyalty, Conquest. 2, Honesty, Messenger. 3, Kindness..." I paused, neither Trigger or Bait fit that bill, Trigger may have been close, but I couldn't have placed her there. I decided to skip to the next Element, "4, Generosity..." Another pause, again the same predicament. Forcing myself to skip another of the Elements I continued, "5, Laughter, Trigger. 6, Magic, Bait." I ran through the list again, each element had to connect in someway to my recruits, Loyalty to Conquest for his steadfast nature in his world, not bending against his bosses that wanted to fire Bait and paid the price for it. Honesty to Messenger, because of how she was about the facts and nothing more. Laughter to Trigger, because she kept an air of aloofness, not as much as Pinkie, and she didn't have the out of control power that Equestria gave her counterpart, so I had to make do. And finally Magic to Bait. I'm already hearing the call for foul, and I'll debate you for it. You see, If Magic is equal to Friendship, and Bait was a very friendly individual to be around, then Bait's friendship is equal to Magic. Or rather what I really wanted, the opposite, Power. Ah, see? Allllll makes sense now doesn't it? I can't believe I have to be 'logical' to you people in order for you to comprehend what's going on here. Can't you just figure this out on your own? Do you need Daddy Discord to hold your hand to the bus? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Daddy? Can you hold my hoof to the bus? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No, Screw Ball, I'm talking with the kind on the other end of the screen right now. Daddy's got to help Bait with this story and then we can all go out for Snow Cubes, preferably the kind that has that grape flavor that actually tastes like cherries... Oh, darn it. I've lost my train of thought again, I shouldn't have put it back on the tracks. It just goes off wherever it pleases by that point. Okay, so I was talking about the fact I was missing two ponies for my plan, Kindness and Generosity. So that meant I had the right to start panicking on the spot. I didn't have power to go into the human world and pick out two more! I barely had enough to find Bait and Conquest, and just got lucky on Trigger and Messenger. My plan was going to bomb at the end of it, because I was missing two ponies that weren't part of the normal lifestyle of Equestria. However, as if a sign from the heavens that responded to my great woe, a gray pegasus came flying overhead and bashed into the castle wall, causing multiple letters to fly out of her bag. It was the same pegasus I used to send the message to Bait! While she tried to pick up her letters, I kept my eye on her right eye, and the other eye on her left. I pulled on my beard in thought, I could use this pony. The question then became if she was generous or kind, and then I'd have a fifth member to initiate. "Got 'em!" She happily said, going out to the guards and presenting them multiple letters, some for the princesses, some for the guards in their barracks, and even a little letter to the garden keeper. "Thanks kindly, Derpy!" The garden keeper said, as Derpy flew off and then stopped in her place. I had been following her around, slowly leaning towards Kindness for this one. "Okay, now that I finished the mail, I need to go to Carrot Top and help her with some of her farm work. Then... Ooh! I'll go to Carousel Boutique and ask Rarity if she is ready for me to model for her next line of designs!" The gray pegasus sped off, and now I was conflicted. That goofy pegasus sure was generous enough with her time, so does that even count towards kindness? So, I made a resolve to myself, regardless of whatever Element I'd put her in, she was going to be an agent too. And now, came the hard part, the name. So I settled with Wild Card. Not original, but I had to make something up on the fly. Each name had a meaning, a reminder to myself mostly as to what they were supposed to be doing. After a brief check over the rest of the team, I saw that Messenger was being moved into a hospital, another thing that I had not taken into consideration into my plan. Already things were unraveling, and I was enjoying it. Now, I did notice that aquamarine unicorn that was taking her was taking exceptionally good care of my fallen Messenger, and was getting hassled by some other pony. "Her too," I checked off the sixth agent on the unicorn and again went to the list. I had, two unicorns, two earth ponies, two pegasi. I hit the nail on the head for the appropriate team needed, now to get them in the right places though. I decided to give the agent name, Plan B, again unoriginal, I know. And so, I began a game of 'Stalk the Pony', and decided to keep track of what was going on with them, starting with the unicorn. *** I managed to get out of the boxed cavern and entered back into the Everfree Forest, Limonade and Zecora waiting for me. They kept me from falling over in exhaustion as we all went towards a resting place that consisted of a willow tree and a lake. After we had all started to catch our breath, I took the armor off of me, leaving the suit I still had on and really tired muscles. I kept falling in and out of sleep, wanting to rest, but forcing myself awake to keep focused on Discord's plan. "After a trip like that, we're all not great," Zecora finally mentioned as she reached into her cloak and pulled out two flasks of blue liquid and handed them to myself and Limonade. "Drink this, and it will help you reinvigorate." I swallowed the warm medication and continued to gasp for air, hopefully this equivalent to Ibuprofen would kick on soon, because we were going to go back and get some of the supplies in that room.