The Elements of Discord

Celestia was taking no chances with this last Element. Before she had let Twilight return to Ponyville, Luna had been summoned back to the palace and appraised of the situation. Now, Twilight sat in a carriage wedged between the two Princesses. With the other five Element bearers as well as a good portion of the guard following close behind.

She was the first one out when they arrived, the acrid smell of smoke affecting her far more than her mentor's words of caution.  Knowing exactly where to go, but not knowing why, she made her way to the library as fast as her hooves could carry her.  Turning a corner, she finally caught sight of her home, but couldn't quite place what she saw.

To her, Void had obviously been the same species as Despair, but that's where the similarities ended.  Where Despair was a gargantuan figure of ice and steel, Void was thin, scrawny and looked to be slightly smaller than Luna.  Oh, yeah, he also seemed to be made of nothing more than a bend in reality.

Wait, what?

Twilight shook her head, trying to take it in.  Void's body, if you could call it that, was nothing more than a distortion; looking like somepony made some oddly-shaped magnifying glass then imbued it with some strange magical glow.  Completely featureless aside from its limbs, head and a pair of slate-grey eyes, she couldn't even sense his presence the way she had the others.

A loud crack brought her back to reality as she realized what he was doing: finishing off the last of the advance guard.  She gaped as he brought a foot down hard on one of the two survivors' heads, causing a red pool to form underneath.  She found her voice just as he bent down to grab the last guard under the chin.

"Hey, your fight is with me!"

The creature went rigid upon realizing she was there.  It looked up and narrowed its eyes before twisting the fallen guard's head around violently.  In a fit of anger, she charged up the strongest spell she could muster, but Void was ready.  He stood to his full height and extended a hand towards her before making a fast pulling motion.  A chilling motion shot down her spine as she felt the spell torn away from her.  She shivered as the lost magic returned quickly, but she was powerless to avenge the executed soldiers.

"No... NO!" she heard a far too familiar voice scream from behind her.  She turned and collided with the charging stallion, attempting to stop him mid charge.

"Shining, no!  Please!  He's too strong!" she pleaded, knowing that he wouldn't listen.

"This is my job, Twilight.  I'm not backing down!  He might stop my magic, but I can still pound him into dust!"

Tears ran down her cheeks as she opened her mouth to continue arguing, but a hoof on her shoulder stopped her.  She turned to see Rainbow's determined face staring back at her.

"He has to do this, Twi," AJ's voice came from her other side, "and if this see-through creep wants to hurt your brother, he's going to have to get through us first.  You in, Mac?"

Twilight turned to see the elder Apple stride up.  "Eeyup.  If you do something this stupid and crazy and I don't jump in, Granny'll have my hide."

Twilight could only watch as Dash took off and the four charged in unison.  She could only watch as she knew from Void's first movement that this was not going to end well.

Rainbow arced around to come at him from behind while Big Mac and Shining Armor flared out too the sides, leaving Applejack to come at their target head on.  Void's head flitted between all four of them before locking eyes with Applejack.  Rainbow took the opportunity to divebomb him, intending to slam him right into AJ's hooves.  Just as Twilight predicted, it all went wrong.

With less then a second left before being hit by Rainbow, Void spun to the side, avoiding her completely.  Twilight heard Rainbow swear in the brief second she had before colliding hard with Applejack; the pair tumbled head-over-hooves for a couple years before coming to a stop, laying dazed on the ground.

Twilight snapped her head back toward Void just in time to see Shining Armor attack, running toward Void to impale the monster with his horn.  Void reacted swiftly with a snap kick to the side of Armor's face, causing the knight to run by harmlessly.

At that moment, Big Mac reared up and swung his front hooves at Void's head, attempting to trample him.  Void ducked around both blows and Mac twisted around, faster than Twilight had ever thought was possible for him, bringing his back legs up and unleashing a full-force buck at his foe's chest.  Void grabbed Mac's ankles and buckled his knees, preventing the strike from connecting as the force of the kick dragged him along the ground for a yard or so.  Not missing a beat, Void twisted around, pulling Mac by the legs over his head and slamming the stallion into the ground.

Void spun and intercepted Shining Armor once more.  Dipping and ducking around Shining's attacks, Void countered with a series of quick jabs and cross-body punches, all to Shining's head and face, twisting his torso to put his full weight into every strike.  After a few seconds, Shining Armor collapsed under the assault, out-cold.

During the short time Void fought the two stallions, Rainbow had got back up and started another charge.  This time, Void side-stepped out of the way and grabbed the tip of her wing.  He dug into the ground with one foot and used Rainbow's own momentum to spin around and release her back into Applejack just as the farm pony got to her hooves.  They tumbled along the ground, yet again, this time landing in a crumpled heap in front of Twilight.

"Ughhh...  Ya know, Twi, I was watchin' him hit your brother," Applejack mumbled with a groan, "he doesn't hit that hard, he just knows how to hit you so it hurts."

"Yeah," Rainbow said, pushing herself to her hooves, "and he knows how to move so you can't get hurt.  I'd know, I use some of those moves myself.  I don't think he's that strong..."

A buzzing sound filled the air and the group turned to see Void gathering a large, unstable-looking mass of energy in his hands.

"Although I could be wrong..."

He unleashed the gathered mass and Twilight felt the disorienting sensation of being teleported.  When she could see again, she noticed that she was only several yards away, looking at a large semi-circular trench in the ground where she had just been standing.

"I cannot abide by this any longer!"  The anger in Celestia's voice made her want to cower.  Seeing her mentor angry had that effect no matter who the Princess' ire was directed at.

"But, Princess...  you said..."

"I know what I said, Twilight," Celestia snapped back, glowing with the full rage of her sun, "but I will watch no longer.  I will not let you get hurt again!"

The Princess squared off with the creature who dared threaten her favorite student, looking at him with the utmost contempt.  He simply stared back curiously, his head tilted slightly.  The look in his eyes...  It was almost as if he had an amused smile on his face.

This time, Void made the first move.  Still a good ten yards away, he unleashed a swift kick, releasing a shockwave of energy toward the goddess.  With an angry shout, Celestia batted it aside with her horn.  Twilight turned back to look at Void, only to find him gone.  She glanced around nervously before looking up and gasping.

Void fell from the sky with the force of a meteor, landing on Celestia's back.  The ground shook as he landed, dirt flying in every direction away from the impact.  When the dust settled Void stood over Celestia at the bottom of a deep crater, the beautiful mare beaten and broken.

Twilight barely heard Luna's angry scream as the Princess of the Night unleashed a violent torrent of hellfire toward her sister's tormenter.  Twilight watched, the world seeming to be in slow-motion, as Void slid around the spell, catching it in an outstretched hand.  Like a ball thrown into the air, she blast slowed to a stop and instantly changed direction, accelerating backward.  It was launched back into its caster's face.  Luna gave a blood-chilling scream and collapsed unconscious.

Void trembled as he turned back to Twilight.  She blinked the tears out of her eyes and stared directly into his.  No regret, no fear existed there; only spite and annoyance.  He shook with anger, seething at the world itself.

"Fine..." she said, understanding his wordless gaze.  "Fine, you win..."  She swallowed the lump in her throat, trying to keep from sobbing as she continued, "We'll fight you.  We'll fight you all on our own.  The Elements of Harmony against Void, nopony else.  But not here.  Someplace far away where nopony can get hurt."

A look of triumph entered his eyes; she could almost imagine a sadistic grin on his blank features.  He raised an arm as Despair had done to conjur the blizzard for his final fight.  Twilight glanced upwards, but instead of filling with dark clouds, the sky began to melt away, revealing an inky blackness underneath.  She gaped as all of Ponyville melted, leaving her and her five best friends standing on a flat slate-grey plain that extended infinitely in all directions.  She looked up again to see the sky was filled with millions of stars, many she had never seen before.  She could even recognize a few constellations, but some of them were backwards!  Stranger still, she could see her friends plain as day, despite the distinct lack of a light source.

"Sooo pretty!  I want to have a party here!"

"What the..?  Where the hay are we?" Rainbow stuttered next to her.

"I think we're in space...  Deep in space.  I don't think we can even see the sun from here!"

"Awww great, so he took us to the void?"  Applejack groaned next.  "Well, Twilight, you didn't want to fight him on our turf, so he took us to his.  You just said 'far away,' you never said he had to keep us in Equestria!"

Twilight then noticed that Void was standing a few yards away, staring at the group.  He extended an arm and an object, made of the same time-space distortion as he, began to form in his hand.  Whether it was a gladius with a very long handle or a spear with a very long blade, Twilight couldn't tell, but it was no doubt a weapon.  Void deftly spun it around, sinking into a low stance, both hands on the grip, blade's tip pointed directly at Twilight's forehead.

His meaning was obvious,

Time for round two.