• Published 11th Mar 2018
  • 2,152 Views, 284 Comments

A Compass to the Soul - CartoonNerd12



Rainbow Dash has always want a life at sea but not in the way she thought. Tormented by her past, she tries to move on with her life but nightmares and memories keep reminding her what she had. Will she ever be free from her shadows?

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Tales of the Outcast

"Well now… what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, my young friend?" Discord inquired while sitting on a throne made of sand.

Rumble told him, "I need your help, Soarin has been working me and my friends to the bone all because we went to the other side of the waterfall."

The draconequus stroked his beard, "Ah, yes, I've heard of your little escapade, and that your families punished you by having Soarin teach you the importance of responsibility and whatnot."

Rumble frowned, "Let me guess, you side with them."

Discord shook his head, "I side with no one. I have always been an impartial judge in your affairs as well to those around you. Why else would the outcasts come to me to help settle their differences?"

"I thought it was because you ruled this island?"

The spirit chuckled, "In a way… I am an unofficial ruler given this was my island in the first place, though I resented it. It wasn't until ponies and creatures alike would get shipwreck here that I started to feel a sense of belonging."

"Why did you resent living on this island?"

"Because, my dear boy, I am trapped here."

"Trapped?" Rumble furrowed his brow in confusion.

Discord waved his paw and started making moving figures in the sand, "I already told your brother this when you and he first arrived on this isle but I made him promise to never repeat it. And now I ask the same thing from you, because I don't like people bringing up my past mistakes and this tale is the biggest of my mistakes." One of the figures shaped into him while two alicorns were the other figures. Discord narrated while the figures moved around, "As you know, Rumble, I am the spirit of chaos and disharmony and sometimes I tend to mess with people's heads."

The pegasus nodded, knowing all of that.

Discord continued, "But in this case, I was using my powers for more evil purposes and I didn't care about others' well-being. So the sun goddess, Celestia and the moon goddess, Luna, with their powers combined banished me to this forsaken island in the middle of nowhere. Therefore I have limited magic and can only do little things like pulling pranks or change objects. The ponies that first come here have heard of me naturally and assumed I can just snap my fingers and teleport them home. In fact, your brother demanded that I used my powers to bring you two back to Equestria, but I told him what I told you and he has been working hard on that raft ever since.

He muttered, "A waste of time if you ask me. That raft will never get pass the stormy waves."

Rumble heard that and uttered quietly, "Stormy waves…" and suddenly a memory flashed before his eyes, and cried out, "Yeah! I remember that!"

Discord look on in intrigue as the young colt expressed, "I remember Thunder carrying me in a pack that was on his back as we were on a ship looking for a new place to live, I was only four at the time, but I remember how the clouds started turning black and then lightning flashed. It was scary. The waves came and when it became too much for us, we fell overboard. Next thing we knew we ended up here."

The draconequus inquired, "Do you recall anything before that? Like why you had to leave land in the first place?"

Rumble thought deeply and images of a village being on fire flooded his memory. He closed his eyes as he could recall screaming around him and dark shadows rampaging about. One dark shadow was tall and had glowing icy blue eyes as it shouted out orders. The pegasus opened his eyes and stated, "No, I don't…"

Discord could tell from the colt's downcast eyes that he was lying but didn't press on the matter.

Rumble quickly changed the subject and motioned, "Look, can you help me get back at Soarin or not?"

A smirk grew on Discord's face, "But of course I can, but… if you get caught you cannot say I had a hand in it. Deal?" he held his paw out.

Rumble eyed it for a moment before putting his hoof in and said as they shook, "Deal."


It was late at night as a cat, a dragon, and two stallions sat around a table playing a round of cards while placing bets.

Capper declared, "I raise you two coconuts and a pineapple." setting the fruits down on the table.

Spike gave a devious smirk, "I raise you five oranges and a lemon."

Flash smirked as well, "Then I raise you eight mangos and a star fruit."

Big Mac didn't say anything and just set out twelve papayas and a sugar apple.

The others saw the smug look on his face.

Spike pointed, "Oh, someone's getting cocky."

A voice spoke up, "No, this would be cocky." and the next thing they knew a bunch of bananas landed on the table and they gawked at the person that threw them.

Soarin stood in the doorway with a smile on his face.

Capper commented, "So you finally decided to grace us with your presence."

Soarin went toward them, "Sorry I'm late, I had to check on the boys' progress with the holes in order for them to make more solar water stills in the coming days." and took a seat between Spike and Flash.

Flash mentioned, "That's good, with the days getting hotter, our usual water supply will start to run low and we'll need all the stills we can get."

Capper gestured, "Then it was probably a good thing the boys got in trouble when they did."

Spike stated, "Well they shouldn't have gotten into trouble in the first place had they just listen to us by staying away from the other side of the waterfall."

The others made agreements.

Capper chuckled, "You're only saying that because none of you ever gotten in trouble before. Yes, you all were just goody-goodies obeying orders."

Soarin frowned, "For good reasons, mind you."

Mac proclaimed, "Eeyup."

Flash motioned, "I always wanted to be a member of the royal guard and I knew that took great discipline so I trained and studied harder than any of the other recruits and it paid off. I got to help deport prisoners to far off prison islands."

Capper pointed out, "Until that went all downhill with you falling overboard and ending up here."

"Only because the prisoners started a riot and I just happen to fall off the ship in the middle of the chaos."

Spike questioned, "And then you got sucked into that current and ended up here, right?"

Flash nodded, "Right. And it was the strangest thing to have happen to me since that current was actually breathable to be in."

Soarin added, "Well that current was connected to Discord's island so anything's possible with him around."

Flash said, "Except he can't bring us back home where we belong."

"Yeah, that's true…" Soarin sighed.

Spike said, "Well I only obeyed orders because it's what saved my life. Twilight found my egg and hatched me, she was a good pony and she knew the dangers of a dragon living in Equestria. When I was old enough I knew I had to leave her because I didn't want her to be found out by her village and get punished for taking care of a monster…"

Everyone around the table had solemn expressions as he continued.

"Luckily because my wings grew in, I was able to fly away and to my fortune I was able to find solitude here even if it was hard to get to in the first place with those vicious storm clouds surrounding the island." he looked to the large red stallion next to him, "And we know why you're here, Mac, you were just trying to make an apple deliver from your family's plantation to another country when you came across those stormy clouds and your ship sunk."

The stallion sadly sighed, "Eeyup…"

The dragon patted his shoulder in comfort.

Soarin stated, "And you all know why I'm here and what I was force to leave behind."

Everyone around the table nodded.

Capper gestured, "Yes well, at least you all had something to live for in your past lives. With Big Mac it was his family, for Spike it was his savior, Flash, his job, and of course, Soarin had the love of his life. Me?" he made a sight chuckle, "I had nothing. Yes, one can say I had a friend at one point but friendship soon turn into betrayal and I was force to serve a greedy mole until I decided I had enough and traveled far and wide to escape until one stormy evening I landed here."

Spike questioned, "Ever wonder why that was? A majority of us ended up on this island because of a storm?"

Soarin rubbed his chin in thought, "Yes… it is odd of how frequent those storms happened close to the island. Almost as if magic was at work…"

"More like divine intervention." a voice affirmed.

They turned to see Thunderlane coming in, "Sorry for being super late but I had to make sure Rumble was sleeping and staying in bed."

Flash addressed him, "It's fine. After all, raising children is no easy feat."

Big Mac nodded his head. He knew firsthand of what that was like recalling the times he had a hard time getting his little sister, Apple Bloom to go to bed.

Spike asked, "What do you mean by divine intervention?"

Thunder got closer to the table and lowered his voice, "I know I made a promise to Discord but at this rate I am growing desperate of getting off this isle. You know that Discord can't leave this island and that he has limited power? Well, it's mostly because that the great goddesses Celestia and Luna banished him here. Those storms I'm sure are their way of keeping him here…"

They gapped at this information as Soarin said, "It makes sense! Our goddesses are very powerful beings and with Discord being a powerful spirit himself they had to contain him somehow."

Capper said, "Makes you wonder if you ponies have a chance of getting off at all…"

Soarin, Thunderlane, Big Mac, and Flash exchanged worried looks and secretly wondered if the cat was right.

Soarin thought in determination, No! I wouldn't give up so easily! I will get off this island and I will be with Rainbow Dash again!

Spike decided it was best to change the subject and motioned toward the cards on the table, "Let's worry about that later, for now let's just play a nice game of poker like we always do this time of night."

The ponies were grateful for the distraction and went on with the game.