Chapters Twilight Sparkle,
Your presence is immediately required in the royal castle of Canterlot. You are to come alone, without your friends, or your dragon companion. This is a matter of the utmost importance. Tardiness will not be tolerated.
-Princess Luna
It was the fifth time that Twilight Sparkle read the letter. She had never received a letter from Princess Luna before and to be completely honest, she didn't know what to make of it. Twilight was surprised that Luna had contacted her, even more so that she insisted that Twilight come alone. Twilight wondered what exactly the former Mare in the Moon wanted from her.
To this day she didn’t know what to make of Luna. The Princess was a rather difficult mare to read and it didn’t help matters that Luna had the tendency to slip back to the old ways of speaking – causing her voice to boom so loud that the earth trembled beneath her hooves. To make matters a bit more complicated, Luna’s personality was completely different than any other pony Twilight had ever met. She was a very terse, sharp-spoken mare who preferred to demand instead of request. Twilight thought back to her mentor and smirked. To be completely honest, Twilight would have never suspected that Luna and Celestia were sisters. Whereas Celestia tended to be more soft-spoken and patient, her younger sister had a more serious, quick-tempered personality. They truly were opposites; as different as night and day. She just prayed that Luna was in a good mood. She really didn’t want to put earplugs in her ears just to talk to the Princess.
She set the scroll aside and peaked out of the carriage window. The entire city of
Canterlot was a'bustling with activity. If this had been any other day, she’d reminisce of all the time spent in the library; flipping through books and scrolls, sending letters to her parents and the Princess, trying to master a new spell before school let out. Those memories would have to wait, however, as today her mind was focused on Luna’s urgent words. Whenever Princess Celestia summoned Twilight to the palace, it meant that there was an evil force that needed vanquishing. This did not bother Twilight for she knew that as long as she had the Elements of Harmony, that she and her friends could vanquish any foe.
Still...
Why was it Luna who had sent the letter and not her older sister? That was the million-bit question. Twilight had very little experience with Princess Luna, outside of vanquishing her as Nightmare Moon and the evening spent during Nightmare Night, Luna was a mare who kept to herself. In fact, Twilight couldn’t remember a time in which she had seen Luna inside of the palace. Twilight had always suspected that it was because Luna was the guardian of the night, thus she would only be out after the sun had set. If those suspicions were correct, the fact that Luna wished to meet with Twilight during the afternoon meant that whatever it was the Princess wanted was of the utmost importance.
"Almost there," the carriage driver called out. Twilight sighed in relief. Now she would get the answers to all her questions. The carriage pulled up before the palace entrance where two white stallions stood in full battle armor. Twilight hopped out of the carriage and moved to gather her travel bag but a guard stepped in her way. “Your things will be delivered to your room,” he said in a stern voice. “Follow me.” He and another guard led Twilight into the palace. She was tempted to ask them what was going on, but the stern, solemn expressions on their faces changed her mind.
They took her through a wing of the palace that she had never seen before. Whereas the rooms she normally frequented were bright and colorful, these rooms were rather dark and eerie; painted with deep blues and purples. She could see the constellations of the stars were painted upon the sea of darkness, and upon the ceiling were the phases of the moon, with a New Moon resting just above a throne of ebony and obsidian. Lounging upon the throne on her stomach was none other than Princess Luna herself.
Twilight fought to keep control of her fear. Luna was a friend now. She wanted nothing more than her subjects to treat her as they did Celestia, with kindness and love. Still, it was pretty hard not to be intimidated when standing before a mare of such cold beauty. Her sapphire eyes seemed to pierce through Twilight's core as she regarded Celestia's pupil.
"Twilight Sparkle," Luna's voice boomed throughout the room causing Twilight to jump. Luna frowned at Twilight's reaction and tried to adjust her voice accordingly. "Twilight Sparkle," she repeated, in a more tolerable tone. "We," She frowned. "That is, I am glad that you are here."
Twilight bent her front knees forward in a bow. "The honor is all mine Princess. What can I do for you?"
Luna rose from her throne. "Guards, leave us." When they had left Luna's throne room, She spoke. "Twilight Sparkle. I have summoned you here for your wisdom and advice."
Twilight's heart leaped into her throat. "Of course!" She exclaimed, barely able to contain the excitement in her voice. "Anything." She puffed out her chest and tapped her right hoof against it. "That's what I am here for, you know. My friends are always asking for my advice. I mean, just the other day, AJ wanted to know..." She quieted down after seeing the cold look upon Luna's face. "I am guessing this is a matter that is more important than AJ's tool shed...isn't it?"
"Indeed it is." Luna growled. "It would seem that my dear sister has vanished. I have had the guards search the entire palace. I have even used my own magic to try to sense where exactly she has gone but alas, to no avail. This is why I summoned you, Twilight Sparkle, her most loyal of pupils. I seek your knowledge of places my sister may have gone."
Twilight blinked. "Pardon me, Your Highness, but I was never privy that information. The Princess and I would only discuss my training, or talk about the magic of friendship. She rarely told me about her duties around Equestria."
Luna frowned, sighed, and then slumped back upon her throne. "I had hoped that you of all ponies would have an idea of where she went." Luna's sapphire eyes fell to the floor as her voice took a rather chilly edge. "She shares more with you than she does with I."
Twilight winced. She couldn’t ignore the pain in Luna’s voice. Could Luna be jealous of the time Twilight spent with Celestia? "That cannot be true. I am just her student. You are her sister. Family should always come first, wouldn't you think?"
"Yes. I would think, but she has gone off without as much as a letter informing me of her destination or duty." Her frown deepened. "It is only natural that I be kept in the dark."
Twilight felt a twinge of pity for Princess Luna. Although a full year had passed since her return, she still felt as if Celestia was still judging her. Twilight wanted to say something to comfort the Princess but didn't know what she could say. How could she ever comfort somepony who has been through so much? Instead, she bit her lower lip and thought of all the places that Celestia could be hiding. "Let's start from the beginning," Twilight suggested. "From her chambers and work our way down."
"We have already examined her chambers. There is no reason for us to explore it again."
Twilight nodded. "With all due respect, Princess, I believe we should organize our efforts to maximize our chances of finding Princess Celestia. If this means we must start all over, then we must. I want to make sure that every nook and cranny is explored, just in case something was missed.”
Luna's dark eyes narrowed into thin slits. "Are you implying that we have looked over something during our search?" Twilight took a step back. It seemed that Princess Luna was not in the best of moods – understandably considering the situation at hoof, but that didn’t keep the memories of Nightmare Night from flashing through her head.
Twilight recalled just how quickly the Princess could lose her temper when she was put on the spot. "Of course not Your Highness! I am just suggesting that it never hurts to look a second time. Sometimes even, uhm, the most venerable eyes can miss something. It happens to the best of us!" She tapped her chest. “For example; there was this one time where I was looking for this particular book in my library, and I swear that I had checked every shelf over a hundred times. Just as I was about to give up, my friend Spike noticed that my book had been wedged between the pages of a much larger book. You see, I was just looking at the spines of the books whereas he was pulling the books off the shelf one-by-one. It’s not that I had messed up in my search, just that a second set of eyes can sometimes see things that others may miss out on.”
Luna regarded Twilight for several seconds then nodded. "I can see the wisdom in your words and while I still believe that not a clue had been overlooked, I will not deny you your request, Twilight Sparkle. My sister has put a lot of faith in your wisdom and advice and I shall learn to do the same.” She rose up off her throne and descended the stairs towards Twilight. “Come. We shall start in the northern tower. It is there where my sister lays her head at night.”
Twilight felt her muscles relax and followed the Princess. As they traveled through the palace, Twilight fought to keep attention on the situation on hoof. She wanted so much to poke her nose around the palace. Her exploration of the palace was rather limited -outside of the throne room, the Chamber of Harmony (where the stained glass windows depicted the triumphs of the Elements of Harmony), the observatory, and the ball room, Twilight has not been given a tour of the palace. Now she was going to be allowed in the Princess's bedroom. She imagined that the room would be covered in magical scrolls, paintings of all the different lands that Celestia had traveled, beautifully woven rugs and blankets, and jewelry of such beauty that it would make Rarity jealous.
To Twilight's surprise, however, the bedroom was sparsely decorated. There was a plush, hoof-carved bed with a canopy, a long, red couch for lounging set in front of a fireplace, several bookshelves full of both books and scrolls, and a rug in the middle of the room. Other than those few things, there was nothing else to personalize the room. Twilight frowned a bit after seeing this. She had expected the room to be a bit more lively, or at the least, warmer and more inviting, but Celestia's room looked less lived in and more like that of a hotel room. Twilight took it all in.
"So go ahead," Luna nodded towards the center of the room. "Impress us. Find what we have missed, Twilight Sparkle." It was obvious that Luna was putting Twilight to the test. She wanted to see just how good Twilight’s eyes could be in a situation such as this. There was something else; however, something that Luna was trying to hide. She was desperate; desperate and concerned. Twilight knew exactly how Luna was feeling for she was going through the same ocean of emotions. Her heart was pounding, her hooves were trembling, and her mind was racing with thousands of different “ifs” and “maybes”.
Twilight shot a nervous smile towards the Princess. "I will do my best."
"We are sure you will." She said in an almost dismissive manner – again trying to hide her worry with her typical chilly manner of speaking. She was trying so hard to maintain an air of calm but she was just as worried as Twilight. Not to mention that she was putting a lot of faith in Twilight’s abilities.
No pressure Twilight, she thought to herself, none at all.
Twilight began her search by examining the Princess's bed. She tilted her head to the side while using her magic to lift the pillows and the sheets so that she could peak beneath them. She frowned. "How weird..." she muttered to herself.
"Hm?" Luna said.
"Oh," Twilight jumped. "Nothing, nothing really."
"Speak your mind, Twilight Sparkle."
She swallowed. "It just...well, it just seems that the bed hasn't been used all that much."
"Celestia is known for her late nights," Luna commented nonchalantly. "Sleep is something that is beneath my sister."
Twilight blinked in surprise. She never knew that about the Princess. "Really?"
"Are we here to discuss my sister’s sleeping habits, or look for her?" Luna responded sharply.
Twilight winced. "My apologies Princess." After searching the bed, Twilight turned her attention towards the bookshelf. It was here where she found several dozen books regarding the history of Equestria along with books of magic and incantation, Encyclopedias of several species of pony and other creatures. The book that caught her eye, however, was one bound in old leather.
Twilight took a closer look. There wasn't much dust on the shelf, but there was enough for Twilight to notice that this book had been removed recently. She began to pull it out but Luna stopped her.
"Not that one," She said in a commanding tone.
"But..." Twilight started. She looked from the book to Luna, back to the book. She had a feeling about this book. Had Celestia been flipping through it just before her disappearance? If so then maybe there would be a clue within its pages.
"Not that one." She repeated in a deeper voice.
Twilight winced again but yanked the book out anyways. Luna took a quick step forward, her dark eyes flashing in irritation. "You dare disobey us?" she snarled, her voice booming loud enough to shake the walls.
"Princess, please! Someone has taken this book off the shelf recently! I think it may be a clue." She used her magic to open the book to a random page and what she saw startled her. There was a hoof-painted portrait of three fillies and three colts. They were standing next to one another with smiles upon their faces and strange glowing necklaces upon their throats. "Are these..."
Luna sighed. "The Elements of Harmony." She stepped up to Twilight. "This is Celestia's most treasured possession...portraits and photos of those who have come before you, Twilight. The Elements of Harmony are not exclusive to you and your friends. They have touched the hearts of several hundreds like you throughout all of Celestia's life. These are those ponies who have served the Elements before you." She exhaled through her nostrils. “You were not supposed to know of this book’s existence.”
Twilight flipped through the pages. It went from portraits to black-and-white photographs that have yellowed with age, to photos taken in the last fifty years. "I-I had no idea."
"Did you truly think that you and your friends were unique? Trouble has arisen before your time and Celestia had to find others to assist in the good fight." Luna caught the twinge of emotion that flashed through Twilight's eyes and was quick to add, "But that does not make you any less special. My sister has discussed on many occasions how proud she is of you, Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight felt her spirits lift a bit after hearing that. "I'm honored." she commented. "Uhm, is there anything in here about us?"
"The last page."
Twilight turned to the final page in the book. She gasped. She remembered the day that the photo had been taken. It was the day after Celestia granted Twilight permission to stay in Ponyville. She had gathered all her friends to pose for this picture before asking Spike to deliver it to the Princess. However, someone had destroyed the photo in a manner most foul. The eyes of her and her friends have been scratched out and a large X crisscrossed over their hearts. Lodged in the upper right hand corner of the page, stuck between the photo and the paper, was a single scale. “Who…” Twilight gasped while dropping the book. “Who would do such a terrible thing?”
Luna summoned the scale closer than her expression grew dark. The look upon her face reminded Twilight much of how she had looked as Nightmare Moon. She had never seen the princess so angry.
"P-Princess?" Twilight stammered. "What is it?"
"This scale...there is only one creature in all of Equestria who has scales such as this."
She dropped it to the ground then stared into Twilight's eyes. The look in Luna's eyes was enough to make Twilight tremble in her horseshoes. Twilight suddenly found herself wishing to be somewhere, anywhere, just as long as she was as far away from Luna as possible.
"What c-c-c-creature is that, Princess?"
"Discord..." she hissed through clenched teeth.
Chapter Two
Discord
At first Twilight thought she had misunderstood what Princess Luna had said. She flicked her ears back and forth before asking, “Did you say, Discord?”
“Indeed,” Luna replied, her teeth clenched. “We have been tutored by the finest teachers of Equestria. We are able to determine from what creature any feather, any tuft of fur, or any scale came from. And this,” She hovered the scale before Twilight’s very eyes. “Is a scale from a draconequus.” Her upper lip curled into an ugly sneer. “The only draconequus that I know of is none other than Discord himself.”
“How can that be possible?” Twilight gasped. “We defeated him. I saw him turn to stone with my very own eyes.”
“It is as you say. Celestia informed me of the situation and I witnessed the guards bring Discord’s statue to the palace gardens for safe keeping.” She frowned. “Come. Let us attend to the garden. We must get to the bottom of this.”
“Yes, Princess.” Twilight followed Princess Luna as she left her throne room. The guards who had escorted Twilight to the throne room tried to step in line with the Princess but Luna wouldn’t have it. She dismissed them, sending the guards back to their posts outside her doors to her throne. Twilight noticed that this was the second time she refused the guards’ assistance. Was it because she did not trust the royal guards or was it because Princess Luna preferred to work alone? Considering her headstrong personality, Twilight went with the latter.
She found her mind wandering as they traversed through the palace towards the royal gardens where the hedgemaze was kept. Was it at all possible for Discord to break free from his prison after such a short period of time? It took him over a thousand years to escape after being sealed up by both Luna and Celestia. Did this mean that Twilight and her friends didn’t have what it takes to be guardians of the Elements of Harmony?
She thought back to all the ponies she saw in Celestia’s photo album. Had any of them faced enemies such as Discord or Nightmare Moon? Did they live in peaceful times or times of war? How many of them were able to remain friends until the very end and how many of them just went about their own lives until they finally lost touch with one another? Were any of them weaker or stronger or were they all evenly matched in terms of strength and courage?
Then there was Celestia herself. As much as Twilight wanted too, she could never really call herself Celestia’s friend. They were teacher and student. Still, she held onto the belief that Celestia enjoyed Twilight’s company and looked forward to her reports. Now that Twilight witnessed that Celestia had shared this kind of relationship with others over the centuries, Twilight began to wonder how many of those special ponies did Celestia outlive? The answer was obvious, of course, but that didn’t make it any easier to accept. Celestia had witnessed her pupils come and go; starting off as little fillies and growing up to be old, wrinkled mares and stallions.
For the first time since meeting the Princess, Twilight came to understand just how lonely Celestia’s life must have been. This made the search for Celestia that much more important – to let the Princess known that she did have ponies who cared and worried about her. Hopefully that would bring some joy to Celestia’s heart.
“Twilight Sparkle?” Luna’s voice cut through Twilight’s thoughts like a knife. Twilight blinked out of her stupor to find herself standing in the middle of the palace gardens. It was here where Fluttershy had spent the Grand Galloping Gala and Twilight could understand why. The flowers were simply the most beautiful she had ever seen, the towering trees loomed over them, and every where she looked she saw animals scampering about. It was breathtaking.
The beauty didn’t extend throughout the entire garden, however. As Luna led Twilight towards the garden’s center, Twilight noticed that the grass was losing its luster. The branches overhead were without leaves and their bark had gone from brown to a ashen gray. The sounds of happy little critters vanished, leaving Twilight and Luna in a world of silence. Twilight didn’t understand exactly what was going on until she laid witness to a horribly familiar sight. Set in the center of the garden, his eyes wide and mouth agape in horror, was Discord’s statue. Twilight couldn’t help but feel angry as she gazed upon the draconequus. He had not only drowned Ponyville in a sea of chaos, but he had come very close to destroying Twilight’s friendships. He was a manipulative monster who found pleasure in other people’s discomfort. She honestly, without a shadow of a doubt, disliked this creature with every fiber of her being.
“Is this the same statue?” Twilight asked.
“It is. Can you not feel the energy radiating off of it? Look all around you, Twilight Sparkle. See how the garden dares not approach?”
Twilight took a couple of steps towards Discord’s statue then stopped. The air around it was as frigid as ice. Twilight shuddered at the sensation then quickly backed away from the statue. “Has it always been like this?”
“When we first defeated Discord, it was not in battle, but an attack from behind. We did not wish to risk angering him for he had already taken over the kingdom. In an instant, he could destroy everyone we held dear. So, during one of his jubilations, Celestia and I used the Elements of Harmony to vanquish him. If you were to see the original statue, Twilight, you would have noticed that his expression was that of laughter and amusement, unlike this one where he is shocked and afraid. It was a cowardly way to defeat Discord, but Celestia insisted upon it.”
“Is Discord really that powerful?” Twilight asked. “I am not saying that it was easy to defeat him – quite the opposite in fact for he almost beat us – but when it came down to it, he didn’t put up much of a fight.”
“That is because Discord is not a fighter, Twilight Sparkle. He is a manipulator, a deceiver. He prefers to turn ponies against one another instead of fighting his own battles.” She narrowed her eyes. “But do not let this deceive you for he is quite strong. His greatest weapon is his ability to act nonchalant. He can get anypony to drop their guard and when that happens, it is all over.”
“I know,” Twilight glared daggers at the statue. “He turned all my friends against each other. He twisted our personalities, made us feel things that weren’t true. It was horrible.”
“That is what he does.” She agreed. “But the question remains. How could his scale be in my sister’s room if he remains incased in stone?”
“Could this statue be a fake?” Twilight inquired. “Could he have broken free and created another statue to take his place?”
Luna frowned at the thought. “It is possible. He has escaped once but that was due to the fact that Celestia and I no longer held the Elements. Now that you and your friends are guardians, he should be kept at bay for quite some time.”
“Which brings us back to the question: How did his scale get in Celestia’ room if he is still imprisoned?”
Luna’s frown deepened. “As much as we hate to admit it, we have no idea. The only logical conclusion that we can come up with is that Celestia had taken the scale from Discord those many years ago and kept it. However, that being very unlikely, we are at a loss.”
It took a moment for Twilight to process exactly what Luna was saying. She had slipped into her royal use of the word “WE” instead of “I” which just goes to show that she is under a lot of stress. Twilight frowned in thought. “It’s getting to the point where I almost want to ask Discord what exactly is going on.” Twilight snorted.
Luna blinked. “Yes. Yes! I can see why my sister has put so much faith in your wisdom, Twilight Sparkle. We shall simply march right up to that fiend and demand the answers ourselves!”
Twilight looked up at the Princess as if Luna had suddenly sprouted a second horn. “Princess? Are you suggesting that we free Discord just so that we could talk to him?”
“Not at all.” Luna motioned for Twilight to follow her as she exited the garden. “That would be most foolish. You see, Twilight Sparkle, that statue contains the physical form of Discord. His spiritual form resides in another prison – one of my sister’s creations. You see, because of his ability to alter reality, Celestia needed a way to ensure that he could never use his power to break free of his stony prison. So she created a room that is separate from our reality. It is in this room where Discord’s spirit resides.”
Twilight’s jaw fell. If what Luna was saying was true (and she had no reason to doubt the Princess’s words), then that means that Celestia’s power was truly more formidable than Twilight had originally thought. Raising the sun pales in comparison to creating an alternate reality for the sole purpose of imprisoning a lunatic. “Is it possible for us to visit this room?”
Luna nodded. The returned to the palace but this time they headed down into the lower levels. The walls were damp with moisture and the only light they had came from torches. “Princess?” Twilight asked. “What do you keep down here?”
“In the old times we would keep prisoners down here; ponies who would commit heinous acts against their fellows. Since then, however, we have come up with more suitable ways of handling such criminals so we ended up converting the dungeons into an archive. Many of Equestria’s ancient relics and scrolls reside down here. The only ones who are allowed to traverse these stairs are my sister and I. You should feel honored for you are the first pony in over five hundred years to visit.”
“I am honored,” Twilight admitted. “I just wish that this was under better circumstances. I would love to explore the archives once this is all over with.”
“We shall see.” The two of them stopped at the end of the spiral staircase. A long stone hall stretched out before them with a hall to the right, and one to the left. The left led to another spiral staircase though this one was without torches. It was nothing more than a dark, dank tunnel from which a chilly breeze rose. Twilight shivered but Luna paid the chill no mind. She summoned a bright blue light from the tip of her horn and began to walk down the stairs. Twilight summoned a light of her own – a faint purple – and followed.
Minutes passed as the two continued down the stairs. Several times Twilight wanted to start a conversation with Luna, wanting to help combat the terrible sense of dread that was rising within her stomach. She didn’t so much like the dark and combine that with the fact that they were in a very close-confined space was enough to make her feel anxious. She was about to say something when they came to a large chamber at the bottom of the stairs. In the back of the chamber were two massive steel doors. They were covered in dozens of etchings and symbols along with diamonds, rubies, obsidian, and onyx. Each stone contained within it a faint glow. Twilight could feel the sheer power radiating off the doors. It was enough to make her gasp.
“Here we are,” Luna said. “The Chamber of Binding.” She approached the doors. “Behind these doors lies none other than Discord himself.” She looked over her shoulder to Twilight. “Are you ready?”
Twilight felt as if her heart was about to burst from her chest but she nodded anyways. “I am.”
Luna closed her eyes in concentration. A bright purple and blue light arose from the tip of her horn before shooting out towards the doors. When the light struck the doors, they began to tremble and shake. The floor beneath Twilight vanished, turning into shadows as did the walls. Twilight bit back a cry of fear as she and Luna were bathed in a world of darkness. She could no longer see the doors, nor the staircase behind them, or the chamber that they had been standing within. It was as if they were standing in the middle of space without the stars or moons.
“P-Princess.” Twilight started but Luna silenced her with a glance. “Stand your ground, Twilight Sparkle, for we are not alone.”
Twilight’s heart leapt into her throat. It was as Luna had said – she could feel a powerful presence in the chamber, a presence that was both foreboding and familiar.
“Why if it isn’t Princess Luna,” an all-too-familiar voice echoed out from all around them. “How long has it been? A thousand years? Two thousand? Tell me, Princess, did you enjoy your trip to the moon? Did you bring me any presents or were you too busy wallowing in your own self-pity to think of fetching souvenirs for your dearest of friends?”
Luna’s lips curled back to expose her clenched teeth but she didn’t respond.
“And who is that with you?” Twilight felt an icy touch roll across her shoulders. “Twilight Sparkle? How delightful! You know, I haven’t been able to keep you out of my mind since our last meeting. How you looked before blasting me with that rainbow ray? Splendid!”
“Show yourself!” Luna’s voice boomed out.
The sound of wheels squeaking filled the room. Twilight squinted into the darkness and saw in the distance a figure approaching. As it grew closer, she saw that it was Discord, strapped by some kind of white jacket with a half-mask over his face. He was bound to a gurney that was wheeling itself over to Luna and Twilight. “Oh Twilight, see how they treat me? As if I am some kind of common criminal.” A single tear rolled down the side of his cheek. “What have I ever done to deserve this? All I have ever wanted was to bring fun and laughter to the simple peasants of Ponyville. If your precious Pinkie-Pie can get away with it, why cannot I?”
“Enough with the games, Discord.” Luna growled.
The gurney and jacket vanished and Discord slithered on his stomach towards the two ponies, rising up onto his hind legs just as he got within arm’s reach. He wrapped his scaled, eagle-clawed arm around Luna’s shoulder and pulled her close. “Princess Luna. Why have you come here?” He twirled his finger through her blue mane and yanked it up, turning it into a curly, tangled mess with a white streak on either side. He grinned. “Have you come to release me from my boredom?”
Luna shook her mane out while shoving Discord away from her. “How dare you touch us,” she snarled, eyes blazing.
Discord ran his claw under her jaw as if petting her. “You didn’t used to complain.”
Twilight’s eyes widened as she saw a dark blush flash across Luna’s cheeks. Luna jerked away from Discord’s claws. “We are warning you...” she jumped in surprise as a second Luna appeared besides her. They looked at one another in shock, mouths open, eyes wide. Discord fell onto his back while laughing.
“Let me ask you something,” he said in between chuckles. “I was left in a statue for over a thousand years and you were sent to the moon a couple of decades after that. So why is it that I can grasp the concept of speech better than you, Luna?” He snapped his claws causing the fake Luna to vanish. “Is it that you are a slow learner? Or perhaps it is because you are still clinging to the old ways?” He rolled back onto his stomach, his strange eyes narrowing as a smile spread across his lips. “Tell me, Luna, why do you continue to act as if things haven’t changed while you were away? Is it because you cannot stand the fact that the world has continued on without you? Does it make you feel useless that your sister was able to carry on your duties?” His smile became a dark grin. “You cling to what you had because that’s the only thing you have left, isn’t it?”
“Discord!” Twilight pushed herself between Princess Luna and Discord. “That’s enough!” She looked over her shoulder to Luna. “Princess, ignore him. He’s just trying to mess with us.”
Luna’s face was hidden beneath her mane. Twilight could feel the anger radiating off the Princess in waves, but was worse was the fact that Twilight could sense that what Discord had said was the truth. “How I feel,” Luna whispered. “Are none of your concern.”
Discord hopped into the air while snapping his claws. A large purple couch appeared beneath him as he flopped down upon it. A pair of dark sunglasses with green rims materialized over his eyes as he began to stare up at the ceiling. “Oh but it is. While I enjoy teasing and playing with Celestia, you are the one whom I have missed the most. Do you not remember the fun we had together, Luna? All those jokes we played against Celestia? Ah, such good times.” He grinned again. “Turning her hair into cotton candy was particularly delicious.”
Twilight looked back to Luna. What went on a thousand years ago between Luna and Discord?
Discord snapped his claws again and the chamber was suddenly alit with bright white stars far off into the distance. “Why are you here, Luna? Have you come to keep me company?” He lowered his sunglasses to look at her. “Or did you bring me a sacrificial lamb to play with?” He grinned towards Twilight. She felt a strange sensation roll over her. When she looked down at her legs, she saw that her body was now covered in plush, thick wool.
“Ack!” she squeaked. “I’m a Laaaamb!” She clapped her hooves over her mouth then glared daggers towards Discord. “This is not funny!”
He giggled in glee. “Humor is in the eye of the beholder.” He summoned a bag of popcorn and began eating some.
“Enough of this foolishness!” Luna stomped her foot but as her hoof connected to the ground, a bright colorful outfit appeared upon her body. Her hair was now a big curly mess and rainbow colored with a red clown’s nose upon her face. “If there is any bigger a fool,” Discord fell off the couch while clutching his sides. “It is you Luna!”
She shook the outfit off of her body. She focused her magic upon Discord, forcing him off the ground, making him stand up straight. She stormed on over to him, pointing her horn at his throat while glaring up into his eyes. His only response was a wide toothy grin. Twilight frowned at him. No matter what kind threat Discord was facing, he never took it seriously.
“What did you do with my sister?” She snarled up at Discord. “We know you had something to do with her disappearance so tell us!”
Discord raised his eyebrows. “You know, for such a powerful little darling, your sister has a very bad tendency of getting herself into trouble. Sometimes I have to wonder if she really is as strong as she thinks she is.” He flexed his muscles and the magical aura binding Discord erupted. Faster than Twilight thought possible, he was behind Luna, his chest resting on her shoulder while his claws clutched either side of her face, squeezing her cheeks and forcing her lips to pucker out. “Oh yes, Discord,” he forced her mouth to open and close as he mimicked her voice. “You are right. My sister’s greatest weakness is that she overestimates her own power! You are always right! All hail Discord!”
She opened her jaws and bit down – hard – upon is clawed hand. A loud squeak erupted from his hand as it popped off his arm. He had turned it into a dog’s chew toy and was now dancing backwards, laughing hysterically. “Don’t deny it!” Discord howled. “I know the truth about the two of you! Having to rely on little ponies must be maddening for the sisters who once defeated the great and powerful Discord.” He raised a finger into the air. “Oh, wait. You didn’t defeat me. You struck me from behind.” He wiggled his finger back and forth. “A marvelous idea but one that makes me wonder just how strong you two truly are.”
Luna refused to look towards Discord. She just continued to stare forward, jaw clenched, eyes narrowed into thin slits. For a second time Twilight wondered what exactly Discord was talking about, but then again, he could just be spouting gibberish. He has already proven himself to be the most distrustful of beings. Still, Luna was acting as if his words were striking rather close to home.
“You were in my sister’s bedroom...” Luna started then winced as if she had said something she regretted.
“Her bedroom?” Discord purred. “You know that I prefer yo...”
“We found your scale!” She roared. Discord’s expression suddenly went from jubilant to stern, his eyebrows rising as his mouth formed a thin line. “My scale? He asked.
Luna thrust the scale out so that it danced in front of Discord’s eyes. Discord regarded it for several seconds then flicked it away, sending it spinning out into the abyss that was his prison. “This scale does not belong to me.”
“Do not lie to me Discord. We know that this scale belongs to a draconequus.”
Discord jumped backwards, summoning an armchair to appear beneath him as he did so. He bounced upon the cushions while crossing his legs and clasping his claws together. “Yes, but that doesn’t make it mine. You know that there are other draconequus in Equestria.”
“Impossible,” Luna growled. “If that were the case, we would have known about it by now.”
“Not if he were asleep for the past thousand years.”
Luna frowned. “Not if…who…was asleep?”
Discord smiled. “My brother of course. Anarchy.”
“You have a brother?” Twilight gasped. “But how is that even possible?”
Discord raised an eyebrow. “Well,” he cooed in a sugary sweet voice. “When two spirits fall in love with one another, they go into the bedroom and…”
“That’s not what I meant!” Twilight squealed while covering her ears. “I mean: How can you have a brother and we’ve never heard about him until now?”
“Ah,” Discord twirled his finger through his beard. “For that, we’ll need to take a trip back in time.” He clicked his claws and a sofa suddenly popped up beneath Luna and Twilight, forcing both ponies to sit down upon it. Discord jumped off his chair to settle himself between the two ponies. “Scoot over, Luna.” He growled. “You are taking up all the cushions.”
Luna glared daggers at Discord. “Would you just tell us what is going on? We do not have time for this nonsense!”
“There is always time for nonsense, Princess.” Discord grinned. “Now,” He cleared his throat. When he spoke, his voice was suddenly a lot deeper. “Long ago, in an Equestria far, far away, there lived two spirits.” He snapped his fingers. A large wooden box sprang into view in front of the sofa. It was painted in blues, reds, and purples, and there was a hole cut out in its center. Surrounding the hole were two velvet curtains and mounted above them was the word “Theater” carved out of wood. The curtains spread apart exposing a badly painted landscape. Little plastic butterflies suspended by fishing wire were bouncing all over the place as Discord continued his story. “The elder spirit was named Discord,” As he said this, a sock puppet version of Discord popped up from underneath the stage. “And he was the spirit of disharmony and chaos.” Discord shot a smile towards Luna. “This is his story.”
My Little Discord!
Luna’s eyes widened as a chorus of fillies, all sounding like her, began to sing from inside of the box. In fact, smaller sock-puppet versions of Luna poked their heads from the stage and wiggled back and forth as they sang.
“You have your own theme song?” Twilight groaned while slapping her hoof against her forehead. “Really?”
“Shush!” Discord snarled. He clapped his hands together in a child-like glee. “This is my favorite part!”
My Little Discord You used to wonder what chaos could be My Little Discord Until I shared its madness with thee! It creates Adventures That are tons of Fun A blackened Heart Laughter is strong Sharing the Madness Is the thing to beat And Chaos makes it all complete! My Little Discord Don’t you know that you are my very best fiend?
“Enough!” Luna’s voice boomed. The puppet theater collapsed. Discord picked the puppet version of himself up and cradled it to his chest. A single tear rolled down his cheek. “It didn’t even have a chance to dance.” He sniffed. “How could you be so cruel?”
“We have no time for this! Tell us what happened to my sister or face my wrath!”
Discord’s eyes flashed a bright yellow. “Tell me, Princess,” he slithered onto his stomach before rising up in front of Luna, so his chest was pressing against hers. He leaned down so that he was now nose-to-nose with the dark princess. “What could you possibly do to me that haven’t been done already?”
Luna glared up into his eyes for several seconds. Finally she conceded to his point. “Tell us the story.”
He vanished in a cloud of pink smoke only to reappear back onto his original chair. “Say please.”
Luna began to grind her teeth together. “Please.” She hissed.
“Oooh,” Discord clapped. “I always love hearing you beg. Brings back such delicious memories!”
Luna’s cheeks flushed but she didn’t respond to his goading. Twilight was once again left wondering just what exactly happened between the two of them so many years ago.
“Well since you asked nicely.” He twirled his claws up over his head causing a white cloud to appear. As he spoke, the cloud played back the scenes he was describing. It was as if Luna and Twilight were looking into Discord’s very memory. “Spirits are not born, we just are. Since the dawn of Equestria, I have existed, as did many other spirits. My brother was no exception.”
A draconequus that Twilight had never seen before appeared. He had the same body and face as Discord but that is where the resemblance ended. First of all, he had red eyes with black pupils whereas Discord had yellow eyes with red pupils. His right wing was that of an eagle, the left one looking as if it belonged to some kind of creepy insect. His teeth were thin and sharp, like a cat’s and he only had one horn jutting out from the center of his head like a unicorn. His right arm was that of a dragon, the left a lizard with sharp black talons, his left leg belonging to a goat, the right to a wolf. Finally, his tail was like a lion’s. Twilight couldn’t put her hoof on it, but there was something very wrong with how he looked. Not that he looked normal by any means, but there was just something that didn’t feel right. His eyes, Twilight realized. His eyes seem…wrong.
“This is Anarchy.” Discord explained. He summoned a bag of popcorn and began nibbling on it – the bag, not the popcorn. “My younger brother – I use the term brother loosely as we are not related for we are not born.” A younger Discord appeared. He looked exactly as he did today except a bit smaller and without the beard. He coiled himself around Anarchy while laughing, turning Anarchy into a ballerina complete with tutu and slippers. Anarchy rolled his eyes, clapped his hands together, and the dress vanished, reappearing onto Discord’s body instead. Discord looked at the outfit before falling onto his back, laughing tears.
“We oversaw the chaos of the world.” Discord pealed another strip from his popcorn bag and nibbled upon it. The popcorn kept the shape of the bag as he did so. “There were no towns for us to play with, only tribes of earth ponies, horses, buffalo, and donkeys. Pegasus, Unicorns, and Earth Ponies have yet to interact with one another which limited our playtime but we made do.”
Young Discord and Anarchy were shown sneaking through a thick forest. Discord’s attention was focused on a tiny rabbit. He made a gesture for Anarchy to stay put as he turned himself into a carrot. He threw himself into the clearing besides the bunny. It almost turned tail and ran but upon seeing the carrot, it hopped on over eagerly. As it picked Discord up to eat him, Discord returned to normal. He scooped the bunny up while howling in laughter at the look of absolute fear upon the rabbit’s face. “Watch this!” Discord cackled. He squeezed the bunny gently, causing it to squeak. Discord rolled onto his back, kicking his back legs into the air like some child who just discovered a new toy.
“Delicious!” Anarchy cheered. His voice was rather gravely, deeper than Discords, scratchier. “Let me try!”
Discord threw the bunny over to Anarchy who caught it in his claws. He squeezed the bunny just as Discord had, resulting in another squeak. Anarchy and Discord alike started to laugh. Discord was pounding the earth with his fist while Anarchy squeezed the bunny again.
And again.
Anarchy’s laughter began to die down. His dark eyes were starring deep into the eyes of the bunny as he squeezed again, harder this time. The bunny squeak came out more like a gasp. He squeezed harder, his laughter stopping altogether. The bunny gasped in pain.
He squeezed one last time, his jaw clenching, his muscles flexing.
“Anarchy?” Discord coughed. He wiped away the tears from his eyes. “Anarchy?” His golden eyes widened and he rushed Anarchy, snatching the rabbit from Anarchy’s clutches. “What are you doing?” He lifted the bunny by its back foot. It wasn’t moving. “You broke it…”
Anarchy stared at the rabbit for several seconds. Twilight felt a chill roll through her body. The expression on Anarchy’s face was that of pure delight. It was a sick, almost perverse expression. “Anarchy!” Discord snarled. Anarchy shook his head, blinking. “Huh?” The dark expression had vanished as quickly as it had appeared. “What?”
“You broke it!” Discord thrust the rabbit’s corpse in front of Anarchy’s face. “You broke our toy!”
Anarchy blinked. “I did that?”
“Yes!” Discord dropped the rabbit onto the ground. “Why did you break our toy?”
“I-I don’t know. I didn’t mean to!”
Discord stared deep into Anarchy’s eyes. “Don’t do it again.” He whispered in a tone Twilight had never heard before.
“I won’t!” Anarchy raised his claws. “I promise.”
The memory cloud swirled about before vanishing. Discord had finished eating the bag and was now throwing popcorn across the empty chamber. He was uncharacteristically quiet.
“He didn’t keep his promise, did he?” Twilight whispered.
Discord’s clenched his fist around the popcorn. “He didn’t.”
“What happened after that?” asked Luna.
Discord clicked his fingers together. A new cloud appeared overhead. It showed Discord sitting on top of a rocky hill, overlooking a sprawling valley. Black smoke was billowing up from the valley’s center and bright orange flames were licking the country side. Amidst the disaster, the sound of laughter could be heard echoing throughout the entire valley. Young Discord’s claws clenched into tight, trembling fists. He snapped his claws, teleporting himself into the center of the inferno.
Anarchy was in the thick of it. A single buffalo child was pinned between Anarchy’s foot and the ground. It was kicking and struggling against Anarchy’s grip but to no avail. Anarchy was just too strong for the child. “Anarchy!” Discord’s screamed. He snapped his claws summoning several hundred barrels of water to appear over the tribal land. They emptied themselves upon the fire, dousing the flames. Discord took a deep breath before blowing the black smoke away. What he exposed was a nightmare.
Buffalo of all ages were strewn across the valley, their broken, bloodied bodies limp and lifeless. Many of them seemed to have been either self-inflicted or caused by other buffalo. “What have you done?”
Anarchy’s eyes flashed with irritation. “What have I done? What have you done?” He waved his arm to encompass the entire valley. “Do you know how much time and effort it took me to create such a state of absolute chaos? Now I have to start all over again with another tribe!”
“This isn’t chaos,” Discord growled. “This is murder!”
Anarchy placed a hand to his chest. “Murder?” He said in a hurt tone. “Why, I haven’t murdered anyone. All I did was observe.” His lips curled up into a sick grin. “Why sully my claws with the blood of lesser beings?” He shook his head. “Tsk, tsk, Discord. I thought you knew me better than that. How could you accuse your brother of such things?” A single tear rolled down his cheek. He wiped it away and flicked it off. The tear exploded as it hit the ground.
Discord looked at the bodies. “You did this,” he whispered. “You manipulated them. You turned them against each other.”
“So what if I did?”
“Why?” Discord hissed. “Why would you do such a thing?”
Anarchy’s dark eyes narrowed into slits. “Do you really want to know?” He applied pressure against the buffalo child’s ribs. He screamed out in pain. “Fine. Do you know the difference between the two of us? You get by feeding off the naivety of others. All you do is create riddles and pull childish little pranks. You are nothing more than a court jester, dancing around like a fool. You don’t think, you don’t plan, you just do. You don’t see the overall picture.”
Anarchy exposed his teeth as he grinned. “I, on the other hand, am a thinking creature. I plot, I hypothesize. I pick out each and every little flaw before executing my plans. I spend days, weeks, putting the pieces together before I make my move. Your approach is so impersonal, innocent evil, and cause only mild irritation to those around you. I take it a step further. You see, I find that special pony, that one creature whose down on their luck. I meet them, comfort them, befriend them. I make that pony so happy that they begin to beam with job. I see that glow of happiness and I revel in it.” He licked his lips with his forked tongue. “Then I wait. I wait for that day when they are at their happiest; whether it be their birthday, wedding, or surrounded by friends,” He giggled. “Then I strike. I rip from them everything that made their lives worth living. I take away what they love, their friends, turn them all against each other. I ruin them, Discord, and that is what makes what I do so delicious. You see there is this beautifully magical thing that happens when all their joy is taken away.”
Anarchy applied more pressure to the buffalo. “Your definition of fun involves chocolate rain and cotton candy clouds. Do you know what’s really fun? It’s that look in a pony’s eyes when you squeeze the life out of them. Their little beady eyes contain a whirlwind of emotions; fear, anger, panic, and just before the end – betrayal.
“It’s beautiful. That one, tiny, insignificant moment as the light of happiness leaves their eyes,” He shuddered with pleasure. “It’s that one moment that I feel something better than joy. It’s Euphoria, Discord, and it makes all the scheming and planning worth it.” He ran his claws over his body. “Mmm. And the best part about it is that I don’t even need to get myself involved if I don’t want too. Betrayal can come from anyone. All one needs is that one, final,” he flexed his leg. “Push!”
The buffalo child squeaked. Anarchy looked down to see that Discord had replaced the buffalo with a plush squeaky toy. The child was nowhere to be seen. “You understand nothing!” Discord shouted. He approached Anarchy, his golden eyes ablaze with fury. “There can be no pleasure in chaos if there is nopony around to appreciate it! By slaughtering these foals, you are ridding the world of the very thing that makes life worth living! These creatures are our playthings! What will you do when you’ve broken all the toys?”
Anarchy did not flinch under Discord’s gaze. “Then I will just find more.” His black eyes sparkled in mischief. “So what now? Do you plan on stopping me?” He smiled. “I am just as powerful as you are, Discord. Make my day.” He made a motion in front of his chest. A red and white bullseye appeared over his chest. He stared into Discord’s eyes. “Come now. You said it yourself. They are mere playthings. What do you care if I break a few?”
Discord raised his claws, his index claw and thumb resting against one another in mid-click. He stood there for several seconds, contemplating his next action. Finally he lowered his claws and crossed his arms. “No. I won’t stop you.” Discord hissed. “You’ll see the error in your ways soon enough.” He curled his upper lip into a sick grin. “But let me warn you, Anarchy. If I ever catch you doing this again, I won’t hold back.”
Anarchy grinned. “Oh, you will never catch me ever again.” He turned his back to Discord and began to walk away. “The world is huge. I will find my fun somewhere else.” He vanished in a poof of black smoke.
The memory cloud vanished. Discord was now laying across the armchair, his head on one armrest, and his legs over the other. “So we went our separate ways. I heard stories of the monster that brought to the land war and misery, but I did nothing to stop it.”
“Why not?” Twilight asked.
“All good things come to those who wait.” Discord remarked. “It didn’t take long for Anarchy to meet his end.” A coy smile played across Discord’s lips. “He destroyed quite a few tribes in the west and once he had no one else to play with, he moved his antics north. He was able to turn three tribes of ponies against one another and waged a war that the world had never seen.” Discord’s smile grew into a toothy grin. “But he did not take into account that there are spirits just as powerful as him and I. The war he created served to be the perfect smorgasbord for the local Windigos. The sheer amount of hatred he birthed was enough for the Windigos to flash freeze the entire valley. Not a single pony survived the event, neither did my brother. He was frozen solid.” Discord began to giggle at the memory. “You should have seen his expression. It was priceless. He was screaming up at the sky when he was frozen. It is obvious that he was annoyed that his magic couldn’t rid the Windigos.”
“So that’s why you didn’t stop him.” Twilight commented. “You wanted him to realize that you are not all powerful.”
“Something like that.” Discord stretched out across the chair. “I used the opportunity to make sure that Anarchy could never return to Equestria.”
“What did you do?” Twilight asked.
“I paid him a visit.” Discord turned his head so that he could look into Twilight’s eyes. “When I found him,” He smiled. “I tore out his heart.”
Twilight gasped. “You did what?”
“I tore out his heart. Oh, don’t worry. I am sure he did not feel a thing. His heart, like is body, had crystallized. To ensure that he would never darken Equestria with his antics, I broke the heart into six pieces and spread them across the land.” He rolled his eyes and his voice took on a rather sickly, whiny tone that reminded Twilight of a spoiled child who didn’t want to do his homework. “But the shards were corrupted by the kindness and – gag – love of the ponies that lived in the regions. Anarchy’s elements; Selfishness, Betrayal, Treachery, Greed, Sadness, and Magic were corrupted.” He crinkled his nose in disgust. “Each shard was altered thanks to the personality of the pony that lived nearby. You call these corrupted shards the…” He grumbled. “The Elements of Harmony.”
Luna’s jaw dropped and Twilight practically fell off the couch. “Wait, you are telling me…”
Discord gave her a look. “Please, Twilight Sparkle, use your brain. Do you think six shiny stones would really be enough to stop a spirit of chaos? No. It is because they were spawned from the essence of a spirit that has given them such incredible power.” He gave a dramatic sigh. “If I had known then what I know now, maybe I wouldn’t have split his heart.”
“But we don’t understand,” Luna said. “If the removal of his heart is what kept him asleep for some many years, why has he awoken?”
“The more you use the Elements in their corrupted form, the weaker their hold upon him is.” Discord snorted. “Ironic, isn’t it? The very thing you ponies use to enforce the peace is the same thing that will destroy you. I would find it funny if it wasn’t so tragic.”
“Well,” Twilight offered. “Now that we know what we are up against, all we need to do is gather my friends and face Anarchy. Without his heart, we should be able to send him back from where he came.”
Discord called upon a golden pocket watch. He opened it. “As much as I love raining on your parade, Twilight Sparkle, I am afraid that you may be too late.” He snapped it closed. “You’ve been here for several hours.” He looked to them both. “If it is true that Anarchy is on the loose, then Ponyville may already be destroyed.”
“My Brother of course. Anarchy.”
“Oh Celestia,” Anarchy purred as he paced through the Chamber of Harmony. “Look at everything you have achieved.” He removed the amulet from around his neck and held it high into the air, turning it side to side as if to show it the stained glass windows that decorated the hall. “So many foes vanquished, so many lives saved.” He shook his head. “All because of your precious Elements of Harmony.” He curled his upper lip into a sneer. He stopped in front of a window depicting six young ponies battling against a dark blue mare with stars in her mane. “Are these your Champions? Are these the ones you hope will put an end to my games?
The amulet said nothing. He scowled at it. “Do not ignore me, Celestia! When I am asking you a question, I expect an answer.”
The amulet just glinted in the afternoon light.
He shook it violently. “Do not ignore me!” He bellowed. His voice echoed throughout the halls, making the windows vibrate. He had no concern of being heard. He had already turned the guards into stone. It was quite easy, really. All he did was stroll into the Chambers while disguised as Celestia. Once the guards opened the doors for him, he turned back into his natural state and encased them in stone. Their shocked expressions had put him in a rather good mood. It didn’t last very long, however, as he discovered that there was, in fact, a way for these ponies to stop him.
“What kind of magic are these Elements anyway?” He ran his claw down the glass, cutting the image of a white unicorn with purple hair in half. “And who are these ponies who posses them?” He ran his snake-like tongue over his sharp teeth. “Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty, and Magic.” He rolled his eyes. “How disgustingly sweet.”
His gaze lingered on each of the ponies. “Well,” he chuckled while pawing at the amulet. “Thanks to your precious little journal and these windows, I now have a pretty clear understanding of what I am up against.” He carved out the image of the pink pony with poofy hair. He gently pulled the glass shard from the window and held it up to the light so that the pink colors danced across his scaly body. “Ah yes, I remember this one. She’s the filly with the balloons on her flank.” His smile widened. “What does she represent, I wonder?” He tilted the piece of glass side to side before crushing it in his palm. “Why don’t we just find out?” He laughed.
Anarchy was a very patient creature. He did not just rush head-first into a situation, instead preferring to observe his surroundings. Any creature could kill a pony but it took a very special one to hurt a pony. He turned himself into a crow and spent the next couple minutes flying across PonyVille in search of the pink pony with the balloon markings. It wasn’t all that difficult. This particular pony made herself known in seconds. She was the only pony in the entire town that preferred hopping over walking. He noticed that every time she ran into a pony, she had to stop and say hello. He used his wings to cover his ears as she had the annoying tendency to talk a mile a minute. However, it was the fact that she kept on smiling and laughing that led him to believe which of the six elements she possessed.
Oh, he thought, is it always the cheerful ones that are the most fun.
He discovered where this pony – Pinkie Pie – lived. He spent several minutes poking around the bakery, looking at photos of the ponies that lived there. A stallion named Mr. Cake and his wife seemed to be the owners of the bakery. To make matters a bit more interesting, the two of them recently had children. Anarchy ran his wing over the image of Mr. Cake holding the twins. A unicorn foal and a Pegasus? Now this I can use.Perfect , he thought.
“And then I ran up to Rarity and said, ‘Have you seen Twilight?’ and Rarity was like ‘No, my dear, I haven’t. Why don’t you ask Rainbow Dash?’ so I did! But the problem was that I couldn’t find Dashie because she was in Cloudsdale so I had to go to the balloon shop and buy all these balloons so that I could fly up there to meet her, but before I could fill them up with helium, AppleJack appeared. She was looking for Twilight too so I was like ‘Hey, why don’t we look together?’ and she was like ‘Sure sugarcube,’ but then I saw you coming home with a big box and I knew that inside that box had to be something amazingly delicious so I said bye to AppleJack and came home instead!” Pinkie Pie took a long, deep breath, and then said, “And that’s my day. Well, not really my entire day because I still have like seven more hours until bedtime but that is my day up until now.” She blinked with a smile upon her lips. “So, how are you?”
“Pinkie, I’m fine.” Mr. Cake grumbled as he pushed the heavy box onto the counter. “Just fine.” He leaned against the counter while trying to catch his breath. “Look, Pinkie, why don’t you go upstairs and check on the foals for me? I need to get these ingredients put away before they spoil and I am sure the kids would enjoy seeing you.”
“Oh! Good idea!” Pinkie Pie hopped out of the kitchen and towards the staircase. Just as she was about to head upstairs, however, a knock came at the front door. “I’ll get it!” Pinkie sang. She raced on over to the door and pulled it open with her teeth. “Hello and welcome to Sugar Cube Corners! What can I get for you?” She paused as the realization that the pony she was looking at was somepony she had never seen before. “Oh, My, Celestia! You’re new, aren’t you?” She felt her tail wag back and forth in excitement. “Well, hello! I’m Pinkie-Pie and this is our bakery. Well, not my bakery but Mr. and Mrs. Cake’s bakery. I just help out.”
The elderly female pony smiled. “I know, dearie. I’ve been here before.”
Pinkie blinked. “Are you sure? Because I know every pony in Ponyville and I’ve never seen you before.”
“That’s because I’ve been away for quite some time.”
“Oh! Where are you from?”
“Las Pegasus,” she said with a smile. “I’m looking for Cup Cake. Have you seen her?”
“Oh, no. Mrs. Cake is out delivering some desserts.” Pinkie smiled while patting her hoof against her chest. “I can help you out with anything you need.”
“Pinkie,” Mr. Cake called out. “Could you give the babies their bottles?” He stepped into the living room. “Oh! Mrs. Sweet! This is a surprise! What brings you all the way out here?”
Pinkie tilted her head in confusion. “Mrs. Sweet?”
Mr. Cake smiled. “This is Mrs. Savory Sweet; Cup’s mother.” He led her into the family room. “Come in, sit down!”
“Oh please. There is no need to make a fuss on my account.” She smiled. “I am just here to visit the little ones.” She gave Mr. Cake a stern look. “I have been waiting quite some time to see my little grandfoals.”
Mr. Cake blinked. “You didn’t get the letter we sent? The one with the baby photos?”
“I did not.” She huffed. Her expression softened. “Do not fret none. I figured that the letter must have been lost in the mail so I decided that I would hop on board the first train to Ponyville and pay my grandfoals a visit.”
“Why of course! I am so sorry for the mix-up, Mrs. Sweet. You know how the post office can get sometimes. Just a few months ago, I heard stories of the mail-delivery ponies dropping anvils and pianos all over Ponyville. Can you believe that?”
“Stranger things have happened.” She replied while smiling. She and Mr. Cake went upstairs. “Hey!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Wait for me! I want to see them too, you know!”
The trio entered the baby’s room. Pound Cake was on the floor, smashing his teeny hooves against some building blocks, while Pumpkin was gnawing on a stuffed teddy bear’s arm. “Oh look at them!” Mrs. Sweet exclaimed. “How precious. I…” she hesitated. “Carrot. You didn’t tell me that unicorn and Pegasus blood ran in your family.”
He blinked. “I don’t. My great, great, great, grandfather was a unicorn but there are no Pegasus in my family.” He looked over at Mrs. Sweet. “Cup told me that her great aunt second cousin was a Pegasus.”
“Surely you jest!” Mrs. Sweet gasped. She poked her nose underneath her cloak and retrieved a scroll. She unrolled it upon the floor. “That’s quite impossible. I remember our family tree like the back of my hoof.”
“Do you always keep a scroll of your family tree with you?” Pinkie asked.
“But of course darling! Where else would I keep such an important document? At home in some cupboard where it could grow mildew and mold? I should think not.”
“Look,” Mrs. Sweet pointed out. “We have no Pegasus in our family.” She gestured towards a branch in the tree where Cups aunt’s second cousin was sitting. Sure enough, the image portrayed upon the parchment was that of an Earth Pony. She stared up at Mr. Cake with a frigid expression upon her face. “Carrot.” She whispered. “I am so sorry to have to say this, but my daughter lied to you.”
“N-No,” Mr. Cake stumbled backwards, bumping his hindquarters into a table. “That’s impossible. Why would she lie to me?”
Mrs. Sweet’s shoulders fell. “That girl,” she whispered. She began to grind her teeth together. “I cannot believe she would stoop so low as to cheat on her own husband.”
“She wouldn’t! She couldn’t!” Mr. Cake sat upon the floor, his eyes as wide as dinner plates. Pinkie couldn’t believe what was going on. It just seemed so surreal. Mrs. Cake would never do such a terrible, horrible thing.
Would she?
No! Of course not! She was Mrs. Cup Cake, the sweetest, kindest, most loving pony Pinkie had ever met! She couldn’t have done something so hurtful to the stallion she loved. There has to be a mistake! She snatched up the family tree and began scouring it for any signs of a Pegasus pony.
“Listen to me,” Mrs. Sweet said. “I am going to be in town for the rest of the week. If you see that daughter of mine, you tell her to march her butt over to my hotel room. She has some serious explaining to do.”
Mr. Cake didn’t say a word. He just continued to stare off into space. Pinkie glanced up from the parchment to see that his eyes were glassy with tears. She returned to her research. “Please be a mistake,” she whispered, fighting back tears of her own.
Mrs. Sweet left the bakery without another word. Pinkie didn’t even notice that she was gone until the backdoor leading into the kitchen opened and shut. She was still trying to trace Mrs. Cake’s lineage when Mrs. Cake herself entered the bakery. She was carrying in her teeth two grocery bags full of flour, eggs, milk, and butter. “Camf suffmon hewp mwe pwease?” she mumbled.
Mr. Cake snatched the parchment from Pinkie and stormed up to his wife. “Explain yourself!” He screeched in a voice Pinkie had never heard before. “Explain yourself right now!”
She set the groceries on the floor, eyes widen, expression terrified. “What in Celestia’s name is wrong, dear?”
“This is what’s wrong!” He bellowed. He thrust the parchment into her face. “Your mother paid me a visit just now.”
Mrs. Cake’s face flushed red. “She…she did?”
“Yes! And she told me some interesting facts about your aunt’s second cousin.”
Mrs. Cake’s eyes grew hard. “Oh really? Like what?”
“Oh, like maybe the fact that she was not a Pegasus!” He took two steps towards his wife, his eyes blazing with betrayal and anger. “Tell me the truth! Where did our daughter get her wings?”
“It’s a mistake,” Mrs. Cake replied defiantly. “My mother is always…”
“There is no mistake!” He roared. “Tell me the truth right now or so help me, Celestia, I will…”
“You will what?” She snapped back. “You’ll do nothing is what you’ll do.” She snorted. “So you want to know the truth? Do you really?”
“It’ll be nice,” he snapped back.
“Yes, I was with another stallion. He was some guy passing through town on a business trip. I met him while delivering a parcel of cupcakes and we started talking. One thing led to another and the rest is history.” She sneered.
He stumbled backwards. “How…how…could you?” Tears began to flow down the sides of his cheeks. “Cup Cake…you were my girl…”
“Well I’m sorry but a woman has needs.” She snorted. “And going a year without either of us doing anything was just too much.”
Pinkie couldn’t believe a single thing she was hearing. This couldn’t be real! This couldn’t be happening!
“But I…” he whimpered.
“Oh knock it off,” She snapped. “It has nothing to do with you. It’s all her fault!” She glared at Pinkie Pie. Pinkie gasped in shock. “Me?” she squeaked. “What did I do?”
“Always prancing about as if you own the entire house,” Mrs. Cake snarled. “Never going to bed on time, always stealing our food and taking bites out of other pony’s orders. All you do is cause us stress and misery; and we never get a chance alone because little Pinkie Pie always has to have company else she gets,” She mimicked the sound of a baby pouting, “Whiny and pouty, and lonely and we all know that we cannot have that, now can we?” She bared her teeth. “Any time we wanted some privacy, there was Pinkie Pie. Any time we tried to have a romantic night out, there was Pinkie Pie. WE couldn’t even go out to dinner without having to worry that we’d come home to an empty shop because some glutton pony couldn’t keep her mouth off the goods!” She growled. “This is all because of you! If you weren’t such a needy little foal, than I wouldn’t have fallen into some other stallion’s hooves. This,” she gestured towards Mr. Cake who looked as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Is all because of you!” she raised her voice. “Now get out of my house! I don’t want to see your face ever again you little home-wrecking foal! Get! Out! Now!” She screamed the last word so loud that Pinkie feared that she would go deaf. Pinkie raced out of Sugar Cube Corner as fast as her hooves could carry her. On the way out, she heard Mrs. Cake say, “Now that the pest is gone, maybe things can get back to normal.”
Pinkie ran through Ponyville sobbing all the way. She didn’t know what to do or who she could talk to. All she knew was that she wanted to be left alone, hidden away from the world. Not once in her life has she experienced a pain such as this. It was as if someone had reached into her chest and plucked out her heart. She turned down an alleyway between two shops and hid behind a couple of boxes.
She began to cry and these were not the exaggerated tears that she shed whenever things got out of hand or when she was feeling overwhelmed with emotion. These tears were much more painful. With each tear that dripped from her cheek, she felt a part of her die a little.
“Pinkie…” she sobbed. “You’ve gotta stand up tall…Learn to face your fears…” She sniffed. “You’ll see…” She fell onto her stomach, burying her face between her legs. “That they can’t hurt you…” her voice grew softer with each word spoken. “Just laugh…and make them…” she felt the last bit of her heart shatter. She screamed into her hooves. Her entire body was shaking as she cried. She couldn’t contain herself; the pain was just too much for her to bear. “Disappear,” she gasped.
She gasped in pain. “I’ll never laugh again,” she hissed to herself while curling up into a tight, trembling pink ball.
“We oversaw the chaos of the world.”
“Sweetie Belle,” Rarity called out. “Be a lamb and fetch me the bag lying atop my dresser; the velvet one with the gold lining.”
“Sure thing Rarity!” Sweetie Belle replied. She bolted up the stairs as fast as her little hooves could carry her. This was a big day, a very big day indeed for today was the day that Rarity had finally asked Sweetie Belle to help out in the shop. While Rarity made it very clear that Sweetie Belle would not be assisting in the actual sewing, she promised that Sweetie Belle would still be an essential part in today’s activities. So far that meant fetching whatever items Rarity needed but Sweetie Belle didn’t care. As long as she was contributing to the project, she was happy.
“Let’s see, let’s see,” She mumbled to herself. “Did Rarity say the gold bag with the violet lining or the velvet bag with the gold lining?” Sweetie Belle sat her rump down in front of Rarity’s dresser. Her sister sure didn’t make things easy on her for Rarity had over ten different satchels stacked up neatly on top of one another. “Well shoot,” Sweetie Belle pouted. “Which one do I choose?” She was able to pick out three bags that looked similar to each other. Now, she knew that if she brought Rarity the wrong bag, that Rarity would get irritated. If Sweetie Belle grabbed too many bags, Rarity would complain that she had taken too long. She began to bite her lower lip in thought. Then, as if plucked from the very sky itself, an idea popped into her head. “Rarity? What’s in the bag anyways?”
“Blue Gemstones,” She called out.
Sweetie Belle grinned. “Easy as pie!” She pushed a chair on over to the dresser and climbed on top of it. She found the three bags that matched Rarity’s description – that is to say, the description Sweetie Belle thought Rarity had given – and opened them up one by one. The first bag contained diamonds, the second gold flakes, and the third blue gemstones! She had found them! She made sure to close the first two satchels before fetching the third off the dresser. She walked back downstairs (fearing that if she ran, she’d fall and lose the gemstones). “Here you go!” She mumbled.
Rarity peaked over her glasses. “Very good dear. Now put them over by my mannequin and I’ll get to them when I need them.” She turned her attention back to her work; a beautiful red and white dress with silver lining with a diamond crest on the breast. “Who is the dress for?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Bon-Bon,” Rarity said while double-checking the measurements. She used her magic to float a bolt of cloth over to her cutting board. A pair of scissors rose from the ground and began to cut along the path Rarity had already marked. “She has a social event scheduled sometime soon and wishes to look her best.” She cleared her throat and whispered, “Not that she ever could with that mane of hers. I swear, if she would just let me fix it she would look absolutely divine.”
“Bon-Bon?” Sweetie Belle blinked. “Bon-Bon.” She frowned while tapping her left hoof against her jaw. “Which one is she again?”
“Lyra’s friend,” Rarity commented in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Oh,” Sweetie Belle nodded. “Of course!” She still couldn’t picture Bon-Bon but decided to drop the subject. She knew it wasn’t the best of times to disturb her sister while she was cutting fabric. She sat down on the other side of the room, doing her best to stay out of the way and out of trouble. She really hoped that if she proved herself once and for all, Rarity would take time out of her busy schedule to teach Sweetie Belle how to sew.
It wasn’t easy for the young filly to behave. On several occasions she saw a fly buzzing around the room and it was awfully tempting to hunt it down. She didn’t. She just kept quiet and behaved like a good little sister should.
“Sweetie Belle?” Rarity said.
“Yes?” Sweetie Belle perked up.
“I need you to get me two glasses of warm water. Not hot. Warm. Just above room temperature.”
“What for?” She asked.
Rarity sighed, muttered something under her breath, muttered something else, and then took a slow, deep breath. “I need to put the water into my iron in order to steam out some wrinkles.”
“Ah, that makes sense!” Sweetie Belle chirped. She bounded out of the room to the kitchen. She pushed a step stool over to the cabinets. “Two glasses. Two glasses, easy peasy!” She hummed. She grabbed the glasses out of the cabinet. Closing the door, she spied two bright purple eyes staring at her from the other side of the kitchen window. “Ah!” She hollered, almost falling off the stool. “Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. “What are you doing out there?”
“I found her!” Scootaloo cried out. “Over here Apple Bloom, she’s in the kitchen!” Apple Bloom popped into view her red mane full of twigs and leaves. “There you are!” Apple Bloom said while smiling. “When you were late to the meeting, we thought something done happened to you!”
“Yeah!” Scootaloo agreed. “What have you been doing?”
Sweetie Belle looked down the hallway then ran over to the kitchen door. “Quick both of you get in here before Rarity notices.” She let her friends into the house. “What’s going on?”
“I told you she plum forgot.” Apple Bloom said while rolling her eyes.
“We had a meeting today!” Scootaloo grumbled. “You know, to find our Cutie Marks?”
“Oh yeah!” Sweetie Belle winced. “I’m sorry! Rarity asked me for some help and, well, you know…”
“You wanted to help her,” the two fillies said in unison. “We get it.”
“Sweetie Belle!” Rarity called out from her workshop. “Where is that water?”
“Coming!” Sweetie Belle shouted back. “I’m sorry but I really need to help Rarity with her project.” She filled the glasses with water. “Hold on real quick!” She dashed into the workshop. “Here’s your water!”
“Thank you dear,” Rarity used her magic to bring the glasses over to her table. “Who were you talking too?” She asked. Rarity narrowed her eyes in concentration as she moved her sewing needle through two folds of cloth.
“Oh,” Sweetie Belle frowned. “Scootaloo and Apple Bloom are here.”
“Ah. Wonderful. Now you three can go upstairs and play.” She waved her hoof over her shoulder.
“But Rarity,” Sweetie Belle whimpered. “You said I could spend the day with you.”
“No-no-no-no-no,” Rarity replied, not bothering to look up from her work. “You have guests and it is rude not to attend to them. Now go on. Off with you. Shoo.”
Sweetie Belle shoulders fell. “Okay,” She poked her head back into the kitchen. “C’mon guys. Let’s go upstairs.”
“Wait,” Apple Bloom said. “We need to wait for Scootaloo.”
“Where did she go?”
“She went back outside. Said she heard somepony calling her…” she stopped midsentence. “Oh, there she is.”
Scootaloo stepped back into the kitchen. She had an odd expression on her face as if she was confused about something.
“Who was it?”
“I don’t know,” Scootaloo frowned. “I could have sworn somepony was out there but when I looked, no pony was there.” She crinkled her nose. “How weird.” She bounced up and down. “So what are we going to do? Should we go back to the headquarters and plan our newest cutie-mark mission?”
“I guess,” Sweetie Belle sighed.
“Cutie-Mark Crusaders,” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom screeched. “YAY!” Apple Bloom frowned. “Sweetie Belle, you didn’t join in the cheer.”
“Sorry. I just don’t feel like cheering.” She kicked her hoof against the floor.
“She’ll get over it,” Scootaloo whispered to Apple Bloom. “C’mon, let’s get back to headquarters and get to work!”
Together the trio of fillies left Rarity’s shop to head on over to Apple Tree Acres. “I was thinking we could try something exciting,” Scootaloo said. “Like rock climbing, or sky diving…”
“Sky diving?” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “How do you reckon we do that?”
“Easy! We just get Rainbow Dash to take us as high as possible then we just jump off her back.”
“What would that cutie-mark look like?” Apple Bloom asked. “A big splat mark on the ground?” She giggled. “That’s gross!”
“Well you are not supposed to hit the ground!” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “You are supposed to use a blanket to slow your fall. Like a pair-of-shoes.”
“That’s parachute,” Sweetie Belle grumbled.
“Whatever.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. They arrived at the tree house. “Last one upstairs is a rotten egg!” Scootaloo cheered while bolting up the ramp. Apple Bloom shook her head. “Are you okay, Sweetie Belle?” she asked once Scootaloo was out of earshot.
“Yeah,” She sighed. “I was just really looking forward to spending time with Rarity. That’s all.”
“I understand.” She followed Sweetie Belle up to the tree house. “I’m the same way with Big Macintosh.”
“Not Apple Jack?”
“We hang out all the time. Big Macintosh thinks I’m just a little filly and won’t let me help him with the big pony chores.” She stomped her hoof. “It took me a whole year to convince Apple Jack that I’m a too a big pony and now Big Macintosh doesn’t believe me?” She huffed. “I will prove myself to him. Jus’ you wait!”
“I don’t think it’s the same thing with my sister. She just sees me as a pest.” They stepped into their headquarters. Scootaloo was already lying upon the floor with a crayon in her mouth. She was drawing what looked to be a very crude sketch of Rainbow Dash. “What are you two fillies complaining about now?” she grumbled from around her crayon.
“We ain’t complaining,” Apple Bloom objected.
“Sure you are.” She drew a table next to Rainbow Dash and began coloring it in. “I could hear you all the way up here.” She glanced up from her drawing. “What’s the matter? Sisters ignoring you guys again?”
“Only Rarity,” Sweetie Belle clarified. “Big Macintosh is the one giving Apple Bloom a hard time.”
“I don’t see why you two care so much.” Scootaloo muttered. She spat out her crayon and picked up a purple one. She began to color in a small purple vial that she sketched on Rainbow Dash’s table. “It’s not like they care about you two.”
“That ain’t true!” Apple Bloom gasped. “Why would you say such a thing?”
“It’s obvious,” She spat the crayon out of her mouth. “If they cared then they’d work harder to spend time with you two.”
“They are just busy, that’s all.” Sweetie Belle objected. “Rarity and I hang out all the time.”
“Stop lying.” Scootaloo said. “We all know that she’d rather lock you in a closet then hang out with you.” She shook her head. “And Big Macintosh acts as if you don’t even exist. All he cares about is Apple Jack.”
“Why would you say such a thing?” Apple Bloom gasped. “Why are you being so mean?”
“Because I am tired of hearing you two complain all the time.” She rolled onto her back while resting her arm over her eyes. “Oh, woah is me! Rarity keeps ignoring me! How can I keep on living when my stuck-up sister doesn’t want me around?”
Sweetie Belle’s eyes narrowed. “Take that back!”
“No.” She rolled back onto her stomach. “It’s the truth.” She pushed her hoof through the crayon pile. “The sooner you two accept that, the sooner we can get back to work discovering our cutie-marks.”
“You know what I think your problem is?” Apple Bloom growled. “I think you’re just angry that we’ve got kin and you dun!”
Scootaloo grew very still.
“That’s it, ain’t it?” Apple Bloom took a step towards Scootaloo. “You’re jealous, ain’t you?”
“No.” Scootaloo found her black crayon and began to draw on her picture. “Why should I be? I got Rainbow Dash as my big sister.”
“She ain’t your sister!” Apple Bloom snapped. “And she’ll never be.” She sneered viciously. “Why would she want a sister who can’t even fly?”
Scootaloo dropped her crayon. Sweetie Belle took a step backwards, slapping both her front hooves over her mouth. She couldn’t believe what just came out of Apple Bloom’s mouth. “Take that back,” Scootaloo’s voice was trembling.
“Only if you take it back ‘bout what you said ‘bout my brother!”
“Well it’s true!” Scootaloo snapped. “At least Rainbow Dash wants to hang out with me! Not like your family.”
“At least we have a family!” Apple Bloom roared.
“Apple Bloom!” Sweetie Belle shrieked.
“What did you say?” Scootaloo whispered, her mane covering her eyes.
“You heard…” she was cut off as Scootaloo tackled her to the ground. She began to pummel her hooves into Apple Bloom’s face. “I hate you!” Scootaloo howled. “I hate you! I hate you!”
“Get off meh!” Apple Bloom bucked her hips bouncing Scootaloo off her chest. She tackled Scootaloo from behind, gripping her by the mane to smash her face into the floor.
“Guys! Guys!” Sweetie Belle bit her teeth down upon Apple Bloom’s tail and struggled to pull her off. Apple Bloom kicked her back hoof straight into Sweetie Belle’s jaw, knocking her backwards. She slipped on Scootaloo’s drawing, smashing her head against the corner of their work table. Stars exploded in her vision as she collapsed, boneless, to the floor.
“Guys,” she whimpered, trying to focus her vision. Something warm and wet dripped down the side of her face. “Guys…” she tried again. Her vision began to blur as tears welled up in her eyes. She could no longer make out which filly was who. She heard their muffled shouts then there was the sound of glass breaking.
“Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo screamed. “Apple Bloom!” Sweetie Belle saw an orange blur run up to her. “Oh my Celestia,” Scootaloo gasped. “Oh no, oh no…” Sweetie Belle blinked some of her tears away. Scootaloo’s face came into focus. Sweetie Belle stared into Scootaloo’s glowing black eyes. “Scoot…?” She whimpered.
“Oh no,” Scootaloo gasped. “I didn’t expect this. Two for the price of one?” she grinned.
“Scoot…” Sweetie Belle raised her hoof towards her friend. Her vision was beginning to darken. Scootaloo sat down in front of Sweetie Belle. “Why…?” Sweetie Belle cried.
“Shhh,” Scootaloo whispered. “Don’t ruin the experience…”
Sweetie Belle cried. Why wasn’t Scootaloo helping? Why was she just sitting there, smiling? Her vision blurred, darkened, and then went out altogether.
“Sco…” she whispered as the darkness took over.
“I paid him a visit. When I found him, I tore out his heart…”
“’How did you know that I was a doctor?’ he asked,”
“'Elementary. First there is the stain just above your left cuff – a stain that comes not from bleach but from anesthetic. Then I noticed the scar on your right cheek, just above the jaw that has been expertly sewn together, however judging by the size of the scar it is easy to deduct that the person who had sewn the wound close was none other than you, yourself as any other stallion would have been able to do a cleaner job. Of course you have the odor of a man who works within the hospitals and the eyes of someone who has seen his fair share of death. The rest just fell into place. Quite obvious, really.’ ”
Rainbow Dash squealed with delight. “This is amazing! Who would have known such a dorky stallion could be so awesome?” She was reading a Study in Sapphire , a novel that she had borrowed from Twilight. The story was about the famous detective Sherlock Hooves and his partner Jielin H. Watson. Together they would travel the countryside in search of criminals. It might not be as action-packed as Daring Do, but it was still very fascinating. Rainbow just loved the fact that Sherlock Hooves was able to deduce so many things about a pony just by looking at them. “I can totally do this,” she whispered to herself. “All I need to do is observe, not look. Observe, not look.” She set the book down on her cloud-table and poked her head out her bedroom window. She saw several Pegasus going about their afternoon. She spied Derpy trotting along the clouds, her clueless face betraying no emotion other than sheer, child-like glee. “Alright, Derpy. Let’s see what you’ve been up too today.”
Dash looked Derpy up and down, trying her best to take in as many details as possible. The only thing she was able to deduce, however, was that Derpy was returning home after working at the Pony Express and the only reason Dash was able to figure that out was because Derpy always walked past Rainbow’s home during this time. “I guess I need more practice,” Rainbow Dash mumbled. She jumped back onto her bed while fetching her new book from her table.
“Dash!” An excited, familiar voice cried out. Dash bolted out of her bed, clinging to the cloudy ceiling of her room. She glared down towards the foot of her bed where little Scootaloo was standing, her purple eyes wide with heroic worship, a large smile upon her face. “Hey!”
“Scootaloo,” Dash said while rolling her eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“I just wanted to stop by and say hello! I was really hoping that we could do something today.”
Dash rolled her eyes then dropped herself back down onto her bed. “You don’t need to come sneaking into my room to ask me that. Where are your friends? Don’t you guys usually hang out on this day?”
Scootaloo made a face. “Apple Bloom is working with AppleJack on the farm, and Sweetie Belle is grounded for messing up Rarity’s new dress.”
Dash wrinkled her nose. “Rarity really needs to chill out about that stuff. Seriously, that’s all she ever does. Dress this, dress that,” she stuck out her tongue and pressed the back of her wrist to her forehead. “Oh woe is me! I chipped my hoof!” She flopped onto her back. “This. Is. The. Worst. Possible. Thing. Ever!”
Scootaloo giggled. “Sound just like her!” She hopped up onto the bed. “So, what I was thinking was because they are all busy, we could go out and do some loop-de-loops over Ponyville. What do you say?”
That caught Dash by surprise. “Do what, now?”
“Loop-de-loops.” Scootaloo grinned.
Sherlock Hooves’ voice echoed throughout Dash’s head. Observe, Watson. Don’t just look. . She gave Scootaloo a very careful once-over, from the tip of her mussy mane, to the bottom of her muddy hooves. “Scoot,” Dash said cautiously. “How did you get up here to Cloudsdale to begin with?”
“What do you mean?” Scootaloo asked.
“You can’t fly.” Dash pointed at Scootaloo’s tiny wings. “You’ve been struggling as long as I’ve known you.”
“Oh,” Scootaloo blinked. She flapped her wings pathetically. “Well, uhm, I got a ride from Pinkie-Pie. That’s all. She let me use her balloon.”
“But you can’t stand Pinkie-Pie. You said she gets on your nerves.”
“Well, I really wanted to see you, though.”
Dash narrowed her eyes. On closer inspection, she noticed that Scootaloo wasn’t standing on the clouds. She was actually hovering a few centimeters above the surface. “Alright,” Dash kicked her off the bed. “Who are you?” She jumped onto her back hooves and raised her front ones in a boxing stance. “You are not Scootaloo.”
Scootaloo rolled onto her stomach. To Dash’s surprise, her eyes had shifted from purple to blood red. “How impressive,” Scootaloo said in a deep, male voice. “You are the first pony to figure me out.” Scootaloo’s body began to stretch out, her orange coat tearing apart to expose hideous wings, a unicorn’s horn, a scaly dragon-like body and a very familiar face “Discord!” Rainbow hissed. “Wait,” she took a step back. “You are not Discord.”
“Indeed I am not. I am Anarchy, spirit of chaos and panic,” His smile exposed all of his tiny, razor-sharp teeth. “And you, my darling, are none other than the illustrious Rainbow Dash. I must say, I am quite impressed. None of your friends were able to figure it out.”
She felt her blood begin to boil. “What did you do to my friends?” she demanded. Anarchy reached down into the cloud floor and pulled up a chair made from storm clouds. Tiny bolts of lightning erupted from within the chair making it glow with an eerie light. “Your friends?” He tapped a claw against his chin. “Your friends, your friends. Yes, what did I do to them?” He clicked his claws together. “Oh yes! I remember now.” A clap of his paws and a silver cloud appeared in the air just to the right of his head. “Your darling Pinkie-Pie has been properly detained.” The image of Pinkie-Pie huddled up behind several barrels and crates appeared within the cloud. Dash gasped. She had never seen such despair on her friend’s face. Even after the death of her father, Pinkie never looked like this. “What did you do to her?” Dash demanded.
“Why, I fixed her, of course.” Anarchy purred. “That poor little dear was just too optimistic for the world. I mean, really, who goes around smiling all day? She just represses any and all of her emotions in order to save face. I freed her from such a burden, allowing pain and suffering to fill her heart to the brim. Now she has a clear understanding of the horrors life can bring.”
“You monster!” Dash lunged at Anarchy but he simply flicked her against the wall with a snap of his tail. “Please,” Anarchy replied. “Save the compliments. I haven’t even gotten to the best part.”
Dash felt her blood go from red-hot to icy cold. “What are you talking about?”
The silver cloud shifted, this time showing AppleJack sitting alone in her barn. “Poor AppleJack,” Anarchy whimpered, his bottom lip trembling. “Look at her, sitting there all alone, sad,” His frown turned into an ominous grin. “Full of deceit and doubt. She refuses to accept the truth even though the evidence is right there in front of her very eyes.”
“What truth?” Dash whispered.
“The truth of her sister’s passing away.” Anarchy replied. “Poor dear. She suffered a very nasty fall. Landed the wrong way, and snap! I bet she didn’t even feel a thing. As of this very moment, your dear friend AppleJack is hiding herself away from her family, refusing to believe that her sister is dead. She keeps telling herself that this is all a dream.” He chuckled. “How delightful.”
“Y-you…” Dash felt as if he had reached into her chest and plucked out her heart. She was trembling from both an unbridled rage and heart-wrenching depression.
“Oh, no, look!” Anarchy slithered onto the bed, wrapping his snake-like body around Dash while cupping her cheek in one of his large paws. “Look this is the best part. You see, poor Bloom wasn’t the only filly to meet her maker. Little Sweetie Belle did too, but Rarity is so engrossed with her work, she hasn’t even gone to the hospital to check.”
“Rarity would do no such thing!” Dash mumbled.
“Of course she would! You know how focused she can get when working on a project.” Anarchy giggled. “A little push from yours truly doesn’t hurt, though.” He unfurled himself from around Dash and sat back upon his lightning chair.
“So now you figure it’s my turn. Is that it?” Dash growled.
Anarchy laughed. “Oh, no, no, no. I am just in the mood for some company as I deal with your friend, that’s all.
“If you think for one second that I am just going to stand by as you mess with my friends…”
“Oh, you’ll find that you don’t have much of a choice in the matter.” He clapped his paws together. A heavy chain materialized itself around Rainbow, pinning her to the cloudy floor. “I’ve been looking forward to this little game.”
“What are you doing?” Dash growled as she tried to pry herself free from the chains.
“Do you know what I love weak little ponies the most?” Anarchy questioned. “It’s because they are the easiest to corrupt. You see, there are ponies like you who know how to fight back and then there are ponies like her,” he clapped his paws together. An image of Fluttershy appeared in his silver cloud. She was in her little cottage. It looked like she was in the middle of making a salad of some sort.
“You leave her alone!” Dash screamed. Her eyes were full of a crazed light. “Don’t you touch her!”
“Oh, I have no intention of touching her.” Anarchy mused. “That would be far too easy.” He reclined in his lightning chair. “Besides, everything I need is already inside of her.” He turned his dark, red eyes towards Dash. “You see, like your friend Pinkie-Pie, Fluttershy represses her emotions. Except where Pinkie represses sadness and worry, Fluttershy represses anger and hatred.” He turned his attention back to the cloud. “She is just a powder keg of negativity. All she needs is the right spark and…” He opened his claws wide. “Boom.” He laughed.
“I don’t care what any pony says,” Rainbow was grinding her teeth, digging her hooves into the cloud as hard as she could. “If you harm one hair in her mane, I will kill you.”
Anarchy’s eyes widened. “Did I just hear what I thought I heard?” He cupped his claw around the side of his head. “One of Celestia’s chosen ponies threatening to kill me? How out of character.” He clapped both paws over his mouth. “I am shocked and appalled!” He slithered on over to her. “So is this the true nature of the Element of Loyality?” He tilted his head, his red eyes glinting with maniacal intent. “Tell me, Rainbow Dash, would you fight for your friends?”
“Come closer and find out!” She replied, lifting both her hooves.
“Would you kill for them?”
Her eyes narrowed. “In a heartbeat,” She hissed.
His grin widened. “Would you die for them?
Dash’s expression faltered. “What did you say?”
He clapped and a little purple bottle appeared out of thin air. He caught it between two of his claws. “Would you die for your friends?”
She stared at the bottle as if hypnotized. “O-Of course I would! They would do the same for me.”
He nodded thoughfully. “I am so glad to hear that.” He summoned a hourglass next. “I want to play a game. This hourglass is set for ten minutes. Once the sand runs out, your little friend Fluttershy will lose everything she’s ever worked for.” He motioned towards the silver cloud. Fluttershy’s little bunny Angel was sitting down next to her as she prepared his meal. He was looking mighty annoyed with how slow Fluttershy was in preparing his meal.
“All you need to do, Rainbow Dash, is prove how loyal you truly are.” He held the bottle out to her. “Inside this bottle is a very toxic poison. All I want you to do is drink it. If you sacrifice your life for Fluttershy’s, I will break the hourglass and leave her be.” His smile became cruel. “However, if you refuse, I will break down those barriers within her heart and release all her pent up anger and frustration all at once.” He set the bottle in her hooves. “It is a very nasty venom. It’ll take you quite some time to die for it first must dissolve your body’s immune system. After that, it’ll eat away at your organs, liquefying them. You’ll bleed from the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, and the pain will not stop until you breathed your very last breath. It’s the venom for a vicious serpent from a far away forest and there is no cure.”
He turned the hourglass upside down. He watched as the grains of sand began pouring through the narrow neck of the bottle. “Tick tock, tick tock.” He chuckled.
Dash stared at the bottle. Of course she could take it. She was the most loyalist of ponies in all of Equestria. So what was a little pain if it meant that her friend would be able to keep everything she cherishes?
She moved her hoof towards the cork. “I can do this,” She whispered to herself.
“Of course you can,” Anarchy encouraged her. “I mean, we all know that Fluttershy would do the very same thing in your position. We all know how brave she is.”
Dash nodded. “She would.” She bit down upon the cork.
Anarchy’s chuckled. “Go ahead. Open it. Take a nice deep breath and savor the scent of venom.” He leaned back in his chair. “I wonder what it would be like, laying here in the middle of your bedroom, dying alone, with no friends.” He pursed his lips while twirling a claw through his beard. “I imagine it wouldn’t be so bad at first but when you feel your insides begin to melt, it’ll be quite terrifying. Imagine, Rainbow, laying there in your own blood, knowing that not a single pony will come to your aid. You’ll be all alone, suffering, crying; the only thing you’d want is to be held but there will be no pony there to hold you.”
He ran his claws over his jaw. “I wonder what will be going through your head as you perish. Will you think of your friends? Or the parents you never knew? Maybe all those dreams you never got around to accomplishing. I’ve heard that you’ve become quite a fan of the Wonderbolts. Well, you never know. I may be defeated once Luna and Celestia learn of my antics. Your friends’ lives may recover for as we all know; time heals all wounds, but you wouldn’t be around to realize that. You’ll be dead. Buried. Your sacrifice will be in vain.” He slapped his knee while laughing. “Can you imagine? Being the only one of your friends who actually dies? Oh that will be delicious! Absolutely delicious! They will go one living and, eventually, they’ll forget about this terrible war. They’ll forget all about me, and they will forget about you.”
“They will never forget me,” Dash whispered. Her vision was getting blurry as she fought back tears. “I will be a hero.”
“A hero?” He fell off his chair while cackling. “Please! Do you remember the last time you were considered a hero? Your friends deceived you because they couldn’t handle you enjoying the spotlight. They were jealous of all the attention you were getting so they all dressed up to ruin your moment in the sun.”
“You don’t know what you are talking about,” she snapped at him.
“Do you know the most useful thing about being a spirit of chaos and hatred? It is the ability to delve into the minds of your friends and read their memories. I’ve seen every thought, every whisper, every secret that they have kept from you.” Anarchy peaked on over towards the hour glass. Three-quarters of the sand had already fallen.
Dash noticed this too. She looked up to Fluttershy who was in the process of being smacked in the fact by Angel Bunny. Apparently the spoiled little brat didn’t take too kindly to Fluttershy’s choice of lettuce. Dash felt a bolt of anger rise within her heart. She never liked that bunny. Angel was just a mean, self-centered, unappreciative jerk. Maybe he deserved whatever Fluttershy had in store for him.
No! Dash thought. I cannot think like that!
“And why not?” Anarcy cooed. “Isn’t it true? All that little rabbit does is smack your friend around. It completely ignores the fact that Fluttershy had rescued it from the forest. It has no appreciation for the time and effort she puts into making its meals.” Anarchy smiled. “Whatever will happen, it has it coming.” The hourglass was almost empty.
“I,” Dash stared up into Fluttershy’s eyes. Dash could see just how angry Fluttershy was becoming. It was just a matter of time.
She pulled the cork from the bottle.
Anarchy grew very still. “Know this, Rainbow Dash. The moment your lips touch that bottle, it will all be over. You are going to die and there will be no pony here to know it. You’ll be all alone.”
She lifted the bottle to her lips. Her hooves were shaking. Tears were streaming down the side of her face.
“All alone…” he whispered, his eyes glued to the bottle.
“I-I can’t!” She collapsed to her knees, dropping the bottle onto the ground. Anarchy’s face lit up with a persevere glee. He grabbed her by her jaw and forced her to look into the cloud. “Let’s watch together!” He purred.
“Angel, sweetie,” Fluttershy’s voice was rather tense. “Mama worked very hard on your lunch. Now, we’ve talked about this before. You cannot act like this. It’s very rude.”
Angel Bunny kicked the salad bowl, knocking all the food out onto the floor.
The last grain of sand fell.
“That is it!” Fluttershy screamed. She stomped towards Angel who suddenly didn’t seem all that arrogant. “Every day I slave for you; making you the healthiest foods. I spend what little money I have in buying you the freshest ingredients, I spend an hour preparing your meals, and all you do is slap me around or kick your food onto the floor. Well, no more, Mister for I have had enough!” To Rainbow Dash’s horror, Fluttershy twirled around and kicked both her back hooves straight into Angel’s tiny body. He flew across the room, striking the opposite wall with a sickening crunch. Fluttershy stared at his lifeless body. “I’m sick of it!” She screamed. “All of it!”
Fluttershy’s pets were shaking in their little houses. “Get out!” She roared. “All of you! Out! Out! Out!” They did not need any more encouragement. A swarm of little critters bolted out of Fluttershy’s hut. She slammed the door closed as the last bird flew away. Her mane was a mess, her eyes wild, her teeth bared. She was shaking all over – a side effect of the adrenaline rush she was experiencing.
“No!” Dash cried. She dove towards the bottle, hoping that the toxin hadn’t spilled out but before she could grab it, the bottle vanished in a swirl of black smoke. “Game over,” Anarchy chortled. “You lose.” He threw his head backwards laughing. “Oh and get this; when she calms down, she’ll realize what exactly she had done and that’s when things will go from bad, to delicious!” He was laughing tears. “They will never trust her again! You feared dying alone well as it turns out, Fluttershy will be alone, forever!” He fell back into his chair, trying his hardest to catch his breath. “And it is all because of you! You did this, Rainbow Dash. This is all your fault and I love it!”
“No…” Dash pressed her back against the wall. “It’s not my fault. You did this. You caused all of this.”
“No, no, no, no. Do not try to pin this one on me. I gave you a choice. All you had to do was take a sip and Angel would have been free of my spell. This is all because of you, Rainbow Dash. You and your selfishness.” He wiped a tear from his eye. “But it does not matter.” His tone grew serious. “For I know exactly what is going to happen next.” He smiled but there was nothing joyful in that expression. It was a very sick, disturbing look, one that shook Dash to the core.
“I hope you stick around for the finale,” He whispered. He vanished in a cloud of thick black smoke. Dash buried her eyes against her front legs, sobbing silently to herself.
Something tiny bumped against her leg. Sniffing, she glanced up to see the purple bottle with a note tied around its neck. It said:
To help ease the pain – Love Anarchy
She kicked it across the room with a frustrated scream. “It’s not my fault!” She howled. “It isn’t! It isn’t! It isn’t!” She buried her face back into her front legs. “It’s not my fault...”
“It’s not my fault…”
“It’s not my fault…”
“It’s not my fault…”
I’ve silenced the laughter…
Strengthened the greed…
Deceived the honest……
Made selfish the loyal…
Corrupted the kind…
Anarchy reclined against the back of Celestia’s throne. His ruby-red eyes were locked upon the large double doors that led into the chamber. And soon, he smiled, I will put an end to the Magic.
He lifted the amulet up to eye level. “And when I do, your precious little Twilight Sparkle will die.” He threw his head backwards, howling with a maniacal glee.
“We must return to Ponyville post haste!” Luna exclaimed as she bolted up the spiral staircase. “I fear that your friends are in trouble.”
“Princess, can’t we just teleport there?”
“I do not wish to transport us into a situation of which we have no knowledge. For all we know, Ponyville is aflame. We could be teleporting into a situation most dire!”
Twilight tried her best to keep up with the Princess. Her lungs were on fire as she was not used to such strenuous activity but she did not let her discomfort slow her down. She kept the images of her friends in her head, using their faces motivate her to keep on going. Her legs were burning, her chest felt tight, but still she pressed on. “How can we be sure that Discord is telling the truth? He isn’t the most trustworthy spirit in the land. He could just be saying all this just to trick us.”
Luna shook her head as she ran. “If you were with my sister, I may be inclined to agree with you, but as it was me he was talking to, I must take what he said as the absolute truth.”
“What happened between you two?” Twilight asked.
“This isn’t the time or the place!” Luna snapped back. Twilight winced. “My apologies Prin - ”
“Cease your talking and conserve your strength! We are almost to the grand hall. From there we must race to the courtyard so that I can summon my carriage. We shall take it to Cloudsdale to seek out Rainbow Dash.”
Twilight nodded in understanding. As Rainbow Dash was the fastest flyer in the sky, it was only natural that she be in charge of rounding up the rest of their friends. Twilight just prayed that they got to Rainbow before Anarchy did.
“We are here,” Luna exclaimed as she jumped into the grand hall. “Guards!” she shouted, magnifying her voice so that the entire palace vibrated. “Guards! To me this instant!”
Not one stallion answered her call. Twilight’s shoulders fell as she tried to catch her breath. “Where is everypony?” she gasped.
Luna examined the grand hall with a careful eye. “What is this?” She asked while approaching what looked to be a pile of rocks. Twilight glanced around the hall noticing that there were several such piles littered all over the floor. She trotted over to the nearest one, tapping a large chunk of stone with her hoof. It rolled towards her. She screamed. “Princess!”
Luna was at her side in less than a second. “No,” she whispered from between clenched teeth. “How could any creature be so cruel?”
What Twilight had thought was nothing more than a random chunk of rock was in fact, the petrified head of one of the palace guards. His eyes were wide, his mouth open in shock. He looked absolutely terrified. “Are these all…?” Twilight stumbled backwards, falling onto her rear-end.
“Yes,” Luna examined the other piles. “They are all here; the royal guards.” She bit down upon her bottom lip. “He has killed them. All of them.”
“No,” Twilight moaned. “We need to find the others,” she whimpered. “Before it’s too late.”
“Caution is no longer an option,” Luna replied. “We must teleport directly to Cloudsdale and find your friend Rainbow Dash.” She nudged Twilight close to her side. “Are you ready, Twilight Sparkle?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be…”
“Alright here we -” a loud crash interrupted the Princess. She looked down the hallway to see that the twin doors leading into her sister’s throne room had thrown themselves open. She lowered her head, pointing her horn towards the door. “Stay close to me,” she whispered to Twilight. Together they ventured into the throne room. As they crossed the threshold, the doors slammed shut. Silver chains crisscrossed over the doors, sealing the room shut.
“So,” A harsh whisper echoed. “We meet at last.”
Twilight pressed herself closer to Luna. “S-Show yourself!” She demanded.
“Why of course,” there was a clapping sound and Anarchy materialized upon Celestia’s throne. He was even more monstrous than Discord’s memories had depicted. He leaned forward, clasping his claws together in his lap. “You must be Twilight Sparkle,” He cooed while staring deep into Twilight’s purple eyes. “It is an honor to make your acquaintance.” His eyes flicked to Luna. “And the Mare in the Moon herself; you look absolutely divine.” He bowed at the hip, sweeping his arm over his head in a subservient gesture. “I am not worthy to be in your presence.”
“Where’s my sister?” Luna demanded. “We are not here to exchange pleasantries.”
“Oh, your sister is a lot closer than you think,” Anarchy grinned. He slipped a black amulet from around his neck and began to twirl it around a single claw. “She’s just, hanging around, as they would say.” He snickered at the joke.
“Release her.”
Anarchy rose from the throne. “You are in no position to make threats,” He hissed, his eyes glinting. “If I remember correctly, you no longer carry the Elements of Harmony. That means you are nothing more than a pretty little pony with an elementary grasp on magic.” He grinned. “Why, if I were a betting spirit, I would bet my entire fortune that little Twilight here has more magic in her left hoof than you do in your entire body.”
Luna’s jaw tensed but she did not take the bait. “I shan’t ask you again. Release my sister or face the consequences.”
Anarchy’s grin faded. “You are no fun,” He clapped his claws together and the Elements of Harmony appeared mounted on the wall above the throne. Twilight gasped. Each one of the elements, save for her own, was cracked down the center. She felt her heart skip a beat. What did these cracks mean? Could it be that her friends had already been corrupted? Or worse: dead? “What did you do to my friends?” she demanded. “Tell me!”
Anarchy tilted his head. “Oh, I will do more than tell you.” He smirked. “I’ll show you.” He clapped his hands and the three of them were instantly transported into Ponyville Town Square. Twilight’s heart sank as she saw the remains of her once beautiful town.
Whereas Discord had turned the town into a strange wonderland where the laws of nature and physics no longer existed, Anarchy had instead decided to level the entire town. Those buildings that were still standing were ablaze with a black fire. Ponies of all ages were running through the streets, their eyes dark with a strange light, their voices twisted and evil. They were screaming at one another, making threats, looting and fighting; these were not the ponies that Twilight knew and loved. These things were something else altogether.
“What did you do?” She cried.
“Do you like it?” Anarchy clasped his claws behind his back. “I call it: Eternal Darkness Number Eight.” He flashed his fangs in a toothy grin. “I find it quite lovely. Can you not see the emotion?” He placed a claw over his heart. “Can you not feel how much I suffered in making such a masterpiece? Oh, how I wish I had a gallery to show this off.” He pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. “All that’s missing, however, is the inclusion of two little ponies.” He pointed his claw towards Luna. “One,” he whispered. He moved his claw over towards Twilight. “And two.” He laughed.
Luna moved so quickly that Anarchy didn’t have time to react. Using her wings to gain momentuem, she lunged towards Anarchy, thrusting her horn towards the center of his chest. His eyes grew wide as her horn penetrated his body, bursting out the other side. She ripped herself free, twirling around to kick both of her back hooves into his stomach, knocking him onto his back. Anarchy hit the ground hard, stunned.
“Tell me you vicious little cur how to free my sister or so help me, I shall sever your head from your neck and mount it upon my wall!” Bolts of lightning erupted from the sky as she shouted down at him. Her eyes had taken on a light blue hue, her coat turning from dark blue to midnight black. Twilight took several steps backwards as she witnessed the return of Nightmare Moon.
“You…” Anarchy tried to crawl away from the angry Princess. “You little…” He began to cough. “How dare you…?”
“This is your last chance!” Nightmare Moon bellowed. Anarchy gazed into her eyes then, to Twilight’s horror, he smiled. “This shall be fun.” He clapped his claws, teleporting himself behind Nightmare Moon. “Princess! Behind you!” Twilight screamed but Nightmare Moon was already on guard. She dodged Anarchy’s claws, then turned around quickly to face him. Anarchy crawled towards her on all fours, his own horn pointed at her throat. He feinted to the right, thrusting forward towards her left shoulder. She was able to pull away from his horn but he took two more quick steps, sinking his teeth into her flesh. Her scream of pain caused the skies to blacken. Tongues of purple lightning cascaded through the sky, striking the ground with such ferocity that they left craters in their wake. She tore herself free from his bite before lunging forward to stab at his exposed neck. Flesh tore as she buried her horn half-way into his body. Her horn began to glow and a bolt of black and purple lightning blasted itself from her body and into the wound. Anarchy was blown clear across the square, smashing back-first into the remains of Sugar Cube Corner. Nightmare Moon did not let up on the attack. She reared up onto her back legs while concentrating every ounce of her magical energy into her horn. As her front hooves hit the ground, she fired off a blast of pure magic from her horn and into Anarchy’s chest. Twilight screamed as a dark purple explosion erupted on the spot, evaporating Sugar Cube Corner and everything in a twenty-five foot radius.
Twilight was shaking all over. If this was the true power of Nightmare Moon, than she considered herself very lucky that Nightmare Moon didn’t consider Twilight or her friends to be legitimate threats least they be vaporized as well. She hid beneath a chunk of charred rooftop, unsure if she should approach the fallen princess or not.
“Is it over?” Twilight called out in a rather meek voice.
“No,” Nightmare Moon snarled. “We can still feel his power.”
“Princess!” Twilight shouted but Nightmare Moon had once again anticipated Anarchy’s attack. She spun around, thrusting her horn into his stomach as he materialized behind her. This time, however, he didn’t react to the injury. He just stood there as if frozen in place. Nightmare Moon tried to wretch her horn out of his body but she was stuck.
“No,” Twilight gasped as she realized what was wrong. “No!”
Anarchy’s body went from flesh and blood to stone and concrete. The real Anarchy stepped out from behind the statue. “Hello Princess,” he whispered. He nuzzled his cheek against hers while whispering, “You lose.” He pressed his palm against Princess Luna’s chest.
"Look out!" She teleported herself next to Nightmare Moon but it was too late. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as black flames licked the edges of Anarchy’s claw. He was staring deep into Nightmare Moon’s eyes, his lips parted in a sadistic little smile. Twilight tried to push the Princess away but as her shoulder touched the Princess’s flank, Anarchy expelled his magic. The black flames erupted against Luna’s chest, sending her bouncing across the square. She hit the ground once, twice, three times before landing in a pile of bricks and stone. All Twilight could see of the Princess was her legs sticking out from the debris. Her coat was blackened from Anarchy’s fire and blood trickled down the end of her hoof.
Anarchy turned his attention to Twilight. “One,” he whispered. He began to turn his claws towards Twilight. She should have teleported herself away at that very moment. She should have run away to collect her thoughts and formulate a plan of attack. She should have tried to organize all she knew about Anarchy to come up with some sort of weakness.
She did none of these. Instead she drove her back hooves deep into the ground. As the tears streamed down the sides of her face, she concentrated all of her magical talents into her horn. She felt her body tremble all over as she allowed her anger to take control. “Enough!” She screamed. A large boulder tore through the air, smashing Anarchy in the back of the head. As he fell forward, she caused the ground to erupt beneath him, smashing itself upwards into his stomach. He gasped in shock and pain; black gore spraying out from his lips. Without giving him a chance to recover, Twilight tore the ground out from under him, swallowing him up from the hips down. She turned the soil into stone to seal him in place before biting the amulet, tearing it free from his throat.
“You will never win!” She shouted into his face.
“No!” He cried. “Don’t!
She smashed the amulet upon the ground, shattering it into dozens of tiny pieces.
“You did it,” he gasped, eyes wide. “You actually did it,” He began to tremble from what Twilight thought was fear, but then he started laughing. “I cannot believe you actually did it!”
Twilight felt her anger begin to fade as terror gripped her heart. “What?”
“Do you honestly think that I would fall for such a cliché?” He cackled. “Oh, look at me,” he mocked. “I put the princess in a stone and the only way to free her is by breaking said stone! Woe is me! She has escaped and now she will destroy me and restore Ponyville to its former glory!” He began to hammer the ground with his fists, he was laughing that hard. “You fool! You fell for it!”
Twilight was shaking now. “What? What did I do?”
Anarchy’s eyes grew wide. “You killed the princess, of course!” He was laughing tears. “That stone contained within it her life force!” He clapped his claws, teleporting himself in front of Twilight. "Don't you see just how beautiful this is? You, Twilight Sparkle, killing your own mentor; the mare who took you in, taught you everything you know and now she's dead by your hoof!” He cupped her cheeks in his claws to look into her eyes. “Look at those eyes,” He purred. “Look at how the fire dies.” He stroked a claw down her cheek. “Yes, now the realization hits that this was all planned out; the fight, the amulet, the death of the princesses.” He giggled softly. “All of this was for you.” He dropped her onto the ground while raising his claws over his head. “This is all for you!” He declared. “Everything that has come to pass was to get you to this specific time and place, Twilight Sparkle, just so that I could see that look in your eyes.” He shivered all over. “It. Was. Delicious.” He purred. He cupped his claw around his ear, his eyes half closing in a sick pleasure. “Do you hear that? That is the sound of your element shattering.”
And indeed, it was shattering. As Twilight Sparkles’ heart began to break, so did her Element. As the Element of Magic splintered, so did the other Elements until they were reduced to nothing more than bits of crystal and glass. As the final shard struck the ground, Twilight felt the final ray of hope leave her body. She fell to her knees and began to weep.
“I have won!” Anarchy screeched. “Listen up ponies!” He broadcasted his voice clear across Ponyville and beyond. “The time of peace and happiness has ended and the Era of Anarchy has begun!”
Something soft and squishy smacked against the side of Anarchy’s head. He blinked then looked to his feet to see what exactly had struck him. To his surprise, it was a muffin. A single, blue-berry muffin with almonds. “What…the…” He picked it up and looked for the pony who threw it.
“You hurt my friends!” a pony shouted. He turned around to see a single gray pony with a messy blond mane and bubbles on her flank. “You cannot hurt my friends!” She screamed.
Twilight glanced up. “Derpy?”
Anarchy looked from Twilight to the blond pony. “Is this another one of your friends?” he asked.
Twilight glared up at him. “Don’t you touch her!” She struggled to her feet but stumbled immediately after. She felt dizzy, woozy, and a bit nauseous. Twilight realized that she had wasted too much of her energy during her fight with Anarchy. “Derpy,” she gasped. “Run away. Please, run.”
Instead of running away, Derpy bolted between Anarchy’s legs to stand besides Twilight. “Oh no,” she gasped. “What did he do to you?” She pressed her hoof against Twilight’s forehead. “You look horrible.”
Twilight frowned. “Derpy, what are you doing here?”
“Well,” She actually sat down as she told her story. “Okay, yeah, so I was out near the forest picking some of those delicious blue flowers that grow all over the place…”
“Those are called Poison Jokes! You are not supposed to eat them, Derpy!” Twilight gasped.
Derpy patted Twilight on the head as if Twilight was just a little foal who didn’t know what she was talking about. “Silly Twilight. If I wasn’t supposed to eat them, then why do they taste so good?”
Anarchy stared at the two ponies with his mouth agape. “Hello?” he growled.
“Anyways,” Derpy continued in a louder voice. “I was picking a whole bunch of them thinking that I could use them in a new muffin recipe when I heard this terrible noise. Now, I don’t like loud noises so I tried to cover my ears but my hooves were full of those blue flowers so I couldn’t.” She crinkled her nose. “So I stuck my head inside a hole in a tree thinking that the noise wouldn’t be so loud but then I just ended up getting my head stuck. It took me like; I don’t know, a long time to get my head out. When I did, the noise was gone so I gathered up more flowers and returned home. That’s when I realized that I didn’t have enough flour so I decided to buy some…”
“Hello?” Anarchy repeated.
“But I couldn’t figure out where my piggy bank went.” She frowned. “I looked all over my house. I even went inside the attic. That’s when the sky turned all dark. I figured it seemed too early for bedtime…”
“Ladies?” Anarchy growled.
“But if Celestia decided to set the sun early, who am I to disagree with her. I found some of this pink stuff rolled up in my attic and used it to take a nap upon but when I woke up,” she poked her hoof against Twilight’s nose. “I was itching all over!” she pouted. “I don’t know what that pink stuff was but I know that it didn’t like me laying on it so I tore it all out and threw it away. Now my house is all cold so I needed to buy some blankets but,” she giggled. “I couldn’t find my piggy bank!”
“Are you listening to me?” Anarchy snarled.
“So I figured I would look for you, Twilight, because you are the smartest pony I know and I know you’d be able to figure out where my bank was. On my way to visit, I noticed that the town must be going through some construction because all the buildings were like, destroyed and ponies were running around carrying all sorts of weird things. Things like buckets, and ladders, and nails, and hammers, and axes, and turnips, and bricks, and torches, and pitchforks, and cans, and bottles of milk, and other ponies, and…”
“Stop ignoring me!” Anarchy bellowed.
Derpy glared over her shoulder towards Anarchy. “Excuse me, I am telling Twilight a story. Don’t be rude!” she snapped. Anarchy looked at her as if he had been smacked. Derpy nodded once before turning her attention back to Twilight. “And then I found you and Princess Luna with this weird lizard thingy…”
“I am a draconequus!” Anarchy roared, his left eye twitching.
She stuck her tongue out at him. “No. You are a lizard thingy. There is no such thing as a Dracy Neck Wiss.”
His jaw dropped. Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at his reaction. “May I finish?” Derpy snapped. “And the lizard thingy was being all loud and mean to you and Luna. I thought you were putting on a play until I saw him hurt Luna.” She frowned. “And then he hurt you.” She pressed her hoof back against Twilight’ forehead. “But I don’t feel a temperature so I think you will be okay.” She nodded confidently. “I think you just need some muffins and some rest and you’ll be as good as new!” She buried her muzzle into her side bag and pulled out two muffins; a blueberry one and a walnut muffin. “Here you go!”
“That is it!” Anarchy snarled. He slithered between Twilight and Derpy, smacking Derpy’s muffins out of her hooves. “I shall not be ignored by the likes of you!”
Derpy stared at her muffins. They were covered in grit and soot. “My muffins,” she whimpered. She pushed past Anarchy and picked them up. “You made them all dirty,” she whined. Derpy began to rub the muffins against her chest trying in vain to clean them off. “Why would you do something so terrible?”
“Because I am a terrible creature!” Anarchy screamed in her face. She lowered her ears against the top of her head while whining. “Stop being so loud!” She shoved both muffins into his mouth. “I don’t like loud noises! They hurt my ears.”
Anarchy gagged around the muffins. He stumbled backwards almost tripping over Twilight while trying to dislodge them from his throat. He spat them onto the ground. “See?” Derpy exclaimed, pointing her hoof in Anarchy’s direction. “I told you that they are ruined but you didn’t believe me!”
Anarchy’s eyes hardened. “No more!” he screeched. He lunged towards Derpy, wrapping both his claws around her throat. She gasped in surprise as he lifted her off the ground. “I will crush the life out of you!” He roared.
“Ack,” she cried out. “You’re hurting me!” she struggled against his grip. “Let me go!”
“Let Derpy go!” Twilight demanded. She tried to concentrate some of her magical energy into her horn but all that resulted was a small purple spark that fell to the ground.
“I am done playing with you!” He twisted Derpy’s head around. The sound of her spine snapping sounded…
Sounded a lot like a dog’s chew toy squeaking. He dropped Derpy’s body onto the ground except it wasn’t Derpy. It was a large rubber chicken. “What in the worlds?” Anarchy gasped. He slowly picked the chicken from the ground and shook it by the head. “Did you do this?” He asked Twilight.
But Twilight was not in any condition to answer. After attempting to save Derpy, she had collapsed back to the ground. She was dancing in and out of consciousness. Anarchy prodded her limp body with his foot. “No.” He whispered. “Not you.” He looked around Ponyville for any unicorn that could have interrupted his play time. “Whose there?”
A bolt of lightning struck the ground a few feet from Anarchy but there was something unusual about this particular bolt. It didn’t vanish after appearing. Instead it remained where it struck as if frozen in time. Cautiously, Anarchy approached the bolt and tapped it with his claw. “Sugar,” he whispered in confusion.
“I absolutely detest what you did with this place.” An all-too-familiar voice said. The ground began to quake and split. Chunks of soil and rock rose from the ground to hover dozens of feet into the air. “There is not a lick of creativity in your work.” The floating islands transformed from dirt to brownie bits with white and yellow butter cream frosting. A single gold-colored talon ran through the frosting as a tall, slender beast stepped through the haze. “Well I’ll be,” Anarchy hissed. “How long has it been since I last laid eyes on you, brother?”
Discord stepped through the haze while sucking the frosting from his talon. “A thousand years,” he commented nonchalantly. “Two tops?” He clasped his claws behind his back as he paced through the town square. “So; have you accomplished everything you set out to do? Is this,” He gestured with his left paw towards the destruction Anarchy had caused. “The paradise you’ve always wanted?”
“It is what I’ve dreamed,” Anarchy growled. He stepped in time with Discord’s pacing, refusing to expose his back to the older spirit. “Can’t you hear their cries? Can’t you feel their suffering? How could you not appreciate my masterpiece?”
Discord stopped before the body of Princess Luna. He clicked his claws, raising her from the ground. Her battered and bloodied body hung limp in the air. “You really did a number on these ponies,” he said. He dropped her corpse none-to-gently onto the ground. “Let’s go down the list, shall we?” He raised his claws. “You’ve destroyed the Elements of Harmony. Ruined the power of friendship. Put an end to the royal blood-line, and destroyed Ponyville. All in a single day, I might add.” He nodded. “I must say, I am impressed.”
Anarchy felt some of the tension leave his shoulders. “I am glad to hear that,” He said with a grin. “It took you long enough to appreciate my specific brand of chaos.”
“Oh,” Discord shook his head. “This isn’t chaos.”
Anarchy felt his body tense back up. “I know what you are going to say.” He growled. “‘This isn’t chaos. This is murder.’ Am I right?””
Discord approached Twilight Sparkle. “She was my favorite,” He said. He used her foot to turn her over onto her back. “My favorite toy.” He looked into Anarchy’s eyes. “She was quite the little fighter.” He took a very deep breath. “Ah, how I miss playing with her.”
Anarchy watched him. “You were a failure,” he whispered. “How could the great and powerful Discord allow himself to be thwarted from six little ponies? It is embarrassing.”
“Not as much as you may think.” He smiled down at Twilight. “These little fillies had given me more fun in a single day than I had in all the years I’ve been tormenting Equestria. You should have been there. The purple-maned one, Rarity? I convinced her that a bolder was a diamond. She carried it around on her back all day and even called it Tom. Can you believe that? Hysterical!” He chuckled.
Anarchy frowned. “I don’t…”
“Oh,” Discord shook his head while laughing. “No, no, you’ll love this one. I was able to turn Fluttershy from this sweet innocent little creature into the biggest bully you’d ever seen. It was delightful! Poor Twilight was so confused!” He began to laugh.
Anarchy’s frown deepened. “How could you find humor in such childish antics? What did you plan to accomplish by teasing these ponies instead of destroying them?”
Discord regarded the destroyed town of Ponyville. “You are proud of this?” he asked again.
Anarchy felt his temper begin to rise. “Yes, I am.”
Discord kicked over a chunk of rock. It turned into a chocolate bar with peanuts and almonds. He picked it up and took a bite out of it. “This was all a part of your master plan?”
“Yes!” Anarchy barked. “I planned this! All of this! And you know what, Discord? It went exactly as I had hoped it would. Do you know why?” He smacked the candy bar out of Discord’s claws. “Because I thought it out! I didn’t just prance around like a child in a toy store!”
“And that’s the problem!” Discord snapped. He jabbed his claws against Anarchy’s chest. “What you have created here is not chaos, but order. You planned it out, looked at every conceivable angle, and then executed the order.” His claws began to glow a bright yellow. “Chaos is to be spontaneous!” a large sledgehammer appeared in the air above Anarchy. It swung down, smacking Anarchy in the right temple. He went sprawling into the brownie dirt, covered head to toe chocolate and frosting. He spat out a large chunk of brownie and wiped the frosting from his eyes. As his vision cleared, he saw Discord clicking his claws again. “Chaos stems from the imagination!” the ground beneath Anarchy turned to ice. He tried to dig his talons into the surface but couldn’t get a grip. He began to slide right back towards Discord who was now wearing a plaid beret and welding a golf club. “You are no agent of chaos,” Discord struck Anarchy underneath the jaw, sending him flying high into the air. He landed upon something jiggly and sticky. Rubbing his jaw, he discovered that Discord had placed a large purple gelatin mold beneath where Anarchy was going to land.
“Even now,” Anarchy tried to crawl off the dessert but only succeeded in slipping off of it and landing head-first upon the brownie ground. “You make jokes.”
Discord disappeared and then reappeared besides Anarchy. “You wouldn’t know a good joke if it bit off your big toe,” he growled. “Look at you. You are a disgrace to our kind, preferring the rivers to run red with blood.”
“If you had your way, the rivers would be flowing chocolate milk.” Anarchy hissed.
“Please,” Discord rolled his eyes. “It rains chocolate milk. The rivers are full of fruit punch. Everypony knows that.”
Anarchy swiped his claws across Discord’s face but instead of striking flesh and bone, his claws came away covered in cake and ice-cream. The Discord that was standing in front of him fell apart, exposing that it was, in fact, made from vanilla cake with a chocolate chip ice-cream center.
“Enough of your childish games!” Anarchy howled. “Face me, Discord, and let us finish this once and for all!”
“Why should I?” Discord’s voice echoed.
“Because I said so!” Anarchy snapped back.
“Oh,” Discord appeared a few yards in front of Anarchy. He was lying upon a pink and silver couch with a pair of green sunglasses upon his snout. “Yes. That is a very convincing argument.” He shook his head. “Tell me, Anarchy. What will you do after you defeat me? With Ponyville destroyed, what’s next in your master plan?”
“I plan on visiting Las Pegasus.” His smile turned deadly. “With the sheer amount of greed that city generates, I shall have no problem finding ponies to manipulate.”
“And after that?”
“Fillydelphia.”
“And after that?”
“Appleloosa,” Anarchy snapped. He was losing his patience.
“And after that?”
“Baltimare!”
“And after that?” Discord shook his head. “Where will you go after you’ve visited every town in Equestria? What will you do when all the ponies are dead or driven insane?”
“I will leave some of them alive,” Anarchy replied. “To repopulate and rebuild.”
“What if they choose not too?”
“Then I will force them.” He growled.
Discord lowered his sunglasses. “So that’s your master plan: To create a constant cycle of death and rebirth?”
“Yes.” Anarchy straightened his back.
“Well,” Discord sat up upon the couch. “That is a very clever plan. However, you forgot to take one thing into account.”
“And that is?”
Discord smiled. “An extra dose of chaos.” He vanished and reappeared behind Anarchy. He snapped his lizard-like tail around, striking Anarchy in the back, sending him sprawling onto the ground. Anarchy rolled onto his back, clapping his claws together. He summoned a whirlwind the swept Discord off his feet and high into the air. “I will prove to you,” Anarchy flew up into the air after Discord. “That I am not some pony for you to mess with!” When he met up with Discord, however, he discovered that instead of spinning out of control as Anarchy had hoped, Discord was lounging on his back, using his wings to help guide him through the updrafts. He was sipping a cup of lemonade – sipping the actual cup, not the drink – as he flew. As Anarchy began his approach, Discord simply snapped his claws. As if nature itself had an off-switch, the air currents died. Anarchy, who had been fighting against the currents, suddenly found himself over-exerting his energy in a calm ocean of sky. He overshot Discord and collided into a large, fluffy cotton-candy cloud.
Anarchy tore himself out of the cloud. He slapped his claws together causing a bolt of black lightning to erupt from the sky towards Discord. Discord didn’t even bother to look up as he conjured a mirror to redirect the blast, striking Anarchy in the chest and sending him spiraling back down to the earth. Anarchy was able to catch himself a few thousand yards above the surface of the ground, his body charred and smoking. He glared up towards Discord who now looked as if he had fallen asleep. He was curled up in the middle of the sky, rocking himself and forth on a cotton white cloud.
“I will not allow you to make a fool out of me!” Anarchy roared. He flew towards Discord while spreading his claws wide open. His talons transformed into steel blades as he thrust all ten digits towards Discord’s back. His claws burst through Discord’s spine and out his stomach but instead of blood and gore, there was candy and caramel. Already anticipating such a trick, Anarchy tore his claws free from the piñata to slash around towards his backside. He struck flesh and Discord’s snarl of surprise filled the air. Anarchy turned around with a maniacal smile upon his face as Discord clutched the side of his face where five large gashes lay within his cheek.
“You will not survive this day,” Anarchy growled while licking the blood off his claws. “I can promise you that.”
“Really?” Discord raised an eyebrow. “Is this also a part of your plan?”
“There is nothing you can do that will escape my eye. I know all of your moves. You are a clown, Discord, a jester meant for parties. I am the future of Equestria. I know how to control and conquer whereas you know how to make cotton candy clouds and chocolate rain.”
Discord nodded. “But you forget the advantages of cotton candy clouds and chocolate rain.”
“Oh?” Anarchy smirked. “What? That they can give me cavities?”
Discord’s eyes twinkled. “They attract insects.” He snapped his claws, vanishing from sight leaving Anarchy to wonder what exactly Discord meant by such a cryptic statement. He didn’t need to wonder for long as the sound of thousands of tiny little wings came buzzing up from below. Anarchy looked beneath his feet to see a cloud of itty-bitty ball-shaped insects racing up towards him. “What in Equestria are you?” he pondered. He watched in morbid curiosity as the swarm began to circle him. A single blue ball flew on over towards Anarchy’s body. It gave a sniff of the caramal on his claws then, without warning, bit his middle claw off at the joint!
“Accursed wretch!” Anarchy screeched. He crushed the parasprite between his paws and dove away from the swarm. The swarm followed Anarchy, mimicking every twist and turn and barrel roll that the spirit attempted. He dove beneath the cotton candy clouds hoping that the insects would target them instead. Indeed several hundred decided that the clouds were tastier than he but thousands more preferred the taste of his candy-coated flesh over the sugary sweet clouds.
“Chaos can never be predicted,” Discord said as he materialized in front of Anarchy. He had a large golden gong in his claws and held it up in front of his body like a shield. Anarchy smashed head-first into the gong causing a loud clang to echo across the land. Dazed, Anarchy fell from the sky like a stone, the parasprites hot on his heels. Discord tilted his head curiously. “Chaos is never kind.” He whispered while snapping his claws. The ground beneath Anarchy rose up to form a deep, jagged ravine. Anachy’s body smashed into the rocks, bouncing all the way down to the bottom of the newly formed canyon. His wings broken and body covered in cuts and scraps, Anarchy was a prime target for the hungry insects.
But Anarchy would not go down so easily. He brought his paws together causing two sheets of stone to be torn away from the canyon walls. They smacked together with the parasprites in between. The little insects let out a loud squeak of surprise before the stones crushed them into little black smears. Anarchy forced himself to stand. “That’s more like it!” He hollered up at Discord. “This is how it should be! With blood spilled and bone broken!” he started to laugh. “Finish me, Discord! See what it feels like to take the life of another!”
Discord crossed his arms while remaining high above the surface of the earth. “Do you hate yourself so much that you are willing to throw away your own life to prove a point?”
“No,” Anarchy began to crawl out of the canyon. Where were they? How far had they flown? This wasn’t Ponyville and judging by the size of the mountains surrounding Discord’s canyon, this wasn’t even on the same continent. “I don’t hate my life.” He reached the top. “I hate you.” He snarled. “I hate the ponies. I hate the animals. I hate everything!” He glared up towards Discord. “I shall ruin this world, Discord! I shall remind everypony that I am to be feared!” The air around Anarchy began to take on an icy chill but he paid it no mind. “And I won’t stop until every pony, foal, goat, and donkey lies dead beneath my feet! Do you hear me!”
Discord shook his head. “So much hate,” he sighed. “It will be your undoing.”
Anarchy laughed. “There is nothing you can do to stop me! I will always be the most powerful spirit in all of Equestria! Now come down here and face me!” He had to increase the volume of his voice as the wind began to pick up and howl around him.
“There is no need.” Discord said.
“If you don’t,” Anarchy’s eyes flashed. “I will destroy every pony of Ponyville. Just because we are no longer in the town doesn’t mean I cannot wipe it off the face of Equestria.”
Discord shook his head. “I don’t think you’ll be destroying anything any time soon.”
“What makes you say that?”
Discord pointed. Anarchy turned around and his eyes grew wide. “No,” he gasped. How could he have not sensed their presence? Had he truly been so engaged with Discord that he failed to recognize the signs? “No! I will not have it!” He raised his paws to clap them but Discord snapped his fingers first. Anarchy was thrown to the ground; his arms pinned on either side of him. “Discord!” He scnarled. “You cannot do this to me!”
“I am not doing anything.” Discord rested upon his stomach, his chin resting in both claws. “They are.” He watched as the Windigos swooped down towards Anarchy. Their breath washed over him in waves, crystallizing half of his body on the first past. “Discord!” Anarchy screeched. “Discord!”
The second Windigo flew past, turning Anarchy’s upper body into bright blue crystal. He tried to rip his arms free from the ground but succeeded in only snapping both of them off at the shoulder. He stared, wide-eyed at his stumps as the third and final Windigo froze his head. They swept past the region, bringing ice and snow to the canyon that Discord had created before retreating back into the heavens from which they came. Discord watched them with wild mild interest before bringing himself down to stand besides Anarchy’s frozen form. “Do you want to know why you failed?” he asked the statue. “Everything must be thought out ahead of time. You think instead of react.” He shook his head. “When I tore out your heart, it became the Elements of Harmony. I wonder what will happen to you if those ponies corrupted the rest of your spirit.” He used his tail to crush Anarchy’s body into tiny pieces then summoned a satchel to put them in. “Maybe one day you’ll appreciate the complexities of a good joke,” he whispered with a smirk. “Though I doubt it…”
“Twilight?” The little blond pony whispered. “Twilight? Please wake up.” Derpy was sitting down next to an unconscious Twilight Sparkle. She was doing her very best to ignore the chaos that was going on around her. She had covered her ears in a set of earmuffs that she had lying around her house and tried her very hardest to keep her eyes locked on Twilight’s body lest she see the ponies fighting and arguing in the background. She didn’t know what exactly happened to all of her friends but she had an idea that it had something to do with that big scary lizard thingy. She really didn’t like him, especially when he threatened to crush her. How mean could one lizard-thingy get?
Luckily she had been transported back into the safety of her house. She didn’t know who exactly had done such a feat but she was sure glad that it had happened. It also gave her time to get her muffs as well as her first aid kit for Twilight Sparkle. The poor unicorn looked terrible and she wasn’t responding to any of Derpy’s treatments. Derpy was beginning to lose all hope in her friend ever waking up. “Please don’t sleep forever,” Derpy whimpered. “Come on. Wake up.” She nudged Twilight’s cheek again as the tears began to well up in her eyes. “Don’t leave me alone with all these angry ponies.”
The sound of claws scratching ground caught her attention. She positioned herself over Twilight’s body while staring out into the haze. “Don’t worry, Twilight. I won’t let anypony hurt you. I promise.”
What came out of the smoky haze was no pony. It was another one of those strange lizard-thingys. This was different than the last but that didn’t mean that Derpy could trust it. She watched as the creature walked through the town square towards where Princess Luna was laying. “Stay away from her!” Derpy commanded but the creature paid her no mind. She wanted to rush on over to keep the monster away from the Princess but if she did, who would protect Twilight? Derpy felt a soft whine of frustration rise up from the depths of her throat. How she wished she could split into two Derpys in order to protect both ponies.
The lizard thingy ran a single claw over the Princess’s cheek. Derpy bit her bottom lip, positive that the monster was going to do something terrible. Instead, Princess Luna let out a soft groan and her wounds began to close. “What did you do?” Derpy asked in awe.
The beast looked back to Derpy. He snapped his claws together and a muffin appeared on a little plate. “Eat this,” He hissed. His voice sounded sore as if he had been screaming. “It’s good for you.” There was a strange smile upon the beast’s mouth that worried Derpy but she saw that he had healed the Pricness so she guessed that it was alright to trust him. He didn’t seem as scary as the other lizard-thing.
“Is it blueberry?” She asked while sniffing the muffin.
“Is there any other kind?” The beast asked with a grin.
“Oh sure!” Derpy exclaimed. “There’s boysenberry, strawberry, walnut, almond, banana, chocolate, chocolate chip, vanilla with chocolate sprinkles, coffee…” she continued to prattle on even as the creature snapped its claws and disappeared. Once she had finished the list of the known muffins, she smiled to the one the monster had left behind. “And this one is blueberry!” she chirped while taking a bite out of it. After finishing her muffin, she felt her eyelids grow very heavy. She stumbled off of Twilight before curling up upon the ground. It had been a very unusual day for little Derpy Hooves and it was time for a well deserved nap.
An hour later found Discord in the palace gardens. He had just finished creating a replica of himself out of marble and was in the middle of placing it onto a pedestal when a familiar presence made itself known. “Ah.” He said while setting the statue down. “I was wondering when you’d show up. Tell me, how does Celestia fare?”
“She has no memory of what happened," Luna responded. She stared at Discord for several seconds, then; "Why did you do this?” Princess Luna whispered. She looked over her shoulder. The skies were the brightest blue with normal, white fluffy clouds floating in the air. The birds were singing and in the distance they could hear the laughter and chatter of ponies. It was as if nothing had ever happened.
Discord adjusted his statue. “You know,” He mused. “Your ponies really did not capture me in the most flattering of positons.” He ran a claw over his stony cheek. “I should have struck a more interesting pose.” He shook his head with a smile. “Who would have guessed that little Twilight Sparkle would be able to break free from my spell?” He turned round to face Luna. “So, you want to know why I restored your precious little Ponyville?”
Luna stared into his eyes. For the first time in over a thousand years she was looking at him with an emotion other than hatred. It reminded Discord of a simpler, more entertaining time. “You could have left. There was no reason to save everypony.”
“Do you know why I fought against Anarchy?” Discord asked. He flipped his paw around summoning a wine glass full of chocolate milk. He gazed into it as he swirled the liquid around in slow lazy circles.
“Because it was the right thing to do?”
Discord laughed. “What is wrong and what is right is all subjective.” He took a sip of his drink. “No, I fought Anarchy because he played with my toys without my permission.” He smirked. “Then he broke them.” Discord shook his head slowly. “That is just plain rude. No one should ever destroy the toys of another.”
Luna’s expression fell. “That’s it? That’s the only reason because he broke your toys?”
“Yes.” Discord chuckled. “Were you expected a more noble response?”
“Maybe, but I guess I forgot whom I was talking too.”
“Perhaps you did.” Discord approached the Princess and ran a finger down the side of her face. “Or perhaps you continue to see things in me that just don’t exist?” His smile was unpleasant. “Our playtime has come to an end, Luna. I have new ponies to entertain myself with. The sooner you accept that, the better.”
Luna pulled away from his touch. “Do you think I will just let you waltz on out of here? To allow you to escape would be condemning my citizens to your madness. I will not allow that to happen.”
“We both know that you cannot stop me,” Discord commented. He finished the rest of his milk and threw the glass over his shoulder where it exploded. “The reign of you and your sister is coming to an end. Eventually you’ll be forced to pass the throne along to a much more deserving pony and when you do,” Discord smiled. “I will be there to play with them but until that time, there is an entire world full of toys that are just dying to be used.” He walked past Luna who refused to face him. “Ta-ta…” he whispered.
“Discord,” She said. “Why did you do it?”
Discord kept his back to Luna as he answered. “What fun is chaos,” he whispered in a very serious tone. “If there is nopony around to appreciate it?” With that, he vanished leaving Luna alone with her thoughts, and her memories.
One Week Later
“Spike? Spike! Where are you?”
“Down here, Twilight.” Spike the Dragon called out. “What’s wrong?”
“Rainbow Dash’s birthday party is coming up and I am running late!” She was sitting in front of her bedroom mirror trying to brush her mane.
“Well, what do you need me for?”
“I need you to wrap her present!” She levitated the newest edition of Sherlock Hooves off her nightstand and sent it down to Spike.
“Oh Twilight,” Spike sighed. He took the book out of the air and began to hunt down some wrapping paper. “You are usually so organized. What happened?”
“I keep having these weird dreams,” she growled at her mane as it refused to stay down. “More like nightmares, really. I’ve been having them ever since last week and they are driving me crazy.” She finally got her mane the way she liked it. “There,” she snorted at the mirror. “It’s about time.” She wandered downstairs to help spike wrap Dash’s book. “But it seems like they are going away. I didn’t wake up in the middle of the night this time.”
“What are the dreams about?”
Twilight frowned. “I really don’t remember but they seem so real at the time. Whatever they are about I know that they are just figments of my imagination and the less time I spend thinking about them, the faster they’ll go away.” She nodded in approval as the finished wrapping the present. “There. Now let’s hurry! If we run, we’ll be able to make it nice and early.”
Spike’s jaw dropped. “Early?”
“Of course!” Twilight gave him a look. “Do you know how uncool it is to arrive on time? I want to get there as early as possible to help Dash set up for all the other ponies.” She grinned. Spike slapped his claws against his forehead. “Oh Twilight,” he groaned.
Together the two of them stepped out of the library. They traveled through the town square, enjoying the beautiful day. “The sun sure feels nice,” Twilight commented. Spike wasn’t paying attention. He was busying himself with trying to catch a quick nap while lying on Twilight’s back.
Twilight trotted through the center of town. She waved to all of her friends, feeling unusually happy to see them all. It was as if somewhere in the back of her mind she was reminding herself to appreciate every friend as if they were family. Of course that was just plain silly. Why shouldn’t she consider these ponies her family? They were the best…
Something unusual caught her eye. She was passing a newspaper stand and one of the headlines read:
Chocolate Rain Storm expected in Northern Manehattan
“Spike?” Twilight bucked the little dragon off her back. “Wake up!”
“Huh?” groaned Spike. “What’s is it this time?”
“Look!” She pointed her hoof towards the newspaper.
“So what?” Spike shrugged. “I don’t care if the Harlem Globe Trotters won another game. You know I don’t like sports.”
“No!” She looked back towards the paper. “I’m talking about…” she trailed off. There was no headline about chocolate rain or Manehattan, instead the article was about the Harlem Globe Trotters and their latest victory. Twilight frowned. “But I swear I saw…”
“Twilight,” Spike brushed himself off. “I think you are more tired than you realize.”
She blinked her purple eyes. “Perhaps your right.” She chuckled nervously. “For a second I thought…” She shook her head. “Nope! The sooner I forget about these things, the sooner the nightmares will stop.” She used her magic to put Spike onto her back. “Come on Spike. Let’s go have some fun!”
