//------------------------------// // The Deal // Story: Human and Pony Alike // by ShutterGuy //------------------------------// I woke up with pain shooting through my body like nothing I ever felt before. Light waves of various colors surrounded me and a constant static noise that drove me to the edge of insanity echoed out into the void that I seemed to find myself in. my body tossed and turned as my head pounded hard with the palms of my hands covering my ears in hopes to reduce the sound of the loud chaotic static. Minutes seemed like days as every second dragged on for an eternity. Whilst I struggled to sit up and regain some composure, I could hear my mother’s voice calling out to me. “Chris!? Chris where are you?!” Her voice seemed too distant for me to pinpoint, however it seemed to be all around at once also. “Chris please! Come back!” I fumbled on the solid matter that resembled the ground in the void as the static sound in my ears became almost bearable. Crawling in a general direction, my only goal at the moment was to get to my mother's voice. “Chris! Chris!” Now I could hear my dad yell my name from another direction. My heart torn and mind racing I didn’t know which way to turn. I tried to yell out but my mouth felt stitched up. “They sure seem to miss you, don’t they?” a malicious, omnipotent voice seemed to hover over my shoulder. My heart stopped in its moment of hearing this voice as the static ceased to ring in my ears. I slowly turned my head to see a creature that could only be inside of a dream. His head was part of a goat or a horse while the rest of him was an assortment of other animals limbs. I tried to collect myself but in seeing him hover over me with his red pupils and yellow eyes I ended up yelling, “What the hell are you!?” “Oh look who is finally awake from his slumber. It only took you like what two years to actually regain a conscience.” It slithers toward me and smiled a white grin with one large fang that seemed to find itself misplaced outside of his mouth. My heart seemed to sink at hearing the words he spoke. “T-two years!? I've been out two years.. what of Shutter? Aurora and Thunder? Drive?” “And don't forget the mare that seems to want her two legged human to herself… or is that really what you want, Chris?” The creature floated about glancing a smug smile toward me. “How did you know my name?” I try to stand up but my body seemed to still be recovering from the rifts effects on me. “Oh I know more than just your name my boy. I can tell you all about your arrival here and how it triggered a disruptive ripple in the balance of both this world's natural magic and my own. It was quite chaotic indeed.” he said the word chaotic with a small chuckle. “Anyway, it really only has been like two hours since you arrived here, but it can feel like an eternity when you have your only company asleep.” I knew with every fiber of my being that this dude was bad news and had a feeling that made my hair's stand up I was going nowhere for sometime longer. “If you know so much, then tell me where I am and who you are.” “Oh dear, I seem to have slipped up on one of the most important things. My introduction.” He seemed to vanish from sight and in his place a stage from a theater appeared with red velvet silk curtains and a spotlight that focused on a microphone that stood alone. “Ladies and interdimensional beings…” a deep voice of announcer echoed through the abyss. “Please put your hands, hooves, or claws together for the Spirit of Chaos. The one, the only, Discord!” An audience clapping roared up in my ears as I found myself sitting in a cushioned chair. The large serpent like creature came onto the stage holding a suitcase and wearing a pair of shades that he immediately threw to the side and addressed the non-existing audience. “Hello one and all, it is me. Came all the way from my statue prison and it's great to be here with you all.” The sound of applause seemed to surround me from the very air itself. “So there was this bear out in the woods one day and I asked him how he could stand having that much fur during the hot days of summer. He told me that it was unbearable.” Discord read me for a reaction and all I could do is stare back feeling my senses become numb from the bad joke. “Wow… here I hoped that humans would have a better sense of humor than ponies.” “That was bad no matter what species you are.” My opinion escaped my mouth faster than I would’ve liked and Discord of course narrowed his eyes at me in contempt. “Despite your rude remark, I wish to make a proposal to you, Chris.” A wave of distrust hit me and I immediately got up in hurry. “Now now… You haven’t even listened to my offer and also unless you’re able to control the chaos magic surrounding you, you are not going anywhere fast. I suggest you sit down and listen to what I have to say.” My legs instinctively backed away from the towering figure until I found myself tripping right into a chair that appeared from nowhere. “Chris… what is it that you want the most?” The words he spoke like candy, sweet and trusting. “No. like I would trust the likes of you.” “I’m not asking you trust me. I want to know what it is that you yearn for.” his powerful lion paw landing on my shoulder as he walked past me. The footsteps he took behind me seemed to send chills up my spine. I felt his breath in my ear. “A home? A family?” My mind seemed to go to Shutter’s family at first, thinking how they seemed to take me in so easily and accept me for me. Words couldn’t describe what it felt like to hear my father’s voice again. The embrace of their hooves seeming like my own family. Discord broke my mental image of them as he spoke softer. “Is it Lora? To finally be with her guilt free?” My heart skipped a beat at the mere mention of that name. “No… I can’t. It just wouldn’t be right for me to be with her.” I tried to speak reason to myself. “Why? Why wouldn’t it be okay? I mean if it’s physical limitations, I could bestow upon you a form where you could be with her.” “No I… I… you can?” “Hmmhmm. I can make you whatever you desire as long as you help me. I can make it so that you and her were endlessly together and you could fit right in with your new family.” “I...I don’t know about this” I could feel my heart being torn wanting and wishing for what Discord was offering versus keeping to who I was. “Come on chris. I don’t make offers lightly. And to honest this is a limited time offer.” He came out from behind me and grinned. “Even if I said yes… what are the terms of the agreement?” I knew that he wouldn’t do this without some motive. “All I ask is that you come to visit little old me and share a kiss with that mare that you like.” “Wait… come visit you?” “Let me show you.” He lifted his fingers or talons and grabbed a bit of air and pulled down exposing a window like portal. Through it I could see that... It was ME asleep on a train cabin. “What!? How can I be here and there at the same time? This is a dream?!” Discord only chuckled at my dismay. “This all too real to be a dream. Just call it an out of body experience. Now to find me-” “How did I make it to the train if I was-” before I could finish a lion paw reached to the corner of my mouth and zipped it up closed. “mmmmmph!” “Do not interrupt me! It's very rude. Now as I was saying. To find moi you need to go to the Canterlot palace and make your way to the gardens of stone. There the so called benevolent ruler keeps most of her collection of sorts. She keeps one of me there because I'm sorta a celebrity to the ponies.” He smiled as made his window zoom to the Canterlot castle. “It's nice to to see how the world now and again in it's bland and boring state. But that will soon change for the better. With you Chris I'm sure we'll make the land a better place.” “Mmmph!?” In my attempt to ask him what he meant. “You really shouldn't mumble, no one likes a mumbler.” He closed the portal just after I got to see the garden of stone just beside of the palace. “Man that took a lot out of me.” Discord said. “But at least you know where to go with your date, right?” Uncertainty filled my body as i knew that all of this had a bigger catch. However, I wanted to trust him. My heart seemed to yell out my wish to be closer to Laura in a natural way. My head nodded for me. Discord smiled widely as he saw my accordance to words. “Then we have an agreement? You come with Laura to share a kiss in the stone garden and I'll transform you to better fit in this world.” using his lion paw, he reached out to shake my hand. My mind was spinning as I locked my gaze at the paw for some time. “Tick tock, Chris.” I took a deep breath in and exhaled as I reached up to shake the paw and instantly the zipper covering my mouth disappeared. “Very good to do business with you human.” Discords smile and eyes were the last thing I saw before darkness swallowed me up. I seemed to drift in endless space, floating. Off in the distance, I could hear a train whistle as it drew closer. The clicks of the metal wheels hitting the tracks in a steady rhythm was beating in my head like a funky drum set. It grew louder as a blurry gray light slowly came into my view. “Next stop Canterlot! All passengers prepare for departure!” The voice spoke over a speaker overhead as I began to feel the numbness of my body were off and my sight slowly return to me to see luggage surrounding me. “I must be in the cargo car…” I groaned sitting up against a suitcase. “Damn… did… all of that really happen or is it all just a bad dream?” My head still feeling heavy leaned back against the soft fabric so I can look up to the metal and wooden ceiling. “Do I do it? Or should I just… ignore everything?” Suddenly I could feel my hand get squeezed firmly like I was in the grasp of that lion paw. “Okay...I. I will. I will kiss her.” The pressure released. “I hope I don't regret this.”