Agents of Discord

by Scarlett Haze

A Pony's Dog

"Hey! Daydreamer!"

I blinked and realized that I was walking alongside Trixie and Zecora. It took me awhile to realize that the group was already partway through the warpath towards Ponyville.

"You've been mumbling this whole time, would you be as so kind as to explain what it's about?" Trixie huffed. At the moment, before I pieced everything together, I didn't know what she was talking about.

"I... was mumbling about how you are able to curve your hat?" I jokingly replied.

We kept walking, letting the sounds of the Everfree go on its own. Occasionally we would stop as a beast would cross our paths and make a decision if we needed to fight it off or let it pass. Every so often I could feel a rumble underneath me, and after the third time it happened I stopped the trek.

"Is something the matter?" Zecora asked. "You seem on edge, should we scatter?"

I shook my head and gave a few experimental stomps. "Something's going on underneath me, and I'm thinking it's not something natur-."

With a FOOMP, the ground collapsed and I was set on top of a pile of dirt with a couple of dog legs sticking out.

"Who forgot the supports?!" A screeching sound came from the sudden tunnel that was revealed. From the darkness, the gray dog from before came out. Both of our eyes met and reacted with a jump, yelling, "You!"

We both stared each other down until another familiar face came up from the dirt.

"Hello, Beta," Tyrone coughed out, trying to shake off the dirt that fell on him. I got off the mound and tried to push some dirt off to help get Tyrone free, soon finding the rest of the trio that I met and a light blue pony inside the pile as well.

"Great to see you again, Tyrone. Was wondering where you were after last night's... oddities."

Tyrone gave a little nod. "I know, when I came back to see you, you were out cold."

***

Tyrone and Screw Loose managed to get to the entrance way of the base, both of them exhausted from the run from the asylum.

"Th-This is where you live?" Screw Loose huffed.

"I think," Tyrone grunted with a little uncertainty. "I can smell Beta, but it's very weak."

Tyrone gave a scratch where Quentin's scent was strongest and felt a small give in the wall. With a little push, the wall moved in and the entrance was revealed. Both of them gave a little nod and entered inside. As they came in, another smell unknown to Tyrone made him pause.

Screw Loose gave an angry growl, "More dogs, and they smell aggressive."

The two kept hidden as they looked on to an unusual scene.

"Since your Alpha is unable to fight, then I shall be the new leader! And as such, I'm ordering all of you ponies to come with me to your new home!" Tyrone heard the gray dog bark out.

"We don't follow the rules like you Diamond Dogs do! You leave him alone, and get out!" A brown pony responded, an hourglass adorning his flank.

"And if we don't? What are you going to do about it, little pony?"

Tyrone looked down at the Alpha they were supposedly talking about and his eyes sparked in rage and shock. "They're going to attack Beta!" Tyrone quietly rumbled out.

"Then you should take them out then," Screw responded.

Tyrone nodded and slipped in between the shadows to get behind the trio. Keeping quiet, he managed to yank the smallest one away, only showing his face in the light for a brief moment and bonked him on the head, knocking him out.

Ponies looked over the two other dogs, making them look behind them to see nothing.

"Where'd Spot go?" the blueish dog asked, briefly scratching his head.

"It doesn't matter! Batter these ponies and let's get that blasted pegasus!" The gray dog barked back.

Tyrone jumped out from his hiding spot and bashed the blue dog in the back of his head before standing between them and the ponies, growling angrily.

"Get away from Beta, right now!" Tyrone barked.

The ponies looked to each other, unsure of what Tyrone had said.

"This pony? Your Beta? Don't make me laugh. Diamond Dogs would never let a pony rule over a pack!" Rover howled back.

Tyrone kept his arms up, and growling at the two dogs that stood before him.

With no warning, Rover and Fido jumped out to Tyrone and tackled him down, making the crowd of ponies scatter as the fight began.

Rover bit down on Tyrone's right arm as Fido began choking Tyrone. With a little struggling, Tyrone began punching Fido with his left fist, enough to get Fido to weaken his chokehold and thrown back. Tyrone gripped onto Rover's right side of his face and began squeezing as hard as he could.

Rover attempted to readjust his bite and was punched off of Tyrone's arm. Tyrone forced himself up and gripped his bleeding arm. Fido went to swipe at Tyrone, Tyrone dodging what would've been a ferocious tear. With a roar, Tyrone rammed into Fido and bashed him into a pillar, cracking the stone with his force.

Backing up for a moment, he was gripped from behind by Rover, getting pulled back into another choke hold.

Tyrone's attempts to get Rover's hold off of him were failing as he began gasping out, falling down on a knee.

Rover tightened the hold, Tyrone feeling his eyes were going to burst out of his head.

A moment of relief came unexpectedly when he felt the pressure of the choke stop, a scream of pain coming from behind him.

Tyrone took rapid breaths of air before turning his head, seeing Screw Loose bounce around Rover, jumping past him and hitting him slightly; multiple times. With a bit of struggle, Tyrone got up in time to see Fido running at him. Ducking down, Tyrone used the running force to his advantage by lifting him up with his left arm and flinging him into Rover.

Seeing both dogs down he slowly moved over to Quentin's body and sat by it, gripping the wound that still bled out. Screw Loose also came over and sat down as well, watching the dogs as they struggled to get up.

Rover gave Tyrone a dirty look, but didn't move from where he was. "Another pony? How weak are you that you need help from those weak creatures?"

Tyrone went to move, but Screw Loose held out her hoof to stop him, her eyes locked on Rover. "And how weak are you that I could run circles around YOU?"

Rover gave a loud bark, his eyes revealing his frustration.

"C'mon, Rover. That pony isn't worth this annoyance," Fido whined.

"I'm NOT GIVING UP! You know what would happen if I did that!" Rover screamed.

"You mean... like that pony?" Fido whimpered, thinking back to when a pony had managed to get them to rule over them and their soldiers.

Tyrone kept his eyes on the two, not knowing that the smallest dog, Spot, had been sneaking up to them from behind.

One pony went out to stop the small dog, but Spot slid underneath its body and gripped onto Screw Loose's tail. With a mighty spin, the pony smashed into Tyrone's back and made him fall forward. The dogs all opportunistically jumped on Tyrone and a mess of biting, scratching, and howling was witnessed by everypony in the room.

For a moment, the dogs all stopped, although they still all growled in anger. Spot, Fido, and Rover had latched themselves on Tyrone and refused to let go. A slow tremble began to happen to the pile as two legs forced themselves to stand and with a loud roar of pain and determination, the legs rushed forward and tripped into the back entranceway, down into the cavern where the Windigo had remained after the fearful run with Quick Fix the first time.

The windigo stirred and let its frosty wind take hold of the room, each dog now separated from each other. Tyrone knew he couldn't move, his last effort was put into his legs in a chance of escape, and from the bite and claw wounds he suffered, it seemed that bleeding out in the cold room was to be his fate.

Tyrone watched the white eyes of the windigo approach him and let his eyes shut.

***

"You couldn't beat him alone."

Tyrone's ears twitched at the familiar rumble of Screw Loose. He began trying to get his eyes open, finding it difficult from the pain he was in.

"And so what if I couldn't? He still lost according to the Pack rules!"

Tyrone's eyes began to clear, seeing Screw Loose confronting Rover. Trying to determine which arm was stronger, he began to make his effort to get up.

"And the Pack rules also mention that any outside influence that determines the winner which is not in accordance to a natural event or by skill means that the fighter automatically loses!"

Tyrone felt two arms lifting him up, shocking his body from pain and making him hiss.

"Perhaps by your rules, pony, but we're Diamond Dogs. If you can't survive, then you are meant to die!"

Tyrone licked his lips and hoarsely spoke out, "Screw..."

Screw Loose and Rover looked over the wobbling dog as Fido moved over to Rover.

"Saw his eyes shoot open, he tried to get up so I helped him out," Fido said, rubbing the back of his head.

"No! No! No!" Rover yelled out. "He didn't beat me! He didn't! He didn't! He didn't!"

"But, I thought that our rules were-?"

Rover snapped at Fido, "Shut up!"

Tyrone panted a few moments as he looked around him, "Where are we?"

Rover went to speak before he was cut off by Screw Loose. "Supposedly, the home of these dogs."

Tyrone's eyes saw the small dog named Spot walking around. "How much did I miss? Last I can recall, where eyes. Big... white eyes."

Screw Loose grimaced slightly, unsure of how to answer. "A big pony with freezing power tried to stop the fight. When I came in, it started backing away for a moment."

The five animals kept watching each other, silence keeping the strenuous peace for as long as it would.

"We put on some medicine for your wounds," Rover spoke, his eyes drifting away from contacting Tyrone's look. "But because we helped you, doesn't mean that you're meant to be Alpha."

Tyrone nodded. "I wouldn't want that responsibility. All I wish to do is help my Beta with everything I can." His eyes shot open in fear. "I need to get back to him!"

Spot gave a shrug, "He's leading a bunch of those ponies down to that pony town."

Tyrone looked around for and exit, and saw the many holes that surrounded the place. "Where? Where? WHERE?"

Fido looked over to Rover and gave a "Ahem."

Rover put a paw behind his head, "Well, you could-"

Before his sentence was finished, Tyrone had barreled forward in a random direction and began digging, his speed unmatched from anything the trio of Diamond Dogs have saw before.

"H-Hold on!" Rover screamed out, running forward into the dark hole after Tyrone.

***

"I got stopped by Rover, he told me to follow the harder ground that would've been made by walking a trail, and here we all are."

I thought over what Tyrone said, not knowing that the excursion could've happened while I was out cold.

"Let me see your arm," I asked.

Tyrone folded his left arm to himself, letting me see the circular mark of missing fur. I tilted my head past Tyrone and gave Rover the hardest stare I could muster. "You. Me. Private conversation. Later. Your tail. Gone."

Tyrone put a paw on me, turning my attention back to him. "We're making a tunnel to Ponyville."

Before I could ask, Trixie asked my question. "Why?"

Tyrone gave a shrug, "At first this tunnel was made to catch up to you, and now that I have, why not make this tunnel a one-way trip from Ponyville to our new home?"

I felt my head tilt slightly and give a little grin.

***

"Remind us why we're underground in this hole again?" Trixie complained.

I turned around, still moving forward down the tunnel that was being created as we trotted along. "My response. Would you rather fight off a cockatrice?"

Trixie went quiet after the question, making my already big smile get a little bigger. The smile went away however when I checked the watch.

2 days, 11 hours, 6 minutes, 39 seconds, 0 firsts.

It was coming. I would face against a god. When I do, I would need to make a choice, either surrender and doom an entire world to the creature that would see it turned into a toy, or manage to kill him and get taken over by a creature that has the same aspirations of domination.

"There has to be something else, there's never a situation that you couldn't win SOMETHING," I thought to myself. Even back when I was fired, I won the battle against Bradford thinking that he was untouchable. I went to clench my hand in a fist to relieve some stress and had to look down to remember that I didn't have hands. I figured some idle conversation could help, so I decided to talk a little to the brown pony with the hourglass mark on him.

"I don't suppose you can tell me what your talent is?" I asked.

As if by an immediate reaction, he responded, "Time specialist. Work on clocks and the sort."

I gave a little confirming nod and asked, "What's with the accent?"

"Accent?" He questioned before immediately hitting his face with his hoof. "Oh! Right, need to remember that I'm not in Trottingham. I usually am more of the proper English pony."

My eyebrow raised up momentarily, I didn't know if English would be a language in this world. I mean, I did speak it, but I considered the possibility of an England-like land that had English as its language. My mind connected Trottingham to England and its respective language as English, leaving it as it was. I knew I was treading thin with the introductory questions, but I thought of one last thing to get him to open up.

"What are you fighting for?"

"Beg your pardon?"

"You know, are you fighting for your store? Fighting for a purpose? Fighting just because?"

The pony went quiet as he looked down at the ground for a moment before turning to me. "I'm fighting for my assistant."

My eyebrow raised again, not expecting the answer. "Your assistant? What happened to him?"

"Her," he corrected. "She seemed to vanish away for awhile. When I saw her again, she was nearby Canterlot. I don't know what her fate was."

I gave a grimace, not knowing if Discord was willing enough to take prisoners and hold them hostage. Remaining quite, I went back to the front by Zecora.

"You seem so tense, can you tell me why? I would like to know before we see the blue sky."

I grit my teeth, even when I stood by the one creature that helped me, I couldn't bare myself to tell her the whole truth. "I'm scared. Not of the upcoming war that is coming, but its end."

She gave me a look of understanding. "In all things in our lives, we all walk on the edge of knives. When we are asked to choose left or right, of all that choose, their futures are not all bright."

She stopped me and put a hoof to my shoulder as the crowd began to move around us. "With that choice we make on that day, we will still stand together and yell 'Neigh!' Don't doubt yourself, Quentin, you're as strong as all of us. Don't think of your success or failure, there's nothing else to discuss."

She set her hoof down and began moving with the crowd again. My thoughts continued for a moment before I agreed with what she said. I didn't need to think about the end just yet, not when my goal was to save my friends. Perhaps I could find another answer, but for now my focus was revived as I began making my way back to the front again.

"We're going up, don't get blinded by the sunlight!" Rover yelled back.