//------------------------------// // Into the darkness // Story: "The Traverser" // by TheTwins //------------------------------// “The Traverser” Chapter 8 Time has always been a concept lost to me. As I have traveled many dimensions, it simply became unnecessary to keep track of the moments that passed. When my body was tired, I rested. It was until this moment that the motion of the worlds never stopped for anything. But on that day, as I desperately struggled to protect this pony, I became trapped in a low-speed world. My body was at a crawl, the situation became more and more present, and my thoughts became crammed with only one thing. I had to reach Luna… Moving faster than a normal pony could imagine, my body blurred as I threw myself towards Luna. Airborne, my hooves all stretched out at the blue pony I had fought with for so long. The energy ball that the creature had projected had almost reached the unsuspecting mare. I was not going to make it, I could not get in front of her or push her aside. Instead, an idea formed. An unfortunately painful plan that had to be my only option. I used a blast of energy from my hooves to project myself into the same path as the orb. Instead of my original intention, I was going to use my body to take the blow and push the ball into another path. Princess Luna had been concentrating while her knight silver kept Discord at bay. She had been preparing her magic and interacting with their weapon with her sister. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a pool of a red liquid. Worried for the worst, Luna looked up from what she was doing toward the fight. “Silver Watch!” As she looked up, another glob of the liquid landed on her face. It smelled like cherries and to her relief seemed to be a sweet of sorts. Continuing to look up, the princess came eye to eye with a fearsome ball of energy. She tried to conjure a magic shield, but her magic strength had been placed in her task. Bracing for the impact, she covered herself with a wing and yelled to her sister. “Sister, an attack is coming!” Shielding herself and closing her eyes, she prepares for the worst. Yet, after several seconds she feels nothing. Until she hears a feather chilling scream and the sound of earth being torn into. She looks up and sees a large crater of steaming earth to her right. At the end of the path lay a familiar earth pony. “Silver!” The pain was certainly real, lacking any tricks or laughable moments. When my shoulder came in contact with the sphere, my whole body began to burn as I was absorbed into the attack. I was on fire from every fiber of my being and soon I blacked out. Luna's form began to come to my eyes as I open them slowly. “Princess…are you ok? The blue princess comes to view more clearly and I can see that she is crying. I shake my head and pick myself up. My body still sizzling in the most terrible of ways. My flesh having been cooked perfectly. “Silver Watch! Please tell me your ok!” Luna exclaims as she rushes to my side already working on my wounds. Feeling the nice effect of her magic, I finally come to my senses. I then think of how the princess would have faired if it were her. The answer painfully obvious. I strengthened myself and steadied my hooves. “Dammit that really, really hurts…” I look at Luna and the path it had been taking. “That was intended for you Luna” The princess blinks and her expression changes from thankful to terrified. “If you hadn’t I would have been unable to help my ponies…” I blink and look at her. I couldn’t believe what she had said. This pony was thinking not of her own demise, but of the fact that it would have meant something much worse to her ponies. Something I did not do myself. She cared for others before herself. “Luna, you are certainly worthy of my companionship. I am going to make this much easier for you.” With that, I begin to trot out of the crater and face Discord with my torn face. “Discord…” The chaotic being was now playing with his teeth, trying to get some foreign object out from between them. He begins to smile upon hearing his voice and chuckles. “Well, I can’t believe you survived that Luna.” The disfigured villain looks towards the voice and frowns. “Well that’s not fair Silver!, that was for Princess moon rump.” I slowly trot closer and form shooting star in my muzzle. “I’m no longer playing Discord.” The sword senses Discord and begins to slide open like many times before. This time, it opened two inches and then surrounds me in a bright light. “Interesting” I say as my body begins to heal revealing again the pocket watch on my flank and repairing me. As I complete my revival, I step forward energy flowing from me. “Let’s try again beast.” I vanish into thin air from my movements. My body behind the chaotic being. “Tag…” Discord turns white not having been able to follow my movements. “Wait, please don’t” I thrust my hoof into his head planting his body onto the ground. “Is this what kind of punchline you were looking for…” Discord chokes and spits up a strange colored liquid that I guessed was blood. “Surrender Discord or I will have to break a promise I’d rather not.” His breathing became strange and he blinks out of sight. I look around me and realize he has concealed himself. I close my eyes and begin to sense my surroundings once more. Unlike before, as if a heartbeat in the darkness, I sense a life moving randomly from place to place. This time above me. “ I won't let you get away demon…” I compress my energy and release a shockwave of energy covering the area causing a ripple where Discord lay in wait. “Arrrrrgghhhh!” the creature yells becoming visible once more and falling to the ground not moving. I trot forward slowly and examine Discords body. “Well, have you had enough Discord, give up before I do something permanent.” Discords breathing began to become calmer and he staggers to his feet looking at me with a trickle of blood coming from his eye. “HAHA, you got me Silver Watch! But this party is just getting started. If my jokes can’t get to you, maybe my semi-serious tools can.” Discords demeanor had now changed from an expression of silly banter to that of a serious adversary. Yet somehow, he kept his chaotic aura. He tensed his body and began to surround himself in a dark aura. “Don’t be a fool Discord, you will only end up hurting yourself more.” Discord then began to laugh again and look at me. “Don’t you know by now Silver, I always play the fool…” He then reaches out a claw and a weapon began to form. It seems to take the shape of an ax but its blade resembled that of a jester’s hat. “Let’s play” I sigh and raise my blade. “Have it your way, I will just have to put you on a platter for the princesses. Discord scoffs and rears back with his ax. “Well then, better get started pony.” With that last word, he swung his blade creating a distortion heading straight for me. I jump out of the way quickly as the ripple moves past ripping earth from the ground and erasing it from where it was. “Uhm, that’s not good.” “your right, that’s very much not good for a certain pony named Silver Watch.” Discord says swinging again and then popping out of existence himself. I jump to avoid the ripple and try and sense his presence which comes to me as being under me. Quickly I look down and see Discord smiling. He swings his blade upwards trapping me from escape. I once again use a blast of energy to push myself out of the way. “Not bad fierce flanks, but what will you do when there’s no earth to fall too.” He smiles and charges his ax this time swinging towards the ground ripping up the earth leaving only a gigantic ripple, this time not vanishing after a moment. My body began to fall into what seemed like certain destruction. I fell faster seeing the satisfied look of a monster who had just moments ago tried to destroy a pony I actually cared about. “I’ll tell the princess how you just left her for wherever it is your about to go!” Discord claps and prances in the air. “Bye now” He says in an evil tone. Speeding down, I listened to his mocking and became angry. “You will tell her nothing but how much you wished you were dead…” I open my eyes now beaming with energy and look at Discord with a piercing gaze. As if a clear wall had formed under me, I simply halted in the air. Looking up Discord could not see through the blinding light and as his vision adjusted, he gasped at what he saw. “That’s not fair! Your just an earth pony!!” Staring up at my ethereal wrapped form, Discord growled and slashed his weapon towards me. I glanced at his efforts and simply glided out of its path. “No Discord, I am no mere Earth pony. In fact, I am no pony at all. I am the traverser an entity of destruction even you cannot imagine.” With this, I smile and blink out of his sight to the air behind him. “Beg…” The Draconequus flinched as he turned his head completely around to look at me. “What are you?” Discord turns around and scratches his chin. “It’s clear you have some talent, but your little show means nothing. I am Discord, the Lord of Chaos! Did Celestia put you up to this oh I know how she loves a good prank Ha-Ha…” My jaw drops seeing his demeanor has not changed. “I guess you really can’t stop being a fool for even a moment. I would say your friends would miss you, but that’s the real joke here isn’t it Discord…” For a moment, his laughing stopped and Discord stood up straight. “Well, I guess your right… But when I get the chance, I’m going to destroy all of yours silver watch” He snarled and seemed generally upset at my comment. Then a green flame engulfed him. Suddenly his strength had been boosted and I could tell that he meant business this time. “Oh, so you’re going to show your true abilities I see. Well, let’s have at it Discord.” I raised my blade and flew straight at him. Discord burst from the column of fire wielding his ax and this time coming in for a close strike. Our blades clashed and ripples were sent in many directions distorting reality as we battled. I couldn’t advance without running the risk of harming myself. So, as we continued to exchange blows, I put my back into a powerful swing that managed to send Discord flying back. Taking a moment to breathe, I could not believe the effect that this creature had on his environment. The sky had become distorted to the point that I could not tell if it was night or day, or if we were truly in Equestria still. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw a golden glow begin to appear. Looking at the glow, I could make out two ponies. Celestia and Luna were powering up their weapon it seemed. But how long before it was ready I could not tell. I tried to yell at them but from behind, I was struck. I felt the ax rip into my neck and send me flying down. But as I fell, my body became numb and I could see many colors. It was like being underwater and spinning thousands of times. Finally, my trip ended with a solid piece of earth. I opened my eyes and couldn’t focus. I slowly got up and looked at the twisted earth I had landed on. My neck had begun bleeding and I became sick. I stumbled and emptied my stomach contents on the ground. “Crap… I don’t like that feeling at all.” I glanced up having felt a little better and growled at the creature. “I really want to kill you!” Discord began to laugh and pointed at me. “What, didn’t like the ride? I know some people get sick when they can’t handle the experience.” He then powered up his ax and threw a giant ripple towards me. “Oh, hell no, that’s not happening again.” I focused my energy and point my hoof at Discord. The ground around me shook as I released a beam of light the size of a castle in the sky. “There, how’s that for a ride.” I sat on my haunches slowly recovering my wits and healing my wound. “This was more than I expected to do this morning.” As I finish, Simon pops onto my shoulder and begins to help heal me. “Sweet Celestia that guy was stronger than we thought he was.” Simon says looking at the destroyed landscape. “This used to be a field not a beach, right?” I laugh as the soothing aura revives my body. “Yeah, but I think we're done after that blast, I hope I didn’t go too far though.”I begin to scan the sky for any signs of Discord but everything seems to have normalized.” “Well I guess that does it Silver,” Simon says patting my wound and making me growl. After giving me an apologetic smile, he hopped off and sighed. “Kind of reminds me of usual endings” I breathed in and nodded. “But today, their world lives on, let's go tell them the news.” We begin to trot back over the hill when I hear a laugh from behind. “What’s all this about worlds living Silver?” I jump back and see Discord standing a few feet from where I hit the ground. “Discord! How did you survive that?” The Draconequus looked beaten and bruised. “Well not that you care about my health, but a good pocket dimension sure comes in handy when you're staring down death. Oh, and wow you really are strong, aren’t you? A trickle of blood rolled down his arm as he frowned. “That really hurt me, and that’s no laughing matter.” I chuckle myself. “But I have much more to give Discord, you look like your all out of one-liners too.” “Oh, your absolutely right, but you see, I will still win after you leave for your trip.” I snort and shake my head. “I must have really hit you hard if you think you can still win, and vacations are for tourists so…” “Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure Silver, I think you’re going to jump right into this portal here.” As he speaks, he snaps his finger and a portal to a dark place opens up. “And why the buck would I do that?” I say shrugging He giggles and snaps his fingers making Simon appear in his grasp. “Oh, I have a hunch.” Without pause, Discord throws Simon threw the portal. “Silver Watch!” The little green pony yells and he disappears into the dark portal. “Simon!” I yell back as a rush forward and jump into the portal. “That’s right, fetch your little friend you pest” Discord whispers. In the dark portal, I follow Simon and fly faster to catch up to him. I then turn around and fly as fast as possible trying to get back to the light. As I almost reach the exit, Discord pops his head in and waves. “Bye-Bye now” He begins to close the portal, but as he does I notice a golden glow in the background behind Discord. “Luna…”