Ch.9-Discord’s Past and Another Lead
A few minutes later, Twilight and her friends were leading the princesses, Shining Armor, police, and royal guards up the stairs, taking them to the train station where they had Juan Rico chained to the lamp post.
“We thought this was some missing case, but it’s way bigger than that.” Twilight said.
Fluttershy nodded before she spoke. “Mr. Otterus didn’t just vanish. We believe that he and this jaguar draconequus, Juan Rico, both went savage.”
“Savage?” Princess Luna said, with a raised eyebrow. “That’s impossible. Draconequuses haven’t gone savage in thousands of years; not since they discovered how to use chaos magic.”
“We thought so, too, until we saw this.” Twilight explained as they were getting closer to the train station.
“Wait until you see this!” Rainbow Dash said with a smile to Officer Gruff, his expression still the same. “Behold!” She gestured a hoof where they had chained Juan Rico.
Everypony just stared blankly. Finally Number Two spoke up. “Um...I don’t see anything.”
“Huh?” Rainbow Dash said, confused. She turned around, and her smile was replaced with a shocked look. Her friends also looked surprised.
Juan Rico wasn’t there anymore! Even the chain that tied him to the lamp post was gone as well!
“What?! B-b-b-but he was right here!” Rainbow Dash said in disbelief as she flew around.
“He pulled a Hoofdini!” Pinkie Pie said in shock.
Twilight turned to Princess Celestia. “Please, princess! You have to believe us! He was real! He nearly killed us!”
Princess Celestia looked at her pupil with a calm smile. “We believe you.”
“Wait, you do?” Twilight said in surprise.
Shining Armor approached his sister. “You and your friends aren’t the only ones who have seen this happening.” He said.
“Say, what?” Apple Bloom said.
Officer Gruff spoke up with a sigh. “I was hoping that this wouldn’t go any further. You see, for some time now, witnesses have made reports about these same missing draconequuses. From their description, the draconequuses displayed dangerous behaviour. Just when it looks like we finally have them, they disappear without a trace.”
“Oh, blimey, yer right about that, gov.” Inspector Fantastic said. He was obviously frustrated. “Just when we’s got ‘em right where we wants ‘em, they’s gone wif a bang, they is! One minute, they’s there, and the next minute, they ain’t!”
Turning to what looked like Rainbow Dash’s mane up close, he continued. “They’s so close, I can almost taste it!”
And then he licked. It then revealed that Inspector Fantastic was actually licking a popsicle that was the same color as Rainbow Dash’s mane. Number Two and Pinkie Pie each had the same kind of popsicle. Pinkie Pie smiled as she licked hers loudly.
“Blimey, crime-fightin’ is ‘ard work, and these rainbow popsicles ‘it the spot! Right, Number Two?”
“They sure do, sir.” Number Two replied happily.
Officer Gruff rolled his eyes and continued. “As I was saying, they just keep disappearing. We think that somepony or something is abducting them.”
“So that’s why you told us to be careful.” Twilight said, remembering what he said before they took the case.
“Yes. At first, I thought you didn’t have what it takes, but it seems that maybe I was wrong.”
Finally, Princess Celestia spoke up. “I think the best way for you to find Mr. Otterus is to find a lead as to what happened to Juan Rico.”
Twilight and her friends smiled before they noticed a train stopping at the train station. Finally, Twilight spoke. “Thank you, princess.”
The princesses, Shining Armor, police, and royal guards watched as they boarded the train before it began to move again.
Inside the train, they all sat down and were all quiet as it continued moving. Then Starlight Glimmer spoke up. “Fluttershy, you were risking your own life to protect Discord from Juan Rico. Why did you do it?”
“Well, Discord is my friend. I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing.” Fluttershy said. “I will admit, I was scared. But I was willing to stand up to protect my friend, despite how scared I was.”
“Never let them see that they get to you.” They all heard Discord say as he just sat there quietly. Fluttershy looked at him in surprise. That was the same thing he told her when he was disguised as a stallion.
The ponies and Spike were silent for a moment before Starlight finally spoke up. “So, things do get to you?”
“I mean, not anymore.” Discord said. “I was small and emotionally unbalanced like you once.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and snorted. “Yeah, right”
“No, I mean it. I was just a little draconequus cub. I heard many stories about Equestria and all I wanted to do was go to Equestria and meet the ponies who lived there.” Discord said as he told them what happened a thousand years ago.
A younger Discord was with his parents as they watched him perform his magic. When he was done, Queen Disarray gave her son a hug and he laughed in excitement while King Disconcert looked at him proudly.
“So, after months of practicing my magic, I was finally ready to go to Equestria, because, I was finally going to meet the creatures called ponies.” Discord’s voice said as he continued.
A while later, Discord appeared out of a portal and found himself in Equestria. As he looked around, he saw a bunch of young ponies gathering around a young colt. The colt was a unicorn with a green coat, brown eyes, a blond mane, and a wand for a cutie mark. The young draconequus watched as the colt performed magic for the other ponies and got excited. He then rushed up to them with a smile.
“Even though I was different from them, a draconequus, I was going to make new friends anyway.” Discord said.
A few seconds later, after introducing himself and saying that he wanted to be their friend, Discord followed the young ponies into a cellar, the young unicorn colt leading them. Discord was so happy! He was finally gonna become friends with the ponies!
“I was so excited.”
Just then, the lights went out before a bright light shined in front of Discord. He shielded his eyes for a moment, but then opened his eyes. The unicorn colt was using his magic to hold up a flashlight.
“Okay, raise your right paw and deliver the oath,” the colt said.
Discord smiled as he raised his paw. “I, Discord, son of King Disconcert and Queen Disarray, promise to be a good friend that is brave, loyal, helpful, and trustworthy.”
Once he finished talking, the unicorn colt looked at his friends before looking back at him with a frown. “Even though you’re a draconequus?” He said.
Discord looked confused when he said that. “What?”
Then the unicorn colt turned the flashlight off and used his magic to lift up Discord and send him flying into a wall. After he slammed against the wall, Discord groaned as he began to get up.
Suddenly, two of the young ponies, a pegasus and an earth pony, held him down as the draconequus cub looked horrified.
“No, no! What did I do wrong, you guys? No! Please, tell me what did I do wrong!” He begged as a pegasus colt handed the unicorn colt a muzzle. Then the unicorn colt strapped the muzzle onto Discord. “What did I do?”
“If you thought we’d ever trust a draconequus without a muzzle, you’re even dumber than you look,” the unicorn colt said cruelly as the two ponies, that were holding down Discord, finally let go of him. Discord backed away in fear as they were laughing at him.
As the young ponies continued laughing, he ran out of the basement in complete shock.
“Run, monster child!” One of the ponies said as Discord continued running.
The draconequus cub kept running into the forest and hid behind some bushes.
While he sat there panting, he heard one of the ponies say, “Aw, is the freak gonna cry?”
Looking at the muzzle that was still strapped to his face, Discord struggled to get it off his face. When he finally succeeded in getting it off, Discord looked at the muzzle in fear and tossed it to the ground.
Finally, he broke into tears and cried as he sat down. His dream of becoming friends with ponies were crushed. These ponies only thought of him as a monster and a freak.
After Discord had finished telling them what had happened to him long ago, they looked in surprise. Now they knew why Discord took over Equestria long ago. He wanted to get back at the ponies who had mistreated him pretty badly when he just wanted to be their friend. Finally, Rainbow Dash finally spoke up.
“Those little twerps!” she said angrily. “If I was there, I would have given them a good whooping they’d never forget!”
“Rainbow Dash, that happened long before we were even born.” Rarity said.
“I know, but, ponies like that just...just... make me sick!”
Discord nodded, still thinking about the terrible memory. “I learned two things that day. One: I was never going to let them see that anything would ever get to me.”
“And two?” Fluttershy asked.
“If the world's only gonna see a draconequus as shifty and untrustworthy, and as a monster, there's no point in trying to be someone else.”
Fluttershy looked at the draconequus with concern. There was something else that she was feeling, but she couldn't quite figure it out what it was.
“Discord,” she said, gently placing a hoof on his paw. “You're more than that.”
Starlight Glimmer looked at this and she knew what her friend was feeling. Fluttershy was starting to fall in love. It's just like how she is feeling about Sunburst.
Discord looked at the pegasus before he looked at the window. Outside were a bunch of cars in traffic.
Trying to change the subject, Discord said, “Boy, look at the traffic out there. How about we go to Chuck on Traffic Central?”
Then he pretended to be a radio reporter. “Chuck, how are things going with the Jam Cams?”
“Discord, I'm glad you told us.” Fluttershy said while Discord realized something.
“The jam cams.” He said.
“No, really. It's okay!” Applejack said.
Pinkie Pie spoke. “Yeah! If somepony ever did that to me, I would-.”
“No, no, no. Shh-shush. There are traffic cameras all over the area.” Discord pointed out the window. Outside on the poles were traffic cameras. “Whatever happened to that jaguar draconequus…”
“The traffic cams would have caught it!” Twilight said, realizing what Discord meant. Her friends all looked at each other in excitement.
“Bingo!” Discord said, glad that Twilight was getting the picture.
“Way to figure it out, Discord!” Rainbow Dash said, giving the draconequus a friendly shoulder punch.
Then Discord gave a frown. “However, I do recall you mentioning that Officer Tightwad hasn't given you permission to have access to the system.”
Spike and the ponies frowned after he said that.
“Well, he has a point there.” Spike said.
“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle added. “And we don’t know when we’ll get the chance.”
“You're right,” Twilight nodded before an idea came to mind. “But we have a friend at city hall who might.” She added as the train continued moving.
Meanwhile, at Manehattan City Hall, Mayor Flashhoof was walking down the hall. Shimmering Beauty was following him, struggling to carry a huge stack of files with her magic.
“Uh, sir, if we could just go over these very important-. Sir?” Shimmering Beauty said before she bumped into a pegasus on accident.
“Oh, sorry,” she said before trying to catch up to Flashhoof and get his attention. “Sir? Sir!”
“Okay! I heard you the first time, Shimmering Beauty!” Mayor Flashhoof said as he turned around with an annoyed look. “Just take care of it!”
He then added another file to Shimmering Beauty's load before he took a deep breath and put a hoof on his forehead. “Please. And clear my afternoon, I'm going out.”
As he headed into his office, Shimmering Beauty spoke up while carrying the stack of files. “Oh, no, no, but sir! You do a have a meeting with the Senior Pony Committee! Sir, if I could just-!”
Mayor Flashhoof, however, slammed the door right in front of her face and it caused her to fall down and all the files and paper she was carrying went flying everywhere to the floor.
“Aw, flanks,” Shimmering Beauty muttered to herself.
As she began to pick up all the scattered pieces of papers, a familiar hoof approached and offered itself towards her. It was Fluttershy. Shimmering Beauty looked surprised at who it was.
“Assistant Mayor Shimmering Beauty, we need your help.” She said as all of her friends looked at the unicorn.
A few minutes later, they were all in Shimmering Beauty’s office, which turned out to be the boiler room.
“We need access to the traffic camera database.” Twilight said while Shimmering Beauty began typing on her computer.
“Sure thing,” she said as she typed.
While the unicorn continued typing, Fluttershy said, “It was so nice of you to help us, Shimmering Beauty.”
“Oh it’s nothing really. I’m glad to help a friend; especially a close friend.”
As Shimmering Beauty turned her attention back to the computer, Pinkie Pie looked at the beautiful unicorn’s mane. She raised her hoof and slightly touched it.
She smiled. She began to touch it some more. “Sooo fluffy.” She whispered.
Shimmering Beauty didn’t seem to notice. Twilight and the others, however, did.
“Pinkie!” Twilight whispered angrily. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“You guys gotta try this!” Pinkie whispered excitedly. “No wonder she’s called Shimmering Beauty. With hair like this, I’d give her that name any day!”
“Pinkie! You can’t just touch another pony’s mane!” Rarity said seriously while trying to keep her voice down.
“Ponies never let me get this close.”
“I can see why,” Spike whispered to the CMC.
“It’s like cotton candy, only hairer!”
“Cut it out!” Rainbow Dash said as she swatted Pinkie Pie’s hoof away and tried to fix Shimmering Beauty’s mane.
Then the unicorn looked at them. “Where to?” she asked. Rainbow Dash quickly moved away before Shimmering Beauty noticed anything.
“Um...the upper part of Manehattan.” Twilight said.
The alicorn and the others watched as Shimmering Beauty brought the upper part of Manehattan onto the screen. “There! Traffic cams through the whole area.” Shimmering Beauty said. “Oh, this so exciting, actually. I never get to do anything this important.
Applejack looked at her in surprise. “But you’re the assistant mayor of Manehattan.”
Shimmering Beauty shrugged. “I’m more of a glorified secretary. I think Mayor Flashhoof just wanted the unicorn vote...But he did get me that nice mug.” She said as she gestured to a mug right beside her. The mug had ‘World’s Greatest Dad’. The ‘Dad’ had been crossed out and was replaced with ‘Assistant Mayor’.
The ponies tried not to say anything, although they couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Fluttershy, however, thought that even though the mug had been meant for somepony’s dad, it was at least nice for Flashhoof to get something for Shimmering Beauty.
Shimmering Beauty gave a sigh. “Ah, feels good to be appreciated.”
Just then, the intercom beside them beeped. “Shimmering Butt!” Mayor’s Flashhoof’s voice shouted through the intercom.
When they heard him say that, they looked surprised, especially Rarity.
“Shimmering Butt?” Scootaloo asked.
“Oh, yeah, that’s a little nickname he likes to use.” Shimmering Beauty said while cringing. “I called him Flushhoof once. He did not care for that. Let me tell you, it wasn’t a good day for me.” She then pressed the button on the intercom while Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spike, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo snickered. “Yes sir?”
“I thought you were going to cancel my afternoon!” Flashhoof yelled.
Getting up, Shimmering Beauty said, “Oh dear. I better go.” As she began to leave, she added, “Let me know what you find. It was great for me to-.”
“While we’re young, Shimmering Butt!”
The unicorn immediately rushed with a yelp and closed the door behind her.
It was quiet for a moment until Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spike, and the CMC laughed.
“Shimmering Butt! Ha, ha, ha!!” Rainbow Dash said while rolling on the floor.
“It’s not that funny,” Rarity said, annoyed by their juvenile behavior.
“You’re right! It’s not funny. It’s hilarious! Bwaaaa-ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!!”
Pinkie Pie was laughing so hysterically that Spike had to hold her up, although he could barely stand up as well. He was laughing as much as Pinkie Pie.
“Hahahahahaha, ha, ha, ha!” Pinkie Pie took in a large gasp of air before she went back to laughing again. “Hoohoohoohoohoo! Hahahaha! That’s the second butt reference I’ve heard all day! Hahahaha!”
“Can we please just focus?” Applejack said with an annoyed look.
The ones who were laughing stopped and looked at the computer. “Okay,” Twilight said. “Here we are.”
They watched the screen as it played when Juan Rico had chased them all to the train station. Rarity then saw something and gasped. “Wait! Stop!!” she screamed.
Twilight paused it and looked at her friend with a worried expression.
“Quick, rewind it!” Rarity said.
Twilight rewinded it.
“PAUSE!!” she yelled.
Twilight paused it. The video showed them running from Juan Rico. As Rarity looked closely at it, she raised an eyebrow. “Is that really what my hair looks like in the back?” She asked.
“RARITY!” Her friends all said angrily.
“Oh, sorry.” She said nervously. “Carry on.”
Twilight rolled her eyes and continued playing the clip until it showed them after they swung from the rope, leaving Juan Rico stilled chained to the lamp post. Then a black van appeared and skidded to a stop where the savage jaguar draconequus was.
They watched as three Diamond Dogs came out of the car.
“What are those creatures?” Starlight asked, who had never seen a Diamond Dog before.
“Those creatures are called Diamond Dogs and they enjoy digging for diamonds.” Rarity explained.
Spike nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we ran into them before.”
Discord just looked at the screen. “Oh boy, just look at these dums-dums.”
On the screen, the Diamond Dogs approached Juan Rico, who tried to swipe at them. Suddenly, one of the Diamond Dogs shot a net out of its gun and trapped Juan Rico in it! The ponies and Spike gasped in horror, but Discord just shook his head.
“Bet you a bit one of them’s gonna howl,” Discord said.
As they were heading back to the van while carrying the net with Juan Rico inside, the Diamond Dogs lifted their heads and began to howl. However, the howling on the screen was silent.
“And there it is. What is it with Diamond Dogs and the howling?” he asked.
“Yeah. What do they think are, Timberwolves or something?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Wait a minute,” Twilight said, getting a realization. “Howlers. Night howlers! That’s what Juan Rico was afraid of...Diamond Dogs! The Diamond Dogs are the night howlers! If they took Juan Rico-”
“I’ll bet they took Otterus too,” Starlight said, getting the picture.
“All we have to do is see where they went,” Twilight said as she watched the Diamond Dogs drive away in their van with Juan Rico inside as well.
As the van drove through a tunnel, it didn’t come out the other side.
“Hey. Where’d they go?” Rainbow Dash said with a confused look.
Discord looked at the screen for a minute. “You know, if I wanted to avoid surveillance because I was doing something illegal, which I never have because of my mom, I’d use the maintenance tunnel 3B, which would put them out…” Discord said as he clicked multiple camera footages until he stopped at a tunnel, which the Diamond Dogs’ van emerged out. “Right there.”
“Wow!” Pinkie Pie said in awe. “It’s almost like you could predict the future!”
“So, where do you think they are know?” Fluttershy asked.
“Let’s keep watching and find out,” Discord said as he turned on another recording.
The van kept on driving as they watched.
“Looks like they’re heading outta town.” Applejack said.
“But to where, I wonder?” Rarity inquired.
Watching the van drive down the road, Twilight said, “Where does that road lead to?”
Looking at the ponies, Discord said, “I think I know where our gem-loving canine friends are heading; Hoofside Asylum.”