"You're WHAT?!" Limonade screamed at me, forcing me to cover my ear from the high pitched pain. "You are not going back in there! Not while I have a say in it!"
"We're not going to fight Discord empty hooved," I responded, trying to shrug off whatever remaining pains I still had in me, "and that place is the closest thing we got to a freaking armory." I turned my attention back to the fallen castle in the back and then to Limonade again. "Linda, you're going to need to trust me. Get to town, get to Marian, get to whoever you can to help, I want to at least get stocked up and get these ponies ready to take him down."
"What are you going to even do, Quentin?" Limonade asked me, concern making me choke slightly. "We're dealing with a god, and you want to get sticks to poke him with?" I tried to keep myself from shouting at Linda, an angry grimace on my face as I shut my eyes and paced in front of her. "You're not a hero, Quentin! Why risk your life for something like this? We should be more worried about getting out of here!"
"He has my best friend!" I yelled out, the stress finally breaking my demeanor, "He is going to use him to destroy a town that I just began to like and then turn to us to cause more problems!" My eyes opened and I gripped onto Limonade's shoulders, "I am not going to let him take away anymore from me, he can take me out of Earth, he can degrade and humiliate me, but when he said in that message that he's going to use Richard for annihilating a town, I take that as a personal insult! I'm not losing anypony else," with that I hugged Linda, the fear of losing my love to Discord pushing through my voice, "I won't let him take you."
Pulling away, I turned to the castle and began to head back, only pausing to look behind me at Linda and Zecora before lifting my wings and going back to the entrance tower to Discord's war room.
***
Lyra Heartstrings entered the hospital with the pony that was carried in the arms of a Diamond Dog, she recognized her as one of the three ponies that got a large party from Pinkie Pie last night. She knew that she had to be a friend of the orange-red pegasus that danced on two legs, so perhaps this was the entrance she needed to talk with him. Perhaps ask how he was able to do a lot of moves similar to the kind that was rumored to have not existed at all.
The books of Canterlot's library reached deep into the history of the past. Each book she had used to find a hint for their existence kept leading her into the long ago Discordian Wars. It did seem to make sense, humans were considered an old relic of pain and torment, so they disappeared when Discord had fallen for the first time. Lyra knew better however, each modern convention they had was helpful, each a tool that made life better instead of worse.
"Can I help you?" Nurse Sweetheart asked, tending to her duty behind the reception desk. When she turned her eyes up to Lyra, she gave a gasp to the pony that she had been carrying. The lime-green earth pony she had brought in was dehydrated, and needed attention straight away. "Where'd this pony come from in order to get to this bad of condition?" She placed a hoof on the comm and pulled the microphone up to her lips, "Will Redheart and Coldheart please come to the front desk, straight away!"
The pink mare ran from behind the counter and towards an available stretcher, pushing it towards Lyra who put the lime-green pony on it. "She just ran up to me and collapsed," she said, trying not to look like she was lying. If she told the truth about the Diamond Dog, she wouldn't know what would happen to the pony.
"Does she have a name?" Sweetheart asked, pulling a clipboard out and writing out as much information as she could from Lyra.
"I don't remember," Lyra answered honestly. "All I can remember was that she was a new face in Ponyville and she was one of the guests of honor at Pinkie's party last night." Sweetheart still wrote heavily into the clipboard when the pony that was brought in sat up immediately and opened her eyes, showing that they were entirely black.
"The first sign has begun," she rasped out before collapsing back onto the stretcher again. When she hit the bed, a loud BANG rang outside that seemed to shake all of Ponyville. Sweetheart began pushing the stretcher into the back, to both prep the exhausted patient and check if any of the other patients may have been affected by the rumbling blast. Bon Bon ran into the hospital and shook Lyra who stood in shock, not noticing the sound of muffled laughter of Discord in the vents.
"Lyra!" Bon Bon pointed towards Canterlot Castle, a plume of smoke spewing from a high tower and the sight of yellow light shooting out occasionally from the castle itself. "We need to tell the town about this! The princesses may be in danger!"
***
"Somepony call the Magic Fleet! We can't hold this unicorn o-!" A blast of yellow energy pierced into the guard shouting orders and he collapsed into an unconscious slump on the floor.
"We need to retreat to the entrance way! Delta team on me! We'll hold him off!" Shining Armor called out as he began to charge into the flurries of energy rocking magic. He soon managed to reach the supercharged Radiant Radar, his body giving out crackles of energy around him. Using his own magic, the two pushed against their forces and now struggled to not get blown away.
Radiant Radar's eyes were purely black, looking at them they seemed to let off a fog of emptiness. "Do you like bananas, Armor?" He spoke, deep and evil, making Shining Armor wince only once before being thrown out a window from the castle. Radiant Radar continued his slow trek through the hall, ending resistance pony by pony until he reached the main hall.
Stopping where he was. he leaned down in a bow towards the stained glass picture depicting Discord's reign. "I claim this castle by the right of Lord Discord, and am proud to be his servant to the end times." Radiant Radar stood and continued to the entrance where he knew the Elements of Harmony lie, knowing that with them, he would gain power from the very essence of the Element of Loyalty.
***
The train was still on the way to Canterlot, Twilight could only watch in shock as her mentor's castle began to collapse. All of them did. Rarity had begun crying, not dramatically as she would normally do, but genuinely. Pinkie Pie's smile was gone entirely, and her normally puffy hair had gone down. Fluttershy had her back turned from seeing the town, softly crying. Applejack had punched the window in frustration, making it crack. From further away, as Rainbow Dash had begun trying to catch up to the girls, she had stopped. Seeing the destruction unfold and ponies running out of the gates in fear from afar.
In the train, Applejack had begun to punch the seat in front of her, it was empty, but to her it wouldn't have mattered. "CONSARN IT! Why can't this train go faster?!"
"It's falling," Pinkie sadly remarked, seeing a tower break off and start going down the mountain. "And there's nothing we can do..."
"This isn't fair..." Rarity choked out from her sobs, seeing the once beautiful town slowly crumble in front of her eyes.
"Princess..." Twilight worriedly whispered, not seeing Celestia's chariot leading her out of the castle to safety.
From the far cloud, Rainbow Dash beat on her chest once and gave a battle roar before speeding towards the castle to fight off whoever was in there. Anger took over her judgement as she crashed through a stain glass window and stood in front of Radiant Radar, who now held onto the box with the Elements inside. With Dash's incredible speed, she bucked Radiant in the face and forced him to drop the box. Taking the Element of Loyalty and affixing it to her neck, she looked over at the now bruised face of the would-be thief.
"You are too late, Element of Loyalty," his menacing voice coldly lashed at Rainbow Dash. He revealed his own necklace, the Element of Distrust. A simple chain wrapped around his neck, the pendant resembling the radar as his cutie mark. "The end of Equestria has already begun, and when the second sign has appeared, there will be three more that will rival your harmonious power that will be revealed to the world. The box you now have will only serve as a false sense of security."
"Shut up!" Rainbow Dash gave a large kick to Radiant's chest and in turn was hit in the back of the head with a section of the stone wall, used by the unicorn's magic. Trying to recover she noticed that the wall was now being used to attempt to crush her. With a gasp, she barely dodged the projectile and watched as it shattered on the floor. Using the time she now had, she went to the box with the Elements of Harmony and made a run for the window. The room that they were both in was collapsing, and she had turned to see that the unicorn was staring at her with his blackened eyes and the room fell down on him.
She flew in front of the now blocked window for a moment, trying not to heave about what had happened. Holding the box of Elements in her hooves she descended to the castle gates and sat there. Unsure of what to do, or where her friends were.
***
Going down the slide again, I went straight for anything resembling a pack, or bag, or anything I could safely carry without accidentally impaling myself with something. Settling with what seemed to be a large sturdy bag, I picked out some choice weaponry, leather-like armor, a bunch of books that had the word 'Explosive' on it in some form, and a good lunch as I was hungry as all could be. Taking a bite of bread, I looked over at the fallen tapestry again, still shaken by how surreal it was that Discord was able to make a plan of this magnitude and know who he was going to pick. I still gave a kick at the fabric, upset that it didn't show a clue as to what his next step was so I could be prepared.
Turning to the coffin again, I made a check on my bag to see for absolutely sure that it didn't have some hole in it. This would be a bad time for a tear to appear when I would ascend the long staircase again. Tearing off some of the tapestry and finding a large stick, I made sure to wrap it up tightly. Going to some of the buckets and opening lids, I found liquid and gave a good whiff. It smelled flammable, whatever it was. Praying it was, I dumped the fabric wrapped end of the stick and pulled it up. Setting it down, I looked for something to light the thing and found a convenient flint piece and what looked to be it's mate, a slightly charred piece of metal.
After some unsuccessful attempts to create a spark, eventually I was able to light up the torch. If that Windigo was going to pull something with me, I was going to make sure that he kept away. With the theme song of Skyrim going through my mind proudly as I came down the pathway and towards the hole I had first fallen down from, I managed to reach perfect unison of me hitting the ground with my bag, looking face to face with the Windigo again. Lifting the lit torch up in front of my face, I yelled "FUS RO DAH!"
I don't know if it was the shock of my fearless attitude or the confusion about me yelling at it in a weird tongue, but it flew off, this time far away from the staircase and just sat down watching me. "Yeah, recognize this face? I'll bet." I smugly spoke, shifting the large bag back on my back. That reminds me, I really do need to finish that game...
Getting to the stairs I went up slowly, not wanting to overexert myself more than I already have. However, this was going to be worth doing a double trip, we now had a base of operations... kind of... We had a way to protect ourselves, finally, and we were going to take Discord down with medieval weapons.
It was at least a start in the right direction, although I was kind of upset that we as humans in this world couldn't have made GUNS. There was plenty of gunpowder and other ingredients, but I didn't know how to use them. "Perhaps Zecora could figure something out? She is the alchemy expert..." I found myself saying aloud and now outside the willow tree and lake again. I set down the bag and sat down to rest again, the lack of sleep from last night's excursion with Trixie and poison joke finally breaking my ability to keep my eyes open. I didn't want to sleep, but my eyes refused to listen to anything my head had to tell them. Resigning to the immanent nap ahead of me, I began to develop my own plan to capture and potentially kill the bastard that was using Richard as a scapegoat.
***
"You've been hiding swords in my house!" Bon Bon screamed, throwing a pot at Lyra and forcing her to duck. "What kind of irresponsible pony would even give you a sword!"
"Bon Bon, please," Lyra pleaded, trying to keep an eye on the mad pony. "It was for my research, I swear!" She held up the sword now, hoping to keep any other projectiles at bay.
"RESEARCH?! YOU ARE USING A DEADLY WEAPON AS RESEARCH ON HUMANS?!" Bon Bon threw a head of lettuce at Lyra, who managed to slice the deadly vegetable before it came at her head. "It's like every time I turn my head away from you, you present me with more..." Bon Bon tried to find a word to say and eventually just settled for screaming.
"It doesn't matter at this point," Lyra set the sword on the table and tried to wipe off the lettuce juice with a rag. "My research won't mean a thing if what's being told around is true," Lyra closed her eyes, she swore that in her research into humans there was some sort of mention about something like this happening, but she couldn't remember from where. "The end of Equestria..." She whispered, letting the realization get to both her and Bon Bon. "We need to find him."
"Who?" Bon Bon asked, looking into Lyra's determined eyes, swearing that they weren't as bright as before.
"The pegasus from last night, he has something to do with this, I'm sure of it!" Lyra took the sword with her, back outside to Ponyville, all over the town was panic. She set the weapon on her shoulder with her magic and went back into the hospital, the lounge now filled with worried ponies that were injured from the explosive force in some way. Lyra pushed past the crowd and into the waiting halls, Bon Bon catching up to her as they both walked past closed doors and towards a room that had the name of 'Jane Doe' on the side.
"Lyra, what are we doing back here?" Bon Bon asked frightfully, unsure of what was possessing Lyra to act as if she was on a mission. Lyra opened the door and the two looked in on the sleeping lime-green pony with glasses.
Lyra tapped the sword on her shoulder and looked over at Bon Bon, the same determined look that she had before. "Answers, Bon Bon. We're here for answers."
***
Ditzy had finished her work out at Carrot Top's farm and had been munching on a few things from her kitchen. Hopefully she would understand, it had been a long day for both of them. She hadn't noticed Canterlot had been under attack, and the shake she had only figured was The Doctor returning from one of his many trips. Carrot Top came inside her home and slammed the front door in a panic. "Derpy!"
Ditzy gave a sigh, "I'm sorry, Carrot Top, I emptied your fridge."
Carrot Top shook her head, fear in her eyes. "I'm not worried about that! Canterlot is blowing up outside, and you're just sitting here acting like you can't see it!" Derpy gave an angry look at Carrot Top for the unappreciated joke at her eyes before shifting her attention to the window and gasping.
"Carrot Top! Canterlot is blowing up!" Carrot Top closed her eyes in frustration and took a breath before saying another word.
"You're going to need to get back home, if what I have heard from rumors, there was a green pony screaming that Canterlot was going to fall, and then Cloudsdale was next." Derpy gave a gasp, if Cloudsdale was going to fall, that meant the weather of Equestria was going to be entirely out of whack! And not only that, but Cloudsdale was where she kept her stuff! They can't blow up someplace that had her stuff in it!
"Why did the Doctor have to go on a solo mission now?!" Derpy Hooves shot up from the couch and out the door of Carrot Top's house, opening her wings and going off to Cloudsdale. When she entered a large grouping of dark clouds she got yanked down by unseen claws, and into the arms of Discord.
Tapping her head gently, hopefully to not get the full effect on her, Discord began to whisper in her ear. "Find the one I call Bait, and lead the Elements of Harmony to him."
With that, he let the pegasus go and faded back into the cloud cover. With a confirmed fading of her blonde mane that shot back to its normal color, Ditzy's eyes opened. Both eyes now normal and with no shine in them. A mission now placed in her mind, after she would go to Canterlot, she would find the orange-red pegasus and bring him to the Elements of Harmony.
***
"Don't you dare let me go, Zecora!" Limonade screeched, giving away her fear of falling down the cliff face. Reaching the bridge again, they had both agreed it was the only way across. However, Zecora had to keep a hold of Limonade's tail as she reached down to the snapped piece of the support beam. Limonade grabbed the broken piece of support and tried to pull herself up again. Zecora kept a tight grip on the tail until Limondae was holding the rope taut. Zecora pulled out her staff and jammed it into the ground, giving a few pulls to make sure it didn't bend.
"This will hold for the time being," Zecora said as she prepared to step onto the bridge to cross one last time. "No more walking on this bridge, is what I'm foreseeing." Limonade gave a shake of her head before screaming as she ran from the one edge of the cliff towards the other, her eyes shut to the fear and unknowingly rushing over the river. As if by law she had to complete the gag, she opened an eye and looked down at the river before making a KASPLOOSH into the running water.
"Hello again," the excited sea dragon cried out, pulling Limonade from the water and she looked up at her bobbed hair and noticed it had completely flattened. "Oh dear, your mane..." The purple sea dragon carefully flicked the hair in front of Limonade's eyes up and watched it flop back down.
"Don't have time for the lesson on maintaining hair right now," Limonade spoke, letting out whatever remaining water spill out of her mouth. "I need to get to town and get some help."
"Help? What possibly for? Is it about that castle?" The sea dragon lifted Limonade up to see the Canterlot Castle had been almost eradicated and she nervously gulped.
"Absolutely."
The sea dragon set Limonade back on the other side and also the same with Zecora. "Well, I won't get in your way."
"Wait a moment," Limonade held up a hoof, stopping the descending sea dragon. "I'm going to bring a lot of other ponies to the other side, and the bridge is way too dangerous to cross again. Do you know if there's another crossing point we could use?"
The sea dragon put a claw through his mustache in thought, "There isn't really another path that I know of, but I do know of somepony that I could get to take a look at it for you. Perhaps improve it a little more, I always thought it needed a more modern design really..." With that last piece of thought out of the way, he shot down into the water, disappearing from sight. Zecora and Limonade gave a shrug to each other and continued on their way out of Everfree Forest.
***
"Rainbow Dash," Twilight called out to her slumped over friend, holding the designed box of the Elements of Harmony. Dash looked up at Twilight and the rest of her friends coming up to her. "How did you get the Elements? Was it because of Celestia? Is she alive?"
"I- I don't know. I may have killed a pony..." Rainbow Dash said with regret, making the group feel uneasy. "It was a unicorn, and he had these eyes... those eyes..." She closed her own eyes to try and fade away the image she saw before he got crushed by the walls of the castle. The entire town had been evacuated to Ponyville to recuperate from the disaster. No sign of the Princesses of the sun or moon were found, as if they had vanished. However, the sun continued to fall as if it was still in control, so no pony believed that they would have died.
"Well, if that's true, then we should need to worry about any more damage caused to Canterlot." Twilight tried to mention positively, her eyes watching over the once proud castle now turned to rubble. From the light that now began to fall over the horizon, she caught the sight of a golden glint. With immediate speed, she ran past Rainbow Dash and into the stone remnants. Stopping at the sight she saw, she lifted a golden crown up with her magic, the crown of Princess Celestia. "Celestia! Please give me a sign you're still alive!"
In response, a bubble of rock rose and rolled off a protective bubble of energy. Within the bubble was Celestia and Luna, both of them looking to be in bad shape. The Elements all ran over to the fallen princesses and began to help them up from their downed states. "Th-That human... He's unnatural," Celestia gasped out, trying to get a stable foothold as she was led out.
"Where is thine, fowl beast?" Luna questioned, horn alight and ready to attack. "He has seeked the wrath of the Princess of Night, and we shalt end his existence!" A large rumble and a column of yellow light shot from the underground, rising from it was an untouched Radiant Radar, who put his hooves down on the stone and looked over at the group.
"Nary a thing wilt touch me, Night Princess. Thine castle walls are only one of four signs of the end." With that, a bubble of magic surrounded him and began to expand. Soon the fallen castle and the gates were covered in the magic, Radiant on the other side still watching the fearful group. "For the rest of you, you're time will be better spent asking for forgiveness of your new master that will rise from this broken castle and tear this world asunder." With that, he winked away, the group unsure where the unicorn had disappeared to.
"Let's go into Ponyville," Celestia sounded, trying to regain her resolve. "I can at least comfort my little ponies in the fact that I am still alive, and perhaps tell them of this battle we all now have to face."
As they went to leave, Derpy came down in front of them. "Thank goodness I found you," she said, looking over the damage behind the intrepid heroes. "The pegasus, Quick Fix, has ran off from town, he's behind the attack and also working for Discord! I heard him talking to him!" The group looked over at Derpy, seeing the seriousness in her eyes.
"He couldn't be," Applejack spoke up. "He may be a little weird, but he's one of the kindest and most trusting ponies I have seen in some time."
"It's true!" Derpy responded, looking hurt that she wasn't being believed. "He was talking about humans with Discord and I ran off to find anypony that would believe me!"
"This situation is getting out of hoof," Celestia spoke up, a furrowed brow crossing her features. "Let's just all get to Ponyville, and then we can start working things through about this logically." Each of them agreed and began to go to the train station to be led down to Ponyville. Each of them looking out the window at the enclosed destruction that had rocked Canterlot.
***
"Wake up!"
Lyra had been trying to awaken the pony in the hospital for awhile now, shaking her, screaming in her ear, nothing seemed to work. When she was ready to give up, she saw the pony rise up in her bed and turned her head around the room.
"The first sign is completed, tomorrow will be the time of the second and third signs, and more of the agents will be revealed upon this world." The green pony spoke slowly, her words accepting of the tragic fate that now laid in front of herself and the Equestrian race. Bon Bon gave a look over at Lyra before speaking to the morose pony that was sitting up.
"What... What could we do to stop these signs?" Bon Bon asked fearfully, now seeing tears forming in the dark eyes of the pony.
"You can do anything that you must, but the signs and the end of Equestria will never be stopped." The pony blinked, only slightly gaining some semblance of shine before it again faded to darkness. "Tell Linda that I miss her."
With those final words she fell back down on the bed, this time her eyes remaining open, but her body was stiff. Lyra gave a huff of frustration.
"That doesn't tell us anything!" Lyra got on the bed and gripped the shoulders of the green pony and started shaking her angrily. "Who is Linda? Who are you? Who is the pegasus that you are friends with?! ANSWER ME!" Bon Bon tried to pull Lyra off the pony, thinking that she had gone mad. "WHO DO YOU WORK FOR?!"
In a soft whisper, the pony spoke, "My sister, Marian Delany, Quentin, I am the Messenger of Discord..." With that, her eyes shut, leaving Lyra and Bon Bon to the silence of the room. Lyra pulled away from the pony who named herself Marian and sat down in a chair, in shock and anger. Lyra knew a name like Marian was forbidden, only given to ponies that requested special permissions could even attempt to get such a name. The pieces continued to fall into place, but there was still not enough to know what the whole picture was.
"Bon Bon, we're going on a pony hunt," Lyra picked up the sword she had brought in and left the room, followed by Bon Bon who stopped her by spinning her around to look at her.
"Lyra, this is enough," Bon Bon looked at Lyra and saw that she was angrily breathing. "What are you going to gain by seeing this pegasus? What we should be doing is getting as much as we can and helping the town instead of looking for a lone pony."
Lyra continued her heavy breathing before closing her eyes and resigning her control of the situation. "You're right, Bon Bon. If that pegasus, which she called Quentin, is a part of this destruction, then we're going to need a few good ponies to take him and the rest of these secret agents that Discord has around town." They both left the hospital, seeing Ponyville had its streets now flowing with the populace of Canterlot, all of them wondering what they were going to do about the travesty that had befallen them all.
That's when murmurs of a lime-green pony and a zebra were walking around town and telling ponies about a rebellion force that was being built in a broken castle in Canterlot. Already stocked with weapons, food, and being headed by an orange-red pegasus called Quick Fix.