My Little Tactics

Chapter Twenty One: D̴͎̤̋į̵͙̫̖̈́̿͘͜s̶̳̐̾͑c̶̛̝̱̪̮̟̃̄͜ǒ̵̡̨̥͍̝̺̏̔͋ͅr̸̥͑̚d̶̢̢̻̮̼̯͉̘̼͒͐.

Yawning awake, Dustan was feeling refreshed, but at the same time he had cricks in places that needed a good extra pop or stretch to remove. Waking up and moving to gather his clothing he smiled and chuckled to himself as he supposed that he took things too rough yesterday to pass out like he had.

“I guess I will take it easy today, might be for the best considering what is coming.” Dustan whistled to himself a bit as he started to dress only for his stomach to grumble loudly. “Damn I am hungry. Must have worked up too much of an appetite yesterday.” Smacking his lips he realized they were chapped as well. “Weird but I am thirsty as well. Guess a big breakfast is in order.”

Suddenly a knock on his door came very loud and very quickly, one that was reserved for when someone needed to use the restroom stall you were in, or if something went wrong. “Dustan, Dustan are you in there?”

The voice belonged to Spike and he sounded beyond worried, what was even worse he heard another voice as well. “Stop that, you will wake him up.”

It was Merlene who was trying to be quiet it seemed, however it seems Spike wasn’t having any of it as he came bursting into Dustan’s room. “Dustan are you-Oh you’re up good!”

“Spike you-oh hello My Lord.” While Spike was relieved to see him, Merlene seemed slightly embarrassed.

“Sup you two, how are you today?” The looks they gave him just then worried him, that and they were covered in mud. “What’s going on?”

“You have to see it.” The young dragon told him as he grabbed at Dustan’s hand to drag him outside.

“Whatever it is Spike I am sure it can’t be that ba-” It was worse. The Squire’s eyes widened as he saw the cotton candy clouds pouring out chocolate milk over the castle grounds. “No...”

“I know right, Twilight and the others rounded up some of these clouds this morning and Dustan?” Spike must have noticed that Dustan wasn’t listening anymore as Dustan went out and held out a hand to catch some of the falling substance to taste it.

When he confirmed what it was he could feel himself shake. “Damn it, it wasn’t supposed to happen today, we was supposed to have another day.” He had forgotten he wasn’t alone as he whispered that letting those there hear him.

The library assistant tilted his head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Turning quickly Dustan remembered both that they were here and something else. “Spike, why are you here?”

Merlene was just watching slightly worried as the dragon answered. “Twilight told me to come here as it would be safer then at the library with all the craziness going on.”

Gritting his teeth as his presence had caused another wrinkle in the plans of things. “Spike I am taking you back to the library.” Looking to Merlene he told her quickly. “Organize every guard and fighter in the castle, with all that is going on, creatures from the Everfree will be stirred up and might ignore the herbs we have growing.”

Saluting Merlene took off as the brother of the villages mage looked at him. “Is that why I can’t stay here like Twilight suggested?”

“Yes.” It was a lie, but at the same time wasn’t a bad reason either. “You might not be safe here as we live in the Everfree where all kinds of things might come out and with all the guards rushing out you might get lost. Even more so since you don’t know your way around the castle grounds, Spike.”

“Oh, alright.” Dustan was glad the dragon was so easy to convince, but this meant that he would have to leave.

Telling purple drake to hold on, Dustan went to put on his leather armor and grab his gear: Leather armor, check. Harmonium Axe, check. Coral Sword and Blood Sword, check. Belt with his supplies, check. Pack, also check. Magepower Gloves, check. Finally the Ever Bright Lantern, check.

Coming out of his room he checked on the dragon and found him outside with his mouth open. “Careful about drinking too much of that stuff, you aren’t Pinkie Pie and might get a stomach ache.”

“I have drunk more than this before I have gotten a stomach ache.” While the dragon’s youthfulness put a small smile on his face it didn’t last.

“True, but how often has it come from a weird cloud?” He could tell that the young lad wanted to say something but couldn’t find a way to argue that fact.

Truth was while he knew there were no side effects from the cloud in the show, that didn’t mean there weren’t any side effects to be had. Discord was revered as one of the worst legends and rulers of Equestria for a reason and while ponies now were tamer today than back then, it doesn’t mean that it didn’t hold water that he was horrible. While the risk to be seen by the God of Chaos was strong, Spike absolutely had to be in the library not only for Twilight to give him the Element of Loyalty but for him to burp up all the scrolls Celestia was going to send him.

Problem was he couldn’t figure where the time went, the girls were going to go on their trip tomorrow, speaking of. “Guess with all this craziness the Crusaders are going to have their field trip postponed till this all dies down.”

“What are you talking about?” The little dragon companion asked of him. “They went on their trip today.”

“Today? Are you sure?” Seeing him nod Dustan could only think to himself that maybe he miscounted the days. ‘Did I take one too many hits on the head? Where did I lose track of time?’

Regardless of his lack of chronal awareness, Dustan wasn’t lacking for awareness in his surroundings as they had just emerged from the woods into Ponyville proper. While in the show Twilight and the gang may have left the town in more or less an ok vision of itself, the one that was before the human was well onto its way to the final result. The ground was its checkerboard pattern and the bushes were all thorny but no buildings were floating as of yet and no distortion of the geography.

“Hold on.” Spike barely got a chance to ask what Dustan meant before the human lifted up the dragon onto his shoulders. “Do you see the library from here? If you can how does it look?”

Scanning as best as he could Spike almost gave up as while the geography wasn’t distorted as of yet buildings had moved locations. “There, a bit to the left.”

Setting Spike down the human smiled. “Good, we can get you there rather quickly and then we can-”

“Well, well, well, what do we have here~.” The voice sent shivers down the Squire’s spine as he tapped the dragon.

“Spike head back home, it seems I have company.” The human was no longer looking at the dragon but scanning around now.

“But Dustan-” For all the bravery that Spike liked to exude at times the voice had sent him to shivering as well.

“NO BUTS!” The young dragon flinched at the yell as Dustan locked on to something and pushed Spike towards his home. “Go home Spike.” The dragon ran off at that with no more arguments. ‘Tactical Eye op, needs nerf.’ Walking up to the barrel he asked. “I would ask if this was like shooting Discord in a barrel but I feel like as soon as I say that somehow it will be you with barrels inside you.”

There was a moment of silence before a rather joyous chuckle. “Well aren’t you interesting. I do not believe I have seen anything like you, even when I made things.”

“Well, glad I could provide some amusement towards you.” The wood of the barrel slowly trembled as the rings that held the barrel tight transformed to the creature that was Discord.

Eagle, dragon, horse, lion and more all wrapped up together in one disharmonious creature. “Indeed you have, though I am curious as to how you knew who I was. Care to enlighten little ol’ me?” As the Draconequis said the word little he had a flash of light surround him before revealing how tiny he was currently, barely six inches tall.

“Ancient magic, lack of typical sense in everything, weather-” The sun went down for a few seconds before coming back up just then. “And celestial phenomenon that cannot be explained by anything. Sorry but combine all those things and honestly you are on a list all your own.”

The tiny chimeric creature furled up like paper before unfolding into a parchment with an ink drawing of him moving around. “Well when someone is as iconic as myself I suppose I can understand that reasoning. However that does make me sound predictable.” Discord slowly started to change his shape to the letter of U. “What I don’t understand though is you. What are you?”

“My name is Dustan and I am a human.” Here came the moment of truth, if anyone or anyTHING on Equis knew anything about humans or other worlds, dimensions, whatever, it would be Discord.

Turning back to normal, or what passes as normal for him, Discord floated in the air with a claw on his chin. “Hmm nope, not one of my creations for sure. I also don’t remember your species at all, but then again a thousand years will do that I suppose.” Standing back up the tall creature, taller than Dustan by about four feet, pulled him close by the shoulders. “However that doesn’t mean we can’t get to know each other now.”

‘Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-’ While his mind was saying one thing his body said another. “What do you mean? I mean I really don’t want to interfere with your fun here.”

“Interfere?” The misshapen master of chaos chuckled merrily at that. “No dear boy, you are going to enhance my fun.”

‘-uuuuuuuuuuck.’ This was what Dustan had been afraid of, attracting the attention of the villain. “I am afraid I don’t really follow.”

“You see, I am rather bored waiting for the Element Bearers to get to certain points in the maze I have them in.” Discord clapped his hands then spread them out creating a visual of an overhead view of the Mane Six showing that he had already gotten to Applejack and Pinkie Pie, with Rarity about to be next as he could see her approaching the wall with the three diamonds that were her symbol. “Oh speaking of, I will be right back, don’t you move now.”

Snapping his fingers Discord vanished and the rattle of chains at Dustan’s ankles and wrists told him exactly what happened. “Sonva-” Struggling against the chains the Squire could see that they were connected to the ground but he couldn’t pull them from the dirt. Looking to each of his blades he knew that they might not be thick enough to do the job, instead opting to use his axe.

Lifting the axe up and bringing it down on one of the chain lengths the contact of the metal on metal created a rather bright spark before the metal parted with a loud snap. Three similar whacks and Dustan freed himself from the Draconequis’ hold though he still had the cuffs on each limb with a few chain links on each. Question for him now was how to get away from the situation and away from Discord.

The answer came rather quickly as Discord popped back into view as Dustan was trying to turn the corner of a building. “Now that is interesting. How did you break my chains?”

“I could answer that, but that would ruin the mystery wouldn’t it?” He hoped the ploy would work, that Discord would like the unpredictability of that answer.

“Hmm, true.” An internal sigh of relief was given by the displaced human at that. “Instead let’s play a game and maybe I will get to see how you did it.” Nope Dustan changed his mind; his sigh of relief became one of sad acceptance.

“Alright sure, what kind of game did you have in mind?” Maybe he could distract the god of chaos for a time till the elements got back.

Discord looked to his watch after pulling up the sleeve of fur on his arm before letting it go. “Well I have time for about five games more or less. SO, how about a series of games? Each one of them different than the one before it.”

“Okay, what are the games? What about the stakes, rewards for winning and punishments for losing?” Discord seemed to always be about chaos but he was a fair being in the stories for the most part. Dustan figured if he could get something for winning, why not?

“Hmm that is a good point. This type of game will need some type of reward won’t it?” Pulling out a cap that had a light bulb on top of it, the mixed up maybe mammal thought about it tugging at his goatee before the light lit up. “Ahh, I got it, if you win three out of the five games, I will...hmm. Hold on, let me take a small stroll through your mental gardens to see what humans like.”

“Wait wha-” The human felt the claw of the Draconequis on his forehead and felt a rather disturbing feeling as if someone taking tap shoes to his brain. In a desperate attempted Dustan tried to shove all his memories of the show and its contents in a mental safe behind a stone wall in a metal room guarded by armed guards.

However it was just a mental image and whether it worked or not, he had no clue though Discord did pull his claw back and smiled. “I learned quite a lot there.”

‘Nononononononono.’ It was the only word running through his mind at that moment.

“But do not, worry I only flipped through the pages of your book to get a quick idea of who you are and what you like. After all as you said the mystery is part of the fun and I am never one to turn down some fun.” Snapping his fingers a scoreboard appeared with Discord’s face on one side, and Dustan’s on the other. “We will use this to keep score. Now as for the stakes, if you win, I will grant you a wish of your choosing.”

That reward was too good; it could only mean one thing. “And if I lose?”

“Well that is simple; you become my toy to amuse myself with whenever I get bored. So do we have a deal?” There really wasn’t a choice in this matter sadly and Dustan knew it. Regardless of him winning or not Discord was too interested in him to leave him alone ever unless he went back to being a statue, and even then that was a stop gap measure.

Sighing and running his hands through his brown hair. “Deal, but you better keep your word.”

Giving a smile Discord held out his hand and shook the one offered to him by Dustan. “Deal, now the first game is one of hide and seek.”

“Hide and seek, really?” That seemed...innocent enough.

“Yep. I am curious as to how you found me out, so I am going to hide and you are going to try to find me. I will give you thirty minutes. The limits will be within Ponyville.” Suddenly there was a flash and Discord was in a striped black and white jersey with a matching cap, a whistle and a cap gun. “On your marks, get set-” Discord vanished at that point, but not the cap gun as it fired without him, signaling the start of the match.

Right away Dustan started to look around focusing as best he could. ‘Ok, my Tactical Eye spotted him once before, it can do so again.’ Turning a corner Dustan smiled as he saw something unusual. ‘A question mark huh? Trying to hide yourself even more than last time are you?’ Or at least that is what he thought. When he got there, all he found was some weird berries growing on the weird thorn bush. They looked like strawberries but blue instead of red, and also instead of seeds, there were six pointed stars . “Huh I wonder what these are?” Picking a few, he thought maybe Zecora could find a use for them.

Wondering around he kept finding the same fruit on the plants marking them as a question mark in his vision as well as a few ponies whom he now knew the names of and some other info courtesy of his ability. Seems each pony had a class as well, most were something simple like gardener or teacher with nothing special about themselves. Though he learned and discovered a lot, there was something he didn’t manage to discover though.

A loud alarm clock sounded around him suddenly letting him know one thing. “Times up, round one is a loss for you my strangely shaped friend.”

The voice sounded as if it came from behind so the Squire turned quickly to confront Discord only to find him strangely absent. “Seems so; you hid yourself pretty well this time.”

Then, Dustan felt it, a rustling and quickly took his cloak off to find there on the material a stitching of the Draconequis. “So that is how you avoided me.” Sadly as much as he hated it, it was a brilliant place to hide away. “You got me.”

Giving a theatrical bow as the stitching vanished and reappeared in a flash causing Dustan to rub his eyes a bit to soothe the ache that it caused. “Well thank you, though would you mind giving me a moment. I just need to check on something.” Without waiting there was the sound a clapping of his hands bringing the image of the maze up once again only this time showing Twilight arguing with three of her friends. “Hmm seems they aren’t far enough along just yet. What about the others?” Switching to another perspective Dustan could see Fluttershy running scared at times and at others tiptoeing along trying to keep out of sight of anything scary. Rainbow Dash was the opposite, she was rushing headlong down one path and then the next when one of the paths she chose turned out to be a dead end. “Nope not where I want them either. Guess we can play some more.”

While the first game wasn’t hard he had failed it for not looking in an obvious place, then again hindsight was twenty-twenty. “Ok what is the next game?”

Leaning back on his tail Discord rubbed at his chin for a good solid minute before his arm snapped away as his eyes grew wide. “A scavenger hunt.” The disturbing thing was when Discord’s arm pulled away his claw was still attached to his chin rubbing it leaving only a stump raised in exclamation. “Oh hello you don’t belong there.” The normal response, normal being used loosely, would to have been to put the claw back on his stump of an arm. Instead Discord pulls his arm out of the socket and attaches it to the claw that way leaving a disembodied limb rubbing his chin.

Dustan couldn’t stop a shudder seeing the casual dismemberment like that. “I don’t suppose you can tell me what I will be looking for?”

“Oh you haven’t figured it out?” the arm vanished, followed by both legs, his tail, his other arm and now his body leaving only his head behind. “You are going to search for my pieces dear boy. If you manage to put humpty dumpty back together again, you win. If not, well, you lose obviously.” The head started to spin and attached itself to a pole as Discord’s voice came from it. “The game will begin on the count of zero and will last as long as the last one did.” Then his head turned into a globe and dropped like New Years. When his head hit the ground maniacal mix’em up shouted. “GO!” As the globe that was his head poofed away.

Instead of running off immediately Dustan quickly checked himself all over as well as his pack and his pouches, no sign of the Draconequus which meant he didn’t pull the same trick twice in a row. Securing the straps of his pack Dustan took off at a jog, two arms, two legs, a body, a tail, and his head, seven pieces in total. While thirty minutes seems like a lot Dustan knew that it could go by quickly when it seemed like one was trying to hold onto every second.

The good news was he spotted the first piece within five minutes of searching; then again it was out in the open. The body of Discord was floating around using its wings going from rooftop to rooftop as if it couldn’t fully achieve lift on its own without the whole of itself being together. That made no sense of course but with Discord making no sense made all the sense.

‘So the body wants to parkour huh?’ Looking around the Squire found two buildings close enough together so that he could run up one side jump to the next then one more hop and he was on the roof. He had to be careful here though; some roofs were made of thatch and meant to support ponies when they were on all fours. He was putting all his weight on two legs meaning it didn’t matter the weight difference, if he was heavier or lighter normally then a pony with less surface area to distribute his weight he would sink right through. That meant he needed to run along the edges where the frames of the houses were.

Taking a chance he stood up and found the wall could support him and he smiled. “Just a matter of making this work and if I fuck up I can pay for home repairs.” Justifying his future mistakes Dustan took a run and leapt to the next home with no problems. ‘YES!’ Feeling confident now he started to run and leap from roof to roof and before he knew it he was on the same one that the body was on.

However seems that even without ears the body heard him or maybe it felt him as he landed, either way it curled up and Discord’s neck turned to face him before it seized up in shock and jumped to the next house.

“Oh no you don’t!” Running along the edges he chased after it. “I am not going to lose two in a row.”

For just being a body the thing was squirrely as it seemed to be able to cut corners, skip and grind along the edges of the rooftops and at one point even performed a drift, though Dustan could have done without the body having ‘Déjà Vu’ play in the background as it did it.

“The temptation to just drown your body is high with that one Discord!” Not that Dustan had a problem with the song, but it was the fact that the Draconequus was flaunting his stolen knowledge to him that was setting him off. “You know how they say they will never find the body, in your case IT WILL BE TRUE!”

Overall the chase was starting to go on too long but might run out as they were getting close to a building that was shorter than two next to it on either side. Dustan just needed an opening something, sadly he couldn’t use any offensive magic as it might set the houses on fire, and while he could pay for it like he though, the human didn’t want to risk a town wide fire.

Then as Discord’s body was heading to a corner music started picking up once more. “…… Right into your miiiiiiind~”

Quickly realizing what was about to happen Dustan acted fast. ‘This is my chance!’ Quickly putting his power into his legs he jumped from the roof edge he was running along to the side of the higher building on the opposite side.

The disembodied body hit the corner as the music flared. “Déjà vu, I’ve just been in this place before~”

However instead of getting a good corner cut like the body was hoping to get, it got something else. “I know, that is why you are caught!” Dustan knew what way it was going to go cause of that song and tackled it off the roof, landing with a grunt as the body struggled. “You are caught now calm the fuck down and admit defeat!”

It struggled for a good few seconds before giving up. Suddenly it turned into red light and was sucked up into a small sphere. When the sphere landed it shook a few times before the red light on the center of the sphere turned off with a ding.

“Really…a pokeball?” Picking up the aforementioned device Dustan sighed and just nodded. “Sure whatever.”

Testing to see if it would auto clip to his belt he found it didn’t, so it stored it in one of his pouches instead. Right after that happened The Squire would give a loud yelp and turn around to see the hoofed leg bouncing off like a pogo stick after it seemed to have kicked him.

“Oh hell no.” Quickly running after the leg he saw it turn down an alleyway, as he turned into it himself he saw a sight that both excited him and upset him. “Oh…it seems I walked into the wrong neighborhood.” In front of him was the hoof leg as well as the scaled one as well and he knew without a doubt from the sounds behind him two more things were locking him in there, a guess would make it Discord’s arms. “Seems I either walked into an ass-whooping, or I got lucky.” Pounding his fist together as he mentally changed from a squire and into a Monk, he smiled. “Let’s see which it is.”

“Times up!” The head of Discord called a few minutes later appearing in the alleyway. “So did you manage to find all my par-oh my.” The head looked on to see four of his body parts beating the ever living crap out of a human body on the ground. “Guess I should have warned him, oh well.”

At the sound of the owner of the parts the lion arm snapped and all parts, even the pokeball’ed one, vanished in a flash of light before a reassembled Discord stood tall. Giving a hum seeing the human not move, but knowing he was still alive the embodiment of Chaos would snap again and Dustan would find himself standing, conscious and healed up as if nothing happened.

Patting himself down he looked around before going ok. “Oh…I did walk into an ass-whooping I guess.”

Nodding with arms folded Discord held out a paw holding up two claws. “That is two you have lost. One more and I win and with that you know what happens.” Clapping his hands Discord grinned as he looked into his little spying window. “Alright the next one is about close to where I want her, so I am going to make the next challenge a quick one before I go to ‘help’ them progress further in the maze.”

Dustan wanted to ask about the next thing that was about to happen but didn’t have a chance as a snap and a flash blinded him. “AHH FUCK! I am going to have you pay for glasses if you keep causing me eye damage like that.”

When the whiteness of the void receded to reality the Monk could see that he was at the starting line of a race track, though along the straight path forward there were many obstacles, some benign and some not so benign.

“The next event is an-” But Discord got a sour look on his face as Dustan interrupted him.

“An obstacle course?” Looking over to the chimeric creature he grinned. “And Let me guess, either I am timed or I have so many tries to get through it successfully.”

The miffed look on the chaos embodiment told enough to say he had nailed it. “You know, for that I am changing it.” With a snap of his claws a second identical course appeared and at the starting line was a creature that Dustan knew. Though in the game it was from it was simplified to be an adorable sprite, here he knew it was the real thing. A light blue looking large cat with two large whisker like tendrils sprouting from it that knew how to cast a terrifying ability that could petrify and inflict stop to enemies if it had someone nearby who had the ability to unlock hidden monster abilities.

“A Coeurl.” Whispered Dustan a bit fearfully as his Tactical Eye confirmed the creatures species, as well as a strange fact that it didn’t have a name, as it looked around and growled before trying to leap at him. Dustan prepared for a fight except that the feline bumped into a glowing invisible wall.

With a pop Discord appeared and touched the feline’s head. “There we go, it now knows what is going on. Strangely this creature is rather intelligent. I might have to look into them later. It now knows that it should try its hardest, or else.”

“Or else what?” Dustan wasn’t one to like open ended comments like that, much less ones that sounded as sinister as that. What was more was that the Chaotic entity choose not to answer him, instead just chuckling as if that was all the answer he needed.

“Now, I have added a few things on this obstacle course that you should enjoy. You have ten seconds to prepare, and by prepare I mean look at the track that you can see and plan what you can. No magical enhancements in the prep phase please.” With that the maniacal master of mischief vanished with a digital clock now counting down from ten.

Looking to the track, Dustan could see it consisted of some standard stuff, rope swings, high hurdles, over and under, and more. In fact Dustan glanced on the other side and seen it had been modified for the Coeurl on the other side since it couldn’t exactly hang onto a rope. However that was about all Dustan could think as the ten seconds were now up.

A sign that said go appeared before him as well as the feline as he took off. The first obstacle in the course for him was over and under, or under and over since it switched up quite often. He would jump over the high hurdle then have to drop down to his belly to go under a bar or two before jumping back up to go over another high hurdle. The next obstacle consisted of the Monkey Bars, though in the little picture that accompanied this one it showed a human with a banana.

‘Ok Discord, you want a monkey to do this, I will show you that this was my favorite part of gym class, and I hated gym.’ Taking a running leap Dustan grabbed hold of the first bar and used his momentum to skip the next two bars and instead took hold of the third to continue it from there.

When he landed on the other side a pop up read ‘+2.21 sec’. That got him curious and he looked to the other course to find the Coeurl belly crawling under some unders in the over under section that had been extended for its section showing that the human was ahead of it. That brought about some confidence in him now as he had a way of keeping track of how far ahead he was. That confidence would soon be shattered with the next obstacle in the course. A long stretch with nothing on the course, but many things on the sides.

‘Are those cannons?’ As he thought that, many of the cannons on the sidelines for both sides fired and- ‘ARE THOSE BULLET BILLS?!’

His thoughts must have transmitted to his expression as he could hear Discord’s laughter ringing out as Dustan realized what he was seeing. “I hope you aren’t expecting to find a Starman here as it won’t help you. Also let me assure you, unlike the ones that plumber faces, and unlike what the person you identify as ‘MatPat’ says, if these hit you, they explode…quite nicely in fact.”

“I hate you Discord. I hate you from the very bottom of my soul at this very moment.” The venom in the human’s voice was clear and even caused Discord to give a mocking ‘aww’ in hurt. Having to stop now Dustan knew he was losing ground but he rather read the pattern, if there was one, of the Bills rather than jump in hastily and get exploded. Then he figured it out, there was no pattern and no space to give gaps, so what was one supposed to do?

The answer was simple: Make one. Gathering up his inner force, Dustan used the Monk skill of Aurablast, or Wave Fist in the earlier translation, to detonate the bills in front of him, or on the sides if they were coming at him. The prep for the Aurablast was nearly nonexistent so he could spam it pretty well. Leaving the area of the Bills he noticed he was now at ‘-3.01 sec’ meaning he had lost his lead and was now three seconds behind the large cat.

The next thing that came up was ordinary once more, stutter step tires. The age old staple where one had to step in each tire then moved to the next quickly. He wasn’t as quick with that as he would like as he only cut down the time behind by point three as he came to another unique challenge. It was a standard wall climb except every now and then some of the handholds would change meaning one couldn’t stay holding on their grip for too long.

‘What I wouldn’t give for Dragoon Jump right now.’ The thought came and went quickly as he started his climb. Dustan would like to say he got up quickly; he would have loved to say he aced it. His ass would tell another story of falls, and the cushioning it tried to provide. Luckily he wasn’t alone in this hate as the Coeurl also had this obstacle and was hating it just as much as him.

By the time he got over it, the Coeurl made it just a bit before him, leaving only about two thirds of a second difference between them. Dustan now had a rope net climb; or rather a wire net climb where he could see that some strands became electrified at times while others weren’t. Basically causing the same concept as the Wall he just overcame only slightly less frustrating…he hoped.

He was right as well; the hands that held to the net only got fried once but were relieved thanks to a Cure spell. The same couldn’t be said for the Coeurl as its obstacle for this area had been dodging the Bullet Bills like Dustan had. As he landed on the other side, a loud explosion echoed in front of him showing that the feline had not dodged all of them.

Looking over he could see that the large cat had managed to get across all the shots except the last one, which it didn’t clear at all. It was making pitiful noises of pain and agony at this point and Dustan knew he had the rest of the course in the bag. His next obstacle was a rope swing over a mud pit…or at least he hoped that was mud. Taking a running start he jumped and swung across as the mewling and the agonizing sounds grew closer and closer as he caught even with his competitor. With a grin he was prepared to pass the monster till it gave a pitiful cry.

‘Come on, move, you can win, you have to win. If you don’t Discord does and you know what that means!’ He kept trying to tell himself to move but his feet refused. ‘STOP BEING THE NICE GUY AND WIN! DO YOU WANT TO BE HIS PLAYTHING?’

Dustan could feel his leg lift up and was about to hit the ground for the first step that would commit him to his path, except his eyes met the beast’s. Without even understanding the creature he could tell, it was prepared for death knowing it would be alone and no help would be given. How often had he felt like that? How many times had he come close to it coming true?

‘FUCK!’ Looking at the cat he spoke as he gathered his power. “Life’s refreshing breeze, heal from the sky. CURA!” Holding out his hand he sent the spell over to his opponent causing it to be wrapped in its healing trail causing the wounds of the creature to vanish. Surprise was evident on the creature’s face telling anyone who were to look that it had honestly thought itself for dead and that no one would save it. Dustan said nothing and continued on.

The next course was a low crawl through mud, or at least his hope was it was mud. On the other side the large cat had to swim versus crawl where its lost time was made up only slightly now though the human was still ahead as he got up for the last stretch of the course. It was a sprint with a pool of water on each side of a strip of land.

Knowing he was ahead of the feline he made a break for it to finish the race. Sadly the last stretch wasn’t a sprint. From out of the water burst Chain Chomps catching the human by surprise. Using his Monk abilities, he was able to bat most of them away all except one. It was at this moment that the flesh of man came to realize how deadly these metal balls were.

The spiky teeth clamped onto his leg sinking into his calf like a shark would a seal making him scream out in pain like only a few things in his life had ever caused. What was more he could feel the Chomp’s metal teeth scraping against bone. Losing his balance and falling onto the ground, he knew that was it. He was going to lose the race now.

With no choice but to turn his attention to the thing from the iconic game of brothers he started to punch the lump of metal in its stupid face, mostly aiming for the eyes like one should for a shark attack. Luckily it worked making the ball give a strangely canine like yelp of pain as it bounced back to the water.

That is how the race was to end. Dustan looked to the other lane at least wanting to see the Coeurl crossing the line thanks to his helping hand from earlier. However that wasn’t to be as when the human looked over all he seen was the cat sitting at the finish line looking at him. It could have already won, but it didn’t?

When the large cat noticed him looking it merely moved its head to the side using its head to point to his finish line. ‘No…’ Standing up he went to use Cura on himself to repair the damage but not all of it. Now limping to the finish line, the inner thought from earlier was right. ‘It’s letting me finish first!’

The kind gesture he had given it was returned in kind as he crossed the finish in first place with the creature coming in second after him. Dustan was going to thank the Coeurl but never got the chance sadly as the meister of the games popped up and snapped his finger, causing the creature to vanish.

Dustan was livid at this. ‘Did he just wipe out the Coeurl?!’

Seems that like before with his surprise, his emotions were all on his face as the mixed up monster chuckled. “I didn’t kill it if that is what you are thinking, just sent it away. I am rather disappointed in it after all. It had the chance to win and threw it away.”

The anger that he felt vanished quickly to be replaced with relief knowing that the creature wasn’t harmed. The same couldn’t be said for Dustan though as his leg was still bleeding, but at least the wound wasn’t to the bone anymore thanks to the Cura from earlier. Dustan was of half a mind to ask what the next event was, except Discord was gone, with the window to the maze in Canterlot open. He could see that Discord’s interaction with Fluttershy played out just like in the show having to force himself on her to change her mind.

When he came back Dustan couldn’t help but make a remark. “So not able to convince her so you just straight up magic her personality different huh? And here I thought you at least had some honor.”

Seems that Discord didn’t like being called out on things like this as he snapped his fingers and everything went white for Dustan. There was no pain, no tiredness. Instead Dustan felt great, rested, and everything. This lead to only one thought in his mind.

‘So that had been it huh?’ Dustan thought to himself. ‘The last straw he had with me before killing me became to irresistible.’

“You aren’t dead you know.” The voice of the thing that had done this to him answered as if reading his thoughts.

“Oh that is good to kn-wait then why am I blind?” Almost as if the universe was answering him, his vision slowly faded back in. “Oh.”

Discord clicked his tongue in disappointment. “You know, I get really tired of ponies, and people I suppose, thinking I would kill willy nilly. I have never killed anypony or anyone, just as I have never turned any to stone.”

“Directly, never killed anyone directly you mean.” Discord looked at Dustan as he said that and for a moment the Monk thought he had crossed a line as he opened his mouth. Instead the Chimeric creature only shrugged. ‘Ok that isn’t an unsettling answer at all.’

Tapping his chin it seemed Discord was up to something. “Let’s see, what is your next challenge? Oh you should be hearing it anytime now.”

“What do you mean I should be hearing-” A sound amplified by a speaker system located atop of the distant town hall. The sound of three frightened fillies could be heard, three bundles of mischief all calling out one word.

“HELP!”

Author's Notes:

There you have it, Discord has appeared. What will happen, who knows. DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNN~