The Sword of Harmony

Dallas, Texas, September 10, 2010

Landon Johnson was the typical teenage boy. He hardly ever got in trouble at school and when he did, it was only minor things like swearing and possibly fighting with other students. He hardly ever got a failing grade, except for in the Pre-AP English class he took his freshman year.

As of now, he was a sophomore, ending his freshman year with a solid 3.0 grade point average. Though he didn't look like the kind of guy that'd be considered a "nerd". He had the athletic build of a basketball player, but his height was that of a 12 year old. But hardly anyone made rude remarks about his height. What they did make rude remarks about, however, was his eyes. He had these strange yet beautiful rose colored eyes that nobody ever had, and it often drew unwanted attention to him.

Landon went to a local public school in Dallas. He grew up in one of the worst parts of the city, so gangs, criminals, robbers, and even more filled the streets. Today, he had a life threatening experience with one of the more dangerous and notorious gangs known as The Headshots. This group of thugs was a dangerous, crime fueled gang that wanted nothing more than to rob people and, if they felt particularly devious, kill them. They often wore ski masks and would always wear red t shirts and jeans to distinguish themselves from the multiple other gangs as nobody who wasn’t one of The Headshots wore red t-shirts and jeans.

One day after school, Landon arrived home only to be greeted with the usual, “welcome” response of his brother, Paul.

"Hello, there shit stain.", Paul said as he always did.

"Fuck you.", Landon said.

"Nah man. I ain't gay like you."

"Whatever, asshole", Landon said, walking to his room so he could do his homework in peace. Ever since Landon was seven, Paul always messed with him. Paul was tall yet quite heavy, he sported a stubbly mustache and beard combination on his face. He was 19 years old, an age you'd think would make him mature, but you’d be wrong.

In fact, Paul slowly got worse with his actions toward his brother over the years. Now it's nearing the point of abuse.

As Landon did his homework, his mother came up to his room to check on him.

"Hello, sweetie. Are you doing all right?", his mom said in her typical, caring voice.

"Yeah, mom. I'm doing fine."

"OK. Just let me know if you need help with something."  She walked out, leaving her son alone to work on his homework.

Landon's mom, Shelly, was a very kind person. Sometimes, a little, too, kind. She also wasn't bad looking. She had beautiful hazel eyes and beautiful long brown hair. However, she of course, wasn't perfect. She was often too nice, especially after her husband's death, a victim of a bullet to the head courtesy of one of the dangerous gangs that he happened to run into. One that nobody, except for Landon, Paul, and Shelly remembered. This caused Shelly to be too kind to them both, often not believing Landon’s claims when he told her about Paul messing with him. Of course Landon knew that she loved him, she just didn’t want to understand that one of her sons tormented the other.

She had a job, though it only paid her about $700 a week. Because of this, they always barely scraped by with enough money for food, especially with all the bills for the crappy apartment they lived in. At least they had a home though, right?

Still, even finding in the more expensive, yet safer areas of Dallas, would have been preferable to the utterly dangerous and cheap part of Dallas they lived in now. But they couldn’t afford it, and had to accept that they were stuck in an area even the most hardened criminals would go out of their way to avoid.

Regardless, Landon tried to not let it bother him too much, focusing on things like homework and television to take his mind off of his surroundings, defined by the nightly sound of police sirens wailing in the streets just outside his window.

He usually was able to avoid getting involved with the gangs that inhabited the city, but sometimes he wasn’t so lucky. The following day after school, around 4:20, he was on his way home. It was the ninth anniversary of September 11th so a majority of the day was spent talking about the attacks, and what each student remembered of them. Where they were, what they were doing, etc.

Landon was walking home as he usually did. But just as he was about to reach the street near his house, he was stopped by the sudden appearance of a gun pointed directly at his head. There, standing directly in front of him, was none other than the leader of The Headshots, his face hidden behind a ski mask. Accompanying him were about three thugs, all wearing the trademark red t-shirt and jeans.

The masked leader smiled, "Yo. What's in your pockets?"

"Why is that any of your business, Howard?", Landon questioned definitely.

The gang leader froze in shock. Sure his real name was Howard, but you’d either have to be extremely brave, or extremely stupid to call him that.

"The name's Sniper, you fucking dumbass." Howard, or Sniper, as he preferred, growled.

"Whatever, Howard."

The way Landon mockingly said "Howard" began to anger the gang leader to no end, his blood pressure rising and his hands clenched into fists. He pointed threateningly at Landon, a wild look in his eyes.

"Listen here punk, either you give me whatever's in your pockets, or I beat the living shit out of you.” Howard demanded in a tone that would make anyone feel threatened.

Landon was scared,downright terrified even. But he masked it, not wanting to give Howard the benefit of the doubt by making it looks as though he frightened him, though that was the truth.

"Look who's calling who a punk. If you want to know what's in my pockets, fine, I'll show you."

Landon turned his pockets inside out, revealing that nothing was inside them. Even with the evidence, or maybe because of the rage he felt from it, Howard threw his clenched fist right into Landon’s face, knocking him to the ground. Howard pointed his gun straight at Landon’s head. Landon could feel blood running from his nose and mouth as he looked up, his eyes meeting the end of the gun-barrell.

"You have no money? Fine. Give me your fucking watch, then." Howard demanded.

"No.", Landon said, knowing it was stupid but too prideful to care.

"No?" Howard asked in disbelief.

"No."

Howard nodded, "Okay then, I guess I'll blow your brains out."

At this point, Landon made no attempt to hide his fear. He knew that  he had to either give Howard his watch, or die. But Landon couldn't just give him the watch. After all, his father gave it to him right before he was murdered, ironically by getting shot in the head by a gang member. The watch was the only thing Landon had left to remember his father by, and now he had to choose between giving it up or being killed.

"Leave him alone!", Someone shouted a few yards away.

Howard looked up and saw a girl standing behind Landon. She wore a white t-shirt and jeans. Her hair was purple with streaks of lavender and pink running through it. She looked both nervous and angry, like she was fearful of her own safety, but unwilling to watch from the sidelines as Landon, a boy she didn’t even know, was killed in front of her.

Howard couldn’t help but smile.

“Oh, I see someone’s feeling brave.”  Howard turned to his fellow gang members, "Grab her. We can't have anyone messing this up, especially some purple-haired bitch."

The other gang members nodded and followed his orders striding over and grabbing the mysterious girl, pointing their own guns at her head so that she wouldn’t try anything stupid, like saving Landon.

"Alright, scumbag, you can’t play the martyr anymore." Howard said angrily to Landon, "Either you give me the watch, or we kill her and then you.”

At this point, Landon had no chance but to give his watch away and reluctantly gave his watch to Howard. When Howard snatched from his hand, Landon cringed, feeling like a part of his soul was shattered into a million, tiny pieces.

Howard smiled tauntingly at Landon as he clipped the watch onto his wrist. "Thank you. But I'm not through with you yet. Insolence must be punished severely. So I hope you enjoy this gift."

After saying these words, he shot Landon right in the thigh before running off with. His lackeys followed him, leaving the mysterious girl with the wounded boy. As Landon screamed in agony from the gunshot wound, the mysterious girl got up and called for help on her phone. Landon turned to look at her as his vision started to blur, the loss of blood taking its toll on his consciousness. It didn’t take long before the world around him blurred into a blackness and he passed out.

2 years later

Landon sat in his room watching the latest episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. As the episode started, he smoked a bit of pot to relax himself. Landon was now 17 and, as one would probably guess, he was a brony. He had been a brony ever since that incident 2 years ago with Howard, the gun, and the mysterious girl that he still thought about to this day.

He remembered seeing her calling for an ambulance right before he passed out, the last time he saw her. He could hardly even remember what she looked like, all he did remember was her strong presence and how kind she was, standing up for him even though they never met before.

In the two years since the incident, crime rates and gangs have only increased. There are at least four murders every week. With all of the yellow tape and blood-stained streets, Landon could hardly make it to school, much to his mother's disapproval. His mother loved him a lot, he needed her love after what had happened to him. So she wanted the best for him. Which she saw as him getting an education. However, she had no idea how dangerous things were now. At least she does now and thinks it's better that he dropped out.

After watching the show, he decided to read some of the fanfiction stories that were available online. One fanficiton that he liked in particular was "Wilmont: The Human Elements of Harmony.", a story about six boys partnering up with the mane six to take down Discord and save a run down city from his reign.

He longed for something like what happened at the end to happen to him, to go to Equestria. The fanfiction also made him feel better about his attraction towards Twilight Sparkle, his favorite pony. The fanfiction gave him some hope of something like what happened with one of the main characters of the fanfiction to happen to him, meeting Twilight and having the opportunity to become her coltfriend.

Alas, he knew it was only a hopeless romantic’s dream that could never come true, no matter how often he wished it did. After returning from his fantasy back to the real world, Landon shut down his computer down, deciding that it was time to get some sleep, hoping that his dreams would take him to Equestria.