Slices of My Life

“I must admit…” my interrogator looked me over with his own set of blades and various instruments. “My techniques probably won’t be quite as drastic as what you’d accomplished, simply because I don’t know what half of what you did was. That doesn’t necessarily mean that i’ll go easy on you, rest assured.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. I’d be disappointed if you did.” I smirked, refusing to even fight against my chain bindings. I’d been collared, manacled and left to hang from the ceiling with various chains protruding from my neck, wrists, back and feet. Fortunately the Griffon captors hadn’t given much effort into removing my gauntlet or the stone before resolving to eventually cut my hand off altogether and extract the hand from the device that way.

“Is that your way of telling me you won’t be giving me any advanced technology know-how just yet?” the griffon grinned at me as he spun the tip of a large knife against his claw. The griffon himself had the looks of quite a few years of battle experience, what with the scars and damaged left eye that stared into me.

“You seem to know me better than I thought.” I glared at the griffon with a deadpan expression, completely ignoring everything in the room but him. “Do your worst.”

“As you wish, your asshole-ness.” the griffon smirked and approached me. Pressing the tip to my skin, I smirked as my scales held off the blade, even as he began to try and work it around. “What… What’s going on? What’re you doing?”

“Nothing. Were you ever in Griffonstone before it was destroyed?” I inquired smugly.

“What difference does it make?” The griffon tossed aside his knife before getting in up close to me. His breath smelled like fish…

“Did you know that they were keeping the Dragon Queen Schatten under the city? Turns out if you rescue a Dragon Queen, she’ll return the favour with a gift. In my case, the gift of Royal Dragon Armour.” I grinned as the eyes before me narrowed. “That’s right, so good luck actually putting the knife to me.”

“Mmm, there’s more than one way to skin a fish…” The bird thing replied, stepping away to pack up his tools.

“Huh, human culture has a similar saying. Coincidence?”

“I think not.” the creature glared dully at me, unintentionally completing another well known idiom.

“So is that it? You’re just going to give up already? Aww, i’m insulted feather-brain!” I called after the put off griffon as he walked out with tools under his wing in a huff.

“So now what? Just going to claw your way out of these chains, wreck up the place before returning home to Sunset Shimmer?”

“Probably, yeah.” I mumbled to myself, actually addressing the eerie voice in my head for once.

“Well, wouldn’t that be something spectacular? What are you waiting for? Activate that Dragon Claw stone and show me what you’ve got!”

With a shake of the head I set about to trying to activate the device on my hand, but after nothing happened, I could feel the voice in my head grinning like an idiot with a secret.

“What’s the matter? Can’t get it up? Got some kind of arcanile dysfunction?”

“What are you talking about?” I demanded of no one in particular.

“Remember how you can say your own name here in Griffonia, but as soon as you cross the border into Equestria; you can’t?”

“Is there a point to all this rambling?”

“Oh, poor Soren. Doesn’t even understand that Griffonia has no latent magical energies in the air to draw from!”

Shit.

“Now he’s got it! Vana, show our contestant what he’s won!Well Tom, we’ve got a lovely package of ABC gum, Already Been Chewed!”

“Okay smart-ass, then what do you suggest? I’ve got no magic to draw off of and the Gauntlet can’t store magic in of itself. What about my augments? Obviously my scale armour is still around but what about the Dragon Eye?”

“I suppose we’ll just have to sit and find out, won’t we? Until then, you wanna play a game? It’s called, guess who Sunset Shimmer is banging right now!”

“Hilarious.” I grumbled, incapable of shutting up the voice. This was going to be a long night…

“There’s that Flash Sentry kid, That white hulking behemoth with the red eyes, he’d probably tear dear Sunny in half. Those two military guys from that bar that one time... Oh, oh oh oh! What if she didn’t even stick to just other guys? That opens up a whole other list! There’s Rainbow Dash; I'm sure she could invent some new tricks to put on Sunset. There’s Rarity, you gotta admit that’d be something amazing to watch… Pinkie....”

Tried as I might, I couldn’t help but at least try and tone out the incessant babbling of the voice by shutting my eyes and concentrating on working an escape plan.

If I couldn’t cut my way out, I'd have to hope that Gilda may find a way to get free and come and get me. Or hope that the minuscule amount of training that I'd already provided Dash and the other soldiers would be enough to mount a rescue mission.

“Fluttershy I think would try to do as much kinky stuff as she could in order to write it all down for that nasty little habit of hers…”

“Are you still there?” I demanded, pausing the voice’s train of thought.

“Well duh! I’m having a wonderful time right now, in case you were unaware.” an entirely new voice echoed from the shadows, male and aged enough that the owner had been around for quite some time.

“Wait, what? What happened to you being in my head?” I asked as I tried to find the source of the voice.

“You’re head? Dear boy,” A set of red and yellow eyes opened from the darkness ahead of me, a Cheshire grin forming beneath with a single snaggletooth hanging from it’s upper lip. “I don’t know what you’re hearing in that simple mind of yours, but I assure you it isn’t me.”

Thinking about it a second, I suppose this ghostly face was right. He didn’t have the same… tone about him.

What creature in Equestria looks like that?

“You know, a thought just occurred to me…” I sighed in resignation to my fate. “I’m currently held captive right? The enemy are trying to extract information from me and they can’t do it through physical means of torture. The next logical step…”

“What? You think I'm some kind of hallucination?” the face grinned again, looking at me in depravity. “While I appreciate the grim look on your situation and my arrival, no. I am not a hallucination.” The grin began to flesh itself out into a full grey furry dragon face with a single deer antler next to some kind of... stalagmite?

The rest of his body faded into view, the grey neck attached to a serpentine brown body with mismatched forelegs; a lion paw on one hand and a griffon claw on the other. Plastered to his sides were two little wings, one leathery and the other feathery.

Continuing down his tail turned into a scarlet colour of scales with similar spines though his lower legs were of a deer hoof and a bright green dragon leg.

“What are you supposed to be? You’re body makes as much sense as…” I looked him over appraisingly. I wasn’t impressed with my mind’s inability to focus enough to even give me a proper creature to talk to.

“Cotton candy storm clouds that rains chocolate milk?” The creature smirked as he began to step around me, evaluating my condition.

“Oddly specific, but sure. Still, what are you supposed to be? You’re as though my mind couldn’t decide what form to give you in my drugged state… You make no sense.” I demanded as my head slowly turned to follow the unorganized creature.

“My dear boy? What fun is there in making sense? Tell me, you’ve been living with the Princesses for a couple months now right?” I nodded to his/my question. “How have you never heard of me before?”

“Can’t introduce a fictional character of a drug induced state of mind, can you?” I shrugged back, my chains rattling with the motion.

“Ugh, still with the idea that you're crazy. Well, if that’s how you want to look at your situation and my arrival… that’s fine I suppose. We’re all crazy to some degree.”

“I suppose we are.” I muttered back as the sound of voices coming down the dungeon hall alerted both hallucination and myself to someone’s arrival.

“Whoops, that’s my cue to exit stage right!” The creature announced before sliding vertically left into oblivion. Or the back of my subconscious again.

“So,” The Griffon’s stepped up to my cell and dragged a metal bucket across the bars. “We know that you have the Dragon Armour, which means you’re impervious to small blades as well as intense heat.”

“What, running out of ideas now?” I grinned back, staring at my captors.

“Not at all. Because they’re so resistant to heat, it leaves them severely vulnerable to the cold.” The griffon replied with an equal grin as he pulled open my cell and stepped in with the metal bucket filled with… Ice water.

“Ah, can I get a drink of that before you douse me in it or whatever? I’m parched.” I requested bemusedly.

“Oh, of course.” The griffon lifted the bucket to my lips and I had just a second to open my mouth before the entire ice bucket was dumped over my face, really waking me up in the process. Sucking down the ice water was as refreshing as getting the ice bath before the bucket was pulled away and replaced with a full one.

“Mm, thanks for that. So you wanna know how the small firearms work? Let’s see, they work by...” I trailed off suddenly, teasing the griffons. “Damn, I just had it. I suppose that ice must’ve frozen a few important brain cells. Sorry guys, I just had it on the tip of my tongue.”

“Not to worry, we’ll loosen that tongue of yours for you soon enough.” the griffon replied as he stuck two buckets of ice water under my feet. “Lower him.”

“Oh, clever. Stick my feet into ice water so that they get frostbite. The electric pain I'd feel could certainly act as a persuasive method more making me talk in order to get some warmth.” I noted as my feet were dropped into the ice. “Ohh, chilly!” I grinned.

“Yeah, we’ll see how long that grin of yours lasts with your feet in perpetually cold water.” the griffon sneered before turning to a younger looking bird. “Make sure there is always ice in that bucket.”

“Yes sir!” the guard saluted and stuck around as the remainder of his group turned tail and walked off.

~~~

Four weeks later.

“So, Captain. What’s on today’s menu?” I smirked from my hanging position. So far I’d been frozen, beat, cut once larger knives were used, fingernails removed from my free hand and most horrifically of all, forced to feast on the flesh of another living creature! I had them cook the meat to a medium rare, throw some pepper on it, all in the presumption that this would burn my stomach from the inside out.

“Today, you get your first taste at freedom.” The griffon replied, shocking me with this announcement.

“What?” I asked for clarification. “I’m sorry, I don’t think i heard you right. Did you say you were letting me go?”

“You didn’t hear me right. I said we’re letting you taste freedom, not actually let you go.” The griffon Guard Captain replied with his usual smirk. “Get him down but keep him chained!” he ordered.

I was soon dropped to the ground rather suddenly and collapsed. Over the course of these last few weeks, I'm fairly certain my muscles had begun to atrophy and was now quite certain of it.

“Walk!” The guard ordered of me, pulling on one of my many chains to lift me up and get me moving.

“You know, -from one Captain to another- if you wanted to go on a date with me, all you had to do was ask. I’d still have turned you down since I'm not interested in cross-species relationships, but I’d have appreciated the sentiment.” I announced, making a number of the guards snicker before the Captain shot them a death glare to shut up.

“You talk too much, even when there’s no one with you.” The Captain replied as a large metal bulkhead door was opened and I was washed in the surprisingly warm light of the sun. I was pushed in and unchained, save for my hands which were now bound together, and left alone in the sunlight as soon as the great metal door was shut and the sound of metal scraping against metal indicated a locked door. But I didn’t care, this sunlight was glorious!

“It seems we’ve been allowed for some freedom.” The mismatched creature announced as he stepping in from one of the solid walls.

“Nah, I know this trick as well. I’ll be left in here where there’s no cover from the elements for months on end, food occasionally being dropped in from above and left to hope for water coming in from rain.” I mumbled as I let myself fall backwards into the dirt, the sun washing over my face. “My beard will grow as fast as the plants in here with me.” I added as I stroked said beard. It was coming in quite nicely, save for one small spot at the sides of my chin that remained bare of silver hairs.

“And how is this supposed to be torturous?” The creature asked as he lounged back in the leaf of a rather large plant.

“It’s psychological in nature. I’m forced to keep myself alive in ever changing, ever worsening conditions while thinking about how none of my friends are ever coming to get me…” I explained, though my tone of voice got lower and more sombre towards the end when I began considering how long it has already taken for me to be rescued. "The Griffons are expecting to leave me in here for a couple years..."

“I bet Sunset Shimmer has already moved on from you. Not like you could ever really please her sexually anyways. A girl has needs you know?”

“Oh, psh. Please, I’m sure our friends are mobilizing a task force to come get us as we speak.” The Dragon-thing replied supportively. “Now then, since you’re finally capable of moving your hands independently, let’s get you out of those bindings shall we?”

“You know you could have just started with this when you first showed up?” I smirked as I watched the creature get down close to my hands to look at the chains that bind me.

“Maybe, but then your fall wouldn’t have been quite so entertaining.” the creature smiled and rubbed his hands together. “Abracadabra!” he chanted and waved his fingers at the chains. Which remained.

“Very funny, now let’s get a move on.” I rolled my eyes disinterestedly at his antics.

“That’s strange, why didn’t that work?” the creature mumbled, rubbing his chin apprehensively.

“What, you mean to tell me you were serious with all that hand waving?” I asked, slightly annoyed but slightly concerned at the same time.

“Indeed I was. It felt like the magic was just… Sucked up through a straw.” The creature looked up at me with an iced tea in his hand for a moment before it almost seemed to atomize and dissolve. “Well now…”

“What?” We both looked at his now empty claw curiously. “What does that mean?”

“It means that in this country of no magic, there seems to be a vacuum within a vacuum here. All the magic I try to use is being… scrubbed away.” The creature explained, opening and closing his hand to try and summon something new but it just instantly dissolved like the object before it.

“Like a black hole in space?” I asked, looking up from the hand to the face for confirmation. “I… think I might know what’s doing this.”

“Oh? Do you now?” the creature stepped back from me to see if there was a range thing. Turns out, there was. “Oh, ohh…” he caught on, looking at me. “Well that’s very interesting. It seems you and I have been made natural enemies, Soren Mercer.”

“In what way? I still don’t even know your name.” I replied, sitting up to rest. That sun was still great on the bare skin/scales.

“Oh, of course! How rude of me!” The creature slapped his forehead with his paw. “My name, is Discord. The spirit of chaos and disharmony, at your service!” he bowed low and properly with his introduction.

“Discord huh? That explains your appearance now… So Discord, why are we natural enemies?” I requested, watching as the creature of Chaos began to spool up some kind of crazy looking magic in his hands. If I had to describe it as a colour, I'd say plaid.

“Well, I am a creature of Chaos. I like to play pranks on unsuspecting creatures, flood entire acres of land to turn it into a skating rink, turn roads into soap…” Discord replied, as though he were a child in school asked to list some of his favourite activities. He was even rocking back and forth on his backside with his knees pulled up to his body. “But all that is done through my Chaos magic. It has the nature of being extremely difficult to get rid of if you’re not me.”

“Where do I come in?” I asked, scooting back to sit against the wall in the sunlight. I wondered if there was still the chance for me to get a tan with scales on.

“Well, you seem to have the incredible ability of having anti-magic. I believe you and Princess Twilight had already discussed this before your capture, yes? You are the only creature capable of cleansing any and all forms of magic, mine included, but at the drawback of being incapable of casting magic yourself.” Discord explained as he summoned up another glass of Iced Tea and drank down the glass.

“Which is why you can’t use magic around me? Which is why you can’t get me out of these chains?”

“And why I seem unable to transport myself any longer. I seem to have been feeding you my magic in that cell all these weeks and now I’m unable to teleport.” Discord glared at me this time as the colour in his eyes seemed to slowly drain out of him, leaving them dull and almost grey.

“What if you were to stay on that side and try to restore your magic?” I suggested, earning a “No duh” face from Discord.

“Well, given that it seems to be our only course of action, I would ask that you remain on this side of the line.” Discord announced, drawing a line in the dirt with his claw before returning to a seated position opposite of me. “This is going to be a long day.”

~*~*~

“Princess Luna! Princess Celestia!” A yellow pegasus mare with long pink hair burst into the castle throne room, interrupting what looked to be some kind of important meeting of Military officials. “Something is wrong with Discord!”

“Let me handle this, sister.” Luna requested, looking at her older, armoured sister through an eye that had been once repaired from battle, though the scar running down her face remained; a reminder of her first failure to rescue her human best friend.

Celestia nodded and Luna winged it over the large table to land next to Fluttershy and place a wing over her body comfortingly.

“Tell me what’s wrong, my friend. What has happened to Discord?” Luna requested cordially, walking Fluttershy out of the meeting room.

“I- I don’t know! He’s missed two of our regularly scheduled weekly tea meetings and nopony else I've spoken to has seen him! It’s like he’s just disappeared off the face of the planet!” Fluttershy squeaked, afraid for her friend’s safety. “What if the Griffons got to him, too!”

“I highly doubt that is the case, Fluttershy. Discord would be able to simply teleport himself away, wouldn’t he? I’m sure he’ll turn up sooner than later.” Luna replied, having stopped her walking due to the simple fact that her armour was beginning to chafe.

“Then what about the human? Why haven’t we managed to rescue him? He must be so afraid right now, thinking we’re never going to save him! Why can’t he have broken himself out if he’s as powerful a you claim he is?” Fluttershy demanded through slowly forming tears. The young mare never got to even meet this human, but her desire to care for all creatures, big and small, hostile or otherwise overrode that fact.

“I think it’s because Captain doesn’t have any magic of his own. He is only capable of purifying existing magic in the air and directing it a specific way. If he’s truly in Griffonia where there is no magic…” Luna replied forlorn.

“Then he really is trapped until we can find him and save him ourselves!” Fluttershy concluded. Then an idea struck her. “What if Discord went to save Captain but became trapped because his own magic was being purified?”

“That…” Luna trailed off, considering this idea. “Is actually the best idea we’ve heard yet!” she turned and galloped back towards the throne room, leaving Fluttershy confused yet hopeful.

“Sister!” Luna burst into the room, wings flared and a grin on her face.

“Luna? What’s the matter? Why are you smiling like that?” Celestia asked as she scratched at her golden coloured armour with a wing. Neither princess really liked wearing their formal armour unless it was absolutely necessary.

“Fluttershy just gave me an idea! Discord is missing and it’s possible that he may have gone to rescue Captain. However, because Captain is a magic sponge as Twilight explained, Discord would have been drained of his magic and unable to use the purified energy, right? What if he’s still being drained, right now and that magic was being released into the air? Couldn’t we trace that sudden appearance of magic?” Luna suggested eagerly as she rejoined her sister.

“But looking for a purified magical source would be like finding a needle in a needlestack!” a Royal Guard Lieutenant scoffed, however a purple hoof was raised in objection, a smile on the owner's face.

“Not if they’re in a country of no magic! Then it’d be like finding a castle on the side of a mountain!” Twilight exclaimed eagerly. “I’ll get to work building a device that can trace magical sources!” she hopped down from her seat and began to make off, however Celestia held her short.

“There will be no need for that, Twilight. My sister and I will be enough to track the magic ourselves. We are attuned to pure magical energy so it should be no problem.” Celestia grinned.

“But your highnesses! We cannot simply allow the figureheads of the government and militaries to go in looking for the human alone! If you get taken down then who’d be left to rule Equestria?” a NLAF soldier demanded, wearing the new dark blue and silver uniform.

“Who said we were going alone?” Luna smirked and addressed her stand-in Army Captain. “Organize the entire Armed Forces. Have the Air Force follow my sister and I while the ground forces follow in from below. Make sure everypony is armed with enough Magic charge packs that they don’t run the risk of drying up in Griffonia. We’re not going to have unlimited magical supply over there and the Griffons are expecting that.”

“Yes Ma’am!” The Captain saluted before exiting his chair to follow through.

“Twilight,” Celestia turned to the Princess in question. “Please remain here in Canterlot Castle as our temporary stand-in while we’re gone. Also have medical ready to receive potential wounded.”

“Of course, Princess.” Twilight nodded and left to do her own thing.

“Captain,” Celestia turned to the Royal Guard Captain-on-duty. “Please notify Princess Weiss Schatten of this development and let her mother know as well.”

“Right away!” The Captain replied before delegating his duties to his underlings.

“Is there any indication that Captain may have given them some form of advanced technology that we should be aware of?” Luna demanded of the rest of the gathering.

“No Princess. We believe that Captain has remained silent about his advanced intelligence, otherwise offensive measures on the side of the Griffons would have already escalated.” An intelligence officer replied, flipping papers with his magic.

“Good. Someone tell Sunset Shimmer what we’re doing and that we’ll need her help to drive the Truck. I want our best turret gunner in that thing following directly underneath me at all times!” Luna demanded before taking off for preparations.

“Dismissed!” Celestia announced as she joined her sister to get properly equipped in their actual field armour.

~~~

“You what?” Sunset demanded in joyful shock. “You think you have a way to track Captain down and retrieve him?”

“That is what the Princesses believe, yes.” The anonymous guard replied, standing at attention next to Sunset’s desk in the Dungeons she had taken temporary residence in. Spring break had already come and gone in her world, as had her exams, so she felt absolutely no regret in staying in Equestria longer than expected.

Sunset alone was also responsible for fitting her boyfriend's new truck with a proper turret once the Luggage rack had been removed, courtesy of the two military guys back on her side that Captain had met seemingly so long ago.

When she had gotten back over to Equestria intending for a surprise visit ahead of time and found out from Weiss that Captain had been taken captive, she’d set out herself to go and retrieve him. She’d almost have done it too, if it weren’t for Celestia who removed the fire ruby from the combustion chamber of the truck and prevented the bike from turning over in order to convince her to let them handle the rescue efforts. Now, after four long weeks of sitting on her ass helping Princess Twilight modify and perfect the new magic weapons, she had her chance to save the one man who truly loved her.

“Obviously you’re telling me all this because Luna needs me to drive the truck, right?” Sunset leapt up from Captain’s stool and began to change into her own NLAF battle armour, designed from what she believed to be Captain Soren’s old world schematics; if the Sergeant was reliable enough.

“Yes ma’am. She says she’ll be heading out with Princess Celestia as soon as the entirety of the NLAF is organized and assembled.” the guard replied, shielding his eyes to give the woman privacy.

“Perfect. Then I’d best get her warmed up.” Sunset grinned as she shouldered the SCAR-H and exited the bedroom, aimed for the stairs up and out.

“Ma’am, if I may speak freely?” the guard requested, keeping pace behind her.

“Depends on what you want to say.” Sunset replied, pushing the door open with her shoulder as she fished for the keys to the VelociRaptor.

“Ma’am, I believe it would best best if… If you were to remain out of combat. You are too invested into this operation, not to mention what would happen to Captain or the NLAF if you were to be taken out or taken captive as well.” the guard replied as Sunset whirled around at him, fury on her face.

“I am not staying in the truck during this! I have put in too much time and effort trying to find my boyfriend to sit on the sidelines while everypony else is risking their lives for him!” Sunset exclaimed as she hauled herself up and into the driver's seat to start the vehicle warming. It was still winter; though according to the Pegasi, Winter Wrap-up was due to come in the next few days.

“I understand that, ma’am.” The soldier pulled himself up into the vehicle with a bit of difficulty to get himself set up in the turret. “But what if you were removed from the operation by enemy forces while the rest of us rescued the Captain? Who’d be the one to tell him that his marefriend died trying to save him? What would he do?”

“I like to imagine that he’d go on a rage induced rampage with his existing augments and mercilessly slaughter my killers.” Sunset replied grimly, staring out the front window as the remaining soldiers in her squad slowly made their way to the truck and got themselves prepared, politely ignoring the conversation going on around them.

“What if… What if he’s been psychologically tortured and was lead to believe that you’re already dead or that you’d left him behind?”

“I’m fairly certain that if that ever happened, we would have already found and rescued him after said rampage.” Sunset turned in her seat to address her gunner. The gunner remained in silence but raised his hoof to his head in salute as Luna glided down to stand next to the truck and address Sunset in her battle armour.

“Sunset Shimmer. I’ll assume you’ve been briefed already on what is going on?” Luna demanded, looking over the rest of the truck’s occupants.

“Yes, Princess. I’m to drive under you, keeping track of where you’re going to provide support for when you find Captain.” Sunset nodded, both hands on the wheel itching to get a move on.

“Good. The rest of the Army and Air Force are already prepared to go and are waiting for us. Let’s move out!” Luna shouted the last line, notifying everypony close enough to hear her order. Sunset grinned and rolled up the window before flinging snow behind her and took off out of the Castle, following Celestia and Luna’s movements.

Behind her galloped the rest of the Armed Forces, with the Air Force, comprised mostly of pegasi wearing the blue and silver of the NLAF, above her and behind the Princesses.

It was time to go rescue her boyfriend.