Fractured Spirits

“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.