After that the annual Summer Sun celebration in Ponyville, things got a little weird around town. Some ponies were acting differently, a bit more out going, if you know what I mean. Kickback was apparently the first to notice though, it began with Lyra.

“Hey, Lyra” the stallion called out as he sat on a park bench, the mint green unicorn glanced at him and despite the distance, Kickback could sense something as she showed her grin. As she trotted up to him, he noticed her eyes slowly closing to half way and a devious look on her face.

“Hey, Kickback” she greeted in a somewhat unfamiliar tone.

“How are you doing?”

“Uhhh fine, you?”

“Great” she said, still in that sly tone. Kickback thought he was crazy at this point as he caught a quick glimpse of a green sparkle that flashed in her eyes. She sat down and moved along his side…close, he just stared at her.

“Lyra…are you okay?”

“Mhmmm” she hummed as she leaned in closer, Kickback just stared at her, unsure of what in the hay is going on? In an instant she pressed her muzzle to the side of his face, kissing him on the cheek, she hummed gradually louder till she pulled back and locked his dark green eyes with her own golden ones.

“L-Lyra?”

“Yes?” she asked. Kickback remained silent, he just stared at her, directly into her golden rimmed eyes, he saw her confident, seductive look fade into a worried face. Without word he got to his hooves and left her at the bench, he couldn’t help as he walked get this horrible feeling in his viral heart that something was up. Weeks past, more ponies around began act different, only a hoof full but it was still noticeable. Before anypony knew it, a club was formed, the strangest thing was you’d have to be hoof-picked to get in. Most ponies took it just to be some form of secret club but the scarlet still felt something. Now was not the time though. Apparently somewhere along the line, Kickback had initially told the date of his birth…or rebirth. If one thing was clear is that Pinkie had an amazing memory. The date was December the eighth, Kickback loathed this day as it was the very time where he woke up, forever changed but that information wasn’t given to the up beat ponies that dwelled in this town though. Kickback wandered the streets of Ponyville, he turned into an alleyway and stopped in his tracks. He slowly gazed up the side of the building to his right, when he reached the top, he smirked as he raised a hood to the back of his neck and swung his hood over his face. He took a step forward and placed his left hoof on the vertical surface, then his right. He jolted back and forth, catapulting himself to the top of the building, he hovered in the air for a moment before landing atop the roof. He gazed around at the scenery, taking in the mountains in the distance, the green landscape, the ponies bellow going about their normal day and the surrounding buildings.

“Haha…I can’t believe it…it’s been so long yet feels like such a short time…I wish I could relive my moments here” he whispered to himself, bowing head his head dramatically as he stared in to space. The craving for adrenaline started to build in his mind, he closed his eyes and took a step forward then another an another, quickening his pace with each hoof hitting the ground. Kickback found himself running atop the roof which was all too familiar to him. One, two, three, on four he slammed his legs off the roof and jumped, far and high above the streets below. His clothing breezed in the wind as he slowly started to descend, he opened his eyes and had a look of confidence on his face. He slammed down on the next building’s rooftop and began to sprint, repeating the pattern over and over again. He circled around Town Hall and stopped when something caught his attention, many ponies were entering the building, Kickback crouched down and watched mare by mare , stallion by stallion enter the town hall for something, he hadn’t been told of anything and he didn’t spot any of the elements of harmony either. Who he did spot was a familiar green unicorn in the group that walked by each other in almost a fully synchronised manner. The doors closed when everypony was inside, this heightened his curiosity.

“Hmmm”

“Hey!” a raspy voice called out, Kickback nearly jumped out of his skin which in turn caused a reaction that registered in his hoof, he felt the change immanent but as soon as he saw the mare before him, hovering over him thanks to her wings he managed to conceal it as he calmed himself.

“Hey, Dash”

“Sup?”

“Not a whole lot…hey, do you know anything about what’s going on in there?” he said as he gestured with his head towards the central building.

“Nope, some club meeting or something”

“Right, right, so what are you doing here?” he said as he swung his hood off, Dash looked at him.

“The better question is: What are you doing here?” she asked, Kickback then realised that he was still on a high rooftop, he looked at Dash with a blank look.

“Enjoying the view…c’mon, it’s not the first time you’ve seen me somewhere you didn’t expect…remember?” he said, Dash looked at him in confusion for a few moments before the memory clicked in her brain, he was referring to the first time they met. She grinned at him.

“Yeah but hey, follow me” she said as she Dash off a few metres in the sky, Kickback looked at her as she looked back with a smile meeting his confused look.

“Where we going?”

“Just follow me” and with that she was gone, leaving a rainbow trail in her wake. Kickback got to his hooves, took a deep breath and ran from rooftop to rooftop, following the multi-hued trail as best he could. It was then, he realised that she flew off to the outskirts of town, more specifically, Sweet Apple Acres. She bolted through the door as Kickback ran through the trees, he could see the trail fading into the barn. He slowed his pace as he approached the barn, taking steps ever so cautiously, he narrowed his eyes and soon his vision differentiated. Everywhere was blue except several orange shapes in the building, huddling up and wearing objects on their heads. His thermo-vision indicated that six ponies, two unicorns, two pegasi and two earth-ponies were inside. He smirked as he slowly pried open the door. Kickback remained at ease despite the confetti exploding in his face and a loud phrase chanted by six feminine voices.

“SURPRISE!!!” the elements of harmony shouted, each having their own characteristic spin on the word as one can imagine.

“Happy, happy birthday, to you mister today, happy, happy birthday, hip, hip, hip, hooray, today is now your birthday so time to celebrate, happy, happy birthday to you Kickback TOODAAAAAAYYYY!”…I think it’s obvious who sang that, the crimson stallion just stared at Pinkie with a smirk as she stared back with a huge grin on her muzzle whilst her face was leaned in close to his face, he pulled back to look at the mare, whose neck was as long as a baby giraffe dur to her stance.

“Happy birthday, Kickback” an accented voice greeted from behind the pink, bubbly mare. Kickback cocked his head to the side to see the other equines standing there with greeting smiles on their faces. Pinkie lunged back, giving the scarlet colt a way to pass to his friends.

“Happy birthday, big-guy” Dash said with an enthusiastic tone and a wink.

“Happy birthday, darling” Rarity chimed with her own friendly look, the phrase grew to be an annoyance now to the crimson colt but he held his tongue, these ponies actually cared for him enough to throw a party for his…granted unnatural but still his date of birth,

Twilight and Fluttershy wished him the same.

“Thanks everypony” he said as he nodded his head. The party was just like any other birthday the stallion had been to this year, cakes, music, games, the genuine “Pinkie Pie effect” thanks to her so called ‘party cannon’.

“So AJ…how is Big Mac?” Rarity asked with a devilishly curious tone as the earth pony and BLACKLIGHT pony stood around her.

“Nutin’, why?” the orange mare replied, Kickback looked between them.

“Cause he seems quite happy with the local school teacher” the unicorn observed, Applejack had a blank face but Kickback could see the extremely irritated look behind that mask she calls her face…her beautiful face I might add.

“Rarity…mind ya own business” the farmer said with no specific tone, Kickback chuckled as he took another drink.

“Gonna have to agree with AJ on this one, Macintosh’s love life is none of anypony’s concern” Kickback commented, the two looked at him, Rarity had a much more confused face compared to Applejack’s warm smile, he was defending her and her family.

“Hey, have you two been to town hall recently?” Kickback asked.

“Now that you mention it…nope” AJ said.

“Me either, perhaps it’s due to it always been used for club meetings now” Rarity added, Kickback thought a moment.

“Interesting…” he said as he took another gulp of his drink. The party went along as you would think, ponies danced, played games, talked and laughed with one another until it was time to bid a farewell. Kickback’s friends never talked about or even showed any notice as to the fact that the stallion had been in Ponyville for almost a year and still didn’t have a proper home, most likely they thought that Kickback was a traveller and wasn’t staying long but that was put out of question after a while, they seemed to be just fine with him sleeping wherever and when they offered him their own home to crash at, they seemed rather happy when he agreed. Other times he would stay up all night or find somewhere to rest ‘till morning.

A few days passed

Kickback, the BLACKLIGHT pony stood at the top of the clock tower, staring at his surroundings, homes and businesses that made Ponyville were all visible from his vantage point. The stallion smirked under his hood as he enjoyed the blissful feeling of the warm summer’s day capped with the cool breeze that passed by, the beautiful landscape that made this part of Equestria and the feeling of solemn privacy. His vision was distraught by a multi-coloured blur crossing his eye sight, in slow motion, Rainbow Dash could be seen, looking over at the stallion with a toothy grin and a wink, he shot back in surprise and looked at the vanishing figure in the distance, he smiled again. As he turned back he almost jumped out of his coat, a brown face covered his vision, yellow where there should white eyes and red pupils that were two different sizes, white eyebrows that were also unsymmetrical. The face was upside down, Kickback’s eyes gazed over it, it had a single fang capped with a goat-like beard, despite it being up-side-down it was smiling.

“Well, well, well what have we here?” the creature asked.

“What in Titarus are you?” the crimson stallion asked in anger.

“I…am Discord, spirit of chaos but it seems I now represent harmony aswell” the traconacaus said. Discord flipped his long body in the air and levitated to meet the stallion properly face to face.

“Discord?…oh yeah” Kickback said, recalling that one day he was told the story about this thing and how one particular yellow pegasus handled him.

“Mhm, who might you be? I don’t believe we’ve met, have we Kickback?” he said with a villainous grin and tone.

“…You…know who-”

“Indeed, I know a great many things, such as the little tricks you can pull” Discord said as with a calm and smug look that made Kickback angry but he was soon shocked and in fear at the fact that this creature, this god-like thing knows a lot more about him than he would like.

“…So you know what I’ve done?” Kickback said in a sinister tone, almost challenging the traconacaus.

“Mhm”

“So…how’s life, Discord?”

“Pretty good, pretty good, yourself?”

“Just fine…”

“Look, friend, I don’t care” Discord said in a now much friendlier tone that caught Kickback off guard.

“What?”

“I don’t care that you’ve brutally killed and devoured the inhabitants of this world, you think I have a perfect history?” Kickback remained silent. “The point is, I changed…somewhat…but if you hurt anypony…especially Fluttershy…I will not hesitate  to-” was all he got out before he noticed something. Chuckling was what caught the spirit’s ears, the stallion lowered his head enough to conceal his eyes which gave a sinister look, his shoulders were buckling as he chuckled at something, Kickback’s teeth were visible as he laughed under the shade of his hood, Discord just stared in confusion and shock at the stallion. Kickback raised his head to look at the creature with a toothy smirk, a small fang hang down from his upper jaw as the right side of his teeth shown brightly through the darkness made by his hood. Discord felt slight fear at this point, he stared at the stallion right eye of which was a different shade than before, his eye glowed an eerie orange-red colour that was directed at the spirit.

“Discord…believe when I say, no harm will come to the elements or any good pony in this town by me” he said in a ominous tone. Discord simply looked at him before his expression softened into a smug smile, the spirit snapped his talons, a bright white flash blinded the stallion temporarily before it and the creature were gone. Next Chapter: Revelations Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 7 Minutes