Rocket groaned, the light that was in his eyes was beginning to hurt and for a few seconds all he wanted was to roll over and fall back asleep. So that was what he did, he rolled over and ended up right on the soft waiting grass, familiar grass that he knew from his memory. Rocket snapped open his eyes and immediately recognized the bench that he had fallen off of, it was the same bench he had fallen off of when he had originally woken up in Canterlot Park.
He sat up and sighed, wondering how the heck he had returned to Canterlot's Park when the last thing he remembered was DIscord...talking to him. He recalled the Spirit of Chaos saying something about his world changing, but other than that he failed to remember exactly what was said to him. Rocket sighed again, he needed to get up and find his way back to the Hive. No doubt his wife was worried about his disappearance and had ordered the Changeling Royal Guard to find his location to ensure he was okay.
"Don't be so sure your 'wife' will be along to find you," came an eerie voice that Rocket recognized, just as Discord appeared in front of him with a bag of popcorn in his eagle claw, "I'm sure you recognize the location you have arrived in, but do you recognize the exact date you have arrived in? Take a careful look around your surroundings before you answer my question."
Rocket turned to look at the busy area and was surprised, where he expected pones to be walking about he saw them paused in mid step. Then he saw the things that would officially twist his world around; a light brown bald unicorn laid in the grass not too far away, a red coated pegasus with a green mane rested in a fountain, and a familiar sherbert coated mare with a pink mane laid on a bush. While none of them were dressed in the armor of the Princess they served he recognized his friends Tick Tock, Inner Wisdom, and Peachy Keen immediately.
"What have you done to my friends?" Rocket demanded, turning back to Discord, who was now sitting on his throne, "What have you done to us?"
"Oh I've done worse to you than I did to your friends," the Spirit replied, a wide grin appearing on his face or muzzle, "You should see exactly what I have done to you my insolent little friend."
Rocket trotted over to the fountain with a concerned look on his face, hanging his head above the water to see that his horn was missing. Not only that, but his body had shrunken to the size of a normal pony, except there was one difference between what he had been and what he was now. The first time he had woken up he had a horn, marking him as a unicorn, but now he had a pair of wings attached to his back. Dark blue wings similar to the wings that other pegsai happened to own.
"This is your new fate," Discord whispered into his ear, patting the poor stallion on the head, "You shall live the rest of your natural life as a pegasus. You shall never reclaim your monstrous powers or return to the future you have fought to create."
Rocket noticed that Discord, a being that nearly wore nothing on his being, was actually wearing a silver medallion around his neck. How it wasn't falling was beyond Rocket's knowledge, but the central stone seemed to pulse with some sort of magic.
"I will get you for this Discord," Rocket promised, bucking the Spirit hard in his chest, "I don't care if I don't have magic, I will find some way to make you pay for all of this."
Discord snapped his claws and turned to dust as time started up again, the ponies around the park moving as if nothing had happened. Rocket doubted that Princess Celestia even noticed the slight time stoppage that Discord had used. As ponies began moving Rocket quickly moved to his friend Wisdom and quickly pulled him out of the water, tossing him into the grass as he thought how he was going to awaken the others this time.
"I'm going to beat the brute who did this to me," Wisdom spat, coughing the rest of the water out of his system to notice the pegasus stallion, "Who the buck are you? Wait...buck? Not buck, BUCK. Why can't I curse?"
"Because your not on Earth anymore my friend," Rocket spoke up, remembering how Rainbow used to carry around clouds filled with water, "We're in Equestria. Or, more accurately, we are in Canterlot Park. Again."
"Answer my question," Wisdom nearly shouted the words at him, "Who are you?"
"I am your friend Rocket Sky," he replied, now realizing that Discord had stolen the memories of his friends, "I will tell you everything that I can later, but right now I have to wake up our friends."
Before his friend could respond again Rocket leapt into the air and climbed into the sky, not really caring if he was tilting to the side slightly. He grabbed the nearest cloud, of which there were few of in the sky to begin with, and returned to the park with it in his hooves. He dipped the end into the fountain and sucked up a little bit of the water, quickly positioning it above Peachy. He jumped on it slightly and drenched her in cold water, which was the same as it had been the first time he used the fountains water.
"Oh come on," Peachy complained, jumping off the bush and shaking herself as Rocket moved onto the sleeping stallion, "Who is that pegasus?"
"He's Rocket Sky," Wisdom replied, "I'm guessing that the sleeping pony is Yves."
"Holy buck that's cold," Tick exclaimed, shooting up quickly, "Whoever did that will pay dearly."
Rocket sighed and laid down on his cloud, allowing his mind to wander as he wondered what they were going to do next. He could just follow what had happened the first time and get them on the train for Ponyville, away from Celestia and whoever else was watching them. If that was his plan he needed to meet Vinyl and get the directions, but he knew them considering how often he had been here in his time. He just needed a pan to recover his power and he could return them to the timeline Discord had snatched them from.
"Let's get to the train station and get out of here guys," he said, climbing off his cloud and turned for the gate when he realized that he friends hadn't responded, "Guys?"
They were gone. Rocket knew that Wisdom was heading for the Canterlot Library to show off his Pinkie abilities, but he had a vague idea for the other two. Tick wanted a guitar and Peachy...he was unsure of. The first time they had awaken in Canterlot Park Peachy and Tick had remained calm and had followed him to the train station, but how he was unsure of how this would effect their history.
As he left the Park he walked by a tan coated mare that he nearly didn't recognize, but when he saw the cutie mark on her flank he immediately knew who it was. The mark in question was similar to Celestia's sun mark, but with six flames sprouting out from the twin colored central piece. The fiery colored mane and tail confirmed his suspicions; it had to be none other than Sunset Shimmer. Before he could even say anything a lighter tan colored pony, this one wearing markings on his face, walked right past him.
I need to stop seeing shadows everywhere, Rocket decided as he shook his head, and I am not going to follow Sunset Shimmer anywhere. Not one bit.
Of course he didn't listen to his own reasoning and turned around, following in the direction that he had seen Sunset Shimmer go down. He was going to get to the bottom of something, he just didn't know what.