Illusion

by Alfoals Trottenbauer

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance, Original Character, Discord, Violence, Death, Twilight Sparkle, Sad, Drama, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe
Length: 1529

Ace and Twilight discover something awful.

Ace Sparks and Twilight Sparkle's efforts to fix the freeze were all for naught, or so it seemed.

Published 2017-02-11 18:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-02-11 18:00:01 UTC

II - Resilience

"We can't give up here." Ace encouraged needlessly.

"Maybe the words meant to go north elsewhere." She thought.

They trotted toward where they entered, suddenly, some giant invisible force boomed throughout the room, creating a blinding light. After the flash, Ace noticed Twilight was gone. He turned his head frantically, looking to see where she could've gone. He heard her voice in the distance. "Ace! Help!" She screamed. He raced in the direction of the sound. He saw her in the air. He lunged towards the force. He attempted to buck it with all his might. It was rock solid, when he bucked, it broke the bones in his legs. With a shout of pain, he fell on the ground. He used a kindling spell. The fire went around the force. He tried every spell he knew, none worked. The force tightened it's grip on Twilight. The force struck Ace, sending him flying. Ace used a short flight spell to slow himself down. He dashed over to the force again. It tightened it's grip on Twilight even more.

"Ace! Aaaagh! Help!" She screamed, writhing in the hold. She shrieked in pain as it slowly crushed the life out of her. It squeezed her tighter, crushing bone, blood leaked from her.

"Twilight!!" He yelled. "Celestia, what can I do!?" He pleaded.

He attempted to charge at the force, pointing his horn at him, adrenaline overcoming his reasoning.
His horn broke to the base. With another shout of pain, he held the stump.

"Ace... Help..." She said quietly, most of her blood having escaped her body. The force let go, Twilight fell, body twisted.

"A-Ace... Why didn't you help me..." She asked.

"I-I tried everything!" He exclaimed, crying.

She sighed a parting breath.

"T-twi!!" He yelled helplessly, looking up, eyes closed.

The entry wall opened. He trotted out with a limp. He saw Twilight just outside the void.

"Twily..." He called, embracing her tightly. She looked him over, then noticed his most prominent injury.

"A-Ace, your horn!" She gasped.

"I know." He sighed, depressed.

"How are we going to fix this?" She asked hopelessly.

They trotted north. It seemed endless. They sat down for a bit.
They came upon a large, unfamiliar building. It seemed very much like it was from the human-era.

Twilight turned the knob on the door with magic, as Ace couldn't, with his horn gone.

IV - Fight

"Discord? Why? Why would you do this to Equestria?" She asked, feeling betrayed.

"Do you think I could be so easily won over by your friendship, after being frozen in stone for thousands of years?" He asked rhetorically, his voice booming. "It is now everyone's turn to feel what I've felt! Eternal pain!" He exclaimed.

"...And I see you've also brought a friend. No matter. He too, will freeze." He added.

Discord used magic on Ace.
Ace started turning into stone, starting from the legs.

Ace looked down at his hooves, the stone was jagged, painful. He tried to move them, but to no avail.

"Ah! Twily, help!" Ace called.

The stone was slowly crawling up his legs. He tried to use magic, but his horn was still broken.

Discord laughed at Ace's failed attempt to free himself.

"You can't get away with this, Discord!" Twilight retorted. She used a kindling spell on Discord's fur.
Discord jumped as his fur caught fire. He dashed off the throne and ran about.

"Fire, fire!" He yelled. Once it was put out, he used one of his horns to lift Twilight into the air by one of her legs. She twisted and turned trying to escape the grip. Once touching the ceiling, Discord let go. She fell, plummeting to the ground. Some bones broken, she slowly got back up.

She used her magic to throw Discord to the side, into a wall, face first.

Discord lifted himself up again. She threw him yet again.

By this time, the stone had covered most of Ace's body. He could only barely move his head.

"Tw- Twi... H-help!" He called again, but his pleading fell on deaf ears.
The stone continued up his neck, tearing flesh as it went.

The fighting ensued.

By this point, Twilight and Discord were fighting hand-to-hoof.
Discord slashed at her face with his talons.
Twilight hit Discord with her hoof with all her strength. It sent him off of her.
Twilight used another kindling spell. He ran in a circle. Twilight threw him out of a stained glass window with magic.

Ace had been swallowed up by the stone by now. His face frozen, eyes wide open, mouth agape, scared.

Twilight tried bucking the stone to break it. It didn't work. She tried using her magic. Didn't budge. She tried giving some magic to Ace.
The stone shook and cracked. Suddenly, it exploded, bits of stone flying everywhere. His horn glowing and repaired, Ace emerged from the remnant of the stone casing, cut up from the jagged spikes within.

V - Restoration

Suddenly, a bright light penetrated the windows. The building slowly started to disappear. If they didn't make it out of the building, they too, may disappear. Ace, galloped out, Twilight was slowly limping. He came back for her and picked her up in a bridal position. He used a temporary flight spell, giving up his magic for a bit. He burst through the double doors, knocked open the front door, and charged out. The building was completely gone as they escaped.
They trotted to Ponyville, it was bustling with living ponies, as it had always been before. The main six were back again. Everypony had been freed. Finally.

I - Discovery

The door led to the same frozen Equestria. Their hopes fled them entirely. Twilight followed Ace into the world again. They sat, contemplating what to do. Twilight started weeping softly, her hooves covered her face, the world taken away from her.

"Hey, Twily... It could be worse. We could be separated..." He tried to stop Twilight from crying, only making it worse.

He moved her hooves away from her face, wiped her tears. She sniffled, looking into his eyes. He moved so they were face to face. He embraced her in a kiss, she jumped slightly, then relaxed into his hooves. They separated, both their cheeks a rosy red.

"We have to find a way to set things right." He encouraged.

"Maybe there's something in a void we haven't noticed." She suggested.

They trotted alongside each other, searching for a void. Twilight indicated one Ace hadn't noticed. They turned to it and went inside. Once inside, the way they entered noisily shut with a wall.

"We should go around every direction." Ace implied.

They started by going east. Nothing at all. Then south. They came across same statue that killed Ace. They searched the statue, nothing but an engraved sentence in a different language. It read: 'Mod nord er nøglen.' They didn't know what it meant. Ace was stumped, however, Twilight tried to figure it out.

"Nord... Nord... Nord, maybe the language is a relative to Equestrian?" She asked to herself, mostly.

Ace shrugged.

"Maybe nord means north? We should go north, in that case." She concluded, answering her own question.

They trotted north. Nothing.

III - Archaic

The room was pitch black. Twilight used her horn to produce a small amount of light. The building seemed small, doors on any wall.
They tried the door to their right. The room was filled with ancient books and scrolls. Twilight opened a book titled 'Time Paradoxes and How to Fix Them by Doctor Whooves'. As soon as she did, it collapsed into dust. She tried another, 'Dungeons and How to Escape Them by Dusty Tomes' This one too, collapsed.

They opened a scroll. Twilight read it aloud: "In nomine invocatoris, si non satisfactus es, cave. De vermis non absolvo follen legendum fatum et eum versus-" Twilight stopped. She understood just before finishing that these were words of death and should therefore not be spoken.

She looked at yet another scroll.

She read it. "Cthulu fhtag-" She knew this was to summon something, so she stopped again.

They exited the room.

They went left. It had an archaic record player. Nothing close to what Equestria used to have.
A record was in it. They decided not to play it. Also in the room was a statue of a human. This building has to be Human-era!

"What is that statue of?" Ace inquired.

"I think it's a human..." Twilight responded.

"I thought those were only myth!" Ace asserted.

"It's unknown if they were real." Twilight answered again.

"Oh..."

Twilight and Ace trotted outside the room and cantered forward into the foremost door. It was a double door, either side decorated with human statues holding spears that towered over the doors. Twilight used her horn to open the doors. The other side of the doors was humongous. The ceiling was extremely high, the walls ornate. Two suits of human armor were on either side of the foremost wall. Sitting in a towering throne was Discord, unfrozen.

"So you've come, Twilight Sparkle." Discord indicated.