My Little Hunchback Of Notre Dame

Chapter 10

-The next morning-

A carriage pulled up to AJ and the pony guards as AJ said "Attention!" Discord stepped out of his carriage while rubbing his forehead, and moaning in pain. "Are you feeling all right?" AJ asked. "I had a little trouble with the fireplace." Discord said. "Ah see." AJ said. "Your orders, sir?" "Find the earth pony." Discord said. The pony guards then bursted into the bakery called Sugarcube Corner in Ponyville, ransacked the place, and they found a group of earth ponies hidden in a trap door. They escorted them outside, and over to Discord who held up ten pieces of silver in front of them as he said "Ten pieces of silver for the earth pony Applejack." When none of the earth ponies took the pieces of silver, Discord got angry, and said "Lock them up!" Later, they stopped a cart, and pushed it down the river under a bridge. The earth ponies came up for air, and the pony guards captured them. Discord held up twenty pieces of silver as he said "Twenty pieces of silver for the earth pony Applejack." When none of the earth ponies took the pieces of silver, Discord turned to the pony guards, and said "Take them away!" AJ silently growled in anger, because he was getting sick of Discord's behavior.

At a pony miller's house a few miles outside of Canterlot, a group of ponies gather to see Discord interrogating a unicorn named Shining Armor, his wife named Princess Cadence, and their foals named Zipporwhill and Flurry Heart. Two of the ponies were Applejack and Apple Bloom in their elderly pony disguise. "Poor miller." Moon Dancer said. "He's never harmed anypony!" "Discord's gone mad." A pegasai pony named Bulk Biceps said. Inside the house, Discord held up a talisman as he said "We found this earth pony talisman on your property. Have you been harbouring earth ponies?" "Our home is always open to the weary traveler." Shining Armor said. "Have mercy, my lord!" "I am placing you and your family under house arrest until I get to the bottom of this." Discord said. "If what you say is true, you are innocent and you have nothing to fear." "But we are innocent, I assure you!" Shining Armor said. "We know nothing of these earth ponies." Discord then went outside, and shut the door. He then bared it shut, looked at AJ, and said "Burn it!" "What?!" AJ asked in shock. "Until it smolders." Discord said as he gave AJ a lit torch. "These ponies are traitors, and must be made examples of." "With all due respect, sir, Ah was not trained to murder the innocent." AJ said.

"But you were trained to follow orders." Discord said. AJ glared at Discord, looked at the torch, and doused it in a bucket of water. Discord growled in anger, and said "Insolent coward." He grabbed another torch, and touched the flames on the windmill, and the flames touched the house as it started to burn. AJ gasped as they family screamed in terror. He jumped into the burning house through the window, and got the family to safety. As the house continued to burn, the family silently thanked AJ for rescuing them. Suddenly, one of the pony guards went up to AJ from behind, and knocked him down. Then two pony guards held onto him as Discord said "The sentence for insubordination is death." Discord said. "Such a pity, you threw away a promising career." "Consider it mah highest honor, sir." AJ said. Before they could execute him, Applejack quickly grabbed a rock, and threw it at one of the pony guards, giving AJ a chance to knock the other pony guard down, and escape. "Get him, you fools!" Discord said. "Get him!" Two of the pony guards started shooting arrows at AJ, and one of the arrows hit him in the shoulder as Applejack gasped. AJ fell from the bridge, and into the river below. The pony guards then fired more arrows at the river, hoping to hit AJ, but stopped as Discord said "Don't waste your arrows! Let the traitor rot in his watery grave. Find the earth pony! If you have to burn Equestria to the ground, so be it!" As they left, Applejack went into the river, and dove right in to get AJ. Once they resurfaced, Applejack began to carry AJ to the bell tower in Canterlot.