Discord's Warrior

I awoke to the sound of Night Shade practicing her newly found ability to summon a seemingly endless amount of weapons of different shape and size. She appeared to be slashing at the air in front of her with two swords, at a decent speed considering she wasn’t really moving them by touching them.

‘I wonder how fast she can swing those things around, while running at the same time?’ I thought to myself while I was still half asleep.

After swinging the swords a couple of more times she gave the command that would reverse the summoning of the weapons. I started to slowly get up to my feet, noticing that the fire we lit the previous night with some dry bushes and branches from the few trees that were around our simple campsite.

I yawned a little bit which made Night Shade turn around and look at me.
“Good morning Storm Chaser” she said as she sat next to me “I woke up a little earlier and started practicing, I need to find out how fast I can swing these weapons around while I fight”

“That’s good” I said as I picked up my saddlebag shaking off all of the sand that had gotten on it during the night “We are going to have to fight fast against those damn dogs, especially when they get the jump on us” I then put the saddle bag on my back with my sword on my left side.

Night Shade also grabbed her saddlebag levitating it and placing it on her back, and tying the slightly rusted helmet to her saddlebag with some twine while saying “I have concluded that the most efficient way of dealing with the diamond dogs is either attacking them from above or using a coordinated attack.”

“I agree Night Shade” I said as I noticed that the Sun was already heating the desert up. “We should start going if we want to get out of this desert anytime soon”.

We both started moving, following the directions that Night Shade had given me after looking at my map the day before. Apparently we were to head north until we reached a body of water which appeared to be either a large lake or maybe even a bay. According to the unicorn mare we still had at least another two nights before we got there.

After a while I started thinking of how we chose a very open place to sleep at, and I realized that anything from a small group of diamond dogs to a lone dragon could have killed us easily in the cover of night.
After drinking a small amount of water from my canteen I asked “Hey, don’t you think that we should get a more defensible campsite tonight? I mean so that nothing can sneak up on us at night.”

The turquoise mare didn’t seem to think about my comment too much because she answered almost immediately “Not many diamond dogs roam around in the desert at night. I heard from a griffin at another town that they usually head back into their dens at night to haul back all the things they steal or kill.”

She appeared to give my comment another thought, while squinting a little bit to show that she was deep in thought “Although we should prepare for the occasional sandstorm or the rare pack of diamond dogs, we should keep an eye out for a cave of some sort”.

I was beginning to notice just how analytical Night Shade really was, like if she was always thinking of the different situations that we could run into in this increasingly hot desert that would alternate between the loose sand that would accumulate into dunes that had little to no vegetation, to the more compact soil that had more vegetation like cacti, short trees, and shrubs.

“You really like to think two steps ahead don’t you Night Shade” I asked her while stretching my wings out to work the muscles a little bit, considering that I still had not flown today.
She smiled a little bit, like if she was glad that I noticed that quality of hers. She then answered coolly “I have to think that way, or else I doubt I would even be alive today”.

I felt that even though it was a dark statement, I had seen enough in my few days in Equestria that the statement was very true.
‘You should start doing the same thing Storm Chaser, remember you can’t rely on her to make all the plans’ said the disembodied god of chaos. ‘Sooner or later she won’t know what to do, and you need to be ready to step in and choose what to do.’

‘Yeah I know but I want to show her that she helps and that we can both make the decisions instead of having the pressure on just one of us at the same time.’ I told him while trying to not say it out loud, but instead thinking about it.

We stopped by some of the cacti that had the yellow edible fruits that tasted a little tart and lemony and again put away more for later in our saddlebags. I started noticing that our supplies were dwindling especially the water in our canteens, and unfortunately the Sun was still high above us nowhere near to setting.

I noticed that Night Shade’s canteen was as empty as mine was so I stopped walking and said “We should start looking for water, I’m already starting to feel a little light headed” She agreed silently and I could tell the lack of water and the heat were getting to her.
“Look just lay down under that tree” I said as I pointed toward a relatively tall tree, that seemed to provide enough shade for her to lie under.

“I’ll fly up to see if I can’t spot an oasis or something” I said while stretching my wings open again, almost yearning the chance to fly again.

Night Shade looked a bit reluctant at first as if thinking it over, to see if the risk of getting separated was worth the water that we needed, she obviously understood that it was the smartest thing to do.
I took off running after Night Shade gave me her canteen which was in fact empty, and started flapping my wings hard to gain the altitude that I needed to try and spot a water source as quickly as I could, when I felt like I was high enough I started to glide slowly while looking for any green vegetation on the desert floor.

After a couple of minutes I found what I was looking a medium sized patch of green shrubs and trees near a large rock, so I flew in closer and saw the shimmer of a small pond of clear looking water. As soon as I got closer I circled the small oasis slowly in order to see if anyone else be it diamond dog, dragon, or minotaur was already there drinking water.

However it seemed the coast was clear so I landed and I quickly dropped my saddlebag onto the floor while I lowered my head to drink from the water, while still keeping my ears pointed to my sides in order to hear anyone approaching. The water was surprisingly cold so I decided to dip my head in order to keep my head cool before I filled the canteens up and fly back to Night Shade, so that I can bring her the water that she needed and maybe even bring her back here so she can drink more water than what her canteen would hold.

“Well hello there” said a voice from nearby the oasis, which made me to immediately stand up and look around to try and find whoever snuck up on me.

“Over here little pony” the voice said this time a little farther away. I still hadn’t picked Eclipse Slicer up mainly because I didn’t want to look down for even a second until I found whoever was talking.
The voice didn’t sound intimidating or aggressive, but whether it sounded aggressive or not I was starting to get ready to fight for my life again.

I heard the small bushes on the outside of the oasis shake rapidly, so I grabbed my sword and unsheathed it as fast as I could while I got into my fighting stance.
“Perfect a blue sword, I have been looking for you ever since you got out of Black Gem” As the voice once again talked to me, I noticed that the vegetation around the oasis was limiting my vision.

So I decided to quickly fly out of the oasis to the open desert so that I could at least see who the hell has been following me.
I came out on the other side of the oasis and I quickly looked around me to see if I could find my unknown pursuer.

I noticed quickly that there were four large rocks in a circular area that were all approximately twelve feet apart from each other and ten feet tall each.

“Where the fuck is this guy?” I said to myself debating whether I should just fly away and avoid all of this, but I remembered that I left my saddlebag and the two canteens and I realized that if I left I would lose our supplies.
“Shit” I said out loud realizing that I had to kill however it was that was looking for me.

Then on one of the rocks I noticed him.
He was a tall diamond dog the tallest I had ever seen in fact, he was wearing a long trench coat instead of the small sleeveless vests that all the other diamond dogs I had seen which in all seriousness proved that wearing one makes you look badass. He seemed to just be lying back on the rock looking at me with a cold expression.

He also had a red bandana that covered his face, which like the rest of his body had copper colored fur. As we stared down each other I started to slowly walk on my hind legs while holding my sword, ready for a counter attack.
‘Be careful Storm Chaser this one is different, I think he might even be an alpha by the looks of him’ said Discord breaking the silence between me and the diamond dog.

“So what the fuck do you want from me?” I said trying to sound intimidating. He stood up from the rock he was laying his back on.
The diamond dog then held out a wanted poster and said in his voice that didn’t really suit his physical build “You’re wanted by the High King” what he said made me cringe a little. How could the High King already know about me?

“Oh yeah? What is it for?” I asked trying to keep it cool. He then read what the wanted poster had written on it “For presumably assaulting a dragon”.
“I know that you killed that dragon, pony” he said dropping the wanted poster and reaching back with his two hands to the long white curved swords. “No one just assaults a dragon and lives without killing him first”.

I gulped nervously knowing that this guy meant business. ‘I think those are dragon scale swords Storm Chaser’ said Discord. He suddenly charged at me with surprising speed closing the gap between us in seconds.
I reacted by flying to my right while swinging my sword in front of me so that he would run into it, but he just swung his right sword to clash with mine moving it out of the way while he swung his left sword at my exposed body.

I flapped my wings as hard as I could and managed to dodge the potentially fatal injury. “Oh shit” I said knowing that this diamond dog was on a whole other level than the rest of the diamond dogs I had fought before him.

As I was flying backwards I ran into one of the rocks that were around us, I flinched looking back for a second and I heard a very aggressive growl coming from the attacker, again charging full speed towards me swinging both swords in a downward motion. So I pushed off from the rock with my hind legs in order to fly towards him before he could land the attack, I hit him with my left hoof straight in the stomach while he hit the rock cutting in half like if it were paper.

After the attack he was only stunned for a second which he then elbowed me in the face, he looked back at me and he had a glare that showed just how aggressive he really was despite his voice.
“Are you kidding me? I thought that you killed a dragon” He said as he slowly walked toward me no doubt trying to finish me off. “A small weak runt would never be able to even touch a dragon without getting killed, let alone kill one”

I slowly got up again trying to stand my ground against this strong enemy. “I was going to just knock you out and hand you in for the bounty money” He started smiling a malicious grin while getting closer to me “But you are so weak, I will just kill you instead, cutting off each one of your legs one by one.”

Before he could finish gloating I flew at him in order to at least get one good hit in, before he managed to land a hit on me. I yelled while preparing to slice him at the chest, while he slashed at me with his dragon scale swords in a parallel motion, so I swung to my side spinning as fast as my wings would take me effectively dodging the attack and cutting upwards up his right leg.

As we turned around to see each other again instead of the painful howl that I was expecting, he started to laugh. “HAHAHAHA” he laughed with a wicked grin coming from under the bandana “Finally you are fighting back” That’s when I realized he wouldn’t stop until either him or I was hit by a fatal wound.

“You are fast pony but you are still weak, I will kill you sooner or later” He said again charging at me. This time I flew far over him in order to get behind him, but he ran straight at one of the rocks and jumped from there to meet me in the air.

He swung both swords at me while I was still dumbfounded at the site of a diamond dog so high in the air. The force behind the strike would have knocked me all the way to the ground, but the air was my strong point so I quickly flew around behind him and kicked him right in the middle on his back while I yelled “You dumb ass dog, you can’t beat me in air!”

He crashed down hard lifting up dust and sand clouding my vision, then in a sudden explosion of movement he charged faster than he had done before, with his maw wide open and his swords ready to strike me down.

I had no time to block or dodge the attack he had successfully caught me off guard. While he yelled sadistically “DIE, YOU WEAK RUNT!!” I couldn’t even utter a fuck you back at the dog but out of nowhere a cyan colored mace hit the diamond dog right in his side no doubt breaking a rib.

The sudden attack broke his concentration so I flew to the side to avoid the diamond dog’s bite. I landed on the soft sand trying to catch my breath while the attacker fell to the ground.
I looked to the right and saw the unicorn mare that I owed my life to, she was wearing her helmet ready for a fight. Breathing heavily like she came running all the way here.

The now wounded alpha diamond dog held his side in pain and then looked at Night Shade holding the mace and a shield with her magic. He then stood up and looked at me while growling in anger. He then jumped at me, I was somehow glad that he decided to attack me instead of Night Shade so I stood there flying above the ground waiting for the attack.

But he dove into the sand before he got to me, so I immediately flew higher to avoid being attacked from below. From up there I could see Night Shade hiding behind another one of the rocks. That’s when I saw something terrible…he was headed towards her.

I immediately dove down to try and move her or warn her about the diamond dog but I lost of them as I got closer “Shit, shit, shit” I said nervously getting closer to them. Then I heard a loud thud as I went around the rock to the side they were on, I stopped suddenly knowing what the sound was.

Then I saw Night Shade on the floor, with that damned diamond dog looming over here. “You fucking bitch, I’ll shred you to pieces!!” he said in a more raspy voice.

I felt the rage building up inside of me and I couldn’t decide whether it was toward him harming Night Shade or me not being able to protect but either way it didn’t matter anymore.

He looked back at me and saw my face full of rage and sadness; he then smiled and started laughing at me. “HAHAHAHA, I knew you were too weak to beat me the Desert Terror” he then picked her up with his hands while chuckling sadistically and yelled “NOW I’LL EAT HER IN FRONT OF YOU”

Something in me snapped when I saw blood coming out from under her helmet, and the rage within me grew tenfold while I yelled “DON’T FUCKING TOUCH HER!!!” my sword once again consumed in black flames.
The black flames started to transform my body, and for the second time I turned into the monster I had deep inside of me.