The Binding of Harmony

by Dreagknight-LostWriter

Rating: teen
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Discord, Crossover, Dark, Alternate Universe, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Fluttershy, Adventure
Length: 3834

After Twilight tried her hoof at one of Discord chaotic magic it backfire, now Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash got their elements rip out from within them.

Twilight was trying her hoof at some of Discord's chaotic magic, hoping to create a new pure spell, but the spell proved to be more then Twilight could handle. The burst of magic ripped the elements out of four of Twilight's friends. Discord tells Twilight the only way to retrieve them is by going to the place where they have been sent to, the basement below his home.

Published 2015-02-27 16:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-04-03 20:00:28 UTC

Prologue

Twilight and her friends were outside at the park, where they usually went whenever they went on a walk with their pets. But today was different. Today they were here because Twilight wanted to try out a new spell.

"Uh, Twilight, are ya sure ya can handle that spell?" Applejack asked, worried.

"Twilight, darling, I don't doubt your ability in magic, but that is one of Discord’s spells," Rarity said with a little concern.

"No need to worry. I studied Discord whenever he cast this spell, and I have multiple notes based on my observations. I'm sure there will be no problem with the spell," Twilight asserted confidently.

Twilight double-checked the notes she took while observing Discord. The spell was different from a unicorn spell, which Twilight could easily copy and cast like she did with Rarity’s gem finding spell. Discord’s spell required studying and observing to base the origin of the spell force. Twilight could copy the spell, but casting it was the part she was having trouble with. She didn’t know precisely what it would do, but she suspected it was one of Discord’s matter manipulation spells that he used to change the matter of things around him.

"But Twilight, Discord’s spell seems about as random as he is," Rainbow Dash said as she hovered above them.

"That’s why I’m testing the spell on these four rocks on the floor, I’ve added a tracking spell onto them incase they end up teleporting," Twilight said, pointing a hoof at the four rocks she had set up.

"Hey Twilight, if you can get one of Discord’s spells working, could you make it rain chocolate milk again?" Pinkie asked, bouncing around, "Oh oh oh, how about making a cloud into cotton candy or a personal cotton candy cloud that rains chocolate milk!"

"Pinkie, even if I do get this spell working, I don't think it would be able to change the matter of a cloud into cotton candy or change the physical property of rain into chocolate milk like Discord," Twilight said, going over her notes.

"But you won't know until you try," Pinkie argued back.

While Pinkie Pie was trying to convince Twilight that creating cotton candy clouds and chocolate rain was something that both could and had to be done, Rarity was looking around for her missing friend, Fluttershy. Rarity looked towards Rainbow Dash hoping she might know something.

"Rainbow Dash, do you know where Fluttershy is?" Rarity asked, looking around.

"She said something about taking care of a squirrel that got hurt, I think. She'll be back soon," Rainbow answered with a shrug. Rarity sighed. Looking back at Twilight, she noticed her putting away her notes.

"Okay girls, I’ve got the spell ready. Stand back," Twilight notified the mares as she began to charge up the spell.
All four mares stepped back as Twilight began to channel the spell. As she focused on controlling the spell, her horn began to glow a deep pink.

"Do ya'll think Twi can actually reform a spell to serve a different use?" Applejack asked doubtfully.

"Well, it is one of Discord's spells, so I assume its properties are not set in stone and can be changed," Rarity stated.

"But Discord was set in stone, so maybe his magic was too,” Pinkie added.

"Pinkie, that doesn't make any sense, magic can’t just be set in stone," Rainbow pointed out.

"Well, actually it can, if one were to store the magic within a rune stone or gem," Rarity clarified.

"You know what I meant," Rainbow said, muttering to herself.

"GAAAAAH!!!" Twilight suddenly screamed.

Twilight’s screaming caught all the mares by surprise as they whipped their heads back around to see what had happened to their friend.

"Twilight! Are ya-"

Before Applejack could finish her question, Twilight’s horn suddenly transformed from a pink glow to a blinding white light that spread out and encased her and her friends within a white dome. When the dome subsided and faded away, Twilight and her friends lay on the ground, unmoving. When Twilight begin to stir and sit up she had a painful headache, and she looked around while rubbing her sore horn. Twilight then realized that her friends were still lying on the ground, unconscious. She began to panic as she rushed to their side.
Twilight panicked when she came near her friends, "oh no no no, what have I done?" Twilight looked between her friends with rising concern.

"Applejack, Rarity, wake up!" Twilight said, trying to shake them awake, "Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, come on, get up!"

Twilight tried shaking them, panic rising in her voice. Eventually she gave up, sitting back down and taking a deep breath to calm her nerves.

“Okay Twilight, calm down. Panicking won’t get you anywhere,” Twilight thought to herself as she went back over to her friends.

As Twilight inspected her friends to see if they was still breathing (which they were) she noticed that their cutie marks were strangely absent. Twilight begin to panic even more as she tried and failed to use her magic to wake the unconscious mares. Suddenly, Discord appeared in a flash of confetti and cotton candy.

"Discord, what are you doing here?" Twilight asked, surprised to see Discord appear in front of her.

"Oh, I felt a disturbance in the force," Discord said before noticing the four unconscious mares.

"Oh, what have we here?" He said, snaking over the mares.

"Can you help them?" Twilight asked out of desperation.

"Well, that depends on what happened, doesn’t it?" Discord said, raising an eyebrow as he looked over the mares.

"Well, I was trying to cast one of your spells and I lost control of it and-"

"Did you say one of my spells?" Discord said as he floated towards and around Twilight, "Twilight, there's a reason why nopony uses any of my spells."

"Why is that?" Twilight asked, trying to remember if Princess Celestia had mentioned anything about it.

"I'm a spirit of chaos, and therefore my spells are chaotic. No mere pony could control them, not even the princesses," Discord explained, snapping his fingers and making a Doctor outfit and medic bag appear. He then floated back to their unconscious friends.

"So that means you can help them, right?" Twilight asked hopefully.

"No," Discord said as he removed a stethoscope he had been using.

"No?" Twilight asked, baffled, "Why not?"

"Twilight, I can help them, but I can’t save them," Discord said as he inspected each of the mares once more.

"Save them?" Twilight asked, horrified.

"You rip their elements right from their souls. A pony’s cutie mark is tied with their soul. When you rip out their elements, you also rip out their cutie mark along with it."

"Are they going to die?" Twilight asked tearfully.

Just then Fluttershy floating over as she over heard the last bit of the conversion.

"Die?" Fluttershy quietly said next to Twilight, startling her. Fluttershy was about to ask Discord what was going on until she noticed her unconscious friends.

"No, they won’t die, but they will be..." Discord trailed off as he thought of a suitable word to use, "lost, without both their elements and cutie marks."

"Then if you can’t help them, I will! What would I have to do?" Twilight asked, pleading with a bit of aggravation in her voice.

"Maybe I can help, if that's okay with you?" Fluttershy said, looking at her friends.

"Sure, Fluttershy, I wouldn't mind an extra hoof helping me," Twilight said, looking at her friend and knowing that she wanted to save her friends just as much as Twilight did herself.

"All you have to do is retrieve their elements and bring them back here." Discord said, snapping the Doctor outfit away.

"That seems easy enough," Twilight said skeptically, "Why can’t you do it then?"

"Well, at the moment I'm using my magic to keep their mind and body from going out of control, so if I leave now, they will most likely become mentally unstable and will reject their elements."

"Then can you help us locate where their elements are?" Twilight asked.

Discord then put one of his talons into his mouth, brought it out and held it up into the air. "Oh, well this is surprising. It seems like you sent them all to my basement."

"Really? Then all you have to do is just teleport us there. Then we can grab their elements and teleport back, easy," Twilight said hopefully.

"Twilight, my basement isn't normal. It’s a maze, a labyrinth even, with many rooms that change each time you go in there," Discord stated.

"What?" Twilight asked with a blank look on her face.

"My basement breaks many laws of physics and reality, it is in a way, chaos itself. If you want to save our friends you will have to venture through it," Discord clarified.

"I'll do it. It’s my fault they're like this anyways," Twilight said before looking towards Fluttershy, "Fluttershy, do you still want to help me? It sound to be very dangerous."

Fluttershy looked down at her friends as they lay there unconscious. Fluttershy didn't want to see any of her friends suffer or be hurt. She looked at Twilight and gave her a small nod.

"Thank you," Twilight said with a smile.

"All right, but before you go, you're both going to need something," Discord said, snapping his fingers and giving Twilight and Fluttershy an empty saddlebag and a scroll each.

"Scrolls?" Twilight said, looking at the scrolls with weird glyph drawn within them.

"These scrolls will serve as a map, a body statchart, and an item identifier," Discord said before bring out a scroll of his own. He opened the scroll to show how the map and chart would work.

"That seems pretty straightforward for a scroll made by you. What’s the catch?" Twilight asked, inspecting the scroll on all sides.

"Oh, you got me there," Discord said before throwing his scroll away, the scroll itself disappearing in a puff of smoke, "The scrolls will only give you the names of the item (sometimes), but it won’t tell you what it is or what they will do most of the time," Discord said.

"Then can we get a scroll that does?" Twilight asked, frustrated.

"Sorry, I never made a scroll for that. Oh, one last thing." Discord snapped his fingers, which caused Fluttershy’s wings to glow a yellowish-white.

Fluttershy felt a tingly vibe going through her wings as she unfolded them.

"Now you’re both ready to venture down into the depths of my basement," Discord said.

"Is there anything else we need?" Twilight asked, annoyed.

Discord put a paw to his chin as he thought. "Just these words of advice: the basement breaks the law of life, nothing and nopony can die within it. The basement breaks the law of physics, the rooms will never be the same when going through it twice. The basement has depth and no beginning, you will have to venture downward to find a way out. The basement removes all pain. No matter how much you try to hurt the creatures within, they will never feel pain and neither will you.”

"That's cryptic. What is that supposed to mean anyways?" Twilight asked, confused.

"Here’s a plushy of me so you can remember everything I said and so that I can contact you when you enter the basement," Discord said before puffing into a small toy plushie of himself and placing it in Twilight’s bag.

"What type of creatures are there?" Fluttershy asked, worried.

"I don't remember, it’s been some time since I’ve last been down there. Even before Celestia and Luna turned me into stone," Discord said thinking back.

"I hope they're nice," Fluttershy said to herself.

"Oh, and Fluttershy, don't worry about hurting anything down there," Discord said mischievously, looking at the now confused Pegasus.

"What!" Fluttershy said squeakily with wide eyes.

"And lastly, try not to get lost in the basement, they don't have much time left. Tah-tah," Discord said, pointing toward the unconscious mares before poofing in a trapdoor underneath Twilight and Fluttershy and sending them into the basement.

Author's Note

Well this story will be a pain to write, but it is something I want to write. That said, I will be changing some of the item effect cause I don't wont to ruin how Twilight and Fluttershy look. :twilightsheepish: So any feedback would be nice.

The Basement

"AAHHHH!" Fluttershy and Twilight screamed at the top of their lungs as they fell through the floor, plummeting into the dark depths.

Twilight quickly cast a bubble spell, encasing both her and Fluttershy as they hit the ground, bouncing a few times until coming to a gentle stop, with Twilight dispelling the bubble shortly after. After catching their breath and letting their hearts slow down to a steady beat, they started to look around.

"Is this Discord’s basement?" Fluttershy squeaked, eyes darting around the room.

They were inside a large rectangular room that was surprisingly well-lit. As they looked around, Twilight took note of the three dark doors in the sides of the room. Fluttershy shivered nervously, not because she didn't know where she was, but because she couldn't hear anything but her and Twilight trotting around.

"I-I don't understand, where are we?" Twilight asked, more to herself than to Fluttershy.

"I don't know," Fluttershy said, sticking close to Twilight.

Using her magic, Twilight pulled out the scroll Discord had given them. Opening it up, she activated the map part of the scroll.

"Ugg, this map is no help," she said, looking at it. The scroll showed a picture of a lit, square room with a small image of a butterfly and a sparkle. It also showed the doors in front of them, but they were blacked out. Annoyed, Twilight tossed the scroll back into her saddle bag and started to look around again.

"Well, there doesn’t seem to be anything here," Twilight said, seeing that the room was, indeed, very empty.

"And I can't see past these doors," she continued, standing next to one and peering in.

"Should we go in?" Fluttershy asked, hoping the answer would be a “no.”

"That seems to be our only option," Twilight said, casting a light orb spell and walking in.

She walked only a few steps before bumping into an invisible barrier. Twilight stepped back, confused. Not only was there a barrier preventing her from advancing forwards, her light-orb spell didn't seem to be working at all. Fluttershy walked into the room with her, and instantly the door behind them slammed shut.

Fluttershy squeaked. The lights in the room turned on to reveal five hoof-sized parasprites flying around.

"Parasprites?" Twilight said, now able to walk into the room. As if on cue, the five parasprites flew straight at her. Twilight jumped back as four of them whizzed by her, the fifth one hitting her in her side.

"Ow!" she yelled, rubbing her side in annoyance.

"Twilight, are you okay?" Fluttershy asked, rushing over to Twilight, but was stopped by two more parasprites coming at her.

"AHH!" screamed Fluttershy. Using her wings as a boost, she thrust herself backwards.

"These aren't normal parasprites," Twilight said, dodging three more that were trying to hit her.

"What do we do, then?" Fluttershy asked, trying to keep her distance from them.

Twilight thought for a second.

"Maybe I can stun them," she said, charging up a paralyzation spell.

Twilight had used her paralyzation spell before when she was learning it, but this time it felt different, it felt alien to her. Twilight didn't have time to think about what was wrong with the spell as two parasprites came her way. Releasing the spell, she shot a white, slow-moving sphere at it. The spell moved slowly but still hit. Upon impact, the parasprite glowed red and stopped moving for a split second.

"It’s not stunned?" Twilight said with disbelief.

After blasting four more spells at them, she found, to her surprise, that she didn't need to charge her spell while down here. The parasprite was hit by two spell-orbs before imploding. Without thinking, Twilight shot several more at the other parasprites in the room. After the last parasprite was gone, all the doors in the room reopened.

"Do we have to fight our way through every one of these rooms?" she asked herself.

“I hope not," Fluttershy said, coming back up next to her.

"And what did I do to those parasprites?" Twilight said, looking around for any sign or trace that they were still here. Taking the scroll back out, she opened the map part again.

"It seems the map updates itself whenever we make any progress," she hypothesized, the map now showing seven rooms instead of four, but only the one they was in was bright, and the room they were previously in now had a tinted glow. Pressing another glyph, Twilight opened the chart. It showed two and a half hearts and some other symbols Twilight hadn't asked Discord about. Closing the scroll and putting it away, Twilight looked at Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy, do you know what Discord did to you before we came here?"

"No," Fluttershy said, spreading her wings out and giving them a little flap.

"Then why not just ask me?" A voice from behind them said.

"Discord," Fluttershy said, looking at Twilight.

Twilight turning around to where she had heard the voice, but she didn't see him.

"Where is he?" Twilight asked, confused.

"I'm right up here." Discord said, tapping on Twilight's head.

Using her magic, Twilight picked up the Discord plushie off of her head and sat it down on the floor.

"Aww, and I had such a great view," Discord said, getting up and walking around.

"Discord, how are you here, what did you do to Fluttershy, why isn't my spell working properly, and why were we being attack by parasprites?"

Discord flew up and sat down on Fluttershy’s back.

"Hmm, let’s see now," Discord said, putting a talon to his chin and laying down, "All your spells have been reverted to shot spells. And Fluttershy, I gave her the ability to fight alongside you."

"How?" Twilight asked, wanting to know how all her spells were being tampered with.

"Fight? I don't want to hurt anypony," Fluttershy said, wide-eyed.

"All you have to do is flap your wings to the side of your opponent," Discord said, giving a little demonstration and then flying back over towards Twilight, sitting down inside her saddle bag, "Oh, Fluttershy, remember what I said. You can’t hurt anything or be hurt down here."
The plushie then changed back to normal and went limp inside the bag.

"That wasn't much help," Twilight said, rolling her eyes and walking to the next room.

Fluttershy didn't say anything, she just flew next to Twilight. Her mind was on the fact that she would have to fight to save her friends. She didn't like fighting, but she didn't like the idea of her friends being unconscious or worse. No, she had to do this to help her friends. If she was the one out there like that, they would do everything they could to help her. Fluttershy looked at Twilight, wondering if she was going through the same type of guilt right now.

Just like last time, she was once again blocked by a barrier as she trotted into the room, and as Fluttershy came up behind her the door closed and the lights flew on in the room. But to Twilight’s and Fluttershy’s surprise there was an item floating on a rock in the middle of the room. Cautiously trotting towards it, Twilight looked at the item from all sides before reaching out a hoof to touch it. The item disappeared on touch, and both Twilight’s and Fluttershy’s scrolls started to vibrate. Taking out their scrolls, it read: Sad Bombs-Tear blasts, +5 bombs.

"Bombs?" said Twilight, opening her saddlebag and seeing five small bombs inside of it. Not wanting to use or even touch them yet, she placed the scroll back inside.

"Fluttershy, did you get any ‘bombs?’" Twilight asked. Fluttershy nodded, placing her own scroll back inside.

"Okay then, on to the next room." Twilight said, glancing around nervously. Going into the next room, Twilight and Fluttershy both went
through the door together. As the door close behind them and the lights came on, they saw even more parasprites they had to fight.

*****

After clearing the room out, they saw a few bits on the floor. Walking over to them and collecting them, Twilight figured they might be needed later on. Twilight had picked up two bits while Fluttershy grab one. Looking back into the bag, Twilight noticed she had three bits inside.

"Fluttershy, how many bits did you pick up?"

"Oh, umm, one." Fluttershy said, looking back into her bag to see she also had three, "Umm, it seems I have three."

"I see. It seems we might be sharing the same items as we pick them up, I think," Twilight said, wondering if that was true or not, and if so, whether they were sharing the same amount used as well.

As Twilight was looking back at the scroll to see if there was something about the items they would be picking up, Fluttershy was dead silent, looking at the door in front of her. The door horrified her. The door itself was a bit larger than the others, and this one had three skulls on top of the frame. Whatever was through this door, Fluttershy did not want to go through and find out.

"This map is pointless," Twilight said in anger, tossing the scroll back into her bag, "It doesn't even tell us where to go."

Twilight looked over to Fluttershy, seeing her looking at the door in front of them. Looking at it herself, Twilight could see why her friend looked so horrified.

"Fluttershy, there’s nothing to worry about. I'm sure it’s just a door design, nothing more." She said, trying to convince both her friend and herself.

Walking into the barrier space, Twilight turned around and motioned Fluttershy to follow. Slowly, Fluttershy got up and followed behind her. Stopping just mere inches from the doorway, Fluttershy braced herself for the horror on the other side. Stepping through, both of their scrolls started to vibrate again. Confused as to why, since they hadn't picked up anything, they took out the scrolls. The scrolls both showed a picture with of what looked like an overstuffed, living pillow with parasprites around it. The scroll title: The Duke of Parasprites.

Author's Note

So the next chapter they face the Duke of Parasprites, sounds easy enough for them, but how will the fair on the next floor. Remember these 2 things first, they can die, but they won't stay dead they'll just "respawn". And second, the first floor is always the easiest. :pinkiecrazy: