Once a Hero

The Crystal mountains

The sun was setting, coloring the entire west sky a crimson red. Rainbow smiled. She liked that color. It was the first color on her mane, the color of her eyes and the color of blood. It was as if the sun was bleeding over the entire sky. Which wasn't too far from what she was planning to do. She smirked at the thought of Celestia falling before her. She couldn't wait to start the plan.

"This is sooo lame"

She commented, rolling her eyes.

"Ugh, Why do we need their help anyway?"

Discord couldn't help but crack a smile. Rainbow Dash seemed almost as motivated to bring down Equestria as he was.

"Now, now Dashie, You know exactly how well my two attempts at conquering Equestria alone went"

Rainbow gave him a quizzical look as if something had just occured to her.

"How did Equestria even manage to beat you two times anyway?"

"Well, there are these 6 ponies called the Elements of Harmony and they turned me to stone. They basically defeated almost every threat to Equestria"

"Then shouldn't they be able to stop us this time too?"

"Nah, that's impossible now beacause they've lost a memb.."

Discord suddenly wished he hadn't brought up the Elements of Harmony. He should have said "I was arrogant" or something. He muttered something along the lines of "his big mouth".

"Weeeell?"

Rainbow was watching him intently. Her rosy eyes felt like it was boring into his soul.

"You say they've lost a member?"

She asked again for confirmation and when he nodded she grinned.

"That's awesome for us isn't it?. What happened to him?"

"or her, of course"

She added quickly.

"Uh.. who..? Oh, that pony? Eh.. She.. Oh, not saying it's a mare `could be a stallion too , uh... disappeared! Yes, That's it!"

Discord cursed his brain silently. He made a mental note to make a list of prepared answers sooner or later. Rainbow looked at him with a "Are you hiding something from me?" stare. Discord gulped and did his best "I'm going pretend to look at something interesting behind you and whistle innocently" look.

Rainbow gave him one last stare and turned back to the sunset. The Crystal castle loomed in the distance. She had no interest in the building though. The Crystal Heart was the first thing they needed to get, and it had slipped from Discord's grasp. It was supposedly in Canterlot somewhere.

"How do you think we should get the Crystal Heart?"

Rainbow Dash asked Discord. He smiled knowingly.

"You'll go to Canterlot to retrieve it, of course"

Next day

Canterlot Hospital

"How is she?"

Celestia asked the doctor as she hurried through the hallway with the Mane 6. Well, half of the Mane 6 anyway. Pinkiepie was still sobbing when Twilight asked if she would come to the hospital to see Daring Do, and she said she was staying behind. Fluttershy was staying behind to keep her company.

Applejack reached the door of the room named "Emergency Patients". Inside Daring Do was stretched out on her bed, and her gaze instantly landed on the new arrivals. She looked in a much better condition than she was in a day ago. Celestia asked if she had the strength to answer questions. Wearily but surely she nodded. She spoke to the doctor to get her stuff. The doctor reappeared and laid out a hooffull of items, explaining these were with her, when she got here. Daring Do brightened at the sight of her pouch and proceeded to pull out a shiny object. Celestia gasped as she realized what it was.

"The.. Crystal Heart *cough"

Daring Do's voice was still weak as she held it out to the princess. Celestia nearly broke into tears again. The lives of 7 ponies were sacrificed to get this priceless artifact. She deeply regretted not sending more backup.

As if reading her thoughts, Daring Do whispered quietly.

"It might have took 7 lives to claim it, but at least it saved all of Equestria"

She smiled slightly. Celestia ordered her personal guards to put the heart in the most secure vault in the castle. The vault could only be accessed by a princess. The guards bowed deeply and left, cautiously carrying the artifact.

Celestia sat down on a nearby stool. Applejack, Rarity and Twilight followed her example.

"Tell me, exactly what happened on that mission, Do"

Daring Do sighed as she started her story.

We arrived at the Crystal Empire as the sun was beginning to rise. The mission was evidently important and we had taken the first train to the empire.

"Greetings! Welcome to the Crystal Empire"

Shining Armor greeted us with a warm welcome. Once the greetings were done, he immediately started talking about their positions and strategy, while moving to the castle. Spitfire leaned in and whispered in my ear.

"Wow, I thought X-Ray was the best at strategizing. But this dude is close"

"I heard that, Spitfire"

X-ray, a brown stallion I've come to respect for his insight and ingenious strategies grumbled as Spitfire and Fleetfoot chuckled.

"So, when is he expected to attack?"

Silent Mist spoke out from right behind X-ray causing him to jump in alarm. Mist had a bad habit of moving soundlessly and X-ray wasn't used to his subtle appearances just yet.

"Well, There is leaked information that his attack would be next week."

Midnight answered for him, he was a personal student of Princess Luna and close friends with Silver.

"Yep, that's right and that is why we're planning to move the Crystal Heart to Canterlot. Your mission is to transport the Crystal Heart on its way to Canterlot."

"So, where is it now?"

I spoke up.

"It's under heavy guard in the main tower"

Shining Armor answered.

"So, how exactly do we get it back to Canterlot? On the train? Not all of us has wings y'know?"

Midnight answered Silver's question. He pulled out a small gadget.

"This is a teleportation device. We are going to use this to teleport the Heart and us back to Canterlot"

Spitfire let out a exaggerated sigh.

"Then why are we here to protect it, if all it takes is a press of a button?"

Midnight Star retorted back with a annoyed tone.

"This gadget is powered by the moon and only can be activated when the moon is most closest to the land"

He strained to keep a level tone. He added that this period happened to be starting tomorrow and lasted 3 days by sheer luck.

"So, we are going to outsmart Discord and transport the Crystal Heart tomorrow, 5 days before Discord arrives!"

He finished with a smug look. Spitfire groaned again and spoke in a bored voice.

"Care to remind me, why we're here if Discord isn't coming in 5 days"

Midnight Star facehoofed.

"Safety Reasons, Spitfire. Safety Reasons"

Spitfire opened her mouth and was quickly muffled by Fleetfoot. She flashed an apologetic smile.

"So, tomorrow night huh?"

Rainbow remarked.

"This is gonna be easy! We're awesome!"

We believed her, she was Rainbow Dash after all.

Oh, we were terribly wrong. we thought we've outsmarted Discord. We still thought that as we trotted to the Crystal Heart's holding tower the next night. Midnight was explaining how to use the device and everything suddenly exploded.

It happened so fast. Midnight and Fleetfoot burst into flames and the rest of us panicked. Discord appeared right behind us laughing. Spitfire tried to take revenge of her colleague and flew straight at him. The rest of us ran(or flew) towards the Crystal Heart. Rainbow had picked up Midnight's device.

Judging from the sounds behind us, Spitfire had met the same fate as her Wonderbolt partner. Discord was slowly closing in, Silent Mist was the slowest of us and was turned into a block of granite. X-ray tripped and was promptly vaporized.

I veered off course and managed to hide in a nearby tree. Rainbow Dash and Silver streak was still heading for the Crystal Heart and I heard Silver scream and fall. A split second later, I saw Rainbow smash into the holding chamber.

I heard her calling in for mission report on my radio as she attached the device to herself and the Crystal Heart and promptly activated the device. She instantly seemed to realize something was wrong. She wrenched the device off the Crystal Heart and she disappeared. Discord seemed to have gone away, so I lassoed the Heart and flew all the way back. I met some difficulties on the way, but not that major.

Princess Celestia broke the silence first.

"Well, we'll leave now. Thanks for your service, Do"

Celestia spoke and got up and motioned for the girls to come with her. When they reached a private room, Twilight commented.

"It seems as though this was all a trap"

Celestia looked at her curiously.

"Why do you think that way?"

Twilight counted off the reasons on her hoof.

"Well, the leaked information was probably planted by Discord himself. Also, Rainbow noticed something about the device and pulled it off the Crystal Heart. I can only assume Discord switched the devices when Midnight Star fell"

"And Discord could have just turned everypony into cement with just a snap of his claws, he was toying with them"

Applejack added. Rarity nodded in agreement.

"The only way Discord could be beaten is by the Elements of Harmony, but Rainbow's.."

Rarity spoke. Wow, Things were really looking bleak weren't they? Celestia grimaced at the thought. It wasn't completely true, through. Celestia and Luna's power together would act as an alternative Elements of Harmony. A thought suddenly occured to her.

"What do you girls suppose the device Discord switched in did?"

Rarity scoffed.

"It probably killed Rainbow in the most horrid way possible, It is Discord we're talking about"

"He's really serious this time, isn't he? Ah've never seen him hurt a pony before"

Twilight frowned at Applejack's remark. If Discord was really serious, they were in some deep trouble. Even Canterlot would be in danger, if that were the case.

"Do you suppose, there could be another Element of Loyalty?"

Twilight spoke quietly. She hated to say such a thing, but Equestria's safety was at a risk.

"Why, Twilight! How could you ever talk about such a horrid thin.."

"She's right, Rares"

Applejack interrupted Rarity.

"Ah'm sure Rainbow would have done the same thing"

Celestia nodded sadly. Rarity was looking at them with a shocked face.

"But, that's ridicu.."

Rarity was interrupted, once again by a royal guard galloping towards them. He caught his breath for a moment, then spoke in an excited tone.

"Apologies if I'm interrupting but, It's... It's Rainbow Dash, she..she's flying towards Canterlot right now!"