Scattered Harmony

It was early morning. The three men walked through the barren wastes, at least five hours from their destination. Doc Church and Marcus packed light, while Jonathan looked more or less like a tank, armed with a minigun and bearing full power armor, exluding the helmet.

"Wait a minute. You escaped Greenville?" Jonathan asked with a raised eyebrow.

"That's what I said."

"I never knew you used to be a slave, Doc." said Marcus.

"Why do you think I never told anyone what I did before coming to Megaton?"

"That makes sense." Marcus took a sip from his canteen. "But why would you need to hide that?"

"I was ashamed."

"Ashamed? I don't get it."

"Ashamed that I didn't escape sooner, and that I only brought myself." Church said in a flat tone, not hinting at any emotion.

"Oh. That's not really something to be ashamed of. By the way you talk about Greenville, you're lucky you got out at all." Jonathan said, remembering Church's hesitation to accept their plan of helping the other slaves escape.

"Maybe. It doesn't matter. Right now, we have to focus on getting Twilight out of Greenville."

Marcus and Jonathan nodded in agreement. A few minutes of silence passed before Jon spoke up again.

"So, Doc. If you didn't want people to know about you escaping Greenville, why tell us now?"

"There's a good chance that when we go into Greenville, we're not getting out. If that's the case, I thought I'd let you two be the first-- and last, to know."

"Well that's flattering and all," Marcus smirked. "but it's not necessary. We're gonna free those slaves, and we're gonna get outta there. Simple as that."

"He's right. In fact, when we get back to Megaton, drinks are on me."

Marcus stopped him. "Sounds good. Just not at Moriarty's."

"Fair enough." Jonathan shrugged. "Man, I can't wait to give those slavers hell."

"In six hours..." Church added.

"Yeah." Jonathan sighed, pressing some buttons on his pip boy. "I'll put on some music."

"Hey Twilight, wake up." a voice called out through her half-asleep brain.

"Spike, leave me alone." she mumbled, covering her face with a foreleg.

"Spike? No, my name is Martin, remember?"

"Martin... Martin?" Twilight shot up from her sleep. She rapidly looked around her, confirming her fears. "So it wasn't just a bad dream."

"Nope. Sorry. But if it helps, Doctor Mayfield worked wonders. You look a lot better than you did before."

She remembered her condition going into Mayfield's clinic, and how those human medicines fixed her up in only a few moments. She rubbed her eyes and waited for them to adjust to the sun.

"I overheard Stacy talk to a guard." Martin said, making Twilight slightly nervous. "She said a science lab in the Commonwealth is interested in buying you, my guess is for study."

"Is that bad?"

"Depends. Some might just wanna ask you questions. Others might wanna dissect you. Luck of the draw, but to be safe, we should get you out of here."

Twilight didn't like the sound of being dissected. "But how? And what about the others?"

Martin smiled, a smile somewhere between caring and mischievous.

"The other slaves in the compound, Twilight, they look up to you. You didn't give up your name, and that gave them hope, something you don't see a lot of around here."

Twilight didn't understand the importance of what she did. She hadn't realized how much of an impact she made. All she did was take a beating, not one of her most impressive feats, considering everything she did in Equestria.

Martin leaned in and talked quietly. "I talked to Mayfield when you fell asleep. He asked me to let you see him this morning. Twilight, he knows a way out. He knows how you can escape. How we can all escape."

She wasn't sure what to feel about that. Getting out of this place should make her excited, but she knew it couldn't be as easy as that.

"So Mayfield will give us a plan to get out?"

"He knows Greenville better than most of us, and we can trust him. I know it. You need to talk to him. He'll give you the plan, but you have to be the one to carry it out."

Twilight was confused. "But why me? I just got here."

"Because these guys will follow you." he motioned to the other cages with his hand. Twilight noticed almost every slave in the holding area was watching them talk.

"You can make them fight, Twilight. You can unchain them."

Twilight thought for a moment. She didn't know how she got it this situation, but she couldn't find it in herself to disappoint these people. She knew she had to help them find freedom. It was what Celestia would want her to do...

"So what do you say, Twilight Sparkle? Will you help them?"

"Give me some time to talk to Mayfield."

Martin smiled widely, as if he wasn't expecting to hear that answer. "Okay. I'll get you some time. Just lay on the ground again, and follow my lead."

Martin straightened up his face and walked to the locked cage door, giving Twilight a wink.

"Hey!" he yelled at a nearby guard. The guard narrowed his eyes and walked over.

"What do you want?"

"Twilight's looking bad again. I think she's sick."

"And?" the guard crossed his arms.

"She needs to see Mayfiled. For all we know, her disease could be fatal, or even contagious."

The guard shook his head. "I'm sure she'll be fine."

"She's a unicorn. It might be a virus we've never seen before. If that's right, we're not immune, and we could all catch it."

Twilight caught on to Martin's trick, and began moaning.

"See? If an entirely new virus is here, who knows how fast it could spread. It could kill us all in a matter of hours. She needs to see Mayfield."

The guard looked over at Twilight. She was smart, and used a spell to make water dribble out of her eyes. It was a simple spell she used in Equestria when she considered acting as a career. The spell would make fake-crying easier, and the spell was easy enough to use that her horn hardly glowed at all. Right now, she was combining the spell with another that changed the color of things. She was using it to turn the fake tears red.

"Holy shit, she's bleeding from her eyes!" Martin yelled. "C'mon, man. She's gotta see Mayfield!"

The guard stared wide-eyed at Twilight. "Okay, okay, I'll let her out. Jesus, that's gotta suck."

Twilight was surprised to hear any kind of sympathy from a slaver. The guard unlocked the door and threw Twilight over his shoulder, running her over to the clinic.

Another guard closed the cage door. Martin took a step back, admiring their quick thinking. He didn't know how Twilight did that bleeding eyes thing, but he assumed it had something to do with her being a magical unicorn. The guard never suspected a thing.

Martin laughed a little to himself. He hadn't known freedom for years, and to think he was so close...

Martin inhaled a long, deep breath, as if the smell of the air had gotten infinitely better now. "It's gonna be a good day."

The door shut when the guard left the clinic. He looked like he was going to be be sick. After he left, Mayfield raised an eyebrow at Twilight.

"Fake isn't it?"

"What, the blood?" Twilight smiled, using her magic to get rid of the liquid on her face. "Yep."

"Smart. What did you tell him?"

"Martin convinced him I was sick with a disease that humans aren't immune to."

Mayfield looked surprised. "And he fell for it? If anything, you getting sick would indicate a disease native to our world that you're not immune to. Although I can't say Delwind is the smartest man I've ever met."

"Delwind? That's the guard who brought me here?"

"Indeed. He's one of the nicer slavers, though that doesn't mean much, I suppose."

"It means something." Twilight responded. It was refreshing to see a slaver with some semblance of a conscious, other than Mayfield, of course.

"Yes. But I assume you're here for more than conversation." Mayfield leaned in, prompting Twilight to whisper.

"Martin told me you have a plan to free the slaves here."

"Is that so?" Mayfield sighed. "Only partially true. We can free one slave, Twilight. That one is you."

"But... Martin said you had a plan."

"I do. But I can't get more than a few people out of Greenville without alerting the guards. And once they're out, the slavers are going to expect I helped. They'll have an eye on me at all times."

"There has to be a way."

"I'm sorry, Twilight. But I can't get everyone out. You have to be the one to go."

"No. If I wanted to leave, I could have teleported out yesterday. I stayed because it wasn't right to leave them behind." Twilight stomped a hoof to the ground. "We have to help them."

"I'm sorry, but there's no way to sneak them out."

"Then let them fight."

"With what? They don't have any weapons. They can't possib--"

"We'll find a way to get them weapons. But we're not leaving them here." Twilight stared at him, not backing down.

"Okay, Twilight. I can't guarantee I'll be able to do anything, but let me think."

Doctor Mayfield sat back in his chair, and thought for a few minutes. Twilight sat patiently, never taking her gaze away from Mayfield.

"I know where they can get weapons." he said flatly. Twilight's face lit up.

"Really!?" she asked, giving a smile almost as big as the rest of her face. Mayfield looked surprised, and she quickly straightened herself. "I mean-- good. Where?"

"There's a building outside of the compound. Only myself and the other slavers know where it is. I'll take weapons from there and put them in another building, most likely the gas station. After I do that, I'll sneak into Stacy's room and steal her master key. Once, I do that, this plan has to go through all the way,or she'll figure us out. When I steal her key, I'll open the cages, and you'll grab the guns from the gas station. From there, I wish you luck. The slavers will be on you the entire time."

"I can use my magic to protect the other slaves."

"Good, you'll need it."

Twilight nodded her head, liking the plan. "So when are we doing this?"

"I'm not sure how much time we have. It'll have to be today."

"Today..." Twilight thought out loud. She was ready, but she thought she'd have more time to prepare.

"Yes. Now you should get back to your cage, tell the others."

"Will do."

"Good luck."

"Same to you." Twilight stood up and walked out of the clinic, escorted by the squeamish guard. He took her out of the main building, towards her cage, where the other slaves, including Martin, were waiting patiently for her return.

The guard locked her cage and walked away. Martin and another man, who was about a foot shorter than Martin, stepped up to her.

"Twilight, this is Adam. He's an ex-mercenary. He tells me he's a good shot, so he's gonna cover us when we free the rest."

Adam stuck out a hand, which Twilight shook with a smile. "You've come at a good time, Twilight. The slavers here have been thinned out ever since their scouting parties started getting attacked out in the wastes. The time for rising is now."

"Mayfield certainly thinks so. It's happening today."

"Today?" Martin said, eyes wide. "We'll barely have time to tell the other slaves about the plan."

"Well then, we'll tell as many as possible, and the others will have to improvise." Adam said, stretching an arm.

"I don't know when it's going to happen, but I know what to do when it does."

"That'll have to do." Martin sighed. "So what's the plan?"

Twilight looked around to make sure a guard wasn't listening. "Okay, first, Mayfield is gonna unlock our cage..."

"General Autumn, you wanted to see me?" Colonel Redding walked into an office room, closing the door behind him. The Enclave General sat at a large desk in the middle of the room, a large Old World American flag hanging on the wall behind him.

"Yes. I've already received your message. One of the specimens could be in the town of Megaton. You requested more troops to deal with it."

"Yes sir."

"And why is that? Because a bunch of locals are a force to be reckoned with, or are you afraid of something bigger?"

"Sir, Megaton is in the DC area, only a few miles from the Brotherhood of Steel's Citadel. If they get wind of our attack, they could send troops to stop us."

"Mmm, I see. I understand your unease, Redding, but have some faith. The Brotherhood of Steel is too busy expanding to worry about us. They still think we're dead. A small group will be sufficient to take out Megaton, so long as we have the element of surprise."

"Yes sir."

"Good. I'll give you three vertibirds and however many soldiers you need to accomplish your mission. You are dismissed."

"Wait. Sir, can I ask you something.?"

Autumn raised an eyebrow. "You can certainly ask. There's no guarantee that I'll answer."

"Yes sir. What's the status on the other specimens?"

Autumn smiled and leaned back in his chair. "We learned more from one of the specimens than I believed we ever could. We didn't even need to threaten it before it told us everything about the others."

"That's good news, sir."

"Indeed. What's strange is that it told us with a smile on its face. Not an arrogant smile, but it was almost like the specimen was having fun."

"That is strange, sir."

"Yes, but it doesn't matter. We now know what and where the other specimens are. There are six, all carrying a different 'element of harmony', as they call them. The specimen that gave us this information told us about the elements: objects wielding enough power to wipe out evil, and leave behind purity." Autumn turned towards the flag hanging on his wall.

"Think about it. Objects that put the Garden of Eden Creation Kits to shame. Objects that can take the chaos out of this land, and give the Enclave the place in this world it deserves. It gives a man pause."

Colonel Redding nodded. "Sir, do we know how to use the elements?"

"No, but the specimens do. They're the only ones that can use it, which means we have to retrieve them before they're killed."

"Yes sir. I'll bring back the specimen from Megaton safely." the Colonel saluted at attention.

"Good. And remember, we can't leave any evidence in Megaton that gives hint towards our goals. Burn down their buildings, and make sure nobody escapes."

"Yes sir."

"Oh, and as you might know, Jonathan Marks and his accomplice are residents of Megaton. Expect a fight from them."

"Jonathan Marks, sir?"

"The Lone Wanderer, as some people call him."

"Yes sir, I remember now."

"Then you know he and Marcus Freeman are to be shot on sight. Both are in the Brotherhood, and they have both committed atrocities against the Enclave."

"Yes sir, we'll make sure they pay."

"Excellent. You are dismissed, Colonel. Assemble your troops, and head out as soon as you are able."

"Yes sir."

Colonel Redding left the room, leaving General Autumn by himself. He sat at his desk and logged into the Enclave records using a terminal. He found the file labeled "places" and selected the town of Megaton. A small picture of the town sat under the coordinates and the word "inhabited".

Autumn scrolled down the screen and went into the "Status change" tab. He pressed another button, and the word above the picture changed suddenly from "inhabited" to "destroyed".

The General logged off, sat back in his chair, and smiled.

"Yes sir, we'll make sure they pay."

"Excellent. You are dismissed, Colonel. Assemble your troops, and head out as soon as you are able."

"Yes sir."

Discord tapped the mirror with a talon, making the image of the General fade away, leaving Discord's reflection staring back at him. The mirror was the only way he could see into the Human's world, and he wasn't pleased with what he saw.

"The Enclave. Of course the Enclave found them." Discord grunted to himself.

"Celestia is going to have my head for this, Pyro." Discord said to his pet phoenix, making his head float off his body. His head started floating around his body, and his body began flailing its arms, apparently searching for its head. The phoenix looked up at its master.

"I need to come up with a plan." A floating white glove materialized and began scratching his chin. The God of chaos wasn't much for plans. If he had the ability, he would make the Enclave soldiers' armor start dancing on its own, meaning the soldiers would be vulnerable. Unfortunately, he couldn't interfere with the human world from Equestria. Not any more than he already had by sending the elements there.

The elements got sent to where they needed to be, and with exception of the Enclave, everything was going smoothly. However, the Enclave would be a big obstacle. Discord hoped Marcus and Jonathan were as good at what they do as the voice in his head said they were.

Putting the elements and their bearers in the human world was easy enough, but directing them was out of his control. He needed someone or something to make sure the elements got to where they needed to go. He needed someone Celestia wouldn't miss.

A lightbulb materialized above his head and flashed on. Discord turned to face his pet phoenix. "Pyro. My dear, sweet Pyro. How would you like to travel between worlds and be the elements' noble guardian, killing any and all that stand in your way?"

The phoenix was confused, and shook his head. Discord knew it wouldn't be that easy.

"Fine, what do you want?"

The phoenix nudged Discord with a wing and winked.

"Let me guess, a female phoenix?"

Pyro cooed and ruffled his feathers.

"I suppose I can ask Celestia if she'll let Philomena stay here for the night. I'll sleep in another castle room."

Pyro looked satisfied, holding a wing in front of his face and smelling his breath. Discord snapped his talons and a mint appeared in front of Pyro, which the phoenix happily took.

"Now when I send you to the human world, your going to have to get used to things trying to kill you. I'll do some spells that will make you bigger, stronger, and more... firey. You'll have to keep at a distance until they need your help, and then make sure they get out with most of their limbs."

Discord massaged his forehead and sighed. "Since when did I start trying to save the elements of harmony?"

"Coo coo cooo."

"Yes, I know I'm trying to reform myself."

"Coo coo. Coo coo?"

"Of course there's a reason why I sent them there. If I wanted to take the throne for myself, I would have done it by now."

"Coo. Coo coo coo."

"I guess you're right." Discord grunted. "I hate when you're right."

"Coo."

Discord floated towards the door. "Okay. I'm gonna go have 'fun' with some guards. I'll get Philomena on the way. Be back in an hour."

Pyro watched his master float out of the door and close it behind him. A few seconds later, the phoenix heard his master yell from outside of the room. "Since when did I start using doors! Agh!"

Pyro rolled his eyes.