~ Ten hours after the encounter ~

I found a spot in a small clearing to set up camp after my encounter with Discord. I can’t help but think about last night. What did he mean by he knew of my past? Surely he doesn’t..

I shake my head and sigh. Deciding to leave questions until our next talk, and instead let my thoughts drift to the look of absolute fear Discord had plastered on his face. I chuckle slightly.

Why wouldn’t he be scared? He almost had a mouthful of stainless steel. This brings me to my next thought. What did he mean by, “The Lost Element?”

There’s no way in hell I have any relevance in this place. How would I? I sigh again and decide to dig through my backpack for one of my many MRE packages.

“Meals! Ready-to-Eat!” I quote to myself quietly with a small smile as I remember how one of my past mates had always said those words before opening a pack to eat.

No point in dwelling in the past. If I’m here forever like Discord said, might as well live in the present. I let my smile drop and I start eating my meal. It tastes like shit.

After my bite to eat I discarded the trash and thought about my plan for the day. I know I have to make it to the Mountain City, where Discord and the ‘Princesses’ are. But how am I gonna get there? I don’t think I have the strength to scale a mountain. I’ll deal with that issue when I get there I suppose.

And what about this Magic? I think back when I had walked through some third world town back on Earth, and how an adult was entertaining kids with illusions and card tricks. I feel like this is going to be a different case this time around though.

I stand up and take a sip from an icy water filled canteen before throwing my backpack over myself and walking back to the village. I’m gonna have to take a different route around the place this time if I want to avoid being spotted from residents though.

~ a fair trek later ~

Here I stand once again, at the tree line on the outskirts of town. I take a breath in as I try and calculate the quicker route. Right, and I’ll be having to go through open land because of the park. Left, I’ll be having to cross through what looks to be an Apple orchard. While left has more cover I’ll be getting quite close to the home that sits at the top of the small hill.

I do the math and decide to take left. I’ll just have to be extra careful.

I make the choice to run to the Orchard, wanting to be as time efficient as possible, and when I finally make it, decide to walk to the closest tree and snag some of the large red apples that hang from its branches.

I look one over and take in all the details I can. It’s the size of my fist, and is a deep red with tiny pinpoint specks of yellow or green on its surface. I would have taken a bite but I would have to remove my helmet to do so, and that’s not only a waste of my time, I’m also not hungry yet.

I throw the Apple into a pocket big enough to hold it and continue walking. I walk through the Orchard until I hit a dirt path, the path leading up to the home. From where I stand I’m hidden from view by anyone looking my direction from the home, so I take this time to see if there’s any movement. What I didn’t see though. Or hear. Was a cart being pulled up the path behind me.

“H-hey! What are yah doin’ here!” I jump at the sound and quickly turn to see an orange coated pony wearing a Stetson hat staring at me with frightful but confident eyes. Fuck me and my lack of hearing! I don’t respond and take the Apple from my pocket and throw it at her face. I didn’t stick around to see if the Apple hit or not, but judging by the sound of Apple hitting flesh and a nasally ‘ow’ come from behind me, I’ll assume it hit its mark.

God, ten hours into being told not to be spotted and here I fucking am. I shake my head at my lack of senses recently but push the thoughts of self lecturing to after I’m in the clear.

Even with all my gear and the bag on my back, I’m moving at tremendous speeds, putting a fair bit of distance between me and the pony. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was actually running and when I had thought that I had escaped her a rope flew over me and snagged me, knocking me over.

I fell hard, and caught some air because of the speed I was running. Thank god I have my helmet because I slammed my head into the side of what looks like an anvil placed beside the barn.

“Now ah gotcha!-“ I hear the pony say with a mouthful of rope before being tugging me back. I grip tightly onto the anvil beside me and fumble around my chest for my holstered knife, struggling a bit before finally getting ahold of it, I go to try and cut the rope tied around my ankles but was stopped this hulking mass of red muscle stepping on my hand. Fuck.

I look up and peer at the new figure. He looks back but I see his eyes widen slightly when he pulls back my hood and see’s my metallic skeletal helmet. I struggle and try to pry my arm from under his hood but can’t seem too. This is a fucking joke. I can’t be captured, but it’s hard to escape when I can’t kill my targets. I think for a moment then smile when I think of my plan.

I stop struggling and pretend to have passed out, staying as still as I possibly can. I hear the large ponies deep voice call out for the one that spotted me to come over, and that I passed out. I watch behind my blacked out lenses as he picks up my knife with his hoof and looks at it for a moment. I hear the other pony tell him she was going to get someone named Twilight, and heard her gallop away. I took this time to jolt onto my feet and headbutt the large pony.

His eyes cross for a second and he drops the knife before falling over, making a loud thud, and causing vibrations within the ground. I walk over and pick up the knife before holstering it and continued my run through the orchard until I hit the dense forest again. I looked back at the farm and frowned.

“This is gonna bring some flak in the future.” I say to myself and continue running through the woods.

~ a fair trek later ~

During my solemn walk I found a chunk of wood and decided to make a little sculpture out of it. So I picked it up and started carving into it to alleviate some boredom on my path to the castle.

Now, here I am slicing away at the chunk until I feel it’s devoid of enough bark to finally start carving a shape, But I pause.

I don’t know what to make. I press the knife lightly against the chin of my helmet while I think of something to carve and I finally think of the stars. Except, I can’t carve the constellations into a chunk of wood. I think a bit more before a metaphorical lightbulb lights up above my head, and I start carving away at the chunk.

Soon enough I’m not even paying attention to the chunk, I’m just slicing away with precision and ease as I walk. I started whistling some old song I would hear on the radio a bit from home, and in due time I slowly began putting a bit more pep in my step.

I smiled lightly as I looked down at my progress and was pleased with the outcome. I had carved a sphere into the chunk, the sphere being held up by a thick bit of wood connected to the base of the carving, and with a bit more carving, I soon had a wonderful moon sculpture in my hands.

I was quite proud of the outcome, and decided to keep it, due to it being a complete clone of the moon, details and all.

I placed it in my backpack and continued my trek before a stick snapped and I froze.

I didn’t move a single muscle in my body. I just stood there and listened. I don’t know why I’m still relying on my hearing, since It’s failed me twice, but here I am.

I listen as clearly as I can to my surroundings and become filled with sounds. I can hear the bit of cloak not being held down by my bag flapping in the breeze on the path, I can hear the leaves rustling and the branches swinging.

I can also hear breathing.

All of the sudden three large wolves made of wood leaped at me from every side and I ducked. Making the three predators smack into eachother, though they quickly recovered and started circling me.

“Man I just can’t catch a fucking break can I.” I say, my voice sounding more raspy then usual. I don’t have the time to pull out a weapon. As soon as I move, so will they, so this will have to be done with my hands.

Nothing I haven’t done before. I wait and watch them circle me and decide which one I should go for first. None of them have the same body build. The largest one is about twice the size as a regular wolf, the smallest being the regular size. I think about wolves back on earth and how they all had an alpha. Usually the largest, strongest one.

So in theory, if I kill their alpha, they should retreat. I ponder over this and decide that it’s my best bet. I wait until the largest is right in front of me before Iunge forward and knee the mutt in the mouth, causing it to fall back a bit before shaking it’s head and jumping at me. I side step and it shoots past me, only to for it to quickly reposition and launch itself at me again. I quickly duck and roll forward, getting some breathing time.

I take my backpack off and let it fall onto the ground before standing tall. Without the excess weight, I can end this fight. I take a couple steps forward and wait for the wolf to try and lunge at me again. When it eventually does I wait until it’s close enough before, with lightning speed, grab its throat with one hand and place another on its stomach and lift the creature above my head.

Just before it could squirm out of my grip I slam it’s head into the ground beside me, smashing its head into nothing but slivers of wood. The wolves body stays limp and leaks an orange sap like fluid from its neck.

I look at the other two wolves and, just like I thought, they retreated into the darkness of the forest. I pick up my back and dust myself off before continuing my walk.

~ Meanwhile. POV: Discord ~

I rub lightly at my throat where the human had grabbed, a light bruise forming. Frowning lightly, I think to myself. He caused me pain. This is a scary thought. If he could cause pain to me, then he could surely kill me. So far only the princesses and the elements could do so.

This only means two things. He’s either just as powerful, or more powerful, then both the Princesses and the elements.

I take a sip of my water but wince as the water irritates my throat, causing more pain. At the same time this is good. This means he possibly could save this world.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath before opening them with half lidded eyes and take a look over Canterlot and the land below. Celestia’s quarters really does have the best view.

Just as this thought passes, I can hear the door behind me open.

“Discord? What do you think your doing here?” I hear Celestia question me.

“Nothing malicious, I promise. I just heard rumours that your perch held the best view.” I respond without turning around. I hear her make an ‘ah’ sound before entering her bathroom and starting the sink.

“Well of course. If there’s nothing you really need I’ll ask you to leave now. Luna raises the moon soon, and my day has been quite long.” She says with an annoyed tone through the bathroom door.

I was going to answer but shut my mouth before I could reply. Should I tell her about October? I’m sure she will ask questions when she sees the bruise.. THE BRUISE!

My eyes widen in panic as I try and search the room for something, anything, to hide the bruise with. I quietly but quickly make my way to her dresser in search of something to cover up the mark, but was unsuccessful. I ran to and from, looking under, over, and inside parts of her room. I hear the sink turn off, and I start to sweat. But then I see it!

“Discord? Did you hear me? Disc-“ She opens the bathroom door to reveal me standing there with a large pink sock wrapped around my neck. I just sat there and smiled at her like there was nothing wrong with this situation.

“Discord. Why do you have one of my.. socks.. wrapped around your neck?” She asks me with a frown and a blush on her face.

“Uh.. I. Fashion?” I say with an awkward smile. Just before any more questions could be asked, a letter pops into existence and Celestia’s attention was pulled from me and towards the scroll. I sigh with relief and watch as she opens and reads it. At first she looked unbothered, but it soon turned to worry.

“What is it?” I ask trying to take a peek at the letter. She rolls it up and gets her own piece of parchment, writing a lengthy response, but before I could see the contents, the letter disappeared in a flash.

“So?” I ask again.

“There has been a monster sighted in Ponyville. And Big Mac, Applejacks brother, has a severe concussion because of a capture attempt gone wrong.” She says with a frown and furrowed brows.

Oh for Celestia’s sake. I facepalm and sigh into my hand.

“Is something the matter Discord?” She ask me quizzically. I look at her with a sheepish smile and shake my head.

“Nono, I just remembered I forgot something unimportant.” I turn quickly and take the sock off my neck, throwing it to the ground and teleporting away.

~ POV: October ~

It’s dark out now. Good, I like the night sky. It’s calming.

I set up camp and started a small fire shortly after the wolf encounter. I can still see the Mountain city in the distance so I know I’m heading in the right direction.

I think back to the wolf, and how it was made of wood. I wonder why? Must just be this place. I stare blankly into the fire until I hear the sound of a certain Draconequus appearing behind me.

“What was the one thing I told you to NOT do?” I hear him questioning me with a disappointed tone. I clench my jaw but don’t respond.

“Hm? I think it something like, ‘Don’t get spotted’?” He says again.

“I was a simple mishap. It was out of my control.” I say quietly. I didn’t have the patience for this at the moment.

“A simple mishap? You have the whole town frightened, and you gave a severe concussion to one of the ponies you encountered. It’s one thing if your seen. But now that you’ve done physical damage? They’re going to hunt you for this. The Elements.” He states with a tone of anger.

“Then so be it. If they hunt me, then let them.” I stand and turn to face him. We just stand there staring each other down before Discord’s face softens and he sighs, looking down.

“Don’t further complicate this. Just make it to the castle to we can sort this out. These ponies aren’t your enemies. Believe me your going to want the Princesses good side. But you won’t be able to get them to help us if you keep mucking about with these ponies.” He says before walking closer to me. I stand my ground and watch as he approaches. He takes a knee and stares into my mask.

“One last piece of advice. The Everfree is a dangerous place. Judging by the sap on your cloak, you already encountered a Timber Wolf. There’s much more bigger threats then them.” He says pointing to the sap on my clothing. I look back at him and nod once, before turning back to my fire, and hearing him disappear back to the City.

Great.

Author's Note

Third chapter done. I think I did well but I’m sorry if things may seem rushed. I plan on coming back to make some changes if I feel it’s necessary at a later date.