A Fizzling Hope

Chapter 1: Backup Plans

“Alright ladies, let’s show him what friendship can do!!”

“Wait, wait, wait!!” Pinkie interrupted. She was standing under a cotton candy cloud, drinking her final fill of chocolate milk rain. She smacked her lips and let out a contended sigh before suddenly jumping back to her friends and facing Discord with an angry snarl.

Discord feigned a bored yawn as the six ponies concentrated, their necklaces starting to glow with magical powers. Discord finally noticed something was happening when the necklaces started to fire colorful projectiles that would loop around him before disappearing in a quick ‘poof.’

“Hm? What’s this?” Discord inquired, worry and doubt beginning to worm at his gut. He was so confident he had spoiled the friends’ relationships in the maze, but could they really have overcome such obstacles already? Had he underestimated the strength of their friendship??

“No!” Discord exclaimed as Twilight and her friends suddenly opened their eyes and a massive rainbow shot up into the sky, slowly arcing its way down towards him. “Noooooooo!!!” Discord screamed in terror as the rainbow slammed into him, immediately beginning to sap his powers. Discord could even feel the familiar sensation of his tail and legs being solidified into stone as the feeling began to spread up his long, winding body. Soon enough, he would be a statue for thousands of years yet again!!

This couldn’t be happening, it just couldn’t!! The fun was only just beginning! Discord’s mind raced as he struggled to come up with something, ANYTHING he could do to prevent yet another agonizingly long imprisonment. Who knew how long it would be before the elements’ magic wears off?

The stone feeling was now at his midsection…he couldn’t feel his wings anymore…his forearms were now locked in place…time was slipping by and Discord was about to be trapped, possibly forever!! Then, at the last possible second, he was struck by an idea. A brilliant idea!! Summoning the final reserves of his magical powers, Discord snapped his fingers, bringing his hastily constructed plan to fruition just moments before his hands and fingers turned into stone. As this happened, the stone feeling traveled up his neck before finally transforming his once beautiful face into a contorted grimace of anger and pain, forever frozen for all to see.

Now completely turned into stone, Discord’s body collapsed backwards onto the ground as the rainbow colored explosion continued to grow outwards, slowly reversing all that he had done and returning Ponyville to normal…

*****

Far, far away, on the very borders of Equestria…

The first thing the pony noticed was the warmth. ‘Aaaaaah, it’s so nice and warm just lying in the sun…’ he thought. The pony knew without opening his eyes that it was a beautiful sunny day, with only a few white puffy clouds drifting slowly across the sky. There would be time to open his eyes, but for now he tuned in to his other senses.

The grass he was lying on was cool and soft, obviously he was lying in some large grassy field. The cool breeze was blowing gently, stirring the grass around him and ruffling his mane and fur. He could hear birds chirping in the distance, as well as the soft trickle of a small stream as it happily gurgled its way along.

As for the pony himself, he was an earth pony colt of fairly average size with bright green fur. His mane and tail were mostly black with streaks of red laced throughout, and were slightly spiky and shaggy due to lack of much attention, but upon closer examination one could see that they had been combed mostly straight. Emblazoned on both of his flanks was a picture of an Erlenmeyer flask with a red liquid bubbling in it, with a trail of dark gray steam drifting out of the mouth of the flask and off to the right.

The pony finally opened his eyes, revealing his golden irises, squinting and raising his hoof to shield his eyes from the sudden bright light. It took a few moments to adjust, but he was finally able to sit up and take stock of his surroundings. Sure enough, he was sitting in a large, grassy field on a beautiful summer day. ‘Just perfect,’ he thought to himself, grinning as he bathed in the sun’s warmth. The pony took a moment or two to appreciate his surroundings once more before he began to get this nagging feeling. A feeling that told him he should be doing something.

The pony frowned and paused to think. Where was he? How did he get here? And what was it that he felt he should be doing right now? The pony closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to remember why he had come here and from where, but he just couldn’t remember. Obviously he had come here to take a nap in the sun. After all, who doesn’t like napping in the sunshine? But when he had gotten here, and where he’d come from were still a complete mystery. Looking up at the sun, the pony suddenly got the distinct notion that it was not quite yet noon, but how he knew that he knew that was also a mystery.

Still frowning in concentration, the pony stood up and walked over to the riverbank. Almost without thinking about what he was doing, he had picked up a few rocks, sticks, and long stalks of river grass and fashioned himself a makeshift stone hatchet. The pony paused and stared at the tool in his hands. How did he know how to make this? It had happened so naturally, almost without thinking. His hooves had been moving of their own accord! And yet, holding this hatchet, everything felt natural. He felt like he was meant to make this tool, and to use it for some greater purpose.

Shrugging aside his feelings of doubt, the pony allowed himself to perform the tasks that just felt right. Soon enough, the pony had chopped down a couple of trees, split the logs into a few rough planks, and pretty soon had built himself a wagon, along with a hammer and saw in the process. A wagon. That’s what this crazy doohickey was called. He didn’t know how he knew this, but it felt so right he just couldn’t dispute it.

Now, if any real craftspony were to see this pony’s makeshift tools and wagon, built so crudely from the bare minimum, he would probably have a good laugh. But to this pony, his rough-and-tumble wagon was something he could be proud of. Before he could even contemplate the enormity of his achievement, he had already strapped on the wagon’s reed harness and was headed off towards the distant mountains in search of….something.

Again, the pony was being dragged around by his body subconsciously following some set of tasks that he could not remember agreeing to perform. Walking toward the mountain range, he felt sure of two things. It felt right to be walking this direction, and he knew that he was looking for something. As the miles swam by the pony pondered the nature of his mysterious quarry, staring at the swirls of dust his hooves kicked up as he walked. Before he even knew it, the ground beneath his hooves began to slope sharply upwards.

The pony looked up to see that he was now trekking along a twisting path up into the mountains. He followed it for another few moments, his breathing beginning to become a bit more winded as he exerted himself. Then, as suddenly as he began his set of tasks, the pony stopped in the middle of the road, unhitched himself from the wagon, and began to walk away from the trail. If anypony had been there to ask him why he had just done what he did, he would have no answer for them except to say, ‘because it feels right.’

The pony followed his hooves into a small cave in the side of a sheer cliff face. Actually it was more of an alcove than a cave, he thought to himself. He trotted to the back of the indentation and inexplicably began to paw at the ground. Sure enough, his digging unearthed a pocket of glittering yellowish crystals which he began to carefully collect and place in a bag woven from the reeds he found by the river. Soon enough his bag was full and he trotted back to the wagon, placed the bag carefully inside, hitched himself up and started off again.

As the hours dragged by, the pony collected more and more odd materials, storing them in several more reed sacks. More yellowish crystals, bags of a fine black powder, and various other multicolored rocks and powders. He had even managed to find a few rocks loaded with gemstones, and he took those too. As dusk began to fall the pony contemplated his day’s achievements as he carefully guided his load down the mountain side. He had no idea what he had just collected, or why, or what he was going to do with it but once again he just had that good feeling.

As he reached the base of the mountain he was startled by a sudden growling noise. Was it a wolf? A bear? A tiger?? Oh, no it was just his stomach growling. The pony rolled his eyes as he recalled he hadn’t eaten anything that day. He stopped to think for a moment before remembering how he thought he had seen a berry bush on his way from the field. A quick five minutes’ walk back the way he came confirmed his memory.

The berry bush was full of blueberries, ripe for the picking. The pony unhitched his wagon, picked as many berries as he could hold, and washed them in a nearby creek before eating his fill. He also took a few moments to crop some of the luscious green grass growing by the water, and then downed a few mouthfuls of cool mountain spring water. Sighing contentedly, the pony decided he would figure out what he was meant to do with all this stuff he had collected tomorrow.

As the sun finally finished setting and the sky changed from pink and orange to a deep purple, the pony crawled underneath his wagon and curled up on the soft green grass. Exhausted from the day’s efforts, the pony quickly drifted off to sleep. But although sleep found him quickly, it did not do so restfully. The pony tossed and turned and moaned in his sleep as his dreams became darker and more confusing. He saw images of places he had never seen and ponies he had never met, all flitting through his mind’s eye faster than he could blink.

Suddenly there was a bright flash, and he was consumed by a rainbow-colored explosion. He screamed soundlessly as he was engulfed by the explosion, but there was no pain. No nothing. He cautiously opened his eyes and could see nothing but pitch black darkness. Hear nothing but silence. And then, as suddenly as the explosion had appeared, a deep echoing laugh rang out, chilling the pony’s spine with its evil sound. “W-who’s there??” he called bravely. “Show yourself!!” The voice echoed out again, but this time chanting in rhyme:

“The ponies think that they can win,

Although I know their chance is thin;

But just in case they do succeed,

I have something else up my sleeve;

A backup plan, a failsafe if you will,

I’ll make a new pony and bring him to Ponyville;

And there he’ll befriend them, sun or drizzle,

But thanks to him, their hopes will Fizzle…”

And then there was nothing but that terrible, evil laugh, filling up the poor frightened pony’s consciousness and ringing in his head. “Yyaaaaaaaagggh!!!” The pony shot up from his sleep screaming, and accidentally whacked his head against the bottom of his wagon. The pony collapsed in pain, grabbing the top of his head and muttering curses to himself. Crawling out from under his wagon, the pony continued to rub his head and grumble as he took stock of his surroundings.

It was early dawn, and the sun’s morning rays were just starting to peek out from over the distant horizon. The pony sat down to watch the sunrise for a few moments before finally speaking to himself. “Whew, what a dream. I wonder what that was all about…” he said thoughtfully. Suddenly he was struck by a thought. It came out of nowhere, but it felt so correct he simply had to accept it. His name was Fizzle of course, just like in the rhyme. Fizzle played the rhyme over in his head again, but could make no sense of it. He shrugged it off and trotted back towards the berry bush for some breakfast.

If anypony were around to ask him how he suddenly knew his name, Fizzle would have no answer for them.

It just felt so right.