Chaos Reformed

Chapters

Chapter I : It never did strike twice
Chapter II : Amidst misery and calamity
Chapter III : Quarantined
Chapter IV: Bargain
Chapter V: Keep calm and flutter on (part I)

Chapter I : It never did strike twice

-“Chaos, is a wonderful; Wonderful thing!” - Discord chanted with gusto as he raised a glass of chocolate milk to cheer with no one in particular.

Chiming to himself and himself only, the draconequus and current Lord of chaos sat upon his throne, beholding his most recent work of art as the former city of ponyville got severely warped under his every whim. It was delightful to say the least, and the sight filled his chest with a burning joy… A warm effervescency that he couldn’t quite put his talon or claw upon; but it made him crack a broad grin nonetheless.

He dared think that nothing right now could possibly wash his over-joyous state away, but surprisingly a sudden voice reached his ears… The statement carried within the sound made him falter and shiver with displeasure.

-“Not as wonderful as friendship!” - Twilight hastily intervened, earning a mock glare from her new-found enemy.

-“Ahngh… This again?” - Snapping right back, Discord could barely believe his ears. If they were not so useful to him, he might have stuck his antler and horn to each one of them, just to avoid hearing the rest of Twilight’s nauseating claim that was to come. However, the country bumpkin orangeish earth pony seemed to step up this time, reinforcing her friend’s absurd claim.

-“That’s right! Ya couldn’t break apart our friendship for long!”

-“Oh, Applejack, don’t lie to me; I’m the one who made you a liar.” - Breaking her bravado, he raised his paw and a golden bright aura appeared around his finger, and soon enough the element of honesty shone in response.

Seriously; he had just eviscerated the very bonds of their friendship to tiny, bloody pieces… And here they were, trying to fool him into believing that they simply overcame that disaster after just few-

… Hours? Days? Discord wasn’t particularly good at keeping track of time, specially when he casted a spell upon the Alicorn’s horns to fizzle whatever attempt Luna and Celestia executed to move the celestial bodies.
Nonetheless, it didn’t matter. Their elements had already failed to synchronize once, and even if that tiny purple pony princess-wanna-be managed to round up the corrupted embodiments of harmony, she was still doomed to fail.
Sarcasm and mockery were crawling up his throat and soon enough would be oozing out with enough potential to kill. Startling the mane six, he suddenly dragged their whole bodies by surrounding their elements with a buzzing heavy magical aura and dragging them up several meters above the ground, towards the point where his throne stood upon.

-“Will you ever learn?” - Stating as they were trapped within his grasp, he had his brow furrowed and a large grin plastered on his lips that easily reached his ears. Despite his immediate desire to turn the world’s innards inside out and sideways, it was so refreshingly amusing to play with those powerless puppets… Twist and tangle their emotions to his will and pleasure.

However, the lord of chaos was left bemused as that tiny, insignificant bearer of magic suddenly teleported right in the center of the ring of her currently floating friends, quickly dragging them away as she formed a protective bubble shield around them. He could have easily popped the bubble and seized them back; still, he wouldn’t give his current “enemies” the luxury of knowing he was going to be cautious around a group of dead-weights. Once the bubble touched the ground as it delicately levitated everybody else to earth, it popped cleansing a small circular patch of his chaos magic, exposing what once were the original grassy grounds that spread through all of ponyville.

-“I’ll tell you what we’ve learned, Discord. We’ve learned that friendship isn’t always easy… But there’s no doubt it’s worth fighting for!” - Twilight just had the nerve to drop that bombastic assault onto his ears.

Every fiber in his body winced; his stomach tied a knot around himself as the draconequus couldn’t resist the sheer urge to protest. Teleporting uncomfortably close to Twilight Sparkle, his muzzle almost brushed into hers as he bit down his bifurcated tongue that was sticking out. She backed up a step or two in front of the dramatic display. - “UGH… Gag! Fine! Go ahead; try and use your little elements. Friend me. Just make it quick!”

They all seemed to reflexively flinch as he gestured with vigor by the end of his words, making his body stiff and glaring down at them as he flashed out of existence and re-appeared by his throne again, with his legs crossed and pointing all around him while stating. - “I’m missing some excellent chaos here!”

For just a moment, as the mares got into position, he actually tried to put some more attention and focus on their actions as Twilight spoke up once again.

-“Alright ladies, let’s show what friendship can do!” - Calling everyone to activate the elements, Twilight chanted at them with renewed spirits.

Had these ponies really have broken the vice grip of his “discording” spell on them? It was not supposed to last forever, however at the very least it could twist their personalities temporarily and with intensity. Nevertheless as soon as a he spotted the pink mare in the group making a dash for a nearby cotton candy cloud, he yawned; still smiling and convinced that if she couldn’t pick sending their hated enemy back to his uncomfortable prison block over quenching her chocolate milk cravings, then the spell must have been working just fine.

-“WAIT, OH WAIT!” - Pinkie Pie soon intervened as he already knew she would, stalling for time and clearly messing up her priorities right before re-joining the group comically with a very accurate dog-like growl as she grimaced and snarled.
Soon enough that slightly blinding and nauseating aura enveloped all the six mares and made them levitate like angels, the rainbow connections among their enchanted collar jewels glistening and fastened between each one of them. This should have been enough of a red flag to alert the uninterested spirit of chaos that he had played himself for a fool; and their fool on top of that. Although, the message just started to really sink in as the elements of harmony re-synchronized with each passing second and shot after-images of themselves cutting through the air, buzzing dangerously close to Discord’s head as his attention span snapped back to the group, wholly.

-“What’s that?” - Discord questioned, utterly perplexed by the sharp electrical bundles of raw harmonic magic being shot at him, badly aimed, but aimed overall at his individual with a crippling promise; chanting tales of stillness and cold, bitter, stasis and insanity as a small few of those flashing ghost-like images brushed the fur on his neck, sending a horrifying but brief sting of burning pain down his nerves and forcing the hackles on his spine to stand on edge.

-“ No…” - Vaguely muttering in pure shock and fear, realization finally flared up in his mind… They had broken his spell. They had been abysmally stupid to point it out to his muzzle over and over for the last two whole minutes, giving him the perfect chance to escape if so he deemed necessary… And yet, somehow, his gargantuan pride and arrogance made him so much more unbelievably stupid than they were; drowned in self gloating and convinced himself that his discording spell was still up and running!

His guts convoluted around each other in rapidly succession as if every millisecond was passing in slow motion; every muscle and tissue in his body sending a grim reminder that what was coming upon him was going to be unbelievably torturous and gruesomely familiar; his mind whispering sourly that he deserved it for being so painfully oblivious and arrogant, that if someone created a law against being so profusely stupid, he should be the first one waiting in line to be sent to a dungeon for breaking it.

Even though the Lord of Chaos had just achieved the epitome of stupidity on its most raw level; he still was not so imbecilic as to just stand there while the magical rainbow of doom rose up in the skies to come crashing down.

Those after images that were shot from the elements were able to draw invisible thin strings of harmonic magic around him, working just like spider webs; quickly numbing any flight response that might have kicked in due to how tightly they dug into his flesh, sending acute bolts of raw, melting and acidic pain through his veins. His stomach sank so deeply that he felt the urge to upchuck all of his currently throbbing internal organs; the magic of the elements had not hit him yet, but those ghostly images started to trigger the crystallizing of his internal chaos magic within his main arteries and veins, quickly forming agonizingly painful crystal clots that would erupt from his insides to the surface of his skin, tearing and consuming any type of tissue that happened to be in reach.
The unholy sensation of his magic stopping abruptly inside his body and violently turning into clusters like made the draconequus’ flesh burn as he writhed and screeched amidst his throes, his voice filled with pure terror as he still tried to deny his destiny out loud with a last and dragged out “NO!”; his very innards were twisting and tearing up, flooding every single inch of his long chimerical body with his own panicking magic that desperately tried to flee... Fighting against stasis itself was an uphill battle, which even the most powerful, rebellious and chaotic fragment could not stand up against.

The new heirs to the elements of harmony had rose up to the skies like deities in mere seconds, their eyes intensely possessed by a blinding white light; both the rainbow around them, and the one being shot up to the open skies were a type of magic that would rival and defeat even that of Alicorns... A rainbow arch of doom pierced the corrupted chaotic skies, and as it came crashing down upon their mighty, deceitful foe, the group of friends cherished and laughed as they slowly floated back down to earth; their hind hooves finally connecting to it again. The reminiscences of the rainbow blast spread in two arcs that fell to the ground, forming a rainbow colored circle that gave origin to a light dome, expanding all around and erasing all traces of chaos magic that once poured upon the land.

-"We did it! We did it!" - Pinkie couldn't help but beam and bounce all around, excited about their victory for a while until a sudden realization hit her as she came to a halt. - "Oh, on second thought I'm gonna miss the cotton candy clouds, chocolate rain, popcorn cornfields... But if that’s what it takes to make everypony’s life happy again, then so be it! Such a shame that Discord had to be a meanie thought, ‘cause those things were so yummy."

-"Oh no, dear, his creations were simply horrid! To just IMAGINE that unnerving vermin making any type of thing for anypony to actually consume is just plain revolting!"- Waving a hand to the air and placing it upon her forehead, Rarity could not be more disgusted with such an idea being blurted out loud by the pink mare; and of course, she spoke her mind with a small touch of drama that only she could deliver.

-"Well, time to take that old goat faced snake back to its garden. I hope that his statue crumbles to pieces this time around!" – The rainbow mare scoffed as she hovered near the ground.

-"Rainbow! I know we all are scarred from this conflict, but that’s still a bit too much to wish upon any foe. The elements of Harmony wouldn't do such a thing as destroying anypony... Or draconequus." – Twilight interfered, frowning slightly towards her friend. As bad as Discord was, the elements did purify Princess Luna out of her menacing form instead of blowing her up or sending her back to the moon for another thousand years, so the unicorn expected their effects to not be so extreme.

-"Besides... I think that it would be a hay of a mess to glue all the pieces togetha later on, since he gotta go back to the princesses’ garden.” – Applejack supported Twilight sternly, glancing to the duo casually as she crossed her arms.

Soon enough they engaged in casual chit chat as the feeling of safety embraced them after the elements had brought the landscape back to normal.

-"I still say he would make a great dessert maker if he was not a meanie!” - Saying with quite the determination, Pinkie gave a stomp to the ground with one of her hind hooves.

-"Girls..." - A timid voice tried to rise amongst the debate that had been reignited.

-"Oh Pinkie, even if you somehow see an ounce of talent in that monster, how could you possibly say that?! Such creature deserves no sympathy. Besides, too much chocolate can also be a menace to a pony’s health." - Rarity readily retorted, raising her muzzle in the air and frowning at the pink mare as she waved a hand by the side of her muzzle.

-"...Girls..." – The meek Pegasus tried to insist.

-"Like we’ve never seen ya drowning ya sadness in a big, deep pot of ice cream, huh?" - Applejack asked teasingly, with a small smirk directed at the white unicorn mare; that could only frown and feign indignance after hearing such an accusation.

-"Well, it's not my fault that I can find some comfort within the contents of-" - Rarity tried to protest, however she was surprisingly cut off by the mare they would least expect.

-"GIRLS!" - This time the timid soft voice was emitted much louder, almost turned into a full fledge scream; once Fluttershy got everypony's attention, she blushed ever so slightly and looked down, letting her long bang cover half of her face. -"I-I... Don't..." - her voice was fading back again, shivering and weakening by the second.

Immediately worrying about her friend, the bulky earth mare approached Fluttershy and put a hand to her shoulder trying to get her to focus again; gazing into those beautiful and terrified teal eyes. - "What is the matter, Sugarcube?"

But much for everyponie's surprise, Fluttershy suddenly snapped, unfolding her wings and squaring herself up as she said out loud. -" I DON'T SEE HIM ANYWHERE!"- After that, she quickly dashed behind Applejack's back, as she could only feel safer within her group of friends surrounding her.

-"WHAT!?"- The other five mares all questioned in unison.

Reflexively looking around frantically they scanned their surroundings quickly. Everything was turned back to normal, the ponyville they loved so much. There was not a single statue or trace of shattered rocks to be seen that could possibly point out to what was Discord’s fate. As the panic started to get on their nerves rapidly, they scanned high and low for any signs, anything that could have been overlooked... But the beast was just gone without a clue.

-"Twilight… You think that the elements..?-" – The yellow Pegasus mare tried to suggest, fearful as she looked all around her, nerves on her skin.

-"It can't be, Fluttershy! It's not in their nature to... Destroy something! They sent Nightmare Moon to the moon, turned Discord into stone, and purified Princess Luna from her corruption... They wouldn't disintegrate him, they shouldn't!" – Twilight was racking her brain for possible answers to whatever had happened, but nothing came to mind other than a growing restlessness.

-"Why should we care anyways?! Equestria would be better off with that THING dead and gone!"- Dash couldn't help but lash out a bit after she came back from her short speed flight. Nonetheless, even taking very high altitudes and scanning a great area, still she could not track a single trace of his departure or destruction.

-"Look, I'm upset about this too, but wishing that upon Discord would be as good as wishing it upon Princess Luna; If princess Celestia wanted him to be destroyed, he wouldn’t be petrified and well kept into the Canterlot statue garden."- With a tired and frustrated sigh, Twilight frowned at the blue Pegasus as her horn lit up; scanning for any traces left of his erratic magic... But she couldn't deny it was extremely hard to track chaos magic itself.

-"Hey, ya'll! Quick, Ah’ found somethin'."- Signalizing by waving, AJ looked down as everyone ran up to her as quickly as they could, even if Fluttershy and Rarity were the most reluctant in the group to deepen this matter even further. As they came closer, both the mares could feel their stomachs turn as their faces twisted in disgust and alarm.

-"Ugh, NO! I refuse to gaze upon this!" – Rarity turned her muzzle up and to the left as she closed her eyes and extended her arm and hand forward, as if to put distance between her and that hideous sight as she backed away.

-"Oh my..." – Fluttershy’s terror only grew steadily, as she froze in place and covered her lips with both hands, eyes wide and fixated on what AJ had just found.

Some meters ahead from where Discord previous stood with his throne, were huge splattered blood stains across the burnt grass blades... A trail of the crimson liquid led directly into the Everfree forest; blood cloths with dark crystal shards, burnt dark brown fur tufts, scorched blue feathers, and strange pieces of half crystalized flesh also were randomly laying about upon the trail of blood.

The trail possessed a horrid stench coming out of it, and following it deeper you could find more chunks of what previously was a talon: scorched and melting chunks of orange skin, scales, muscles and bone fused together, oddly erupted by crystal growths all through the broken arm piece, coming straight from the core of the bone within the other layers of tissue.

-“What the… How in the-… HOW IN TARTARUS DID THAT COWARD ESCAPE?!”- Feeling the rush of both adrenaline and anger pumping through her body, Rainbow threw her hooves wide open and jerked upwards in the sky as her wings flapped strongly; she was SO ready to punch that Draconequus into tomorrow the time she would lay her gaze upon him. -"Let's see how well he can handle getting a sonic rainboom to that ugly mug of his-"

-"I can't believe it... The elements didn't petrify him wholly?" – Twilight examined the pieces of maimed flesh partially consumed by crystals, trying to understand what just happened; her face contorted in disgust and frustration. – “Ugh, this doesn’t make any sense! He must have tempered with the elements in some way! We have to find him again and encase him for good!”

Turning sharply and clenching her teeth, the purple unicorn mare struck the ground a hoof, making some ashes and small particles of blood spread in the air as she stared directly to the edges of the Everfree with raw determination and seriousness in her features. Her horn lit up, crackling with purple electricity. - "There is no time to lose."

Tumbling and staggering, the Draconequus felt his body sting drastically every time that he would hit one of the sturdy and thorny trunks in this maze-like forest. With each and every step he left a long trail of damaged feathers and burnt fur mixed disgustingly with large quantities of fresh blood and raw bile that were uncontrollably puked by him with each unbearable wave of nausea that hit his body. His limbs and appendages could barely function as he had to heavily rely on his wings and scarce strength left in his legs and paw to pull himself through the forest faster in order to get away from the bearers. His chaos magic was even more corrupted and unbearable than before. With each heartbeat a sharp quantity of harmony magic would be pumped through his veins and accelerate the crystallization process, tearing him apart from the inside… His magic tried remaining together, but it was almost impossible as he could see the small crystals forming around his bleeding wounds. The pain was just excruciating and as much as Discord fancied a full fledge dimension spinning in all directions, getting such an effect through blood loss and lightheadedness was much uncalled for at such a critical moment.

Every sense within his body was so disconnected… The bleeding just wouldn’t cease. Reaching the edge of a river, the draconequus shakily dragged himself closer to it and finally let his body tumble down as he fell to his knees and paw by the river bank, shoving much more than just half of his muzzle inside the clear water and taking large desperate gulps of the fresh and cold liquid as quickly as he could. The water darkened by washing away the debris, blood, saliva and bile that once encrusted his muzzle, and now were flowing downstream. Closing his eyelids tightly and with effort, there was just the feeling of quick splashing wetting his fur… All sounds rang wildly inside his sensitive ears, all distinguished smells blurred together and his bifurcated tongue was not of much use when it was always burning with a rancid layer of sticky acid and blood over it. The vague sound of hooves in the distance briefly filled his ringing ears, but it was cut short as growls and howls started to be emitted much closer to his current position.

-“Great..!”

Barking in a low and harsh tone as he raised his muzzle out of the water, a thick thread of bloody saliva hung from his mouth, resisting against the stream that had washed his face prior. The Everfree was an area well known for being infested by timber wolves and this never did faze him in the least; but as the woody canines showed up, enclosing the beast in a circle, there was something in Discord’s head that just snapped.

And so would the frail wood that made those creatures rise in the first place…

-“Come on girls, we’re closing in now!” – Applejack chanted, trying to motivate the group to follow her lead as she hushed their stride.

Unable to fly, due to the risk of hitting one of the tall trees, all of the mares ran as fast as they could follow the messy trail left behind by the draconequus despite their chagrin. Twilight leading the group with AJ right by her side, as her horn illuminated their dim lit path and the farm mare leaded then to serve as a shield if necessary.

-“Ugh, another meeting with that ruffian! And this soggy environment will NOT, leave my poor mane unscathed. “– Clearly distressed, Rarity couldn’t help but complain as she ran alongside Fluttershy, both of them in the tail of the group.

-“Ya’ all, don’tcha think it’s fishy that not anything even tried to mess with us all the way here?” - Just as Applejack finished her question, loud howling, hollering and whining could be heard straight from up ahead. The forest was dense and naturally slightly dark, but fiery silhouettes came running and tumbling as they whined loudly and tried to put off the blue fire that was set upon their bodies by rolling around and hitting trees with their bodies, slightly disorientated. - “… What in tarnation happened to those woody critters?!”

-“…Discord.” – Twilight said without a shred of doubt as she enticed the whole group to speed up their gait. The trail they followed was still disgusting, but the scent of his metal, electricity and blood got stronger as they closed; the blood was charged with two distinctive magics that caused it to fizzle and boil by itself.

As they kept running and tried to avoid the panicking aflame timber wolves, the forest started to lose its density and a weak sunlight shone through the treetops; the sound of a running river up ahead filled their ears, as well as the sound of an intense battle between an angry pack of timber wolves and a creature whose grotesque roar sounded like all sorts of deadly things screaming in unison: A lion’s roar, an eagle’s screech, a dragon roar and a snake’s hiss.

Reaching the battle, their eyes caught sight of a rather disturbing vision… Discord stood tall amongst the few enemies he had left trying to attack him; as he rose up, one wolf that jumped straight for his neck was immediately blasted with a potent stream of a bluish white fire, not even having a single chance to reach the ground and try to run to the river to extinguish the flames; as it’s body hit the ground and exploded immediately, it sent fiery pieces and splinters flying in all directions while spilling a purple acid liquid from the blown remains of it’s make-shift guts, that started to burn and scorch both the earth and plants as soon as the liquid touched the ground. A pair of Timberwolves tried to flank him, one of them successfully sank their sharp wooden fangs deep into his “goat” leg while jerking its head from side to side as it tried to tear apart the muscle with all of it its strength. However, the second one was not as lucky as the hardy scales on the dragon leg deflected the bite; the wolf’s fangs slid off even with all the pressure it applied. Discord instinctively reacted by kicking its head clear off with his cloven hoofed leg despite having the other wolf firmly attached to it. The wooden skull came rolling close to Rainbow Dash’s hooves as it was oozing that purple goo from all possible holes it had in it right now, being deformed by the kick and having a dangling broken jaw.

Falling forward through the process of kicking, Discord emitted a guttural growl and quickly snapped towards the remaining timber; sinking his teeth with all of his strength on the wolf’s skull, he didn’t crush it immediately, but the pressure great enough to crack the wood deeply and force the skull to collapse under the sheer power of the crushing bite; eventually completely destroying the wolf’s head as its body fell limp on the river’s edge, the contents of said skull squirted in every direction as a mashed purple “bloody” matter. Toxic acid spilled on the clear water and the body promptly disassembled itself right after the loss of its head.

When the struggle was over, Discord swiftly gone back to standing on two legs as he huffed and snarled mindlessly… Every scratch and wound on his body sparked with peculiar white and purple electricity as they were healing themselves by the second. A cruel and tense silence fell upon the group as the wolves that emitted the howls prior had been all murdered one way or another. Only the tree’s leaves shook with the wind as the water also went downstream. Nonetheless, the silence didn’t last.

A large impact could be heard as the blue Pegasus bucked the decapitated wolf’s head right into Discord’s nape with a large thud, startling the beast that twisted it’s neck around to stare at her, immediately narrowing his eyes and pulling his lips back even further than before, snarling deeply with fury as his eyes shone with aggression and carnality.

-“Come on now you coward, we’re gonna shove you back into stone even if I have to kick you back into being a statue!” - Not sparing a second the female rainbow Pegasus took right off and lounged herself in the beast’s direction as the rest of the group stared in shock; Twilight reflexively charged up her horn in a split second as the scene unraveled in front of her eyes.

In the very moment Discord saw her flapping her wings to take off towards him, he launched himself in her direction with his jaws fully open as he extended his paw to perform a vice grip… Two dangerous rows of sharp teeth ready to powerfully lock down onto her skull just as he did with the fallen Timberwolves. Taken aback by this surprise attack, the Pegasus tried to maneuver but it was far too late to change direction now; as soon as she extended her hind hooves and tried brace for impact a stream of magenta light came buzzing overhead and exploded right in the draconequus gaping maw, throwing his face off course by the sheer strength of the impact and creating a smoke cloud in the process as it generated a tiny explosion.

Their bodies collided at very high speed as her hooves slammed on his chest first, scratching all the way down to his ribs as her weight forced the mare’s body to pivot forward; red sparks cracking in the air when Rainbow’s chest impacted itself on his shoulder, pressing her element onto his body as it lit up briefly.

Falling forward after pushing herself out of his strike range, Rainbow landed on the ground and quickly sprung to the air, getting airborne immediately and flying up and away from him to regroup with the other mares. Once she did so, the look of shock was plastered all across her features, having her wings fully extended and her feathers all prickled up around her neck, hackles standing on end down her spine.

-“What was that?! The guy is a coward! He should have teleported or created a brick wall, or, or… Something!” – A bit shaken by what had just happened, the cyan mare was trying to make sense of the unexpected attack.

-“Are ya crazy?!” – Screaming almost at the top of her lungs, Applejack pulled the smaller mare by the shoulders, staring into her eyes with an infuriated expression.

-“I’m not! I just didn’t expect him to-“ – Trying to explain her reasoning, Rainbow held the orange mare’s wrists to free herself from Applejack’s grip, but Twilight cut through their exchange sharply.

-“Girls! Stand back!” – The unicorn commanded calling their attention as the group followed her order; something was very off with Discord.

Coughing and shaking his head from side to side violently, the draconequus raised his muzzle and stared Twilight directly into her eyes. Ruby like irises expanded and glowing threateningly, as the pupils turned sharp as needles. A low growl rumbled into his throat as his teeth grinded against each other, emitting short lived sparks. As he squared up his body posture, Discord’s eyes darted to his shoulder which now possessed a burned area in the shape of a small symbolic lightning.

Twilight’s face scrunched in confusion, but there was no time to voice her thoughts or act further; the gapping jaws of the lord of chaos opened up to their full might again and from his throat were spilled a stream of extremely hot flames, brighter and more intense than before. Both the unicorns in the team created a magical shield to deflect the flames, however everything around them was set ablaze and quickly started to be consumed… The air was rising in temperature rapidly the quantity of oxygen within the dome shield was scarce for all the six ponies.

Among the violent blazing inferno of blue flames stood the silhouette of the devious creature… With crimson eyes that shone as bright as the fire around him, acquiring a faint purple glow from the blue light reflected on his ruby irises. The mares expected for the worst possible outcome as they were trapped and under his mercy, so they prepared themselves for whatever move he would pull next.

But much for their surprise, the draconequus extended his damaged wings, turned around and ran at full speed before taking off after jumping over the river. All of the mares were left speechless and stared in confusion as their magical shield was expanded by Twilight and extinguished the flames that were threatening them the most. Once the fire taken care of, a dangerous hoarse growling of anger could be heard within their own group.

-“No! YOU WON’T!” – Rainbow swiftly crouched to get impulse and extended her wings, fully prepared to take off as she jumped forward and into the air

-“Rainbows, don’tcha dare-“ - As fast as AJ tried to grab onto her tail hair to hold her, the mare was gone as she flew off to pursue Discord, increasing her speed fiercely with each thrust of her wings.

Discord’s ears twitched reflexively to the sound of the incoming angry Pegasus; even if he so was much bigger, his current state of mind wouldn’t allow any threats to remain pressuring him. Getting injured or captured was out of question… It didn’t matter if she was small. The Pegasus was in the way of his freedom, and this wouldn’t last.

-“You made me betray my friends and my home, and I’ll make you pay for that!” - Diving like a hawk, she prepared herself to strike his bat wing with all her strength, be it by claws or hooves, but unfortunately for Dash… She had underestimated his capacities.

The draconequus quickly spun his flexible body as if he was a cat mixed with a snake; maneuvering his wings to purposefully catch all of the drag possible… And as he came to a sudden break, he stared deadly into her eyes with a vicious look as his paw swiped at one of her wings in a speed her eyes could barely register.

Rainbow tried to dodge or even retract her wings in time, but it was far too late as she witnessed his light yellow claws sink deep into the connective tendon between her wing’s bones and muscles… A sharp pain hit her immediately and spread through her entire wing to her back, paralyzing it as she suddenly plummeted from the sky like a bird that had been torn apart by a hawk; that demon was just there, staring at her from above as he rotated back into his original position and thrust himself forward and towards his escape.

Flapping her wings was no use.

Screaming was no use. Her body was in shock.

As Rainbow fell from the skies, her blood droplets got carried by the wind, falling with her but still floating above the Pegasus. The pain was just unbelievable as she was far too stunned to react, or even try to save herself.

Two delicate hands of a soft yellowish fur suddenly broke off her fall with a strong jerk. As the velocity was diminishing rapidly but in an unstable way, Rainbow could hear the loud and fast flapping of a pair of wings behind her as her friend’s heart race, her chest raising and falling quickly with effort.

-“F-…Fluttershy?!” – Rainbow’s body tensed with pain and stain as she opened her eyes further and suddenly the whole world felt like too much to take in as she squinted at her savior from below.

-“Hng… Just… Hang in… There… It’s all gonna be okay!” – Squirming and struggling a lot, the delicate Pegasus mare did her absolute best to break her friend’s fall as her blood droplets rained back down on both of them.

The mare tried to reassure her with a firm tone in her voice, yet a sweet sound to it… Like always. In a few seconds they landed and the yellow Pegasus was gasping for air after releasing her friend; after all going so high and breaking the fall of somepony else put quite a strain on her unprepared svelte body.

Seeing her in such a state broke Rainbow Dash out of her previous shock.

-“Fluttershy! Are you okay? I’m sorry, I- ARGH!” – Screaming in agony as she moved her wings to fold them, the realization hit her like a full speed friendship express. Her muscles were badly injured, and a stream of fresh bright blood was trickling down her feathers in copious amounts. Clenching her teeth, she tried to bite some tears back… It was not only her wing that was hurt, but also her pride and her feelings. Flying was the world to her, and seeing her wing in such a state sucked all hope and confidence she had within her in seconds.

As the other mares finally caught up to the duo, they conglomerated around Rainbow, each one of them was panicking and distressed by what they had just witnessed, but once the cyan mare put her hands to the ground and grasped the grass looking defeated and gazing at the horizon, they all remained quiet for a moment as they lacked the right words to be spoken and didn’t quite know what to do to soothe their friend.

-“I… I can’t believe it.” – Tears of pure anger and revolt rolled down Rainbow's cheeks, wetting her fur and making it darker. A strong hand was placed upon her shoulder, as she was pulled in the embrace of Applejack; a comforting hug that she was in dire need of at the moment.

-“We can’t either Sugarcube… But first, let’s patch this up, and fall back… For now.”

As bitter as those words were for her, Applejack was right… They couldn’t do anything right now. They were defeated; even using the elements of Harmony had failed somehow, even if their friendship was tested… The draconequus still escaped, as the sun stood high in the sky and the scenery that was once beautiful and wild had been covered in blood, flames and tears that day.

The mane six retreated to ponyville, as not only they stood silent, but the entire Everfree forest did as well.

Author's Note

Welp, this was surely so much fun to write! Discord didn't quite get stunned this time around, much to our main mares' dismay. :twilightangry2:

This is my first mlp fic, and I hope you like it! Have fun, and do drop comments! I'd love to hear what you have to say about it. In the next chapter, I'll get deeper into explaining how our lovely noodle barely escaped his doom. :pinkiecrazy:

This fic is mostly created for fun and to back up how our next gen universe came to be! It won't have gore or swearings all the time, but due to chapters like this one, I added those tags for safety. :twilightblush:

Chapter II : Amidst misery and calamity

Author's Note

It took me a whole month to notice that I should update my fic. It's just so lovely how life just makes you stumble for a little bit too long. :ajbemused: It's a surprise that I managed to put this out in a few days or so... And I still gotta figure out how indentation works in this site. :raritydespair:

Nonetheless! I tried a lot of new things in this chapter related to the writing style, I hope you can all enjoy it! Any critique or questions are very welcome. as there is a part that might raise a bit of confusion. :twilightsheepish:

Chapter II : Amidst misery and calamity

--Canterlot Castle,??? AM/PM--

A suffocating dark veil fell upon the the sky, consuming it with a quick voracity as the full moon rose to the highest point it could go for all to see. Bringing a glimmering blanket of stars to decorate the absolute black that surrounded it.

The lights all flickered once again; a piercing pain ran down her skull immediately as if someone had just hit a hammer to the tip of her horn in order to impale it inside her own brain.

The harsh warmth of sunlight flooded the land a few seconds later, making a drastic and dangerous shift in the palette of colors that were being held now by the day sky; the transition had been done in a very forcible manner, throwing off the delicate balance and synchronization on the magical fields of anything that dared receive it’s violent energy as raw as it was right now. Celestia could feel how the sunlight was uncharacteristically plunging everything it touched in a scorching heat… The once comforting hazy light had turned into a blazing inferno.

Light gallop echoed through the hollowed corridors of the Canterlot Castle, as the sunlight penetrated through each tacky stained glass window and cast on the floor the tales of the past, irradiating colors and bringing memories to the surface that she’d rather forget… Celestia had to act quickly.

Once again, the lights oscillated and fizzled all at once as the castle trembled on its ground and tiny particles of dust came from every corner. She stumbled to the side and fell to the icy ivory floor on her knees; stomach knotting upon itself as a skull-splitting migraine took over in the blink of an eye. Her horn lit up once again involuntarily and sparkled with enough radiation that it could badly scorch anypony that stood around her.

Celestia’s cutie mark stung as if the skin under it had just started to heat up and soon would melt right off. All of her muscles seemed to be cramping, taking turns to afflict her with a throbbing pain in each region of her body as all of her three different magics collided and conflicted with one another. So far she had been able to send the letters to Twilight in hopes that they would aid her to see past that fiend’s manipulation. The solar princess was sure that her pupil could do it. As for her… She had to be reunited with Luna; however that was no easy task as her world just randomly started to spin within a small time interval to each of the insanely intense waves of dizziness and nausea that hit home.

Her air pipes started to shut down in a dangerous short span of time as a grim feeling crept up her spine alongside a cold chill that made her heart freeze for a moment and then accelerate… Sharp talons trailed on her skin, pressing and clamping down upon her throat. The mare’s eyes started to roll back into her skull as an exorbitant lightheadedness struck at full force; her body weakened harshly as she couldn’t keep herself straight, bending forward and wrapping her arms around herself. The colored projection of one of the stained windows bathed her with multicolored light and sharp shapes of flames, chaos and despair as a grim laugh rang inside her ears dully. Weakly Celestia turned her gaze to the chimeric creature depicted in the center of the image.

-“Oh did you miss me, Celestia?” - His voice resurfaced her mind… A vicious tone that sounded almost painful. Her heart sank to her stomach.

Suddenly every layer of her horn flared up once again while shooting a searing pain through its whole length, causing the princess to shriek in agony and shot her wings open desperately as she threw her own body to the side in a reflex to the pain; her head slammed against the floor as her crown fell and rolled down the hallway with echoing metallic sounds. All other noises were fading in as the light started to dim and blur. Celestia could feel the scorching heat and light dying down, as the colored projection from the stained window diluted in a rapid pace, alongside the fading sunlight that slipped away from her grasp once again and was swallowed by the horizon.

-“- ..ster?” - One of her ears reflexively turned around and tried to pick up the whispery distortions that crashed upon her senses.

-“Lu… Na…” - Muttering back in an even weaker whisper, those were the last words she could pronounce as she caught a brief glimpse of dark blue hooves racing in her direction, carrying a vague but familiar figure that approached her with a heartful of worry, kneeling as soon as she reached her and pulling her body closer with her hands.

-“Sister!” - Luna tried to reanimate her sister by any means, even shaking her back and forth... But it was of no use; the sun bearer had passed out right there in her arms, and unfortunately for the princess of the night, her turn to endure the painful horn malfunctions were approaching too. She couldn’t possibly risk entering the dream realm in order to aid her sister in such a condition as it would be far too unsafe to have her magic fizzle out amidst such a task. The only thing that she could do for now was wait and make sure that her sister’s health was in no serious danger; hoping that the older Alicorn could escape her induced nightmares on her own.

-“Be strong sister… I know you can triumph over this demon.” - And as she held the white Alicorn tightly in her embrace, her horn started to heat up too; the moon rose in the sky as blood trickled down the cut that her teeth carved in her lower lip. Nonetheless, Luna had to endure it without a complaint for her own sake and everyone else's.

-“Guards! Take us to my sister’s chambers!” - Luna demanded as she had been followed all this time by a small portion of her night guard, some of Celestia’s solar guard joined them too. Laying in bed wouldn’t solve her problems, but it would be easier to deal with this conundrum if at least she had something comfortable to lay upon as she watched her sister, despite their combined agony.

--Dream Realm, ✖--

As light flooded into her senses, revealing everything with such a blinding pastel luminance; The colors melted and stained all of the skies above and ground below; funny shapes softly sprouted, twisted and climbed all over, hypnotizing the young filly with such a mellow show.

The rays reflected and refracted from beautiful puffs so fluffy and soft, that as the image sank into her eyes, the filly could feel her heart going aloft;

“So wonderful, so beautiful!” - The filly rejoiced filled with joy and glee, as the rainbow cascades that fell seemed to have come straight up from a dream. Yet she couldn’t quite see, that as the colorful clouds merely filled up the seams; a dome stood powerfully above, mythical, glass like, hiding from prying eyes where the world ended… Kind of.

Doused and soaked, glittering and shimmering, beautiful flora danced gracefully with the breeze, and as the fauna came forth- a murmur was carried from the north. A whisper that cut deeply through the frolic; lost, broken? Perhaps melancholic. - All the living it seemed to displease, as they scattered, dispersed, the forest once again came to a freeze.

The filly that also had danced, singed, twirled and pranced; Thought that she could go on forevermore; but that wasn’t the case, as a sudden chill crept through her very core.

“Is anypony there?” - She asked not for answer of the dancing flowers, blowing leaves or rushing rainbow outpour; as that whisper had carried a voice, albeit damaged, she had heard it once before.

Once lighting up the soft forest shadows, and brightening up the thick meadows, the colorful eyes now skittered and scattered back to the safety of the growth; all life dying down and fading away as that dim and distant voice once again, whispered softly to the winds with loath.

-“...Lie.”

As the whole body was stricken by a sudden quiver, the filly’s staggered as her hooves sank into a shallow river; where had it come from? Nobody could tell, but if one thing was certain, it seemed to desaturate everything that was once so soft colored, all things that once were pastel.

Luscious and mellow the forest was no more, as deeper and deeper the filly wandered leaded by the river, the colors were all devoured by the greying waters, and soon drowned and powerless as it was turned, the forest could not be alive anymore.

Paddling and sweating, shivering and withering, the sun bearer scrapped her hooves on the rocky and slippery river floor, as the lights finally pierced down in a harsh assault, transfixed, her meekly marching came to a halt. Eyelids tightly shut, all of the sounds that once reached her came to an abrupt cut… And then, there was only silence.

Opening her eyes, she bravely looked around in defiance… The forest had vanished, and alongside it all life seemed to be banished; there was only a smooth, crystalline infinite floor.

Shocked and astounded, she turned from side to side, confounded; nothing was like it had been before… Everything but a silhouette, standing above a unique pedestal, as all the lights were dying down, only a spot reminisced around, and nothing more.

-“I found you! But what happened to everyone that was here before? They were so lovely! But now they’re gone… Everything is gone.”

The silhouette did not ever shift, even as the skies above finally came to a rift… The last trace of a dream that tried to stand against oblivion, fading away, just like everything else, it succumbed to decay. And the whisperer dared to speak up once again.

-“None of you did stay… Why didn’t you stay?”

Celestia’s ears pinned back as her heart sank in pure dismay… A voice so sweet and familiar; the voice of a long lost friend that she could never associate with a killer.

-“Discord-”

-“What have I ever done to you? All of you?” - Turning sharply the cub sounded hurt as he roared, exposing to the pink maned filly a sight that she could only take in as abhorred. His chest was ripped open, all burnt away was his hide, and his left eye was completely gone, and you could see everything that bleed within it’s inside. In their places erupted magenta crystals, eating away his flesh, and spilling liquid as they formed blisters.

-“I didn’t… Mean to..!” - Doused in raw horror as she saw such a display, the filly tried to go back, to run away; however she couldn’t move or try to flee, as crystal snakes constrained her hooves and tattered her to the pristine floor, something she would had never tried to foresee.

-“LIAR!” - He screamed and his voice echoed in the hollowed dome, falling to shambles was the sky, as the gray water around her hooves had dispersed and faded away in foam.

She tried to speak, but the words didn’t come, as the echo still hollered above with the same word, and nothing else could possibly be heard.

“LIAR!” “LIAR!” “LIARS” “LIARS!” “LIAR!”

-“YOU ALL LIED TO ME! YOU HAD PROMISED ME!”

Dropping to the icy cold floor; the fear within her heart could not subside, as the filly couldn’t run and had nowhere left to hide; and she had no one here to call a friend, despite the fact that the chaotical cacophony had come to a bleak end.

She blinked, and there was a spot of dim light right above her head… Everything else was devoid of life, devoid of motion, devoid of sound and sights; As far as the horizon could go, the void was everything that she could possibly see below. Now standing on a pedestal, crystal chains pierced through her meat, but despite that, there was no feeling of pain as her heart had stopped to beat.

She tried to shout, but no voice came out… And from the crystalline darkness under, a fluttering sound came about; A million flapping wings as butterflies swarmed the sun, the only beam left of light…

-“You’ll come undone.” - A dozen strange voices thundered in her ears, a ringing noise quickly escalated and it she could not shun. The swarm had swallowed her, and as the butterflies melted into one amalgam, the feelings of dissonance and pandemonium had come.

The unholy abomination melted violently around her, convulsing corpses that scraped, screeched, quakeed and screamed all in unison, wrapping and reaping at her very soul, drowning the dying sun.

The fallen had come to tear her apart; they ate her alive… And as all lights came to be extinguished, one voice reverberated.

-“There will be no one who shall be left to survive.”

--Canterlot Castle, ✖--

-“S-stop! STOP!” - In her bounds, Celestia fruitlessly trashed around and struggled, screaming in silence as her words came out but never truly echoed through her surroundings. Their claws dug deeper into her… Their screams and shrieks got even louder; but she couldn’t look away, nor tear them apart from herself. Their claws were not digging at her flesh, but into her soul itself, ripping her very essence to tiny pieces as everything in her mind started to turn into a jumbled mess of broken thoughts and damaged memories that quickly lost their form and played over and over, corrupt and meaningless.

The pain resided in the despair, in the absolute mayhem of mixed feelings as the amalgamated souls dragged her into whatever THEY were. Drowning in what felt like quick sand, she lashed out as every ounce of life was sucked dry from her, leaving nothing but an empty shell that started to crack and fade away within the other disfigured forms.

Amidst this chaos, she unconsciously transited from screaming and lashing out to sobbing and weeping. Her clenched fists hitting over, and over, and over into the melting mass of corpses; sinking into the clingy matter as she pulled back for yet another pointless strike-

It hit something solid. It felt like a hard area that was covered in smooth fur as her right hand slid upon it, her palm touching that fuzzy skin. It was a body, a shoulder as she could tell by the shape of the bone lying under. The cacophony of screams and moving masses started to silence and fade away as the spot of light above her head shone intensely, in an almost blinding manner.

--Canterlot Castle, 19:47 PM--

Her whole body was shaken to the core; there was a strong pressure sitting on top of her shoulders now, irking her senses.

-“CELESTIA! SNAP OUT OF IT SISTER!” - A familiar voice erupted from the deadly silence after the horrid sounds of her nightmare had silenced.

Immediately Celestia’s body jerked up as she sat upon her comfortable bed, panicked and gasping deeply for more air, her senses still overwhelmed and her lungs overworked. Due to the sudden change in position, it took more than a few seconds for her body pressure to spread equally all over, causing the iridescence maned unicorn to wobble and fall back into Luna’s arms, which held her closer to herself in turn. Worry plastered all over her features very clearly, however she tried to sooth her older sister.

-“Calm down dear sister… Everything will be okay now, it’s no longer a nightmare in which you are trapped. This is the real world. Breath in-”

-“Princess Celestia, are you okay?!” - Hurried and deeply distraught, Twilight’s voice snapped out even if she were trying to hold herself back for Celestia’s sake. This earned a mild scowl from the Princess of the night that was trying to not perturb Celestia further. - “… I’m sorry. It’s just that seeing you trash around and scream in your sleep made me really, really,really worried and-”

-“Twilight Sparkle, we request thou to calm down and stop thy fussing at once. Our sister will be okay, now give her a moment to properly wake up.” - Luna demanded, and this time it seemed to be effective enough.

-“Okay! No hurry, no fuss! Everything is going to be just alright! Haah… I’ll be quiet now.” - as Twilight straightened her posture and tried to nod hurriedly in agreement with Luna, she ended up rambling; it was difficult to keep her overflowing anxiety in check in situations like these, and on top of that she smiled like some sort of maniac to try to be reassuring.

-“I… Huh? Twilight is that you?” - Finally as her eyes started to re-adjust to the real world, light started to flow in more naturally as she blinked a few more times, squinting her eyes as she supported her hands on her sister’s shoulders to push herself into a sitting position once again. - “You’re here...” - Saying mindlessly, the alicorn rubbed the back of her hand onto her eye for a few seconds trying to forget her excruciating nightmare. As her mind kicked back into work a spark finally went up. - “You’re here! You’re… The citizens! Discord! The sun...”

Looking about, the princess of the sun seemed disorientated for a moment before turning her head straight to the window and pushing herself up. She tumbled forward as her wings flapped aimlessly, powering a small jump that she made from the wide bed to close the distance between her and the nearest window, holding it’s frame to regain her balance after the stunt.

Luna and Twilight followed her movements, one with a mildly distressed expression, and the other trying to keep that extremely eerie smile of reassurance onto her features as she walked in Celestia’s direction to double check if everything was alright with her. The taller Alicorn made a slightly rough landing onto her hooves due to the lingering drowsiness of her disturbed sleep.

Pushing the windows open, Celestia took in the smooth moonlight that beamed down upon Equestria as she closed her eyes for just a moment of appreciation… The glimmering sky was such a sweet relief, and as her gaze fell upon the streets below, some citizens seemed to be still disturbed as the royal guards wandered about to calm them down and advise them to go back into their homes. There was a last minute curfew that went up since the towns were plunged into a crisis mode; Celestia just instructed such actions to be taken as to make sure that her ponies would all be fine and easy to find in case that more severe measures needed to be set in motion… She could not be cautious enough when dealing with the spirit of chaos.

Appeased, she turned around and sighed heavily as she leaned onto the wall and pressed a hand to her chest, allowing herself relax and support her weight on the icy sleek wall. Folding her tense and tired wings back into their place… She had tossed a lot in her sleep.

Her gaze connected with Twilight’s, the smaller unicorn suddenly seemed to lose her “everything will be fine” eerie smile as she swallowed dry and bowed down, lowering her head as she spoke up.

-“I’m very glad to see that you are okay Princess Celestia…” - Raising her head, her shoulders were still showing tension, but not like her whole body was showing before. - “I was so, so worried! As soon as we arrived and set Rainbow Dash to heal her wing with the local doctor specialist in Pegasi, I came straight up here and found you and Princess Luna-” - However Twilight was cut shortly as the Alicorn’s eyes went wide amidst her explanation.

-“Rainbow Dash was injured?! How badly?” - Asking directly, the princess had no regard for regality or the volume of her voice as automatically she stood up and firm. Not wasting a second to recall the locations within the castle so that she could go directly to the infirmaries and healing wing; the princess started walking, expecting the other two to join her.

-“Her wing was… Well...” - Twilight followed suit, marching alongside the princesses as her gaze feel down to the floor and soured in an instant. - “The main wing ligament tendon was brutally tore up-... Everything happened so quickly, that I could barely absorb the events as they unfolded. If I had only stopped her from pursuing Discord this wouldn’t have-”

Twilight’s words once again stricken the sun princess as she stopped dead in her tracks, forcing the unicorn to run face-first into the princess’ back and disheveled wings as she had no time to stop her own motions.

Stepping back, she rubbed her muzzle with the back of her hand and suddenly took in the scale of what had just happened, stuttering for a few seconds before trying to force out an apology.

-“I’m sorry princess, I wasn’t paying attention and well, I didn’t see when you stopped so-”

The gentle touch of dark feathers rustling on Twilight’s back called her attention to the Princess of the Night that now stood right by her side. A very light warning scowl adorned her features as she nodded pensively from side to side one time and pointed towards Celestia by raising her muzzle in the air in a quick gesture.

That’s when it caught the purple unicorn’s attention… Celestia was trembling slightly for several seconds all of the sudden, staring at seemingly nothingness with her eyes wide open and ears pinned back. It was as if she had been dragged back into her nightmare, but this time was just standing there instead. Swallowing her nervousness back, the element of magic raised a hand to try and catch her attention, however, before she could even touch the white Alicorn again, she spoke up.

-“Did… He do it? Did Discord injure Rainbow Dash directly, or was it an unhappy accident of his magic?” - Her tone seemed disheartened, and hid a suspicious glimmer of hope in favor for the later scenario.

-“I… I’m afraid that… We failed to capture him, your majesty.” - Hastily bowing once more in an apologetic manner, she couldn’t contain the bitter feelings that flooded her chest all at once. She had not only failed Princess Celestia, but failed Equestria, and her closest best friends as well. It was all too much to take in as her voice seemed to stagger with tears that she held back. - “ I failed to see through his tricks; and now he has just flied off somewhere!” - Getting back up, her horn fizzled with electrical magic as she felt anger bubbling up inside her. She held one fist with her other hand above her chest, clenching her grasp tightly around it. - “And Rainbow was hurt by a swipe of his claws… I’m so sorry, I-”

Before she could undo herself into a pool of frustration and anger, she felt the tender touch from the older Alicorn as Celestia pulled her into a comforting hug. The unicorn was surprised at first, but as tears welled up in her eyes, promptly she answered the hug and relished in the mother-like embrace that her mentor had to offer.

-“It is not your fault, or your friend’s for that matter… I should have known that it was far too dangerous to put you against a creature such as Discord on your own.” - Despite her soothing words, a heaving sigh escaped her lips and coated her words with a certain grievance. She finally let the smaller mare go after a few seconds and turned to continue marching towards the infirmary, where the others were waiting for the trio, and supporting Rainbow Dash through this harsh moment. - “I trusted fully and blindly that the elements of harmony alone could protect you and cease his wrongdoings… I should have known better.”

Raising up her head, her strolling motion turned into more of a canter as she had to quickly access the situation and regroup everypony so they could come up with a counter plan for this conundrum… If Discord was free, it wouldn’t be long until the draconequus would regain his powers and exact vengeance upon his offenders.

Luna picked up the pace as she stood by Twilight’s left side, leaving the pupil to walk between them as she spoke with determination.

-“Fear not sister, for all of us commit mistakes. It’s how we fix our mistakes that really matters by the end of the tale. That fiend might have chaos and madness to his aid, but Equestria has it’s champions and allies… We shall heal from this strike, and we shall prevail! That malevolent spirit will not get so lucky at our next encounter.”

-“Exactly!” - Twilight unconsciously beamed, raising her muzzle and almost bouncing with a renewed spirit, as the sisters glanced upon her jovial reaction. Celestia smiled warmly at the sight, while Luna had more of a smirk than anything else… It made the purple mare blush slightly and give a sheepish smile as she noticed their looks.

Princess Luna always was an excellent tactician, even if 1000 years of banishment to the moon might have made her slightly “rusty” at this whole game. Nonetheless, she had not lost all grip onto the art of war.

Discord for now was effectively mostly powerless for all that they knew, and despite the fact that he had somehow blocked the element’s power, he had not been totally immune to it’s damage either; the last time that they had seen him, his body was in a really rough shape, as he was coated in strange wounds and dark layered stains all over his left arm and shoulder. The rest of his body being adorned with dozens upon dozens of shallow wounds that trickled with fresh blood, burnt fur patches, and scratches that seemed to have been made almost surgically as they bleed intensely, but despite that, they were very clean and not ragged at all.

This game had become a cat and mice chase… For now the champions of harmony were the cat, and they had to make SURE to catch that chaotic rat that is the spirit of disharmony before he could stir tumult somewhere else. He could be anywhere in and out of Equestria, but they would find him even if they had to turn every single rock in the hellish pits of Tartarus.

As the main doors of the infirmary wing went open, most passer by doctors and nurses bowed down out of respect to their Celestial Princesses and their reputed student and current champion of harmony, Twilight Sparkle. Guards followed right behind to make sure that nothing unlikely was to happen to them, since of late the castle’s walls seemed to have eyes, ears… Or even claws and talons for that matter.

An eerie tranquility embraced everyone. Despite the dark feelings looming over, they had to follow suit for now and stay calm and collected. It was of no use to panic without even knowing their enemy’s whereabouts.

Coming to the door, the princesses let Twilight be the first to step into the room, as she caught the other mares’ attention almost immediately and they instantly beamed; some with complaints, others with sighs of relief and happiness.

-“Twilight! We are glad to see ya… We were almost going after ya, since ya said it was going to be quick.” - As Applejack came closer to greet Twilight, the angle allowed her to see the royal sisters as they were also coming in. Taken aback, she gave a light bow as they now entered the room fully. - “Ah mean, your majesties could have taken as much time as you needed… We were just a bit worried, it’s all.” - Lifting her head back up, the earth pony pulled her hat off and put it over her chest.

Soon enough the other mares started to imitate the royal greeting gesture; even a hospitalized Rainbow Dash tried to do a semi bowing gesture, despite being strictly told to not strain her muscles.

As Luna caught a glimpse of her movements, she hastily lifted a hand to stop Everypony and proceeded to say:

-“We inform thou that such manner of greeting shall not be necessary. We have most important problems to tend to than regality and mannerisms at the moment.” - And by the end of her small announcement she walked over to the side Rainbow’s bed. The cyan Pegasus was indeed very conscious, as she at least made sure to greet her with a small head bow. The princess of the night gave a small regal smile in return and laid a hand upon hers. Dash’s eyes went slightly wide as she stared at Luna both in awe and with nervousness as she commanded. - “Do report the extension of the damage, doctor Phoenix.” – Turning her gaze to the doctor, Luna expected him to speak up.

-“Well, there is deep damage caused to the main sustaining tendon of the right wing...” - Starting the report, he seemed to raise a folder with all the printed results of her exams, as he kept reading. - “Such an extreme tendon rupture could take 4-6 months to start creating proper scar tissue, and more than 5 complete years to get as similar as it’s previous total functionality-”

Nonetheless, he got quickly interrupted by a desperate shouting Pegasus that threw her hands to the air in pure exasperation.

-“WHAT?! 5 YEARS?! I can’t wait that long! I have to monitor the weather, and keep practicing to join the Wonderbolts; I just can’t be benched for that long! I gotta- Ouch!” - She cringed and complained as her wing muscles winced from the sudden movement. The injury was constantly hurting and starting to swell up rapidly, even after the proper disinfection, stitching and pain killers that were applied to the area.

-“Do rest and conserve your strength, now.” - Luna’s turquoise eyes looked at her imposing… Her gaze piercing through all the sourness and frantic feelings, making the Cyan Pegasus frown and close her eyes heavily, biting her lower lip with a transparent burning anger and frustration, however a hand gently lifted her chin and forced the surprised mare to gaze at those nightly jewels again. - “Do not fret. As the previous element of loyalty I could say with certainty that I would have risked myself just like you did. We shall do everything under our power to aid in the healing of your wound. We cannot promise that you’ll be magically up in the air overnight, but you shall not wait years for that to be.”

The entire mane six seemed instantly appeased to hear that from one of their Princesses as they sighed with relief. This injury had been the main reason of panic among them since much before in the day.

-“See? I always knew that the Princesses would have a solution to this crisis!” - Rarity spoke with confidence, smiling and raising her muzzle in the air with a sense of pride.

-“Really? Ah thought that I clearly heard you panicking over this and asking how in Equestria anyone could ever heal that.” - Applejack said smugly, confronting the unicorn as Pinkie giggled remembering how Rarity was fussing all around, with no fainting couch nowhere in sight.

-“Why, of course!” - Rarity protested exasperated with an offended tone as she placed the back of her hand on her own forehead. - “I could not stand the ghastly sight of that wound, specially inflected upon a dearest friend!”

But before anyone could further the conversation, they all heard a soft sob. All eyes in the room fell upon Rainbow Dash, as she used an arm to try and clear away the overflowing tears. Luna had not deviated her attention from the Pegasus, and grasped her shoulder as a signal of reassurance and motivation for her to speak up as everyone else stood quiet now in surprise.

-“T-..Thank you so much Princesses, I’ll be always loyal to you. And to Equestria… I’ll still be up and ready for battle when we gotta kick that filthy snake back into his stone coffin! Even if I have to do it from the ground!”

Luna silently nodded for a moment, observing in silence how Celestia’s expression contorted with sourness for some seconds, before she managed to pull a façade fake smile and closed her eyes in a friendly expression. This obviously raised suspicion, but she wouldn’t embarrass her sister or put her on a spot among her most faithful student and “warriors”.

-“Yeah, and while they brew some concoction or write a spell to fix you right up, or do something so utterly cool with their magic that you might spring rainbow wings and-” - As Pinkie beamed and jumped forward to land right beside Rainbow’s bed, she saw how the other’s expressions lightened up, some even exasperated at her antics, but Luna mostly smiled lightly at her. - “Well maybe not that, but I’m sure you’ll be up and flying soon enough, Dashie!”

Not only Pinkie reassured her, as all the other five mares gave their own agreeing nods and sounds, before Doctor Phoenix spoke up out of the blue… They had almost forgotten his presence after Rainbow’s short breakdown.

-"Well, for now I believe she will be fine, and until your majesties are ready to administer a solution that will further her healing, I shall leave you to your visit.” - The unicorn doctor said politely, as he gave a light bow and collected Rainbow’s exam results in it’s folder… He had other patients to get to after all. The chaos storm had not been kind to anybody after all.

-“... I’m truly glad that despite this unhappy event, you are all still quite alright.” - Princess Celestia finally spoke up as her wings fluttered open for a moment. She was legitimately happy about this however, as the mane six looked up to her, she came to a stop right beside Pinkie and also gently held upon Rainbow’s hand, earning a light bashful smile from the Pegasus mare. - “I already have something in mind from my and Luna’s old studies to aid with your injury… However, I would like to discuss the problem at hand if you all are not too worn out I’m afraid.”

-“I might be in a bed, but I’m ready to come up with a cool plan to kick flank, Princess Celestia!” - Rainbow beamed raising her hind hooves to the air in a kicking motion, groaning in a displeased tone as she couldn’t avoid moving her immobilized wing slightly.

-“Rainbows! Don’t fuss around like that!” - AJ protested with a scowl.

-“I’m not made of crystal, ya know. My wing hurts, but that’s about it!” - Retorting, she gave the earth pony an even more menacing stare as she crossed her arms.

-“A-ahn… I think it means yes, we’d like to hear your plans your highness.” - Fluttershy intervened politely and in a barely brave but bold enough tone, raising her head and squaring up for a few seconds before, meekly slumping back into her shy posture and letting her bangs fall over half of her face. - “If you still wanna talk, that is.”

Nodding positively, her yellow sparkling aura lit up as the chairs by the sides of the room were brought in closer, accommodating the currently standing five mares. Luna simply strolled to Celestia’s side as the sun princess spoke up.

-“We may not be able to pinpoint his location right now; however I have a very strong hunch of where he might be headed. I’ll first need to hear how did Discord manage to escape the elements? I assume that you read the letters that I sent back to you.” - Looking directly at Twilight, Celestia showed a concerned and perplexed expression.

Promptly the unicorn mare swallowed dry and frowned, bringing a hand to cup her cheek as she remembered the events that unfurled before and pondered.

-“Honestly, I’m not sure… After I cast a quick memory spell to bring everyone back from his discording spell, or whatever that greying malicious spell was; we assembled to shot him back to stone with the elements, but-” - And as she looked down slightly confused at this point, Pinkie shot her arms wildly to the air and cut Twilight shortly.

-“And then we all floated like we had super powers, and we felt that tingly and awesome, but warm feeling of the elements activating, and Discord was like: NOOO! And we were like: Yeees! Of course, we couldn’t actually say it because it’s like we kind of freeze when we’re floating up and the elements activate, but you get the drive!” - She laughed and swatted her hand in the air a few times, as if fanning in front of her mouth. Then her expression changed to a worried one as she had a bit of a scowl this time around. - “But when we came back down to the ground, he was nowhere to be seen! Then everypony started to look around frantically!” - She jumped up and precariously balanced her whole body weight on her hands that were supported by the chair’s thin back. - “Applejack found a trail, but much to Rarity’s horror and mostly a scare for us-” - This earned a mild glare from the white unicorn, that once more huffed and raised her muzzle in the air, looking to the other side. - “... IT WAS TOTALLY MADE OUT OF BLOOD AND STRANGE MEATY LIKE DARK PURPLE CRYSTALS!”

As she put a whole lot of emphasis on her words, the boisterous earth pony swung her body forward and fell back into her seat. Rarity’s face scrunched in disgust at the memory.

-“Ugh, if it wasn’t absolutely necessary for the Princesses to know the minimal crude details, I’d rather not have that imagery brought back to surface ever again.”

But as the mares looked to the princesses, Luna seemed to be slightly confused but mostly annoyed… It didn’t explain almost at all how he could have escaped. Celestia was mostly bewildered and puzzled, as she tried to make sense of Pinkie’s rather blurted explanation. Twilight intersected the silence this time, taking back her speaking role that was cut out.

-“Thank you for the… Summary, Pinkie.”

-“Anytime!” - The fluffy haired mare beamed up with a wide smile uncharacteristic of the situation’s seriousness.

-“However we got no clue of how he managed to escape… Maybe he overpowered the elements?” - Twilight questioned the sun bearer.

-“Not likely Twilight, the elements powers based of pure balance, diminishing powers that are being used erratically or are too concentrated… They bring back harmony to all things that are bestowed with their magic, and only that.” - Celestia spoke up, deep in thought as she looked to her sister… And the dark blue mare was strangely focused at the group, her gaze stuck on Fluttershy, as the butter colored Pegasus remained quiet and looked straight to the ground below, agonized.

-“Sister, is there anything in your mind that might aid us?”

-“Fluttershy.” - Luna hastily spoke up walking in the Pegasus’ direction. Immediately it snapped her attention as she looked up to the princess of the night. Timid as always.

-“O-oh, yes Princess Luna?” - She humbly asked, having her head pointing down but looking up from behind her hair with one of her teal eyes.

Luna’s expression softened as she spoke in a more relaxed manner, asking her a question. - “Those “fleshy dark crystals” as Pinkie dubbed them… Did they look anything like one of the animals that composed the body of that fiend?”

Now all eyes fell upon the duo. Even Celestia was confused for a brief second, before realizing where her sister might be going with this, so she closed her semi-open lips and raised her ears, expecting the answer of the shy mare.

Swallowing dry, she tried to exhale her nervousness away as she recalled the whole episode and put the most detail that she could remember into her description. - “Y-yes… Everyone was quick to follow the trail of blood puddles, scales, feathers and burnt fur that he had left behind, but I took a spare moment to look at those remains… They were shattered and scattered all through the grass, but...” - Her stomach turned into a knot. She exhaled again, shivering just lightly. - “But despite that, the chunks of looked like an arm that had been blasted to pieces and was crystallizing from the inside... It vaguely resembled the skin of an eagle at the surfaced, adorned with orangeish scales. Some even had tufts of brown feathers attached, and I could swear that if you align the bits, you could make out an entire giant sized eagle talon.”

Celestia’s eyes went wide, but Luna just frowned and sighed, nodding to the pegasus in a quiet “thank you” motion.

-“That’s a very risky and expensive trick that he pulled to escape this time around… He must be utterly powerless in the magical field, however we must haste to pinpoint down the beast, as he is still very capable of injuring more of our subjects.” - Pointing towards Rainbow Dash, Luna turned to her sister expecting for her to intervene now. All the other ponies looked puzzled however.

-“Ah’m sorry but, Princess Luna, can ya explain how that dirty rascal escaped? Ah’m not sure I or… All of us quite caught your reasoning there. What those fleshy crystal bits have to do with it?”

-“I believe it would be wise for us to finish explaining by tomorrow, Applejack.” - Celestia spoke up and sighed, trying to absorb in the speculation that her sister was throwing to her with those vague clues. - “I believe that you ponies should head to our guest chambers, you should all be very exhausted after the events that unfolded today.”

Most of the ponies agreed, even if Twilight did so reluctantly… She understood that it had been a very rough day for everyone, but she wanted to know how Discord had fooled them. And not only that; she was sure he did something to the princesses as well… They looked overly tired, and when she had came to fetch them at their personal chambers, Celestia was thrashing all about while trapped in some weird type of sleep from which Luna couldn’t wake her up even with magic! Nonetheless, she believed that her mentor knew best after all, so she wouldn’t press it right now.

-“Yes, we all should rest and prepare for what is to come. As soon as dawn rises in the horizon, I’ll go to the archives to research… If there is one thing that Discord proved, is that I was not enough prepared… Even my foolproof spell failed!” - That tiny detail resurfaced to mind as Twilight huffed in exasperation.

-“I’m sure your spell was working just fine Twilight Sparkle, however that fiend’s magic outranks ours in ways that are unimaginable.” - Luna corrected before turning towards Rainbow Dash now. - “As the moon stands outside, it is my turn to watch over Equestria… Sister, do lead the others to their respective quarters. Rainbow Dash.” - She called out, looking at the pegasus with a serious expression and a regal air back to her movements.

The cyan pegasus squared up as well as she could on top of a relatively stiff bed but supporting herself on a plush pillow. - “Yes Princess?”

-“I’ll start the research for a potion to aid you right away, as soon as I finish checking upon the Dream Realm and appeasing our rather distressed subjects. Do try and get a good night of sleep, despite everything… Know that you fought well, element of loyalty.”

Biting down onto her lower lip, Rainbow smiled and held back her tears with some effort. - “Onto it Princess! Thank you… I’ll always fight for my friends, and my home!”

Earning a gentle nod of the Princess of the Night, Rainbow watched her turn around and start to leave the room as she had to patrol the darkness and make sure that ponies wouldn’t succumb to fear… However, none did notice the mild suspicious glare that she threw at her sister, except for said Alicorn.

Princess Celestia just decided to let that slide for now, and allowed the mane six to all say their Goodnight’s to Rainbow Dash as they left the room for the time being… Pinkie Pinkie promised to see her with delicious pancakes first thing in the morning before they went off to rest themselves.

As Celestia guided the group of ponies to their chambers, there was little to no chattering to be heard behind her… All of her thoughts seemed hazy and messed up. She couldn’t stop a dreadful feeling that was building up in her chest from devouring her mind anyways. Someone’s touch snapped her out of her silent misery.

-“Princess Celestia? We’re at the guest rooms corridor. I’m sorry, it didn’t seem like you noticed that we’re here already.” - Twilight smiled sheepishly, but soon enough looked at the white Alicorn with worry in her features.

-“O-oh… Yes, thank you for warning me. I was indeed a bit distracted.” - She tried to give her most caring and warm smile, but her expression seemed tired and troubled despite her effort to hide it. - “I hope you all have a good night of sleep my little ponies!”

-“WELL, I’m super duper tired after those nasty things that happened today, so I’m ready to crash in!” - Pinkie beamed, already walking up cheerfully to a large door for one of the main rooms that were for the picking.

-“Ah think we’all can relate there with ya, Pinkie.” - Applejack however gave a small nod and pulled her hat to her chest one last time. - “Goodnight Princess Celestia.”

Smiling warmly, she nodded too and turned around to head back to her chambers, despite having waked up just about an hour ago. Twilight sighted heavily as she saw the Princess turning around the corner, her mane and tail slightly less wavy and lively than normal.

“I do hope she can sleep at all… Or that I can for that matter.” - Thinking to herself, she entered the main chamber that Pinkie had quickly convinced all to use. Somehow she felt that picking individual rooms would feel too lonely after what they had to endure with the discordance that was cast upon them before. Giving a light smile and agreeing with the notion, Twilight tried to redirect her thoughts to her friends and joined them to rest.

As for the princess… She was pacing back and forth in her room, incapable of sleeping. Dusty books flied about as she tried to make sense of everything that she saw and heard; the nightmare wouldn’t easily let go of her mind, and the Alicorn swore that she could still feel those desperate and miserable souls clawing at her magic and her own life-force. Something she deeply wished to be a lie… But what if it wasn’t?

-Appleloosa, 21:17 PM-

There was a gargantuan cluster of chaos magic, radiating with delicious energy directly at south… He just had to keep going a while longer. Keep pushing forward for just some more kilometers.

Of course it would have been so much easier if there wasn’t an alarming quantity of harmonics coursing through his veins… It wasn’t concentrated enough to actually totally petrify him, but from time to time it forced the draconequus to uphuck an actually dangerous quantity of putrefied blood that carried tiny crystals made of his own former flesh and soft tissues.

With every surge of paralyzing pain that hit him, he plummeted over and over, had even crashed a bunch of times already… His memory wasn’t registering the events that were unfolding anymore, blinded by sheer pain since the moment that the annoying pegasus had brushed her distasteful little crystal upon his shoulder.

Through his mind there were only faint flashbacks of the times that he fell… Each time a group of bones snapped and shattered at impact, naturally; and each time they painfully moved back to their places of origin and temporarily glued the shattered calcium formations back together as literal sparks of white, burning magic sealed the cracks. If only he had a slightly bigger reservoir of chaos magic at his disposal, he could heal all of those pesky wounds at the blink of an eye. Nonetheless, when he reached his “sanctuary” he would be able to both dispose of his injuries and finally purge the harmonic magic from his system. But as off now, he could barely stay conscious, and the pure disgust that dig at his guts was sometimes too strong to bear most of the time, as all of his nerves and senses screamed at him with every heartbeat and flap of wings.

His chest and lion paw were covered in dried up mud that stuck heavily to certain patches of fur and feathers that joined his body; even his formerly pristine goatee had the mud’s color dirtying it. Just after he managed to flee the mane six, he ended up crashing not far away in the Froggy Bottom Bog at the edges of the Everfree… A swamp that was house to cute slimy frogs, and hydras of course. Making his way out of there without disturbing the damned things had been almost impossible, and eventually they had indeed noticed him.

Some dozens of minutes later, he ended up spitting almost half of his liver worth in blood and fleshy crystals, going half unconscious in mid flight and barely being able to knock himself out of the stupor as he fell, pulling up in the last minute and avoiding falling into the Ghastly Gorge. The water below looked temptatively refreshing and cold, but chaos could offer him all the water that he could possibly desire with a snap of his fingers. Besides, he was mostly sure that he would have drowned anyways; despite being immortal, he could still get injured just like any other creature.

And once again as he came excruciatingly closer to his goal, another critical surge of harmonics hit him at full force as an electrical spark ran up his spine, sending paralysis to all of his limbs at once as the muscles contorted painfully; the Macintosh Hills at the horizon became smudged in reddish brown colored blur in a matter of seconds as the world went into a corkscrew all around him… Tumbling down from the sky, he felt the altitude rapidly decreasing as his eyes twitched and started to roll back into his skull; the pain was unbearable and crept onto every fiber within him, convulsing and shutting down all functions in his body at once. Feeling his wings barely twitch onto his back, the lord of chaos just tried to brace himself for impact as best as he could one more time… And soon it came.

Crashing at terminal velocity onto the rails that snaked their way out of the city, the draconequus could feel every bone in his neck splitting and shattering even as his head and chest were the first areas that crashed upon the metal and thick wood from the train tracks.

Lights quickly went on right behind him being emitted from the tiny town; the sound of his crash easily waking up the local residents as he tried to contort his own body back into shape… Flesh making disgusting noises as it had erupted alongside splints of bone, and said bones pulling themselves back into place, piece by piece… A pool of blood quickly forming under him from the open wounds as the pressure forced blood to squirt out from his exposed flesh and ruptured veins. Cracks loudly echoed as his jaw popped itself back into place; his disfigured form groaned in agonizing pain as the semi-healing procedure overran his senses.

Everything was covered by a red filter as he wobbled from side to side on his pained limbs; his cloven hoof and dragon claw stumbling over the broken rails… Murmuring was heard some hundreds of meters back, as his ears twitched uncontrollably and his neck twisted it’s own vertebrae back into place. And in the midst of the cacophony of whispers that flooded his ears because of the chaos magic chanting him tales of temptation and wonders from beyond the hills, there was but one interruption… A tumbling sound of various round bodies falling to the dusty ground, followed by the rapid clopping sounds of galloping hooves. A pony… No, a city full of them.

The hydra? Those had been a challenge… The element yielders? Pests that he underestimated… But defenseless ponies were just a treat. And he was so, so terribly starved for some old fashioned turmoil and calamity. Quickly glancing over his own shoulder, he saw a light caramel colored stallion running at full speed back to city, a single red apple cutie mark decorating his flanks. A twisted smile grew upon his now healed mouth.

However it faded away as he thought twice. He could come back for some fun really soon, just as soon as he had reached the quarantined deserts between the Saddle Horn Peaks and the Leota Forest.

As the convulsion like effects from the rush of harmonics had finally faded, and most of his bone structure was at least minimally healed up, he entered a rushed trot towards the hills in the distance as he could hear the screams of ponies coming from the city… They had spotted him. It was really painful to just flee from a defenseless bunch of hillbillies that he could have easily subdued and crushed, but with his recent miscalculations and the fact that his own body and magic were striking him randomly unconscious lately, it was just best to not test his luck right now.

Picking up speed, the chaos spirit started to strongly flap his wings again as he bounced up to the air once more with great effort… This time it would be wise to keep a lower altitude; heading to the hills, he just gave one last look at the panicked town he was leaving behind, and as the blood pressure of his body had subsided to normal levels again and his vision readjusted, the draconequus glanced straight into that light caramel pony’s eyes… Green as emeralds, full of terror as body shook with fear. A malicious grin grew upon his features-

-“Just the way I like them… Oh this will be fun later on.” - Giving a powerful thrust of his wings, the chimerical being dashed forward and upwards as he started to disappear in the line of the horizon and rust colored hills with his thoughts either revolving around chaos, or new forms of torture… Perhaps even both.

Far below in the Appaloosa city, Braeburn swallowed in dry as his head felt light… That demoniac being had just crashed a few meters away from him. He was so terrified that he dropped the basket of apples that he carried and high-tailed immediately as he heard the disgruntled sounds of that being’s flesh and bones… Snapping back into place? He honestly didn’t want to know, he wished he could just forget that whole scene. But whatever that thing was, it was heading either to the San Palomino Desert or the Forest of Leota.

The rails were devastatingly destroyed in a very wide area, that just had became a mini crater after “whatever that was” crashed into the tracks. His heart was racing as he looked at the jeweled night sky, ponies were panicked and running here and there as they gossiped and tried to understand exactly what had happened.

“It will be back...” - Braeburn felt his heart racing as cold sweat ran down his body. He wanted to believe the contrary just as his thoughts betrayed him, but that THING had sent him a soul tearing bloodshot glance from far above… Somehow he just knew that it was looking at HIM. Anypony could call him paranoid, but he just knew it.

Swallowing off the fear for a few seconds, the stallion turned around and ran straight up to his home. Now was a very late hour, but he had to prepare for a little trip first thing at the break of dawn. This was an emergency after all and he had to get help immediately, with or without the train available.

And as he fussed around searching for his one-strap bag, Braeburn just swallowed his nervousness one more time as his heart thumped into his chest.

“Ah hope that thing doesn’t show up for a while… I gotta tell the sheriff. Maybe cousin Applejack might be able to help me.” - Reassuring himself was not much help, but it was better than the looping sounds of bodily terror that filled his mind constantly.

Chapter III : Quarantined

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter IV: Bargain

- Appleloosa, 13:26 PM--

The crash site of the train still had a thin layer of dust floating around as the full throttle of the ponies nearby shook the land; all the citizens of the small town united and in a hurry as they did everything conceivable to help those who were injured and those who were scared.

But first and foremost they rescued the Princess and the element bearers from the derailed fallen train. As the machine lost its momentum after barreling through the city and knocking through a few houses that ultimately crashed down, the ponies didn’t leave a second to spare as they climbed up on the train and forced the metal plates to bend out of the way, as they tore at the wooden walls and opened doors that had become stuck while avoiding debris and shattered glass and removing all the conscious and unconscious passengers. Most of the royal guard squad and the element bearers were conscious, perhaps a bit dizzy.

However, Princess Celestia wasn’t.

Time seemed to tick away slower as the citizens aided the mane six and the guards to find a place for the sun bearer to rest. The magical shield that Celestia had used at the last second successfully saved everyone within the train, but it, unfortunately, knocked her unconscious due to the high demand of energy it had upon her already exhausted body. Joining in this mission with the mane six had as its main goal give them support, advice, and act like a diplomat. Even at full strength, she would have a very poor chance of defeating the draconequus at a magical face-off.

The faint sound of overlapping voices and the clopping of hoovesteps in quite a hurry dully rang within Celestia’s ears as the royal slowly slipped back into reality, blinking the moments away and letting her senses adjusting to all manners of sights, sounds and even smells. Dirt and dust was an abundant scent in the air as the shape of a purple pony faded into view.

-“Princess Celestia! Princess! Are you okay?!” – Twilight’s worried expression made the Alicorn wake up faster from her stupor.

As she shifted in bed dizzily, Celestia slowly sat up feeling her body’s senses starting to kick into gear again. Immediately Twilight supported the mare as her movements faltered. It took only some seconds until the pain of the bruises and her horn shot through her, making Celestia grasp upon the sheets under her and clench her eyes tightly. – “I believe I am, thank you for caring, my dear-” – Gritting her teeth as she sucked some air through them and opening both eyes weakly, she extended her wings gently giving a few flaps while letting the surroundings set into her mind. All of the element bearers were present, Twilight being the closest to her as she had a knee supported on the very edge of her bed, not snapping her gaze away for a second. The sheriff was also with the group, alongside some other stallions and two mares that looked at the royal with pure worry in their features. By the look of the room and the softness of the bed under her, Celestia deduced that they had brought her to the city's new inn… Through the window, you could see the agitation occurring outside as ponies worked on checking the citizen’s states, aiding the wounded and praying to find no dead.

Celestia’s eyes went wide, her ears pinning back as she tried to force her body to stand rapidly, ultimately tumbling forward and being held by Twilight; but before the purple unicorn could protest or warn the princess, she inquired the sheriff. – “Are there any victims?!”

-“Luckily not, your majesty.” – Silver Star answered humbly, putting his hat to his chest. – “We were already out and about when we saw the rails suddenly actin’ crazy and the trees raisin’ flight. Ah’m afraid two houses got destroyed, but thanks to the stars we only have some injuries here and there. We Appleloosan folks are a force to be reckon’ with.” – He offered his brightest smile at the princess, bowing lightly in gratitude for her worry.

-“Indeed, you are. Thank you so much Silver Star, I’m glad everypony is alright despite the shock, it sets my heart at ease.” – Looking at the mattress for a moment, the Alicorn gave a warm smile at the stallion. -“Resources and help will be sent by the crown as soon as possible.”

Bowing and tipping his hat, the sheriff smiled as he held a sniff back. – “Golly, your generosity knows no bounds, your highness. We will be ever grateful to yer help with our beloved town!”

However, the tapping of claws against wood broke through the sweet moment. Rainbow Dash was sitting by the closest window’s parapet, watching the town bursting with movement and huffing to herself in chagrin and silence. A quiet tension was exchanged through the group before Twilight grabbed hold of Celestia’s hand with care and looked at the sheriff with an apologetic but warm gaze. – “I’m sorry to ask that, but I think we need to talk with the princess in private for a moment. Discuss how we will tackle this whole… Situation, about Discord.”

-“W-why, of course! That nasty vermin should be dealt with first and foremost. I’ll let you ladies to yer privacy, need anythin’, we’re downstairs!” – Turning to leave hurriedly, Silver Star smiled and took the other stallions and mares with him.

As the mares were left alone, Rainbow Dash didn’t wait to speak up. – “… When Twilight said that you wanted to reform him at the train, I thought it was absurd… And my opinion didn’t change, if anything it’s stronger. No offense, your Majesty, but do you think someone who did THAT, can be reformed?” – Turning to face Celestia the Pegasus put a hand to the dusty window.

Outside, the ponies worked hard with repairing the damage to the town and dismantling and turning the fallen train’s carts. No one else spoke up for now, but Celestia could see that the doubt rooted in their hearts was strong. She had no choice; closing her eyes for a moment and pushing herself to stand up as Twilight aided her spontaneously, Celestia made her way to the cushioned parapet and sat right beside the cyan Pegasus, who couldn’t help but feel her heart skip a beat as the Alicorn got closer.

-“I’m aware of the many risks that this gamble represents… I have lived through them several times. But we have no choice… Fighting his violence with even more violence will only guarantee a dark future for us and everypony that is to come. It’s hard to understand and I know it sounds like madness, but we have to try our best to befriend him.”

-“Or we could try our best to destroy him…” - Rainbow Dash retorted bitterly.

Shaking her head, Celestia cupped her cheek with a hand. – “Take the element’s message to heart, my little pony; they always stop or constrain those who are lost in power… They never destroyed them.”

-“But he could destroy us. What if we fail?! Fluttershy can’t be thrown to that thing! She is going to get hurt or… Worse.” – Looking at the princess, the Pegasus extended an arm with an outstretched hand, point at the shy mare.

The yellow Pegasus flinched and looked down as her friend’s lack of faith in her shown, even if it came from a place of care it still hurt a bit.

-"We will tread carefully; I assure you I'm not sacrificing anypony for his sake. If he is deemed irreparable, we will do as we must." – looking over to the side of the bed, she lit her horn and levitated her bag closer to them. – "I'm not that trusting in his capacity to willingly ally himself with us." – Tracing her claws over the relic, her gaze deviated to the train’s crash site outside.

-"If… If Princess Celestia thinks he can have a change of heart, I'll do my best to show him kindness." – Fluttershy surprisingly rose up to the conversation, although nervous. – "I'll stay out of harm's way, I promise… But I'll have to at least try.” – Her eyes shone with determination, despite how scared she truly felt.

-“We will be there for you, Sugarcube.” – Applejack placed a hand on her shoulder, showing support to soothe her nerves.

-“Most certainly. That ruffian won’t lay a finger upon you without passing through us first.” – Stomping a hoof, Rarity crossed her arms and whipped her head, causing her mane to graciously wave.

-“It’s a risky tactic, but we have to try.” – Twilight sounded like she was trying to convince herself instead of everypony else, her gaze directed to the floorboards.

-“Maaaaaaaaaaybe he is not as mean as he looks like? It could work. I mean why would a true, true meanie litter the land with delicious snacks and chocolate? Sure everypony was in trouble but really some of the changes didn’t look all that bad.” – Pinkie Pie offered in hopes to lighten up the tense atmosphere in the room.

-"Doesn't change the fact that he just wants to strip the world as we know it of its sense and make everything crazy and weird.” – Applejack retorted with disdain as she rose an eyebrow at the fellow earth pony.

-“Yeah. On top of that, he didn’t think twice before tearing at my wing.” – snarling at the memory Alone, Rainbow felt anger building up within her.

-“Did you think carefully before charging at him?” – With a calm and unbiased tone, Celestia asked in her earnest.

Swallowing dry as her gaze fell down and darted from one side to another, she pinned her ears and admitted with a defeated sigh. – “No… I didn’t. I just didn’t want him to escape.”

-“And he didn’t want to be captured. For Discord to retaliate, you all must have gotten him cornered… He is not a foe that uses of such devices to fight his enemies. I’m by no means excusing his actions, but with the power he holds, it’s more dangerous for us to be violent than peaceful. I hope you understand that.” – Celestia spoke in a calming manner; nonetheless, the way she was schooling the Pegasus.

-“I do but..! It’s unfair that we have to just forgive him for everything! Hnng-” – a growl caught in her throat as her healthy wing shot open and her bandaged wing strongly twitched, yanking at her wound and spreading agony through her.

Placing a hand on her shoulder, she calmed the Pegasus.-“During the decades we fought him, I let my heart be misled by emotion and my sister let her judgment be misled by harsh thoughts. Our actions yielded our subjects much more suffering than they could ever bear just for the intent of punishing him for his crimes. We succeeded, for sometime… But the rift left from our foolishness is far too painful to be repeated. He will have to answer for his fouls and I'll make sure the damage left in his wake will be fixed, but I cannot allow Equestria to be sent through an age of terror again just because it feels unfair. It is, and I know it… But as everything stands now, it’s crucial that we must try to avoid the worst.”

A strange and grim quietude filled the room as everypony stood in mild shock at the sheer vagueness and darkness within Celestia’s explanation. If they were seeing the best side of Discord’s chaos yet, then they didn’t wish to see the worst.

Clenching her fists with boiling temper and holding back unshed tears, Rainbow Dash sighed in exasperation as her cerise eyes met the Alicorn’s. –“Alright… You have my loyalty, Princess Celestia. This still sounds like a crazy plan, but I’ll follow you. If nothing else works, can we blast him? Please?” – She pledged, clearly favorable to the latter scenario.

A pause was taken as the Alicorn looked down to the jewel in the shape of a red lightning hanging from her neck. – "If it comes down to it, we will."

Having her hands together with intertwined fingers, Fluttershy’s wings fidgeted from the sheer tension alone. Applejack squeezed her shoulder soothingly, causing the Pegasus to glance upwards before the farm mare stepped forth and past her. – “Well… If we’re sure of what we should do, and everypony’s feelin’ well enough to do it, then Ah think it’s high time we take a move on, right girls?” – Most of the mares were quick to give their agreeing nods and sounds, Rainbow Dash being the last one to do it, begrudgingly so. –“Yer majesty?” – Applejack looked at Celestia, who also gave a single nod.

-“It’s time for us to go. We shall gather with the guards again, and see if everyone is in condition to take leave.”

-“How will we even find him?” – Rainbow Dash inquired as she stood up from the parapet’s cushion.

-“The rails were obviously rigged to throw us off, but that’s also a clear path left behind. As we know, his location is more likely the quarantined Saddle Arabian peaks, so we must follow his trail of chaos to make sure we’re not being misled.”

-“… Can’t he confuse us with his magical trail?” – Fluttershy worriedly asked.

Shaking her head, Celestia had taken to her hooves as well and pulled her bag to rest on her shoulder. – “He cannot mask his path, it’s far too strong for even him to deviate. Wherever he is, the chaos alone will be able to show us.”

-“I hope we survive it.” – Dash muttered under her breath, just to get a light slap on the backside of her head from Applejack.

Luckily as no one else had heard her grim remark, the mares arranged their bags again and took some time to drink water left by the inn’s staff before they finally went downstairs, being led by Celestia. After that, little to no conversation between the pony’s group was made as they followed the solar princess while she took care of speaking with the resident citizens, getting pointers towards the location of her guards and useful things like an updated map of the surrounding lands and information about how to traverse them.

Twilight could feel the sheer stress that settled among them as the group went outside. The smell of dust was still strong as the dry winds carried the veil of dirt left by the crash and it refused to fall down; and as they marched towards that disaster, the Alicorn went ahead and meet with the head of the guards’ squad.

As Celestia commanded the scattered guards through the small town to re-group at one of the edge’s of the small town, the ponies went there first taking a little distance from the Alicorn as she talked with Spearhead, probably explaining the course of action to be taken.

Past the houses and establishments, following the intact section of the railroad that continued all through the town, Twilight was for once alone with her friends… She felt that the distrust towards the princess’ plan was intense especially within Rainbow Dash and Applejack, despite the hopes for the best coming from the others. This moment by their lonesome at the edge of the town was the time. She had to convince everyone that this was going to work, boost their morale.

The elements depended on them being in harmony, so if there was too much animosity between them, nor plan A neither plan B would work at all. – “Girls.” – Twilight called out, managing to catch their attention, despite the fact that Applejack had found some bruised apples that fell to the ground and an empty basket from where they rolled off.

-“Yeah, Twilight?” – Rainbow inquired, feeling a speech coming from miles away about how they had to put their faith in princess Celestia because she knew best. The cyan mare was starting to doubt her blind loyalty and adoration for the Royals, even if she felt guilty about it.

-“I know we’re all a bit thorn apart about Princess Celestia’s new plan…” – Twilight started tactfully.

-“A bit?” – Applejack retorted examining the basket, it seemed to belong to Braeburn as she found caramel fur stuck in it. Frowning, she glanced at Twilight by the corner of her eye.

-“But we need to-” – The unicorn tried to continue, only to be rudely cut off.

-“Yeah, yeah, trust her and try to reform him. We got it, even if it sounds impossible and like we’re gonna backstabbed.” – Spitting that with a bit of arrogance, Rainbow continued to be headstrong.

-“Or like he is gonna put us to figh’ against each other again. ” – Applejack finally dropped the basket where she found it, clearing her hands and watching a tiny veil of dust rise.

-“Girls! We need to keep our cool. What I mean is, Princess Celestia always does the best for all of Equestria, and this is what she is trying to do right now. I know we disagree with the idea, but if we stand against each other, the elements won’t work as well. If we think reforming him won’t work, then we need to make sure we’re on the same page about the elements instead.” – Gently touching her crown with the tip of her fingers, Twilight looked at the others assertively as she stood her ground.

An expression of surprise spread across the mare’s faces, especially Rainbow Dash and Applejack’s; they couldn’t believe that the purple unicorn was also in doubt about the strategy that the princess had picked… But that also helped disperse the the feeling that they were somehow betraying Celestia.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie had more concerned expressions as they felt that a mission to reform Discord could potentially fail, even if they were unsure. Meanwhile, Fluttershy took advantage of her long rosy mane to hide her expression of displeasure with the lack of faith the rest of the group had in the power of kindness. She herself knew it would be hard, but when she recalled the expression on the Princess’ eyes and how badly she believed this could work, she couldn’t possibly think so lowly of her plan even if it sounded almost impossible.

He had to have a heart. Celestia wouldn’t set them to fail on purpose, would she?

-“Fluttershy?” – Twilight’s voice cut through her thoughts as her touch came upon the mare’s shoulder.

Flinching from the sudden surprise, her teal eyes snapped to Twilight’s. – “Y-yes?”

-“Do you agree that as soon as he acts up, we should use the elements?” – Twilight anxiously expected her answer of agreement. The princess seemed to have finished her talk with Spearhead and the rest of the squad and was incoming.

Fluttershy’s breathing picked up; she had to choose between the most logical option and the most pacific one, while steadily running out of time. The knot inside her throat grew rapidly as her eyes scanned her friend’s face, searching anywhere for support. One by one, she could see Rarity was in doubt, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were determined and agreed with Twilight; Pinkie’s eyes connected to hers as she spared a glance to check if she wasn’t being observed… And Pinkie shook her head in disagreement.

Closing her eyes and sighing heavily, Fluttershy stepped forth and stared at Twilight with renewed bravado. – "No, Twilight; the elements will be a last! The last resource, if we ever need to use them. I can see where you're coming from, but everyone deserves a chance."

With that statement, Pinkie closed her eyes, feeling her chest warmer but a bit heavy too.

Rarity stood in silence with wide eyes, as the other three mares were left with their mouths agape.

-"… But Fluttershy-" – Twilight tried to speak up, but before she could try to sway her to their side, the butter-colored mare bypassed her and joined Princess Celestia and Spearhead, who were already coming their way.

-“Did I lose something interesting?” – Princess Celestia was speaking in her earnest, being calm and warm towards the group.

-"Not really, Twilight was just trying to calm our nerves." – Fluttershy explained in a matter of fact, having her normal tone back and looking at the princess' eyes with gentleness.

-“…Yeah! After all, we gotta be ready to face him. So let's go already!" – Pinkie bounced forth, landing right beside Fluttershy, both deviating attention and masking the tension between them all.

-“I’m glad to see you’re not scared, my little ponies. We shall depart at once; reinforcements have been called by two of the guards that came with us. They’ll be at ready in case they’re requested… But I have my faith in all of you.” – Celestia reassured all as she and the guards started marching. Spearhead cordially nodded in agreement, listening to the Princess’ encouragement.

The mane six was quiet for quite a few seconds despite following along.

-“We won’t let you down, Princess.” – Twilight managed to muster an answer, even if her head swirled with doubts. With a heavy heart, they marched forth towards the Macintosh hills, headed to the Saddle Arabian Peaks but having to cross the Forest of Leota first.

Twilight deeply hoped that they wouldn’t have to let her down, or the entirety of their country for that matter.

-- Forest of Leota, 15:02 PM –

Pushing through the confusing twists and turns from the dense rainforest of Leota, all through the path the leading group had found considerable changes to both fauna and flora, a clear path of chaos magic left in the wake of the devilish spirit alongside some minor clues that could be easily looked over if they had not paid attention.

Blue feathers, blood stains, and spills, purple crystals with a magical charge littered through the path. On the most obvious side of those clues you had the corrupted plants starting to act aggressively; their vines sensitive to close movement and trying to snatch any large passenger who dared go through their spot. For the time being, they had not made any unfortunate victims and when they snapped at the group the armed guards were fast enough to cut the spiked vines before they could cause any harm, dispersing the toxic pollen that was spread in the air with the Pegasus guards’ wing flaps.

Despite the drastic changes made to the flora, there was an underlying beauty beneath the danger they offered. Fluttershy’s eyes drifted around with wariness and hidden wonder. The more time she had to think about the draconequus and the way he acted, the further she set her mind to the task of turning him into an ally… Perhaps a friend if she managed to get past his defenses.

And she would get past them.

Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie quietly followed the group while monitoring everyone’s moods with rapid looks. Celestia was literally a mare in a mission, or well, all of them were. However, Rarity and Twilight seemed lost in thoughts and their own worries. Applejack and Rainbow Dash took place on the flanks of the group as extra guards, watching out for any possible trouble, but not really bringing conversation into their stroll; speaking up only when they saw something suspicious, but most of the movement around them happened to be of strange unknown creatures after the violent flora had been dealt with, and therefore a false alarm which everypony eventually grew numb to.

At least for now, everything was going as they expected. Resistance to their advances had been placed, but it was easily dispersible. Discord wanted them to reach him as Celestia had pointed out. The draconequus had no interest on the death of those who stood up to him, had told her that the train crash was merely a warning; he knew she could save everybody and now he was expecting everypony to move to their designed locations on his mental board so he could strike everyone out of the game at once. Unfortunately for him, the solar princess had another vision of how this particular game of theirs would unravel.

Nonetheless, a curious sight stood above the group as they made their way towards their destination. Perched upon a dark spiky tree’s branch, a venomous purple phoenix tilted its head at the passengers, blinking the middle eye on its forehead before turning around and flying away leaving only a trail of poisonous smoke behind it.

-- Saddle Arabian Desert, 17:20 PM --

As the sun started to make its way down the horizon and they walked through the barren desert, the temperature started to fall and cool drastically only to add to their already difficult journey. Despite some of the pony's abilities to fly or teleport, they had to keep the group together for the sake of safety, taking several hours to cross the Macintosh hills and the corrupted Leota forest. Following through the dunes, an intense source of light started to come into their field of view as the Saddle Peaks popped up at the horizon's line. The trail of chaos magic was much less vivid once they left the forest, indicating that the chaos spirit had no interest in putting up any other setbacks and was probably healing from his previous injuries.

Marching across the desert, they had their goal in sight, so almost no one really noticed the low rumble of the sand, the way it shifted behind the army as the ponies advanced their path. The way it swirled around and changed, starting to make bases for large structures. Rainbow Dash's ear twitched, despite her eyes being focused on the fading strange coloration that the sky took near the peaks.

The second time her ear twitched though, she did not ignore it. As she turned around in a second, she caught a glimpse of Applejack doing the same as the large mare could feel the very earth shifting under her hooves, due to her natural magic.

-“Careful, everypony! There’s something shifty ‘bout this place!” – Applejack exclaimed while assuming a defensive instance.

All the Pegasus that could spring to air did so, the guards positioning themselves around the princess and the elements of harmony serving as living shields to anything incoming. Unfortunately, the offense was coming from below. Suddenly a wall of sand lifted itself around Celestia and four of the elements, sealing them within a dome in complete darkness for a few seconds. Rarity and Fluttershy were the first ones to scream, Pinkie joining them out of sheer excitement, which wasn't really appropriate.

-“Don’t fret! We won’t be harmed.” – Reassuring everyone as best as she could, Celestia raised her hands and let her horn flare with light and warmth despite the sheer discomfort of using it, providing light but not doing anything else as the dome only trapped them.

Outside, the sounds of the soldiers trying to break through the dome diminished one by one, the clashing of metal weapons against something that sounded remarkably glassy could be heard duly through the dome’s walls but that also quieted down fairly quickly, raising the nerves of everypony as a mortifying silence spread.

-“… They’re not-” – Twilight started assuming the worst, but Celestia intervened.

-“No. They’re still alive.” – She could feel the magical auras of those around her, despite the heavy interference of chaos magic impairing most of her extra sensorial capacities.

Two heavy punches against the dome’s walls startled the mares, making Celestia and Twilight flinch and causing a high pitched yelp to come from both Fluttershy and Rarity.

Pinkie Pie, on the other hand, seemed rather excited about it. – "It's Rainbows and AJ! They're gonna break us out." – Although the idea seemed farfetched as the other soldiers were unable to free them, immediately the dome started losing it’s density as the two mares relentlessly punched, dug and kicked it.

Celestia narrowed her eyes. – “Of course they will.” – She nodded in agreement and in a supporting way. Those who Discord desired to see could break through the dome; he had just taken care of the guards. The princess' gut twisted around in sheer anxiousness as the sandy walls of the dome that trapped them were coming undone.

When Rainbow’s claws and Applejack’s hooves broke through one of the walls, the entirety of the trap collapsed, missing the ponies only because Twilight made a shield to protect them from the falling sand.

-“Are you alright?!” – Rainbow Dash looked at the group in sheer worry, Pinkie was the first to tackle her.

-“Super! I mean, sure we could be better but for the moment we’re okay.”

-"That's a relief to hear." – Applejack sighed and grabbed the tip of her hat while closing her eyes, being surprised when the hand of the Alicorn rested on her shoulder.

-"Are you alright as well?" – Celestia asked while her eyes darted from one mare to the other. Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash nodded hurriedly, lifting her worries as she gave a short-lived smile. – "I'm glad…" – But one sight made her body shiver, as the sun reflected upon them with renewed strength even if it was about to set.

A strange glassy structure had lifted from the sand, enclosing the royal guard squad as a whole, filled with sharp spike formations on its ceiling, and having extremely thick walls even if it was crystalline. Celestia ran for it, putting her hands on the side of the structure as her horn lit up with a fizzling magical aura.

However, it didn’t matter what she tried to do, the structure seemed to nullify teleportation spells and it was simply too heavy to lift and too strong to destroy quickly… Fortunately, she noticed little holes on the walls, wide enough to allow air to flow in. – “Are you all okay?!”

-"Yes, your highness! We are sorry to disappoint you! We will try to escape right away." – Spearhead boldly declared, slamming a fist against the thick glass wall with a pained expression. – "Stay right there! We will work our way out."

-“No! I know why he trapped you… He wants us to come alone.” – This game he was playing, for now, Celestia had to move exactly to where he wanted her to be.

-"DON'T GO YOUR HIGHNESS! IT'S CLEARLY A TRAP!” – Spearhead shout in distress while putting his hands against the wall as if he could break it from the sheer pressure of his strength alone.

-“He won’t allow us to come with you… But I reassure you we are going to be alright. Have faith in us, my dear guards. You may try to escape, but do not irk Discord. I do not seek to bring any casualties, so promise me to take care of everypony.” – Focused on making sure they would be alright, as the princess gazed at him with determination, she commanded the stallion.

-“Princess Celestia…” – His immediate loyalty faltered as all of his instincts screamed for him to disobey and do what was possible to protect her and her pupils.

-“We have to go. Promise me.” – Celestia pressed on.

-“I promise.” –Closing his eyes with a heavy heart, ultimately the guard did not betray his Princess’ orders.

Giving a single nod as she closed her eyes, Celestia let her hand slip downwards over the glass wall as she turned around, walking towards the element bearers and with one goal in mind: meet him. – “Let’s keep going.” – She voiced in a demanding way this time, preparing herself for what was to come.

As the mares had listened to the exchange between her and Spearhead, they gave the glassy prison a last worried look, hoping that the guards would be okay, especially as they would attempt to escape. Following the solar princess, as they stepped closer and closer to the quarantined lands where Discord resided, the feeling of being watched grew more and more intense.

-- Quarantined Zone, ??? --

If someone ever told Applejack that she would feel nauseated from walking into a plot of land, she would have scoffed at them, but as they entered the distorted and corrupted place, that possibility started to become a reality.

While the land below was a calamity of colors, patterns and break of physics happening everywhere and all the time, the sky above didn’t fall far behind as it was taken with the most strange colors and gradients conceivable, changing it’s palettes at times from fluffy and comfortable colors to colors that almost announced the end of the world if they had been plastered in the sky by natural means.

Everything felt out of place and unnatural as if this whole piece of the earth had become an unregistered error that just refused to crumble out of existence. Pieces of land randomly floated around and the scenario was completely broken. If you looked at some holes, there was an unending darkness littered with stars, and some rivers had lava that behaved like water, flowing much faster than the viscous dangerous liquid ever could, which just turned it much more lethal. Trees all had impossible shapes and strength, deforming in various ways and bearing strange over-colored fruits; of course, when the tree wasn’t literally creating fish from its branches, which proceeded to dive in the lava lake once they were “ripe” enough.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack clenched their eyes and shook their heads, refusing to look at the rest of this madness in order to spare their sanity for the real action. Celestia walked ahead of the group, unfazed by the nonsense and the utter feeling of nausea that it proportioned. She worried about the girls, but they would have to resist the way their body answered to the chaos. – “He is up there.” – Gazing towards the Sky, Celestia wished she could appreciate what she saw.

-“Up where- Wow.” – Twilight couldn’t help but exclaiming once her eyes followed the direction. A floating temple made apparently mostly out of glass, which was stained at some parts, floated in the sky. It was easy to miss due to the ever-changing colors of the backdrop, completely swallowing the semi-transparent structure… At second glance, Twilight could see other materials and long bridges between supposedly other floating structures and pieces of land, but that hardly mattered right now. – “How are we going to get up there?”

-“The stairs.” – The princess calmly pointed out with a hand. Indeed some dozens of meters ahead there were a set of steps loosely linked by a chain, clouds, vines, and all sorts of inappropriate aids, the steps formed a large spiraling set of stairs that went more than 60 meters upwards.

Fluttershy was resisting as best as she could but that sight made her stomach twist upon itself as she closed her eyes strongly. One of her worst fears was fear of height, and although all Pegasus would consider 60 meters a normal height, her limit normally bordered 22 meters overall due to her phobia. Her whole body shuddered at the thoughts as she had to force herself forward… Princess Celestia counted on her; no, Equestria did.

That thought definitely didn’t help mellow her nerves as her heart started to pound rapidly in her chest, forcing the Pegasus to open her lips and desperately take more air in.

-"It's going to be okay, we're here my dear." – That familiar motherly tone filled her ears once again as a hand grabbed upon hers, immediately the building tension in her nerves faltered as she gasped and opened her eyes swiftly. Celestia gave her a gentle smile and tilted her head while turning to walk slowly as she still held the butter-colored Pegasus' hand. – "We can take some time if you need to think or calm down; I know being here is overwhelming enough and our journey since we left Canterlot has not been easy to take upon."

Fluttershy let a deep sigh escape her lips and breathed in, repeating the cycle until she could raise her muzzle in the air and look upwards. Climbing stairs were not like flying, despite the fact these were very transparent and forged to terrorize you with the possibility of falling at any second. Even so, she had to be strong. Raising a hand to clear away the buildup of tears at the corner of her eyes, she sniffled and walked forward, pulling a bit at Princess Celestia as she still held her hand. – "N-no, it’s okay…Let’s meet him.” – Turning to look at everypony, all of them nodded in agreement even if the interest in certain results for this meeting was quite segregated among them.

-“Be prepared my little ponies.” – Celestia warned the group one last time before they started to ascend.

Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Applejack quietly checked their elements of Harmony… They would be prepared.

Rarity was unsure but she did not voice a single complaint as she remained deep in thought, inclined to stray towards the logical solution for all of this, she traced a well-polished claw over her own element.

Pinkie Pie felt her hackles standing up a bit, knowing something really intense was about to happen, but choosing to remain with Fluttershy and Princess Celestia; maybe he could be their friend if given a chance..?

One way or another, they were about to find out.

As the group marched upwards and finally reached the top of the glassy spiraling stairs, the moment they set hoof on the major platform sustaining the multilayered sky temple, the steps cracked up and completely collapsed, falling towards the floor with all the things that once sustained them in a rain of broken glass, vines, water and other nonsensical materials. Fluttershy felt herself straining to swallow dry… There was no turning back from this point onwards. Turning once again to face the mayhem that was laid before their eyes, the ponies marched onwards being capable of seeing Discord’s throne perched far, far above in a floating piece of landmass, that as also turned upside down. Despite locating the throne, the draconequus was not sitting in it.

Celestia squinted and let her gaze trace the surroundings… There were cascades, vortexes, lava, actual grassy ground, a crystal and smooth surface that alternated colors and patterns very often, everything was mostly a pain to look at, really, and if you stared for too long you would deeply wish you haven't.

However, they didn’t search for long as a particular movement caught Pinkie Pie’s eye and she immediately voiced the alarm. – “There!” – Pointing towards what should be the frame of a very big door that led to a solid light bridge, the party mare had seen a crimson dragon tail flickering its white tuft of fur, and there he was, sitting on top of the semi-transparent bridge with his legs dangling off the edge.

Tapping his claws on the solid light surface, he caused it to flicker and send waves of distortion through the surface of the bridge. -“Oh, what took you so long?” – Discord mused in his deep voice with sarcasm as his gaze fell upon the group and he wore a sly smirk; they were by themselves as expected.

Stepping forth from the grassy ground and upon the crystalline path, Princess Celestia took a while to analyze the spirit of chaos. His clothes were still tattered from the battle and he made sure to be as far away from them as possible, looming from above out of reach and perched in an area of difficult access; despite that, he was still being sarcastic.

He was bluffing.

-“Cut the foolery, Discord. You know why we’re here, and we demand you cooperate.” – The Alicorn wanted to convince him, surely, but it didn’t mean she was going to be a pushover about it.

-“Demand? Please, Celestia, you’re hardly into a place where you can “Demand” anything from me.” – Making flying quotes with his claws and talons, he then put his hands together with intertwined fingers as he mocked the princess’ predictable intent. – “I demand you surrender Discord! Now come down here so we can blast you back to stone.” – Clearing his throat after using an excruciatingly high pitched voice, he rolled his eyes and tilted his head at her. – "I'm afraid that's not going to happen."

For the moment the mane six stood in their places as Celestia let a sigh escape her lips and walked forward. – “I’m not here to forcefully imprison you if not strictly necessary. I’m here to negotiate, Discord.”

That word caught the draconequus' attention as one of his ears perked up; his mocking expression morphed into both interest and suspicion, but ultimately he leaned forward, almost enough to fall off the bridge's edge. – "And, pray tell, why would I be interested in negotiating with you? I don’t think you have anything of value to offer in exchange of a truce.”

-“Because I know you’re lying. We may be in your lands now, and this is enough to mask the fact that you’re weakened, but as the truth remains, you cannot pull a stunt towards the elements of harmony as you did before. I’m afraid that not being imprisoned in stone is the best you can hope for, as we’re not leaving this place without your alliance or surrender.”

-“Alliance?” – The sheer incredulity in his voice made it clear how absurd this proposition sounded, even to him. With both ears perked, he crossed both his legs and arms, inquiring Celestia to continue. – “This ought to be hilarious.”

-“Discord... For centuries we have been engaging in the same battles, doesn’t matter how much you distorted everything and tore everyone’s lives apart, you never changed your ways.” – Walking towards the bridge with intent, Celestia calmly strolled through the changing terrains and their chaos. Her wings fluttered slightly in preparation to take off.

Glaring at the display, the chaos spirit held himself from reflexively wincing as she kept getting closer. He knew what she would get at, but it could be too good to be true. She was stalling for time. -“Reverse psychology will do you wonders in convincing me, really… Not.” – This time he stuck his tongue between his teeth, pretending to gag as he looked away.

Unfazed, the Alicorn took off to the nearest floating island, approaching him. Discord kept his nerves in check and did not falter, but it was taking more focus than he would admit just to stand still. As the princess landed, she could feel the hint of hesitation and apprehension in his body language even if he hid it… He was stressed. – “You have achieved nothing. You made pony kind suffer for decades but even your games have turned stale. If you seek to bring change then I could give you your space to change and let others appreciate those changes alongside you, but as we are right now, the more you struggle and spread chaos, the more we fight you. So I bring you an ultimatum…”

Jumping and flapping her wings one more time the rainbow-maned Alicorn landed on the light bridge which promptly fizzled its light structure for a moment. The mane six all felt their nerves flare as they stepped forth; Fluttershy partially unfolded her wings, despite being afraid… She wouldn’t fail.

Discord turned his head towards her and took his time to slowly stand to his hooves, towering over the princess even if she was still 3 meters away from him. The draconequus stood silent and skeptical as Celestia continued. – "I ask you to come with us out of your own free will and live in Equestria. You will not be allowed to cause indiscriminate chaos or harm the lives of others, however, we will cease to pursue and battle you in return. You can be a friend to Equestria and a powerful ally with freedom, or instead of can remain a lonesome tyrant whose changes, in the end, will just bring misery and crumble away to time as evil and hollow; your choice."

Even if time wasn't really a constant in the chaos-consumed lands, the quiet seconds that ticked away among them felt like an eternity before the draconequus reacted; Celestia wasn't surprised when he burst into an uproar of laughter; if anything she was perplexed that his voice emitted actually joyful throaty wheezes in the place of his common devilish cackle. Patiently she waited for him to stop doubling over and pressing a paw to his abdomen.

The element bearers weren’t as understanding and their patience was running shorter. Twilight looked at the others as they checked their elements… Fluttershy’s ears were perked as she felt the courage building up within.

-“You expect me to believe that you’ll just give me a pass for everything I have done if I wave the white flag and promise I’ll behave? That’s just too good. I was wrong about you Tia… You do have a sense of humor.” – Stretching his wings, Discord slowly strolled towards her in an awfully good mood. His smile was cheeky and his steps were vagarious.

The other mares grew wary immediately; the solar princess gave a step back in answer to his approach. – “You’ll be kept under vigilance and we won’t give a pass to any raucous interventions caused by you without explicit consent. I’m offering you forgiveness and a chance to try to be someone new, to start over. I hope you don’t force my hand… I know you don’t want to be imprisoned again.”

Suddenly things took a surly turn as Discord charged forward and grabbed her by the arm, yanking the princess to the side with agility and speed. Celestia’s horn lit up with explosive energy but no further aggression happened; she just felt her body being tilted over the edge of the bridge as Discord had spun her around and threatened to let her fall, using his free talon he snapped and in the blink of an eye her wings were restrained by metal chains wrapping around her body and her horn’s magical aura was painfully extinguished by a metal ring.

-“Give me one good reason to trust your word, Celestia.” – The 5 mares below were frantic, swiftly grouping up to attempt to fire the elements of harmony… Except that they looked around in panic, clearly missing a member of the group.

As Celestia hung 20 meters above the shifting ground that was quickly collapsing into a hole, and a deadly quantity of meters from the real ground that became visible as the temple's floor gave away under that spot of the bridge, she looked at those cold and distant crimson eyes, who used to hold so much warmth, wonder, and creativity. Now they had only contempt, mistrust and animosity… But she needed to reach out to him.

Clenching her eyes for a moment, she heard a flutter of wings hushing towards them. As her eyes opened again, she spoke with honesty and showing no signal of fear for her life. – “I won’t let my subjects… My children; be caught in another war. Be it by your hand or another, I won’t allow it.”

His expression softened if only for a moment, a brief glance of emotion going through his features before he spared a look at the group; the strong build-up of magic and light was barely being held together as they looked all around, panicking as they pleaded for Fluttershy to join them. Raising a brow, his golden and crimson eyes snapped back at the princess, his grasp loosening around her arm. – "War may be the strongest representation of mortal chaos, but I have no interest in waging one. If it happens, you probably brought it upon yourselves… You claim I remain unchanged but are you ponies any better?"

She felt herself slipping further, her muscles tensing up as his claws started to dig into her skin to keep her from falling. Both knew that if she put enough strength into bursting the metal ring around her horn, it would break; however, would she have enough time to snap out of the shock before becoming bloody splatter hundreds of meters below? Even with such questions in mind, she remained quiet, letting her supposed time drain away as the draconequus got impatient.

Broken glass that had rained down just some moments prior waited for her at the bottom. Swallowing dry, she closed her eyes preparing herself for the worst as the pressure against her arm diminished and her body started plunging, gravity doing its job.

-“NO!” – A familiar voice suddenly shouts in both anger and foolish courage, a svelte yellow Pegasus hurled herself past the duo, shoving princess Celestia back upon the bridge, causing her to roll and slide through the slick surface.

As Fluttershy fell to the floor while gasping for air; the Alicorn swiftly sat upon her hinds legs before pushing herself up and looking at the draconequus squarely in the eye. – “Yes. We are better now… It may have taken some time and there is a lot we need to learn, but we are better.” – With effort, her horn lit up and her magic started charging against the magical inhibitor, quickly heating up her horn as her forehead felt warmer.

Discord flinched at the sudden display as he had lost his composure for a while. Massaging his wrist with his talons, he rolled his paw around as his gaze finally fell upon the meddling pony. With an eyebrow raised the draconequus tilted his head with curiosity as the mare got up on shaky hooves and scurried towards Celestia using her wings to shift her momentum and flutter around the mare, searching for a way to free her wings from the chains.

Seconds slipped by just like sand would slip through his hands if he were holding some. The draconequus swallowed dry as he watched the Pegasus’ futile struggle to free the princess. From all the ponies that she brought, that mare was the only one to come to Celestia’s aid instead of taking the chance to attack when his guard was at its lowest.

Could Celestia’s words be true? Had the ponies truly changed, despite their damned past?

No. That mare probably didn’t even know her own species’ dirty secrets and bloody history.

Chuckling with delight, Discord felt curiosity overcoming his senses… If this was the type of game Celestia wanted to play, then so be it. He liked the change of airs offered. He would feed her hopes and crush her beloved country and her people from within. That would be much more amusing to watch than simply destroy their houses and force them to fight.

His ears twitched as they caught the sound of the rest of the group trying to use other unstable chunks of land and the door frame to climb up to the long and narrow bridge. Putting both his paw and talon together, Discord stepped forth and spoke up. – "Very well, Princess… We have a truce, I'll see if you truly hold your word, and in exchange, I'll abstain from unleashing utter and complete mayhem upon your dear diminutive equines… But this is not a surrender, this is probation." – Raising a talon, he leaned forward speaking just a few centimeters away from her face, before pulling back and snapping his fingers.

The horn ring and the chains were gone with a white spark, leaving Fluttershy disorientated for a moment before she looked up at the draconequus… Somehow, even if her heart was racing in her ribcage, she felt that he was less intimidating now than when they first met.

As Discord extended a paw to seal the truce with the Alicorn, Fluttershy jumped at the opportunity, bypassing the princess and holding his paw softly in agreement, even shaking it with both her hands. Holding back all of her nerves and mustering as much courage as she could, she spoke up.

-"I-I… I hope we can be good friends." – Her nervousness was obvious but obfuscated by her courage. With that said, she slowly let go of the heavy, fluffy paw, she had held.

Princess Celestia put a supporting hand upon her back, alleviating her nerves.

Hanging from a floating island and trying to trace a route to jump upon the bridge, the mane six all stared at the scene dumbfounded and slack-jawed. Some more terrorized at the scene they witnessed than others.

Stillness lingered in the air for a few good seconds as the draconequus stared at her with wide eyes. Did that mare truly believe in Celestia’s play wholeheartedly? Was she just a good actress? It would be fun to find out which was true. And when he had her heart under his claws, he would make sure to expose its torn pieces for all of her friends to see.

As the moment of surprise faded away, the spirit of chaos smiled in return and proceeded to patronize the mare as he lightly pinched her cheek and cooed. – “Sure thing my dearest little horsey acquaintance; so let’s get going now? Shall we?”

Author's Note

Wow, this chapter was rather the experiment for my writing style. It had been months since I didn't write like that and it felt quite fun.

self satisfaction aside.

Fluttershy gets Celestia as both are elements of kindness, even if she is a former one. I avoided going too deeply into the landscape descriptions of Discord's quarantined lands because that alone could take pages.

I hope you enjoy where I'm taking the story! If you have anything you want to voice, drop a comment.

Chapter V: Keep calm and flutter on (part I)

It was a funny sensation; to feel the seconds ticking away slower than usual.

Especially considering the fact he is quite distasteful of that concept as it had tortured him for millennia, and yet, this time around he couldn’t be more amused than he currently was.

Never had the draconequus stirred chaos among mortals just by the simple fact of existing around them. The sheer tension of the clashing opinions couldn’t be more hilarious for him, and he had to actively hold himself back from just bursting into a fit of laughter all the way from the Saddle Arabian Desert to Ponyville. Silence reigned supreme on their way back, but of course that when someone actually spoke up, it was your royal majesty, Sunbutt the blaster.

-“Discord, I believe you know why we’re not heading directly to Leota, first-” – The Alicorn started only to be interrupted, as expected.

-“Oh, why don’t you let the boys sort it out for themselves? It would prove their ingenuity. That is if they had any.” – With the predictable sarcastic jab, the draconequus tilted his head playfully and shrugged as he crossed his arms.

-“… Because you set them up to this and freeing them would be a sign of your intentions to cooperate.” – Celestia pressed, feeling her patience dwindle drastically.

-“Hmmm, I see… But have you considered that, just the fact that you’re all not inside a giant hamster-ball and rolling your way back is already a show of good faith by me?” – Inspecting his talons in mild boredom, he provoked as a smirk grew on his lips.

Celestia’s features dimmed as she lightly tilted her head to the opposite side in exasperation. She knew that she had to keep herself above water and avoid drowning, but it was particularly hard to do so when you were up against a freaking cataract of stubbornness and annoyance. Nonetheless, she had to keep her nerves in check since these tiring games would probably grow much worse later on; be unyielding, assertive, and yet, tranquil and flexible.

A throaty growl could be faintly heard in the back of the group from where Rainbow Dash and Applejack were marching along the others, managing to break through her attempt to keep her cool. Discord’s gaze didn’t budge from the princess’ face as his Cheshire grim became toothy; his left ear twitched at the detection of the sounds of aggravation. Things were most likely bounded to go downhill.

-“A-Ahn, excuse me…” – Surprising all those present, Fluttershy softly called out to the draconequus.

-“Hm? What- Oh, there you are.” – He took a few seconds to localize that delicate butter-colored Pegasus right in front of his right leg. Had he moved before she caught his attention and he would have kicked her. – “Yes, Shutterfly, I take it?” – He questioned on purpose, having a very amicable tone of voice.

-“W-well… It’s Fluttershy, for starters.” – She took a second of hesitance to recompose her courage, shifting from a hoof to another. –“I was just wondering… Since you agreed to come with us peacefully out of your own volition…” – She started, sounding soft but at the same time inquiring.

-“That’s correct.” – His tail waved slowly from one side to another, missing from smacking Twilight in the face by a few centimeters.

-“And you also promised to stay in truce while this whole reformation is ongoing.” – She rolled her eyes and lowered her head before looking up at him, with all the calm in the world and a slightly adorable look to her face and gestures.

-“Indeed, but what are you getting at, butterscotch?” – Again, he missed her name on purpose; going for a name that would be more befitting for a male.

-“Well… I just don’t understand why you won’t free the guards. It’s not like they’re going to hurt you, right? It’s okay to be afraid, but you don’t need to be since you’re with Princess Celestia; A-and well, it would be a shame too, because then you would be falling out of your word, and you have been so cooperative up until now.”

It had literally been less than 40 minutes as they had gotten down from his temple in the quarantined lands and traversed east through the desert by hoof, not being particularly speedy about it either. Discord slowly blinked at her words; in one go, the Pegasus was trying to use reverse psychology to hit his ego, stir up his curiosity in order for him to behave, and also give mild compliments to try and stroke his pride.

-“Also, it’s Fluttershy. Although, Butterscotch is cute I guess.” – It was her turn to shrug at the chaos spirit, looking at him idly in wait of an answer.

Celestia seemed more surprised than anything, a smidge of confusion in her expression as she witnessed the shy Pegasus trying to handle his shenanigans. Mostly everypony else was a bit more in chagrin towards the scene, save for Pinkie Pie which was quiet but seemed fairly impressed with the fact that Fluttershy was not giving in to any pressure, and there was a lot of it hanging overhead.

Some good seconds went by with no response from the draconequus until he nodded comprehensively and his expression shifted from uninterested to a fake reassuring smile. – “My, my… I guess you are correct. Thanks for clarifying that, I had my doubts, really.”

He obviously didn’t have doubts or felt threatened in any potential, but if he pressed his lack of cooperation any further, a rainbow blast would be the next thing he would see for sure; not that he was too concerned about that, but this was an oddly endearing situation that he had reached and it would be a shame to let these amusing theatrics end so shortly. He would play nice for as long as required for everything to fall in place, especially since the Pegasus thought she had him figured out.

Snapping his fingers, everyone in the group could hear very loud noises of heavy quantities of glass suddenly shattering and falling to the ground, hundreds of meters ahead of them. Celestia held her breathe for a moment; he was just riling them up. No way that he let actual heavy broken glass shards fall upon the guards, right?

Predicting her thoughts, Discord answered while rolling his wrist, unworried. – "Gosh, do you actually hold the suspicion that I would harm your precious little squad? Far from me, Celly; I do like to paint towns red, but not in such a sense.”

The uneasiness among them went up so rapidly that the draconequus could almost cut the sheer tension in the air with a knife. The Alicorn held her nerve, marching forth with a surly tone to her voice. – “I know that… And thank you.” – Begrudgingly, she thanked the spirit with a mild pinch of sarcasm to her voice.

-"You're welcome! ~" – He responded in a much more gleeful tone, in contrast, obviously enjoying this much more than he should. Who could have thought that actively undermining your nemesis was so much more fun than overwhelming them?

Nonetheless, soon enough the guards all came running to the group, a few Pegasus troops having caught sight of them first, and alerting the others glass-covered guards to come to the encounter.

Now the real fun would start; at least for him, that was. For Celestia, it would be a pity, really.

-- Forest of Leota, 19:37 PM --

Perseverance and steadiness of mind were the keys to keep her plans running smoothly towards success.

Nevertheless, by this point, Celestia just wanted this long, long day to end, so she could bury herself in her soft mattress and regret all of her decisions while falling asleep out of sheer exhaustion.

It took more than a steady talking to, in order to convince her guards that they shouldn’t try to lynch, mob, or impale Discord to death. Not that they succeeded at their attempt anyways. The draconequus effortlessly held them far away from him with a snap of his talons, causing the Pegasi to grow plants whenever they fluttered their wings while sprouting a few flowers upon themselves from the dust clinging to their bodies alone; earth ponies’ hooves sparked with magical auras suddenly levitating themselves and each other in weird patterns by sheer lack of control; and lastly, unicorns horns would fruitlessly spark up only to create strong currents of wind, causing mayhem amidst them as the mini tornados would often knock fellow guards.

The chaos’ spirit looked at the mess of panicking ponies with deep satisfaction, claiming that he did nothing wrong by defending himself of being murdered; the worst part is that self-defense was a valid use of his magic, but obviously not to the point of abuse.

Even so, this was merely round one. The solar Alicorn readied herself for the struggle that was to come as she knew that her sister probably already brought in a heavy portion of the guards for back up, especially after what happened to Appleloosa. At the very least their stroll back through the forest was fairly more peaceful than before, as when Discord uncaringly strolled ahead, all things that had been previously almost lethally aggressive seemed much tamer and specifically affectionate to him.

Save for the sounds of the local fauna, flora, and the reports of the guards, which had been all turned back to normal after some minutes of convincing the lord of chaos; everything was coated by quietude. But despite that, it wasn’t a particularly comfortable one either.

Discord extended a paw upwards and as he did so, a purple venomous phoenix landed on his talon, still leaving trails of poisonous smoke in its path and blinking its third eye which secreted a black viscous liquid; he graciously pet it and whipped at the liquid with two fingers, giving a satisfied smile with the stickiness of it between his two digits.

Rarity flinched at the sight in disgust while Fluttershy, on the other hand, seemed to be in complete awe with the strange critter. The draconequus took notice of that and glanced down at the Pegasus, commenting for once without a trace of malice.

-“You like her? This is quite the healthy one; look at how much poison it leaks.”

-“Ah, she looks lovely, but what is the poison for?” – Fluttershy still felt her race and her gut twist with unwelcome warmth each time she spoke with him due to nervousness; however, something about talking of the critter made it easier for her to put in the effort as she was actually curious about the oddly alluring creature.

-“Why, it aids with catching its prey and defending itself. You see, when this phoenix preens, it rubs the poison all over its feathers. And as it takes off to fly, the poisonous substance evaporates leaving a trail of toxic smoke behind.” – He explained in a matter of fact, quite pleased to having someone to brag about his creations with even if that feeling was surely a fleeting one.

The Pegasus perked up immediately despite everypony’s wariness and disapproval of her display of amiability, as she hadn’t taken notice. – "That sounds incredible! I would like to have a chance to see her going about the day.” – A small trace of a truthful smile made its way to her lips. She didn't know where it came from, but her heart was less heavy than before if only slightly.

Alas, the feeling didn’t last more than a few seconds as Rainbow intervened by running towards the duo and pulling Fluttershy’s arm to put some distance between them; causing her to yelp for a second before she managed to snatch her composure back, looking at Rainbow without comprehending what happened.

-“Come on, Shy, stay away from him!” – She spat with a rather vicious tone, taking a few steps to stand between the mare and the draconequus.

Discord seemed unimpressed through and through. Surely he didn’t care about the accusation. One more to file right behind the hundreds of thousands he already had. Still, it felt rather unpleasant to have such a casual chat with someone be rudely interrupted. His expression held a deadpan, with one of his brows furrowed in displeasure. He shouldn’t care at all, yet this was one of the very rare moments he interacted with another without animosity in more than a thousand years. Even if that someone was a very good actress with only the purpose of softening him; still, his mind ran through several ways of punishing the Pegasus in a fraction of seconds. However, luckily for her, Fluttershy stepped up showing some signs of frustration alongside mild confusion.

-“B-but why? He didn’t do anything.” – She protested meekly, feeling her nerves getting worked up again.

-“Didn’t you hear?! That thing is coated in venom!” – Rainbow pressed bent on keeping her friend safe and maybe landing a good punch on him if she got the chance; he was just 2 meters away from them after all.

-“Poison.” – Discord corrected in a monotone, almost baffled by her ignorance.

-“Same difference, and whatever! Nopony asked you, Dipcord.” – Snarling at him, the cyan mare spat back at his remark.

-“Is that the best you can come up with? I have heard nyckelharpas that are more offensive than you.” – Raising a brow and tilting his head, the draconequus seemed disappointed as his tail’s tip waved sinuously.

Meanwhile, the Phoenix suddenly became distressed as the Pegasus caused agitation. Feeling how they were acting with animosity between each other, it cawed and flew away leaving a trail of smoke behind. Discord didn’t seem particularly bothered by inhaling or exhaling it, however.

-"Rainbows, ah know how ya feel, trust me… I really do, but no need to get name-y there. Though, if ah were you Fluttershy, ah would follow Dash’s advice.” – Applejack tried to keep her friend in check while glancing at Celestia for a split moment… The Alicorn was not turning back to look at them, just marching forth with a tense gait as her ears started to softly pin backward.

-“What? But I’m feeling perfectly fine!” – Even if that wasn’t entirely true, Fluttershy didn’t feel poisoned by being nearby the Phoenix. Perhaps said poison only kicked in with prolonged exposure.

-“And I shall remind you that I do not need to stoop to such levels to deal with pesky ponies, like you.” – Not missing the opportunity, the chaos spirit belittled the duo.

-“Or maybe that’s what ya want us to think… Vermin’.” – The last part was murmured under her breath, only a handful of ponies being able to catch it from AJ’s lips. She knew it made her a hypocrite, but having to deal with Discord stirred the worst within her and brought it outwards.

Rainbow glanced at the farm mare while squinting; so much for calling her out. However, she understood why AJ slipped… That devil just had a way to work himself under your skin so she would let this one slide.

-“Really? It’s interesting that you would say that. After all, if I wanted to dispose of you so crudely, then it would have been really unfortunate for your friend, the embodiment of laughter, to take such a hearty like to the chocolate rain. Especially on the account that with just one of you missing, your little crystal trinkets lose their effects.” – Closing his eyes for a moment, Discord chuckled as he took every step with a carefree attitude. He could hear the pink earth pony physically cringing as the attention had been redirected towards her, and not in a positive light.

-“… It just looked really yummy… It wasn’t bad, right?” – Pinkie felt a pang of guilt for all the off times she took to enjoy his chaos and didn’t stop herself instead; it had looked like so much fun.

-“Of course not, dearest; what do you take me for?” – Looking over his left shoulder, he smirked at Pinkie in both a playful way and vaguely charming, giving out an intended air of eeriness.

Pinkie visibly winced at the display and pulled an arm over her chest as Rarity moved in front of her with a deep frown and an extended arm to “shield” her friend. – “A ruffian!”

-“A vermin’.” – Applejack intervened, having thrown any limits out of the window by now.

-“A coward snake!” – Rainbow shout, snarling at him with her fists clenched.

-“A villain.” – Twilight said with deep apathy, referring to him as someone would refer to an obstacle to be destroyed.

-“I… Don’t know.” – Fluttershy gave a small unsure answer under her breath, looking to the forest’s debris in their trail as if they were suddenly the most interesting thing in the world.

-“Enough!” – A booming voice cut through the air, shaking leaves out of the trees and sending vibrations through the group, making all the guards go stiff on the spot holding onto their respective weapons. As Celestia turned around to face them with disappointment seeded into her features and an uncharacteristic strictness, she pointed a finger at everyone from the element bearers to their current villain on probation. – “We agreed to a truce, and as much as I deeply understand how all of you feel towards this course of action, I still expect you to act like the grown mares that you are and no less.” – A look of hurt crossed the Alicorn’s gaze. It pained her to reprehend her pupils, but she needed to keep the sense of fake peace intact amidst them.

All present slowly cast their eyes downwards due to shame, despite the hanging feeling of unfairness at the back of their minds. Naturally, Discord never missed the opportunity to work everyone's nerves up as he whistled being fairly impressed and giving sarcastic claps towards the scolding. – "My, my, and that's dear mother goose putting her hatchlings in their place."

-“You’re hardly acting older than a brat yourself, and I would prefer that you cease to stir tumult among them.” – Celestia pointed out coldly due to how irritated she felt.

-“Second nature; and most of the times we don’t get what we want.” – Always with a sharp tongue, the draconequus promptly answered.

At that the Alicorn paid no mind, instead, pushing the brush aside as the moonlight started to shine down through the treetops mystically. Celestia had a familiar feeling that the moment had come; although this time she would almost gladly let her sister and her guards trample the draconequus if it wasn’t for the fact that he had to be shown kindness and acceptance in order for this whole reformation plan to remotely have a chance of working.

A mere chance. This wasn’t a shot in the dark; it was as if Celestia let a barrage of cannonballs in a deep, dark, abyss. Nonetheless, his voice broke through her thoughts for the moment.

-“… Just like I didn’t get an answer.” – He feigned sorrow over the lack of response, but his ears were perked up as he knew that the way the moonlight beamed down upon them couldn’t be all that natural. His smile grown even larger as he knew who would be intercepting them at any moment. – “Guess I’ll have to settle for the satisfaction of seeing dear ol’ Lulu.”

Suddenly, a dark moving mass came bursting through the treetops, ripping through the branches and foliage as it almost sounded like the trees were falling apart; dark owl-like wings fanned open as a sharp armored hoof descended right upon the draconequus’ chest, kicking the creature backwards and into the ground as he slid a few centimeters before the younger Alicorn landed with impact, shoving him to the stratus underneath and looking at the beast with her muzzled raised as a masterfully sharpened saber glistened under the moonlight, partially unsheathed as her hand rested upon the handle. – “Is this satisfying enough for you, Hellion? And do not call us demeaning intimate aliases; you shall address us by our respective name and title."

Despite being knocked clear out of air, the draconequus chuckled in sheer amusement as he bared his teeth in a snarling grin. – “Never change, Lunaria.”

-“That’s Princess Lunaria for you, fiend.” – Peeking at her sister Luna could feel that she just wanted this nightmare of events to end, so much so, that a small pang of guilt crossed her chest, but she had to support her sister. They had to be strong, together. – “There is much to do in the town of Appleloosa; our guards shall escort you and the bearers to your designated stays for the night. By morning you’ll be moved Ponyville, and all through this endeavor you’ll be under surveillance, so don’t try anything funny.” – Luna commanded with vigor to the chaos spirit, who was purposefully raising himself pitifully from the damp, dirty stratum.

-"I wouldn't dream of it." – With a snap of his tail, somehow, his clothes were as clean as if they had never been worn before, having also changed colors to a slight eye bleeding intensity of crimsons, purples, and black. Luna's muzzle scrunched up at the choice.

-“You better not.” – Was the last thing she said before she placed a hand upon her sister’s shoulder, ushering her ahead and out of the brush as the entire group followed.

It took them yet another while to reach over the highest of the Macintosh Hills. In the distance, ponies and guards alike were hard at work by repairing the damages and still getting rid of the train's carcass. The buffalos seemed to have somewhat joined further away, trying to help with the mess that became their running grounds since the whole field of apple trees had been tampered with. As the sisters were much further ahead than the rest of them, already marching to the town, Discord took his sweet time to stroll towards the place with his arms behind his back and a devious smile in his lips, never ceasing to look amused; everything to him was like a sick twisted game, which he got to be the master of.

Fluttershy and the rest of the girls lagged behind, being shielded by another few squads of guards. As they walked in almost complete silence, the Pegasus looked towards him with a certain ache in her heart, something smothering her from the inside as all the motions around her seemed to blur and become slower, her thoughts of doubt and failure growing so much larger all of the sudden as she held her hands together and squeezed them for some sort of comfort, trying to ground herself before her negative thoughts swept her away.

And as if by magic, Applejack placed both hands on each of her shoulders, muttering in a low voice to not call the attention of anyone else but those in their own group. – "Breath, Sugarcube… Ah also don't know how you'll even start to do this, but we're here each step of the way, alright?"

Clenching her eyes tightly, she squeezed them to the point where she could feel both tears of stress and relieve threatening to roll down. Blinking them away with an effort she turned towards Applejack nodding quickly in agreement a few times. – “I know… Thank you.”

As Twilight and the others watched this small scene unfurl their hearts ache a little. Even Applejack who was the most stubborn could see how much Fluttershy was struggling and how much effort she needed to put forth just to keep herself from coming undone; the pressure was insufferable, and she needed support. Glancing to the side, she closed her purple eyes and after opening them she spoke up finally deciding to work towards a solution rather than against any progress at all. – “Applejack is right… We will help in any ways we can. Opposing it to the bitter end won’t yield us anything, and in fact, it’s better to have him closer to us than further away if things end up going out of hand.”

Even if reforming him sounded like a plan set to failure from the start, at least they had a goal. Rainbow Dash sighed and grasped her element with contained fury… They would be there for Fluttershy indeed; especially when he proved that he was unredeemable and they could finally blast that cursed freak back to stone. He wouldn’t hurt anyone else, not in her watch. – “Sounds like a plan to me.”

Rarity and Pinkie quietly nodded along, agreeing despite their hesitance to see what results would come out of this mess. All of them could just hope for the best, even if each bearer had a specific idea of what that “best” may be.

-- Ponyville, 06:16 AM --

The following morning was filled with the same dread that dragged in through all the night’s length. Not surprisingly most of the mares slept very poorly, in especial Fluttershy who couldn’t catch a single blink of needed sleep until the sun came back around.

Speaking of which, as the Pegasus had remained sleepless the night prior while they took a spot in one of the local inns, she had opportunities to quietly glance at the others but mainly Twilight. The unicorn cautiously walked around the room as the others tried to sleep or just pretended to do so, all the while remaining silent. Perching herself on the seat near the parapet of one of the windows, Twilight watched all the commotion undergoing outside, which probably reflected her current state of mind.

None of them had had a chance to exchange a single word with the princesses once they retired in for the night. As for the last they saw of both Alicorns, for the time being, was when they had a brief encounter with Luna by their morning departure. She told them to go aboard a large flying, traveling chariot back to ponyville, while informing that Celestia had departed much sooner, around 4 AM alongside a portion of the royal guards in order to “prepare ahead of the events that were to come”, as Lunaria put it.

As the mares caught flight with the large chariot dragged by perytons, they caught airs that Discord was going to be escorted by the same means, however, being highly supervised by the princess of the night and her loyal guards as they would return to Canterlot around 8 AM and let him under the bearer’s care, only intervening if things went really awry; which they would go, very likely.

Even if Shy was never a fan of heights, this time not even riding through the skies could shake her deeply enough to rip her apart from the growing worries and anxieties. Since the beginning of their mission, her mind had been set on an intermittent state of overwhelming rumination, going through all and every outcome that was possible. At the best scenarios, she would manage to befriend him; on the worst case scenarios, he would just go back to being the same villain he was before, but now she would have disappointed not only her friends but also Princess Celestia, and on top of that, waste valuable time alongside the advantage they had on him due to his weakened state.

No pressure.

As the fiery star slowly rose as normal through the blue skies, her teal eyes softly traced over the line of the horizon; the nauseating feeling of her guts twisting was dying off as they start to descend. Ponyville lying right ahead of them in wait, but, despite that, this time the buttery coated Pegasus didn’t get that warm fuzzy feeling of familiarity from when she would see the town. Perhaps she was just too tired from all the stress endured.

For a change of pace this time around, nothing unpredictable happened. The past days had been so erratic and utterly chaotic that the fact they just had landed, thanked the guards for the transport, and saw them fly off again without any other event even prompting up felt completely outlandish; it was as if they were expecting trouble to just come in from every corner. Nevertheless, things remained as normal as they could be. Rarity broke through the silence this time being the first to speak up.

-“So… Now that we’re back home, and well, now that we know what the Princesses have in mind; I believe we still have a few minutes to refresh ourselves and get a breath of air before any of this-" – She rolled her eyes and frowned, then crossed her arms over her chest. – "Unpleasant endeavor continues. Princess Luna did comment that they would arrive around 8 o' clock after all."

-“That sounds like a good idea, Rares. Ah shame we can’t refresh our minds from all the crazy fertilizer that we had to see in that travel.” – Applejack stated while pinching the bridge of her muzzle and closing her eyes tiredly.

-“Crude selection of words, but I couldn’t agree more.” – The unicorn reprehended slightly as she cleaned her clothes with a hand and let her tail whip in annoyance.

-“I would like to brew a chamomile tea...” – Fluttershy mused to herself far too deep in thought and lack of concentration, merely joining the chat.

Rainbow Dash remained fairly quiet, however, showing clear frustration as she looked to the skies in longing. – “Guess I’ll take a stroll ‘til them.” – Turning her gaze towards the floor again, she barely caught a bundle of pink bouncing toward her.

-“Nu-huh! You’re getting your bandages switched and yourself rested. Don’t think I didn’t see you shifting about last night, miss!” – Pinkie threw an adorable accusing pout at her, leaning with an extended finger poking at her muzzle.

-“Uh… That would imply you didn’t sleep either.” – Raising a brow, Dash gave a small smile in return.

-“I can handle that, I’m not the fluffy Pegasus that takes 8 hours of sleep and another 6 hours of naps.” – Shrugging her shoulders, Pinkie grinned brightly, ruffling the cyan mare’s mane as she skipped forth.

-“Hey!” – The Pegasus shouts indignantly as she used her claws to try and comb her slightly messier mane from Pinkie’s ruffles.

This caused Fluttershy and Rarity to chuckle at the sight. Twilight and Applejack exchanged glances and smiled as well, their hearts a little lighter now.

-“Well then, everyone run along and do as we must to prepare. Around 8 we should meet back in the library since it’s best for us to keep close tabs on each other, never know what to expect from him.” – The purple unicorn warned the others with steadiness and calm. She was determined to make things work. Even if they failed Celestia’s main plans, they wouldn’t fail to protect Equestria.

-"Oh, I'll be prepared, alright." – Answering with both ardor and animosity, Rainbow cocked her head and crossed her arms defiantly.

-“Okie Dokie! I’ll bring the cupcakes.” – Taking it on a lighter note, Pinkie agreed as well, already turning around to bounce off towards Sugarcube corner.

-“Alright, with that settled, see ya gals soon.” – AJ started to trot away too, giving a small wave with her hand and adjusting her hat as she went on her way towards the acres.

-“Unfortunately, not for the best reasons.” – Rarity added by the end, already in chagrin due to why they would have to meet again so soon. This whole mess was far from over.

With not another word, each mare took their own path towards the places they knew as their home. Fluttershy could practically feel the stress in her body dissolving as her movements got so much more sluggish; of course, she was capable of making her way home, but every fiber in her body just desired for sweet rest and perhaps a soothing bath and warm tea.

Following the dirt path towards her cottage, the Pegasus crossed over the bridge without noticing a peculiar detail due to how worn out her mind was. The critters littered around her house, climbing, flying, or slithering all over the place, they were just gone. Birds could barely be heard in the distance. Dragging her smooth claws to the door’s locks as she approached with vagarious steps, she opened the cottage’s front doors with her eyes almost closed, not really caring if her hooves carried dirt and grass to the inside of her home as she walked inside. Brushing her own hair by letting the velvety pink locks slide through her fingers, she made her way towards the couch in the living room from muscle memory alone, rubbing her face with her eyes closed as the distance diminished between her and her goal. Turning around to sit down as she pulled her hands away from her fuzzy face, with a flutter of her wings the Pegasus basically threw herself towards the couch intending to fall limp on it.

And it would have happened if her fall wasn’t blocked by a large body which she practically collided into, sinking a few centimeters. Strange warmth came into Fluttershy’s body as she felt the temperature from another living being, her back pressed against a chest that slowly rose and fell down, only speeding up its motions as a devilish low chuckle echoed through her abode. With a coiling and fizzling stomach, the temperature suddenly rose into the Pegasus body as a big shot of adrenaline ran through her. An eerily familiar eagle talon wrapped around her torso, lifting Fluttershy and bringing her closer in a strong embrace while a heavy lion paw rubbed playfully against the top of her head and mane in circular motions. That deep sarcastic voice spoke up with a certain glee of amusement to it. – “I think I know where I’ll be crashing in while being reformed; with you, Fluttershy!”

A flash of hot blood went straight to the Pegasus’ head as she grasped tightly around his eagle talon with both her hands in mild desperation; smooth claws sinking superficially against the orange scales as she felt suddenly light headed and the world started to spin around her. Unable to gather enough strength to trash around, squirm, or even scream, she just murmured under her voice as her extremities started to shut down and go limp.

-“O-oh dear.”

And with that, her world sank into darkness.

-“… Well, that’s definitely a reaction.” – He mused over the unconscious mare, stroking her mane gently as he turned around and gently set her to the couch, appreciating how her now disheveled mane fell over her features with a small chuckle. –“Now, now… Let’s see what we got to work with here.” – Talking to no one in particular, the draconequus’ image rubbed its claw and paw together as it fizzled and glitches out of existence with a strong flash of white light, causing a thin veil of magic to expand at alarming speed in a dome shape; shaking the very foundations of the cottage and causing a strong breeze to blow all through ponyville, managing to scare the remaining animals who flew or scampered away, terrified.

Far away from the small town, over the rails that led to Appleloosa and came from Canterlot, flew an overly secure traveling chariot as it was being surrounded by n generous quantity of guards carrying within it a mischievous deceitful creature and a guard sentinel. Lunaria knew the risks that were being taken as she decided to stir the ride herself with the company of two guards that sat by her flanks. If he decided to do anything remotely “funny”, she would take matters in her own hands to straighten him, and if she failed, then she would have to apologize to her sister later for the damage.

So far not a single strange occurrence had taken place, which only helped to irk the lunar princess' senses further. He was too quiet. Certainly, he was scheming something; no way in Tartarus that he would be so cooperative.

And just like a self fulfilling prophecy, suddenly a sharp white flash of light went off through the chariot’s windows, several of the guards turning sharply as they closed upon the carriage, which shook a bit too violently despite any lack of turbulence in their way; in answer to this, the perytons pulling the reins screeched in protest, bucking the air for a few seconds before Lunaria pulled at the reins, diminishing their velocity as they lost some altitude.

-“Lead it!” – She practically dumped the reins upon the fellow soldier sitting by, quickly jumping from their driving seat and flaring her wings, letting the wind do a short job of moving her to the side of the chariot as her claws scrapped the polished the wood when the princess yanked at the handle, almost tearing the door loose by sheer force. – “Whatever you’re doing, this is the only time we will request you to stop politely.” – Announcing with an unwavering harsh and demanding tone, Luna partially pulled her saber before she could get an accurate glance of what happened. The sight caused the princess’ grasp around the handle to tighten as her ears pinned further back, her mane and tail whipping wildly in the strong winds all around.

Discord stood completely unfazed by her threats, calmly wiping at his face with a torn piece of the curtain’s clothe; once a beautiful white ivory white color now stained by the dark crimson of blood, which was smudged across his lips and under his eyes, creating trails akin to tears down his face as his smile grew much wider. –“Oh, I’m sorry. Should I have asked for handkerchief?” – Still not opening his eyes or turning his head, Discord’s smile opened in a calm grin.

The sentinel guard immediately reported, not waiting for a prompt from the princess as they had a sword held by one hand, using the other hand to rub at their semi-blinded eyes. –"Princess, I don't know exactly what happened as the fiend seemed to fall asleep, but once a few minutes transposed, blood started to dribble down his eyes and lips! When I tried to shake him awake a blinding flash of light came from his eyes opened."

-"For my credit, I wasn't going to do that, but the chance was too good to pass." – A short-lived menacing chuckle reverberated, being interrupted as a sharp saber poked the side of his throat. –"Oh my, this one feels sharp… Stepped up your personal collection, Lulu?"

Not being distracted by the inadequate use that particular nickname, Luna held a steady hand, not even the chariot’s vibrations forcing her to slice his throat open, despite her desire to do so. -“Tell us right now; what have you done?” – Using the hand she freed from the door’s handle, she signalized to the outer guards to scan the areas below, but never diverted her attention from the sentinel and the draconequus.

A moment of silence took place as he deeply inhaled, giggling mindlessly at this whole situation as his eyes slowly came open; remnants of unshed tears of pure blood now descending on his cheeks, staining his fur thoroughly as the intense white glow into his eyes started to fade away, revealing the common palette of golden and crimson, with even more crimson than usual. – “Oversensitivity to air travel?”

The saber got pushed a bit further against his skin, actually starting to poke through superficially as a small droplet of blood broke through. Raising his eyebrows, this time the draconequus pulled back, getting a few centimeters of distance between him and the sharp blade as he let his vision adjust, having large spots of light all speckled through his view. – “Still no sense of humor, I see; quite ironic for the former bearer of laughter.” – Closing his eyes once again, he lifted his paw to the small zone stung by the tip of the blade, massaging it with a paw pad.

A deep exhausted sigh came from the princess’ lips as she pulled the saber and put it back to its sheath. – “Do keep secrets as you may, beast; nevertheless, pull any other stunt to lay a trap or scare my guards and next time we won’t be as merciful. Understood?” – The question was mostly rhetorical as she inquired with a stern tone, pushing herself aside and letting another guard in, this time a bat pony sentinel to make company to the first one and soothe his nerves.

-“Clear as crystal, your majesty.” – His tone was obviously more mocking than anything as he saluted her for no reason in particular, opening one eye and grinning while using his free talon to wipe at his face with the same stained and torn piece of the curtain from before.

Her eyes only hang upon the menace that was that chimera for a few more seconds before she shoved the door close, locking it once again while letting go of the side of the chariot; flying forth and taking her place as the lead again right beside the other two guards. They reported immediately. – "Your Highness, all the surrounding perimeter seems to be clear, no lead as to any traps or alterations."

-“Then the lowlife only wanted to stir fear in the heart of our sentinel; Bastard.” – Whipping the reins a little harder to alert the creatures but not hurt them, the perytons pulled the flying chariot faster, ponyville lying far at the horizon alongside Canterlot’s mountains. Luna herself wasn’t thoroughly convinced that this stunt had only been done for kicks, but for the time being there was nothing else she could do in the lack of evidence.

Meanwhile, Discord glanced through the window as he placed a bloody talon upon it, letting his hand slide down causing a gruesome trail of blood on the glass. His grin became sinister as a sudden spark ignited all the blood stains and traces in a purple and white flame, not burning any material other than the blood itself. A throaty chuckle rang into the carriage as the guards eyed him warily. The game is afoot.

Author's Note

Perytons are carnivorous deer with wings in this verse, in which the ponies are anthros. They're used to pull the royal chariots since having a pony pulling the ropes and trying to fly would look very weird. XD

Writing this fanfic is a great experiment towards improvement, as I try to focus more on interactions. This particular chapter felt more like a transition, and the second part will have the bulk of the story. ;D

I hope you're enjoying, and if you have any doubts towards the plot, do voice them. Any critique towards the writing is welcome as long as it's constructive.