Chapter 14
"Ugh. My head" I groaned as I put my hands up to my head. As I was rubbing my temples, a thought came to my mind. I didn't know what it was, but it made me feel as if I was missing something. I opened my eyes, and noticed two claws that looked very familiar.
I quickly looked myself over.
Claw's: check
Wings: check
Tail: check
Scales, Both black and red: check
Elongated face: check
Horn's: check.
I was in my Hybrid form. The Biped form to be precise. But how?
"Wait. Shouldn't I be dead right about now?" I asked myself out loud.
"No. You're still alive. You've just been put in a condition that won't allow you to harm anyone else." Came the voice from Halex. Only, it wasn't in my head.
I perked up at the voice and I looked around the surrounding area, trying to find the source. But all I could see was black. It's like when Halex had taken over my body and suppressed me into my own mind. Only there were two being's here as well.
...
Wait. Two being's.
I looked over to where I thought I saw the two being's a second ago. and sure enough, they were still there.
Halex's as the black Hybrid form with the black smoke emitting from him and all and next to him was...
I don't know what it was.
This guy with Halex looked like a cross breed of... of... for lack of a better term: many, animals. He had two different horns on his head, one goat horn while the other was a deer antler. He had one long fang, bushy eyebrows, a goatee and a snakes tongue. And that was just his head. Down his long neck, he had a short... mane of sorts, a red fury body, one lion arm with paw and the other arm was like a gryphon's. He had two wings, one bat and the other pegasus. His legs were also non matching. One was a lizards and the other was a goat's hind leg. And on the end of him was a dragon's tail with pink spines and a tuft of white fur on the tip.
What creeped me out the most was his eyes. They were yellow with red pupils. And said eyes were looking straight at me.
"What is he?" I asked Halex while pointing at the, what I presumed was a chimera.
"I am disco-" he began to speak, but I cut him off.
"I don't care who you are. I asked what you are" I said.
"His name is Discord. He's what the ponies call a draconequus" Halex informed me.
"Oh. I thought he was a chimera, with all the different body parts and all" I said. I looked around into the darkness again. "Where the hell are we anyway?"
"That depends" Discord said appearing next to me. "The question is, do you want to know where it is that you can see, or where you actually are?" he asked.
"Give me both answers" I said bluntly.
"Well, what you see around you is your mind. Here, you can make anything you want happen. But your body in reality is in the Cantelot gardens, now made of stone" he said as a statue of me appeared. "We could have left you to look out of the eyes of your body for however long you will be like this, but your pal Halex and I thought it would be a great idea to bring you to the party as well."
I looked to Halex and smiled to him. But that smile turned to a look of confusion as he was making his way over to me.
When he got to me, he punched me in the gut hard enough to hurt me through my scales and forcing me to keel over.
"That's what you get for being stupid! I told you not to, but you went and punched Celestia in the face anyway!" Halex shouted at me.
"Wait? He actually punched her in the face?" Discord asked before falling over into a laughing fit. "I can't believe that anyone was as stupid as me to actually go ahead and do it" he said between breaths as he just continued to laugh.
I stood up, still clutching my stomach. "Yeah well. If she and her stupid mom didn't go and kill off my race, I might have been kinder toward's her" I said.
This made Discord stop laughing instantly.
"You're a Human!?" he shouted as he flew up and inspected me closely. I tried to grab him to throw him away but he *poofed* to the other side of me each time I tried.
"Kind of. Halex here is my power but we were hit with the Element's of Harmony and it split him from my mind. I was the only human that was born with these abilities" I explained. "But that's... that's... I'm sorry how do I get back to the veiw of my body? I can't help but feel I'm being watched."
"This is your mind. Just will it and it will happen" Discord said.
I closed my eyes for a moment and concentrated. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was white.
"Mares and Gentlecolts! I am here to present a new edition to the royal gardens. Under this sheet is a creature known as a human!" Shouted Luna's voice before the sheet was removed from the statue of me. When it was, I saw a sea of ponies, all wearing either a suit or dress. Luna was standing with her back to me as she addressed the crowd. "This Human was given a chance at making a new life here in Equestria, but he instead turned this offer against us. He is not evil, just confused. But in his confusion, he has hurt my sister both physically and mentally. Henceforth, he has been turned to stone before you to protect all of our subjects and himself."
I scoffed. 'Confused? Fuck you Luna! I knew what I was doing!' I tried to shout only to remember that I was made of stone and technically not even breathing let alone being able to shout.
He was found with a device in his possession that one of my guards said contained much of his race's knowledge. As we speak, Mr Rare Artifact, Curator of the Canterlot museum is working with a team to try and unlock the secrets of said device, but it seems to be protected by some sort of security protocol and will not allow any to access it" Luna continued.
'Man am I glad that only I can unlock it' I thought to myself. I had set a long-ass password on the thing and I guarantee no one, and I mean no one aside from me and Halex in the world today would know what that password means.
Anyway.
"This Gala tonight has been hosted in hopes of raising bits to further fund the dig where the Human was originally found. We hope you consider this proposal to bring back the knowledge of a lost race to further teach younger generation. Thank you." Luna said before she was applauded and walked off the stage that was in front of me.
As Luna walked back into the palace, some of the crowd walked up onto the stage to get a better look at me.
I just concentrated and went back into my mind where Halex and Discord were playing poker.
"Ugh. They are holding this stupid gala as a fund raiser to try and find out more about humans" I groaned as I spawned a chair out of nowhere and sat down at the table.
"You want in?" Halex asked while gesturing to the cards.
"Nah." I said as I dropped my head onto the table with a thud. I looked to Discord. "Hey, If this is MY mind, how the hell are you here?"
"My statue is only a few feet from yours. I have just enough power to be able to project myself in your mind" he said.
"Oh. And what's your story?" I asked.
"Do you want to know why I'm in here for the first time or the second?" he retorted.
"Second? You have gotten out of your stone prison before?"
"Yeah. I am the god of chaos. One day some foals began to fight right outside of my statue and that gave me enough strength to crack the stone and break free." he said.
"God of chaos. You probably wouldn't like the Element's of Harmony then would you?"
"My dear boy. Without the Element's, I would not exist" he said. This caused me to lift my head back up from the table.
I looked to Halex and saw that he was as intrigued as I was.
"How so?" I asked.
"Millions of years ago. Princess Pelia and her daughter Celestia wanted 'Perfect Harmony'. They tried to use the Element's of Harmony for every little problem that presented itself. This however caused up a back build of chaotic energy, and thus I was born," Discord explained. I felt like laughing at the Princess's misfortune so I spawned a cup of tea and began to sip at it. "Soon after Luna was born, I enslaved all of pony kind and used my power to gain vengeance for the human race and tricked Celestia into killing her own mother before making her my own personal puppet."
This sentence ended up making me inhale the teacup into my mouth and I began to choke on it.
I dropped onto all fours and began to slam at my chest, trying to cough up the tea cup. Even Halex looked disgusted at the comment. And he was the guy that once ripped a kid in half just because that kid was beating me up.
I coughed up the teacup finally after about a minute of trying to dislodge it from my throat and then looked up at Discord with the darkest glare I could. Halex was doing the same.
"What?" Discord asked. "I told them that if they hadn't killed of the humans and let them actually FINISH the Harmony Device. They would have been fine."
"How do you know of the humans making the Harmony device?" I growled at him.
"I was made by pure chaotic energy from the device itself. I know all about them" Discord said as he began to back away while Halex and I moved in at a threatening pace.
Halex snarled at him in an animalistic way while he opened his claws from fists and it made that cool sound that pulling a sword from a sheath makes.
"Get out of here" Halex said in the most menacing voice I had ever heard. It even gave me the chills. Discord disappeared in a flash.
Halex then turned to glare at me.
"Alright! I shouldn't have hit her in the face!" I yelled as I turned my back to him and sat down.
He walked over to me and slapped me upside the back of the head. "Yeah! I told you not to do anything stupid. Did you even think that there was a reason behind why she wanted to give you a chance?" He asked as he sat beside me.
"No." I said dejectedly.
"Look. I didn't know why at the time, but I knew that there was a reason for Celestia giving you a chance. I think that after she helped kill the human, at which I think that she didn't know any better at the time, she regretted it. When she looked into your mind after we were split. I sensed an overwhelming amount of emotion in her heart. She felt that, with your help, she could ease the sins of her past" Halex said to me.
I had no idea that he was capable of such scalding skills. He was guilt tripping me and it was working hardcore.
I felt a single tear escape my eye.
What had I done.
I had punched someone in the face that had only tried to right their wrongs. Celestia was just trying to be the better pony. Better than her mother at least.
Halex was right, she grew up with fighting humans, how could she have known it was wrong.
Then Discord made her kill her own mother. That is probably the worst thing she could have gone through, and I made it worse by hitting her.
I closed my eyes and tensed my body to stop it from shaking.
"Perhaps if we ever see her again, you should apologize to her. Let her know that you had no idea what she had to go through over her-" Halex began to suggest, but I cut him off.
"NO! "When" I see her again, I will make sure to say that I am sorry. No one should have to go through what she went through, no matter what she did!" I shouted
I need to get out of this prison right now. There is something I must do.
I clenched my eyes shut and returned my conciseness back to my body. I tensed every muscle in my body as much as I could. My strength felt like it was sky-rocketing.
I opened my eyes and saw a white glow, blazing from my stone body. I could see all the ponies backing up in fear as I continued to glow brighter.
"You!" one of the guards shouted while pointing to another. "Go and get the Element bearers. Tell them that they are needed NOW!"
"Yes sir!" said the other guard before galloping off into the palace.
"ARGH!" I groaned loudly as I tried even harder to move.
A few seconds later of me trying my absolute hardest to break free from the prison I was in, I felt the stone that encased me begin to crack all over. It was now or never
-Go for it Orion!- Halex shouted to me in my mind. I didn't need to be told twice.
With one final burst of strength, I exploded out of the stone that once encased me while throwing my arms out to the sides and letting out an actual roar that sounded like a lions.
A few seconds later I was still in the tensed position with my arms out to the side. I looked around and saw that I was in my Hybrid form, but my entire body was glowing a really bright white and was letting of steam.
"Over there! HURRY!" someone shouted.
I looked in the direction of the voice and saw Twilight and her friends, all with their respective Elements.
They looked in my direction and gasped, but soon after turned and got ready.
I too changed position into a fighting stance. I knew exactly what they were going to do, even before they did.
They all levitated of the ground and... blah... blah... blah... Oh look a rainbow beam coming at me.
I threw both my arms forwards and the beam collided with my claws with enough force to cause a shock wave that sent every pony besides the Twilight and her friends back about 50 metres.
I held the beam there for about 10 seconds, but I began to feel it rip my strength out of me.
"NO!!!" I shouted as I allowed my elbows to bend beside me before I forced back with as much energy as I could.
When my arms reached their full extension, I watched as this bright white beam of light forced the rainbow one back faster than it came at me and causing a mid air explosion.Thankfully, it was in the air and no one was hurt.
But I wasn't done just yet.
I thrust my arms at Twilight and the others before turning my palms to me and pulling back to my chest and then extending my arms out to the side again.
This motion caused the Element's to fly off their owners and shoot at me.
I don't know how I knew, but as they made contact with my body, I knew what each one was.
The first one was Laughter. It collided with my right leg and encased said leg in golden armour. Generosity did the same to my left leg.
Kindness collided with my right arm and encased it in armour like honesty did with left arm.
Loyalty was the one that hit me square in the chest and covered my torso, wings and tail.
Magic was the final one. It landed right between my eyes and soon covered my head in an opened faced helmet.
I let out a yell as I felt the power the Harmony Device gave me. It felt so good but so right.
After about 20 seconds of yelling, I stopped and lowered my arms back down to my sides before looking around.
All the ponies were looking at me wide eyed. like I was a mountain of gold of something. They just didn't want to believe it.
I looked myself over and admired the cool looking armour that now adorned me. I also noticed that I had stopped glowing and was back to my normal Black scaled Hybrid form.
-Orion. We have a job to do- Halex said.
I stopped looking over myself and began to walk toward's the palace. As I entered the doors, one guard named Nova Shine (How I knew that?) stepped in my was shakily. I just looked to him and he moved out of the way.
"Thank you" I said as I walked past him.
As I was walking through the palace, I walked past Princess Luna who wore a look of shock on her face.
But then again, so did everyone else.
Princess Luna began to follow me, trying to see if I was really real. Her doing this made some of the ponies outside also follow me as I made my way through the palace. I don't know how but I just knew where I was going. I felt as if I had been here before.
I made my way up yet another flight of stairs and to a hallway with only two doors in it. One door had Princess Luna's cutie mark on it and the other had the well known sun cutie mark of Princess Celestia on it.
I stood in front of the door that led to Celestia's chambers and placed a claw on it.
'You ready for this Halex?'
-By your lead Orion.-
I pushed the door open and stepped into the room.
"Luna, I thought I told you I want to be alone" came the voice of the Alicorn that was lying on the bed. I just stood there.
After a moment, she finally turned her head in my direction and her eyes widened when she gazed upon me.
My heart sank.
Her eyes were red and she had tear stains underneath them. But thats not what my eyes locked on to.
On her lower right jaw, there was a black fist mark from where I had brought my fist into her face. I felt a tear leave my eye as I looked at the mark so I closed my eyes to catch my resolve.
I heard the sound of her scurry to her hooves and the sound of her horn lighting up. I opened my eyes and she fired a magic bolt at me, but I just knocked it away like it was nothing.
I began to walk toward's her and she fired another magic bolt at me. That one got knocked away as well.
As I made my way closer and closer, she fired bolt after bolt at me, all with none making contact.
As I made it in front of her, she drooped her head.
"Please, Just make it quick" She asked.
I looked at her for a moment longer just waiting for the right moment.
She looked up to me with a quivering lower lip. That's when I made my move.
I lifted my arms up and she clenched her eyes shut, just waiting for the blow to end it all.
She however, would not die by my hand.
I slowly wrapped my arms around her neck and she tensed. I expected her to, but I pulled her more into the hug anyway.
"I am... SO... sorry Princess."