The sound of people chattering on the tv.

The refrigerator making ice.

Neighbors dogs barking from their yards, or their children shouting as they played outside.

All everyday background noise in his life, all so he didn’t have to be alone with his thoughts, and it helped him sleep.

Thirty years or so of working at The Syndicate as an enforcer, some of the best and worst years of Wind Rider’s life. Spending most of his teenage years and early adulthood as a fighter in illegal boxing and other betting fights was what got him involved with them, but it was basically all he knew how to do. He was never smart or very athletic, physically strong, sure, but all those restrictions and rules just pisssed him off. Competition made things fun, yeah. But he didn’t like it enough to dedicate his entire career to it, plus learning all those strategies and working with others wasn’t to his liking.

Fighting on the other hand? Perfect for him. The adrenaline pumping through his veins, the feeling of not having to think and just let himself go was incredibly addicting. He knew how to take hits, all the weak and vital points to guard. His body was tough and so were his fists, his hands had the most scars on his body, covered in various calluses that hadn’t aged particularly well. It got to the point where moving his hands or trying to touch anything hurt, but he’d gotten used to it.

There was one thing he knew better than almost anyone he’d ever met, he knew how to hurt people.

The Syndicate had absolutely no lack of weirdos, especially that piece of work Blake. He was good, but there’s always room for improvement, even for someone like him. Blake decided to give him a few words of advice on how to really do damage to someone, even deciding to show him some examples.

“That creepy fuck.” Wind Rider said as he brought his beer can to his mouth, taking a sip of it as he watched the tv, though he wasn’t really paying attention.

Now all he did was reminisce and regret, the good things he’s done, and the bad. “Live in the present”, he used to say, “dwelling on the past is useless”. It was easy for him to tell off all the old people who spent their time thinking about the things they could’ve done differently, but now that he’d lost his passion and vigor, that’s all he could do. His body had become weak and frail, the long term consequences of the life he lived, and the fact that he was not able to keep up his workout didn’t help.

Just like the people he used to make fun of, he could do nothing but the things he used to make fun of others for, it was downright pathetic. He should be dead, but that freakazoid Discord showed up and helped him fake his death and gave him all the retirement money he would ever need. All thanks to the fact that he was pretty close friends with the leader, Igneous was a good guy and was the only person in that place that he really felt he understood. He wasn’t allowed to know anything about The Syndicate after he left or have contact with anyone there, there wasn’t a day that went by he didn’t think about him or wonder what he’s up to.

Sadly, retirement was very boring. He bought the smallest, cheapest house he could. It was small, had four rooms that weren’t furnished, and the place wasn’t maintained at all. Blue and green walls that had aged poorly, he knew he had rats and bugs, but didn’t particularly care. He sat in an old leather chair, watching tv and eating microwaved meals and slept, that was how he spent everyday life.

“All because I killed the wrong bitch.” He mumbled to himself as he took another sip of beer.

“Strange, I don’t remember you mumbling so much.” A voice came from his right, the source hard to see since they were so deep in the darkness. Barely more than their outline could be seen, not even their eyes were visible.

“Habit, comes from being alone so often and having no one to talk to. I was wondering when you were going to say something. Thought you were an assassin or something come to kill me, but you’ve been sitting there for thirty minutes or so just staring at me. Figured you were waiting for me to acknowledge you or something, but I wasn’t going to give in and decided to wait you out. Guess you underestimate my patience.”

He heard the person whistle, like something impressive just happened. “So you actually noticed me? Surprising, I thought you were getting senile in your old age, glad to see I was wrong.”

“Not senile quite yet, it would seem. Way past my prime, but I’m a bit harder to sneak up on than your average geezer.” Rider said as he glanced to the right where the person was, his eyebrows furrowing for a moment, like he was trying to figure out the answer to a riddle.

The voice was male, but that’s about all he could figure out. It was deep and gritty, having a very calm and composed tone, like they were talking to an old friend. The thing that pissed him off the most was the fact that he felt positive that he’d heard this voice before, he just couldn’t remember where.

“Good, then I wasn’t mistaken in coming here. I need your help with something, you’re basically the only one I could ask to do this for me.”

“If you’re from The Syndicate, don’t bother. Not sure how you know who I am, but I’m retired, as much as I hate it.” Rider said as he brought the beer can up to his mouth, not noticing until he tried to drink it that it was empty.

“Then…” They stayed silent for a moment, like they were trying to think of what to say. “Think of this as a favor to an old friend.”

There was an awkward silence for a few moments as Wind looked at the spot they were in, before looking down at the beer can in his hand, internally debating whether he should get up and get another one.

“What makes you think I want to? Or that I can? I’m old, older than I thought I’d live to be. If you’re asking me to beat someone up or kill someone, I couldn’t even tell you if my heart could handle it.”

“You won’t be killing anyone, as for fighting, well that depends on you. Besides, I can tell just by looking at you that you’re bored out of your mind. You miss it, don’t you? I wouldn’t call you a genius, but you were by far one of the best I’ve seen at kicking people’s ass. All I’m asking is you pass down that knowledge and experience to someone else, I’ll leave how you do that completely up to you. Plus,” The voice took a darker tone, he could see them shift around in the dark. “Don’t you want to help the daughter of the woman you killed?”

Wind noticeably flinched when they said that, the hand that was around the can tightening as he crushed it. He looked at the person in the shadows again, a tense scowl on his face. Then he relaxed, closing his eyes as he took in a deep breath, letting out a loud sigh.

“So, the kid lived. That’s actually a pretty big weight off my shoulders, thank you.” He mumbled as he opened his eyes, tossing the crushed can across the room into a trash can beside the TV. “But since you’re asking me to help teach them how to fight, you must be desperate, and they’re in some kind of trouble. So what is it? They got debt to the wrong people? Piss someone off?”

As he asked this he slowly stood out of his chair, pressing his hands against the chair as he struggled to stand. He walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge, pulling out another can of beer and shutting it as he walked back to the chair, sitting down in it and opening the can.

“That’s a bit weird, you were never the type to really ask questions other than ‘who do I punch?’.” The voice asked as they seemed to be shuffling their hands around in their pockets as they were looking around for something. They seemed to have found it and brought it up to their face, putting something in their mouth.

“I’ve gotten a bit curious in my old age, so excuse me if someone random guy shows up and asks me to leave retirement with little more explanation than I’m helping out an old friend.” Rider said in a snarky tone.

There was a sparking sound as the person seemed to be turning on a lighter, putting it against a cigar and lighting it. Briefly showing the bottom part of their face, but instead of skin, it showed some kind of leather material around his face. It seemed they were wearing a mask, they must have been someone really important if he was this concerned with hiding his identity . “Let’s just say this is all a test of sorts, and leave it at that. She’s in trouble alright, all I’m asking you to do is to teach her how to get out of it. Don’t ask anymore questions like that, and we should be fine. Oh, and don’t tell her who you are either. That would just...complicate things. So what do you say? You in?” He asked as he pulled the cigar out of his mouth, a puff of smoke coming out of it as he exhaled.

Rider glared at him, before looking down at the beer can, moving around the can a bit as the dark brown liquid inside sloshed around. Retirement had been agonizingly slow and boring, every single day he couldn’t stop himself from thinking back on his glory days. His years of experience and knowledge were unparalleled, he’d only met a handful of people he couldn’t beat in a fist fight. It made him regret not having any children to pass his passions onto, with what he could teach them, they could easily be better than him.

But now this person was offering him a chance to do just that, and to get him out of this mind numbingly boring house, even if just for a bit. That made it hard to say no.

“Oh hell, why not? I’ve got nothing to lose. But can you at least tell me her name? I’d like to know that much, at least.”

“Sure, their name…” He said as he took another puff from the cigar, remaining silent for a few moments as he turned his head upwards, like he was thinking about something. Before looking back down at Rider, only his hands were visible from the dark. He seemed to be wearing dark black gloves, like he was trying to hide his identity in every way he could.

“Is Rainbow Dash.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Homra was a very small and simple bar, open at all times and took in everyone with little rules and restrictions. It was located in a middle class area of town, right across from some kind of large building that belonged to some big time business, which was an entirely intentional choice by the owner, since they figured a lot of people after a day of working they'd want a drink. As it turned out, that was exactly the case.

It was currently little past nine, about the time a lot of people were getting off work. The bar itself wasn’t particularly big, at least not on the outside. It had one glass door, a small open/closed sign on the inside. The building itself is made mostly out of a dark brown hardwood, which looked very well furnished and like it had been recently cleaned. It seemed like a more high class place that would be reserved for rich people, but it was actually completely open to the public.

The inside looked more or less the same, the walls made of the same hardwood material and had various paintings on them, the floor was covered in bright white carpet, which was a bit peculiar for a bar. The room was dimly lit, giving it a very relaxing and comfortable environment. The left side of the room had a couple of tables made out of a bright white softwood, one brown stool chair on each side. There were a handful of these tables, all of them had small signs in the middle of them with various quotes on them.

The right side had booths instead of tables, which had large leather seats on each side of a table, the table exactly the same kind as the tables on the left side of the room. It wasn’t very late into the night, so the bar wasn’t very populated. There was a waiter or two walking around giving the few people there the orders they asked for, but it was mostly quiet.

Except for the back of the room, where the main part of the bar was. The counter was also made out of dark brown hardwood, professionally polished with no stains to be seen. There were rows of drinks behind the counter, everything from whiskey to wine, glasses were on the underside of the counter where the bartender was facing. The patrons would sit on the same kind of stool chairs that accompanied most of the tables, being served their drinks by the few bartenders that would be there.

While the bar occasionally had its share of rambunctious occupants, at night it usually calmed down more. This night was like those, incredibly quiet other than the slight noise of asking for more drinks, very few words being said at all. With the exception of two people at the counter, having a joyful conversation accompanied by a bit of laughter, though not loud enough to disturb anyone.

Discord and Juno were on stools beside each other on the far left part of the bar, away from anyone else. Discord was wearing his large brown lab coat and the rest of his clothing, a smirk on his face as he was chuckling at something. Juno was wearing his black clothing with the same kevlar, his red tally marks still engraved on it. However he was no longer wearing his face mask or their dark sunglasses, having taken them off and put them in a jean pocket. His brown hair was even more of a mess than usual, his skin was deathly pale like he could fall over any moment, his eyes so sunken and dark that it was obvious he hadn’t gotten any sleep for a long time. His beard was no longer perfectly trimmed and seemed to be getting longer and tangled. Even so, he had a wide smile on his face, seeming completely fine.

“Come on! Tell me what you said after that!” Juno said as he put the shot glass he just drank out of on the counter, only his second drink since he’d been here.

“Alright, hold on.” Discord chuckled as he tried to stop laughing, his face quickly changing into a serious glare as he put down the one glass he’d gotten.“I looked him in the eye just like this and said, ‘If you’re going to fight, fight like you’re playing musical chairs. And brother, the music is about to stop.”

There was silence between the two for a few moments, so tense it was like Discord had just told him he killed someone. Then, just as abruptly, they both started chuckling again, laughing at a joke only they would get.

“Are you fucking serious? That was the last thing he heard before he died? If it wasn’t from you I wouldn’t have believed it! Dissy, you really do have the best stories!” Juno said as he patted Discord on the back, turning to the bartender and gesturing for another drink.

“What can I say? I’ve got a way with people, sometimes it helps that they can’t usually tell when I’m being serious or not.” Discord said as he pushed the glass away from him, gesturing to the bartender that he was done drinking.

“I missed this Discord, a lot more than I thought I did. Back in the days where you, me, Starlight, Michael, and occasionally Fancy Pants if he was in the mood, and we’d just have a night out on the town. Guys would hit on Starlight, Michael would get pissed and defend her or something, Fancy Pants actually really enjoys making sex jokes and innuendoes when he’s drunk enough. I try my best to just relax and have fun, which is a bit hard for me. And you were...being you, it really was some of the few times I really felt happy and didn’t have to think about anything. I’d give almost anything to go back to those days.”

The smile that was usually on Juno’s face was gone, replaced with an empty stare, a nostalgic and sad look in his eyes as the bartender filled his shot glass with something. Juno quickly picked it up and tossed his head back, drinking the entire thing in one gulp before setting it back down.

“Yeah, believe me, I get it…” Discord said as he closed his eyes for a moment, putting both his arms on top of each other and burying his head under them, hiding his face. “Everything was fine until Igneous became leader, he wasn’t a bad one, but things in The Syndicate were just bad. Starlight and Michael’s relationship was fine up until I started making him Imperium, I shouldn’t have kept giving it to him. If I had just said no…” Though his voice was muffled, there was evident guilt in his voice.

They stayed like that for a few moments, neither speaking as they were thinking about the past. Then Discord promptly raised his head, facing Juno again with a slight smirk on his face. “Well, there’s no point dwelling on the past, right? Let’s get to business, I’m sure you want to get some sleep since you have the day off.” He said quickly as he pulled a small, yellow envelope out of his lab coat pocket, putting it in the counter and sliding it over to Juno.

Juno didn’t turn to face him, glaring at him out of the corner of his eyes. He knew Discord didn’t really ‘do’ serious, not if he could avoid it. Even if it was a serious subject, he’d always find a way to joke about it, it made it hard to tell whether he cared or not. Juno knew he cared, and that he knew when to take things seriously, he just rarely showed it. It was obviously Discord’s way of coping with everything, but it had gotten to an unhealthy point where he struggled to even take his own emotions seriously.

While it pissed Juno off occasionaly, he could deal with it, Discord wouldn’t be Discord otherwise.

“Whatever boats your float, whaddya got for me?” Juno asked with a forced smile, moving his stool chair closer to Discords.

“Someone tried to hack into The Syndicate earlier today, they got deep enough to where they sparked my interest. I stopped them from getting any deeper and got their address. Normally, I’d hire someone else to just go and handle this. But I’m pretty sure I know who this is, and if I’m right, I need to handle this discreetly and delicately, something you excel at.” Discord said in a serious tone, opening the envelope and pulling something out of it.

It was about the size of a small photograph, but he was placing it where only him and Juno could see what was on it. “I need you to go to this address and look for this girl, search the entire place. If no one is there, you look for pictures of any kind, even if it's just one. If you can’t find anything like that, you look into their records and see if they own any other properties. Summer houses, vacation homes, anything of that sort. If they do, you will check them the same way.

You need to be absolutely sure before you make any kind of choice, you cannot mess this up!” Discord said in an almost threatening tone, a scowl appearing on his face that seemed strange on him.

Juno’s smile faltered for a moment, Discord wasn’t usually this intense. “Okie dokie, I think I can handle that. No pressure, right?” Juno said nervously, focusing on the picture as he tried to memorize the person in it.

“Of course not!” Discord said with a shrug, his usual grin coming back to his face like it never left. “I trust your judgment, you haven’t failed before, anyway. So if it isn’t them, do whatever you want. Threaten them, kill them, I don’t really care.”

Juno stared at him for a moment before just shaking his head, grabbing the picture and putting it back into the envelope. “You’re so silly sometimes. I’d ask why you’re so interested in some random hacker, but honestly I’m more sleep deprived right now than I have been for a while. I’m starting to hallucinate and sometimes my hair feels like bugs and it kind of freaks me out, I really need to get some shut-eye.”

“Sure, go ahead, sleep as long as you want. I’ll keep Pinkamena preoccupied if I have to.”

Juno got off the stool chair as he put the envelope in his pocket, pulling out his face mask and sunglasses and putting them on as he turned away from Discord. Right as he got out of the chair and was about to start walking away, he stopped, like he was about to say something.

“Discord, are you ok?”

He didn’t have to turn around to know Discord flinched when he asked him that, if Juno was being completely honest, it wouldn’t have surprised him if Discord didn’t answer at all. Instead he heard him scoff, like he was just dismissing it as a joke or he didn’t want to answer.

“Not really, I haven’t been ‘ok’ for a while. I don’t rea-” Before Discord could finish, his phone began ringing. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a flip phone, putting it against his ear and answering the call.

“Hello? Nick? This better be you telling me you found it, I don’t have time for much else.” Discord said with an irritated tone.

Juno didn’t wait for him to finish his call, walking outside of the bar and heading to The Syndicate’s base to sleep. Discord stayed in the bar for a few minutes as he stayed on call, receiving a full report on their progress and how they found what they were paid to find. “Took a bit longer than I would have liked, but as long as you cut it out without damaging it and keep it in the temperature chamber I gave you, it should be fine. Spend tomorrow gathering all the equipment and get ready to leave, I’ll send you the coords of where to send it later, make sure it remains intact, or it’s your ass.”

Discord ended the call by slamming the flip phone shut, sighing as he put it back in his pocket. He pulled his journal out and put it on the counter in front of him, opening it as he pulled a pencil from behind his ear, the pencil having blended in so well with his hair it seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere to the people around him.

“Things are going about as well as I would hope for them too, I haven’t gotten to the hard part yet, at least. I’m going to have to figure out how to get them to work together, their kind has had an ongoing feud with each for a really long time. But, I’m sure with their hatred and grudges combined, they’ll form an alliance to kill him.” He mumbled as he began to write checkmarks on some things, his eyes half-lidded as he tried to think of anything he was forgetting.

“And depending if I’m right about this, I’m about to have a whole student to teach. How long has it been since I took someone under my wing? Starlight doesn’t really count, and Melvin’s more of an errand boy than anything. Anyhow, It’s been too long since I took up a protege, but now’s as good a time as ever I suppose.”

He turned to an empty page in the journal, starting to write another checklist for himself, though this one was phrased more like instructions than a list of things to get or do.

“She’ll probably resist at first, not as much as a pushover as she used to be. She’ll try to negotiate or get an advantage over me, I’ll just have to show her I’m better than her. She’s smart, but not experienced. The hard part is going to be keeping her and Pinkie separated, I don’t know what she'll do if she finds out too much too soon. I need to make sure they’re both prepared before they can talk, if it happens too early…”

Discord grimaced as he wrote something, before going back to the top and writing the title of this page. “Well, I’ve done all I can do right now. It’s your move,” He wrote the words ‘Prodigy Protege Plan’ at the top of the page in bold letters, before placing the pencil in the center of the book, looking at the words he wrote with a satisfied expression on his face.

“Twilight Sparkle.”

Author's Note

Hello! This is the last chapter for this arc of the story, which took me longer to wrap up than I thought it would. The next arc will be focused almost entirely on TSK, and then after that? Things will get very, very....interesting. Tell me if you find any grammatical issues or story inconsistences, thanks for reading, enjoy!