Friends in low Places

I ducked as the building across the street exploded and blew out all the windows in the bakery.  "Ditzy!"  I called and looked back in her direction.  She was sitting there still in her chair, shocked.  I ran over to her "Are you alright?!" She gave me a confused and terrified look,"What happened?"  "I don't know, but the building next to us exploded." she suddenly snapped back to earth, "What!?" There was suddenly another explosion from the other side of town. "Maybe it's time for us to leave" I said and ran towards the door.  Ditzy followed me and we ran into the street.  Ponies were running this way and that, it was mass panic and Ditzy and I were in the middle of it.  "Follow me!" I yelled over the shrieking ponies at Ditzy and ran into a back alley that was pretty hidden from sight.

Ditzy was only a few seconds behind me, and was running so fast she had to screech to a stop.  I opened my mouth to speak, but before I got a word out the bakery exploded as well.  Only this time it was different, the building gave off this huge sound.  Not bigger than an explosion, but still deafening.  Suddenly a million white bodies started piling out the windows and doors...chickens!  The building had exploded with chickens!  Suddenly there was deep, sinister laughter behind us.  I spun around to see the strangest animal I've ever seen.  He had body parts of several different types of animals, and one fang that looked dangerous.

"Who are you?!" I said, angry that he laughed at the town being blown u to bits.  "Why me?  The real question is who are you?  I've never seen you around Ponyville before."  Suddenly Ditzy yelled "Discord!" I immediately recognized the name from a history class I took when I was younger in Manehatten.  "You're the one who's been blowing the whole town up?!" I screamed, the panic out on the street was still quite loud.  "Naturally" he replied and floated in mid-air.  I took a step back, "But aren't you supposed to be better now?" I asked cautiously.  He laughed, "I was being reformed, and besides, that was just a bunch of crap, I never liked those ponies.  They turned me into stone for crying out loud!"  "So why stay friends with them?" I inquired.  "Pfft, like I'd tell you.  But that's not why I'm here, you two seem...different.  Much more entertaining  than these boring ponies who just scream and run in circles." he pointed to the street where chaos still had its grip on the citizens.

"So I've decided to make a game," suddenly Dinky appeared next to him, floating in midair. "Dinky!" yelled Ditzy. I turned to look at her and I saw a murder in her eyes.  "You don't...touch her" was all she could manage to get out. "Oh don't worry, I won't hurt her" a floating cage appeared around the foal and closed.  Discord locked it and blew on the the key, which fell like dust "...you'll just never see her again unless you manage to stop me" he said with an evil laugh.  "Now, nighty night" he said and snapped his fingers.  Everything went black and I lost control of my body.  I fell to the ground and was out cold.

When I woke up it was night again.  I stood up and looked around, I wasn't in the alley anymore.  There was nopony around, but then again I couldn't see very well, so I gave my eyes a second to adjust.  When they finally did, the sight I saw crushed me.  I was in Manehatten, and the city was in shambles.  It looked like a nuke went off in the city.  There was smoke hovering above the ground and there was a strange glow coming from the distance.  I looked around to get an idea where I was.  It took me a few minutes to realize where I was.  The building in front of me was the apartment of my friend Shadow Eclipse, my only friend who didn't abandon me.  He was a strange pony who never went outside his apartment.  He hadn't talked to me in a few weeks before I left town and I had assumed he had forgotten about me.

He always wore these strange clothes and had really strange sleep patterns.  I trotted inside and stood inside the lobby.  I stopped when I heard a sickening crunch beneath my hoof.  I looked down to see the skull of a unicorn which was now crushed.  I fell backwards and scrambled away.  I looked at it for a second, studying it, before I threw up.  "Such a shame, isn't it?  That's all that's left of poor Shadow.  Or what will be left if you don't make the right decision."  I was confused.  "what do you mean?" I asked "Simple," He said "You have to choose to stay in Ponyville and save that retard's foal, or save the only pony who hasn't given up on you yet."

"What do you mean!?" I snarled and jumped at him.  He floated out of the way with precision.  "There is a bomb in both cities, one will go off if the other is disarmed." a sinister grin formed on his face.  "However, to add more fun to this game, if you don't deactivate either of the bombs in two days..." he made an explosion sound with his mouth and a small mushroom cloud appeared over his head, like some sort of dark halo.  "Why are you killing people?" I asked angrily, "The answer is simple" he replied with that cocky tone in his voice, "It's because I can."  "And you couldn't before?" "No, I'm not from this dimension, so it takes an immense amount of power to affect what lives here.  Especially ponies.  But I was living for a year with the most magical beings in equestria, so magic isn't really a problem anymore.   All I had to do is absorb their powers little by little.  Wasn't that smart of me to do?  Pretend to be one of them but then stab them in the back."  He snickered then looked me in the eye again.

"Anyway, I'm getting lost in my evil schemes.  Whatever, you have to choose who to save.  A small town full of nice people, or a huge city filled with jerks.  Doesn't matter to me,  I'm bored and now I can kill." he took a deep breath of the musty air inside the building "And there is nothing like the smell of fear." another one of his crazed smiled crossed his face and he snapped his fingers and disappeared.  I was left in the building's lobby looking at the skeleton of my friend.  I sat down on the floor and looked at the crushed bones.  I was overcome with a powerful sadness,  I had left him because I hated everypony else, and when I felt bad I made up the excuse he had forgotten about me.

I felt I was a bigger monster than Discord.  I left a pony to a life of loneliness because I couldn't take the other people being mean.  How could I have been so selfish?  I should've stayed and been friends with him in his last days.  I remembered what Discord said.  I could save him!  I jumped up but then stopped.  If I saved him then I would be killing everypony in Ponyville, but if I save Ponyville, I would cause all this.  I walked outside to see the ruins of the city.  Buildings lay in their sides, most had collapsed, and there wasn't a single window pane still intact.  I looked harder and saw that there were skeletons littering the street, but it was night so I could hardly see them without squinting.  That was fine with me, I did not want to see them anyway.

Suddenly there was a hoof around my shoulder, I glanced back to see who it was.  Ditzy was standing there with the saddest expression on her face.  She looked me in the eye and I could see tears welling up.  She wispered the words "I'm so sorry", but the sounded so small in the face of all this destruction.  She gave me a long hug then said, "Thank you" and I realized that she was from this place too, she was from this alternate reality that would become real if I didn't stop it.  "Where's Dinky?"  I asked, scared suddenly.  Ditzy gave me a strange look "She's in Ponyville, safe", that relieved me greatly.  Now I knew if I stopped the bomb in Ponyville I would get Dinky safe...or at least I would definitely have a chance.  I knew what I had to do now.  "Discord!  You freak of nature, get out here!  I've...I've made up my mind."