Welcome to Ponyville!

by CharcoalShift

A Joke Gone Too Far

Princess Luna looks at her sister with dismay. She had never seen the esteemed solar princess to be so out of it, her eyes cold and distant, almost as if... 'No... it couldn't be' Luna thought to herself 'it would be impossible...’ The midnight alicorn did a double take as she saw her sister's mane and fur blend with a light shade of grey. She started to panic and call the royal guards, not knowing what to do. Celestia slumped over, losing all hope with the inner conflict that resides within her. Discord is winning the fight through violent means, and all motivation has been sapped from her.

Meanwhile, Charcoal searches around the houses near the entrance of Canterlot. He thought it would've been easy to find her around here since he used to live here, but clearly he was wrong. As he gallops along he bumps into a white mare with lavender and white hair.

"Ugh... Sorry about that." Charcoal grunts as he gets up.

"Oh, no worries. If you ask me, this is the only thrilling thing that has happened in a while." She giggles lightly. Charcoal narrows his eyes as he takes a clearer look at the unicorn. His face scrunches as he realizes that it was Twilight Velvet. Charcoal's mother used to share plenty of conversations with her when the two went to their own personal outings.

"My how you've grown Charcoal. I haven't seen you since you were so small." She smiles brightly. It's still a wonder how Canterlot hasn't been affected like Ponyville has.

"Y-yeah..." Charcoal murmurs.

"How have you been since your mother's passing?" She pauses a bit, Charcoal's face turning away slightly "I'm sorry dear... I shouldn't have brought that up."

"No, it's fine. I have more pressing matters to deal with." He barely smiles "I'm looking for Twilight Sparkle. Have you seen her?"

"My daughter? Well, she's at my house, which is quite odd considering that she's acting as if she never left the place." Charcoal took a step back and gathered his thoughts. He wondered just how stupid enough not to realize that he knew Twilight's mother, but never heard about her relations between the two. Nevertheless, he thanked her and continued to her house. He knocked on the door and stood there, waiting for a response. Five minutes passed, nothing happened. Twenty minutes passed, still nothing.

"Ugh! What's taking so long?!" Charcoal yelled. Suddenly the door opened, a book covering the lavender mare's face.

"Oh, sorry. I was just reading this interesting book." she lowers the book from her face "Can I help you?"

"Twilight, you have to come back with me to Ponyville! Everything's gone to hell and I need you there!" Twilight flustered a bit, taking the phrase a bit out of context

"I-I don't know you that well... and what would my parents think?" She stammers a bit. Charcoal huffs as he forgot that she was affected by Discord's magic. He pushes her down and stands over top of her. Twilight's face turns a deep red.

"W-what are you doing? I-I don't know if I'm ready..."

"Don't make this any harder than it has to Twilight." Charcoal flusters a bit. He grunts and focuses on his horn, a small brim of magic outlining the base of the horn.

'Come on... a little more...' he thought to himself, lowering the horn towards Twilight's forehead. His horn shined and a pop was heard before he was sent flying out of the house. As the dust settled, Twilight stood up, her hair a bit frizzled and her eyes crossed before she shook off her dizziness.Charcoal landed on his back, gripping his head as a massive headache pounded against his temples. Twilight trotted out and looked at him.

"Where am I? What happened?" She looked around, confused. She then gasped and turned back at Charcoal. "Discord! He's alive! He's back at Ponyville isn't he?!"

"Great deduction Sherlock..." Charcoal moaned "Let's just get out of here, we don't have much time left..." Twilight helped him to his hooves. As they make their way towards the train station, Charcoal is flung yards away by unknown magic. Twilight is caught off guard as a swift kick hits her on her side, causing her to slide a few feet.

"Ow... what was that...?" Charcoal stumbles and gets to his hooves. A Unicorn covered head to hoof in armor stands before the two of them.

"I am Zeris. I'm going to kill you both before you make it back to Ponyville." it says in a cold and monotonic manner. The voice sounded vaguely familiar to Charcoal, but he shakes it out of his head. Twilight crawls away a bit before being grabbed by her tail and thrown into a few barrels. Charcoal grunts and charges Zeris, only to be lifted by its magic and slammed onto the floor.

"Augh! How am I going to even come close to this crazy pony?!" Charcoal said, trying to get up.
The iron-clad pony slowly trots up to Charcoal, placing its hoof on his head and slowly starts crushing his head. Charcoal screams in pain as it puts pressure on his skull.

"Struggle and I will make this more painful for you." Zeris said. The dark stallion plants his hooves to the ground, forcing himself up against its grip. "Your determination is admirable, but it's not going to save you." it forces its hoof down on his head, pushing him back down to the ground. He grunts as he slowly tries to get back up again. The pony scoffs and lifts him up with magic.

"Why don't you just give up already? What makes you think that the others are going to accept you? No one here did, and that's what the others are going to do to you!"

"W-what? H-how do you know that?" Charcoal stutters, choking on his words as he is lifted higher by the magic wrapped around his neck. The pony is then shot back by a blast of magic made by Twilight, who was charging it while they were talking. She gallops up to him as Charcoal recovers from the fall when the magic wore off.

"Are you okay? Who the heck is that pony?" Twilight said, keeping her guard up and looking at the debris that covered the thrown pony.

"I don't know, but whoever it is, is trying to stop us...” The debris is suddenly blown in all directions by a burst of magic. The armor covered pony stands before them, the helmet cracked and golden eyes piercing through the opening.

"It's going to take more than that to take me down!" it yells. Charcoal looks at the pony, and then back at Twilight.

"Twilight, can you tear off the chest plate with your magic?" he said.

"I-I think I can. What are you going to do?"

"Something that I may have to do if we're going to get out of here alive." Charcoal sighs. He knew that this is something he would never have dreamed of doing, but he had no choice. As the pony charged in their direction, Charcoal stood firm, lowering his head and having his horn pointed in its direction. Once it got close enough, he gave the signal and charged. Twilight's horn glowed and she quickly jerked her head away, the armored pony's chest plate doing the same. As the protective piece of steel flew off, it threw the pony off guard, letting Charcoal pierce his horn through its chest. The pony yelled in agony for a brief moment before shoving him off.

"You bastards!.. What did you... do..?" The monotonic voice began to sound feminine, blood pouring out from its chest and spilling to the floor. Both Twilight and Charcoal looked at each other in confusion. The pony fell to the floor, barely breathing. Twilight looked at Charcoal with a saddened face.

"I'm sorry..." Charcoal said softly "I had no choice. Twilight put a hoof on his shoulder.

"It's okay. You did what you had to do." Charcoal paused for a moment and closed his eyes.

"Go to the train station. The others need you. I'll catch up ok?" he said. Twilight nods and slowly turns and trots off. He looks on as Twilight disappears from the distance, and then looks back at the assailant. He couldn't help himself and wondered who was behind the mask, and how it knew about his past. He slowly removes the helmet and his eyes widened by what he saw.

"No..." he muttered "No... no no no..." the helmet drops to the floor as tears began to flow from his eyes. The pony that laid, dying before him was none other than Cinnamon. The only pony that bothered to be friends with him when he was younger. The only pony that gave him the benefit of the doubt. He killed her, and he couldn't take it back. Charcoal slammed his hooves to the ground and yelled with all his might. This had Discord's name written all over it.

"Discord..." he growled "You're going down..."

Author's Note:

Sorry for the long delay. I needed the motivation to start doing this again. But now that this is up, I'm going to make up for it with a more dramatic ending! Hope you guys enjoy.

Comments

[dragenfire68]

i hope that discord burns in the 10th ring of hell.

[Assassindog117]

DAMIT DISCORD

[Twisted but true]

Wait, didn't you say before that Cinnomon had forgiven him for what he did? So why is she doing this now? Unless I'm missing the obvious Discord explanation or I'm imagining things again.