Discord's Return (PART 1)
Legend says, one thousand years ago, there were six ponies who formed a group called the Elements of Harmony. Five of these ponies' names are lost to history.But the sixth is Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic. The other elements are Generosity, Laughter, Honesty, Kindness, and Loyalty. These six ponies had saved Equestria on multiple occasions. Not much is known about these ponies anymore, save that they were once near and dear friends of Princess Twilight.
It was a beautiful day in Canterlot, which was now a small town compared to the capitol, Ponyville. An orange unicorn with a white-and-black mane was sitting under a tree with a book.
"Elements of Harmony... I know I've heard of those somewhere." she remarked, as she put a hoof up to her chin. She got up, and started running down the road.. "I'll have to go home, and see if I have any books that might expla-
Somewhere in the palace, Twilight sneezed.
-in them." About a minute into her dash home, she ran into three ponies. One was a mint green pegasus, who had a silver mane, and a thundercloud cutie mark. Another was a light pink unicorn with a red mane, and a flame cutie mark. The third one was a TARDIS-blue Earth Pony with a yellow mane and pocket watch cutie mark. Their names were Lightning Dash, Firebolt, and Clockwork respectively.
"Hey, Sonata!" Clockwork said, and waved, "Firefly's having a party tonight! Want to come?"
"Sorry, girls, I have a lot of studying to catch up on!" As Sonata walked away, the three mares looked at each other.
"I think she's more obsessed with her music than her friends." Firebolt said.
Sonata madly dashed to her small cottage, on the edge of Canterlot. "One thousand years ago..." she thought. Sonata flung open the door, and shouted, "Slabstone! Slabstone!" She paused a bit. "Slabstone, where are you?" She somehow neglected to look right in front of her.. "Slabstone! There you are! I need you to get me a book on the Elements of Harmony."
"On it." the little gray dragon said. Sonata joined in the search, levitating books to and fro with her seafom-green magic.
"No, no, no, no, NO!" Sonata shouted, and pushed the books away. She then noticed a hefty tome sitting open on the glass table. "What's this?" she thought out loud. "Slabstone, why is this open to Mental Stability?" She chuckled. "Oh, well. E, E, E, E, E, Ah! Elements of Harmony." she read aloud. "See... Discord?" Confused, she flipped the book to Discord's page, and on that page there was a detailed drawing of a chimera-like creature covering the whole page. It had a pony's head, a goat horn, a deer antler, a lion paw, an eagle talon, a lizard-like right leg, a goat left leg, and a large fang on the right side. "Discord is a being of pure chaos who once ruled the land in a state of disharmony. He broke out once more about one thousand years ago, but was sealed away in stone using the Elements of Harmony. Prophecy says he will break out exactly one thousand years after he was imprisoned. Slabstone, do you know what this means?"
"No, what?"
"We have to tell the princesses right away! Take a letter." The gray dragon took out a scroll from seemingly nowhere. She wrote down exactly what Sonata said, in preparation to send it to the princess. "Dear Princess Celestia, it is imperative that you read this message now. I fear Discord may break out soon, and we need to get ready right away, and find the Elements of Harmony. Your faithful student, Sonata."
A couple seconds later, Slabstone exclaimed, "Done!" He blew a spout of blue fire at the scroll, which evaporated into a light-blue mist, and flew out the window. "Sent!"
"Now, we wait."
A couple minutes later, Slabstone burped out a scroll with a lavender star seal on it. "Ah, that was quick!" Slabstone unraveled the scroll, and read aloud what it said. "I am sorry, Sonata, but you must stop reading those dusty, old myth books! I think you should go to Ponyville, and check on the Summer Sun Celebration preparations. I have arranged for you to stay in a library, to which the key of is concealed in the envelope I sent. I have sent a chariot which will arrive shortly to take you there. Meanwhile, make some friends!" Two Pegasi guards flew down, and landed next to the door. She calmly stepped in the chariot, and Slabstone jumped in after her. It was roughly a half-hour ride to get to Ponyville, now the capital of Equestria.
"Wow, this city sure is beautiful, isn't it, Slabstone?"
"Sure is. Hey, I think that's the library!" Slabstone exclaimed, as she pointed at the tree-house.
"Eeyup," one of the guards said. They began the semi-slow descent to the entrance of the library.
"Thank you, sirs." Sonata gave each of them a 5-bit tip. She began walking down the road, to check on the preparations. "Slabs, first thing on the checklist."
"Hmm... Decorations, at Sugarcube Corner!"
They were standing in front of Sugarcube Corner, about to walk in, when a white and pink Pegasus interrupted them. The pegasus walked up next to them. They turned to face her. Unsure of what to say, she meekly said, "Um... Hi?" The white pegasus gasped and floated up, and dashed off in the opposite direction. "Okay, then..." She walked into the store, and stated to the ponies inside, "Hello, I am Sonata, and I've come to check on the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. The decorations seem to be coming nicely," she remarked, looking around.
"Yes, we've worked our hardest to make them perfect," the yellow-and-gold mare at the front asked.
"We'll be leaving now, if you don't mind." Slabstone politely said.
"It's no trouble at all, dear!"
"Now, we have to check on Baking, at Lemon Cream Acres." The two happily walked to the lemon tree fields. Two minutes later, they had gone to the entrance of the lemon fields. A yellow cowpony with an orange mane was running. "We've got visitors!" she said, and dashed over to the soup pot. She grabbed the ladle, and made a banging noise loud enough for the whole farm to hear. "SOUP'S ON, EVERYPONY!" Just like that, a whole family of lemon farmers ran to the entrance of the farm.
The cowpony started to introduce everyone to Sonata. "Hiya, I'm Lemondrop!" She named a plethora of other ponies, all name after something lemon-related. She took a big breath, and said, "Dorshapo, Ponderosa, and... Lemon Tart."
"*snort*Huh-wha-soup's on!" the elderly yellow farm pony said, and walked over.
"It would be really nice to stay, but we have to go."
"But aren't you gonna stay for brunch?" Ponderosa, the red filly with the yellow mane asked.
"Sorry, but we really have to go." Hearing this, the whole family let out a sad, "Aw..." "Okay, I guess we can stay a little longer."
"YAAAY!"
Sonata groaned. "I don't think I'll be able to eat anything else for the day..."
"Next, we have Music, from a pony named Nebula!" As soon as Slabstone said this, they heard a theme usually played to reveal something, played on violin and piano.
"Hello?" Sonata said. The dark-blue Earth Pony looked over at her, with small red glasses. "Um, your music sounds really wonderful, we're just checking up on the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration."
"Oh, yes, of course, that," the dark blue pony mumbled, straightening her glasses. "Right, yes, quite so. You can leave now, I assure you, we have everything under control."
"Okay, that's done! Now, we have to check on Scenery, at the Town Hall!"
They walked into the town hall, and Slabstone said, "Aren't the decorations gorgeous?"
"Yes, they certainly are. This pony has done her job well." Sonata remarked, looking at the pony setting up the decorations.
"No, too sparkly. No, not sparkly enough. Aha! Rubies always does it perfectly."
"Hello, we've come from Canterlot to check on the Summer Sun Celebration."
"Oh, hello! I'm Ivory, Ponyville's local jeweler."
"That's nice, it seems like the scenery is going wonderfully!"
"Oh, isn't it just!"
"Yes... We should get going now."
"Now we only need to check on the weatherpony, who's supposed to be keeping the sky clear." Slabstone looked up and saw it was nowhere near clear, raining in some parts, even.
"Um... Hi?" A blue pegasus flew down. "Um, I'm working on clearing out the storm, it shouldn't take more than a minute..." she said, in a voice that rivaled that of Fluttershy.
"Oh, hello! What's your name?"
"Thundershine..."
"Sorry, what?"
"Thundershine..."
"Didn't quite catch that."
"Thundershine..."
"Uh, Anyway," Sonata said, "Slabstone, we should be getting home now." Slabstone walked out from behind the bush.
"A baby dragon! Ooh, I've never seen a baby dragon before! What's her name?"
"I'm Slabstone!"
"Ooh, you can talk! I've never talked with a dragon before! What do dragons talk about?"
"Well, what do you want to know?"
"Absolutely everything!"
Sonata sighed.
"And that's the entire story of my life, up until today," Slabstone exclaimed. "Do you want to hear about today?"
"Oh, yes, please!"
"Oh my, we seem to have gotten home so quickly," Sonata sighed. "And look, Slabby's so tired he can't keep his widdle balance!"
"Oh, we simply must get her to bed!"
"Yes, I'll take care of that, thank you." Sonata remarked, and walked in.
"Rude, much?"
"I'm sorry, but I have to let the princess know Discord is coming back, and we're running out of time! Now where's the light?"
"SURPRISE!" the crowd yelled, as the lights switched on. There were four ponies standing in front of the crowd, the ones she had met earlier. Thundershine flew down and landed next to them.
"Hi, I'm Cotton Fluff, and I threw this party just for you! Were you surprised? Were ya, were ya, huh, huh, huh?"
"Very surprised! Libraries are supposed to be quiet."
"Well, what kind of a surprise party would it be if it were quiet,? I mean, duh, BO-RING! You see, I was here when you first got here, you were all 'Hello', and I was all *GASP* You see, I never saw you before..." At that point, Sonata stopped caring about what the white pegasus said. "See? And now you have lots and lots of friends!"
"All the ponies in this town are CRAZY!" Sonata yelled, and ran off to her room.
A couple minutes later, Slabstone came in. "Cotton's starting Pin the Tail on the Pony! Wanna play?"
"NO! Do you know what time it is?"
"It's the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration! Everypony has to stay up, or they'll miss the princess raise the sun! You really should lighten up, Sonata. It's a party!"
"Here I thought I would get to learn more about the Elements of Harmony. But, Silly me, all this ridiculous friend-making has kept me from it!" She walked over to the window. "Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in his escape, and it will be chaos eternal. I hope the princess was right. I hope he's just an old pony tale..."
"Come on, Sonata! It's time to watch the sun rise!"
The room was, for lack of a better word, crowded. Some pegasi even had to fly for space. Of course, this was to be expected. It was the 2,000th anniversary of the Summer Sun Celebration.
"Are you excited, cause I'm excited, I mean really, I've never been more excited, except when I saw you in the street, but I mean really, who can top that?" Cotton Fluff was actually vibrating. "Wow. Some ponies are just crazy." Sonata thought. The violin and piano duet played the opening song for the Summer Sun Celebration.
"Fillies and Gentlecolts, as mayor of Ponyville, it is my duty to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!" As to be expected, the crowd was cheering. Very, very loud. "In just a few moments, our city will experience the magic of the sunrise of the longest day of the year! And now, it is my pleasure to introduce to you the ruler of the land, The bringer of the sun each day, the bringer of harmony for all of Equestria, Princess Celestia!" The curtain was pulled, and...
Nothing. Nopony was on the stage. There were gasps, and shocked cries. Of course, that was to be expected when an Alicorn that moves the Sun disappears. "This can't be good."
"Remain calm, everypony. I'm sure there's an explanation."
"Ooh, I love guessing games! Is she hiding?" Cotton Fluff asked.
"She's gone!" remarked Ivory. There were more shocked gasps from the crowd.
"Ooh, she's good! Aah!" There was a bright flash of light, and a chimera-like creature appeared.
"Oh, no!" Sonata whispered under her breath."Discord!" Slabstone fainted, and fell off of Sonata's back. Surprisingly, she didn't notice this.
"Hello, my little subjects. It's been so long since I've seen your precious little order-loving faces." he hissed.
"What did you do with our princess?!" Nebula challenged, and ran up to her. Lemondrop grabbed her tail to stop her.
Discord let out an evil chuckle. "Does my crown no longer count that I've been gone for a thousand years? Do you not know who I am? Do you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?"
"I did, and I know who you are. You're the Bringer of Chaos, Discord."
"Well, well, well," he chortled. "Somepony remembers me. Then you also know why I'm here." He teleported closer to Sonata.
"You're here to... *gulp* plunge the world into eternal chaos!"
"Right you are! From this moment forth, Chaos will last, FOREVER!"
