//------------------------------// // Chaos Party // Story: A Survivors Guide to Equestria // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "Now all that's left is to defeat your crazy sister who can move the sun and a god of chaos that trumps even the two of you in power," Ryan recapped to Luna as Zecora popped his shoulder back into place. "Well, that doesn't sound too difficult. You have a plan of attack or are we going in blind like all the other times?" "We will need my sister’s help if we are to defeat Discord," Luna replied as she winced at the loud pop his arm made, Ryan making a small whining sound as Zecora dusted her hooves off. "The last two times we used the Elements on him we caught him off guard or when he was far too arrogant to stop us. He will not make the same mistakes twice." "Yet he let all of us roam free. If you ask me that's strike three," Zecora chimed in. "His arrogance will always be his downfall. Even if he prepares he'll still drop the ball." "I don't want to take chances with this one though," Luna said as she gazed out the window at the sun rising over the horizon, wondering if Celestia still knew her duty or if Discord was now in control of the star. Ryan turned his head as the silver mare entered the room, able to tell that something was up despite her face being hidden under the hood. 'You are in for a rough time in a few moments,' she explained once Ryan had asked her what was wrong. 'I have been helping Pinkie with the...images you showed her when you fought inside her mind, but it is safe to say she is still shaken up.' "Can't blame her, I still remember my first zombie movie," Ryan chuckled. "Do you think that she'll be able to help us in the upcoming battle or should we postpone another day?" Luna asked. "I'll be fine princess." Everypony turned to see Pinkie walking down the stairs to the medical room, with all of the other Elements and Lyra following behind her. "I just need to stop blinking, because every time I do I see...them." The other Elements gave Ryan a dirty look as Pinkie stared off into nothingness until the mare snapped her out of her trance. "Hey, she got inside my head. It's not a friendly place in there," Ryan said with a smirk before he groaned a bit and fell to his knees. The mare and Lyra rushed over to him, both of them stunned to see that blood was seeping through his coat. "Oh yeah, I got caught in a storm of Pinkie's cake and razor blades. One hell of a party Pinkie, would go again." 'Human, you have lost a good deal of blood. Please, allow me to help you.' Ryan growled before slipping off his jacket and rolled up his pant legs, allowing Pinkie to see the full extent of the damage her crazy half had done to the human. His arms and legs were both shredded and bits of metal could still be seen sticking out from both. "What did I do?" she whispered to herself with horror as Ryan reached up and took off his armband. "You tried to stab me. Multiple times as a matter of fact," Ryan smirked before he placed the hilt of his baton between his teeth as the mare started to pull out the shards. Pinkie's mane deflated as she looked at the ground, guilt hitting her hard as she heard the human's grunts of pain. "Don't feel too bad, he has been through far worse," Zecora comforted as she walked over to Pinkie's side. "In fact, he should probably be in a hearse. Stabbed, crushed and set ablaze should have been enough to make it the end of his days, yet somehow alive he continues to stay. I have never seen one with such a stubborn streak. But I suppose that's what makes him unique. So you gave him a fairly close shave. It will take more than that to put this one in his grave." 'Alright, I have cleaned up your wounds as best I could,' the mare said, Ryan nodding as he slipped back on his coat. He picked up his backpack and slipped it on as well, about to grab his armband before he realized that the ponies were giving him looks again. "What is it this time?" he growled at them. "You know, none of us know your name," Twilight said. "You've been keeping that a secret the entire time you've been with us. I've asked Zecora, Lyra, Luna and event he silver mare, but none of them tell us anything. So who are you really? What's your name?" "My name is of no importance," Ryan said, smirking at the frustration on the ponies faces. "And you already know who I am. I'm the asshole that's taken everything this world has thrown at me and spit in its face." The ponies didn't look satisfied with his answer, but they stopped bothering him for a moment as he reached for his armband again. "Now if you excuse me, I need to put this on before-" "I show up?" Ryan spun around as he grabbed one of his batons, turning to see the draconis snap his fingers with a smile on his face. A massive flash of light went off, engulfing all in the room. \\ // //; ;\\ Twilight groaned weakly as she opened her eyes, struggling to see through her blurry eyes as she got to her hooves. The other Elements were resting on the ground besides her and she could also see Lyra and Zecora, yet the silver mare, Luna and the human were nowhere to be seen. She helped the others up before they heard laughing and all of them looked up to see Discord floating on a throne overlooking them all. "Well hello my friends, it has certainly been too long since I've seen you," he laughed at them as they all snarled in return. "Discord, why have you brought us here?" Twilight asked as she looked around realizing that they were in a chaotic version of Canterlot, with mind controlled ponies and all the other oddities that came with Discord. "We have the six Elements now and you know that you are no match for them!" "You're right my dear Twilight, but I couldn't resist," he said as he pinched her cheeks, snickering to himself as she swatted his claw away. "I thought that defeating all of you and turning you into my own personal minions of chaos would be entertaining, but I realized within days just how boring it was without having you and your little friends trying to stop me. But then the human came around and started to free you, causing chaos once again." "So wait, you're actually letting us fight you? With the Elements?" Dash asked in disbelief, to which Discord chuckled in return. "Allow you to fight me with the Elements? Dash, I'm crazy, not stupid. I brought all eight of you an opponent that I'm sure you all know well. Oh Tia?" Twilight and the others gasped as a streak of fire crashed to the street in front of them, eyes widening as the pony within the fire rose to her full height and walked out of the smoke. She had golden armor with crimson red trimming in it, but with her flowing, celestial mane and eyes that pierced them, there was no questioning who this was. "Princess Celestia," Twilight whispered in horror as her former mentor stalked towards them. Twilight looked into her eyes to see if her teacher was still in there, but all she saw was cold cruelty and emptiness. A blast of magic erupted from her horn that streaked towards Twilight, but a flash of black of white knocked the spell out of the air. "It is time to fight Twilight," Zecora said to her with a snarl, taking up a fighting stance as she looked up at the alicorn. "Yes, my zebra friend, it is time to fight," Discord smirked as he snapped his fingers, creating a bunch of creatures out of stone that joined by Celestial’s side. "Now then, let's see how the Elements of Harmony (and extras) can do against the power of the Solar Empress and my army of whatever I want them to be!" "Girls! Elements!" Twilight yelled as she rushed over to her friends, who began to glow with power as the six Elements around their necks began to resonate with each other's powers. However, they had hardly floated a few feet off the ground before Celestia flung herself into the center of them and tackled Twilight out of the group, negating the power of the Elements. "Hang on Twilight!" Applejack yelled before she was swarmed by a number of the rock creatures. The other Elements began to fight as best they could as well, but without their ability to work together they were quickly overwhelmed. "And now I just have to wait for those two to go down," Discord muttered as he looked at his watch while Lyra ran for her life. "At least the zebra seems to be able to give me a bit of a show...okay, mental note, rock creatures do not do well against a zebra with mad kung-fu skills. But now I'm bored. Time to check up on my other guests." He snapped his fingers with a chuckle, leaving the ponies to fend for themselves against the corrupted queen and the army of stone. \\ // //; ;\\ "Human! Wake up!" With a groggy groan Ryan opened his eyes, blinking twice before he could see clearly. Although when he could see he wished that he had kept his eyes closed. He was trapped in a room that wasn't that big, but it was not the kind of place he wanted to be. Luna was across the room from him in a cell with a weird multicolored band on her horn and since she hadn't already magiked her way out, he figured it was blocking her magic. He went to free her but he found that his left hand was chained to the wall. "Now now, I can't just have you up and leave," an annoying voice said from besides him. Ryan snarled as he turned to see Discord, who looked at him with interest, as well as being a parrot. "After all-squawk-I spent all this time setting up this nice little place for you to rest." "Thanks. Now give me my batons and I'll show you my gratitude," Ryan snarled in response. To both his and Luna's surprise, Discord popped back to his regular self before reaching into a portal and pulling out Ryan's backpack, which he then tossed at Ryan. "And you did that because?" Ryan asked as he caught it with his free hand, quickly opening it to see that everything was inside, even the batons. "Because, I want you to feel what it's like to be helpless even with all of your little toys right there," Discord chuckled as Ryan reached for the golden baton, turning it on with a smile as he pointed it at the draconis, who backed away a little at it. The smile turned into a frown as Ryan narrowed his eyes. "This is too easy, you wouldn't just give me the two things that could hurt you without good reason," Ryan muttered, snarling when Discord began to laugh aloud. "Oh you are so clever. Yes, I have given you your batons that can cancel out mine or any other evil magic," Discord said with a smirk as Ryan looked up at the chain holding him, striking it a few times before realizing it wouldn't break. "But that's the beauty of it. That is simply a very strong metal, not something that those batons of yours can break. Nothing in there can. The only thing in this room is Luna's magic, but as you can see she's trapped in a cell with her magic sealed off." "You may have trapped us Discord, but there are still the others!" Luna yelled angrily as she threw herself against the metal, bouncing off with a grunt. "Twilight and the others have and will stop you! And if they do not, we still have the silver mare, whose power-!" "Means little to me!" Discord said with a laugh as he pulled out a silver sphere that had a long crack in the side of it. Luna gasped while Ryan cursed under his breath, knowing that their predicament had just gotten a whole lot worse. "Who knew that chaos was such a good counter to creation? I didn't. Now then I could just leave the two of you like this, but I like to give my foes a chance." As he said this, he took out a key and placed it on the table at the very end of the room. "If you can somehow find your way out of those chains and make it to the key before Celestia has defeated your Elements, you can use it to free Luna and unlock the band on her horn," Discord said with a wicked smile as he put the tips of his fingers together. "But when you fail, I will enjoy turning all of you into my servants of chaos...Ryan, Luna. I'll see you soon." And with one last laugh he vanished, leaving the two prisoners to look at each other, wondering what to do. \\ // //; ;\\ Luna looked sadly at the human as he pounded away on the chains with both of his batons at full power, shocking himself slightly each time he hit the metal. She had no idea how much time had passed, but by the sun location she figured that he had been at it for about an hour. "Ryan...I commend your bravery and your ability to fight through hopeless situations, but it is over," she said with a sad shake of her head. "Discord has my sister, he defeated the silver mare and now the Elements have to battle him and his forces without me or my sister’s aid." Ryan ignored her and continued to pound away, leaving the pony to sigh. "How do you even know that it isn't already over and Discord isn't just watching you struggle for entertainment?" "Two reasons. A. Discord isn't back yet, which means that the ponies are still fighting him." Luna rolled her eyes at this argument since she had just stated that he might just not be showing himself. "Second reason. He's fighting Zecora. She won't be beaten by someone as weak as him." Luna snickered bitterly at those words, wondering why the human spoke so highly of the zebra as he pounded away with no success. "Besides, I still owe Zecora my life. I need to get out of here." "We've lost human. There is no way out," Luna said bitterly. Ryan narrowed his eyes at Luna before he put the baton down and looked at her with a stern glare. "If anyone should be giving up here, it's me," Ryan said to her with rage in his voice that got her attention." I mean, why should I be fighting this battle? I don't know or give a damn about any of you ponies. Hell, the only one I owe is Zecora and I know I don't need to protect her from Discord. But you Luna, you have your sister at stake, her apprentice and all of the ponies of this land." "You do not need to tell me about this...but I have already failed them before. I guess I’ll just do it again." Luna let out a scream as the baton slammed into the bars of her cell, causing her to look at Ryan with some confusion as he glared at her. "This isn't about failing. Your world is about to go to hell, but that's the key word there. About. You can still save it," Ryan said with pain in his voice, but underneath the pain she heard a determination that he had never spoken with. "My world was destroyed in a flash, before anyone, including me, could do anything about it. But you Luna, you still have the chance I never had, my people never had. You can still save them all. So stop your whining and get ready to fight, because we're getting out of here." "Alright human," Luna said with a small smile as she stood up, walking to her bars. "I promise you that if you get us out of here, I will fight to the bitter end alongside of you. Now how are you going to do it?" "Because," Ryan growled at her. "Fortunately for you and all of the other ponies, you didn't get a human that was only concerned with himself, you got a crazy one that got involved in a war that didn't concern him and is willing to do anything to help you win. No matter the cost." Luna wondered what he meant as he reached in his bag, but she did raise an eyebrow when he pulled out a large knife. "What do you think that is going to do?" she asked him with a laugh. "Those chains withstood the weapon that was given to you by the gods, so I doubt that a kitchen knife will..." Her words died in her throat as she realized, to her absolute horror that he wasn't aiming at the chains. He was aiming at his wrist. "No, you can't-" "Luna, if you have any better ideas then I would be happy to hear them, but if not then kindly shut the hell up," Ryan snarled at her before he reached into the bag and pulled out something that he placed in his mouth so he wouldn't bite off his tongue. Luna closed her eyes as he brought the knife back. 'The things I do for these damn ponies.' And then he struck.