Nova

Watching my sister fall out of the sky is too painful. I am spent, barely any strength left... I use what I can to slow down her fall. The Element bearers have been firing blast after blast at this monster; only just now hitting him again. How can we beat this thing? Wait; Discord. I am sure he could handle this. If not, at least have some useful information. Turning to the six, I see a mortified expression on each of their faces; all of them staring at the sky. I turn to see myself, and instantly regret it.

The monster we have been fighting is no longer Tanish with black hair. Its skin and hair have become pure white. It is hovering there, no longer possessing wings. It is just staring at us. Then, it vanishes from it's spot and reappears floating above the box. It looks at the box for a moment, then the metal box just crumples in on itself till it is barely the size of a small foal.

I regain myself and turn to the girls again. "Fluttershy, where is Discord?" The butter yellow pegasus just eeps and curls in on herself; Applejack turns to help her. "Rainbow Dash, do you know?"

"Hm, he's probably at Shy's cottage terrorizing Angel; or napping. Why?"

"He may be the only one who can fight this thing. I need you to go get him. I need his help."

"You got it princess." She flies off and I turn to my sister as she limps towards me. "Oh dear sister, are you alright?"

"I will survive, I was hit rather hard though."

I turn back to the beast; some of its normal color seems to have returned. Perhaps he is losing his power. I can only hope.

Crushing the box with my power was no simple task; the magic protecting it was hard to crack. I almost used up what I got from that beam, run out and I'll be forced to revert back to base form. All the better I suppose; the effect of the spacial awareness is not always fun. I remember the first time that happened. Now, if I can just concentrate...

Yea, me trying to concentrate is quickly interrupted by a maniacal laughter that feels like it is coming from everywhere at once. The fact that I can't pinpoint it even with my spacial awareness puts me straight to the defensive. With as firm and commanding of a voice as I can, I call out. "Reveal thyself."

"Oh, what fun would that be?" The voice mocks back.

"So, that's how it's going to be huh? FINE!" I know just how to handle this. I send a pulse of spacial energy out that will force anything hiding either between or within any dimension connected to this one to be instantly revealed. I'm a bit surprised at what I see. It is odd, like Picasso messed with a Mr. Potato head. Parts look dragon, some looks bird, pony, goat, lion, it's odd. It looks at me quite surprised none the less.

"How did you DO that!? Now that I think about it, just what ARE you?"

"I could ask the same to you."

"I'm sure you could. But considering the fact that you have caused a bit of a ruckus, and you ruffled up the feathers of both of the princesses and my dear friend Fluttershy, and her friends aren't too happy about it. You must have caused them quite a bit of distress for dear, kind, Tia to have thrown in a whatever means necessary when she asked me to handle you."

"I see. So, is Tia the white one or the blue one?" That got him stammering oddly enough.

"Wait, what! How could you not know?"

"I spent the last several millennia under a proverbial rock after fighting an Alicorn king. Now, which pony princess down there is which?"

They're just talking? I don't understand. The one time I basically tell Discord to 'let loose' and he just floats there talking to him. This... this is why we can't have nice things.

"Ok, I think I get it. The white one is the princess of the sun and the other is the moon. The six others with them are your slavers. You are Discord, and you were sent to get rid of me with your chaos powers. Am I missing anything?"

"That's about it, besides the Elements of Harmony that they wear that allows them to turn me to stone. Now, who are you and what's your story?"

"I am Nova. I am from another planet and traveled here. When I got here, I got involved in a war with the king and he imprisoned me for the last several thousand years. I am currently planing on getting revenge on the princesses for being imprisoned. But I'll probably get a bite to eat first seeing as I haven't eaten in all this time. After I eat, we can duke it out." I use my power over space to create a plate of pastitsio, because I can do that. While I eat, I notice the astonished look on Discord's face. Swallowing my bite, I ask an obvious question. "Something up?"

"Well, yes. I can't believe anyone would have the guts to tell me to wait so he can eat before we fight. I don't have a problem with it mind you, I just didn't expect it. Then there is the fact that you can apparently make a plate of whatever that is just appear out of nowhere. Speaking of which, how did you make me appear like you did before?"

*Another bite* "Mmfh, dis is gou, wah shome?" *swallow* "It's called pastitsio. It's Greek, made with meat, pasta and various forms of cheese. It's a bit more complicated than that but it's enough to explain it."

"No thank you, I ate not too long ago. But that doesn't answer my question. How did you do it? I explained my end, it's only fair you do the same."

"I suppose so. While your powers are limited to effecting the natural entropy of the area to cause chaos, along with a few other things, my power is over the very fundamental force of space. I can do anything, anywhere, and there is little that can be done to stop me. Along with combat skills honed over millennia."

"I see. Sounds reasonable enough. Now that you're done with your food, shall we get to it?"

I think for a second on how fighting him will go, and am quite satisfied. "Ok, we can fight. But what kind of fight will it be? And what of the stakes?"

"Well, there is the question to be asked. From what I know about you; killing you will not be easy, if it is even possible. Also, for you to kill me would be something I wouldn't count on as possible either. So that should rule out a grudge match, though the option would still stand. How about a set of challenges, best of three? Alternating picks of course."

"Interesting. And the rules?"

"Any challenge is fair game, other than anything trivia because you and I would each have a different set of knowledge so it would be pointless. No cheating if a set of rules exists, unless the situation would permit it. Once a challenge is decided, it cannot be changed without unanimous decision. That sound good Nova?"

"Sounds good. You can pick the challenge first."

"Thank you. Now then, how about 180 holes of golf?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Let's see... after 180 holes, that's 520 under par for me; and for you Nova... 492 under par. I win."

"Yes, it would seem so. It was a good game."

"Now, what challenge will you present?"

"I suppose Mental Chess."

"Well then. Shall we begin?

"Yes, I'll be white. Pawn to d3."

"Pawn to d5."

"Bishop to d2."

"Pawn to e5."

"Queen to c1."

"Queen to f6."

"Bishop to g5."

"Queen to b6."

"Bishop to e3."

"Bishop to c5."

"Knight to c3."

"Pawn to a5."

"Knight to d5, takes pawn."

"Queen to a7."

"Knight to c7, takes pawn, check."

"King to d8"

"Knight to a8, takes Rook."

"Bishop to f5."

"Bishop to g5, check.

"bishop to e7."

"Knight to c7."

"King to c8."

"Knight to d5."

"Bishop to d8."

"Bishop to e3."

"Queen to a6."

"Knight to f3."

"Knight to d7."

"Knight to g5."

"Knight g8 to f6."

"Knight to f7, takes pawn."

"Knight to d5, takes knight."

"Knight to h8, takes rook."

"Bishop to h4."

"Pawn to g3."

"Queen to a8."

"Queen to d2."

"Knight to c5."

"Bishop to c5, takes knight."

"Knight to b4."

"Bishop to b4, takes knight."

"Bishop to d8."

"Bishop to c3."

"Queen to b8."

"Bishop to g2."

"Queen to c7."

"Bishop to f3."

"Queen to c5."

"Pawn to g4."

"Bishop to e6."

"Pawn to g5."

"Bishop to b6."

"King to c1, rook to d1."

"Bishop to a2, takes pawn."

"Bishop to g4, check."

"King to b8."

"Pawn to f4."

"Bishop to c7."

"Rook h1 to f1."

"Pawn to f4, takes pawn."

"Pawn to d4."

"Queen to g5, takes pawn."

"Bishop to h3."

"Bishop to c4."

"Pawn to d5."

"Pawn to b6."

"Knight to f7."

"Queen to g6."

"Rook to f4, takes pawn."

"Bishop to f4, takes rook."

"Queen to f4, takes bishop, check."

"King to b7."

"Knight to d6, check."

"King to c7."

"Knight to c4, takes bishop, check."

"King to d8."

"Pawn to d6."

"Pawn to h5."

"Knight to b6, takes pawn."

"Pawn to h4."

"Rook to d5."

"Pawn to a4."

"Bishop to a5."

"Pawn to a3."

"Knight to c4, check."

"King to e8."

"Pawn to a3, takes pawn."

"Queen to h7."

"Pawn to d7, check."

"King to e7."

"Pawn to d8, queen, checkmate."

"What? How did I lose?"

"You are not very good at keeping track of your pieces Discord."

"Now wait here, only two ponies are allowed to beat me at chess; Fluttershy and Celestia."

I respond with a smug look on my face. "Well, I'm not a pony."

Discord's face becomes unnervingly serious "No. You're not."

Author's Note 2:
Once again, sorry for the wait. I am considering letting this one become a 2nd priority story as apposed to a back burner.
That chess game was the biggest obstacle for me to write this, if I didn't add that, this would have come out a good month or so sooner.... sorry. But the chess game is a viable game. I played a game and transcribed the moves into this to give an authentic chess game. And yes, the way the story went did depend on weather or not I won. Luckily I am good at chess.