Chapters Flash Sentry, Chaos and Disharmony
One month had passed since the Battle of Canterlot had taken place.
One month since Lightning Blitz, under the influence of the Alicorn Amulet, had attempted to take the kingdom for himself. The plan was at first, kidnapping seven mares by turning them to stone, one of which was Princess Cadance and instigated a city-wide battle that pitted the ponies of Equestria against each other. However, the mares were soon unpetrified, all thanks to Princess Cadance after she had released due to the other princesses. When this happened, Lightning then unleashed a deadly weapon known as the Thunder Tomb, which would have destroyed the whole city. Luckily, he was stopped and his Thunder Tomb destroyed, allowing the apprentice knight Flash Sentry to finally stop him and destroy the Alicorn Amulet.
Now, the ponies of the city were working on cleaning up the damage that had resulted from all the fighting, which had caused major property damage to many buildings and other areas of the city. The ponies of the city had just finished repairs to the main town square, and were beginning to get back to their usual lives.
This included a particular small group which was made up of almost nothing but fillies and colts, lead by an older mare. This was the class of Miss Cheerilee and her students, who were in Canterlot for a field trip. There, the teacher spoke to her class as they got closer to their destination. "Now remember everypony," Cheerilee said in a calm, yet shout-like tone. "Remain with your buddy and don't wonder off. This isn't like back home."
"Yes Miss Cheerilee!" the school ponies replied in unison.
"Good," Cheerilee nodded. "Now, I hope you're ready for our tour of Canterlot Castle." At that moment, they arrived at their destination, the home of the Princess of Equestria and headquarters for the Royal Guard. "And here's our tour guide for the day," Cheerilee commented as they spotted an earth pony standing at the doors of the castle. Three of the school fillies recognised him instantly.
"It's Grand Hoof!" Scootaloo cheered, seeing the familiar face.
"Hello everypony!" Grand Hoof said with a wave. "Glad to see you again."
"Hey Grand!" the CMC replied in unison, big smiles on their faces. The rest of the class soon walked up to the old solider, all of them ready to take the tour. With this, Grand let out a small cough, signalling Cheerilee that he was ready, which she nodded to.
"Okay, let's the tour started." Grand spoke up as they turned towards the castle. "I'll start off by explaining the castle itself." he began, pointing to the main front doors. "It was first built over a thousand years ago after the defeat of Nightmare Moon. Princess Celestia commissioned it to be built to replace the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters, which was almost destroyed all those years ago during the final battle with the Mare in the Moon."
"Whoa!" They all said as they looked up at the castle.
"It can house more than three thousand ponies, which includes the Royal Guards, who live in the barracks." The ponies all nodded in response. "Now...since we're at the entrance here, what would you all like to see first?"
"The armoury!" Scootaloo called out.
"The kitchens!" Applebloom cheered.
"The Royal Chambers!" Sweetie Belle cried out.
The three fillies glared at each other, while Grand smirked at the sight. As the three said their suggestions, the class also yelled out several different locations as well. After a minute, Grand clapped his hooves, causing them to all stop.
"Since nopony can agree, how about we start outside of the castle with the Royal Gardens kiddos?" he suggested as he pointed to the garden on the side of the castle. "We'll see the rest of the castle afterwards."
"Okay," they all nodded, glad to go anywhere within the castle's limits.
With that, Grand Hoof escorted them to the gardens where a giant hedge maze stood. Tell them that it wasn't worth going into the maze, he directed them to a nearby area that was filled with stone statues of ponies. "Welcome to the Sculpture Garden," Grand said as they arrived. "These statues are known for being representations of many different traits and emotions."
It was then that they noticed a unicorn mare that was currently cleaning one of the nearby statues. She had dark green fur with an orange mane and tail. She wore thin glasses and her Cutie Mark was a stone mason chisel. It was here the crusaders froze, remembering this pony's identity.
"Gorgenia!" Grand yelled, trying to get her attention.
The unicorn mare turned towards them. "Oh! Hello Grand Hoof. I'm just finishing the renovations for this one." She then looked over at the school ponies, "I see you brought friends. What's going on here?"
However, her question wasn't answered, but instead greeted with fear. "We know her," Scootaloo gulped as she spoke up first, trying to backpedal away before hitting her friends behind her.
"Yeah!" Applebloom slightly growled, her fear slowly being replaced with anger. "She's the one who turned my sister into a statue!"
"And tried to take over Equestria!" Sweetie added with a stomped hoof. "What is she doing here?!"
"Oh," Gorgenia replied, blushing as she did. "You know about that." Gorgenia then took off her glasses to clean them, letting out a small sigh as she did. "Well relax foals, I can't turn ponies to stone anymore. Not without...Lightning's help anyways."
"Right...sure you can't." Scootaloo growled with suspicion.
Grand on the other hoof, decided to change subjects and back to the original reason he spoke up, "Gorgenia, why not help me show these ponies around? Who better to tell them about these statues then the one who is currently renovating them?"
"Eh, I guess I could." she shrugged, her face lighting up and a smile appearing on her lips. "Very well, follow me." With that, she lead the group through the sculpture garden, and began to explain the significance of the different statues. "This statue," she pointed to one of three small ponies on top of each other, "represents friendship."
As this happened, the CMC all looked up at the statue, Applebloom coming to a stop and causing Scootaloo and then Sweetie to bump into each other.
"Moving on," Gorgenia went on as she pointed towards a statue of an earth pony holding an actual flag while surrounded by stars. "This next one represents victory."
"How cool would it be to have that as a cutie mark?" Scootaloo asked, nudging Apple Bloom as she did.
"Very cool." Applebloom replied before a snarky smirk appeared on her face, "if you were actually victoryful at something."
Scootaloo glared at the yellow filly, while Sweetie just rolled her eyes. "That's not a word," she told them.
"What are you, a dictionary?" Scootaloo grumbled back.
"GIRLS!" Cheerilee called out, grabbing their attention. The rest of the group had moved onto the next statue, causing them to realise what had happened. The three quickly rushed over to where their class had gone, near a statue of some strange pony, snake, lion, goat and dragon combo statue.
"Now this is one of the oldest statues in the gardens," Gorgenia told them. "Though uh...I'm not sure why. Its definitely not something I would make."
Grand just chuckled at her comment before explaining, pointing at the statue as he did. "This creature is called a draconequus. Its a powerful hybrid creature, not unlike griffons and chimeras."
"Can anypony guess what it symbolises?" Cheerilee asked.
"Confusion," Applebloom guessed.
"Evil," Sweetie said as she bumped Apple Bloom, only to get bumped herself by Scootaloo.
"Chaos!" Scootaloo added.
"It's not chaos you dodo," Sweetie told her.
"Don't call me things I don't know the meaning of," Scootaloo replied with a snarl, "and it is to chaos."
"Is not," Sweetie replied.
"Is too!"
"Is-"
"You're both wrong!" Applebloom interrupted. "Its confusion!"
This quickly resulted in a hoof fight, concerning two of the adults.
"Shouldn't we stop this?" Gorgenia asked Cheerilee.
"Just let them blow off some steam," Grand Hoof replied with a waved hoof. "Its good for the kiddos."
Gorgenia just rolled her eyes. "I think I'm starting to see why Lightning and Script had problems with you."
Eventually, the three, now exhausted, stopped and laid down on the ground, panting. Seeing this, Cheerilee let out a sigh before explaining. "Now you three, in a way you're all right." She looked up at the statue. "This statue represents discord, which means a lack of harmony between ponies." She then looked back at the three fillies. "In fact, you three have demonstrated discord so well, that each of you is going to write me an essay about it."
The three fillies moaned at this, as the rest of their class laughed.
"Now," Cheerilee said with a slight grumble. "Let's move on, and I don't want to see anymore fighting."
"Yes Miss Cheerilee..." the trio groaned in unison.
With that, the group headed out of the sculpture garden.
Had they remained there a moment longer however, they would have seen a small crack appear on the statue of discord. That one crack unfortunately, soon grew and grew, until more cracks branched off. It wasn't long till the whole statue was covered in cracks.
It was at that moment that a new sound filled the air. A deep, evil, laugh. A laugh filled with....chaos
Flash Sentry, Chaos and Disharmony
It was just another day in Ponyville. At least, it was supposed to be. It started with Flash Sentry, the apprentice knight of sir Grand Hoof, who was doing his usual morning patrol. At the same time, his partner on his back, a jakhowl named Springer, was also on the lookout for anything unusual.
"Everything's clear on the north side," Flash commented as he took a semi-wide turn in the sky. "Now we just need to check the Everfree Forest and we're good."
"Great, then we'll finally have some time to ourselves." Springer replied with his paw just over his eyes. "There's a new move I've been dying to try out."
"Sounds like fun," Flash said with a chuckle. However, his laughter was soon cut off when a pink and blue blur shot past the two, causing them to go spinning in midair. "WHAT THE-WHOA!?!" He yelped as he stopped spinning, trying to stabilize himself as he did. "What the heck was that?!"
"No idea," Springer said, his eyes still spinning. "And can you stop the spinny-thing?"
However, that pink and blue blur shot passed them again, but this time Flash was moved out the way just in time. He then narrowed his eyes, instantly recognizing the blur. "Rainbow Dash?" She was chasing what appeared to be a pink cloud, which was zipping through the sky. "I knew those weather ponies liked to experiment," Flash commented with slight sarcasm as he scratched his head, "but this is a new one."
"Think she's in trouble?"
"No idea partner. Though I have feeling she is."
Seeing Rainbow and the cloud coming back towards them, Flash pulled out his trusty weapon Lightbringer, a cutlass shaped sword with an orange square crossguard. The blade shined in his hoof as Flash readied it. As the cloud drew closer, Flash swung the weapon while calling out. "Flash Cutter!" From the sword shot an orange energy blade, which flew at the cloud. However, when the attack struck the cloud, instead of cutting it to pieces like Flash had intended, the blade literally bounced of it like a bouncy castle and was sent straight back at Flash.
"WHOA!" Flash and Springer called out as the pegasus ducked and felt his own attack soar over him. "What just-"
"LOOK OUT!" He couldn't finish as Rainbow yelled out. It was too late however, as the pink cloud struck the apprentice knight and his partner, sending them flying backwards.
"Seriously?!" Flash yelped as he felt himself come to a stop in the sky. Looking around, he realized that he and Springer were stuck in the pink cloud, which was made out of...cotton candy? "Okay, this day is officially getting weird."
"Tell me about it," Rainbow Dash growled as she flew over to him before helping Flash to get out of the cloud and began to pull the cotton candy off of him.
"Thanks," Flash said once he and Springer were free, "but I gotta ask, what the heck's going on?"
"That's what Ah'd like to know to!" a voice from below caught their attention. Looking down, they saw that they were actually right above Sweet Apple Acres, though it was above the cornfield that the farm owned. That and the field was now covered in...chocolate milk?
"Rainbow Dash!" Applejack yelled as she pointed to the pink cloud, which was the origin of the chocolate milk. "What's going on with this rain...I mean, chocolate milk...I mean, chocolate milk rain!?!"
"Don't ask me," Rainbow shrugged as she and the boys descended, "there's crazy weather going on all over Equestria! Cloudsdale's getting soaked by a major cola storm right now."
"This isn't natural," Flash added as he tried to push some of the clouds away, "it has to have been caused by something, or someone."
"Well don't worry," Rainbow said as she patted her chest in pride, "I'm not stopping until I get control over Ponyville. I'm taking this pink cloud storm down!"
However, the second she said that, the corn that was currently around Applejack started popping.
"Well do it fast, or we're going to drown in popcorn." Springer deadpanned, though only Flash understood what he said.
"Why would you wanna stop this?" They all looked over and saw Pinkie Pie diving in and out of the popcorn. When her head popped out, her mouth was shown to be stuffed full.
Before they could say anything, a sudden cough made them turn to see Rarity, wearing a purple raincoat and carrying a saddle umbrella, walking over to them. "I heard about your troubles Applejack and I came to see if there was anything I could do. You know, without getting wet or dirty, or doing anything that isn't from under my umbrella.
"Oh yeah," Flash sarcastically replied as he pushed some more clouds away, "we've got a list of jobs five miles long for you. Trust me, we have to-"
THOOM!
A new sudden noise drew the group's attention towards the apple trees, which had suddenly sprouted apples the size of boulders. The weight of the apples were too much for the trees, which began to bend. Seconds later, a horde of squirrels and bunnies appeared and began munching down on the apples.
"Fluttershy!" Applejack yelled at the yellow pegasus, who Flash hadn't even realised was there, "DO SOMETHING!"
Fluttershy nodded and turned to a nearby bunny, which was munching on an apple, before speaking to it. "Now, do you really-" She didn't get to finish, as in that moment the bunny's legs suddenly grew four feet. "NO!" Fluttershy screamed, "it's not possible! I must be seeing things."
Flash's head was beginning to hurt at the sight of all this craziness. That is, till he saw a familiar sight, causing him to sigh in relief. It was his best friend, Twilight Sparkle and her dragon assistant Spike walking up to him. "Don't worry everypony!" she told them, "I've learned a new spell that'll fix everything."
"Then do it already!" Flash yelled back as he tried to pull Fluttershy out of a cloud she'd accidently flown into thanks to the sudden tall bunnies.
Twilight nodded as her horn began to glow, before unleashing a radiant burst of magical energy which spread across the area. When the light faded, Twilight looked up, expecting to see everything as it should be. But, her heart sang a sorrow tone as she saw nothing had changed. "My fail safe spell...failed! NO!"
"I don't know what's doing this," Flash said as he and Fluttershy landed next to her, "but it must have some incredible magic if you can't undo it."
"What do we do then?" Twilight asked.
"Er..." Spike thought for a moment, "give up?"
"Spike," Rarity shook her head as she walked over to them and magicked her umbrella onto her back, "Twilight will come up with something."
"Yeah," Flash nodded in agreement. "All we need to do is work together, and we'll have this problem fixed in no time."
Twilight thought for a brief moment. "Time for plan B," she said before looking up, "Rainbow, can you corral all those clouds into one corner of the sky?"
Rainbow, currently covered in cotton candy, shook it off and saluted before flying off.
"I'll give her a hoof," Flash added as he to shot into the air, following the rainbow maned pegasus. The two quickly managed to redirect the clouds into one spot, where they then merged together to become one giant cloud. Said cloud was then roped up by Applejack and pulled onto the ground.
"Oh dear," Fluttershy gasped after Twilight had whispered something in her ear, "I hope that none of the animals see these delicious, chocolate filled cotton candy clouds. I'd hate to have to share them."
Flash hovered just above the cloud due to Applejack having tied it to a post, and saw Pinkie feasting on it.
"You and me both sister," Pinkie said, only for a bunch of animals to push her away as they began eating the candy. "HEY!" Flash just rolled his eyes and pulled out a chunk of the candy, which he threw at the pink earth pony. Pinkie grabbed it and smiled up at him.
"And when ya'll are done with that," Applejack added with a chuckle, "feel free to have some popcorn for dessert."
"You see Spike," Twilight told her assistant with a nudge, "you should never give up. There's nothing we can't overcome if we all work together."
In that moment, Spike suddenly spat out a fireball which transformed into a rolled up scroll.
"Looks like the princess needs us for something," Flash commented as he watched Twilight levitate and unravel it.
She quickly read through it and her eyes went wide. "Come on everypony," she said once she was done, "Princess Celestia wants to see us all in Canterlot immediately."
Nopony like the sound of that and all of them rushed towards the train station. As they did, Springer stopped at the station, realizing that they didn't get a ticket for him. "Hey!" Springer yelled at Flash with a pouting face. "What about me?"
"Stay here bud," Flash replied, patting his head with a grin. "We need sompeony to stay here and try to keep anything else that happens contained."
"Oh...okay." Springer nodded before showing a small salute. "You got it partner!"
"Thanks bud. I know you can handle it."
With that, the seven ponies rushed off towards their next big adventure.
Flash Sentry, Chaos and Disharmony
The journey to Canterlot was a blur to Flash.
Throughout the trip, he and the girls had watched the many different yet impossible occurrences happen outside the train windows. The viewings included floating trees made of cotton candy, a house that looked like it was painted and made out of plaid, (This made Rarity faint for half the trip) and Pinkie's favorite sight: another train that was floating, upside down, and made out of chocolate cake. Luckily, whatever was causing these unusual events had chosen to ignore the train for now, allowing them to reach Canterlot in no time at all.
Once there however, they found that it was doing no better than Ponyville. The street lamps had been replaced with popsicles, some of the streets were now made of jello and a nearby flower stand was transformed into a giant pile of fudge. The houses were even worse, as some were now floating in the air...and were upside down while doing so. The very sight made Flash scratch his head in pure confusion. As he did, he looked at his friends, only to see that they were the same.
"This is awful," Twilight commented as she saw what had happened to their home town.
"Don't worry," Flash told her with a quick pat on her back, "once we know what's going on, we'll fix everything."
"Then let's get to the castle quick," Rainbow said while the others just nodded.
With this, they rushed off towards the royal castle. A few minutes in, they arrived at said castle, and were escorted by some guards towards the main chambers. Once there, they found Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadance and Grand Hoof waiting for them.
"Princess!" Twilight exclaimed as they rushed inside. "We got your message and came as fast as we could!"
"Thank you Twilight, its good to see you again." Celestia replied, though her expression was not exactly what they wanted to see. "If only it were under better circumstances though..."
"We had hoped another incident wouldn't occur so soon after the last one," Luna added with a slight grimace, "but is seems we are not so lucky."
"What's happening out there?" Flash asked them while pointing at the window, "its like the laws of physics decided to take a day off or something."
"As you've probably seen," Grand Hoof said while ignoring Flash's statement, "Equestria is in crisis."
"We guessed that." Rainbow replied with a roll of the eyes.
"We wanna know what's causing this crisis." Applejack finished.
"We will explain on the way." Celestia said before she and Luna turned, motioning them to follow them.
"On the way to where?" Twilight asked, only for Celestia to say nothing. Instead, she began walking away with Luna, Cadance and Grand following. The seven ponies shared a look, before following as well. They made their way up to a part of the castle none of them had even been to before, a large corridor with several stain glass windows along the side.
"We have brought you here for a matter of great importance," Celestia explained as they walked. "It seems an old foe of ours, one we had thought we had defeated long ago, has returned."
"Who?"
"His name," Luna said as she looked over at one of the windows, "is Discord!"
The seven of them followed her gaze, seeing an image on the window of a creature made out of multiple animal body parts. Seeing this, Flash's eyes went wide as he instantly recognized the figure. "Wait...I've seen this thing before." Flash added as he pointed at the window. "It looks just like a statue in the palace gardens."
Celestia however, just shook her head as she replied to Flash's comment. "That was no statue Flash. That was Discord."
The ponies went silent while hearing this, not sure what to say to that. That is, till Pinkie broke the silence. "Is anypony else lost?"
"Discord is the mischievous spirit of disharmony," Celestia continued, "before Luna and I stood up to him, he ruled Equestria in an eternal state of unrest and unhappiness."
"We saw how miserable life was for earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns alike," Luna added with a slightly bitter tone, "so we knew we had to do something to stop him."
"Indeed," Celestia agreed, "Luna and I searched and eventually discovered the Elements of Harmony, which we used to defeat Discord."
"How?"
"You are all familiar with the forbidden spell of petrification?" Luna asked, causing the girls and Cadance to shiver.
"We don't exactly remember it, but yes." Twilight replied.
"That spell is one of the weaker ones," Celestia explained with a slight grimace, "and can be used should the need arrive, as a last resort of course."
"So that's it," Flash said while crossing his hooves. He glanced back at the decorated window. "You used that spell to trap Discord in stone."
"Exactly," Celestia said before her gaze became serious, "we had hoped the spell would keep him contained forever. Unfortunately, something has caused the spell to weaken and now Discord has finally escaped."
"But what caused it?" Twilight asked, "what could overpower the Elements of Harmony?"
Celestia looked at Twilight with a sad expression. "I'm afraid to say that the cause was all of you."
"US?!" The seven of them screamed.
"Despite Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon and her thousand year banishment, she and I remained connected to the Elements," Celestia said before looking of at one of the windows. It showed the seven of them, wielding the Elements against Nightmare Moon. "But when you all defeated Nightmare Moon, you all became the new wielders and as such, any spell me and Luna cast using the Elements was undone."
"So this is our fault," Twilight gasped, looking down at the ground in shame.
"No Twilight," Celestia shook her head as she walked up and patted Twilight's shoulder. "The fault is mine. I should have known of Discord's return and prepared you all accordingly."
"Prepared us for what?" Flash asked.
In that moment, they arrived at a large door. "This is Canterlot Tower," Luna explained as she pointed to the tower, "where the Elements have been kept since you retrieved them. The only hope we have at stopping Discord is to once again trap him the way we did before."
"And only we can do this?" Twilight asked, sounding nervous.
"It is," Celestia replied with a nod, "the Elements are the only thing that can stop him, and so it is only you who can defeat Discord!"
The seven ponies all looked at each other, knowing this was the only way. Seeing this, they all nodded before Twilight spoke up. "Princess Celestia, we'd be honored to use the Elements of Harmony again."
Celestia nodded before turning to the door. Placing her horn inside a small indent and released a blue colored aura-styled magic. As the energy flowed inside, the door soon unlocked and slowly opened. Once fully open, it revealed a jewel encrusted chest which seemed to literally shine like a bunch of stars.
"Whoa," they all said, all staring at the majestic-looking chest.
"You can keep the Elements," Rarity joked, "I'll take that case."
Celestia just smiled as she levitated the box over to them. "Have no fear ponies, I have total confidence that you will be able to defeat Discord." She then opened the box to reveal...nothing!
Everypony gasped at seeing this.
"Well," Flash said with a slight grimace, "that complicates things." Twilight then smacked him with her tail.
"I don't understand!" Celestia's eyes shrunk as she examined the empty case with short breathing. "That chamber is protected by a powerful spell that only Luna or I can break! This doesn't make sense!"
"MUHAHAHAHAHA!"
Everypony froze as they heard a deep and sinister laugh echo through the halls.
"Make sense?" a voice then asked in a snarky tone. "What fun is there in making sense?"
"Discord!" Celestia yelled, looking around to find the voice's owner. "SHOW YOURSELF!"
The voice laughed again as the group looked around the room for any sign of somepony new. "Did you miss me Celestia?"
"There!" Flash said as he pointed at one of the windows, which had Discord smiling down at them.
"I missed you," the window replied in a still snarky tone. "And little Luna too of course."
"The feeling is not mutual," Luna growled.
"Oh I'm hurt," Discord chuckled as he moved over to the window showing the mane seven fighting Nightmare Moon. "Its quite lonely being imprisoned in stone you know. But you wouldn't know that, would you? Because I don't turn ponies into stone."
"ENOUGH!" Celestia yelled, slamming her hooves into the floor. "What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?"
"Oh, I just borrowed them for a tinny little while," Discord replied with a giggle. "What, did you think I was going to let you keep the one thing that can actually beat me?"
"He's got a point," Flash said with a shrug.
"You'll never get away with this Discord," Celestia told him. "I will make sure-"
"Oh, I'd forgotten how grim you can be Celestia," Discord interrupted as waved his claw at her. "Its really quite...boring."
"HEY!" Rainbow exclaimed as she flew up, shaking her hoof at the 'painting'. "Nopony insults the princess!" She shot towards the window, but the image of Discord disappeared, causing her to just slam into it.
"Oh!" Discord said once he'd reappeared, "you must be Rainbow Dash. Famed for her loyalty, the Element of Harmony you represent."
"That's right," Rainbow replied, "I'll always be loyal to the princesses!"
"Tch. We'll see about that," Discord shrugged once he'd disappeared again.
"I can't believe we're wasting our time, talking to a tacky window," Rarity added, only for Discord to appear behind her.
"The beautiful Rarity, representing the Element of Generosity if I'm not mistaken."
"So you know who we are, big deal." Applejack grumbled next. "How about we-"
"Oh, I know much more than that," Discord interrupted again as his image grew. "Honest Applejack."
"You seem to know our strengths too," Twilight said as she glared at the monster, watching him continually shift around the window that showed them as the Elements of Harmony. That is, till he started floating over Twilight in the window.
"Yes...this one is Twilight Sparkle. Yours is the most powerful and illusive Element...MAGIC!" Everyone continued to glare at him as he continued talking. "Fluttershy's is kindness and Pinkie's is a personal favourite of mine, laughter." This statement made the other two want to shrink back at his knowledge.
That is, till Flash spoke up in a gruff, angry voice. "You know, I'm starting to agree with Rarity about this being a waste of time."
"Ah!" Discord clapped his claws, glaring at the orange pegasus as he did. "And of course, the illustrious Flash Sentry. Apprentice knight and the one who not only wields, but forged the new Element of Courage. My, how far you've come. Your parents must be so proud." Flash just growled at him. "Did I strike a nerve?"
"Enough stalling Discord!" Celestia exclaimed again. "What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?"
"Oh, so boring Celestia." Discord moaned with a slight yawn, "Fine, I'll tell you, but I'll only tell you my way." With that, he then hopped to his original window as he said one last thing. "To retrieve your missing Elements, just make sense to this change of events. Twists and turns of my master plan, then find the Elements back where you began." With that, his image became part of the glass again, indicating that he was gone.
"That was creepy," Cadance shuddered. "And...unpleasant."
"Can we go home now?" Fluttershy asked with a raised hoof.
"What do you recon' he means?" Applejack asked as she scratched the side of his head, interrupting Fluttershy. "Twists and turns and then back where we started?"
"My best guess is that he hid the Elements somewhere...and he was giving us a clue to finding them." Flash remarked as he crossed his hooves. "Though it sounds like he's treating this like its some kind of game."
"That's because it is," Luna told him with a growl. "This is a game he's using in hopes of stalling for time. And the only way to beat him is to win this 'game'."
"Then that means we need to solve his riddle." Twilight commented before she started rubbing her chin. "Twists and turns, twists and turns....hmmm...." She then looked out the window and saw something that gave her an idea. It was the palace's garden maze. "Twists and turns, that's it! I bet Discord hid the Elements in the palace labyrinth." She exclaimed as she pointed at the garden below them before turning back to her friends. "Come on girls and Flash, let's go!"
The others nodded and followed her as they rushed out the room. As they did, Celestia said one final thing to elements. "Good luck my little ponies, the fate of Equestria is in your hooves."
"Thanks princess," Twilight called back, "we won't let you down."
Once they were gone, Luna turned to Celestia with a mixed look of worry and despair. "Do you believe they can do it?"
"Yes, I do Luna." Celestia replied with a slight sigh. "After all, they are the elements. That alone shows they can do it."
It wasn't long till the seven of them arrived at the maze. It was here that Twilight and Flash looked at each other in confusion, as the maze looked a lot bigger than it had from Canterlot Tower. Flash in particular remembered going through the maze a few times in the past as a colt, and he knew the walls were never this high up. However, before he could comment on the strange new look for the maze, somepony else spoke up.
"We have to go in there?" Fluttershy asked in fear, her whole body shaking as she did. "Its looks scary..."
"Nope," Rainbow replied as she flexed her wings, pointing at her back as she did. "Dopey Discord forgot about these." She then quickly shot into the air, "I'll just do a quick fly over and we'll have the Elements in no time." But, in that moment a flash of light occurred around the mare. As the flash of light happened, Rainbow quickly fell to the ground with a thud.
"You okay?" Flash asked as they ran over to her. The others quickly let out a gasp as they saw that her back was now bare. Her light blue wings had disappeared, leaving her ability to fly to be completely gone.
"MY WINGS!" Rainbow yelled in horror as she looked at her back. Before they could comfort her though, three more flashes of light quickly shined around the others. Reactions were delayed as Fluttershy's wings, along with Twilight and Rarity's horns vanished. Fluttershy screamed, while the unicorns stared at each other in pure utter horror.
"Your horn!" they said before looking up at their heads, "my horn! AAAAAHHHHHH!"
Flash looked back as a flash of light occurred around him. However, when it faded, his wings were still there. His blade Lightbringer though, was now gone. "What the-huh? Why did-"
However, before he could say another word, laughter filled the air. Another flash of light occurred in front of them, causing them all to backpedal. When it faded, a large hulking figure stood in front of them. The figure was the same creature that had been in the windows, Discord! The draconequus laughed as he looked down at the seven ponies. "You should see the looks on your faces," he roared through his laughter, "priceless!"
"Give us our wings and horns back!" Twilight yelled back, growling as she did.
"You'll get them back in good time," Discord said before vanishing and reappearing between Flash and Applejack. As he did, he began to walk past them with a big grin on his face as he started to talk. "I simply took them to ensure there's no cheating. You see..." the draconequus's starting rant suddenly came to a halt. He turned around and stared at Flash, noticing that his wings were still on his body. "That's odd. One moment please." he said as he snapped him fingers and another flash of light occurred. However, when it faded, Flash still had his wings. Discord then 'took' his eyes out of his head, summoning a handkerchief to rub his eyeballs before putting them back in. "Okay, making sure I'm not seeing things here. Let's try that again." With that statement, Discord let out a small growl as he stared at Flash, looking like he was really concentrating before once again snapping his fingers. A stronger flash of light occurred, and when this one faded, Flash's wings were gone.
"HEY!" Flash yelped, patting his now bare back. All seven were now earth ponies.
"That was weird, I must still be rusty." Discord grumbled as he began to rub his wrists, letting out a small snort as he did. "Guess spending a few centuries locked away in a stone statue makes one a bit...off at the start. Anyways, allow me to explain the rules of our game. First rule, no flying and no magic."
"The second rule," Discord said as he warped to the top of the hedge, a giant grin on his face before summoning a bucket of popcorn in his claw. "is that everypony has to play or the game is over and I win. And the third is...eh, there's no third rule."
"That's it?" Flash asked with a cocked eyebrow, "what part of that is difficult?"
"Oh you'll find out," Discord replied as he gave a gentle chuckle, "good luck, everypony." With that, he was gone, leaving the seven alone.
"Nopony panic," Twilight said as she turned to her friends, determination all over her face. "We have each other. There's nothing we can't overcome if we all stick together."
Flash nodded, a big grin on his face again. "She's right, stick together and we'll win this in no time." The others all nodded at this before moving over to the mazes entrance. As they did, they got in a line with Twilight at the start. "Alright, let's do this!"
"TOGETHER!" They all said in unison as they took their first step.
However, before they could make another move, a new maze wall shot up from ground, separating Twilight from the others. Then a second one appeared, doing the same to Rainbow Dash, then Applejack, then Rarity, then Pinkie Pie and finally Fluttershy disappeared. Flash looked around as he heard his friends screaming, his own face now showing a tinge of fear.
"That's not good. What the heck just happened?" Flash said to himself as he found himself alone. He rubbed his chin as he saw that the maze only showed one direction for him to go now.
"Stay calm girls," he heard Twilight yell over the others, "everypony head to the middle as fast as you can and we'll regroup there."
"Good plan Twilight!" Flash replied, also increasing his voice's volume. "You heard her girls! Let's move out and meet up there."
"Moving out," Rainbow's voice called, saluting as she said that.
"See you in the center everypony," Rarity said next, concern showing in her voice. "Do be careful though."
"Yeeha!" Applejack exclaimed, quickly running off as she did.
"See you guys there," Pinkie finished. "I know we'll win!"
With that, Flash shot off into the maze. As he did, his ears quickly picked up a scream from Fluttershy, but he knew he couldn't help her. Their only hope was to find the Elements and to find each other. Knowing this, the pegasus turned earth pony made a mad dash through the maze, ready for any new danger.
Author's Note
And now we have Discord's introduction.
We all know what's about to happen next.
Flash Sentry, Chaos and Disharmony
Flash was rushing through the Canterlot Maze, searching for both his friends and the stolen Elements of Harmony. When Flash had first entered, he'd been sure that he could easily navigate his way to the center since Grand Hoof had used this place hundreds of times for training. He had practically memorised the whole layout, every twist and turn and where it led. However, he soon found that things were now what they seemed.
"Okay," Flash said to himself as he looked up, gauging where the sun was. As he did, he remembered what time it was, causing him to know that the sun was currently where the direction north was. With this, he began to take another turn down the maze. "Let's see...left, right and then right again. That should be-" But when he made that final right turn, he had to come to a halt as his eyes now gazed at a hedge wall in front of him. "What?!" He yelped in confusion, "there shouldn't be a wall here. It should have been a second right...and then three more lefts. What did..." Thinking it over, he came to an obvious conclusion, "Discord. He must have used his magic to change the whole maze around. Should've guessed that at the start Flash."
With this new knowledge, Flash found himself now walking back to where he was before, trying to make sense of the new maze. As he did, he soon realised that the left turn he had took before was now replaced with a new wall. "Hmm? Did he switch the way when I passed through here?" Blinking, Flash turned around, only to see the hallway he was once going down suddenly gone. All that was left was one path. Seeing no other option, Flash went down the path, only to end up in a wide-open area with four new branching paths.
"Oh perfect," he whined sarcastically, "now which way do I go?!"
"I would have thought the answer would be obvious."
Flash froze, recognising the voice before slowly turning his head to see the a certain jakhowl leaning against the wall. "Springer!" He cheered as he ran towards his partner, quickly hugging him. That is, till he stopped the hug and leaned back, a questioning look on his face. "Not that I'm not happy to see you bud, but what are you doing here? I thought I asked you to stay in Ponyville."
Springer just frowned. "So I'm supposed to just do whatever you tell me? I'm not just some lapdog who will do whatever you want me to do?"
"I know that buddy." Flash replied, tilting his head in slight surprise due to Springer's sudden negativity. "But somepony needed to protect Ponyville and you're the jakhowl for the job!"
"I thought that was your job," Springer growled back, glaring at Flash with a venomous stare. "But you're obviously too ill equipped to do it, so you tricked me into doing all the hard work."
"That's not true," Flash replied, shaking his head. "We're partners. We work together to protect our home."
"Yeah right, you just want me around because I can make your life easier. Isn't that the way you do things? Mooching off others?"
"No," Flash shook his head again, slightly backpedalling at the last remark. "I never-"
"It's true."
Flash spun around to see a brown earth pony enter the clearing, who Flash recognised as a restaurant owner he used to steal from when he was living on the street. "Royal Knight," the earth pony spat, glaring at the orange pegasus as he did. "Bah. You're nothing but a thief."
"No," Flash kept shaking his head, his voice slightly lowering. "I didn't want to steal. I didn't have a choice."
"Sure you didn't," another new voice spoke up, making Flash to start looking around to find it's owner. As he did, pony after pony that he recognized from his street days began to appear around him, all of their faces showing nothing but anger and rage. It wasn't long till the whole area was filled with them, causing Flash to backpedal into the nearby wall.
"This isn't real," he panted, his voice trembling as a sea of angry yet familiar faces stared down at him. "This can't be real."
"Oh, it's real." said another voice. Flash let out a small gasp as he saw it's owner appear out of the crowd, a scowl on the owner's face.
"Shining?" Flash gasped, his eyes twitching at the even more familiar face in front of him. "What is-"
"What's the matter?" Shining interrupted as his face became darker, his hooves ascending and began pointing to the crowd. "Is the truth to painful for you?"
"What are you-"
"You can try and forget your past Flash, but you'll never escape it." Shining chuckled, shaking his head as he did. "You've tried being a hero, hoping ponies will forget about all the bad things you've done in the past. But let's be honest, Lightning was right. They'll never see you as anything other than a pathetic street rat."
The ponies began yelling insults at him, bombarding him with names and cruelties.
"Thief!"
"No purpose for living!"
"Go find a dumpster to jump in, that's where trash like you belongs!"
"You stupid piece of gutter trash!"
"Stop it," Flash whispered as he covered his eyes and put his hooves over his ears, shaking his head as he did. "I'm not-"
"You know it's true," Springer spat as he jumped on top of Shining's back. "That's what you are Flash."
"No. That's not what-"
"To think he actually thought we cared about him." said a new voice, one that Flash instantly recognised. His eyes quickly opened as he now saw Twilight Velvet and Night Light amongst the crowd.
"We only took him in because Twilight begged us," Night spat as he lifted his chin, staring down at the orange pegasus with a stare of contempt. "We were planning to ship him off somewhere the second we got the chance. Let him be somepony else's problem."
"You...you were?" Flash asked, his eyes shrinking as he heard this.
"The only reason we decided not to was because we heard he'd been made an apprentice knight," Velvet shrugged with a smirk. "Thought he'd come in handy someday."
"But boy were we wrong," Night shrugged, looking at his wife with an agreeing nod. "He'll never become a real Royal Knight."
"No," Flash gasped as he closed his eyes, putting his hooves over his ears again. "That's not true. That's-"
"What was I thinking when I asked him to be my apprentice?" Flash's eyes shot open at that voice. No, not him. Looking back up, he saw Grand Hoof enter the fray, a disappointed look on his face. "Biggest mistake I ever made."
"NO! This isn't real...this can't be real..." Flash yelled as his legs gave out and he fell down, covering his face with his hooves but the voices kept coming. But then they stopped and a new voice replaced them.
"So sad, isn't it?" A voice whispered in his ear. Flash removed his hooves and looked up at the ponies, seeing them still yelling at him. As he did, he saw the voice's owner as he floated over the crowd with a big grin on his face. "To think the ponies you would risk your life for, they don't even care about you."
"You did this," Flash growled, trying to get up as his ears keep hearing the constant yells. "They're not real. You created them."
"Oh no Flash," Discord replied, shaking his head with a shrug. "I didn't create them, you did. These ponies were created from your own self doubt, from the fears you hide inside your own heart."
"No," Flash whispered again, starting to shrink back into the ground. "No it can't be. That can't be true. I'm not-"
"You say your courage comes from the ponies around you," Discord replied, snapping his fingers as more and more ponies appeared around Flash, all of them yelling at him. "That wanting of their safety allows you to overcome any fear. That thought about them always being there for you is the only thing that gives you courage." Discord then leaned down, his eyes at Flash's level as a huge wicked grin covered his face. "Well what about now? Why should you risk your life for ponies who couldn't care less about you? Accept it, you're not brave because you have nothing to be brave for."
"Nothing..." Flash said as his eyes began into spiral different colours, "to be brave for." Though Flash couldn't see it, his coat was begin to lose its colour and began to turn into a gloomy gray. He closed his eyes as the words continued to take effect. "Nothing...nothing at all..."
Up in the sky, Discord was floating above the apprentice knight, rubbing his hands together in glee. "That's five down, let's see who's next." The monster snapped his fingers, summoning a small list in front of him along with a pair of glasses over his eyes. "Let's see...next is to pick up some milk-wait." Discord snapped his fingers again, the list changing as he did. "Ah, here we go! Looks like its time to give a certain pegasus her wings back so I can win the game!" Discord snapped them again, causing the list and glasses to disappear.
"But first," Discord summoned a glass of chocolate milk, only to 'sip' up the glass. "Mmm...just like good old chaos momma used to make. Now, time to win the-hmm?" A certain sight caught the corner of his eye, causing him to turn around.
Turning back around and looking down at Flash, Discord saw that Flash was...glowing.
"What's this?" Discord asked as he leaned down, glaring at the still cowering pegasus. "Is my chaos magic still off?" Discord snapped his fingers again, trying to get rid of the 'glow' inside the pegasus. However, after three snaps, the glow around Flash was still there. "What in the-what is this?! Why isn't my chaos working?!"
Flash opened his eyes, but all he could see was darkness.
He looked around, but there was nothing but pure black nothingness in any direction he looked at. "What's happening?" He asked, "Where am I? Why am I here? Where is this?"
He just sat there, blinking several times as he tried to get his bearings. It felt like a days passed as he sat there, wondering why he was in some infinite dark space. That is, till his eyes caught sight of something other then the darkness. "What is...is that light?" Flash squinted his eyes as he saw a small glimmer of light in the distance. However, before he could do anything, he noticed that the ball was getting bigger, quickly realising that the light was getting closer to him.
Eventually, it was within hooves reach of the young pegasus, and he noticed that it was a ball of light. Flash tilted his head, confused at the sight in front of him. "What is going on? What is this?" Flash said to himself as he lifted his hoof, wondering if it was safe to touch it. After a second of hesitation, he felt that something about the light seemed familiar to the young stallion. With this, Flash tapped the ball of light, ready to see what happened.
But no sooner had his hoof grazed it, the ball of light exploded! The light surrounded Flash, who in turn began to panic as he looked around him, seeing several orbs appearing out of nowhere and surrounding him. "What the heck?!"
However, as his question began to linger, Flash's eyes stared at one of the new orbs of light. The pegasus then walked up to the orb, leaning over as he saw something new inside one of the orbs. It was an image of him, though it was a younger version of Flash. "Is that me? And I'm a...colt? Huh?!"
As if by instinct, Flash reached out and touched the orb, which also exploded, causing Flash to freeze as a scene played out before his eyes.
"I have to read this?" A young Flash asked as he looked up from an open book that was sitting in front of him. He, along with Twilight, Celestia and Grand Hoof were in the castle's library. It had been a week since Flash had been made into Grand Hoof's apprentice and the earth pony had been putting Flash through the ringer with basic training, trying to get a handle on all of Flash's abilities. Now that he did, the real training was about to begin. Though that was true and he was ready to begin the path of knighthood, he wasn't expecting this to be the first step.
"Not all at once," Grand replied as he tapped the book with a small grin. "Just a few chapters every now and again."
"But I thought I was gonna learn how to fight and use weapons?" Flash asked back, a frown popping onto his face as he looked at his new mentor. "Not read a book that might actually be tree times my size."
"A Royal Knight's duties involve more than just fighting," Celestia explained as she walked around and stood behind Grand, "A Royal Knight's duties also include fixing disputes between other ponies, doing volunteer work, and every now and again, acting on the behalf of the princess when they cannot be there."
Flash just gulped after hearing all of this. "Maybe I'm not cut out for all of this." he said, trying to slightly backpedal away.
"Nonsense, you'll get the hang of it." Grand shook his head before patting Flash's shoulder. "Now first things first lad, I'd like you to read the first three chapters. The chapters will go over the basics of certain weapons and their fighting styles over them."
However, Flash went pure pale as he heard this. Seeing this, Twilight quickly walked in front of Grand, cocking an eyebrow as she asked, "Um...are you alright Flash? Its just some reading, its not that bad."
"I uh...yeah." Flash tried to force a smile, chuckling nervously as he did. "I um...I...I don't think I'm cut out for this."
"Why not? You were really excited about it last night." Twilight replied as she tilted her head in confusion. "You talked about it all through last night's dinner with Mom and Dad."
"Well uh..."
Before Flash could respond, Twilight clapped her hooves. "Wait a minute! This isn't about what that Lightning guy told you the other day, is it?"
"Lightning?!" Grand blurted. "What is-"
"No!" Flash interrupted, crossing his hooves as he did. "Its not that...its just..."
"Its something about the book, isn't it Flash?" Celestia asked, leaning down to the colt. "Why are you afraid of the book?"
"I...I..." Flash quickly looked down when Celestia leaned down and stared at him. The colt just looked away, trying to hide his fear. However, he knew he wasn't convincing anypony, and let out a long sigh. "Okay! Okay...fine."
"What's wrong? Just tell us Flash, we won't be mad or angry."
"I...can't read." Flash barely whispered. "Like...at all. I don't know how to read."
The three's eyes all went wide after hearing this. Celestia and Grand glanced at each other while Twilight then blurted out, "What do you mean you can't read? How do you not know how to read?"
"I never needed to know." Flash shrugged, slightly glaring at Twilight as he did. "I had...other problems at the time. Like what my next meal was gonna be."
"Hold on there lad." Grand raised his hoof, skepticism on his face. "So, you don't know any words?"
"I know a few from hearing ponies read them out loud...but not a lot." Flash admitted with another shrug. "That was all I needed back then, simple as that."
"Oh dear," Celestia put her hoof to her face, still surprised at the reveal. "Maybe we should have thought of that. Don't worry, we'll find you somepony to teach you."
Hearing this, Flash showed a small pout on his face before trying to say, "Now wait a minute, I don't-
"I'll do it!"
They all looked at Twilight, who was smiling up at them as she had just spoken up.
"I'll teach him how to read," Twilight admitted with a big grin on her face. "I've read enough books to know how to teach him."
Celestia just smiled at this, slightly giggling as she did. "Very well Twilight Sparkle, you may try and teach him, if Flash is willing."
Flash immediately shook his head. "What?! No way, that's embarrassing! I don't want somepony my age teaching me how to read!" Twilight just rolled her eyes and lit her horn, grabbing Flash's tail with her magic as she started to pull him out of the library. "HEY!" Flash yelled as he was dragged away, trying to scrape at the ground to save himself. "Lemme go!"
"I can't imagine what's so embarrassing about a vocabulary lesson," Twilight grumbled as she dragged him towards the door.
"Somepony help me!" Flash yelled towards the adults, who all just laughed at his plight.
"Princess," Twilight called back, "I'm gonna need some time off to help him learn."
"That's fine Twilight," Celestia said through her laughter, "take all the time you need. Teaching in itself can be an excellent learning opportunity."
"I won't need that long," Twilight replied before rubbing her chin in thought. "Let's see...give me two weeks. That should definitely do it. I'll have everything he needs nailed into his head by then."
"Heh heh heh...now hold on there lass." Grand flashed his hoof, causing her to stop. "I still need him to come to the castle for physical training. I can't have him stop now, he needs to train everyday that I can get him in."
"Oh...that makes sense." Twilight remarked, feeling the tug of Flash's tail with her magic. "Um...if that's the case-"
"We'll continue your studies as well my student." Celestia interrupted, walking up to the two. "In fact, why don't we use the two weeks for me to instruct you over certain teaching techniques to help you complete the process while Flash is doing his physical training?"
Twilight nodded at this. "Okay, that sounds good. Though I better take the rest of the day off so I can see where I need to start with him. Is that okay?" Celestia then nodded at this. "Alright, now...where do I begin with-ah!" A sudden light bulb went off in Twilight's head. "Say princess, is there any starter books I could use here in the castle library?"
"Hmm...I suspect so. Give me a moment." Celestia then turned and walked down a nearby aisle.
"Hey! Don't I get a say in this?!" Flash yelped, still trying to escape the magic tug in his tail.
"NO!" Twilight barked back, causing Flash to let out a tiny whimper. "You're learning how to read and you're going to learn right now!"
Over the next two weeks, Twilight made sure Flash was almost always in front of something to read. The only exceptions were training, and a time where he was summoned to Princess Celestia over a certain problem. Despite this, Flash had initially believed that she would have him try and read the large tomes he'd seen her love to read. Expecting a two week expedition of reading overly complicated words, he tried every way to avoid the exercise.
That is, till they got home on that first day. There, he found that she was going to use something else entirely. Comics.
Borrowing her brother's collection, she and Flash went through them, using the pictures to help Flash understand. She had seen that he was fascinated with them when she had woken up early one morning a week before, only to find Flash looking through them as Shining Armor had left a day before and wouldn't be back for some time. With this, they went through the comics rather quickly, as it took a good two days for Flash to memorise a good majority of words when they were done with Shining's collection.
The next day, they moved onto actual books, though they were for much younger ponies, but Flash didn't mind. With this, two weeks passed rather quickly, as Flash found himself leaving the kindergarten books at the end of week one. By the time the two weeks were up, Twilight wasn't fully able to yield the results she had hoped for, (She wanted him to be able to read one of the tomes she usually reads) but she deemed it to be enough for his training and Grand approved.
As the images stopped, Flash shook his head. "What was that?" Flash asked himself, rubbing his temples as he did. "Why am I remembering that of all things?"
Flash looked back at the orb, seeing that it was now replaying the events he had just watched. The very sight made him remember how grateful he had been to Twilight, who was even willing to put her own life on hold to help him. With that in mind, Flash changed his viewpoint to the other orbs, seeing that they were showing images of his past. "What is this? Why are my memories here and why do they look like this?"
Curiosity getting the better of him, Flash reached out and touched another orb. Another explosion followed, playing a memory as it did.
"Ow!" A young Flash cried as he laid on the couch of the Sparkle homestead. His left wing was wrapped in a cast, which was strapped around his body to stop it from moving. An accident during training had caused Flash's predicament, leading to him being bedridden for the next three weeks until his wing healed.
"I know it hurts," Twilight Velvet said as she stepped over to him, levitating a jar of medical gel as she approached him. "But you've got to endure it for now."
"I'll try," Flash whined, wanting to scratch an itch inside the cast, knowing that he couldn't reach it. That is, till he saw the kind smile on Twilight Velvet's face. Seeing this, he looked away with a slight grimace. "I'm sorry I'm being such a nuisance. I know you had to cancel that book signing because of me."
"Oh, don't be silly," Velvet told him as she patted his head. "Making sure you get better is far more important then some silly book signing. Besides, I can always reschedule." She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead before turning away and heading into the kitchen. "Now you rest up, I'll make you something nice to eat."
"Thanks...mom."
Velvet stopped for a slight second after hearing this, before turning and shining an even bigger smile. "Of course son. I'm always here to help."
Once again, the memory faded and Flash was back in the cocoon of light. Hesitation was non-existent for the young stallion, as he quickly reached out and touched another orb.
"Good grief..." Flash moaned, his whole body feeling like it was on fire as he walked down a certain Canterlot street. "Grand Hoof is a slave driver today. My aches have aches..." he complained as he wobbled back and forth after saying the statement. He had spent an extra-long day with his mentor, who had really pushed him to his physical limits. So much so, that Twilight had already gone home over an hour ago, which showed how long it took since they usually went home together. Because of this, Flash decided to take a slightly different route home, and went through the local park.
A few minutes later, he was in the middle of the park, where he saw a unicorn with a stack of papers. Before he pass him, the unicorn noticed the young colt and spoke up. "Hey kid!"
"Huh?" Flash replied, not fully paying attention due to how tired he was.
"I've never seen you around here before. Here, take this." the unicorn walked up to him, levitating a sheet as he did. He then took the floating paper and showed it to the orange colt. "Why don't you and your dad come to our annual father and son picnic here at the park. Its this weekend and there will be plenty of games and good food here. In fact, its kind of a tradition here at this park."
"Really?" Flash replied, looking at the sheet with slightly dazed eyes.
"You bet. Here, take a copy."
With that in mind, Flash took the paper and looked it over. "A father and son picnic huh?" Flash then stuffed it in his saddlebag. "A father..."
A few days later...
"So...where are we going again?" Flash asked as he walked behind Night Light. Night had asked Flash to help him with a few errands, and Grand had given him a day off due to...family business. So, the duo were now walking down a street of Canterlot, a look of confusion placing itself on Flash's face.
"You'll see when we get there." Night replied, chuckling at Flash's curiosity.
Flash just shrugged at this, continuing to walk beside Night Light in slight confusion. That is, till he saw a familiar sight. It was the local park, though it was now filled with both young and old stallions of every race. Flash instantly realized what this was, the father and son picnic.
"How-" Flash started, only to see a certain scrunched ball of paper levitating in from of Night.
"Velvet accidently knocked over your bag and this rolled out," he explained with a slight smirk.
"Oh..." Flash almost gasped, his whole body in shock as he did.
Night just smiled at this, quickly picking the colt up with his magic and plopping him onto his back. "Come on, let's go have some fun."
"Mom...Dad...Twilight..." Flash muttered, a small tear going down his cheek. The young stallion then chuckled to himself as he looked at the sea of orbs in front of him. "That's right. How did I forget all that?"
Another orb floated by him and he touched it.
Flash was in the backyard, practising with a wooden sword. He swung the pretend weapon around, trying to understand what Grand wanted him to learn. That is, till he lost his footing and went crashing into the ground. "That sucked," he huffed as he picked himself up, dusting himself off as he did. "I'm never gonna get this."
"You're trying too hard," Flash turned around and saw Shining standing by the backdoor. "You've gotta let the movements come naturally."
"Easy for you to say," Flash grumbled, glaring at the older stallion as he did. "You can just hold the sword in your magic. I can't."
Shining just raised an eyebrow and moved over to him, picking the wooden sword up in his hooves and began swinging it around perfectly. Flash went wide-eyed at the skill, he had never seen a unicorn move like that.
Once Shining was done, he handed the sword back to him. "We soldiers learn how to fight without magic you know. Never know when you might have to do so."
"Whoa...no way." Flash gasped, slight backpedalling at the sight. He then took the wooden sword back into his hoof before shining a sheepish smile at Shining. "Um...sorry I said the whole unicorn comment. You uh...don't suppose you'd be willing to show me a few pointers?"
Shining just smirked before nodding. "Sure. And don't worry about the comment."
The two trained until sunset, working on Flash's footing, his grip and even how much slack to put into his hoof. The next morning Flash went to Grand Hood and showed his new skills, which the earth pony said were close to perfection.
"That's right..." Flash chuckled to himself, remembering that moment. "Shining taught me everything I know about swordsmanship. I probably wouldn't be so good with Lightbringer without him."
More and more orbs flew around him, all showing images of the friends he cared for and who in turn, cared for him.
"Well hello there Flash." said a certain pink alicorn as she entered Twilight Velvet and Night Light's home. Flash looked up, staring with a confused look on his face. He was sitting in the living room, trying to read one of Shining Armor's comics. However, before he could say anything, a certain filly Twilight Sparkle appeared in the room.
"Cadance! Cadance is here!" she cheered as she ran up and hugged Cadance's leg. The alicorn giggled at this, patting her head.
"And hello to you too Twilight. How have you been?"
"Great!" Twilight exclaimed, releasing the leg and starting hopping up and down. "Are you here to foalsit me? Are we gonna have cookies and smores again?"
"Oh yes." Cadance replied, nodding.
"Foalsit?" Flash asked, walking up to the two.
"Oh yes. Didn't your parents tell you what I do with Twilight?" Cadance asked, only for Flash to shake his head 'no'. Seeing this, she walked up to the young colt, quickly grabbing and hugging him. "I'm here to foalsit you two tonight! And since this is our first time together as your foalsitter, I hope you're ready for some fun!"
"So...what is this?" Flash asked as he pointed to a crib in one of the rooms in Canterlot Castle. "A dragon?"
"That's right!" Twilight replied, pointing at the small sleeping purple dragon. "This is Spike, I hatched him on the day I became Princess Celestia's student!"
"You hatched him?" Flash tilted his head at this statement. He then leaned over the crib, blinking at the sight. "Huh...he's a tiny little guy, isn't he?"
"Yup." Twilight nodded before walking up to Flash. "And one day, he'll be my assistant."
"Huh. Guess I'll have to make him my friend too, won't I?" Flash asked with a smirk.
"Wonderbolts?"
"Yeah, you have heard of them, right?" asked a certain blue pegasus as he slightly glared at a young Flash. "I mean, you're a pegasus. Of course you have."
"Er...no. I haven't." Flash shook his head.
"WHAT?!" the blue pegasus's jaw dropped in pure shock at this. He then walked up to Flash, tapping his chest with some force. "You're joking, right? Tell me your joking."
"No." Flash replied, not even blinking as he did. "Never heard of them."
"Okay...this is weird." the pegasus scratched the side of head, now realising that Flash was not lying. "If that's the case, I guess I'm gonna have to introduce you to them." He then extended his hoof, showing he wanted to shake Flash's. "I'm Soarin, the newest member of the Wonderbolts."
"Well howdy do Miss Twilight!" the earth pony cheered as she shook Twilight's hoof, "A pleasure making your acquaintance. I'm Applejack. We here at Sweet Apple Acres sure do like making new friends!"
"Let me guess." Twilight groaned, wiping the mud off of her muzzle, "You're Rainbow Dash."
The blue pegasus smirked as she bragged, "The one and only. Why? You heard of me?"
"Well, come with me dear." she said as she began pushing Twilight towards the door, "Rarity will have you looking better then ever."
"Hello." Twilight said before Flash could reply, "I'm Twilight Sparkle. The princess assigned me to watch over the music preparations."
The Pegasus whispered something under her breath which only Flash could hear.
"Fluttershy?" Flash asked, not sure he got her name right, "Your name is Fluttershy, right?" she then nodded, causing Flash to smile.
Suddenly, the pink earth pony they had met earlier appeared in front of them, "Surprise!" she said again, "Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie and I threw this party just for you!"
"Okay little guy, go ahead rest on this bed until Fluttershy gets back." Flash said as he took a certain jakhowl off of his back, laying him down on the mattress. "Just get some rest. And..." Flash rubbed his chin, watching the creature try to get comfortable. "You need a name, don't you?"
The jakhowl just let out a small confused bark.
"Well...how about Springer?" The name made the jakhowl instantly let out a happy bark. "I'm guessing that's a yes. Nice to meet you Springer."
Flash smiled as the last memory flowed through his head. He could feel several tears stream down his face, his memories making him remember how he met all his closest friends. The good times, the bad times, and all the adventures. Then, as one last tear went down his cheek, a certain thought went through his head.
"What...what am I doing?!" He asked himself. "Why am I doubting my friends like this?! After everything we've been through, I know they care about me!" As he yelled this, the light in the orbs disappeared. Instead, his body began to glow with the same light. With this, Flash continued his thoughts. "And I...I...I won't let Discord try and make me forget that! You hear me Discord?! You can't trick me, you monster!"
Flash's body then started to glow all over, the light fully encasing the darkness around him. Flash took one last breath and yelled, "NOW...GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
Meanwhile...
It had been a long time since Discord had been this frustrated. Sure, there had been the whole 'trapped in a statue for centuries' bit, but it was nothing like this. Even at his lowest points, chaos was always on his side. That is, till today.
"Oh come on! Why isn't this working?!" Discord complained as he snapped his fingers again, only to see the 'glow' inside Flash still not go away. "Grrr...that's it! Time to pull out the old chaos magic manual!" Discord snapped again, causing a wrinkly old book to appear...and immediately turn into a pile of dust. "Oh...right. Centuries old manual. Alright, time for plan B."
Discord snapped once again, this time creating a second 'Discord'. This one was dressed in medical garb, complete with a small chair for the first Discord to sit in. He quickly hopped into the seat and spoke up, "Hey doc, I need you to examine me and my chaos magic."
"Sure thing." replied the 'doctor Discord', quickly summoning a giant scanning machine. Two seconds later, the machine had scanned Discord and spit out a long line of paper.
"What's the problem doc?"
"Well..." the 'doctor' grabbed the paper and began to read aloud. "Let's see here, looks like your three livers and eight hearts are completely normal. That's good. You've also constructed enough pylons, lost five pounds thanks to your 'all mayo and random jelly flavors' diet, and your left middle toe is now slightly bigger than your right one...and that bothers me." The 'doctor' then did a slight shrug. "Otherwise, you're fine. No problems with your chaos magic or anything."
"Then why can't I get rid of that?!" Discord exclaimed, pointing at the still cowering yet glowing Flash Sentry. "Why is my chaos magic not working on him?!"
"I don't know. I'm you, remember?" the 'doctor' remarked back, shrugging again.
"Oh yeah." Discord snapped his fingers again, causing the 'doctor' to go away. "This must be getting to me. I'm actually using..." Discord's body shivered at the next word. "Logic."
Discord then made the chair he was sitting on go away. "Alrighty, time to try something else. Maybe if I-" As he said this to himself, Discord turned back to Flash, only to see that his body was now fully glowing all over. "Hmm? What's this?"
His question was soon answered as the a burst of light suddenly exploded out of Flash, causing Discord to quickly make a shield to protect himself. A few seconds later, Discord lowered the shield, only to see a now standing Flash Sentry, his original orange coat starting to reappear on his body.
"What the-WHAT IN THE NAME OF CHAOS IS HAPPENING HERE?!?!" Discord yelped, confused at the sight. Flash on the other hoof, turned his head and glared at the master of chaos.
"YOU!" He called out, pointing at the monster while steam blew out of his nostrils. "What did you do to me?! What was that?!"
Discord didn't reply. Instead, he simply turned away. "I don't know what you just did, but it won't help you. The rest of your little friends will soon fall under my spell, and when they do, you'll all be finished." With that, he snapped his fingers, causing him to disappear in a flash of light.
"HEY! Come back here!" Flash called out, trying to charge at him, only to be one second too late. Seeing this, Flash found himself alone again. Blinking for a second, he tried to get his thoughts together. "Okay...what just happened? Why was I able to do that?" he asked himself, rubbing his chin as he did. That is, till a certain thought entered his head. "The girls! He said he was going to go after them next!"
Unsure over what had just happened, Flash decided that he would need to push his questions aside for now and find his friends before it was to late. With that thought in mind, Flash dashed down another corridor of the maze, hoping he could find his friends soon.
Author's Note
Bet you guys weren't expecting that huh?
Flash Sentry, Chaos and Disharmony
"DISCORD!" Flash yelled as he went down another pathway. When he had decided to find the girls, the orange pegasus had quickly started exploring the maze at the fastest speed he had ever ran. That is, till he saw Discord floating over a certain maze wall. Seeing this, Flash quickly tried to give chase after the draconequus. Despite this, Flash quickly found that he still didn't have his wings, restricting him to walls that kept blocking his way.
"Oh great," Flash grumbled as he found another dead end, his eyes now just losing Discord. He quickly took a sharp u-turn, trying to find another path. That is, till he found himself at another dead end. For the fifth time. "AUGH! You have got to be kidding me?! This is crazy!" he yelled at himself, slamming his hooves into the ground.
Then his patience finally ran out. Running into a sixth dead end, Flash finally came to a stop and glared at the maze wall. "Oh, that's it! Screw this, I'm getting out of here!" Flash screamed, rushing the wall at full charge. That is, till his first hoof barely touched the wall in his bum rush, only to feel a certain feeling. Electricity. His whole body became a lightning rod as the maze wall zapped him, knocking him flying into the opposite wall. "UGH!" Flash yelped, his body slumping down into the dirt. "What the heck?!"
Flash then looked up from his slumped over position, only to see a certain sight that made him growl in response. The maze wall he had tried to rush at now showed a small metal sign. On the sign was the following:
Electrified for your enjoyment!
Below it was a cartoon drawing of Discord, which was sticking his tongue out at him.
"Darn it..." Flash grumbled, seeing his plan destroyed in an instance. "Gotta give that guy credit. He thought ahead that time."
With that new fact in his head, Flash went down another path in pure anger. After what felt like an hours worth of searching, Flash finally found something that caught his attention. A distant voice, close enough to be noticeable, but not enough for him to hear what it was saying. Deciding to follow it, Flash found himself at yet another dead end, the voice on the other side. However, before Flash could turn around, the wall suddenly un-grew. It was as if somepony had hit rewind on the hedge, causing it to reverse its life cycle and disappear into the ground it had once grew from.
"What in the-" Flash remarked as he watched the hedge dig back into the ground before looking up, his eyes immediately widening as he saw the new sight in front of him. "Fluttershy! You're safe!"
He quickly trotted up to her, only to come to a sudden stop as he looked her over. He quickly noticed that she didn't exactly look normal. In fact, she looked a bit grayer than her usual buttercream coated self and she hadn't noticed him despite saying her name out loud. As he saw this, he slowed his pace as he walked up to her. "Hey Fluttershy, are you okay?"
Fluttershy slowly turned towards him, giving him the darkest glare he'd ever seen from her. "Okay?!" she said in a low yet harsh tone, "Why would I be okay?! I'm stuck in this stupid maze and the first pony I see is you, what have I got to be okay about?"
"Uh..." Flash was taken aback by Fluttershy's outburst. However, before he could say anything, another set of maze walls recalled themselves, showing a new bunch of ponies. Behind it stood Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity.
"Flash! Fluttershy!" Twilight cheered as she ran towards them. "I'm so glad we found you both. This awful labyrinth is getting to everypony."
Flash looked over at the others and just like with Fluttershy, something about them was off. Pinkie was glaring at them after spitting a raspberry, Applejack was growling and Rarity...was carrying a giant rock for some reason. The sight alone made Flash cock one of his eyebrows in slight confusion.
"Aw, boo hoo hoo!" Fluttershy replied to Twilight, glaring at the once unicorn as she did. "Why don't you wave your little horn and make everything alright?!" Flash and Twilight shared a glance, mentally asking the other if they knew what the heck was going on. "Oh that's right, you can't, you don't have one." With that, Fluttershy strutted passed them and flicked Twilight in the face with her tail.
"What is wrong with them?" Twilight asked before glaring over at Flash. "What about you? Are you gonna act strange?"
"No stranger than usual," Flash shrugged, making Twilight sigh in relief.
"That's good," Twilight shook her head, slightly groaning as she did. "I don't know what I'd do if you started acting oddly. This is already bad enough with these three." Twilight pointed to Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity. "I ran into them earlier and they're all acting...weird."
"What happened? Why are they acting like that?" Flash asked before pointing to Rarity. "And uh...what's with the rock?"
"Rarity thinks it's a diamond...and she keeps calling it Tom." Twilight replied, scratching the side of her head as she did. "I just don't understand what is going on here."
With this, Flash and Twilight were slowly able to make the others continue into the maze. They found that their friends' new personalities to be quite aggravating. Fluttershy would repeatedly insult them, Pinkie was almost always uncooperative, and Applejack constantly said things that just confused the duo. Also, Rarity had decided that she would not move an inch in the maze without her boulder and that Flash would start carrying the boulder, only for the former pegasus to end up in the back of the group due to worthless hunk of rock now sitting on his back.
As they took another turn in the labyrinth, Twilight walked to the back and asked, "You okay?"
"Oh, I'm fine." Flash groaned in a strained voice, "don't worry about me."
"Just hang in there a little longer," Twilight assured him, "once we find Rainbow Dash, nothing'll stop us. As a team, we're unstoppable."
"You're right...I just hope we find her soon."
"Well looky there, there's Rainbow Dash." they heard Applejack say, causing them to look at her in surprise. "And she's flying away. She's abandoning us."
"Now I know that's a lie," Twilight remarked, only to follow Applejack's line of sight. There, they saw a familiar rainbow maned pegasus flying over the maze, her wings now on her back.
"What the heck?!" Flash yelped as he dropped the boulder off his back.
As they saw the blue pegasus fly off, not even looking back at them, they quickly noticed that dark clouds were suddenly filling the skies. Seconds later, bursts of lightning covered the sky, causing Flash and Twilight to look at each other, grimacing at they did. Then the ground began to shake and the maze walls quickly vanished, collapsing into the ground and making a dust cloud. A few seconds later, the cloud was cleared, and the six ponies found themselves in a crater where the maze had once stood.
"That's not good." Flash gulped, looking the crater over. "Why do I get the feeling that this got a whole lot worse?"
"Well well well..." mocked a familiar voice. A second later, a flash of light appeared in front of them, showing the voice's owner: Discord. He let out a mighty laugh before saying, "Somepony broke the no wings, no magic rule." He glared at them all, snapping his fingers as he did. A quick flash of light surrounded the six, their missing body parts now returning to them, along with Lightbringer.
Discord then shined a cocky grin. "Game's over my little ponies. You didn't find your precious Elements." An umbrella appeared in his hands, which he opened and threw over his shoulder. "Looks like we might be due for a big old storm of chaos." Lightning flashed behind him as he laughed at this statement.
Flash and Twilight both went wide eyed from hearing this. They had failed.
Seeing this, Discord fell to the ground and started laughing. As he did this, Pinkie got right up into his face and glared at him. "And what are you laughing at!?"
"Oh you ponies," Discord replied as he wiped away a tear, "you're just about the most fun I've had in eons."
"WELL QUIT IT!" Pinkie screamed. "You better think before you laugh at the pink...ie pie."
"Oh yeah?" Fluttershy asked with a smirk, "well ha ha."
"Quit it," Pinkie growled as he turned and got in front of Fluttershy's face.
"No," Fluttershy replied, almost pushing Pinkie back. "Ha. Ha."
"QUIT IT!" Pinkie screamed.
"No," Fluttershy repeated before continuing to fake laugh at her.
It was here that Flash got in between them, gently pushing them both back with his wings. "Enough you two. I don't know why you two are acting like this, but you need to stop."
"They need to stop?! What about her?!" Rarity suddenly exclaimed, jabbing her hoof as Applejack as she interrupted Flash. "This swine said we're going to split Tom seven ways! I can't believe her!"
"No I didn't!" Applejack said, shifting her eyes back and forth as she did. Rarity just growled at this, and then began tyring to karate chop Applejack. Seeing this, Flash quickly got between them, trying to stop this new problem.
"This is insane," Flash said to himself as he blocked them with his wings, "what is going on with them? And why did Rainbow abandon us?! That makes the least sense of all."
Twilight then went up to them, her horn glowing as she used her magic to push the others away from each other."Come on everypony, we need to stick together. There's no need to fight each other like this."
"Oh, this is entertaining," she and Flash turned to Discord, who was sitting on a movie seat chair, eating popcorn. "Please don't stop."
"Stop it Discord!" Twilight spat as she moved over to him, glaring as she did. "You're not playing fair!"
Discord raised an eyebrow. "I'm not playing fair? Perhaps we haven't met. I'm Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony. Hello..."
"He's got you there Twi," Flash admitted.
Twilight just glared at him before returning her focus on the draconequus. "How are we supposed to find the Elements of Harmony, when you took away the labyrinth before we could get to the end?"
Discord then burst out laughing as he slumped in his seat. "How funny. You thought the Elements were in the labyrinth." He then clicked his fingers and in a flash of blue light, he, Twilight and Flash were transported back to Canterlot Tower. There, they saw themselves and realized Discord had either transported them through time, or was showing them visions of the past.
Twists and turns of my master plan, then find the Elements back where you began.
As soon as that was said, they were sent back at the crater, where Discord turned towards them. "I never said they were in the labyrinth."
"You tricked us," Flash growled, flaring his wings.
"I did no such thing," Discord leaned back while putting a claw over his chest, looking offended as he did. "I gave you all the information you needed, you simply came to the wrong conclusion. I just decided to have a little fun with you until you figured it out, but you never did." Twilight was disheartened after hearing this, looking down at the ground. Discord then sarcastically clapped at the sight, mockingly saying, "Keep trying Twilight Sparkle, maybe the 'magic' of friendship can help you. Now, if you excuse me, I have some chaos to reek." With that, he snapped his fingers and vanished.
The second he did, there was a rumble of thunder, causing Flash and Twilight to look up and see several cotton candy clouds appear and begin raining chocolate rain.
"Chocolate milk?" Pinkie asked before frowning, "I hate chocolate milk."
Twilight just groaned after hearing this. "You have got to be kidding me. I can't believe that just happened."
"We can't give up," Flash told her, tapping her shoulder as she did. "So we goofed, that doesn't mean we've lost. We just gotta find the Elements, then we can fix our friends and stop him."
"Yeah...I know." Twilight sighed before hitting her head, "think Twilight think. Find the Elements back where you began...back where you began..."
"Don't touch my gem," they heard Rarity say behind them.
"I'm touching your gem Rarity," Fluttershy retorted, tapping the rock. "Ha ha."
"What you laughing at?" Pinkie yelled, running up to the two. "Stop laughing!"
Twilight just groaned, these distractions were not helping her think. "I just wanna go home...why is this happening?!" she moaned, sighing as she did. That is, till she looked back up, blinking. "Wait a minute..."
It was then that her face made something that Flash had seen plenty of times. A big grin shined on his face as he saw this. "Here we go," Flash chuckled happily. "What did you figure out Twilight?
"HOME!" Twilight screamed, turning to Flash with a big smile. "Back where you began. The Elements must be in..."
"PONYVILLE!" They said in unison.
"Come on!" Flash said as he moved towards the exit of the crater. "If we hurry, we can get home and find them before Discord can do any major damage."
"Right," Twilight nodded before turning towards the others. "Let's go everypony, we got some Elements to find!
"I'm not going anywhere!" Pinkie barked back before sitting down."I hate walking."
"Oh yeah?" Fluttershy hissed, a mischievous look on her face. She then flew down and grabbed Pinkie's tail, before dragging her towards Flash and Twilight.
"I said I'm not going anywhere!" Pinkie told her. "Let me go!"
"Which is why I'm making you, you big baby!" Fluttershy laughed back. "And I'm gonna laugh at you the entire time!"
Meanwhile, Rarity was sitting on top of her boulder, not budging an inch. "I'm not going anywhere either. At least here I can keep an eye out for anypony who'd want to steal Tom."
Flash and Twilight sighed, knowing this wouldn't be easy. That is, till an idea popped into Flash's head. He flew over to her with a cocky grin before saying, "You know Rarity, this crater can hold a lot of ponies. It'd be easy for a whole bunch of them to come and surround you. You wouldn't stand a chance against an army." Rarity just glanced at him, before looking back down at 'Tom'. "But you know," Flash continued, "there is someplace that's secluded and you would have home field advantage."
"My house," Rarity gasped.
"Exactly," Flash nodded, slightly nudging her as she did. "So let's get Tom someplace safe."
"Oh alright." Rarity grumbled before pointing her hoof at Flash. "But don't think for a minute that I'm not keeping an eye on you, we clear?"
"Crystal," Flash replied with a nod.
Luckily, Applejack was at least willing to follow them, and the six ponies then made their way home. However, it seemed Discord's fun had spread to the trains, putting that method of transportation out of commission. So they were forced to walk to Ponyville, which took much longer than they'd hoped. At least Pinkie was finally willing to walk on her own, making the trip slightly easier.
Eventually, the sight of their home filled their vision, showing their journey was almost at an end. "Ponyville," Twilight said happily. "Finally made it..."
Flash wasn't so happy though, pointing at it as he moaned. "Oh no...Look at it Twilight, it looks horrible!" The place was a disaster, with the normally green grass now a checker board pattern of pink and purple. Several patches of ground, with buildings on top, were now floating in midair and the town hall was also floating and upside down. "Discord's turned it into a madhouse!"
"Not for long," Twilight said as she turned to the others before charging forward. "Come on girls, I'm certain this is what Discord's riddle really meant. If we get back to the library, I have a book that I just know can give us a clue."
"Look out!" Flash yelled as he flew at Twilight suddenly, pushing her aside right before a stampede of mutated rabbits charged passed and barely missed them. "That was close," Flash said as they dusted themselves off.
Before they could do anything else, the sun suddenly disappeared and was replaced by the moon. Doing so plunged the world into pitch black night, making it impossible to see.
"Whoa," Applejack fake gasped, "I can see so much better now."
"You know, that's not so much lying as it is sarcasm Applejack." Flash retorted in a deadpan tone.
Applejack just rolled her eyes and tried to walk forward, but suddenly slipped on something and was sent sliding out of control. Doing so caused her to knock down the others, before coming to a stop in front of Twilight and Flash. "I meant to do that."
"Oh, what now?!" Flash groaned as he and Twilight tried to get up, but it felt like the ground below them was made of ice. "What the-"
In that second, the moon was replaced by the sun and light allowed them to see why the ground was so slippery. "Discord's turned our dirt roads into soap," Twilight growled, trying to keep her balance.
It was here that Discord decided to appear again, skating along the ground without issue. "Beautiful isn't it?" He asked as he pointed towards the town. "This is the new and improved Ponyville, and these are only my first changes."
Pinkie skated past them, not looking happy about doing so. "This may look like fun, but it's not."
"Why are you doing it then?" Flash asked.
Before anything else could be said, Discord appeared next to them and picked the two up. "Picture it," he said as he gestured them towards Ponyville, "the chaos capital of the world." However, as he did this, the moon and sun swapped again, making it impossible to see.
"I can't picture anything," Twilight deadpanned, slightly growling. "Its too dark."
Discord let go, causing them to crash into the ground. "Well, just wait a few minutes and you'll see it in the beautiful light of day again."
"Ever heard of overkill?" Flash replied, dusting himself off with his wings. "If this is supposed to intimidate us, its not working." Discord just shrugged, before ballet leaping over Twilight and disappearing. Flash then let out a sigh before giving Twilight his hoof, helping her up. As he did, Twilight looked at their home's new look.
"Ponyville," Twilight said in horror, "the chaos capital of the world."
"We can't let that happen." Flash commented with determination. "No way."
"Right." Twilight nodded, the two glancing at each other before walking towards Ponyville again. No matter what, they wouldn't allow Discord to get away with what he was doing. Even if it took a miracle, they would succeed in saving their home.
Author's Note
I know this was a little on the nose with the rest of the show, but more changes will come.
Flash Sentry, Chaos and Disharmony
Springer was exhausted.
He had been 'trying' all day to keep Ponyville in one piece, as more and more weird things kept happening. The only problem was that he had no idea what he was doing, and trying to fix the unusual problems either ended up doing nothing or making the problem worse. However, despite this, he was happy that he was able to get the town evacuated, with the exception of Spike, who preferred holing up in the library.
Right now, he found himself in a particularly tricky situation: fighting a giant plant monster that had a yellow flower head and purple petals. On its flower head, it had a pair of large eyes and a giant jagged mouth, while it's back sprouted giant dark green leaves with black flower heads with red petals.
"Okay," Springer panted, flexing a offensive attack stance. "I can do this."
The plant monster then roared, unleashing it's tendrils and beginning to whip them at the jakhowl. Springer used everything he had learned from Flash to dodge the vines, creating a bone out of his aura to smack the rest away. "Take this!" He yelled as he slashed the air with the bone, striking one of the vines, slicing it off. "Gotcha," he said happily, one down...and a million more to go.
The monster then threw one of its arm vines towards Springer, causing him to jump into the air. As he did, flower head's mouth open, ready to take a bite out of the jakhowl. Luckily, Springer quickly thrust his Bone Breaker forward, blocking the mouth in one swift motion. As he did this, Springer saw another vine coming at his side. The jakhowl quickly hopped over the vine suddenly swinging into him, causing the plant to end up eating the vine instead of his aura bone. "HA! Eat that!"
Springer took this chance and ran up the vines, creating a pair of Bone Breakers, which he used to slash away the attacking vines. As he did this, the monster's patience had run thin. With a mighty roar, the plant shot a storm of tendrils at the jakhowl, causing him to hop off the plant. He then backpedaled for a second before putting his paws together. "Aura Blast!" Springer yelled as he created an aura sphere, firing it at the plant. Knocking the tendrils away, Spring created a pair of extra long Bone Breakers, charging the beast at full power. A second later, the jakhowl leaped into the air, spinning both bones at blinding speeds.
With this, the plant's life was finished. What followed was the greatest weedwhacking ever as Springer dove into the plant, slicing him to bits. It was only seconds later that the body went limp, its giant monster head falling to the ground with a thud.
Once Springer landed from his graceful attack, he turned towards the dead monster and smiled. "Not a good time to lose one's head," he smirked before turning to leave. However, before he could even decide what to try next, a sound from behind him caught his ears.
Turning back around, his eyes went wide seeing something growing out of the neck vine he had just sliced through. Both the head and the body began growing, the head appearing to regenerate its entire body while the body did the same with it's heads. Then a second plant monster appeared, both of them copies of each other. "Oh come on!" Springer yelled as he started to summon another aura weapon. "There's no end..."
In that second however, a powerful gust of wind swept by Springer as he felt himself be lifted into the air. "You alright?" A familiar voice said, making him look up and smile seeing his friend holding onto him.
"Yeah..." Springer slightly panted as he hugged Flash, "and thanks. One second later and I would have been plant food."
"Don't mention it," Flash replied, "I'm just glad I decided to scope out the area before heading to the library."
"Yeah..." Springer's face changed from exhaustion to worry. "So what exactly is happening right now? I thought the princess summoned you to fix all this."
"She did," Flash replied before frowning, "its a long story."
As they flew over to the library, Flash explained about Discord and him stealing the Elements of Harmony. How he and the others were tricked into going into the maze and getting separated. When they finally reunited, he found that only he and Twilight were acting normal while the others were acting odd, along with Rainbow abandoning them and Discord winning because of this.
"And now Twilight thinks we'll find the answers we need in the book on the Elements of Harmony," Flash finished.
"This is insane," Springer replied while slightly shaking his head, "but do you really think it'll have a clue?"
"I hope so...or we'll be in big trouble."
A few minutes later, the duo arrived at the library. They then saw that Twilight and the others were just arriving as well, though it obvious that Twilight was losing her last thread of patience.
"You weren't kidding," Springer commented as he saw their friends, "they really are gray."
"I know...and hopefully we can fix that soon." Flash replied as he landed. He then trotted up to Twilight, who was yelling at the four others.
"Okay we're here," Twilight groaned, opening the door to the library with a slam. "Now can you all please please PLEASE go inside?!"
"Ah absolutely refuse," Applejack said as she walked in, turning even more gray while doing it.
"With pleasure," Fluttershy said before landing on one of the bushes outside the door, turning it into a doormat. She too was beginning to turn grayer by the second.
"I HATE LIBRARIES!" Pinkie screamed as she walked inside, her color draining as well.
The only one left was Rarity, who was trying to push her boulder inside the library.
"Please," Twilight repeated, "we've gotta hurry."
"Forget it Twilight," Rarity growled with a glare, "I know what you're up to. The second I go in, you'll have your little minion Spike come and take Tom. Well, its not going to work!"
"Tom?" Springer asked.
"Don't ask," Flash shook his head. "Just...don't."
Twilight, Flash and Springer all shared a glance before glaring back at Rarity, who was now turning as gray as the others. "You're not going in without him are you?" Twilight asked, to which Rarity just shook her head. "Fine..." Twilight sighed before turning to Flash, "would you?"
"It's just a few meters," Flash pointed at the rock, "can't you just use your magic? I've seen you move heavier things."
Twilight just rolled her eyes and turned to the boulder, before her horn glowed and she magically lifted it into the air and through the door. However, Twilight was so frustrated that she didn't realise the door was obviously to small for 'Tom', which smashed through it and a good chunk of the wall.
"Careful Twilight," Rarity hissed before moving over to the boulder and caressing it, "you'll ruin his beautiful finish."
"Oh for the love of-"
"Twilight, what's going on?" a soaking wet Spike interrupted before pointing to the four mares in the room. "And why does everypony look so...gray?"
"I don't know how and I don't know why," Flash told him with a mix of annoyance and a grimace on his face, "but Discord's somehow turned everypony into the opposite of what they're supposed to be."
"You mean it's some kind of spell?"
"I don't know." Flash said before turning to Springer, "what can you get from them bud?"
Springer raised his paws and pointed them at the others while closing his eyes. His ears then flared up as he scanned the four's auras. When he was done, he shivered in disgust. "Something's not right. All I felt was...darkness. Its as if everything pure about them has been locked away."
Flash growled at hearing this, still unsure how as to how this tied into Discord's plan.
"Right now, that doesn't matter," Twilight said as she turned to Spike, "I need you to help me find something."
"Hey Twilight," Fluttershy interrupted, floating over Twilight with a bucket in her hooves, "what's soaking wet and clueless?"
"Fluttershy..." Twilight replied as she rolled her eyes, "I've had just about enough-" she didn't get to finish as Fluttershy tipped the contents of the bucket on top of the unicorn, soaking her to the bone.
"Your face!" Fluttershy laughed before slamming the bucket onto Twilight's head.
"Are you okay?" Flash asked from a distance, fearing her reaction.
"I'm...fine," Twilight growled from under the bucket. "Forget them and help me find the reference guide to the Elements of Harmony." she said as she did a quick drying spell over her body before glaring back at the others, "before somepony does something she'll regret."
Flash and Springer glanced at each other, both gulping at the face Twilight just gave. Spike on the other hoof, moved over to a bookcase with a slight smile on his face. "I know exactly where that book is." He proclaimed as he climbed up a ladder and stopped at the second to last shelf, pulling out a familiar brown book with a gold unicorn symbol. "Found it!" He called out, only for a scroll to slam him in the face and make him drop it.
Fluttershy zipped in out of nowhere and grabbed the book, before smirking up at the baby dragon. "HA!"
"Fluttershy," Twilight growled, "you'd better give me that book."
Fluttershy's face contorted into a smile that reminded Flash of the main character of an old foal's story called 'The Grump Who Stole Hearts Warming'.
"KEEP AWAY!" Fluttershy yelled as she threw the book towards Applejack, who caught it on her nose.
"Applejack," Twilight said as she ran at her, "give me that book!"
"I don't have any book," Applejack lied as she threw the book into the air.
Fluttershy and Pinkie both tried to grab the book, only for Flash to quickly dart into the air, stealing the tome in one fell swoop. As he landed, Rarity appeared in front of him, a maniacal look on her face as she stared the book. "Give me that! I want it, its mine!"
"Back off, all of you." Flash replied, only to see the four suddenly charge at him. The orange Pegasus just bit his lip, seeing this. "Alright, you asked for it." With a flap of his wings, he knocked all of them back with a single gust of air. "Now calm down! There's no need to-"
The book then levitated out of his hoof, quickly floating over to Twilight. She had a giant scowl on her face, and Flash could tell that her anger was just about to blow. "Thank you Flash. Now, lets see here...." She opened the book and gasped. There inside the book, hidden in the warped pages of the book, were seven very familiar objects.
"The Elements," Twilight exclaimed happily, "they were here all along! We finally got them! Now we can beat Discord!"
"Who?" Spike asked.
Flash turned to the drake and waved his hoof. "Long story. What matters is that he's going down and then we can put everything back to normal."
Twilight nodded and turned to the others. "See girls? We did it! We found the Elements of Harmony, together!" However, the others certainly did not look happy about this development. In fact they didn't even look like they cared. "You don't even care, do you?"
"NOPE!" they all yelled at the same time.
Twilight sighed. "I never thought this would happen."
"Twilight?" Flash asked in concern. He could tell that Twilight was starting to look off-color as well. "What are you-"
"My friends," Twilight interrupted, her voice rising. "have turned into complete JERKS!"
"Twilight, it's not like that. Just-"
However, Twilight wasn't listening. She took the Elements of Harmony in her magic aura and rushed them around the room, placing them on their respective owners. "Necklace, necklace, necklace, necklace, helmet!" Then with one last huff, she placed her own element on her head. "Big crown thingy. Come on everypony, let's go."
"But Twilight," Spike asked, blinking at the sight. "Aren't you missing somepony?"
"Nope," Twilight replied, "we got me and Flash along with the liar, the grump, the hoarder and the brute. That just about covers it."
"But what about Rainbow Dash? Where is she?"
"She flew off," Flash answered, shaking his head. "We don't know why."
"It doesn't matter," Twilight said angrily before turning to Spike and levitating the final Element around his neck, "you're the new Rainbow Dash. Now let's go!"
"ME?!" Spike screamed in horror before following the others, "but what if she finds out I've been impersonating her?" He shook in terror, "that won't end well."
Seeing how far this had gone, Flash grabbed Twilight's shoulder. "Hang on Twilight, this isn't going to work. Spike isn't Rainbow Dash."
"At this point, I doubt Rainbow could do any better," Twilight almost yelled before marching to the door, "now come on. The sooner we get this done, the sooner I can get away from you ponies." With that, she rushed out the door, followed by everypony else until only Flash, Springer and Spike were left.
"What's wrong with Twilight?" Springer asked him, "her aura's starting to become as dark as the others."
"Seeing our friends like this is getting to her," Flash replied, shaking his head. "I just wish I knew what Discord was planning. Unless it literally is us falling apart."
"Except you're not affected?" Spike asked, still confused at everything that was happening.
"No." Flash nodded before glancing at his partner. "My aura is fine, right?"
"Same as always. It doesn't even show a bit of darkness, unlike theirs."
A certain lightbulb clicked in Flash's head. "Huh. If that's the case, then-"
"FLASH! SPIKE!" Twilight yelled from outside, "GET YOUR BUTTS OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!"
"Um...don't you think we should-" Spike tried to say, only to be interrupted by Flash.
"Don't. She'll come back in here in a second."
Spike gulped at this suggestion. "But she sounds really angry. Like, the lemon tea incident angry."
"Its not going to be that bad Spike." Flash said with a chuckle. "Just wait and-"
"FLASH! I'M NOT GOING TO WAIT ANY LONGER! COME OUT HERE NOW!" Twilight exclaimed, her head now peering through the front door. However, the trio inside could see things were already worse, as they could see the anger pouring over her face.
"Uh-oh. That's not good." Springer commented, quickly hiding behind Flash.
"Twilight, calm down." Flash said as shook his head. "You need to-"
"SHUT UP! YOU AND SPIKE ARE COMING OUT HERE RIGHT NOW AND WE'RE GOING TO BEAT DISCORD!"
Flash crossed his hooves, leaning back as he glared at the once purple unicorn as she walked up to him, her eye twitching as he replied. "No. I'm not moving."
"Why you-"
"STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW TWILIGHT!" Flash yelled, causing Twilight to slightly wince. She began to backpedal, as she had never heard Flash yell at her before. Unfortunately, it didn't last long as the scowl returned to her face.
"Oh? So are you gonna start being a huge jerk to me too?!" Twilight barked back, her horn beginning to shine. "Well?! Are you?!"
"No, I'm not." Flash shook his head before putting his hoof on her shoulder. "Listen, Discord is getting to you, just like our friends. You need to slow down and think this through." Flash then pointed to Spike, "Spike isn't Rainbow Dash, and the girls aren't like themselves. If we want to win this, we need to fix that."
"No we don't." Applejack interjected, her eyes shifting as she did. "We already won."
"I hate the Elements of Harmony." Pinkie grumbled, quickly taking off her necklace as she did. As this happened, Rarity quickly grabbed the necklace, cackling as she said it was hers now.
"See?" Flash pointed to them again. "We need to fix this first, otherwise we're not gonna win."
"No, Applejack is right." Fluttershy mocked as she flew over Flash. "We don't need this garbage to win." She then took off her necklace and threw it at Flash, only for him to block and catch it with his wing.
With this, the others left the library, their necklaces on the floor. Rarity had also claimed that the necklaces weren't worth it, and decided Tom was enough for her. They then left, leaving the four in a pit of despair. Seeing this sight, Twilight turned back to Flash, the scowl still on her face. "Oh yeah, then why aren't you like them?! Why are you still the same?!" Twilight then pointed to the door, where all her 'friends' that had left them. "Why do I need them?! Why do I need friends like them?!"
"Twilight, I..." Flash stopped himself, blinking at the thought. "I don't know. I don't know why I'm the same and-" Flash then saw Twilight's fur begin to go gray. "No. Twilight, don't tell me you're changing too."
"Shut up." Twilight turned around, tears forming under her eyes. "After all, who needs enemies if I have friends like them..." She then began to walk up the library's stairs. Seeing the sight caused Flash's heart to begin breaking, his eyes shrinking as he saw the failure of his friendship with Twilight.
"Her aura," Springer confirmed in a horrified whisper, "it's turning more and more like the other's."
"No...NO!" Flash yelled, quickly flying up to stairs and landing in front of Twilight, a look of determination on his face. "Snap out of it Twilight! We're not giving up!"
Despite this action in front her, Twilight didn't even flinch. Instead, she just barely said, "It's over Flash, we've lost. Our friends don't want anything to do with us anymore, so what's the point if they don't want to help us?"
"That's not the Twilght I know and grew up with." Flash barked back, getting up into her face. "That's Discord. He's gotten in your head and clouding your judgement."
"Maybe...or maybe he's just helped me realize the truth. Maybe friendship isn't as powerful as I thought it was."
"No Twilight," Flash whispered to her, shaking his head as he did. "You don't believe that. This is what Discord wants, for us to give up on our friendship so we can't use the Elements against him. It's why he turned the others into who they are now. It's why he tried to turn me against my Element."
"Then why aren't you acting different?" Twilight replied with a glare. "Why aren't you all cowardly or...whatever the opposite of your Element is?!"
This stumbled Flash. He honestly didn't know what had caused him to be unaffected by Discords trickery...no, that wasn't right. He knew exactly what had caused it, he just didn't know how. "I...I remembered," Flash said in a slight hesitant tone. "Discord tried to make me think the ponies that I cared for didn't care about me. The ones who give me the courage to fight on, he tried to make me think that they hated me. That they only wanted me around just so they could use me...and it worked, because I almost fell for it."
"Then why didn't you?"
"I don't really know what it was," Flash replied, scratching the back of his head as he did. "but whatever it was, it showed me visions of my past. Times when others showed that they really did care for me, like when you taught me how to read, or when Shining Armor taught me how to fight with a sword. I remembered when ponies put my needs above their own, with nothing in return."
Twilight raised an eyebrow at this.
"I know it's seems like everything is falling apart," Flash gave her a determined stare, "but just because it's hopeless doesn't mean we should stop trying."
"Well maybe I've got nothing worth trying for," Twilight replied, tears starting to fall down her eyes. With that, she turned and began walking away, leaving Flash behind.
"That's not true. We have our friends, our family, everypony in Equestria. Aren't they worth fighting for?"
"Friends...FRIENDS?!" Twilight suddenly barked back, "what friends?! You mean those jerks that just left us?! HUH?!"
"Twilight..." Flash shook his head before getting up in her face again. He put both of his hooves on her shoulders. "Listen, you need to try and remember everything we've been through. Remember all the stuff me and you and the girls have done. Didn't it...didn't it mean anything to you?"
Twilight didn't reply. Instead, she brushed off his hooves before walking into her room, closing the door behind her. Once she was gone, Flash sighed in defeat before he walked back down to the main floor of the library. There, he took off his helmet and placed it on a nearby table, sighing as he did. "Darn it...why did this happen?"
"Flash," Springer asked as he walked up to his partner. Spike had returned upstairs, but the jakhowl had decided to stay on the first floor. "what do we do now?"
Flash didn't turn to him, not wanting to show the jakhowl the defeat in his eyes. "I don't know bud. I...I just don't know."
Looking around and out the window, Flash saw the chaos of the town begin to spread and intensify. Soon, all of Equestria would fall under Discord's insanity, followed by the whole rest of the world and there was nothing Flash could do about it.
Ponyville was ground zero for the end of the world.
"No," he whispered as he stood up, "I can't let that happen." He then tapped his side, seeing that Lightbringer was still on his person. Seeing this, Flash turned to the nearby door to the outside, where chaos awaited him. Letting out a long sigh, Flash got up and made his way to the door.
"Where are you going?" Springer asked.
"I don't know if I can beat Discord," he said as he opened the door, shifting Lightbringer as he did. "But I can't just sit back and let him do this."
"You're gonna fight him?" Springer asked.
"Yeah." Flash replied in a low, almost dreading tone. "I can't fix what's going on with the girls right now. I don't know how to change what Discord did to them...but maybe I'll get lucky and find some other way to beat him." Flash then turned to Springer with a face of both determination and a hint of fear. "And even if I can't win, I can at least say I tried. I'll fight him, even if I have to do it alone." With that, Flash stepped out the library and flexed his wings, only to feel something land on his back. Looking back, he saw Springer sitting there, ready for take off.
"You won't be alone." Springer said with a big smile, "We're a team. Where you go, I go."
Flash smiled and nodded, before turning back to the skies and taking off. They had to find Discord and defeat him, even if it meant giving up their own lives in the process. The battle for the fate of Equestria was about to happen, but could good win it?
Author's Note
The final battle draws near. Wonder how they'll do.
Flash Sentry, Chaos and Disharmony
Showdown at the Chaos Corral
We find Discord on the edge of Ponyville.
He had created multiple copies of himself, who were all dressed as construction workers while the original was dressed in a tie with glasses on his nose and hard hat on his head. In his hands...paws...claws, were blueprints, and he had several more under his arm. the master of chaos clapped his claws a few times before saying, "Okay men, let's make this snappy. I want the chocolate pudding lake filled by lunch time and the town hall's walls turned to jello an hour later. The pudding mixture is very precise, so I want you to check and double check it before unveiling."
"Excuse me sir," said another Discord in a butler styled uniform, complete with a monocle over one eye, walked up to him wht a platter on his claw. "The samplers for the jello walls have arrived."
"Excellent," the real Discord replied, fiddling with his claws as he did. "Let's have a taste then." The 'butler' Discord opened the platter, which then morphed into five plates, all of them now floating in the air. All of them had a different coloured jello on top, despite the fact that each of them looked rather 'normal' for a basic pony's tastes. Discord conjured a spoon and took a bite out of each of them, taking slow bites as he let the flavor roll around in his mouth. "Hmmm," he hummed after tasting the last one, "okay, that's good. I'll have the strawberry jello for the entrance and main hall, the lemon in rooms one through four and lime in rooms five through nine. The peach flavor will be...ah! I want it for the roof! Then we'll have the pineapple...wait a minute!" Discord's eyes went wide as he looked back at the last plate. "Hey! Nobody likes pineapple! Which idiot decided to get the pineapple sampler? Get this out of my sight!"
The other Discord nodded and quickly stepped backwards, as a ringing could be heard coming from the original. Discord snapped his fingers and a breast pocket appeared on his body, which he reached into and pulled out a cellphone. "You got Discord, master of chaos and ruiner of countries. If its not broke, I can break it. What's up?" he said into the cellular device. That is, till his eyes went wide again. "What the-what do you mean the deep fried bell won't be arriving till Monday?! Rerouted?! To where? Quadamanyada...never heard of it. Fine, but expect this to be the last time I use your delivery service." With that, he cut the call and threw the phone away, an explosion going off a second later. "There's always something."
"HEY DISCORD!" yelled a voice in the distance. The draconequus looked around for it's owner, only to see Flash and Springer flying down and landing twenty feet away from him.
"Oh, hello gentlemen," he said with a slight bow. "I would love to sit and chat, but as you can see, I'm in the middle of some very delicate chaos." He turned back to his worker Discords and snapped his fingers, creating a megaphone. "Hey load bearer, don't cross those wires or you're gonna-"
BOOM!
An explosion kicked up a dust cloud, which slowly flew towards them. Discord rolled his eyes as he conjured an electric fan, which he used to blow away the dust. "Blasted union workers! They think they can just work with little effort and get paid so much...and I'm not even paying them!" he sighed before turning back to the pegasus and jakhowl. "Now, what can I do for you gentlemen?"
Flash pointed his Celestic Gear at Discord, a look of pure anger on his face. "Reverse whatever hex you put on my friends and return Ponyville and the rest of Equestria back to how it was! This is your only warning!"
"Oooooh," Discord replied in a pretend scared voice. He snapped his fingers and a pair of black boots appeared on his feet. "Oh no, I'm shaking in my custom baby seal leather boots!" Fake sweat went down Discord's face, which then turned into tiny porcupines, which rolled off his body and dug into the ground like moles. It was here that Discord looked back at the boots, a look of slight disapproval on his face. "Say...do these things make my thighs look fat? Be honest with me here."
Springer just shrugged at the question, while Flash continued to glare at him. "This ends now," he growled.
"Oh lighten up," Discord chuckled, waving his claw. "You seriously need to relax. Besides, what do you intend to do against me? I control reality itself. I've broken the power of the Elements of Harmony, I've turned your little friends against each other, and soon your precious princesses will bow to me and I will rule this land."
"Not if I have anything to say about it."
Hearing this, Discord simply laughed. "You?! What can you do? You're nothing!"
Flash's glared hardened. "You don't know anything about me."
Discord just raised his eyebrow at this. "Don't I?" he said before a flash of light occurred around Discord, changing him into a doctor's uniform, complete with stethoscope and a medical chart in his claw. He looked down at the medical chart as he summoned a pair of extra large glasses. "Flash Sentry. Five nine, blue mane and orange coat. Currently training to be a royal knight, and can't figure out that he could already be dating a certain pony that everyone in the comments will be yelling about." Discord then tapped the chart as he saw a certain fact about Flash on it. "Oh! Might I suggest a change in careers? Its about how rare your triple Z blood type is. With Royal Knight mortality statistics, you'll likely end up bleeding out without anypony to blood transfuse you some."
"Enough games!" Flash growled, cricking his neck. "Last warning. Change everything back, NOW!"
Discord just let out a snort, his doctor clothing disappearing as he stood up straight in front of pegasus. "You dare command me, the Spirit of Chaos?! You're nothing but a mortal pony, with nothing more than a flashy sword and a pet pooch. I could crush you with a thought...so I will." He snapped his fingers and Flash and Springer suddenly felt like there was a building on their shoulders.
"What's happening?" Springer yelped as he fell to his paws and knees.
"I don't..." Flash moaned, his body suddenly hitting the ground with a thud. The pegasus tried to open his wings, only for them to kiss the ground as well. Yet, despite this sudden change, Flash and Springer slowly began to get back up. As they did, Flash said to his partner. "Springer...I think he's increased the gravity around us! We gotta fight it!"
"You're right my little playmate." Discord answered as he conjured a throne and a bag of popcorn. "Now...let's see what a hundred Gs of pressure does to you." The two felt weight increase and push them deeper into the ground, which was beginning to crack beneath them. Yet despite this, the duo still stood. Seeing this, Discord scrunched up the bag of popcorn and put a straw on it, where he started to 'drink' the bag. "Still in one piece, eh?" He snapped his fingers again, "Let's amp it up to three hundred Gs, shall we?"
Once again, the pressure intensified, and Springer's whole body collapsed to the ground while Flash was barely staying up. The pegasus could feel his own sweat smashing into the ground, the liquid also feeling the effects of the chaos magic. "Grrr...blast it." Flash barely said, his whole body struggling as his wings stayed pinned to the ground. "I'm...not...done...yet."
"Now this is what I call an extreme dieting regiment," Discord commented calmly as he finished his 'popcorn bag drink'. "Side effects may include backache and occasional loss of life....man, that sounds so dark." Discord remarked, realizing what he just said. "I have got to get out more. No more staying in stone statues for centuries."
It was here that Flash's body kissed the floor, his whole being just barely hanging on. He let out a small cry as he felt like he was about to become flat as a pancake, (Which is he least favorite type of cake) his will slowly draining as he felt the pressure continue. Flash looked up, seeing that Discord was now back to directing his other doppelgangers, completely ignoring the duo. Flash then looked down at himself, seeing the sheath on his person, and an idea popped into his head. He tried to quickly grab his weapon, his hooves shaking as he did. A few seconds later, it was on his hoof, which he then used as a cane to push himself upward. However, this proved to be futile, as he found himself hitting the dirt again, his sword also slamming into it due to gravity's pressure.
"No," he grunted out, "I'm not letting it end here. No...WAY!" His eyes shot open and glowed bright gold, power suddenly flowing through him. "RRAAUGH!" he roared as the pegasus suddenly stood up, the gravity no longer affecting him. As he did this, Flash grabbed Lightbringer, yelling again before swinging it, shooting a sonic wave at the still ignoring Discord. The force of the wave smashed into Discord's throne, knocking him out of it as a yelp of pain followed from the monster.
The intense gravity all but vanished after this, allowing Flash and Springer to breath easy as they stood back to full height. Once Flash was steady, he looked over at Springer. "You okay partner?"
"Yeah...yeah, I'm okay." Springer replied with a few short breaths. "A little shorter maybe, but I'm fine."
"Good. Now, we need to-"
"That's it!" yelled a certain voice, causing Flash and Springer to turn to the voice's owner. It was Discord, who now had steam coming out of his ears. "It happened again, didn't it?!" he exclaimed as he desummoned his throne. "Why won't my chaos magic work on you? Why are you immune?! I want an answer now boy!"
Flash just shrugged, showing a small yet cocky smirk as he did. "Wish I could tell you, but I've got no clue why. All I know is that since it doesn't work, I've still got a chance to take you down." With that, he raised his Celestic Gear and pointed the crossguard at Discord. "Flash Force!" He fired a powerful beam of light at the draconequus.
Discord simply snapped his fingers and a brick wall appeared, which the blast stuck and destroyed, leaving him unscaved. "I might not be able to use my magic to destroy you," Discord growled as he snapped his fingers again, "but I can use it to create things that can." In a flash of light, a bomb appeared in his hand, with the word 'ACME' on the side. "Let's have some fun, shall we?"
Discord then summoned a small cannon, which he threw the bomb into. Seeing this, Flash's eyes went wide before yelling, "MOVE!" Flash grabbed Springer both jumping out of the way, the explosion just barely missing them. With this, the partners rolled on the ground, their backs feeling the air pressure from the explosion. A second later, they both got up, now seeing that they were on opposite sides of the draconequus. The two shared a glance and a quick nod later, both of them got into a battle stance.
"Flash Cutter!" The pegasi swung Lightbringer and unleashed the energy blade, which flew towards Discord.
Springer followed suit with his own attack, his paws rubbing together as he summoned a sphere of blue energy. "Aura Blast!"
Discord snapped his fingers and two pairs of scissors appeared in his hands. He then used them to cut through the air, creating two tears in reality on either side of him. The Flash Cutter and Aura Blast flew into one of the tears and then flew out the other, making their new targets Flash and Springer.
"Whoa!" Flash yelped as he jumped into the air, barely dodging the blast.
"Yikes!" Springer cried as he created a Bone Breaker to deflected the attack.
"Close, but no cigar." Discord said as he conjured a cigar and lit it with his thumb. "Wanna try again?"
"Why you little-" Flash hissed before charging forward, spinning around and becoming a drill-like tornado. "Flash Driver!"
Discord simply rolled his eyes and once again summoned the scissors, which he used to create more tears. Before Flash could do anything, he flew through one of the tears, only to fly out of the other. Unfortunately, the second tear was pointed at a wall made out of baby blocks, which Flash smashed straight into. The result of the charge made Discord let out a laugh, only to see Springer running at him with a Bone Breaker. The jakhowl spun his weapon around and then swung it the draconequus, who created another portal which the bone went into. Springer instantly felt a blinding pain in his head, as the second tear was above Springer, causing the weapon to hit him in the back of his head.
"I'll refrain from the 'why are you hitting yourself' jokes," Discord joked before looking back at Flash, seeing the pegasus ascending from the broken wall of blocks. "Oh boy, here we go." Flash let out a roar before taking flight, his body going at almost max speed. However, as he spun towards the monster, Discord decided to literally split himself in half. Flash flew through both of them as Discord dodged the blow, causing him to land a few paces away, right by Springer.
Discord then rolled his eyes, letting out a small yawn. "As fun as this is gentlemen, I have other things to do. I have a lot of chaos that needs to be done, so I'll leave you to fight each other instead."
Flash and Springer looked at each other in confusion. "I think you might have accidently zapped your brain away," Flash barked back, "we're not gonna fight each other."
"Aren't you?" Discord asked before snapping his fingers. A flash of light occurred around them, causing the duo to backpedal into each other. A second later, they were shocked to see that they were surrounded...by themselves. Hundreds of Flash and Springer duplicates were everywhere, standing between them and Discord.
"You have got to be kidding me." Flash said, a tinge of fear in his voice.
"You like?" Discord chuckled, floating over the clones. "Personally, I think I might need to try and redo the hair. How much do you spend on gel to make it that way?"
Flash growled as he shot forward and swung his sword at a copy of himself, which brought out its own Lightbringer to block the origanal. Flash then tried a different sword strike, only for it to be blocked again. Three blows later, Flash quickly found that he was fighting a mirror version of himself. "That's not good."
Springer also tried to fight a copy of himself, but like Flash, he found himself being countered no matter what he did. He then created a Bone Breaker and used it to strike the clone, causing it to disappear in a puff of smoke. "Ha! I got him!" he cheered as he turned to the rest of them, "Alright, let's see what-oh no." The jakhowl's eyes went wide as the copies all summoned Bone Breakers as well. "Oh come on!"
Before he could say anything else, the copies charged forward and began attacking him. The two continued to fend off the fakes, but they were surprisingly strong. Not only that, the moment they managed to take down one, two would take its place.
"Oh, I do so love gladiatorial combat," Discord commented as he conjured a cinema seat and sat down, holding an extra large soda and popcorn bag. "I should seriously film this for the kiddies."
Flash slashed away at another copy of himself, threw away a Springer clone with his tail and kicked another Flash copy away. "They just keep coming!" he barked as he swung his sword around. He saw a copy of Springer and brought his sword down, only for the copy to hold up his paws.
"REAL ME! REAL ME!" He called out.
"Oh shoot! Sorry!" Flash yelped before seeing a Flash clone charging at them. "Get down!" Flash yelled before shooting a blade of energy, destroying the rushing duplicate. He then looked down at the ducking Springer, his eyes narrowing as he realized his error at almost hitting his partner.
"Springer, get on my back, now!" he ordered. Springer did so and the two shot into the air, turning back to the ground once they were high enough. "FLASH VORTEX!" He called out as he spun his weapon and created a tornado of light, which struck the fakes, knocking them all back. The attack destroyed most of them, only for the rest to suddenly disappear in a multitude of puffs of smoke.
Once the smoke cleared, Flash and Springer landed back on the ground, both panting in exhaustion. The two then heard clapping, making them turn towards Discord. "Bravo gentlemen, I will admit that your skills are quite impressive." Flash and Springer just glared at him, knowing he was about to try something else. "Now that we're all properly warmed up," Discord said as he cracked his knuckles, "the real game begins."
Flash and Springer took a battle stance and waited for whatever the draconequus planned to do next. Seconds passed, the three just standing there, unmoving. That is, till a certain wicked smile creased itself on Discord's face. A snap of the fingers soon followed.
"That's not good." Flash muttered, only to feel the earth beneath them begin to shake and rattle, causing the two to quickly lose balance until Flash took to the skies. They kept an eye on the ground, only to see what Discord had planned. An army of giant columns shot out of the ground, causing Flash to start trying to fly higher. "Hang on Springer!" he commanded as he began to zip through the sky, dodging the never-ending barrage of columns. That is, till one of them smashed into the duo.
"AUGH!" Flash yelped in pain, causing Springer to fall off from the blow. "Springer, no!"
"Flash!" The jakhowl called out as he fell, only to land back first on one of the columns. "Ugh!"
Flash on the other hoof, landed on one of the acute columns and slid down it, only for Discord to create a giant puddle of mud for him to land in. The mud covered his wings, grounding him as he let out another yelp of pain. Seeing this, Springer let out a roar. "Discord!" The jakhowl quickly got up and summoned a Bone Breaker, cutting it into two bones before charging the draconequus.
"Oh? The lapdog wants to play, huh?" Discord commented with a roll of his eyes, which rolled out of his head. "Eh, not interested. I was never much of an animal lover."
Discord then snapped his fingers, summoning large cannons to his side, which started to fire rocks at the jakhowl. Springer saw the first one coming and used his Bone Breaker to cut through it, followed by the second and the third. Then Discord's cannons each fired another shot, which met in midair and moulded into one. Springer saw it coming and leapt into the air as the bones faded in his paws. He then put his paws together, creating a large sphere of aura, which he threw at the boulder. It struck and reduced the rock to dust, allowing the jakhowl to fly through it as he created another Bone Breaker. Seeing Discord, he raised his weapon high and with all his might, swung it at the draconequus.
Time seemed to slow down as the bone came in contact with Discord's head, striking it and causing pain to surge through his body. With this opening, Springer spun around and lodged the other end of the bone into Discord's stomach, knocking him back as he did. That is, till another puff of smoke happened, this time covering Discord's body.
"Good show," Springer turned his head to see Discord floating besides him, "too bad that wasn't the real me." Before Springer could react, his whole body went stiff. Springer then felt why, as Discord had summoned a long thing of rope, which quickly wrapped around Springer. Discord snapped his fingers again, causing another cannon to appear...around Springer's body. Discord just shined a giant devilish grin. "Bon voyage!"
Meanwhile, Flash had finally trudged out of the mud, panting as tried to catch his breath. "Ugh...this is tougher than I thought. There has got to be-what the heck?!" Flash looked up, only to see his partner inside Discord's new cannon. "Springer!" He then tried to extend his wings, but his body refused to move. "Oh no, not now!"
A second later, the jakhowl found himself flying through the sky, his body slamming into a gingerbread house. The rope around the jakhowl tore into pieces as Springer rolled on the ground, pain searing through his body. "Ohhh...that hurt." Springer moaned, his body finally coming to a halt. As he shook his head, trying to stabilize himself, Discord appeared right in front of him.
"Having fun?" Discord giggled, snapping his fingers again. This time, a flash of light appeared around the monster, causing a bunch of clothes to appear on his persona. He was now dressed in a blue jacket with white sleeves and collar, while wearing a red and white baseball cap with a green triangle on it. In his claw was a metal ball, which was divided into two colors, blue on top and black on the bottom. He took his cap and spun it around, before saying out loud. "Pocket ball, GO!" He threw it at Springer, hitting the weakened jakhowl. A red light flew out of the ball, the light quickly striking and bathing Springer in the red glow before disappearing. The red glow then went back into the ball, which sealed the ball back up and fell to the floor.
"Alright," Discord said as he walked up and picked up the ball, before holding it up high, "I just caught a riolu-er, jakhowl!" Discord then did a slight gulp, "Whew, almost had a copyright issue there."
"SPRINGER!" Flash screamed, letting out a roar as he unsheathed his blade again. "LET HIM GO YOU MONSTER!" Flash screamed as he pushed himself up and rushed forward, his fatigue thrown to the side.
Discord however, just rolled his eyes as he desummoned his previous clothes. "They never learn, do they?" The draconequus snapped his fingers again, causing an explosion to happen under Flash, knocking him into the air. As Flash's body flew up into sky, Discord summoned another cannon, which appeared over Flash's body. "Later golden boy."
BOOM!
The resulting sound shot Flash out of the cannon, his body hurtling through the air and crashing several hundred yards away into a stack of jenga blocks, causing the tower to fall onto him.
"Welp, that's that." Discord said as he conjured a cage out of thin air and threw the ball inside. The ball then exploded, spitting out a beaten Springer. "Time to see if my other opponent is ready to give up as well. Discord calmly hovered over to where Flash had landed, levitating the blocks away with ease. However, when he removed the last block, he was surprised to see that the apprentice knight was gone. "Hmm? He's not here?" Discord commented before looking back at the cage, the jakhowl still laying there, silently breathing. "Eh, he'll back. I know he'll try to 'save' you, so I think I'll just keep you around for a bit." Discord looked back, only to see that he was now a mile or two away from Ponyville. "Huh, had no idea our battle went this far out. I need to get back to the old chaos grindstone...but I better make sure old Flashy-boy is beaten before I get back to more chaotic goodness. I still need to figure out how he resists my magic after all."
Meanwhile...
Flash had managed to drag himself out of the blocks and was currently hiding a ways off, having found a giant clarinet to climb into. He then looked outside one of the grooves of the massive instrument, only to see the draconequus now hovering around, looking for him. Thankfully, he was going the opposite direction, letting Flash take a breather. That is, till he saw the cage levitating right by Discord. Seeing this, Flash slumped back down in the clarinet, groaning to himself. "Darn it...is this possible?" he questioned, looking at the blade in his hoof as he did. "I mean, I know his magic can't hurt me but...I can't even land a hit on this guy! And he's got Springer!"
"I don't want to hear that defeatist attitude."
Flash's eyes shot open as he lifted his head and looked around. "Springer?" He asked, recognizing the voice. "What the-where are you?"
"In that cage Discord put me in," Springer's voice replied.
"But how can I hear you?" Flash asked in confusion.
"I don't know," Springer replied, "I just kind of...know that you can. Maybe our aura connection has grown stronger. Though that doesn't really help us right now."
"Yeah, I agree buddy." Flash said as he picked himself up, "how do I fight something that can turn the world upside down?"
"There has to be some-look out!"
Flash went still as he glanced out the clarinet again, only to see Discord floating close by. He held his breath, hoping for Discord to simply pass by him.
"Marco," the Sprit of Chaos said out loud as he looked around. "Polo."
Flash's heart raced as he drew closer and close.
"Marco," his foot stomped into view just outside the clarinet, before stepping away. "Polo."
As he walked away, Flash finally felt safe enough to breathe.
"You can't hide forever Sentry, so come on out and let me win so I can get back to my chaos. You know, the thing I'm supposed to do instead of playing around with a wannabe knight and his pooch!"
"Geez," Springer commented, "guy sure loves to hear himself talk, doesn't he?"
"Yeah..." Flash nodded in response, only for a lightbulb to go off in his head. "Wait...I like to talk too."
"Come out come out whereever you are," Discord yelled, flying over the clarinet again. The draconequus then opened the clarinet with a snap of his fingers, only to see nothing inside. "Hmm...not here either. Did he run away?" Discord looked back at the cage right by him, shaking his head as he did. "No, he wouldn't abandon you. So why isn't he trying to get me? Did I knock him out?"
Meanwhile, Flash had escaped the giant instrument a few seconds ago. He had then began sneaking around, hiding behind several other ridiculous things as he did. He was now behind a large stack of pancakes, which Discord was about to float by. "Alright, let's try this out." Flash whispered as he grabbed the bottom pancake, pulling it halfway out, causing the whole tower to begin to topple towards the draconequus.
Discord saw the pancakes begin to fall, warping away before the tower even got close to falling onto him. A second later, the draconequus reappeared and looked around the fallen stack, trying to see what made it fall. Looking at the bottom one, he saw that it had a large chunk bitten out of it.
"I think you need to retry your recipe."
Discord looked around for the one who said that, but he couldn't quite locate it.
"The overall taste's okay, but its missing that real kick. You know, maybe some actual good maple syrup."
"What is-where are you?!" Discord asked as he continued to look around, growling.
"You should ask Pinkie for her recipe...oh that's right, you can't because you made her a party pooper."
"Where are you?! Come out and face me!"
"That's for me to know!" Suddenly a Flash Cutter attack flew at Discord from the left, causing him to warp away for an instant while the attack soared past. Once it had, Discord warped over to where it had originated, a Lego statue of himself standing atop a pile of ponies. At least, it was supposed to be, since the statue of Discord was cut to pieces. Discord's eyes narrowed at the sight, growling as he did, only to hear Flash's voice from somewhere else. "And for you to wonder."
Discord slowly turned around, a deranged smirk on his face. "Alright, you made your point funny guy! Real funny..."
"Can't say the same for you. I haven't laughed once this entire time, and everypony thinks I have a great funny bone." Flash replied before shooting a Flash Vortex. Discord barely managed to block it, the surprise causing him to put up a simple barrier.
"Annoying little brat!" Discord hissed once the attack had faded. "Come out right now!" he yelled as he conjured a bomb and threw it at where the Flash Vortex had come from, causing an explosion.
"What's the matter? Can't hit the broad side of the good old chaos barn?" Flash's voice replied from another spot.
"Shut your mouth!" Discord cried out as he created a whole bunch of swords and fired them in every direction. "No one makes fun of me, no one!"
Flash had been hiding behind a card tower when the swords started raining down. He quickly ducked for cover, just barely dodging the blades. Seeing the anger build in Discord, Flash just chuckled to himself.
"Oops! Looks like you missed again. Too bad!" Flash commented, only to see Discord yell again, throwing a barrage of bombs now. A few explosions later, Flash continued the taunts. "Missed again! Looks like the old stone statue bit made you loose your aim. That or you never had any lessons to begin with. Though to be fair, you're not that good with the chaos stuff anyways, are you? I mean, there's nothing but junk that's not even worth mentioning around here and you still can't find me." He then fired off another Flash Cutter as he quickly left his current location.
"Oh shut up!" Discord yelled as he blocked the attack, summoning several lightning rods, which struck out a series of electric beams around him. "Don't think you can upstage me colt! I am chaos incarnate!"
"No, I think you're just whiny baby who can't seem to figure out who he really is." Flash jabbed back, firing off another attack as he hopped to another hiding spot. "Yeah...I think I'm right. You're just a clown who doesn't get how to cope with anypony."
"Don't play psycho analyst with me birdbrain." Discord hissed, summoning more and more things, all of them destroying everything he could see as he blocked another one of Flash's attacks. "I am chaos! There's no way you can understand the beauty of my power."
"Oh yeah? Is that why you chose to make Ponyville the chaos capital instead of Canterlot?" Flash commented back, letting out another chuckle. "You know, because its an easier place to set up shop than a city full of humorless tightwads?"
"What do you know?" Discord replied, this time not summoning anything this time except a barrier around his body.
"I know that the real reason you're doing all this is because all you want is attention. That's all you really wanted, isn't it?"
"I'm not hearing this..." Discord muttered, his ear twitching as he began to concentrate.
"Wake up, you oversized jigsaw puzzle! Isn't it obvious?" Flash joked, changing hiding spots again. "You just want someone to laugh at your dumb old chaos, which makes perfect sense as to why you would leave Canterlot. The whole place is nothing but humorless droning nobles...that and stone-faced guards." Flash spun Lightbringer in his hoof as he readied another jab. "Though to be fair, I'm a guy who can laugh at anything and I'm not finding you to be in the least funny. At all."
"Shut up," Discord replied, his voice raising as he did. "Shut up!"
"I mean, look at what chaos is to you!" Flash giggled as he began to summon another attack from his blade. "There's chocolate rain, cotton candy clouds, animals with slightly longer legs...yeah, I know what that is." Flash smirked as he yelled his next words. "Boring! that's what it is! Where's your A material? You have all this power and you can't even be remotely funny?!"
"Show yourself!" Discord ordered, "come out and face me right now!"
"You make me laugh, but only because I think you're kind of pathetic." With that, he started laughing, the sound of it causing Discord to literally turn red.
"Cut it out," he called out, but the laughing continued and grow louder. "Stop that!"
"What's the matter? Can't take a joke?" Flash commented, seeing a window of opportunity as Discord's barrier suddenly disappeared, his rage now making him lose focus. "Or are you mad because the only funny joke I can find with you is that you're a big old baby?"
"Stop it," he cried, plugging his ears with his horns. "Stop laughing at me! Stop it right now!"
"Why?! Don't you want ponies to laugh at your stuff?"
"I SAID SHUT UP!" Discord screamed, his rage finally peaking. That is, till the corner of his eye saw a bright flash of light. He turned to face it, only to see a Flash Force attack already charging for him. However, before he could block it, the attack struck the draconequus, knocking him out of the sky and into a nearby hill of mashed potatoes. "RRRAAAUUUUGGHHHH!"
Flash smiled, seeing the hit he had finally managed. This was his weakness. Discord could dish it out, but he couldn't take it.
However, as Flash turned to the hill of mashed potatoes, he saw something that he didn't like the look of. The potatoes were smoking, as if something underneath them was burning. Suddenly, the pile exploded with a tremendous explosion and underneath was Discord, looking surprisingly similar to Twilight when he once spilled a drink on her book, his hair flaming and his eyes were on fire.
"Uh oh," Flash gulped. "That's not good."
Discord's entire body glowed before tightening his fist and slamming it into the ground. Said ground began to glow all around him, making Flash feel uneasy. His feeling made sense, as the ground around the pegasus suddenly exploded, causing him to get knocked back into the air.
The explosion could be seen for miles, as the explosion looked like a giant mushroom of smoke.
However, when the smoke cleared, Flash could be seen on the ground with several scraps and bruises on his body. The pegasus tried to get up, but his legs were completely incapable of holding his weight. Looking up, he saw Lightbringer a few feet away and slowly crawled towards it. But as he soon as he got his hoof around the handle, a cloven hoof stepped on the blade.
Flash quickly looked up and saw Discord glaring down at him.
"Game over," he said darkly, before snapping his fingers. A metal rope appeared, quickly wrapping around Flash, lifting him into the air and slowly squeezing him.
"I'll admit that you were a worthy adversary," Discord said as the ropes began to tighten, "nopony's gotten a hit like that on me in some time. But in the end, I always have the last laugh."
Flash could felt nothing but pain as this happened. Despite this, he opened his eyes and stared at Discord, only to see something behind him that made him smirk. Seeing this, Discord's eyebrows hopped up slightly. "Hmm? What's this?"
Flash opened his mouth, but no sound came out despite his lips moving. Curious as to what he said, Discord slightly loosened the ropes, "What was that bird boy? What did you just say?"
"Ha...ha."
Before Discord could figure out what he meant by that, a searing pain struck his back as a purple colored beam hit him. As the draconequus yelled in pain, Flash felt the ropes around him loosen even more. Letting his body go limp, he was able to slide out his restraints and fall to the ground, where Lightbringer still sat. Quickly grabbing it, Flash did the one thing he had the energy to do and slashed at Discord's scaly green leg, slicing it clean off.
Discord one again roared in pain, hoping around on one foot as he did. Flash then tried to move, only to feel his body start to let out again. Despite this, he gave himself a moment to catch his breath before running towards the earlier familiar sights.
"Flash! Are you okay?" Twilight yelled as she and the others, now back to their original colors and wearing their Elements, rushed over to him.
"Girls!" He cried out as they got closer, "you're back to normal!"
"You bet we are," Rainbow said with a loop the loop.
"Ya'h can thank Twilight for that," Applejack added.
"She made us see the light," Rarity continued.
"Yep yep yep!" Pinkie said happily as she bounced around.
"We're really sorry for how we acted," Fluttershy finished.
"No apology needed. It wasn't your fault." He then turned to Twilight, a smirk on his face. "How'd you manage to fix them?"
Twilight just blushed. "Like you said, I needed to remember all the great things about my friends. You can thank Princess Celestia for that." Her horn then glowed as a familiar helmet appeared in front of her. "So, you willing to forgive us and help finally put an end to this?"
Flash shook his head. "I can't forgive you."
The others all frowned at this, but then Flash took the helmet and placed it on his head. "Because there's nothing to forgive. It wasn't your fault over what happened," he turned and glared at Discord, "it was his!"
Discord had finally managed to reattach his foot, before turning and seeing the seven ponies standing in a line with the Elements of Harmony. He moaned and rolled his eyes, "Oh come on! Why are you all here? Wasn't your friendship and all that junk over?!"
"Not a chance, ya varmit!" Applejack barked back, "you couldn't break up our friendship for long! We'll beat you right here!"
"Oh Applejack, don't lie to me," Discord said as he pointed a glowing finger at the earth pony, who was quickly pulled towards him. "I'm the one who made you a liar," he said as his other hand glowed. Flash suddenly felt his helmet begin to fly off him, causing him to hold it down and get pulled along with it. The other girls, minus Twilight, followed suit, and soon they were all floating close to him. "Don't you ever learn? I'm in control here!"
However, before Discord could say anything else, a purple bubble appeared around the others, protecting them from Discord's magic. It was Twilight, who had used her magic to encompass all of them in one go. With this, the bubble she controlled started to float backwards, away from Discord. Once they had floated back to a reasonable distance, the bubble popped and they landed back onto the ground.
"I'll tell you what we've learned Discord," Twilight replied, glaring at the monster. "We've learned that friendship isn't always easy, but there's no doubt that its worth fighting for."
"Maybe if you had a friend, you'd see that." Flash added, pointing his blade at the draconequus after he put the helmet back on. "This is your last chance. Return Ponyville and the rest of Equestria back to normal, or suffer the consequences."
Discord just made a gagging motion. "Oh please, friendship is nothing compared to the powers I possess. But since I've seen how annoying you ponies can really be today," Discord hissed, glaring at Flash. "I think I'll just finish you all right here. I need my chaos fix, and you blasted ponies have been delaying that all day long." Discord then 'cricked' his neck, which was him actually twisting his neck into a loop before straightening. "Time's up ponies! I'm winning today!"
Flash however, just smirked as he rested Lightbringer on his shoulder. "Aw, what's the matter? Just admitted you can't take the heat? I mean, if you had just said that earlier, I wouldn't have made fun of you so much and-"
"Shut your mouth!" Discord interrupted, snapping his fingers as several cannons appeared behind him. "I'm getting rid of you right now!"
"Oh please, cannons again?" Flash mocked back, causing Discord to shoot cartoonish steam out of his ears. "You do realize you can't even hit the side of the chaos barn, right?"
"Shut up!"
As Twilight saw the distraction Flash was now making, she took a battle stance. "Alright everypony, let's show him what friendship can really do!" The others nodded and took battle stances as well....except for Pinkie, who was currently missing from the group. "What the-where's Pinkie?"
"Over here!" They all looked around until the saw Pinkie, who was now underneath a cotton candy cloud, her mouth wide open and gulping down chocolate milk rain. Once she had her fill, she licked her lips and groaned in delight. "Mmmm...that's good stuff right there."
"You finished?" Twilight asked in a deadpan tone. Pinkie didn't reply. Instead, she simply ran back over and growled like a dog at Discord. Twilight took that as her cue and closed her eyes, focusing on her Element. The crown began to glow brightly as a field of magic surrounded them.
As the magic covered them, Flash noticed it as well and smirked. "Looks like my distraction worked. Too bad for you Discord."
"What are you-" Discord stammered, as he was still summoning more cannons in a fit rage despite forgetting to use them. It was here that he saw the Elements begin to glow, and the aura around the seven began to intensify. "No...not again!"
But it was too late.
Twilight's eyes shot open, now pure white as she and the others all began to float off the ground. A brilliant burst of light shot out of them, as the seven Elements shot out a different coloured beam of magic, which combined to form a rainbow. The rainbow shot upwards before descending back down towards Discord.
"NO!" Discord screamed as he was struck by the spell. Slowly, his body began to grow stiff, as his tail suddenly turned to stone. The petrification then began to take effect, as it then covered the rest of his body.
The once master of chaos was nothing but a statue again.
Once that was done, the rainbow exploded, sending a magical energy wave across the land. The light itself began to purify the land, turning everything back to normal. They had done it, chaos had lost this day.
As the light began to fade, Flash and the girls descended to the ground. The seven all let out sighs of relief as they saw Discord standing there, his body still petrified. They began to look around, only to see that Ponyville was back to normal. Seeing this, Flash turned to the girls. "Good job, I think we won!"
"Yeah, thank goodness." Twilight replied, wiping some sweat off her forehead.
"Flash!" The pegasus turned to see Springer running up to him, having been freed from his cage.
"Springer!" Flash said as his partner tackled him to the ground in a hug.
"You did it! You saved me!"
"Heh heh, it was nothing buddy." Flash chuckled as he patted Springer on the head. Springer then helped him up, as Flash was now feeling the pure exhaustion he was supposed to be feeling from the earlier battle. "Thanks partner. I don't know about you, but I'm pooped."
"Yeah, I noticed." Twilight remarked as he walked up to him. "You were reckless again, weren't you? I thought you promised to stop being so reckless!"
Flash just shrugged, blushing. "I didn't know what else to do Twilight. Sorry."
"Eh, its fine." Twilight sighed, the others all watching the scene, winking at each other as they did.
That is, except Pinkie, who then asked everyone, "Hey everypony, we did win, right?"
"Er...yeah? I'm pretty sure we did Pinkie." Flash replied, pointing to Discord's statue as the others nodded in agreement.
"Good." Pinkie's eyebrows hopped up and down before a giant smile popped onto her face. "You know what that means, right?"
The girls just smiled, instantly knowing where she was going. Flash on the other hoof, had no idea. "What do you mean Pinkie?"
"Victory party!" Pinkie exclaimed, confetti flying out of her mane. The others just started laughing, knowing that a party was in their future. Seeing their laughter, Pinkie cheered, "That's more like it! My laughter is back!"
"Sounds good to me." Flash remarked before raising his hoof into the air. "You heard her girls. Let's celebrate our victory!"
"Hear hear!" the others replied, all of them cheering now. They had won. They seven friends had overcome the Spirit of Chaos, foiled his plans and saved all of Equestria.
"WE DID IT!"
Author's Note
I hope you enjoyed the fight scene. Just one chapter to go.
Flash Sentry, Chaos and Disharmony
Several days had passed since Discord's defeat.
Despite the Elements of Harmony managing to reverse all the chaos Discord had created, they were unable to repair the normal things that had been damaged by the chaotic creations. Celestia and Luna were working to organize the repairs to most of Equestria, with some cities already having plans on how to fix themselves. Twilight had been put in charge of organizing Ponyville's restoration, which had been completed the previous day.
As for Flash, he was happy to see that none of his friends had any lingering side effects from Discord's trickery, and they didn't hold any negative feelings over what they all had said and done to each other while enchanted. The last few days had been helpful in this regard, as they quickly banded together in the relief effort as well. The element bearers were back to being friends again, something that was desperately needed after the events.
Right now though, they had other things to focus on since the repairs to Ponyville had just been finished. The princesses had summoned the seven to Canterlot, which caused Twilight to almost have a panic attack, mainly due to her thinking that Celestia would punish her for not repairing Ponyville quick enough. Thankfully, Flash had been able to calm her down, with some help from the tea Fluttershy had made.
The seven were now waiting outside the main hall, ready to see why Celestia had summoned them.
"So...what do you think this is about?" Rainbow asked out loud. "Think we're getting an award for kicking Discord's flank?"
"If that's the case, I better get the biggest award." Flash mocked back, a slight groan in his voice. "I took a beating compared to you girls."
"Yeah yeah, sure." Rainbow replied, rolling her eyes. "I'm pretty sure I was the most awesome in this whole thing. I better get a double awesome award!"
"Rainbow, despite your...boasting," Rarity commented with a roll of her eyes as well. "I'm pretty sure Twilight and Flash should be rewarded the most. They were the ones that saved all of us from the...horrid versions of ourselves." She shivered at those last words.
"Ah agree." Applejack nodded, tilting her Stetson hat. "We owe it all to them. We woulda lost otherwise."
Twilight slightly blushed before shaking her head. "That's not true Applejack, we all did this together. Even if some of us played bigger parts, we only won because we all worked together in the end."
The others nodded in agreement to Twilight's statement. As they did, the doors to the hall they were standing in opened, revealing the room beyond. There, the seven's eyes went wide, as they saw a room jam packed with many different ponies. They looked at each other for a second, trying not to gape at the sight. Then, as if on cue, Twilight and Flash began to lead the group inside.
As they walked in, they began to see many of their friends in the crowd. Night Light, Twilight Velvet, Trixie and Moondancer were just a few to name in the mass of ponies. Gorgenia, Wild Smile and Solid Script were there as well, though in the back, away from most other ponies. Seeing this, they soon reached a spot in front of Celestia, Luna and Cadance, which was on a small stage. There, they saw Springer, Spike and Grand Hoof, just off to the side of the stage. Grand Hoof nodded to his apprentice as they made eye contact, Springer doing the same as well.
The three princesses then looked down at the seven young ponies, smiling with pride and gratitude as they did so, before turning to the rest of the room.
"We are gathered here today," Celestia announced, causing the crowd to go silent, staring at the regal princess. "to once again honor the heroism of these seven friends who stood up to the villain Discord, and saved Equestria from eternal chaos."
The crowd cheered, happy that their protectors had once again triumphed over the evil that threatened their land.
"This will be a day for all of Equestria to remember," Luna called out, "a day which will stand as a reminder of the power that the Magic of Friendship possesses."
In that moment, Cadance's horn glowed and magically opened a pair of curtains, which revealed a new stain glass window. Said window was depicting Discord with a surprised look on his face, while the image of seven young ponies that could be seen at the bottom, wielding their Elements at the monster. The seven friends smiled as they saw the image, before turning towards the crowd, who were all cheering for them.
This went on for a few minutes, until Celestia spoke once again. "As a celebration for this heroic act, we will be holding a gala dinner in these ponies' honors."
The seven all cheered after hearing this. It seemed that things were truly back to normal.
Several hours later...
The gala was in full swing. Though it appeared at the last minute, the ponies found it to be quite the spectacle. The same musicians from the fall formal were playing music, while ponies conversed about their experiences during the chaos storm.
"And then when I got out of bed," Fancy Pants explained to a group of already giggling ponies, "I tried to go down my stairs, only to discover that I wasn't moving. Turns out, my staircase had been transformed into an escalator!"
Everypony chuckled after hearing this. As they all laughed, Twilight Velvet walked into the middle of crowd, ready to give her own chaotic encounter tale next. More tales soon followed as everypony continued to laugh at the past few days.
That is, expect for one pony.
It was Flash, who was currently sitting outside on a nearby balcony. He was watching Luna magically bring out the stars, his eyes staring at the black sky with a look of pure thought. Despite the merriment that was going on inside, the young pegasus didn't feel like joining. He had too much on his mind.
"Flash?" He turned around to see his friends stepping out of the gala hall and trotting over to him. "Are you alright?" Twilight asked him.
"Yeah..." Flash said in a melancholy tone, turning back around to look back up at the sky. "Just decided to do a little stargazing."
"Ya do realize ah can tell when yer lyin, right?" Applejack told him.
Flash just sighed, knowing he was caught.
"Whatever is the matter darling?" Rarity asked him.
"Yeah," Rainbow added with a nod, "we beat Discord and everything's awesome again."
"I know," Flash replied, still not looking at his friends.
"Then why aren't you smiling?" Pinkie cried, her lip quivering with a big frown on her face.
"You're not still mad at us for how we acted, are you?" Fluttershy asked timidly.
Flash shook his head, a small smile on his face. "Oh course not. I told you that there was nothing to forgive about that. It wasn't your fault."
"Then what's wrong?" Twilight asked as she stepped up and sat next to him. "Please, we want to help."
Flash just sighed and looked back up at the sky.
"It's not you girls, its just...its just me." The girls all raised an eyebrow at this, confused by what he meant. Seeing this, Flash continued, "Discord's magic barely had any effect on me. I mean, he had to really try when he took my wings and when he tried to corrupt me..."
Twilight tilted her head as she asked, "Wait a minute, you told me that it didn't work because you remembered all the great things about your friends. The same way we fought it off, right?"
"Yeah," Flash nodded before staring at his hooves, "but I didn't just remember it. Someone or some...thing showed me visions of my past, all the good things that came from all my friendships. And that's what worries me." He looked back up at the sky, spotting the constellation of Orion as it appeared. "This isn't the first time that something unusual has happened to me..." he said, his voice slightly trembling. "A few instances like this have already occurred and...and I don't understand it at all. Its like...its like I'm something that shouldn't be a pony."
Flash's friends all shared a glance at each other, before turning back to him. A second later, the whole group began to hug him. As they did, Twilight spoke up. "It doesn't matter what this thing is Flash. It doesn't change the fact that you're our friend."
"Darn tootin," Applejack added.
"You know it," Rainbow continued.
"Absolutely darling," Rarity said.
"Yep yep yep," Pinkie cheered.
"We're all friends," Fluttershy finished.
Flash just smiled after hearing this.
"Whatever this thing is, we'll figure it out together." Twilight said as they pulled out of the hug, "And if it turns out that this something dangerous, then we'll deal with it together. Got it?" The others just nodded in agreement. "Now, no more being sad, alright?"
Flash smiled back and nodded, before turning back towards the gala hall. "You're right." he replied before letting out a small chuckle. "Come on girls, we can't be missing our own party, can we?"
The others all nodded before heading back inside.
As Flash reentered the hall, he thought back on what his friends had said. They were right. Whatever it was that caused Flash to be immune from Discord's magic, it didn't matter. It didn't change him and he knew one day that he would learn the truth.
But until that day, he wouldn't worry about it.
Author's Note
And that's that. The third story in my Flash Sentry Chronicles comes to a close. Next up, Flash Sentry Defender of the Peace S2.