Harmonic Vengeance

Bruce trudged up the staircase of the Golden Oaks Library, head hanging. They'd failed. They'd failed so badly that the only way to reverse it was to try to get someone else to come in and fix the problem. Bruce didn't like it one bit.

And worse... what if the ponies they were trying to get to were having the same trouble with the situation back home? What if they couldn't handle Loki any better than the Avengers could handle Discord? The thought turned his trudge into a full-blown gallop up the stairs. He was pretty sure the books about other worlds had been shelved here after Twilight's last Reshelving Day. He wasn't positive, though. Even Twilight couldn't keep track of her various organizational schemes. The only one who could was Spike... who was probably also upstairs, in the bedroom.

Wait a second. Spike. What on earth would he tell Spike? Or Princess Celestia? The thought made him wince. Explaining to a baby dragon who looked up to you like a parent, and an immortal ruler of near-limitless power, that you weren't who they thought you were and you'd failed the task they'd set you... that sounded like a pretty bad day to Bruce.

As he stepped onto the landing, he heard a groan and saw Spike lying on the floor, arms over his belly. "Spike! Are you all right?" A stomachache. Could be nearly anything, the flu, or food poisoning, or... His gaze swept the room, taking in the piles of scrolls. ...or receiving too many letters in a row.

"The Princess... has been sending these... since I got back!" Spike gasped. There was a whoosh of green light, and another one materialized in thin air. Bruce caught it in midair (From across the room! Did that ever get old for unicorns?) and unrolled it. The handwriting jumped out at him. He- or rather, Twilight- had seen it over and over again. Spike had written this. Dear Princess Celestia...

He skimmed it quickly. It was the letter Twilight had written about Rarity's experience with the Diamond Dogs. He checked the bottom, margins, and back for any notes from the Princess, any explanation for why she'd sent it, but it was blank. "I don't understand."

Spike said nothing, too busy coughing out another letter.

Bruce steadily made his way through the pile, even with Spike's frequent additions, reliving memory after memory that weren't his. Finally he reached the bottom, but he'd gotten no farther than before. He still didn't understand.

And then suddenly, he did.

Somehow, by reading the letters, by reliving Twilight's most important memories, he'd actually become more Twilight than he was when he started. Maybe, just maybe, he was even Twilight enough to use the Elements.

Quickly he grabbed a quill in his magic and scribbled a quick note.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Thank you for sending back the letters. It was exactly what I needed. However, it's taking a toll on Spike, and now that the letters have done what they needed to, you can stop sending them. Thank you.

Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.

"Here, Spike, send this. It'll be the last one, I promise." He groaned slightly, but complied. "Now I need to go back out there, and I need you to stay here. I'm sorry about that. Just know that your passing of messages played a very important role in defeating Discord."

Bruce left the little dragon recuperating on the floor as he picked up the entire pile of scrolls and galloped back down the stairs. As he went, he unrolled each scroll and read it, then moved it to one side. Soon he was holding seven different piles of scrolls. It was a bit of an intense magic workout, but nothing Twilight's power couldn't handle.

As he exited the library, he sent up a blast of magic like a beacon, a blast colored purple and pink. Twilight's colors. Hopefully that would be enough of a signal to imply to the others, "Guys, I found something, come here," and also to show who had sent it.

To absolutely no one's surprise, Tony was the first to arrive. He blasted in, leaving a rainbow trail, and Bruce shoved the largest pile of scrolls towards him. "Read these while we wait for the others. I'll explain when they arrive."

"Well, okay." He picked one up, unrolled it, and began reading. As others arrived, they too received a pile of scrolls. Once they'd all assembled, Bruce stood up and cleared his throat.

"Princess Celestia sent back the letters I sent her, about the lessons we all learned. After reading them, I actually became more like Twilight and less like Bruce."

"Is that a good thing?" Tony objected.

"Well, I think so. At least for now. So I picked them up and organized them into piles for who they'd be more important to. Those ones are Rarity's letters, those are Fluttershy's, and so on. The pile Tony has is the letters that apply to everyone, so all of you will need to reread those before it's over."

Tony laughed. "You really are more like Twilight!"

"Efficiency isn't reserved to just Twilight," he grumbled, as the sun dropped abruptly below the horizon and the moon popped up. Quickly he lit the brightest light he could so they could keep reading. It took seven five-minute day/night cycles for them to finish.

"Did it work?" Tony asked uncertainly.

"Only one way to find out." Bruce looked at the assembled group and smiled. "Let's go kick some draconequus tail."

They found Discord sitting on a weird throne made of swords. As they approached, he conjured up a paper cone and scooped a cotton candy cloud into it. Then he at the paper, transformed the cotton candy into a bright purple frog, and tossed it aside. It hit a twisted and deformed tree made of what looked like glass, where it let out a loud quack.

When they reached the foot of the large blue-and-yellow checkered hill his throne rested on, Discord looked at them. "Ah, is it time for round two?" He leaned back and yawned. "Why bother? Nothing's changed." A frilly sleep mask appeared over his eyes as he spoke, and he transformed the chair into a recliner and leaned back. Little Z's floated over his head.

The Avengers looked at each other and nodded slightly. Bruce focused as hard as he could, and slowly but surely, they lifted into the air. The gems glowed brilliantly on their necks.

Discord sat up abruptly. "What? But that doesn't-"

"Make sense?" Tony asked. "Oh, what fun is there in making sense?"

The light from the Elements was so bright it was impossible to look at. A brilliant rainbow shot into the air, twisting into a spiral before plunging towards Discord, like a tsunami cresting.

"NOOOOOOO---"

There was a whooshing sound, like a rush, and a brilliant wave of light. Their feet hit the ground, the light faded, and slowly, they looked around them. Directly ahead, in front of a once-again-orderly Ponyville, stood a marble-white statue of Discord, a look of shock still frozen on his face.