Discord's Warrior

Black Gem saloon several hours after Storm Chaser and Night Shade left

The saloon was full again bustling with noise coming from the drunk patrons playing cards, telling both true and bullshit stories of fights that each had and of raunchy nights with the fairer sex.

All in all it was business as usual for the small saloon of the desert town of Black Gem, old Gryphe was cleaning the already clean glass wearing a black Stetson hat that was in the room that Storm Chaser had rented for the night along with the pretty mare he had helped out, at first he thought that he had forgotten his hat in his room but upon seeing it had 2 bits inside he took it as a gift from the strange pegasus.

“Hey Gryphe give me some more of that Cactus Juice I already ran out” said the blue minotaur that was also wearing a hat sitting on a stool.

Gryphe quickly got the hollowed out barrel cactus that was used as a container for the strong alcoholic drink, he then poured it in the minotaur’s glass. As soon as the old griffin filled the glass the minotaur drank it in one go.
“That’s the stuff, thanks Gryphe” he said hiccupping after putting the glass on the counter Gryphe could tell that the Cactus Juice was getting to his regular customer names Angus.

He was going to tell him that he had enough mainly because he knew that this particular customer would start a fight if he got more drunk but before he could the minotaur asked him.
“Hey, what was the deal with that pony yesterday?”

Gryphe dreaded that question because if any of his regulars found out that he didn’t rip that pegasus off, he would be called a pony lover and he would lose all of his customers if they didn’t decide to kill him first.
“Which one Angus? Oh! That little shit that thought he could drink anything but cider?” he said playing it cool “I ripped him off and made him pay almost triple for that drink” he said laughing.

“Haha that’s good ol Gryphe for ya” said the minotaur believing the old griffin’s lie before turning around on the stool to talk to another diamond dog that was more drunk than he was.
The old griffin sighed in relief having kept his image as a pony hater to one of his regulars.

A couple minutes passed and Gryphe was ready to have a drink himself, when all off the sudden the swinging doors at the entrance of the saloon were slammed open by a tall and fit copper colored diamond dog wearing a tan colored trench coat and a red bandana hiding his face came walking in calmly.

Most of the patrons didn’t really care about the arrival of the newcomer so they all quickly went back to minding their own business, all except the diamond dogs which all started to look away nervously some even started heading toward the farther sides of the saloon.

Gryphe didn’t think twice about the new potential customer even if he was wearing a bandana to hide his face over the years many diamond dogs, minotaurs and griffins would come here to the town of Black Gem trying to run away from gambling debts.
Others were bounty hunters concealing their face so that their identities were secret, so that friends of the outlaws on the wanted lists wouldn’t try to track them down after the bounty was given.

The silent diamond dog then turned to his left toward the wall that had all the wanted posters that the dragons made Gryphe put up in the saloon, he looked at one specifically that had no drawing of what the dragons considered criminals.
He came up to the old griffin and put the wanted poster on the counter in front of him “Has someone cashed in this bounty yet?” he said with a surprisingly smooth voice.

“I doubt it usually when someone cashes in a bounty the dragons in charge come by and take the poster off the wall” said Gryphe trying to read who the poor bastard was going to be hunted by this surprisingly mild mannered diamond dog.
“Good, have you seen this pony?” said the bounty hunter handing Gryphe the wanted poster.

“Well let me see the description” the griffin then read the poster that said: Wanted Alive for presumably assaulting a dragon under command of the High King presumed dangerous.

Species: Male pegasus pony, Has grey colored fur and a blue mane.
Gryphe silently cursed under his breath ‘Could this be the same pony? No it can’t be Storm Chaser could never hurt a dragon and get away with his life, it must be some other pony’ thought the old griffin, but his doubts were cleared away when he read the last part of the poster.
This pony is armed with a katana that has a dark blue sheath; the reward is to be paid in diamonds or other goods and the amount will be decided when the wanted is given to a dragon under command of the High King.

“Well, have you seen him around here griffin?” Gryphe couldn’t decide whether to lie to the bounty hunter or not but before he could answer the previously unnoticed Angus read the description quickly out loud in a somewhat slurred voice.
“Hey! That’s the pony that was here yesterday!” he said almost booming too drunk to control the volume of his voice or too stupid to care that he was yelling.

The diamond dog quickly turned toward the saloon regular “Are you sure it was him? Did he have the blue sword?”
“Buuurp! I’m positive or are you calling me a liar you damn stupid dog” said the drunk minotaur after burping right on the dog’s face.
‘That damn stupid fool, why did he have to tell him that?’

The stranger’s eyes were full of rage, but instead of punching the drunk right in the face the bounty hunter grabbed his shoulder and started leading the burly but dizzy minotaur out of the saloon.
“Thank you for the information now let me show you why other bounty hunters call me the Desert Terror” as they both walked away towards the saloon entrance Gryphe noticed the two large swords made out of one curved dragon spike each both pale white in color strapped to the diamond dog’s back.

“Desert Terror? That’s a stupid name” said Angus right before the bounty hunter pushed him outside of the saloon through the swinging doors.
From behind the counter the old griffin saw the drunken idiot fall on the ground with the diamond dog looming over him as he reached back for the two swords on his back.

As the doors were swinging back towards the inside of the saloon a couple times, a bloodcurdling scream came from outside only to be stopped suddenly.
As Gryphe and a couple of the patrons came outside they met a gruesome scene Angus was cut to pieces his head was cut off, both of his thick arms were also cut off and thrown to the sides, the burly torso was cut to ribbons, and finally his horns were torn off.

One of the diamond dogs pointed out that they were broken off because of the splinters on the stumps were they used to be, and each was lodged into the eyes of the mutilated minotaur.
Another diamond dog that was horrified by the scene said in a frightened voice “That one Desert Terror he part of the White Sand clan, the strongest and fiercest clan in the Mohoove”

Next to the bloody mess that used to be a regular at the saloon was a hole where a slightly maniacal laugh could be heard coming from inside it.
“Holy shit Storm Chaser” said Gryphe quietly “you better hope he doesn’t find you”

Mohoove desert back to Storm Chaser and Night Shade

I grabbed the old looking book that read The Compendium of Equestrian Weapons, and I slowly opened it flipping over the yellowed pages that described hundreds of different weapons all with very detailed drawings of each one.
“So basically this book is a record of all the weapons used by the Royal Guard of Celestia and Luna?” I asked while going through the pages of the old book while lying on the sand, under the starry night sky.

“Yes it is Storm Chaser, it also contains weapons used in ancient times before the three pony species stopped fighting against each other” said Night Shade sitting close to the small campfire that I lit while looking at the sky.
“Here let me show you the last page of the book” the unicorn mare used her magic to flip through all the pages showing me the last one that said:

–Take heed all those unicorns who wish to call forth weapons in time of need, the words ‘Summon: Weapon’ and the name of the weapon or weapons you wish to call forth to battle with.-
“Okay that seems pretty straight forward Night Shade, why can’t you summon a weapon then?” I asked my new companion while looking away from the book she had floating in front of us.

“The problem isn’t with the spell” she said a little annoyed “just keep reading the page”.
-But before a unicorn can use such a spell the mare or stallion must…-
And next to that last sentence the page is ripped off leaving the requirement to be a mystery from both of us.

“So now you see why I haven’t been able to summon a weapon after years of trying” said Night Shade with a slightly frustrated tone.
‘It must suck to just have the words to the spell but not being able to use it at all, any ideas Discord?’
‘The answer is so simple I’m surprised she really hasn’t figured it out yet, but I think you can find a way to make the spell work’ said Discord with a disappointed tone to his disembodied voice.

I grabbed the book and flipped the torn page to find another blank page that looked relatively new compared to the yellow tint of all the other pages in the compendium.
“Ouch! I got a paper cut, damn it stings” I closed the book and gave it back to Night Shade.

“You really shouldn’t grab these old books with your hooves like that you could damage the pages” she said ignoring the fact that I was the one that was damaged.
I looked at my right hoof a little surprised at the size of the cut and applied some of the medicinal herbs that I bought on it so that it wouldn’t get infected and hurt like hell later.

Night Shade then put it away in her saddle bag “So Storm Chaser” she said lying down on the sand looking straight up at the starry sky “what do you think I can do to complete the summoning spell?”
I thought about it for a couple seconds, but it just wasn’t adding up without the torn part of the last page ‘Could it be another word that you have to say? Or maybe you have to hold the book while saying the words for the spell?’

“Have you tried saying the spell while holding the book?” I asked her basically guessing at what was missing for the summoning to happen.
Night Shade shook her head “Of course I’ve tried while holding the book, that’s basically the first thing I did when I was given this book” she answered slightly frustrated using her magic to levitate the book out of her bag once more.

“Summon: Weap…, Storm Chaser! You left blood on the inside of the back cover!” she said annoyed she then suddenly gasped in surprise “Wait a minute Storm Chaser look at this!” she said slightly shocked.

I got up and looked at the book and saw my blood slowly move on the page spelling out the words: -Pegasus blood is incompatible and cannot perform the summoning spell- “Wait, what the hell?” I turned to look at Night Shade whose jaw fell slightly open in awe.
“Storm Chaser you solved it! I’ve been trying to figure it out for years and you just picked it up and you solved it” the mare said while skipping excitedly in place while beaming.

That’s when I noticed what really cut me, a small metal spike at the inner hinge of the book “That’s it you have to cut yourself on that spike, but why?”

By this time the letters made out of my blood had faded away. Night Shade grabbed the book with her hooves and cut herself on the spike, her blood slowly formed into a new message.

–I hereby grant thee the ability to summon any weapon from the Royal Guard Armory-
The book then started to glow blue and we both didn’t say anything for a couple seconds Night Shade then took a deep breath and said the words that she repeated many times throughout the years.

“Summon: Weapon, Sword!” she said the words loudly and with confidence trying to hide her excitement. A blue circle then started to glow on the sand in front of us and with a quick flash of blue light a completely ordinary sword came out floating from the ground in front of us.

The sword looked crappy compared to mine but to Night Shade it could have been made of solid gold for all she cared “I can’t believe it, after all these years the answer to the summoning spell was in front of me this whole time, I must look like an idiot” she said lowering her gaze to the floor in embarrassment obviously feeling stupid.

‘You said it, I mean come on she’s had that book for years and she never even bothered to flip the last page?’ said Discord disappointed.

I also thought that it was kind of dumb of her to not think of that, but seeing as she was still embarrassed at her mistake I tried to cheer her up “Don’t feel too bad about it I mean lots of ponies wouldn’t have figured it out, besides it doesn’t matter now that you can summon weapons you can surprise anyone that we fight out here”

Night Shade looked up at me again with a small smile that showed that she wasn’t feeling bad about herself anymore “Thank you Storm Chaser I needed that”
‘I wonder why she isn’t acting tough like at the inn, maybe that book is very important to her’ I thought “No problem Night Shade besides I’m sure I’ll make mistakes sometimes too”

“Wait a minute, how do you return the weapons you summoned after you use them?” I asked her while sitting back down on the sand and inching toward the campfire.
Night Shade then used her magic to grab the floating sword she started swinging it around while pondering the answer to this potential problem, she sat down and said “Umm Return Weapon?”

A blue circle suddenly appeared under the sword, and the floating weapon dropped into the circle back to the armory from which it came from.
“Well that was easy enough” I said while lying down on the sand getting ready to sleep for the night.

Night Shade lay down on the other side of the campfire while looking up again at the night sky. “Thank you for helping me Storm Chaser, I really was starting to think I would never figure how to complete the summon spell”
She turned to look at me “Maybe I can help you with your fighting skill tomorrow”

“Well I don’t know about that Night Shade, I don’t think I should use that certain fighting skill without a really good reason” I said nervously trying to forget the images I saw when I turned into a monster.
“Very well, then I can teach you how to fend off multiple attacks at once”

“Okay that sounds good” I said after yawning and closing my eyes, finally ready to sleep.
‘Storm Chaser you will have to use that power of yours again, I didn’t give it to you just so that you get too scared of using it after the first time and with results like those you will become the weapon of chaos and destruction that I want you to be’

‘But Discord, how am I going to be able to tell what the difference is between a friend and an enemy? I mean when I turn into that thing I don’t think I’m myself anymore’ I asked the disembodied voice that interrupted my sleep.
‘Well Storm Chaser that’s just something you are going to have to learn by yourself, but believe me that dragon rage power you have is very effective, and I really like looking at my work in action’

‘Yeah, yeah whatever Discord I’ll try to figure it out one of these days now if you don’t mind I’m trying to sleep’ I then dozed off hoping that tomorrow I wouldn’t have to fight for my life, but then again who am I kidding? This desert is literally filled with diamond dogs ready to kill us at the drop of a hat.