Nightmare Free Equestria

"You can't get away," Discord said as he chased after Moon Shadow. "I mean really, catching you would be a..."

There was a snapping sound and Discord appeared in front of her, grinning.

"Snap."

Moon Shadow let out a gasp as she saw the creature in front of her. She twisted in mid-air to avoid colliding with him, flying further upwards. As she did, she kicked out with her hind legs, managing to slam one of her hooves into his jaw with an audible crack. Her wings flapped hard as she flew straight up as hard as she could, heading toward the clouds.

Discord narrowed his eyes as he watched Moon Shadow take off. Reaching up with his paw, he pressed his jaw back into place with a pop. With a snort he resumed flying after her. Quickly the draconequus chased her up, bursting through the pink cotton candy clouds.

Moon Shadow floated above him grinning. Behind her was a massive black storm cloud, full of moisture and energy. Lightning Dust flew up above the storm cloud before slamming all four of her hooves against it as hard as she could.

As the green pegasus attacked the cloud, a ear-shattering boom came forth as lightning shot out. The bolts struck Discord, shocking him. As his body absorbed the electrical assault, the strange form of the strange creature's skeleton became visible. The smell of ozone and burnt hair filled the air around him.

"Is there something wrong Discord?" Moon Shadow asked, raising an eyebrow. "You seem quite.... shocked." Chuckling, she turned and bolted past him as she flew off. Discord let out a snort and took off after her.

Or, tried to. As soon as he started to fly, the draconequus felt a yank on his tail. Turning, he found the end held by a length of rope. The length of it led back to the cotton candy clouds where Daring Do stood, holding onto the other end. Her hooves were spread wide, pressing into the cloud surface to give her purchase. The pegasus held the end of the rope in her teeth, clenching as hard as she could.

Discord snorted and gave a flick of his tail. The rope released its grip on the creature, dropping toward the cloud. As it fell, the length thickened, the fibers turning to scales. As it reached the cloud, it had become a full snake. The creature opened its mouth, hissing as it bared its fangs at her. Daring stomped a hoof, creating a hole in the cloud. With a grin, she released the tail tip, letting it fall through. The snake had a second of realization before plummeting. Daring Do and Lightning Dust then took off.

Moon Shadow continued to fly, Discord chasing after her and rapidly getting closer. Her eyes glanced around as her mind worked, trying to come up with a way to buy more time. All she saw was the cotton candy clouds they were flying above. A wicked grin spread across her face as an idea began to form.

The black alicorn's horn began to glow as she shifted in a dive, bursting through the cloud and into the chocolate rain below. As she flew through, she collected the dark dairy droplets. Each drop she collected was rapidly frozen and pressed into a growing ball. Quickly she built it up until it was nearly the size of a cantaloupe.

"Hey, Discord!" she called out. "Do you like ice cream?"

"Why of course I-" Discord's response was cut off as he was hit in the face by the ball of frozen chocolate milk hit him in the face like a giant snowball. The compressed crystals burst apart on impact, getting in the creature's eyes and nostrils. He was forced to stop for a moment as he wiped the frozen chocolate milk from his face.

"So that's how you want to play it?" Discord growled. He gave a snap.

The chocolate milk stopped falling. From the corner of her eye, Moon Shadow caught a glimpse of a pale blue magical burst in the distance. Above, the clouds started to shift and change in shape, the colors changing.

Moon Shadow felt something hit her on the back. Shifting she tried to see what it was. As she did, something hit her on the nose. This time she was able to catch sight of it before it bounced off and continued to fall toward the ground.

It was a pistachio, a little white-shelled nut that was split open to reveal the pale green meat ready to eat. This was soon followed by another, and another. Shortly, there were thousands of pistachios falling from the clouds like hailstones. The impacts were actually starting to sting.

Horn glowing, she erected a shield above her to protect herself from the nut storm. The magical aura glowed constantly as it absorbed and deflected the energy of impact after impact. She made her way through the hail of nuts, flying as fast as she could. She kept her eyes forward, moving as fast as she could and hoping that Discord was still behind her.

"Run, run, run," Discord called out, "as fast as you can."

Moon Shadow hit a clear patch of sky and let out a sigh of relief. Adjusting her wings, she made a sharp, fast drop toward the ground. Keeping a count, she stopped at the last moment she knew she could, flaring her wings and swooping above the ground before coming to a stop. The mare looked up, searching for the creature.

"That was impressive," Discord said as he landed, "but it seems I now have you surrounded and have caught up." He grinned, "So tell me, what are you going to do now?"

Although it was not visible at the moment due to it not being struck, Moon Shadow still had her shield up. She looked at the draconequus, narrowing her eyes and letting a wide, predatory, grin spread across her face. The shield grew larger, encompassing her from horn to hoof all the way to the ground.

"Rock!"

Discord stopped at the statement, looking at her in confusion.

"Rock?"

"ROCK!" two voices shouted, causing him to turn around. There stood Trixie and Vinyl Scratch at the DJ's booth. There horns began to glow with their magic.

Before he could figure out what was going on, Discord was struck by bright flashing lights and loud rock music. The impact was practically solid, sending the draconequus flying backwards. An entire spectrum of light filled his eyes, making the hurt as it became hard to see. The music pulsed and throbbed, the heavy bass sending powerful vibrations through his entire body as he was blown back.

Discord let out a noise of frustration as he found himself pinned to the ground. Pushing up, he reached up with his lion's paw and snapped his fingers.

"There," he said as he stood up, brushing himself off. "Now, what are you going to do without your little toy?"

Trixie and Vinyl looked at each other, then back at Discord with a smirk. Trixie stepped forward as her horn glowed, unleashing a burst of fireworks right into the face of the creature, blinding him and causing him to step back. The shot was immediately followed by another and another. After each burst, Trixie would move to a different spot before unleashing the next.

Vinyl herself moved off to the side. Her own horn glowed as she unleashed her magic as well. It was not the powerful rhythmic techno music she had made with her sound system, but since she was using it as an irritating distraction, it did not need to. Instead she let out burst of high pitched white noise that sounded like ear-splitting audio feedback.

"We do not need a machine to fight you," Trixie said as she let out a final burst.

"And neither does Octavia," Vinyl added as her horn stopped glowing.

"Octavia?" Discord asked. "Who is Oc-"

The question was cut short as a massive impact struck his cheek, knocking him off his hooves. He fell to the ground, eyes spinning as birds literally flew around his head. Several images shifted and moved in his field of vision. As he regained his senses, the images came together to create a single, clear one.

Standing over him was Octavia, one hoof holding a large branch from a tree as if it were a club. Discord looked up at her and immediately began to burst out into laughter.

"Really?" he asked with a chuckle. "Is this all you have left? An earth pony with a stick?"

"No," Octavia responded. She pulled back her branch and swung low.

Seeing the swing at his legs, Discord jumped up to have it pass under him. As he did, something slammed into the back of his head, knocking him face first into the dirt. As he fell, he caught sight of Lightning Dust flying by, about where head level would have been for him just a few seconds ago.

There was a yanking sensation on his tail. Shifting, he found that the tip was once again encompassed by a rope. The other end led back to Daring Do, who stood beside Moon Shine. With her horn glowing, the black alicorn took a hold of the rope in her magic. Moon Shine then gave it a hard yank, trying to pull Discord toward her.

Instead, all she got was the end of his tail as it detached with an audible pop. Reaching the two, it stopped in mid-air, then swung like a baseball bat. It hit the two, sending them flying.

"Well, that's two down," Discord said as he brushed his palms together. He then turned to Octavia. "Now for y-"

The branch smack Discord in the face, cracking loudly against his head as it brought him down to eye level with the average pony. Before he could recover, Octavia swung again. This time the impact caused the wood to shatter, leaving the mare with the splintered handle. Turning it over, she slammed the end into the creature's sternum, causing him to let out a whuff sound as air was knocked from his lungs. She bolted past him, trying to get the other half. Just as she was about to grab it, there was a yank on her tail. She was yanked hard as Discord pulled her up.

"Hmmm..." he rubbed his chin as he looked at her. "Now what should I do with you?"

Before he could decide, there was a flash of light in his eyes and a loud screeching sound in his ears.

"Hey Dissy-boy!" Vinyl called out. "You didn't forget about us, did you?"

Discord shook his head, trying to get the afterglow of flashes from his eyes and buzzing from his ears. As he regained his senses, he felt like something was missing. Turning, he found that Octavia was now gone from his claw. Glancing around, he found that she was being flown away by Lightning Dust. Something suddenly hit the back of his head.

A pistachio.

Soon another hit him, then another, and another.

"How do you like that?" Moon Shine shouted as she continued to throw the nuts at him. "Thought you could use a snack."

Discord turned to face the assault, holding up his paw to block them. As he did, he caught sight of something from the corner of his eye. The draconequus turned to look just in time to take two hooves directly toward the face. Before he could recover, he was once again attacked by flashes of light and sound.

Something wrapped around the wrist of his lion paw. He could not see what it was, but felt a yank to make his own paw smack him in the face. It was then pulled down hard as something slipped between his legs. Another yank and he was flipped in mid-air to land on his back. This was immediately followed up by what felt like the weight of pony slamming onto his stomach before bouncing off.

As he tried to get up, something threw him up in the air before slamming him down once again.

"ENOUGH!"

A burst of raw energy exploded out from Discord. As it rolled, twisted, and squirmed out away from him, he got up and brushed himself off. Taking a deep breath he looked around.

All the ponies had been knocked over by the blast and were now lying on the ground. Octavia was groaning as she tried to push her way up onto her hooves while pinned under an unconscious Lightning Dust. Trixie and Vinyl Scratch were both also knocked out, their use of magic having left them weakened. Daring Do was still standing, if barely. Then he caught sight of something he did not expect to see. A figure that was moving to stand up where he had last seen the alicorn claiming to be Moon Shadow.

"Princess Luna?" Discord asked as he floated over to her. "How strange. I have one of you already in my collection."

"Indeed," Luna said before coughing. "All the more reason that you need to be stopped."

"Oh, my." Reaching down, he placed his paw under her chin and lifted her up to look him in the eye. "I must say you seem quite different from the Luna I know. Talking back, challenging me, standing up for yourself, and all those witty quips you made. It's all very impressive." His eyes narrowed and he grinned. "I wonder what you'll be like under my control." Discord leaned closer, his nose almost touching.

"Did you honestly think that you could defeat me?"

"No," Luna said before smirking herself. "Which makes it fortunate that doing so was not our objective."

"What?"

Luna pulled out of Discord's grasp, her smirk growing into a full grin.

"The ponies who have fought you and I did not come with the believe that we would be able to physically defeat you in order to end your reign of chaos. Fortunately that was not our intent. Our objective was to keep you distracted while another squadron made their way through The Everfree Forest."

"The Everfree Forest?" Discord asked before laughing. "But that's such a foolish waste of time. There's nothing in there but the castle ruins. And the only thing in there are a bunch of old tapestries."

"And The Elements of Harmony," Luna added. She felt a thrill of excitement as Discord's face dropped, turning to look at her in shock.

"The... Elements?" he repeated. "You mean to tell me that big statue with all those stone orbs were actually The Elements of Harmony?"

"Correct." Luna gave a nod. "And if my calculations are correct, they should be reaching The Elements about now."

"Oh, no," Discord said, shaking his head. "No, nonono. I have to stop them. Maybe they haven't made it yet." The draconequus took off, flying as fast as he could toward The Everfree Forest, the castle within, and hopefully his defeat by The Elements of Harmony.

"Are you certain it was a good idea to tell him?" Octavia asked as walked over, carrying Lightning Dust.

"If the Twilight of this world is similar to the Twilight of mine," Luna stated, "it is a necessary step. It is the relief of having her friends there when she finds herself threatened that had activated them in my world. Besides, it is more convenient to have Discord travel to the castle instead of trying to keep him preoccupied until the ponies return to Ponyville. We shall have to just hope for the best."

"I've already checked on Trixie and Vinyl Scratch," Daring Do said as she joined them. "They are unconscious, but alive. There's no sign of any serious injuries either.

"Lightning Dust was knocked out in the crash," Octavia said. "I believe she will be unable to fly for a day or two, but shall be fine."

"And what of-"

The rest of Luna's question was forgotten as a massive burst of rainbow colored light exploded from somewhere inside The Everfree Forest, flowing across Ponyville and encompassing all of them.