A Forgotten Power

Chapter 13: The Adventure Ends

"Welcome to my home, Screwball." That greeting was from Luna, who we had to have a very brief reunion that went along the lines of; "Hey, Princess." "Nice to see you again, please come in so we can discuss doomsday."

"It's an honor to be here," I accepted the greeting.

Luna looked at me with curiosity. "Well, you seem to have gotten more valiant since I first met you."

And it was true. Ever since I've been dragged into this crazy mess my shyness has been lessening. I felt braver. But that's what scared me the most. Change was making a difference, and wasn't that a form of chaos? Was I growing up to be like my father? Celestia said I needed to trust Discord if we were to win, but I still had my doubts about him.

I shrugged the thoughts away. All my concentration should be on my friends, who were coming up with a battle strategy. We all sat around a large table in a room with stain-glass windows. I couldn't help but notice the one with Discord being fired at by six magical ponies.

"We need to stop them before they take out Equestria," Scream stated. "Anypony got any ideas?"

"I could try and use my magic to defeat them," Doom suggested. "I'll try and figure out how I did it before."

Celestia spoke up, "You all have magic inside of you, that is true. You are parts of the ones who created you. The direct descendants get a greater deal of power, and then it lessens from there. Everypony has some form of ability, you just have to learn how to use it. The gifted are born with horns to channel their magic, and pegasus ponies use a form of magic that gives them greater than normal speeds. Even Earth ponies have magic. But that will not be enough to defeat these two. They are as old as the world, and can only be defeated by something older than themselves."

"There's just one problem," Doom reminded. "These guys literally created the world, so there isn't anything older than them."

"Not necessarily," Luna aided. "They made the planet, yes. But as a pony of the night and sky, I know of things other than this world. Space has existed far longer than any of us, and the whole reason this world exists is because of a rare gem that fell down from the heavens."

"What gem?" asked Scream.

Celestia took the opportunity to clarify. "The Three Powers of Disorder found this gem once they too were made from its magic. They called it 'A Forgotten Power'. They used it to make their own creatures. After Discord sent them to the planet's core with my help, he broke the power into 6 pieces which I later called the 'Elements of Harmony'. You'll need its power to stop Chaos and Apophis."

"But we need Discord's help with that," I said. "Why? You have the Elements, right?"

"Yes, we have the Elements in our special vault," Celestia agreed. "Although it has 6 pieces, and there's 3 of you. You see, it's magic works best together. The closer it is to itself, the better. That's why it can be used through friendship, because that is the bond keeping the pieces connected. We need Discord's help to make the power into 3 pieces, rather than 6. His magic is the only thing that can put them together."

"Ok then, we'll have to find Discord. But where do we start looking?" Scream pointed out.

I was stumped, until Luna answered the question. "This castle was built on top of the area where the gem was found. There are caverns with other jewels still down there. That is where I would expect Discord to be."

"So it's settled, we go down into the caverns and fish him out."

It was getting worse. I was not only being less shy, but I was building an attitude. If I made it out of this, would I still want the world saved? I remembered when I first woke up, and how I saw the world as meaningless. A revelation came over me. I wasn't my own self, and I never would be. I was a part of Discord, which meant every last detail about me was from his own mind. Just like a Changeling drone to Chrysalis, I had no personality of my own. And I accepted that.

There wasn't any time for self pity. The world needed to be saved, and Discord will be its hero. Because I am Discord.

Celestia lead us through a maze of intertwining hallways to a room with a door slanting towards the ground. We didn't discuss what we were about to do, we just entered the doorway, the three of us stepping into the dark.

"Hold on," Scream told us, "Let me try something."

She strained her face in concentration, and started to glow a shade of gray.

"Good job, Scream!" Doom complimented. "Now we have light!"

We trudged forward, Scream's light shining the crystals at both of our sides. Every fork in the path we guessed and continued. Multiple times a large gap between solid ground slowed us down, but we concentrated and managed to fly over them. I looked at my friends many times, because every time I looked their image shimmered. I kept seeing Scream's green streaks turn purple, or small wings appear on her sides. Doom sometimes had a large bow on her head. The deeper we went into the cavern, the more they changed.

We came across a large opening, with all of its walls blocked. It was a dead end.

"Well, I guess we have to go back and find another way," Scream pointed out.

"Ah ain't goin' to go down anoth-" Doom cut herself off. "This ain't mah voice! Ah can't talk right!" She yelled, freaking herself out.

"No, you can't. The aura of the Forgotten Power is changing you back."

The voice caught me off guard. I snapped my head around the room to see Discord blocking our exit. "You vile creature! You left us to die!"

Discord frowned, not seeming like his normal sarcastic self. "I have done many wrongs to many different species, most of them ones I've created. I wish I could take all of it back, but my curse is to be hated just for being old."

I almost took pity for him. But I had unfinished business with this relic. "You said the Power is changing us back, but to what? Answer me without your stupid riddles."

He stared at me for at least a minute before responding. "In order to make you without the Power, I had to give you a host. As you've probably realized by now, you are only partly you."

"Yeah, and the rest of my is your sorry behind," I shot back angrily.

"No, not entirely," Discord said, looking genuinely hurt by my remark. "Your host had to be existing already. I gave you some updated features, but you are in the body of Sweetie Belle."

I didn't know how to respond, and I didn't have to, for Discord wasn't done.

"Only later did I realize that because I took a pony from a very close friendship, the ones connected to her could be targets for Chaos and Apophis. They took Sweetie Belle's friends, and made you two," he said, gesturing to Doom and Scream.

Scream stepped forward. "That doesn't matter right now. If we don't act fast, the whole world is going to be destroyed. We need your help."

The third Power of Disorder spoke to the three of us. "Anything. I want to help."

I cleared my throat and spoke up. "We need you to make the Elements of Harmony a three part set. We need it to defeat them."

Discord smiled. "I thought you might."

He snapped his fingers and amulets appeared on our necks. Doom's had a squiggly line made of gem on it. Scream's had a circle with a bunch of arrows pointing out of it. Mine had a baseball with a screw going through it.

"I made you special, Screwball," Discord told me. "I wanted you to be given a name by me, even if I couldn't tell you it first hand. That's why you have a cutie mark and your friends don't. Because Chaos and Apophis don't truly care about anything other than power. I want you to know that."

"I.." My stutter was back. I had only one thing to say: "I know, dad."

He grinned widely, and just like that he was back to his old self. "Right! Now, let's go kick some ancient butt, shall we?" Suddenly we were in Celestia's Courtyard. Celestia and Luna looked in our direction surprised, then trotted towards us.

"Hello, Discord." Celestia greeted.

"No hard feelings, ey? I mean, we were both young and foolish in those days, right?" Discord said smoothly, putting an arm around the princess.

She just sighed. "We can talk about this later. At the moment we have some work to do."

"Couldn't agree more! Now, let's all fly into battle, shall we?"

"Not without me ya ain't."

We all turned to see a griffon glide down onto the Courtyard grass.

"Gilda!" Me, Scream and Doom exclaimed in surprise.

"Eeyup!" Gilda grinned. "Chaos isn't gunna keep my pal Jackle in his clutches for long. Not while I'm around."

"Glad to have you back," Doom said, nuzzling her.

"Ugh, guys? I think we'd better cut the reunion short, look!" Scream said pointing.

Sure enough, there was a giant swarm of Changelings heading right for the castle. Up in front were Chaos, Apophis, and Chrysalis.

"Huh," Discord scratched his head. "That's new. Apophis flying. Great. Anyways, they have an army, so we need one too." He whistled, and at first I thought nothing happened. Then from above the castle came the weirdest sight I've ever seen. Thousands of bizarre statues flew overhead, then circled down to the Courtyard ground in front of us.

"Allow me to introduce my friends to you guys," Discord announced. "We have Rocky, Stone Cold, Solid Sam, Tombstone, wave Hi Tombstone!" A tombstone with arms and legs waved at us. "And then there's Gravel Gabe, Crumbling Chris, oh and let's not forget-"

"Discord." Celestia cut him off.

"Right, right. War time! Alrighty then, hop on," he told me, Scream and Doom.

We did as asked and immediately zipped towards the frenzy. Behind us Discord's statue army flew right on our tail, along with Celestia, Luna and Gilda.

"CAAAAAWWWW!!" Gilda screeched her battle cry.

We were about to plow right into the Changelings when everything froze. Gilda was stuck with her talons bared. A Changeling had a laser in mid-launch. Discord's hair felt bristly and stone solid (although not actually stone again). I tried to move, but Doom had her hooves wrapped around my waist.

"You have caused us much anger."

Apophis slithered up between us and the Changelings. His red reptilian scales radiated a chaotic feeling that was starting to give me a headache.

"Why won't you just let us take Discord and the planet and be done with all this worrying?" Chaos said, flying to me and perching on Discord's head (who had his mouth gaping open and tongue hanging out in a crazy grin).

"Because you may have created this world, but its beauties are the thing you want to destroy. You are evil villains who only want everything shaped to your image. Let me tell you something; Discord gave this world a purpose. Ponies have shaped the planet better than you ever could. Life isn't about power, it's about love. And kindness. And friendship. Because that, is true magic."

I have no idea where that came from. The words dribbled from my mouth before I could realize what I was saying. It felt... Amazing.

Chaos sneered. "You can not beat us, foolish equine. You will be slaughtered, along with everything else Discord created."

"Then why don't you just kill me already?" I shot back.

Apophis' blood red eyes stared down at me. "I would enjoy ripping your flesh to pieces in my teeth. Though there are things that we can not control. When time is frozen no life can die."

"Then unfreeze it. Let's see who deserves to live."

Chaos' eyes gleamed. "Prepare to die." Chaos screeched an ear-shattering bird noise, and everything went wild.

I quickly re-gripped Discord's hide as he flew through Changelings. He touched one and it immediately turned to stone and fell, hitting a few others on the way down. Luna used her magic to do something to their sight. Whatever it was, a bunch of Changelings were swerving into themselves and crashing down due to it. Gilda pecked at them, which I'm guessing hurt because next they were holding their heads and not paying attention to Gilda as she then slapped them out of the sky with her wing. Celestia was also blinding the Changelings through shining a bright light into their eyes. Doom, Scream and I fired at them with our now enhanced powers, though Scream now had wings and Doom had a big bow in her mane. I couldn't see myself, but I could feel something attached to my head, just under my hat.

Apophis, Chaos and Chrysalis (who were now somehow under us) charged in our direction, quickly gaining speed.

Discord tapped a Changeling on the shoulder, then punched out its lights using his lion paw. "It's now or never Screwy. You ready?"

I nodded. "I'm ready." I looked at Scream and Doom, and we came to a silent agreement. We jumped off Discord's back, and spiraled down straight at our enemies.

Apophis opened his jaw wide. Chaos bared his talons. This was it. Now or never.

A few feet before we crashed into them, we tapped into the Forgotten Power. Our bodies glowed of our magical essence, and I could see the light fire through my eyes. We became a blinding orb of light, pure energy.

Chrysalis' eyes grew big, and she tried to fly away, but she was shot out of the sky with her behind smoking on the way down.

Chaos tried to scream in rage when he and Apophis were attacked by a much stronger beam of light. They roared as they fell straight down, dropping at such a wicked fast speed that they crashed through the ground, leaving a gaping hole leading far into the planet. Then the ground shifted and closed the tunnel, leaving them trapped. And I blacked out.

Epilogue:

"Screwball? Are you ok?"

I opened my eyes to see Sweetie Belle in front of me. Only she wasn't completely herself... She had a propeller hat on.

"Sweetie... I'm so sorry..."

She gave me a confused look. "Why are you sorry? You didn't do nothing."

I was starting to cry. "I never realized that Discord used you... I would have never agreed..."

Sweetie Belle raised a hoof and wiped my tears. "Screwball, I don't know what you're talking about, but it's alright. I'm sure everything is ok in Ponyville. Hey, maybe this is all just a dream, and I'll wake up to find everything the same as always."

"No.. It can't... It's all my fault.."

"You did nothing wrong, Screwball. I can tell. There's something about you... It makes me trust you."

"I-"

"Wake up, kiddo! It's your victory celebration!"

Reality came back to me. I saw me and my friends in a large throne room, with hundreds of ponies gathered around. I saw Celestia and Luna talking merrily with a purple unicorn. I saw Gilda laughing with the now Chaos-free Jackle. I saw Discord juggling fillies for their amusement. What I didn't see was Sweetie Belle.

Celestia stepped up and cleared her throat. "In honor of these valiant young heroes, I give to each a token of gratitude."

She stepped towards Scream. "For you, the token of Bravery." She levitated Scream's part of the Forgotten Power onto her neck.

She moved to Doom. "For you, the token of Guidance." She placed Doom's part onto her.

She stopped at me. "And for you, the token of Leadership." I watched as my amulet was placed on me as well. "Now, let the celebration begi-"

"Wait!" Every head turned towards me.

"Discord, you have to bring back Sweetie Belle. I can't keep her life."

The audience gasped in surprise. Then Doom spoke up, "Ah reckon y'all should bring back Apple Bloom too."

"Scootaloo deserves more time. Bring her back," Scream pleaded.

I was glad my friends stuck with me, even to the end.

Discord looked upset. "But... You can't just leave now.."

"I need to. Sweetie Belle needs to live her own life, and I'm going to let her." I turned to face Celestia. "Every life needs a bit of chaos. Let Discord be himself, to restore order to the world. Keep him controlled, and don't let him get too much power. But you need him. Just like I need him." I looked back at Discord and nodded.

He sighed, holding back tears. "Very well." While keeping his head facing the ground, he raise his bird claw and snapped.

And Sweetie Belle was awake once more.