False Euphoria

We had quite a ways to go if we wanted to reach the Canterlot Sculpture Garden. Especially if we wanted to avoid unnecessary conflicts. There was a lot going on in my mind. It seems that this new path I’ve taken in trusting Deadlock forced me to leave everypony else behind. But hopefully the damage can be fixed, or we can screw everything up beyond repair to such a drastic extent that it will somehow cause a reverse effect. Deadlock ended up being extremely friendly, I never even had trouble conversing with him. Which was good because, I knew we would have to be able to trust each other in this madness; especially since our lives were in constant peril. Well, at least mine. The undead ponies never talked, which made them kinda ominous. Though they never attacked without Deadlock’s command so they were fun to mess with.

We trekked for over a week, avoiding all forms of life, everything and everypony was technically a hostile. Deadlock only stopped to rest, which seemed odd for him being undead. But it appeared his magic doesn’t come in an infinite supply, and he uses that time to recharge. Anyway, I knew that we would have some opposition in freeing Discord, and I was prepared to play a new factor into this war. Discord would hopefully play as a distraction for the enemy at the very least. Hopefully Equestrians don’t focus on him, and vice versa. In order to control this, we need to fill him in on what is happening and point out how this new threat is worth his attention. Obviously, things will get worse before they get, well, less worse. I knew that this world wasn’t prepared for whatever is happening, so this was the only way to level the playing fields

Night was upon us when we closed near the garden; it was time to see what we had to deal with. Deadlock set up a perimeter with the undead in hidden locations surrounding the garden. There were two guards asleep near the statue, the princess probably wanted to avoid Discord being added to the fight.

“Ok, this will be a cinch.” Whispered Deadlock, cueing two undead ponies to quickly dispatch the guards. They started by waking up the guards, which appeared very frightened at seeing zombies approaching. But before they could do anything the undead’s heads burst from their shoulders and knocked out both guards.

“Wow.” I said, “Wake them up, then knock them back out.” I flew down towards the statue. Deadlock teleported by my side.  “It’s better than having to be quiet. Besides, we’re waking up Discord, things will be pretty noisy.” He said and paused staring at the tall, looming statue of the Draconequus. There was a silence between us, then I noticed Deadlock wasn’t doing anything.

"So… are you going to release him or what?” I asked, still staring at the statue.

“Umm, I don’t actually know how to do that.” He revealed, scratching his mane. There was another moment of silence this time, but a bit more awkward.

“What do you mean “You don’t know how”? This was your plan!” I yelled at him. “I can’t believe I wasted my time coming here. How do you expect us to proceed!?”

“Hey, I was only trying to help! He just needs a push. Let me try something.” Deadlock surrounded the statue in a golden aura. He seemed to concentrate as it began to shake. The statue began to rise a bit.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Be careful, man!” I said, watching the statue hover over it’s pedestal.

“Oh, snap.” mumbled Deadlock, he let go of the statue realizing that it was beginning to hover. Upon landing the statue tipped a bit in place. It fell off the pedestal onto the ground. Discord broke in half.

“OH FUCK.” We cried simultaneously.

“Put him back together!” I panicked.

“Shit! Shit! Uhh… Let me try umm... Dammit!” Deadlock began trying to piece the statue together but to no avail. In the distance we could hear thunderstorms starting.

“Is that the mist!? Oh sweet Celestia hurry up Deadlock!” I cried trotting in place as I watched the black mist form in the distance. Deadlock was freaking out as well, trying to force the pieces together, but it was futile. He ended up only breaking it further. We both simply began screaming and running in circles around the ruined statue as the mist fell over the garden. During the chaos the statue began to glow. We stopped and noticed bright cracks engulfing the statue’s remains. Suddenly they burst apart and revealed the God of Chaos. Well, half of him.

“Muhahaha! I’m free again! No I shall- Why am I cut in half?” Discord asked looking down at the strange pair of ponies before him. He took notice to the headless zombies, the knocked out guards, and the strange black mist that was progressing towards them. “Is this a bad time? I could come back later.” He asked sarcastically, as he reattached his body.

“No, no it’s fine.” I started, “Uhh, ok let me fill you in, Equestria is being wiped out by creatures from another dimension, hundreds are dead, most of Equestria is covered in that mist you see there, and we freed you because you have the most swag in Equestria. My names’ Spectrum.”

“And I’m Deadlock.” Added Deadlock. Discord looked at us, then at the mist, then at us again. He burst out laughing,

“Hahaha! You think I actually care about what happens to all of you!? After being turned to stone twice you think I would actually have any pity left towards you pathetic ponies? Now this is exactly what I like. Utter chaos.”

“Well, more like a nightmare. You see, everything is going to be dead. Plus, You count in the “dead” catagory.” I stated hoping he would reconsider.

“Silly pony, nothing can ever hope to kill me, but you’re right, theres no point in ruling Equestria if I have nopony to rule over. But I could have so much FUN with this.” Discord made a futon appear and some shades, and laid back to enjoy our demise.

“Oh you are such an asshole.” Grunted Deadlock. Discord pulled his shades down and glared at him.

“What did you just call me?” Discord teleported in front of him, “Say that again, I dare you.”

“Ok, you are such an asshole.” He taunted, suddenly a stone stalactite shot up from the ground and impaled him. Deadlock let out a choke and fell motionless.

“Crap! That looked painful.” I gasped, shocked at how powerful this guy was. Deadlock’s body began shaking as he struggled to move. He suddenly looked up with a huge shit-eating grin, “Haha, you can’t kill me.” Deadlock stuck his tongue out at Discord. Discord replied by lifting him up using a finger and throwing him into the grass maze farther into the garden. Deadlock screamed the whole way there.

“Ok, now I’m getting annoyed. And a bit confused, why can’t he die?” Discord asked, pushing the mist back with his hand.

“Well, he’s undead. But I’m not so please don’t kill me.” I said, sweating a bit.

“Ok then, why is your tail rainbow colored? It reminds me of one of those accursed ponies who sealed me last time.”

“I was nearly stabbed to death and drowned in one of Cloudsdale’s rainbow rivers. So, the solution is in my bloodstream.” I smiled weakly, I felt this wasn’t going very far.

Discord and I looked at the mist and noticed movement inside. Deadlock walked over with twigs in his mane.

“I walked right through that bitch. Make your mazes out of stone next time.” He mocked, calling over the undead surrounding the maze.

“You can control the dead, interesting.” Said Discord, preparing a spell in the direction of the mist.

“You know, all-in-all, we need your help. So at least help us stop these things until you take over.” I asked feeling low morale.

“Fine. I’ll spare you until this conflict is resolved. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun!” Discord replied, pushing the mist back. He was suddenly in steel armor with red feathering. The same armor appeared on Deadlock and I, as well as all the undead. Discord pulled out an old-styled black bomb and a steel baseball bat.

“Let’s take care of these guys shall we?” Discord said, hitting the bomb towards the mist. A few seconds in I heard a huge explosion and one of the giant worms came crashing down into the ground with a huge chunk of its side missing. Black poured from the massive wound relentlessly.

“I’d say that was a home-run. Muhahah!” Discord laughed and prepared another bomb. I felt security in him taking this like a joke, it showed just how much power was now on our side. In the distance I could see hundreds of creatures flying towards them. A lot of them were different than the bat creatures; some looked like minotaurs of a sort, others more like giant spiders. Deadlock seemed ready for the oncoming attack, preparing his undead soldiers with more noticeable golden auras.

“Alright, let’s bury these guys.” He said as they began to land all around us. Discord was already in their ranks, busting their skulls with the bat.

“Bonk. Haha!” He said as he struck them down. One of the new creatures was a deformed spider, with what looked like hives in it’s legs. It had a huge jaw and it’s teeth seemed to leak a black fluid. It was covered in a thick looking dark purple skin instead of the usual armor scales. It approached Discord and shot out huge steel spikes from the hives on its legs as it leapt at him. He easily dodged and pulled out a golden mini-gun, now suddenly in a tuxedo and shades.

“Is that the best you can do? How pathetic.” He said as he began mowing it down along with dozens of other monsters around him, white doves flew out behind him. He probably could’ve taken them out quicker but he wanted this to last. I took my attention off him and onto my own problems. Something that looked like a minotaur was before me, except it didn’t have a face and there were teeth protruding from it’s chest. It’s arms were covered in the armor scales. I took caution as I walked around it, waiting for it to move first. That’s when I saw the heat waves coming from the center of it’s chest. I parried a wave of flame until I saw an opening, than launched a head-butt into it’s stomach. It stumbled back but otherwise was completely undamaged.

Why am I so pathetic?

I looked around for a weapon and noticed a fallen bat guy’s spear. I wielded the spear in my jaws and dashed behind my opponent. I flew up and stabbed him in the neck, black poured from the wound. It didn’t seem bothered, the monster grabbed my throat and prepared to burn me alive. While the mouth on it’s chest was open I tossed a tube of Zecora’s acid in; the effect was almost instantaneous. It stepped back as it’s insides were melted, black fluid spewing from it’s chest until it collapsed.

“Nice, you killed something.” Teased Deadlock who was riding one of the spiders. He used his magic to slowly begin breaking it’s legs, until he was ready for his zombies to attack. Then I noticed something, these creatures seemed too stupid to really be doing all this damage. They must simply be basic troops or cannon fodder. Who was the real threat? I’m sure we would have to deal with that soon enough, at least we have Discord now; who appeared to be riding a skateboard with a pair of nun-chucks in a super-hero outfit. Not only that, but everyone he hit turned into a synchronized dancer.

I noticed that the guards from the before woke up, and began trying to adjust to the chaos. They seemed to have gotten themselves together pretty quickly and joined the fight. Though there wasn’t much to do, Discord had the place pretty much cleared of baddies, at least of the ones that weren’t dancing to Beyond Her Garden. Unfortunately, we were so distracted by the fight that we didn’t notice that the mist was now completely overhead, looming over the entire garden. Without any time to react, six behemoths dropped from the sky and landed around us. Instantly one of the guards was taken out, the beast crushing him in it’s palm. The other guard shouted in agony as he watched his friend fall and foolishly attacked them head-on, suffering a similar fate. Discord took note to the change in scenery, and decided on something.

“Well, I think you all have over-stayed your welcome. But before I show you what I can REALLY do, I need to excuse a few friends of mine.” Discord looked at Deadlock and I, “I’m going to let you all live, go try and make a difference if you can. We’ll run into each other again, but probably on different terms.” With that statement Discord casted some spell on us.

The next thing I knew I was outside Celestia’s palace in Canterlot. I moaned and shook my head, Discord must’ve sent us here to protect us.

I knew he wasn’t such a bad guy.

Deadlock looked irritated, “Damn he only teleported us. I lost all of my zombies.” He sat down and sighed. We both realized at that moment that there were multiple ponies staring at us. Among them were Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, who both seemed generally surprised.

“Umm, hey how’s it goin’? Are you flowin’?” I asked before getting surrounded by Royal Guards. Deadlock whispered in my ear, “Psst, I think we can take them.” Then we were trapped in magic and carried inside the palace. They threw us in front of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and covered our escape in spears.

“Princess, these two teleported in from beyond the barrier. Only powerful magic can do that.” Stated one of the guards, seeming quite on edge.

Princess Celestia walked towards us. “Wait, I know this one. Spectrum? What are you doing here? How did you get in? And who is this?” She asked.

Deadlock grinned, “Well, and I thought you were unpopular. Even the Princess knows you.”

I sighed, “It was by accident. Anyway, I’ll answer in that order, we don’t know why we’re here, Discord teleported us in, and this is Deadlock. He’s a zombie.”

The Princess was processing this for a few seconds, she didn’t know how to respond.  “You just said Discord got you in, how did that happen? You two were the ones in the garden? No wonder we couldn't get in, Discord set up a barrier. That black mist is stopped at least. But how did he escape again!? This is the last thing we need right now!” She was definitely pissed off, I tried to reason.

“Look, Discord saved us, he fought alongside us! He’s going to help get these things out of here.” She wasn’t amused, “Yeah, sure he might, but when this is done what do you think he’ll do?!” Deadlock intervened.

“Listen, we have bigger problems right now. We gotta live in the now when nightmarish beings from another realm invade us. Also, why didn’t you freak out when Spec said I was a zombie?” Deadlock looked at her for a bit, she replied,

“Because you aren’t the first to use the reanimation spell. There was another pony who could do the same thing.” She looked at him than turned away from both of us, back to her throne.

“Wait, theres somepony else like you?” I asked him, he nodded. “Yes, but, it’s a long story I’ll tell you about him later.” The Princess spoke to Luna quietly and she nodded confirming something.

Luna approached us, “You two are to be questioned tomorrow, until then you are free to stay in the Palace.” She bid us farewell as the guards led us out of the room.

We didn’t talk until we were alone, we found a guest room to stay in for the meantime. Deadlock broke the silence first,

“So, Spectrum, I guess we get to live the high life for awhile. Heheh.” He smiled and tackled one of the super comfortable looking beds. The room was quite large with multiple dressers and two king-sized beds. A large window was over-looking the mountains. We took turns washing up than began to discuss our next plan of action.

“Ok, while we’re here, we should stock up on supplies. Then we need to head on down to Ponyville, they could use our help.” I began, “Theres a train that goes there we can head out in two days.”

“Good idea, finding a surviving member of the Mane Six is important, plus we need effective weapons. Well, you at least.” I looked at my last remaining test tube, the rest were used or lost in the last fight.

“Let’s hope we can find them. Especially Twilight Sparkle, she would be of great help.” I added. We looked at the time, it was getting closer to the middle of the night and we figured it was time to rest. We had a long battle ahead of us.