Ripples

Chapter 19

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        I felt dead. Like there was no hope left in Equestria. I wasn’t sure if I was actually dead, or who else would be dead. I couldn’t feel my eyes being squished shut...I couldn’t tell what was happening. All I knew was somepony important has just died.

        A voice broke the silence. “Ugh, I didn’t want you to kill each other.”        I knew that voice. I managed to open my eyes. I was still alive...and Rage...and Captain. Anon lay on his side...there was no blood. A small needle with a feather on the end stook out of his neck. As my eyes refocused, I finally saw Discord himself standing in the doorway of the old shack. He was holding a cheap-looking weapon, almost tube-like.        “Normally I wouldn’t care who kills who, but you guys are so...entertaining to watch squabble to try and save the world, as hopeless as you are. I didn’t bring my bag of infinite popcorn to watch the best entertainment I’ve had for two hundred years kill itself,” he said, holding a full bag of popcorn. He tossed some into his mouth.        I was feeling conflicting emotions. Anger and hatred for his previous actions, confusion, even a small amount of sorrow...it was like chaos in my brain. I tried to think of something to say.        “I...you...what is happening?!” I yelled.        Discord let out a small giggle. “I just dropped you into Vanhoover, multiplied its size by about...fifty times or so, and watched you argue. It was fun until you split up, which got a little...boring. I decided to give Anon...er, whatever he’s called, a little bit of anger, just to see what would happen.”        I snorted in fury. “A little? A LITTLE?! He tried to fucking kill us!”        Discord frowned, leaning against the cracked door frame and shoving more popcorn in his face. “Look, miscalculating dosages of chaos happens from time to time, I make mista-”        “NO!” I interrupted, stomping my hoof. “WHY DO YOU MAKE NO FUCKING SENSE?!” I forced myself to breathe for a second, collecting myself enough to talk. “First, you kidnap us, taunt us, destroy the fucking world, then you go around and give me birthday presents? Make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Then you go and make one of my only friends try and kill us, or us kill him? What are you?!”        Discord sighed. “I’m a creature of chaos, I’m sure you know that by this point.” He snapped his fingers and summoned a glass of pink liquid with a curly straw, sipping it slowly. “I don’t always feel like killing ponies, sometimes I want to be nice. Other times, I want to have fun. Sometimes I want to destroy the world. And sometimes I actually feel sorry for myself. There’s no telling what the emotions of a creature of chaos will be, you just have to hope for the best...”        I still glared at him. He looked down at me, snapped his fingers again and a pink frosted donut appeared in front of my face. “Here,” he said. “This should make you feel better, I don’t want to hold you up any longe-”        “NO!” I said, slapping the donut to the ground with my hoof and then smashing it. “I’m not eating any of your shit! You are going to make this city its normal size again, and get us the fuck out!”        Discord sighed, and snapped his fingers once more. The glass of pink liquid and the smashed donut both disappeared. “This city is boring anyway, I just stuck you here as a sort of...tutorial to my new and improved Equestria. Just name a place, and I’ll teleport you there. Just pick something that’s fun to watch, please.”        I continued with my hostile glare. Captain finally spoke up.        “Before you send us anywhere, tell me...are there any survivors? Other than us? And what happened to the Rebellion?”        Discord laughed. “Oh, there’s plenty of survivors. Your Rebellion...they still exist, I suppose, except they’ve been missing a leader for three months now, and a third of their forces have been killed or mutated.”        Captain grit his teeth, and charged at Discord. Discord snapped his fingers for the gazillionth time, teleporting a few meters to the side. Captain crashed into the wall of the old shack, causing the structure to wobble and crack even more. Captain fell to the ground, dizzy.        “Three months?!” Rage yelled. “How did you keep us locked up for three months?!”        Discord laughed again. “To prevent you from meddling with anything important, I just sent you a little way into the future. No big deal.”        Rage snorted, his face wrinkled into an offended grimace. I continued staring angrily.        Discord looked into the air. “You know, I’m starting to get bored of snapping to make things happen...any of you know something cooler? Armpit farting, maybe?”        We simply stared at him. Captain finally picked himself from the ground, and shook the dust off his body.        Discord frowned. “Such a shame none of you are creative enough to give me something...I’ll just try different things until something sticks. Now, where is it you want to go?”        Captain spoke up again. “Take me to my main base. I want to see the Rebellion. They deserve to know I am still alive.”        Discord smiled. “Should be fun to watch. Just don’t get yourself killed, I quite enjoy your shenanigans.” He reached his paw under his other armpit, and lowered his claw-arm. It produced a loud, obnoxious farting noise, and the four of us disappeared in a poof of rancid-smelling green smoke.

~ ~ ~

        Captain Sarge had us arranged in yet another line. His Angry Redness seemed especially cranky today, it seemed as if his five-o'clock shadow was even darker than usual...well, he clearly had bags under his eyes. We had completed our briefing for the Equestrian Army, learning the basics of army life. We were about to be sent on our first mission.        "Listen here, you worthless cunts. Now that we're out of the little foal's playground that is the selection fields, I can talk to you like real ponies. We're going on a mission to fuck some shit up. Do you hear me? Fuck. Shit. Up!"        "SIR, YES SIR!" we yelled.        "I'm sure you're aware that many high-profile ponies have been murdered around Equestria, lately," he continued. "It's taken us a while to learn exactly who was in charge. We're still not positive, but we have an idea. Some suspicious activity has been monitored coming from the building of Parasprite Technologies. I'm sure you mindless zombies are aware of them, their products are in every fucking home in Equestria. Strange magical energy has emnated from their buildings, not the kind of magic you'd expect from standard manufacturing."        He walked up to one of the ponies in line. He was a black pegasus named Eclipse, a cutie mark of a telescope. "You look awful smart, at least for a recruit," Captain Sarge said, uncomfortably close to Eclipse's face.        "S- Sir, yes...sir!" Eclipse said, stuttering in nervousness.        "Say it like a stallion, you idiot!" Captain Sarge yelled, slamming his hoof into Eclipse's cheek.        "SIR YES SIR!" Eclipse said very quickly.        "Good. What do you think a strange magical signal means?"        Eclipse froze for a moment, then quickly burst into words. "Well, uh, maybe it's a trap...to make us come, just so they can hur-"        "NO, you idiot!" Captain Sarge interrupted. "It means something suspicious is happening, and it's up to me to stop it. Go run around the selection fields, five laps." He slapped Eclipse across the face again, sending him running frantically for the selection fields. Captain Sarge walked back in front of us. "We are going to march into their building and interrogate them, guns at the ready. I do the talking, you cunts just make sure I'm not killed. Look like you're tough and important, I don't want to fuck this mission up."        I know for a fact that was NOT the mission plan we had been assigned, but anypony with brains knows not to argue with-        "U- uh, sir...that's not the plan...we were assigned," somepony asked from the end of the line. Was he trying to get himself killed?!        Captain Sarge turned to face this earth pony at the end of the line.        "And you doubt my superior plans, you little bitch?"        "I- uh...I...n- no!" He said, shrinking back.        "Really?" Captain Sarge said sarcastically, a magic glow surrounding his horn.        "I swear, your plan is perfect, nothing bad about it, it's completely-" the pony tried to redeem himself.        "SILENCE!" Captain Sarge yelled in his face, and lifted the pony straight off the ground with his magic, sending him flying into the wall of the training building we were standing near. Upon impact, several cracks spread across the surface of the wall. The rest of us quickly turned our heads back forward, awaiting Captain Sarge's next command.        "I hope the rest of you assholes are smarter than that. Mission starts in thirty minutes. Meet me back here on the dot, or you will be punished!" Captain Sarge yelled. We immediately dashed back towards the army dorms to suit up.

~ ~ ~

        I slowly came back to my senses once again. As my eyes opened, I felt soft grass brushing against me. A cool breeze blew across my body, and I heard birds chirping. I pulled myself off of my back, up off the ground.        "Oh look, Loste's finally awake," Rage commented from my right.        "It's about time!" Captain exclaimed from my left. As I brought myself up, I saw we were at the edge of a small forest. Trees stood around us, and the open field near Fillydelphia stretched to my right.        "Why are you falling asleep on us like this? You've been out for an hour!" Captain asked, a half-disassembled pistol in his mouth. I pondered telling him about the strange dreams...were they anything? I had no idea what they meant, if anything. It was weird, that's for sure.        "I...uh...I'm...adjusting. To the...world, and...places." I stammered. "Because the world is, um, new. To me." My face began to blush.        "Right," Captain said, skeptical. I am such a bad liar...        "So, uhh, what are we gonna do now?" I asked, noticing Anon was nowhere in sight.        Rage answered. "Well, Anon...or whoever the hell he is, went off to find some wood or maybe some food. He seemed eager to get away from us."        Captain continued. "When he gets back, though, I want to go back to my base. See who's left or what happened. I can't imagine what the Rebellion must be like, missing me for three months...and what about the Resistance? They lost Sawblade..."        I was as lost as he was, and I began thinking about the recent events (that's another thing I seem to do a lot).        "Captain," I began. Captain raised an eyebrow. "Discord can control our emotions...make us feel, uh...not how we should feel. Doesn't that make you feel a little, um...insecure?"        Captain thought for a short moment. "You have a good point, I certainly don't want anypony messing with my feelings...must be terrible for Anon, of all the ponies who could have had that happen."        I nodded. "But still...after today, or, yesterday...or, whenever, I think we really need a new name. I think that in his fury, he let slip his deepest secrets, which he would have never told anypony otherwise. I don't know much about secrets, but that can't feel very good knowing you let them all out like that." Captain nodded. I continued.          "I don't doubt any of it, which is why it must be so hard for him. We just have to do the best we can to make him feel better."        Captain smiled. "Loste...you're a good pony."        I smiled back. "Maybe I am, but what's fun in being good if you don't have other ponies to be with?"Captain smiled even bigger.        Rage finally spoke back up. "Okay, this is sweet and all, but you two have gotten all mushy and heartwarming an awful lot lately. I'm starting to think you two might be a little, um..."        Captain and I instantly blushed and shook our heads furiously. "No, no, that's not anything close to what's...uh...I'm not, er...we're not...um...like that," I babbled.        "Er, what he said," Captain stated, his face as red as...um...the flower he was sitting next to. (Analogies are hard!) Did my face look that red?        Rage giggled. "Okay then, whatever you say." Captain and I continued blushing.        A rustle sounded from my left, and Anon...red pony appeared holding a bundle of sticks in his mouth. Upon seeing Captain and I's expressions, he raised an eyebrow. I facehoofed.        Anon spoke in a quiet, nervous voice. "So...uh...let's get going?" I nodded slowly. The four of us packed our bags and left in the direction of Captain's camp.