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// Nothing to Lose Your Head Over 
// Story: Equestria: A Flux Tale 
// by Star Sage 
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“ADA, Mummy!” you shout, the subweapon display shifting to the selected weapon. You didn’t know if it would work against magic, especially Discord’s power, but you did know your own abilities tended to create things that worked off their own physics. So you stood there waiting for the thing voiced by John de Lancie to let loose with his shot, hoping this worked and you didn’t get Jehuty turned into a potted plant or something.

You didn’t have to wait long, as Discord brought his hands together, and a blast of magical energy blasted from them, ADA’s sensors telling her it was on par with the Vector Cannon, the most powerful weapon in her arsenal. You raised the Mummy’s shield just before it hit, holding out your hand, and suddenly a physical barrier appeared before you, like a tower shield, almost as tall as your mech itself, which the blast struck, hard.

You were pushed back, and energy readings went nuts, several of the dials on your control panel telling you that what was happening outside was impossible. Luckily, however, the Mummy shield held, the blast parting around it, and becoming several lances that pounded into the wall behind you, exploding against it, and causing candy, ice cream, and what looked like soda, to come pouring out of holes that it made.

“Wow, that’s kind of random,” you comment, turning Jehuty around to look at it, before spinning towards Discord, and finally, noticing Deasly, who was still on his hooves, though barely by the shake in his legs.

“Zero Shift,” you order, and the subweapon display changes again. Discord, still not sure how you blocked his chaos magic, just stares at you, not sure what to do. You think seem to warp in his vision, twisting like he was seeing you through a curtain of water, before a pop, and you vanish.

This was highly unexpected, and Discord’s eyes scan the throne room for you, startled when he realizes that you’re behind him now, standing in front of that pony that had tried to blast him just before you arrived.

“Deasly, how you feelin buddy?” you ask, looking him over to find he’s not too badly hurt.

“Drained, I put everything I had behind a blast aimed at him. It didn’t do anything though…do you think you have a chance?” he asked, a bit of curiosity coming into his voice as he looked over Jehuty, remembering what the thing was capable of.

“Not sure, but it’ll be a fun test to find out. Say, you don’t have a blank sketch book and a quill, do you?” you ask suddenly, and Deasly looks at you funny, but then nods, pulling the requested items from his saddlebags, and floating them towards you.

“Thanks,” you say, grabbing them both, and then turning, trying to look serious as you stare at Discord, and then hover over to him, facing him down.

“So, you’re the Master of Chaos, the Spirit of Disharmony, and the Bringer of the Chocolate Milk Rain?” you ask him, and he looks into the mech’s eyes.

“Yes, yes I am,” he answers, a bit of curiosity leaking into his voice, obviously wondering where you’re going with this.

“Can I have your autograph?” you tell him suddenly, holding out the quill and pad, which causes everyone in the throne room to go quiet. Even those who have been moaning in pain just stare at you incredulously, not sure what’s going on as you offer him the pad and quill. Discord, for his part, just stares at them before laughing, and taking them.

“Hmm, never had to give one of those out before on request. Who should I make it out to?” he asks.

“Um, how’s about, ‘To John Luck Pickard, from DisQord’ with a capital Q in place of the c in your name,” you tell him, and he looks at you for a moment, before signing the parchment, and handing it back.

“Awesome….what? I loved TNG,” you tell the various ponies and others who are just open mouthed staring at you, including Deasly.

“Keep this safe, it’s going to be my new autograph book. If I can, I’m going to find Megatron next and get him to sign it too,” you tell him, offering them back to him. Deasly, too stunned to really question it, just takes the pad and quill and returns them to his saddle bags, as you turn back to Discord.

“Thanks, oh, and Gauntlet,” you tell him casually, the subweapon switching again. Your left arm then starts to glow, and he looks at it curiously. While he’s still looking at it, you punch out with it, a series of sparks in the shape of you fist coming out of it, and slamming into him, hard. His body goes flying back towards the door, causing him to crash through the only standing wall, and then just keep going.

“Vector Cannon!” you shout, and the subweapon switches again, this time with warning bells going off even as you brace. The arms of the Jehuty raise into the air, and you can hear the swirl of building energy as suddenly a huge gun materializes on the back of the mech, that shifts to pointing forward as the arms come back down.

“Shift to VECTOR CANNON Mode,” comes the voice of ADA as the console in front of you turns red, the energy meter already draining to empty as every erg of power that your vehicle produced was channeled into the weapon.

“All energy lines connected,” ADA informed you, and your display shifted to having a massive crosshair on it, a secondary target appearing over the shifting rubble where Discord was still digging himself free.

“Landing gear and climbing irons locked,” she said, as a massive thud sound echoed around you, telling you that the legs had been reinforced against the ground. Your display also began to show six sphere materializing in front of the mech, each at a certain angle around the big gun that now covered Jehuty, more bits appearing as the mode continued to build with a whining sound.

“Inner chamber pressure rising normally,” said the AI, as a meter appeared beneath the crosshairs, already beginning to fill.

“Life ring has started revolving,” she told you as the six orbs began to move in a circle in front of you, the crosshair now situated between them, aiming directly at your opponent, who just pushed his way free of the last bit of wall, only to find himself staring right at you, and a weapon that was now glowing with built up energy.


“Ready to fire,” she informed you in the same tone she did everything else. You couldn’t help but be excited though, as you pressed a button on your console, and suddenly a blast of energy shot out from Jehuty, the six orbs twisting the straight beam into a drill like spiral that spun towards the target. Discord’s eyes went wide just before it slammed into him, and he vanished in its light.

“Cancel VECTOR CANNON mode,” ADA said, and all the little bits of the mode wavered and vanished, leaving Jehuty standing there, a large hold in the wall, along with a deep groove in the ground being the only evidence that anything had happened.

“ADA, scan for target,” you ordered, hoping for the AI to find nothing, but knowing that that would just be too lucky.

“Scanning, scanning, scanning, scan complete,” the AI intoned, and then a small window popped up on your cockpits display. In it, you could see the blast from the Vector Cannon, still moving away. However, the blast wasn’t the most interesting part of the image, as at the tip of it was a dark shape, serpent like and squirming.

“That’s not possible. Did the cannon do anything to him?!” you demanded to know.

“Analyzing…confirmed, the impact of compressed space caused a 1.6% drop in targets power level. However, power returned to normal moments later,” she answered.

“What about all the power that shot had behind it?” you ask, and Jehuty displays a line image of Discord, which is then struck by the blast. The instant the lines of the Vector Cannon’s attack touched him, they flowed around him, almost like he was a rock breaking up the flow of a river.

“Target appears to possess an energy refraction barrier that prevents energy attacks from damage him. The Vector Cannon’s attack, comprised of energy contained within compressed space is capable of pushing him, but is incapable of penetrating this defense,” she informed you coldly.

“Tactical analysis then, what do we have that can deal with him?” you ask, and ADA pauses for a moment, not saying anything, before pinging at you.

“Tactical analysis complete, the Elements of Harmony are the only weapon that can stop him, overwhelming his barrier and reversing its effect, sealing him using a neutralized form of his own power,” she tells you.

“Ye-yes, that’s right,” said a weak voice, and you look over to see Luna pushing the rubble off herself with her power, trying to stand, her legs shaking beneath her. When they buckle and she starts to fall, you silently change subweapons to Zero Shift, and teleport to her side, catching her in Jehuty’s arms.

“My sis-sister and the Captain, they went to..to..Ponyville. Elements…” she says, her breath coming in ragged, heaving gasps. She must have drained so much of her power that you hadn’t even seen her when you arrived, and now she was out like a light.

“Discord, said that Celestia had gone to get the Element wielders, to bring them here I suppose,” Deasly clarified, as he walked over, and began to look at his ruler. His horn glowed, and you could tell he was trying to heal her.

“Then I’m going to speed up the process. He seemed to want to fight me, so I’ll get him to Ponyville. You stay here, get Luna on her hooves again. Maybe she can fix some of this, and give us some more backup,” you tell him, and Deasly looks up at you, concern on his face, but more than that, there was determination in his eyes. Giving him a salute with Jehuty, you sent all power to your jets, and flew towards the break, locking your sensors on Discord in the distance.

“Is that all you’ve got, mighty Lord of Chaos?” you shout at him through the speakers, and then watch as he sort of rolls off the blast from the Vector Cannon. ADA helpfully zooms in on his face so you can see the absolutely murderous look he’s got in his eyes, before he comes at you, his snake like body slithering through the air.

“ADA, all power to thrusters,” you order, and then point yourself at the smudge that is Ponyville. With a blast of jets, you’re pushed into the back of your seat, with a timer helpfully popping up in the cockpit display, showing your estimated arrival time at your destination. It was a bit under ten minutes. Unfortunately, a small window then opened up, showing Discord behind you, and the window of his intercept time was less than four.

“ADA, options,” you ask, wondering what you can do to slow down the draconequus, or speed yourself up, or something.

“Tactical situation is untenable. Chances of success of even the highest valued options are at less than 5%,” she informed you.

“Well then, we need to raise those. You said physical attacks work, right? What about your melee blade?” you ask her.

“Blade’s power would be insufficient to do significant damage to target,” she counters.

“Okay, maybe not your weapons, how’s about another one. Voltron’s Blazing Sword?” you offer, and then hear her go dead again for a moment as she processes.

“Probability of success unknown, properties of target’s barrier are unpredictable with weapons of that nature,” she says at last, and you shrug. An idea was an idea, and right now an unknown chance seemed more favorable than the ones your other tactics had. So you sit in the cockpit, nervously eyeing Discord as he comes closer, and closer, and closer to you.

Three minutes, twenty-seven seconds later, you spin in the air, drawing your hand along a path, and forming the weapon you’d chosen to wield against your foe. Discord, for his part, doesn’t seem to react at all to this, continuing on his path, coming in a spiral towards you, even as you prepare to slash at him, turning your body to the side, and holding your blade out.

Of course, the reason for his confidence becomes clear when you actually launch your attack, his body just sort of sliding around it, your blade touching nothing but air, even as his lion’s paw hand strikes at you, the claws creating a rough screeching sound as they tear into the outer shell of Jehuty, the barrier not doing anything to stop them.

“Hull damage, integrity is now at 82%,” ADA informed you helpfully, and sparing a glance down at your display, you curse yourself.

“ADA, restore Jehuty to combat conditions, and switch to Mummy,” you order, watching as the gauges for your shields and weapon systems fill back up, as the jet system loses power.

“Engage auto flight, keep us moving towards Ponyville, best possible speed,” you add, drawing the Mummy, and watching your hull gauge repair itself, as the properties of the subweapon take effect, making you immune to damage, and also healing you. The former was the more important, as Discord lashed out at you with his tail, driving you towards the ground, before ADA activated auto flight, and you continued off towards your destination, the clock now reading at a bit over ten minutes.

“Need to buy some time, need to cut down on his mobility…” you say to yourself, even as Discord catches up, and you have to dodge to the side to avoid a pie he throws. You glance down at the forest that had been speeding by below you to watch as that pie hits a tree, turning it into some kind of tentacled monster that roared up at you, even as you jetted out of its reached.

“ADA, Homing Missiles,” you tell her, and then push the button on your console to deploy the weapon. You couldn’t see it, but you could hear the clunk sound as missiles came out of the back of Jehuty, hovering in a semicircle behind its bake, waiting for the fire command. One you give as soon as you have the full complement of sixteen readied, the spear like projectiles arcing over your mech, and then coming down right on Discord.

Not that he doesn’t try to dodge, as they fly at him, but he’s not fast enough to keep that up for long as, unlike with the veritech’s missiles, these actually loop back around when they miss, and continue to home in on him, one finally striking him and exploding violently, causing him to cry out in pain. His concentration broken, the others find their mark as well, his body obscured from vision by the black smoke of the explosions.

You assume nothing about his state of being, knowing that all the missiles would have done was annoy him, and so you strike into the cloud with your blade, relying on your computer assisted targeting system to find your mark. Luckily, Discord hadn’t tried to move from where he was, and so your blade screeched against his hide, biting into his flesh.

Unfortunately, this proved as ineffective as anything else, your weapon doing nothing but dragging itself through the thick hair on his chest. There wasn’t even a line cut into it, and worse, as the sword reached the end, it began to crack, coming undone completely and breaking in two as you pulled it forcefully down all the way, Discord recovering enough to slash at you, aiming right for Jehuty’s head with his bird claw hand.

“Zero Shift!” you shout, the subweapon changing, and you quickly pull back, teleporting away from Discord, and then doing so again, and again, and again in rapid succession, before your body forces you to stop, your stomach heaving at the movement through compressed space.

“A-cough-ADA, what just happened?” you demand to know, looking at the shattered hilt of your sword, and then tossing it away, the thing pixilating and vanishing, as Discord resumes his pursuit of you.

“Target appears to exude a field close to himself that alters the properties of matter. This allows him to protect himself from even the most powerful attacks, changing even deadly blows to nothing but glancing strikes,” she says, and another diagram appears, showing the sword as it entered said field, going red where it did so, before breaking.

“Options?” you ask, looking at Discord, and seeing the timer below him had come back, but it was at less than thirty seconds already, while the one showing Ponyville was still over five minutes.

“An energy weapon that could somehow remain solid would pass through the first defense, and be immune to the second field’s effect. However, the damage would still be neg-neg-neg,” she says, and you look out your view port to find that Jehuty is now in the coils of the snake, Discord having wrapped himself around her, pinning her legs together, and her arms to her side, even as the jets continue to fire, brining you closer and closer to Ponyville. His clawed hands were currently gripping at Jehuty’s neck, the tips of them buried inside, and severing the connections to ADA’s central processor.

“I must admit, this has been a rather merry chase, taking me towards Celestia, but you and I have business to attend to. My freedom comes at the price of your life, and I’m afraid it’s time to pay the piper,” he told you. “I wonder, can your head scream if I rip it off?”

That question is asked as he starts to pull at the mech’s head, obviously intending on satisfying his morbid curiosity. It takes a split second for you to realize that he thinks Jehuty is your body. It takes you another to wonder what the heck he’s talking about with prices. You don’t have too long to wonder though, as a warning message flashes on your screen, something about emergency procedures, and you suddenly find yourself falling out of the cockpit, looking up as Jehuty does that same pixilation thing, popping and seemingly blinding Discord who’d been staring right at it.

Instantly, you start towards Ponyville yourself. ADA wasn’t there to provide pinpoint accurate navigation, but you could see the smudge in the treeline that marked where the village sat, and went for it, activating your flight aura, and hoping you had enough air time left today to make it.

“What do we have here?” asked a voice, and you looked to your side to find yourself staring into Discords face, one big eye just looking at you in a creepy fashion. Trying not to panic, you put everything you’ve got into our flight, only to slam face first into something rough, but soft, that you identify as a lion’s paw, even as the digits on it curl around you, threatening to squeeze the life from your body.

“He didn’t say anything about you being bite sized,” said the Chaos God, and you darn well hope he’s not getting any ideas like that, as you hadn’t been eaten since your first week, and didn’t intend on it happening any time soon.

“Who’s he?” you demand to know, and then wheeze out all the air in your lungs as the paw crushes against your chest.

“Oh, don’t worry about that tidbit of information. It’s not going to matter in a moment, as I still want to see if your head screams without its body,” he tells you, and the bird hand comes down towards you, the claws pinching into the sides of your head, squeezing a bit, and drawing blood even as you cry out in pain. You can then feel Discord starting to pull, the muscles in your neck screaming in protest as they start to give to the monster’s strength.

(In case you’re curious, got to youtube and search for Vector Cannon, first entry is someone firing it off. I think it looks pretty cool myself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1nrjRFFmpI)