The Gala was fun. Princess Celestia was able rescind the order to capture me and made sure that in no way am I constant threat to anypony unless provoked. In layman's terms, I’ll be treated as any old citizen, with a bit more pull in some cases due to my role and occupation. Even though the night went a little differently than we all preferred, it was still nice in the end.
“Alright, the hammer goes into here... the stock connects to there... trigger right here... sights are aligned...” I've decided to give my Mossberg a bit of a tune-up. I’m sitting on my porch with my shotgun's parts spread out. I've started putting the pieces back together to bring the gun back to its former glory. “This goes here... screw these in here, annnnnnnd... done!” I finish up my construction. The shotgun is back to normal and ready to be used again. “Alright, that’ll do.”
*Vroooooom!* My truck suddenly turns on. Looking up, I see no pony in the seat, or anything for that matter.
“Hello? That truck is off-limits!” I shout, hopefully to get whoever is trying to take my vehicle for a joy-ride out of there.
No response.
I load the Mossberg with slug rounds and aim my shotgun at the truck. “Come out now! You are on private property and I am within my rights to kill you!”
Still nothing.
“Hey!!” I shout louder over the sound of the engine and move closer.
Suddenly, the Hummers front bounces upwards, sort of like a lowrider.
Okay, what the hell was that? That thing practically weighs a ton. No way can anything make it do that. I think and move a little closer. I slowly move closer and closer with every slow cautious step. I gently tap the front half side of it with the end of my gun. Nothing happens.
I lower my gun, “Phew, uhhhh I guess it was- Ooof!!” I’m cut short by something slamming against my chest, something rubbery. I fly back and slide on the ground till my head smacks the bottom of the steps of my porch. My vision is blurry and my world is spinning from the smack and the momentary lack of oxygen. I slowly get up and look at what exactly it was that hit me. My eyes widen to see something I had only seen in movies. The wheels are stretched out from the bottom of my truck, giving it a monster truck type look. The grill begins to move and change, the bars spreading apart from the top and disconnecting but still connected at the bottom. The entire truck rears back until it is only on its back wheels and the door opening in the back. The front half of it bends forward and looks in my direction. The windshield wipers move to the top of the roof and point to the side downwards, like eyebrows that show anger. Lastly, the headlights flicker onto high beams and nearly blind me. Through my blind eyes, I can’t see anything but I hear the loud slams of something walking, I think.
My vision returns, “What the heck was... that?” I mutter in annoyance, then fear as my once inactive machine has now turned into something out of “Transformers.” It stares at me for minutes that almost feel like hours at how tense the situation is. This better not be a side-effect of Twilight’s spell. If it is... I can’t even imagine the hell of taking on my motorcycle, or especially my plane. The hummer machine bends backward and breathes in. Fear paralyzes me at this new anomaly in front of me.
“RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRR!!” The thing roars loudly in my face, dots of oil and steam plastering onto my face and clothes as I can look as clear as day inside the engine of my former ride.
It stops roaring soon afterwards and looks at me again. “Ohhhhhh fff-“
------------------------------------------------------
“Ohhhhhh dear! I hope none of the other animals see these delicious chocolate filled cotton candy clouds! I’d hate to have to share them!” Fluttershy sarcastically shouts as a way of goading the animals to eat away at this minor inconvenience. Since my spell didn’t work, the only other choice would be for the animals to eat it all up.
“Ah! You and me both sister!” Fortunately, Pinkie is more than willing to lend a helping hoof as she stuffs her muzzle into the cloud. Before she can take another bite, raccoons, squirrels, and, strangely, really long legged rabbits dig in, pushing the pink mare out of the way. “Heeeeey!” Much to her disappointment.
“And when y'all are done with that, feel free to have some popcorn for desert!” Applejack adds. With the massive mash-up of a dozen cotton candy chocolate filled rainclouds slowly diminishing, the popcorn will be gone just as quickly.
I smile at my own brilliant plan, “You see Spike! You should never give up.” I say to my assistant, especially since he was soooo quick to give up just a few minutes ago. “There’s nothing we can’t overcome if we all work together!” I finish up.
“Aw yeah! Those clouds were a pain.” Rainbow Dash expresses her dislike of the strange clouds. From the pieces of cotton candy still stuck on her coat, mane and tail... sticky clouds clearly don’t match with her.
“Don’t worry Rainbow Dash. They’re all taken care of.” I reassure her by gesturing to the half eaten cloud mash up. As we watch the cloud slowly diminish, I’m still puzzled at what exactly the clouds are, and why are they here. “Hmmmm.” I hum to myself while tapping my chin with my hoof, trying to think of a proper explanation.
“What is it, darling?” Rarity asks me.
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around the appearance of these strange clouds.” I reply.
“And why my apples are bigger than bulls!” AJ adds.
“And why these corn stalks suddenly started popping. I mean, it’s not even that hot out!” Rainbow points.
“And why Angel and all the other rabbits have suddenly grown so tall!” Fluttershy says.
“You’re right! It’s so strange.” I mutter to myself as I continue to try and think.
“AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!” A loud voice suddenly pierces the air. We all quickly look around to try and find the source of the distress.
“Over there!” Rarity points to the far end of the field. My eyes widen as I see...
---------------------------------------------------------
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fucking hell!!” I curse as loud as I can while running away from my death machine of a former ride. I don’t know what the hell is happening, or why there is popcorn all over the muddy field I’m on, but my ride suddenly coming to life and wanting to chew on my bones is one sick joke!
“Swiiiiiift!” I look to the side to spot my friends aways away from me. I smile that I have back-up, but what can they do to help me against this?!
“Heeeeey! I could some ooohf!” I try to call my friends for help, but unfortunately I tripped and fell over a rock. I groan at the sudden impact on my face against the ground. Suddenly it begins to get darker and darker around me until, “Eya!” I roll over and manage to avoid the pouncing motion of my predator. It immediately turns to me, scaring the hell out of me. I crawl back trying to get away from it.
“Rawr!!” It jumps at me again.
“Ahhh!” I shout as it pounces again.
Nothing. I’m still alright. I move my arms away from my face and open my eyes to see the grill/teeth right at my face, still trying to move forward and chomp on my face. Curious at what mysterious force is holding it back, I look to the side to see all my friends are holding onto a rope for dear life, one that’s connected and wrapped around the back left wheel of the truck.
“Swift! Run!” Twilight shouts. I take the advice and take off towards a nearby tree.
*SNAP*
Unfortunately the rope didn’t last long. With an audible snapping sound and the surprised cries of the girls and dragon, my truck continues its chase. “Look out!”
At the last second, I jump past the tree. With a loud crashing sound, my truck impacts the tree. Without wasting any more time, I get up and run towards my friends. “You guys alright?!”
“Are we alright?! You were the one being chased by a ravenous... metal... monster!” Spike tries to say. I sigh and nod.
“Yeah, thanks for the help back there.”
“Your welcome. Now-“
“It’s getting back up!” Rainbow points back towards the crash. I turn around to see that she is correct. Slowly it gets back up onto its tires but is still damaged pretty bad. As it turns to look at us, I spot the engine as clear as day from the torn grill and crumpled hood. It immediately kicks into overdrive and charges right at us. My friends gasp but in an instant, I pull out my pistol and open fire, firing round after round into the machine as my friends hide behind me.
As soon as I fire the 17th round from my gun, it explodes. In a large fiery explosion, my one massive all-terrain vehicle goes up in flames, sending a minor shockwave towards us. After a few tense seconds, we look back to see the crater with my ride half destroyed. The front half is charred, broken, and the metal and glass are melted but the rest is somewhat intact, barely. I holster my gun and sigh, “Well... that’s that.”
“Sorry ‘bout your ride.” The southern accented cowpony says. I growl lightly and clench my fist hard.
“The person that caused this is gonna be sorry.” I angrily say.
“Don’t worry, Swift. We’ll get to the bottom of all this.” Twilight reassures me.
I calm down a bit from her words, “Yeah, thanks Twilight.”
*Buuurrrrrppp*
“Spike... real mood killer man.”
“I didn’t mean too! A letter from the Princess, Twilight.” The assistant dragon holds up the neatly wrapped parchment for the unicorn to take with her magic. She immediately unwraps it and reads it over. The rest of us wait patiently for what the Princess has to say. Hopefully why my truck tried to kill me, why corn stalks started popping into popcorn, and the rest of the crazy stuff that happened, like how a bunch of different animals, including bunnies with very long legs, are eating a giant pink cloud leaking brown water.
Twilight suddenly gasps, “C’mon guys! Princess Celestia wants to see us all in Canterlot immediately!” She looks at me specifically. “Especially you, Swift.”
“Me? Really?”
“She asked for you to go specifically as well.”
Everyone looks around at each other a look of being unsure. “Well c’mon then!” I shout, getting everyone’s attention, “Hopefully she has some answers for all this!” I take off running towards the train station with my friends following close behind...
Few hours later...
“Almost there!” After we got off the train, we all immediately bolted towards the castle and up the stairs till the familiar double doors lead towards the entrance of the castle. I slam into the doors, making them fly open and revealing the Princess to be pacing back and forth on the spot that she and Twilight were greeting guests at the Gala. “We’re here!” I shout while trying to catch my breath.
“We came as quickly as we could!” Twilight adds as we all come to a stop at the foot of the stairs.
“Thank you, Twilight, Swift. Thank you all.”
“Is this about the weather? And the animals' weird behavior?” Twilight frantically tells the Princess.
“And how my truck suddenly came to life and tried to make a meal of me?”
“What's happening out there? Why isn't my magic working? Is there–“
Before Twilight can finish, the Princess holds up her hoof to halt her student’s barrage of questions. “Follow me.”
With nothing else, we all follow her in silence till we come to a long hallway. “I’ve called you all here of a matter of great importance.” Princess Celestia says. As we walk down the hallway, I look around to get a better look of the stained glass windows around us. One in particular catches my eye. “It seems an old foe of mine, someone I thought I had defeated long ago, has returned. His name... is Discord.” Discord... I remember that from history. The god of chaos if I remember correctly.
“Ahhh!” From the squeal right next to me, I can tell its Fluttershy who gets scared of the figure embedded in the window and runs off to the others. I look back at the window for a second before rejoining the others.
“Discord is the mischievous spirit of disharmony. Before my sister and I stood up to him, he ruled Equestria in an eternal state of unrest and unhappiness.” Now I see the puzzles fitting together.
“Sounds familiar doesn’t it?” I state and cross my arms on my chest. Who else has had a taste of chaos? Who else lives in a world that has that around almost every corner? Me, damnit. No wonder she asked for me to come.
“It does. That’s why I called you here. From the stories you told about your world, in case something happens with the Elements of Harmony, you will be our backup plan.” The Princess explains and points at me. I smile, knowing that she chose me to help in this crisis situation.
“Thank you Princess. I’m honored.”
She smiles and continues, “Luna and I saw how miserable life was for earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns alike, so after discovering the Elements of Harmony, we combined our powers and rose up against him, turning him to stone.”
“All right, Princess!” Rainbow Dash shouts. In truth, turned to stone definitely sucks. I never really thought the Princess could do anything like that. Pretty cool.
“I thought the spell we cast would keep him contained forever but since Luna and I are no longer connected to the Elements, the spell has been broken.”
“No longer connected?” Twilight voices her disbelief.
“How is that possible?” I add.
Soon we find ourselves in a much fancier part of the castle, adorned with flower beds on pillars, spears pointing out with the Equestrian flag hanging from them, even more stain glass windows and statues adorn the area, particularly that of a special door at the end of the room adorned in some gems. “This is Canterlot Tower, where the Elements are kept inside since all of you recovered them. I need you to wield the Elements of Harmony once again and stop Discord before he thrusts all of Equestria into eternal chaos.” Finally I can see exactly what these Elements of Harmony are. I knew it couldn’t just embody with the girls.
“But why us? Why don't you-“
“Hey, look! We’re famous!” Pinkie shouts, gaining all of our attention to a particular window. On the window, six ponies each shoot some type of light purple beam at a dark blue alicorn.
“If I’m not mistaken, this where you six used the Elements of Harmony to defeat Nightmare Moon and revert her back to Princess Luna, right?” I ask out loud while walking up to the window. I’ve read Equestria’s history every so often since I first came here so I can refresh my memory of that subject. I haven’t really read into the most recent changes as much.
“Very good, Swift Wind. You have learned our history well.” Princess Celestia compliments me.
“Thank you, your highness.” I reply without looking back. The Princess continues to keep talking, but I focus more around us. Ever since the Princess led us down this way, I’ve been having this chilling feeling that someone, or something, has been watching us. In the time I’ve spent running, you sort of develop a sixth sense when it comes to that. I look around the room carefully and place my hand on my pistol holstered in my belt, ready to pull it out at the instant notice of something off. I push a curtain slightly to the side and look to spot a hedge maze right outside, along with off in the distance a few specks of pink, which indicates that more of those freaky rainclouds are all over.
“Chocolate Rain!” I turn back to see Pinkie Pie looking at Twilight with an intent stare. I give a confused look. The hell did I miss?
“Don't listen to her, Princess. We'd be honored to use the Elements of Harmony again.” Twilight reassures the Princess of their role. I smile and continue to look outside. I spot some very interesting statues. One has a pony standing on its hind legs and holding an orange flag, another has three fillies playing with each other, and finally the last one is just a platform with nothing on top of it. Hmmmm, weird.
“Ooh.” The happy moan catches my attention, plus the blue light, making me turn back to my friends to see them all staring into the fancy door, with a blue jeweled up case. “You can keep the Elements. I'll take that case!” Rarity says in awe.
“Have no fear, ponies. I have total confidence that you will be able to defeat Discord...” The Princess grabs the chest with her magic and opens it, “With these!”
Everyone gasps, “With what?” I bluntly say at the empty chest in front of us. The Princess freaks and drops the chest. An uncomfortable silence quickly follows everyone, unsure of what exactly happened.
“Oh well. If anyone needs me, I'll be outside in the chocolate puddles with a giant swizzle straw.”
“Hold on you! You’re not going anywhere.” I quickly grab the pink mares tail to stop her from bailing on us.
“But... chocolate!” she points to the outside as I pull her back to the others.
“No.”
“Awwwww.” She groans. Everyone looks at the box in disbelief that the Elements are gone. Something is clearly wrong.
“How can they be gone?! Don’t you have a spell or something protecting that room?!” I say while looking all over the chest.
“I do! That chamber is protected by a powerful spell that only I can break! This doesn't make sense!”
I groan and begin to think on just what it is we can do. I’m the Princesses backup plan, but I can’t be that plan if I don’t know where Discord is! Damnit.
“Hahahaha.” I pull out my gun in half a second at the maniacal laughter around us. “Make sense? Oh, what fun is there in making sense?”
“Discord... Show yourself!” Princess Celestia shouts. I aim all over trying to spot the source of the voice.
Another laughter pierces the silence. “Did you miss me, Celestia?” I look at the different windows, trying to figure out where he is until my crosshairs pause on the window with Discord on it. “I missed you.” The figure in the window says before slithering off it. “It's quite lonely being encased in stone, but you wouldn't know that, would you, because I don't turn ponies into stone.” Discord menacingly says while appearing in the window next to the previous one he was in.
“Technically, you’re not a pony. You’re a draconequus.” That’s the name of the species that Discord is. He instead just looks at me as I continue to aim at him.
“Annnnnd... what are you per say? You know what I am, what are you?” He asks me with interest. My mood doesn’t change. This bastard decided it would be funny to turn my most important find into a ravenous death machine.
“I’m a human. Discord, god of Chaos I presume?” I angrily say.
“Ahhh, so my reputation precedes me.” I says in a cocky tone, trying to boast who he is and what he’s done.
“No. Only something as ugly as you can truly be called god of chaos.” I mock him. He gives me a blank stare, somewhat unamused at my insult as I hear a couple snickers behind me. Discord is about to say something.
“Enough!” Celestia stops the both of us from our short conversation. “What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?”
“Oh, I just borrowed them for a teensy little while.” He smugly says. He snaps his claws, making the Elements of Harmony picture on the window he’s on disappear.
“You'll never get away with this, Discord!” She angrily says while flaring her wings and scratching her hoof on the floor like she’s going to charge.
“Oh, I'd forgotten how grim you can be, Celestia. It's really quite boring.” He lazily says while leaning back in the window.
“You don’t know how grim she can be.” The image of that hole in my chest resurfaces to my mind.
“Oh I think I do. I’ve pretty much lived as long as she has.”
“There are some things you remember... and some you haven’t heard.” He looks at me a bit more while rubbing the bottom of his chin. “What?”
“Out of everyone here... you’re the most interesting out of the bunch.” He says with a smile. I cock the hammer of my pistol back.
“And I should feel honored by that?”
“No, but I know who everyone else is.”
“You do?”
“Why yes!” He moves up to the top of the window. “Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty; Rarity, the Element of Generosity; Applejack, The Element of Honesty;” he names each of my friends and what they represent as he counts down. “Not to mention Twilight Sparkles Element is the most elusive and powerful most of all, Magic. Fluttershy is the Element of Kindness and Pinkie Pie is a personal favorite of mine... Laughter.”
I hear some snickering sounds behind me. I turn to see it’s who he just mentioned. “Pinkie!” Twilight shouts at the pink mare.
She bursts out into laughter. I look back to Discord as he dances on top of the head of Twilight in the window. “He’s standing on your-“
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
I fire rounds into the parts where Discord is at, hopefully trying to kill him now so we don’t have to deal with this later. “Hey!”
*Bang* *Bang*
“That’s not nice!”
“Will you die already!” I shout and fire continuously at Discord as he moves all around the window. He jumps over the next one where I break that one into pieces as well. The audible click in my gun reminds me to reload. I quickly drop the clip and put in a fresh one. I aim again but a white hoof with a golden shoe stops me.
“What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?” The Princess asks Discord.
“Oh, so boring, Celestia. Really? At least he just made things interesting. Fine, I'll tell you, but I'll only tell you my way. To retrieve your missing elements just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the Elements back where you began. Hahaha.” He mocks the Princess again and gives us a damn riddle while appearing from different windows that aren’t broken, even appearing in multiple ones at once. I hate riddles. The window he first started from returns to normal as his voice disappears in the distance.
“Can we go home now?” Fluttershy shyly says as we walk up to the window.
“Sorry, Fluttershy. That’s not an option.” I reply. Probably right now my motorcycle is probably going on a rampage on the ground, and my plane is probably in the sky right now as well. We need to stop Discord.
“What do you reckon he meant? Twists and turns and ending back where we started?” Back where we started? I really hate riddles. Most of the time I can’t figure them out. I guess if anyone can figure it out, Twilight is the one to go to.
“Twists and turns... twists and turns... twists and turns! That's it! I bet Discord hid the elements in the palace labyrinth!” Twilight happily states. I go over to the clear window she’s at and look out. That labyrinth is pretty big. Twists and turns are right, but back where we started is not. But then again, I can’t figure out riddles so I got no say in the matter.
“You sure Twilight?”
“I’m positive!” I sigh. I hope you are.
“Good luck, my little ponies. The fate of Equestria is in your hooves.” We all bow to the Princess as she honors Twilight by placing her horn on her shoulders, first left then right. Sort of how kings do with their knights. She looks right at me, “And hands.” I smile.
“Thanks, Princess. We won't let you down.” Twilight reassures the Princess and we turn to leave.
“Swift!” I stop in my tracks at the mention of my name. “I need to talk to you.”
I nod and look back to my friends. “Meet me at the entrance. I’ll be there shortly.” Twilight and the others nod before they run off again. “Yes, Princess?”
“Discord is a slippery being that will no doubt do whatever it is that’s necessary to ensure you all fail.”
“Yeah, I kinda got the gist of that with all his ranting.”
“Just please be careful.”
“I will your highness.” I bow to her and turn around to head towards the maze.
“Swift...” I turn back to her having the most serious face I’ve seen her have, “I am giving you authority to do whatever is necessary to ensure Discord does not stay free.”
I nod and give her my best salute, “Yes ma’am.”
“Good... now go!” She yells. I turn around and bolt out the door towards my friends. It isn’t long till I make it to the doors that lead outside, whereas my friends are all standing at the entrance... only they look different.
“Girls?”
“Ahhhh!” They all shout. Now I can see what’s wrong. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy don’t have their wings and Rarity and Twilight don’t have their horns.
“What the heck?” I say to myself
Suddenly a ball of energy appears before us, getting bigger and bigger till it explodes in a bright white light in front of the entrance. Finally after the light dissipates I can see well enough to make out that asshole is back. Now that he’s in front of us in the flesh, the description of him is uncanny of how he is. The head of a horse, body of a dragon and a bunch of other animal parts for the limbs that I don’t care the list right now because of his insistent laughing. “Hahahahahahaaaa!” He laughs into the air. “You–You should see the looks on your faces. Priceless! Hahahaha” he says in an amused tone. The smug attitude that this bastard has is really starting to irritate me.
“If you know what’s good for you you’ll return my friends to normal now!” I demand. He waves his finger at me.
“They'll get them back in good time.” He disappears and reappears next to Applejack, “I simply took them to ensure there's no cheating. You see, this is the first rule of our game: no flying, and no magic.” He emphasizes as he moves between my friends.
“The first rule?” I catch onto his words on the mention of first.
“The second rule is everypony has to play or the game is over, and I win.” Discord menacingly says while tapping his fingers together.
“Even human?” Twilight asks. In truth, whether he wants me to or not, I’m gonna help my friends. We need to get the Elements of Harmony so we can banish him. I won’t risk any needless violence in front of my friends unless I absolutely need to, much to my disappointment.
“Hmmmmm...” he thinks for a second while coming in close to examine me. The others backup a little but I meet his gaze and stand my ground. “Fine, whatever. Truthfully I’m curious to see how you’ll perform.”
I smile and lean closer, “You scared since you got a firsthand look back in the castle?”
“Me? Scared?” He says in disbelief.
“You were moving pretty fast. I thought you, the god of chaos, wouldn’t be running as much. The only reason why I stopped was because of the Princess.” I taunt him.
He narrows his eyes and stares right at mine; the both of us leaning in closer till our faces are pushed up to each other. “You better remember who you’re talking to. You don’t know the things I can do.” He says in a low voice, in a way to try and scare me.
I bare my teeth and reply, “And you have no idea what I’ve been through, nor what I can do!” I angrily say. Many tense second pass, the both of us staring each other down in an attempt to intimidate the other.
“Good luck!” he suddenly pulls back and shouts in a happy tone before disappearing. I give a weak sigh.
“Were you two having a staring contest?!” Pinkie yells in front of me.
I sigh again and pinch between my eyes. “Did I ever mention how much I hate him?”
“You and me both.” Dash says while trotting right past me.
The others walk up past me as well, “That was very brave of you, Swift.” Except for Twilight who decided to try and comfort me with words. I calm myself down and smile.
“Thanks Twilight.” I grab my gun and pull the barrel to check if it’s reloaded, “C’mon, we have a country to save.”
“Right behind you!” she happily agrees.
I move in front of everyone else and swing my aim all around me to make sure nothing tries to surprise us. “Alright, it’s clear.”
Before my friends can make a move, a hedge wall suddenly shoots up in between us. “Ahhh!”
“Girls!” I run up to the wall and try to jump through. “OW! Fuck!” I yell in pain. The hedge is hard as steel, preventing me from getting back to my friends. Other shouts can be heard as the sound of more hedges walls sprouting up can be heard. “Twilight! Rarity! Applejack! Pinkie! Fluttershy! Rainbow! You all alright?!” I yell as loud as I can over the wall.
“We’re fine Swift!” Twilight yells back.
“Phew. Good.” I say to myself.
“What the hay do we do!?” Rainbow’s familiar annoyed attitude yells back. I look around to try and see of which way I can go. To my dismay, there is only one way to go.
“Head to the middle!”
“That’s it?” Rarity replies.
“You got a better plan?” The silence indicates no. “Great. Let’s go and good luck everyone!”
My friends wish me and each other luck and the various trotting sounds say they are gone. Alright then. “*Sniff*”
Before I take a step, I hear something sniffle. Listening to the sound, the source is just on the other side of me. “Fluttershy?” She’s the only pony I know to be crying in this mess.
“Eeep!” her sudden cry of shriek confirms it.
“Fluttershy, you have to get moving.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes you can!” I firmly shout. The quivering stops. “Fluttershy you may be the shyest and kindest pony I know... heck you’re the shyest and kindest person I know! But I know you care about your friends more than anything right?”
*Sniff* “Right.”
“If you want to help us, and get out of this place for good, we need you. You have to meet us at the middle so we can get the Elements of Harmony and defeat Discord!” I think for a second on what next to say. “I swore that because you guys saved my life, I will protect you... but I can’t do that forever. You need to help me now. I can’t get to you from here. Please Fluttershy, you're braver than you think.”
*Sniff* “You think so?”
“I know so.”
She sighs, “Alright, I’ll do it.” She confidently says, making me smile. Good girl.
“See you on the other side.”
“Alright, thank you Swift.” I chuckle and ready my gun.
“No problem. Now be careful.”
“You too.” She trots off to our destination. I smile knowing that I was able to convince her to get moving. Alright, bring it on Discord. I jog forward with my pistol aimed forward.
Less than half an hour passes and I’m not making any progress. I can’t get an accurate position where I am and anytime I try to leave some type of trail leads in vain. “Just got to keep pushing.”
“Rawr!!” As soon as I move around another corner, a statue of a Manticore comes charging right at me. I quickly aim directly at it and fire as quickly as I can. The statue is just a copy so it’s not like the real thing. The Manticore cracks and breaks while moving at me, crumbling to pieces that roll up to my feet. The head still moves and growls at me. I scoff at it, pick my foot up and slam it hard onto the fake creatures face, shattering it into nothing but dust.
“Brave, I’ll give you that much.”
I don’t even acknowledge the mysterious voice, I already know who it is. “So?”
“You didn’t even flinch when that Manticore came charging right at you. Most ponies would have ran the other way and quivered in the corner.”
I smile, “I’m not most ponies. I faced three of them in the Everfree forest and took one down in melee combat. Plus I had a lot of practice fighting back in my world.” I continue to move and aim forward, expecting something to jump out and attack me.
“Hmmm, impressive. But you no doubt had help from that... tool of yours.”
“I make do with what I got.” I bluntly say, noticing I’m coming up on a corner that leads left.
“Reeeaaallllly? Let’s put that to the test shall we.” He smugly says. I look to the right to see Discord nonchalantly floating in the air at just my eye level and give him a suspicious look.
“What do you-“ something suddenly swats my pistol out of my hand. I turn back around only to spot a swinging tail.
Not this time!
Remembering my occurrences with swinging objects in my face, I duck and grab the tail. The entire creature is entirely familiar yet again: A Cockatrice. Without making eye contact, I turn around and pull the tail over my shoulder, bringing the main part of the creature right down on Discord. The draconequus disappears in a poof of smoke the second my makeshift weapon touches him. The Cockatrice squawks loudly as it slams into the ground before I pull it back and throw it as hard as I can away from me.
“Damn. That was close.” I mutter to myself as the statue demon scurries back onto its feet. Its eyes flare up again but I look away in time. I wait and listen to the sounds of the rapid step of it running or flapping its wings at me. Upon hearing the footsteps close enough, I duck and manage to dodge another tail attack. I follow up with an uppercut using the palm of my hand and finishing up with a roundhouse kick. I slam the head of the Cockatrice against the steel-like hedge wall, keeping its head pinned till the audible cracking sounds of the stone statue crumbles to dust. I step back and regain my composure.
“Well that was... interesting.” Discord says. It doesn’t take a genius to know that he’s surprised on how I just executed a cockatrice with nothing but my bare hands and not even taking a hit.
I chuckle and pop my knuckles, “Yeah, it was.” I walk back and grab my pistol from the ground, “I guess that training book really came in handy.” I remember Twilight giving me a set of books at one time, one of them being a martial arts training manual from Japan. Glad I got it and looked it over.
I move forward again. “Tell me, why do you stick with these ponies and help them? You’re obviously much more powerful than them and could be so much more.” Discord says.
I don’t take my eyes off the front. I already got surprised once, I don’t want to again. “Because when I came here, I had nothing. Barely any food, no thoughts on where to go or how to survive in this new world. The ponies of Ponyville were attacked so I intervened and helped.” He moves close to the front just within my vision range, “After I lost consciousness, they didn’t throw me into the Everfree forest and leave me to rot, they didn’t cage me up, they didn’t have an entire platoon of royal soldiers guard me, they didn’t treat me like an animal... they treated me as a person; an intelligent person that can be reasoned with.” I stop and look at him. “They saved my life and gave me a purpose. I don’t forsake my friends.” I finish saying and break into a full on sprint, leaving Discord in the dust for him to contemplate on my words.
Moving and carefully checking around every corner, I think about how my friends are doing. I hope Discord hasn’t siced other statues on them. I know Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie can take care of themselves but Fluttershy is what I’m worried about. If anything she’s pretty good at hiding and running, so that’s something to consider. From how long I’ve been in this Celestia forsaken maze, I should be there soon.
“C’mon girls, we’re almost there.” I stop in my tracks at the familiar voice.
“Whatever.”
“Can’t be!”
“Hold on! This diamond isn’t getting any lighter.”
“Awww, you want some help? Too bad!”
The other four’s voices seem weird, familiar but weird. I move ahead some more and turn the corner to spot my friends. “Guys! You made it!” I shout and run up to them. Before I can get close, Twilight holds her hoof up to stop me.
“Swift, it’s good to see but I’m afraid I can’t ask you to go further.” What? What the hell does she mean? Now that I look, everyone else here, except Twilight, is a slightly darker shade than they were before. Rainbow Dash is missing, and... Rarity is carrying a massive boulder. What.
“What do you mean?” I ask why she won’t let me go with them. Looking down the straightaway they were in, it leads to the center. That must be where the Elements are.
“I’m sorry Swift, but the Elements of Harmony are just too powerful. I can’t afford to let you anywhere near them.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask a bit angrily.
“I can’t take the chance of the most powerful relics we have to be put in danger with someone of your background.” She bluntly says. What the-?
“You’ve gotta be kidding me! After everything I’ve done, you still don’t trust me?!” I yell. Now I’m really starting to get mad.
“I’m afraid so, Swift. I’m sorry.” With her final words, she begins walking off. Applejack walks past me with a weird look on her face, Pinkie just pushes me out of the way roughly.
Rarity begins to strain a bit with the giant boulder on her back. Why does she have that anyway? “Rarity why do you have-?”
“Stay away! Don’t you dare touch my diamond!” She suddenly barks at me when I try to grab the rock. She just moves past me as she continues to lug the heavy object.
“Awwww, did the little human have his feelings hurt?” Fluttershy says in a sad baby voice right in front of me. “Too bad. Hahahaha.” She rudely says in a singsong tone before striding off. That was weird. Rarity being greedy, Pinkie being pushy, Fluttershy being rude as fuck, and that look on Applejack was just plain weird for her. Something’s wrong. Really wrong.
“Twilight!” I muscle my way in front of the others to the purple mare. “There is no way that-“ I grab her shoulder with my right hand to stop her. “Ahhhhh!” I yell loudly in pain. The second I touched her skin, mine immediately reacted in a painful way. I look at my hand and stare closely at the red marks adorning the palm and fingers.
I look at Twilight who stares back with a scared look on her face. I grip my burned hand in rage and grab my pistol with my other hand. I aim point blank directly at her face, the look of fear and horror appearing on her as well as the others. I pull the trigger, sending the bullet out of the barrel and directly at the mare. The bullet impacts the ground. Twilight, or so I thought at first, disappears into a plume of smoke. I smile and aim at the others. They step back but I start firing, each one of them disappearing in a similar fashion as the first. I knew it. I knew they weren’t real. “Very observant of you. I say I-“
I twist my wrist to the side in an instant and fire before Discord can react. “Ow!” He yells from the bullet wound in his lion arm. I take full aim at him with both hands on my pistol as he looks at me with a disgusted look on his face, mine showing the intent to kill.
“I’ve got plenty more on me.”
“Hm! Fine! You were boring anyway.” He yells. I fire three rounds at his face. The bullets impact the hedge wall as he disappears as well.
The only time I got hurt with pretty much no reason is because of magic. Discord tried to screw with me using some type of illusion spell. Guess he didn’t count on my... allergies to break his vision. As I look down the hedge hallway, I notice the statue at the end warping till it disappears to reveal more of the hallway. Another vision, eh Discord? I don’t think so. I gotta keep moving.
*FWOOSH*
I look up to spot something flying. Upon closer examination, it’s Rainbow Dash. Wait, how did she get her wings back? Discord said- A rumbling under my feet distracts me as I try to keep my balance. The hedge walls suddenly retract into the ground, dust and dirt kicking up into the air, nearly blinding me. I cough a few times and look around to get my bearings. Instantly I manage to spot my friends, who are just like the illusion ones.
*Gasp* “Swift!” Twilight shouts happily and trots up to me. I remain wary just in case this is another trick. “I’m so glad you're okay!”
“Oh you are, are you ?” I suspiciously ask. She looks confused.
“Yes! Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Hmmmmm,” I think as I lean in to closely look at her. I quickly place my hand on her head.
“Oh! What are you doing?” she asks me. I wait a few seconds for the burning feeling to come around. It doesn’t. I place my hands on her back and neck to be sure. “Sw-Swift?” she asks nervously from my groping.
I look at her face to see she’s blushing. I sigh and move back, “Sorry, Twi. Just making sure it was you.”
“Oh... okay.” She still retains that nervousness about her.
Suddenly lightning begins to boom all around us. “Well, well, well. Somepony broke the ‘no wings, no magic’ rule.” Discord menacingly says while floating out from a small cloud of dust. He snaps his fingers. I look to my friends to see Twilight and Rarity getting their horns back and Fluttershy her wings. “Game's over, my little ponies. You didn't find your precious Elements.” He taunts us about our failure, every second getting me more and more pissed off. “Looks like we might be due for a big old storm of chaos! Hahaha Ahhhahahaha!” He laughs maniacally as he rolls on the ground in utter ecstasy of his success. Twilight is obviously distraught but right now I’m doing everything in my power to stop myself from killing him. Everyone else is messed up, along with the rest of Equestria, and I have no idea that if I kill him and everything goes back to normal... or it all remains completely screwed. And I don’t think anyone would prefer the latter option. Just play it cool for now.
“And what are you laughing at?!” Pinkie shouts in front of Discord.
He stops laughing and wipes a tear, “Oh, you ponies are just the most fun I've had in aeons.”
“Well, quit it! You'd better think before you laugh at the Pink...ie Pie!” Pinkie tries to threaten Discord but messes up.
“Oh yeah? Well ha, ha.” Fluttershy messes with the pink mare.
“Quit it!”
“No. Ha, ha.” Fluttershy continues to antagonize the pink mare to no end.
“Hi-yah!” The sudden shriek turns my attention to the fashionista pony and farm mare, who Applejack just got kicked by Rarity. “Try it, punk. He’s mine. All mine!” Rarity yells at Applejack and continues to try and kick her. Fluttershy continues to piss off Pinkie Pie while Discord watches on movie theater seats while eating popcorn.
“Damnit, Discord!” I yell, walk right up to him and aim my gun directly at his face. “Tell us where the Elements are now!!”
“Hahaha do you honestly think I’ll respond to such trivial threats?”
I growl and cock the barrel back, “I can do a hell of alot more damage to you and your precious new world than just a few broken statues and that wound on your arm!” I yell in anger.
“We’ll see.” He casually says. Right now my trigger finger is aching and quivering with the anticipation of pulling back.
“Stop it, Discord. Just tell us where the Elements are?” Twilight says in a much more sincere voice as opposed to my sudden loud and direct threat, I guess as a way to console with him to give us what we want peacefully. My ass.
He scoffs and gets up, “I already told you where they are.”
“Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the Elements back where you began. I remember.” He looks bored and annoyed at my interruption of him.
“You are really making a habit of annoying me aren’t you?” I chuckle.
“Likewise.”
“So, what? They weren’t in the Labyrinth?”
“Oh, wait, did you...? Hahahaha! How funny! You thought the Elements were in the labyrinth?” I growl in anger.
“Fuck! I knew it! I knew they weren’t in there.” I yell and turn around and grab my head tightly.
“Well, if you knew then why didn’t you say something?” Discord says with a smile right in front of me. I groan before I punch him. He dodges the blow but I only brush against that small beard thing he’s got under his chin.
“Because Twilight is a hell of a lot smarter than me, and I trusted her judgement.” I say while aiming again.
“Haha, and look where it got you.” I grip my gun tighter and look over at Twilight.
“Keep trying, you two.” He mockingly says. “Maybe the magic of friendship can help you.” He says to Twilight before moving to see us both, “Now if you'll excuse me, I have some chaos to reek.”
“Raaaahh!” I yell and fire three rounds. They fail to hit their mark as he disappears into thin air.
Suddenly thunderstorms start rolling in overhead. Not long after that, rain begins to pour... brown rain.
“Chocolate milk? I hate chocolate milk!” The now messed up and still freaky pink mare yells.
“Ugh.” I groan in disgust at the sticky substance falling on me and the infuriating fights that all my friends, minus Twilight, are having. Rarity being a grade A greedy bitch, Fluttershy just being a complete rude asshole, Applejack lying, and Pinkie not even being happy at all. What hell did he do to my friends?!
“Darn it. What do we do now?” Twilight asks me. I sigh and think. It’s obvious that the twists and turns concept didn’t work out right. Maybe we can try the second half.
“Twists and turns obviously didn’t work, maybe now we can try the second part.”
“Find the Elements back where you began.” Twilight mutters and begins to think. In truth, I have no idea where that spot can be. Twilight and the others were the ones that first found the Elements but I have no idea where exactly they found them. The Everfree forest I know but not much more than that.
“Anything?” I ask her.
She shakes her head in frustration, “Ugh. I just want to go home...”
“You and me both.” Now I really hope that all this stuff will just blow over soon. But unfortunately thats never the case.
“Wait a minute... Home! ‘Back where you began!’ The Elements must be in Ponyville!”
I grab my chin and think, “That... seems logical. The whole incident with the Elements of Harmony being discovered happened in Ponyville right? With Nightmare Moon?” I ask her, trying to get my bearings of the history and reason for going home.
“Right! And I have a book back at the library that might give us a clue!” I can’t find any fault with that. I’ve got nothing on what to go on, so I guess the library is our only lead.
“Alright,” I reload my pistol and get ready, “Let’s do this.”
“Great!” Twilight excitedly agrees, then looks to my side past me to the bickering others, “What about them?”
I look back to still confirm the noises, they are still arguing about the diamond and a bunch of other crap as well. “I got this.”
“Don’t touch my diamond!”
“Quit it!”
“Ha, ha!”
*Bang!* I fire a round directly at the boulder, making it ricochet upwards.
“Enough! We’re moving out!” I yell.
“You hit my diamond!” Rarity suddenly shouts in a very pissed off tone.
I groan and look back to her, “Aren’t diamonds practically indestructible?”I ask her.
She shuffles a bit as she looks over the spot that my bullet hit. She looks at it closely and rubs it with her hoof.
“Well?”
“... it’s fine.”
“Thank you.” I say in an annoyed tone and turn back to Twilight.
“Just don’t do it again!” I wave off the blind greedy mare and start walking.
“Let’s go home.”
“Right.”
It takes a long time for us to get home without the train and all. To my surprise, Rarity manages to lug the heavy object all the way... with only some slippery soapy roads, stampeding bunny rabbits, and one annoying draconequus taunting us and mentioning Ponyville being the Chaos capital of the world. My world may be in Chaos most of the time but this takes things to a whole new weird level.
“Finally, we’re here.”
“Thank you.” I groan. With all the floating, messed up and upside down buildings, I’m glad we made it.
Twilight looks back to the other, “Okay, we're here. Everyone please, please, please just go inside, please?” she practically begs the others.
“I absolutely refuse!” Applejack clearly lies as she walks right into the library, while turning into an even darker shade of grey. Fuck.
“With pleasure.” Fluttershy says and proceeds to stomp one of Twilights bushes of flowers into the ground, then turning even greyer.
“I hate libraries.” Pinkie Pie walks in and turns greyer as well.
Wait, we’re missing one... well two actually but one took off. Rarity doesn’t move in like the others. Looking around I spot the greedy mare trying to push the boulder.
“Ugh.” Me and Twilight groan and walk over to her.
“Rarity we need to move, now!” I firmly say trying to remain in my current composure as much as possible, which is really hard.
“Forget it! I know what you two are up to. The second we go in, you’ll use your powers Swift and your assistant Spike Twilight to take Tom!” ...Tom? Seriously?
“Tom?”
“Well it won’t work.” Rarity turns greyer and pretty much cuddles the inanimate object. I pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration.
“She’s not going in is she?”
“Not without Tom.”
*Sigh* “Alright, fine.” I move towards the grey unicorn, “Move. I’ll get him inside.” I say and move behind Tom.
“Alright, but be gentle. He’s fragile.” Rarity says in a baby voice.
I nod and sarcastically smile, “Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle.” I say in a sly voice...
--------------------------------------------------------------------
*Splash*
“Ahhh!” Spike wakes from his nap from the cold water that Fluttershy threw on him. “What did you do that for, Fluttershy?”
“'Cause you just looked so peaceful.” Fluttershy replied rudely.
“Huh?” Spike says in a confused tone, oblivious to the new mood of the once kind mare.
“HEEEEE-YA!” With a loud cry, and the breaking down of one of Twilight’s wall, the boulder known as Tom makes his entrance with the help of Swift Wind.
“Swift, careful! You'll ruin his beautiful finish.” Rarity tries to comfort the rock.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
“Swift! Why did you-“ I quickly put up my hand to stop her.
“Twilight, you know as well as I that neither of us have any patience whatsoever for this type of crap and you're happy somewhere deep inside to at least get this thing inside.” I point to the boulder.
“His name is Tom!”
“Shut up!”
Twilight looks at me for a second as we stand outside her house. “Hm,” she smirks and walks past me into her house. “And you say you’re not as smart as me.”
I’m taken back by her compliment, “Wow, thanks Twilight.”
“Your welcome. Now then,” she looks over to her assistant, “Spike, we need the-“
“Hey, Twilight, what's soaking wet and clueless?” Oh lord... Fluttershy no.
“Fluttershy we don’t need-“ Before Twilight can ask, the formerly kind pegasus dumps water on her.
“Your face!” *Bang* And then promptly slams the empty bucket onto her head.
“Oh Celestia.” I mutter. From what I can tell, Twilight is just a tiny atom away from turning full blown demonic horse on everyone in this room, same with me.
“Hey, Swift, what’s-“ I don’t give her the chance to utter a single word as I grab the bucket from Twilight and grab both sides of it and pull... hard.
With a loud crunching and scraping noise, the bucket tears in half right down the middle. As I hold both pieces of bucket in either hand, I look at Spike, who cringes at the sight of me and the face I’m making, “Elements of Harmony reference guide. Now. Before some ponies turn out a HELL of alot worse than this bucket!” I yell. Spike and Twilight begin looking around while the others go back to bickering with each other.
I take into account of myself right now. Let’s see, the muscles in my arm are sore as hell from the sudden massive pressure I just placed on them from tearing metal in half, my legs hurt about the same because I kicked a GIANT FUCKING BOULDER into the wall of a tree, I have a fully functional Berretta 9mm with a full clip and some extra, and a combat knife in my pocket... something is going to happen in the next few minutes.
“Found it!” I look up to Spike who holds out the book.
Suddenly a scroll smacks the dragon in the nose, causing him to drop it... right into the hands of Fluttershy. Fuck. “Fluttershy...” I say in an annoyed tone, expecting her to give it.
“Keep away!” Oh fuck no!
Fluttershy tosses the book to Applejack, who tosses it to Pinkie pie, then to Fluttershy and goes around again. This time when ‘Shy tries to grab it, Spike jumps her, making the book miss its target. I dive towards the ground and catch the book. “Gotcha’!” I happily say.
Suddenly a blow aura surrounds it, followed by searing hot pain in my chest, neck, arms and hands. “OW!” I cry in agony and let go of the book.
“Mine!” Rarity yells as she sweeps the book up.
“Hey, do you even know what you just stole?” Twilight yells.
“No, but if you want it, I want it!”
Twilight tries to grab the book but doesn’t. I slowly get up but the pain still there.
I hear someone straining and look to see Twilight clenching her teeth and look absolutely pissed. “GIVE ME THAT BOOK!”
The blown tempered lilac unicorn takes off after the greedy mare. Fluttershy goes low and grabs the mare, hoisting her up and making Twilight crash into Tom. I clench my fist and stand up.
“Ha, ha. Good luck-“
“GIVE ME THAT BOOK!” I yell as loud as I can and run up to them. They’re too high up and they know it, but their too cocky to remember I’m resourceful.
“Try it.” Fluttershy taunts me as she continues to hold up Rarity. I bolt forward straight towards Tom and running up it and launching myself off the top towards the two. Fluttershy tries to pull away but I manage to grab Rarity’s ankles.
“Let go of me!”
“No!” she tries to kick me off but I hang on. Through all her struggling, I continue to climb my way up.
“Ouch!” she shrieks as I pull on her hair and grab her horn. It burns but to my surprise she stops casting the spell on the book making it fall. I smile and look up at Fluttershy, who is definitely pissed. I reach and grab her wing.
Her eyes widen when she tries to keep her balance on only one wing. “Ha, ha.” I laugh in her face and fall. I land on the rock and look down to spot the book. “Perfect.”
*Crash*
I look to the side on the second floor to see that Fluttershy and Rarity crashed into a bookcase. I smile and look back down, only to see the book is gone. Damnit. I quickly look around to try and find only to see it in the hands of one Pinkamena Diane Pie. “Pinkie Pie! Drop it!” I yell while seeing Twilight and Spike sneaking up on her from behind.
“Hahahaaa, okay.” She says suspiciously, then tosses the book just as Twilight and Spike jump her.
That’s it! I tighten my grip as tight as I can. The book comes down towards Applejack.
“I don’t got it.” Clearly she lies. Just as the book lands on her head, she smiles. Just as she’s about to throw it, a knife pierces the book and embeds it into the wall. She stands there fazed as all eyes look upon me as I stay in the stance I threw the knife. I jump down and bolt over to the book before anyone can react. I quickly wedge the knife and book out of the wall, then the knife out of the book. I turn around to be greeted by all the gray pony’s slowly baring down on me.
“Stay back!” Twilight yells as she jumps in front me, her head lowered and her horn glowing, ready to dish out spells like crazy, while Spike uses a scroll as a weapon. I growl lightly but also happy that I finally got the book.
“Now! Can we please try and find the Elements of...!” I yell and open the book. “Harmony?” From my questionable tone, Twilight looks at me to see I’m staring down at some jewelry.
“The Elements!” Twilight beams with happiness. This is the first time I’ve actually seen these so called Elements of Harmony. There are six, five of them look like necklaces, each one having a jewel in the middle that resembles my friends’ cutie marks. A red lightning bolt, a purple diamond, a light blue balloon, an orange apple, and a pink butterfly. The last one looks like a tiara with a oval sapphire stones along it and a magenta colored star in the middle above the tiara itself. If I had to guess, that one must be for Twilight.
“Well it’s about damn time.” I say, a bit of happiness washing over me that we finally found these stupid things.
“This is great! Now you guys can defeat Discord and put everything back to normal!” Spike says enthusiastically. I smile, but then I remember something.
“But aren’t we missing somepony?”
Twilight sighs, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
She then proceeds to place the necklaces on the others necks without their consent and finally places her crown on her head. I guess the most elusive gets to stand out above all. “Come on, everypony, let’s go!”
“But Twilight, what about Rainbow Dash?” Spike points out what we already know.
The purple unicorn sighs before grabbing the last necklace and placing it on Spike. “Congratulations, Spike, you're the new Rainbow Dash. Now let's go!” she tries to hurry us up. Everyone else is outside except for me, Twilight, and Spike.
“Me? What about Swift?” he points to me. Twilight looks at him angrily.
“Sure, make him part of an ancient magic move that could engulf him in magic and possibly set him on fire!” Somehow I feel as though that could happen.
“B-b-but what if she finds out I've been impersonating her? Whoa!” Before anyone can answer the dragon, I pick him up.
“Deal with it.” I roughly say.
“Now let's go defeat Discord so we don't ever have to talk to each other again!” The purple unicorn yells in front of us all.
“Yeah! Woo-hoo!” Suddenly everypony cheers as they run past me, almost trampling and running me over. I sigh and move outside and look to see the crazy hell that Discord has turned this place into. I look up high in the sky to spot my plane, with a little bit of some changes to it, soaring by. Thankfully he didn’t see me. Phew.
“Look out, here comes Tom!” I gently put down Spike and turn around. Weird thing is, I expect to see Tom at the hole in the wall, but I don’t. Where is-
*Crash*
I look up to see Tom floating directly above me surrounded by a pink aura... until it disappears.
“Shit!” I dive to the ground, away from the plummeting object before it can crush me. “Ouch.” I groan.
“Sorry.” Twilight yells to me from her balcony.
I weakly wave back to her, “Yeah.” I groan out again. I place my hands on the ground and slowly push myself up, only to come face to face with a green lizard leg, and a brown goat leg. Ahhh hell.
“Well, well, well, I see you've found the Elements of Harmony. How terrifying!” He sarcastically says.
“Shut it!” I say while getting up, “We figured out your riddle, we have the Elements that could defeat you, in my book that basically spells ‘you’re screwed’.” I turn around to the others, “Would you please do what you all do best and kick his ass?” I ask them all.
“Formation, now!” Twilight shouts, making her and the others get into the so called formation, in which they all just say ‘eh’ like they don’t care, which clearly they don’t. I back off as Discord begins to rant off on something but I notice that one of the Elements isn’t there.
I sigh and walk over to Tom and lean back against it, “Spike, get out here.”
His head peeks out from behind the boulder before walking up to me, “Swift, I don’t want to do this.”
“Sorry but at this point we don’t have a choice. Now get in there.” I sternly say and motion with my head. He gives off an exasperated sigh before walking to the others and joining their formation.
Twilight and the others close their eyes, a dense wind picking up around us. Suddenly they all begin to slowly float up into the air, the wind picking up even more when Twilight opens her eyes. The once purple eyes she had are full white with a glowing effect to them, then her tiara glows and lights up with a much brighter intensity to it, followed by Fluttershy’s necklace, then Pinkie Pie’s and Applejack’s, and finally followed up by Rarity’s. Alright, looking good, except... I look around and begin to count on the ones floating. One, two, three, four... five? I look down and see Spike standing there awkwardly with nothing abnormal happening to him whatsoever. Crap. If I’m not mistaken, we need all the Elements- All of a sudden the wind stops, the glowing stops, and all the girls fall to the ground. Glowing.
“Girls?” I ask with concern in my voice while moving towards them. The damn thing didn’t work. This isn’t good.
“What’s going on?” Twilight says a little groggily.
“Mines workin’.” Wow, Applejack said the truth. I saw hers glowing so it must have worked. “There must be somethin’ wrong with yours.” she says to Twilight. And there’s the lie.
“I hate the Elements of Harmony!” There’s grumpy.
“Hmph! Garbage.” Fluttershy throws her necklace to the ground away from her. There’s rude and jerky.
“Mine!” Rarity shouts as she grabs Shy’s necklace. And there’s greedy again.
This can’t be happening. The Elements were the true opponent to Discord, and now they failed. My friends failed. I sit down and try to think while Discord declares harmony dead and my friends go back to being what they are. The Elements were the main weapon against Discord, and they can’t make them work without EVERYONE! I tried to kill him but he’s too fast. I only got one hit in and he’s acting like nothing happened. I grab my head in frustration at the situation. What do we do?
“Fine! Leave! See if I care!” I break out of my thoughts at the loud voice. The others are gone and Twilight’s alone, even Discords gone. “I don't need you guys either! With friends like you, who needs...enemies...?” She finishes saying sadly. She lowers her head.
“Twilight?” I ask. I stand up and walk over to her. “Twilight?”
“It’s over Swift.” I kneel down in front of her and place a hand on her cheek, wiping away a tear in the process.
“No Twilight, it’s gonna be...” The purple fur against my hand turns to grey, along with the breaking of my heart. “Alright?” I say in disbelief. Twilight, the one pony who never gave up and wanted to defeat Discord, who was also told by Celestia to do so... just gave up.
“It’s over.” She says sadly. She turns around and walks off, leaving me to stand here like an idiot.
“Twilight?!” I shout at her, but she doesn’t turn around, she doesn’t even flinch! She just... walks. “Twiiiiiilliiiiiiiiigght!!” I yell even louder.
Nothing.
“No.” I silently groan to myself and look down. My eye comes in contact with a puddle of water. The thing that’s so interesting about it is... it’s not water, it’s a tear, and its in the shape of a heart. A perfectly shaped... broken heart. Damn.
“Ohhh such sweet relief. The Elements are disbanded, Equestria is in chaos, annnnd...” Discord appears next to me and places both his hands on my shoulders. “I have someone who can make just as much chaos and turmoil as moi!” he gestures to himself. I ignore the jackass and look up to spot Twilight just leaving my field of vision behind a building that’s upside down. “What do you say? Help me spread disharmony and chaos throughout the whole world... and I’ll give you whatever you want.” He whispers the last part in my ear.
Anything I want... Tempting. I don’t know. My friends were the only thing I truly fought for, they were the reason why I actually have a life here! And now it’s gone. “I... I...”
“Yeeessss...”
“I...”
“Yeeeeeessss...” he says with more volume with his voice.
I clench my eyes shut along with my fists, “I... Uhhh!” I yell as I bolt forward and begin running to the outskirts of town. I run as fast as my legs can carry me, my powers not really kicking in from the buildings I have to duck under, the floating bushes, low flying pink clouds, dancing buffalo and the slippery chocolate milk covered ground and soapy roads.
What do I do? What the hell do I do?! The Elements were what we need but all the bearers are too stubborn and too far gone to use them! I couldn’t kill him. What the HELL do I do?!?! I shout in my head repeatedly. Running is all I’m doing right now, running and sliding mostly from the stupid roads. Discord expects me to help bring chaos...! There is only one type of chaos my kind can bring... and it’s not meant for this place.
I stop and breathe heavily, doing what I can to catch my breath from the distance I covered, about the whole towns worth. I look up and spot my destination in front of me: My house. I smile a little that I’m here but there’s something different, it’s floating in midair, far out of my reach. “Damn, how am I supposed to get up there?” I ask myself. I scratch my head and look around for anything to try and get me up, but I find nothing. I sigh and see a rock just under the stairs that’s floating between the ground and stairs. I shrug and run up to it, jumping onto the rock and launching myself up to grab the stairs. Grunting, I pull myself up and into my front door. I double lock it, shut and lock the windows, and close the curtains. I go over to my bed and lay down and think.
What do I think? Princess Celestia is defeated, Luna is probably asleep for the night, and my friends have become inconsiderate jerks who gave up. Yeah, just what can I think? I let out a frustrated groan and grab my hair. The Princess said I could help... but did she really mean it, or was she just trying to make me feel better and special? I close my eyes and dig my fingers deeper.
What do I do?! I yell in my mind. As I try to comprehend that the fact that my new home is going to be destroyed, I cry. Tears begin forming under my eyes, the wet sad feeling I get when that happens appearing once again. The last time I remember crying was when-
“Ugh.” The image of those people surface again. I let my arms fall to my sides and just stare at the ceiling.
Time goes by. Seconds turn to minutes and minutes turn to hours. At this point I can’t tell if it’s the next day or not, what with Discord and his constant changing day and night time.
I turn over on my side and close my eyes, I guess this is it. I can’t escape my world. Even if this is nothing like it, it’s close enough. Another tear falls from me, landing on the floor with an audible splash.
“NOOO!!” I yell loudly, my eyes shoot open and I burst up from my bed. “I’ve come too far to let some blowhard take away my new home!” I stomp out of my room, “Celestia chose me as her backup plan and I will honor it!” I stand in front of my quintuple locked door, “I can’t remember how I lost my first home...” I begin unlocking the door. Once the door is unlocked, I grip the handle, “But I’ll be damned if I’m gonna lose this place too!!” I slam the door open and stare at my armaments. I wipe my eyes clean,
“Time to show a little initiative...”
---------------------------------------------------
“Let’s see, this could use some more clouds...” I make more cotton candy clouds appear, “No no, that won’t do.” I say while making them disappear. With my world coming together nicely, I feel as happy as I can be, but the thought of all the work I have to do still lingers. “Oh well. With the Elements of Harmony disharmonised, I shouldn’t have to worry about anything interfering in my plans.
“Discord!!” Except maybe one.
--------------------------------------------------
The god slowly turns around and faces me. “Ahhhh, did you reconsider my...” he trails off as he gets a good look of me.
I stand before him, not as some casually clothed human, but of full blown armed to the teeth human. My Mossberg is in my hands, fully loaded with standard shotgun shells so I can cut through his tough hide, my berretta is ready and willing in its holster, one of two combat knifes nestles neatly in its sheathe in my belt and the second is strapped to my ankle, two belts of grenades and shotgun shells cross into an X over my chest and back, and finally my most innovative weapon the Katana is strapped to my back and ready to be pulled out and used in a moment’s notice.
He raises an eyebrow and strokes his beard, “What is this?” he asks.
I cock my shotgun and aim directly at him,
“Your dethronement.”
*BOOM!!*
3 hours later…
“Ahhhhh!!” I yell in pain as I’m thrown back. I flip through the air and fall on my front, the force of Discord’s attack sending me sliding along the ground. “Cah! Cah! Uhhhhhh, damnit.” I groan as I try to get up. For hours I spent trying to take him on in a fight. He just swatted most of my attacks away, only a few cuts, bruises and a few non fatal bullet wounds he suffers, while my entire body is sore, burned, bruised, cut a few times and I think I twisted my ankle and broke a couple ribs. I slowly look up to see my Mossberg just a foot away from me. “Uhhh!” I groan some more and reach forward.
Slowly I crawl forward, each movement sparking the pain receptors in my body to life. I reach forward as far as I can, my hand shaking from my wounds, and grab it. Yes. I think with a smile.
“Uh uh uhhh. We don’t want that. *Snap*” Discord snaps his fingers and my shotgun turns into a snake.
*Hisssssss!*
“Ah!” I yelp and try to scurry back. The black snake looks at me before slithering away. I grunt in frustration at the loss of another one of my tools.
“I have to admit, you were pretty good.” Discord says while appearing in front of me. “In all my time of being the spirit of chaos, not one has retaliated against me in the fashion you have done.” He says while circling me.
“And?”
“And what? That was fun!” he shouts with happiness.
I grunt and try to stand, “Maybe for you.” I mutter to myself.
“Oh contraire!” He leans down to look me in the eyes. “My offer still stands.”
I slowly raise myself to my knees and look at him confused, “Really? Even after we spent the last few hours trying to kill each other?”
“That’s the thing. Look around us.” I slowly turn my head around and stare at the landscape around us. Craters are evident, floating buildings have some of their walls missing and furniture and other things from inside are falling out as they twist around in the air, different trees are chopped cleanly in half, and a bunch of bushes and rocks are floating around with purple bat wings. “My form of chaos is one thing, but this is another in the right direction.” He grabs me, eliciting a groan from me as he stretches his arm out with his palm open, sort of having me envision what it is he wants. “Imagine it, with knowledge of the chaos from your world and mine together, we can be the ultimate rulers of Equestria…!” He grabs my head and turns it to look into his eyes, “And beyond!” he says menacingly.
I grunt as I pull back out of his grip, “You honestly expect me to take you up on your offer? Even after I tried my damndest to kill you?!” I yell at his face. I grab my chest in pain from the sudden expansion of my lungs against my broken ribs.
“Ha ha ha ha, I could use that spunk.” He explains his reason. I groan and spit at him.
“I don’t think so.”
He casually wipes the spit off and looks at me directly, “What other choice do you have?”
I stop my rapid breathing and slow down a bit, “What do you mean?”
“I mean, look at you…!” He stands up fully and spreads his arms, “Look at your so called home!” I get a far more in-depth look at the place I have stayed in for so long. The months that have gone by, the ponies I helped, the landscape I have come to know and its terrain… it’s all gone. My friends brushed me off like nothing, I don’t even recognize the residents anymore, I can’t tell where the hell to go with everything upside down! Literally! “What would you do then? Huh? Run away now and try another battle in the future?” He says while baring down at me, “Didn’t you just say you tried your damndest in defeating me right now?” I look down in disappointment. The only other weapon I can try is my Barrett but I need to be stationary, otherwise that thing could possibly break or dislocate my arm from my shoulder. And once I’m made…
“…”
“Is being on the run for the rest of your life truly the only alternative you’d accept?” He asks me.
“…” I think on his words. For a crazy bastard, he's starting to make sense. I spent the last few years of my life on the run, watching over my shoulder for the people I’ve wronged, the police and people that chase me, the constant searching for food everywhere I could go along with shelter… it was horrible and I vowed I would never go through that again!
But if I accept, I go back on another vow I made.
“Well?”
I continue to think. Do I go back on my friends? Or do I go back on my old life? My thinking turns to minutes, obviously irritating the draconequus.
“Fine! If you want to, I’ll give you a head start.” he says while floating away.
“Wait!”
He stops and looks at me. “Yeeess?”
I slowly lower my arm and sigh, “I already went through years on the run… I don’t want that again.” I reply. But I don’t want to lose my only friends either.
“Your decision?”
I take a deep breath, do I stop running? Or do I keep going? Do I lose my friends? Or try to free them?
“I…“