Oh yeah, I'm still alive.
Chapter 28: Spare me
So here we were. About to save the princess and rid the land of evil, all we had to do was overcome whatever challenge lay behind this door. The pony at the head of the pack, Twilight Sparkle, was being as cautious as possible. We still had the element of surprise, though it wasn't exactly easy to sneak through a huge, creaky double door made of old wood. Her horn was glowing, preparing a spell for whatever laid behind the door. I noticed the mysterious green glow coming from the room had disappeared. Twilight slowly pushed her head between the parted doors and glanced inside, she then quickly retracted with a gasp.
"What, what is it?!" Pinkie Pie asked loudly, I shot her a look.
"T-th-there's nothing there!" She said, a look of horror and confusion on her face.
"What? What do you mean there's nothing there? There has to be something there!" I said as loud as Pinkie. "We just climbed our way up a castle infested with zombie-like ponies and there's nothing there!?" I barged through the door in anger, the sound echoed through the dark, empty room. "What the- how? Where are those two guard ponies we just followed here?" The room had literally nothing in it, no furniture, no decorations, nothing. The walls were bare stone and there was a large, stain-glass window on the other side which the moon's glow shone through, managing to find a way through the pink clouds.
"What about that green glow we saw?" Rainbow asked, flying around the huge, vacant room.
"A teleportation spell!" Twilight shouted in realisation.
"Curse our awful luck, we just didn't make it in time." Rarity added in.
"…No…" Twilight said slowly. "Not bad luck… They knew we were coming!" As if on queue, a thunder of hooves could be heard approaching the room, climbing the spiral staircase, getting closer to the door.
"Oh no…" My stomach dropped, we were screwed.
"Oh, looks like game over, hah!" The god pony laughed in my head. All the ponies and Spike gathered over to the other side of the room. Everyone but Fluttershy stood in a fighting stance, even Spike got his little green flame ready. I stayed in the middle of the room, frozen by fear again, it seemed to happen quite often.
"Little guy, quick get over here!" One of the ponies yelled, I couldn't tell who. I kept my vision fixed onto the door. The hoof steps were getting louder and louder, the enemy was closer and closer, and I couldn't do anything to prevent it.
It all seemed to happen in slow motion.
The old wooden doors burst open, ripping them off their hinges and sending them flying to the other side of the room, just over my head. Twilight and Rarity caught a door each with their telekinesis spells. A torrent of green eyed citizens flooded into the room and charged for the ponies. Twilight launched the door she had caught back at the mindless slaves. It sailed close to my head and bowled over a large number of them. Pinkie Pie had somehow pulled a cannon out of nowhere and was firing party supplies at some of the advancing dead-minded minions. Some of them got tangled up in the strings of helium balloons, causing them to float up to the ceiling. Others were wrapped up in colourful wrapping paper, causing them to fall over into a heap of tape and colours. Everything was followed by a stream of happy confetti. Rainbow Dash did something amazing too, at first I thought she was abandoning us when she flew out of the window. However, she returned in merely seconds with a black cloud. She squeezed it through the window and positioned it above the fighting ponies below. She hovered by the side of the cloud opposite to the direction of the enslaved ponies and threw a flurry of punches and kicks into it. Each hit sent out a bolt of lightning, most of them hit a pony and fried it, rendering them unconscious. While I watched this amazing show, a pony seized the opportunity to grab me with my guard down. He galloped at me and I turned just in time to see him jump into the air, pouncing me. I braced myself for the impact, shutting my eyes and cowering behind my hooves. But instead of the pain of a stallion landing on me, I head an almighty smack. I opened my eyes and took my hoof of my face. A purple bubble had enveloped me and the pony about to land on me had smacked his face against it, he was out cold. I looked around and saw Twilight smiling comfortingly at me. The bubble lifted me up and brought me over to her. I snapped out of my trance and gave a sigh of relief. The bubble landed behind Twilight and disappeared. I thanked her without words, I just returned her smile. Fluttershy was also hiding here, I thought the most I could do to help out was to calm her down. She gasped or squealed every time a loud noise sounded and she stayed hiding behind her pink mane. I didn't say anything, I just put a hoof around her back and smiled at her in the same way Twilight smiled at me. She looked at me silently for a few seconds, and then returned the smile.
Back on the battlefield, Spike was riding on Applejack's back. Applejack was carrying a lasso in her mouth while Spike was blasting weak, green fireballs and all the ponies they ran past. This got their attention and they gave chase. Once they had rounded up about ten of them Applejack ran around in large circles, packing the group of pursuers together. While they were confused she launched the lasso around them and pulled it tight, tying them all together, they couldn't move at all.
But they just kept coming and coming.
Twilight was visibly tired, her posture slouched and her spells were being less and less effective. Rainbow Dash was flying no where near as fast as she normally did and Applejack looked as if she couldn't buck a single apple tree. Spike was wheezing out nothing more than a green spark and Pinkie's cannon was firing nothing but useless confetti. Me, Rarity and Fluttershy were hidden behind the protective barrier of these ponies. They were desperately trying to fight off the never-ending onslaught of mindless zombie ponies but they couldn't do anything to stop them.
"Well, I guess this is it…" I said aloud. "Stop fighting guys, there's nothing more anyone can do!" I shouted. Twilight looked at me with her fighting face still on, it then slumped into a look of exhaustion and defeat. The others soon followed and the enemies approached us. Unicorns had their horns glowing with green auras and pegasi had their wings flared. The earth ponies were ready to charge.
But just as all hope was lost, A voice from the other side of the room, in the opening where the doors used to be, commanded them to stop. They obeyed the command instantly, and I knew who it was… Discord.
"Discord!" Twilight shouted, regaining some energy. She charged up a spell and launched some kind of beam at him. Discord held up a hand and the beam turned to the same green colour as the eyes of the mind-controlled ponies. It split into seven different arcs, striking Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Spike and finally; Twilight Sparkle. They all slumped onto the floor, at first I thought they were dead, but I noticed them breathing.
"Hah! My chaotic powers are returning," He celebrated, then he started walking towards where we all lay.
"Wh-what d-do you want with me?" I whimpered. The hypnotized ponies parted like the red sea and Discord-in-my-body approached. "I-I don't understand, why not just kill us now? Why leave me awake?"
"I want you to watch…" He knelt down to an asleep Fluttershy.
"Don't touch her!" I yelled, blindly charging him. A large, muscular unicorn stallion blocked my path and held me still with a spell.
"Awwww… you were so close too." The god pony patronised me in my head.
"Hey Fluttershy, wakey wakey!" Discord said softly to the sleeping Pegasus.
"Leave her alone!" I shouted, struggling to try and escape the grip of the spell.
"Wh- what happened?" Fluttershy said sleepily. "Little guy, is that you?"
"Yes Fluttershy, it's me, your friend," he put on an evil smile and brought his hand to the pink mane of the Pegasus. "It's alright, Fluttershy," he said, and he started petting her softly. "Just relax…" So Fluttershy shut her eyes, enjoying the moment. Suddenly, her eyes shot open, the white, black and cyan being replaced by a glowing green.
"Y-you, th-that's how… did y-you- n-no… NO!" I shouted, struggling harder.
"Oh yes, that. This is what a human's hands can do to ponies."
"A-are you going to b-brainwash m-me?" I shuddered at the thought.
"Of course not, you're just a kid! Plus, I need someone to spread my message of evil!" He laughed, patting me on my back.
"What?!" I shouted, the spell holding me in place was released so I moved away from him, looking at him in shock.
"Oh yes, I'm giving the villagers of Ponyville a chance to evacuate while I figure out what to do with this city. You're going to tell them to clear out. If not, There's always room for more in my big happy family." He stood up laughing, my own body looming over me. "Now get out of here, before I change my mind!" His tone changed seriously. I started walking towards the door slowly, keeping my eyes fixated on Discord. "Hurry up, kid," He said, getting agitated. I sped up until I was fully galloping, I turned my attention to the doorway and ran out to the top of the stairs. Just as I approached them another brainwashed stallion ran up them and grabbed me. He was a Pegasus wearing blue flight suit.
"But you said I could go!" I shouted, struggling in the grip of the Pegasus.
"Of course you can go, Soarin here is just showing you out." Discord called, petting the mane of Rainbow Dash. The Pegasus named Soarin dragged me over to the window at the top of the stairs, the one that I couldn't open to let Rainbow Dash through.
"Whoa, WHOA, WAIT!" I squealed, struggling desperately.
"The deal is, you can warn the ponies of Ponyville… if you survive the way there." Discord said sinisterly, the last thing I saw was the glowing green eyes of Rainbow Dash before I was thrown out of the window.
I hit the side of the steep mountain and started tumbling. "Why doesn't this hurt very much!?" I screamed as I uncontrollably flipped and rolled. Oh right, cartoon, I thought. I eventually tumbled past the sea of clouds which Canterlot was just above and saw that I was heading directly for Ponyville, I couldn't believe my luck.
I hit the grass and dirt of the field at the bottom of the mountain with a hard smack. I landed right next to a small river, it was the same river that flowed around the outskirts of Ponyville. I rose weakly to my hooves and checked for damage, thankfully nothing but bruises.
"I'm gonna save you guys… somehow." I said aloud, staring back up at the sheet of clouds above. With that, I started following the river. "I'm not going home until I do."
Okay, I lost track of how long it has been since the last chapter, but look, this fic isn't dead… not yet. There are plenty of other good HiE fics to keep you occupied though, most of which are probably better (and updated more frequently) than this one. Might I recommend a popular HiE fic by author Grevin Hades called "Inner Chaos."
I have also rewritten chapter 3 of this fic and will soon rewrite chapter 4.
I also realised that I've nearly finished this fic. I wonder how long it will be until chapter 29. :P
