I was outside the school without Cheerilee around. I was now alone by Discord in an alleyway in Ponyville. He was reading a list with glasses mumbling incomprehensible calculations.
"Well, okay, I see. Almond, according to this list scrupulously written by your dear mother, we must start with your homework! Do you have any homework?"
"Yes." I was staring at a rock on the ground, I was afraid I'd meet his crazy eyes.
"In that case," he snapped his talons and we were somewhere else. "Welcome to my home! »
When I looked, everything seemed so chaotic that it was almost unhealthy. Flying apples were singing as they circled around a glass table where a mini volcano was erupting below. A staircase leading nowhere and... ...a series of phenomena defying logic were unfolding before my eyes.
"So what do you think?"
"Very... good."
"Thank you, go and sit down on the table so we can tackle another one of those annoying things written on a list as long as that of dear Twilight."
I would put my bag on the floor and clumsily take my things out on the table using my mouth by the way, which still disgusted me.
Then I would open my math workbook where I laughed inwardly at the simplicity of the calculations:
1+1=...
1+2=...
1+3=...
1+4=...
1+5=...
1+6=...
1+7=...
1+8=...
1+9=... Feel free to reread your lesson if you find it too difficult!
However, despite the simplicity of the exercise, the pencil didn't fit well in my mouth and my writing was at best atrocious.
As I was writing the last line of calculations I heard a scream. I looked up so that I would have just enough time to get all the water that came into my face and all over my notebook.
A kind of blob made of water had just spit in my face and made a giggle that made me guess that he was laughing. I would straighten my wet hair, which hid most of my vision.
"This haircut suits you Abscons. »
"I'm all wet! And so is my notebook!"
"Kids, always complaining. Hottie, get over here!"
A huge hairdryer came out of a hallway and blew on me with all its might. Finally, I flew away to kiss the window a few metres further on.
"Hottie, no! That's no way to treat guests! Bad hair dryer!"
The creature started moaning and fled down the corridor from where it had come. I fell to the ground softly. My wet worksheet landed on my face.
"So sorry, Anon, let's get on with it! For our next step, please make Anon eat holy food and balance. Sure thing!"
He snapped greenhouses again and I found myself lying at a table unable to move a single muscle with a red apple in my mouth.
Discord with a monocle was at the end of the table waiting with a knife and fork.
My heart was pounding, I was going to be a fucking turkey. Who's twisted enough to play a joke on a child? I tried in vain to struggle to get the rope that was keeping me motionless to tighten its grip.
"I'm kidding, Anon. To make it up to you, here are some beautiful flowers."
I looked with a high heart at the flowers on my plate while Discord watched me annoyed.
"What? You don't like flowers? Maybe some applesauce?"
My dish suddenly turned into a bowl of applesauce. There was a spoon on the left.
"Mr. Discord?"
"Yes."
"Could you get me a spoon to fit my hooves?"
"Of course."
He slammed out of those greenhouses again, but nothing happened. As I looked around, my left arm felt heavier.
My eyes were about to fall off as the tip of my left front hoof had become a spoon.
Discord broke out in a demented laugh in front of my frightened head as I felt nauseous. As he dried the tears streaming from his eyes he said:
"Calm down, Anon! As soon as you've finished eating, you'll find your hoof back as such."
"What have you done? Help! Help!"
"Calm Anon! Quiet! Look, no more spoon-hooves. Here's a spoon to fit your hooves!"
"What the..."
My hoof was no longer a spoon. I breathed a few breaths before grabbing my spoon and quietly eating my compote while watching the creature in the corner of my eye.
Discord grumbled beside me and moaned I don't know what about the sacrifices they had to make in the name of Fluttershy.
When the meal was over, he beamed me away with him to what seemed to be a house. I didn't even know where we were, but it was strange. On the left, everything looked quite old, as opposed to the right where everything was new with blue and white colors.
"Well, I don't know if your loathsome parents told you but you have a music class with Octavia!"
"Who?"
"A stuck pony who only plays the violin and lives with Vinyl Scratch. Some say they're..."
"Excuse me? Did I hear wrong?! Who are you calling a uptight pony?!"
A grey pony with a long black mane had just arrived in the living room.
"Oh, just you!"
"And what were you gonna tell that filly about me and Vinyl?"
"I don't even know what you're talking about!"
"I'd rather! Hello, you're Anon, right?"
"Yes."
"All right. Can you let us Discord? Unless I have to tell Fluttershy about your dubious innuendo in front of a child?!"
"I'm leaving, I'm leaving. I'll be back in an hour, Anon!"
And he disappeared without a trace.
"All right, before we get started, my name is Octavia and I'd like you to meet Vinyl. If you're staying at Ponyville, it's important that you meet as many ponies as possible here!"
She took me to a huge room where a huge bass was stored. It had wheels and even a place where a pony could be on the machine.
Before I knew it, a pony came out from underneath the machine. It was a mare with white coat and blue mane with large magenta glasses. She walked towards me and shook my hoof, smiling.
"Vinyl, this is Anon. Vinyl, this is Anon. Remember the little filly I told you about, the one that was adopted by Blueblood and Carrot Top? That's the one. »
"Hello. »
"She doesn't talk too much!" Whispered Octavia. "Well, we'll leave you to it then, Vinyl."
"No problem, Octy. Anon, if you ever feel like trying to DJ, feel free to come and see me!"
"Are you a DJ?"
"Yeah, my stage name is DJ PON3! "She exclaims. Weird for someone who's supposed to talk little, I thought.
Then in doing so, Octavia took me to her side where she showed me some musical instruments.
"This is an Anon violin. It's a stringed instrument that..."
"I know."
"You know?"
When I was little, my parents wanted me to become a musician so until I was eight years old, they kept making me all kinds of instruments but I was never any good and they ended up giving up.
"Yeah."
"Who taught you? Your orphanage?"
"No, my parents! " I half lied.
"Poor child, sorry. I didn't know. I didn't know. And you know how to play it?"
"A little."
There was a series of tests on each of Octavia's musical instruments, but soon she discovered that nothing interested me.
"Too bad, I would have been happy to teach you the art of classical music! You can go see Vinyl if you want. Children usually prefer her music!"
As she was packing up the stuff she'd taken out, I rushed to see Vinyl. I've always dreamed of DJing! All that music, all that noise, all that atmosphere.
I would quickly arrive at Vinyl's place who had put these glasses on his horn and was drinking coffee from a cup while looking out the window.
She turned to me and smiled:
"You wanna try Anon?"
It was just so cool. I was jumping for joy as the session just ended.
I was like, "That was amazing! Can we do it again?"
Vinyl Scratch is smiling.
"Of course, but you'll have to check with your parents. Especially Blueblood, he's kind of stuck on that! »
"Anon, Discord awaits you at the gate!" Clamed Octavia.
"I'm coming, to see Mrs. Vinyl again!"
"Just call me Vinyl! See Anon again!"
As I happily trotted to the living room, the floor slipped away from under my feet.
I fell violently on a kind of damp wooden floor. I stood up gently on my four hooves to notice from my size that I had become an attractive young adult again.
I looked around and saw nothing more than the sea and fog, I was on a ship. This one seemed to be worn down by the ages it had been going through, where a few mushrooms were growing on the mast.
A carved dragon's head sat at the bow of the ship, and the sails, though worn, held the emblem of an elegantly well drawn boar's head.
As I marvelled, I saw Lord Hatred and Lord Fear, who did not seem to have discovered my presence, talking on one of the left sides of the ship.
"I hope you are ready, the battle is likely to be a hard one! The little beast has grown up well since I met her."
"I think I'm ready, you won't be too upset?"
"A little bit, it's more than that idiot Anon can produce in terms of hate!"
"Anyway, I really hope that about 20 rockets will be enough to shoot it down, this thing seems terribly resistant."
"It's not the beast I'm worried about, it's the Disciples!"
"Excuse me? "I was trying to call them out.
"If you wouldn't have been a cheapskate, you wouldn't have to worry about it. But with this boat, on the other hand..."
"Do you know how much a boat costs?"
"I exist, you know! " I shouted.
"Well, here's the most delicious mare we've ever had in our company! " Said Lord Hatred.
"Let me go back to Ponyville!"
"No Anon, after Fear tells me about your exploits in the bunker, I'm commandeering you."
"I refuse!"
"Anon!"
"No."
"Anon, please!"
"Nope!"
"If you refuse, I can guarantee that you will soon experience the experience of being a mother. Anon, I'm serious!"
I tensed up as disgusting images crossed my mind. I felt submissive, threatened with rape if I refused. I was in denial before finally accepting, having little choice anyway.
"All right," I said.
"Thank you, Anon!" Lord Fear added.
"Our mission is to kill my daughter, Scylla! " Lord Hatred said again.
"Your daughter? Scylla? As in Odysseus?"
"Yes, yes and yes. I advise you to watch this video in order to better understand."
He took a tablet out of a wooden chest and handed it to me.
"But... does she really exist?"
As the video progressed, I could feel a part of it freezing in fear of the creature we were going to have to fight.
"Yes."
"And this is your daughter?"
"Yes again, it's a bit of a silly story. I had infiltrated a small village next to a charming little river and disguised myself as a beautiful girly teenager."
"Except that one night," Lord Fear resumed. "Lord Hatred had had too much to drink and... had unprotected sex with a sea creature."
"It's disgusting!" I exclaimed.
"No Anon, the most disgusting part as you say, is when you can't get back to your true shape and you have to give birth to a slimy creature after nine months of grasping tush." Lord Hatred almost screamed.
"Anyway, Lord Hatred did a burn out and left his lovely child in a cave and made sure to feed it to the sailors. Since then she's become a bit like you, his hate tank."
"Like me? Wait, that's horrible! Why would you want to kill her?"
"A community called the Disciples intends to use Scylla by a complicated brainwashing spell to control this strait and gain a monopoly of an important maritime axis."
"Is that all?"
"And would rehabilitate it as a weapon of mass destruction against those opponents."
"Oh, that sucks."
And the heavy, heavy silence of the mist settled among us. I noticed that the person who had been guiding our boat since earlier was looking like a great reaper.
Later, as we were crossing, I began to see the threatening cliffs of the strait we would have to cross. I could feel my legs shaking as if an earthquake had just opened under my feet.
"Our goal is to collapse the cave where Scylla is with a rocket launcher!"
"But I don't know how to use it!"
"Don't worry... Wait, do you hear that?"
Some kind of thud could be heard in the distance in the strait. It was the sound of huge swirls of water crashing and overturning all the time, we could hear Charybdis. I fainted with fear.
While everything seemed deeply black around me, a strong smell of fish invaded my equine snout. I awoke with a start as Lord Fear chuckled mischievously, putting away the fish he was holding in his hand.
"No more napping, we have arrived!"
"And to think that in my day we sent hordes of warriors to fight." Murmured the black-clad creature without anyone noticing.
The ship was already halfway through the straits when Lord Fear woke me up. Huge cliffs to starboard and port stood in front of us.
These were at least three or four boats like ours, where the orange colour of the stones gave the place an even more threatening point.
"Calm down Anon, everything is going to be all right! " Lord Hatred assured me, "and then, if we make it, we'll be the second to survive after Ulysses! »
"Only Ulysses? »
"It seems to me that it's only his ship if you subtract the sailors who died as collateral damage, but it doesn't matter anyway. The only thing you need to know is that in order to prevent you from inadvertently sinking the ship, you will use your machine on your arm."
"Pip-Buck," Clamed Lord Fear somewhere in the fog that was beginning to cover the boat.
"Yes, that."
Soon the strait narrows threatening to sink our ship from the sharp reefs along the cliff edge. Eventually, however, it widens again to let me discover hell at sea.
On the left, stronger than ever, we saw the imposing Charybdis, which was engulfing the water generating a whirlpool. I could see those fangs in its huge mouth that kept spinning in the same rhythm as the whirlpool.
On the right, a huge cave was standing high up. Dark and whose lack of movement reminded me of the methods of spiders. They wait until their prey is close enough to them and entangled in the web and then, without warning, they throw themselves on them.
Our forked companion took me out of my contemplation:
"You stay the course while I get the gear out!"
"The equipment? " I was still babbling at a loss.
"Yes, you idiot. We're gonna blast this infection out of nature with explosives, not debate why she should die! »
"But I can't stay the course! Perhaps Lord... " I noticed that I was alone on deck.
"No time, get your rump up!"
I approached and took the helm as our boatman stepped into the hold.
I found myself alone on the deck as the fog slowly slid across the deck blocking my field of vision halfway up. When I seemed to hear a soft field.
A sad and sweet song came to my ears that seemed like a whisper compared to the deafening rustle of Charybdis.
I could no longer see it, the mist covered it like a blanket of snow and the body of water that stood before me. As I searched for the author of this song while keeping my course, I saw a movement further on.
Something was moving further up the cliff, something huge. As I squinted my eyes, trying to find the origin of what I thought I'd seen, the three companions came out of the hold, their arms loaded with boxes containing explosives of all kinds.
"Hang on! " Screamed our boatman as he turned sharp right.
I was clinging to the mast smelling of leftover applesauce that I hadn't thrown up yet, as the boat changed course.
"This is no time to cling to life Anon! She'll be back soon!"
I was unhooking against all desire from my mast and grabbing with my mouth the handle of one of the rocket launchers when several huge half-woman, half-monster heads appeared as I came out of the cave. We were almost underneath.
The pressure was on, everyone was waiting to get close enough to fire. My heart beat violently like a jackhammer as I recited an inner prayer.
Scylla's heads suddenly plunged dramatically towards us at the sight of Lord Hatred's presence on the boat. A muffled, not to say guttural rumble rose in the air. Scylla spoke:
"You will pay! You're going to pay for everything you've done to me, Hatred!"
Before any of us could fire anything, the heads smashed the ship, I succumbed to my unconsciousness.
I woke up violently in a sweaty sweat, I was warm, wrapped in a nice warm blanket. Rays of sunlight filtered through a window. I would slowly straighten up so that I could see what was around me.
I was obviously in a pleasant room and I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time. I had no more horrible green hairs on my skin and no muzzle to cover my field of vision. And... I was naked. I was me again, with hands and feet and hair and...
Something moved next to me in the bed, a man. He seemed so real and yet so blurry, I couldn't make out his face. He woke up, then, standing up and smiling at me, he started to caress my shoulders. I don't know why, but I seemed to love him uncontrollably and irrationally as if I could not think.
He started looking at me for a long time before finally grabbing me by the hips and pulling me towards him in a sensual way and...
"Pathetic."
A dark and cavernous voice echoed throughout my being as everything faded away like rain, fading away diffusely and sporadically until only darkness remained.
I noticed that my eyelids were closed, I couldn't open them. I concentrated and after a great effort I managed to do so. I could see that I was lying on the ground in a dark and damp place where an unbearable smell of dead fish was being smelled.
My body was shaking and cold, my fur was all wet and I felt so weak. I couldn't move a single part of my being. On the side I could see what could easily have been the trunk of a snake if it had not been so big. Scylla stood less than a meter away.
I tried to turn my head to get a clearer view and succeeded. My other companions were in the same state as I was, paralyzed with an overwhelming weakness. Scylla began to blow a kind of greenish mist on my other companions.
"Interesting," and without another word went to the next one.
This one seemed to have the ability to see what we were thinking or something.
"It's underneath shabby, miserable creature," she scolded our dear hooded companion.
She blew a red mist on him and the bugger could move and hurried off, jumping straight into the strait below.
"What did you see so terrible in these thoughts?" Lord Fear murmured weakly.
"Fear of being late for his brother's wedding which had just taken place... And why am I telling you this? Anyway, Hatred's friends will suffer the same fate, don't expect to get out of it!"
"What about me? " I had difficulty articulating, my snout seemed to be completely anaesthetized.
"What about you? I need someone to talk to and I must admit I'm not insensitive to your pretty face!"
"Exuse me!" Everyone shouted.
"Never mind, it just so happens that everybody in this world has desires. Now let's get started."
She lifted Lord Hatred completely still, grabbing him by the leg and held him over the abyss that was the mouth of Charybdis.
"I just wanted to tell you one thing, Mother, it's not true what they say. Scylla can catch anyone crossing the strait. There's no choice, only concessions."
"Great," murmured Lord Hatred.
Meanwhile, Lord Fear was waving at me with those eyes. His gaze, he pointed to his sword, which I could barely touch with one of my hind hooves.
But, should I save him? Perhaps his death would be a good thing? But it would mean that I would be trapped forever in this body and here with Scylla who would want me... I had to save him!
I reached for my hoof and grabbed the sword. Then I aimed at my Pip-Buck and prayed that my plan would work.
The sword was hurtling at a rapid speed and pierced part of the neck of one of Scylla's heads, which stiffened before finally swinging and crashing into the side of the mountain.
Scylla screamed in pain and rage, giving, as I saw with my own eyes, a kind of new energy in Lord Hatred who was freeing his leg from the monster's mouth as new heads were raging at him.
This time it was Lord Fear's turn to move. He jumped on Scylla's trunk and sliced off as many of its limbs as he could. During the struggle, Scylla lost her feet, taking with her the two Lords still fighting with her.
Silence returned to the cave as I still couldn't move, the end of the day was going to be long.
As night came and I had fallen asleep despite my incessant stomach rumbling, I heard a rock fall. Lord Fear and Lord Hatred were struggling up the cliff.
"Still there, Anon? " Said Lord Hatred mockingly.
"We'll be able to get back then, but first... " Lord Fear made me drink a healing potion. I could walk again.
I fell violently to the floor in the sinister room that I easily recognized as the Discord Lounge. I tried to find something that would light up the room a little outside the mini volcano but I couldn't find anything.
Suddenly I was grabbed by the neck and lifted off the floor. Discord who seemed to be crying and was apparently very angry was looking at me. The light chose this moment to manifest itself.
"Where?"
"I don't know. " I was whispering looking away.
"Where? Anon I want to know, I'm not one of those stupid princesses who give up after the multiplication table of one!"
"I, uh..."
"Your parents are worried sick and worse than all of Fluttershy is worried sick, so where were you?"
"Canterlot?"
"Anon, I've searched all of Equestria and even two or three parallel universes, so tell me everything!"
It was too much, my little filly nerves gave out as I began to cry profusely in spite of myself.
"Anon... Anon, please stop."
I babbled a few incoherent words about what had happened while Discord was resting on the ground.
"Calm down, Anon. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. Do you want a lollipop?"
He took a huge lollipop out of a magician's hat and took it out of his fridge. I kept crying, trying in vain to calm myself. Discord was starting to panic and... to duplicate himself by running around.
"Please, Anon, not a word to Fluttershy!"
"What if she finds out I made a child cry?"
"What will become of me?"
"According to this statistical study, the probability that Fluttershy will never know about it... I quit."
I slowly got up, still feverish that my nerves had given way so easily. The day had been hard and I was tired.
"All right," I murmured. "I won't tell Fluttershy if you stop asking me where I was!"
"Where have you been? I mean okay, but your parents are in a state of near insane anxiety. What are you going to tell them?"
"What, am I lost?"
"In a house with one hallway? I thought you were smarter than that."
"Uh... (clears throat)"
"The truth? It seems Applejack has that virtue."
"I can't. I don't want to go to a mental hospital!"
"Yet, if you plead insanity, you may escape from prison. " Says another of the Duplicate Discords that had not yet disappeared.
" No, then it sounds like me. Look, Anon, whatever you're hiding from your parents, I wish you'd take the time not to lie because..."
A ringing bell rang throughout the house. Discord arose:
"Hide, I don't want them to find you here!
I hurried to run and hide under the couch while Discord came whistling at the door. From where I was standing, I could only hear what was going on:
"Good evening, Discord, may I come in?"
"Of course, Celestia. However, would it be possible to leave your guards outside."
"No, I wasn't planning on talking to you alone."
The door closed as the newcomer whose name I had already vaguely heard moved through the room in the presence of Discord.
"And to what do I owe the displeasure of this visit, Celestia?"
"My little niece went missing Discord while you were supposed to be taking care of her."
"It's not my fault she's a runaway with a vivid imagination. Luna must have told you."
"Unfortunate no, since her last visit with her. But I heard about the incident. Discord, tell me that it is not you who amuses yourself by torturing this poor child by sending her I don't know where."
"I can promise you that I'm done, my friendship with Fluttershy is too important to jeopardize."
"Good, but I have to be in the position where you'd lie to me. Just tell me what happened!"
"I picked Anon up from school. Then I fed him some applesauce and dropped him off at his music class, where I haven't seen him since."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Sure?"
"Affirmative."
"Then why is she under your couch spying on us? »
I heard a thud, I came out of my hiding place, which had become useless to see Discord having toppled over from his chair, he was playing dead.
Before I could do anything, I was crushed by Celestia's minotaur's embrace, soft and poignant at the same time.
"It's nice to finally meet you. I'm so excited to have a little niece outside of Flurry Hearth, of course. Word of advice, Anon, next time you go into hiding, don't just hide your head."
I started blushing so hard I was ashamed of how stupid I was.
"Celestia, I can explain everything," whispered Discord weakly.
"There's nothing to explain, I understand perfectly. »
"What's that?" I was challenged.
"Anon wanted to see if his parents really loved him so he hid and waited for a reaction. I used to do the same thing when I was a filly. That's very sweet of you, Discord, but you should've said no, those parents are desperate."
"But..."
"There are no buts, we're going now! Good evening Discord."
After taking the spanking of my life just after Celestia's departure and a massive wave of hugs, I returned to my bed. Before leaving Celestia had cast a tracking spell to find me if I wanted to run away again.
I was falling on my bed like a stone, the day had been exhausting. I had survived: a god of chaos, a princess of light, a sea voyage and Charybdis and Scylla.
I huddled in my blankets when I felt something sting my hoof. It was a small wooden boat given to me by Blueblood. It looked a lot like the boat I'd been on earlier. It was strange, not to say disturbing, but soon sleep came to rock me in its arms.