//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: After Equestria // by Prometheus7 //------------------------------// Firestorm had no idea how hungry he was until he saw the cafeteria, daisy sandwiches, hot dogs(with carrots instead of meat), salads, pizza , cake, and ice cream. It was enough to make a grown man- er, stallion cry! Eclipsed Star waved his hoof in front of Firestorms face, "Equestria to amnesia dude, Equestria to amnesia dude!" He said. Firestorm snapped back to reality, "huh? what?" he stammered incoherently, Eclipsed Star grinned at him. "You sure seem hungry, any way I was asking if you wanted to sit next to me and my friends?" he pointed to the table at the end of the front row. Firestorm blinked, and here I thought he hated me. "Sure, thanks!" and with that the two of them continued toward the table. "Hey Eclipsed Star, my friend!" a brown Pegasus greeted the unicorn. "How's it going? Come and sit here with us!" Firestorm turned to the grey colt with a bemused expression, Eclipsed Star scowled at the Pegasus, "What do you want Striker?" He growled at the Pegasus, the colt grinned in response. "What do I want? What makes you think I want anything, dude that hurts!" Striker made a big show, his eyes watering with fake tears, he his right hoof over his chest and his left hoof over his forehead. Radiance scowled, "you always want something Striker!" she retorted suspiciously, Striker grinned at her. "Okay, maybe I do want something," he conceded, "but I don't always want something! Oh yeah, by the way, can I have that hot dog?" he asked blinking his eyes in a not so convincing show of innocence. "No." Eclipsed blade said coolly, and with that he motioned for him and Firestorm to sit next to a blue Pegasus colt who was shaking his head at Strikers stupidity. "You never take a break do you?" the Pegasus asked Striker grinning, his accent sounded ... American. Again with this bullshit! Firestorm thought angrily, stupid amnesia gives worthless bits and pieces instead of the whole damned story!The Pegasus turned and grinned at Firestorm, with his mane of rainbow colored hair Firestorm got the impression he was looking at a middle aged hippie lion. "Dude," he laughed, " you look like you ate a barrel of salt!"Firestorms realized he was scowling, and so he toned down the glare. "Sorry it's just ... well, this stupid amnesia!" he growled feeling annoyed and cranky. Radiance frowned at Firestorm, "You have amnesia?" she asked quizzically, Firestorm suddenly felt uncomfortable, "Well ... yes." "And you don't remember anything? Nothing about your past?" Radiance persisted her gold eyes surveying him with a combination of unease, confusion and wariness. She doesn't trust me. Firestorm opened his mouth to retort angrily but his throat constricted suddenly, his lungs seemed to have shriveled up, he struggled to breath but he couldn't take-in enough oxygen to remain conscious. The world blurred , sounds dimmed it was ... well very strange. Image this; you've magically gone numb and can't feel anything, yet, as you hit the floor you know that you've hit the floor but you don't know how you know. "What the-?!" "Somepony get a doctor!" "Holy Celestia!" Testing .... "Don't touch him! He might have a contagious disease or virus!" Testing, one ... two ... three ... "Don't just stand there you moron! Get your stupid ass over here!" "No offense ..." "None taken." Hello? Testing ... Testing ... one, two, three ... this is Discord, hello? "What the hell am I supposed to do?" Your names Firestorm, eh? Interesting ... he's playing a dangerous game here ... What the hell are you talking about? Who are you? Didn't I just tell you? Good God, boy I choose you because you're smart! You choose-? What the hell are you talking about?! Patience child ... Patience ... Patience? Screw you, I'm not waiting for some stupid voice in my head to- ... .... When Firestorm awoke his first thought was; I'm in hell. He was lying on the rough, black and blasted terrain. It looked like the site of a nuclear bomb blast, debris and dust flew through the air alongside the wind the ground was ripped and covered with fissures. Flames danced on the devastated landscape , faraway volcano's flooded the atmosphere with toxic gas. The sky was black. The only light was from flames dancing on the obliterated landscape, Where am I? Firestorm wondered, staring horrified at the carnage before him. "I think you know the answer to that question." Firestorm wheeled around to the sound of the voice, nothing. Though he thoroughly searched the barren landscape he could not locate the source of the voice. Nor could he locate the owner of the voice, which, in his mind, was more important than anything else. "Who are you?" Firestorm called, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. "My, you're really slow on the uptake!" The voice said jovially, it seemed happy, as if Firestorm was a relative that went to war and returned unharmed. "Your Discord, aren't you?" Firestorm said closing his eyes, struggling to hold on to that important scrap of memory that was slipping fast, "lord of chaos and sprit of disharmony." "Lord? Well, I'm flattered that you consider me a lord of chaos but, I prefer to be called High head honcho. I mean, Lord has a ... orderly feel to it don't you think?" As the voice ( whose name was apparently Discord,) was saying this particles of debris coalesced to form a slender, snake-like body. The creature Discord seemed to be a Frankenstein's monster of beasts, it had the head of a goat and several different body parents from several different animal species. Frankenstein The word seemed oddly familiar, yet similarly alien. Like, when you leave home for a long stretch of time and then return. You remember all your possessions and all, and yet, they also seem strangely foreign. "Oh, I love Frankenstein!" Discord declared cheerfully shocking Firestorm out of his stupor, did he just read my mind?! "Amazing stories you humans make, ponies stories on the other hand all so ... childish! All of them advertise the magic of friendship and sappy stuff like that- oh!" Discord's eye's snapped back to Firestorm suddenly, " and yes I can read your mind David." Firestorm blinked, "you ... can read my mind?! And my names Firestorm not David!" Even as these word left his lip's Firestorm felt like he'd lied by accident. He fought the urge to correct himself knowing it would sound stupid, like; oh, Mr.Discord, my name is David after all! Sorry for correcting you! "They're both technically your name." Discord informed him calmly, demonstrating his ability to seemingly read minds. "Which one do you prefer?" Firestorm ( or David, whatever,) blinked, "I don't really know." He said confused, Discord smiled sympathetically. "Of course you don't, Mr. Leave-me-alone-I'm-trying-to-do-my-work wouldn't have told eh?" Firestorms stared at the strange chimera, "Who?" He asked feeling confused and a bit dizzy from all the information that Discord had just flung at him. "Why, Starswirl The Bearded of course!" Discord exclaimed, "Of course he wasn't always called that, you know, he used to be called Starswirl The Beardless!" Firestorm held his hoof up in a slow down gesture. "So this Tar-hurl the Bearded guy-" Firestorm began, however he was cut off by Discord howling with laughter. "Tar-Hurl?!" He gasped between breathes, "hilarious!" And with that he began to continue laughing uncontrollably. Firestorm scowled, "it's not that funny!" He snapped at the chortling chimera, Discord finally calmed down, ( he was still snickering under his breath though.) He wiped a tear of laughter from his eye, "No it isn't really," he admitted, "but that made me picture Starswirl hurling chunks of tar at Celestia and Luna screaming, go away I don't want to make any friends! I'm a bearded hippie wizard!" Firestorms scowl deepened, "that's not that funny either!" He snapped at Discord, "know answer my damn question! Where the hell am I and who's this stupid Stat-shit?" Discord sighed, "Alright I'll tell you," he conceded, " but this takes all the-" "Just shut-up and do it!" "Alright! No need to throw a hissy! Okay," Discord began, his smile melting like ice in a fire. there was a flash of light and suddenly discord repapered, dressed in professor's coat and monocle. Firestorm was sitting in a chair with a desk like a 4th grade student. "You're in the land of Equestria ( a.k.a the land of sunshine, rainbows and pure boredom,!) You've been sent her my Tar-hurl the bearded guy as you so nicely stated, and you used to live in the human world, where you where just starting high-school." Discord turned to the class, "any questions?" Suddenly clapping and whooping sounds erupted around Firestorm, the bamboozled and confused unicorn wheeled around to find several chairs filled with several Discords, all clapping and whooping at Discords speech. "Thank-you! Thank-you! It was nothing-" Suddenly Discord began to cough uncontrollably, the other Discords disappeared and so did the chairs, desk and Discords coat. Caught off guard by his chairs sudden disappearance ( thought he probably wouldn't be able to do anything about it either way,) Firestorm fell on his back. "Shit!" He swore under his breath, struggling up from the hard ground, when he got up her glared at Discord. "What the hell is wrong with you? Are you sick or something?" "No," Discord replied, "I'm just suffering from a power loss. Not that that matter anyway," the chimera rose steadily from the ground looking at Firestorm with a calm piercing expression. "Because you're going to be the new Lord of Chaos!"