Login

A Pony's Sympathy

by Ckat_Myla

Chapter 4: Journey

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

After Twilight broke the news to her friends, they began their preparations immediately. They had chosen the town’s communal hot air balloon as their mode of transportation. Rainbow Dash assured them that she – along with Fluttershy - could get them to where it was rumored that Discord was hiding faster than any train. Rarity supplied the new stylish saddlebags and Applejack and Pinkie Pie filled them with food for the trip.

Indeed, the group was so caught up in their whirlwind of preparation that no pony seemed to notice anything strange about Twilight, which was quite helpful to her. Before she knew it though, they were off and soaring over the countryside. Their pegasi friends were tethered to the front sled dog style, with the flightless ponies sharing the basket and working the hot air mechanism.

It was only after a few hours of travel – with Pinkie looking out over the back and leaning far too much over the edge which caused Rarity to pull her back because it ‘made her nervous’ – that some pony said anything at all to Twilight about how she was.

Applejack had finally given up trying to nap, the wind buffeting the balloon caused it to sway and jerk every so often, and she’d had to lie on her hat to keep it from flying away.

Twilight held a book open between her hooves, but she had given up actually trying to read even before AJ stopped her attempted nap. Without her magic, she wasn’t able to keep the pages down without physically keeping them down, and no pony seemed to notice that she hadn’t turned a page in quite a while.

She just stared down at the book, moving her eyes every now and then to simulate reading, but she was quickly growing tired of that.

The unicorn couldn’t concentrate on the words, and it bothered her that she couldn’t even focus on reading – one of her favorite things – for very long with all that was happening.

“Uh, Twi…I’m startin’ to think if you stare any harder at that book it might just start a fire, is there something on your mind?” the orange pony inquired, bringing every pony else in the basket’s attention to the unicorn.

Before she could say anything however, Rarity spoke up for her. “Well, naturally she does of course. She’s nervous about facing Discord again. We all are,” the white unicorn said matter-of-factly.

“It’s not that, well – not entirely,” Twilight answered, finally closing her book.

“If it’s about your magic, ya don’t need to worry. I’m sure you’ll get it back before he has a chance to do anything,” AJ stated, trying to reassure her friend of her assumed fears.

“Precisely, if we have to force him to give your magic back, we will. I’m not entirely certain how we would go about that, but we will certainly try,” Rarity said in that same assuring way. “Than we will simply seal him away again and that will be that.”

Twilight could have just stayed silent, or thanked them for their attempt to calm her worries. She could have allowed them to think that these were her only qualms – though getting her magic back was causing her some anxiety as well – but the purple pony wasn’t sure she could continue to sit on these thoughts without voicing them any longer, any more than she could hold down the pages of her book.

They didn’t know that she was also worried about these new ideas swirling around in her mind, churning up her typical thought processes. Twilight worried about what they might think of her, if she voiced them.

“I’ve been thinking on this for a while,” she breached the subject, looking down at the now-closed book in her hooves. “And it’s not that I don’t think we could seal him away again, it’s just that I’m beginning to wonder…whether or not we should.”

She tried to retain the pensive face she’d held before she’d spoken, before she looked up to see the surprised faces of the three other mares in the basket. Well, Pinkie only looked surprised – even a little startled – it was the other two who looked taken aback by her words.

“Beg pardon?” AJ asked, looking like she was genuinely trying to process what Twilight had said.

“Twilight…darling, you did hear what you just said, didn’t you?” the white unicorn asked her skeptically. “The thing you said that makes no sense?”

“I’m not saying that we shouldn’t do something about him, we should. I’m just…not sure that’s how we should be going about things this time.”

“Whatever do you plan on doing then if you don’t want to lock him away?” Rarity asked, still clearly concerned about Twilight’s mental health.

“Well, I don’t – I mean, I haven’t gotten that far yet. I just have this feeling… if we could somehow talk with him-“her partial sentence was cut off by the orange earth pony’s scoff.

Talk, Twilight, are you forgettin’ about all the stuff he did to our town? Like the buildings floatin’ every which way?” Applejack asked her. “Or the soap roads?”

“Or the chocolate rain!” Pinkie added with a smile, which went away when she noticed Applejack’s serious expression. “Oh right, that was a bad thing. It still counts though.”

“Not to mention what he did to us, separating us then nearly causing us to disband forever,” Rarity said. “Would you really want some pony like that just wandering free? I would say that imprisonment isn’t harsh enough.”

“But that’s just it; he manipulated us because we were standing in his way. He knew we were the only ones that could stop him, and he targeted Ponyville only because it was our home.”

“You’re saying that he wouldn’t do the same things he did to us to others now?” Rarity asked.

“I don’t think so. This time it seems like he’s avoiding us. We’re the only ones that threaten him, but instead of trying to keep us out of his way, he might be trying to stay out of ours, because he knows what we’ll do if and when we finally catch him.”

“An’ if that’s true, then he’s right,” Applejack said sternly. “But who’s ta say that him avoiding us ain’t jus’ the start of somethin’ else?”

“She’s right, Twilight. I’m afraid that we can’t take a chance on Discord suddenly flying off into the distance.” Rarity agreed. “You said it yourself that we are the only threat to him, so it is our duty to do just what we did last time.”

“Yeah, we got every pony else to think about,” Applejack continued with Rarity’s thought.

“He is really unpredictable, it’s hard to tell what goes too far for him,” Pinkie chimed in.

“An’ that’s exactly why we can’t trust him,” Applejack said with a note of finality, pointing to Pinkie Pie.

Everyone in the balloon seemed to be in consensus, and it made Twilight feel that she shouldn’t press her new ideas and beliefs about Discord any further. She knew it would be hard, but she had hoped that maybe they would keep more of an open mind than this.

Her hooves up on the edge of the balloon, she turned away from the other three and set her head upon them to watch the pegasi of the group as they pulled the balloon ever-faster to reach the flat land in record time.

Far out in front flew Rainbow Dash, and a few feet behind her Fluttershy. She thought back to the conversation she’d had with Fluttershy, and wondered if her friend would have anything to add to her side of the fairly one-sided conversation of the group in the basket.

Twilight saw Fluttershy look back at them for a moment or two, and that made her think that her friend could hear them even from that distance with the wind whooshing past.

They were right – she knew they were – but Twilight couldn’t shake the thought…or the hope that she was right too. They were coming closer now; soon the time for debating would be past.


Only about an hour after passing into the Mohoove desert did things take an unexpected turn. When Rainbow Dash had pushed for using the balloon they had all agreed without much persuasion. The ponies had been quite confident in Dash’s own self-confidence.

They had not taken into consideration the magical part of the balloon’s operation. Without unicorn magic to help keep it in the air as the pegasi pulled it, it was no more than a traditional hot-air balloon, and typically a hot air balloon could only remain in the air so long as the air around it was cooler than the air inside. As they traveled above a desert however, the air temperature began to rise, and the balloon began to sink.

It was an oversight that Twilight face hoofed about the moment they realized it. Rainbow and Fluttershy were doing the best they could to keep them aloft, but it was quickly wearing the latter pony out, and even Rainbow’s stubborn pride could only help them so much if she was doing all the work.

What was more, some very unpleasant-looking natural rock formations were coming dangerously close to the balloon, and if they couldn’t get any higher they might meet them head-on.

“Rarity, I know it’s not your area of expertise, but you’re all we’ve got right now. Any chance you can try and use your magic to help Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash out?” Twilight asked much more authoritatively than she’d been feeling of-late.

Taking over for Applejack, Twilight tried to get the flame in the mechanism to somehow burn hotter.

Rarity gave her an unsure mumble in reply, but her white horn glowed and she concentrated on trying to lift them higher.

It seemed to be working, but only slightly, they just barely missed one unreasonably tall and jagged column of rock, and seemed – for the time being – to be out of the metaphorical woods.

“Whose…idea…was this…anyway?” they heard Rainbow panting as the two pegasi received a bit of relief from the strain with the help of Rarity and Twilight.

None of them answered her as they barely cleared a plateau, flying above it but not really looking at the scenery.

“That’s it, Rarity. You’re doing great,” Twilight praised her friend, who was still busy concentrating. “If you can keep this up just a little longer, I’m sure we’ll be able to steady our altitude.”

Amazingly, it seemed that Twilight was right; they seemed to be evening out, if a good deal lower than they had originally been flying. It was still a feat considering that Rarity was not accustomed to magically lifting anything heavier than a ponnequin or two.

The fashionable unicorn gave a strained smile as AJ gave her a congratulatory pat with her hoof, and they heard Pinkie ooh from the back edge of the basket.

It seemed that – though they hit a small bump – the friends’ increased help would still secure their quick discovery of the draconoquess, until they heard a sound from beneath them.

It was practically an explosion, an intense wave of sound that seemed to reverberate all over, and soon they were being jostled violently as Dash and Fluttershy jerkily lead the balloon back and forth, weaving through some unseen obstacle as the sound continued its strange echo.

Then Twilight – still focused on the task at hand – noticed something whipping past out of the corner of her eye, but when she took a split-second to look up again, it had already zoomed off.

The combination of the noise and the whatever-she-had-seen-was fully succeeded in breaking Rarity’s concentration, and Twilight tried in vain to work the heat to possibly aid their pegasi friends. The others held tight to the supports of the basket as they tried to regain control.

The loud, explosive popping finally died down, replaced with another curious noise, a slow – but increasingly loud – hissing coming from directly above them. The ponies’ collective stomachs dropped at the sound.

The harder Rarity tried to use her magic again, and the harder the pegasi strained to keep them up in the air, the louder the hissing seemed to become, now growing into a louder sound, a stuttering flatulent noise that under any other circumstances would have made Pinkie Pie giggle were they not in danger.

As the balloon lost air, Rarity lost the grip she had only barely magically held upon the balloon, and the blue and yellow ponies tried so hard to not give into the strain, they came dangerously close to another rock formation, this time only just managing a hairpin turn to keep themselves from hitting it, while the basket slammed against the side.

This broke the basket’s tether to the winged ponies, sending it and the ponies inside rushing to meet the ground. Not being able to teleport, Twilight grabbed hold of AJ who seemed to have the same idea, and they grabbed their two now-screaming friends and made a great leap off the side.

The four flightless ponies landed with a roll to soften their landing into the shifty sand, only a few seconds before the balloon crash-landed just a few feet from them.


After it was established that none were injured, Applejack inspected the balloon and confirmed what had happened. A number of teeny tiny holes could be seen all over the surface, some of which had been large enough to create bigger holes. The question was though, what had punctured it?

“Hey Twi, come here and look at this,” AJ prompted as she showed the unicorn one of the bigger holes in the fabric. “Whaddaya think caused it?”

“I’m not sure, but I thought I saw something shoot up at us from the ground just after we heard that noise. Whatever it was has to be around here,” Twilight answered.

The two ponies took a cursory look around, but nothing they could see would have the ability to fire anything at them as they had floated past.

Rainbow and Fluttershy soon returned carrying the hot air mechanism between them; it had come completely detached from both balloon and basket to fly off a good distance away from where they’d landed. Rarity was close by, salvaging the surviving saddlebags from the wreck and still trying to shake the coarse sand out of her mane.

The only one of them they couldn’t find was Pinkie Pie, who - just as Twilight was about to make an inquiry about her absence – came bounding up to them excitedly, all shock from the crash forgotten.

“Girls, girls, you’ve gotta come see what I found!” she said as she gestured for Twilight and Applejack to follow.

“Whadja find, Pink?” AJ managed to ask as Pinkie pulled them away.

It was a few feet from the crash site, their first true sign of something strange in this desert. Pinkie halted a good distance away and gestured towards the thing.

“Now don’t get too close, but isn’t it the neatest thing?”

It was harder to really make out since they’d stopped so far from it, but to Twilight it looked sort of like a very bloated cactus… a weirdly shiny, pinkish-purple cactus.

Twilight could tell Pinkie was disappointed that her friends didn’t get what she was trying to show them, as both of their confused expressions were met with a smile that meant ‘come on guys, dontcha get it?’

“I give up,” Twilight said finally. “If you’d just let us get closer-“

Pinkie put a hoof up to block her way “No no, just wait. There’s more behind that one.”

It took a few more minutes, but suddenly something did happen. They heard a loud pop from further behind the weird cactus, then another, and another, then the loudest one of all as they watched the closest one explode, shooting hundreds of needles out in every direction. The three ponies ducked, but the needles fell just short of hitting them.

The two shell-shocked ponies looked over at Pinkie. She had ducked a split-second earlier than them, and just nodded her head as they stood. “Yup, it was a balloon, a cactus balloon! There was a whole patch there, and I’m pretty sure I saw another group of them on that plateau thingy we passed right before we fell.”

The other two just stood there as Pinkie started walking towards where the cactus had been.

‘It’s ok, you can get closer now. I think they all popped.”

They made their way cautiously towards the scraps of magenta-colored rubber material that remained after it had popped. Indeed, it had been a balloon, a balloon with needles in it…something like that was almost like a time bomb. It would only be a matter of time before it exploded.

“So you think this is what hit us, Pinkie?” Twilight asked, Pinkie nodded, skipping now over to the remnants of the other exploded cacti balloons.

“Yeah, I thought they were pretty when we were flying over them, it looked just like a little desert rainbow party. Of course, I didn’t know they were gonna explode. I still think they’re neat though.”

“Neat maybe, but dangerous definitely,” Applejack stated as she came up behind her friends, looking suspiciously at the popped cacti patch. “Still think Discord’s not out to hurt any pony, Twilight?”

Applejack was right, of course. What had just happened to them proved that these things were dangerous, and it had Discord written all over it. It didn’t exactly play into his favor. Twilight wasn’t sure what to say, but thankfully the orange earth pony didn’t wait for a response.

“Well, least we know now what happened; don’t know if there’s anything we can do about the balloon though. We’ll probably have to head out on hoof,” AJ said, taking one last look around at the multi-colored scraps strewn about before turning back towards where the others were.


None of them really wanted to leave the balloon behind, but without any magical ways of sending it back to civilization there wasn’t much they could do for it. The holes could be patched up and the hot air mechanism repaired, but the group quickly decided that catching up with Discord was more important, and once Twilight got her magic back (as every pony kept assuring her she would) they would be able to get themselves home and find the balloon again later.

Twilight lead the team with Applejack and Pinkie close behind. Rarity had begun to lag behind as the sun beat down on the four earth-bound ponies’ trek through the sand.

Rainbow Dash remained above the leaders, keeping a lookout for any signs that they were getting closer. Fluttershy was flying as well, but staying close to the back, trying to aid Rarity by shading her from the sun as best she could.

It was a bit eerie how similar this felt to Twilight, though the landscape was quite different. Yet like the night she followed the clues into the forest, here was another trail of sorts – again leading away from a populated area and towards a more secluded space.

At least this time she had her friends along with her.

At first the only thing amiss about their surroundings was the changing color of the sand. They had left the normal tan-colored sand what felt like hours ago, and had since watched as the shifty ground below them turned orange, then aqua, and then to bright neon green that hurt Twilight’s eyes to look at for too long.

She had been keeping a mental tally of all of this, and of how they corresponded to her ideas for helping Discord.

It seemed that the evidence was accumulating over on the Against side of the list, even without the obvious reasons that Applejack and the others had brought up. AJ was right, they had every pony else to think about. The consequences for her actions if Discord was not cooperative earned probably about three hash marks. Not to mention the embarrassment and hurt she felt at the thought that he might have lied to her.

Now with their mode of transportation crashed and being forced to walk, she had to reluctantly add another tick to that side.

The For side didn’t have quite as many marks, though Twilight still felt they were worth considering too. His purpose in maintaining the balancing dance between order and chaos was not to be ignored. There was also his apparent avoidance of the residents of Equestria, and that nagging want…or hope to be right about him, that every pony deserved a chance, if he or she chose to take it.

She continued to list them off in her head, trying to form what she would say to him when they found him…which would not take terribly long.


Dash was the first to spot something on the horizon through the wavy dry haze.

“Hey Twilight, do you see that too?” she called down to the unicorn. Twilight squinted in the sun, but she thought she could see what Rainbow Dash was seeing. Way off in the distance there appeared to be some sort of building, and since they could both see it it probably wasn’t a mirage.

As soon as they all caught sight of it, there was suddenly a faded but very real dirt road before them, a dirt road that seemed to lead directly to it.

“Well, that doesn’t look fishy at all,” Rainbow Dash said as they all stared at the road that had definitely not been there a moment ago.

Twilight agreed. It certainly did appear as if Discord knew they were there, and was luring them into a trap. But why would he go to such lengths to conceal himself though, only to drop them now? Perhaps he was simply done hiding.

“I think we’ve found him, girls,” Twilight said to the group. “Every pony stick together.”

As they approached, the scene came more into focus. It appeared to be a single building, much smaller and much more run-down than the fun house Twilight had seen before.

Near the front of this ramshackle way-station of sorts stood a pony-shaped scarecrow, a pinball machine, and some of the oddest looking rabbits Twilight had ever seen.

“Oh, I’ve never seen jackrabbits like that before,” Fluttershy commented as a few darted past them. Discord had changed it up for this new climate. Instead of long deer legs, these rabbits had big deer antlers. “I hope they don’t have too much trouble getting into their burrows.”

“I think we’ve got bigger concerns than some inconvenienced jackrabbits,” Applejack said, stating out loud what they were all thinking. For as they watched the last of the jackalopes scamper off into the brush, their attention was brought back to the scene before them, all six pairs of eyes locked on him at once. Discord now leaned against one of the front posts of the neglected structure.

His eyes were closed, but that smirk of his – so mirthful but so often with that hint of superiority – told Twilight that he not only knew they were there, but really had been expecting them.

She heard a whimper from Fluttershy, and Twilight looked behind her to see her all but ready to cower behind Applejack. Seeing the other four standing their ground behind her – though they looked wary – it gave Twilight that sense of support she had come to need so dearly. They may have different views on what should happen next, but Twilight was very glad at this time to have them with her.

She saw Fluttershy compose herself to stand straight like the others, and the unicorn nodded to her friends, leading the approach as they took a few more determined – but still cautious – steps forward.

“Discord,” Twilight called to him fairly loudly, although he didn’t show any signs that he had heard her. She tried again, “Discord!” But still he didn’t acknowledge any of them.


“Cut the act you, we know you can hear us!” Rainbow Dash shouted as well, standing with the others but looking like she wanted to whoosh up to him and smack that grin right off his face.

He did finally open his eyes and look over at them. “Oh, Twilight and the rest. When did you get here?” he asked with feigned surprise.

Evidently that was all Rainbow needed, but as she was preparing to launch herself at him Twilight held her tail with her hoof. It was more the surprise of her action than force that halted the pegasus. “Hey, come on. Let’s do what we came here to do, he’s just sitting there!”

“Yes, and there’s probably a reason for that,” Twilight said. They all had to know she was right. As random as he could be, they knew from past experiences that he didn’t idle like this unless he either was confident he could beat them or would be able to escape them. This was a chance Twilight couldn’t afford to miss, in any case.

“Let me try this my way first,” she quietly urged.

Applejack scoffed. “Ya ain’t seriously still thinkin’ about trying to talk to him, are ya?”

“You tried that before, Twilight.” Rainbow reminded her. “And what happened, he got away.”

“That wasn’t her fault,” Fluttershy said, standing next to Twilight now but still not looking quite as brave as she sounded.

“I know, sorry.” Rainbow grudgingly corrected herself. “But if it didn’t work then what makes you think it will now?”

Who’s to say it didn’t? I’m still not even sure. Twilight thought. That was one of her biggest reasons for wanting to try talking with him again. She still wanted to try and find a different solution, but – possibly more so – there was that urge to know the truth, for her own peace of mind. It may have been a bit selfish, but she knew that these questions she had could only be answered by Discord, and only if they gave her the time to ask.

“Well, I do have you all here with me this time,” the unicorn said, which didn’t seem to convince her friends much.

“And at the very least, she needs to know how to get her magic back,” Fluttershy piped up. There seemed to be more in her smile to Twilight than the others knew. The yellow pegasus was the only one who truly knew how important she felt this was.

“At least let me try.”

She let her appeal to them hang there, and none of the others seemed to be excited about this idea. It took them a moment, but soon they all exchanged looks, and Applejack nodded, again speaking for the group

“Well, I still think this is crazy, but we trust you, Twi. We’re right here if he tries anything.”

Twilight nodded in return, and turned back to the draconequus now watching them with slight amusement. “Discord, for right now we’re just here to talk. How long it stays that way depends on you.”

“Hmm, what’s that Twilight?” Discord said loudly, cupping his ear. “I can’t hear you all that well from so far away.”

They weren’t more than ten feet away, but Twilight thought she might as well humor him. Rolling her eyes, the purple pony opened her mouth to speak taking one step forward – which was one step too far, apparently – and as she did a wall of energy seemed to spring up out of nowhere directly behind her, pushing her forward and her friends back.

Landing on her face, Twilight spun around to see a translucent but very solid barrier rise higher and higher, arching overhead and surrounding the building, leaving she and Discord on one side, and the other five ponies on the other.

Next Chapter: Sincerity Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 12 Minutes
Return to Story Description

Login

Facebook
Login with
Facebook:
FiMFetch