'-and so,' Discord continued, 'that is how I believe everything should exist... what do you think?

If I could move my body at all, my eye would've been twitching for, if I remember correctly, two-to-three centuries just from listening to this madman... er... mad-draconequus? If I have to listen to this freak-o'-nature for too much longer, I think I will become more insane than Medic... well he's not exactly insane... he's me mixed with Medic's mind. Scratch that he probably is clinically insane by now if he can-

"-this is a really interesting statue," a voice, an actual voice, said. "What do you notice about it?" If I'm not mistaken that sounded like an adult female, wait that means-

"It's got an eagle claw!" said a rather young voice with an accent like mine, ah right, Applebloom

"And a lion paw!" said another young voice that sounded suspiciously like a female, child Scout, obviously Scootaloo.

"And a snake tail!" said another young voice with a little bit of etiquette-accent like Spy's, but not as fancy, gonna guess Sweetie Belle.

"This creature is called a draconequus," said the adult female voice, right Cheerilee, "he has the head of a pony and a body made up of all sorts of things. What do you suppose that represents?"

At this point I started ignoring the conversation since I know they are talking about Discord, our mental pain-in-the-ass.

"Hey, Ms. Cheerilee?" I heard Applebloom talking to Cheerilee.

"Yes, Applebloom?" I heard Cheerilee ask.

"What about this group of statues standing on two legs?" Applebloom asked, I'm gonna listen just in case I pick up something important.

"Ah, what an excellent question!" said Cheerilee. "It is said that these creatures appeared one day, seemingly running from something in the woods that they came from, or to help defeat the draconequus hat appeared 1000 years ago."

After that I heard a large group of young ones 'oh' and 'ah' at us. If only half of that was true, me and Spy were just trying to keep up with the others to prevent them from causing panic, damage, or both-

*crack*

...OK, what in Sam Hill is going on to create that noise? The fillies left along with the teacher already so-

*CRACK*

...Huh... that felt odd... wait... FELT?!

*CRA-BOOM*

Ugh, this hurt's worse than when I first woke up in Equestria, but how am I feeling ANYTHING right now? As I get up, I groan and here the others groan as well, apparently we are all free. But how-

"Well hello there, my little friends," says a voice that has annoyed me for the last 1000 years.

"Discord?" I ask, though I already knew the answer.

"The one and only, anyways your welcome for your freedom, feel free to do what ever you please, right now, it is time to cause some CHAOS!" Discord laughs as he floats away on an anvil... wait, what?

"Ummm..." I hum to myself then look at the others, "what now?"

"FREEEEEEDOOOMMM!!!" Demoman shouts, then everyone glares at him, he then clears his throat, "sorry, I just had to you know?" Huh, I guess being trapped in stone for the last 1000 years with the time to practice his accent really paid off.

"Anyways, let's get to work," Spy announces, "we need to stop Discord, only this time, we do NOT get trapped in stone, agreed?"

Me and the other seven shout our agreement.

"And Scout?"

"Yeah?" Scout asked.

"No running off this without a plan seeing as how well that worked out last time." Spy scolded.

Scout grumbles as Heavy, Sniper, Demoman, and Soldier laugh to his annoyance. Spy then waves us all in for a huddle to discuss our plan.

OK, so far, somehow, everything was going according to plan, including our navigation of the castle and avoidance of any of the Royal Guard. The Royal Garden is a lot further away from the stain glass hall than we probably first thought, but we got there eventually. Finding Princess Celestia and the Mane 6 all in the same room and, if I'm not mistaken, just after Discord gave them their clue towards finding the Elements of Harmony that he placed elsewhere.

"Twists and turns..." I just barely managed to hear Twilight Sparkle mumble to herself, "Canterlots Royal Garden! The Elements have got to be there-"

"I'm afraid not," Spy interrupted, alerting the ponies in the room to our presence. "For, you see, we just came from there."

Fluttershy 'eeped' and hid behind Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash got in front of their friends and made themselves look threatening, Twilight just teleported to the spot beside her friends eyes squinted and horn ablaze with magic, and Celestia... had a look of shock and familiarity.

"It's OK my little ponies," Celestia says, to my shock, "they are not here to harm us, in fact I believe they are here to help us."

The Mane 6, me, and the rest of my team all slack-jawed looked at her like she was crazy.

"How'd you... how'd you know we were gonna help miss?" I ask.

"Well, all of you obviously are not from around here," Celestia stated matter-of-factly, "maybe Discord's the reason you are here, after all he doesn't do anything to make sense."

I just stared at her, then said, "I'm... kinda disappointed, though I guess this saves us a lot of trouble."

"Huh?" the Mane 6 all say simultaneously.

"I was guess I was expecting... I dunno, maybe you to not trust us and there would be a lot of misunderstandings between you and us, and then eventually us getting along because we help save Equestria, help save you or your sister, or something. I guess I was just expecting a bit of opposition is all."

After that explanation, there was a long and tense silence, when suddenly Celestia burst out laughing. Me and my team all just looked at the Mane 6 awkwardly, who had just done the exact same thing, then back to Celestia.

When she gained control of herself she said, "That... that was the most ridiculous thing... I have ever heard."

I frown at her, "Well hey I bet it's not everyday you have some creature plopped in front of you that wants to help you in some way or another. For all you knew, we probably wanted you dead, that was what we did for a living, mercenaries, we backstab, defend, take hits, heal, blow-up, demolish, slash, smash, and pretty much anything that can be done physically without magic, but with science."

"Yes," Celestia says, "but considering what you just said, you used to... so why don't you anymore?"

"To put it bluntly," I say, "we are out of the job and considering we aren't on Earth anymore, at least from the info I've obtained, I kinda doubt that your country takes this type of currency." I pullout a stack of hundred dollar bills (found this on ourselves 1000 years ago, $10,000 a stack, had we been on Earth, we would be the richest people in existence).

"Hmmm... well..." Celestia starts, "we could do a reimbursement, it can't be that-"

"Ma'am how many... uh..." I start thinking through my memories, "bits? Bits can buy a tomato?"

"On average about two bits," Celestia answers. "why?"

"Well," I hold a single one hundred dollar bill, "tomatoes on average were about 19 cents a pound and the tomatoes you usually have are about medium, give or take, so that means about 4 tomatoes for 19 cents and a cent is a fraction of a one dollar bill. There are a few different varieties of dollar bills, what I have here is a stack of 100 dollar bills, with a single 100 dollar bill, I can buy about... errr..." pulls out pda which doubles as a calculator, " about 2,106 tomatoes, and considering that there are 100 of these 100 dollar bills in this stack..." uses the pda again, "I can buy about 210,527 tomatoes with just this stack alone, but me and my team have a stack for each one of us meaning I can buy about 1,894,737 tomatoes. In total, if I'm not mistaken that would be about... 3,789,474 bits, give or take a couple."

Celestia, Twilight, AJ, Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie all slack-jawed at the numbers that they were just told.

Celestia regained her composure and said, "Well... I think I have enough in the Royal treasury to reimburse you, but don't tell anypony your wealth because not even the richest noble in Canterlot has that much, but we will get to that later, right now Discord."

"Right!" me and Twilight said at the same time then looked at each other then remembered why I was here.

"Oh yeah and I'm pretty sure the hedge maze would be a trap of some sort. Could you repeat the riddle Discord spoke I barely heard it on the way here."

"Oh, sure!" Twilight exclaimed, then cleared her throat. "'Twists and turn are my master plan, find the Elements back where you began'."

"Hmm..." I pretend to ponder, then came up with an idea, "Twilight 'twists and turns' have nothing to do with finding the Elements, 'back where you began'... you... weren't originally the Element bearer were you?"

"No," Twilight answered, "I only learned enough about the Elements in the... reference... guide..." Twilight's eyes widened and then she ran up and hugged me. "You are a GENIUS! Thank you mister... um..."

"Just call me Alex if you want, but my friends call me Engineer or Engie," I answer her unspoken question, "and it weren't nothin'".

"Thank you, Mr. Alex," Twilight then turned to her friends. "Come on girls we've got a job to do." Then Twilight and the other ponies besides Celestia left the castle.

"Um..." Spy ponders, "should... should we go help them or...?"

"I think they will be quite OK, right Celestia?" I ask.

"Indeed, this is not the first threat they have faced with the Elements of Harmony." Celestia responds.

Author's Notes:

Hey guys like I said all criticism is appreciated, and also I decided to drag on this chapter a little longer than I'd have liked, but if you guys like it then I don't have any regrets. Let me know if there is anything in this chapter that you didn't like.