Fractured Spirits

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Twisted Times
Chapter 2 - Revelations
Chapter 3 - Breaking Boundaries
Chapter 4 - Freezing Fire
Chapter 5 - The Unseen Slave

Chapter 1 - Twisted Times

Fractal Renegade kicked a stone across the road. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been this bored. There was simply nothing to do. It was raining, and everyone was inside. He didn’t understand why everypony would cower inside in weather like this. It was only rain after all. Rain never hurt anyone. In fact it was quite refreshing after the long hot days they had just had.

The sky was dark a gloomy, a very rare thing around Ponyville. He kicked the rock again and let out a sigh. What was there to do when everypony was inside instead of enjoying the fresh air. Suddenly the rock slid back to him.
He looked at it for a moment and then looked up to see some one else over there, who must have kicked it back. “Well it’s about time somepony else came outside to enjoy the rain.” He said in his usual humorous voice. The other pony smiled faintly. He was an earth pony with yellow coloured hair and a brown mane. Suddenly Fractal noticed something off about him. He seemed to have a faint scar that went down the left side of his face. “You’re not from around here, are you? I’ve never seen you here before.” Fractal said to the newcomer.

The newcomer paused for a moment, then looked down the road, without saying anything. Naturally, Fractal followed his gaze. There were now several more ponies coming up the road towards them slowly. Suddenly he noticed in the midst of them was her. That navy blue mare with the black hair. She had always seemed to follow him around for no apparent reason. Fractal turned towards the yellow pony. “Hey, what’s going on, are you-“ he was cut off when he noticed the earth pony had disappeared.

Now things were getting really strange. Fractal turned to look up the other road. He saw there was a group of people there too. Only instead, in the midst of them was that one mare’s brother. He couldn’t think of any names at the time. Fractal suddenly realized he was trapped. He looked towards the navy blue mare again. Looking into her eyes, he saw pure anger, almost burning like a fire.

Now Fractal was getting nervous. With nowhere to go, he had to figure a way out of this. The way these ponies looked they didn’t seem willing to talk. They all looked angry, some more then others. Some, he could have sworn he had seen before, either at high school or around town. He began to look around franticly. Something was wrong. What reason would these people have to hate him? Then it dawned at him. Those years ago. She was there, and so was her brother. That must be it. But why would these other ponies be after him? Suddenly there was no time to think about details.

Fractal noticed a smooth wall and immediately ran towards it, and also towards the mob approaching. He jumped off the ground and went to push off the wall and leap around to the other side of the small group of ponies, but the wall suddenly disappeared and he began falling into a deep hole. He let out a cry for help just before everything went black.

Fractal woke up to a bright orange light in his face. “Fractal, you alright?” Some one was saying. A few moments later his eyes finally focused. There was a candle floating in front of him, and he recognized his friend Fire Surge standing by his bed. Fractal pulled himself up and looked around. He then remembered he was on a camping trip with his friends. He could hear rain around the tent and heard thunder occasionally. Fractal let out a sigh of relief. “I’m fine.” He said to the orange-coloured unicorn. “Just a dream. Quite the weather we’re having though eh?” He said, trying to change the subject. Suddenly a voice came from outside the tent. “Nature does everything itself out here Fractal. We pegusi can’t control this place.” Thunder Specter poked his head into the tent. He was a gray-blue colour with a bright blonde mane. “You guys coming out to enjoy the weather or not? Honestly we never get weather like this in Ponyville!” He said before he pulled his head back out the tent.

Fractal sighed and pulled himself up out of bed and stood up. Fire Surge put the candle down into the middle of the tent with his magic. Fractal yawned and walked out of the tent into the pouring rain. The trees around provided some cover, but not nearly enough to keep them dry. It was windy too. The trees swayed in the wind, some even looked like they would fall down if hit by a strong enough gust. He stretched his wings and went over to the sad little fire Thunder Specter had made. “Is that all you can get?” Fractal asked feeling a little disappointed. Thunder shrugged. “Not in this weather Fractal. We’re lucky enough to have this tiny flame with how hard it’s raining.” Thunder explained. He was right of course. How were you supposed to get a decent fire in this weather? Surge answered his question a moment later.

“Really? You can’t even make a decent fire? Even in this weather it isn’t that difficult.” He said as he came out of the tent. He walked over to the two pegasi and focused on the fire for a moment. He then walked over to a tree and grabbed some sticks from the bottom of the trunk. They appeared to still be dry. Obviously shielded by the rest of the tree. He took some moss and other random materials that were dry and threw them onto the little flame. He adjusted them slightly, and the flame rose into a full fire. “And that’s how you make a fire. Honestly, how long would you guys last on your own out here?” Surge said with a little laugh.

Surge was known around high school for his survival skills. He was very nature savvy and had a good knowledge of what to do out when you were out fending for yourself. Fractal Renegade couldn’t help but admit that they wouldn’t have done as well as they had out in the wilderness without Fire Surge. Then again maybe his talent with making fires came from his name and cutie mark, which was a burning flame. It was rather difficult to not see that his cutie mark obviously had to do with his talent in making fires.

“Well I think we all know what else fires are good for other then keeping us warm.” Thunder said walking back towards the tent. “And what might that be?” Fractal called after him over a loud thunderclap. Thunder came back out with a bag of marshmallows. “What else? Marshmallows! Everyone loves them roasted!” He said as he began trying to open the bag. “One issue, Thunder. I don’t think anyone likes soggy marshmallows.” Surge said in response. Thunder paused for a moment to take it in, then looked at the bag of marshmallows. “Ah… Right. I guess we won’t be eating marshmallows until the storm stops.” Thunder said. Fractal and Surge laughed at Thunder.

Life was pretty good for the three companions. They had become friends in school due to their similar personalities. One trait they all shared. A hunger for adventure. They got along well too, because they had similar senses of humor. Plus they each had their own area’s of skill. Fire Surge was the survivalist, Thunder Specter was the long term planner, and Fractal Renegade was the risk taker. He was the one that did the things the others wouldn’t do, and he liked it that way. It meant he got to do the fun stuff that sent a thrill through his bones. He loved to do dangerous things and often had the skills to do them, since he had gained his cutie mark from doing these things. His cutie mark was three long ice-blue gemstones which pointed in different directions. Still though, his cutie mark was always a mystery for him and his friends. It’s image didn’t seem to make much sense for his talent, nor how he got it.

Of course that wasn’t the only mystery on Fractal’s mind. He knew that dream would haunt him until he tried to figure it out. It was so confusing and fast though, and there were so many questions he had about it. But who could he possibly ask? Who was that yellow earth pony? Why was everyone trying to get at him, and what did it mean? These were the kind of things he couldn’t find an answer for on his own. He would have to push it off until he could get some real answers. But how could he? The dream was so real and confusing. It simply had to mean something, but what?

He was snapped back to reality when Thunder Specter called him. “Hey Fractal, let’s see if we can find some more dry wood for the pyromaniac over here.” He said, obviously talking about Surge. “Well if he doesn’t always have something to burn he might resort to burning down the forest! That wouldn’t be very good now would it?” Fractal said in response. Thunder laughed. “No probably not. Come on, he said to look underneath larger trees. Says that they are more likely to be dry then.” He then explained. Well, that was fairly easy to figure out without survival knowledge. Especially since he had just shown them that. “He sure does like pointing out the obvious.” Fractal said. Thunder Specter shrugged. “Keep in mind it isn’t obvious to some ponies we know.” He then said. At school, there have always been these big tough ponies that walked around bragging and making fun of people. Fractal Renegade was a common target because of his gold coloured eyes. “That’s true. Well, what are we waiting for? Better hurry before he starts burning down the forest!” Fractal said as he turned to start walking. “If you guys don’t get going I’ll burn the tent first!” Fire Surge called after them. Thunder and Fractal laughed and walked away.

Invictus never liked the rain. Even before that awful night, it always seemed to make her feel much more vulnerable. It generated a sense of gloom and sadness. Well, of course it also got her mane very wet, which she didn’t appreciate any more either. But she was glad she wasn’t out in the forest at a time like this. Normally the pegasi weather crew try to make the weather match a little with the wilderness beyond Ponyville, but nothing as intense as that wicked storm. Invictus could even feel the wind in town coming all the way from the Everfree Forest. Her brother always told her to stay away from there, of course she had occasions where she ignored him. Especially when he was going on about some of his ridiculous chess strategies. Those things were so boring some times. Of course, it was what he enjoyed and she could tolerate that. Everyone had their tastes. Some worse then others.

As the sky remained dark there wasn’t much else Invictus could do but walk home in the rain. Better then being locked up in a library of all places. They were pretty boring too, but she needed books to study and make it through school, and since she and her brother were the only ponies left in their family, they had to work as hard as they could to make a living. However Invictus was interested in something very different from her brothers job. Her main focus at school was history. She had a very good memory, but she hated reading, so she normally preferred to be taught or shown something then learning it from a text or history book. Of course that wasn’t the only thing on her mind.

She wanted revenge. About five years ago, something terrible had happened to her. Before that time five years ago, Invictus had been a fairly happy pony. Her cutie mark represented her quite well, as it was a star shinning in the dark, which went well with black coat of hair. She was known for looking at the bright side of things when many others wouldn’t. She lived a very happy and peaceful life with her brother and mother, who was still around at the time.

Her mother had gone to get something from the zebra lady who lived in Everfree Forest, apparently some kind of herb or medicine. Her mother was a nurse, so she relied on the zebra girl a lot for resources and remedies. After several hours she still hadn’t returned, and it had started to rain. So Invictus and her brother, Intredus, went out to see if they could find her. As they were walking out towards the forest, they saw their mother. There was some one else there. A maroon coloured Pegasus. She recognized him, those golden eyes were unmistakable. However when she looked at her mother again, she realized something that shocked her strait down to the core.

Her mother was lying on the ground dead, limp and lifeless. The maroon pony was standing beside her. When he looked up and saw them, he ran away, back into the forest. It took a few moments for Invictus to register what she had just seen, but once her senses returned she very quickly came to a conclusion. That pony must have killed her, she though.
Invictus and her brother ran towards their mother. When they got to her, they couldn’t find any signs of an obvious injury. There was a faint glimmer of hope then. Using the small amount of knowledge in medical attention she had, she quickly checked her mothers heart. It was silent. Not a single beat escaped it, no breath escaped her mouth. Invictus’ eyes began tearing up, and she screamed for her mother to wake up, but to no avail. Intredus’ eyes were wide and his face looked distraught, almost panicked. He was beginning to cry as well. Her brother, who had always been so strong when it came to difficult times, was crying. He couldn’t control himself anymore. They both lay beside their mother, silently begging her to come back to them.

What seemed like an eternity passed before her brother got up and said, “There’s nothing we can do now.” In a shaky voice. “She’s gone. The least we can do, if anything, is try to live on.” He was still fighting back tears, but Invictus was starting to see her old brother again. “Let’s take her somewhere to bury her. We can’t just leave her out here.” He then said. So, with heavy hearts the two lone siblings dragged their mother to the edge of the Everfree Forest. They never had many friends. The only true friends her mother had were her patients, which fortunately were very few. Even then the family never went out in public too much, so they didn’t have many true friends. Intredus, being a unicorn, used his magic to dig a hole with a shovel, and together they pushed their mother into the quick makeshift grave.

Invictus had never felt so lonely, and so negative in her life. Even her brother couldn’t comfort her at this moment. Both of them figured since they didn’t have any real friends what was the use of a whole funeral. They filled in the whole, said their last good byes, and went home. As she was walking home, something in her snapped, changed, transformed her. She thought to herself, it was that blasted Pegasus… He’s the reason she’s dead. He was the only one who could have possibly done it. She became cold hearted, and completely blinded by her hatred. She wanted revenge on that Pegasus, and to avenge the death of her mother. Ever since she could never look at the bright side of things. Always saw the bad in what happened instead of the good. Her attitude, personality and behavior had been altered, and even five years later that pain and memory still haunted her heart, and she told herself it would never leave until that maroon pony had seen justice for what he did, and she planned to make sure that happened.

Intredus stared hard at the chess board on the table before him. He had been challenged to a chess match by a fellow student in his class, who apparently considered himself the best chess player in the school. However Intredus had a personal motto that never seemed to fail him. Arrogance never wins a battle.

The conflicting voices in his head were becoming a nuisance. One said to move his queen in for the kill, while the other said to think things through more. After all, he was in a bit of a hurry. The chess game had already lasted more than an hour and a half, and he had to meet up with his sister, Invictus soon.
Intredus had to admit, this pony was a little more difficult to beat then most of his previous opponents. Most he could beat before one hour had passed. However Intredus had never lost a chess game, so he was fairly experienced. When this pony said he was the best chess player in the school, he wasn’t exaggerating. Intredus liked challenges, but not when he was in a rush to get away.

Intredus yawned and moved his queen to take out a pawn with his magic. “Check.” He then said. Murmurs rippled through the crowed of ponies that had gathered around to watch this intense match against, quite possibly the two most skilled strategists in the school. Suddenly his opponent chuckled faintly. “Wow, I’m so scared. You took out my pawn. If you hadn't done that my game would be over!” He was obviously being sarcastic. “Unfortunately you made the simplest mistake. You moved your queen right beside my king. Say good bye to your precious all star unit.” A glow surrounded the opponents king, but Intredus interrupted. “Ah ah ah, I think you missed something. You see, my rook is protecting my queen, and since you can’t move into check with your king, you can’t touch my queen.”

The sky-blue unicorn’s grin disappeared from his face. “Er, I knew that. I was just seeing if you were paying attention.” He said in response. “Just move your king.” Intredus responded, beginning to get bored of this little brat’s arrogance. The unicorn moved his king to the right. Intredus made a little wincing movement, as if he was disgusted by the lousy move. The other unicorn, seeing Intredus’s reaction moved his king back to where it was, and had it move forward instead.

Intredus smiled as he moved his queen once again in front of the king. “Checkmate.” He said. “What? No that can’t be right!” The unicorn responded at that. He began frantically moving his king back and forth to different possible places, but found nowhere to go. With the queen still protected, and rooks and bishops on all sides there was simply no safe place for the king. “You… You cheated!” He yelled at Intredus in rage. “Correction, I bluffed. That wince was fake. If you had moved your king to the first spot, you would have lasted longer. But you didn’t see that.” The sky-blue unicorn grimaced at the revelation. “You thought I was wincing because I have a habit of doing so whenever someone makes a bad move, so you tried to use that against me. A clever strategy, but I turned that against you and got you killed with it.” The white king, belonging to the sky-blue pony went flying towards Intredus, but he easily ducked his head and avoided it.

“Now now, no need to get violent. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go meet with my sister for something important. I look forward to another chess match another time.” And with that, Intredus left the enraged pony in his anger. Intredus yawned again as he walked towards the edge of Ponyville. He hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. He kept waking up due to nightmares.

For the past week, every night he would have the same dream. He would find his mother dead on the edge of Ponyville again, and his sister would be there. She would yell at him, and scream at him for not being able to stop it from happening. For not going to look for her sooner before she died. It was true. If Intredus had decided to go searching for his mother sooner, he may have found her before she had died. But he was too caught up in his reading to worry too much. It wasn’t until Invictus had finally told him what time it was that he left to search. By the time they arrived it was too late.

At first, he wondered about the strange dark red Pegasus standing there when they found her. Invictus believes he did it, but Intredus is the kind of person who looks at the possibilities. There were so many things they didn’t know about that pony and their mothers’ death that he couldn’t just jump to the conclusion right away. In fact even 5 years later, he was still unsure. His sister however will not look at any other possibility. He tries to convince her that there’s a chance he didn’t, but she won’t listen of course.

Well, there was one way to stop the nightmares and that was to discover just what happened that fateful night. This obviously wasn’t going to happen too soon at the rate things were going. It was hard to brush all these thoughts aside when he and his sister were going to visit their mothers’ grave today. Who knows how many thoughts and memories could be brought back by the sight of that stone and flower.

Chapter 2 - Revelations

Fractal’s heart pounded as he ran through the forest. He should have guessed that he and Thunder Specter would just end up racing again. They never did work if they had to. Besides, Fire Surge seemed to be making fires just fine with very little firewood.

Now as they raced through the trees, the thunder roared overhead. Fractal shot up above the trees and looked out towards Ponyville as he flew. Looking ahead, he saw the storm seemed to be over there as well. That couldn’t be right. They very rarely schedule storms, and if they did he would know about it. After all, he was part of the weather crew. Fractal flew down to tell Thunder Specter about this.

As he got down there, he noticed Thunder had disappeared. Looking around for a moment, he couldn’t seem to find him anywhere. “Hey Thunder, where’d you run off to?” He finally said. There was no answer. Now he was beginning to get worried. Thing were getting weird today, beyond just the casual freaky dream. That weather over the village was a little too natural for Fractal’s liking. Fractal shook his head. Ha, you’re probably just being paranoid. He thought to himself. Maybe there was a quick change in plans while I was gone. Maybe that’s why the storm reaches the village. Fractal also knew that Thunder Specter was a smart guy, so he would probably head back to camp when he noticed Fractal wasn’t around anymore.

He began to walk back to camp. He enjoyed walking on occasion instead of flying. Also, when he was flying the rain was in his eyes, so he settled with walking back. The wind was howling above, making the trees rustle and sway. Fractal was thankful for the cover the trees provided from the wind and rain, but he wished he could fly up above the trees. It would be so much quicker.

Suddenly there was a shout from behind. “Coming through!” Thunder shouted as he came rocketing past Fractal at full speed. The first thing Fractal thought was to fly up and chase after him, believing the race was still on. However when he turned his head backwards he saw what Thunder was flying from. A pack of timber wolves had appeared and were running towards them. Fractal immediately leaped off the ground and took off towards camp.

After a very short time, Fractal caught up to Thunder. “What in Equestria did you do? Hit them with a torch?” Fractal called to Thunder. “I don’t know, but whatever I did they are real ticked off!” Thunder replied over his shoulder. Fractal rolled his eyes. “I can see that, thank you very much!” Fractal decided to take advantage of the situation and folded his wings, landing on the ground to run again. Fractal grinned as he felt that familiar rush of adrenaline flow through his body. “What are you doing?” Thunder called back slowing down. “Now is not the time for your crazy dare devil acts!”

Fractal laughed. “You really think I’m so dumb that I would put myself at risk without a way of getting out? I’ll just shoot up above the trees at the last second!” Fractal said to his worried friend. Thunder was getting angry now. “You fool, you can’t fly up there! The wind is so powerful now I could barely clear the trees without getting blown back down!”

Fractal’s heart skipped a beat. Wind strong enough to keep a Pegasus from flying, even at this speed? This day was falling into chaos faster than he originally thought.

Then the real problem dawned on Fractal. He was not in a good position at the moment. The wolves were getting closer and he had to act fast. Of course he could just fly up a little, but that was far too easy. Instead he kept going on hoof.
“Hang on, I’m going to go ahead and warn Surge!” Thunder Specter called. He took off without waiting for an answer. Fractal wasn’t concerned about this though. He could easily get out of this and still enjoy the thrill. At least, that’s what he thought until the second pack of wolves showed up from the direction he was heading. “Shoot, are you serious?” He said as he saw the wolves glaring at him.

Fractal looked to his left. The forest was thick and unpredictable, and he couldn’t let himself get lost. Fractal was never an explorer. The right side was the same way. There was only one direction he could go.

Up, through the trees.

A mischievous grin crossed Fractals face. The kind of grin that says you’re about to do something crazy and you’re going to enjoy it. Fractal charged full speed towards the wolves ahead. At the last second he leaped into the air and took off up through the trees and into the sky.

Thunder Specter wasn’t kidding. The moment Fractal cleared the trees he was buffeted by a massive gust of wind, which sent him spinning out of control. Fractal fought to regain his control, but it was near impossible. The wind was so strong he couldn’t stop himself. He couldn’t even tell which way he was going.

The wind tossed him like a rag doll. Back and forth, left and right until Fractal couldn’t even think anymore. Lightning blasted through the sky as Fractal battled with the hurricane force winds. Fractal wasn’t running on thought anymore. He was doing whatever he could to get out of there.

He closed one wing and went swerving downwards towards the ground, and then swerved back up like a roller coaster. Finally Fractal close his one other wing, and began to fall. Pushed around by the unpredictable wind, he couldn’t tell where he would land. Fractal braced himself for the crash. The last thing he heard was a loud crack of thunder, and then everything went black.

Invictus jumped as the lightning ripped through the sky, sending out an explosive sound of thunder. Her ears began ringing it was so loud. The wind howled past her as she walked towards the Everfree Forest. Of course it would be a storm on today of all days… She thought to herself.

Suddenly there was a voice behind her. “Invictus.” Invictus turned around to find her brother walking towards her. “Sorry I’m late, got caught up in a chess match.” He said to her over the wind. Invictus shook her head. “It’s alright. I’ve been taking my time anyways.” She said in response.

Her brother shrugged and walked up beside her. “Come on; let’s see if that flower you planted is still growing.” Intredus said. Invictus smiled faintly, but the smile quickly faded as memories and thoughts continued to rush through her mind.
They began to walk towards the spot where they buried their mother. As they got closer and passed familiar sights, the rain only made the memories more vivid. It was almost impossible to cope with.

Then they saw it. The lone rose that stood out from the grass and out of control plants of the Everfree Forest. Beneath a single oak tree, the rose swayed in the wind. It was protected well by the forest’s trees. It looked like it was about ready to blow away though. Invictus approached the rose, with her brother following shortly behind. Its roots were doing their job, holding it down from the wind. It seemed to be missing petals though. Even then, a petal flew off into the forest. The siblings watched it for a moment, as it twisted in the hectic wind, unable to decide which direction to go.

A lightning strike lit up the night sky, sending chills down Invictus’s spine. The storm seemed to be relentless. Invictus looked up into the rain and wind, squinting. There was no end to the storm in any direction. The black clouds went on forever, without even brightening a little anywhere.

Finally, her brother broke the silence as he always did. “I’m surprised the rock is still there.” He said. Invictus turned back towards the rose. Behind it was a rock about the size of her head that sat over their mothers resting place.

It had engraved into it two messages, one from Intredus, and another from Invictus. Intredus’s was a promise, promise to protect his sister and take care of her in their mothers place.

Invictus’s was also a promise, however a much different promise. This promise was that there would be justice dealt to the pony who killed her.

Invictus let out a sigh. “Why would anyone care to move it anyways? It’s not like it matters that much to any other ponies.” She said. “I think it’s more so that they see something important is written on there, so they leave it alone and assume it means something to someone.” Intredus responded.

Of course, he was right. He always suggested the most rational ideas about everything. Except when it came to Invictus’s plans, it was different. Invictus couldn’t see any other way. That dark red pony must have done it. There is simply nothing else that could have happened to cause it.

The two siblings stood in silence before their mothers’ grave, letting the memories flow by, and think about what they would do next. Invictus fought back the tears, to stay strong.

Suddenly Invictus heard a faint voice carried on the wind. Intredus must have heard it too, because they both turned their heads simultaneously towards the forest. The voice was getting louder. It repeated the same word over and over again. “Fractal…” Where had she heard that name before? It sounded so familiar.

Then there was a rustling in the bushes. Naturally, Intredus stepped forward in front of his sister, but Invictus pushed him aside and stood beside him.

An orange unicorn came out of the bushes, looking exhausted and panting heavily. “Hey, excuse me? Have you seen my friend around here?” He began to say, but stopped a moment to catch his breath again.

“Well, if you can provide a description I would be more than happy to say who I have and haven’t seen around here.” Intredus responded. The orange unicorn sighed. “Sorry. He’s a Pegasus, with dark red coloured hair, and has a cutie mark with three light blue crystals pointing in different directions. His mane is a dark navy blue and is rather messy.” The unicorn paused for another breath. “Oh right, and he has golden eyes. It might sound weird, but he does.” The orange pony finished.

Invictus’ eyes shot open. She knew exactly who that pony was. That was the pony who her and her brother had found by their dead mother.

Before Invictus could react though, Intredus spoke to the unicorn. “We haven’t seen anypony like that of the sort, at least, not for a long time.” He said keeping his cool. “What happened, where did he go?” Intredus then asked.

The orange pony responded. “He and my other friend were out gathering wood for a camp fire when they were attacked by a bunch of Timber Wolves. Last we saw him he was trying to fly through the storm to escape the wolves safely.” Intredus’ eyes widened and he shook his head. “Why would he do something so foolish?” He asked in response to the story.

The orange unicorn winced at the question. “He’s… Well, he’s a little bit of a dare devil. He likes to push himself to his limits. I think he may have vastly miscalculated what would have happened though if he flew into the storm.” Intredus sighed at this.

Meanwhile, Invictus’ mind was racing, thinking of what she should do. Her mouth handle everything for her. “Well let’s help and see if we can find him. After all, it is dangerous in the forest.” She said. Intredus shot her a look, but the orange unicorn spoke first. “Oh thank you. We could use all the help we could get. We haven’t checked over in that direction yet.” The unicorn said pointing towards the other side of the path.

Invictus immediately turned towards the direction he had pointed. “Alright then let’s go.” She said. “Wait! Be careful it’s dangerous in the forest if you don’t know what you’re doing!” The unicorn said quickly. “Oh believe me; I know full well what I’m doing.” Invictus said before dashing off into the forest.

Intredus sighed as his little sister ran off. He then turned back towards the distraught unicorn. “What’s your name, and who exactly are we looking for?” He asked. “Well, my name is Fire Surge, and the one that is missing is named Fractal Renegade. My companion who’s helping me look is named Thunder Specter.” He responded.

Intredus was glad there was at least one other pony thinking rationally around here. This unicorn had provided an excellent amount of information to go by, what with the ponies’ description and extra valuable info that most other ponies would skip over. “Alright, thank you. I’m sure we’ll find him.” And with that, they both took off in different directions.
Invictus always let her emotions get the best of her. Her rage made her miss out on crucial information.

Intredus was also worried about what would happen if Invictus found Fractal before him. There was no telling what she might do at this rate. Would she show any mercy or rationality over the situation at all? Intredus certainly didn’t trust her to do so. He had to catch up with her.

So great, now I’m looking for two different ponies. One is in danger from the other as well as other injuries, while one wants to murder the other. Intredus thought to himself. There was no way this day would end well for anyone if this kept up.
“Invictus!” He called out. “Invictus where are you?” He was running now. The wind was blowing leaves everywhere, and the rain stung his face. It was difficult to see where he was going.

Suddenly Intredus saw something ahead. He screeched to a halt right before falling into a deep ravine. At the bottom of the ravine, was a rushing river. Looking down into it, it was easily deep enough to kill somepony from the fall. He decided to take note of this for later and turned off towards the left.

Come on Invictus where are you? Intredus said in his mind. “Invictus!” Right as he cried out for his sister again, there was a lightning strike, quickly succeeded by thunder, drowning out his voice. The lightning was become incredibly frequent now, striking only seconds apart.

As he continued running, he felt a surge of heat. He look up and saw a lightning bolt strike a massive oak tree. The whole world seemed to shake and shudder with energy as the tree lit on fire, and began to collapse. Intredus quickly ran out of its landing range moment before it hit. Man they weren’t kidding about this place being dangerous. This is ridiculous! He thought to himself.

As the tree came crashing down, the ground shook one last time nearly knocking Intredus off balance, and then it stopped. The lightning and thunder continued striking though, the clouds were dark and seemed to glare at him.
Intredus resumed running, but as he was doing so, and more unusual things happened, he began to realize how unnatural this weather was. It almost seemed to be targeting him. Something was not right at all.

Then he thought of his sister. There was no telling what would happen to her. He had to find her, and fast! All hell was breaking loose, and no one would be safe until they found each other and got out.

Intredus looked around and saw there were other locations where the rain and lightning were more frequent, four different locations in fact. As he noticed the pattern, some wild animals ran past him in distress. Another tree, this time not as large came crashing down a short distance ahead.

Intredus was beginning to get annoyed. He looked around examining the pattern in the skies. The weather was only this active around the forest, however it had seemed to spread out beyond those four locations. It was beginning to reach much farther, towards the mountains, and even a little into Ponyville.
It wasn’t just the forest, but the entire valley that was descending into chaos.

Chapter 3 - Breaking Boundaries

Krious stood on top a tall oak tree. The dark-purple unicorn looked around as the lightning continued to strike nearby. His powerful magic throbbed with energy as it attempted to break free, but remained in check. The black clouds expanded across the horizon, and threatened the simple town at the other edge of the forest.

“Good, excellent!” The voice spoke in his head again, praising him for the beautiful creation. “I couldn’t be more proud of a storm like this! You have learned very well, and with my help you can save so many lives!”

The voice had been there for a long time. It was probably about 3 years by this point. It first arrived after Krious destroyed his home with his magic on accident.

He had a different name then. It was Neman, but he was given a different name later when the voice arrived to help him. Ever since he had been known as Krious.

Krious’s magic was incredibly powerful, and according to the voice even more powerful then Celestia herself. The problem was that Krious had no true personal control over it. Whenever he was in situations of extreme stress or emotional trauma, his magic would burst in a blue fiery explosion. This often ravaged the surrounding area, and put many people’s lives in danger.

Krious knew deep down that he would not be alive if it weren’t for the voice’s arrival though. The voice had some strange power. It was able to keep Krious’s magic under control when he was emotional. However, there was price to this. Krious had to give the voice complete access to his magic. Originally he thought this would be a bad idea, but he was proved wrong later.

Then he began to look up to the voice. The voice was smart, intelligent and cunning. It knew so much more about everything then he did. Because of that, Krious would do just about anything the voice told him to, such as creating this storm.

The voice never seemed to use Krious’s magic against him in anyway, and had proved quite trustworthy. Krious owed everything to the voice, and would rather die then let it go. He couldn’t risk killing innocent ponies with his magic. Not again, not in this lifetime.

Now the voice had created a plan, a plan to rid the powerful energy within Krious’s body. A way to permanently control it without the voices help. By using it on the storm, he would attract the attention of other powerful magicians. Maybe even the alicorn princesses.

If this happened, they would attempt to put a stop to it, and while doing so, Krious would pour his magical energy into the storm, deplete it, and lose the ability to disperse it in such massive numbers. If the alicorn princesses found him, they would likely put a seal on the magic and keep it contained forever.

At least, that’s what the voice explained. Since Krious was never a strategist, he figured it was the best possible way. The voice said it would be risky, but Krious agreed to it quite willingly. Any way to negate his magic’s strength would be accepted by Krious after all he had done.

“It won’t be long now. Soon the two princesses will arrive, and put an end to your power. Remember, when they begin to try and destroy the storm, put all of your energy into the storm and try to counter them! If you can unleash enough power they will be forced to come to you, and then they will seal your magic away forever. They ignored you for far too long, and now you will make them help you!” The voice explained.

Krious gulped nervously. “Alright… You sure this will work?” The voice laughed. “Ha! Work? It’s fool proof! There’s no way this could go wrong at all. Have my plans failed you before my dear Krious?” Krious sighed. “No… I guess you’re right. If this is the only way to permanently remove my magic’s power, so be it.”

The lightning struck a tree off in the distance. Krious watched as the tree came crashing down into the forest. “Is this safe? I mean, what if there are ponies in there?” Krious fretted. “Worry not Krious, I took the liberty to ensure nopony would be harmed! I made sure they all left before you started the storm.”

Krious thought about that for a moment. “But how could you do that if you’re just a voice? I mean, if you are currently trapped somewhere how could you have done that?” The voice sighed. “I always have to explain everything to you don’t I? You see, my magic has a very long reach, and so long as I have a little window of opportunity, it can do just about anything I want. You are that window Krious, and through you I can help protect other ponies.”

Krious sighed as well. It made sense of course, at least to him. Krious trusted the voice with his life and his magic. Who knows how many ponies would be harmed, or even killed if the voice hadn’t helped?

Lightning continued to strike around the forest, and the wind howled past his ears. If it wasn’t for his magic, he would surely have been blown right off the top of the tree.

Krious had so many questions still unanswered by the voice, but the voice told him that he would explain after Krious’s magic had been sealed.

Krious looked out towards the direction of Canterlot expectantly. The princesses would surely arrive soon. As the storm expanded towards the great kingdom, there was no way they would miss this spectacular thunder storm. After all, how many natural storms strike with lightning more than five times within one minute?

“Don’t you worry one bit Krious. Soon, you will never have to worry about hurting anyone ever again.” The voice said reassuringly. “You should be proud of yourself for remaining this strong, and creating such a magnificent storm!” The voice continued to praise Krious.

The constant praise reminded him of his brother. Krious’s brother was intelligent, and very caring towards Krious. His brother praised him for even the little things Krious had done, such as catching a Frisbee in the air.

His brother was the first person he truly looked up to, and found inspiring. It was one of the reasons he was so accepting of the voice. But, his brother was dead; the voice was alive and still helping.

Now the voice was about to make the biggest change in his life ever, for the better. To prevent losing any more loved ones like those three years ago.

A faint smile crossed Krious’s face as he thought of being able to live a normal life again, without the constant danger of death and destruction.

However the dark past still haunted him. His classmates bullying, his father’s beatings, his mother’s ignorance, and then his family’s death. These are the things he would never forget. Maybe Krious would get lucky and hit his head after the plan was complete.

Now until then, Krious had to keep the storm going. The lightning was slowing down, and the princesses hadn’t shown up yet. “Looks like it’s time for another boost, Krious. Unleash your energy, your emotions of anger and hatred into the storm!”

Krious did exactly as the voice said. He struggled at the strain of using his magic, then his emotions kicked in, and the storm surged forth, causing several lightning bolts to strike in quick succession.

“Excellent. It won’t be long now.” The voice said. Krious panted and regained his energy, as the storms strength returned.

The sky lit up from the attack the storm was leading on the forest. The sun’s light had faded in the city of Canterlot, and Celestia was beginning to fear for her kingdoms safety.

She turned away from her balcony and approached a table littered with books. She had been searching for an answer to the unusual storm ever since she discovered its strange qualities.

It continued to show evidence for her old enemy and rival, Discord, but when she checked Discord’s statue, it was still completely intact, not showing any signs of Discord escaping again.

Then again, it had only been around 157 years since he was last sealed. The stone imprisonment of Discord should last at least another 700 years. The monarch thought to herself.

As the storm drew closer to the city, a purple beam shot into the sky that formed a barrier around the city. Celestia sighed with relief as the Sparkle families trademark protection spell kicked in.

The storm pushed up against the purple barrier. The shield seemed to be doing its job. Suddenly a bright blue lightning bolt struck the shield with such force, that Celestia felt the entire palace tremble. The shield shattered into pieces, and disintegrated.

Celestia turned from her room and ran out into the main area of the palace. “Luna! Quick, we must find out the source of this storm!” She called out. Luna was already in the central hall. “What kind of magic is this, my sister? It is not anything from one of our students.” She said.

“Certainly not. This kind of magic can only be the work of Discord.” Celestia explained. “But how can that be? Discord has been sealed away in stone, and his prison is intact.” Luna responded confused. “I am wondering the same thing.” Celestia said, showing she was just as confused as her sister.

They both ran out of the palace and took off towards the storm, their powerful wings fighting the hurricane force winds. The lightning struck all around them as they fought their way towards the forest.

Suddenly the yell of a male voice carried across the wind reached Celestia’s ears. A blue beam fired high into the storm like a beacon, and the storm seemed to shudder with energy. The beacon stayed there for a moment, and then faded.

Celestia quickly made a mental note of the beacons location. “Luna, tell me you didn’t miss that.” She called to her sister. “I saw it sister, that must surely be where the storms source is!” Luna responded.

Celestia nodded. “Most definitely. Come on! We have to stop this before the storm starts destroying the city. If it can bring down the Sparkle’s shield in one blow, it can easily wreak havoc on the city.” Celestia explained to her sister.

The two sisters turned towards where the beacon came from, and flew to find their opponent.

“Wake up. You’re not dead yet.” A voice spoke in the blackness. “There is so much more left for you to do then this. You hold a much stronger purpose.” A faint light became visible, and slowly became bright. “Wake up…” The voice repeated over and over again. “Wake up… Wake up…”

“Wake up!” Fractal’s golden eyes shot open. “Come on you fool get up! Quickly!” Fractal quickly stood up, but immediately felt a pain in his front left leg and fell down again.

“Oh for crying out loud.” Fractal looked around and found a dark green coloured unicorn standing over him. “You need to get up and move!” The unicorn said. “Wha… What? What’s going on?” Fractal said, regaining his senses.

The dark green pony helped him get up and give him something to lean on. “There’s no time to explain, we need to get out of here!” A lightning bolt struck a nearby tree, and it burst into flames, snapping Fractal into full alert. “What th-“ Fractal’s question was cut off as the tree came down right beside them.

The dark green unicorn urged him along. “Come on, get moving!” Fractal looked into the sky and saw the chaotic storm ripping through the black sky. Straining his eyes against the wind and rain, he pulled himself together and started running.

“For Celestia’s sake what were you thinking?” The unicorn said. “Hold on, who are you? Where am I?” Fractal asked. “My name is Intredus. You are currently in the Everfree Forest running for your life.” The dark green pony explained quickly. “That’s really all there is to say. Keep going!”

Suddenly a scream pierced the air. Fractal immediately skidded to a halt, and so did the unicorn. “Invictus!” The green pony said, right before he took off towards the sound of the scream. “Wait, hang on who?” Fractal said, bewildered. He leaped into the air and flew after him as best he could.

Suddenly Fractal recognized the unicorn. It was the unicorn from those five years ago. The one that found him with that lady unicorn dead! But where was his sister, and why was he helping him?

The two of them came bursting into a clearing. There was a collapsed tree in the middle of it, and claw marks all along the tree. Signs of a struggle. Intredus paused only for a moment, before taking off towards the left.

“Wait, stop for a moment, I don’t understand what’s going on here!” Fractal called after him, before taking off to follow again.

Once again flying through the bushes and trees, Fractal could feel the adrenaline rushing through him. As lightning crashed through the sky, and thunder roared over and over again, he could feel his life was in extreme danger. But from what? The lightning? The wind? What was making him feel so threatened?

Confusion was something Fractal had to push aside for the time being. Someone else’s life was also in danger, and he had to help this Intredus pony find her.

Suddenly Fractal began to recognize where he was. It was somewhere he had known from five years ago.

This was the path towards the forest ravine.

A sense of urgency came to Fractal, and he flew as fast as he could to catch up with the unicorn. “Intredus!” He called after him. “Listen to me, this path leads towards a ravine! You need to slow down!”

“It’s not me I’m worried about!” Intredus called over the wind and rain. Fractal quickly put two and two together and figured out what was going on. Whoever Intredus was looking for was being chased by Timber Wolves, which is where the claw marks came from. They weren’t just being chased though; they were being chased towards the ravine ahead!

An idea dawned on Fractal. “Intredus, I know a shortcut! We can get there before them if we take it!” Intredus looked up towards Fractal. “Which way?” He responded. “This way, follow me!” Fractal pulled ahead of Intredus and turned left again.

Crashing through the foliage, Fractal turned right again, and the left in a zigzag pattern. Intredus called up ahead to Fractal as he followed. “What are you doing? How is this going to get us any closer?” Fractal kept going and called back. “The forest plays tricks on your mind! If we follow this path correctly it will take us to the ravine quicker!” Fractal called back.

“That doesn’t even make sense!” Intredus responded, sounding very annoyed. “It doesn’t have to, you just have to trust me!” Fractal called back getting desperate.

Suddenly they came crashing through the bushes, and found themselves right behind a pack of Timber Wolves. “What the?” Intredus said in confusion, but before he said anything more, they noticed some one up ahead of the wolves.

“Invictus! Hold on!” Intredus called to her. Then Fractal recognized her too. The look of anger and hatred on her face flashed into his mind as he remembered when they last met, eye’s burning with vengeance and pain.

Suddenly the ravine came into view, and there was no time to think about the past. Intredus and Invictus exchanged glances for a split second, and Intredus’s eyes grew wide. “No! Don’t you dare! Don’t do this Invictus!” He called after her.

It took a moment, but Fractal realized what she was doing. She was leading the wolves into the ravine, but where would she possibly go? Looking left and right, Fractal saw there was nowhere else to go but forward.

Fractal saw what was about to happen. It was a suicide mission. Fractal was beginning to panic. He couldn’t catch her, she would be too heavy. Then he saw a vine up ahead closer to the ravine. “Intredus, look over there!” Fractal pointed out the vine to Intredus.

Then it happened. All at once, she made a flying leap into the ravine; the wolves went falling off after her. “No!” Intredus cried. Suddenly a white blur shot past them into the ravine. Fractal skidded to a halt and grabbed the vine on his way, preparing to jump down.

But, when Fractal looked down, he saw a beautiful white pony with a multicoloured mane flowing in the wind. She was carrying Invictus up out of the ravine.

She landed on the edge and brought Invictus down off her back. Everyone seemed to sigh with relief at once. “Th-thank you so much.” Invictus started. Then Fractal saw who had saved her. It was princess Celestia herself!

“Wait… You’re princess Celestia! What are you doing here?” Fractal said. “How dare you!” A voice said. Suddenly a dark blue alicorn came down from the sky and landed beside Celestia.

“How dare you address your princess in such an informal way!” Fractal winced and stepped back away from the two. He realized quickly that it was princess Luna.

“Luna, be calm.” Celestia said in response to her sister’s outburst. “They are confused, and distraught.” Invictus backed up to join her brother.

Celestia then answered Fractal’s question. “I and my sister came here to investigate the storm. We happened to notice you three on our way, so I thought it was only best that I help out.” She explained.

Intredus was in shock. “Thank you so much your majesty. I can’t explain to you how grateful we are!” He said to her.

“Well, I’m afraid I must be going. My sister and I need to find the source of this storm.” Celestia then said. “Wait, hold on, source? Are you saying this storm isn’t natural?” Intredus shot Fractal a look as he asked the ridiculous question.

“Yes, it is powered by somepony, or someone’s magic. It’s most unusual that a storm would target anypony it could find, including villages and cities.” Celestia explained to them. “Now I really must be going. Please, get out of the forest before things get even more dangerous.” She said before taking off again. Her sister shortly followed, and then they disappeared into the storm.

The three ponies fell to the ground exhausted. Panting and heaving, Intredus finally said something. “What were you thinking Invictus? Running off like that without thought.”

Invictus sighed. “I had to find him. The orange unicorn described him perfectly, it was the person I saw by our mother after we found her dead.” Fractal stood up. “What? Orange unicorn?”

Suddenly Invictus noticed Fractal, and immediately charged him. “You!” She cried out. “Wait, stop hold o-“ Fractal tried to say as she slammed into him.

“You killed our mother! You were there those five years ago when we found her dead on the ground!” Invictus yelled at him. Fractal stood up again quickly. “Wait a moment let me expla-“ He barely got the words out before she hit him in the chin with her back legs, sending him flying into a tree.

“I don’t want to hear your lies! I know you did it, don’t you dare deny it!” She continued to yell. Fractal attempted to get up, but the pain in his leg returned, and along with the pain in his back from hitting the tree and getting hit in the jaw, he couldn’t bring himself to stand again.

“Invictus. Stop, leave him be.” Intredus said to his enraged sister. She quickly turned on him. “You stay out of this. Not every problem can be solved with chess! Why can’t you see that this pony is the cause for all our pain! He killed her, and now you’re stuck caring for yourself and me on your own!” She yelled at him.

“I didn’t kill her…” Fractal said, struggling. Invictus and Intredus turned towards him. “Shut up, I know you did it so stop trying to deny-“ Fractal cut her off. “No, you shut up and listen for just five seconds.” Fracal said. Blood was beginning to trickle down his chin from where he was kicked.

“I didn’t kill her… I tried to save her…” Fractal said through weak coughs. “Everything that just happened here… It’s why I knew about the ravine. It’s also how I knew about the shortcut… This ravine is where she died…” Fractal explained.

Invictus stared at him hard, but Intredus spoke first. “You mean, she fell off the ravine, just like Invictus just did?” Fractal nodded. “I tried to save her, but by the time I made it to her it was too late. She drowned in the water.”

Invictus finally spoke again. “Then how did she get back out? Do you expect me to believe that a Pegasus could just magically bring her out of the ravine?” Fractal shook his head. “No. Of course not, because that’s not what happened.”

Fractal began to explain, but then another lightning bolt struck a nearby tree. The tree came crashing down nearby and shook the earth beneath them.

“Come on, we’ll talk later.” Intredus said. “We need to get out of this forest!” Invictus looked like she wanted to protest, but she didn’t say anything. With Intredus’s help, Fractal pulled himself up onto his hooves again.

After a little while, they came back to the main central path of the forest, where they found Thunder Specter and Storm Surge waiting. “Oh thank Celestia! You found him!” Surge said, relieved. Fractal grinned faintly. “Thank Celestia is right, you have no idea…” He managed.

“What happened to you?” Thunder said, looking him over. Thunder Specter rushed over to take some of his weight. “I’ll explain later. We just need to get out of this forest.” Fractal said. “Sounds like a plan, let’s get going.” Surge responded.

A short time later, the five ponies reached the edge of the forest. Of course, nothing could prepare them for what they saw next.

When they came out of the forest, the storm had spread over the village, and was wreaking havoc all around. Lighning was striking buildings, and wind was blowing things away.

The five ponies stared in shock, as they watched Ponyville fall apart before their very eyes.

Chapter 4 - Freezing Fire

“This… This can’t be happening…” Fire Surge managed. The five ponies stared in bewilderment as all of Ponyville burned around them. The storm’s lightning struck buildings and nearby trees. “How could this happen? Who would do such a thing?” Thunder Specter asked the question on everyponies minds.

The odd group walked into the village in a daze. The fires burned strong and bright around them, defeating the rain that came down to put it out.

Ponies ran around left and right, with what belongings they could find. The voices of screaming ponies filled the air as the five ponies looked around at the destruction of their home.

“Invictus, we have to get home.” Intredus finally spoke to his sister. His sister didn’t respond. “Invictus, we need to get our belongings out of there before it’s too late.” Intredus again tried to speak to his sister. “It doesn’t even matter anymore.” She responded. “What? What are you talking about?” Intredus tried to get his sister to explain.

Invictus whirled around to him again. “Don’t you get it? While we were wasting our time in the forest, the storm came here and has probably long since destroyed our home! Not only have we lost both our parents, but even our home has been destroyed!” Invictus yelled at her brother.

Intredus remained calm as he responded. “Invictus, you don’t know that yet. We don’t know if our home has been destroyed yet. We should at least go to see if it is. You need to try to keep calm.” Invictus was obviously getting annoyed. “You see that’s just the problem. You’re always too calm about everything! Why can’t you let yourself see just what’s happening! It isn’t just us, but all of the ponies here that are losing their homes!”

“Hold on a moment. Intredus has a point. Even if we can’t help others we should at least save what we can from our homes.” Fractal said, but was quickly cut off by Invictus. “You just stay out of this! It’s your fault our mother is dead, and it’s your fault we got here so late! If you weren’t such an idiot your leg wouldn’t have been hurt and we could have gotten here quick enough!” Invictus yelled at him now.

“Well if you would listen to what I was trying to say maybe we could actually come to an agreement!” Fractal countered. Invictus tried to hit him again but Fractal jumped out of the way this time. “Why would I even bother? I know you would just lie to me so you could get off clean! I’m not going to let you get away with what you have done to me and my brother!” She yelled angrily at Fractal as he stood his ground prepared for another attack.

“Everything always points back to me doesn’t it, our lateness, your mother’s death, your families’ pain? Have you even considered anything else for the last five years?” Fractal retorted as they continued to argue.

Lightning struck a nearby building, and the storm rolled with energy as it continued its journey through the corrupted village.

“Why won’t you just admit it already? I know you did it and I won’t accept any other answer!” Invictus responded loudly.

The lightning had begun to strike all around them now, hitting buildings and anything tall it could find. The area had been completely abandoned; all the ponies living in the area had run off somewhere safe. The black clouds seemed to gather above them overhead.

“Guys.” Intredus attempted to interrupt but they just kept bickering. Fire Surge looked up into the sky, and then turned towards Intredus and Thunder Specter. “We need to get out of here… Something bad is going to happen.” He said to them. “Well something bad is already happened, we won’t get anywhere as long as these two keep arguing.” Thunder specter responded.

Fire Surge shook his head. “No, not that, the storm! It’s gathering directly above us! Haven’t you noticed how frequent the lightning is?” Intredus and Thunder looked up above them at the looming storm’s black clouds.

“Guys, come on.” Intredus turned to Fractal and Invictus again. “We have to get out of here!” Intredus tried to grab their attention but they wouldn’t listen. Thunder specter joined in. “Fractal, Invictus, come on get a hold of yourselves!” It did nothing at all. The Pegasus and earth pony were too caught up in their arguing to notice the storm above them.

Finally, Fire Surge was fed up. “If we don’t get out of here soon, the storm could kill us!” Surge yelled above all the other voices. Everypony immediately turned towards him, at his sudden change in personality.

“Listen, the storm is strong enough to destroy houses. Once the place here is completely leveled, the lightning will strike the next tallest thing, us!” Surge explained to the confused ponies quickly.

“Surge is right. We need to get out of here before our lives are really threatened. We need to find somewhere safe.” Thunder Specter said the Fractal and Invictus. The two looked reluctant to stop arguing, but they realized they were in danger, so they decided to listen.

Intredus sighed. “You need to realize there are other ways through things then arguing. Arguing never gets anyone anywhere.” He then said to them. “Right now, we need to work together to survive this storm.”

They decided to go towards Invictus and Intredus’s house to see if it was still up.

The storm continued to gather in the village, destroying everything in its path with wind, rain and lightning. The wind blew straw and leaves through the air as they walked through the burning town.

When they reach the house, it was still standing and undamaged. “What did I tell you? You can’t just assume it’s been destroyed when you haven’t even seen it since you got back.” Fractal said to Invictus. “Just shut up.” Invictus responded.

“Come on; let’s get some food and personal belongings.” Intredus said to his sister. The two siblings quickly ran into their house. A short time after, they each came back out with a bag full of supplies. “Where do we go now? We can’t stay here in the village.” Fire Surge asked.

Intredus thought for a moment, and then looked out towards the end of the village opposite to the forest. “Well I assume the safest place would be as far away from the storm as we could.” The other four thought this was smart, so they decided it was the best place to go during all this.

As they were walking, the fires continued to burn strong and bright. They passed many burned down buildings, including the library, which Intredus had grown quite fond of, and the school. Intredus could only hope everypony got out of there safely.

Intredus could tell that Fractal and Invictus wanted to keep arguing about their twisted past, but they would never find a solution through their constant arguing. As much as Intredus wanted to know what happened, it would have to wait until after the Princesses had fixed the storm. Then they could sort everything out properly.

As they approached the edge of the town, they saw other ponies gathered ahead, many severely injured. The ponies were covered in everything from bruises, to burns. The air was filled with such pain and sadness it could easily have an effect on anypony nearby. The rain continued to beat down mercilessly on all the suffering ponies gathered beyond the village, soaking them to the bone.

The five ponies stopped when they arrived and took a look at there surroundings. It was a wet, grassy field with tall soft grass. It was the perfect place to rest a while and recover your energy. But if the Princesses didn't stop the storm quickly enough, it would carry on through here, and destroy even this safe haven.

"Why would anyone do something like this? Who would put these ponies through so much, especially the fillies. Their lives will never be the same again." Fire Surge spoke first. Thunder Specter spoke next. "Not only that, but who would have the power to do it? This is the sort of thing only an Alicorn or other great creature could pull off."

Intredus started thinking after hearing that. Since the Princesses weren't behind it, it must be some other creature or being.

"Well there's no use trying to worry about it now." Fractal said. "We all need some rest after what we've been through today." Thunder Specter nodded. "Maybe the storm will be gone when we wake up. Who knows! It could be afraid of sleeping ponies!" He then said. Everypony managed a smile at this. Everypony, except Invictus.

Intredus could see his sister was in deep depression about everything. She was obviously very stressed out by all that had happened and what she had learned all together in one day. Intredus walked over to her as she collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion.

"Invictus. Hey, how are you feeling?" He said as he lay down beside her. "I'm cold, i'm wet, my home is being destroyed, and I should have died several times in that forest." She responded, fighting back tears. "And now, on top of that, all these poor ponies are worse off then me, making me feel like they hate me for getting away injury free!" Invictus finished.

Intredus sighed. "I can understand that you are going through a lot. Trust me, we are too. Your emotions are just much more sensative to things happening around you, so you feel things stronger than most ponies." Intredus told her what she was already aware of. "But you see, you need to look at the bright side whenever you can. It's how I remain calm during these times." Intredus explained to her.

Invictus turned to her brother with tears in her eyes. "How can I find any bright side to all this?" She said pointing towards all the suffering ponies. "There isn't a single pony here without some kind of injury, be it physical or emotional! Everyone is hurt somehow!"

"Although that may be true, it doesn't mean things can't turn out for the better later. The storm will go away, and we will be able to live life again properly." Intredus reasured his sister. "How can you know that? How can you possibly be sure about anything? What if it doesn't go away? What if we have to run the rest of our lives from this storm?" She asked angrily. Intredus let out another sigh.

"I don't know anything for certain. However I do know this; We are still alive, and we can remain alive as long as we work together and remain calm. Look at it this way. You finally found the person you were looking for. You survived a sacrificial suicide mission. You even fought and defeated your own goal of getting revenge on Fractal and worked with him. These are the positive things that have come through all this!" Intredus tried to make his sister understand. "What i'm trying to say is, no matter how bleak or terrible the situation may be, there is always, and I mean always a bright side to look at. Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, and I think we all experienced that today."

When Intredus finished, Invictus looked down towards the ground. It seemed like he may have finally gotten through to her. "I'm going to get some sleep. I need to think and rest." She finally said. "Alright, try to sleep well." Intredus said to her before laying his head down. "I'll try..." Invictus responded.

Then, after a long exhausting day, sleep finally overtook Intredus and the other ponies, and they all fell asleep.

Fractal had a difficult time sleeping. With the pain in his leg, and the constant thunder and lightning overhead, it was nearly impossible to sleep for more then an hour at a time.

Fractal finally gave up after a while, and decided to get up and look around. It was darker then ever now, night had fallen on the refugee's of the storm, and the only light around was the occasional small flashlight the other homeless ponies were using.

Of course, the thick layer of black clouds in the sky didn't make things much better. Not even the moon's light could pierce the powerful storm. Then Fractal began to wonder if the moon was even there at all, if the princesses of the sun and moon were too busy finding the source of this storm.

Fractal looked at his comrades. Thunder Specter lay perfectly still except for the rising and falling of his chest as he breathed. Fire Surge seemed to be having a bad dream, as he was moving around a lot in his sleep. Fractal noticed his head was lying on a bunch of moss. Leave it to Fire Surge to find something in the wilderness to make himself more comfortable. Fractal thought to himself.

Invictus was sleeping quietly, but she was shivering. Fractal took into account all the emotional trauma she had been through, what with the death of her mother and loss of her home. Still, she blamed everything on Fractal, which he couldn't understand. Fractal let out a sigh as he thought of everything that had happened. I'm always in the wrong place at the wrong time, everytime. He thought to himself. His luck never was the greatest, no matter how much of a dare devil he was.

Fractal turned to where Intredus was sleeping, but found just flattened grass. Intredus was gone. He must be having the same problem I'm having. He probably couldn't sleep. Fractal thought to himself.

Fractal winced as he took a step on his bad leg. He wasn't entirely sure what he had done to it. He must have done something to it when he crashed into the forest. It couldn't be broken, or else he wouldn't be able to walk without excruciating pain. Fractal decided to conclude that it was sprained. He avoided putting too much pressure on it as he walked through the crowd of survivors.

The wind and rain wasn't as strong here as back in the forest. It wasn't a torrential downpour like in the other places, and the wind wasn't constantly fighting against you. It came in waves almost, like a natural storm. The thunder and lightning were farther away towards the village and forest, so it wasn't a real threat, but it was making it's way forward, slowly approaching the field. Fractal shuddered to think of what would happen after that.

Some unicorns were using their magic to generate light, which was a great help. Many had used a spell to cast the light into the air so that it illuminated an area. Fractal smiled faintly at how all these ponies were able to work together when the time was so dire. I never thought I would wish I was a unicorn... Fractal thought to himself.

After some time, Fractal came to an area free of ponies. It was completely empty, except there was one pony standing out in the field. It was a yellow pony, an earth pony. Fractal slowly approached the earth pony, but the earth pony spoke before he was even close enough to be heard walking. "I suppose I'm not the only one who enjoys getting away from the crowd." He said. Fractal managed a smile. "Sometimes I just feel like I do things completely different from most ponies." Fractal responded. "I like to get away and relax, and enjoy the time I have."

The yellow pony turned around. He was considerably older, probably in his 30's or 40's. He looked strong, and full of life. He was completely unharmed, not even black from smoke. Then Fractal noticed the scar across his face, and his eye's went wide. "You... you're that pony I saw in my dream!" Fractal said quickly. The yellow pony smiled. "Finally putting the pieces of the puzzle together?" He responded. "Yes, I was there. In fact I have been following your trials for quite some time. Your surviving the Wolves and the storm, your conflict with Invictus, and now your thoughts as you worry about the future." He continued.

Fractal stared in shock as the earth pony named the events that happened in the last day. "But... but how, and why?" Fractal stuttered. "Listen Fractal, there is so much you don't know. So much you need to discover. This world holds so many secrets and lies, you can't begin to comprehend them." The yellow pony went on. Fractal was incredibly confused now. "What do you mean, why are you telling me all this?" Fractal asked. The bright coloured pony walked towards Fractal now. "That's just it isn't it? You can't figure it out on your own, you're some one who prefers to do things instead of think about them."

Fractal began to feel nervous now as the earth pony continued to move towards him. "You need some one else to help you understand things. Some one with a great understanding of this world we live in, who can show you how the pieces in the puzzle fit." Fractal stopped moving back, and began thinking about this. "When you are building a puzzle, there are always pieces that look like they fit, but when you try to get them together, it never works. You can't force it to work by getting angry at it. The world is like a chess board Fractal, if you don't look at all the possible outcomes, you will never find the safe path."

The earth pony stopped approaching. They were only a yard apart now. The yellow pony looked at Fractal with an unreadable expression. Thinking hard, Fractal thought of all the events that had taken place since the dream. Racing with Thunder Specter, beign chased by the wolves, crashing into the forest, waking up to find Intredus... Chess board... Intredus's cutie mark was a chess piece! "That's it isn't it. I need to work with Intredus to figure out how the pieces of the puzzle fit correctly. The puzzle pieces are everything that has happened so far, and he can help me find out why they happened?"

The yellow pony smiled at this. "Now you've got it. However it isn't just Intredus. All six of you must learn how the pieces fit." He said to Fractal as he turned around and began to walk away. "Wait... six? There's only five of us. You meant five right?" The yellow pony kept walking. "I meant what I said. Put the pieces together and solve this mystery for yourself. Good luck." He called over his shoulder, and then he disapeared into the rain.

Fractal stared after where the yellow pony had gone in confusion for a moment. Suddenly a rock came skipping across the ground towards Fractal, and stopped right before his feet. He looked at the rock, catching the reference to his dream, and looked back up.

Still so many unanswered questions... Fractal thought. But now, Fractal had an idea of what to do next. There was no way Fractal would run from the storm forever. He wanted to figure it out, but he couldn't do that on his own. There was only one person to go to in that case.

"Fractal? What are you doing out here?" Almost on cue, Intredus came walking in from the left through the thick rain. "Just getting away from the crowd." He replied. "Hey Intredus, what does your cutie mark represent as your talent?" Fractal then asked. Intredus looked a little surprised by the random question. "Well, when I first got it, we thought it represented that I was good at chess. We discovered later that, since chess is a game of strategy, that it represents strategy." Intredus explained.

I hoped he would say something like that. Fractal said to himself. "Are you curious as to how this storm works?" Fractal then questioned Intredus. Intredus looked a little suspicious as to why Fractal was suddenly asking so many strange questions. "Yes, yes I am. Why do you ask?"

Krious’s ears folded back and his eyes strained to see the two distance figures making their way through the powerful storm towards him. The rain came down hard on the dark purple unicorn, as he stood atop the large oak tree. The branches bent and swayed as the wind blew through the leaves, threatening to snap at any moment.

“Here they come Krious! Look at them; they are struggling to make it through the storm! Didn’t I tell you? I knew you could hold even them back!” The voice said to Krious in his head. Krious saw now, one figure was white, and the other was difficult to make out against the black clouds. They both had wings, far too large for a Pegasus, so it had to be them.

“Alright Krious, on my signal, unleash all your strength into the storm! Don’t hold back! The only way they will seal your magic is if absolutely necessary. If you make a strong enough storm, they will have no choice!” The voice assured him. Krious nodded his head in determination. This was it. This was the moment of truth.

The two princesses became more and more clear as they approached, until he could almost make your their faces.

Suddenly the voice yelled in his head. “Now Krious, now!”

Krious braced himself against the trunk of the tall tree. Taking a step back with one leg, Krious clenched his teeth. Pure energy coursed through his body as he prepared to super charge the lethal storm above him. The all too familiar memories of his past shot through his mind, the death of his family by his own magic, the ignorance of the village, and the thought of never worrying about it ever again. Krious’s eyes burst open, glowing blue with power. Krious yelled at the top of his lungs as all the energy burst from his horn into the blackened sky as a blue beam.

The storm exploded into life as the blue beacon struck the clouds. The wind blew harder and stronger than ever, sending weak trees crashing to the ground. The tree Krious was standing on bent and swayed as the wind blew.

Krious struggled as all the energy left his body. He could taste blood in his mouth from clenching his teeth so hard. His legs started shaking, ready to give out on him, but he continued anyways. His mind was screaming to stop, but he ignored it, knowing full well what would happen if he stopped now.

The beacon continued to channel energy into the storm. Lightning struck all around Krious in a frenzy, and began targeting the princesses. Krious watched through squinting eyes as he saw the two alicorns weaving through the sky, trying to avoid the lightning coming from all directions. Krious could barely make out their faces, determined and prepared, maybe even desperate.

Krious suddenly saw how much danger they could be in. If I’m even more powerful then them, what if they get hit? “Voice! This isn’t safe! What if I hurt them?” Krious cried through all the energy he was using. “Don’t worry, it’s all part of the plan! You won’t hit them at all! They are smart enough to avoid harm! It’s only the illusion of extreme peril! If they think they are in true danger, they will come to you first!” The voice explained quickly. “Don’t worry about that, focus on the storm!” Krious accepted the explanation and focused on the storm again like the voice said.

“Yes... It won’t be long now...” The voice said quietly in his head.

Chapter 5 - The Unseen Slave

“How could a simple earth pony know so much, and even enter your dreams?” Intredus asked. Fractal had just finished explaining about the strange yellow pony with the scar on his face. It just didn’t make sense, entering some one's dreams. That should only be possible for somepony with a very high knowledge of magic.

Fractal just shook his head. "I have no idea, but he did. He obviously wants us to find out about this storm." He answered. Intredus sighed with frustration, but kept his cool. "How are we supposed to figure this out? It could be anypony doing this." Intredus said. "But you said it yourself, only a powerful being or creature could possibly do this, narrowing it down by quite a bit." Fractal offered. Intredus remembered this and began thinking.

If it could only be something powerful it certainly did narrow it down, but there were still many powerful ponies out there. "You mentioned the puzzle pieces were the events of the day, where did you get that?" Intredus asked Fractal. He thought about this for a moment, and paused. He seemed to be struggling to come up with an answer. "I... I don't know, I just did I guess. I have no idea where it came from."

Intredus decided to give up on it until later. "Come on, let's go back to join the others. We'll tell them about this and figure it out, together." He then said.

The unicorn and pegasus then began walking back to where the others were gathered through the rain. The storm was still approaching, it hadn't slowed down at all.

When they got back, the others were already awake. "Hey, where'd you two run off to?" Thunder Specter asked as Intredus and Fractal arrived. "Just getting some fresh air." Fractal responded. "What, you mean you didn't get enough in the last twenty four hours?" Thunder replied. Intredus nudged Fractal in the ribs. "Oh right, I need to tell you all about something." Fractal then said.

Fractal explained about his encounter with the yellow earth pony and the dream he had earlier. Invictus glared at him, but Fire Surge and Thunder Specter seemed understanding. "So that's why you woke up yelling like that." He said. Thunder Specter smiled. "Well i'll be. A pony who can enter dreams. Now not even our subconscious is safe from prying eyes!" Thunder laughed.

Invictus stood up. "You honestly are just going to believe a crazy story like that?" She asked the two friends. "Well of course we are. We're his friends, why wouldn't we?" Fire Surge responded. "We've known Fractal since we were fillies. He wouldn't lie about something like this, especially considering the circumstances." Thunder also explained.

"If it was your brother, would you believe him?" Fire Surge then asked. Invictus looked taken aback by this. Intredus smiled faintly as his sister saw the amount of trust Fractal's friends had in him. "He may be an crazy thrill seeker, but he ain't stupid." Thunder defended his friend.

"So we all understand then." Fractal said with a trace of a smile. "We need to work together to learn who or what is behind all this." Fractal said what everyone had figured out by now. Fractal then turned to Invictus. "Invictus, I know how much you hate me, but please. We have to all work together for this to happen." Fractal told her. Invictus looked at him, then at his friends, and then to Intredus. Finally she turned back to Fractal and sighed. "Fine, but only until we figure this out." She said.

Suddenly the winds seemed to slow down a little, and the rain became lighter. The thunder and lightning struck less often and the storms advancement seemed to hesitate. The five ponies barely noticed though, and got straight to work figuring out what was the cause of the storm.

"Alright, so we all know the answer lies in the puzzle pieces, which would be the important events of the last day." Fractal began. "So everything that happened in the last twenty four hours is related to another event in some way, so the pieces fit together." Intredus continued. "So basically what you're saying is the events all create a single picture? Like, that will give us the answer?" Fire Surge asked. Intredus smiled. "Exactly. All we have to do is find out how that works."

Invictus cut in. "But how can we find that? It sounds like we are trying to find where the events match up, but where do we go from there?" They all paused and thought about that. Intredus sighed as he realized how difficult that would be. Suddenly Thunder Specter spoke up. "Well, what if it's just a similarity between each event?" He offered.

Intredus stared at Thunder. "No... that can't be it. It's too easy to figure out." He said to the group. "Ah, but what if that's the point? It's so simple most people looking for the source wouldn't expect it! But really, the complication lies in the possibilities!" Thunder explained. Intredus's eyes opened wide at this. "That's excellent! When you look at it, the different possibilities between the events are very broad, so it would still be an effective hiding place!" Intredus concluded.

"Great! So what was similar between all the events that happened?" Fractal questioned. The ponies paused and thought about this for a moment. "Danger?" Fire Surge suggested. Intredus nodded. "Could be, but I wasn't really in danger during the chess match I had before." Intredus said. Fire Surge looked disappointed. "Unpredictable?" Thunder Specter added. Invictus shook her head. "We were planning to go to our mothers grave and the forest ahead of time. That was more then predictable." She said. Thunder sighed in annoyance as his idea didn't work either.

Finally Fractal said something. "Well, what about chaotic?" Intredus looked up to the sky as he thought. "During the chess game I was really struggling with myself over what to do, not to mention I got a chess piece thrown at me." Intredus agreed. "During the walk to out mothers grave I couldn't stop thinking about everything happening, and that had already happened." Invictus said. "Pretty much the rest of the day was chaos from there so..." Thunder Specter began. Fractal smiled. "We've got our similarity then!" He said happily. "Yeah, but what does it mean?" Fire Surge asked confused. Silence fell upon the group again as they thought.

Intredus decided to go through different things he associated with chaos to see if the answer would be there. Disorienting, out of control, destruction, rubble, corruption, everything happening at once, argument and debate, disconnected, discor- Suddenly it hit Intredus like a kick to the jaw. He remembered reading about the stories in the library of a creature called Discord, that took great pleasure in creating chaos. He ruled before Celestia and Luna, meaning he was immortal. He was sealed away in stone twice, but has always been destined to break free again some time.

"I've got it!" He called out. Everypony jumped at his sudden outburst. "It's Discord! A creature from long ago! He enjoys causing chaos and has extreme magical power." Intredus explained as quickly as he could. "He's supposed to be sealed up in stone as a statue at the museum." He finished. Fractal stood up quickly. "Let's go to the museum and see if his statue is there!" He suggested.

Intredus nodded. “Sounds like a plan. We need to find out if we are correct or not about our half-guess.” He said. Thunder Specter shrugged. "Well, considering no normal unicorn could do something like this it must be a creature more powerful, like and alicorn or other... thing." He said. "What else could it be?" He concluded. "Exactly, but it's still only a guess. Let's hurry before the storms beats us to it." Intredus went ahead.

So with that, they began to make their way to the museums garden. It seemed to be farther from the storm, so it was still safe there. The thuner rolled off in the distance, as it slowly made it's way to Ponyville's little camp.

While they were walking, Fire Surge walked up to Intredus. "Excuse me, may I ask how old you are?" He questioned. Intredus smiled faintly. "Well, I'm eighteen. Why do you ask?" Fire Surge looked a little shocked. "Really? I thought you were older. You act like your well into your twenties." Surge commented.

Intredus smiled then. "Well, one can be imature in age, but mature in mind. Age doesn't always determine who you are." Intredus explained. Fire Surge nodded at this. "I'm often mistaken for somepony who wouldn't last long on my own because i'm small." Surge said. "Why? How old are you?" Intredus asked. "Well I'm fifteen, but I'm turning sixteen within the next month." He explained.

Intredus decided that maybe this would be a good chance to get to know about Fractal and his friends. After all if they were going to work together, they needed to understand one another. "So you're the youngest of your friends then?" Intredus continued. Surge nodded his head. "Yes, I am. Fractal and Thunder Specter may be older then me by about a year or two, but they know how I feel more then most ponies." Surge revealed.

Intredus cocked his head. "Why is that?" He asked. "I think it's because they've been through similar things I have, such as getting mistreated at school. Since Thunder is more of a class clown, he's kind of made fun of frequently. He handles it well though." Surge said. "Fractal's more known for his risky personality. You should have seen the time he took a shortcut through the village during a race. He almost got himself in the hospital for going through a narrow shoppers alley!"

Intredus rolled his eyes. "That's not very smart or safe." He responded. "Fractal knows what he's doing, he's a skilled flyer. He is on the weather team after all. Also, he likes things when they aren't safe. He says he gets this amazing feeling that gives him energy." Surge explained.

Intredus was glad to get some proper conversation in, instead of all this serious talk about the storm and despair about figuring it out and surviving. Sure and Thunder both were good at keeping the mood high, with Thunder's humor, and Surge's curious, and positive shy nature. An unusual combination, but it seemed to work well.

Eventually they arrived at the museum's garden. It was filled with statues and hedges. Many of the hedges were missing large numbers of leaves. It looked like most of the flowers were gone from one area that must have been a type of garden art.

"This must be the museum. Looks like it's taken a hard hit from all the wind." Fractal said. "Well unless these are incredibly light statues, let's assume they're all still here." Thunder Specter followed up.

The group began to make their way to the middle of the garden, which is where the statue of Discord was supposed to be.

Invictus finally spoke up after a long time of silence. "Who is this Discord guy supposed to be anyways? Why was he sealed in the first place?" She asked her brother. Intredus decided the only thing to do was explain the story.

"Well, a very long time ago Discord ruled Equestria. He came before Celestia and Luna now. He was a very bad ruler though. He took great pleasure in causing chaos and making life difficult for everypony. Eventually Celestia and Luna came along and defeated him with these things called the elements of harmony. When they did so, he was turned to stone and put here." Intredus told the group.

"However a good thousand years later, he somehow broke free. At that time Celestia and Luna no longer had the elements of harmony. There were six other ponies, which are still remembered today that sealed him that time. They managed to pull themselves together against Discord's will and effort, and stop him again. I'm not sure how he got out that time to be honest."

The sky lit up as lightning struck nearby. The storm was catching up, and fast. They had to find that statue and get out of their quickly.

"Discord is apparently very deceptive and cunning, and has powers that could make your head swirl quite literally. Trust me from what I've read he was not a fun person to have around." Intredus finished. Everypony seemed perplexed by the story.

"What is he exactly? A pony or what?" Thunder Specter asked. "Well according to the book he's something called a Draconeques or something of the sort. Some freaky combination of multiple monsters and animals." Intredus explained as best he could.

Then they found it. At the very center of the museum was a statue of a strange creature in shock looking terrified of something. It was just as the book described, many different monsters and creatures thrown into one. It was quite a sight.

"Well, he's still here..." Fractal said, sounding rather disapointed. Intredus sighed. "Well there goes the best possible answer I could think of." He said to the group. "Looks like we're out of luck."

The storm was nearly overhead now. It wouldn't be long now until it was directly above them. The wind was picking up, and so was the rain.

"Dang it... I thought we had finally figured it out." Thunder Specter said. "Do you really think that's all there is?" A voice said nearby. Everypony turned around at once.

There he was. The yellow pony Fractal had described earlier. The earth pony had a slight grin on his face, but his eyes were cool and calm. "Are you really going to stop there? Surely you want to know more about this nonsense." He said to them. "Well we aren't exactly in a position to gather all the evidence." Intredus said. "We are lacking some information about this creature to actually know anything for certain."

The yellow pony smiled. "Once again you're at a stand still. You know how puzzles work right?" Fractal sighed. "The guys obsessed with the things..." He whispered to Intredus. "I'll assume you do. You see, you can never see the full picture when you are missing pieces, can you? If even a single piece is missing you can't get a full idea, let alone if you are missing multiple pieces." The yellow pony went on. Intredus stared at the pony trying to read his face, but couldn't figure anything out. He hid his face well.

"Flimsy things puzzles. They are so easy to destroy and fall apart even after how hard they are to put together. I think you will find the most important pieces to this puzzle are missing. The ones that glow the brightest, and shine out seperate from the rest." The yellow pony kept speaking in metaphors, obviously trying to tell them something indirectly.

Intredus kept trying to think things through, but other responses distracted him. "What do you mean by shine brightly? Are they obvious and we are just missing them or are you being literal?" Invictus asked the strange pony.

"Well you'll find out won't you? Listen carefully for a voice on the wind. Your answer will come soon. Those missing pieces won't just appear. You have to look for them." The earth pony began to walk away again. "Hold on, just give us a straight answer if it's so important!" Fractal called after him.

"Oh well I can't do that." The earth pony said. He looked over his should with a cool grin on his face. "That would be breaking the rules." And with that he disapeared again.

"Oh for crying out loud..." Fractal muttered. Intredus began thinking again. Rules? What rules is he talking about? Puzzle rules? Intredus thought. Things were becoming ridiculously complicated and difficult to connect with.

Suddenly thunder booms overhead. The storm had arrived, and had begun to strike nearby tree's and buildings. "We need to get out of here..." Fire Surge said nervously. They all looked around them and above them as the storms effect started to take place. Leaves began blowing around and the rain began coming down in a torrential wave. The lightning struck the museum building with a loud crack.

"We'll never figure this out if this storm keeps moving!" Invictus yelled over the wind and rain. "We should return to the camp. It's still safe there for the time and we can think a little more." Intredus suggested. He was about to say more, but he heard something. "Wait, hold on listen..." He called to everypony before they took off.

Intredus strained his ears and listened carefully. A voice suddenly reached him, that sounded like it was in extreme pain. "What is tha-" Thunder started to say.

Right then a massive bright blue beam launched into the storm from the forest. Lightning and electricity struck all around it as the beam quivered with energy. The voice continued and sounded like it was going higher as it struggled, almost like an echo.

The sound of a massive thunder crack caught up to the five ponies in the musseum and shook the ground beneath their feet. Pebbles and rocks on the ground jittered as the sound traveled through the area. It wasn't a normal thunder crack though, it continued rolling on as the beam remained in the sky.

"Intredus what's going on?" Fractal called over the noise. "I have no idea!" Intredus responded. "Let's get out of here!" Invictus said urgently. The ponies all agreed without speaking and began to run away, but suddenly a bright blue lightning bolt struck the Discord statue spot on.

The lightning bolt seemed to freeze there for a few seconds, and the statue shook with energy. A maniacal, evil voice came from it that seemed to be half laughing, half straining. The statue began to crack and light streamed from those cracks as the expanded.

Finally the statue exploded into rubble and a cloud of dust and dirt filled the area. The lightning bolt disapeared and the ground stopped shaking. It wasn't long before the wind blew all the dust away to reveal the terrifying creature standing in the crater the statue once stood. Just before it came into full focus, it leaped into the sky and flew around laughing.

"Ahahaha! At last! I knew you could do it my friend!" It said "Thank you for your help I must say, you did quite a fine job!" The creature seemed to be talking to himself. "Now Equestria shall know the power and reach of Discord! Let chaos reign again!" It said outloud for the world to hear.

The freak of nature laughed once more and took off into the night sky, leaving the five ponies behind like he had never noticed them.

Intredus stared in shock at what he had just seen.

Discord had escaped his prison again, and he had everyone completely fooled.

Krious heard the explosion all the way in the forest. He almost turned to look at it, then he heard the voice again. “Ahahaha! At last! I knew you could do it my friend!" It said. “Thank you for your help I must say, you did quite a fine job!” It continued. “What? What’s going on?” Krious said through clenched teeth.

The clouds above seemed to swell and spin over Krious’s head. The beam Krious was using suddenly disappeared and Krious stopped expelling his energy. Panting and heaving, Krious leaned against the tree as he watched the storm strike at the princesses.

“Voice... What are you talking about...?” Krious managed. “Oh Krious, there is no need to call me ‘voice’ anymore. I am far more then a simple voice!” Krious was about to ask why, but suddenly something appeared in front of him.

Discord picked Krious up and held him out towards Ponyville. “You see that Krious, your storm did all that.” Krious took it all in. He stared in shock as he saw all of Ponyville burning. Roofs on houses were blown off by the wind, trees and buildings were lit aflame by the lightning.

And Krious had done all of it. “Do you realize now Krious. You have been preparing my escape for three years. Since the day your killed your own family, I’ve taken interest in you, and I was right.” Discord said in mock reassurance. “You were the only one that could possibly free me, and you did it.”

Krious's energy was exhausted and he couldn't do anything. "You mean... this whole time, you've been using me... and I never even noticed..." Krious said quietly. "Yes, this entire time you have been my slave. None of what you see would be possible without you." Discord said.

"Of course, my power was enforce by two other ponies." Discord then said. "When the two are together, they generate a very large amount of chaos, but you still provided me with my escape." He finished.

Discord put the quivering unicorn down and flew up into the sky. "Now stand and watch, as all of Equestria enters chaos before your very eyes!" Discord said as lightning surged around him.

"No!" A female voice yelled. Suddenly Discord was hit by a blast of yellow light. At first he seemed caught off guard as he went flying backwards, but then he recovered and stared at the place the light came from. Krious looked that way too, and saw the two Alicorns. "You do not belong here Discord. Your time is not here yet! Go back to your prison now!" The white one said.

Discord laughed. "You honestly think i'll just return peacefully to my confinement after five years of planning? My power is stronger than ever, and not even you two can stop it!" He said to them confidently. "Ah, but there is one thing, or things that can... I'm sure you are well aware of it. The Elements of Harmony. May I ask, who are the bearers of the Elements in this time period?" Discord questioned.

The two sisters paused, and looked at each other for a moment. "Ha! There are no bearers this time are there?" Discord jeered. "We may not have the Elements, but we will still fight to defend Equestria and take you down!" The princess responded.

“So noble! You haven’t changed at all over these last 150 years my dear. Although I must admit, age finally seems to be catching up with you a little...” Discord teased. With that, another yellow blast of magic shot Discord’s way. He quickly disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared only inches away from where he was before.

Discord laughed at Celestia’s attempt to strike him. “You just don’t understand do you? A simple strike means nothing if I can see it coming!” Discord said. Suddenly the overhead clouds began to change colour. They went from black, to a deep magenta colour. “Ah, a much better backdrop for a battle of rulers!” Discord seemed to be treating the battle like a playful strife, with complete confidence in himself.

Meanwhile Krious watched as the three powerful beings battled. The lightning continued to strike in unpredictable waves, and the wind blew strong making it difficult for the Alicorns to fly. Discord kept teleporting out of range of their attacks every time they tried to hit him with something.

“How did you escape so swiftly Discord? The previous Elements of Harmony should have kept you sealed for one thousand years!” Luna called to him. “Ha! It was not I who made the escape possible! I have to thank my dear friend Krious for everything! Without his incredible power I would never have gotten free!” Discord explained pointing a clawed finger towards Krious leaning against the tree.

The two princesses looked at him for a moment, at first with shock, and then with a strange look of understanding. But it only lasted a moment, before they turned back to Discord as he began fighting back himself.

“I have controlled this storm before I even escaped! My power has always had a way of getting out in small amount, but Krious here gave me more then I could possibly ask for! Let me show you just what I mean!” Discord told the two.

Discord raised his mismatched hands into the air. The lightning around them became stronger as he controlled the storm. The wind blew harder and toppled trees in the forest to the ground. The lightning immediately targeted the princesses, and attempted to strike them. Discord laughed as he watched them flail about desperately in the wind.

This is all my fault... I was the one who caused all this... Krious thought to himself. Krious could feel his consciousness slipping away. Suddenly he snapped awake as he heard a cry of pain. He looked and saw Luna begin to fall to the ground unconscious. “No...” Krious said. “No!” Celestia seemed to echo him in a much louder voice.

Celestia flew around behind Discord and blasted him with a massive yellow light, almost completely engulfing Discord. “Ugh, you’re really starting to annoy me!” Discord said as he forced the light away.

Right then a lightning bolt struck Celestia perfectly. She froze in the air for a moment as the lightning electrocuted her, and then she began to fall to the ground as well. Krious stared in shock as she fell into the forest.

Suddenly Discord burst into laughter. “Haha! You thought you had me didn’t you? Well I’m afraid not!” He cackled.

Krious could feel his magical energy beginning to build up, but then Discord said something. “Oh that’s right, my seal on you is still there. I don’t need to waste my own energy on that now that I’m done with you.” Discord said. He suddenly appeared in front of Krious and said, “Think about what you’ve done now, long and hard.” He then touched Krious’s forehead and disappeared.

Krious yelped as a wave of pain went through his body. He could feel his magical energy attempting to break free. He tried to control it, but to no avail. Discord’s control over him was gone.

Krious’s magic burst from him in a massive blue fireball. The tree he was standing on was obliterated and Krious went plummeting to the ground surrounded by the blue flame.

The last thing Krious saw before he hit the ground was the blue light around him, and Discord floating high in the sky above him, with a grin on his face.

Fractal stared at the crater generated by Discords escape. He couldn’t understand how it all worked. If only that yellow pony wasn’t so cryptic! They couldn’t figure it out in time.

“Well we can’t just stay here! We have to do something about all this!” Invictus was yelling to the others. “There isn’t much we can do now. This is up to the Celestia and Luna.” Intredus was saying. Fractal heard Invictus sigh with annoyance. “I’m not about to stand by and watch! We came this far, we almost had it figured out!” She responded to her brother.

Fractal turned around to join the group. “I agree with Invictus. We should go and try to do what we can. If we did this well surely we can learn more!” Thunder Specter said to the group. “Well, I don’t know it sounds really dangerous... I mean, with what’s already happened the storm has only gotten worse!” Fire Surge put his opinion in nervously.

“So just great, we’ve got an even split.” Intredus said. Intredus turned to Fractal. “It’s your decision now Fractal.” Fire Surge got a worried look on his face. “But, he’s a dare devil of course he’s going to want to go out there...” He explained.

Fractal hesitated. “Well, I don’t know, it’s kind of a tough choice after what has happened so far...” Fractal started to say. He was interrupted when the clouds above them suddenly changed into a deep magenta colour. “Um... That can’t possibly be good.” Thunder Specter stated the obvious.

There was a flash of yellow light in the sky, and the five ponies turned their heads towards the Everfree Forest. There was a white figure and a deep blue figure way out over the forest, and another brown figure nearby, that looked like that Discord creature.

“Come on, let’s go check it out!” Thunder Specter said to the group. Without waiting for an answer he began running towards the forest. Invictus followed first, then Intredus. Fire Surge and Fractal looked at each other for a moment, then Fractal took off after them.

They ran through the muddy and soaked remains of the village towards the forest, and watched as the three figures battled in the sky. The white figure kept using flashes of light and flew around frantically, avoiding the lightning bolts that seemed to be aiming for it.

Finally they all got close enough and saw just what was happening. The two princesses, Luna and Celestia were facing off with Discord. Unfortunately the battle wasn’t in their favor. Discord’s lightning was everywhere, and the alicorns were struggling to avoid them.

Before anyone could say anything though, they saw Luna get struck by a lightning bolt. Fire Surge gasped as she fell to the ground. “No way...!” Thunder Specter said to himself.

Celestia was not impressed with this, and came up from behind Discord and hit him point blank with a massive blast of light from her horn. At first it looked like she had finally gotten him, but then Discord easily came out of the light. There was a brief moment of confusion as he came out unharmed.

In that moment of confusion, a lightning bolt struck Celestia, sending her to the ground. “No! It can’t be!” Intredus said, who seemed to be actually losing his cool for once. The five stared in shock, almost speechless as they watched her disappear into the forest.

Without thinking Fractal took off into the forest. “Fractal! Get back here!” He heard Intredus call after him. Fractal ignored him and kept running towards where he had seen Celestia fall.

As Fractal should have expected, the forest started attacking him. Tree’s blew down to stop him, but Fractal leaped into the air and flew over them.

It felt good to fly again after such a long time. Well, long for him. Since the trees provided excellent cover against the wind, he was able to fly without much resistance. Unfortunately that wasn’t the only thing fighting against him. Branches came up out of nowhere, trees came down on top of him, vines attempted to ensnare him. Fractal just kept going. He had to get there, and fast.

He stopped after a little while. He was standing beneath and abnormally tall and large oak tree. It was just like the one he had seen earlier near where the battle was happening, but where was Celestia?

“Fractal!” A short moment later, Fractal heard some one call him. He turned to look and saw the other four which he realized he had kind of left in the dust behind him.

“Fractal what were you thinking?” Thunder Specter asked him. “Well... I guess I just wasn’t. Instinct you know.” Fractal said through some panting and heaving. Thunder specter snorted. “Your instinct almost got you killed about twenty times in the last 24 hours.” Thunder pointed out.

Fractal didn’t really care by this point.

Fractal looked up as the large oak shook. He saw there was a pony standing up on the tree leaning against the trunk. It looked like a unicorn. Suddenly the Discord creature appeared in front of the pony. He said something too quiet to hear, and touched the dark purple unicorns forehead. Then Discord disappeared, leaving everypony standing there looking up in confusion.

At first it looked like it had done nothing, then Fractal saw the purple unicorn start struggling. He looked like he was in pain, then he opened his eyes. His eyes were glowing blue, and his horn was surrounded by what looked like a magical flame.

Out of nowhere, blue flames burst up around the unicorn above them. “Get out of here, get out! Something huge is going to happen!” Intredus yelled to everypony. They all immediately took off away from the pony.

Then it happened. Fractal suddenly felt a wave of heat come over him, and he looked back to see a massive fireball expand and engulf the tree, and the unicorn. The fireball came crashing down to the ground, destroying anything and everything in it’s path.

Fractal spotted a ditch up ahead. “Everypony, jump in the ditch, quickly!” No one protested and they all dived into the ditch. Moments after they made it into the ditch, a blue shock wave launched over head, bringing many trees to the ground.

Dirt and little rocks and leaves fell on top of them while they all hid in the ditch as the magic exploded through the forest.

After a very long pause, Fractal slowly looked up from the ditch. The area towards where the tree had been was nothing but a massive crater. There were no tree’s within a twenty meter radius of where the fireball had struck.

“It’s safe, let’s get up out of here.” Fractal said. Well as safe as it can get... Fractal thought to himself.

The five ponies pulled themselves up out of the ditch and had a look at their surroundings. “All this... By a simple Unicorn?” Fire Surge managed to say. Intredus shook his head. “This was no simple unicorn...” He responded to Fire Surge’s bewilderment.

Fractal stepped into the crater and walked towards the middle. The crater was still warm and in some spots steaming. Little blue flames were spread out everywhere, so Fractal was careful to avoid them.

When he reached the middle, the small purple unicorn was still there lying limp. There was a small trickle of blood coming out of his mouth, but other then that he was completely unharmed. Of course, he was filthy dirty, but nothing else.

Fractal looked at the strange pony in confusion. How could he be completely unharmed after all that?

“Who is this pony?” Invictus asked. “I have no idea... Where did he come from?” Surge asked. Of course, no one knew the answers.

“Whoever he is or was, he did something that completely desolated this forest. How could he be so powerful is what I’m wondering.” Intredus said. Thunder Specter walked up to the pitiful creature in the middle of the crater. “Is he still alive?” He wondered.

Invictus walked over and put her ear to the dark purple unicorns chest. She paused for a moment, then stood up and sighed. “He’s alive. I could hear his heart.” Invictus told the group. “Well, what do we do now? We aren’t going to just leave him here.” Fire surge said.

Intredus shook his head. “Certainly not. There’s a lot of questions I have for him, such as how he ended up in this situation.” Intredus explained.

The five dragged the poor unicorn from the crater that would have served as his grave if they weren’t there, and lay him down on the grass. Fire Surge grabbed some moss and slipped it under his head as a pillow. He seemed to like making moss pillows.

“There, hopefully when he wakes up he’ll be able to explain some things and maybe we can help him more.” Fire Surge said. Invictus nodded. “But he doesn’t seem to have any injuries. I’m not entirely sure where that blood on his lip came from, but he has no injuries we can see.” Invictus reasoned.

“But, what about Celestia and Luna? What happened to them?” Thunder Specter asked. Fractal was wondering the same thing. “Well, we could probably go and find them, they must be around here somewhere.” Intredus said. “I’d like to return the favor they did me somehow. They are also the only ones who can stop this Discord creature.” Invictus suggested.

“Okay, Fire Surge, you and Thunder Specter stay here, while me, Invictus and Fractal go look for the princesses.” Intredus told Fire Surge. Fire Surge nodded and turned his attention back to the dark pony on the ground.

Just before Fractal, Intredus and Invictus left though, there was a loud crack of thunder and a creaking sound. A booming voice said, “Can’t let you do that now!” Suddenly a tree came crashing down towards all of them.

Fractal braced himself for impact, but then he saw a quick flash of orange light and he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he found himself somewhere else in the forest. The was a large mountain-like structure over to his left, and saw a large cave. When Fractal looked around him, he saw the other ponies as well, all confused. Except Intredus, who looked tired.

“Wha... What just happened?” Fractal asked. Intredus panted. “I just teleported us out of there on short notice. You wouldn’t believe how difficult that was so quickly and with so many ponies...” Intredus explained.