Parallel

Chapter 13: Party Foul

"Have you ever felt like you've done something that wasn't right?"

Doc's pen stopped moving, "That depends on what we're talking about William."

"I try not to... not to think about it too much, but when I close my eyes... it's always there."

"What is?"

"One of the hardest choices I've ever made. Live... or die."

Discord stopped as soon as he crossed the door and frowned at everyone in the room. "I'm sorry, am I interrupting something? I thought this party was open house."

"I reckon ya'll got the wrong place." Applejack... Alice stepped forward through the small gathering she had going in the corner.

There was dead silence for what seemed like an eternity, "The Element of Honesty, I would expect you to be blunt. Tell me, were you invited here by your friends? We can't have that. This place is too... orderly." He held up his hand and snapped his fingers.

Then the panic set in, all but a scant few started screaming and vacated the room as fast as possible. Discord didn't even flinch as those attending the party shoved past him like he wasn't even there anymore.

I didn't know whether or not what I was seeing was real.

Spiders covered the ceiling, snakes adorned the snack table, and I thought I heard a roar come from the bathroom.

To our credit, the seven of us kept our composure like professionals.

I had seen worse, the girls... it was like they already dealt with this problem.

And they had, simply in a different form.

However, another stayed behind that I didn't expect.

Deborah the mail lady. She moved forward with a purpose in every step, glaring daggers at Discord the entire way. With no hesitation she grabbed him by the collar and growled, "I don't know who you think you are, but my friends obviously don't like you."

Even though she still had a strong grip on his hoodie, he completely ignored her and turned to face Tammy, "Twilight," he said, his voice drawing out the name to make it sound more like an insult than any sort of acknowledgement, "So good to see you again. Did you enjoy your stay in the hospital?"

Tammy's eyes narrowed, her hands rested on the wheels of her chair, "The jello tasted like shit, but the nurse was nice. If you're not careful you'll be meeting her soon." Her grip on the wheels tightened, and with a hiss, all of what Discord had done vanished before our eyes.

Discord let out a low whistle, "You've grown more powerful, Celestia must be so proud of you."

A drawer in the kitchen flew open all on its own, and several knives engulfed in a purple light floated up from it, each one pointing to Discord. "Let him go," growled Tammy.

Deborah didn't hesitate, she stepped back...

And Discord didn't stop her.

"So," said Discord, laughing under his breath, "Here we are ladies... and gentleman, where do we go from here?"

Complete silence.

I saw Rachel fidgeting out of the corner of my eye.

'Please don't try anything stupid,' I thought.

"You leave us alone," said Tammy, "Or you get a knife through your skull."

Discord frowned, "Why so violent? Here, let's start over, my name is Discord."

"Discord, I recognize that name. Ms. Celestine told me about you. You hired that thug who ran me down. Even then you don't exactly look like the type of person I could trust... no offense."

Who was this Celestine? Princess Celestia? How did she know so much?

"Hahaha, none taken."

"PARTY FOUL!" Shouted Phoebe, "You didn't get an invitation Mister!"

Discord shook his head, "I'm not here for idle chatter. I'm here to make sure seven ponies keep their noses out of what I'm doing."

I laughed, "You haven't been very successful so far. What makes you think you'll do any better today?"

He grinned, "I didn't have much of a choice, what with all seven of you gathering in one place? I couldn't let that happen, much too risky, it would ruin my fun before I even got started."

My eyes narrowed, "You seem rather organized for someone who loves chaos so much."

"Oh William. William William William, whatever am I going to do with that attitude of yours? I am the EMBODIMENT of chaos, not just someone that loves it. I didn't plan on coming here, it was more a spur of the moment thing. Oh, and that thing back at the warehouse, with the gangs killing each other? Hehehehahahaha, delightful wouldn't you say?!"

"You're insane!" shouted Rachel, "Who the fuck are you?!"

"I believe I've already answered that question. I wonder Ms. Dash, would you abandon your friends again?"

"What the hell are you talking about? My name isn't..."

"Well you can't very well let a lady fall and not help her back up."

It happened before we even realized it.

Deborah vanished from the room, and I heard glass break.

When I turned around I saw a tuft of blonde hair disappear past the balcony, and then I heard Deb's scream.

Rachel made for the window and jumped off the balcony with no hesitation.

One of Tammy's knives lurched forward, and Discord, with a mad grin, caught it between two fingers.

Alice moved next, pulling a large knife from her belt that I hadn't even noticed she was carrying.

'Note to self: farm girls are dangerous.'

Phoebe stomped her foot, "Ergh! This sucks. Billy, bottom right drawer of the island!"

I moved to the island, where all the snacks had been ruined by the swarm of snakes from earlier. I threw open the bottom right drawer, "Why does she have an M9 pistol in her kitchen?"

I felt an arm wrap around my shoulders, "Self defense, DUH!"

Wait, how did she move that quick?

Phoebe's arm left my shoulders and I stood to see Alice giving Discord a run for his money, slahing at him so fast he could do nothing but dodge. I saw Robin in the back, looking like she was about to hyperventilate.

I saw Felicia looking over the ledge of the balcony, and it looked like she was crying.

I leveled the gun at Discord, and as soon as Alice saw it she backed off.

Discord grinned, throwing his hands up in the air.

I knew he was playing with us, he could have turned the gun into a whistle if he wanted to.

As he backed out of the door I realized his true purpose in coming to that party.

It was to send a message.

"I can kill any one of you at any time. Don't try to stop me."

How cliche'.

He wanted the heroes around to see the world fall, so they could see that they failed.

His confidence would be his downfall.

I set the gun on the island and made my way towards the balcony.

I wasn't expecting to see Rachel landing on the balcony, cradling a frightened Deborah in her arms.

Her wings, God knows how the hell she hid them, were wide, and cyan in color. For a moment she looked the part of an angel.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

It was over... for now.

"So!" shouted Phoebe, "Who wants Jager Bombs?!"

I raised my hand.

So did everyone else.

Rachel had walked Deb home after she calmed down, and no one brought up what happened again.

We all just hung out, trying to put the bad thoughts away and enjoy what little of the party remained.

Phoebe did her part, that woman could make the grouchiest man in the world smile, and we needed a lot of smiling and laughter after that.

I volunteered to push Tammy back to the hospital after that whole mess. It was only a few blocks away, and she kept grumbling that she was tired of the Taxi service not conforming to poor crippled people like her.

The elevator stopped on the lobby floor and I began our long journey. It was already dark out, and the night air would do us some good.

"Take your time," she said, tossing me a smile over her shoulder, "I could do with the company."

"Ha, you want a backrub too?"

"Depends on how good you are at giving them."

Her voice went a bit... sultry there.

The bellboy was kind enough to hold the door for us, and as I pushed her down the sidewalk things became distastefully quiet, even with the cars driving all over the place. "So what's your last name?" I asked as we reached the first intersection.

There was a moment of silence, and then... laughter.

She was giggling like a madwoman at me.

I was still sober enough to be embarrassed at this.

"You're REALLY bad at this flirting thing," she said with a grin, stifling another giggle.

"What?" I asked with a laugh, "I'm genuinely curious okay? Besides, we almost died back there, this isn't exactly the right time to flirt."

She rolled her eyes, "Please, we'll get it under control, I'll take you with me to see Ms. Celestine about it tomorrow. Nothing a good old fashioned researching binge won't fix."

"You still haven't answered my question."

"Why do you want to know so bad?"

"Names seem to be a running theme."

"Yeah I noticed that too. Tammy Sainte."

"Saint huh? My rough army physique must attract celibate women."

Another giggle, her laugh was nice, "It's just a name doofus. Besides, it has an E at the end."

"Ah, that cursed E, maybe you wouldn't be so corrupted if your name was REALLY Saint."

That one got her to turn as best she could and give me a light smack on my shoulder.

We reached the second intersection, crossing it when the walking light came on. I found myself dragging this out as long as I could, going at a snail's pace. She didn't seem to mind too much. Still smiling, she asked, "So you were in the army? How long?"

"Two years."

She nodded, "My brother was in the Marines. He got medically discharged."

"Wounded?"

"Yeah, not too bad though. There was an IED attack and the truck flipped on the side of the road. The CO was wounded, and my brother managed to get everyone to stop panicking... while his leg was broken. He got everyone out, and when he went into surgery he had some shrapnel in him, they had to remove one of his kidneys."

I let out a low whistle, "Your brother sounds like a great man."

"The best," she said, her smile widening even further. "BBBFF."

"Huh?"

"BBBFF, Big Brother Best Friend Forever."

I grinned, "That has got to be the cheesiest shit I've ever heard."

"Oh shut up! It's awesome and you know it."

Third intersection.

"We're almost there, any last words Ms. Sainte?"

"Give me a minute while I go through the checklist."

"Checklist?"

She had this deep look of concentration on her face. As we approached the hospital doors she nodded firmly. "You can let me go here." I obliged, and she wheeled around to face me, "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Well, we have to go see that Ms. Celestine, right?"

She rolled her eyes, "I know that, I mean what are you doing AFTER that?"

"Um... nothing. I usually don't do much on Sundays."

"Good, what say you take me out to dinner when we get done perusing through my library?"

"A date?"

She nodded firmly, "A date."

I shrugged, "What the hell. Why not?"

"Atta boy."

"Get back in the hospital before Nurse Hart has a panic attack."

She stuck her tongue out at me before wheeling around and through the automatic doors.