Chapter 21- Invading City Hall
Okay, this chapter doesn't have much action in it, but next chapter will. This is the start of the confrontation.
Also I hope the narrative and descriptive parts of this chapter are better than they have been, as I realize that I've had some issues with them in previous chapters.
And I only own my OCs.
City Hall- Brett's Office
Obscure lay on his stomach in his office, as he was still unconscious from slamming into the wall. He let out a groan as dreams of his past began to fill his mind.
Obscure's Dream
It was a bright and sunny day many years ago. Birds were chirping, and the atmosphere throughout Canterlot had a positive, hopeful feeling to it. Today was graduation day for the senior class of Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.
All of the unicorns that were in the graduating class stood in front of a large gloriously adorned stage. They wore blue robes and the classic graduation caps. Their eyes were wide as Princess Celestia stood on stage and was finishing her speech for them. They all watched in awe as the alicorn goddess spoke about their educational experiences to wrap up their graduation.
"And I am so proud of each and everypony in the audience here today." Princess Celestia continued, "You all have worked so hard to get where you are, through all of the exams, spells and stress, this is your reward. You all have bright futures ahead of you and for that, I say congratulations."
The entire audience and graduating class stomped their hooves on the ground in thunderous applause.
Crescent and Bright were sitting in the mass of unicorns that were graduating, both wearing their own graduation attire that matched the other unicorns, though both did have more tassels on their cap than most of the other unicorns did, indicating they were at the top of their class. The two friends had managed to not only pass through Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, but also finished at the top of their class.
In fact, thanks to Bright's encouragement and assistance, Crescent not only caught up to his best friend in his ability to perform magic; he surpassed it. He had gone from being the "blank flank" loser of Canterlot, to becoming the unicorn that all of the mares wanted to date, that all of the stallions had envied. Well, all of the stallions except for Bright, who was extremely proud of Crescent for accomplishing everything that he had. Bright could have let some sense of jealousy overtake him, but he felt happy that his friend was as popular as he was. In his mind, if anyone deserved some popularity, it was Crescent.
Crescent also became the one that the Princess always went to when she needed one of her students to perform a spell as a part of a demonstration. Crescent would teleport masses of students from one end of the stage to the other, he would levitate boulders three times his size, and he even performed his moon disappearance spell to crowds; the same spell that had given him his cutie-mark, and the spell that impressed Princess Celestia the most.
Once the applause ended, Princess Celestia continued, "Now I'd like this opportunity to invite up onto the stage, the head of your class. A unicorn that is not only my most improved student, but also one of the best students I've ever had."
Crescent grinned and looked over at Bright, knowing that he was about to get called up on stage to receive a medal for being the top student of the class. Both friends exchanged a quick smile with one another as Princess Celestia called, "Crescent Light, will you come up here please?"
Crescent excitedly began to make his way up to the stage as Bright triumphantly pumped his hoof in the air. Once Crescent made it to the top of the stage, Princess Celestia gave him a warm smile and used her magic to place the gold medal on his neck, one that she gave out to her top students.
"Congratulations Crescent." Said Princess Celestia as Crescent stood before her with a big grin on his face. The medal clicked itself around his neck.
"Thank you Princess Celestia." He said quietly as he looked down at the medal in complete awe. He held it up to his face to get a better look at it, the sunlight reflecting off of the gold, giving it a heavenly appearance.
He then looked up to see his entire class stomping their hooves in applause for his achievement. He held the medal up from his neck so they could get a better look at it as he grinned triumphantly. His eyes landed on Bright, who had stopped stomping and waved to Crescent with a big grin on his face, so ecstatic to see his friend have so much success after years of struggle.
Both friends looked to have rich, rewarding, successful lives, never forgetting their bond.
Unfortunately, fate had other plans.
Wilmont City Hall
Obscure's eyes slowly opened as his consciousness began to return to him after his impact-induced slumber. He realized that he was still on the floor of his office after having been launched into the wall by Twilight's spell. He let out a groan as he sat up against the wall.
He slowly turned around to see the large crack in the wall where he had hit. He also saw a picture that he had hung up on the wall, on the ground; glass everywhere as the frame was shattered. He could see the picture was of him and Bright immediately after the graduation ceremony. He still had the brilliant, gold medallion hung around his neck, as he held it up for the camera with one hoof while his other hoof was draped around Bright's shoulder.
He looked at the image of Bright and let out a deep, almost depressed sigh before rubbing his head, "Well Bright, at least you can take solace that your niece is one strong unicorn, just like you."
After muttering these words he slowly pushed himself up off of the ground, shaking his head to forget the vivid dream he had.
"Ugh why am I having these dreams?" Obscure asked no one in particular.
"Because your guilt is finally eating away at you." Came the familiar, young voice Crescent, who was looking up at Obscure sternly.
"Why now?" Obscure asked, now with more confusion than rage, as he was genuinely concerned. "I've killed many ponies and people, why didn't it come to me before. Why now?"
Crescent gave a small, sad little shrug, "Better late than never."
Obscure opened his mouth to respond when his attention was grabbed when the door to his office flew open, revealing one of the government agents that had taken part in the mall chase a few days before.
"Obscure, Discord wants to see you."
Obscure tried to turn back to Crescent, only to discover that the little colt was once again gone. He took a deep breath and nodded, "I'm coming."
He slowly trotted after the government officer, his face now showing slight concern and sadness, as he entered the dimly lit hallway.
Carl's House
"I can't believe this is all that's left." Carl muttered as he stared at the charred, smoking rubble where his house had stood only a day before. Just like every house in the neighborhood, Carl's house was no longer standing; only the remains of it were left.
Both he and Twilight were wading through the still-warm pile of debris, eyes scanning the rubble to see if anything had survived the destruction. On the front lawn, Alex, Applejack, Pete, Pinkie Pie, Louis and Rarity were all talking amongst themselves as they waited for Ryan, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and James to arrive from the park.
They decided to let Carl and Twilight look through the debris of the house by themselves, giving both of them some space. After all, Carl was going through the home he lived in since he was young, now nothing more than scattered, charred remains. All of the memories that he had accumulated as he grew up, all that remained of his father's memory save for the car parked in the street, were gone; destroyed at the hands of people that were working at achieving nothing more than total chaos.
Carl stepped over a charred table, a shattered 5th grade school photo og him that had been framed by his mother. A picture that she would often stop in front of and look at, eyes filled with nostalgia, before she would call Carl over and say clichéd things like "I can't believe how fast you're growing up", or "I'm going to miss you when you head off to college ".
A teary-eyed Carl finally reached what used to be his father's office, the room that had been converted into the library after his death. But there was no desk, no chair, and no shelf full of books that amazed Twilight when she first saw them. Back when Carl thought that she was just Tara, a beautiful girl he hooked up with at a party.
There was nothing, save for the burnt book pages and charred wood from the desk that Carl's father once sat behind to do his bills, work, whatever he needed to do.
While his misty eyes scanned the once proud office, Carl looked down to see what appeared to be a book that had survived the fire mostly unscathed. Twilight watched as he bent down and picked the book up. He slowly stood back up and examined the book with a expression that was mixed with nostalgia and sadness. Twilight walked over to Carl and put her hoof onto his leg. He looked down at her to see her sympathetic face, her sad eyes that showed how she felt about the situation, and how badly she felt that Carl had to go through it.
"I'm so sorry Carl." Twilight said sadly as Carl brushed off the book to see that it had Lewis Family Album engraved on the cover in gold, cursive lettering.
"It's okay Twi, no one was hurt that's all that counts." He muttered before carefully opening the book to see if the pictures were damaged at all. After brushing some dust and grime off of the pages that he opened to, Carl was thankful to notice that the pictures were still in fine shape. He opened the book back to see pictures that ranged from the last varsity soccer game he played earlier that year, to his third-grade school play.
He slowly sat himself down on the warm ground and began to flip through the pages. Twilight sat down next to him and peered over his shoulder as he began to look at pictures from his sixth birthday in 2001. Once picture showed his father behind him, smiling at the camera while the tiny Carl, with a little cone-shaped birthday hat on, blew out the candles on his cake.
"Your father really seemed like a great person, Carl." Twilight said, as she looked at the beaming face of the adult man behind her the younger image of her colt-friend.
"Yeah, he was." Carl said with a sniffle, "and I really do miss him."
He fingered the picture sadly. Twilight then thought of something to take Carl's mind off of the image of his father, and hopefully make him feel a little better. "What did you wish for?" Carl looked at her with confusion but she just smiled and pointed her hoof at the picture, "When you blew out the candles, did you make a wish?"
"Oh yeah," Carl said with a chuckle, "um, of course. But I don't really remember what it was. It's been so long and my wishes have changed over the years. Like, when I was around that age I wanted to have a pet charmander."
"Charmander? What's a charmander?" Twilight asked, her head tilted to the side a bit as if to reflect her confusion.
"It's a type of Pokémon, which is a creature from a popular card game, cartoon…"
"Like me?" she asked with a small smile.
Carl laughed a little at her inquisitive attitude, which was typical of her, "Sort of. Anyway until I was about ten, I wished that I could have one for my very own. Back then the logic part of my brain didn't kick in yet so I always believed that if I wished hard enough, I could get one. Even if it was fictional"
Twilight nodded in understanding. Carl then smiled at Twilight and gave her a small shrug, "Of course after meeting you and realizing that you exist, I guess the basis of my wishing wasn't completely illogical."
Twilight giggled and leaned her head against Carl as he turned his attention back to the album. "What about when you got older? What's your biggest wish then? What is it now?"
Carl opened his mouth to answer, but then closed it. He let out a deep sigh as if the wish pained him in some way. Twilight realized what it was he would wish for and put her hoof up, "I'm sorry Carl, I forgot….it's your father, isn't it?"
Carl nodded as he sniffled a bit, "Yeah I…I wish I was able to save him back at the hospital." He then turned to Twilight with tears in his eyes, "that the spell worked, and he would wake up from death and give me that smile of his, and we'd hug and…" Carl couldn't continue speaking as he felt himself getting choked up on his emotions, almost ready to start crying again. Twilight sensed this so she wrapped her front hooves around him in a comforting hug.
Out on the lawn, the others were watching the scene play out behind them.
"Why does it seem like someone or somepony in this group is always crying?" Louis asked.
"We have very weird lives." Pete answered, "and in the past days most of us have seen those very lives deteriorate."
"What do you mean?" Rarity asked Pete.
Pete just looked at her with an almost unemotional glare before staring off into space and talking like nothing was wrong. "My parents disowned me, Ryan's parents died, and from what I heard about James, his parents were scolding him about his love of Fluttershy."
"What will you guys do after defeating Discord?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Ah thought they were gonna move to Ponyville with us." Applejack said with some confusion, as if she were perplexed as to why Pinkie was asking a question that she felt had an obvious answer.
"We have to see what the Princess says." Pete muttered, "Louis, Alex and Carl have lives to get back to. But I don't, Ryan doesn't and I don't think James does."
"You think I have a life here?" Alex asked as he turned to the others with a slightly angry expression on his face, "Last night my drunken asshole of a stepfather was strangling me and my mother didn't do a damn thing to help. The only one who had ever stood up for me was AJ. She's the first being, pony or human, who actually put herself in danger just to protect me."
"When Applejack bucked the shit out of my stepfather, my mother, who is supposed to love me and protect me, ran over to his side. She asked if he was okay, she was CRYING! For fuck's sake she was crying over him after he tried to kill me! Crying for him moments after she ignored my pleas for help when his hands were wrapped around my throat in a death-grip!" Alex kicked a stone that was on the ground in rage, "So if I am given a choice to live with my asshole parents, or live with the girl I love and her great family in a world that I've dreamt of living in. What life do you think I'll choose? Why the fuck would I want to go back to my old life?"
The group stood around in silence for a little while more, contemplating what to do. Not just to defeat Discord, but what they were going to do after. Pete had already decided to live with Pinkie Pie if the Princess allowed him to, and obviously Alex was decided. Only Louis was having an internal war with himself. Sure he had his aunt and uncle who, while not substitutes for parents, had always been supportive and kind to him. He also had his soccer skills and a division one school wooing him for his insane talent, and even if he didn't want to continue soccer as a career, he could always use the scholarship and play soccer while majoring in a subject that he'd want to peruse.
But would any of that matter if he never saw Rarity again after realizing his love for her? Would it matter if he would always be disappointed with other girls because of the high bar she had set for them to match; a bar that they could never reach? He was torn.
Eventually, their pondering was cut short when Carl and Twilight made their way back over just as the sound of an approaching vehicle was heard barreling down the road.
They all turned to see Alex's SUV speeding down the road blasting out "Back in Black" on the radio. Alex's face fell into a state of complete shock as he saw the damage done to his truck. All of the windows save for most of the windshield, the back window, and one of the windows that was at the trunk of the car, were shattered. Bullet holes riddled the side and front of the car. The bumper was horribly dented, and he could swear that he heard the hissing of air coming from one, if not two, of his tires. Sure the other two cars, Louis and Carl's, had been damaged terribly, but Alex had hoped his got out of the city relatively scot-free.
How wrong he was.
He also most likely didn't expect Ryan to go on a little voyage through a hiking trail that was never meant for a vehicle, and now everyone could see why.
"Holy hay, that ain't good." Applejack said in shock at the horrible condition of the once proud, badass truck. Alex began to storm over to meet the truck, his truck; the one he had for years and was always proud of. His eye twitched and his face turned beet red. His jaw hung open for a second as he tried to find words that could appropriately sum up the situation.
He then found seven that seemed to do the trick.
"What the fuck happened to my car!" Alex shouted in a rage as Ryan drove the SUV over to park in front of the rubble that had once been Carl's house. Ryan looked out of the driver's side window and let out a nervous laugh, "He-he, sorry man. I had to lose some police unicorns and decided to take a detour."
"What detour was that, a fucking warzone?"
Ryan raised an eyebrow, "Um Alex…we did drive through a warzone. Actually most of the damage here is from that." He said, gesturing to the entire car. "What did you expect, you car to come out without a scratch?"
Ryan turned off the car before he and the others began to get out of the damaged car. Alex tapped his foot in irritation as Ryan walked over to him before he continued with his excuses.
"And I also had to drive on the park's hiking trail," Ryan said with a shrug, as if it didn't have anything to do with the damage to Alex's car. Alex just stared, his face still red in anger, and his fists clenched so tightly that his nails almost managed to break the skin.
"I hate you so much right now." Alex growled before Applejack got up onto her hind-legs and stood in-between Ryan and Alex, looking Alex right in the eyes, "It's okay sugarcube. Let it go, he couldn't help it."
"If he took the damn cruiser instead of my truck then he could have." Alex mumbled as he walked back over to the others, who were still standing on Carl's front lawn, or what had once been Carl's front lawn.
As they walked back to the group they all huddled around Carl and Twilight. Carl took notice of the fact that everyone seemed to be around them both. While it wasn't surprising for Twilight, as she was the leader of her friends in the show, being in the center with her gave him an uneasy feeling.
"So what, are me and Twi like the leaders or something?" Carl asked.
"Yep!" Pinkie Pie said without hesitation.
"Well it's just that Twilight's the leader of our group and since she's your partner, it only made sense that you'd be our leader as well." Fluttershy said quietly.
Carl let out a deep sigh. He was not used to being a leader. Well, at least not intentionally. When he hung out with Ryan and James, they all seemed to be on a level playing field with one another, each member contributing an equal amount to the whole trio. But then he began to think about how he had already sort of been the designated leader since Twilight and the girls arrived. After all, he was the first person they met.
"Okay, fine." Carl groaned as he put the photo album underneath his left armpit for the time being, "I suppose it's time to come up with a plan to get into City Hall?"
Everyone and everypony nodded in response. Carl nodded, "Okay, I think we need to go close enough to City Hall so we can see what it's like right now without Discord knowing we're there. That way we can see what kind of security they have on the outside, and come up with a plan to get through it. That way we don't just wing it without some sort of plan."
"What sort of security should we expect?" Rarity asked.
"I assume unicorns, government agents and anarchists would create most of the security. After all, those are the most logical enemies." Carl shrugged before he looked down at Twilight, "unless the Princess gave you anymore warnings."
Twilight shook her head, "No. I'm as unsure as you are."
Carl nodded before he turned to the others, "So does everyone here agree with that plan?"
Everyone and everypony nodded and they began to pile back into their demolished cars, all except for Carl, who pulled the photo album out from under his armpit. He held it out in front of him and looked at it.
Twilight opened the doors to Carl's sedan with her magic for Ryan and Rainbow Dash to get in since Alex had kicked them out of his truck in his rage. Actually, that's not entirely accurate. Alex only kicked Ryan out of his car and Rainbow Dash followed him, once again proving to him why she was the Element of Loyalty.
After Twilight watched Ryan and Rainbow Dash get into the car, she trotted back over to Carl. He was where the front door of his house normally would have stood, but now just led to the heap of rubble he had waded through earlier. He slowly bent down and placed the photo album ever so gently onto the doormat, which was still intact even though it was now covered in a thick layer of dust and debris.
Once he did this, he stood back up and let out a deep sigh. He didn't notice as Twilight walked over to his side and looked down at the album before looking up into Carl's eyes with a confused glare.
"Are you sure that you want to leave that here?" Twilight asked as she pointed to the photo album.
Carl turned to her, just noticing that she was standing beside him. He gave her a small nod, "Yeah. If I take it into that warzone, Lord knows what'll happen to it. Besides, it belongs here…it belongs in my home, or, where my home used to be. It belongs with the remains of my other memories, after all it's filled with them."
He slowly turned and started to walk back to the car with Twilight, who gave a quick look back to where Carl had placed the album, trotting off after him. Once inside, Carl looked at his house through the rearview mirror one last time before he drove off, just like he had when he and his family were evacuating that morning. He felt saddened at the revelation that his house was gone, and that his look-back earlier that day was the last time he ever saw it standing.
The only thing that made him feel better was the presence of Twilight as she rested her head on his shoulder while he drove off down the street before turning out of the neighborhood with Alex and Louis' car in tow.
Wilmont City Hall
"What do you mean they escaped?" Discord asked with a hint of irritation in his voice as Officer Cantor told him the news. Officer Cantor and Brett stood before him with worried looks on both of their faces. Also in the office were some of the police officers and the government agents that had taken part in the mall chase.
"Well, sir…"
"Of for the love of…you can take off your disguise Shaded, I know you're a unicorn." Discord muttered as he rubbed his temples in annoyance.
Officer Cantor gave his boss a small nod before he closed his eyes. His forehead glowed and he was soon engulfed in a dark blue aura. Once the glow was gone, where the police officer had once been now a unicorn stood. Officer Cantor had transformed into Shaded Deceit. His unicorn form had indigo fur and a striped gold and black mane and tail. His eyes were a terrifying shade of gold that matched the stripes in his mane and tail, making them both brilliant and terrifying at the same time.
Once he was completely turned into a unicorn, Cantor, now Shaded, let out a sigh, "Sir we chased them through the trail, but they were just too crafty."
"You couldn't just teleport to the park and grab them?" Discord asked, which made Officer Cantor start to shake.
"B-but sir, I thought you wanted us to use the element of surprise to mess with them before we defeated them."
Discord thought for a moment and then nodded, "Yeah, your right. That was my fault. Besides, I do agree that messing with the minds of my enemies is how I prefer to defeat them."
He then began to think for a second before he smiled, "Yes…yes this actually could work out to my liking."
Obscure took a step forward with a serious look on his face, stepping in front of Shaded who shot an annoyed at Obscure for cutting off the discussion he and Discord were having.
"Discord, what are we to do? They're on their way up here as we speak."
Discord nodded before he turned to the government agents, "Set up a perimeter around the City Hall. Tell me if anyone is approaching and I'll make the preparations."
The agents nodded and walked off. Discord then turned to the others, "As for you, I want you to stay in here with my newly acquired team unicorns from the Buffalo S.W.A.T. team and if those kids and their little mare-friends manage to get by our guards outside, make sure they do not get to the fifth floor." He said, indicating that he was on the fifth floor of the building. "Do you understand?"
They all nodded, "Yes, sir."
With that, they were off to the different parts of the buildings to prepare for the possibility of a break in.
Meanwhile, Discord sat back against his chair and let out a deep sigh, "This will be fun."
City Streets
The twelve elements had reached the city about twenty minutes after leaving Carl's former neighborhood, which had been reduced to nothing more than a street surrounded by charred remains of the houses that once lined it.
Most of the anarchists had moved on to other parts of the city to fight the military. Other anarchists were still at the mall, burning it to the ground in a stance against the establishment as they had when Louis, Pete, Pinkie Pie and Rarity all left.
Only a couple of anarchists, around ten to fifteen, were hanging out in front of Wilmont City Hall. They were lit up as if they were in the hallway of the High School during the break in-between classes instead of in the middle of the city during a war in which they were fighting. They all held their guns by their sides. Their bandanas were hung around their neck instead of over their face so that they could better converse with each other.
But the streets were not completely absent of signs from the struggle. Bodies of soldiers and anarchists lay strewn all over the city, blood accumulating around their bodies or running down into the sewer. Trucks, tanks, hummers, and jeeps were all parked, smashed, burning, or reduced to nothing more than a mass of twisted metal; completely unrecognizable from its former look. Buildings were still on fire and businesses were completely destroyed, only leaving the black, charred remains of what they used to be.
But all twelve of them chose not to acknowledge the horrible imagery. Even the girls, who still were acting uneasy about all of the death and destruction, had managed to get over their initial sadness and fear in order to focus on the task at hand.
"What's it like?" Twilight asked as Carl and James peeked around the corner of the building that they hid behind. This building was less damaged than most of the others, and it was on the opposite side of the street as city hall. Therefore, it was an opportune vantage point for the group to scope out the area before coming up with a plan to get into the building.
"Not too well guarded, but that's probably because most of them are in the building itself. Wait!" Carl said as he noticed a line of government agents, about fifteen to twenty of them, walking out into the street. "Hey, those are the people that chased us at the mall." Carl muttered.
"Where?" Twilight asked as she peeked around to corner of the building to see the same suit-coat wearing men waking out into the road. "Oh, well they shouldn't be an issue. After all I didn't notice them using any magic. I think they're just humans, we can take them."
"I hope so." James answered without taking his eyes off of the men.
Unfortunately, they were soon proven wrong as all of the agents removed what appeared to be silver bracelets that had been on their left wrists. Once the bracelets were off, the agents were engulfed in a white light before they were gone. In their place was a large group of midnight-black pegasi that stood stoically in front of the building, their indigo eyes serious and determined as they scanned the sky.
"Well…that's just bad luck." James muttered unenthusiastically. The three of them watched as each pegasi launched itself from the ground before spreading their massive, intimidating wings to take flight. They all began to soar around city hall like a group of hawks circling its prey; eyes were vigilant as they continued to look for any possible intruders.
Carl, James and Twilight all turned away from the corner to look at the others, who looked at them with serious faces from behind the wall of the building, even further hidden behind the building.
"Well. What did y'all see?" Applejack asked.
"Is it bad?" Fluttershy asked nervously.
"Pegasi," Twilight said with a hint of disappointment, "they have a lot of pegasi circling the building right now. If we even wander a foot into the street from behind this building, we'll be exposed."
"That's just wonderful." Rarity muttered with complete sarcasm.
"Great," spat Louis, "now what do we do? Just sit here like a bunch of cowards until they find us?"
"No! I say we fight them." Rainbow Dash said with anger as she raised her hooves up into the air and punched at the air, "I can take them."
"But you can't fly." Ryan said, pointing to her still bandaged wings.
"Actually…" Twilight began, which draw all of their attention to her. She slowly trotted over to Ryan and Rainbow Dash, "…I've been thinking. There are healing spells that I might not be powerful enough to cast by myself, but if everyone does it together, then maybe we can fix her wings so she could fly up there and distract them."
Everyone nodded before another worry hit Ryan "Wait! I don't want her going up there by herself!"
"Ryan we don't have a choice." Rainbow Dash said sternly. "I can draw their attention so you guys can sneak into the building. But before I do that I need my wings back." She aid, gesturing to her still bandaged wings, which were clearly swollen from being broken, even if they had been protected by the white bandages that surrounded them.
Ryan then looked up at Twilight, "The doctor that treated her was a unicorn, why couldn't he help her wings heal if we can?"
"Because unless Princess Celestia or Princess Luna are right here with us, it takes more than one source of magic to heal a pony instantly. In fact it usually takes quite a few sources."
Ryan was about to say something more when he felt Rainbow Dash tap him on the leg. He looked down to see her giving him a pleading look, "Please Ryan, let me do this."
Ryan wanted to protest more, but then he did realize how they'd have to get past the pegasi, and based on what Twilight had told them earlier, she most likely wouldn't be able to teleport them into a building she wasn't familiar with.
He looked at Twilight and nodded, "Okay, I'll let her go up there."
"Great," Twilight said with a grin before turning to the others, who were all glowing in their aura, ready to add their magic to Ryan and Twilight's so that Rainbow Dash could fly. "Now what I need you all to do is imagine yourself healing her wings and then point your aura at her, got it?"
All of the boys nodded. With that, they and Twilight pointed their auras at Rainbow Dash, aimed and fired. Rainbow Dash was enveloped in a rainbow mix of cyan, yellow, white, orange, pink and violet aura. Her eyes were shut and she grimaced as she felt the bones in her wings realigning, shifting, and mending. After a few seconds, the aura disappeared and Rainbow Dash opened her eyes.
She looked around at everyone and everypony. "Did…did it work?" she asked as she looked back at her wings.
"Hold on." Twilight muttered as she used her magic to unravel the bandages on Rainbow Dash's wings to watch as her wings furled out, unbroken and showing no sign of ever being damaged. Rainbow Dash's mouth curled into a huge grin.
"They…they feel awesome!" she beamed with a grin before looking at Twilight and Ran, "They're better! All right! Thanks Everypony!"
They all smiled back at her and nodded, even though Ryan was now nervous about her safety. Rainbow Dash lifted herself off of the ground and began to fly in little circles in the air, making sure her wings were completely functional.
"Wow Rainbow Dash, I never would have guessed your wings were ever broken." Pinkie Pie said excitedly. "They look great!"
"Yeah sugarcube, ya look mighty strong." Applejack said with a chuckle. "Just like they were before breakin'."
Rainbow Dash flapped in place and grinned. "This is so awesome! I'm back!"
"So Rainbow Dash can you get the attention of those pegasi?" Twilight asked as she motioned her head in the direction of Wilmont City Hall.
"Pfft," Rainbow Dash scoffed, "No problem. It'll be a piece of cake."
Ryan sighed and turned to Rainbow Dash with a very serious expression on his face, "Dashie, listen to me. Once you take care of most of the pegasi, I want you to meet me on the fourth floor of the building. See the giant "W" in "Wilmont City Hall"?"
She flew over to the corner and peeked around it to get a good view of what Ryan was talking about. On the front of the building was "Wilmont City Hall" in white block letters. It was in the small space of the building that was just above the third floor and just below the fourth.
Rainbow Dash nodded, "Yeah."
"Meet me at the window right above it in about ten minutes. Got it?" Ryan asked and Rainbow Dash nodded.
"Got it."
"What do the rest of us do once Rainbow Dash distracts those pegasi?" Rarity asked, taking a step forward.
"We sneak in. If Rainbow Dash doesn't distract them like the pegasi, we can freeze the anarchists."
They all agreed with this and decided to set their plan into motion, starting with Rainbow Dash, who was taking deep breaths, preparing herself to fly away as quickly as possible.
"Ready Rainbow Dash?" Carl asked.
Rainbow Dash cracked her neck and other joints to loosen her body up, "Born."
Carl turned to the others, "Everybody and everypony else ready?"
After receiving a unanimous nod, he turned back to Rainbow Dash, "You're up Rainbow Dash."
"Awesome." Rainbow Dash said with a grin before she pushed herself into the air and zoomed off towards the building where the pegasi were still circling, looking for any sign of intruders or threats that could come either by land or by air.
They didn't really have look too long, however, because suddenly a cyan and rainbow streak zoomed towards them.
"Halt!" shouted one of the pegasi, making Rainbow Dash "screech" to a halt in mid-air, making a sound similar to a car that suddenly stops after going too fast. She looked up at the pegasus that had called her and waved happily at him, as if she were on a routine flight in Equestria rather than flying a decoy route in a war-torn city so her friends could go stop the God of chaos.
"Oh, hey there. What's up?" Rainbow Dash asked nonchalantly.
A few more pegasi surrounded the one pegasus that had called out to her before he spoke up again to the rainbow-maned mare.
The one pegasus stared at Rainbow Dash with a suspicious glare, "You're a long way from home little mare."
"You don't say." Rainbow Dash said with pure sarcasm and a cocky smile still on her face, ready for the challenge she knew was coming.
"We could escort you back to Equestria if you'd like." The pegasus said as he gestured to the others who were floating next to him. They all shot threatening looks at Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash put her hoof to her chin as if she were thinking before she shook her head, "Nah, I think I'll just do some laps around this building here." She pointed to City Hall with her hooves. "I hope you guys don't mind."
"I don't think so." Said the one pegasus as he whistled. Suddenly, all of the other pegasi converged on Rainbow Dash, surrounding her as she kept floating in place. She did not take her eyes off of the one, main pegasus that was in front of her and she had been talking to. Instead, she just kept smiling in a way that made her look unfazed by the sudden appearance of so many pegasi.
"You're going to have to come with us."
"Nah, I don't feel like it."
"You don't seem afraid." Growled the pegasus with a small bit of surprise as well as anger towards Rainbow Dash's unfazed attitude. "Do you think you pose a threat to us? You think you can get away from us?"
"I've outflown everypony I've met before, you shouldn't be any different."
"Even when there are no many of us, and only one of you?" the pegasus mocked as he took a small flap closer to Rainbow Dash, who was unfazed by this threatening behavior. "I'd reconsider my confidence if I were you."
"Meh, the number shouldn't be a problem. Especially when each one of you has the intelligence of a rock." Rainbow Dash scoffed with a mocking grin. "I'm not even an egghead, but I'm sky-smart, which is more than I can say for you."
"How are you so sure you can out-fly us?"
Rainbow Dash laughed, "Because I'm Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier in all of Equestria! You're gonna need a lot more than twenty or so pegasi to catch me!"
With that, Rainbow Dash stuck her tongue out at the pegasi and zoomed away from the City Hall.
"After her!" shouted the main pegasus that, up to this point, had done all of the talking while the others simply surrounded Rainbow Dash and gave her intimidating looks. On command, all twenty pegasi sped off after Rainbow Dash while she weaved in and out of buildings. She looked behind her to see the pegasi were right on her tail. Her competitive ego began to grow. Even though this was a serious situation, and these pegasi most likely wanted to hurt her badly, or worse, Rainbow Dash was excited. Any challenge that she had confidence in herself to perform gave her a huge ego boost, and this was no different. So as she saw the approaching pegasi, she grinned even more.
"All right, let the game begin." She sneered to herself before she turned her attention back to the air ahead of her and continued to fly deeper into the city as the entire group of pegasi followed her.
Meanwhile, Carl, Louis, James, Ryan, Alex and Pete had managed to freeze the anarchists that were outside of the building so that they could walk by. Once they got past them them, Carl turned to the group of kids and smiled, "Hang on guts, let me try something."
He turned and closed his eyes. His purple aura began to overtake the other auras that the five boys had surrounded the anarchists with. This was followed by a sudden "pop" and bright violet flash before all of the anarchists that had been frozen in place disappeared.
Everyone just stared wide-eyed at the sight. Twilight, however, was smirking, impressed by Carl's magic ability.
"Holy shit dude did you just teleport them?" Louis asked in shock and Carl nodded.
"Wait, I thought you needed to know where you were teleporting something to if you wanted to do it." James asked.
Carl raised his aura-covered hand up to the air and smiled. "Not exactly."
He then did just what he had with the police truck. There was a purple pop before all of the anarchists fell from the sky, screaming, before they all hit the ground with a "thud". They were all quiet.
"Oh my, will they be okay?" Fluttershy asked.
"I don't know, and frankly I've stopped caring about these fucking losers." Carl answered bitterly before he pointed to the anarchists, "and I think it's time we steal from these bastards. Let's see how they like to be robbed of everything they hold dear."
With that, Carl and the others walked over to the limp bodies of the anarchists to rob them of their guns.
After all, it was always good to have some means of protection, even with magic.
Skies Above Wilmont
Rainbow Dash was trying her best to lose the pegasi in the maze of buildings that was downtown Wilmont. She looked behind her to see three pegasi gaining on her.
"Uh-oh, better take this up a notch. Let see how high you bozos can go up." She thought to herself before she propelled upwards to a higher altitude, hoping that the pegasi following her wouldn't be used to it. You see; it takes a lot more wing strength to keep flapping vertically when compared to horizontally. Pegasi often would get tired at a quicker rate when flying up in a vertical path than they would by simply going the normal, horizontal path. This is something Rainbow Dash was great at because she had to do it so often in order to perform her sonic rainboom.
She looked down to see that some of the pegasi had to stop following because they were too tired to keep up with her. But about ten pegasi were still on her tail. She then stopped going up and took a horizontal path. It was only a few seconds before one of the pegasi swiped at her tail. She looked back with a scowl and stopped flying so that the pegasus that was right behind her slammed into her.
She grabbed him around the torso and began to make a rapid descent towards the ground. The wind rushed by them as they plummeted, both struggling for control over the other. They somersaulted as they went down, going through the clouds as the buildings below came into view.
Eventually, Rainbow Dash managed to kick the pegasi off of her just as one of the other pegasi that had become too tired to keep flying vertically, was making his way towards them at a horizontal path. The two pegasi collided and proceeded to fall to the ground, spiraling out of control. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and smiled at her work before she saw the other pegasi closing in on her. Her eyes went wide as the mass of black ponies flew towards her.
"Dang this is gonna take a while." She thought before she flew off again, the perusing pegasi not far behind.
Wilmont City Hall
The eleven elements had made their way into the building after they took care of the anarchists outside, but not before snatching up some of their weapons. In the group, only Ryan, Alex and Louis had ever fired a gun before, so after a quick, one minute-long "how to use" discussion on shotguns and magnums, as those were the only weapons that they picked up off of the anarchists, they made their way into the building, each with a gun of their own, but Ryan, Louis and Alex had the most.
They didn't realize that Discord had an elaborate plan all set up.
The inside of the building was almost completely dark, save for a few lights; it appeared that the power was out. Some of the orange light from fires outside crept into the building to give it some added light, but it was a truly eerie place, especially given the circumstances for why the group of kids and ponies were there.
Almost as soon as they walked into the building, the group saw three police officers standing in front of them. When they saw the group, the three officers began preparing their magic when Carl, Pete and Twilight knock them back with their own. Once they were on the ground, the group continued walking.
"Where do ya reckon Discord's at?" Applejack asked.
"I'm not sure." Twilight muttered before looking up at the ceiling, "But if I were to guess, I'd say somewhere up there. Higher up in the building."
Suddenly, a demonic laugh echoed throughout the building, making everyone and everypony in the group look around frantically for the source. The laugh bounced around them, seeming to deflect off of the walls infinitely; surrounding the nervous group.
"Who's there?" Louis shouted angrily, making his hand light up in white aura.
"Just getting ready for my little game." Said the familiar, flamboyant, cocky voice that made the girls shudder as memories from their last encounter with the God of chaos resurfaced in their minds. The image of Discord distorting their minds and personalities, turning them into the opposites of who they were made each girl wince in fright.
"Is that Discord?" Carl asked.
"Eeyup." Applejack said.
"Discord." Rarity cut him off. "Where are you?"
"Oh Rarity, I'm just getting ready to have a little fun with you all. It may have been the other half of my spirit that messed with you in the maze, but that doesn't mean I don't want to share in the fun."
"That doesn't sound good." Fluttershy whimpered.
"Depends who you are Fluttershy," Discord said with a chuckle, "for me, it's fantastic. For you…"
Suddenly, there were three distinct "popping" noises in the room, followed by an ear-piercing scream from Rarity.
"Ah! That jerk has done it again!" she bellowed in rage.
"Rarity what…" Louis began only to see Rarity was scowling. She pointed her hoof to her forehead to indicate what had caused her to freak out. Louis' jaw dropped when he saw that her horn was missing.
"Oh shit, not this." Alex muttered in fear as he realized that Discord had just done what he did in the show. No "special" abilities were allowed apparently, because Fluttershy's wings were gone and both Twilight and Rarity horns were missing.
"Discord you bastard!" shouted James in anger before building up his magic, "Give the girls their wings and horns back!"
"Oh yeah? And what's a punk like you going to do about it?" Discord asked. "A little punk who can't even fight his drunk stepfather to defend himself and his mother."
Alex seemed somewhat taken aback by that statement, only to have Applejack turn to him, "Don't let Discord get to ya Alex, that's what he wants."
Alex managed to shake loose the uneasiness that he felt from what Discord told him before he turned his attention back to figuring out where the Draconeqqus was.
"I'll blast a hole in your head with my magic." James hissed as he held his hand up, showing the yellow aura.
"Ah yes, the "underappreciated" James. Tell me, how does it feel knowing that no one on this Earth give you credit for anything? How does it feel to be criticized about your beautiful eulogy? How can you be nice with such a life?" Discord said with a laugh, but it didn't seem to stir James at all, whose hand was still glowing. Just then, however, Discord continued to talk. "Oh I almost forgot, for this game I'm going to have to require NO magic from ANYBODY."
James suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. He grunted in agony and collapsed to the ground, his aura gone and his hands over his heart, where the pain was coming from.
"James!" Carl shouted, as he was about to go to his friend when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest as fell and fell to his knees. Soon, the other four guys were on their knees, clutching their chests in agony before the pain disappeared. They all suddenly felt as though nothing had been wrong. Like the pain in their chest was just imaginary.
Twilight ran over to Carl with a worried look. "Carl; are you okay?"
"I…I think so." Carl spat out.
All around, the girls went to their partners to make sure they were okay. As they recovered, Carl looked down at his hand and concentrated on Twilight to bring out his magic aura like he always had, only to realize that nothing formed. Now matter how hard he tried, he couldn't create an aura.
"Carl, what's wrong?" Twilight asked
"I…I can't bring out my magic." Carl whispered. He kept trying, but it was no use.
"Hey what gives!" shouted Louis, "why won't my magic work?"
Discord's laugh was heard once again, echoing throughout the dark building. "Like I said, NO magic. Human or pony, everyone must be on a level playing field. Well, except for me and my men." Discord laughed a little bit as he admitted his own cheating, not caring what anyone or anypony thought, "Now, like I was saying, we are going to play a little game that I think you'll enjoy...or at least I will."
"What, you mean find you and defeat you without magic?" Carl said with a shrug, "fine, we've got our elements. We can still beat you without it."
"Well, there is one more component to this challenge that I have yet to unveil."
Before Carl could question the God of chaos, there was a sudden ripping sound in front of them. Suddenly, in the middle of the hall where the group was standing, there was a large dimensional tear that appeared to lead to an office area. Of course, since none of the boys had ever been in City Hall before, they had no idea where it could be.
Before anything could be done to stop it, all five girls were lifted in the air by a magic force, screaming as they were brought into the office area before being dropped onto the floor on the other side of the tear in reality.
"Twilight!" Carl shouted before he lunged at the dimensional rift, only to see it close up, leaving no trace of it ever being there. Carl fell facedown onto the floor before he looked up to see that the rift was no where to be seen.
Carl sat up with his mouth agape, as did the other boys. They didn't expect something like that to happen in their wildest dreams. Carl looked to his left, then to his right, then behind him, then in front, and his fears were confirmed.
The rift had unquestionably closed. They were now separated from the girls, who were the only ones with experience in defeating Discord.
Discord's laugh rang out again.
"What did you do to them!" Carl hissed as he stood back up.
"Oh they're fine. I've just re-located them to another part of the building. All you have to do is find them. It shouldn't be too hard, after all they can only be on one of six floors."
Alex looked up and pointed to the ceiling, as if he were addressing Discord face-to-face. "Discord you bastard if you lay one claw on AJ's mane I'll…"
"Like I said you're little mare-friends are fine. I promise you that," he said before laughing some more, "but I cannot speak for my men. So now your challenge is this. You must get to me without magic, and you must find the girls. If I'm correct, you need ALL TWELVE elements to defeat me."
All of the boys now looked pissed off, angry at being separated from the girls as part of a sick game, which shouldn't be surprising as Discord was behind it.
"Oh and Ryan?" Discord said, drawing the shorter teens attention, "Rainbow Dash will keep her wings until she enters this building. So her little flight will go unhindered unless she decides to take a detour through here. But once she enters, she will be a wingless pegasus."
Ryan was seething. His eyes were wide open and he was breathing heavily, as well as rapidly. His face was red and his body was shaking.
"Good luck gentlemen. HAHAHAHA!"
Just like that, Discord was gone, and the six boys were alone. They had no magic, they didn't have the girls, and they were supposed to look for them while fighting off magic-wielding unicorns using…no magic. To make matters worse, Discord and his men would have their magic to fight against them. It wasn't fair, but since when did fairness matter to the God of chaos?
"Great. Just peachy. Now what do we do?" Pete asked sadly as Carl turned to the others with a very serious expression on his face.
"What do you think, we get the girls."
"And how do you propose we do that?" Louis asked with a tone that reflected his frustration, "we have no magic!"
"That's true, but we do have Earth's replacement for magic." He then took out one of the shotguns that they had snagged off of the unconscious anarchists and pumped it, "We have guns."
"Um..." Alex held his hand up, "…we already got a lesson today from one of Discord's men. It's unwise to bring a gun to a magic fight."
"Not if we catch them off-guard." Carl said, "their magic will only deflect bullets if they see them coming, and they mentally prepare to deflect it. If we shoot them when they aren't suspecting it, we can take them out just as easily as we could humans."
"But not all of us know how to fire a gun." Pete said, "just because we got a brief discussion on it from Louis, Alex, and Ryan doesn't make it any easier for us."
"That's why Louis and Alex here will have most of the ammo and the rest of us will only have one gun." Carl looked at Louis and Alex, "You two will lead us and protect us. You're good shots right?"
Both boys shrugged and gave a "so-so" movement with their hands before Carl nodded, "That's good enough."
"Wait! I can fire a gun, what should I do?" Ryan asked.
Carl then walked over to Ryan and placed the shut-gun he had been holding into his chest.
Ryan grabbed it "Ryan, you have to go get Rainbow Dash alone. If we go as a group, they'll be drawn to us and you won't make it to her. She doesn't know what she's in for and you need to meet her upstairs like you promised. You need to protect her."
Carl backed off of his friend, leaving him with the gun in his hands. Ryan looked down at the weapon and up at the others before he nodded to Carl. He quickly began to reload his weapon while Carl grabbed the guns that were on the three unconscious officers. He tossed one to James, one to Pete, and kept the last one for himself.
He then walked back over to Ryan and put his hand onto his shoulder as Ryan pumped the shot-gun, ready to use it.
"Ryan, go on and get Rainbow Dash. We'll catch up with you later."
Ryan nodded and looked at everyone else, "Are you sure you guys don't need me?"
They shook their heads as Alex raised his hand, "I've fired guns before Ryan, I can take care of the group."
"So have I." Louis said.
"And the rest of us will manage with the guns we have...hopefully." James muttered with a chuckle as he held up the magnum he had from earlier.
Ryan nodded and looked down at his gun before slowly backing away. "I'll see you guys up top."
Ryan turned to run off when James called him.
"Ryan!"
Ryan stopped and turned to James, to see him with a very serious expression, "Do it for her and your parents. Don't hold back your anger anymore; unleash it on them."
Ryan looked at James with a small, sad nod before he sprinted off to the staircase, and just like that Ryan was off to the fourth floor to get to Rainbow Dash, leaving the other five to find their partners.
Carl turned to the others and nodded, "Let's go save the girls."
With those words, Louis and Alex went to the front of the group, Alex with a shotgun, Louis with two magnums, and the others with one magnum each. Alex and Louis began to lead them off to find the others. As they started to walk away, Pete pulled his gun out.
Still in stride, he looked down at the magnum he had in his hands, not used to the cold feeling of one in his own possession. He took a deep breath and followed the others as they went up another staircase.
Yeah I couldn't resist having a gunfight in this story at some point. Plus, I felt it would be a good contrast of how Equestria deals with problems versus how Earth does.
I also hope my grammar and writing is getting better. As I said, I've looked back at earlier chapters and noticed that there was quite a lot of choppiness and mistakes in my writing. Hopefully it hasn't been too distracting for you.
Thank you for the views and reviews, and please let me know what you think.
And, as always…
Go Giants! Go Rainbow Dash!