//------------------------------// // Done Bucked Up // Story: A Survivors Guide to Equestria // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "So this is Applepalosia huh?" Ryan muttered as he hung from the side of the sky ship as it sailed over the dusty land, a small smile on his face as he realized how much the dirty town below him looked like towns from the old west in his world. But that wasn't the most surprising thing to him. What surprised him was that this town didn't look like the chaos controlled land that he had seen with Twilight and Shy. Instead, this pretty much looked normal. That didn't sit well with him. "Yes, but I'm surprised to see it like this," Luna answered as she walked up to the edge of the ship, confusing the human. "Normally there are buffalo stampeding across the land and the ponies that settled here are always out in the streets. The quiet is...unnerving. Almost as if this is a trap." "I highly doubt that it's a trap. If it was, there'd be hostages or something like that," Ryan suggested, though he was beginning to wonder just where the heck Applejack was. The other Chaos Elements had been easy to locate because they had created a giant landmark in their image or taken a palace to call their own. But nothing looked out of the ordinary here. "Let's just get down there and find Applejack. Dash will complain about getting dirt in her eyes if we're here for too long." The ship touched down a few moments later and the entire group got off, save for Lyra who looked at the others with hesitation in her eyes. "Maybe I should just stay here," she said softly. "I mean, somepony has to look after the ship incase somepony or Discord tries to do something to it while you're away." "If Discord wants to do something the ship I highly doubt that your presence will dissuade him from doing so," Ryan said with a shake of his head, turning away before he could see Lyra hang her head sadly. "Come on, let's go find the pony that will probably kill me." "You are a real piece of work, you know that?" Twilight fumed at Ryan as the group walked away. "Poor Lyra has been feeling like she's useless and you aren't doing anything to help. Why do you have to be such a jerk all the time?!" Ryan chuckled at her statement that infuriated Twilight even more before he looked down at her with bitter humor in his eyes. "Twilight, if it wasn't for the batons and the armband I would probably be the most useless being on the team. I'm the one who has had to been saved the most and I'm the one who comes the closest to death whenever we do this," Ryan said to her with a smirk. "But despite her having magic, Lyra is the most useless right now because she believes herself to be. As long as she has that handicap, we're best off with her hanging back." Twilight had to think about his words for a moment before she shook her head and stared up at him. "Still that doesn't mean that you have to be such a jerk to her." "I tell it like it is. If Discord attacked she could do nothing to stop him, just like I probably couldn't," Ryan said before looking down at Twilight. "So back to what we're supposed to be doing, do you have any idea where your apple friend might be? We've been walking for a while and I haven't seen anything that would lead us to her." When Twilight didn't answer Ryan rolled his eyes and walked over to the silver mare, who was in a conversation with Luna. 'Yes, I can sense her chaotic energy. But what is strange is that I don't sense any ponies nor buffalo around her,' the mare said as a wave of silver shot off from her. 'She's just over that hill, by herself. I do not like this.' "Why? Means that I don't have to worry about fighting some minions or you guys getting hung up on "not attacking the poor, mind controlled ponies." Let's go." The group headed up the hill that presented itself in front of them, all of them shocked to see that just like the mare had said, Applejack was sitting by herself in the middle of a grassy field. Ryan looked at the others and shrugged before he slid down the hill, drawing both batons as he got close to the pony. "What's up AJ? I'm here to kick your ass," Ryan said with a smirk as the batons crackled, but AJ said nothing as the others ran up besides Ryan. "Applejack...what happened to the town? What did you do to them?" Twilight asked. "Ah ran them off. They were all a bunch of liars, every one of them," she said with such hatred and scorn in her voice that all except Zecora and Ryan backed away from her. "Not that any of ya are much better. You all lie to yer friends and family, then expect us to all be friends the next day. All of ya have something that yer hiding, something that ya won't even tell yer closest friends. Get out of here before ah get rid of yah myself." "Sorry, but the gods of dumb said that I had to defeat all of the Elements of chaos if I want them to get off my back and you're one of them," Ryan said as he took a step forward to face her, but then AJ slammed one hoof into the ground with such force that the shockwave generated by the impact sent Ryan sailing behind the other ponies. "Leave," Applejack said once again. "Or truth be told ah will end all of ya. And ah never lie." "Applejack, what have we lied to you about?" Fluttershy asked kindly as she tried to walk towards her friend, but she was stopped as if shot when AJ turned around to face her...and the ponies could see that her eyes were black. "W-what happened to you? Don't tell me that Discord-" "That lying fool? No, ah'm the one who did this to mahself. Ah'm tired of seeing all yer lies," AJ spit with venom as she stood up and walked right up to Shy, the ground splintering beneath her every step as she did so. "Ah don't need mah eyes to see how ya'll have lied to me. Like how ya say that ah'm a valued member of the Elements when ya really think that ah'm weak because I have no special powers." "That's a lie in and of itself AJ, we would never-" Dash began but was silenced by the words that came out of Applejacks mouth. "Don't worry about AJ, she can't fly or use magic," AJ said in Dash's voice perfectly. "We can take her fine." Dash's eyes shrunk as AJ turned her black eyes to her "friend", no emotion on her face. "All of ya are liars. Twilight lies about how she loves her friends, yet her chaotic mode shows that she's truly a tyrant. Fluttershy says she loves her animals, yet with power she would enslave them all. Rarity has no generosity within her and Dash is nothing more than a traitor who would stab her friends in the back. Yer all liars." "Applejack, that is the chaos talking," Luna said as she walked up to her friend. "You know better than anyone how much these ponies care for each other. You-" "Yer not excused either Luna. Neither are you Zecora or whatever you are," AJ growled as she looked at the silver mare. "Luna doesn't truly believe that the human can save you. She never has. The mare in silver hasn't told anypony that she was the cause of her sister's death and what caused almost all of her world's events to be set in motion." The silver mare was dumbstruck by this and had no retort as the mare looked to Zecora. "And you? You are something beyond this world." "Like I said, we all have something to hide," Zecora smiled. "There is more to all of us than meets the eye." "I still don't know why you guys are talking to her, we know that's not going to work," Ryan reminded them as he walked back up. "The simple truth is we have to beat her to free her. Although now that I see that she's blind, I realize that I might just make it out of this in one piece after all." "Yer not any better than them," AJ spit. "Yer-" "Ugh, do I really have to reveal all of my secrets to get you to fight? Fine," Ryan said with an exasperated groan. "I'm terrified that everyday I might die but I hide behind a face of arrogance to make it seem like I'm in control. I hate myself for failing my home and not being able to save my best friend, so that guilt is the reason that I decided to help these ponies despite them being assholes. Sometimes I wish that I would die so that I wouldn't be the only human that survived, causing me to be a survivalist and suicidal at the same time. That's some of the reason I'm so ready to face you ungodly things." All of the ponies looked at Ryan with horror and disbelief as a smile crossed his face. "I'm also mortified of zebras now. There, happy?" AJ looked at the human for a moment before a chuckle escaped her lips. "Yer a strange one. Alright human, ah'll play yer game. One on one." She slammed her fore hooves together as she said this and sent all of the other ponies, including the silver mare, flying away from the two. A barrier of chaotic magic sprung up around the two combatants, sealing out the only chance Ryan had of surviving this fight. "So human, are ya scared?" "You have no idea," Ryan growled with as much courage as he could muster as he drew both batons. 'This will be the hardest fight that I've ever had and I'm going to have to remember everything that zebra taught me to survive. Because I'm fairly certain that if AJ lands so much as a hoof on me...' Applejack lunged and him and spun around to kick him with both of her back hooves. Ryan jumped back in time to avoid the physical blow, but the winds from the speed of her kick caught him and flung him back, where he rolled up to his feet. 'I'm dead.' "Come on then human. Let's see why Discord thinks so highly of ya." She lunged at Ryan after saying this with both front hooves outstretched. Ryan rolled to the side to avoid her grip, trying also to ignore the fact that the ground shook when she hit the ground. AJ spun on her front hooves and threw a fast punch at Ryan's head, which he barely managed to dodge. Ignoring the gale that her punch created, he delivered three powerful blows to her exposed gut, following up with a knee to the doubled over pony. "I don't know why Luna was so afraid of you, I've fought better in the forest." If the ponies could hear him they probably would have thought that he was being cocky. 'But keeping her angry will keep her from being at her best and cause her to make mistakes. If I've learned anything from the zebra it's that angry opponents go down easily.' Two hooves whizzed by his head as he rolled to avoid them before bringing a baton into AJ's leg. AJ growled in pain before slamming her back hooves into the ground, blowing Ryan back. "Ugh, not good," Ryan grumbled as he pushed himself back to his feet, feeling the pain in his side as he did so. 'Great, just her slamming her hooves into her ground can almost break me. If she gets in a-' A left hook out of nowhere caught Ryan off guard and on instinct he threw his right arm up to defend himself. The sounds of his bones shattering told him that he had made a terrible mistake. "DAMMIT ALL!" Ryan roared in pain as he was sent skidding across the ground from the blow, breathing in pain as he avoided looking as his arm. "Do all humans break as easy as ya or are ya a special one?" AJ taunted as she slowly walked over to Ryan, having all the time in the world as Ryan struggled back up. AJ jumped him before he could run and pinned him to the ground with one hoof, holding him there despite him striking her hooves with his baton. "Honestly, yer weak. Ah don't see what's so special about ya." "And yet you just can't keep your hooves off me, can you?" Ryan weakly taunted before AJ hurled him into the side of a rock, where he slid down it with the sound of more bones breaking in his ears. He could taste the blood in his mouth as he got back up and ventured a look down at his arm, where he did his best not to lose his lunch at the gross protrusion that was his bone. "I...only let you break my arm...to make the fight more fair." "That's the worst lie ah've heard yet," AJ snarled as she crouched down low, letting Ryan know that she was going to leap at him. He figured that despite being insanely strong she was also insanely arrogant after seeing how easy he was to break. That was his one advantage over her. Well, one of his. "Then you have yet to hear me brag about myself," Ryan retorted as the orange pony left the earth and sailed through the air towards him, bringing back both of her hooves with a look of victory in her eyes when she saw that Ryan wasn't trying to move. 'Time to use my advantage!' he thought as he leapt in the air when she got close enough and drove both of his legs into her chest, his legs being longer than hers allowing him to strike first. He swore in pain as he landed on his bad arm, but he fought through the pain as he forced himself back up while attacking AJ with the baton in his good arm. Despite AJ being stronger and faster, Ryan was able to keep her back with the range that his natural size and his weapon gave him. Whenever AJ tried to block, he would switch the batons grip and strike at a different area. If she tried to take up a stance he would back away and force her to come to him. But despite having a plan of attack, he knew that he would go down first in a contest of endurance. He had to get the crown. 'And I think that's there's only one way that I can do that,' he bitterly thought as he inhaled to calm himself before lowering his good arm to his side, looking at AJ as if he was going to surrender. 'I have to let her get in close. I might not be able to block her attack, but I can sure exchange a hit for a hit,' he thought as he looked at her Element on her neck. AJ narrowed her eyes, smelling the trap, but she knew that this was the human’s last play and if she got past this she'd win. So with a loud whinny to the sky she charged at him at full speed. "Ah guess ya weren't so special after all!" she yelled with a laugh as she dashed at him, bringing her hoof back to strike. "Just another liar." "You're one to talk, allowing yourself to fall for the lie that Discord fed you through that chaotic Element!" Ryan roared as he leapt into the air, baton brought back as he aimed at the Element on her neck. "You're no better than the others!" He then drove the baton down with all of his might while he closed his eyes, bracing himself for the blow that AJ would deliver to his chest. But to his surprise the pain didn't come and when he dared to open his eyes to see what had happened he found that his baton had knocked off the Element, Yet AJ still had the black eyes that were now filled with realization. "Yer right," she whispered before the chaotic energy began to slowly dissipate from her Element. "Ah have been living a lie, ever since the attack by Discord." Ryan blinked as her eyes slowly began to turn back to normal, watching the chaotic energy vanish into the air with both a look of confusion and relief. "And that's it?" he asked himself as the chaotic barrier fell and the others could rush in to see their friend. "All I got out of it was a broken arm? I thought I was going to die! HA! I'm getting better at this all the time! Soon I'll be able to-" Just before he could finish that sentence a massive flash of chaotic energy went off, tossing the human's body into a rock. 'There it is,' he thought to himself before passing out on the nice, cool ground.