Links to the Past

" No, Hase told me to bring you back and I'm bringing you back! We'll contact the Princesses and that'll be enough! " Gale told the three fillies.

Just as they had almost reached Ponyville, the three fillies had decided, that Vortex, which was the name of their ponynapper, might not be as kind to Hase as he was to them. Their imagination had started creating a series of horrible scenarios, and they insisted, that they go back and help Hase.

" You won't be able to do anything! You're fillies after all! " Gale protested.

" 'N wha' 'bout yah all? Can't yah save Hase? " Applebloom asked her.

" Our talent is flying, not fighting. " the green- maned mare sighed. She looked at the ground and walked without looking around, which gave the crusaders a chance to stay behind and discuss the question on their own.

" There's no use in persuading her, girls. The more we insist, the more she will retaliate. We'll have to do that on our own. We can't depend on them. " Sweetie Belle said.

" Th' wha' shall wah do? " Applebloom asked.

" Perhaps Hase's machinery! I'm sure there should be some useful ones among them! " Scootaloo suggested.

" Nah. Wah'll probably just blow his place up. " the earth pony frowned.

" Applebloom's right. We have no idea how those work, and I doubt they come with a manual. I've got an idea... but I hope we won't have to do that. "

" What? " Scootaloo was interested.

The unicorn filly whispered her idea in each of her friends' ear. Scoot's pupils shrinked.

" That's crazy! " she exclaimed.

" Ah agree! Wha makes yah think it'll work? " Applebloom got worried.

" Nothing, but it might be our only option. " Sweetie looked at them both.

While they were catching up with Gale, the pegasus and the earth pony were frantically thinking of some alternative to their friend's crazy plan. There should have been some other power, that could rival Vortex! They thought over everything really powerful they knew about... dragons, ursa majors... but they knew none of those would want to help them, and there still was a chance, that Vortex would defeat them. What if he just bound them to his will as he did with the snake and their efforts were for nothing?

Than they remembered another relatively strong user of magic, residing in Ponyville.

They found him on the main square. They left Gale, who was going to return to the Boutique, telling her they had to get some new quills from Quills and Sofas, even though the shop wasn't in the center. The pegasus with the light blue coat was unaware of Ponyville's layout, so she let them go.

He was standing right in the middle of the square, and was feeding a pack of timberwolf cubs with sawdust. He smiled as he saw the three fillies approach.

" Isn't that cannibalism? " Scootaloo wondered.

" Not when it's fake. " his red tail cracked with fingers and both the timberwolves and the sawdust dissappeared.

" What can I do for you, young followers? " Discord leaned back in the air.

" Hase was ponynapped. Well, not really. " Sweetie belle told him.

" Not really ponynapped? That must be some new kind of ponynapping! You pretend to be ponynapped, when you're actually not, and you demand a ransom to release yourself! How dastardly! " Discord ruffled Scoot's mane.

" Tha's not wha' we ment. " Applebloom told him.

" Yeah. The thing is... we were ponynapped, and Hase had to trade himself for us. " Scootaloo cleared it.

" Didn't you have enough bits to pay the ransom? " in the middle of the square, Discord was taking a bath with money instead of water.

" No, the pony didn't want a ransom. It wanted him and him only. "

" How interesting... " the bath tub dissappeared. Discord was flapping through the pages of a book, called " Ponynappings. All about them. "

" Here it says, that ponynappers usually demand either money or some privilleges. There hasn't been a case, where somepony demands somepony else. Did he enslave him? "

" No! " Sweetie Belle sometimes wondered where Discord got all those ideas from.

" He requested a conversation with him as a ransom. "

" How interesting... " the draconequus repeated himself.

" Did this ponynapper mention his name? "

" Vortex. "

The master of chaos raised an eyebrow.

" You gotta be buzzing me. "

" Why? " Applebloom asked.

" If it's the same pony I think of, things are getting much more complicated.  " Discord had disguised himself in a detective outfit, complete with a bubble pipe.

" I'll need to visualize. " Discord cracked with fingers.

The square was gone. They were in Twilight's library, while Discord was standing next to a projection device. He aimed it at the wall and started spinning the manivel. Pictures appeared on the wall.

The first picture was a pegasus, an earth pony and a unicorn beating the hay out of eachother.

" In the dawns of Equestria the three races were at constant war! " Discord apparently entered the role of a narrator.

" Summonned by those wars, the evil Windigos appeared! " the next picture looked like it depicted windigos, although Applebloom doubted they had maniacal grins, which looked as if they were drawn on the pictures with a marker.

" Those evil winter spirits almost brought an end to ponykind! Luckily, a mare worth of her name, Clover the Clever, saved ponykind with the power of friendship and banished this threat! " next to the figure a thumbs up was drawn, removing any doubts, that Discord had customized this movie.

" But soon Clover was facing a dilemma - who to crown? An earth pony, a pegasus or a unicorn? She had to choose carefully!

Luckily, soon the sollution presented itself! Out of nowhere, the first two alicorns, two brothers, appeared, claiming they had created this world and had sped up its developement. Seeing the perfect sollution, Clover crowned those two brothers, Solarion and Vortex, for the Emperors of the newly- created Equestria! " in the coronation scene, Discord had drawn himself in the crowd giving a thumbs up again.

" For 5000 years everything went smoothly, untill a noble unicorn was poisoned at the feast of all nobelties! Both friends of the unicorn nobelty, the pegasi nobles and the earth pony nobles accused eachother of that murder and began a bloody war! " on the scene of the feast, between the yelling earth ponies and pegasi, Discord had again drawn himself, wearing a viking outfit, with a rage face on.

" Solarion, the older brother, first tried using diplomacy, than force, but failed both times. Vortex had a more radical sollution. Out of nowhere, he called an army of undestroyable ferocious monsters and ended this war the easiest way - by killing those, who started it. That was the end of the pegasus and earth pony nobelty. However, this became reason for a union between the three races unlike ever before! They all gathered under the royal banner, since Solarion accused his brother of high treason, and attacked. Vortex created the Elements of Havoc, who he claimed would stop the war. However, when negotiations were a chosen option from both sides, Solarion was killed by Vortex' army. There were arguments about wheter Vortex has done this on purpose, or just lost control of his army, but eventually the former was chosen to be true. Rejected by the world, he dissappeared, never to appear again. The Elements of Havoc also vanished, cursed by Solarion before he died. The huge army also mysteriously vanished.

In the wake of those events, a young draconequus found a perfect site to spend his summer vacation, creating Equestria All- year- around draconequui resort, which lasted for 500 years, untill the rightful rulers - Celestia and Luna, returned. "

The movie ended.

" Hmm, I probably should have played a more foal- friendly version. " Discord frowned.

" Soo... Vortex indirectly became the reason for your reign? " Scoot asked.

" Yes, but I haven't seen him ever since. However, if you're thinking I can defeat him, you're wrong, I'm not exactly the " selfless- hero- who- slays- an endless army- of - monsters " type. " the draconequus shrugged his shoulders.

Sweetie Belle sighed. She looked around and saw what she was looking for. She went to the kitchen and got the special gem- grinding hammer Spike had shown her. The unicorn than returned to the main hall, placed the small medalion with five gems on the floor and swung. Discord's eyes became as big as the city clock's screen, he threw himself at the unicorn and pulled her away. When the confused filly looked at him, his face had become round and incredibly ugly, his hands- just sticks, held out with fingers spread in a begging gesture. He knit his brows and asked:

" Sweetie Belle, Y U no think before acting? "

" We have to. There isn't another way! " the filly protested. The horrible face dissappeared and Discord was back as he was.

" You're going to release evil spirits to fight their creator? " the draconequus raised an eyebrow.

" We won't tell them it's their creator. She's right, Discord. We have no other choice. " Scoot said. She and Applebloom stood by their friend.

" Well, it'll be your fault if everything goes wrong... let's do it. " Discord put on a neutral face.

They decided to free them outside. After all, if something went wrong, it would be good if at least Twilight's library remained intact.

Discord, Applebloom and Scootaloo formed a circle. Sweetie Belle, with the medalion, was in the center. She closed her eyes and swung down with the gem hammer.

" There you are! " Thunderflight's voice was heard from somewhere, but before she could react, a horrible whistling sound, as if from a tea pot, sounded. Sweetie opened her eyes and saw Scoot and Applebloom pulling her back. Gale, Rush and Thunderflight were standing behind Discord, observing the cracked medalion, which levitated in mid- air and shook strongly. The sound got stronger and stronger, while the ponies and the draconequus slowly backed away.

A wise decision.

The medalion exploded and 5 comets span in a circle with a diameter big enough to have blasted them away if they had stayed where they were. Those 5 comets than flew in an upward spiral, two of them leaking water bellow them, one of them sand and gravel, the fourth made all out of fire and the last one lookinge a miniature tornado. At 100 fet height they spun in a circle again, before quickly falling down and hitting the ground, creating a big dust cloud. Everypony started coughing.

Applebloom saw some light approaching her. She tried to run away, but she found out her back was against a wall. There was no escape. Suddenly wind blew and everything became clearer, as the dust was gathered by a small gale in the middle of the streeet and blown away, giving Applebloom a better look of the pony in front of her.

Hase had described the Elements of Havoc as normal ponies. That wasn't the case with these. In front of her stood a pony figure of fire, with the height of Princess Celestia. The body was mostly made of bright red charcoal, as bright as the edges of the normal charcoal when somepony blows into the fire. Those red charcoals built the figure of the high pegasus, even forming his wings.Flames, each of them at least 2 feet long, came out from the back of his hooves, his neck,his wings and his back. The flames on his back were 4 feet. The flames forming his mane and tail were 12 feet long each. His eyes were also filled with flame, the pupils standing out from the rest with their blue colour. His cutie mark was formed by darker charcoal: a stylized flame, of course. Applebloom could barely stand the heat he was emitting. She felt as if she had stuck her head into the oven of the Sugarcube Corner, except that her whole body felt like that.

When she looked around, she saw, that the other lords, except for Cobalt, who had now also grown to their size, who was wondering what had happenned, had cornered the others. She couldn't see as much details from the other lords, but they weren't ponies either.

The Starflyers wondered what was worse: the wall behind their back or the pony in front of them. Pony was only its name, they supposed. A tall figure, probably as high as Celestia herself, with big wings, protruding from the back. But more strange was the pony itself. It was made of water. All of it, even the wings. You could see through the outer layers of him, which were aquamarine, but the inner, or deeper parts were dark blue, as the sea depths. The surface moved, forming small waves, that grew, eventually turning into big waves on the neck and the rump, forming constantly changing mane and tail of sea foam. His eyes were the only thing normal in him. However, the most strange thing were the miniature sea animals the three pegasi saw inside him. There were sailfish, jellyfish, sea stars, even sharks.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were facing another of the lords. Just as the rest, he was tall and a pegasus, but that's were the differences ended. His body was made out of storm clouds, some parts of his body flashing from lightnings ocasionally. The feathers on his wings, instead of cummulunimbus clouds, like the rest of the body, were made of white cirrus clouds, whose edges were smooth and looked like if they were made out of cotton. His mane and tail were made from the same clouds, slowly waving, while his eyes were formed by small pieces of clouds, constantly flashing from lightnings, with small dark clouds for pupils.

But the most strange of them all was standing against Discord. His body and wings were made of water, but none of them was blue, like with the sea lord. The part on his chest was see through, his hindhooves were almost yellow, his back and wings - green, his forehooves - almost red and his belly- brown. That was in the first moment. That water flowed and those colours constantly changed positions, sometimes even mixing to create new colours. The only things, that stayed the same, were his eyes, mane and tail, formed of white water, litteraly being waterfalls, and his eyes were white eliptic whirlpools with small blue circles in the middle.

" You broke the medalion, didn't you? " Cobalt was the first to speak.

" Eeyep. " Applebloom replied.

" Where is Hase? " the fire pony in front of Applebloom asked.

" Why do you need him, Blaze? " Cobalt asked.

" We all have to thank him. " the sea pony replied instead.

" For what? " the rock pony was completely befuddled.

" He showed us all what friendship really is about. " the storm stallion spoke.

" Ow. That connection, yes... " Cobalt mumbled something.

" That connection was broken when the medalion was. Where is that pony? " the lord with the constantly changing body colours asked.

" He was ponynapped. " Sweetie Belle said. All 5 of the lords gathered around her and Scootaloo.

" By whom? " Blaze, the fire lord, asked.

" By Vortex. He was taken to the castle in the Everfree." Scoot replied. She intentionally referred to that castke like that, since during the time of Celestia's father, the castle probably wasn't named the Castle of the Regal Sisters.

" Our creator? " Cobalt raised an eyebrow. Or he would have, since he had none.

" That doesn't matter, Cobalt. We will save him. We owe it to him, for showing us what friendship is about. "

" And who are you? " Gale asked.

The five lords turned around. The fire lord, who was apparently their leader, spoke:

" We are the Sentinels. I am Blaze, lord of fire. Those are Neptune, lord of the sea, Tempest, lord of storms, Cobalt, lord of rock and Hydro, lord of rivers. "

" Sounds cool, right? " Hydro turned to Scootaloo. The filly nodded.

" We were cursed due to a misunderstanding and turned into the horrible Elements of Havoc. Due to Hase's mental connection with us, his friendship lessons were also passed to us, lifting the curse and making us able to follow our purpose: to right the wrong. That connection is broken now, but we will find Hase, since he is our friend for eternity! " Blaze proclaimed.

" Wait... are you sure Vortex did all of this? " Neptune asked sternly.

" He's not such a pony. "

" He killed his brother, duh? " Gale had been told the scenario of the movie by Discord.

" A common confusion, nothing more. One Voidian slipped out of control and killed him. First hoof experience. " the sea lord replied.

" Do you have any proof of his evilness? "

" Well, he was kind to us... " Sweetie Belle ponted out.

" ... but he sent a black snake to ponynap you! " Rush protested.

" I'm sure he had no other option. " Blaze spoke.

" Anyway, we'll fly ahead to that castle. We'll find out the truth. " he swore.

" We'll follow you. " Scootaloo told him.

" Ready, brothers? " the fire lord turned at the rest. They all nodded. Wings of fire, stone, wind and water flapped, as the five lords flew in direction the Everfree. The Cutie mark Crusaders also headed that way, closely followed by Discord and the Starfliers.