Fallout Equestria: Fly Away
By Freeflyingwolf
Chapter 12: Chaotic
”It seems an old foe of mine, someone I thought I had defeated long ago, has returned.”
“By whatever gods or goddesses there are up above, I beg, no, implore you to Make. Him. STOP.”
Though he would never say it, Sunshy felt the same as Royal Lace. Shockingly enough, they weren’t talking about Zen, who was known for his chattering mouth. Indeed, he too was in a rather sour mood and had an earbloom in with the radio going to drown out the noise. Celly was flying above the group, little more than a blot in the sky.
Earlier that morning, Celly and Royal Lace ventured back down to the stallions. The manticore made sure she was the first to peak her head into the room in which they had left their companions. Upon seeing that they were still asleep, cutely curled up against one another, she allowed Royal Lace to walk inside.
The unicorn walked inside, froze and stared at the scene, and then promptly walked out. Her face was a few shades redder and looked like she wanted to blow something up. A few minutes later and they would have, seeing as she had a nice array of explosives.
However, something caught her attention.
“GET OUT HERE. NOW!”
The bucks were startled awake, Zen quickly moving to pull out his magic lance, but found his saddlebags were gone. Sunshy quickly slid his saddleboxes on and flew outside, following after Celly and followed by Zen. The latter jumped over the others—quite the impressive feat—and was posed to attack on all fours, but found no red dots on his E.F.S. However, there was one extra blue dot that wasn’t there before.
“Hiii~” A little voice sang. The tall zebra had to look down to find the source.
It was that zebrony colt, the son of that slaving-shockingly-nice cowpony whatsherface. The colt bounced in place and giggled. Royal Lace was looking down to the colt with the look of someone who had just tasted a lemon for the first time. Sunshy was worried and shocked. Celly just kept a wary eye on the child.
“I had to travel really far to find you all! But I followed your hoofprints and they were easy to follow and they led here! And here you are!” Shorty exclaimed.
“What.” Zen stated, staring down at the child.
“Shorty, why did you follow us?” Sunshy asked.
“Doesn’t matter, we’re taking you home.” Lacey nudged the child until he turned around and pushed him forward with her magic.
“No! I don’t wanna go! I wanna adventure with you guys!” Shorty dug in his hooves and strained against the magic, to no avail.
“You’re mother must be worried sick about you, so we’re taking you home.” Lacey continued pushing him, with the rest of the group following behind.
“She’s not even my real mommy!”
“Okay, now that’s a lie, you look just like her. Even if it’s true, she’s the one who’s raising you and she loves you, so she’s your mom.”
“Noooooo!” Shorty whined and flopped onto his belly. He dug his front hooves into the dirt. Royal Lace stopped pushing, trotted in front of him, and started pulling on his tail with her magic.
“Do we really have to walk all the way back to her farm? Can’t you just teleport him back or something?” Zen questioned, not at all looking forward to wasting such time.
“Too hard, something might go wrong. Last time I tried teleporting someone other than myself, they ended up with burns.”
“Oh my.” Sunshy quietly stated. “We could use a Sky Carriage.”
“What’s that?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. A carriage that pegasi can use. Or, really, anything with wings.”
“Cool. Hey, can I have my saddlebags back?”
“Fine.” Lacey levitated Zen’s bags off her back and placed them on the zebra’s back. He was a little surprised at the extra weight, but kept walking in stride.
After an hour, Shorty gave up trying to fight being taken home. So he was allowed to trot alongside them. That was when they found out that when he was really excited, he would not shut up. The child bugged all of them to see their weapons, see them fight something, what they did, what they liked, anything that popped into his head. Celly decided at that moment to fly above them to escape the noise.
Being such a kind-hearted pony, Sunshy answered the child as best he could. He told him that the weapons were dangerous and not to be played with or ever shown off. However, when that did not stop the child’s ramblings, Zen snapped and barked at the child to shut up. Short Stuff jumped and hid behind Sunshy, tears forming at the edges of his eyes.
Zen walked at the back with his ears down, getting the cold shoulder from Sunshy for the rest of the trek back to Pretty Cow’s farm. Royal Lace couldn’t help but smirk and have a little spring in her step after that.
Pretty Cow was in hysterics when they brought Short Stuff back to her. It took a lot of prying to get the concerned mother to stop crushing Sunshy in a hug. And forget a bath; her tears had cleaned his coat quite nicely. She tried to pay them for bringing her baby back, but only Zen was alright with that. Just letting the two ponies free was more than enough for them.
They resumed traveling immediately after, heading back towards Nchi Kavu at a gallop to make up for lost time. Because of this, they weren’t too focused on watching where they were going. A rather bad mistake, and a huge one.
Sunshy shrieked in a rather undignified manner as his hoof tripped over something and his back flipped over his head. Then, as soon as his rump hit the ground, a hole opened up into a tunnel. The pegasus would have taken the time to wonder about that if he wasn’t sliding down at breakneck speed, shouting at the top of his lungs. Zen dove in after him, followed by Lacey, and Celly dove at the hole. She landed on the ground and made to claw it open, but the hole was obliging enough to gape and swallow her as well. It closed behind her.
The tunnel went down at a downward slope, thankfully not completely straight down. It was pitch black inside, adding to the terror of Sunshy’s claustrophobia. However, the bottom was not dirt. It was so slick and the smell wafting off it…it seemed like…soap?
The group was sure they’d love to wonder about that, if they weren’t all sliding down to their doom.
The tunnel had twists and turns, corkscrews, and impossibly circled up and then back down. After the first couple turns, they all began laughing. Their impending doom had somehow become a ride.
A minute or so passed before Sunshy spotted light. Moments later, he tumbled out of the tunnel, all gangly limbs rolling on the ground. Zen came after and hit him like a bowling ball. Royal Lace forced her head up to prevent any injury to her horn. This caused her to roll awkwardly on her side. Celly had the good sense to open her wings out in the shockingly large tunnel. She was able to slow her descent and step out of the slide-tunnel with dignity.
Zen and Sunshy untangled themselves from each other while Royal Lace picked herself up, shaking off the force of the impact. They all looked to each other and then busted out laughing. Then a sound caught their attention.
It sounded like someone was…clapping their hooves together, but somehow different. When they listened hard, they could hear random sounds underlying the clapping. There was a camera shutter, a frog croak, a bird chirp, a goat braying, to name a few. All their laughter evaporated and was replaced by confusion.
“Oh, I am so glad you finally decided to drop in, my little ponies, zebra, and manticore.” A strange voice called out from nowhere.
The group took stock of their surroundings for the first time. They were inside a cave with a large wall of small screens, each one showing something different. Some were of pones, and by the dreary gray, probably in Equestria. Others were in Savannah, showing zebras dressed in strange armored dresses that were all red and gold. A few were of the cold northern mountains. More showed the area Sunshy knew as being south of Equestria, some connecting states of some sort; part of Equestria, but not.
In front of the wall of televisions was a throne. It was long and thin; making what could be a face at the top. Two deer antlers grew from the top. But it was facing the wall, so they could not see much other than the gray stone back. And the inside was…quite strange. There were upside-down houses floating in the air. A giant house of cards built off to the side. There were bushes of thorns all around. The floor was not rock, it was some sort of tile, pink and purple checkered tile. A few pies flew up and vanished into the ceiling, then appeared at the floor, and repeated the process. Then there were the pink clouds that rained chocolate milk.
All in all, it was surreal and bizarre.
And then, they all let out a shriek at the same time.
Before them, the strangest mutated creature to have ever existed appeared.
The thing had the gray head of a horse, with one long fang growing out of his right side. He had long white eyebrows and a white beard. On his head sat two different horns; the right was like a deer’s antler, while the left was a goat. He had a thin black mane going down with the gray fur, cut short. The thing had two yellow eyes with red pupils, each one a different size. His ears were thin and long, almost feline.
The middle of his body was brown and made up of feathers. His left hand was that of an eagle, like a griffon, while the right was a lion’s paw. On his back were wings, one blue and like a pegasus, and the other a bat. The legs were mismatched as well; the right leg was that of a green lizard, and his left leg was a light brown goat. A tail curled out of his body, red and scaled like a snake, with a tuft of white fur at the end. Spikes grew up from the snake tail and up part of his back.
“Discord, the draconequus,” Sunshy breathed. Only he recognized the creature floating before them immediately, “and spirit of Disharmony and Chaos.”
Discord laughed a bit as he clapped his mismatched hands together; clap, cha-ching, clap, bark, clap, moo. Spirit of chaos, indeed. “Oh, very good, very good indeed, dear Sunshy.”
“Who? What? I’m so confused.” Zen stated, unable to comprehend the creature before them.
“Of course you don’t, Zen, your people have no knowledge of me. Only the ponies remember me, and that’s only those who study up on history.” Discord floated over to the group and drew a claw under Sunshy’s muzzle with his eagle hand.
“Don’t touch him!” Zen shouted without understanding the danger. His mind was focused only on keeping Sunshy safe from what could be a potential threat.
The spirit smirked in amusement and floated away as Zen whipped out a Zebra Rifle. Discord waved a hand over his chest and a bull’s-eye appeared. Zen growled and shot three armor-piercing incendiary bullets at him. They pierced and went clean through the creature, hitting one of the screens. It went blank for a while, but then the image reappeared, fully functional. Discord guffawed as the four stared at him and the screen in open awe.
“You should see the looks on your faces!” He proclaimed, clutching his sides as he floated in the air, flapping his wings, “Priceless!”
“That doesn’t make sense…” Royal Lace breathed, glancing between the draconequus.
“Sense?” Discord chuckled as a glass appeared in his hand. “What fun is there in making sense?”
Then a pink cloud appeared out of nothing and rained chocolate milk into the glass. It filled from the top down. Then he brought it to his mouth and drank the glass. He threw the remaining liquid that impossible held its shape over his shoulder, and it exploded like a missile, making the group cringe from the blast wave and dust. The screens somehow survived. Discord acted as though nothing happened while he put on some sunglasses.
“Di…Discord?” Sunshy stammered out, making himself as small and unintimidating as impossible.
“Hmm?” The spirit floated over and hung in the air upside-down in front of the yellow and red pegasus, smiling at him.
“Wh…why are we here?”
“Ha! That’s a simple one.” Discord answered with a smile, pulling down his sunglasses.
“It doesn’t matter! We’re going to kill you if you touch him again!” Zen threatened, running up and pointing the muzzle of his gun at the spirit’s head.
“You’re so boring, zebra boy. Have some fun!” The draconequus turned over and held his head in his paw and claw, smiling.
“Zen, don’t, you don’t understand who he is.” Sunshy warned, placing a hoof on the gun. After sharing a glance, Zen reluctantly put away his gun.
“Enlighten us, then. Who are you?” Lacey questioned, walking forward to the creature.
“As your brilliant Sunny here said, I’m Discord, the last of my kind and the spirit of Disharmony and Chaos. A couple thousand years ago, those stick-in-the-mud Princesses imprisoned me in stone by the power of the Elements of Harmony for having a little fun with all the ponies. Then, not long after I was freed, those pesky friends you know as the Ministry Mares imprisoned me once again.” Discord made statues of the ponies he talked about as he spoke. There were the Goddesses Celestia and Luna, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash.
“Then how are you free?”
Discord stared at the unicorn mare as though she was soft in the head. The statues vanished as he sighed, preparing for another explanation.
“The world is chaotic. Of course he’s free. The wasteland of the world is his domain.”
The group all searched for the source of the voice, except for Discord and Celly. The former was staring at the latter with a smug smile. The manticore had her jaw hanging open in shock.
“I can talk Equestrian?!” The voice of a mare came out of the manticore’s mouth. Discord laughed at their expressions.
“You can talk?!” The equines shouted at Celly, all taken aback.
“She’s always been able to talk, you just couldn’t listen.” Discord managed to say after his laughing fit. Then he saw that none of them were paying any attention to him. He scowled at that and teleported in front of their line of sight, snapping at them to catch their attention; snap, neigh, snap, boop, snap, plop.
“Did you do this?!” Zen demanded of the spirit.
“Why, yes, I did. Do you like it?” Discord chuckled, floating around the manticore.
“Just…surprised is all…” Sunshy stated, earning a nod from Celly.
“We…weirdness aside…what are we here for?” Celly questioned, looking to the draconequus.
“I need you to find the Elements of Disharmony. They are Bigotry, Greed, Treachery, Sadness, Deceit, and Cruelty. And if you have time, find someone with the virtue of Laughter, it’s my personal favorite.”
“Why? Why should we help you?” Zen demanded.
“Because if you don’t I will make sure your lives are a living hell, even more than they are now. Why, haven’t you noticed how swell things have been going? That’s only a small taste of my power. Gain my favor and I will reward you all any way you like.” Discord used his snake tongue to catch a floating-by pink cloud and ate it.
“Why should—“ Lacey questioned.
“A sky carriage. We need one to get everywhere faster than on hoof.” Zen demanded.
“Done and done.” Discord appeared as an arm around Zen’s shoulder; the rest of his body appeared after a moment, “And as a show of good faith, I’ll make it boring and normal just for you.”
The spirit snapped his eagle claws and in a burst of light, a blue carriage with the pattern of clouds on it appeared. The sky carriage was large enough to hold a family of ponies as well as some equipment. There was a harness sticking out in the front, large enough for Celly to be strapped in and pull them along. The doors were made entirely of glass, allowing one to see into the plush interior.
“Does it work?” Lacey questioned, dubiously scanning the carriage. Discord scoffed and looked as though he was offended.
“Of course it works. I said it was a show of good faith, didn’t I? Now, my little errand runners, I leave you with this.” Discord snapped his fingers again.
A little collar appeared around Sunshy’s neck. Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as strangling as the slave collar. It was made of a thin material and was colored the same as his fur. Unless someone stared at it directly, it was almost impossible to see.
“What’s this?” Sunshy questioned, trying to see the collar.
“A little invention of mine that will help you find the bearers of the Elements of Disharmony. It will help me keep an eye on you as well.” The draconequus appeared as a large eye beside the pegasus before his body unraveled.
“Why us?” Celly questioned.
“Because Sunshy here is the only one in all of the Savannah wasteland to know who I am and what can happen if he doesn’t do as I ask.” Discord hung his head upside-down in front of the pegasus, who shied back from him.
“And why do you want the bearers of the Elements of Disharmony, anyway?” Zen asked, getting closer to Sunshy defensively.
“Insurance, you could say. I’ve become a little uneasy at how close that dragon has gotten to collecting a full set of the Elements of Harmony bearers. I’m not taking a chance of going back to that horrible prison of stone ever again.” The spirit of Chaos frowned deeply as he righted himself, seeming very angry. The pink clouds turned a violent red and the chocolate milk rain began falling harder, solidifying into hail. The stack of cards shuttered and swayed. The pies began exploding.
“Okay! Okay, we’ll help, just please calm down.” Sunshy stated, already knowing that he had no possibility of backing out of this.
“And that’s why I chose you, little sunshine. Always so helpful.” Discord patted the pegasus on the head, earning a dog-like growl from Zen, “Oh, calm yourself Zen, you’re already in the spot for Greed.”
That shut him up. The group all looked to him in shock. Sunshy had a mix of shock, hurt, and confusion.
“What. Did. You. Say?” Zen demanded slowly, threateningly.
“Don’t take it so personally, boy. Your greed is something quite admirable, to be sure. You protect Sunshy with your life because he’s yours right?”
“I protect him because I love him!”
“Oh, sure, there’s that too, but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. That little voice in your head that tells you to kill anything that gets too close to your Sunshy.” Discord turned into a tiny version of himself, sitting atop the zebra’s head.
“You’re wrong!” Zen shouted as he shook the spirit off.
With a smirk, Discord grew to his normal large size and poked Sunshy on the head. A rather innocent gesture, one with no malicious intent or any chaotic magic. And yet, it set Zen off.
The zebra pulled out his electric lance and jumped at the draconequus, slashing at his throat. Discord merely teleported away in a flash of white light. He reappeared sitting on the top of his throne with a smug smile; the lizard leg crossed over his goat leg.
“See? But don’t feel bad about it, it’s admirable. Your tremendous greed manifests itself into a rather warped version of loyalty. So it’s not all bad, you see.” The spirit of chaos placed his head in his eagle claw. “Of course, you still are greedy in the normal way.”
“Stop talking!!” Zen shouted, dropping the lance. His voice was coated with the sound of oncoming tears.
“You’re still the same Zen I know and love.” Sunshy assured as he walked over to the zebra and nuzzled the side of his face.
“See? All is well. Now, I am missing some wonderful chaos here. Arrivederci.” The draconequus snapped his claws.
Blinding, bright light!
The Cave of Chaos, as Sunshy had decided to call it, was gone. Once his eyes adjusted from the blinding light, he could see that they were outside. Quickly, he did a head count. Himself, Zen, Royal Lace, and Celly. Also, that sky carriage. Celly had become strapped to it, so that they could take off right after leaving that cave. She was rather confused and stared at it and looked around, trying to gather hear bearings. Speaking of which, Sunshy noted that all their saddlebags had been placed inside the carriage. Maybe completely glass doors weren’t a good idea…
“Are we really going to do as he says?” Royal Lace questioned, looking to Sunshy.
“We don’t have much of a choice.” Zen stated grumpily as he stormed into the sky carriage. The zebra lied down on the blush dark blue seat, facing the wall.
The two ponies gave each other a glance before joining him in the carriage. Sunshy sat next to Zen while Lacey lied down on the entirety of the opposite bench. A growl came from Celly, sounding curious. While he could still understand her, Sunshy was a little sad that his sister could no longer speak Equestrian.
“Nchi Kavu, yes.” Sunshy answered her, his eyes on Zen.
They heard the large bat wings beat before the carriage lifted up. A moment later, and they were moving. Lacey, ecstatic, stared out the glass doors down at the scenery below, a broad grin on her face. The trip to Nchi Kavu, which would have taken a good two days on hoof, would now only take a matter of hours.
Hopefully, hours in which Zen would stop sulking.
Sunshy’s ears folded as he kept his eyes on the sad zebra. Those black and white striped ears were pressed against his skull in sorrow. The pegasus lied his head down on Zen’s back. The zebra made no motion or any acknowledgement.
An hour passed, in which the group could see with perfect clarity as Celestia’s sun moved down. The dry and barren wasteland seemed even worse from up above. A lot of brown was all that there seemed to be. Other than the spots of trees and skeletons of cities, there was brown. Sunshy asked why there were so many tiny cities.
“Savannah worked different than Equestria. Instead of large cities stretched out, they had small cities with big buildings all over the place. Some were for work, some only sold groceries, and some were apartments. I guess it all makes for great looting.” Royal Lace answered, continuing to gaze down.
Only then did Zen speak.
“He’s right, you know.” Zen muttered. “First time I saw you, know what I thought? He has to be mine. I thought of you like a trophy, Sunny.”
“I already told you, I don’t care. I hardly believe that you’re all that greedy, anyway.” Sunny placed a kiss on Zen’s cheek.
“Really? When I suggested spending those caps in Borderlands, I just wanted free stuff that came out of your pocket. Then those same caps would be used to pay me because I lived and worked there. I only freed Celly because that would mean getting to you faster. I scavenge to get as many caps as possible. I kill people who try to rob me. No questions asked, and no thoughts behind it. I’m not worthy of a pony like you.”
“No one is perfect, Zen.”
“At least you have a virtue now…Granted, it ain’t the best one out there…but you make good work of it. You spend those caps on food and whatnot, right? Keep you all safe and fed. Sure, you may be a selfish asshole about Sunshy, but at least you do something to protect him. It doesn’t matter if your intentions aren’t that great. I just know now not to ask you for any handouts.” Royal Lace interjected. She managed to get a small smile from the zebra, which got a smile from Sunshy.
“I still hate you.”
“It’d be weird if you didn’t.”
Sunshy sighed with a smile at his friends. The pegasus sat upright as the sky carriage slowly began to descend. Looking out of the glass door, he could see the green splotch that was Nchi Kavu. All of the equines smiled.
Home.
Level up! You are now level 12!
Perk added! Touched by Discord: A certain Spirit of Chaos is watching you. Any time you get into a tight spot, he will come to your aid and fell any of your foes left. While his accuracy is great, his methods are bad for your sanity.
Main Quest added! Elements of Disharmony: You have to find the six elements of Disharmony for Discord. They could be anywhere, but at least you have a scarf-collar-thing to help.
Completed: Element of Greed found.
Update: Elements of Bigotry, Treachery, Sadness, Deceit, and Cruelty left.