Chaos Reborn: The Corruption of Harmony

Chapter 26: The Final Chapter

Down jumped Rarity who donned an elegant, rust colored Victorian era dress partially covered by a large contraption of cogs and gears strapped to her back that extended to cover her limbs with an outer skeleton of brass and pistons. Upon her head as a small, frilly top hat that she wore tiled to one side and a pair of welding goggles.

“And what are you supposed to be?” Discordia mocked, trying to keep up her cocky appearance.

“I’m glad you asked, Darling.” Rarity said as her horn shot a wisp of magic back, starting the machine. It began to chug and blow smoke as a set of six large sewing needles were magically lifted out of the device, each pre-threaded with thick steel wire. Rarity pulled the carpet out from under Discordia. “I’ll take that.”
She lifted the material over the alicorn, restraining her as a flurry of needles descended upon her, securing Discordia snugly before wrapping her within a cocoon of woven metal.

Up above, the girls looked down into the pit.

“She’s all yours, girls!” Rarity called out as she flung her subdued alicorn back up to the throne room.

Discordia struggled to break free, but to the bindings were too strong and tightly stitched.

Applejack stepped up next. Her armor was most peculiar. She sported a chainmail vest, with steel plated cowboy boots, but still wore her regular old hat. In her mouth she held the handle to what looked like a whip constructed of links of tiny blade strung together. “I don’t reckon it’s a fair fight, what with you all tied up like that.” Applejack flung the blade whip forward cutting open the cocoon.

Once free, Discordia tried to take aerial superiority by flying up to the ceiling.

“Now we’ll have none of that now.” Applejack said as she spun her weapon, the end magically looping together to form a bladed lasso.
The lasso wrapped around the alicorn’s black wings, tearing into them. Discordia let out a cry of pain as the orange mare used her weapon to fling her enemy to the ground right in front of Fluttershy.

The yellow pegasus ducked, afraid of getting hit when the her opponent fell. She peeked up to see Discordia getting up and standing imposingly over her. Fluttershy stood to her feet, wearing a set of iron armor padded with coarse brown fur. On her head was a matching helmet with forward turned horns protruding from each side. She avoided making eye contact as she spoke. “Um, I’m going to attack you now…if that’s ok with you.” Fluttershy said and looked up to Discordia.

Discordia let out a smiled, sensing the fear within the yellow pegasus. “And just what are you going to do?” She stood back out and towered menacingly over Fluttershy.

“Well…” She took a deep breath and release a shout with the might of a dragon. “FUS RO!...yay.” Upon the quiet utterance of the last word, it was as if a wall of raw power hit the purple alicorn head on. The force of the thu’um sent her flying across the room with unheard of force.

Rainbow Dash was almost caught up in the blast as well and held up her shield to lessen the blow. “Careful Fluttershy! You almost got me too!”

“Oh! I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash. I didn’t mean to.” Fluttershy squeaked as lip began to quiver, unable to handle the criticism from her friend.

“It’s fine. Look, don’t worry about it. You did a great job.” The blue pegasus flew over and reassuringly put her hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder.
“Just watch out next time, ok?”

“Ok…”

Across the room Discordia yet again found herself trying to pull herself to her feet. “How dare you!” She growled, as she looked up to face Twilight Sparkle, who wore a grey hooded robe with a stone chest plate. The markings in the stone glowed with a pink magical light. The purple unicorn just stood there in silence, staring at her evil twin.

Not wanting to face another attack, Discordia deceivingly pleaded “Please, just let me go. I promise…I’ll just go away, and nopony will ever see or hear from me again. Just please... have mercy!”

Twilight stared at her evil counterpart intensely, her horn lit up and her eyes turned bright white as the runes on her chest seemed to glow even brighter. “Mercy?! Would you have shown us mercy?! Did you show mercy to my future self? What about the Doctor, huh?! Did you show him mercy!? You don’t deserve to live!” Twilight eye started to glow even brighter, shifting to a sinister green and releasing a purple smoke from the sides as she filled with rage.

Discordia cowered in fear, awaiting the purple unicorn’s attack. “Please! Just let me go! Besides, we- we’re like sisters, you and I. Right? Just look at me. Look how much we’re alike. You- you don’t want to hurt me.”

Twilight smiled down with amusement at her evil twin cowering at her feet. Discordia needed to pay for her crimes, and she was going to enjoy making her suffer. “Oh, but I do want to hurt you.” Twilight paused for a moment in surprise, and looked up at her friends who looked at her with concern and a bit of fear. She gasped and her magic subsided, her eyes returning to normal. “I- I do want to hurt you, but you and I are nothing alike.” She said as she turned her focus back to Discordia. “Go…Go far away and never show your face in Equestria again.”

Discordia stood up in surprise and watched as her unicorn counterpart walked away and rejoined her friends. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Derpy were pulling Rarity back up from the main hall. Pinkie Pie detached from the ceiling and landed gently on the floor using jet engines integrated to the bottoms of her boots. She giggled as Twilight walked up and spoke with her and Applejack. They all stood together and stared at the alicorn with disgust, as Discordia looked back at Twilight.

“Thank you…” The alicorn bowed her head in humility, as smile crept over her face. “…for gathering everypony in one place so I can finish you all off!” She screamed, darting her head back up. Discordia’s entire body began to glow and pulsate with dark energy, engulfing her in a cloak of pure shadow. “If I can’t win, nopony will!”, she cried out, laughing manically. “I’ve infused every cell in my body with the most volatile of chaos magic. When my power explodes, it won’t just take you out, it will level all of Canterlot! With no royalty to rule them, this land with descend into chaos as my magic manifests new nightmarish creatures in its wake! It’s just a shame none of us will be around to see it.”

“No!” Twilight screamed. “We have to destroy her before she ruins Equestria!” The purple unicorn fired a blast of magic, at Discordia, but it was absorbed into the darkness surrounding her, causing her to pulsate with a dark purple light.

“You’re only making it stronger!” The alicorn laughed.

There was only one thing to do. Twilight looked back at the others. “We need to use the Elements of Harmony!”

“What good’s that gonna do us!? It didn’t stop her the last two times!” Rainbow Dash weighed in.

“Yes, I’m aware of that, but those we didn’t have Derpy those times. The Elements of Harmony weren’t truly complete. I know in my heart that together we can and will succeed. We have to. But just in case I’m wrong, I want you to know that you girls are the best friends a pony could ever ask for, and I love each and every one of you.”

As Twilight said those words, Derpy’s elemental gem lit up, reassuring the rest of them that this time would be different. The girls gathered together as the magic of the Elements of Harmony lifted them up, and stripped all of them except Derpy of their armor. The six of them floated in the air circling around Twilight forming a rotating hexagon. The purple unicorn’s eyes opened wide, shining a brilliant white as an explosion of rainbow colored energy filled the room. From outside, all remaining windows of the castle shattered as streams of rainbow light poured out from every opening before flickering back to nothing.

The girls lay on the floor, weakened as they all struggled to get up to see if it worked.
In the place Discordia previously stood, sat nothing but a pile of ash and cracked and broken black crown.

“Ughhhh…” Twilight groaned, squinting her eyes to get a clear view of their adversary. “Did we save the kingdom?”

“I- I think so, Twi.” Applejack responded.

“Can we go get some muffins?” Derpy moaned, exhausted.

“Bloody good job, girls.” A male voice called to them from across the room.
They looked over in surprise to see Doctor Whooves standing before them, perfectly fine.

“Doctor!” The grey pegasus jumped up right away and tackled him with a hug.

“Haha. It’s good to see you too, Derpy” He said, sharing her embrace.

“But how? Weren’t you burnt crisper than a deep fried apple?” Applejack lifted up her hat and scratched her head in confusion.

“It’s quite a simple explanation, actually.” Whooves said as the rest of the girls waited with baited breath. “The wounds were really only superficial, and you see…Time Lords have the ability to regenerate.”

“Are you serious? That’s it?” Rarity asked in a flat, unimpressed tone.

“Um…yeah pretty much, but if you girls aren’t too badly hurt, I think our next business should be to get the princesses some medical attention.”

They all looked at each other with urgency and sprung to their feet.

Several Weeks Later…
The Castle is in the process of being repaired. Construction ponies scale the walls on scaffolds replacing windows and repairing the structural damage caused by the attack. Celestia sits in the garden outside, a cast around her back leg. She’s delegating orders to ponies with blueprints as the design plans to renovate the castle.

The meeting is cut short as a guard approaches her. “Your majesty.” He says as he bows before her.

“Rise, Captain. What news do you have for me today?”

“Oh. Um, I’m sorry your majesty, I’m still getting used to the title. Well, news of your sister, Princess Luna, has returned from Canterlot Memorial Hospital. She’s doing well and if her recovery is swift, she should be out of traction within four lunar cyles. Speaking of recovery, you shouldn’t be out here either. If you don’t mind me saying, Princess, you look terrible. You need your rest.”

“That’s good to hear. I shall visit my sister later today. Is that all, Captain Shield Stomper?” She asked, ignoring his advice.

“Well no… there is one more thing. The men found another fragment today, buried in the rubble.”
He presented the princess with a stone claw.

Celestia slowly got up on her feet. “Take me to him.”

“But your highness, you really shouldn’t be walking around on that leg.”

“I’ll be fine, Captain. Take me to him.”

Celestia limped into the main hall and up the stairs to her private quarters with help from her new Captain. They stopped in front of a broken statue. The body was long and snake like with mismatching legs.

“Leave us.” She commanded. “I wish to be alone for a while.”

“Of course, my Princess.” Shield Stomper said with a bow as he exited her chambers.

Celestia sat down on her bed, facing the broken stone visage. She attached the claw to the left side of his torso, bonding it with her magic. She sighed, partly out of longing but mostly out of regret. A single tear rolled down her face and she looked up at the headless body.
“I don’t know if you’ll ever awaken or if you can even hear me, my love. But after all you’ve done for me...after all you’ve done for Equestria, I will not rest until you are whole again. This I promise.”