Cracking the Elements of Harmony

Fast-moving shadows passed over the tops of the increasingly thinner treetops as the entourage reached the outskirts of the Everfree forest. Rainbow Dash didn’t need to follow them to know they were not ordinary Pegasi; the air passing over the contours and through the gaps in the golden armor creating a barely audible whooshing sound particular to the Royal Guards. She turned her head regardless, only to see the shapes land with a thud a short distance ahead. By the time their shapes partially blocked out the light, shining through the path ahead from outside, she had already guessed that the horrors of the day had not yet ended.

The two Guards that had flown in slowed down abruptly when they saw the group. They joined the slow walk, as if they were supposed to be a part of it, but had arrived late, eyes shifting from one Guard in the group to the next, only briefly glancing at Twilight, Rainbow or Applejack, before hiding their stare on the others. Small beads of sweat were running down their necks, forming lines in the fur before disappearing behind the chest plate. They were out of breath, but were doing their best to hide it, but the one thing that betrayed their game to Rainbow was the way in which the other Guards were looking at them. The new arrivals were not part of this group; neither was their arrival expected. The exchange of cautious glances from the first group to the newcomers revealed that both groups were playing their part in the game – they first just didn’t know what it was yet.

The moment one of the newcomers turned to the squad leader and started speaking, Rainbow sighed and started looking at the ground, quietly preparing herself for anything that would follow. The Guard, knowing everypony there could hear him if they wanted to, started speaking to the leader in a clear and loud voice, deliberately revealing the words he was saying, trying to give the appearance that the conversation was mere routine. He stressed very seemingly important word and used only the most well-known military terms that everypony would know. More revealing than anything else though, was the sheer strangeness of what he was saying. He started by recite a short congratulations to the leader for finding the targets. Then he said, as if repeating something that was well-known to the other Guards, that the targets are, of course, to be brought into the nearby, secondary location, which could only mean Twilight’s castle. Hollow arguments pertaining to its greater defensive and counter-infiltration capabilities, all allowed by its smaller physical size and the natural properties of the crystals from which it’s built followed.

Thanks largely to the experience she had had at the Wonderbolt Academy, Rainbow could already guess how the briefing for the Guard went mere minutes ago, and who had told him what to say. We can’t let them come here now that this happened. The voice of Shining Armor played out in her mind. Go up to the squad, find the leader, and tell him to take them to Twilight’s castle, but don’t show you’re worried… The rest of the story formed, in variations, as they walked out of the forest, but a single thought responded when she finished the first version. Twilight would cringe at the crystal- Rainbow looked at Twilight, a small smile having formed at the thought. But the smile quickly vanished when she saw the dark patches under Twilight’s eyes, and noticed her heavy, uneven steps; both signs of a heavy struggle to maintain the concentration that was keeping Applejack comfortable. Rainbow turned away and looked straight ahead. What happened up there?

More Guards joined the procession on the way to Twilight’s castle. They kept their distance to the main group, their only function at that point being to keep everypony as far away from the three mares as possible while escorting them. Two nurses came galloping to the group as soon as they reached Ponyville and the rest of the journey to the castle was but a haze to Rainbow Dash. Twilight was on the verge of collapsing, her legs were shaking and her eyes twitching from the strain she had endured. Inside the castle, as soon as she saw the doctors rushing to Applejack’s side, she released the protective field and surrendered to her body’s desire. Neither the Guards, the nurses, nor Rainbow Dash could react quickly enough to stop her collapsing to the floor.

A few hours later, Twilight awoke with a startle, flinging her upper body from the bed she had been laid in, her heart pounding and thoughts rushing. The moment when she was ready to jump to the ground, she stopped. With a half-turned head, Rainbow Dash was looking at her, and the smirk on her muzzle let Twilight know that at least something had gone right. But the moment Rainbow turned to her and began approaching with slow steps, she saw the sharp traces of pain on Rainbow’s cheeks, dark patches forming below her eyes and the disheveled mane falling to the side. The echo of Rainbow’s hooves travelled through the otherwise empty bedroom, and with each strike against the floor, Twilight’s heartbeat slowed, until she was calmly sitting upright on the edge of the bed in a pose that would have been uncomfortable on any other day.

“How is she?” Twilight quietly asked when Rainbow came closer.

Rainbow forced her smirk into a smile, but the effort was obvious. There was a hint of hollowness in her eyes; something Twilight hadn’t seen before. Then, in a voice that equally tried to sound content with everything they had done, Rainbow answered.

“She’ll live.” Rainbow made a strange, sideways nod. Her eyes momentarily left Twilight’s to seek the ground, before returning back. “She’s sleeping now. You saved her life.”

There was no change in her facial expression, and the last sentence was said with the saddest tone in the whole answer. Twilight felt her heart being squeezed, although she couldn’t put her hoof on why she should feel that. She’s alive, was the only thing her mind permitted her to know at that moment, leaving behind all the gruesome scenes from before. She got up from her bed and walked slowly through the quiet room, into the even quieter hallway of her new castle. Rainbow Dash was close behind, staying quiet the whole time. There were a few Guards on the hallway, more waiting in the rooms. The sight of the makeshift infirmary didn’t surprise her. Neither did seeing Applejack all wrapped up. Only her closed eyes, mane, and tail were exposed to the world, but a single thought escaped Twilight when she took in what remained of the amputated limbs that was now protruding from the body in front of her. “She looks so small,” was the whisper that came out and Twilight felt a cold sensation wash over her as she realized she had said it out loud. She glanced around, then back. Rainbow was the only one who had heard her.

Rainbow Dash said nothing, but placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder as a sign of understanding, looking at her with a hint of sadness and pity. She turned around and started walking back to the hallway, Twilight following suit, when a flash of light burst out of thin air, a scroll falling to the ground the next second. “How did-” Rainbow’s question was cut short by the thought that Twilight was now a princess, and thus was probably capable of receiving messages in the same way Celestia was, and by Twilight’s knee-jerk reaction. The moment the message hit the floor, Twilight brushed Rainbow aside and leaned down to the side to pick it up. Her eyes barely made contact with what was written when she leaped back up.

“COME ON!” she shouted at Rainbow, who was still standing mildly perplexed at what had just happened, and jumped into a gallop. As she entered the hallway, she looked back, just to make sure Rainbow was following, and shouted the answer in advance, “SPIKE’S IN TROUBLE!” They galloped through the castle, past confused Guards, uncertain of whether they should stop them or follow them, and out to Ponyville. As they took flight, a nurse inside the castle gasped as she picked up the unfurled scroll, the words HELP ME! scrawled across it in large letters. It didn’t take long for the Guards to once again start the chase for Twilight and Rainbow, who were rushing to the castle.

Flapping their wings on the brink of exhaustion, pain travelling through the feathers, to the hollow bones, onto the back and all the way to their skulls, Rainbow and Twilight were approaching the giant bubble around Canterlot. For the whole flight, sheer adrenaline was keeping Twilight at pace with Rainbow, but now the adrenaline was waning – there was only so much Twilight’s body had to give, and it had given nearly all of it. The lack of any obvious threat inside the force field exacerbated the loss of will, no matter how much Twilight wanted to see Spike again. The moment they entered the field, she noticed herself panting, and Rainbow Dash started creeping ahead. She looked at the colorful tail swishing past her, but her eyes turned downward for a moment as she let out a heavy breath. That’s when she saw it.

On the side of the mountain below Canterlot, at the row of tiny openings that served as windows to the dungeon cells, was a black shape of a flame imprinted onto the stone. The source was a single widow in the line, and the pink hue of the force field was just enough to merge it into the wall of the mountain, as a strange shadow that she had merely not noticed before. But now, when it was visible in the crisp air inside the field, it was clear that something terrible had happened to the pony in that cell, and Twilight knew exactly whose cell that was. Her heart stopped for a moment, and her wings wanted to fold, but the moment she felt her body drop, she regained her composure and pulled herself up again.

With the flapping of Twilight’s wings now rapidly quieting down, Rainbow Dash turned around, only to stop mid-air the moment she saw Twilight hovering. She noticed the shock on her face and her tiny pupils, focused on something below, and followed her gaze. It didn’t take long for her to notice Twilight’s target. And so it was, that in the cool, crisp air, with barely a breeze to disturb them, the two winged ponies stood still against the background of the pulsating pink force field and the chasing Guards, the thoughts in their minds going against the wonder of the abstract scene as seen by those observing from the walls. But even that only lasted for a second, as Rainbow Dash dived down without warning. It took Twilight a moment to react, but as soon as she registered Rainbow going for the charred rock, she clenched her teeth and dove after her, pushing herself harder than she ever thought possible.

Nearly falling in a sharp, almost vertical, curve, Rainbow Dash was gaining momentum to reach the windows of the dungeon below as fast as possible, having already calculated the perfect approach to the smoldering window below the royal city. She was to drop just below the height of the window and pull herself up at the last moment, spreading her wings to slow down, in a violent maneuver that only the best flyers could perform. Twilight, the Guards – nopony could match her for sheer speed, only this time, it wasn’t about a competition. The ponies chasing after her had simply ceased existing the moment she realized what Twilight had known before her. She had no illusions of saving Pinkie Pie, if nopony had managed to save her before; her desire to see the inside of the cell being driven only by the drive for confirmation. Between blaming Pinkie Pie for a crime she hadn’t committed to selfishly distancing herself from everypony else, Rainbow Dash wanted to know that at least one thing was as she had understood it, no matter what she would see. At the bottom of the sharp curve she had planned, Rainbow dug her wings into the air as if it was water and the wings were paddles, and cut through the air in a single powerful flap.

Plenty of eyes caught what happened next; only one pony understood it. The moment Rainbow swung her body upward and fully extended her wings to slow her approach, the wings disappeared. A blink later, they reappeared. In the course of those milliseconds, Twilight made the connections. There were still pieces missing, but she suddenly knew who was behind the attacks. The image that had suddenly appeared in her mind was broken as quickly as it had appeared. The moment of winglessness might have lasted for an instant, but in the perfectly calculated maneuver, it was enough. Rainbow felt she sudden jolt of losing her lift, and had just enough time to look along her new trajectory, but not enough for a scream or a shriek. A spine-chilling sound, made up of bones cracking and breaking and flesh splattering, echoed through the air as Rainbow Dash struck the jagged side of the mountain upon which Canterlot was built.

Twilight took in the scene in stages, independently one from another. First, the loss of wings. Then their reappearance, followed immediately by Rainbow smashing against the wall. Finally, she saw the random, yet symmetrical pattern that appeared; a bright red splash on the black canvas, with a smudge of vibrant colors in the middle. She looked away before Rainbow’s crushed body slowly peeled away and slid down the rock face. Rage engulfed Twilight. She didn’t even think about the same happening to her, revenge now the only thing on her mind, but the desire for action far outweighed the capacity for it. With angry swipes, Twilight looked up to the edge of the wall. She broke her path and started climbing higher, more pulling herself upward than actually flying, but her lack flying experience was only matched by her exhaustion. With every swipe, she dropped ever so slightly, the tantalizing proximity of the edge of the wall, where she intended to get into Canterlot, was only thing still keeping her in the air.

No, she thought in surrender as she saw it moving away, her wings on the brink of giving up their purpose. She strained for a flap, powerful enough to at least keep her in the air, when she felt somepony grabbing her below the right wing, and below the left wing before she could turn her head. Then she felt herself being half pulled, half carried upward, as her eye caught the glimmer of the golden armor on the Royal Guards. They were saying something to her, comforting her that she was safe, but that only served to focus her mind. She looked again at the approaching edge and narrowed her eyes. “DISCORD!” She shouted. “IT’S DISCORD!” She knew the Guards weren’t going to fly off to confront him and not only because they could do nothing against him. They would need Celestia’s permission for something like that, and they wouldn’t inform Celestia before getting her safely to the city. She said it merely to let somepony know in case she wouldn’t make it to Celestia.

With seamless strokes, the two Guards carried Twilight across the wall, the only pressure she felt coming from their hooves and even then their strong grip on her made her feel as if she was strapped to a machine rather than being carried by two ponies. The wall came and went, Guards and civilians watching with a mixture of wonder and concern at the princess coming back to Canterlot in such an unusual way. The Guards on the walls that saw what had happened to Rainbow Dash had already galloped away; some to inform their superiors, others to the lower parts of Canterlot, below the wall, where they would aid in the rescue effort in any way they could. They didn’t know or care that there wasn’t going to be any, their drive coming purely from the training they had received, responding to an emergency in the only way they knew how.

Twilight might have been too exhausted to fly, but the moment her hooves touched the ground, she felt a spark of energy reviving her aching muscles and sprang into action. It was so much easier to gallop than it was to fly, but flying was what the two Guards, that had carried her in, were doing as they chased behind her to fend off any attacks. With a trail of dust rising behind her, Twilight rushed to the gates of the castle, panic spreading as an overflowing river amongst the ponies all around Canterlot as distressed Guards passed by, shouting orders and information to one another. Even the Guards at the massive gates to the Canterlot Castle took a few moments longer than usual to open them to the approaching princess, not knowing whether they were about to allow a great danger into the castle or if the danger was hiding behind the very doorway they were there to protect.

“WHERE’S CELESTIA?!” Twilight shouted at them, relieving them of any doubt they had about what had to be done. The doors swung open along with their overlapping response that pointed Twilight to the throne room. The turn she took when she entered the castle, the one that took her away from the infirmary where she knew Spike would be, as he had been for most of the last days, seized her chest and turned her legs to blocks of stone. With every fiber of her body, she wanted to rush to him; to protect him from whatever it was that Discord had planned for him. But the need she felt to rush to his aid was equaled only by the knowledge that she would be unable to help him herself. Despite the urgency of the message, she knew she couldn’t defeat Discord by herself; the last time, she had needed the Elements of Harmony for that. And the pink force field that was now keeping him inside the city was a temporary solution at best; one that would eventually drain Shining of his power. The first thing she had to do now, above anything else, was to reach the princesses, even with a small pang of doubt lurking in her mind as to whether the combined power of all the princesses in Equestria could actually stop Discord.

“OUT OF MY WAY!” she shouted at the ponies blocking her path, and only then did she notice something strange. There were more Guards on the way to the throne room than usual, as there had been since the force field went up, but they were as calm as ever, having not witnessed the growing panic outside. It was only upon seeing her that their muscles tensed and eyes focused; before that, they were merely standing at attention. At the same time, the ponies getting in her way were officials and civilians trotting about the place, albeit in smaller numbers than usual. Everything was as normal as any other recent day in the castle. Twilight hunkered down mid-gallop, trying to gain as much speed as possible, all the while scanning around her for any signs of Discord – floating lamps, unnatural creations, holes in the very fabric of space-time continuum. There was nothing. Clever. Discord had not made his presence known to those inside the castle.

The Guards standing at attention to the side of the gates to the throne room prepared their magic to open the massive doors, but Twilight moved too quickly. At the last moment before crashing into them, she briefly wrapped the doors in a haze of purple magic and swung them open. She rushed inside, the two Guards following her dropping from the sky to the floor in a show of respect. But Twilight did not expect what she was no seeing, and her first reaction was a mix of panic and anxiety. Only the need to carry forth the message that would save Spike’s life prevented her from digging her hooves into the red carpet below to stop and hide from what was around her.

Dozens of eyes had turned to face her; reacting to an intruder to the meeting. The throne room was full of ponies from all corners of Canterlot, each with a plea to Celestia to loosen in some way the iron grip of the force field. Families and friends had been torn apart, businesses were on the verge of failing and tourists were stranded in the city until the martial law that had been imposed in everything but name was lifted. And each one of them wanted an exception to be made for him, leaving Celestia and Luna sitting in the thrones, glaring daggers at the crowd before them. The arrival of Twilight had inconvenienced the others; it had been a stern shock to the princesses, the muscles in their faces relaxing suddenly, as if they were seeing a ghost, a quiet gasp escaping Luna’s mouth. But that only lasted for the first second, when they saw Twilight burst into the room and look around nervously. When the look of panic didn’t subside, and when she didn’t start shouting at them for keeping Pinkie’s death a secret, as they had expected her to, they tensed up again, prepared to help her in any way they could.

Twilight stopped halfway to the princesses and shouted, “It’s-” she started, then stopped, as the looks of everypony in the room rested on her. They’ll panic, came the clear thought through the layers of distress in her mind. What will Discord do if they do? She forced herself to ignore the countless scenarios now playing out in her head, one bloodier that the other, and in a spark of creativity, she found the solution. She reared her head back and said in a stern voice, as if she had been offended and was seeking retribution, “I demand the council of the Elders!”

The empty words ricocheted off the walls and into the ears of everypony in the room. They didn’t understand what the demand was, but the way in which it was said told them it was time to leave the princesses alone. Before Celestia or Lune said as much as a word, disgruntled sounds quietly spread in the crowd, accompanied by the sound of hooves shuffling. Briefly startled, Celestia took the hint, stood up and smiled. With a deliberately calming voice, she said to the gathered ponies, “Thank you all for coming to see me, but I’m afraid we must cut this meeting short. Please leave us, and I will have messages sent to all of you on when we can reconvene.” As the clicking of hooves on the granite first escalated, then quieted down as the ponies reached the plush carpet cutting the throne room in two, Celestia and Luna prepared for the worst. Twilight opened her mouth, but glanced around the emptying room at the last moment. Somepony was missing.

“Where- where is Shining Armor?”

Celestia looked at Twilight with compassion, thinking that that was the sum of her worries and preparing to tell her how sorry she was that they had kept Pinkie’s death a secret. “He’s in the dungeons, Twilight,” she said gently, “He’s overseeing the investigation-” Celestia was surprised to see Twilight lowering her head, almost as if in physical pain.

“Oh no,” Twilight muttered under her breath, the sound of the massive doors finally closing clicking from behind. She turned her attention back to the princesses and, with a tone of urgency and persuasion, shot out the words, “It’s Discord! He’s the one who’s behind it all!” She blindly pointed a hoof at one of the massive stained-glass windows on the wall. It didn’t contain Discord, but it didn’t matter. She had achieved the desired effect with the words alone. The princesses’ ears peaked and they glared at Twilight; not believing what they were hearing, but knowing that she wouldn’t have made a claim like that if it weren’t true.

“Discord?” Celestia spoke up, the word containing fear and betrayal.

“But how?” Luna wondered, “He has been here this whole time, ever since Fluttershy-”

“I don’t know!” Twilight shouted back, much to her own surprise, “I don’t know how he did everything, but he killed Rainbow Dash on the way here and now he’s after Spike!” Her head made a barely noticeable nod as the words she had spoken caught up with her. In near whisper, she added, “And Shining. We have to stop him!” She whirled around without waiting to see if the princesses would follow, a renewed sense of urgency fuelling her actions. She barely made a step to the doorway when the doors burst open, Shining Armor jumping through them even faster than she had managed before.

“What happened?!” His scream revealed what he had witnessed, first as a thud to the outside of the cell wall where he had been, then as smears of blood on colorful strands of mane and tail, the Guards had levitated into the cell on his command, that were dropping down the side of the mountain long after the body had fallen through the shield. The look of dread in his eyes turned to relief when he saw Twilight standing in front of him unharmed. When Twilight saw him, she barely recognized him. His bloodshot eyes were only the start, with the dark patches under his eyes revealing he hadn’t slept much since they had last spoken. His fur was tangled and stained, his mane sticking out in random directions. It was no way for the Captain of the Royal Guards to be seen, yet his disheveled look and panicked voice revealed how much effort the last days had demanded of him.

“We have to get to Spike,” Twilight said, moving closer to Shining to give him a hug he so desperately needed.

It was an almost automatic reaction to seeing him like that, but it also served as a reminder of what she had left. He embraced her in return, allowing the words to slip past him as if she had said nothing. This moment, when he felt her pressing against him, when he knew she was alive and well, was all that mattered. A spark of magic escaped his horn, telling him it would soon be time to add another burst of magic to the force field above. “Twiley,…” he started, then looked down at the ground, and back at her to prepare himself for the news he was about to give, “I didn’t want you to come-” She put a hoof to his mouth.

“I know about Pinkie,” she calmly said before putting her hoof back to the ground. Her face turned grim, and she continued in a quieter voice. “Rainbow is dead, but I guess you know that.” The barely noticeable nod confirmed her theory. What she couldn’t see, though, was the pang of guilt he felt the moment the Guards told him what had happened; the guilt of having once believed that Rainbow was somehow responsible for the first two murders, her strange behavior fuelling his theory. Twilight sighed, but it was a sigh of hope. “At least Applejack’s alive. And I have you and Spike.”

Shining caught a glimpse of Celestia and Luna moving toward them in a hurry and Twilight’s words played out in his mind once again. He moved his head back to look at Twilight and suddenly the moment that had passed seemed like a long lost dream. Instead of the look of safety, there was something else in Twilight’s eyes; a look that told him she didn’t know if she was going to survive what was about to happen, yet having to go through it nonetheless. He looked at Celestia and Luna for any kind of support they could offer, but saw a similar shine in their eyes.

“No,” he said in a low voice and panic in his eyes, “I can’t-”

The doors to the hallway shut close and, before anypony could react, a shadow passed through the giant stained-glass windows, snaking first through the windows on one side of the throne room, then through the ones on the other, making the thin strips of walls between them seem like planks over a river. The ponies’ reaction to this was only natural – they spread their forelegs and turned back-to-back to form a defensive perimeter against the circling snake, preparing for the attack that could come from any direction. Instead, an expected figure appeared in the window depicting the Elements of Harmony on the day they defeated Nightmare Moon. Discord made a short moonwalk to music only he could hear, then turned to the ponies as if they were intruding on his dance.

“Oh my – what do we have here?” he said, mocking them to hide the anxiety of waiting for the result of what he had planned. “If it isn’t the whole royal – ah wait.” He put a claw to his mouth, and studied the scene in front of him as if he had miscalculated. “The princess of love isn’t here, is she? Oh well, I guess the important part of royalty is here.”

“Discord.” Celestia was looking directly at him, only hatred in her eyes. The others followed her example, turning toward Discord to keep him in their sights and to plan, each in his own mind, what kind of revenge to serve him.

“Now now, Celestia, why the long face?” With an overplayed frown on his face, he moved casually over to the image of Fluttershy and gently took her hoof in his claw. “Do you think I had something to do with what happened to Fluttershy? Me?” Discord squinted and raised the inner part of his eyebrows to continue his act. Then he stroked her hoof as if petting a cat. “I loved her, princess, I loved her,” his voice dropped suddenly at the last word, and he looked away, down to the ground at nothing in particular, yet his eyes were as focused as if she was there. With a solemn voice, he continued, “Even though she put chains around my neck.” His shook his head, a smile on his face, and the happy voice returning with it. “Oh, what am I saying – she showed me the power of friendship!” He whirled around and stopped suddenly. “Or was that slavery?”

Twilight had wanted to scream at him the moment he took hold of Fluttershy’s hoof, yet she was now merely standing there, body strained with effort to keep still, and looked at Discord with an ever more questioning look on her face. But the look wasn’t meant for him. A sound had entered her mind, and it was giving her instructions. Shining can’t hold him by himself, Luna’s voice whispered, But with you here, we have enough power to imprison him.

“You see, my dear Celestia, I’m all for chaos!” Discord said in a proud, commanding voice, before becoming dangerously serious again, “But you don’t change another being’s soul. Not without completely crushing it, anyway. Or their soul might struggle under all that weight…” His face suddenly grew to cover the whole background of the glass mosaic behind the Elements and he hissed, in pride and power, “And grow!”

He’s going to attack Shining Armor. As soon as he returns to his real self…

Twilight’s eyes widened in anticipation of an attack. The plan on how to subdue Discord was already firmly planted in her mind, but the danger was all too real. Instead of the attack, though, Discord returned to his normal, small size again, acting out his play as he had imagined it. Only now, as the force field outside began shrinking toward him, he turned his attention to Twilight.

“You know, Twilight,” Discord droned on as if her were talking about the weather, but then mischievously added, “My dear friend; I thought those goodies were for all of you, not just for that pesky rabbit of hers. Can you imagine the look on my face when she told me that?” He let out a laugh and swiped a tear from his eye. “Well, I thought to myself, I’m going to have to get creative!” A longer laugh ensued, with Discord eventually rolling on the ground, clutching his belly. Twilight was struggling to pretend that she was furious – she very well was, but the plan to capture Discord had established itself as the number one priority of the moment, one that allowed no emotions clouding her judgment. She could do no better than to stomp at the ground and an angry whinny to accompany it.

“Oh Twilight,” Discord laughed again, “You’re such a doll.” He whirled to the picture of Rarity. “Kind of like this one, over here.” He contemplated for a moment. “It took some planning, I’ll tell you that, especially since that dear brother of yours was already keeping me in that damn balloon.” With a proud smile, he added, “But I do love a challenge!” With elegant swirls, he danced over to the next one and stopped. He swung his arms around. “Oh, Applejack was a fluke, I will admit that!” he chuckled, “One can never tame the Everfree or any of its inhabitants. Although having her blood smeared on the trees might have had something to do with it.” He looked over at Pinkie Pie and said in a playfully accusing voice, “I think you wanted her dead - trapping her in a flammable room like that. Oh, I know it shouldn't have been flammable, but that wasn't much of a problem.” He looked at Twilight with a blank expression on his face. The pink force field was already dangerously close to the window.

“Now I know what’ll happen if I kill Shining Armor-” the moment he said that, Discord appeared behind Twilight, one claw already in place to wrap around her neck, another gripping her forelegs and a barely noticeable stream of magic incapacitating her horn. He pulled her upright, onto her hind legs, to use her as a shield, should any of the three ponies in the room attempt an attack. “-But you I can kill.”

“No!” Shining shouted and turned back to Twilight, who was standing next to him not a second ago. He stopped the force field contracting, knowing he would lock her in with Discord should he continue blindly with the plan. Celestia teleported behind Discord, wings spread and ready to pounce, but even she would risk too much with an attack of any kind. Twilight struggled for breath, the unnatural pose straining her spine, tears forming in her eyes.

“So here’s what’s going to happen,” Discord continued. He looked at Shining Armor. “You are going to drop that force field and once you do, I will disappear. I’m never coming back here, but if you ever try to chase me down, I will return. And then she dies.” He put some added pressure into his claws and arms to eke out sounds of pain from his hostage.

Shining Armor looked first at Discord, hiding behind Twilight, then at Twilight, growing red in the face, yet he found no strength to make a decision. His military training, his loyalty to Equestria and the values he had sworn to all said one thing: to collapse the protective bubble until it would once again encompass only Discord. But that would mean death for Twilight. And yet the alternative was a lunatic on the loose in Equestria, with no guarantee that Twilight would survive either way. He started shaking at the prospect of either result being his doing, and he looked at Celestia for support. Every fiber of his body told him that the response he would get would support the first option. Equestria, after all, was above the life of any one of its princesses. He was stunned when he saw Celestia nodding at him in short, slow nods, a serene look in her eyes. There’s been enough death, came Luna’s voice. He turned back to Discord as a different thought went through Twilight’s mind. We can’t have him roam Equestria.

Shining Armor conceded defeat. “Okay.” He closed his eyes and focused to bring the field to a controlled end. As thinning waves of magic spread through the field, signaling its demise to the countless ponies in Canterlot and beyond, Celestia and Luna prepared to unleash a spell of similar quality on a much larger scale. They were shaking ever more from the effort to keep their spellbinding invisible, hoping Discord would attribute it to the stress of the situation. Twilight, on the verge of blacking out from the lack of air, felt something on her back. Shivers went down her spine as the pressure moved to the base of her wings. And then she heard it, the same as Luna before.

Goodbye Twilight. I’ll miss you. Her body wanted to hyperventilate at those words, but there was no air to draw in. But don’t worry. I’ll remember you as you were!

The force field came down and the same instant, Celestia and Luna made their magic known. Their horns lit up in a blinding display of power that forced even Shining Armor to look away, and they formed bubbles of magic of their own, pearl white from Celestia, midnight blue from Luna, the two bubbles growing rapidly and converging at Discord. Yet it was Twilight that was silently screaming from within. Discord was smiling the whole way. He smiled as the sides of the bubbles lifted him from the ground when they hit him. He started laughing when he saw Twilight rising with him, a new set of claws protruding from his stomach holding her wings. He closed his eyes from joy as he pulled the claws apart, feeling joints separate and tendons snapping under his fingers. With blood dripping from them, he held the wings as if they were rudders to guide his course, and prepared for the explosion of the force field below him to carry him away from Canterlot and out of Equestria.