The Element of Chaos

“So the windigos feed off of negative energy, right?” Rainbow said as the girls huddled together to brainstorm. “Is there any way to create a lot of positive energy without the elements?”

“We could um, maybe say nice things to each other?” Fluttershy said quietly.

“Would that be enough though?” Rarity questioned.

Pinkie’s face broke out into a giant smile. “We could throw a party! That always generates a ton of positive energy!”

“Pinkie, we’re in the middle of an evil lair,” Applejack pointed out. “How in the world are we supposed to throw a party?”

Pinkie rolled her eyes. “With my party cannon. Duh!” She pulled out a giant pink and blue cannon from somewhere behind her. With a slightly manic grin, she turned and fired her cannon at the hoard of windigos causing a few of them to start and skitter away in surprise. Within minutes, the whole ballroom was covered in colorful balloons, streamers, and glitter. Seriously, there was a ridiculous amount of glitter. It covered the walls, the floor, the girls, and one windigo who had forgotten he could go intangible. He looked at his fabulously glittery self and then grinned, prancing around a bit. The other windigos glared at him until he stopped. The glitter even covered...King Sombra.

For a moment, it seemed as if the whole world had stopped as all the girls stared at the dark wizard in fear, waiting for him to react. All the girls, that is, except for Pinkie. She was too busy staring at the huddled form of Discord on the floor.

His hands were wrapped around his head protectively and his body shook uncontrollably. Sombra lorded over his tormented form, soaking in every last drop of pain and suffering Discord emitted. He didn’t even notice the glitter covering his body. Nor did Sombra notice as Pinkie, despite the protests of the other girls, calmly walked towards him. When he did not turn towards her, she tapped him politely on the shoulder.

With great reluctance, Sombra sighed and turned towards the interruption. “Yes what-” He was not allowed to finish that sentence, because just as he turned, Pinkie punched him in the face. “You braht!” he cried, covering his bleeding face. “I fink you brak mah nose.” She replied to this statement by kicking him in the groin as hard as possible. As he moved to clutch himself with a groan, Pinkie rushed over to Discord. For a moment, the other girls just stared in awe at what they had just witnessed. Then Rainbow Dash suddenly broke out into a huge grin. “Way to go Pinkie!” she cheered. Then the rest of the girls started cheering too. The small eruption of positive energy made the windigos slow down a tiny bit.

“Dizzy!” Pinkie cried, shaking the Spirit of chaos as Sombra rolled over on the ground and moaned. Although the black aura surround Discord had disappeared when Pinkie had kicked Sombra, Discord had yet to waken from his nightmare. “Snap out of it Dizzy!” she begged. “Whatever you’re seeing right now, it isn’t real, you hear me? It’s not real!” Tears filled her eyes as she stroked his cheek and whispered, "Please Discord. Please wake up!"  When he still didn't stir, Pinkie's face hardened."I said wake up!" She yelled slapping him as hard as she could.

He awoke with a yelp. "What was that for?!" He said, rubbing his hurt cheek.

Pinkie replied by tackling him to the ground in a tight hug. "Don't you ever scare me like that ever again!"

"I suppose this means that you don't hate me?" Discord said, his countenance one of pleasant surprise.

"Of course not! Why would I hate you? Oh my gosh! Is that what you saw?" She stood up angrily. "That Sombra! I'm gonna make him hurt in places he didn't even know he had!" She vowed punching her hand with a fist.

Discord was tempted to let her, but the windigos were still swirling around them all, and unnecessary violence and bad feelings would only make it worse. Reluctantly, he stopped her. "It's okay, Pinkie," he said, moving to stand next to her. He took her hands inside his own. Even under her thick gloves, they were worrisomely cold. "I’m fine,” he reassured. “There’s no need to waste anymore time on Sombra.”

Pinkie looked uncertain. “Are you sure, Dizzy? Because you just say the word and I will march on over there and beat the living cupcakes out of him!”

“From the looks of it,” he said, gazing with a smirk at Sombra’s bloodied face. “You already have.” He turned back to Pinkie. “Let’s just work on getting rid of the windigos.”

Pinkie gave him a relieved smile and grabbed him in another hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay Dizzy!”

“Me too,” Discord replied, returning the embrace, relieved that Pinkie didn’t hate him and didn’t think of him as a...he hesitated to even think it. To give a name to all the regrettable things he had done to Pinkie, was almost too much to bear. In all honesty, she had every right to call him such, but it didn’t make it any easier to deal with. With some effort, he pushed all thoughts of his nightmare away and just focused on the feel and smell of the bubbly pink girl in his arms. “Me too.”

As the couple held each other, Applejack watched them and the way the windigos slowed down slightly whenever they happened to pass by them. Her brows furrowed in an expression of deep thought. “He really does care for Pinkie, doesn’t he?” she said.

Rainbow Dash glanced over at the couple and gave a small smile. “Yeah, I think he does,” she replied.

“I must admit, they do make a cute couple,” Rarity commented. “In a weird, chaotic sort of way, that is.”

“I think they’re sweet together,” Fluttershy said softly.

“You wretched peasant!” Sombra snarled, glaring at the couple. He slowly rose from his position on the ground. “How dare you attack me! You think you’ve seen the worst of me! You’ve seen nothing!” Thick mists swirled around him as he spoke creating a whirlwind of darkness. Discord stepped in front of Pinkie and held her tightly against his back as the cold wind whipped around them. “Feeding off of Discord’s fears has given me more power than you can even imagine! I don’t need the elements! Their pathetic ‘friendship powers’ aren’t worthy of my glory! It’s time I rid this world of this blight of harmony and friendship,” Sombra declared. He pointed at Pinkie and Discord. “Starting with the happy couple!”

“Don’t you dare touch them,” Applejack ordered, stepping in front of Discord.

“Applejack?” Discord looked at her questioningly.

“I may not still completely trust you, but after all that you’ve done today for us, I think even you deserve another chance at being our friend.” She gave him a small smile before turning toward Sombra. “If you want my friends, Sombra, you’ll have to get through me first!” Her green eyes glared at the wizard in challenge.

“And me!” shouted Sunset Shimmer. They were soon joined by the rest of the girls, creating a protective wall between the couple and Sombra.

Sombra’s eyes narrowed. “Fine by me.” He lifted his hand and a gust of frigid wind blasted at them, whipping their hair and clothes about them, and stinging at any small piece of exposed flesh. They were forced to huddle together, so that they wouldn’t be pushed back.

“Look! Look at what friendship has brought you! And look at what fear has brought me!” Sombra yelled above the fierce cacophony of the wind. “Even now your fear brings me strength. I can taste the hidden phobias of your heart!”

He lifted his hands into the air, and thick tendrils of darkness melded with the wind, slowly surrounding the group. Fears, long forgotten and new alike, sprung to their minds, tempting them to panic and surrender, but they resisted. “Quick! Everyone hold hands,” Applejack shouted. “As long as we’re together he can’t hurt us!”

“How do you know that?” Rainbow Dash screeched.

“Because he’s wrong,” Applejack replied. “Friendship is stronger than fear! It always has been and always will be. The elements will work, we just got to trust each other!”

“But what if it doesn’t?” Fluttershy asked.

Staring at all of their frightened faces. Sunset thought of all that they had gone through for each other. She had never thought it possible before, but these people who she had tormented for years, were now her dearest friends, and it wasn’t just because Twilight told them to be. They were friends because they cared about each other with a passion that was beautiful and rare and hard to describe. That passion filled her to the brim until she was practically glowing with love and gratitude. “We’re best friends,” she said without hesitation, before Applejack could reply. “Of course it will work!”

One look at her was enough to imbue the entire group with hope. All the girls grabbed each others hands. “You too Discord,” Sunset said.

Discord looked uncertain. “There’s only ever supposed to be six elements.”

“You’re chaos,” Sunset said. “I think you can make it work with seven.”

"But my magic isn't harmonic in the slightest,” Discord continued. “I might end up changing the nature of the elements forever if I use them. Are you sure you want to risk that?"

“There may be a lot of harmony in friendship, but there’s also a fair bit of chaos too," Sunset said.

"Come on Discord," Applejack grinned. "After everything that’s happened, it just wouldn’t feel right if you weren’t a part of this. You’re our friend now, and friends stick together."

An odd feeling swelled within Discord’s chest. It was not the feeling of loathing and disgust that he usually felt when he thought of being friends with people other than Pinkie, but something entirely different. He tried to remind himself that he didn’t want to be friends with these girls, but it didn’t make the feeling go away. In fact, the feeling only intensified. It was strange, but he felt like he belonged. Usually, only chaos could make him feel this way, but here he was among the most harmonic group of people he had ever known, and he felt totally at peace. Pinkie grinned broadly at him and held out her hand. After a moment, Discord returned the grin and tenderly took her hand. The moment they touched, a bright light surrounded them, bursting through Sombra’s darkness like a torch in the night and bashing him physically against the wall, knocking his ring to the floor and shattering the red jewel to pieces. All of his strength and power immediately left him. The windigos, terrified, scattered, scurrying away from the painful rays of light as if they were poisoned daggers. Without them, the wind died and the temperature of the room rose exponentially, melting the ice covered walls into puddles.

“Come back you cowards!” Sombra yelled at the fleeing wraiths. “How dare you abandon your king!” He glared at the bright ball of light that was glowing ever brighter and growled in frustration. All alone and completely powerless, he was forced to follow in the windigos wake and flee into the darkness of the night.

As quickly as it came, the light faded, leaving behind the six girls and Discord. “Hey! We’re pony girls again!” Pinkie giggled, squeezing her pony ears.

“Pinkie! You have a tail!” Fluttersy gasped.

“I do?” Pinkie asked excitedly, looking behind her. Sure enough there was a fluffy pink tail protruding from her backside. “I DO! This is the best thing in the history of best things!” she screeched, swishing her tail back and forth.

“I couldn’t agree more,” Discord said, staring at his girlfriend’s rather attractive posterior unabashedly.

“Too bad you didn’t turn into a pony Dizzy,” Pinkie pouted. “Then we could have all been ponies together!”

Discord looked down at his serpentine tail and his mismatched wings and suddenly wondered why he hadn’t changed. If he was one of the elements now, he should have changed at least a little bit, right? “Well, I wasn’t really a pony to begin with, so it wouldn’t have made sense if I had changed,” he lied.

“True,” Pinkie agreed, using her tail as a spring to bounce on.

“Well, if all that Discord changed about the elements was to give us tails instead of ridiculously long hair, then I’m totally okay with that,” said Applejack, grabbing a handful of her own tail hair and inspecting it.

“Oh Applejack!” Rarity exclaimed. “How long have you been wearing that gorgeous crystal?”

“What crystal?” Applejack asked, letting her tail swish back into place behind her. She looked down at her chest and saw a bright orange crystal on a gold chain around her neck. “Where in tarnation did that come from?” She looked up at Rarity in confusion. “Hey! You’ve got one too!”

Rarity quickly looked down to see a deep purple crystal around her neck. “It’s MAGNIFICENT!!” she screeched, eyes wide.

“We all have one,” Rainbow announced. “Well, all of us except for Discord, that is.” She gave him an apologetic look.

Discord did his best to hide his disappointment. “Oh it’s fine really,” he said, reassuringly. “Like I said before, there’s only ever supposed to be six elements. My chaos magic didn’t create a seventh one, it merely gave all of yours a boost. Now that the elements are in the physical realm they are going to be more powerful and easier to use. Your welcome.”

“So are you saying I can use magic whenever I want, just like you?” Pinkie exclaimed, eyes wide, face inches away from Discord’s.

“As long as it has to do with laughter, then yes,” Discord replied. Fireworks erupted from nowhere as Pinkie did backflips, shouting for joy.

“What do fireworks have to do with laughter?” Rainbow asked.

Discord shrugged. “Got you smiling, didn’t it?”

“Yeah, I guess it did,” she grinned.

“Hey, where did Sombra go?” Sunset asked. Everyone looked around the room, but Sombra was nowhere to be found.

“He’s not here,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Should we go look for him?” Applejack asked. “He can’t have gone far.”

Discord shook his head, inspecting the red shards on the floor that was all that was left of Sombra’s power. “No,” he replied.  “He doesn’t have his ring anymore, so there’s no point in you chasing after him.”

“So, I know it’s late and we should probably all go home, but I don’t really want to be alone after all that’s happened,” Sunset admitted. The girls all nodded in agreement.

Pinkie raised her hand up in the air excitedly. “OOH! SLUMBER PARTY AT MY HOUSE! Dizzy, you’re gonna have to disguise yourself as a girl so the Cakes don’t realize you’re a boy and go all loco crazy on me.”

“You want me to what?!”

Later that night, in a cold, dimly lit alley way, former King Sombra, sat shivering against the wall, muttering curses against the Elements of Harmony under his breath. A sudden gust of wind blew and he pulled the thin gray blanket he had stolen from a homeless man earlier closer around his shoulders. He gritted his teeth angrily. He used to not even be able to feel the cold. With his ring, he was impervious to it. It’s one of the reasons he had chosen the windigos as his henchmen. And now, because of the Elements, he wondered if he would ever be warm again.

A shadow flitted in the corner of his eye, and he rose with a start into a defensive stance. “My, my,” said a familiar voice. “Look who’s afraid now.”

“Discord,” Sombra cursed. “Show yourself, you cretin!”

As if he had materialized himself from the mists themselves, Discord appeared before him. His demonic wings and horns were gone now, but to the beaten Sombra, even his human form looked threatening. “Why are you here?” the fallen king asked. “I’m powerless. I’m no threat to you or the Elements!”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Discord replied. “You see, you, yourself, might not be a threat, but you’ll tell others of what happened, and then those people will tell other people, and so on and so on. I’d much prefer if the Elements remained as just a rumor.”

“Do you really think I want to broadcast my defeat to the entire world?” Sombra shouted. “I was humiliated! I’m not going to tell anyone!”

“Well, to tell the truth, that was really just an excuse,” he admitted, picking a piece of invisible lint off of his mismatched suit. “My friends may be very good at forgiving, but I’m not.”

“So what? Are you going to kill me?” Sombra spat. “Then do it! I dare you! Show your friends how much of a monster you really are!”

Discord gave him a slow odious grin. “My friends aren’t here right now, but don’t worry. I’m not going to kill you! No, that would be too easy a death for you. However, I do know of some homeless windigos who are absolutely famished, and I just happened to tell them where they could get a good meal.”

Sombra’s eyes grew wide in terror. “You didn’t.”

The sound of winter wind howling in the night could be heard in the distance. “And I think I hear them now!” Discord said, cupping a hand up to his ear.

“I won’t be the last, Discord!” Sombra warned. “I might die, but others will come! They’ll take your precious Elements away from you! You’ll see! This is not the end!”

Discord’s expression hardened as ghostly wraiths began to creep towards their former master. “I know,” he said turning and walking away to leave the spirits to their work.

“Get away from me!” Sombra yelled at the encroaching shades. “I am your king! I order you to begone!” The temperature around him plummeted to unholy lows as the winds around Sombra began to swirl. Panic clenched his heart as more and more windigos joined the swarm. The more windigos that came, the harder it was for Sombra to keep fighting. Soon, he fell to his knees and tears filled his eyes. There was nothing left. He had fought off death for as long as he could. Now it had finally found him, and he was paralyzed with fear.

Across town, back at Sugarcube Corner, Discord could hear him screaming.

“Where’d you go, Dizzy?” Pinkie asked groggily as Discord climbed back into bed with her.

“Oh, just the bathroom,” he lied, pulling her against him. Pinkie nuzzled her head into his chest and smiled contently.

“I love you, Dizzy,” she said sleepily.

“I love you too, Pinkie.”