Chaos Reborn: The Corruption of Harmony

Chapter 20: The Beginning of the End

Discord giggled menacingly as reached out to grab the Elements, but just before he could touch them, a black tendril, slapped him across his paw. “Ouch!”, he yelled as he nursed it in his claw. Discord turned dramatically, fire appearing behind him as his voice echoed in anger. “WHO DARES STRIKE-!” The draconequus bellowed meeting face to face with his attacker, but when he saw who it was, the fire died as he trailed off. “Oh, it’s just you. Still playing as guardian to the Elements, eh? I figured you would have gone into retirement millennia ago, you know, when I stole the power of chaos from your precious Trees of Balance and became the embodiment of my namesake. Well if you’ll excuse me, I have some magical artifacts to steal right from under your nose…again.” Discord turned his back to the slender pony and went back to snatching the elements. He was thwarted once again by a series of tendrils wrapping around his arms, torso, and neck, lifting him up into the air as they squeezed tightly. “Hey!” Discord wheezed as the grip around his throat tightened. “If you wanted a hug…” The draconequus disappeared, leaving the tendrils to collapse in on themselves. The faceless pony tiled his head in confusion, as Discord popped up right next to him and embraced him. “…all you had to do was ask. Seriously, I don’t know why everypony thinks they have to trap me to get my attention.”

The slender pony lashed out, causing Discord to playfully jump back into the stained glass windows. The creature dove a tendril through the glass, shattering it, but Discord simply appeared in another one. “Missed me!” He laughed, sticking out his tongue and waving his arms. The monster broke that window as well, as Discord continued jumping from window to window, taunting the slender pony as he broke each window the trickster inhabited…“Over here!” “Nice try, but not quite.” “Oh! So close” …until all of them were broken.

The faceless creature looked around, but Discord was nowhere to be seen.

Then a laugh filled the room as the disembodied voice of the draconequus spoke. “Hahahaha. What’s wrong, Slendermane? Having trouble ‘facing’ me? I’m not hard to find if you keep an eye out. Come on, say something and I’ll give you a hint. What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?”

The creature’s tendrils whipped violently as its mouth once again began to tear open, exposing endless rows of teeth. It’s head twitched and jerked in all directions, looking for the source of the voices. It lashed out randomly in all directions hoping to catch anything nearby.

Discord reappeared several feet in front of Slendermane, floating and holding a cup of tea and a saucer. He took a sip and continued to taunt. “How about you and I---”

Discord was cut short by a tendril darting through his cup, shattering his cup and forcing it down his throat.

“Gah!” Discord teleported away again and reappeared right next to the monster. “Woah there, friend. You’re going to have to buy dinner first before we start doing that.”

The slender pony jerked his head to face Discord and let out a roar as another black appendage quickly whipped over, making contact with the draconequus’s face, and flinging hard into a stone pillar.

Momentarily, Discord just stood there in shock. The attack had taken him off guard, and the impact had not only been surprisingly painful, but knocked the wind out of him. He held a paw to his face, as blood trickled down his arm, then lifted it away from to assess the damage. What he saw surprised the draconequus even more. It seemed like an eternity since he’d felt pain. That was unexpected enough, but to actually be wounded? Discord was furious. He stared down his tall writhing opponent with fire in his eyes. “So that’s how it’s going to be?” The entire room rumbled as the broken glass on the floor trembled and began collecting in various places on the floor. Each pile built up and melded together, forming glass duplicates of Discord. They surrounded the slender pony, gesturing menacingly as they awaited their orders. “Boys, it looks like we have somepony who likes to play rough. Well, two can play at that game…or twenty. Why don’t you show our friend a little game called ‘fight club’. I don’t think we have to worry about him talking about it. Oh, and as a little bonus, last pony standing gets a prize.”

At the snap of Discord’s claw, the glass copies all dove in at once, piling on top of Sledermane. However, within moments, the mass of glass bodies erupted, as the creature began tearing them apart. Many were crushed by the mighty grip of the slender pony’s larger tendrils, while others were shattered by the lashing of its smaller appendages. It jolted its head in all directions, chomping wildly and shoving the pieces of broken glass into its maw with its spare limbs to ensure total destruction. With every bite the sound of glass crunching on teeth could be heard as blood ran profusely from its mouth. Never slowing, this frenzy went on until the glass Discords was no more. In a berserk rage, the creature jumped around searching the room for its original prey, but the draconequus was nowhere to be seen.

Discord’s disembodied voice returned once again. “I’m starting to think you don’t like me. Well fine, I didn’t really want to hang with you anyways. I have places to go and ponies to see, but I must thank you for being such a generous host. I could have never made away with all the Elements so easily if you hadn’t been so kind as to entertain my toys. I’m sure I’ll see you around. I never forget a face.” An echoing chuckle filled the room. Then all was silent.

Slendermane flung himself around to find that the Elements of Harmony were indeed gone. Sitting in its place was simply blue ribbon and a note reading:
“I.O.U. 1x Elements of Harmony.
Also, here’s your prize. Wear it with pride. You’ve earned it.

XOXO
-Discord ”

The girls were on their way to Canterlot, traveling as fast as they could while still maintaining the integrity of the group, when Discord appeared in front of them. Twilight and the others tried to pull themselves to a halt, but ended up slamming into each other as their hooves skidded in the grass.

“Hello girls.” He said through a snicker, “Look what Uncle Discord brought for you.” He reached behind his back and pulled out the highly decorated box that housed the Elements of Harmony, “Sorry it took so long. It looks like our friend Discordia, has the old guardian of the Trees of Balance at her disposal.”

“Slendermane?!” Celestia gasped.

“The one and only!” He leaned down next to Twilight and covered one side of his mouth as if to tell a secret, but whispered loudly so everypony could hear. “And girls, you might not trust me, but Celestia can back me up on this. Just between us... the guy’s kind of a jerk. Anyways, you girls should go ahead and put those things on because just battling the old guardian, alone, is going to require teamwork, and then we have this Discordia to take care of too. So come on. Chop chop! I want to get this over with so I can take my princess and be on my way." Discord paused, "Speaking of princesses..." He put his paw over his brow and looked out into the distance, his eyes streating out of his head as if to look further, "What is taking Luna and the other Twilight so long to get here? I didn’t drain that much out of her. She should be up and moving by now.”

“My future self, decided to take the Doctor to the hospital. She and Princess Luna will meet up with us when that’s done.” Twilight informed him.

“Oh, how boring. I’ll take care of this.” Discord looked over at a clearing and pointed. With a poof of red smoke, there appeared Future Twilight, Luna, and the severely injured Doctor Whooves.

Twilight hadn’t notice the change in setting because she was still focused on filling out the entry paper work to the hospital. Luna nudged her to let her know that something was going on. The purple unicorn lowered the clip board she’d been holding to find Discord approaching them. “What...What’s going on? Send us back! He needs serious medical attention.” She protested.

“Yeah….we don’t have time for that. I got this.” In a puff of magic, the draconequus now wore a surgical mask and a pair of rubber gloves. “He’s not looking so good. It’s my professional opinion that we’re gonna have to put him down.”

Future Twilight jump in to block his path. “Don’t you dare!”

“Come on, can’t you take a joke? Don’t worry. I’ll fix him up.” Just under Discord, a small square of carpet appeared. He scooted his feet back and forth across it, causing his gloves to glow with a red magical energy. “CLEAR!”, he yelled and he placed his claws on the brown, bandaged stallion and gave him a shock.

The initial jolt was visibly painful, but after the magic died down, Whooves looked at himself in astonishment. “That’s bloody amazing!” He said in pure awe.

“I know. I know. I’m a miracle worker, but just a little FYI, you’re going to get a terrible rash from the treatment in a few days.”

“What?!”

“You’ll be fine. Just drink plenty of sassafras and don’t call me. I’ll bill you later. Ok, so is there anything else you girls need me to do before I take us all to Canterlot, or are we all done here?” He looked around for a moment, but nopony said a word. “Any pony? Perhaps a kitten that needs saving? Maybe a back rub and a hooficure before the fight?

“Well I could use a---” Rartity started.

“---Too late! Better luck next time.” He cut her off before she could take him up on his offer. “If no pony needs anything, let’s do this.”

And in an instant, they were teleported away.

Meanwhile in the castle, Discordia sat atop her throne as her slender minion entered the room. “Did you eliminate the intruder?” She asked

The creature simply lowered his head in shame.

“I see. Now that they have the Elements of Harmony, our enemies are no doubt on their way to make their final attempt at stopping me.”

Slendermane lifted his head to face his master.

“Let them have their Elements. It matters little. I have the same power within me.”

The slender pony tilted his head inquisitively.

“Don’t worry about the alicorn sisters.” Discordia smiled as her eyes lit bright white and her body was engulfed by a dark magical aura. “I have a plan.”