Equestria Quest: The Chaos Lord

The 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.