A Journey Across

Book 1 - A Journey Across

Chapter 7 - Betrayal of the Old

When the group walked back from the sugarcube corner, some of them still had a visible shock on their faces. Jeb was the only one who seemed untouched. Applejack and Rainbow Dash tried to keep it low, but there was something in their eyes, crying out the horror. Even Pinkie looked sad, her mane deflated and face fixed towards the ground. Following a little behind where Rarity, Rose and Fluttershy, all of them short of breaking down or passing out. The only ones who had grim faces where Twilight and the doctor. But the face of the timelord was far deeper than Twilights. He had seen such horrors before, but he knew that this was no coincidence.

Twilight was the first to speak again, "We need to get Celestia on this. I don't know a single pony, entity or being that could or would do such thing." She stumbled over a rock and for a second the facade crumbled and she sobbed.

The Doctor walked a bit faster to keep up with her, "I can assure you, that I will try everything I can to find the murderer. Even if this Chrysalis was evil, noone deserves this."

"But what about my ship?", asked Jeb, setting a new record on inappropriate behaviour and in the same second killing thousands of readers with this emotional hiccup.

The gears, turning in Twilight Sparkles head for a while now, made a grinding noise and she whirled around to the astronaut, "YOUR SHIP IS AT THE VERY BOTTOM OF MY PRIORITIES!" She took a few steps towards him. He did not even blink, even if that would be possible for him, nor retreat. Twilight cooled down and resumed walking back to her castle.

"Any volunteers to bring the message to Celestia?", asked Twilight.

"I would go, if ya want," responded Applejack as she looked up, "Rainbow Dash could come with me."

When she was mentioned, the rainbow colored pegasus stared at Applejack but then she sighed and aggreed to come with her.

The group parted ways with Applejack and Rainbow Dash running towards the train station to catch the next train to canterlot and the rest trotting back to Twilight's castle.

Jeb had learned his lesson and the party remained silent the whole way. The ponies of ponyville, that watched them, had the feeling this was like a funeral service for Chrysalis and even with the memory of her trying to steal all love in Equestria, they almost wanted to join up.

2 hours later

The group had gathered in the throne room of Twilight's castle. In the last two hours they had been arguing. Noone knew what to do, this was the first murder by psychopath in the last 1000 years, and there were no punishments for murder. Equestria had been a peaceful place.

"Nobody has any idea where the person is that did this. We can't just run off and hope to find him," reminded the Doctor everyone, "and we have to get the victim a proper funeral." He had sat down on Rainbow Dash's throne, while Rose used Applejack's.

"I have an idea." - Twilight jumped up from her throne - "We need to get Discord on this. If it uses magic he will be able to detect it. He did it before, with Tirek... Anypony against that?" She looked around waiting for a response.

"Who is Discord?", asked the Doctor, "And what could he do we could not?"

Twilight sighed, as she remembered that her guests didn't know anything about the history or rules in Equestria, and told them, "Discord is a god of chaos. He tried to convert our world into a domain of chaos twice and is now one of the good ponies. He has great magical abilities."

"Aha," said the Doctor as if he had been told the worst joke ever, "and where is he now?"

"I don't know, I'll just call him here. It worked before." answered Twilight.

She started casting the spell. For some reason it took her almost a minute before the message was sent and she almost fainted from the exertion. When the glimming around her horn dimmed, Discord appeared.

He gave Twilight a furious glance, "If you want to know Twilight, I was already on the case. You really didn't need to call me," Discord was not in the mood for any jokes, "Chrysalis has sent me a distress message."

Twilight had the feeling her face had been stuck puzzled the whole day, "What do you mean?"

Discord stepped forward in the middle of the room, "I know that the being that killed Chrysalis. And I suggest you keep away. This 'thing' is more powerful than Celestia, me and the Elements of Harmony together. The best way to deal with it would be to stay low and hope he doesn't get you. I wish you all luck. Bye!" He attempted to disappear but halfway through it stopped and reversed. In shock Discord whirled around to the closed door, his look more worried than ever, "It is here."

"Weird, I don't remember closing it," mumbled Twilight.

The door was knocked six times. A few seconds noone moved. Before anyone could do something the door burst open and revealed Entropy. Blood was still dripping from his mouth, this time it was not changeling blood. Twilight looked at it for about half a minute, before she noticed. Almost at the same time as all the other ponies in the room she yelled out, "No!"

The God of Evil, standing in the doorframe, wore a very familiar hat. He stepped in the room and spoke, his voice having no recognizable pitch, "Hello, my 'friiiends'. I think we haven't been introduced yet." - A horrible smile grew on his face - "I am Entropy. The murderer of Chrysalis, queeeen of the changelings, and your beloved friend Applejack, Element of Hooonesty. I assure you, I had a good lot of fun with your little friiiieeend."