Ponies, Humans, and...
Pete was walking through the barracks inspecting the guards.
"Now listen up!" He shouted over the crowded training ground. "Because of my many recent injuries and other distractions I have not been able to continue with lessons. That means that now that I'm back we're going to have to make up for lost time, so I want laps!" Pete told them.
"How many laps, sir?" One of the guards asked.
"Did I give a number?" Pete questioned.
"...no, sir." The guard answered.
"Then you run until I say stop." Pete told him. With that the guards began to run around the barracks with Pete following behind blowing a whistle in random intervals that he had gotten from Luna.
that very same princess and a purple unicorn as well as five other ponies sat in a room just next to the barracks watching.
"Isn't this a bit crude and unorthodox?" Rarity asked watching the human train the guard.
"Maybe, but you can't deny that it's been effective." Luna responded. "I haven't seen the guards having training this hard since right after the rule of Discord." She told them. "And that brings me to the reason we're here." She continued. "As you well know since the first infected arrived here Discord has been missing from his prison in the garden, but we believe that we may have a lead to his whereabouts."
"That's right." Twilight spoke taking out a small map. "Some scouts have come back reporting some strange sightings. Animals acting strange, his trademark cotton candy clouds, as well as many other phenomena." She said.
"So what's the plan?" Rainbow asked. "Go there with the elements, trap him back in stone and return him to the garden?" She asked doing a few punches with her hooves in the air.
"Not quite, we're just going to talk to him." Twilight said.
"What?" Rainbow asked slightly faltering with her wings. "Why?!" she asked.
Twilight gave a small sigh. "Because as much as I would hate to admit it, Discord's chaos magic would be a great advantage for us." She answered.
"You think Discord would just decide to help us, just like that?" Rainbow asked.
"Maybe, I mean, he can't really do much chaos if there's not a world to do it in." Twilight told her.
"You can't think that he'll see reason." Rainbow said. "The only thing he understands is chaos, there's no way he'll help us."
"Well we have to give it a try don't we?" Twilight responded.
"It'll just be a waste of time." Rainbow said sitting back down.
Twilight sighed. Luna began to speak. "We're planning on sending a small contingent of guards with you to the city of Las Pegasus to try and make contact with Discord. Hopefully he will be in a talking mood." She said.
"Who did you plan on sending with the contingent?" Twilight asked.
"Just a few of the guard from Pete's training." Luna answered.
Twilight was surprised for a moment. "Not Pete, Matt, Jay, or Liz?" She asked.
"No, they have no experience dealing with Discord. I believe it would be better to send somepony with more experience than to send them who have never had any contact with anything like him before." Luna explained. "I'm not sure how well they would be able to deal with him anyways. Their experience is centered on the infected not a being of chaos." She continued.
Twilight pondered the thought. "I suppose it makes sense, but they do seem more experienced with adapting to situations" She said.
"Possibly, but truthfully I'm afraid how they will deal with the situation. This may not be the best way to put it, but those four seem to solve a lot of their problems the same way." Luna said.
"You mean-?" Twilight started.
"Yes, they solve many problems by killing." She said. "I simply want this excursion to be diplomatic not resulting in a fight."
"I'm sure they would understand that princess." Twilight responded.
"I know that they probably would Twilight, but I would simply prefer to remain on the cautious side." Luna responded.
"I understand." Twilight said. "But I think in that case we should keep this information from them until we leave. I don't think they'd be too pleased if they found out.
There was a soft knock on the door. Everypony turned and saw that Jay was standing in the open doorway.
"Now, I couldn't help but eavesdrop on you little conversation, but I've heard some stories about this Discord fellow and I would very much like to meet him. Also considering I'm not one to pass up an adventure I think I can speak for everybody in my group when I say we want in." He told the ponies with a small smirk.
"I'm sorry Jay but this has already been decided." Luna told him.
He sighed. "Fine, fine." He said waving a hand dismissively with a slight scowl. "But just so you know I'm going to tell Pete and the others. We don't like to be kept out of the loop, we'll respect your decision, but we still probably would've wanted to be informed about this." He said as he gave a small wave and left the room. The ponies let out a small sigh of relief they expected that to go a lot worse.
Just hours later the elements were sitting in one of the sky chariots waiting for the flight to Las Pegasus to begin. The humans had come to say farewell and good luck to the ponies before leaving to do their own things. The chariot took off not minutes later and the long flight to Las Pegasus was in the air.
The trip was slow going with the mares catching up with what they had been doing. Just talking and enjoying the time that they had in the air before they landed back on the apocalyptic ground. They girls were laughing at a joke Pinkie had just told when a sound caught their attention. They all turned their heads and saw a figure wrapped in a cloak leaning over the edge and emptying the contents of their stomach over the edge of the chariot. The figure reached up and rubbed his temples brushing back his hood as he did so.
“PETE!?” The mares asked in surprise.
He held up one finger telling them to wait a moment and emptied his stomach yet again. “Oh God, why do I keep getting on these things?” He asked himself.
A sigh emanated from the back of the chariot and the girls turned to see three more cloaked figures rising out of the pile of supply bags they had brought along.
“Great job Pete, you blew our cover early.” Jay said as he pulled back his hood.
Pete moved his hand behind him and raised his middle finger to Jay. “Hey I’ve been having to deal with this since we took off. You’re lucky I lasted as long as I did.” He said lowering his hand to the rail to support him.
“But- but- why are you hear? You said you weren’t going to come along.” Twilight said the surprise and annoyance clear in her voice.
“No, I said we would respect your decision, but I never said we we’re going to follow it.” Jay said with a smirk.
“But you-” she started again.
“Think back.” Jay interrupted her. “Back during your little secret meeting did I ever in any form say that we were going to do as you said? I simply said I was going to respect your decision, but respecting and following are two very different things. I can respect the thought process that went through making the decision and in turn respect the decision, but I still follow my heart and go for what seems fun.” Jay said fully smiling now.
Twilight’s eye began to twitch. She turned to look at the others. “And do you all agree with what he says?” she asked.
Pete responded first. “No, I personally disagree completely.” He said.
“Thank you, now-”
“Let me finish.” Pete interrupted. “I don’t even respect the decision. Sending four mares out with not fully trained troops, no offense but as your training officer I know where you’re at.” He said to the guards who all gave a small notice of agreement. “And as such I cannot respect such blatant ignoring of safety.” He finished.
Matt gave his answer next. “I’m with Pete, from what I’ve heard this Discord fellow is extremely dangerous. You don’t send the next best to deal with him.” He told her.
Twilight turned to look at Liz. “Don’t look at me like that.” Liz responded to her glare. “I’m just here because without me as the voice of reason there’s no telling what these three will do.” She said.
Twilight just put her head in her hoof and took a few deep breaths. “Well it’s too late to turn around now so we’re just going to have to go with it.” She said. “But I’m going to have some words for you when we get back to Canterlot.” She scolded.
Jay just smiled and then got a strange look on his face. “Hey, this Discord guy he wouldn’t happen to look like an awesome mismatch of a lot of different things would he?” Jay asked.
“Well I suppose so.” Twilight said. “But I wouldn’t exactly call it awesome.”
“I would.” Jay said looking over the mares’ heads and behind them.
“Oh I knew I felt some great chaos coming from over here. You do not disappoint.” A voice said from behind the mares.