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// Chapter 23:  Storm the Bull Fighter 
// Story: Rising Sun 
// by Jet Howitzer 
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	Ponyville’s usual hum of activity is in full force as you make your way to Sugarcube Corner.  You get many friendly waves, as ponies see you, and it fills your heart with happiness.  All of these ponies see you for a savior, as, to them, all you’ve done of note is saving the Crusaders.  You were also foalnapped by the Diamond Dogs, but that’s not really something that you want brought up all the time.
Just a short while later and you find yourself outside of Sugarcube corner.  You open the door, and the sounds of ponies chatting greets your ears.  You see Pinkie energetically helping a few customers, and so you just look at all of the various cakes on display.  A few minutes later, and the last of the customers head outside, and Pinkie approaches you.
“Hiya Storm!  What brings you by?”  Her boundless energy always brings a smile to your face, and this time is no different.  
“Not much, Pinkie.  AJ had to help out on the farm today, and so I’m just relaxing today.  Some might argue that I don’t have much to relax from, given how long it’s been since I last worked, but saving fillies is no easy task.”  You give a smile, and Pinkie nods her head in understanding.
“Well, duh!  If saving fillies was easy everypony would be doing it!  Although, I suppose that there may not be enough fillies in trouble to save.”  You have a short laugh at that, and then you shift your gaze back to the cakes.
“So, what’s new with you?  Any interesting customers?”
“No.  Oh wait, yes!  There was this blue pegasus with a tie on.  He wasn’t very nice, though.”  Her smile wavers for a moment, but then returns in full force.  “But he’s gone now, so it’s okay!”
“Huh.  Maybe it’s the same pegasus that I met at the farm.  Was he about this tall,” you gesture with your hoof, “and wearing a red tie?”
“Yup, that was him.  Why was he at Sweet Apple Acres?”
You dive right in, and explain what happened at the farm.  By the time you finish Pinkie has lost her smile.  When you mention your request, though, her smile returns.
“That’s real nice of you.  Not only did you save the Crusaders, but now you’ve also saved the farm.”  She gets a strange look on her face for a moment, and then her smile gets even wider.  “We should throw a party to celebrate what you did!  It’ll be great!  We can have-”  You quickly put your hoof on her mouth, and she mumbles a few more words past your hoof before falling silent.
“Thanks, Pinkie, but I’d rather not celebrate this.  It’s not that I don’t like your parties,” you quickly add, “it’s just that I don’t know if this is really something worth celebrating.”  She slowly nods her head.
She opens her mouth to speak, but before she can say anything a pony crashes through the window of Sugarcube Corner.  You look at the crumpled blue heap of fur, and then look outside.  Standing there is the largest earth pony you have ever seen.  Wow.  This guy makes Big Mac look small.  No way I’m going to let him get away with this, though.
You leap through the broken window, making sure to avoid the sharp glass.  You gracefully land before the massive earth pony.  He looks at you, and a look of confusion is plainly written across his face.  After a moment, though, the look turns to one of anger.
“You want to fight me?”  His voice is thick, and you can tell that he’s struggling to put the words together.  You give a quick nod, and the earth pony gets a creepy grin on his face.  At least he understand fighting.
With a bestial growl the earth pony lunges at you, and you deftly dodge the attack.  With an enraged snort the massive beast turns and looks at you once more.  “Fight me.  No dodging!”
He charges again, and this time you dive at the last possible moment, and give a sharp kick to the earth pony’s back legs.  You grunt in pain, though, as his legs are as hard as rock.  The direct approach won’t work here.  And he seems to have only a single tactic, so I suppose I can just lead him out of town.  You stand up, and wait for the next charge.  You take a moment to look at the earth pony, and you note that it has a coat of gray fur very similar to yours.  In fact, it’s almost the exact same shade of gray.
As the gray pony gives chase, you turn and lead him through town.  He can’t maneuver as well as you, so a few times he crashes into buildings.  After several hectic minutes you finally lead the gray pony out of town.  This has gone on long enough.  I need to end this.
“Oy!  Hay for brains!  Catch me if you can!”  You fly towards Everfree forest, and the gray chases you.
“Stop running!  Let me crush you!”  Really?  Does he actually think you’ll stop?  You lose some speed, in order to navigate through the forest, and you also want to keep the gray interested.  Soon your destination is in sight.  The river that runs through Everfree, and has a sea-serpent.  Your approach is simple, yet brilliant for it.  Get him into the river, and let the sea-serpent deal with him.
The gray breaks through the brush you flew over, and he’s barely even panting from the exertion.  Rather than attack, as you thought he'd do, he stops and speaks to you.  “And now we’re alone, Storm.  I suppose that I should’ve expected that you’d run to get me out of town.”  That voice…
“Discord.”  You practically spit out the name.  “What are you doing here?”
“Well, I wanted to see how my creation would do.  Now I see that there’s more to it than just brute strength.  The pony mind is so complex, and your mind even more so.  No matter.  This was just a test, and now that I’m done with it I have no use for this form.”  With that said, the pony starts trembling all over.
“Show yourself, Discord!  We’re not done here!”  You look around frantically, but either he’s not here, or he won’t show himself.  You look back to the pony, and you see a look of abject terror on its face.  A fear so pure that it makes you afraid as well.
“Help me.”  Before you can do anything, the pony turns to ash, consumed by a fire that started in its core.
“Oh, of course he bursts into flames.  That makes perfect sense.”  It’s unfortunate that there is no one around to enjoy your sarcasm.  You are hesitant to leave, though, since you have no way of knowing if Discord is actually around.  Several minutes pass, and you finally decide to get moving.  You give the small pile of ash a wide berth, and you make your way back to Ponyville.
Just a bit later, and you get back to Sugarcube Corner, and you see a large crowd has gathered.  They are all looking at the damage done to the bakery, and you look too.  It doesn’t look too bad, but it’ll probably be somewhat expensive to repair that window.  You look inside the shop, though, and you see Banknote covered in dozens of gashes, and one of his legs is at an incredibly bizarre angle, clearly broken.
He meets your gaze, and he suddenly looks humble.  “Ah, um.  Thank you for saving me.  I don’t know why that brute attacked me.  I was just walking along, when he attacked me.”  You don’t know why Discord would just randomly attack some random pony.  Maybe Discord just told it to attack a pegasus.  There are any number of possibilities, and none of them bode well for Ponyville.
You make your way into the shop, and you spot Pinkie Pie standing over by the counter, a look of surprise on her face.  “That was amazing, Storm!  You should’ve seen yourself!  You were so awesome!”  She continues for a moment, but you only barely hear it.  You’re too busy trying to piece together what happened.  Her last words strike you, though.  “So, what happened to that pony that was chasing you?”
You don’t know how to respond, so instead you just walk over to her, and put a hoof around her shoulder.  “I’m going to explain later.  Could you get the others, and head to my house.  I’ll be there soon.”  Pinkie gives you a strange look, but then she nods quickly, and dashes out of the shop.
A short while later and the Cakes both enter the shop, shocked looks on their faces.  Mr. Cake is the first to speak, though.
“What happened here?  Storm, were you here for this?  And where’s Pinkie?”
“This pegasus,” you motion to Banknote, “was attacked by another pony.  He was thrown into the store, through the window, and I managed to chase him off.  I sent Pinkie to go get her friends, and head to my house.”
Mr. Cake looks like he’s about to say something, but he just shakes his head instead.  “Alright, Storm.  Just make sure that she’s safe.”
“I promise that I won’t let her, or any of the girls, get hurt if I can help it.”  You turn, and make for your home.  So much for just going out and enjoying myself for a short while.  And Discord’s back sooner than I had thought.  Ah, well.  I’ve got the elements on my side.
You get to your house just a few minutes later, and you enter to find all six mares in your living room.  They all look at you as soon as you enter, and you make sure to close the door behind you.
“So, I hear that you saved Sugarcube Corner.”  Twilight speaks up first.  “But, clearly, it must be more than that, if you asked us all to meet up here.”
“That’s correct.  While on the surface it seemed like just a random act of aggression I shared a few words with our assailant.”  You pause for a moment.  “This wasn’t just a random act.  It was directed at somepony, but something went wrong, and he wound up attacking the wrong pony.”
“That’s awful!  Did you find out who the target was?”  Rarity sounds appalled at this.  “Why would anypony come to Ponyville to attack someone?”
“Well, I found out who the target was, and even who wanted the attack.”
“Are you gonna tell us, or just leave us guessing?”  Rainbow Dash jumps on the pause you took.
“I was the target of the attack.  Why Banknote got attacked instead of me, I don’t know.  And the pony who arranged the attack is no pony at all.  It was Discord.”
All six of them gasp at this, and you just watch their reactions.  Ten bits says that Twilight suggests we tell the princess.
“We need to send a letter to Princess Celestia right away!  This is really important!”  Victory  “If Discord is arranging for attacks against you we need to do something!”
“I suppose that we can do that.  I’m going to need all of you to be careful, though.  He may try to go after one of you, in order to get at me.  And I refuse to let any of you get hurt because of me.”
They all lunge at you, and give you a big hug.  “Really, is this necessary?”  They all hug tighter for a moment, and so you just relax and go with it.
The hug stops a moment later, and Twilight makes for the door.  “I’m going to get that letter started right away.  When I hear back from her I’ll be sure to let all of you know what she says.”  You all wave to Twilight, and she heads out.  Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy all follow moments later, leaving you, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie.
“Well, Ah’ve got to head back to the farm.  Keep me up to date on anything that goes on.”  Applejack nuzzles your neck as she leaves, and you feel a blush come to your cheeks.  Now it’s just you, and Pinkie.
“So, how are things going between you, and AJ?”
“I think you just saw how things are going.  Although, I am eager to start going out with you, Pinkie.  Maybe in a couple days?”  Her eyes go wide, wider than you thought possible, and then she embraces you again.
“I can’t wait Storm!  It’ll be so much fun!”  You return the embrace, and a minute later the hug ends.  “But, you never did say what happened to that pony that attacked…”
“Oh.  Right.”  The happy atmosphere that was present just a moment ago disappears.  “Well, I think that he was made, or possessed by Discord.  After he chased me he spoke to me with Discord’s voice.  He said that my mind is more complex than he thought.  After that he left, and the pony burned up.  There was just ash left behind.”
“That’s horrible!  Why would Discord do that?  He’s the god of chaos, not murder!”
“I don’t know, Pinkie.  I just don’t know.  But I do know that this isn’t over yet.  Something big is going to happen.  But, given what Discord said, hopefully we won’t have to deal with it for a while.”
You stand there, suddenly feeling awkward.  Pinkie must have noticed, because her smile returns, and you feel yourself smiling despite yourself.
“Well, we should do our best to enjoy ourselves before that!  No sense worrying about things that haven’t happened yet!  Twilight learned that lesson the hard way!”
“Oh did she?  Why don’t you tell me about it.”
You and Pinkie head outside, with her gesturing wildly, and telling you all about Twilight’s encounter with her future self.