Chapter 5
“This is getting… out of hand,” Lance muttered as he and his son sat on their roof, watching the explosions in the sky caused by the fighting.
“Have you talked with the princesses about this?” Spark asked, frowning.
“I did, but they said the best thing to do was sit back and just let Champion handle this one,” he said, shaking his head. “Honestly, this guy he’s fighting seems to be way too powerful.”
Without warning, the biggest boom of the fight happened, causing the trees to wave violently and buildings to vibrate and groan. Looking through his binoculars, Lance saw that the man had landed a full on hit on Champion, sending him rocketing into the sky.
“Hm… that can’t be good,” Lance muttered, getting his son to look at him in confusion.
“What do you-” he started to say, but then he saw something that made his eyes go wide.
The moon, which was still barely in the sky, suddenly split, straight down the middle.
“... did that man just punch Star Chaser into the moon?!” Spark yelped, jumping to his hooves.
“He sure as hell did,” Lance said solemnly.
“What kind of man is he fighting?!”
“Nothing normal, that’s for sure…” Lance said, rubbing his face. “Luna’s gonna be pissed at this one.” Then his eyes went wide as he looked back to the moon with his binoculars, seeing Champion rocketing back to the planet at an incredible speed. But that’s not what was causing him to panic. The moon, which used to have an image of an angry female Draconequus’s face on it, was now blank.
“Oh fuck,” he said as he lowered the binoculars and looked at his son. “We need to get to Canterlot, now!”
ooo000<^>000ooo
“That’s just fucking cool,” I said in awe as I saw the moon was now split in half. This guy Champion is fighting must be super fucking strong to do something like that! Like a Dragon Ball Z character! Oh hell yeah!
I threw a few punches at the air in front of me, getting a bit hyped thinking about the fight above me devolving into a DBZ style fight.
The town around me was quiet, as it was still early enough in the morning that most people were still asleep.
As I walked, I heard the sound of something slamming into the ground like a lightning bolt behind me. Spinning around, I found myself staring at a very strange sight.
Someone who looked a lot like Discord was slowly standing up, looking very confused and dazed. But unlike Discord, this was a female. Huh, she kinda looks like the image on the moon…
Oh.
“Well this sure is an interesting development!” the creature exclaimed, standing up straight and stretching its back. Then a large telescope appeared before them as they looked up at the fight above us. “Hm… those two are scarily strong, that’s for sure.”
Then it laughed, “is that Frederic’s boy? Star Chaser? Oh that IS interesting!”
I took a step back, causing the creature to look at me and raise an eyebrow. “What the fuck are you?!”
“Eh,” I started to say, but I just stared at the strange character before me. My parents had told me the image on the moon was of an old friend of the bronies who had been the cause of a lot of trouble for them. But they never went into details, just gave the basics.
The Draconequus suddenly appeared next to me and snapped her fingers, causing me to flip into the air and land on a chair that appeared out of nowhere. They spun me around, seeming to be looking me over. “Yeah, I don’t know what you are. But you look very badass, I’ll admit that.”
As I started to speak, they stopped spinning me and grabbed my hand, forcing me to shake their hand.
“The names Annabel, but you can call me Anarchy, Queen of lust and chaos!” she exclaimed, shaking my hand aggressively.
“Eh… Shayla Beltosh,” I said back, unsure of how to treat this creature.
“And where did you come from? Because I’ve never seen something like you before!” she said as she snapped her fingers, causing me to fall onto the ground as the chair disappeared.
“My moms?” was the only thing I could say, as I didn’t exactly know how to answer her. “I’m part pony, part Kejtdra.”
“The fuck is a ‘Kejtdra’?” she asked, scrunching up her nose.
“Uh…. I don’t know how to answer that,” I replied, causing her to roll her eyes.
“Where’s Discord?” she asked with a wide smile on her face, and started using an oversized magnifying glass to look around us.
“He, uh,” I started, trying to remember where he actually was, since I've only met him twice. “Eh, I think he took Spike and Malbatorus on a guys trip.”
“I see,” she said with a glare, flicking out a claw and using it to clean her ear. “Any clue when they’ll be back?”
“No?” I said back, not liking the way her mood kept switching.
“What about Lance?” she asked suddenly, a crazy look now on her face. “I want to visit an old friend and… catch up.”
Okay, now I’m sure I don't want to reveal anything else to her.
“No idea,” I said carefully.
“Someone's a liar,” she said in a sing-song voice, slithering around me and coming up in front of me, holding the Watcher’s vial. “And who are you?”
“Hey, give that back!” I yelled, eyes going wide. I lunged for her, but she just laughed as she snapped her fingers, causing me to fly past her, now in a straightjacket.
“You’re a strange little guy,” she said, dangling the Watcher in front of her face. “There’s something weird about you, I just can’t place a talon on it.”
“Be careful with that!” I yelled, flexing my body and using my claws to shred my way out of the stupid piece of clothing.
“Why? Is he dangerous?” she asked, a mischievous smile on her face.
“Yes!” I yelled, dashing towards her and making a grab for it, but she just chuckled as she glided backwards, snapping her fingers. I fell to the ground, now in a box with just my head sticking out. “Hey!”
“You’re a feisty little thing!” she laughed, then held a hand up next to the vial. “So, if I, I don’t know, let him out, that’d be bad?”
“Very bad!” I yelled, struggling to tear my way out of the box.
“Uh oh,” she said with a smirk, snapping her finger. “He’s out!”
I winched, turning away, not wanting to see what happened next. But after a few moments of nothing happening, I turned back to see her holding the vial, a confused look on her face as the Watcher just blinked at her from the vial.
“What the?!” she growled, snapping her finger over and over again, but nothing changed. “What kind of stupid magic is on this thing?!”
Not taking any more chances, and seeing she was distracted, I propelled myself at her and snatched the vial from her. I landed on the ground behind her and squared up, glaring at her.
She just frowned at me, her face no longer looking easy going or friendly. “Okay, enough distractions. Where is Lance?”
“Dunno who that is,” I responded, narrowing my eyes.
“Lying little lizard pony thing,” she growled, snapping her finger and causing the sky to go dark with thunderclouds.
I darted my eyes around us, trying to figure out how to handle her. I’m used to fighting others physically, but this creature has powers like Discord. And I can confidently say… I don’t think I can fight this one alone.
“Once more, Lance or any of his friends,” she said, holding her hand up, ready to snap.
How to handle this?
“Why do you want to know where they are?” I asked, trying to buy time for me to think of something.
“Payback,” she said evenly, then snapped her finger causing the buildings around us to sag and reform into statues of each of the bronies. “They take things too seriously, and they punish me for a few harmless pranks.”
“From what I know, they weren’t exactly harmless,” I say back, watching as the statues around us start to laugh creepily, the dark clouds above making everything look very sinister.
She smiled at me, a smile that caused my fur to raise as I felt like she was a predator, and I was the prey. “Careful, little mutant, you don’t want to see me when I’m… upset.”
The statues around us began to laugh so hard that tears began to fall from their eyes. Oh, bloody tears, how original.
Then her ears twitched as she looked into the distance, snapping her finger and returning everything to normal. “How annoying.”
And just like that, she side stepped into a portal and disappeared, just as Celestia and Luna appeared right where she’d been standing.
“Drat, we missed her!” Luna yelled, her horn flaring as she swept it over the area.
Celestia turned and stared at me, looking extremely worried. “Are you alright, Shayla?”
“Uh, yeah,” I replied, standing up and hiding the Watcher’s Vial under a wing. “The Bitch in the Moon is loose.”
“We are aware,” Luna said, looking up and seeing her son was still fighting the other man. “And my son is busy right now, so we’ll have to handle this one on our own.”
“Great, I’ll go get-” I started, but they cut me off.
“No, Shayla, this will be dangerous. Go get your mothers for us, and tell them to meet us at the Mellowed Pie. We’re going to have to gather everyone and handle this correctly this time,” Celestia said, flashing away before I could reply.
I looked at Luna, who was staring at the moon with an angry and sad look on her face. “Such a tragedy…” Then she looked at me, “I know sitting out adventures is hard, but this one is not for the in experienced.”
A scowl appeared on my face, but she just bowed and flashed away. Taking out my phone, I sent a text to my mother, letting her know the Princesses needed her at the Mellowed Pie. I wasn’t going back home just to tell her that.
Then an idea entered my mind as I texted the group chat for Phantasm Troupe.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“You know, on the scale of one to terrible, this idea is easily at the top of the shit list,” Dude said, rubbing his face as we all stood in our clubhouse.
“I know right?” I said with an excited smile. “This is the worst idea ever, which is why we gotta do it!”
“Shayla,” Roxxy said calmly, getting my attention. “Let’s let the Princesses and the bronies handle this one. This is their fight, not ours. This Anarchy is a horrible being, one of the worst this world has seen, according to my dad at least.”
“But if WE defeat her, everyone will finally take us seriously!” I point out.
Nightstreak shook his head, “none of us care if anyone takes us seriously. Let the professionals handle this one.”
I frowned as I looked at each of my friends.
“I’d rather not fight her…” Flippy Dew muttered, rubbing her shoulder nervously.
“Me neither,” Summer Breeze added.
I took a deep breath and stood tall in the middle of my friends. “Guys, we can do this. We need to do this. When college starts, everything will change. We may be split up for a long long time!”
“While that could be true,” Roxxy said, standing up and putting a hoof on my shoulder, “that doesn’t mean we have to go face a crazy Draconequus. There’s plenty of other adventures we can go on that aren’t this dangerous.”
Reaching up, I put a hand on her hoof and looked at everyone, “look, guys, you’ve all got your shit figured out. You all know what you want to do. Well, this is what I want to do with my life. I want to fight the impossible, face down foes that are out of my reach. I want to do it with all of you, but I won’t make any of you come with me.”
“Wait, you’re going no matter what?” Dude asked, getting a nod from me.
“Well shit, guess I’m going to face Anarchy,” he groaned, sitting down hard.
“Come on, guys, we shouldn’t do this,” Roxxy said, looking at everyone.
“I don’t want you to go alone,” Flippy Dew mumbled. “I’m going too.”
“Count us in, I guess,” Nightstreak said, getting a nod from his sister.
“Oh we’re all just big idiots who follow an even bigger idiot,” Roxxy whined, rubbing her face.
I leaned forward, giving her puppy dog eyes.
She blinked at me and shoved my face away, “Stop that! I’m going, okay?!”
“Alright!” I exclaimed, jumping into the air above everyone, slamming into the ceiling.
“But what’s the plan?” Dude asked.
“Plan is simple,” I state, flying down and striking a pose. “We’re going to go find her and gang up on her! She’ll either kill us all or like our determination!”
“Wait, our plan is to go fight her, lose, and hope she likes us?” Nightstreak yelped.
I just laugh, shaking my head, “Of course not! We’re going to go and fight so damn hard, that we overwhelm her! Or we lose and she likes us or some shit. I’m still workshopping the idea.”
“Oh great,” Roxxy muttered, “when I was making the list of all the ways we could all die, I never thought to put ‘killed by insane Draconequus’.”
“We got this,” I laughed, putting her into a headlock and ruffling up her mane.
She didn’t fight me, just sat there, groaning. “Why do we follow you again?”
“Because you love me!” I laugh, letting her go and jumping for the door, kicking it open. “Now come on, Phantasm Troupe! We gots a bitch to fry!”