//------------------------------// // Trapped // Story: Agents of Discord // by Scarlett Haze //------------------------------// My eyes went open at the sound of the door being opened. Sitting up from the bed, I held my breath for a moment at what I saw. A night-blue alicorn with starry mane and tail stood at the entrance, her eyes showing compassion as she stepped in and let the door seal her in with me. My head lit up in activity and I unconsciously grinned before losing track of my memory. With a bit of convincing from Luna, however, I could fill in that piece in here. *** "Hail, Princess Luna," Quick Fix groaned out, his smile still wide on his face. He went to move from the bed before Luna's magic restrained him from getting off. Giving a few taps to the field that surrounded him, he turned back to Luna, his smile still present. "We've already been aware-" Luna started before stopping herself and speaking again. "I, am already aware of what you are trying to do. It's brave in of itself, but foolish for any pony to take on Discord. Army or not, you and the followers you had gained would be corrupted, killed, or left to watch the attack backfire with your legs broken." Quick Fix reared his head back and gave a slow laugh before lowering it to Luna again, his smile now bigger than before. "Perhaps my body dies, but the spirit lives on. And if the spirit is strong enough, even without a body, it can do more than any physical form can muster." Luna had been moving closer to the bed and Quick Fix, unsure of the familiar feeling she was getting from the orange pegasus. "Do you truly believe you can beat a creature that took fifteen years of my sister's and my own lives? A pegasus such as yourself can match the strength of two of Equestria's finest magical users?" Luna's face was right in front of Quick Fix's, staring deeply into him. Quick Fix's eyes shifted into slits as he gripped onto the neck of Luna. "Of course not! But with you, my other, we can be free again!" Luna's magic failed her as Quick Fix's mouth opened wide and the dark energies of Nightmare Moon went out of him and into the horn of Luna. The tight hold of Quick Fix kept Luna down as she spasmed in his grip. No sound was uttered, but between Quick Fix and Luna, the sound of pure torture and pain echoed out in their minds. Quick Fix's mouth shut as his head slumped and hit the floor, his body still resting on the bed. Luna had pulled away and took uneasy steps back as she choked out. She crumpled to the floor and began crying, pulling her legs close to her as she wailed. The guards had opened the door to Luna's cries and watched as the princess' magic power filled the room. They watched as the dark sphere that had formed around Luna rose up and burst out, revealing the rebirthed form of Nightmare Moon. Her eyes shot open and her laughter echoed across the asylum and into the ears of Celestia. *** Waking up, I found myself in the odd position of my head on the floor and my body still bent on the bed. A ringing alarm had been going off as I regained my sense of hearing. Getting up, I tilted into a wall and held a hoof to my head. The odd hangover I had been given was making things unbearable, the ringing wasn't making it any easier either. Keeping with what I could remember, all I could think of was the night-blue alicorn and the sudden wake with my head on the floor. Forcing an eye open, I noticed the door was still open. I had guessed that this was the so called 'Get Out of Jail Free' card Discord was talking about. Trying to keep a hoof to my head, I stumbled into the door and bashed my head into it. "Uggghhh, damn it," I moaned before righting myself through the doorway. The hallways were empty, but all of the doors were shut and no doubt locked from anyone to attempt escape. The sound of the bell ringing had gotten louder and I found its source. Forcing my wings open, I took a leap to the bell and swung at the bell to make the ringing stop. Not only did I silence the bell, but I made it fly across the hall and dent a steel door at the end. Landing down, I took solace that my head was clearing up. Moving to the dented door I took a brief look at it. "Holy shit, Quentin, lay off the steroids," I joked to myself. The dent was fairly deep, a decent three or four inches. I didn't know how strong I was, but I could bet it had something to do with the Nightmare spirit. Feeling up for punching out a door, I pulled back a few steps. With a burst of wing speed, I twisted my body so my rear hooves would hit the door. I expected to be stopped by the door, but had only been slowed as I landed on the fallen door. It began tilting downwards as I regained my stance. Turning my head, I noticed a flight of stairs greeting me and my new sled. I let out a sound of fear as the tilt finished and the door began sliding down the stairs. After a moment of sliding down the stairs, the door stopped halfway and my back bashed into another door. Hitting the floor, I held my back for a moment before turning to the door and angrily punching it and pulling my hoof away. With a creak, the door fell over and I was greeted by the sight of a group of shocked guards. Each of them looked from the door to me and the sound of moving armor and unsheathing of spears greeted me. My hooves went up and I gave a sheepish smile. "Hi, guys. See any good shows lately?" Thinking quickly, I moved to the side and pushed the spears into the other side of the doorway, spinning my rear hooves with my movement it clashed into the head of a guard and shook up the group enough for a spear to get loose for me. Pulling it away, I snapped the metal tip off, not wanting to harm the guards. Pushing past the gang with the newly made staff in my mouth, I began running out. I didn't know where to go, but I figured the best bet was to follow the trail of guards. Throwing up the staff from my mouth, the first wave of incoming guards kept their eyes on the staff long enough for me to leap in between two of them, one rear hoof cracking the jaw of a guard on my right and a left fore hoof wrapped around the neck of the left guard, making him flip and land on his back. The staff came down in time as another two guards began attacking me with their spears. Clacking in between the two spears and dodging each thrust was surprisingly easy. "Can't we talk about this?" I asked in between swipes. Ducking down from another swipe and leaping the next I spun around and cracked down on both of the guards spears. Stepping down on the flat tips with one hoof, I swung my staff into one guard and forced him back and off his spear. With one backing away, I spun on the remaining flat tip and brought the other hoof down on the wooden stick, leaving the guard with a small twig. Still standing on my rear hooves, I spun the staff with one of my hooves before stepping forward and saying, "Boo!" The other guard began retreating with his friend, making me chuckle for a moment. I raced after them in the hopes of getting out. The doors blurred together as I felt my hooves leave the floor and my wings took me up and forward. Neglecting to remember that the place wasn't exactly open, I saw the incoming wall and forced myself to brace for impact. Slamming into the wall, I left a pony-sized imprint in the concrete as I stuck fast to the wall. My eyes slowly went open and felt the pain going through my chest and left shoulder. Letting out a shuddering sigh of agony, the wall began to crack. At first, I reacted with shock, but sighed and let my eyes shut halfway. "I'm in a world of cartoon ponies, why wouldn't this happen to me?" I mumbled out just before the wall I was stuck on fell forward with me on it. I let out a scream as I fell with the concrete block. With my body still tense in pain, my wings refused to open as I plummeted. After landing on top of another ceiling of the building, I kept still as I took in deep breaths and saw the night sky. "Oh, good. How long 'till the end of the world?" I asked myself before lifting the hoof with the watch on it. 2 days, 3 hours, 2 minutes, 2 firsts. "2 days? More like two..." I paused and let my hoof fall back down, leaving my remark unanswered. The silence in my mind finally got me thinking as to where the possessive spiritual head bitch was. Maybe the alicorn at the door before I went under had something to do with it, and it was the only decent answer I could muster up. Thinking back to the visions I got from it in my dreams I started panicking. If it was able to not only change me, but make me so powerful as to completely decimate the world, what it could do with an alicorn was even more unsettling. Finally finding the strength to push myself up, I started to move up until I heard more cracking underneath me. My eyes shut as the crackling got worse, "Fuck me." The ceiling gave way and I fell another floor into the building again. I gave a groan of pain before simply rolling off the pile of concrete and dust. "How interesting it is to see you on the outside, Quentin," a sultry voice I was already familiar with spoke out. From the ground I looked up to see a pure black alicorn with a starry mane similar to the night-blue alicorn's that I had seen before. It had armor on its hooves and chest, a helmet covering its head. I forced myself up and kept observing the thing that had been living in my head. "If you weren't crazy, I'd say you'd be worth at least a dollar," I choked out from the dust. "You've got the body for it." She looked at me with judgmental eyes, "Body for what exactly?" I picked up the staff that managed to survive along with me, "Being a cheap stripper." Swinging the staff overhead, I expected to crack it over her skull and get the hell out. The staff didn't even get close to her as it was held away with her magic. She fired the staff back and over my head as it impaled the other side of the wall. "How droll," she mocked, lifting blocks of broken concrete with her magic. "Perhaps a lesson in humility for your new queen will teach you some manners." The alicorn fired the concrete at me, forcing me to put my hooves up in defense. Each rock that hit my arms sent shockwaves of pain throughout my body, forcing my eyes to tear up and try to close. After a moment of waiting for the next rock to hit, I brought my hooves down and was greeted with a magical blast that hurled me into the wall. I felt a familiar twinge in my chest from the first fight with the timberwolves. She had aimed there specifically, I'm sure, as she started moving over me as I coughed out to the ground. "What's wrong, Quentin? Can't get up from something as simple as rocks?" She taunted, making me look up to her with a snarl on my face. My heart began beating in my ears as I reared up and cracked the back of my head against her jaw. She was taken aback, moving a hoof to her jaw as I pushed forward with my wings and tackled her through a wall. With my upper body on her, I pulled back my right hoof and prepared to slam it into her chest. As I nearly hit her, she had faded into starry dust in front of me. It moved over me and I felt a hoof on the top of my head before being shoved into the floor. From the floor, I noticed the starry dust had reformed as the alicorn. Through my teeth as I attempted to get up, I growled out, "Cheatin' bitch!" She had once again let me go and I prepared to attack again, knowing that she could phase out instead of being hit made things harder for me to plan around. I thought to outsmart her or perhaps catch her before she could try it again. Jumping forward, I brought my forehooves up and above my head, ready to bring it down on the alicorn. I watched her smirk and was ready for her attempt at escape. Instead of bringing the hooves down on her, I landed with my rear hooves on the ground, looking at the smirk of the alicorn disappear. Bending backward, I brought both rear hooves up and cracked into the alicorn's jaw again, this time making a sick pop as I rolled and landed back on all four hooves. Looking up, I got to see the wide eyes of shock on the alicorn and the ripped jaw that had came with my attack. I froze in fear for a moment, not used to the sight of gore. The alicorn moved a hoof to the jaw, still not letting out a sound. It moved it around for a moment before lowering her hoof just below the broken bone and slowly lifting it. I watched in shock as the broken jaw wasn't appearing as she rose the hoof up and revealed it was completely healed as if it wasn't touched. She licked her lips for a moment before snapping her teeth. "Impressed?" she asked me before leaping forward and punching the side of my face. The force sent me off my hooves, prompting the alicorn to hold me up with its magic. With her power, I got tossed into the nearest wall and dragged to the floor before being smashed into the ceiling and hurled across to the other wall. After hitting the wall, I collapsed to the ground and struggled to even lift my head. With her magic, she forced my unmoving body up from the ground and looked me in the eye. "You've done your service well enough, Quentin. Not only have you restored my former strength, but I am complete again. With that, I must terminate our partnership." Her slick smile made me cringe as I felt my neck being wrapped around by her magic. "I do hope that you aren't too upset about this, after all, you get what you want even in your death, the end of Discord." I kept trying to grasp at what choked me to no avail. "I. Don't want. that!" I gasped out. Her grip tightened around my neck as she continued to stare me down, "So what do you want?" My head was probably red from the lack of air and with how pissed I was at this cocky alicorn. "I. Want. You. To. Burn." I let out as I felt my hooves actually grip something around my neck. Using every ounce of the remaining strength I had, I pulled at it. My eyes remained shut as I put everything in my arms, getting more and more air as I pushed off the magical force until I had completely removed it and fell to the ground. My eyes kept shut, unable to move from the last ditch effort I gave to save my hide. I did hear the sound of many hooves approaching and a breath at my ear. "Remember this night, Quentin. The night that Nightmare Moon let you live for one more day," I heard the voice of the alicorn say to me, a bitter anger in being interrupted from the fight.