Radio Station Dilemmas

Chapter 7

“Discord,” Rainbow Dash and Applejack snorted at same time as Discord appeared into the canteen area with his smart black tuxedo suit and a red tie on.

“What’s going on here then?” Discord through a slight chuckle.

“I have just felt the strong presence and essence of magic,” Discord looked around the room and saw Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Spike were fully coloured and noticed Twilight and Rarity still had some grey patches of fur in places.

“Boss, there’s been some disorder and I was trying to sort it out,” Twilight stated slowly with uncertainty and Azura noticed her face looked unsure and puzzled.

“I see, thank you for telling me, Twilight,” Discord patted Twilight on her head with his lion paw.

“Call every pony into my office and we’ll try and sort this out through a disciplinary rather than through harsh and rash actions,” Discord commented and darted his eyes around the room as he was trying to be aware of every pony’s position.

“Discord, for what you’ve done, you should be ashamed of yourself,” Fluttershy spoke up with volume and glared toward Discord.

“Yeah, you’ve been trying to control us all with some type of spell,” Azura decided to speak up with her  as she could still remember Discord planting his talons onto Rarity’s head and afterwards she had turned into a grey anti-social pony. Azura decided she would look more supportive if she stood next to Fluttershy and trotted over, while Discord seemed fazed by her accusation.

“Azura, Fluttershy, you heard the boss,” Twilight commented with greater uncertainty and Azura noticed the more Twilight seemed to side with Discord, the greater the speed of the returning grey patches of fur developed at. Though when, she reached Fluttershy and stood beside her, she saw Fluttershy exchanged a small glad smile toward her.

“Twilight, take a look at ya’ self,” Applejack said and pulled a mirror out of nowhere and threw at Twilight and Twilight instantly casted a spell at it to keep it from hitting the floor and gave herself a look.

Discord flinched as he seemed afraid that Twilight would recognise there was something wrong with her reflection.

Azura saw Twilight gasp in horror and the spell around the mirror faded and the mirror shattered upon impact with the floor, but one of its larger fragments happened to land in front of Rarity.

“Why am I so grey?” Twilight shuddered in fear.

“Yeah me too,” Rarity gasped in disbelief and in shock she had grey patches of fur on her body.

“Enough!” Discord growled, “I worked too hard for too long to set up this game.”

“Wait, game!? Are ya’ saying we’re not even working for a real radio station?” Applejack asked.

Azura flinched in fear as Discord scowled intensely and seemed cheesed off.

“Wait, does that mean you were never going to give me a gem?” Rarity yelled with ferocity.

Discord angrily snapped a giant boulder in front of Rarity and Azura was surprised to see Rarity gallop up toward it and hug intensely as if she thought the boulder was her gem and reward.

“Rarity, you’re aware that’s no gem, right?” Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrows and gave Rarity an inquisitive look.

“Discord! Just what are you up to?” Applejack hollered in the meantime as Azura saw her shot Discord an intense glare.

“You’ll see,” Discord answered with an ugly, unhappy scowl and then snapped his talons and disappeared.

  “Quick, follow me,” Fluttershy called into Azura’s ears as she took off and flew toward Applejack as she seemed to suspect something was about to happen to her. Azura quickly nodded and followed after her and then Discord reappeared behind Applejack.

Azura saw Discord place his talons on Applejack’s Stetson hat and remembered what he had done to Rarity before and didn’t want Applejack to turn back into a grey and anti-social pony again.

“Discord, stop! Why are you doing this?” Azura asked as she tried to close the distance as fast as she could with a small amount of tears forming in her eyes. Her question managed to distract Discord to looking toward her.

  “Discord, I thought you were our friend and you had even accepted reformation, so this stop this or I will be forced to tackle you!” Fluttershy threatened angrily.

Discord turned his attention and Applejack bucked his body and forced him back, then Twilight shot a spell at Applejack and kept her in place. Azura had time enough to see Twilight appeared most unsure whether keeping Applejack in place with her magic was what she needed or wanted to do and her magic aura around Applejack didn’t look particularly strong as she rushed over to stop Discord from putting his talons onto Applejack’s head.

“Fluttershy, you wouldn’t tackle me, it’s me,” Discord focused his attention at Fluttershy and frowned at her.

Then, Azura heard a crashing sound and couldn’t help turning her attention and saw Rainbow had tackled herself into Twilight and when she looked forward again, the spell around Applejack was broken.

“Put everything back the way it should be and I won’t have too,” Fluttershy ordered Discord and bravely puffed her chest out toward him.

“And leave Applejack alone,” Azura decided to bravely contribute and stopped and puffed her own chest out as she didn’t want to lose Applejack as a friend.

Azura noticed Discord’s attention was on Fluttershy’s eyes and he frowned glumly and seemed to be considering doing as she had ordered. Azura decided this was a good time to get Applejack away from danger and though it was perhaps a bit abrupt, she rushed up to her and pushed her away from Discord just in case Discord would try and control her again.

“Wait!” Rarity called out.

“Rainbow Dash is right, this isn’t the gem I was promised!” Rarity yelled as she realised she was kissing a rock and spat out tiny pieces of rock dust.

“Have you all forgotten that each of you has a signed contract obligating you all to this radio station?” Discord stated in great annoyance as Rarity’s yell distracted him from looking straight into Fluttershy’s eyes.

“Aww, shucks, you just pushed me out of danger, but we need to stand up to Discord if we’re going to reason or defeat him,” Applejack said to Azura in the meantime and her cheeks reddened slightly and Azura was briefly confused to what it meant.

  “Wait we do!?” Pinkie asked.

“Yes,” Discord huffed with malice.

“Twilight, be a dear and roll out the contracts for me,” Discord stated still with anger in his voice and turned his attention to Twilight.

“Contract or not, nothing gives ya’ the right to wipe our memories and control our minds!” Applejack hollered defiantly as she stopped forward to confront Discord. Azura nervously stepped beside her as she saw Discord turned his attention to them with an ugly scowl on his face.

In the meantime, Twilight flinched and she was uncertain who to side with, Discord or with four of her five friends who shoot unhappy glances toward Discord.

Azura saw Applejack boldly push her head forward and increase the intensity of her glance toward Discord, but she felt a little nervous. She shook a bit, but then thought she couldn’t stand losing Applejack as a friend if Discord managed to put his talons on her head again and puffed her chest out to back Applejack up.

Discord’s ugly scowl intensified and his eyes darted around the room to see who was becoming his enemy and who still sided with him. Azura noticed Pinkie still seemed a little confused and hoped she wouldn’t side with Discord.

“Is that what really has happened?” Pinkie asked, still with some uncertainty.

“Oh, come on Pinkie, and tell me when’s the last time ya’ threw a party?” Applejack hollered trying to get Pinkie to realise what had happened to her. Pinkie briefly looked baffled and Discord put on a slight smug smile and turned his attention to Applejack and shot her an intense glare.

“I can’t remember,” Pinkie stated glumly and her admission made her look down and a piece of her pink fur returned to a grey colour.

“Looks like you’re not all in unison,” Discord commented smugly, “And you probably don’t remember what happens when all of you combine together.”

“Hey, Pinkie, don’t frown, you’ll get the chance to throw lots of parties to make up for lost time and we need your help to show Discord he’s wrong to mess with us!” Rainbow Dash spoke up to encourage Pinkie and put her hoof on Pinkie’s back.

Azura looked on as Rainbow Dash’s encouragement made Pinkie brighten up again and the grey patch was changed back into pink.

“I don’t know what to do,” Twilight mumbled in an unsure tone, Azura turned her attention and saw Twilight appeared most uncertain how to act or respond and even her mane looked frazzled.

Discord snapped his talons and then disappeared and reappeared next to Twilight.

“Fret not, Twilight Sparkle,” Discord said with menace and stroked her fur.

“This will soon be over, because as you long as you can’t decide or side with your friends, the Elements of Harmony can’t work and I can do this,” Discord spoke manipulatively and then placed his talons onto Twilight’s head.

“Twilight! He’s going to try and control you, fight it, fight it with all ya’ got!” Applejack hollered, but Discord smiled.

Twilight opened her mouth agape as Discord forced his talons onto her head, but instead of an instant flash of magic, Azura noticed her face became covered in sweat showing a sign she was fighting on the inside against Discord’s attempt to control her.

“That’s it!” Fluttershy yelled and waved over to Rainbow Dash and the two of them tackled themselves into Discord and he lost his ability to keep his talons placed on Twilight’s head.

“Come on, Twilight, snap out of it, I was under Discord’s control too until I decided to help Rarity with Spike!” Azura yelled as she was desperate to stop Discord from perhaps recovering and seizing control of Twilight or the situation.

“Plus, without Azura, I would still be stuck inside the kitchen as a dull and grey anti-social pony, she showed me true friendship by putting up with my stubbornness and helping me out and I wouldn’t have turned back into me without her. I know you’ve got memories of friendship in there, Twilight!” Applejack joined in with Azura and Azura felt her confidence boost.

“Wait, if Azura helped you turned back into you, then because you changed and inspired me to change, that means she helped me too. And that makes her my friend too,” Rainbow Dash boldly stated and then flew over and stood with the two of them.

“And your change inspired me to change, Rainbow, so by chain reaction events, that means Azura helped me too, so I’m standing with her,” Pinkie bounced over and made it three ponies around Azura.

“And I remember see agreed to help me with helping Spike, plus I think I can remember they both came into the records filing room and tried to reason with me and get me to realise I was dull and grey, but I was too stubborn to listen to them, but I’m not anymore,” Rarity said with confidence and also joined the growing team.

“Plus, you’ve helped me too, as without you convincing Applejack to change, Fluttershy and I probably wouldn’t have been able to hold down every pony and you agreed to help me when you could had decided not to, so that makes you my friend too, Azura,” Spike said confidently and then ran up and hugged Azura’s left front leg.

“And you stood with me and made me feel glad for your support and for that reason, I will add gladly add myself to your friend list,” Fluttershy added with a bit of meeker voice than the others, but her small confident smile told Azura she was happy to be friends with her and then flew over to join her and the others.

“Are you all forgetting you’re still missing one pony?” Discord growled as he stood up and brushed himself off and intensely glared at the six of them.

“No, they’re not!” Twilight shouted out and rushed over to join Azura and the others. Azura cried and sniffled a little as she never expected to have six new friends around her.

“Applejack is right, I can remember I learned a lot of lessons about friendship and I can remember I am the Princess of Friendship!” Twilight declared valiantly as she joined the team.

“And it’s over Discord, surrender now or face the consequences!” Twilight said.

Azura briefly had time to look around and saw Twilight standing in front of her, Applejack and Rarity flanked her right side, while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flanked her left and Pinkie was standing slightly to the left of Twilight. Azura felt Spike tug on her leg again.

“Please, make sure to not shake me off, I might be part of the formation this time,” Spike said pleadingly up toward her. Azura briefly wondered what he meant by might be as he was inside the formation already as he was hugging her leg.

“Hmm, we’ll see about that, Princess Twilight!” Discord huffed angrily and made it clear he wasn’t giving up without a fight and began snapping dark, black threatening looking clouds that had spikes in them, but Azura noticed a super charge was growing in and around her and then Azura felt a magical pulse go through her body and Spike tightened his hug grip around her leg. Then, in she floated up with Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Rainbow Dash and felt a lot of magic pass through her and she was somehow connected to all of them.

Twilight concentrated all of their combined magic into her eyes and her eyes glazed over into a totally white colour and she knew the charge was at its most powerful and then concentrated all the power to her crown and her horn and the super charge caused a rainbow wave of magic to head straight for Discord.

“Nooo… not again,” Discord just about managed to mutter as he got hit.

Azura saw through Twilight’s eyes as he was turned into a stone statue and then the connection to Twilight faded and Azura could see Discord’s statue with her own eyes and then they all descended back to the ground.

However, despite she felt Discord deserved what he got, as she planted her feet back onto the ground, questions bothered her into why Discord had gone through so much trouble to get a radio station built in Ponyville, why he made himself the boss and why he had to insert his control and authority through mind manipulation? However, as he was now a stone statue, Azura wondered if she would ever know the reasons why…. The End.