Disclaimer: I do not claim the rights to my little pony, for I do not own it. Although it would be 20% cooler than it is now if I did.

Prologue

The scene spread before him: the battle was brief and their enemy was ruthless.

"Fall back! I repeat fall back!" the Pegasus called as he turned and fled inside the base. He ran past all the fighting inside to get to a room in the back of the building, the place where the last he had of his life was hidden. He made it through the door being chased by the enemy. His wings flared in anticipation for the scuffle ahead. His green hair was dripping in sweat as he held all four hooves against the door to keep out the incoming assault. The door held just barely as his pursuers were more tired than the stallion was. On the desk was a basket and inside was a small foal, his son, he held the foal in his wing. "Things aren't going well my son, we may lose but they'll never quench our spirit" "how touching." A malicious and sadistic voice sounded behind him. The surprised pegusus whirled around bringing his wings to full battle position. The figure behind him was a tall and physically strong as much as she was magically powered. Her wings flared outward and his eyes widened in shocked. A yellow flash of light and the next thing he knew he was on the ground, a sharp pain in his chest. The alicorn before him laughed sadistically as she gave him a kick and he crashed painfully into the wall. The foal fell to the ground, but before he hit the ground he was enveloped by a yellow aura and he was lifted into the air. "No…. it can't be…." He murmured. "Oh? Is this the one? The one you fought so hard to protect? Well I'll just take him with me then." She laughed malevolently as the stallion before her was powerless to stop her. He looked up at the evil alicorn before him. Her long horn glowed and his eyes were filled with shock but showed no fear. The brilliant flash of yellow light was the last thing he ever saw.

Disclaimer: I still don't own my little pony but it is 20% cooler than any other of my other hobbies.

Authors note: greetings fellow fanfictionists, I bring a great bounty of tales this day! Hope you can read and review and tell me what you think.

Chapter 1 the new face

The pegusus awoke in the bed screaming, and in a cold sweat. The pony ran a hoof through his green mane. "Lightning? Are you okay?" a kindly old mare entered the room, "by Celestia you gave me a fright." She said looking worried. "It's ok auntie Cheryl, just a nightmare." Lightning shifted uncomfortably. Auntie Cheryl sat down on the edge of the hay bed he was on. "This is the fifth time this week." she looked as if he was going crazy. "It's all right auntie. It's just the pressure of a new life." Which was no lie, he had just moved in with his foster parents in Manehatten. "Well this isn't the safest place to live but it's what we have." She looked as if he was going to run away. "So the book your writing is coming along well?" "Yeah but history is hard to get straight with all the crazies who think that we were born from alien machines." Auntie Cheryl chuckled "good night lightning" "good night auntie."

But that peace wasn't to last long. Lightning woke to the sound of bumping and heard a muffled scream. His sunset orange eyes were showing great fear of the unknown. He entered the hallway with great caution as it was silent. Lightning approached the door and busted it inward. 'Crap that hurt' he thought as he hit the ground. He then got up to see a sight nopony should ever see, his new foster parent lying still not breathing on the bed, in a pool of blood. 'Oh my Celestia this is bad' lightning nearly retched right there and then but a sixth sense told him it wasn't meant for her, it was meant for him. Lightning had to get to the book, and keep it safe.

He flew to his room and kicked his door down. A large dragon stood there shocked at his bravado. "Well well well lightning flash welcome to the party." A voice like gravel escaped his lips. Lightning knew then this was organized murder, that he was followed as to the fact lightning had made no enemies let alone friends. He flew right into the gravelly voiced dragon knocking the surprised killer to the floor into the light he saw that it was a purple dragon with yellow scales and taller than he was the dragon snarled angrily at him but lightning ignored him, instead grabbed his saddle bags and flying out the window.

The night air was crisp as he flew around the buildings, the air bringing him to alert. 'Auntie Cheryl was killed…' he thought guiltily. At that moment a blast of magic sizzled past him nearly sticking his wing. "Whoa!" he yelled shocked at this: they were chasing him down. "I should of figured." Lightning muttered aloud. Another blast shot past him bringing him out of his reverie. "Crap, crap, crap! "He shouted hoping to keep the secrets with him hidden. Another blast streaked towards him and hit him on the right wing, screaming in pain he fell towards the ground hitting trees and other such things before landing with a dull thud. He struggled to open his eyes but the pain at the very least let him know he wasn't dead, yet.

"Hm. Not dead I see, excellent landing by the way." He knew the voice but could not think clearly enough to figure it out. "You should just hand over the notes, nopony else will get hurt, I promise." Lightning wasn't convinced about that, not with the voice that sounded absolutely mad, and I mean crazy. "No…." he muttered as defiantly as he could. "Very well we shall do this the hard way." A beam of magic shot into his head and agonizing pain spread through his body like wildfire. He felt as if his memory was being torn from his skull, which was what was happening. Then his mind drifted to the book in his saddlebags, the history book that held secrets of great importance. Lightning saw the book held by a sadistic alicorn then he blacked out.

Chapter 3 A rude awakening

Pain, pain and darkness. That was what lightning felt as he lie there, wondering if he died. "No you would feel no pain if you did" a soft voice answered. "Who's there?" he called into the shadows "The one you will never know of." He then felt a pull bringing him upwards. "Huh? Is that a pulse?" Another voice cried out. Lightning could smell something antiseptic and he groggily opened his eyelids. After the initial brightness subsided he took a look around. He happened to be in a hospital room. 'Well duh' he thought to himself bitterly. A nurse entered the room, "Oh! You're actually awake!" she then rushed out of the room before lightning finally got to his senses. 'Wait actually awake? She thought I wouldn't be? How long have I been in here?' the nurse returned with an old withered earth stallion with a blue vest, he looked tired, and surprised. The nurse had light red hair in a tight bun with a worried expression. The earth pony spoke. "Well your finally up, been here a while and we were going to pull the plug." Lightning felt fear, if they were going to power down the life support the he was here a long time. The earth pony continued "you've been here for about three month's" he let that sink in. Lightning felt a deep panic rising but he held it back. "Who are you?" he asked the strange visitor. "Im the police chief of Manehatten." this was big as he felt it necessary to visit him. "Is there something I can help you with?" he asked bitterly. "Actually yes." He answered, ignoring the disrespect lightning directed towards the chief. The chief was a light brown coated stallion with a dark brown mane alongside bright blue eyes. "You can tell us what happened that night." Lightning shuddered at the thought of Auntie Cheryl lying dead in the pool of blood. He had one question, 'why?' "Well? What have you got?" the chief asked eagerly as if they had found nothing. "You have found nothing?" lightning asked the chief. The chief looked sheepishly toward him "Well, no we haven't." we needed a witness but your foster parent is- well you probably know." He did know, he knew quite well. "Then we'll put you in the witness protection program" he said with an air of finality. "no." lightning said defiantly. "What?!" the chief exploded. "no." lightning said again. "The last thing I need is to be locked up for my safety and all that. If I've truly been here three months then I'm now old enough by equestrian law to move out." The chief was flustered and was practically full of rage at this young stallion "b-but you will get yourself killed! At least let us put you somewhere safe!" lightning was in no diplomatic mood "no. I'm going to move to a new home when I get out of this hospital." The chief relented "fine but can I just give some suggestions?" lightning agreed. "Well you can go to Trottingham, Phillydelphia, or Ponyville." Lightning considered all three choices before him, the last thing he needed was another big city to get in trouble in but he never heard of Ponyville. "What is Ponyville anyway?" the chief frowned not expecting this. "Ponyville is a small village with interesting locals and many non-violent ponies." Sounded splendid to him if he dared to use the word 'splendid'. "I choose Ponyville." Lightning said finally. The chief frowned, "are you sure? Why not Phillydelphia?" he tried to get lightning to reconsider but his choice was practically set in stone. "I choose Ponyville." Lightning said again. The chief frowned with disapproval but stopped trying to convince him otherwise. "So how do I get there?"

Authors note: another chapter! I dont know of the feedback Ive recieved but I hope you at least like it so far. Let me know how I should improve and blah blah blah you get the jist. please R and R! - skarfly

Disclaimer: I do not own my little pony so you can't sue me now. So ha and ha.

Chapter 3 Ponyville

The whistle sounded and woke lightning up from his nap. It was an overnight train to Ponyville and lightning only had time to grab a quick bite before he left and he was starving. Looking around lightning saw some little Philly's hugging an old mare. His heart twisted so he decided to look for a place to live. Wandering was not the most effective way to find out the layout of the town. Lightning made it to the center of Ponyville to find a market was there. His stomach decided to remind him that he was hungry; lightning looked around for something relatively healthy as to not give himself clogged arteries in the future. The closest he could find was an apple stand not too crowded, maybe because of the fact it was not being operated by anypony. Then an orange mare with a blonde mane tied at the end walked up and took a seat behind the stand. Lightning walked up and the orange earth mare looked up at him. "Howdy pardner, what can I do ya for?" she asked her voice with a thick Texas drawl if Texas existed in equestria. Lightning looked at her and said "what is the price of this apple?" pointing to a bright red apple. She smiled "that would cost you 5 bits." Lightning was glad he had enough to buy a house and some food. Lightning tossed 5 bits on to the counter and took the apple. The mare looked at him with some curiousness he didn't like. "Have we ever met? I've never seen you in these parts before." She was asking some question's he could answer. "No we've never met I'm fresh off the train." He answered kind of confused, nopony was this nice in Manehatten it was either you matter or you don't. The mare regarded him with confusion but then said "names applejack, what's your name?" lightning looked at her and said, "I'm lightning flash." He said tired from the train ride. She looked at him again "you got a place to stay?" she asked. "Actually I was going to ask you where there was an open house." "Nah no new homes built but yall can stay at the local hotel. At least till you gets a job." Applejack answered. "Well that's not a bad idea; I need a place to unpack. Where is it?" Lightning asked tiredly. "It's off past the library to the right of it." She said helpfully. "Ok where is the library?" lightning asked. "It's off to yer right." "Great, thanks" he then went further into the mess that was his destiny.

Authors note: you like? It seems he met the first of the mane six; will the others get to know him? Will this end well at all? Why am I asking you these questions? To find out, stay tuned!

disclaimer: I do not own MLP

Chapter 4: The Park, the night and the shadows

Lightning walked awkwardly at the hotel, it had no security and no way to make sure he wasn't followed. He went in anyway. A young mare sat at the desk looking at him with a pleasant smile. "Welcome to the Ponyville estates." Lightning looked at her, "um… yeah can I rent a room?" he asked awkwardly. It wasn't often he checked into hotels. "I'm so sorry, but we open tomorrow, I hope we can accommodate you then." The desk mare said with a sheepish smile. "Ok then." Lightning left the hotel, wondering where to go next. The pegusus found himself in the park. 'Well the parks better than in a ditch.' Lightning thought dejectedly as he plunked down on a bench, recalling the night it all happened. It wasn't the first time either. He was hunted his whole life but never realized it was something personal. It all started at the first foster home…

FLASHBACK TIME! Yay!

Lightning laid in the stiff bed feeling like he was going to not do anything important with his life, maybe because the head pony in the foster home was telling him so. "Lightning, you need to do something that will help you in the outside world, books will not do so." The mare scolded him for reading all the time "a young pegusus like yourself should be out in the air flying!" lightning then said "well It's that I never liked to fly and reading is the only thing I like doing." then sighed "maybe, just maybe you'll like flying one day." She trotted out of the room. Lightning then drifted off to sleep.

Lightning awoke to immense heat on his face, looking around he smelled smoke. A fire was consuming the foster home. He jerked out of the bed and galloped into the main room. He saw the one thing that made him scared more than anything at the time; all his fellow orphans were lying dead on the floor. Lightning picked up as many as he could and crashed out the window and the fire department had arrived picking up the few he had saved. And the foster home burned to the ground, killing everyone else inside. The ones lightning got through the window died soon after the fire. Lightning was transferred to a Trottingham foster home, but it did not end there, another fire burned it to the ground and lightning was questioned but ultimately was innocent. From there he was put into a Manehatten foster home and Auntie Cheryl adopted him, leading to her murder.

Lightning woke up to a tap on his arm, "excuse me, um…. But you've been on the bench for half of the day, I was wondering if you were… well…" the mare didn't finish. Lightning stood up and stretched, he looked at the mare in front of him, and she was a pegusus with a yellow mane, and pink mane that dipped into a curl. "Hello, my name is lightning, what's yours?" he asked the mare. "um… I'm fluttershy…." She practically whispered. "It is nice to meet you, fluttershy." Lightning said kindly. He then walked off to the market, going to get breakfast. 'Why do the nightmares never stop?' lightning thought to himself, he didn't watch where he was going, and crashed into another mare. "Whoa!" they crashed to the ground. After getting past the disorientation, he stood up, helping the mare up as well. "I'm sorry; I was reading a book and wasn't watching where I was going." The mare apologized. "No it was me, I wasn't reading and should have seen you." Lightning said. The mare was a unicorn with a light purple coat, a purple mane with a reddish streak in it. Her cutie mark was the weirdest thing; he couldn't tell what her talent was. He realized that he never looked at the others cutie marks. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, what's yours?" twilight asked. "I'm lightning flash." Lightning answered.

authors note: sorry for the short chapter, but heres a shoutout to miko in training for letting me use an OC of hers. I made the name for her though for I was not provided with one. and the chapter shows some more of the problems lightning has internally.

Disclaimer: I do not own MLP

Chapter 5: self-infliction's

Lightning was confused with the mare before him, twilight was a mare that seemed honest but his past made him wary of anyone he met. "Well I'm going to need a job, do you know any openings?" lightning asked, hoping to get a job as soon as possible. Twilight considered, "well rainbow dash could use some help on the weather squad, with you being a pegusus and all." Twilight answered, and lightning remembered the searing pain in his wing that night and cringed. Twilight was worried, "well, if you don't want to you don't have to." Lightning looked at her, "well ill have to think about it." He walked off to the hotel; the desk mare looked at him with the same smile she showed him last night. "Welcome to Ponyville estates, how may I help you?" she asked pleasantly, "I was hoping to check in." lightning said distracted. "Ok how long will you be staying with us?" she asked. Lightning looked at the desk mare, "I'm going to book a two week middle class stay." Lightning used the suggestion from the police chief had given him. The desk mare gave him an odd look; lightning could almost see it as pity. "Here is your key, Mr. ….?" She waited for him to finish, "flash, lightning flash." The look of pity was replaced by fear, one lightning caught. "Is there something wrong?" he asked. "o-oh no there is no problem at all!" the desk mare said quickly, trying to cover for the look of fear. Lightning took the key and went to his room, room 5D. As he settled in he examined his wing, it wasn't good, and a scar ran down where it would meet his flesh, meaning he wouldn't be flying anytime soon. If ever. So he then unpacked, hearing a knock at the door, opening the door he saw an aqua pegusus standing before him, her mane was yellow with some red highlights in it, and her cutie mark was a heart with a lone wing on it. Lightning spoke first, "May I help you?" the blue mare looked at him, "yeah, the names mist twister and I heard you're going to be on the weather patrol?" lightning looked at her, trying to keep his wings from showing the scar, nopony had to be in his past. "Well I was considering it, but I think I'll find another job." The mare looked at him in relief, "good, I wanted to be on it so I could be with my friend rainbow. Have you heard of her?" lightning just shrugged "I've heard of her, never met her. But what's the big deal anyway?" mist looked at him in shock, "WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?! IT'S RAINBOW DASH!" lightning gave a moment to let his hearing return, and then regarded mist. "Look, as you can probably tell, I just got here and I need time to unpack. If you want the job go and apply for it, but I've got to go and figure out the town." Mist left and lightning sat down trying to figure out who could be hunting him, when a thought struck some mental barrier. Lightning shot up and went to the bathroom to wash his face off. He got a good look at himself even though he never really knew himself. He was slightly stronger than normal pegesi but was not up to big Macintosh; his mane was unbrushed and cut down to a normal length. As you know it was green and such. His coat was filthy but it was cyan and in need of a shower, his eyes were sunset orange. He never got his cutie mark for he was always reading, never exploring. He climbed into the shower and cleaned himself off, getting out he heard a really loud crash and ran into his hotel room.

Chapter 6: confrontation

Disclaimer: I do not own MLP

The vase was knocked over and there was a dragon holding mist who was tied up and gagged, lightning didn't think. He just launched himself at the attacker, crashing through the window, making another crash as they tumbled out. Lightning knew this dragon; it was purple with yellow spines. He managed to get the dragon to hit the front of the hotel and the ground. The dragon swiped his claw along lightning's face, causing him to roll back screaming. The dragon then laughed, "Hahahahahahaha! I knew I would find you, and now I'm going to finish what I started." He then launched himself at lightning, but before he could get there was hit with a blast of magic, lightning risked a glance that direction, (any idea who it is? Anyone? Anyone? No?) There were only shadows and there stood a shadowed figure, an alicorn that's magic dragged the dragon into the darkness. Lightning was going to go when he was tackled to the ground by a blue blur, "what did you do? And why?" lightning saw a rainbow maned pegusus who was clearly demanding answers, lightning pushed her off. "You're going to have to be more specific." The rainbow mare was really ticked off and lightning didn't know why, "who was that dragon and why did he attack mist?" oh that's why. "Look, do I seem to be a friend of this dragon?" gesturing to the long claw marks on his face "he wasn't any buddy of mine, and furthermore, I have just got here and frankly if anypony came here and got the basic welcome I did, well that wouldn't be fun." The mare, obviously rainbow dash, was running out of things to ask and she wasn't getting answers. "Who are you?" she demanded, "I'm lightning flash." Rainbow dashes jaw dropped, "You mean the one who was attacked in Manehatten?" ah the paparazzi never will they miss making someone's life worse. "Yes the one from Manehatten." Rainbow dash got her angry face on again, "So who was that dragon? And what was with the whole 'finish what I started'?" lightning sighed, "listen, my past is now behind me, and I hope to keep it that way." Rainbow was angry because she got no answers yet. Well none of use, "I'm saying that you're a threat due to how many killers could come here after you." Lightning knew she had a point, he had an enemy, and he needed to stop it. "Fine, IF I'm attacked again and I need your intervention I'll tell you my story." Rainbow dash flew off, and lightning had to talk to the manager for the lack of security. He went in and didn't see the desk mare, the same sixth sense that had him attack the dragon was telling him to look around. He saw a door marked employees only, lightning went in anyway, there lying on the ground was the desk mare, not breathing. Panic seized lightning's throat but he fought it down, instead running outside calling to passerby. A white unicorn saw him yelling and ran towards him, "what's wrong?" she asked. "We got an injured pony in the hotel and need to get her to the hospital!" the two equestrians ran and the unicorn got the mare in her magic, then they ran to the hospital. Once inside the hospital pony's took the desk mare into the hospital bedroom, after about 20-30 minutes of denying any medical care for the scratch until they knew of the desk mares condition, the nurse came out, "she was a very lucky pony, you got her here just in time, we have her stable and breathing." There was an air of relief and the unicorn turned towards him, "so I've never seen you before, where are you from?" she asked. They never ask anything else do they? "No I'm not from around here, I'm from Manehatten." The unicorn looked on expectantly. "Well, what's your name?" lightning was pretty much sick of that question. "My names lightning flash, and yes the one from the whole Manehatten incident." The unicorn was shocked speechless but before she could continue the nurse cleared her throat, "it's your turn for the medical treatment." Lightning waved his hoof farewell as he entered the room, wondering what the cause was for the desk mare to be attacked, then it hit him, mist was still tied up in the hotel room.

Authors note: and the past comes back to haunt him, the dragon was blasted with magic and I doubt anyone who guessed what the blast came from was right on the first guess. A thank you to miko in training for the OC, but I made the name. see you again, and fare thee well.

Chapter 7: the meaning of peace, and the time of chaos

Two weeks passed after the attack at the hotel, nothing happened except that lightning got a house near the market. The whole thing was news to the town and he was constantly asked questions about his past, none of which he answered. Mist was fine and the whole deal was behind them, as far as they knew. The night after the attack lightning heard a voice in his mind, not a little voice of reason; a voice of chaotic and very bad things. He knew not who this was but he could tell it wasn't his own mind.

Meanwhile in a place I'm not going to tell you the name of:

"I thought I told you that you were to wait for my signal." A harsh female voice stated, the offender was standing in a light in the middle of the room, all the council were standing around him; ready to deliver the punishment. "You disobeyed and attacked the little pest, alarming him that we know where he is." There was a murmur of agreement, which the dragon responded with anger. "The pony couldn't have possibly beaten me! I was going to achieve the final goal!" a male voice spoke, deep full of authority, "It matters not, you have directly disobeyed an order of the high one." the dragon was in trouble, if they carried out a punishment, he would be dead. There was a limit to what a dragon could stand. "And so you will be punished to the furthest extent of the council." The dragon was then held up in the air by a magic force, "no! Please, don't-" the magic grip wrenched his neck. The dead dragon fell to the floor, his last words echoed through the room.

Lightning woke up in a cold sweat, another nightmare. This one of his new friends, in complete agony by the hands of the dragon. Lightning reflected, he always had that sixth sense that helped him survive, but this new voice was telling him to go and do things he wanted no part of. Lightning walked outside and looked around, the day seemed normal enough, applejack was lugging an empty crate away so he thought to say hello. "Hey applejack, what's with the empty cart?" applejack turned, "oh, hey lightning imma go pick the corn at the farm." She turned and walked off to sweet apple acres. Lightning continued and then saw rainbow dash flying overhead, doing tricks she hoped to dazzle the wonderbolt's with. "Hey rainbow!" rainbow dash was going to speak when a pink cloud whizzed by, spinning rainbow around. "Hey! Get back here you!" rainbow then dashed off after the cloud, "No fair! It's not supposed to rain until tomorrow! You can't just-" the rain poured down on rainbow, "you did." Lightning and rainbow then rushed off to sweet apple acres "you look worried rainbow, what's wrong?" rainbow dash's look was grim, "I've seen this before, and I hope it's not happening again." They ran on in silence until the edges of sweet apple acres was in view, applejack was running back and forth, keeping fluttershy's animals from eating her apples. Applejack watched as the two pegesi ran up and assessed the situation, there was total chaos around them. "Would somepony PLEASE explain what's going on?" lightning asked impatiently. "well, here's the short version, 'bout a year ago a feller named discord appeared, this discord gut wanted total control of equestria, to plunge it into chaos." Lightning immediately thought of the voice in his head as of late, all the chaotic things it told him to do. "Girls! I now have a spell that will fix everything!" twilight galloped up as spike ran after her, not the fastest runner. Twilight's horn glowed and a bright magenta light flowed over everything, lightning felt peace. He was with his friends and they would do this the hard way if they had to. The light cleared, showing no difference whatsoever. "Well that didn't work, now what?" lightning asked. Spike burped and a letter appeared something lightning was getting used to. Twilight picked it up and gasped, "C'mon girls, the princess needs to see us at the castle immediately!" lightning decided to step in, "whoa whoa, I think that if this has happened before that the discord guy would know what you can do, at the least let me help and fight this guy." Twilight sighed, "Fine lightning you can come, but remember that were the elements of harmony, we can handle ourselves." Lightning suddenly felt nervous, 'famous last words.' They got on the train and set off to canterlot.

authors note: congrats to anyone who put up with my convoluted story so far, and the other thing is, the dragon is gone. lightning is having an inner conflict and is in a bit of a rough spot, going to fight discord. but I have a whole plan for that, not going to copy the whole garden labrynth from the show. besides, wheres the fun in that?

Chapter 8: chaos at its finest

Disclaimer: I do not own nor do I claim the rights to MLP

The train arrived quickly, and the group of 7 ponies galloped to the castle. Busting through the front door, twilight was beckoning, "princess! We came as fast as we could!" lightning thought he saw the princesses gaze linger on him a moment but dismissed it, it could just be the stress of this whole thing. "Thank you twilight, thank you all." She mentioned for the group of equestrians to follow her, they walked through a grand entry way with big stained glass windows showing the victories that equestria had gained against all odds. "As you may have guessed, discord was freed. I do not know how, or who, or even why." The princess was quite solemn. "But as you know, we can defeat him, with these-" the elements were gone, again. An evil laugh resounded through the castle, "discord! What have you done with the elements!" the princess demanded, "Oh I just borrowed them for a teensy little while." His stained glass form waved a hand, causing the stained glass elements to vanish. Lightning was getting bored of this, "Okay isn't there some dumb riddle we have to solve?" he interjected. Discord finally noticed him, "Oh? And who are you?" discord asked. "I don't feel like telling you, you'll find out anyway, so what's the riddle this time?" discord laughed again, "oh there will be no riddle, just a little maze for you to go through, at the end are the elements you so seek." Discord snapped and the next thing lightning knew they were in some hellish world with fire and everything. "Rule one, no wings and no magic." Lightning felt his wings vanish off his back; he couldn't fly anyway so he didn't care. Discord didn't notice, "Rule two, all of you have to play or the game is over," he rubbed his front appendages, "and I win!" the ponies lined up going to enter the hell maze whilst discord shouted, "good luck everypony!" they all stood side by side, ready to go in. they all shouted "together!" and then walls shot up, in the split second he had to think, lightning launched himself to the right and the wall that shot up couldn't keep him back, he looked to see that he was to travel with twilight sparkle, she shook her head and turned on him, "Are you crazy!?" lightning looked at her coolly, "What and get separated? That worked well last time." On the train lightning got the basics of what occurred that one time about 1 year ago. Twilight saw his point of reason, "Fine but isn't that against the rules?" she asked timidly. Lightning shook his head, "the two rules are no abilities and no quitting, nothing is said about teaming, and we need to get to the end of this hell maze."

The labyrinth was nothing short of really hard, and lightning's head hurt from trying to memorize which way they came through. He decided it was the elements in the middle to find and worry about. He thought he heard voices around him, he could pick out 5 of them, applejack, rarity, pinkie, rainbow, and fluttershy was the easiest to pick out; shrill squeaks of fear, he wanted to get to the elements as soon as possible, stop discord and get his favored vest. The one with all the pockets. But now he galloped through a hell maze to help the friends he knew for about 2 weeks, risking his life and possibly sanity to help them, but it felt as if this was really important. It felt as if this was the moment of truth, and most of all, he worried for his friend's safety. He would never tell them of his past and yet they let him come all the way out to help them.

Meanwhile

Pinkie pie was bouncing through the maze joyfully, she giggled at the thought of the author having to type up any thought she had. She soon stumbled through a patch of balloons and she was overjoyed, there was a sign saying 'welcome pinkie pie!' strung across the other end of the clearing. She bounced through confused now, her friends were there, but they were acting strange. Rarity was bouncing like pinkie pie would, fluttershy was doing all sorts of tricks in the air, twilight was hiding under the table, and rainbow dash was studying. Rainbow dash never studies and she then saw lightning over at the punch bowl just staring into space. Pinkie approached and looked at him, on closer inspection, she saw he had no pupils or irises, just blank white eye. Pinkie was worried now, and she found it harder and harder to think, she stumbled back into the fluttershy who also had white eyes, they all did. Pinkie's head whirled as the 'friends' surrounded her and they were closing in, she started feeling anger and hate towards them, they should be giving her her space! If anypony was watching they would see the swirls in pinkies eyes, and that her whole color scheme darkened. She bucked all of them off and stalked over to the wall.

Lightning definitely heard something, was that crying? And he galloped up to twilight who was sitting down at the dead end, but the wall just sank into the ground. "We should probably question that." Lightning commented as the trotted inward warily, inside was pinkie pie in a breakdown in the middle of a clearing, they approached her cautiously and pinkie looked up, the next thing he knew he was on the ground 5 feet from where he had been standing, and there was a sharp pain in his everywhere. Lightning stood up and trotted over to twilight who was comforting pinkie, to him pinkie looked a little… gray. Twilight got pinkie to stand and the trio trotted off screen.

'Oh this was too easy' discord thought as the trio of ponies walked off to get to the elements. First escape, then all he had to do was transport into the chamber and take the elements, then he brought them to his own creation, a hell maze in another dimension, then he would convert them one by one into the polar opposite of their element. The only factor he didn't consider was the stallion; he was a wild card, discord didn't even know who he was. He wasn't an elemental he was not normal either, he had that thing about him that made him a threat. That pest even had found a loophole in his rules, he was going to pay. If only discord knew how to do that, the one who had freed him was demanding the torture of this young stallion, discord had his standards; he had beef with the elementals, not this stallion. This young pegusus had chosen this, he

Chapter 9: hell and its minions

The three ponies trotted through the maze, hoping to find a friend before discord got there. Lightning was perplexed, why did discord know everypony but him? And why did discord not mind when he threw himself to stay in a group of two. Discord was planning something, something big. But if he was going to come after him why didn't he yet?

MEANWHILE

Applejack galloped towards the center of the hell maze, she needed to find the elements and stop discord. She made a right turn and found herself in the middle of sweet apple acres, except it was destroyed. Applejack trotted with a wrenching sorrow in her gut, who did this? And did her family make it out? She saw her house on the hill as per usual; it was untouched by the destruction that destroyed the apple trees. Applejack broke into a gallop, going and bursting through her front doors, she immediately wished she didn't. All of the homes insides were shattered, applejack tried to remind herself that this was discord's fault, but a crashing sound rang out and there was lightning standing holding a match and dropped it. Applejack cried out and bucked him harder than any tree ever, there was a loud *CRACK* as the head snapped back and flew right off his shoulders. Applejack was horrified with what she just did, killing one of her friends in cold blood? Applejack reminded herself that he destroyed her home, but was that the truth? Applejack galloped out and found herself in the maze again, she failed to notice her coat turning a shade grayer. A wall of the maze dropped out and in galloped two ponies, a third one sneaking behind. "Applejack! Are we glad to see you!" twilight called out in a joyful tone. "Ahm happy to see you to-" once applejack saw lightning her back hooves flew at him, but lightning was expecting this from when pinkie hit him and he ducked. Applejack was screaming something lightning couldn't understand, but twilight got her to calm down. "What's wrong applejack? You nearly took lightning's head off." Applejack stood up with no answer and the group of four ponies left to go find the others. As they trotted off lightning looked at applejack, she too looked grayer than usual.

Discord was hardly containing his laughter as applejack tried to buck lightning's head off. This stallion wasn't going to be a huge threat; after all he was the thing being used to tear the six elementals apart. This pegusus was just another pawn in this game of his, discord wondered, how can I get him to break down? I don't know if there's anyone he cares about. Hmm… I may have to kill the stallion to retain my newfound freedom, I don't like killing things, I like to have a laugh; death isn't laugh worthy.

MEANWHILE AGAIN

Rarity was trotting through the hell maze in order to find the element of generosity she represented, but there was a strange voice telling her to go to the right when she knew to go left. Rarity found she couldn't turn left and was forced to turn right, what she saw made her eyes almost pop out. All her friends were dividing up a stash of gems without her. She called out to them but they didn't hear her, "shouldn't we wait for rarity?" twilight asked, "she's taking forever!" rainbowdash complained. "I think she should have gotten here sooner." Lightning said, "Agreed." The others said at once. Rarity was sad, if her friends forgot about her, what would she do? The group vanished and the pile of gems remained untouched. Rarity found herself galloping towards the pile of gems, "MINE!" she called out to nopony in particular. She dug her hooves into the gems and buried herself in them.

Lightning was worried, he just heard a call of "MINE!" from the other side of this wall, the wall sank into the ground and the quad of ponies galloped into the clearing, seeing a pile of rocks with rarity doing snow angels in them. Rarity spotted lightning and galloped towards him, the next thing he knew was immense pain in his everywhere again and he was lying a good 8 feet from where he had been standing. Twilight was able to calm rarity down to where all 5 ponies galloped off to find rainbowdash and fluttershy.

Discord's gut hurt from laughing so much, if the alicorn who freed him could see this. Lightning kept getting knocked to the ground by his friends. They all thought he was going to do something to harm them in some way; discord would make sure the pegusus would pay dearly for interfering with his plan. (Insert evil laugh here.) "Mwahahahahahahahahahaha!"

Authors note: lightning gets knocked around and discord is plotting something bigger than last time, I will make sure to make chapters as long as I can.

Chapter 10: Lost hope

Fluttershy was shooting from her hiding spot to her next one. If only she had known that the walls would shoot up like lightning did, how did he know? 'How could he have known that?' fluttershy thought to herself. The next thing she saw was a clearing with some ponies standing in it. Fluttershy trotted up quietly, the ponies were at a picnic. 'Why would ponies be having a picnic out here?'

One small filly turned around and fluttershy was shocked at who it was, there was a small fluttershy being bullied by some older stallions. The stallions were calling her 'klutzershy' and laughing then the stallions turned to the real fluttershy and started laughing harder, the lead one transformed into a depiction of lightning laughing the hardest at her, and fluttershy felt something flare up within her, she then proceeded to buck lightning in the chest and he flew backwards. "Get out of my sight." Fluttershy growled; turning gray in the process. The whole scene flashed out of existence and there was an evil laugh in the background.

Lightning galloped up to the scene before him and his brain shorted out, was that fluttershy trying to hit twilight? The buck that was aimed at twilight never hit her; lightning stopped the hit from connecting; with his body. The next thing lightning felt was himself being shaken awake, "lightning! Lightning are you okay?" it was twilight calling to him as he shook his head to make the world focus. "Out of all of your friends, why does fluttershy have to hit the hardest?" lightning stood, and his jaw throbbed, "I think once this is over I'll have my jaw checked." The group then trotted out to the other parts of the hell maze.

MEANWHILE

Rainbowdash was worried; not that she'd show it any way. The fact that she could hear each of her friends meet up was just unnerving, was it real? And furthermore; is this real? She pushed those questions aside to go and find her element: loyalty. The elemental search last time gave her experience battling discord, but she had right to be careful, discord might be anywhere. She trotted into a small clearing, and discord appeared before her. Rainbowdash jumped back and put her front hooves up in the fistfight gesture. Discord put up his paw and claw in a surrender gesture, "I want to show you something involving your new friend." Discord said with a poker face. "What kind of thing could you show me?" rainbow asked. "Your friend has a few secrets that endanger you and your other friends." Discord said smirking, "Well I knew that from when he was attacked." This was new to discord; apparently he was a last resort. "Yes but do you know what they are?" rainbowdash eyed him suspicious "no, I don't know what they are." Discords smirk got bigger, time to use the secret weapon the alicorn gave him; he didn't even know what this was to be honest.

He snapped his fingers and they were ghosts in a fire, rainbowdash looked surprised, she wasn't there when discord did the same thing to twilight. There was a loud bang and a door gave way to a younger lightning as he busted the door down, a look of horror on his face. There were many other children on the floor, lightning picked them up and crashed through the nearest window and the fireponies arrived. The next scene was lightning being rescued from another fire in another foster home. The last scene was lightning fighting the dragon in his room with auntie Cheryl and lightning flying out the window. The dragon got up swearing. And then they were in the clearing again, rainbowdash was crying and discord had a look of pure shock on his face, was that real? Discord decided to believe it wasn't.

he turned to rainbowdash; "well? Do you think that he should have told you these secrets?" rainbowdash then turned grayer and said one word "yes." Discord gave her her wings back and put a portal down she flew out of the maze.

MEANWHILE AGAIN

Lightning looked around and almost swore; rainbowdash flying away into a portal; thus breaking both rules. Discord turned and laughed, the whole maze sank into the ground. "You thought I would play fair didn't you?" he asked lightning approached discord "to be honest, no I knew you would pull this again." Discord just laughed again, "It doesn't matter, I think were due for a big old storm of chaos." (Insert other evil laugh here) "Mwahahahahahaha!" lightning just trotted up to him and delivered a healthy buck to the face, discord just said one thing "Fine, how about this?" discord then tried to brainwash lightning by touch, but once the paw touched his head lightning had a flash of memory, the alicorn taking the book. After the rings cleared discord looked at him expectantly. Lightning just said one thing; "It didn't work." Discord then; in a flash of anger; transported them out of the maze and into the real world, which looked like Armageddon. Discords eyes went wide, "what happened here?" canterlot looked like it was under siege while the rest of equestria was fine. Discord vanished and the mane six galloped off until everypony but twilight, lightning and rainbowdash who wasn't there grabbed at their heads and cried out. Twilight looked at lightning and looked sorrowful. Lightning put his hoof on her shoulder and said "Nothing will get done if we don't get it done." Twilights coat that was turning gray turned back to its original purple. "Now how do we start? Should we go to canterlot?" lightning grinned "I have an Idea"

Authors note: finally picking up is it? Well there will be more to come, I promise that.

Chapter 11: blast from the past

Lightning and twilight were flying through the sky in her air balloon when discord appeared in front of them. "What do you want now?" lightning asked, discord looked really depressed but he looked at lightning, "I have a plea for help from you two." Twilight looked at him and said "and why would we help you?" lightning cut in. "let's hear him out." Discord looked grateful, "I need you two to find the elementals and stop some greater evil, to do this you must go through your own past struggles once again, but I will be an ally to you all the way." Twilights jaw dropped, "You want us to be a friend of yours?" lightning sighed "Well you said greater evil, who is this greater evil?" discord shrugged helplessly, "I don't know the name; I know you had trouble with her before." Lightning gasped, "you mean that one…" discord only nodded, "she freed me to kill you, I would also get equestria to rule." Discord didn't stop there "She wanted you completely out of her way, in order to find out who this is; you must find out your own past." Lightning only said one thing "Let's do this." Discord snapped half heartedly and the three were in a hospital.

There was a newborn baby that looked like lightning except with yellow eyes and larger wings. "That is your father; he is the one who will cause all this to happen." Twilight looked around "This isn't in equestria." Lightning was unsurprised at this fact, "Well that explains a lot." The three then were transported to a scene with a younger discord, the princesses, and lightning's dad. "I don't think that war is a good Idea." Lightning's dad said, "It may be the only choice." Celestia argued. "If you go to war I wish to have no part in it." The princess stood up and growled "you remember this, you brought this on yourself." She then stormed out and the doors slammed behind her.

The last scene they saw was one of a battle; the dad looked as if he'd been through hell. "Fall back! I repeat, fall back! " the three followed him into a room with a small foal that looked like a small little lightning. Discord turned around and saw the alicorn warp in, "how touching." Lightning then got a good look at her, she was like the opposite of princess celestia, but when she blasted his dad lightning felt no rage, he felt understanding.

After the alicorn warped out the three got a chance to talk. "That was… awful." Was all discord said, twilight and lightning stayed silent. Lightning stood, "I understand." Twilight looked at him. "What do you understand?" lightning felt it now, "I know who that was, and you've fought her before." Twilight gasped "was that the queen of the changelings?" lightning shook his head, "that was the shadow." Twilight looked confused, "what's the shadow?" discords face lit up, "it's the thing that turned Luna into nightmare moon!" lightning grinned "yep, now we know that the princess has been corrupted, we need to save her." Twilight shook her head, "then why is canterlot under attack?" lightning's face turned to one of horror, "because Luna is co-ruler of equestria…" discord smashed his claw against the table "we need to find the elementals and I will change them back, then we need the elements." The three all smiled and discord snapped with new energy.

The three new friends found themselves in sweet apple acres looking at rainbowdash and applejack fighting, discord snapped and the two ponies returned to normal. Looking around rainbowdash saw lightning and practically tackled him to the ground, "Was it true? Did you really go through all that?" lightning got up, "yes, happened to me; All of it." Lightning was glad to have someone know what happened to him as a young colt. The next thing he knew there was a group hug and discord was part of it. "Excuse me but we have to go and find the others." Lightning said, the hug dispersed and the now 5 equestrians decided who to look for next, "I say we need to find pinkie pie, she's the one with the party cannon." Lightning suggested. Discord nodded "I agree, pinkie pie would be a great help." The ponies decided this, Twilight lightning and discord would go find pinkie pie, applejack and rainbowdash would look for fluttershy. "Okay from there we need to get fluttershy over here to change her back." Twilight said ready for another adventure. "Let's get this party started."

Discord found pinkie quickly and the turning her back thing was the problem. She had her party cannon aimed at discord, and she didn't believe that he was trying to help. When lightning trotted up he got a full blast from the Fiesta setting on the cannon, lightning shot up and ;dodging the many cannon blasts, managed put pinkie in a headlock, "Discord! Changer her back!" discord snapped and pinkie changed back to normal and lightning released her. Pinkie slumped to the ground and next thing lightning knew he was a good 6 feet away from where he was standing and covered in confetti. "WHAT'S GOING ON?!" pinkie screamed at him, standing up lightning quickly said "discord is going to help us fight the evil beast that's after Princess Luna and we need to get fluttershy and rarity." Discord snapped and they reappeared next to applejack to had fluttershy hogtied and applejack turned, "'bout time you showed up, she's about to break the rope." Discord hurriedly snapped, turning fluttershy back to normal; just as the ropes snapped. "Oh, girls! What happened?" she asked "well explain later, we need to find rarity." The 7 equestrians looked at one another, "she's at home."

They got to the house without trouble, after turning rarity back to normal they all got their act together, "so how do we get to canterlot?" discord asked, "I have a plan." Lighting said, "But it's pretty bold."

Authors note: things are picking up now! The rules for this game of mine are simple, make this epic. Discord is willing to help the mane six just to stop the shadow. The final duel will bring this together.

Chapter 12: showdown

They all arrived in canterlot castle to find the elements in the false bottom of the case, each pony put one on. "ahahahahahahaha!" a truly sadistic laugh came from off screen, lightning didn't even look, "I knew you'd be waiting for us." He said. The laugh stopped, "there is no way you could have known we would be here." Lightning turned, "I knew you were there, I could feel your presence." Discord turned to face him, "how could you do that?" lightning chuckled, "when somepony tries to kill you enough times; you can tell when their around. Also I just felt like she was watching the whole time." The shadow laughed "it doesn't matter, your elements will never work." Twilight capitalized on the opportunity, her eyes glowed and the entire mane six floated to the sky but the rainbow beam never appeared; only a sputtering and the 6 fell to the floor. "What? It can't be!" twilight cried, "We have all of us, but something must be missing." The shadow started laughing again, "oh? Is there an element missing?" lightning took this into his own hooves; galloping towards the shadow he called out every emotion he felt, anger, frustration, despair, fear.

(Insert 'when September ends' by green day)

The next thing he knew, they were all inside an arena. "If you wish to find the last element you need to fight in this arena and win." They were surrounded by changelings and the epic battle had begun, lightning used his wings to trip a few of them and applejack bucked them all the way to Apploosa, twilight was being used as a magical machine gun, rarity was slapping the changelings, fluttershy and rainbowdash were back to back and totally kicking flank, discord was using magic to create all sorts of crap to hit the changelings with. Before long, the entire army of changelings was defeated, the shadow growled and warped in there herself, "try to beat me!" lightning was waiting for this, "hope you brought awesome repellant!" twilight brought to bear her magic on the party cannon; super charging it. Discord healed all the ponies of their pains. "Lets do this!" all the ponies and discord charged but a forcefield appeared; blocking the ponies from hitting her. Applejack looked to the right and shouted, "There! There's a field generator!" twilight blasted it with her magic causing it to explode, "This isn't over yet! We may need to go all out!" Lightning yelled. There was something that tickled the edges of lightning's mind, it hit him in a flash. "Twilight! I need you to transport me to the castle! I have an Idea!" twilight didn't even doubt him, she just teleported them both to the castle.

"Okay so what's this Idea?" lightning grabbed the book on the counter, "check this out." He flipped to a page marked 'the lost elements' inside was the following information, "there is more than the original 6 elements of harmony, these are two elements that are essential for keeping peace. They are chaos: for how do you know what peace is without the polar opposite of it?" Lightning read aloud, "By celestia's beard, we need to find the last element." Twilight said out of breath. "We already have it." Twilight knew what he meant "so we need to get back." They teleported back to find discord at the shadows mercy, lightning delivered a powerful buck to the shadows chest and she flew back, discord got up snapping to heal all the ponies. The shadow saw the book in lightning's mouth and froze, "you found it? But how?" lightning handed the book to discord; who read the chapter of the lost elements. A look of shock covered his face but it passed when a necklace of an explosion appeared on his neck.

"NO! NOOOOOOO!" the shadow cried out as the rainbow produced by the 6 ponies and discord enveloped her, "That's why I said awesome repellant." Lightning said smirking.

They all re-appeared in the castle with the real princess lying un-conscious on the ground, Lightning approached her. Celestia's eyes snapped open and focused on lightning, standing the princess smiled sheepishly, "I apologize for killing… you know." Lightning looked at her, completely un-fazed. "Okay, apology accepted." Twilight just looked at him, "well it wasn't her it was the shadow." The princess looked at discord, "you know were going to have to turn you to stone again right?" lightning jumped in "No you won't, discord is an elemental, you need him out here." The princess sighed, "very well, but who will house him?" lightning smiled "I would do so gladly." And so they stopped the shadow and all that jazz but you know enough about me to know that this isn't the end of their adventures right?

Authors note: And so they saved the day and discord is now a close friend of the mane six. the final battle was nowhere near as epic as I hoped but the whole fic worked out beautifully.

Another shout out to Miko in training, a great support. I will see you all again; in another adventure.

Chapter 14: epilogue

Lightning stood at the door to his house, it felt good to be here. But the only thing wrong was it felt as if he had something to do, but he wasn't doing it. He then had a troubling thought, 'my dad was in the military, but where did I learn all this stuff?' And I'm going to let you wait for the next adventure. Hahahaha!