FLASH

“Fuck me!” The magic of being teleported shot through my body, irritating my wounds, and I cried out as the unknown magic courses through me. It felt as if my insides were being held against a blowtorch. I fell to a knee as my good leg gave out.

“Sorry for the sudden intrusion Zecora, but I require your service.” I hear Discord say to her in a rushed tone, before helping me into a standing position. My wounds were throbbing with a renewed burning, much worse then what I had felt moments before the teleport. I grip tightly at his shoulder as the pain dims, turning into nothing but a light throb.

I hear the Zebra start stammering and messing up her words before actually managing to ask Discord what had happened, and what I’m doing here. Discord starts explaining the story of my self defence, and the zebra looks greatly disturbed knowing that the unknown creature lying on her floor bleeding, was also the murderer of three ponies.

“Zecora please. His health is crucial.” Discord states, helping me into a seat on a chair. “Don’t worry October, your in good hands now.” He tries to comfort me but his voice seemed distant. All I could hear was the throbbing.

I nod slowly and look over at the zebra, watching as she throws different liquids into a cauldron over a fire, Discord inspecting the bright mismatch of colours.

I grit my teeth as the throbbing starts to die down. “I don’t think I should teleport much.” I say, gripping my leg with my uninjured hand. Discord nods his head.

“Agreed, that looked like it put a lot of stress on you. We will leave teleportation as a last solution then.” He walks over to me and kneels so he could take a closer look at the wounds. “I know a couple spells to remove any pain, but Zecora will have to do all of the work for the nerves and muscle.” I huff at him and give him the go to start his spell. He closes his eyes and I see the tip of his clawed fingers start glowing orange. He places his fingers on my wounds and I immediately felt a warm fuzzy feeling in my leg.

I sigh loudly and lay my head back, the pain seemingly non existent. I lift my head back up and see Discord sweating a small bit. I think about this, but decide to leave it for another day.

“Drink this creature, and your wounds will heal over the course of a couple weeks,” the Zebra says as she pours a rainbow drink into a flask and hands it to me cautiously. I take a look down at the flask but don’t do anything. Visibly confused she faces Discord, who in turn looks to me with a brow raised. I stare at him and he lets out a small ‘ah’ before turning to Zecora.

“He wants to keep his identity hidden.” He says looking at her with a small frown. She looks to my skeletal helmet before shivering at the sight and turns around, fearing what could be on the other side.

Once shes completely turned I look at the Draconequus, expecting him to turn to. He rolls his eyes and does so. I quickly take off my helmet and take a sniff of the beverage, noticing it smells like roses. I reluctantly chug down the perfume smelling liquid and start gagging and sputtering once it’s all down. Definitely doesn’t taste like fucking roses. I put my helmet back on and use my good leg to tap Discord, letting him know I’m finished.

They both turn and face me, Zecora still looking uncomfortable. I signal for Discord to come close.

“She’s scared of me.” I whisper to him, getting a nod in response.

“Yes, but what do you expect? I mean look at your get up. Your the definition of intimidation.” He replies back with a toothy grin. I smile and chuckle lightly.

“I must take my leave now. I need to set up a time with the Princess to let your presence known and find a meeting date.” Discord says standing up and stretching. My eyes go wide and I grip his arm tightly, my touch making him recoil a bit.

“No, don’t. I don’t think it would be wise to meet any royalty yet. Hell I didn’t even want to make my presence known to civvies.” I motion to Zecora, and remember my encounter with the farmers. He thinks about this before sighing.

“Very well. We will wait a bit longer then.” Discord says, returning to his seat. I look over to the Zebra and see that she now has a hooded cloak on with a saddle bag hanging from her side. “Where are you going Zecora?” Discord questions.

“I’m leaving to find herbs for your friend, he had used most of my stock.” She says, her rhymes are gone now, I wonder why. “I will be back in due time,” she says before leaving her hut.

“Follow her.” I say to Discord, he gives me a confused look.

“Pardon?” He asks with a frown.

“Follow her. We don’t know if what she’s saying is the truth, for all we know she could be going to the town to alert someone.” I look at the door to the hut. “I’d rather be safe than sorry.” I advert my gaze from the door and back to the Draconequus.

“Hm, very well. If I see her head into town I’ll return and hide you.” He says with a troubled look before turning himself into a bird and flying out to follow the Zebra. Once again alone, I try and find something to do.

I remember about my bag and take it off my back to take and feel around for Rookies old sidearm. It’s an old .1911 Model, interesting. I inspect the weapon and see the engraving on the side,

‘To the Grave.’

I frown and realize that this pistol wasn’t given as standard issue. I suddenly feel a weight being pressed on my shoulders when I finally understand that this weapon was gifted to him. And I took it. I close my eyes and sigh.

I was gonna take this weapon apart for spare parts but now I think it’s not the best idea. I solemnly place the sidearm back into my bag. Usually I wouldn’t really care, but now? I don’t know.. I feel. Wrong.

Now that I’ve ruined my enthusiasm to do something interesting I close my eyes and try and catch up on interrupted sleep.

It’s so quiet, nothing but the sound of birdsong filling my ears. I take a deep breath and let my body relax.

Just before I could take a nap I hear a flash in front of me and look to see a panicked Discord.

“We need to hide you, now! You were right, she went to go fetch the elements!” He says and starts running around the room trying to find a place to hide me. I curse under my breath and grab my bag, placing it on my back and slowly standing up, using the chair as support. “Agh! There’s no good spot in here.” He says swivelling his head.

I start walking to the door but gets stopped when Discord places a claw on my shoulder.
“Where are you going?” He looks at me.

“I’m hiding. Stay here, make it seem like I was never here.” I shrug his hand off and limp out the door, and into the forest.

~ POV: Discord ~

October limps out of the hut, and I can’t help but hope he knows what he’s doing. I shake my head and turn back snapping my fingers to clear the floor and chair of blood. I then snuff the fire and place the cauldron back where Zecora had it previously.

I notice that not much was changed anyways and double check to make sure I got all the blood. I nod in approval and wait for the eventual crusade of seven to show.

After some waiting I finally hear several sets of galloping coming to the hut, my nerves get the best of me and I begin to lightly sweat, and my heartbeat quickens. The first to barge into the hut was Applejack, of course it was.

“Zecora! Where is tha darn vermin!” Applejack yells at the Zebra when she comes in. Zecora looks around the room and see that everything that has happened was reverted back to normal. I gulp lightly.

“I.. I..” Zecora stammers as Applejack glares at me.

“What are ya’ doin here?” She questions me with a distrustful look, by now the rest of the elements are entering the hut.

“I was just paying a quick visit to Zecora. Why are you here?” I try and look as innocent as possible.

“She told me that darn creature who put Big Mac on his flank was here!” She yells with anger. “If ah see that vermin again I’ll be sure ta’ knock him into the next era!” She stomps a hoof and huffs some air, some of the elements giving me questionable looks.

My facade is holding up. I look at Zecora and glare at her, causing her to cower away from my gaze.

Applejack soon turns to storm out of the hut before freezing in spot, sniffing the air.

“Do y’all smell blood?” Damnit! I didn’t think of the smell. The rest of the girls start sniffing the air, some of them flinching at the stench of blood.

“I don’t know what your talking about? I only smell wood.” I reply trying to trick them into believing it was just them smelling things. Applejack clearly was too flustered to use her Honesty seeking power, because this shouldn’t be working.

After an eternity the girls all reluctantly left, not without staring at me with judging eyes, but that was to be expected. Zecora shuts the door and cowers away.

“We need to have a little chat.”

~ POV: October ~

Thank god for Discord’s pain numbing spell. This would have been torture if I had to limp away without the numbing effect.

There had been countless times where a jutted root, or a weirdly placed rock had knocked me over, irritating the wounds. Luckily for me, Zecora’s potion seems to be working, because the bleeding stopped.

I knew we couldn’t trust her though. I wouldn’t be surprised if I died of poison soon. Realistically though, that possibility is obsolete, since Discord was helping with the potion, he wouldn’t have let anything slip.

Right?

I frown but keep pushing forward. After what seems like an hour of ‘running’ I come across a chasm. I slow down and stop at the edge, taking a peek.

There’s a thick layer of fog obstructing my sight of the bottom, but I’m gonna make a strong assumption that it’s probably not something I wanna fall into.

I move my gaze to my left and right, trying to find a way across. The only thing I could find for passage across was an old broken bridge, planks missing in multiple areas. I think about my situation and decide to take the risk, hobbling my way to the bridge. With my limp it’s going to be a bit harder.

I grip at the rope and exhale, before taking small careful steps from plank to plank. One third of a way there. Halfway there.

I sighed in relief thinking that it was gonna hold strong for me, but my luck has a different outcome for me. Just before I could reach the end, the bridge snapped in half from the middle, and I started my descent into the chasm. I held on tightly to the rope, sliding down it with tremendous speed. I can hear and see my glove starting to burn as I fall.

I closed my eyes and hoped for the best as I fell, and suddenly I stopped after reaching a sudden stop. I opened one eye and looked around. I was hanging from the bottom of the bridge, my hand on the rope being stopped by a knot. I let out a nervous chuckle as I look down, a pebble from the rock wall falling down into the fog.

One..
Two..
Three..
Fo- CRACK

Three and a half seconds of falling. Fuck that noise. I look up and place my injured hand on one of the planks, testing it’s durability before placing more weight on it. So far it’s holding strong, but I know fate has it out for me.

With a shaky breath I push myself up, and use the hand I had on the rope to grip at the next plank. So far so good. I used my upper strength to get me high enough before placing my foot on the plank below me.

Please don’t break, please don’t break.

I climbed the fallen bridge like a ladder until I reached the top, where I greedily scratched at the ground until I was off the ladder and on solid land.

I smiled and laughed as the impact of what just occurred hit me, it was a crazy thought. When the laughing subsided I sat up. Deciding to continue my search for a hiding spot. At least nothing without wings can follow. Or horns. I’m doomed.

The fog seemed to thicken since the other side of the bridge, but I keep walking anyways, then fog will hide me a bit better.

I can’t see anything a few feet in front of me, this fog is so damn thick. I start cursing about my luck when I walk face first into a large stone wall, making a loud clang as my helmet bounces off of it. I shake my head and look at the wall, and just at the moment the fog cleared slightly, allowing me to see an abandoned castle in front of me. I smile and find a hole in the wall, pushing my hobble to a light jog as I approach the large oak doors. Or what’s left of them.

One of the massive doors had been launched off its hinges and sat a few metres into the castle. I peek my head in and take in the sight before me. Pieces of stone lie everywhere, armour and weaponry scattered across the castle floors.

This place looked as if it was attacked. Whatever, now all I care about is that I have a roof over my head, or what remains of one.

I sigh and make my way into the castle.

Author's Note

Here’s another!