After I had made my declaration we were soon gone in a flash of light once more. Celestia, Luna and I then appeared in a field overlooking a small valley. And I didn’t like what we were seeing. It seemed that Discord had been busy in the short time that we had been away and had turned the world upside down, literally in some places. In others it seemed like he had turned the ground plaid and was causing rain to fall upwards. I scratched the side of my head as I scanned the landscape.

“Well, I think we’re going in the right direction.”

“Thou art right. We must end this reign of chaos,” Celestia stated as she glared at the chaotic scene.

“We agree, we will finally be free from this nightmare.” Luna continued as she clenched her fists.

“Well then,” I started as I adjusted my glasses, “let’s do this. We’re not going to accomplish anything if we just stand here all day.”

Celestia and Luna nodded and we made our way towards the source of the chaos. My mind was racing a mile a minute with thoughts on what we were about to do. What if we failed? Discord showed us that he was more than willing to kill the last time we saw him. I glanced down at the revolver at my side while my right hand hovered over it and started to think.

‘What if the elements aren’t enough to defeat Discord completely? The three of us would have to fight him. And considering that he has no qualms with killing we might have to… No! Whatever happens I will not let us kill Discord. I will do whatever I can to prevent that from happening.’

I then clenched my fist just above the grip of my revolver and stared into the distance. One of the things I had admired about the real Vash was the lengths he went through to prevent killing his opponents. Even though it damaged his body and left him scarred. I wanted to be at least half the man he was. These thoughts continued to swirl around my head as we marched toward Discord.

As we continued to walk I noticed that things seemed to be getting crazier and crazier the further we went. Trees seemed to have random objects blooming from trees like fruit, a few flowers were wearing horned helmets and singing an opera, and a number of things that hurt my head just looking at them. We eventually reached the center of the madness to see Discord sitting on a floating throne while he happily munched away at a bag of something that sort of looked like black, unpopped popcorn kernels. He was giggling to himself while he watched his handiwork unfold. When he did finally did notice us he glanced down at us with a shit-eating grin.

“Ooh, if it isn’t the two princesses and the “brave warrior” that challenged me,” he called out with a laugh. “Have you three come back for more?” He asked as he pointed his bag at us and hit us in the face with a few of the seeds, which we didn’t bother to react to. “I certainly hope so, that thing you did with your weapon was hilarious. I almost want to keep you here as my jester.” Discord finished with a grin.

I just grinned and crossed my arms over my chest while I responded with, “There’s no way that this is going to play out like last time. Your reign is at an end Discord! Now, Celestia and Luna, do your thing!” I called out as I stepped aside for the two princesses to use their newly acquired elements on the giggling chaos spirit. They both gave me an odd look as they turned towards me.

“Vash, what art thou doing? Aren’t thou going to help us with the elements?” Celestia asked.

“Uh, okay.” I said with a nod as I stood between the two. The mention of the elements peaked Discord’s interest and caused him to lean forward in his throne with a manic grin.

“Ooh the plot seems to be thickening. What are these elements you’re all talking about? Do you think you’ll really be able to stop me with them? Because I’d love to see you try.”

My grin just seemed to widen when he said that. “Alright, but you might just want to give up now.” I boasted. “If you behave yourself we might even let you off easy with community service.” This caused Discord to glare to at me with his eyes while his mouth was still grinning at me.

“I think I’ll take my chances.”

“Well,” I replied with a shrug, “don’t say we didn’t warn you.”

I then nodded to Celestia and Luna and they held the elements in their magic and had them float around us in a circle. “Okay, now what should we do?” I whispered to Luna.

“We do not know for sure, but we suggest letting the feelings from the elements flow through thee. The feelings we hath been getting from them are: magic, kindness, generosity, laughter, honesty and loyalty.”

“Okay, but we probably should’ve figured out how to work these before we rushed to fight the thing that can bend reality over the proverbial table,” I pointed out with the prescriptive lenses of hindsight. Luna tensed up a bit at that, probably because I had made a good point. But in the end Luna just had a steely expression on her face and stood firmly.

“Thou art not wrong, but we cannot worry about that now.”

I nodded and the three of us closed our eyes as we reached into ourselves to let the feelings from the elements flow from and into us. It was a sort of surreal feeling. One that sort of escaped description, or at least the entirety of what I was feeling at the moment. All I really know was that I felt a warmth in the entirety of my being, and I felt like I was floating. All of a sudden, the elements started to spin around us and glow in a blur of colors. Just when it seemed like there was no stopping them, they stopped. Two of each of the elements were floating in front of us. In front of me were the red and the blue jewels, Luna had the orange and the pink jewel in front of her, and Celestia had the two purple jewels in front of her. Then the elements started to glow with more intensity and the warm, floaty feeling intensified as well. I couldn’t resist breaking out into a wild grin as this happened and looked up at Discord.

“Before we defeat you Discord there is something you must know.” I told him with determination.

“And what would that be?” He asked with a slightly irritated huff.

“This land is made of…

"This land is made of?" Discord questioned

"LOVE AND PEACE!” I cried as I struck a pose and two twirling rainbows shot out of the elements. The two rainbows flew into the air before combining into one and flying back down right into Discord. As soon as the beam struck Discord he started to slowly turn into stone. Discord’s eyes widened in genuine terror as he tried to escape what was happening to him. In the end he threw up his arms and opened his mouth to scream just as he completely turned to stone. Once this was done, Discord’s magic faded from the land and his statue landed to the ground with a dull thud. I let out a sigh of relief and craned my head to look at the now normal scenery of the area. The elements stopped glowing and Celestia and Luna had them return to their sides. They then walked up to Discord’s statue with hard to read expressions on their face.

“It seems this ordeal is finally over,” Celestia stated as a look of relief came over her face.

“Yes, though we do not like that it appears as though Discord is still laughing at us.”

I walked up to the two princesses and placed a hand on their shoulders. “Yeah but we’ll know the truth, Discord was doing anything but laughing at the end. This caused their lips to curl up and they nodded at me.

“Thou art right Vash, but what should we do with Discord? He may break free of this prison and return to cause more mischief,” Luna inquired.

“Well considering he’s basically a statue now, I say we put him on a lawn and treat him like a glorified ornament.” Celestia started to giggle at this and she looked at me with mirth in her eyes.

“We like this idea. It seems like a fitting punishment and a good way to keep an eye on him.”

“Well, should we tell the good news to the others?” I asked.

The two nodded and we disappeared into a flash of light. We showed the group the statue of Discord and this caused them to break out into cheers. Our celebration lasted well into the night and by the end of it I was feeling pretty drained after everything that had happened. I decided that I would take a bath to help me relax. I walked into the bathroom and was greeted by a fairly primitive wash basin. I let out a sigh as I pulled up on my red duster.

‘Really should’ve been expecting this considering the “Ye Olde” speaking that everyone has going on. If only there was a dashing, young engineer that could help modernize this society so I don’t have to use a chamber pot. Oh well, too bad there isn’t anyone like that in this world.’

I snickered a bit at that thought and closed my eyes as I carefully placed my glasses on a nearby stool. I then peeled off my gloves and threw them on the growing pile of clothes. I was just about to reach for my pants when I felt something strange as my right hand brushed against my left arm. I felt a cold, metal surface instead of the, fleshy, squishy feeling I was used to. I slowly opened my eyes and saw that my left arm was indeed made of metal. Being the Trigun fan that I was, I of course noticed that this looked exactly like Vash’s arm. I could feel a scream start to form deep in my chest, but I swallowed it down.

‘Okay, there is no need to freak out.’ I thought with a nervous chuckle. ‘I bet this is just part of my costume. I bet I can just peel it off and see my real arm right underneath it.’ I attempted to do just that, but it seemed that there was no way to remove what I thought was just a metal covering. After a few more fruitless tugs I decided to give up on that idea. ‘Okay, apparently I’ve been sent to another world and somebody stole my goddamned arm! Why would they even do that!? I wonder… does this thing…” Just as I was thinking that, my arm suddenly shifted and revealed that there was a gun barrel hidden within… just like Vash’s. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me and I suddenly passed out, my mind collapsing from all the insanity I had been exposed to in such a short time frame.

Once I had woken up from my impromptu nap I quickly bathed and walked out of the building we were staying in and stepped out to get a breath of fresh air and to think about everything that was going on with my life at the moment. I sat down on a nearby hill just to look up at the stars for a while. I don’t know how long I was sitting on that hill before I heard the sound of approaching footsteps… or I guess hoofsteps. I turned back to see Luna looking down at me.

“Vash, what art thou doing out at this late hour?” She asked softly.

“I could ask you the same thing.” I told her with a weak grin.

“We art the princess of the moon and night. We art used to being up at this time of night. But, what art thou doing up?”

“I was just looking up at the stars and thinking about some things.”

Luna sat down beside me and looked up at the same patch of sky that I was. “Wast thou thinking of thine home and family?” She asked carefully.

I looked down at my now gloved left hand and clenched it. “A little, I’m sure they must be worried sick about me.” I said trying to fight back some tears.

Luna looked uncomfortable for a moment but she steeled herself and hesitantly wrapped a wing around my back. I was stunned by this action and couldn’t find any words at that moment. Luna was a lot less friendly toward me than this, but I found the gesture oddly calming. “We art confident that Starswirl will find a way to return thee to thine home. But if he does not… then know that thou shalt always have a place here. Thou art our friend Vash, and we would not be here without thee.”

A small smile worked its way onto my face and I wrapped an arm around Luna’s shoulders and gave her a little squeeze. “Thanks Luna, that means a lot to me.” My look then turned into a sultry one as I turned towards her and cupped her chin with my other hand. “But mayhaps we could work on becoming more than friends my fair princess?” I asked as I leaned in towards her with closed eyes. Just as I was a hair’s breadth away from her lips I could feel myself being lifted off of the ground. When I opened my eyes I was greeted by a furious looking Luna.

“Try to steal a kiss from our lips one more time and we shall see thee gelded. Do we make ourselves clear?” She growled as she held me up in her magic. I covered my crotch with my hands and nodded emphatically. She then stormed off with a huff and dropped me right onto my face. I peeled my face off of the grass and watched her as she left. I let out a sigh and leaned my cheek onto my right arm.

“I do so love when they play hard to get.” I said with a wistful look on my face. I then called out, “I will win you yet my queen of the night! Your lips will be mine for the kissing!”

Without even turning to me she shot back, “Brazen fool!”

The next day we set back out into the forest with a crew of workers and started the construction of Celestia and Luna’s castle. I helped out as much as I could, even if most of the workers seemed to be uncomfortable around me. The building took a few months even with the help of everyone’s magic, but in the end we had a fantastic looking castle for the princesses to call home. When everything was completed our ragtag little group looked over the new castle.

“This castle is quite the sight,” Starswirl beamed. “What should it be called?”

“I believe it should be called the Castle of the Two Sisters,” Hammerfall suggested. “Considering who shall be ruling from it.”

We all nodded at that and Clover spoke up with, “Um, what about the forest? If we are going to put the princesses’ castle here, shouldn’t we name it too?”

“How about the Everfree Forest. Because from here we’ll proclaim that the citizens of Equesrtria shall be forever free!” I exclaimed with a grin.

“We like it, and we shall try to live up to this proclamation.” Celestia said.

With all of that settled we walked into the castle to begin our roles now that we had defeated Discord. Celestia and Luna would be the princesses of the day and night respectively, and hold their own courts. Starswirl would be their advisor and court mage with Clover as his apprentice, and Hammerfall and I would work in the forge and help to modernize Equestria.

A few days later I was walking down the halls of the castle and was considering what to do with my day off. My thoughts of course drifted towards the two princesses that were my best friends. I hadn’t made any real advances toward them since that night with Luna and considered correcting that. Before my mind could wander into fantasies of grand, romantic gestures to win them over I was struck on the head by something. I looked around to see if anyone had decided to be funny and throw something at me but I was alone in the hallway. I then looked down and saw a black and green cylinder on the ground. I leaned down and picked it up and the instant I did a message started to play.

I am the changer of shape, seeking to understand the many forms of life. Call for the man of many shapes during your hour of need and I will come, a one man army. Activate the cylinder and in a flash I’ll be ready to clash.