Oh buck.

Oh buck!

OH BUCK!

How'd he figure out about this?! I made sure that no one else in my group knew about this! I'm so screwed, very VERY screwed! This is why I can't have nice things happen to me, I can't go without having to listen to something he says, reading what schemes he comes up with, or even feeling his breath on the back of my neck!

He does know the answer about this story however, I'm not going to stop. It barely hasn't started and he's already threatening me with throwing me out into some other land, probably filled with tigers, panthers, bobcats, cheetahs, maybe an annoying cat, I DON'T KNOW.

Alright, give me a second to cool down, I need to get back on track here and go into the second day. Or in countdown clock time, 3 days 14 hours 44 minutes 59 seconds 2 firsts.

Limonade and myself left the spa with some extra pep in our steps, Aloe and Lotus weren't kidding about making worries melt away. Both of us however remained strong about how we had to figure out a way to get out of this ticking time bomb plan that Discord had made that involved us. "Limonade, I need you to go to Zecora's." I was adamant on getting a place where Min Tea, her, and I could at least have a plan made at somepony's that could be trusted, and Zecora was the closest one that I had at this point.

"Who's Zecora?" Limonade asked, making me regret not telling her sooner about what happened in the Everfree Forest that first night. We began walking in that direction as we continued.

"Voodoo zebra, she knows that I'm human, from a different world, and she was very accommodating to the fact that I didn't have any money," I shook my pocket, making the bits hidden inside jingle. The bath and spa treatment was a rather hefty one, we managed to escape with a price tag of 50 bits after some bargaining and coercion into a membership that required at least one visit a month and gave a discounted rate. I felt miserable about it too, I still had that little problem of wanting to bed every mare I saw in my head and I could already feel the strain on me returning.

"Voodoo? Wait, so she's a unicorn zebra?" Limonade gave me a confused look and raised an eyebrow, making me somewhat chuckle at the sight of seeing Zecora with a horn as she cackled maniacally into her brew. Stopping right away as Limonade gave me a disapproving look.

"No, she's a potion maker, and also great rhymer," I cringed at the unfortunate pun I just made. Limonade began laughing as she saw the twitch I gave after I said it. "Let's just say she's somepony that you have to see in order to believe." We reached the edge of the forest and were greeted by a sprinting Tyrone who promptly tackled me and began licking me. After being lifted up from the ground, I flopped in his arms and felt the world fade around me as I tried to get any breath of air I could.

"Beta! I missed you so! Why didn't you come home? I cried all night about not seeing you!" Tyrone barked happily as he also picked up Limonade. "Zecora has been waiting for you, says she wants to know what happened last night!" Soon both Limonade and myself were thrown over the shoulders of Tyrone and rushing into the Everfree Forest towards Zecora's, or at least I thought it was going to be at her house. We reached the clearing that I had originally landed in and Tyrone set us down to catch our sense of direction again.

"Zecora?" Tyrone sniffed around, trying to catch the scent of the elusive zebra. Limonade and myself managed to get up and look around as well, I already felt uneasy about the place that I just about died, but at least I could see a little more than I did the last time I was here. "Found a note! But, I can't read it..." Tyrone whined, so he managed to learn how to speak appropriately, but reading in a cartoon world of ponies, OUT OF THE QUESTION. Limonade managed to reach the note first and started reading it aloud.

To the pegasus and human, Quentin Clemens,person and pony trying to make amends

You have told me of your dream with Discord and I have a destination that you must afford

It is a ruined building of where the Elements were once stored, and a secret that can't be ignored

Only a human may enter its chambers and get to the power, I will be at the entrance in an hour

Take the map on the back, I fear the time is coming for Discord's final attack.

Limonade flipped the page and it was indeed a map, reading it showed a trail which involved a mountain side, a manticore resting ground, really angry... trees, a river, a rickety wooden bridge (not an adventure without a rickety wooden bridge), and ending on a broken down castle.

I was less than thrilled.

"At least Zecora was kind enough to point me in the direction of an actual weapon I could use, but to go through all of that on the map?" I looked over at Limonade and then over at Tyrone, getting a feel of what I had to work with. "I've got a better idea."

"This is not going to work," Limonade said as she tried to balance on my back and I opened my wings. "Can I at least get a seatbelt for the ride?"

"Whiner," I responded, rising up so Limonade could yank a vine down and tie it around herself, as she started making a knot I looked down at Tyrone who was already whining at me. "Go find Min Tea and tell her whats going on, give her the map and then we'll meet at the castle," I yelled down, "hopefully," I thought quietly. Tyrone gave a bark and ran off to try and get Min Tea's attention. Rising up past the tree cover I scanned for anything resembling a castle, or at least one of the landmarks.

"I think I see the river over there," Limonade pointed, right next to my face so I had an idea of where she was talking about. With a whinny and spinning my hooves in the air, we were off towards the river, I may have been fast as a standalone, but with a passenger, I could just barely pass the speed of running. I could tell this may not have been the brightest plan, but I figured it'd be easier than dealing with manticores and whatever else was down underneath the tree cover.

"Hey Quick, can you turn the radio on?" Limonade cheekily remarked at me.

"Don't make me pull this flight over." I responded in kind.

Min Tea awoke to the sight of a ruined home, the doors had been broken into, small blood trails led outside her door, when she blinked she was in the same room, no broken doors, no blood, just Applebloom poking at her side.

"Are you awake yet? I swear you can sleep through anything." Min Tea turned to see a variety of instruments, pots, and burned out firecrackers behind the bored filly. When Applebloom noticed Min Tea was awake, she perked up and started trying to pull her out of bed. "Come on! You have some chore work to do!"

Applejack came to the door and looked in and shook her head, "Applebloom, you don't wake up guests in your home and get on their case about working. It's called common courtesy." She then looked over at Min Tea and gave an apologetic smile, "Sorry, my little sister tends to forget how to act right when we have a guest sleeping over."

Min Tea reached for her glasses and slipped them on, ignoring the returning image of the torn apart farm that shadowed with her as she turned to Applejack. "It's fine, I'm used to being woken up every morning by my big sister calling me." She slipped out of the bed and went to pass Applejack when she stopped her and looked at her eyes.

"You look terrible," Applejack said, remarking at Min Tea's non glimmering eyes and dark circles that had formed underneath them. "Maybe it's not a good idea to let you go out, I know what happens when you overwork yourself, and you don't look even ready to go to town in your condition."

Min Tea pushed past Applejack, determined in a mission that had now formed in her mind, "I'm fine, there's no need to worry about me at all. It's your family and friends you need to start worrying for." Applejack again stopped Min Tea at the stairs, trying to keep the droning pony from continuing on.

"Now you just wait a minute! Where's this depressed pony come from? What happened to you last night?" Applejack again found herself shoved aside, this time more forcefully than before by Min Tea as she went down the stairs and now reached the door and an extremely mad Applejack. "Now, darn it! You're going to tell me what's going on or I'll knock your teeth down your throat!"

Min Tea's eyes locked onto Applejack's, making Applejack feel a little scared as she saw something reflect off the glasses. "All of the trees will be lit by lightning, this home and farm will no longer stand, and everything that you have cared about will be on the ground as they bleed out and scream in agony against the power of Discord. This is the vision of the end, and I must tell all."

Applejack's eyes went small and she began quivering as Min Tea past her, something about what she said, how absurd as it was, she believed her and started running towards town. She past the slowly moving Min Tea and rushed into town and straight to the library. When she entered she saw the basement cover was already open and she ran down it to where Twilight was still working. "Twilight! I've got bad news! And it's not the kind of news anypony would like!"

Take on me, take me on

I'll be gone

In a day or twooooooo

We finished our impromptu song of 'Take me On' by A-Ha as we touched down at the edge of the river, Limonade jumped off of me and I started stretching out my back. The trip did a number on me in regards of endurance and made a note to myself to start working out again. Limonade started to cross the river and I noticed that a purple rock began to move towards her, jumping after Limonade I tried to pick her up and go when a large purple sea dragon came out of the river.

"Why hello there! It's been a while since I got to see more of you cute little ponies going across the river!" I restrained any laughter in me as I listened to his voice, he sounded WAY out of character for what a sea dragon would sound like. Not only that, but if I did laugh, I could be facing stomach acid as he may eat me out of anger.

"So I take it this is the road less traveled that we chose," Limonade yelled up, making sure the tall guy could hear her.

"Actually, I have checked, in this forest this has become the most used path. There was a group of six that came by and gave me this little piece of wondrous mustache," he twirled the uncharacteristic purple side of his mustache as he said this, "a zebra that rhymed, and now you two. That makes nine ponies that have crossed this side of the river, and it now exceeds my brothers side in the amount of travelers that pass!"

"Great, so at least we're on the right track, we're trying to follow a zebra with the description you just had," I also bellowed up, finding a bit more at ease with the friendly sea dragon. "She told us to meet at this broken down castle, so we just keep going down this trail and we'll get there?"

The sea dragon nodded and scooped us out of the river and placed us on the other side, "Do come back, I would love to see how the pony with the curl in the front keeps it so well maintained in conditions like these, especially with the heat beginning to come down." Limonade gave a nice nod and looked over at me.

"I would love to, and if I don't come back, just ask the locals for Limonade and I'll be right there." Limonade puffed the front of her curl and then turned to go down the path.

"And if she doesn't answer, then ask for Quick Fix and I'll drag her here, see ya 'round then!" I gave a small salute and then ran after Limonade to catch up. "Chalk up another incident that I didn't expect to cross off my bucket list," I laughed with Limonade as we continued on our way. Eventually we reached the pinnacle of our trip, and one of the worst tropes of adventurers could face, the rickety old bridge. "Alright, let's make bets now, which one of us is going to break through the wood and plummet to their death? I put 10 bits on me."

Limonade looked over the edge and then over at me, "Can I ride on you again? Or at the very least let you walk ahead of me on this thing?" If it was anypony else, I'd have said no, however, this was Limonade, this was Linda, and I had to be there for her. Taking a shaky breath I went out on the first plank and began carefully watching my step as I went from plank to plank. I could hear Limonade behind me as she did her best not to scream in fear as we continued.

Looking across the way, I could see one of the support beams starting to bend and making a not-very-good sound. "Hang on to the rope, Linda!" The beam snapped and the bridge tilted to its side and both of us were hanging on the rope and now another unstable beam was liable to break at any moment. Getting my wings running, I pulled away and slid underneath Limonade to catch her on my back. She got down and I strained to get altitude and finish reaching the other side. As we touched down, I collapsed and stayed there for awhile as I tried to sort through the pain in my wings and back from the exertion.

"Never again!" Limonade screeched at me, giving me time to gasp and nod furiously in agreement. After a moment of admiring life, we both got up and continued on our way. When we entered the first stone building, it had no roof, the sun shining down on the torn apart hall. Zecora was waiting for us in her cloak, her hood down so she could see us both.

"Quentin and a guest I have not seen, please introduce me to your friend of green," she spoke with seriousness, as she began walking up stairs and motioned us to follow. We started up the winding case of stairs and I kept seeing more signs of disrepair in the walls and stairs.

"This is Linda, she's one of the other friends that came with me in this world," I turned back to her and gave a comforting smile. "And she's my girlfriend that I'll take to a date that I promised to her." We reached the top and began crossing a wall walk and into another tower that had no exit. Zecora started walking around the walls and tapping it.

"This place has many secrets that no pony has been able to discover, it's because some of the ways are blocked by a magical buffer." She then motioned to us to come over and look at a segment of the wall, looking at it shown that it was an imprint of a human hand and in that hand was a hoof, "All of them requiring the touch of a human, one that has been in contact with Discord's plan."

"No freaking way," Limonade gasped, her hoof reaching out and pressing against the wall, expecting something to happen. When she pulled her hoof away, we stood in silence. "Is it broken?"

"He did say that we were all working for him now, so what could be missing?" I began thinking, back to the letter he sent to me, it did say that along with me that he contacted two of the others out of the four. So one of us had yet to see or hear him at all. "Linda, have you even seen Discord? Heard him?"

Limonade shook her head, "The only thing I know about him is what Marian told us last night in Sugarcube Corner about him. God of Chaos, ruled over Equestria, used humans as slaves, that's it." The wheels began turning in my mind, if Linda was the last one that Discord had yet to see or talk to, then that meant Richard and Marian were the other two that got to see him. So if Marian did see him, why didn't she tell us? Ignoring that problem, I instead placed my own hoof on the button and heard the sound of something moving. The tower started shaking as the floor revealed a slide the seemed to delve into a black nothingness.

"Anypony else thinking that it's a bad idea to go down there?" I asked, my body beginning to shiver as it did when I first noticed danger with the Timberwolves, leaning my head down to try and see further. Limonade poked her head on the other side and started whimpering.

"Down there is what I believe to be where your kind made plans of war," Zecora sat on the end where the slide began and gave us a confident smile. "The only way to be sure is see what's in store," with that she pushed off and started going down. Linda began shaking her head at me that she didn't want to go, standing beside her as my shivers started to diminish, I locked hooves with her and both of us jumped down on the slide and began the descent into the unknown.

Min Tea finally reached town, tears already forming as she reached the center of town and sat down. Discord had been whispering in her ear and keeping her eyes open to the torture. She wished to wretch and cleanse herself from these images of violence and hate, but relief wouldn't come. The only thing that could come was her words, the only thing that could save the town and perhaps make her nightmares go away.

"Ponies of Ponyville! Listen to my cry!" Min Tea screamed, making many in the town stop in their tracks as they watched the weeping mare. "You are all in grave danger! The world will be tore open like a scab and it will bleed out lava and plagues on you all! Your homes will not be safe for you, and running from the terror will only get you so far before it reaches you and tears your life away!" The town began murmuring to each other, some calling the mare crazy and needed to be locked away, others thought it was a really bad joke and ignored it. However Min Tea's tears kept flowing as she howled out in anger and pity.

"Don't ignore the signs! The first sign is the fall of the grand town of Canterlot and the end of the crowned princesses! The second sign is that the clouds will fade away, and with it Cloudsdale and its weather factory! The third sign will reveal the one who will have caused these problems and will choose six ponies to ride with him and face the Elements of Harmony! The final sign is that a dark rainbow will spread across the sky to signify that his plan has been completed, and Equestria will have fallen and never rise again!" Min Tea kept at her plea's, doing everything she could to warn the town. Her plea did manage to catch the attention of the purple unicorn she first met that was working on the teleporter and Applejack who kept alongside her.

"Min Tea, what has gotten into you? Are you being controlled?" Twilight went to use her magic to try and figure out who was behind the wailing mare and was shot back. An invisible barrier protected Min Tea from the magic and Twilight began to worry even more. Min Tea's eyes had lost any sign of white in them and looked as if they were just pure black as she stared at them all.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. You'll all perish by Discord's agents and the Elements of Chaos, forced to burn in an eternity of pain and suffering forever." Twilight gasped as she heard Discord's name and a look of determination crossed her face, gripping Min Tea by the shoulders she looked into the black eyes and focused her power to try and reach out to Min Tea, causing sparks of energy to go in between them.

"Min Tea! I know you can hear me behind this guise! Discord is just using you! We will stop him! Please don't give in to him!" Twilight screamed, finally being forced away as she had to catch her breath. Min Tea's eyes stopped tearing up and she shook her head, "I'm only a Messenger. I carry the burden of Lord Discord's will and let his people know of what he wants to speak to them about. Leave me in peace to cry this message so that all may hear, and weep for the end as I am."

Min Tea went back to screaming her message out, leaving Twilight in shock. Applejack and Twilight looked at each other and ran off to the library. "Spike! Emergency Message to the princess! Get the lead out!" Spike watched as the two ponies entered and started pacing nervously as he got the parchment and ink out.

Celestia, a new face in town by the name of Min Tea has started crying out that Canterlot, Cloudsdale, and Ponyville are all in danger. She has a protective barrier around her that won't allow me to see who is controlling her, and her eyes are entirely black. Get the Elements prepared for myself and my friends, because Min Tea also mentioned that Discord is going to be behind the attacks. Please be wary about what is going to happen, because I believe, no, I know that she isn't lying to us about the fact that Equestria is going to fall.

-Faithful and Frightened Student,

Twilight Sparkle

Spike finished the message and lit the parchment on fire immediately to get the message to Celestia as soon as possible. Even he was feeling uneasy over the fact that Twilight had never been as panicked as this before. "Twilight, is it true? Discord is back?!" Twilight looked down at the dragon in worry and then looked away, not wanting to tell him the truth. Instead she looked over at Applejack and tried to breathe.

"I need you to help me find the girls as fast as possible, we need to get to Canterlot and be prepared right away before Discord can start his scheme." Twilight could already feel her hair becoming messy, time was of the essence and the clock was ticking way too fast. "I'll get Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, you get Rarity and Rainbow Dash, there's no time to waste."

Limonade and myself finally reached the bottom of the long slide and found ourselves in a large, well-lit rectangular dungeon lined with art, armor, weapons, books, large machines, and even stores of food. What made it even more perplexing was the fact that all of it looked untouched by age at all. There couldn't have been a reasonable explanation, not even Discord's magic could possibly be able to do something like this, right? All three of us gaped in wonder, Zecora more than us about the many objects that she crossed.

"All of these things, could it really have been true?" Zecora questioned quietly, cautiously handling some alchemical items. "All of the current technology we have, came from human's own hand we accrue?"

I started moving toward the armor, admiring the fact that steel and bronze were able to be made before our time on our current Earth. I was even impressed by the fact that there were little designs that lined its entirety and looked beautiful, when I looked over my shoulder I gave a gasp. "Limonade, come check this out." Limonade came over and we both stared at a large tapestry, a long history of what had to have been the Discordian War, even depicting Discord's fall at the Princesses hooves. But in the middle of it, was a picture, showing a yellow unicorn, an aquamarine unicorn, two lime green earth ponies, a gray pegasus, and an orange red pegasus, a streak of gray lines behind them. There was no detail behind them, just the outline and a fill of the color, but we knew what it was telling us.

"N-No way. Th-those can't be us! It's not possible!" Limonade backed away from the overpowering image and collapsed to the floor, still staring at what was a prophecy. Zecora had finally came over and looked at the shocking image as well, and all of us shook out of fear. This was planned, 10,000 years ago it was planned, and now we were going to be the fruition of a mad god's long wait.

I don't remember how long it was until I decided to do something about the tapestry itself, flying up to the top, I tore it with my teeth and brought the entire thing down, only revealing more horror at the hand written word of none other than Discord.

Hello to you all, or perhaps only one of you made it down here, I can't tell as I'm only in the early stages of my plan for the Aponylypse. I do know that Bait will be down here at the least, using a special contact with a certain zebra tribe that has protected this place from being reentered. A little gut feeling about a chance to help always gets them.

Step Two has undoubtedly already begun, but I need you to start working on Step Three, leaving. That's right, Bait. I would like you to escape from here, and I'll let you try and figure out a little riddle that one of my servants made to help you try and find the exit. I do hope that you are an intelligent one, otherwise this plan will never work.

Guess that's the risk a god takes to keep somepony away from saving a town from being taken over by his best friend.

The person who makes it, sells it. The person who buys it never uses it and the person who uses it doesn't know they are. What is it?

I felt like throwing up, Discord was going to use Richard to destroy Ponyville? I wasn't going to let the bastard get away with it! I went to go to the slide and fly up it in order to get out, but when I saw that the slide was gone, I was infuriated. "You piece of shit! Using my friend to get what you want?! Damn you!" I slammed into the wall where I knew the stairs were hiding and hammered against it until I lost feeling in my arms and fell to the ground, crying. I looked down at the watch, 3 days 10 hours 00 minutes 14 seconds 0 firsts. I still had time, why would he begin this plan so early if he said that the timer was connected to when his plan was to end?

I went back to the words that he wrote down, he did say that when he wrote this it was during the early stages of the creation of the plan, perhaps he didn't expect me to find this place so quickly. That however only made me more worried, if I was here early, then what if he had to shift the entire time in order to accommodate for it? Not only that, but the picture had two other ponies that I didn't know about besides Richard, if the picture was right, then he could either be an aquamarine or yellow unicorn or a gray pegasus.

"We need to figure out that riddle, and fast. Also try and gather as much gear together so when we figure out this thing, we can at least get suited up and ready to take Discord head on." I went towards the armor and found the pony gear, I started throwing out whole suits to the ground and moved towards the weapons, staffs, pikes, halberds, axes, maces, swords, all of it also thrown to the floor. I started moving around the room and throwing any item that may have been of use on the ground away from the walls and into small piles of organized messes.

I stopped at a small burial site in the wall and saw a skull of a human fall out and roll out to me, I hadn't stopped shaking ever since I pulled the artwork down. Zecora and Limonade had been looking at me as if I was crazy, I picked the skull up and threw it back at the walled coffin and watched as the skull shattered into a button in the wall and the feel of vacuumed air rush out. Could this have been another trick? Another ploy on my sanity? I turned to Zecora and Limonade, and went toward the armor, fitting on the steel on my legs and chest before sliding on two long spears in the holsters on my sides and went back to the cold entrance.

"I'm going to check this out, keep working on the riddle until I come back with either a way out or a dead end."