//------------------------------// // TD // Story: The Breaking of a Non-Brony // by BronyWriter //------------------------------// Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. TD's eyes snapped open to reveal a pure white room with a large pane of glass that made up the wall. The room was completely empty and had no decoration except for that. Frowning, TD sat up and looked through the glass wall. He was surprised to see Ponyville through it, just like he remembered it. TD pushed himself off of the floor and walked over to the glass wall. He was interested to see that the images on the other side of the wall were moving, as if he was watching a movie of some sort where the camera represented a character that was moving forward. TD raised an eyebrow and ran his hand through his hair before deciding to reserved judgment on the glass wall and instead examine his surroundings. White. Pure white walls and nothing else. No doors, not windows, just a plain white room with a glass wall. "What the heck?" he muttered to himself. He tried to think of why he would be in a room like this with no visible way out. Heck, how did he get in if there was no way out? Was he put in this room and then the glass wall was put in behind him? He couldn't be sure. TD shook his head and turned his attention back to the glass wall. "Where the heck am I?" he muttered. "Your mind," said a chilling voice behind him. "Or rather, your mind as I see it." TD wheeled around and was horrified to see a twisted creature behind him. It seemed to be made of all sorts of animal parts sewn together. It was like some mad doctor had created this being and now... wait, he knew what this thing was. He had seen it before. It was... it was... Discord! Yes, that was it, Discord! Immediately a flood of memories returned to him and the images through the wall behind him suddenly changed to a view of him and Discord's statue. His jaw dropped as he saw him hit the statue with his staff, shattering the stone encasing and releasing Discord. "Rather strong blow, that," said Discord casually. "It was enough to completely shatter my stone prison and for that I must thank you." TD wheeled around. "What are you doing?" he said. "Why am I trapped in my mind?" "Oh I just borrowed your body for a teensy while," said Discord. "You see, I rather dislike being trapped in stone so you make a good human encasing. The Elements wouldn't dare use the power of harmony to turn both of us into stone." TD turned back to the wall which had changed back to the shot of somebody moving throughout Ponyville. "I take it I'm seeing you're seeing while in my body?" "Correct!" cried Discord. "What you see is what I see through your eyes while I am a resident of your person." "I suppose asking you to get the heck out of my body would be pointless." "My, my, you are perceptive." "I thought so," TD muttered. He took a deep breath and rubbed his temples. "So what now?" Discord grinned and walked up to TD. "What happens now is that I use your body to take over Equestria. I've already dealt with the elements in a frankly horrifying manner which was a lot of fun for me!" "What did you do?" growled TD. "Oh come now, TD, I don't want to spoil the surprise just yet!" said Discord. "After all, my plans for Ponyville rival my best work!" TD's eyes narrowed and he would have kicked Discord in his tiny Draconequus balls if he thought it would have done any good. "You stay away from the foals, got it?" he said with a frankly impressive amount of venom. "If you even think about hurting a single hair on any of them, I will forgo going home if it means that I get to rip your limbs off of your body." Discord raised an eyebrow in mild shock at the sheer fury behind TD's words. However, he soon burst out into rambunctious laughter. "You should... you should hear yourself, TD!" he howled. "You're threatening chaos incarnate while trapped inside your own mind because of a few threats to a few insignificant foals!" Suddenly, Discord's eyes narrowed and he grabbed TD by the throat and slammed him against the glass wall. He leaned in next to TD's ear. "I could make you know torture like you've never experienced before. I could reduce you to a bloody mass on the floor but still keep you alive if I wanted to. And you know what? I would do it too if it weren't such a waste. You are one of the most insignificant beings I've ever had the pleasure to use for my own gains." TD gurgled under Discord's grasp but he managed to spit out a few words. "Go... buck yourself." Discord snorted and released TD, causing him to tumble to the ground. "It's really quite a shame that you aren't more powerful. I mean, do you know how little effort it took me to completely take over your mind? I mean, it was really quite boring, how little challenge you posed." Discord tapped his paw on his chin thoughtfully. "Having said that, you do have a spirit to you that I find amusing, particularly when it comes to the Ponyville foals." Discord chuckled. "I'll tell you what, I like your spirit so much that I won't physically harm the foals, nor will I cause them any mental harm either. I'll simply allow them to live in a world where there is no hope of escape or return to normalcy and everypony that they know and love is a shadow of their former self. The chaos from their despair will be, shall we say, hilarious!" TD slowly sat up until he was sitting down, leaning against the wall. Upon hearing Discord's plans for the foals, he clenched his hand into a fist and punched Discord in the balls. Now, TD had no illusions that Discord would begin hopping around; clutching has family jewels so TD could escape his own mind and reclaim his body. Quite the contrary, Discord merely laughed at his attempt once again. "Did you really think that would work, TD?" he asked. "Honestly, if punching Celestia twice did absolutely nothing then why did you think that doing the same to a being far more powerful would have any effect?" "I didn't," TD retorted. "But it felt good." Discord leaned in on TD once more and an evil grin crossed his face. "I imagine it was," he said. "I only have one question for you: was it worth it?" With that, Discord placed his finger on TD's head. * * * * TD's eyes snapped open once more. It took him a few seconds to regain his bearings, but to his surprise he saw that he was in Celestia's room in the Canterlot palace. "What the--?" "TD?" said a voice behind him. TD turned to see Celestia standing behind him with a worried look on her face. "Are you okay, TD? You kind of phased out there for a moment." TD frowned and put a hand to his head. "Uh, I guess I did," he said. "What were we talking about?" A smile spread across Celestia's face and she wrapped a wing around TD's shoulder. "I was just saying that I've perfected the portal magic. You're going home, TD." A look of utter disbelief crossed TD's face and he began blinking rapidly. "Home?" he said. He gave a half-chuckle and for the first time in months, a genuine smile formed across his face. "Just like that you can send me home?" Celestia copied TD's smile and nodded. She looked to the far wall and fired up her horn. Instantly a ball of energy appeared that rapidly expanded into a portal. The image from the portal made TD's jaw drop. That was it; it was his room back on Earth, just as he remembered it. "No way," he whispered to himself. "And if I recall right from what you've told me, your parents were picking you up that week to take you back to your other house. If my calculations are correct, they should knock on your door a few minutes after you get back." "My parents?" said TD. "I..." TD's smile widened and he slowly began approaching the portal. This was it. After six months in Equestria, surrounded by talking ponies from a kids TV show, he was going home. The very notion sounded impossible to him, but there it was, right in front of him. The thought had driven him so long, it had been his sole motivation for everything that he had done for such a long time, that now that he was actually here, about to live his goal, it almost felt too good to be true. Slowly TD raised his left hand and extended it towards the portal. Just a few more seconds now, just a few more seconds and he... Suddenly the room was bathed in a bright light as the portal collapsed and sent a shockwave of energy through the room. TD was pushed back a few steps and he raised a hand to his eyes to shield himself from the bright light. No. No this wasn't happening, he had it! It was right there! He turned back to Celestia to demand that she open the portal once more, but she wasn't there. In fact, nothing was there. It was a simple white room with... oh no. Discord chuckled beside TD and reclined against the wall. "It's like I said, human: was it worth it?" TD fell on his knees and clutched his head in his hands. He let out a quiet groan of pain that quickly gave way to a full blown wail of pure anguish. He screamed repeatedly, hoping that the noise would lessen the tightness in his chest that came with the knowledge that he wasn't about to go home, that he was trapped inside his own mind while a twisted god of chaos controlled his body for his own ends. "Do you want to know something, TD?" said Discord. "That actually was a portal home. If you hadn't taken your time then you would be home right now and my plans would be for naught. It's funny really, you had a chance to get back to Earth and you completely blew it by being slow." TD slammed a fist on the floor and let loose another anguished scream. "YOU BUCKING SON OF A--" "Ooh, language, TD," said Discord. "How would the foals react if they heard you say things like that?" "I'm gonna kill you," TD growled. "I'm gonna make sure you--" "I wouldn't really waste your breath with meaningless threats," said Discord. "After all, the foals might not benefit from your poor choice of words. I suppose we'll find out right about... now." TD heard a pop behind him as Discord vanished. He slowly got to his feet and turned around to look through the glass wall of his mind. "Oh no," he whispered. There they were. He saw them through the wall and that meant that Discord could see them too. The Cutie Mark Crusaders.