Displaced and Disorderly

by Miki

1 - Assemble The Team - What Fresh Hell Is This?

The Barrier. A realm of darkness that serves as a buffer between worlds. There is nothing here. Neither the winds of the plains nor the spray of the sea. They very air that surrounds anything that crosses it is nothing more than a miasmic illusion; a pale imitation of what the mind believes should be there, but truly isn't. To stay there for any length of time is to invite insanity into one's mind. Very few have crossed this barrier before, at least in this branch of the multiverse. Sure, there have been others in other branches, but each crossing breaks the foundation of The Barrier as a whole in all of them just a bit more. The footsteps of each and every wayward traveler drifting their way through etches footsteps that cut just a bit deeper each and every time. It was never meant to take this kind of abuse.

Each world has its own name for it. The Rift. The Drift. The Void. It goes by many names and is perceived in many ways by different peoples who find themselves unfortunate enough to be within it, but here it is simply known as 'The Barrier.' For the denizens of Equestria, it was meant to be a line of defense. To keep the outsiders where they should always be, away from them. To keep their realm free and clear of any threats that their magic would not be able to combat.

And yet there will always be travelers. There will always be those who completely ignore and scoff at these divisions. And still there are some who are able to exist in multiple dimensions at once, unfettered by the boundaries between worlds and able to truly go where they please. To these select few, by virtue of their birth and weak ties to other realms, they exist in multiple places at once; able to appear wherever they are needed in whatever form is required of them with the stroke of a pen and the wave of a hand. Or the snap of a talon I suppose. Yes, there are some people who have ties to others that they will almost never perceive or feel, but once those ties are felt they can never be ignored. They may have queer dreams about beings strange to them, but they're almost always written off as merely that, dreams. They may also write stories featuring fantastical people with abilities far outside of their own or act out their adventures. Foals often call this "playing pretend," but it's the foals who feel these ties the strongest of all. Imagination is nothing more than a window into these other worlds. The characters who's adventures they act out with paper swords and pillows as "spells" are just as real as you or me and sometimes those ties to other worlds become so strong that it allows the outsiders to pass through the barrier; and not all of these travelers are benevolent.

There are those who seek to destroy. More who seek to build new lives from the rubble of their old worlds. Sometimes, even monsters muddle their way through and create a mess of things. And not even the fun kind of mess; theirs is naught but destruction and turmoil. Their stories and the origins of their creation are as varied and personal as each individual's upbringing, and I've seen the birth of thousands. Drifting between realms and worlds is something that I do all the time, but my heart will always belong to Equestria. And that is why I need to safeguard it. Outsiders are breaking through again, but this time it is very different. After tracing the origins of these new creatures, I was able to find just the trio I needed to combat them; ones whose willpower and determination was enough to allow them to pass through unhindered and whose inherent connections to each other will give them the strength to utilize their own unique abilities; that is provided they don't kill each other first. Equestrian magic will do no good against creatures like these as they are not of this world. My own powers, while effective against these creatures, are not as useful as the powers of those who face these creatures every day in their home worlds. The Royal Guard is ill equipped to handle the sheer size of the coming storm.

Sweet chaos I hope they don't kill each other.

---

An endless sea of sand and dirt punctuated by the occasional cactus and tuft of grass dotted the otherwise barren landscape of the lands outside of Appleoosa. Within the base of a great canyon the amalgamated form of Discord paced around humming to himself as he looked around various rock formations and caves searching for something.

“Drat, not here either,” he said with a frustrated snap of his right talon as he poked his head around a rock.

“Where in the world did those two land?” he mused to himself as he continued on his way.

“They should be around this area at least. I had to have at least been that precise with my spell.”

Off in the distance, a pile of olive green fur and feathers groaned and shifted in the dirt at the edge of the canyon’s river. Discord snapped his equine head around at the sound and grinned with glee as he disappeared in a flash of light. He reappeared next to the pegasus mare in another flash and sat down on a nearby rock as he waited for the mare to fully awaken. When she lifted her head, he finally spoke.

“Sergeant Patterson I presume?” he asked.

“Wha’? Whossat?” the mare asked as she weakly looked around in an attempt to locate the source of the voice.

“Over here,” he said. The mare turned her head to see Discord waving his right paw at her. Her eyes went wide at the mish-mash of animal parts and she immediately tried to spring into action. She rolled and flopped, but every attempt she made to right herself and attack the creature was met with utter failure.

“What tha’ hell?” she said in a heavy Bostonian accent as she flopped around some more. She looked around at herself and her eyes went even wider.

“Tha’ fuck?!” she exclaimed as she thrashed around even more in a flurry of fur and feathers, “tha’ fuck is goin’ on here?!”

“Careful that you don’t hurt yourself there Sarge. You may find things to be a bit different than what you're used to,” Discord said with a chuckle.

“Tha’ fuck did ya’ do ta’ me ya’ fuckin’ freak?!” she snarled, still thrashing around. She managed to make her way to her hooves, but immediately stumbled and fell face first into the river, eliciting another hearty chuckle from Discord.

“To be perfectly honest, the transformation wasn't something that I planned on, but it makes a bit of sense considering what I’ve seen.”

"Fuckin'... answer the question! Tha' fuck did ya' do to me?!"

His face went sour and he snapped his talon. The mare disappeared and reappeared in front of him on her hooves where she gently landed and was able to maintain a shaky balance as she grew accustomed to the new appendages. She looked up at Discord, whose grin had returned as he delighted in her confusion and her struggle.

“Ya’ think this is funny ya’ freak?” she growled as she took a shaky step toward him, “I’ll show ya funny.”

She raised a hoof to reach for something underneath her left foreleg then immediately fell face first into the dirt again.

“Fuckin’ Kings,” she cursed as she regained her composure and realized that what she was reaching for was not there, “ok, where tha’ hell is my sabre? Where’s my gun? I’mma wreck your shit.”

“Oh would you stop that,” Discord said as he snapped his talon and a new set of objects appeared floating next to him. First was what looked to be a black harness with space for two pistols that, in a human, would have been tucked under the arms. In the left holster was sheathed a single-edged sabre adorned with various blue and red decorations. In the right was a revolver that certainly looked like it had seen better days etched with the words “I will choose freewill” on the barrel. Attached to the left holster was also a red keychain with the words “RUSH” in bold black lettering emblazoned upon it. Next to that floated a shoulder plate that looked to be made of various bits of scrap metal, scrap leather, and license plates. It was accompanied by a pair of scrap metal bracers and upper arm plates painted with the words "duty to others" as well as numerous other bits of armor. Finally, a beat up leather bag filled with bits of scrap metal, ammunition, and various other rations and supplies floated next to it. The mare’s eyes widened even more as she thrashed her way to her hooves again.

“Tha’ hell ya’ doin’ with those?” she growled.

“Oh, I knew you would be getting up swinging, or at the very least trying to swing, so I took the liberty of relieving you of these for the time being,” he responded, “You will get them back soon, don’t worry. As a matter of fact, you will need them, just like I need you.”

The statement gave the mare pause and she tilted her head in confusion. Discord, satisfied that he got her attention, snapped his talon again. The weapons and armor disappeared and were replaced by a bound file. On the cover were the words “Top Secret” were rubber stamped in red, followed by the word “shhhhhhh” written in what looked like red crayon underneath it. He pulled a pair thick reading glasses out of thin air, put them on, then licked his thumb before he flipped it open. He thumbed through the papers contained within while muttering to himself.

“Let’s see here... slimes, goblins, TDMs, Light of Hedon, Kings Co… ah-hah! Here we are!” he snapped his talon again and various papers flew out of the file and floated in front of him along with a picture which he flipped around with a twirl of his talon to show her.

“Carolyn Patterson. Sergeant and leader of the Reaper Squad of the Delphian Guard. Gunslinger, Priestess of the Kings Court, Jones, and generally hot-headed Baywalker.”

“You been spyin’ on me too?” Carolyn said as she spat off to the side.

“Well ain’t that some shit. Figured I would’a noticed somethin’ like you stalkin’ me about the wastes.”

“Oh don’t flatter yourself,” Discord chuckled as he snapped his talon again and took the form of a young man in tattered tactical gear, “though gathering information on you was admittedly easy enough for someone like me. The reason you’re here is because you have faced down some of the most terrifying creatures in your world. I watched you take down a Hate single-handedly once and you never even realized that that was what it was.”

He snapped his talon again and resumed his normal mish-mashed form.

“And you’re not the only one I brought here. There are two others we need to find before I can fill you in on the rest of the details. You will need them, and they will need you.”

He snapped his talon one last time and Carolyn’s weapons reappeared floating next to him.

“Now, if I’ve convinced you that I am not a threat, I will gladly give these back,” he said. Then he stroked his goatee as he looked her over.

Carolyn just stared in confusion at Discord. She looked at herself and her wings and struggled to open them to no avail. She raised a hoof and shook it as she mouthed "what tha' fuck?"

“Okay,” she thought, “so if this freak says he’ll change me back, I guess I’m in no position to really argue. That and whateva' 'e is, there’s no way I’d be able to take him on alone. He’s got some really freaky psion shit goin’ on here. Toybox maybe? It's a weird one if that's what it is."

She looked over at Discord who watched with Carolyn's exercises with vague interest. She lifted each of her hooves up off of the ground in turn as if testing them out, then crouched down before standing straight again. "Guess I got no choice but ta' play along with his little game if I wanna get outta his little fantasy. And if he's gonna take me ta' some potential allies like he said, that’ll make the fight against him even easier.”

Then she sighed.

“If I help ya’ and these otha’ two hooples, you’ll change me back an’ send me back to where I came from, righ’?” she asked.

“Oh absolutely!” he said gleefully, “though looking at you, I feel like something is missing.”

Carolyn looked herself over. Her flank, her wings, and then she looked at her forelegs and her left shoulder.

“Hey, yeah, what tha’ fuck? My life spiral is gone!” she exclaimed.

“Oh of course, the spiral tattoo,” Discord said as he snapped his fingers. On Carolyn’s left shoulder, a black dot appeared that began to spiral around and out, as if an invisible brush was painting the pattern directly onto her fur. She exclaimed with a quick “what tha’ fuck?” as it filled its canvas and then snaked it's way down her foreleg where it came to a stop mid-way down.

“There, that’s better. It was covered up in that photo, so I didn't even think about it. Though you're still a blank flank, that should suffice for now.”

Carolyn cocked her head to the side again, still a bit dumbfounded at the display.

“Blank flank?”

“Oh don't worry about it for now,” he said as he snapped his finger again. In a flash of white, a blade appeared on her right wing that had the same blue and red ornamentation that her sabre had while on her left it was balanced out by the appearance of a set of armor made of the same scrap metal as her shoulder plate. Her beat up leather bag was transformed into a saddle bag that stayed securely snug across her back.

“There, that should do it,” Discord said as he admired his handiwork, “equipment meant for human form wouldn't do in your current state, so I took the liberty of making some slight modifications. I trust that you won't mind. With this, you should even be able to fight while flying. We'll figure out what to do with the gun later, but Equestria doesn't really have much in the way of firearms. ”

Carolyn was busy admiring her new equipment and the reappearance of her beloved tattoo, but at the sound of the word ‘flying’ she went white as a sheet.

“F-f-flying?” she stammered.

“Well of course you silly! What do you think those wings are for?”

“Uhhhh, yeah… flying… right… silly me,” she meekly said as she punctuated her statement with a nervous chuckle.

“Now then. Since that's all taken care of, let's go find the rest of your team!”

Discord turned about face and pointed toward the horizon.

“Forward, march!” he barked as he started walking. Carolyn followed with shaky steps while examining her wings.

“Right,” she said under her breath with an exasperated sigh, “What tha’ fuck even?”

Author's Note:

So down here in the Authors notes, I plan on doing something that I thought was kinda cool. Since these characters are based on actual characters that I play and portray (with certain creative liberties taken for one of them that I don't physically portray), I thought I'd post the actual rules that are tied to some of the abilities and equipment that they use from their various games to give you guys an idea of the actual crunch behind them. To that end, let's start with Carolyn's equipment.

Items: Dystopia Rising
Deerjay Jambalaya - Crafts Level 3 - 5 Damage Per Swing - "Hack and slash" - Ornamented with a stylized red "R" and and a blue stylization of the astronomical symbol for the planet Saturn.
B.R.U.I.N. Scrap Armor - Crafts Level 1 - 15 Armor Points
Scrap Shooter - 3 Damage Per Shot [Broken Beyond Repair]
Old World Religious Artifact