The Elements of Discord

"Hey! How come he gets a weapon?"

"Umm, well, Rainbow, we are wearing armor and he's not. Also, there's six of us and only on-"

A loud 'clang' rang out as Void barreled into Fluttershy, shoulder-first, interrupting the mare and sending her tumbling backwards.  Applejack wheeled around on him, but her angry retort was also interrupted when he brought the pommel of his weapon around and brought it hard against the side of her head.

"We have to use the Elements..." Twilight muttered to herself, trying to draw in the energy needed as she ducked under the swinging blade.

Not yet. Said a voice in her head she recognized as her own. She shook it off, remembering the events in Thunderhoof Canyon. Please trust me! Not yet! She was weary of following the advice of strange disembodied voices, but something was different this time...

She released the energy she had built up, instead electing to dive in front of Fluttershy, parrying the blade end of Void's weapon with her horn. She gave him a smug grin, hoping to goad him into making a mistake, only to receive a kick to her chest as he turned to intercept a magic bolt sent by Rarity. She pushed herself back to her hooves and watched as AJ collided with the same foot that had sent her to the ground. Looking around quickly, she leapt into the air and tackled Rainbow Dash to the ground mere moments before Void's blade cut through the pegasus' original path.

"This isn't working, Rainbow, he's too good! We need to work together more!"

"I got ya! Pinkie, remember that prank we pulled on Lyra? Now would be a good time to try that again!"

Pinkie stopped dancing around Void's pole-arm to grin at Rainbow. "Okey-dokie!" she giggled and began to bounce around him in a loud, blatant (and successful) attempt to get his attention. Rainbow took off and spun around, waiting for him to miss Pinkie with yet another swing before turning to bolt straight at him.

"Hey, glass-face!"

Void turned to face her less than a second before she collided with his chest, sending him sprawling backwards. Pinkie dove behind him, crouching just behind his knees. He tripped over the pink pony, giving out a loud 'THUD' as he hit the ground.

Twilight wasted no time and hit him with the most powerful blast she could muster in the few short seconds he lay there. Breathing heavily, she took a few careful steps forward as he got back up, hoping to see some sort of damage on his non-body.

She wasn't disappointed; zig-zagging across his chest was a glowing blue-white line. A crack in his invisible armor.

"You... you actually hurt him!" she heard Applejack stammer, the expression on her face going from disbelief, to a startled realization and finally to a confidant grin.

Twilight prepared herself to finish him off when her own voice rang through her head again: Not yet!

Void, on the other-hoof, only displayed what could've been interpreted as a look of frustrated disappointment. Twilight readied herself as he took a few running steps forward, but instead of attacking, he leapt over her, slamming down between her and her friends with enough force to send them all skyward.

"Alright, so maybe ya didn't hurt him that bad..."

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but the crackling energy Void had evoked commanded her attention. Shrieking beams of light, at least a dozen, erupted from the pommel of his weapon, arcing through the air toward her and her friends. Not bothering to even be gentle about it, Twilight sent a forceful pulse through the air, knocking her friends off their hooves, but barely saving them from the lethal magic.

To their credit, her friends all immediately got back up and resumed their own attacks before Twilight could say anything. She almost wished they hadn't and she was positive that they hadn't noticed a subtle but deadly change in Void's tactics.

No longer standing solidly and dueling the ponies, he had taken to motion. He spun his weapon constantly, lashing out with blade, fist and foot. A whirling torrent of razor-sharp death. All Twilight could do was throw up barriers whenever one of her friends got too close to the blade, trying to keep watch on all five at once.

"Ah got ya, you-" Before she could finish her victorious taunt, Void pulled his weapon in, spun around, and thrusted.

Applejack released the worst sound Twilight had ever heard as she inadvertently impaled herself on the weapon, its translucent blade sinking deep into her chest. The world seemed to move in slow motion as Void pulled the weapon back out and resumed his assaults, leaving a spattering of crimson droplets along the ground. Twilight felt herself run forward and collapse next to the fallen mare; unable to think, unable to do anything else.

The numbness began to fade, being replaced only by panic. She did her best to stave it off, trying to get her bearings. Pinkie and Fluttershy had joined her on the ground, both crying; somehow Rainbow and Rarity had kept their heads and were working desperately to keep Void occupied.

She wracked her brain, hoping to think of some way to reverse this, some loophole that would let her bring her friend back. She focused so hard that she almost didn't notice Fluttershy's necklace begin to glow. The light intensified until even the fighting ceased as all stopped to gape at the sight.

Fluttershy had dug her hooves into the ground, trying with all her might to drag herself away, but the Element of Kindness proved to be determined to stay in place. A fuzzy pink mote of light floated out of the butteryfly-shaped gem and drifted almost lazily toward the jewel around Applejack's neck. It passed silently into the necklace of Honesty, which itself began to float into the air, pulling the limp mare up by her neck. The soft glow enveloped her, growing brighter until she was nothing more than a dim silhouette in the floating orb. After what seemed like an eternity, the light faded, dropping a now unharmed Applejack gently to the ground.

"Uhhhgg... Wha' happened?"

"Oh thank heavens! We thought we lost you, AJ!"

"HA!" Rainbow cheered, turning to Void and getting right in his face. "You see that? No matter what, you can't beat us! We care bout AJ too much for something like you to take her away from us!"

Void didn't respond to her, not that anypony expected him to. Instead, he hit her square in the forehead with the pommel of his weapon, sending her to the ground. He then took a step backward and took off into the air. He curled up, pulling in energy from his surroundings. Next, he shot downwards at a blinding speed. He crashed right through the floor of the strange infinite arena and Twilight felt the ground collapse out from under her. Strangely enough though, she didn't start falling. In fact, the six of them were just floating there.

"Ah'm- uhhh, what's goin' on?"

"Wheee! This is great!"

"Oh dear... Is this what it feels like to be you, Rainbow Dash?"

"Not even close, Rare. This doesn't feel right at all!"

'Calm down, girls!" Twilight finally choked out. "He turned off the gravity, nothing to freak out about!"

"Hey, Dashie! You can move by thinking! This would be awesome to have back home!"

"Ummm, sorry for interrupting, but where did Void go?"

Fluttershy's words snapped them out of their combined wonder and confusion as they frantically glanced around searching for their foe; it didn't take long to spot him, he was floating only 50 yards away, glaring at them intently. In one quick motion, he slipped his weapon over his shoulder, sliding it into some invisible sheath. Extending both arms, he closed his fists as his whole body began to tremble.

Twilight felt something in the universe shift. She wasn't sure what he did exactly, but Void had just tipped the cosmic scales and something was out of place.

"What in the name of..."

She followed Applejack's gaze and caught sight of a massive group of boulders, each at least as large as Canterlot Castle, shooting towards them.

"Asteroids!" she heard herself scream, the panic in her mind taking over.

"As- what now?"

"Forget what they are, AJ! Scatter!"

They all followed Dash's advice, and not a moment too soon. The six quickly found themselves separated, all trying to dodge around the oncoming swarm. Diving around one of the smaller stones, Twilight found herself face to face with what was easily the largest of the bunch. Closing her eyes and bracing for impact, she yelped when something soft rammed into her side, knocking her just out of the way of the incoming projectile. She opened her eyes to see Pinkie shooting away in the opposite direction, giggling madly as she bounced from rock to rock; not trying to avoid them at all.

As she watched the insane antics, an idea filled her head. A stupid, reckless and overly-complicated idea. An idea that just might work. Glancing around frantically for what seemed like the thousandth time that day, she found Rainbow and got her attention with a bolt of magic. The cyan pegasus flew over to her, looking none too happy.

"This better be important, Rarity and AJ aren't going to last much longer!"

"It is! Listen!" Twilight began to quickly relay her new plan to Rainbow, who immediately took to it. As soon as they had finished talking, Rainbow bolted off to relay the message to the others: group up as soon as they had cleared the asteroid field and get ready. She continued her nervous dance around the debris for a couple more minutes until no more came. Taking in the sight, she noticed that Rainbow had come though as admirably as always: everypony was in place.

"Alright, Dash, do your thing!"

Rainbow nodded and flew toward Pinkie and Fluttershy. The two ponies locked hooves, creating a small platform for Rainbow to land on. Her legs buckled as she hit the two, changing direction rapidly and going supersonic right off the new launchpad.

She shot by Rarity, who manifested a gem of light right in front of the speeding mare. The instant Rainbow passed through it, her trail distorted, the colors blending together in a gorgeous beam of every-colored light.

Rainbow twisted in the air, letting her back hooves meet with Applejack's. The two bucked in unison, sending Dash off in an entirely different direction, even faster than before.

Last, Rainbow came upon Twilight, who had carefully spun a sheet of magic across her path. They found themselves nose-to-nose for the briefest instant. Dash winked at Twilight, who responded with a comforting smile. The magic sheet wrapped itself around the pegasus, shaping and warping itself, turning the speeding pony into a large glowing arrow.

A blinding explosion filled the area as she collided with Void.

When everypony could see again, they all noticed immediately that Void was hurting. The single crack now spider-webbed across his chest and small pieces of himself had fallen off, revealing his glowing interior.

Now!

Twilight couldn't have agreed with herself more. She gathered herself, all of her emotions and all of her love for her friends. As she blasted Void with the full force of the Elements of Harmony, she felt her energies mix with his, meshing together and pushing against one another in an age-old battle for dominance. There was something disturbingly familiar in him, but she couldn't quite place it.

Finally, his power broke. The white magics washed over him, stronger and clearer than Twilight had ever felt or seen them before. When it subsided, Twilight was somehow unsurprised to see that Void was still there.

Or rather, part of him was. Both of his legs were missing below the knees and his left arm was missing from the shoulder down. Large flakes of his glassy body were falling off.

Twilight gave him a triumphant grin as they locked eyes. He only shook his head. Using his remaining arm, he drew his weapon and spun it around to hold it like a spear.

"Give it up, you lost!"

Void ignored Rainbow and hurled the weapon towards the six ponies like a javelin. Rather than hitting any of them, it flew into the center of the group, stopping suddenly as it hit some unseen barrier. Large spears of light sprouted out from where the blade sunk in. Twilight's heart leapt into her throat as she recognized the cracks in space itself for what they were.

Reality shattered, large shards falling in some arbitrary direction that Twilight could only guess was down. As the piece containing her lower half fell away, Twilight turned to give Void one last glare. He raised a pair of fingers to his temple in some form in informal salute before fading into the ether himself. A low, rumbling laugh resonated through the area, sending chills down Twilight's spine; wherever her spine was, that is.

Trapped in her own small piece of space Twilight continued to fall, catching glimpses of the stars, her friends and even her own flank. She closed her eyes, feeling sick at the dizzying motion. Finally, she felt her stomach land softly on a patch of lush grass, though it certainly felt like heaven to her. She opened her eyes to see Celestia's smiling face. The Princess looked awful, but happy as she leaned on her sister for support.

Looking around, Twilight realized that she had landed back in Ponyville with pieces of her friends falling into place as they too were rebuilt. A loud thump made her jump as Void's weapon landed a mere inch in front of her nose, now made of wood and steel, its blade sinking deep into the ground.

"Is- Is it over? Did we win?" Rainbow's voice murmured.

"Yes... Yes, Rainbow, its over. We beat him." She sat quietly for a moment, putting the last pieces of the puzzle together in her head. "Its over, but there's one last thing we have to do. Somepony's got a lot of explaining to do."