Equestria Quest: The Chaos Lordby Korin-NChaptersCH-1CH-2CH-3CH-1Within the grand scheme of the cosmos lies the world of Lore, a beautiful land of magic and adventure where many of the wonderful stories ever to spread throughout the multiverse are born. This world is also the battle field between the dimensions of the Realm of Light and the Realm of Darkness who both wielded armies at their Champion's command. The forces Light and Darkness joined together to create The Alliance and with a nameless hero fought the Forces of Chaos, led by the Champion of Chaos, Drakath and his thirteen lords of Chaos. The chaos lords help Drakath complete a prophecy to summon a truly greater evil, The Queen of Monsters. She is the physical embodiment of the plain of Chaos, an energy that was beyond Light and Darkness and could take over both with ease as an infectious disease. The hero of Lore has defeated most of the lords of chaos in titanic battles of the mind and body, but the first lord of chaos who was defeated and humiliated by the hero did not simply sulk into the shadow. In the swamplands of the major continent of Lore, under the brilliant full moon the frogs began their nightly ritual of croaking and eating flies, but one frog did not join in. This little frog was on top of a small dirt hill with six old books surrounding a rock circle. The frog spoke to himself as his ghoul minion finished the preparations. “In a matter of minutes I’ll be free of this cursed form.” Sang the frog with clear joy in his voice. “My lord is pleased with Vile’s work?” groveled the ghoul named Vile hoping for kind words from his frog friend. “Yes my dull witted fiend. It was truly a blessing for me to find a ghoul who can talk.” It was indeed for five years as a slim covered frog was a humiliating nightmare that Escherion could not stand, fortunately Escherion discovered a hidden cove in the swamp one dark night full of ghouls with no masters. The leader of these ghouls was a older ghoul who could talk named Vile. Escherion told this ghoul his sad tale and Vile decided to help Escherion in exchange for his knowledge of magic to aid his people. “Thank you my lord, Vile is happy to steal these magic books from school of mages for you.” “Yes Now did you get the reversal potion? “Yes my lord.” As instructed Vile poured the potion on the rock circle and began to chant ancient magic he learned from his master. Within the light of the full moon, the circle glowed a bright sliver and the books lifted into the air above the frog. The silver light of magic began to turn a dark purple as something was interfering with the spell. “My Lord!!” screamed the ghoul as the frog was engulfed in the purple light. The frog was filled with the chaotic magic that he use to wield before he became a slimy frog and was soon to burst into little green pieces. “Polymorph!!!” Frantically screamed the Frog as he began to grow into a more humanoid form. The light faded as Vile stopped the chanting to see if his master was indeed alive. To his joy not only was his master fine but the spell worked to perfection. From the light the frog was now a human clad in dark purple battle mages cloth-robe adored with old skulls and an iron helm with a clothed hood. “Finally the spell is broken!” “Yes my lord, now the cosmos is blessed with the return of Chaos Lord Wscherion….” “Don’t say that name!!!” “My Lord?” “You fool, if you say that name in this realm my former master will be alerted and come here in to place me back into that lesser form, now that I am no use to him.” “A thousand pardons lord of chaos…” begged Vile franticly. With a snap of his fingers, a chaos infected staff appeared out of thin air. The power of the staff was truly grand as the chaos energy filled the staff to the brim within, ready to spread the Chaorruption. “Good, my staff of inversion is well rested and ready to serve me.” “Master, where do we go? The Champion of Chaos or the Hero of Lore may find us if we try anything.” “Yes…” Escherion knew Vile had a good point; there was nowhere to go without being attack on sight. No neither light or darkness would accept his help with his past sins. Fortunately Escherion had a backup plan he created while he spent five years as a cursed frog. “We must leave this realm as soon as possible, but first Vile gather all the ghoul allies you have, we will leave to a new world, a fresh start…” Vile left to gather his people as Escherion cast a spell on the staff of inversion in search of a new world. In Equestria…. It was another beautiful day for two ponies traveling on the train to appleloosa for the annual apple pie contest. Applejack, a strong farm earth pony with her friend Pinkie Pie, a very hyper pink earth pony made the tastiest pie that could make for the contest. There other friend were too busy to come with them but wished them luck, except for twilight sparkle, a lavender alicorn who heard that the contest was also to celibate appleloose’s new library. “Pinky, calm down will yaw, we aren’t there yet.” Said applejack trying to get her friend Pinky pie to stop jumping across the passenger train car. Of course pinky was too excited to listen, as twilight rolled her eye then continued reading one of her traveling books. In Lore… Escherion began to prepare to create a portal to a new land using the staff of inversion. The spell was going fine until out of nowhere a booming voice startled him. “My first lord has indeed broken the inversion spell, well done Escherion.” boomed a voice with a smug attitude. “Drakath!!!” “Yes my little lord, you should have known that I would not let you go on now that you have no use to me.” “I'm done serving you, I’ll be the master of my own realm.” “Fool, you could never defeat me, in fact ill make sure you never try to oppose me.” Drakath stopped talking and from the staff of inversion a beam of purple chaos energy struck Escherion causing him to vanish to parts unknown. Vile returned to see his master was gone and all that remain was a pile of ash and the tentacle covered staff. Escherion awoke with a terrible headache, his skin felt like it was on fire and an odd craving for apples. Looking down at himself, he froze in shock. He had been made into a small, purple pony with a black mane and tail, on his flank was an image of black frog. He clearly did not like this as he screamed like he was being set on fire. "Blasted Drakath!! You put me in this trash!! Why didn’t you kill me?!” “Because this is more chaotic my little pony.” echoed Drakath's fading voice. There Escherion was, in a new realm but as a pony, He tried to walk on the desert floor in his new body, after falling down many times he sat down, put his hooves to his face and thought to himself. “This is going to be a long day.” CH-2The heat of the Equestria's sun was taking its toll on poor little Escherion as he weakly walked through the desert trying not to have a slow death. he finally figured out how to walk on four legs, he would have enjoyed the new experience if he was not about to dehydrate, thankfully his burning hatred of Drakath and the thought of getting back to lore and slamming his head on a large rock kept Escherion fully energized. "How long does this blasted wasteland go on for?" moaned Escherion as the sweat from his head was dripping down onto the dusty ground. After an hour Escherion with the last of his strength he yelled for help as loud as he could, then he lost consciousness and collapse to the ground. Just outside of Appleloosa... Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie's train finally arrived at the Appleloosa station, when the trio got off their train they were greeted by Braeburn who was happy to see his cousin and her friends come back to Appleloosa for the apple pie contest. "Well hay there cousin." said Braeburn as he help the girls unload their luggage from the train car. "Greetings there Braeburn, how's it going?" Applejack greeted her cousin. "Going peachy keen, Appleloosa's got a ton of visitors from all over Equestria for this here contest, but I know you'll win this." "Thanks there cousin, I didn't come here to lose especially with pinkie's cooking skills" "Yep we came here to win, and win we shall, the cakes gave me a good recipe for the best apple pie in the world." Pinkie Pie jumped up and down like a little filly. "That’s good the here, so twilight are you going to help?" "I would love to help but I think Applejack and Pinkie have this contest in the bag, besides I what to check out the new library opening today, I heard they have an original copy of one of starswirl the bearded journals." twilight sparkle got very excited about thought of reading that book. "I'll meet up with you girls after I read that book, then I’ll cheer you on." "Sounds like a plan twii, see you later." With that the ponies left to their own little adventures, Braeburn was about to follow Applejack and Pinkie but caught something out of the corner of his eye. It was the buffalo, little Strongheart running as fast as she could to Braeburn with a concerned look on her face. "Strongheart what's the matter?" "Braeburn you got to help, my tribe found somepony out in the desert and we need to get him water." "Gosh, we better bring him to the Inn." Braeburn followed Strongheart as they ran to the inn to meet with the other buffalo. Escherion was never a lucky man in Lore, his humiliation at the Arcangrove School of Mages when he lost his mind and set the school on fire, becoming the first chaos lord and losing the battle with the hero of lore, being a bloody frog for five years and now dying as a pony. He thought that his life could not get any lower, and then he woke up. Escherion awoke after having water thrown on his dry pony head, his eyesight was a little blurry but he could make out the shape of some kind of animal in front of him. His eyesight returned after a few minutes, and to his surprise the animal facing him was a little buffalo. Escherion looked around and realized he was not in the desert anymore but in an inn full of pastel colored ponies. "I hate my life so much," he thought as he put a hoof on his face in shame. "Easy, you’re ok now." said Braeburn as he tried to get the pony to calm down. "Water..." "Here’s some water." Strongheart got a cup of water from a bucket on the bar counter. Escherion grabbed the water from strongheart drank it as fast as he could, then he saw the bucket and jump on the counter to drink the bucket dry. He then fell back onto the floor after finishing off the bucket of water and began to rube his head as the water was very cold and he got a headache. "You got lucky my good friend Strongheart and her tribe found you before something bad happened." said Braeburn as he was glad no one got hurt. "Where am I?" "Why you’re in the grand old town of Appleloosa." Escherion was now sure that Drakath sent him to the same world he was planning to conquer, he guess it was a chaotic irony that blasted fiend turned him into a pony and sent him here. One thought came to Escherion, the same thought that kept him from dying in that desert... revenge. Escherion needed to get back to Lore but he was in a strange land full of blasted talking ponies, first he needed to find out more about Equestria and the magic of this realm to work out a plan. "Do you ponies know where I can find a history book?" "Yeah there's a new library in town full of books, why you ask?" "I just need to look something up, I thank you for your help, but I must be on my way." Escherion walked out of the inn and into the street, he figured but the sun's position that it was about an hour past noon. As he followed the sign pointing to the new library Braeburn and Strongheart followed the strange pony to make sure he was ok. "What's your name?" Strongheart wondered about why this odd pony was in the middle of the desert. "My name is Escherion." "That's an odd name, where you from?" Braeburn ask "Let’s just say I'm new to Equestria, but don't worry you little heads, I plan on leaving as soon as possible." The thought of staying in this cursed land made him feel sick to his stomach. Elsewhere on the opposite side of the desert, a portal of dark purple light opened and from the portal, the chaos ghoul Vile and his small tribe of regular rotting ghouls appeared. In front of Vile his staff projected a holographic image of Drakath, the champion of chaos. "Vile, you and your ghouls may have this little world but I ask only one thing." "Yes my master." the new and creepier chaorrupted Vile knew from rumors and Escherion’s tales of Drakath that he would keep his promise as long as Vile did not interrupted his plans for Lore. "There are six items of power that keep this world from falling into chaos, These Elements of Harmony are the only thing in the multiverse that can cure Chaorruption. My saving grace is that only the residence of this realm, the ponies, can use them and the ponies can be Chaorrupted, I want you to find the wielders of these Elements and destroy them. Once this is done I will leave you alone to take this world for yourself and your people." "It will be done." "Then travel to the capital city of Canterlot and find where the wielders are." Drakath's image disappeared and with that Vile uses the staff of Inversion to create more ghouls from the desert sand and stones, increasing his army’s size by ten times its original size. The chaos ghoul could sense Escherion over in that western town in the distance, so Vile sent a small group of ghouls to Appleloosa to slay the former chaos lord. Vile then began to march his army to the setting sun, in the direction of Canterlot. Back in Appleloosa… Escherion had a short-term plan of finding the local library in this cowboy B-movie theme town and finding a history book or at least a book on the magic of this disturbing land of freak ponies. The long-term goal was to get back to his original form, get back to lore, find Drakath and take sweet revenge on that stuck up fool. Unfortunately, Escherion had to make a detour. Escherion walked down the town’s main dirt road to the library he caught whiff of the delicious smell of freshly baked apple pies, his stomach was completely void of food and rumbled for satisfaction. Escherion rubbed his belly with what strength he had, trying to think of the last time he ate, the only memory he had was eating flies, moths, and butterflies. He wanted to continue to the library but his stomach would not relent, he turned to the pony and the buffalo that were still following him with concerned expressions on their faces. "Where is that smell coming from? Escherion exclaimed weakly as his belly rumbled loudly. "Why that's the apple pie contest Appleloosa is throwing at the town’s squire." Braeburn said to the hungry pony. Braeburn took the hint from Escherion's howling belly so he and Strongheart lead Escherion to the contest area to fill him up on apple pie. Escherion thought the kindness of these two creatures was a little odd, back in Lore even before Escherion was a chaos lord no one was ever this kind to him. The School for the Magically Gifted was where he discovered his fascination with the art of magic, Escherion lived there for most of his young life and was always consider a loser because he took more interest in magic then making friends. He was picked on relentlessly for years by his fellow students before Escherion snapped under the pressure of the abuse and the overwhelming magic studies and accidently set fire to the school, no one was hurt but Escherion was kick out never to return. From that point on, he decide to become a powerful mage to rule over Lore, however this goal ultimately lead Escherion to meet Drakath, a thus beginning of Escherion’s downward spiral into misery. Escherion left his thoughts of the past behind as he walked into the contest area and was overwhelmed but the aroma of hoofed backed pies. He looked at all the pies and almost drooled over his dark purple coat. "Well it looks like the contest ended." Strongheart was right as she saw the pies being passed out to the watchers of the contest. "Then let’s show Escherion the apple family pies." Braeburn smiled at Escherion and motioned him to a stand where two ponies where jumping up and down in joy. Elsewhere... The pack of ghouls Vile sent to take out Escherion finally arrived at Appleloosa without any pony noticing them as they crawled on the wooden walls of the buildings onto the roofs to evade notice. The fifteen ghouls moved into five teams of three to locate their old lord more efficiently, as they moved through the alleyways and rooftops the towns folk never suspected anything, but caught the smell of the rotting ghouls but passed it off as old trash cans. One group arrived at the back alley of the town’s new library, looking inside the trash bags left outside for clues to the lord’s whereabouts. Back at town square... Pinkie Pie and Applejack were celebrating their winning pie recipe by the Equestria tradition of jumping around like wild bulls when applejack's cousin walked up to their booth with Strongheart and an unknown dark purple pony. "I take it you'll won." Braeburn already knew the answer. "Yes indeed there, we won by a landslide.” Applejack who was excited as a little filly showed the blue ribbon she and pinky won. "Was there ever a doubt, I told you guys that the cake's recipe was the best in Equestria. Pinkie exclaimed with pride as she jumped around like a rabbit who drank too much coffee. "Who's this? A new pony in town! I wish I brought my party wagon to welcome you here, though this isn't Ponyville you still need a welcoming so..." thus Pinkie broke into a welcoming song that was loud and agonizing to poor Escherion's ears. Escherion was past annoyed as he put his hooves on his head, trying to get rid of the song in his head. He walked over to the booth after pinky finished her little song, grabbed a pie, and ate it in almost record time, Escherion gave a slight smile and a nod to the two ponies as a way to say it was the most delouses pie he ever had in his cursed life. Without a word Escherion filled his belly with another pie then walked back on to the dust road to the library. "That fellow ain’t much on words." said Applejack. "He said his name is Escherion, my tribe found him in the desert past out and dehydrated." Strongheart commented while kicking some dirt around with her hoof. "Why has he in the desert?" Asked Pinky with great curiosity. "I don't know.” The ponies and buffalo nodded at each other and followed Escherion as he traveled to the new library as a fast pace. Escherion finally made it to the blasted library as one could see the wicked smile on his long face. The Library of Appleloosa was defiantly brand new as Escherion caught whiff of that fresh new book smell emanating from the air. He looked around to see no one there as far as he could tell, so he decided to look for the history section. Once Escherion found the book he was looking for he quickly studied the book even though the subject matter of love and tolerance baffled him, he just swallowed his pride and continued reading. On the other side of the library, twilight had just finished the book she wanted to study and was ready to set out for the contest to see if her friends won the pie contest. She was about to head out when she saw that the door was open; she thought the librarian came back from the contest when twilight remembered that she accidentally put the journal in her bag. A little embarrassed that she did that she quickly returned to the history section to return it to it’s shelve. Escherion finished the book and knew more about Equestria then he care to. He was boiling over with rage, as he now knew from that blasted book that only unicorns could perform any kind of magic in this multicolor nightmare, and he was stuck in an earth pony body that had no aptitude with spell casting. Escherion could not take this anymore as he stomped the ground with his purple hoof quiet hard in an anger filled tantrum. There was no way out as far as his anger fill mind could comprehend and Drakath truly made him a fool. "This is bloody unacceptable!!!" screamed Escherion as loud as physically possible. From the side of the shelves near the entrance a voice spoke up to Escherion startling him a little. "Excuse me sir are you ok?" twilight asked with concern over this distressed pony. "I'm just great, I'm stuck in this infernal nightmare for the rest of my life...I hate this place, these blasted ponies, and above all else I hate magic!!!" screamed Escherion with a mixture of sarcasm and hate. "Why do you hate magic?" Twilight asked, as she could not imagine somepony hating magic like this. "Ever since I was young I wanted to study magic and become the world’s greatest mage, but ever since I found interest in magic my life was been one let down after another." Escherion put his hooves on his head in sadness, he could not go on any more, and he wished he died in that blasted desert. Twilight did not understand why an earth pony would what to study magic but she could tell he was depressed, she was about to say something encouraging to this pony when out of the back door window a ghoul crashed through. Both Escherion and Twilight quickly arose to see the ghoul get up and signaled the other ghouls that it found there target. Twilight could not figure out what she was looking at, it was as tall as a diamond dog, walked on two scabbed covered legs, and it smelled like rotting trash. The ghouls saw twilight and tackle her so hard she was launched out of the library window. Escherion figured that Drakath sent the ghouls to kill him as the ghouls tried to surround Escherion, thankfully Escherion was quick to jump over a ghoul and tried to get out the open door but were grabbed by a slimy ghoul hand. Escherion and the ghouls began to tangle in a violent dog pile out into the street. The three ponies and the buffalo were about to arrive at the library when out of nowhere twilight came right out of the window and crashed onto the dirt road right in front of Applejack. "Twill!!" screamed Applejack as she tried to make sure her friend was ok. The Pinkie and the others went to twilight’s aid to find that she was ok but she had a few bruises and cuts. Escherion and the ghouls came flying out the doors and in to the street as the pony townsfolk came by to see the commotion. To the towns horror the other ghouls came from all over town to the same spot as they jumped down from the rooftops. Escherion was in the middle of the brawl as he smacked and trampled some of the ghouls trying to escape. The town was in chaos as the ghouls began to break and destroy the buildings and property. Applejack and Pinkie along with Braeburn and strongheart deafened twilight as the ghouls came in for an easy kill with bucks and tackles. Escherion was knocked over by twilight and her friends as the ghouls pushed the ponies into the center of town to finish them off, Twilight got up from the dusty road and projected a light purple barrier to protect everyone from these horrible creatures but she was still rattled from the attack and the barrier was weakening. The ghouls began to assault the magic barrier Escherion began to yell out his spells I hopes that his magic would return but the lavender ponies barrier was about to break any moment. Then Escherion screamed the last spell he never thought he would say again. "Polymorph!!!" From Escherion's body a brilliant white light shined so bight it blinded the attacking ghouls, twilight and the others looked on the light with wonder and confusion as Escherion transformed from an Earth pony to a Unicorn right before their eyes. Escherion felt his magic flow threw his pony body as he screamed another spell at the ghouls who during the temporary blindness moved in the right position to be annihilated. "Fire Ball!!!" screamed Escherion as his mana filled his new dark purple horn on his head and projected a large sphere of fire like the sun itself at the ghouls who tried to run but were all caught in the blast. The ghouls where incinerated in the fiery blast that shock the ground of Appleloosa like a small earthquake, Escherion knew those ghouls were made by the Chaorruption so they were mindless beasts not real beings. but what concerned him was that it means there is a chaorrupted item in this peaceful world and whoever is wielding it wanted Escherion dead. Once the smoke cleared, there Escherion stood over the ashes of the fallen enemy like a paladin after fighting an undead giant. The ponies were amazed as no one has seen a spell with such power like that in their lives. Escherion did not notice the looks of awe as his horn vanished in a soft purple glow and he fell to the ground as an earth pony. The ponies ran to their unknown hero to see that he was out like a candle light. Twilight and her friends picked Escherion up from the ground and took him to the train station, which escaped the ghoul’s damage. There were a number of thoughts going through twilight's mind but she was just relieved that those creatures were gone. Elsewhere... Vile continued his march with his ghoul army after feeling threw the staff of inversion the deaths of his ghouls in Appleloosa. He was concerned for his fallen brethren but he refocused on finding those items of power as he was now close to his goal. Within Canterlot high above the city.... Princess Celestia and her sister Princess Luna were having lunch on the balcony with Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash who just finished their business in the city. While the princesses and Rarity were enjoying there gourmet lunch, fluttershy was playing with Celestia's pet phoenix and Rainbow was doing some practice flying around the balcony. It was a picture perfect day until Princess Celestia and Luna grabbed their heads in surprised pain. "Is something the matter Princess Celestia?" whispered a concerned Fluttershy. "I've never felt something like this before, it is like something horrible has come to Equestria..." Celestia had a worried look on her face as her headache grew. "I think I know what you’re talking about." rainbow dash pointed her hoof at the horizon. Everypony from the filthy rich to the hard working guards in Canterlot could see something heading straight for the city and at the head of this force was a bright purple light growing brighter and brighter. CH-3Escherion was never the type of person to help others unless he received something in return. He never wanted to help the ponies that the ghouls terrorized, he just preferred living to the next day and killing some worthless ghouls always relieves stress. Now Escherion lies unconscious in the old Appleloosa train station surrounded by the ponies he saved, wondering who their savior is. Escherion opened his heavy eyelids slowly, his head was aching immensely and his body was drained of all energy. He put his hooves to the ground and tried to arise only to fall back down. He knew that those blasted ponies would say something about those ghouls and why they seemed interested in him. Going home will be harder than I thought. To Escherion’s surprise, he did not hear the sounds of the dreaded ponies or anything at all, no wind, and no dust, nothing… He quickly opened his eyes to see that the world of color and life was replaced by a dark void that lacked any detail of reality. Escherion went from annoyed to confuse in a matter of seconds as he finally arose from the utter darkness he stood on. “Hello!!!” Escherion continued to shout into the darkness hoping for a reply, but there was nothing... For what seemed like hours he just shouted, ranted, and cursed anything and everything he could think of. The list ranged from his rage for the hero that turned him into a frog for five miserable years to his hate at Drakath for using him, then leaving him to die. Escherion hated Lore with great passion, however as the more time he spent in this utter blackness the more he began to just set down and try to think of a way out. Then a bright golden light burst from the farthest sides of the dark void filling Escherion’s black cage with warm but alien light. Escherion shielded his eyes from the light, after a few seconds he put his hoof away from his face and opened his eyes. He was still a pony but he is now translucent blue like a ghost in the sun, but what amazed him was that the void now looked like his old life in Lore, from his life in the Mages School to his travels around Lore, The meeting with Drakath and becoming a chaos lord then the memory of the battle Escherion had with the hero of Lore inside his Chaorrupted tower. The hero in Escherion’s opinion was foolish novice who was trying to play the hero as he fought in old paladin armor while welding a common soldier's sword, not to mention the hero gave Escherion the item he needed to summon the chaos beast for Drakath without knowing its purpose. The memory fast forwards to the point in the battle where Escherion fires a blast of chaos energy from the Staff of Inversion in the hopes of turning the hero inside out but is defeated when the hero pulls a magic mirror from his bag and reflects the blast. The memories played the part were Escherion uses Polymorph and ends up a slim cover frog. Then the past five years as a frog in the ghouls swamp flash by in an instance as Escherion soon came to the conclusion that whatever is causing these memories to appear was also looking for something in his mind. “Well, now that we had this little trip down memory lane, let’s get to business.” A wicked voice boomed across the void causing the memories to shatter like a glass window. Bright colored shards falling and fading. To Escherion’s shock and confusion, the black void returned but a few feet in front of him was an odd misshapen creature sitting on a pink cloud with what looks like chocolate milk raining down from the bottom to oblivion. It had a head of a pony or goat, mismatched yellow and red eyes, and different body parts of various animals. At this point Escherion thought he had gone insane, and then the creature spoke to him. “Well I must say you have had an interesting life in that crazy world of yours.” “Who are you and why am I here!?” “Calm down there my little pony, you’re here because I wanted to see what your universe had to offer and is seems that Lore is a lot more chaotic then this realm of harmony.” “Your name now!" Escherion screamed with pure aggressive. “How very demanding of you, but where are my manners? I am known as Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony.” Discord snapped his eagle claw fingers, out of nowhere, a large fancy chair appeared from thin air, and the spirit sat upon it like a king of the lands. Then he snapped his fingers again and a movie screen appeared next to him and Escherion, it was playing video clips of Discord's memories. “Let me get you up to speed, I was once the ruler of the world and all those ponies you despise so much, I made the lands my little slice of chaotic fun. That is until those bothersome princesses Celestia and Luna used the elements of harmony to break up my fun and turn me into a statue, which by the way is quite painful.” “I escaped thousands of years later ready to bring the chaos back to Equestria until those annoying ponies of Celestia’s used the elements on me again.” There was a hint of anger and regret when he said anything involving the princesses and those six ponies. Escherion saw what was coming a mile away as he turned to Discord and told him. “Let me guess you want me to break you out of your stone prison, right?” “That would be the normal case in these universe hopping adventures, but first you need to save the Elements of Harmony from my brother, Drakath. Escherion was speechless as this creatures told him exactly what he was. "You’re this world’s Champion of Chaos and you’ll the son of the Queen of Monsters!" "Ding ding ding, we have a winner!" "But why are you telling me this? By all the evidence you work on the same side as Drakath." "That’s the beauty of Chaos, it always changes. but to go into more detail, after Celestia sealed me in stone the first time I had thousands of years relies my dear mother will do the same thing she will do to Drakath and betray him.” "I see, but why do I need to know this?" "You see I have a wonderful plan in motion. I like to call it vengeance for all." "Let me explain as best I can...The only thing in the cosmos that can stop and destroy are the Elements of Harmony. However only chosen ponies can use their power, so the Champion of Chaos that wants to end the wielder's lives. Equestria becomes Chaorrupted, from there the Multiverse is for the Queen’s taking. "However my plan involves saving Equestria by saving those little ponies. I will go into more detail later when you fall asleep again." "But that doesn’t make sense." "Where’s the fun in making sense?" . . . . “Is he ok?” a voice with concern echoed in Escherion’s ears. Several voices talked and whispered to one another thou Escherion could not make out the conversation he figured that those blasted ponies would say something. “Escherion are you alright?” the voices belonged to Strongheart and Braeburn as they gazed at Escherion with worry. “Yes…I’m fine, just a little drained.” As Escherion finally found his balance and arose, he could see the confused stares of the whole town of Appleloosa. Then Pinkie Pie jumped up at Escherion from the crowd like an excited child hopped up on candy. “That was amazing Eschey, you took out those green what-evers with no problem, and you’re an earth pony that somehow knows magic, did you get bit e by a magic spider or something…” Pinkie was clearly excited as she continued to ask Escherion question after question while calling him Eschey to his dismay. “I have to say on behalf of townsfolk of Appleloosa I want to thank you for saving our town” Braeburn and the town cheered their hero even if they had no idea who he really is. “Thanks…” “I am a quite curious that an Earth pony my friends found in the middle of the desert grew a horn that disappeared right after you used that dangerous spell, I’ve never seen in all of my studies.” Twilight did not waste time to ask Escherion about what just transpired as she was now inspecting him all over his head looking for that horn he grew. Escherion wanted to lie to this purple interrogator but suddenly out of the sky two blue suited Pegasus ponies landed perfectly next to the train station, it was two members of the WonderBolts Spitfire and Soarin who were panting heavily with worried looks on their faces. “Whoa, looks like those things hit this place too.” Spitfire took out a scroll from her jump suit and walked in front of the townsfolk. “Attention ponies of Appleloosa, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have requested all ponies that are willing and able to assemble a militia and travel to Canterlot immediately.” “What’s going on here?” Applejack wanted to know more as she moved in front of the crowed with Pinkie and Twilight. “Canterlot is under siege by strange monsters, the Princess tried to talk to the creatures but they attacked her and the guards on sight.” “Is Princess Celestia alight?” Twilight feared the worst for her teacher. “Yes, they managed to fly back to Canterlot, but the creatures are now at the city gates clawing at the walls, they need more reinforcements as the leader of these creatures is using some kind of odd powerful magic to make more of them.” Escherion heard this and could not help but to think that not only are there more ghouls but one of them is Chaorrupted and very powerful. However, Escherion had no clue why these ghouls were attacking the ponies capital city, there must be something there of great value to Drakath, maybe the Elements of Harmony that the spirit was talking about? The townsfolk were setting up their militia and putting what supplies and ponies they could spare on the train, meanwhile Escherion snuck away on the train’s luggage cart, however he had unexpected company. “Stop right there.” Twilight knew this pony must have the answers to this mess. Twilight, Applejack and Pinkie found Escherion trying to hide inside a barrel of fresh fruit; they clearly would not leave Escherion alone until he told what he knew about the ghouls. The train had finished its preparations and was now heading for Canterlot as train cars were filled with Appleloosa ponies ready to fight this unknown enemy. The four Ponies in the luggage car were now on a one-way trip to the battleground. “Fine, I’ll cooperate.” “I want to know what those things were that attacked us back in Appleloosa?” Applejack was almost as determined as Twilight in finding some honest answers. “Those creatures are called ghouls, think of them as weak minded monsters that usually obey their masters, but these are wild ghouls.” “I take it you know these creatures?” Escherion was surprised and impressed that Twilight had guessed correctly. “Yes, I lived with them once, but it seems that there leader wants something in Canterlot.” “I have no idea; there are hundreds of things valuable in Canterlot.” “They are after the Elements of Harmony.” Escherion spited out “Why Eschey?” “Stop calling me that, I can’t explain now but it is best for your world if the ghouls don’t get their claws on them.” Escherion and the three ponies stop talking as soon as they saw the smoke rising from over the horizon. The battle had begun. . . . . The once peaceful city of Canterlot was now a war zone as the army of ghouls had breached the city walls and were swarming up the clean white buildings trying to claw their way to the poor ponies inside. The royal guards on Celestia’s orders had every pony hide inside a newly constructed safe house built into the side of the mountain, while the guards tried to remove the invading forces. The Ghouls were overrunning the guards and the militia from the other cites as there leader, the chaorrupted ghoul Vile used his staff’s magic to multiple his army. “Find every pony in this pitiful city, I want them alive.” Vile’s roar of an order echoed over the ghoul army as he stood in the city’s main street to the castle “Stop right there you villain!” a ray of sunlight burst through the clouds as Celestia descended. “You will not stop me, I will have what I came here for!” Vile readied his staff as the princess landed on the battle scared street. In all the chaos of the fighting, two powerful beings were now set to duel each other to the death.
CH-1Within the grand scheme of the cosmos lies the world of Lore, a beautiful land of magic and adventure where many of the wonderful stories ever to spread throughout the multiverse are born. This world is also the battle field between the dimensions of the Realm of Light and the Realm of Darkness who both wielded armies at their Champion's command. The forces Light and Darkness joined together to create The Alliance and with a nameless hero fought the Forces of Chaos, led by the Champion of Chaos, Drakath and his thirteen lords of Chaos. The chaos lords help Drakath complete a prophecy to summon a truly greater evil, The Queen of Monsters. She is the physical embodiment of the plain of Chaos, an energy that was beyond Light and Darkness and could take over both with ease as an infectious disease. The hero of Lore has defeated most of the lords of chaos in titanic battles of the mind and body, but the first lord of chaos who was defeated and humiliated by the hero did not simply sulk into the shadow. In the swamplands of the major continent of Lore, under the brilliant full moon the frogs began their nightly ritual of croaking and eating flies, but one frog did not join in. This little frog was on top of a small dirt hill with six old books surrounding a rock circle. The frog spoke to himself as his ghoul minion finished the preparations. “In a matter of minutes I’ll be free of this cursed form.” Sang the frog with clear joy in his voice. “My lord is pleased with Vile’s work?” groveled the ghoul named Vile hoping for kind words from his frog friend. “Yes my dull witted fiend. It was truly a blessing for me to find a ghoul who can talk.” It was indeed for five years as a slim covered frog was a humiliating nightmare that Escherion could not stand, fortunately Escherion discovered a hidden cove in the swamp one dark night full of ghouls with no masters. The leader of these ghouls was a older ghoul who could talk named Vile. Escherion told this ghoul his sad tale and Vile decided to help Escherion in exchange for his knowledge of magic to aid his people. “Thank you my lord, Vile is happy to steal these magic books from school of mages for you.” “Yes Now did you get the reversal potion? “Yes my lord.” As instructed Vile poured the potion on the rock circle and began to chant ancient magic he learned from his master. Within the light of the full moon, the circle glowed a bright sliver and the books lifted into the air above the frog. The silver light of magic began to turn a dark purple as something was interfering with the spell. “My Lord!!” screamed the ghoul as the frog was engulfed in the purple light. The frog was filled with the chaotic magic that he use to wield before he became a slimy frog and was soon to burst into little green pieces. “Polymorph!!!” Frantically screamed the Frog as he began to grow into a more humanoid form. The light faded as Vile stopped the chanting to see if his master was indeed alive. To his joy not only was his master fine but the spell worked to perfection. From the light the frog was now a human clad in dark purple battle mages cloth-robe adored with old skulls and an iron helm with a clothed hood. “Finally the spell is broken!” “Yes my lord, now the cosmos is blessed with the return of Chaos Lord Wscherion….” “Don’t say that name!!!” “My Lord?” “You fool, if you say that name in this realm my former master will be alerted and come here in to place me back into that lesser form, now that I am no use to him.” “A thousand pardons lord of chaos…” begged Vile franticly. With a snap of his fingers, a chaos infected staff appeared out of thin air. The power of the staff was truly grand as the chaos energy filled the staff to the brim within, ready to spread the Chaorruption. “Good, my staff of inversion is well rested and ready to serve me.” “Master, where do we go? The Champion of Chaos or the Hero of Lore may find us if we try anything.” “Yes…” Escherion knew Vile had a good point; there was nowhere to go without being attack on sight. No neither light or darkness would accept his help with his past sins. Fortunately Escherion had a backup plan he created while he spent five years as a cursed frog. “We must leave this realm as soon as possible, but first Vile gather all the ghoul allies you have, we will leave to a new world, a fresh start…” Vile left to gather his people as Escherion cast a spell on the staff of inversion in search of a new world. In Equestria…. It was another beautiful day for two ponies traveling on the train to appleloosa for the annual apple pie contest. Applejack, a strong farm earth pony with her friend Pinkie Pie, a very hyper pink earth pony made the tastiest pie that could make for the contest. There other friend were too busy to come with them but wished them luck, except for twilight sparkle, a lavender alicorn who heard that the contest was also to celibate appleloose’s new library. “Pinky, calm down will yaw, we aren’t there yet.” Said applejack trying to get her friend Pinky pie to stop jumping across the passenger train car. Of course pinky was too excited to listen, as twilight rolled her eye then continued reading one of her traveling books. In Lore… Escherion began to prepare to create a portal to a new land using the staff of inversion. The spell was going fine until out of nowhere a booming voice startled him. “My first lord has indeed broken the inversion spell, well done Escherion.” boomed a voice with a smug attitude. “Drakath!!!” “Yes my little lord, you should have known that I would not let you go on now that you have no use to me.” “I'm done serving you, I’ll be the master of my own realm.” “Fool, you could never defeat me, in fact ill make sure you never try to oppose me.” Drakath stopped talking and from the staff of inversion a beam of purple chaos energy struck Escherion causing him to vanish to parts unknown. Vile returned to see his master was gone and all that remain was a pile of ash and the tentacle covered staff. Escherion awoke with a terrible headache, his skin felt like it was on fire and an odd craving for apples. Looking down at himself, he froze in shock. He had been made into a small, purple pony with a black mane and tail, on his flank was an image of black frog. He clearly did not like this as he screamed like he was being set on fire. "Blasted Drakath!! You put me in this trash!! Why didn’t you kill me?!” “Because this is more chaotic my little pony.” echoed Drakath's fading voice. There Escherion was, in a new realm but as a pony, He tried to walk on the desert floor in his new body, after falling down many times he sat down, put his hooves to his face and thought to himself. “This is going to be a long day.”
CH-2The heat of the Equestria's sun was taking its toll on poor little Escherion as he weakly walked through the desert trying not to have a slow death. he finally figured out how to walk on four legs, he would have enjoyed the new experience if he was not about to dehydrate, thankfully his burning hatred of Drakath and the thought of getting back to lore and slamming his head on a large rock kept Escherion fully energized. "How long does this blasted wasteland go on for?" moaned Escherion as the sweat from his head was dripping down onto the dusty ground. After an hour Escherion with the last of his strength he yelled for help as loud as he could, then he lost consciousness and collapse to the ground. Just outside of Appleloosa... Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie's train finally arrived at the Appleloosa station, when the trio got off their train they were greeted by Braeburn who was happy to see his cousin and her friends come back to Appleloosa for the apple pie contest. "Well hay there cousin." said Braeburn as he help the girls unload their luggage from the train car. "Greetings there Braeburn, how's it going?" Applejack greeted her cousin. "Going peachy keen, Appleloosa's got a ton of visitors from all over Equestria for this here contest, but I know you'll win this." "Thanks there cousin, I didn't come here to lose especially with pinkie's cooking skills" "Yep we came here to win, and win we shall, the cakes gave me a good recipe for the best apple pie in the world." Pinkie Pie jumped up and down like a little filly. "That’s good the here, so twilight are you going to help?" "I would love to help but I think Applejack and Pinkie have this contest in the bag, besides I what to check out the new library opening today, I heard they have an original copy of one of starswirl the bearded journals." twilight sparkle got very excited about thought of reading that book. "I'll meet up with you girls after I read that book, then I’ll cheer you on." "Sounds like a plan twii, see you later." With that the ponies left to their own little adventures, Braeburn was about to follow Applejack and Pinkie but caught something out of the corner of his eye. It was the buffalo, little Strongheart running as fast as she could to Braeburn with a concerned look on her face. "Strongheart what's the matter?" "Braeburn you got to help, my tribe found somepony out in the desert and we need to get him water." "Gosh, we better bring him to the Inn." Braeburn followed Strongheart as they ran to the inn to meet with the other buffalo. Escherion was never a lucky man in Lore, his humiliation at the Arcangrove School of Mages when he lost his mind and set the school on fire, becoming the first chaos lord and losing the battle with the hero of lore, being a bloody frog for five years and now dying as a pony. He thought that his life could not get any lower, and then he woke up. Escherion awoke after having water thrown on his dry pony head, his eyesight was a little blurry but he could make out the shape of some kind of animal in front of him. His eyesight returned after a few minutes, and to his surprise the animal facing him was a little buffalo. Escherion looked around and realized he was not in the desert anymore but in an inn full of pastel colored ponies. "I hate my life so much," he thought as he put a hoof on his face in shame. "Easy, you’re ok now." said Braeburn as he tried to get the pony to calm down. "Water..." "Here’s some water." Strongheart got a cup of water from a bucket on the bar counter. Escherion grabbed the water from strongheart drank it as fast as he could, then he saw the bucket and jump on the counter to drink the bucket dry. He then fell back onto the floor after finishing off the bucket of water and began to rube his head as the water was very cold and he got a headache. "You got lucky my good friend Strongheart and her tribe found you before something bad happened." said Braeburn as he was glad no one got hurt. "Where am I?" "Why you’re in the grand old town of Appleloosa." Escherion was now sure that Drakath sent him to the same world he was planning to conquer, he guess it was a chaotic irony that blasted fiend turned him into a pony and sent him here. One thought came to Escherion, the same thought that kept him from dying in that desert... revenge. Escherion needed to get back to Lore but he was in a strange land full of blasted talking ponies, first he needed to find out more about Equestria and the magic of this realm to work out a plan. "Do you ponies know where I can find a history book?" "Yeah there's a new library in town full of books, why you ask?" "I just need to look something up, I thank you for your help, but I must be on my way." Escherion walked out of the inn and into the street, he figured but the sun's position that it was about an hour past noon. As he followed the sign pointing to the new library Braeburn and Strongheart followed the strange pony to make sure he was ok. "What's your name?" Strongheart wondered about why this odd pony was in the middle of the desert. "My name is Escherion." "That's an odd name, where you from?" Braeburn ask "Let’s just say I'm new to Equestria, but don't worry you little heads, I plan on leaving as soon as possible." The thought of staying in this cursed land made him feel sick to his stomach. Elsewhere on the opposite side of the desert, a portal of dark purple light opened and from the portal, the chaos ghoul Vile and his small tribe of regular rotting ghouls appeared. In front of Vile his staff projected a holographic image of Drakath, the champion of chaos. "Vile, you and your ghouls may have this little world but I ask only one thing." "Yes my master." the new and creepier chaorrupted Vile knew from rumors and Escherion’s tales of Drakath that he would keep his promise as long as Vile did not interrupted his plans for Lore. "There are six items of power that keep this world from falling into chaos, These Elements of Harmony are the only thing in the multiverse that can cure Chaorruption. My saving grace is that only the residence of this realm, the ponies, can use them and the ponies can be Chaorrupted, I want you to find the wielders of these Elements and destroy them. Once this is done I will leave you alone to take this world for yourself and your people." "It will be done." "Then travel to the capital city of Canterlot and find where the wielders are." Drakath's image disappeared and with that Vile uses the staff of Inversion to create more ghouls from the desert sand and stones, increasing his army’s size by ten times its original size. The chaos ghoul could sense Escherion over in that western town in the distance, so Vile sent a small group of ghouls to Appleloosa to slay the former chaos lord. Vile then began to march his army to the setting sun, in the direction of Canterlot. Back in Appleloosa… Escherion had a short-term plan of finding the local library in this cowboy B-movie theme town and finding a history book or at least a book on the magic of this disturbing land of freak ponies. The long-term goal was to get back to his original form, get back to lore, find Drakath and take sweet revenge on that stuck up fool. Unfortunately, Escherion had to make a detour. Escherion walked down the town’s main dirt road to the library he caught whiff of the delicious smell of freshly baked apple pies, his stomach was completely void of food and rumbled for satisfaction. Escherion rubbed his belly with what strength he had, trying to think of the last time he ate, the only memory he had was eating flies, moths, and butterflies. He wanted to continue to the library but his stomach would not relent, he turned to the pony and the buffalo that were still following him with concerned expressions on their faces. "Where is that smell coming from? Escherion exclaimed weakly as his belly rumbled loudly. "Why that's the apple pie contest Appleloosa is throwing at the town’s squire." Braeburn said to the hungry pony. Braeburn took the hint from Escherion's howling belly so he and Strongheart lead Escherion to the contest area to fill him up on apple pie. Escherion thought the kindness of these two creatures was a little odd, back in Lore even before Escherion was a chaos lord no one was ever this kind to him. The School for the Magically Gifted was where he discovered his fascination with the art of magic, Escherion lived there for most of his young life and was always consider a loser because he took more interest in magic then making friends. He was picked on relentlessly for years by his fellow students before Escherion snapped under the pressure of the abuse and the overwhelming magic studies and accidently set fire to the school, no one was hurt but Escherion was kick out never to return. From that point on, he decide to become a powerful mage to rule over Lore, however this goal ultimately lead Escherion to meet Drakath, a thus beginning of Escherion’s downward spiral into misery. Escherion left his thoughts of the past behind as he walked into the contest area and was overwhelmed but the aroma of hoofed backed pies. He looked at all the pies and almost drooled over his dark purple coat. "Well it looks like the contest ended." Strongheart was right as she saw the pies being passed out to the watchers of the contest. "Then let’s show Escherion the apple family pies." Braeburn smiled at Escherion and motioned him to a stand where two ponies where jumping up and down in joy. Elsewhere... The pack of ghouls Vile sent to take out Escherion finally arrived at Appleloosa without any pony noticing them as they crawled on the wooden walls of the buildings onto the roofs to evade notice. The fifteen ghouls moved into five teams of three to locate their old lord more efficiently, as they moved through the alleyways and rooftops the towns folk never suspected anything, but caught the smell of the rotting ghouls but passed it off as old trash cans. One group arrived at the back alley of the town’s new library, looking inside the trash bags left outside for clues to the lord’s whereabouts. Back at town square... Pinkie Pie and Applejack were celebrating their winning pie recipe by the Equestria tradition of jumping around like wild bulls when applejack's cousin walked up to their booth with Strongheart and an unknown dark purple pony. "I take it you'll won." Braeburn already knew the answer. "Yes indeed there, we won by a landslide.” Applejack who was excited as a little filly showed the blue ribbon she and pinky won. "Was there ever a doubt, I told you guys that the cake's recipe was the best in Equestria. Pinkie exclaimed with pride as she jumped around like a rabbit who drank too much coffee. "Who's this? A new pony in town! I wish I brought my party wagon to welcome you here, though this isn't Ponyville you still need a welcoming so..." thus Pinkie broke into a welcoming song that was loud and agonizing to poor Escherion's ears. Escherion was past annoyed as he put his hooves on his head, trying to get rid of the song in his head. He walked over to the booth after pinky finished her little song, grabbed a pie, and ate it in almost record time, Escherion gave a slight smile and a nod to the two ponies as a way to say it was the most delouses pie he ever had in his cursed life. Without a word Escherion filled his belly with another pie then walked back on to the dust road to the library. "That fellow ain’t much on words." said Applejack. "He said his name is Escherion, my tribe found him in the desert past out and dehydrated." Strongheart commented while kicking some dirt around with her hoof. "Why has he in the desert?" Asked Pinky with great curiosity. "I don't know.” The ponies and buffalo nodded at each other and followed Escherion as he traveled to the new library as a fast pace. Escherion finally made it to the blasted library as one could see the wicked smile on his long face. The Library of Appleloosa was defiantly brand new as Escherion caught whiff of that fresh new book smell emanating from the air. He looked around to see no one there as far as he could tell, so he decided to look for the history section. Once Escherion found the book he was looking for he quickly studied the book even though the subject matter of love and tolerance baffled him, he just swallowed his pride and continued reading. On the other side of the library, twilight had just finished the book she wanted to study and was ready to set out for the contest to see if her friends won the pie contest. She was about to head out when she saw that the door was open; she thought the librarian came back from the contest when twilight remembered that she accidentally put the journal in her bag. A little embarrassed that she did that she quickly returned to the history section to return it to it’s shelve. Escherion finished the book and knew more about Equestria then he care to. He was boiling over with rage, as he now knew from that blasted book that only unicorns could perform any kind of magic in this multicolor nightmare, and he was stuck in an earth pony body that had no aptitude with spell casting. Escherion could not take this anymore as he stomped the ground with his purple hoof quiet hard in an anger filled tantrum. There was no way out as far as his anger fill mind could comprehend and Drakath truly made him a fool. "This is bloody unacceptable!!!" screamed Escherion as loud as physically possible. From the side of the shelves near the entrance a voice spoke up to Escherion startling him a little. "Excuse me sir are you ok?" twilight asked with concern over this distressed pony. "I'm just great, I'm stuck in this infernal nightmare for the rest of my life...I hate this place, these blasted ponies, and above all else I hate magic!!!" screamed Escherion with a mixture of sarcasm and hate. "Why do you hate magic?" Twilight asked, as she could not imagine somepony hating magic like this. "Ever since I was young I wanted to study magic and become the world’s greatest mage, but ever since I found interest in magic my life was been one let down after another." Escherion put his hooves on his head in sadness, he could not go on any more, and he wished he died in that blasted desert. Twilight did not understand why an earth pony would what to study magic but she could tell he was depressed, she was about to say something encouraging to this pony when out of the back door window a ghoul crashed through. Both Escherion and Twilight quickly arose to see the ghoul get up and signaled the other ghouls that it found there target. Twilight could not figure out what she was looking at, it was as tall as a diamond dog, walked on two scabbed covered legs, and it smelled like rotting trash. The ghouls saw twilight and tackle her so hard she was launched out of the library window. Escherion figured that Drakath sent the ghouls to kill him as the ghouls tried to surround Escherion, thankfully Escherion was quick to jump over a ghoul and tried to get out the open door but were grabbed by a slimy ghoul hand. Escherion and the ghouls began to tangle in a violent dog pile out into the street. The three ponies and the buffalo were about to arrive at the library when out of nowhere twilight came right out of the window and crashed onto the dirt road right in front of Applejack. "Twill!!" screamed Applejack as she tried to make sure her friend was ok. The Pinkie and the others went to twilight’s aid to find that she was ok but she had a few bruises and cuts. Escherion and the ghouls came flying out the doors and in to the street as the pony townsfolk came by to see the commotion. To the towns horror the other ghouls came from all over town to the same spot as they jumped down from the rooftops. Escherion was in the middle of the brawl as he smacked and trampled some of the ghouls trying to escape. The town was in chaos as the ghouls began to break and destroy the buildings and property. Applejack and Pinkie along with Braeburn and strongheart deafened twilight as the ghouls came in for an easy kill with bucks and tackles. Escherion was knocked over by twilight and her friends as the ghouls pushed the ponies into the center of town to finish them off, Twilight got up from the dusty road and projected a light purple barrier to protect everyone from these horrible creatures but she was still rattled from the attack and the barrier was weakening. The ghouls began to assault the magic barrier Escherion began to yell out his spells I hopes that his magic would return but the lavender ponies barrier was about to break any moment. Then Escherion screamed the last spell he never thought he would say again. "Polymorph!!!" From Escherion's body a brilliant white light shined so bight it blinded the attacking ghouls, twilight and the others looked on the light with wonder and confusion as Escherion transformed from an Earth pony to a Unicorn right before their eyes. Escherion felt his magic flow threw his pony body as he screamed another spell at the ghouls who during the temporary blindness moved in the right position to be annihilated. "Fire Ball!!!" screamed Escherion as his mana filled his new dark purple horn on his head and projected a large sphere of fire like the sun itself at the ghouls who tried to run but were all caught in the blast. The ghouls where incinerated in the fiery blast that shock the ground of Appleloosa like a small earthquake, Escherion knew those ghouls were made by the Chaorruption so they were mindless beasts not real beings. but what concerned him was that it means there is a chaorrupted item in this peaceful world and whoever is wielding it wanted Escherion dead. Once the smoke cleared, there Escherion stood over the ashes of the fallen enemy like a paladin after fighting an undead giant. The ponies were amazed as no one has seen a spell with such power like that in their lives. Escherion did not notice the looks of awe as his horn vanished in a soft purple glow and he fell to the ground as an earth pony. The ponies ran to their unknown hero to see that he was out like a candle light. Twilight and her friends picked Escherion up from the ground and took him to the train station, which escaped the ghoul’s damage. There were a number of thoughts going through twilight's mind but she was just relieved that those creatures were gone. Elsewhere... Vile continued his march with his ghoul army after feeling threw the staff of inversion the deaths of his ghouls in Appleloosa. He was concerned for his fallen brethren but he refocused on finding those items of power as he was now close to his goal. Within Canterlot high above the city.... Princess Celestia and her sister Princess Luna were having lunch on the balcony with Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash who just finished their business in the city. While the princesses and Rarity were enjoying there gourmet lunch, fluttershy was playing with Celestia's pet phoenix and Rainbow was doing some practice flying around the balcony. It was a picture perfect day until Princess Celestia and Luna grabbed their heads in surprised pain. "Is something the matter Princess Celestia?" whispered a concerned Fluttershy. "I've never felt something like this before, it is like something horrible has come to Equestria..." Celestia had a worried look on her face as her headache grew. "I think I know what you’re talking about." rainbow dash pointed her hoof at the horizon. Everypony from the filthy rich to the hard working guards in Canterlot could see something heading straight for the city and at the head of this force was a bright purple light growing brighter and brighter.
CH-3Escherion was never the type of person to help others unless he received something in return. He never wanted to help the ponies that the ghouls terrorized, he just preferred living to the next day and killing some worthless ghouls always relieves stress. Now Escherion lies unconscious in the old Appleloosa train station surrounded by the ponies he saved, wondering who their savior is. Escherion opened his heavy eyelids slowly, his head was aching immensely and his body was drained of all energy. He put his hooves to the ground and tried to arise only to fall back down. He knew that those blasted ponies would say something about those ghouls and why they seemed interested in him. Going home will be harder than I thought. To Escherion’s surprise, he did not hear the sounds of the dreaded ponies or anything at all, no wind, and no dust, nothing… He quickly opened his eyes to see that the world of color and life was replaced by a dark void that lacked any detail of reality. Escherion went from annoyed to confuse in a matter of seconds as he finally arose from the utter darkness he stood on. “Hello!!!” Escherion continued to shout into the darkness hoping for a reply, but there was nothing... For what seemed like hours he just shouted, ranted, and cursed anything and everything he could think of. The list ranged from his rage for the hero that turned him into a frog for five miserable years to his hate at Drakath for using him, then leaving him to die. Escherion hated Lore with great passion, however as the more time he spent in this utter blackness the more he began to just set down and try to think of a way out. Then a bright golden light burst from the farthest sides of the dark void filling Escherion’s black cage with warm but alien light. Escherion shielded his eyes from the light, after a few seconds he put his hoof away from his face and opened his eyes. He was still a pony but he is now translucent blue like a ghost in the sun, but what amazed him was that the void now looked like his old life in Lore, from his life in the Mages School to his travels around Lore, The meeting with Drakath and becoming a chaos lord then the memory of the battle Escherion had with the hero of Lore inside his Chaorrupted tower. The hero in Escherion’s opinion was foolish novice who was trying to play the hero as he fought in old paladin armor while welding a common soldier's sword, not to mention the hero gave Escherion the item he needed to summon the chaos beast for Drakath without knowing its purpose. The memory fast forwards to the point in the battle where Escherion fires a blast of chaos energy from the Staff of Inversion in the hopes of turning the hero inside out but is defeated when the hero pulls a magic mirror from his bag and reflects the blast. The memories played the part were Escherion uses Polymorph and ends up a slim cover frog. Then the past five years as a frog in the ghouls swamp flash by in an instance as Escherion soon came to the conclusion that whatever is causing these memories to appear was also looking for something in his mind. “Well, now that we had this little trip down memory lane, let’s get to business.” A wicked voice boomed across the void causing the memories to shatter like a glass window. Bright colored shards falling and fading. To Escherion’s shock and confusion, the black void returned but a few feet in front of him was an odd misshapen creature sitting on a pink cloud with what looks like chocolate milk raining down from the bottom to oblivion. It had a head of a pony or goat, mismatched yellow and red eyes, and different body parts of various animals. At this point Escherion thought he had gone insane, and then the creature spoke to him. “Well I must say you have had an interesting life in that crazy world of yours.” “Who are you and why am I here!?” “Calm down there my little pony, you’re here because I wanted to see what your universe had to offer and is seems that Lore is a lot more chaotic then this realm of harmony.” “Your name now!" Escherion screamed with pure aggressive. “How very demanding of you, but where are my manners? I am known as Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony.” Discord snapped his eagle claw fingers, out of nowhere, a large fancy chair appeared from thin air, and the spirit sat upon it like a king of the lands. Then he snapped his fingers again and a movie screen appeared next to him and Escherion, it was playing video clips of Discord's memories. “Let me get you up to speed, I was once the ruler of the world and all those ponies you despise so much, I made the lands my little slice of chaotic fun. That is until those bothersome princesses Celestia and Luna used the elements of harmony to break up my fun and turn me into a statue, which by the way is quite painful.” “I escaped thousands of years later ready to bring the chaos back to Equestria until those annoying ponies of Celestia’s used the elements on me again.” There was a hint of anger and regret when he said anything involving the princesses and those six ponies. Escherion saw what was coming a mile away as he turned to Discord and told him. “Let me guess you want me to break you out of your stone prison, right?” “That would be the normal case in these universe hopping adventures, but first you need to save the Elements of Harmony from my brother, Drakath. Escherion was speechless as this creatures told him exactly what he was. "You’re this world’s Champion of Chaos and you’ll the son of the Queen of Monsters!" "Ding ding ding, we have a winner!" "But why are you telling me this? By all the evidence you work on the same side as Drakath." "That’s the beauty of Chaos, it always changes. but to go into more detail, after Celestia sealed me in stone the first time I had thousands of years relies my dear mother will do the same thing she will do to Drakath and betray him.” "I see, but why do I need to know this?" "You see I have a wonderful plan in motion. I like to call it vengeance for all." "Let me explain as best I can...The only thing in the cosmos that can stop and destroy are the Elements of Harmony. However only chosen ponies can use their power, so the Champion of Chaos that wants to end the wielder's lives. Equestria becomes Chaorrupted, from there the Multiverse is for the Queen’s taking. "However my plan involves saving Equestria by saving those little ponies. I will go into more detail later when you fall asleep again." "But that doesn’t make sense." "Where’s the fun in making sense?" . . . . “Is he ok?” a voice with concern echoed in Escherion’s ears. Several voices talked and whispered to one another thou Escherion could not make out the conversation he figured that those blasted ponies would say something. “Escherion are you alright?” the voices belonged to Strongheart and Braeburn as they gazed at Escherion with worry. “Yes…I’m fine, just a little drained.” As Escherion finally found his balance and arose, he could see the confused stares of the whole town of Appleloosa. Then Pinkie Pie jumped up at Escherion from the crowd like an excited child hopped up on candy. “That was amazing Eschey, you took out those green what-evers with no problem, and you’re an earth pony that somehow knows magic, did you get bit e by a magic spider or something…” Pinkie was clearly excited as she continued to ask Escherion question after question while calling him Eschey to his dismay. “I have to say on behalf of townsfolk of Appleloosa I want to thank you for saving our town” Braeburn and the town cheered their hero even if they had no idea who he really is. “Thanks…” “I am a quite curious that an Earth pony my friends found in the middle of the desert grew a horn that disappeared right after you used that dangerous spell, I’ve never seen in all of my studies.” Twilight did not waste time to ask Escherion about what just transpired as she was now inspecting him all over his head looking for that horn he grew. Escherion wanted to lie to this purple interrogator but suddenly out of the sky two blue suited Pegasus ponies landed perfectly next to the train station, it was two members of the WonderBolts Spitfire and Soarin who were panting heavily with worried looks on their faces. “Whoa, looks like those things hit this place too.” Spitfire took out a scroll from her jump suit and walked in front of the townsfolk. “Attention ponies of Appleloosa, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have requested all ponies that are willing and able to assemble a militia and travel to Canterlot immediately.” “What’s going on here?” Applejack wanted to know more as she moved in front of the crowed with Pinkie and Twilight. “Canterlot is under siege by strange monsters, the Princess tried to talk to the creatures but they attacked her and the guards on sight.” “Is Princess Celestia alight?” Twilight feared the worst for her teacher. “Yes, they managed to fly back to Canterlot, but the creatures are now at the city gates clawing at the walls, they need more reinforcements as the leader of these creatures is using some kind of odd powerful magic to make more of them.” Escherion heard this and could not help but to think that not only are there more ghouls but one of them is Chaorrupted and very powerful. However, Escherion had no clue why these ghouls were attacking the ponies capital city, there must be something there of great value to Drakath, maybe the Elements of Harmony that the spirit was talking about? The townsfolk were setting up their militia and putting what supplies and ponies they could spare on the train, meanwhile Escherion snuck away on the train’s luggage cart, however he had unexpected company. “Stop right there.” Twilight knew this pony must have the answers to this mess. Twilight, Applejack and Pinkie found Escherion trying to hide inside a barrel of fresh fruit; they clearly would not leave Escherion alone until he told what he knew about the ghouls. The train had finished its preparations and was now heading for Canterlot as train cars were filled with Appleloosa ponies ready to fight this unknown enemy. The four Ponies in the luggage car were now on a one-way trip to the battleground. “Fine, I’ll cooperate.” “I want to know what those things were that attacked us back in Appleloosa?” Applejack was almost as determined as Twilight in finding some honest answers. “Those creatures are called ghouls, think of them as weak minded monsters that usually obey their masters, but these are wild ghouls.” “I take it you know these creatures?” Escherion was surprised and impressed that Twilight had guessed correctly. “Yes, I lived with them once, but it seems that there leader wants something in Canterlot.” “I have no idea; there are hundreds of things valuable in Canterlot.” “They are after the Elements of Harmony.” Escherion spited out “Why Eschey?” “Stop calling me that, I can’t explain now but it is best for your world if the ghouls don’t get their claws on them.” Escherion and the three ponies stop talking as soon as they saw the smoke rising from over the horizon. The battle had begun. . . . . The once peaceful city of Canterlot was now a war zone as the army of ghouls had breached the city walls and were swarming up the clean white buildings trying to claw their way to the poor ponies inside. The royal guards on Celestia’s orders had every pony hide inside a newly constructed safe house built into the side of the mountain, while the guards tried to remove the invading forces. The Ghouls were overrunning the guards and the militia from the other cites as there leader, the chaorrupted ghoul Vile used his staff’s magic to multiple his army. “Find every pony in this pitiful city, I want them alive.” Vile’s roar of an order echoed over the ghoul army as he stood in the city’s main street to the castle “Stop right there you villain!” a ray of sunlight burst through the clouds as Celestia descended. “You will not stop me, I will have what I came here for!” Vile readied his staff as the princess landed on the battle scared street. In all the chaos of the fighting, two powerful beings were now set to duel each other to the death.
