[Ponyville - Howard’s Tent]
Bubba walked inside to find Howard looking over the radio. It was shut off. Howard looked up but didn’t turn to his big ally. “If it’s true that two of our own might be compromised, then you know what must be done.”
Bubba nodded but he carried a concerned look. ”I can understand the need for such measures, but you seem to be ignoring the consequences among us. You and a couple others might approve of it. But what would the rest say? What about the storm that might come, or the fact we don’t have our locomotive? Are you at the very least concerned about that?”
Howard smirked, “Concerned?” he asked. “Why would I be concerned about something they have no knowledge about?”
Bubba nodded, understanding. “Okay, then. It will be done,” Bubba said as he turned to leave.
“Wait, is he here?” Howard asked.
“Yes sir he’s in the boxcar resting comfortably but many are barely containing their excitement.”
“Excellent,” Howard grinned, “Let the festivities begin.”
Howard left his tent and walked. He passed by many of his comrades as they either chatted, celebrated, or were tending to the wounded. He then approached the boxcar that was parked on the track. The two guards by the door opened it to let him climb in. There sitting in a chair tied up and with a lamp for light was Jason.
Howard approached his unconscious form as he knew the sedative would wear off any moment. As he got close he saw him stir and decided to play. “Wakey wakey.” He said.
Jason groaned as he slowly began to come back to consciousness. He opened his groggy eyes and looked around, a look of panic passing over his face as he tried to come to terms with what was happening. That was, until he locked eyes with Howard. “What’s…going on? Who are you?”
“Howard Marison is the name. Fixing the world will be my game.”
Jason looked around a bit, then noticed that he was tied up. He turned back to Howard and narrowed his eyes at his fellow human, his good eye locked onto the other man. “Fixing the world?”
“Yes good sir, fixing the world from the fall you caused from your Stygian approach as I call it.”
Jason raised an eyebrow. “Stygian approach?”
“Oh well, might as well give you the crash course, but first a little privacy.” He said as he walked over and shut the door on the boxcar. “Now onto the first lesson. Do you believe everything that happens here is magically watched by eyes?”
Jason frowned. “The entire world knows about My Little Pony,” he said, “and I mean this world here. The world of Gaia.”
“Yes and unfortunately you became something of a star on our world. Almost like a creepypasta in a way.”
Both of Jason’s eyes went wide. “The fuck are you talking about?”
“Perhaps you need a visual aid,” he said as he walked over to a crate that had a laptop on it. It was opened to a video file. He pressed play.
Jason watched this with wide eyes. He saw an animated version of himself setting up the punishments of the Mane Six at The Trial. He watched as the onscreen Gjallarhorn distributed the punishments to them. When Howard paused the video, Jason turned to Howard. “How the hell did you get that?”
“In the fall of 2023 after a recent G5 episode your trial somehow aired on TV instead of a Transformers movie,” Howard explained. “At first we all thought it was an insane animator hijacking the studios, but there was no link. It was like everything appeared out of thin air. That was until I started learning about a strange phenomenon by some NASA whistleblower.”
Jason looked a bit dumbstruck by this. “But…that’s not possible. Nothing like that happened on Earth, at least according to Gregory.”
“Oh? How long was it since this trial until Gregory appeared? Come to think of it, what year was it when you and he came?”
“One year,” Jason said, “and he came from the year 2027. I came in 2023. But that’s not important right now! What do you want from me?”
“Oh it’s not just me that wants something from you. It’s something everyone wants. You see, after the incidental broadcast so many people were outraged. Even Lauren Faust couldn’t believe her greatest creation went down this path. So as a result it was canceled and pulled from the air.”
Jason remained silent for a bit, then suddenly he began to grin. That grin spread and he began to laugh. “Oh my God…I can’t believe this! Haha! You came here to get some misplaced revenge on me! Ahaha! Oh, this is hilarious!”
“Laugh all you want, but you won’t be laughing after some of my friends share a few things with you especially after what they learned about Derpy and the others.”
Jason looked at him. “You see how the Ponies tormented me all over my body, right? You can’t do much more to my body anyway. And as cliche as it sounds, you all will soon be in a hell of a lot of trouble. The changelings will definitely come for me, as will the dragons and ponies!”
“That’s what you think, but until they come, we might as well make the most of it,” Howard sneered.
Jason continued to laugh in Howard’s face. “I’ve been through three years of torment at the hooves of your precious xenophobic ponies!”
“We know about your torment, but did you really have to go down such a dark path? There were other ways you know.”
“You know nothing about how the Gjallarhorn works, do you?” Jason chuckled. “If I had done something wrong, the horn wouldn’t have worked! It was made by this world’s goddess Faust!”
“Is that so? Well we might as well see what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.”
Jason watched as Howard raised his fist and threw it right at Jason’s face. He flinched, but nothing came. Instead, he saw that Howard had himself been flung back, almost as if he’d been struck by his own fist. Jason chuckled. “You didn’t see how Rainbow tried that back at The Trial. Did you think I would come here without activating the protection of the Gjallarhorn??”
Howard groaned as he rubbed his face, blood pouring from his nose. “Not bad, but let's try another approach,” he said as he walked to a crate. Jason watched as it looked like he was dipping his hands in something glowing.
Jason’s eyes widened as he recognized the substance on Howard’s fist. “How the fuck…? I thought I destroyed that!”
“No. If I remember what you and Discord said, this world can’t function without chaos. And didn’t you say you were gonna hide it.”
“No, I said it was going to be dispersed around the world,” Jason said. “But go ahead. Even Discord was vulnerable to the Gjallarhorn. Using his remnant magic won’t work on me.”
“Oh, well there's one thing about Discord’s power I always had a theory about. The use of chaos is limited to a user’s imagination.” Howard said as he readied his fist that was glowing brighter.
Jason flinched once more as Howard threw it. However, even now, the effects of the Gjallarhorn’s protection were more powerful and he watched as Howard was practically flung back into the table. He heard the sound of a pinball machine as Howard bounced around like he was a pinball. Finally, Howard landed on the train floor, creating a comic imprint of himself in the metal. Jason leaned down and said, “Like I said, Goddess power beats Chaos power every time.”
“Wow, that was a rush,” Howard said as he dusted himself off. “Well then, part of me wants to ask what would it take to remove your protection?”
Jason sighed. “You obviously don’t know what’s happened since The Trial. Not all of it. I’ve begun reconciling with the former Elements of Harmony. Hell, I even offered to remove their punishments a few months ago, but they said no.”
“Oh, I know that. Blueblood told me everything. Too bad I didn't want to tell everyone else.”
Jason’s eyes widened. “Damn, and you claim me to be a monster. The truth’s staring you in the face, but you choose to ignore it.”
“All I wanted was for this place to be just like how it once was without the racism of course.”
“Oh, I get it, believe me,” Jason said, “but unfortunately that won’t happen for a while. Hell, you saw it in the show! Zecora! How the ponies view the dragons as dangerous! There were signs in the damn show!”
“Silence! I’ll get this to work and I will make my own dreams for this land come true even if I have to kill the one that started the domino effect.”
“You know, the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again while trying to get a different result each time,” a brand new voice called out from above. A hatch opened from above and a brand new human fell into the room, some sort of ice wings spread from his back. He landed gracefully and stood, then in a British accent, he said, “Hello, there!”
Jason frowned. “Even now, you gotta be a nerd?”
“Oh great, who invited Jack Frost to this party?” Howard deadpanned.
The newcomer pulled out a pistol from his side and aimed it at Howard. “I’d shut your fucking mouth if I were you,” the new human snapped as two ponies in guard uniforms dropped from the ceiling. One of them was a pegasus and the other a unicorn. Without missing a beat, the newcomer said, “Swift, Moonlight, get Jason safe.”
“Understood, sir,” the unicorn said as the two made their way towards Jason’s location swiftly. The pegasus began undoing Jason’s bonds while the unicorn stood between Jason and Howard.
“Yeah…no,” he said as he moved to snap his glowing fingers.
Without hesitating, the newcomer fired his pistol. Howard tried to deflect the bullet, but it did nothing. Instead, it hit Howard’s left arm, opening a brand new wound there. “Earth beats Gaia,” the newcomer said as he raised his free hand. A bolt of lightning shot out towards Howard, sending him back with force and colliding with the back of the car.
The pegasus had just gotten Jason free, and he turned to the young mare. “Thanks.”
“As Sir Gregory likes to say, get your ass out of here!” the pegasus said, “reinforcements from Canterlot are coming soon!”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Jason said as he opened the door and jumped out. From the outside, there were sounds of fighting.
Howard could hear the sounds outside but despite the horrific sounds he grinned as he saw that during his epic pinball bounce the glowing jar from the crate rolled out and it was conveniently at his side. He quickly grabbed it. “No one moves or we see if this is a bomb or something greater.”
The newcomer, who still had his pistol and free hand aimed at Howard, narrowed his eyes. “You must be the yandere for Twilight Sparkle, right? Howard, was it?”
“What!? Who told you that!? Was it Stacy?!”
The newcomer grinned. “So I was right. You just wanna make Twilight yours and only yours. Got a newsflash for you, kid, she’s got a special somepony already.”
“Oh? Who? Flash the waifu stealer?” He asked.
The newcomer rolled his eyes. “If she knew what you were doing, she’d hate you,” he said. “She would call you a monster, just like she once called Jason Wright a monster.”
“You shut up! I have plans that even she would fall head over hooves in love with.”
“Jesus, how delusional can you be?” the newcomer said as his free hand began to glow.
At that moment another human appeared at the door, this one wearing a railroad cap with the words Southern Pacific. The white haired human saw this and looked over. “Hey, Andrew. Just in time.”
“Would’ve got here sooner but me and Stacy found the five captured pegasi that were patrolling here,” he said as he climbed in.
The newcomer human turned to Howard and narrowed his eyes. “You made a big mistake. You and your fellow idiots made an enemy of not only Equestria, but the changeling hive and the Dragon Lands.”
“Oh it'll all be worth it in the end, especially with this. You both may recognize this from Season 4 right? The color should look familiar.”
The newcomer frowned. “Chaos magic will corrupt you even more than you’re corrupted in your insane lust for Twilight, and that’s saying something considering she wouldn’t give you a second thought after I tell her what you did to her friend Jason.”
“We’ll see,” Howard replied as he popped open the jar.
“My God… He wouldn’t!” Andrew exclaimed.
The newcomer sighed. “He’s a yandere, Andrew. He would do anything to crawl into the skin of his beloved pony waifu.”
“Oh it’ll be more than a mare I'll be doing,” he said as he poured the contents over him in one swift movement. “It’ll be the true Princess of Equestria!”
The newcomer pushed Andrew out of the car, following swiftly as he opened fire with his pistol at Howard. Unfortunately, all he managed to hit was Howard’s right leg as he jumped out.
There was a bright glowing light from the car until it exploded which caused everyone to suddenly stop fighting, including the dragons and changelings that just arrived.
Ember ran over to the newcomer, and to the shock of the other humans there save for Jason, Andrew, and Stacy, she took him in her arms and looked him over with a worried frown. “You know, Gregory, for my mate, you’re a real idiot,” she said.
“You can punish me later,” Gregory said as he turned to the now big crater that was once a train car.
“Where is the fool who attempted to capture my mate?!” an enraged Chrysalis bellowed as she looked around. “I will tear their skin off and boil their entrails in lava!”
Gregory turned to Jason. “Remind me never to piss her off.”
“Says the guy who entered with an Obi-Wan Kenobi line,” Jason deadpanned.
Andrew pointed to the crater. “You mean the guy who just poured liquid chaos magic on himself?”
Chrysalis’ eyes went as wide as saucers. “The fool did what?!”
“Made myself powerful,” a booming and demonic voice said from the dust cloud surrounding the crater.
Everyone turned to the crater and then after a moment of silence, a large reptilian claw the size of a locomotive emerged and slammed onto the ground, followed by what looked like a giant tiger claw. Slowly and surely something began rising from the ground with glowing eyes piercing through the dust.
“When am I gonna learn to aim for the fucking head?” Gregory sighed.
“Sir! Time to retreat!” the unicorn guard came up. “The amount of magic coming from that creature is immense.”
“Good idea, Moonlight,” Gregory said.
“We’ve captured the other humans,” the pegasus said.
“Thanks, Swift,” Gregory replied.
“You mean my own army?” said the voice as a strange orb shot out of the dust and into the air.
Andrew turned to Moonlight nervously. “Where are the others? Just point the direction.”
“The other humans are over there,” Moonlight said as she pointed to where the twenty or so humans were being watched by armored pegasi and unicorn ponies.
The orb hovered in the air before coming down on the humans who tried to flee but unfortunately were struck. The pegasi and unicorns, having seen this coming, jumped out of the way just in time, avoiding the blast.
Within the next second the sounds of screaming came along with the sounds of popping and cracking. As the dust settled laughter filled the air as an army of grotesque mismatched creatures stood where the group of humans had once stood.
Gregory and Jason looked on in horror. “How in the fucking hell did you all manage to fall for this guy’s bullshit?” Gregory asked Andrew.
“He wasn’t always like this,” Andrew said. “It's a long story, but right now we need to RUN!”
Swift and another pegasus grabbed Andrew and Stacy, lifting them up into the air as they flew back towards Canterlot. Jason was grabbed by Chrysalis who did the same. The unicorns were picked up by their pegasi counterparts as they began to retreat. Gregory spread his ice wings and flew away beside Ember.
“Wait what about the dragons and changelings?” Stacy asked.
“They’re coming behind us!” Gregory shouted above the roar of the wind.
“Are you sure about that?” Andrew asked as he looked back to see a large dragon grabbed by a long arm and dragged to the ground.
Gregory saw this, and with a swift motion he pulled his machine gun off from his back and fired at the arm. He shot with precision and the arm let go of the captured dragon who regained his flight and fled. “Like I said, Earth beats Gaia,” Gregory quipped as he lay down covering fire to help the changelings and dragons escape. Soon, they were all gone, and his clip was empty. “Time to go.” With that, he turned and sped off after the others.
[Train tracks Near Ponyville Junction]
The locomotive stood motionless on the tracks by a switch. The train was stopped as the switch leading to Ponyville was broken. From the distance one could see what looked like a firework show of rainbow orbs. One flew so far it landed directly on the engine. A strange blue aura surrounded the engine for a bit before dying.
The engine sprang to life and revved as the sound grew louder and louder. Then its horn blared as the throttle in the cab moved. The engine detached the car from behind it and rolled into the night away from the lighted display.
[Haven City- Twilight’s Library]
Spike and Cozy Glow were getting ready for bed, both of their minds were filled to the brim with worry. But Twilight was there to offer what comfort she had. “You think Daddy’s gonna be okay?” Cozy asked worriedly.
“Don’t worry, knowing Gregory and Ember, he’ll be fine. He’s probably on his way back right this minute.” Twilight said As if she was a mindreader, there was a knock at the door. “That’s probably him, now.”
But as she headed to the door an odd feeling began to cloud her. It was like she was in the crosshairs of a predator. She turned to Spike and Cozy. “Spike, Cozy, head to the basement,” she said.
Cozy wanted to argue, but Spike gently took her hoof and headed to the basement. He closed and locked the door. Twilight then turned towards the door. “I’m sorry, but the library’s closed for the night,” she called out.
Suddenly the door was busted down as the face of a cat appeared. “HERE'S KATY!” the head yelled in a female voice.
Twilight jumped back and grabbed a poker from the nearby fireplace. She aimed it at the strange creature. “Who are you?!” she demanded.
The creature slowly entered, its head was on a rather large slender body. She walked in on insect-like legs and had butterfly wings on her back. “Oh don’t mind me, hun. I’m just here for someone.”
“And who’s that?” Twilight asked, eyes narrowed.
“You,” she said as she snapped her fingers on her dragon-like claw. The next moment chains appeared around Twilight.
Twilight dropped the poker and began to struggle. “Let me go!”
“I will but not now.” She said as she snapped again making them both vanish.
Spike and Cozy watched through the door in horror. “W-We need to tell someone,” Cozy said, turning to Spike.
“I’ll send a letter to Princess Luna,” Spike said as he and Cozy ran out into the main room of the library. He grabbed a pen and paper and began to write.