[Ponyville - Morning]
Two draconequi turned humans stood outside in the streets guarding a once more recently rebuilt Ponyville. The one called Katy turned to her coworker who was a furry cross between a cheetah and a wolf. “That Gregory made quite a mess of the mock up, right Derek?” she asked
“Yeah, but we’re lucky that we can fix all this literally in a snap,” Derek chuckled.
“Yeah. So, do you think the wedding is before, during, or after the firework show?” Katy asked.
“Not sure but judging from the boss’s excitement it’ll probably be very soon. Maybe tonight.”
“Or maybe in a few minutes if he’s really excited,” Katy said.
That got both of them laughing until they heard something. They snapped their heads in the direction of the sound. There seems to be rustling coming from the bushes nearby. Katy raised an arm that had what looked like a pistol while Derek raised his bow and arrow in his cheetah paws. “Who's there?”
Suddenly emerging from the bushes was a certain pink pony pulling a colorful wagon with her. The two just stared at the smiling party pony as she stopped and gave the wagon a buck suddenly carnival music began playing as Pinkie Pie started singing.
“Welcome, welcome, welcome!
“A fine welcome to you!”
The two continued to stare but started to smile.
“Welcome, welcome, welcome!
“I said, "How do you do?’”
Then, to their surprise four more smiling mares jumped out. They were even more surprised to see Rainbow Dash not having a scared eye. It was still blind, but the scarring was gone.
“Welcome, welcome, welcome!
“I say hip hip hurray!”
The two then started dancing a bit.
“Welcome, welcome, welcome!
To Ponyville today!”
The two smiled wider as Pinkie slid to them on her knees with her hooves wide open. “Wait for it…”
Suddenly the funnels on the wagon exploded confetti and a cake popped out of a small oven and landed perfectly in her hooves. “Yes! I knew I’d get it right eventually.”
“I can't believe it. You’re all here!” Katy said with excitement.
“That’s right, and we want to officially welcome you to Equestria with a party!” Pinkie exclaimed.
Derek turned to the village. “HEY EVERYONE! PARTY WITH THE MANE SIX RIGHT HERE!” he yelled. A few seconds later a few more came and started crowding around the former bearers.
In the distance Gregory, Andrew, and Stacy watched through binoculars. “One, three, nine fourteen, looks like Howard isn’t there. Must still be sleeping. Wait, I don’t see one that could be Bubba either,” Andrew said. “He would be something of a heavy brute.”
“We’ll worry about him later. Let’s make our way in before they notice something’s up,” Gregory said.
After sneaking their way past the party they were soon carefully sneaking through Ponyville. “Wow, they really did rebuild this. From what material, I don't know,” Stacy said, fascinated.
“Technically this is Ponyville rebuilt version 2 after Gregory here attempted to make a tundra out of it,” Andrew said.
“I didn’t use my full abilities here,” Gregory said, “because if I did, I’ve been told my magic can cancel out chaos magic. The problem is the numbers. Anyway, enough talking. Time to move.” He pointed towards the library.
“Wait, let me place some units nearby,” Stacy said as she conjured up two tanks and pointed to a nearby alley. The tanks went there and hid.
“How many have you placed so far?” Andrew asked.
“About thirty tanks and I'm running out,” Stacy said.
“That’s your last one for now,” Gregory said as they made their way towards the Golden Oaks.
The three quietly opened the door only to hear loud snoring inside. Andrew cautiously looked inside. He gestured to the two to follow quietly.
They headed inside and slowly spread out. Gregory pulled out two pistols, both fully loaded. Chaos magic or not, he knew that if he used these weapons on a being of magic it would do permanent damage. He headed slowly towards the source of the noise. He was doing this against his better judgment, but he wanted to save his friend and magic teacher.
He soon found himself upstairs where Andrew stood by the doorway. He saw Gregory and made a shushing gesture. He pointed inside and there was Howard with a sleeping Twilight Sparkle in bed.
Gregory frowned. He couldn’t feel or sense any emotions coming from either. Even if someone was sleeping, he could detect some sort of emotion. He gestured for Andrew to pull back, and when they were out of earshot, he whispered, “There’s nobody there.”
“What do you mean? You saw what I saw. Our friend is there in bed with the enemy.”
“There’s nobody there,” he whispered. “Those two aren’t emitting any emotions whatsoever.”
“So, wait how could they not be there and yet sleeping in that bed?”
“Because that’s not them,” Gregory said, “just a magical image, or illusion.”
“If that's the case, where are they?” Andrew whispered.
“Probably heading to Canterlot to find and kill Jason,” Gregory said darkly.
“Shit, you're right. What are we gonna do?”
“Well, there’s one thing we can do here, and that’s convince the others that they’ve been lied to.” He pulled out the small horn he’d brought with him. “One blast and they see the truth.”
“Or maybe one snap and you're gone,” said a new voice that made both guys jump.
Gregory whirled around, creating a large shield of pure Windigo magic around the two humans, something he’d recently learned how to do. “Not a chance, fucker,” he said.
Andrew pulled out a weapon Luna gave him and aimed at Howard. “Howard? Is that you really here?” Andrew asked worriedly.
“No, he isn’t here,” Gregory said. “He’s probably using the same trick Discord used at The Trial to evade the Gjallarhorn.”
“Oh no, Prince Elsa, I’m here,” Howard said as he picked up a random object and threw it at the shield. The object, a small jar, simply shattered into bubble gum balls which rolled around the floor.
Gregory took a step back as Howard’s form flashed briefly. “Ah, there he is,” he said. “Teleported in.”
“You mean he-?”
“Peek a boo!” Howard said as his head was right by the shield. “Well, that’s annoying,” he said with a smirk as his head reattached to his body. “Windigo magic is something else entirely.”
Gregory smiled as he put one of his pistols away, then held out his hand. His magic staff appeared in his hand from a portal that appeared beneath his outstretched hand. He twirled it expertly and aimed it at Howard. “Wanna see what my full magic can do to this sham of a town?” he asked. “I’ll give you a hint: Ponyville’s original destruction would pale in comparison.”
“Oh, you really want to risk the life of your friends like the dragons that are outside the town.”
Andrew paled. “He knows about the strike.”
“I warned you this was a stupid idea,” Gregory snapped. “I swear, it’s like you make impulsive decisions all the damn time.”
“Hey, this was Stacy’s idea, not mine.”
“Enough! You think your frozen magic will stop me?”
“Stop you?” Gregory grinned, then stepped forward. “It might now stop you, but it can certainly hurt you!” With that, he dropped the shield briefly, and a bolt of pure red lightning shot out of the staff’s glowing crystal. It struck Howard’s chest, interacting with the chaos magic inside him like matter and antimatter colliding. Gregory could hear Howard’s screams of pain as he was shot back into the wall. Gregory put the magic shield back up around him and Andrew. “Okey, time to run, Andrew!”
“Going somewhere?” Howard asked as he appeared by the stairs.
“What the-”
“Was I over there?” Howard asked as his head now appeared out of a nearby trash can.
Gregory frowned, then he grinned. He grabbed Andrew’s hand and thrust his staff down on the floor. The floor gave way underneath them and they fell right into the living room below where Stacy was. “What’s going on up there? It sounds like a fight,” Stacy said.
“No shit!” Gregory said as he enveloped Stacy up in the shield as well, pulling them towards the door. “This idea’s a bust! Howard’s not an idiot! He knows what’s going on!”
“What about the guys outside? We still need to send a signal for attack.”
Gregory pulled out the Olifant. “We’ll just have to trust that the magic in this horn will show Howard’s goons the truth,” he said as he kicked the door open and rushed out with the other two close behind.
Unfortunately, there were more Howards standing, all grinning with malicious intent on their faces. Stacy looked around and made a decision. “Object 277, NOW!”
A bang was heard and a red flare shot up in the air, followed by the sound of a hundred battle cries. Soon, as if by magic all of Stacy's tanks came out and started firing at the Howard clones. They were all taken by surprise and all went down. “I know you want to use the Olifant but we should at least have the armies gather and restrain the fans.”
“Once they’re all incapacitated, yes! Now let’s get moving!” Gregory gripped the Olifant in his hands tightly, ready to make a break towards where the party was going on.
They soon arrived to the sight of all the draconequi having all been bound by either rope, chain, or changeling goo. “Here we go,” Gregory said as he brought the horn to his lips, lowered his shield, and blew a loud blast that echoed throughout the valley.
This did one of two things. It made the buildings around them begin to flicker and distort, slowly beginning to vanish as if they were fading into nothing. It also made the other struggling humans freeze, their eyes going wide. “Let’s hope this works…” Gregory said.
It seemed to be working well as their bodies began convulsing and distorting as the animal features began either popping off or shrinking.
“Hold them as best as you can and make sure they don’t hurt themselves!” Gregory ordered.
The moment they all looked like humans wearing tattered clothing, they all went unconscious. Ember, who was nearby, stood tall as she ordered the dragons to carefully lift these humans and pull back towards their fallback point where they could be treated.
“Well that was a tense fight,” Andrew said.
“Our only loose end is Howard,” Gregory said, “and I’m pretty sure he’s either gone or was never here in person. He probably is on his way to Canterlot with Twilight as his hostage.”
“If he was going to Canterlot, why would he take a hostage anyway?”
“For leverage,” Gregory said, “and because he’s a yandere sociopath.”
Andrew looked back to the crowd and noticed something. “And we still have his brute of a right hand man still out there as well.”
“Of course we do,” Gregory groaned.
Andrew looked back at the empty space of what was once Ponyville and saw something else. It was the small base they set up. Most of the freight cars were still there as well as that crater that had something glowing. “Hey, what’s that?” Andrew asked as he started to walk towards there.
Gregory grabbed him by the shoulder. “Hang on a moment,” he said before putting a shield around them again. “There, now let’s go. And slowly.”
They managed to get to the crater with a few tanks following as well as a few soldiers. They peered into the crater and saw a glowing rock. To Andrew it was for some reason mesmerizing to look at. Gregory held him back, however, and stared at the rock intently. “Hmm…don’t touch it. There’s some powerful magic emanating from it.”
“Wasn’t planning on it-Whoa!” Andrew then felt something push him as he fell towards the crater, however he was stopped by the shield.
Gregory pulled him back to his feet. “The hell was that?” he asked.
“Something pushed me,” he said as he looked back to see a T1 Cunningham tank at his feet. “Stacy, keep your tanks on a leash.” Andrew looked back at the rock. “What do you think it is? A chaos remnant?”
“It does feel like chaos magic, but it also doesn’t,” Gregory said.
“So do you think we should take this back?” Andrew asked.
Gregory lowered the shield and stretched out his staff. The tip glowed and the glowing rock was encased by ice. “Let’s see if that helps. It’s enchanted ice, so it shouldn’t melt.”
As he lifted it out, the rock then began vibrating. It was shaking so hard the ice was beginning to crack. Bits of ice fell off, and it seemed that no matter how much Gregory added it continued to fall off. He quickly placed it on the ground again, and the vibrating ceased. “Well, it’s very powerful. It was reacting to my magic. Maybe someone with chaos magic of their own can approach it. Stacy, wanna ask one of your tanks to approach and see what happens?”
“I’ll give it a shot,” Stacy said as she ordered Cunningham to approach. But despite the order to approach gently the tank rammed it at a fast speed. The rock then vibrated more powerful this time. “Uh oh. Everyone get back!”
Gregory put his most powerful shield around the rock as he and the others pulled back. Moments later, the entire area covered by the shield became a white glowing mass, like an explosion had just gone off. Eventually, the glowing stopped, revealing a new crater and the glowing rock. However, this time, the rock was on one of the edges, moving as if it was trying to get somewhere. Curious, Gregory stepped away from the rest and began pulling the shield towards him, watching where the rock would move to. As it moved, he noted that the rock seemed to be trying to get towards Andrew. He made the shield slowly approach Andrew, and everyone saw that the rock seemed to calm down the closer it got. “Huh…well that’s interesting,” he muttered.
“Okay, this may sound stupid, but how about you lower the shield and we see what happens,” Andrew said.
“That does sound stupid,” Gregory said. “For all we know, this was a trap laid by Howard.”
“If it was then this rock would be doing something else other than trying to get to me. Maybe I don’t know, maybe this is something far bigger or more complex.”
Gregory looked at him incredulously, then sighed. “If you die, I get to say ‘I told you so’ at your funeral.” He slowly lowered the shield, and was relieved when the rock didn’t move.
Andrew slowly picked up the rock and looked at it. “Hmm nice color pattern.” Suddenly the rock shook again and then both the rock and Andrew shot up in the air. Everyone watched as the two went flying and flew in the direction of the fallback point. A few seconds later there was a boom along with a blaring horn from Connie.
“It’s like you all have no survival instincts whatsoever,” Gregory muttered as he spread his ice wings. “Let’s go to the callback point! Take the humans with you!” he ordered the dragons.
They arrived to see everyone staring at Connie the locomotive. Her interior cab lights were flickering. Gregory then opened the door to her cab to see Andrew on the floor with a dazed expression. “Ugh… sorry, Sir Topham Hatt, the trucks made me do it.”
“When are you people going to learn that magic isn’t some cool toy to play with,” Gregory said as he helped Andrew up. “Okay there, Thomas, wakey wakey, eggs and bakey. You gotta get the coaches ready for Gordon’s Express.”
Andrew got up. “Wow, what a rush. What did I miss?”
“You being a reckless idiot,” Gregory snapped back at him. “Now, where’s that damned rock?”
“Oh, here it is,” Andrew said as he picked up the rock. Now, however, it was no longer glowing and looked like a normal rock. The moment he showed the rock it puffed and turned into ashes.
“Hmm…where’d the magic go?” Gregory wondered.
“I don’t know, but I think I have an idea where it probably went. Because I feel more weird than I should,” Andrew said as he placed a hand on Connie’s dashboard.
“Great…” Gregory groaned, “do any of you have any survival instincts?!”
“Hey, don’t get mad at me. When I stared at that piece I felt something with it unlike you and the others.” He snapped as he banged his fist on connie.
“Magic is not something you mess with!” Gregory said sharply. “It can be dangerous to normal humans!”
“Well, maybe you should-!” Before Andrew could finish something happened. The cab began making strange sounds when all of a sudden many parts began shifting around. “Whoa! Connie!?” The two were now dumbstruck, one moment they were in a cab the next moment they were outside being hung by their shirts by something big.
Gregory looked up at the now transformed train. “Okay, who the fuck ordered a Transformer?” he asked.
“Connie? Is that you?” Andrew asked.
“You two bicker like young trainspotters on the mainline,” Connie said.
The two were now taking in the full site of Connie. She did indeed resemble a Transformer but her cab compartment made up her head.
“Always with the train puns,” Gregory sighed.
Just then, a burst of fire briefly engulfed the head. They all turned and saw Ember flying nearby, eyes ablaze. “Let my husband to be go!” she demanded.
“Tell your husband to be to not treat my engineer like he’s a loser!” Connie snapped back.
“Enough of this!” a new voice called out from above. Celestia herself came flying down, looking at everyone with a frown. “This is no time to be bickering! There are more important matters at hoof!”
“Oh, right. Howard, Twilight, and Bubba. Any sign of them?” Gregory asked.
“Their magical signatures vanished after you blew the Olifant,” Celestia said.
“That won’t stop them, I’m sure,” Gregory said.
“We should get back to Canterlot and hope Howard hasn’t done anything yet,” Andrew suggested.
“Then let’s get a move on,” Ember said before wrenching Gregory out of Connie’s grasp. “What should we do with these humans?”
“Leave them to us,” Rainbow said. Her makeup was gone, revealing her scars once again.
“If that horn thing got rid of their brainwashing, then we can talk to them and make them see reason,” Rarity added.
Andrew then turned to the transformed locomotive. “Alright, it’s agreed, Connie can you-”
“On it,” Connie said as she transformed back into a locomotive.
As Andrew got in the cab Rainbow Dash ran up to him. They both stared at each other for a bit. Andrew smiled down at her and said one thing. “Good luck.”
“Thanks, same to you.” She said smiling softly.
“Does anyone else think that came out of fucking nowhere?” Gregory muttered to himself as he and Ember began flying back towards Canterlot.
“Eh, let the flying pony have her fun,” Ember said.
Gregory sighed, but nodded and they began flying back to Canterlot, hand in claw.
[Canterlot - That Same Time]
Jason sat in the dining hall sipping his coffee. With him was Chrysalis in her human form. The two were sharing an awkward silence. After a while Jason cleared his throat. “So, I’m going to be a father,” he muttered.
“Apparently,” Chrysalis said.
Jason put his coffee down. “My first question is how is that possible?”
“Well, it wouldn’t be possible in my true form but I guess when I fully mastered the human physique I guess we became more compatible than I thought.”
Jason pursed his lips. “So…are you going to give live birth? Is it an egg? What can we expect?”
“You saw the Flashback from Thorax’s debut on the show, remember? I’ll eventually lay an egg and we have to keep it in a nursery for some time.”
“Chrysalis, I’m a mammal. Mammals give live birth.” He waved his hand. “Never mind, you’re probably right. Priorities, Jason, priorities.” He looked at her again. “Sorry, guess I’m still in shock.”
“I know you weren’t expecting this. Hell, I was going to surprise you but then you got captured.” Chrysalis said sadly.
“It’s alright,” he said gently, reaching out and taking her hand in his. “I’m happy we’re going to be parents. I’m nowhere near ready, but with you I think we can become great parents.”
“Agreed. Maybe Gregory has advice with his experience with Cozy,” Chrysalis said smiling.
Jason chuckled. “He managed to skip the Terrible Twos,” he joked, “but sure. We can talk with him later.”
“Or maybe talk to him never,” a new voice said.
Jason quickly stood, getting into a defensive position, his hands glowing with his magic. Chrysalis stood as well, her horn glowing brightly as she put a shield up around the two.
“I knew you wouldn’t surrender so easily. I figured you would take the coward's way out of a deal,” the voice continued, yet the source couldnt be found.
“I know they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” another new voice said from the door, “but you lack presentation.” Standing in the doorway was Discord, who looked around with a frown. “Imitating how I first talked to Twilight and the others after my first release? Lame.”
“Oh Discord, how nice of you to join us. Real big fan of your work.”
“I can’t say the same for you,” Discord said with a scowl. “Even I would never brainwash someone just to take sexual advantage of them. That’s not chaotic at all. That’s the mark of a wannabe villain.”
“Sexual advantage? I’m not that crazy. I'll have that fun after the wedding,” The voice of Howard said.
“No, you’re not that crazy,” Discord agreed. “You’re worse than that. If the real Twilight was there, she would react to you like Padme did to Anakin on Mustafar.”
Howard’s voice let out a chuckle. “If parody jokes are gonna be a regular theme, then this would be considered a running gag!” At those words, an arm shot out of a nearby potted plant and grabbed Discord by the throat.
“He has no magic, so let him go!” Jason demanded.
“Let him go? You mean the one you hate the most? What would you give in exchange? Money? Far too common.”
However, before anyone could respond, Discord reached down and pulled out a black knife. He jabbed it into the arm. Blood gushed out of it and everyone heard Howard scream in pain as he let Discord go. He coughed a bit, then held up the knife and gave a thumbs up. “Earth weapons. You won’t be able to heal that wound with chaos magic.”
“I see Gregory let you borrow one of his knives,” Jason chuckled.
“As long as I give it back to him intact,” Discord nodded.
Howard’s voice hissed in pain as he said, “Damn you, you little shit! I’ll show you!”
Then all of a sudden many arms sprouted from the pot and the coffee pot nearby suddenly exploded and spiders flooded out of it. The curtains from the window also started twisting too, becoming tentacles.
Jason and Chrysalis began firing magical blasts at the spiders and tentacles. Discord, who could still fly, flipped up and over and stabbed at the spiders. The knife did its job well, disrupting the chaos magic permanently from the chaos creations. “How boorish, as Rarity would say,” Discord said as he thrust the knife into a tentacle which tore itself apart as the magic within was disrupted.
“Grrr, that’s it!” Howard’s voice bellowed in rage. “I hope your hive has insurance because I lied about the missiles! I’m not using them. I actually planted a bomb when my crew ransacked your place. When your pal Gregory gets back, tell him that Haven City will be next if you don’t surrender.”
The voice left, leaving the room in silence.
Chrysalis took a deep breath, then sat back down in the chair, a saddened expression forming on her face. Jason took a seat next to her. “Chryssi, it’s alright, we’re all safe, and that’s all that matters,” he said reassuringly.
“I-I know,” she said, “b-but I have so many good memories there…”
Jason took her hand and squeezed. “We’ll make new ones in our new home.”
She took a deep breath, then exhaled. Wiping her tears, her face grew determined as she stood. “We need to warn the others what Howard’s about to do.”
“Yes, good plan,” Discord said. His mismatched eyes were ablaze with fury. “He dares to destroy Fluttershy’s and my home and the home of the others to get his revenge. Sound familiar, Jason?”
“He’s worse than I was,” Jason said. “Come on, we need to warn Princess Luna too.”
With that, the group quickly exited the room, heading towards the throne room. It was time for a new plan.