A New Lord of Chaos

“Welcome to the game. Your first objective is to make it to the location of the second round. The time limit is three hours. Begin.” The card flashed and fell back on the table.

They all crowded around the table to see what had happened to the card. The symbol had changed. Now the center was larger with barely legible text in the center reading 300 Mi. The one arrow was still pointing in that same direction.

“It seems our opponent wishes for us to hunt him.” The lunar princess quipped.

Twilight looked up from the card. “I don’t recognize the unit abbreviation; does anypony else know it?”

All of the girls shook their heads and Luna just frowned.

Applejack was the first to speak after that little disappointment. “Doesn’t matter if we know it or not. We just have to get there.”

“You are correct, we must depart at once. Follow me to the chariot pool.” With that Luna moved to the door and exited the room.
The girls all shared a quick look and trotted out of the room to catch up with Luna. The pace she set had the five of them nearly sprinting before they caught up to her near the barracks.

“Guards, I need transportation for six including myself. We have a lead on the location of Celestia. Furthermore, the party responsible is claiming to have also abducted the element of Loyalty Ms. Rainbow Dash. I want us on the way as soon as possible. Am I clear?”
“Yes, Princess.” Every guard in earshot saluted and ran off to prepare. Save one guard how approached Luna.

“Your majesty. With all due respect why the rush?”

“Captain, we received a message from the abductor. He more or less revealed his location, but gave us a time limit to get there. Without the rush we would arrive too late to be of any assistance to my sister or Rainbow Dash.”

“Very well, I don’t like the rush but I understand the urgency. It will be as you wish.” He saluted and walked away.

The girls could only watch in amazement as a dozen chariots were brought out and attached to teams of Pegasus guards. Less than ten minutes later, they were ready to go.

“Ponies, load up.” The captain barked before turning to Luna. “What is our heading princess?”

Checking the card Luna told the captain of her guard. “South east, head towards Ponyville. Once there we will readjust our heading.”

“Very well.” Turning to address his troops a mix of day and night. “You heard the princess let’s go ponies.”

“Fluttershy please ride with me, I would like to ask you about this being you encountered.”

“Um whatever you need, ah princess.” Fluttershy walked over and joined Luna in her personal chariot.

They all loaded up into the chariots only one was empty. Not counting the six of them, they were bringing twenty-four armed and armored pegasi, with thirteen unicorns and earth ponies.

As they flew, Luna asked simple questions of Fluttershy. To whom had he spoken? When did he introduce himself? What actions had he taken?

She answered the princess to the best of her abilities. Luna was most intrigued about his use of magic.

“So he possesses enough magic to force a musical compulsion on the group of musicians we had hired to perform. Yet you say he did not appear to be drained at all from the effort?”

“That’s right as soon as he saw that the effects were in place he pulled me onto the dance floor. The song lasted all most ten minutes and he had us moving the whole time. Granted afterwards he got us a seat but I feel he was letting me rest.”

“This is not good. Only a small number of entities have ever expressed that level of power so casually. Five of them you know personally Discord, and the four of us princesses. Either this being is something so ancient that we have forgotten that it had ever existed or we are dealing with a new foe.”

“Really there are beings other than Discord who could challenge you or Celestia?”

“Three that I can remember. The mother of all dragons Diabhal but she spends most of her time asleep the past two eons or so. The last male Ursa Major Bjorn but he has not left the frozen wastes sense the three tribes left. Finally Chrysalis queen of the changelings.” Luna was surprised that any of the element bearers had forgotten Chrysalis considering the wedding fiasco.

“I thought she had died after she was expelled by the shield.” Fluttershy remarked in a quite sad and apologetic voice. “I mean no pony spoke of her after. Umm sorry.”

“Fair enough point. She has not left the badlands to our knowledge.”

After this, the conversation between the two of them ended.

As they landed in Ponyville in front of the library, Luna addressed the troops. “Take a moment and rest we are going to confirm our heading then we will move out. No more than ten minutes.”

They all saluted and several pulled out water or fruit after she left. She motioned for Twilight and the others to enter the library.
“Miss Sparkle would you be so kind as to get us a map or atlas?”

“Right away.” She ran off into the stacks only to come back less than a minute later with four maps and an atlas. “Here is everything I could find right away.”

Luna pulled out the card. Setting it on the table, they all gathered in to get a look. They had spent roughly forty minutes to get to Ponyville and the card now read 210 Mi. Now the card was now bearing east, by southeast.

Pulling out the atlas Twilight began flipping through the pages trying to find a map of Equestria to the right scale. Showing Canterlot and Ponyville she began measuring.

“Eh Twilight, what are yah doing?” Applejack asked.

Pulling out an abacus, she began working out some equation. “I’m trying to figure out the scale converting whatever system of measurement he’s using into wheels.”

“Cleaver that will give us a better idea of where he could be hiding.” Luna said with a smile starting to grow on her face.

“Got it 800:1. Each 800 wheels to each Mi.” Pulling out a larger scale map. Twilight looked it over before saying. “If my math is right. We are heading to the far end of the Everfree Forest near Dodge Junction.”

Luna nodded then looked at a clock. “Very good, we have five more minutes before we get back on the chariots. Everypony get a drink or a snack we will not be stopping again before we reach our destination.”

The all shared a nod and went of briefly to do what they needed to do.