Chapter 25: The War’s End

Fluttershy marched down the dark hallway with a sense of determination. She would have broken into a gallop, but she knew what was facing her at the end of the hallway, and while she was determined to end this once and for all, a sense of unease kept her hooves going at little more than a resolute trot. In the darkness, she could see the silhouette of the double doors as she approached the end of the hallway. The doors stood much taller than they normally did, probably a result of Princess Celestia’s magic. It only made sense; it wasn’t just her that would be flying out those doors this time.

Fluttershy came to a stop in front of the two doors. “Great Sacred Treasure, activate!” she called out. Her body slowly spun as her hooves rose off the ground, carried by a magic that she wasn’t quite used to after the first time. An emblem made of golden light appeared directly behind her and spun rapidly, letting out a series of metallic clinks that echoed through the hallway. The emblem came to a stop with a single resounding clank, revealing an ornate circle with eight star points. Five hollow gaps rested outside the perimeter of the circle along five of the star points, while a sixth gap lay in the center, emitting a faint purple glow. All at once, the Great Sacred Treasure materialized underneath Fluttershy, everything from the main body and the shoulder blades to the heavy weapon arms, while Fluttershy was seated in the cockpit.

The pair of massive doors opened before Fluttershy, revealing the vast, foreboding orange skies of the Underworld on the other side. The twin thrusters on the back of the Great Sacred Treasure began to fire, and in the blink of an eye, the machine rocketed forward. The Underworld landscape zoomed beneath Fluttershy as she went, with hills, chasms, plateaus, and rock formations all bleeding together.

In time, she came upon a number of Underworld enemies patrolling the skies: Monoeyes, Wave Anglers, and Petribombers. Fluttershy worked the controls for the Great Sacred Treasure’s weaponry. A large blast shot out of the dual cannons on the mech’s left arm, erupting into a massive fireball when it struck one of the Monoeyes and consuming several others in the vicinity of its explosion. A spray of energy shots fired from the heavy rifle on the mech’s right arm, which homed in on the other enemies ahead.

“The time has finally come, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “This is the final battle. Good luck.”

“Thank you, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said. “I’ll do my best.”

“The Forces of Nature are preparing as we speak,” Luna cut in. “They will be ready to mobilize at a moment’s notice, should the need arise.”

“Thank you, Luna,” Celestia said.

“Is that the weapon?” Luna asked.

“Yes,” Celestia said. “Granny Smith called it the Great Sacred Treasure.”

“Remarkable,” Luna said, almost in a hushed tone.

“I think it’s missing a few weapons,” Fluttershy said as she fired a spray of shots at a pair of Belunkas. “The one Granny Smith made me fight had more attacks.”

“Most peculiar,” Luna said. “Tell me, did the previous weapon boast a vast array of projectiles, each inflicting a different status ailment?”

“I don’t recall Fluttershy being struck by any of its weapons, but yes actually,” Celestia said.

“It’s likely for the best,” Luna said. “Fluttershy will need all the firepower she can muster against Discord, and I cannot be certain how effective status ailments would be. Burning him would do no good, and I shudder to think what he might be capable of if afflicted with spinning.”

The ground ahead of Fluttershy erupted in a burst of light and energy. Fluttershy slammed the brakes on the Great Sacred Treasure, her chest and forelegs slamming into the dashboard as the mech came to a sudden halt in front of a deep fissure in the ground below. Rising above the fissure and looming over the Great Sacred Treasure was the Lord of the Underworld himself, arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

“Hello again, Flutters,” Discord said.

Fluttershy pushed herself off of the dashboard with her hooves, sat back up in her seat, and managed a glare back at him. “Discord,” she muttered.

“Come now, Fluttershy,” Discord said, rolling his eyes. “We’ve been over this.”

“Discord!” Fluttershy said through gritted teeth.

“Fluttershy!” Discord spat back.

“Discord!” Celestia said, more forcefully.

“Celestia!” Discord said.

“Discord…” Luna said, sounding almost bored.

“LUNA!” Discord bellowed.

Silence followed. Fluttershy narrowed her eyes, while Discord stood there, his arms still folded and the smirk still on his face. Then Rainbow Dash cut in. “Discord,” she said slowly, as if stifling a yawn.

Discord sneezed. The Great Sacred Treasure flew back, evading Discord as his body doubled over from the force of his own sneeze. A flock of vultures shot out of Discord’s nostrils, let out a few harried squawks between them, and scattered off into the skies.

“Excuse you,” Fluttershy muttered. “But anyway–”

“Now it’s REALLY on!” said both Fluttershy and Discord. Discord wound back his lion’s paw, while Fluttershy kept her hooves at the controls, the Great Sacred Treasure hovering in place as she braced herself.

“On to death!” Discord added as he swung his paw. The Great Sacred Treasure rushed forward, and then rolled underneath his outstretched arm. Fluttershy piloted the mech behind Discord, turned it around, and fired a blast from the mech’s dual cannons. Discord let out a yelp as the blast struck his back just below the shoulder, but kicked back with his goat leg, sending Fluttershy and her mech flying across the landscape.

Fluttershy brought the Great Sacred Treasure to a halt. Seeing Discord’s form off in the distance, she fired the mech’s thrusters and sped back toward him. Discord turned to face her, raised his paw again, and launched a beam of purple energy at her. The Great Sacred Treasure rolled to the side, sailed under the beam as it blasted its way along the ground, and continued on.

“Let me get a closer look at that shiny new toy of yours,” Discord said.

Fluttershy soared over and past Discord, trying to get behind his head, but Discord craned his neck and kept her in his sights. Below, she spotted a swarm of blue hummingbirds, the same color as Discord’s feathered wing, rushing up toward her. She swerved out of their way and fired a spray of shots from her mech’s heavy rifle. Discord blocked with his lion’s paw, grunted as the barrage of fire seared its pale yellow fur, then raised his arms outward and brought them together with a resounding clap. Fluttershy backed the Great Sacred Treasure away, but she and the mech were flung back by the sheer force of his clap.

The Great Sacred Treasure came to a stop, and Fluttershy took a moment to catch her breath. The fight had only just begun, and her body was being rattled around inside the cockpit. She checked the displays in front of her. No alarm sounds, no flashing lights. The Great Sacred Treasure was holding up, even if she was feeling a bit sore. She looked out toward Discord, and could see the remnants of a shockwave from his clap radiating out behind him.

Discord reached behind him, plucked the bat wing from his back, and held it with both his talon and paw. The wing’s webbing grew longer and flowed down, reaching as far down as his knees. He gave Fluttershy a smug grin and waved the wing to his side like a matador’s cape. With her hooves at the controls, Fluttershy rushed forward, firing another blast from the dual cannons as she went. Discord dropped the bat wing and shifted to the side, dodging the Great Sacred Treasure’s fire. The bat wing fluttered in the air for a moment before shriveling away, revealing a herd of bulls behind it, each flying on leathery wings.

In a surge of panic, Fluttershy pulled the Great Sacred Treasure up and to the side, evading a stampede from the flying bulls. She aimed the mech’s heavy rifle and fired another spray of shots at Discord. Discord grimaced as the shots peppered his upper body and neck, then held up his paw to shield himself.

“You can be awfully cute, Fluttershy,” Discord said, forcing a half-smirk. In an instant, his body slithered up, and he soared high above Fluttershy with his paw clenched. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t squash you like a gnat!”

Fluttershy backed the Great Sacred Treasure away just as Discord crashed his fist into the ground. Bits of rock pelted the armor of the Great Sacred Treasure, shot up from the impact of Discord’s fist. Fluttershy hovered around Discord, who now knelt at the center of a vast crater. He tried to rise up, but his right shoulder struggled.

“Drat, my arm is stuck,” Discord said.

Fluttershy fired another blast from the mech’s dual cannons, followed by a spray of shots from the heavy rifle. Discord flinched, but the horn and antler on his head began to spark, and lightning shot up. Fluttershy dodged and kept firing with the mech’s rifle. Suddenly, Discord’s paw popped off, and he rose back up to his full height. Fluttershy pulled the mech back, retreating to a safer distance as he stood, or at least what counted for a safer distance. Discord reached into the stub of his right arm with his talon, and with a hard tug, pulled out a fresh new lion’s paw.

“There, all better,” he said. He then looked up at the Great Sacred Treasure, and another smirk crept across his face. “Flutters, I have something to show you!”

Discord twisted his long serpentine body and wound both arms up. Then he unwound himself and started spinning, kicking up wind and dirt all around himself in a massive red and gray tornado.

“Oh no!” Fluttershy squeaked.

“If you get caught in that twister, it’ll tear the Great Sacred Treasure apart!” Celestia said.

Fluttershy turned the Great Sacred Treasure around and fired its thrusters. The mech struggled against the pull of the tornado’s winds, especially once the tornado moved toward her. Grunting, Fluttershy turned up the mech’s throttle as much as it went. For a moment, the Great Sacred Treasure broke free of the tornado’s winds and put some distance between them. But then Discord began to spin faster, and the tornado bore down on Fluttershy once again. Fluttershy grunted as she pressed even harder on the throttle. It did no good; the Great Sacred Treasure’s thrusters were already working as hard as they could, and the mech came mere feet from the tornado’s winds and the destructive debris it was carrying.

The tornado abruptly subsided as Discord stopped spinning, and before Fluttershy realized, the Great Sacred Treasure rocketed away from Discord. Fluttershy was slammed into the back of her seat by the mech’s acceleration, and then again into the dashboard when she hit the brakes. Catching her breath, she turned the mech around to get a look at Discord again, but the moment he was in her sights, he lunged forward. The golden emblem behind the Great Sacred Treasure began to glow brighter, and when its thrusters fired, the mech rocketed backwards, away from Discord.

“Playing hard to get, are you?” Discord said. Fluttershy yelped as he flew after her, his body undulating through the air as he pursued the fleeing mech. “Good thing I’ve been getting my cardio in!”

“Like watching an alligator swim after its prey…” Luna mused.

Discord lunged at the Great Sacred Treasure, his jaws trying to clamp down on her as he drew closer. Fluttershy kept the throttle up, hoping to put as much distance between her and Discord as she could. She fired a blast from the mech’s dual cannons at him, then a spray of shots from the heavy rifle. The two of them entered a canyon, and Fluttershy noticed its walls rise up on either side of them. She had no way of seeing what was behind her as she went, and the Great Sacred Treasure’s weapons could only fire forward. She hoped that the canyon kept going straight. Even a slight turn, and it was all over.

Discord lunged again, bringing forward both his teeth and his left talon. Fluttershy swerved, taking her hoof off the weapon controls for a moment. When her hoof returned to them, she fired a blast from the mech’s dual cannons. The blast exploded in the side of Discord’s muzzle, sending him off course and crashing face-first into one of the canyon walls. Fluttershy brought the Great Sacred Treasure to a halt. She paused to watch Discord, and when he stayed motionlessly embedded in the rock wall, she brought the mech closer.

“Did I beat him?” she asked.

With some effort, Discord pulled his face out of the canyon wall. “No, I’m fine,” he said. “But I could’ve chipped a tooth.” He then coiled his tail and raised his lower body. “Good thing I didn’t!”

With a quick motion, Discord lashed his tail at the Great Sacred Treasure. Fluttershy yelped as she pulled the mech up, barely getting out of the way. Discord’s tail slashed clean through the canyon wall, digging a deep gouge in the rock face. Fluttershy panted, her heart pounding in her chest as she looked from the rock face back to Discord.

“Oh dear, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “I hope you’re not getting tired. Not when I’m just getting started!” Before Fluttershy could react, Discord shot up into the air, leaving behind ripples and waves in the Underworld skies like a stone splashing into a red-orange lake. “Let’s see if you can keep up!” his voice echoed.

“You can’t run from me, Discord,” Fluttershy said. Her glance shifted to a lever on the left side of the cockpit. She pulled the lever, and the Great Sacred Treasure began to change. The heavy rifle detached from the mech’s right arm and fragmented into a hundred pieces as it fell to the ground. The dual cannons rotated on their arm and pivoted back, joining the thrusters at the Great Sacred Treaure’s back. The massive shoulder blades fanned out and angled back, while the mech’s comparatively stubby legs locked together and folded in, giving the mech a more streamlined form. Finally, a long turret that had been positioned at the back along with the thrusters rotated to the front, extending out in front of the cockpit.

A readout appeared on the dashboard in front of Fluttershy in bright green letters: PURSUIT MODE ENGAGED. With her hooves at the controls, Fluttershy pointed the Great Sacred Treasure up at the sky, where the ripples were still reverberating through the air. In the blink of an eye, the Great Sacred Treasure rocketed upward.

It didn’t take long for the Great Sacred Treasure to catch up to Discord. Discord glanced back as the speeding mech flew in alongside him, and a smug grin crept onto his face. “Why, Fluttershy, I thought I’d left you behind,” he said.

“Like I said, you can’t run from me, Discord!” Fluttershy said. “Not while I have the Great Sacred Treasure!” She hit the weapons controls, and a ring of bright green light shot out from the turret and struck Discord’s body.

“Run from you?” Discord said. “No, I was just going to make a quick stop to decimate a country or two.”

“In the middle of battle?!” Fluttershy said. “Why would you do that?”

“No doubt to replenish his supply of souls,” Luna said.

“Yes, I was hoping to greet Fluttershy on top of a mountain of corpses,” Discord said with a gleeful smile, his arms spread out. A barrage of fire from the Great Sacred Treasure’s turret peppered his serpentine form, and he scowled and crossed his arms. “But I couldn’t even get a pile started with her hot on my heels. What a killjoy.”

“Your hunger for destruction is as boundless as it is callous, Discord,” Celestia said.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Rainbow Dash said. “A mountain of corpses? Seriously?”

Discord uncrossed his arms, and the fur and flesh along his body began to twist and morph. Another head, just like Discord’s own, grew out of his body close to his feathered wing. Two more heads grew, one just below his left arm and another along the forearm of his lion’s paw. Fluttershy grimaced, then swerved as the first new head spat out a missile.

“Are those… face guns?” Fluttershy asked.

“Discord’s face, no less,” Celestia said.

“I’m so glad you noticed!” the head sprouting from Discord’s arm said.

“I want you to remember every detail of this lovely visage,” the head on Discord’s lower body added, then spat out a missile at Fluttershy.

One more head sprouted upside down from Discord’s long neck, earning a raised eyebrow and a frown from the original head. “After all, it’s the last face you’ll ever see!”

Fluttershy shot an energy ring from the Great Sacred Treasure’s turret, which burned through the head that had grown near Discord’s wing. She then fired a stream of shots up his body, first destroying the head under his left arm then the one growing on his right forearm. Another head began to sprout on Discord’s back, just between his shoulders, while the head on Discord’s neck spat a missile at Fluttershy. Fluttershy rolled to dodge, then made her way up Discord’s body. She fired at the head on Discord’s neck, destroying it and earning a wince from the real head. She then turned the Great Sacred Treasure’s turret on the real head, pelting him with its barrage of fire.

Discord let out a pained grunt. The head that had grown out of his back popped like a balloon, while the rest of his body lurched back. He then let out a snarl and glared back at Fluttershy.

“Now, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “That was very naughty of you!”

At once, the fur on Discord’s body stood on end, and red and yellow needles of light shot up from every hair on him. One needle struck the Great Sacred Treasure and exploded, rattling Fluttershy inside the cockpit. Hitting the throttle, Fluttershy flew the mech as fast as it would go, even as the remaining needles homed in and chased after her. She swerved to avoid one needle, but another exploded into the mech’s side. The Great Sacred Treasure went spinning, and collided with yet another needle. All around her, alarms were sounding off inside the cockpit. The Great Sacred Treasure’s turret broke from the front of the craft, and when she checked the dashboard display, it showed one of the mech’s shoulders beginning to come off.

“The Great Sacred Treasure is falling apart!” Fluttershy said.

Regaining control, Fluttershy piloted her mech forward, with the needles still in hot pursuit. One slammed into the mech’s rear, sending it spinning again. The thrusters failed, and the display in front of Fluttershy showed more pieces of the Great Sacred Treasure coming undone.

“Wait, no,” Celestia said. “It’s… changing shape again!”

The remaining needles circled around and surrounded the Great Sacred Treasure. A light shone from the dashboard, filling up the cockpit as the needles converged and struck the Great Sacred Treasure all at once. Each explosion added to the others, quickly consuming the Great Sacred Treasure in an inferno. But when the flames subsided, the Great Sacred Treasure emerged in a new form, completely unscathed. Much of the mech’s plating had been repositioned in front of it, including a set of faulds and tassets. The new form took on an upright, bipedal shape, with the two surviving thrusters positioned at the bottom of its legs and a set of bronze-colored claws at the end of its new arms.

Inside the cockpit, Fluttershy’s seat had molded itself around all four of her legs, leaving her all but standing. The controls on the dashboard had all but disappeared, leaving only the status display and a hoofful of buttons and levers within reach. She moved a foreleg, and though she was met with some resistance by the machinery that surrounded it, she was shocked to see one of the Great Sacred Treasure’s claws move to match her.

The first thing that appeared on the status display were a few words in bright green letters: MECH ARMOR MODE ENGAGED.

“That thing is so awesome!” Rainbow Dash said.

The golden emblem behind the Great Sacred Treasure had moved in front of it as Fluttershy turned to face Discord, who stood scowling at her with arms crossed and tapping an eagle talon against his right forearm.

“You know, you could’ve told me you were dressing up for this,” Discord said. “Good thing I always come prepared.” He grabbed his chest with both arms, lion’s paw and eagle talons digging into his fur. In a quick motion, he seemed to rip off his own pelt, only to reveal a tailcoat tuxedo underneath it. “Like the duds, Fluttershy? I call this my devastation ensemble.”

Energy shots fired from the buttons on Discord’s tailcoat. Fluttershy banked left to dodge, raised her front hooves, and fired back from the Great Sacred Treasure’s claws. Discord’s tie fluttered underneath the coat, rose out, and lashed out at Fluttershy like a striking cobra. Fluttershy ducked underneath and kept firing, destroying three of Discord’s buttons.

“I only wear this for very special occasions,” Discord said. “You know, weddings, armageddons…” He raised an arm and reached toward Fluttershy. A pink Parasprite-shaped cufflink with an open mouth adorned Discord’s suit cuff. It began to suck in air, pulling Fluttershy toward it. Fluttershy tried to pull away, but the Great Sacred Treasure was pelted by shots from the buttons.

Fluttershy aimed her mech’s claws at the Parasprite cufflink and fired. The cufflink shattered, and Fluttershy swerved to dodge another barrage from the tailcoat’s buttons. She fired at the buttons again, destroying another one, when Discord raised his other arm and revealed another Parasprite-shaped cufflink. The second cufflink started to pull in the Great Sacred Treasure, but Fluttershy promptly shredded it with her mech’s weapon fire.

Fluttershy fired at the tailcoat buttons again, destroying another two, when an explosion rocked the air beneath the Great Sacred Treasure. She looked down from the cockpit and saw what looked like a stream of giant pollen grains wafting away from a flower on Discord’s lapel. As she hovered away from the pollen stream, she could swear she saw a white glow coming from beneath the flower. If anything, Fluttershy could swear the glow was coming from underneath the tailcoat.

It then dawned on her. The Lightning Chariot! That glow was where Twilight and Shining Armor pierced Discord’s chest to rescue her the last time she fought him. If that wound was still there, maybe it was a weak point. She aimed at the flower and fired with the Great Sacred Treasure’s claws. Her shots tore through the flower one petal at a time before it fell away. With few buttons left to keep it in place, Discord’s tailcoat began to slide off his shoulder as well, until he caught it with his eagle talon.

“How rude of you, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “Do I ruin your formal wear? Wait, don’t answer that just yet!”

Fluttershy ignored him. With the flower gone, she could see the glow coming from Discord’s chest more clearly. The Great Sacred Treasure’s fire had even torn a hole through Discord’s tailcoat, revealing a bright blue void shining from his chest. Aiming the Great Sacred Treasure’s claws, she fired a barrage of shots into the wound.

Discord let out a pained gasp. He bared his teeth and glared at Fluttershy. “Come here!” he shouted.

With one quick motion, Discord snatched the Great Sacred Treasure out of the air and grasped it tight within his lion’s paw. Fluttershy struggled within the cockpit, but couldn’t move her legs. The machinery she was hooked up to linked her front and hind legs with the arms and legs of the mech. If they couldn’t move, neither could she.

Discord held his paw out in front of him and stared down at Fluttershy. “What a mighty little oak you’ve grown into!” he said. He raised his left arm, the eagle talons splayed out at first, then bent toward each other and meeting at the tips. His wrist then spun madly as he brought his arm toward the Great Sacred Treasure’s armor. “Now let’s drill through the bark and drain the sap!”

Red lights flashed all throughout the cockpit. Alarms sounded and warning messages flooded the display in front of Fluttershy, detailing the damage to the Great Sacred Treasure as Discord bored through its metal plating. Fluttershy tried to move again. She tried the weapons, but none of them responded. Pretty soon, Discord’s talon would break through the armor and reach her. She looked frantically throughout the cockpit for something, anything that could help. At first, all she saw were the warning messages scrolling in front of her. But then, in the corner of her right eye, a blinking light. A side display with three rows of bright green text.

100%
CHARGE COMPLETE
FINAL STRIKE READY

Underneath the text, there was a red button. Her hoof couldn’t reach for it, not while she was hooked up to the machinery. But her wing was still free. She reached out with her wing and hit the button.

In every single mode of the Great Sacred Treasure, there had been a single cannon on the main body of the mech, positioned just beneath the cockpit. Completely unassuming next to the gleaming white armor and heavy weaponry of the Great Sacred Treasure, the cannon hadn’t fired once during the entire battle. In that moment, a massive beam of rainbow light launched forth from the cannon, annihilating every ounce of Discord’s body that it touched. Discord groaned as his lower body, his legs, his wings, and his tail were burned away before he even knew what happened. His arms were spared, as well as everything from the chest up, but it was enough to make him release his grip on the Great Sacred Treasure.

“Yeah, that’s right!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “You’re not half the villain you thought you were!”

“That’s what you think!” Discord said. He cackled as he soared upward, leaving Fluttershy in his wake.

“How did he survive that?!” Fluttershy asked. She watched in disbelief as Discord flew off, then turned her attention back to the cockpit. The alarms had gone silent, but several status messages remained on the screen, and a diagram of the Great Sacred Treasure showed the damage it had taken. One message was flashing red in the center of the display:

MECH ARMOR COMPROMISED
JETTISON RECOMMENDED

Fluttershy reached with her wing and tapped the message on the screen. The broken armor plating fell from the Great Sacred Treasure. The legs fell away too, but the thrusters detached and repositioned themselves behind the mech’s shoulders. Fluttershy looked at the diagram of what was left on the screen. If she squinted her eyes, it looked like a shrunken down version of the Great Sacred Treasure’s first mode. A status message appeared on the display, replacing all of the others: ULTRALIGHT MODE ENGAGED.

The Great Sacred Treasure shot upward, and immediately Fluttershy felt a difference. At least it was still fast. Unencumbered as it was, it might’ve even been more maneuverable than Pursuit Mode. A fiery rift tore through the sky above, and Fluttershy flew up towards it. When she passed through, she was met with another orange sky. It was only the sun setting on the surface world, but between the Underworld and the Chaos Vortex, she was getting tired of orange skies. The ocean lay below her, and as she looked out, she could see a town nestled in between the coastline and some mountains.

“Fluttershy! Behind you!” Luna shouted.

Fluttershy spun around. Even with just his top half, Discord was still imposing as he loomed over both her and the coastline behind her, a smug grin stretched across his face. “Still stalking me, I see,” he said. He clenched his paw and talon, raised his head up, and let out a strained grunt. A blackish-purple mass of scales burst out from below his chest, and in less than a second, grew into a long, slender, draconic tail and a set of hind legs to match.

“What the–?!” Fluttershy said.

“There,” Discord said. “Much better.” He then struck a pose, sticking his right leg out and his arms forward, and a volley of purple energy orbs issued from his arms. The Great Sacred Treasure rushed backward, and Fluttershy fired back, shooting down some of the orbs while landing a few hits on Discord’s body.

“He can do that?!” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Yes, but at great cost,” Luna said. “For a being of Discord’s size and strength, it would take an incredible amount of souls to regenerate his lower body. He cannot keep regrowing lost parts indefinitely.”

“More than that, his new parts haven’t had time to grow in properly,” Celestia said. “They won’t be as strong as his original body. They’ll be more vulnerable.”

“So, what?” Rainbow asked. “We just wait for him to use up every soul in the Underworld before we start doing any real damage?!”

“Rainbow…” Fluttershy murmured. She swerved around another volley of orbs and fired back at Discord.

“And you said that some of those souls are salvageable if the monster they were used to make is destroyed fast enough,” Rainbow went on. “So how do we know he can’t just recycle the same souls he used to heal himself?”

“Rainbow,” Fluttershy muttered, her eyes narrowing.

“And look at the Great Sacred Treasure!” Rainbow said. “That thing’s been losing parts ever since this fight started! How much longer do you think it’ll hold up?”

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy snapped. “You’re not helping!”

“Uh, right. Sorry…” Rainbow said sheepishly. “You’ve got this, Fluttershy!”

“Oh, you sweet, deluded mares,” Discord said as he shook his head, scattering a few more orbs. “You act like you’re the first creatures to ever hack off one of my limbs!”

“What?!” all four mares shouted at once.

“I mean, just look at me!” Discord said, spreading his arms out and releasing more orbs. “Haven’t you ever wondered how I got all these gorgeous body parts? Each and every one of them is a patch job from some upstart who thought they could depose me as Lord of the Underworld. And I’ve been at this for a very long time, so just imagine how many of them there have been! Even the ones who didn’t even lay a scratch.”

Each time Discord spoke, he posed, gesticulated, or even just paced above the ocean’s surface. And with each movement, he sloughed more energy orbs at Fluttershy. “Why, I remember the first one like it was yesterday,” he said. “This horned centaur thing who grew a pants size every time he ate a soul. I had come down to the City of Souls to look into an attack on my Reapers when I saw him guzzling down souls like ale from a tap. Obviously, I couldn’t have that in my realm, so I dealt with him and tossed his soul into the stream with all the others. But the whole ordeal cost me an arm.”

Up in Skyworld, Rainbow Dash felt a hoof on her shoulder. She looked up to see Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor standing over her. Without a word, Twilight threw a glance toward a corridor leading from Celestia’s throne room. Rainbow looked from them back to the ethereal window Celestia had cast with her magic, the one that all four of them had been using to watch the battle between Fluttershy and Discord. She then nodded to the two unicorns and stood up, and the three of them rushed toward the corridor.

“I wish I could say that was the end of the story,” Discord went on. “But if it wasn’t one of you little gods with your petty squabbles or some power hungry buffoon, it was some idiot who thought they could make me answer for the death of someone they cared about. And before, none of them would have even dared try. But with little old me down an arm, they must have seen an easy target. Before I knew it, I lost a leg and both horns too.”

Fluttershy shot down another round of energy orbs and fired back with the Great Sacred Treasure’s claws. If Discord was even a little bothered by it, he wasn’t showing it.

“By then, I was a little worried. About myself, of course, but also about who would rule over the Underworld without me. It’s hard to believe now, even for me, but there was actually a time when I cared about the job. That’s when I decided to take a page from the centaur’s book. If he could get stronger by eating souls, maybe I could fix myself with them. It was either use them for myself or let them fall into the hands of whoever took my place.

“Of course, that didn’t stop anyone from going to war against me,” Discord continued. “But each time one of them took a piece off of me, I could take a few thousand souls and put myself back together. Especially the souls of those who dared defy me in the first place. Serves them right, after all. Before long, I even learned how to mold those souls into troops for my army.”

“If you think your story will earn you any sympathy, you are sorely mistaken,” Celestia said. “There is no excuse for your abuse of power.”

“Oh, please!” Discord said. “Every soul, mortal or divine, comes through the Underworld sooner or later. Your souls are all mine, whether you realize it or not! You’d best remember that with the time you have left. As for you, Fluttershy, just know that you’ll have a special place in my heart when you’re dead. It’s only fair after what you did to the last one.”

Fluttershy gritted her teeth. She swerved away from another group of orbs, then fired two streams of shots from the Great Sacred Treasure’s claws. Discord grimaced as the shots hit his lower body.

“Alright, that’s enough fun for one day,” he said. With a pop, Discord’s body vanished.

“Huh?” Fluttershy said. She looked out over the horizon, then turned the Great Sacred Treasure to check the town behind her, but there was no sign of him. She then turned back toward the ocean, and saw Discord’s head upside-down in front of her. Before she could flinch or let out an “eep,” Discord’s paw and talon clapped down on the Great Sacred Treasure. He uncupped his hands, then flipped and lashed the Great Sacred Treasure with his tail. The Great Sacred Treasure broke apart, and Fluttershy hurtled through the air along with the mech’s broken pieces.

“Oh no, Fluttershy!” Celestia said.

“Looks like your toy isn’t so ‘great’ after all,” Discord said.

Discord put on a big, toothy grin, but then cried out as something slammed into the back of his eagle talon, tearing it clean off. He looked down at the stub of his left arm, then ahead of him to find the Lightning Chariot racing toward Fluttershy. The chariot caught up to Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash grabbed onto Fluttershy’s hoof with her own, while her other hoof held the reins. Fluttershy’s hoof gripped Rainbow’s right back, holding on for dear life as her body practically dangled in the Lightning Chariot’s wake.

Discord snarled. He raised back the stub of his left arm, and the head of a shark burst forth from it to replace his lost eagle talon. “Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something here?!” he said. He struck the Lightning Chariot with a backhand from his new appendage, knocking all four ponies out of the air.

The screams of Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy all turned to grunts of pain as they hit the ground and tumbled. Pieces of the Great Sacred Treasure crashed into the ground around them, while the Lightning Chariot landed a few feet ahead, the body of the chariot nearly flattening against the ground while the wheels flew off. Groans could be heard from all four ponies as they struggled to rise back to their hooves. As they looked up, they saw Discord looming over them off the coast. He sneered at them, then raised his head as a third eye opened on his head, just between his horn and antler.

“Since you’ve been such a formidable adversary, I’ve saved my deadliest attack just for you!” he said. “I do hope you enjoy it!”

Dark clouds began to gather and swirl above Discord’s head, while the skies themselves darkened to a deep red. Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Shining Armor all exchanged looks of worry, while Twilight kept her eyes on Discord as energy began to pulsate from his third eye. Then she noticed something above him: a break in the clouds, and a bright, golden light shining from it.

“That’s not part of his attack,” she said. “Is it?”

The other three ponies looked up and saw the same thing. “No, that’s…” Fluttershy said. “The Solar Flare spell?”

“Yes,” Celestia said. “Discord is weaker now, thanks to all of you and the Great Sacred Treasure. If I gather enough magic, I can destroy him once and for all with just one spell.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Rainbow Dash said. “You know how long that spell takes to charge! He’s gonna kill us before you get it off. Help us out here!”

“She may not have to,” Luna said.

“You sense it too?” Celestia said.

“What is it?” Twilight asked.

“An outside force, a godlike force,” Celestia said. “I cannot tell if it’s friend or foe. But it seems to be seeking Discord.”

“That’s not a lot to go o—” Shining Armor said.

A shadow fell over the ponies and the town behind them for a fleeting second, stopping Shining Armor mid-sentence, and a massive figure flew over them on great black wings. Lustrous blue barding and a starry mane and tail flashed above them as the figure sailed by, its hooves coming down on Discord’s body and its long, glowing horn aimed down at his third eye. An explosion of fire and magic lit up the horizon, throwing both creatures back. Discord’s now headless body fell backward and crashed into the ocean, while the black figure landed on all four hooves, sending waves crashing against the shore behind her. Only a glowing stub remained of her horn, while orbs of brilliant white light flew off from it a few at a time.

“Nightmare Moon?!” Celestia and Luna said at once.

“But we defeated you!” Celestia said. “Why are you helping us?”

Ignoring the dull, throbbing, almost blinding pain from her broken horn, Nightmare Moon’s eyes narrowed in loathing as she glowered at her ‘master’ and supposed Lord of the Underworld. The master who had kept her armies under-resourced and deprived of troops in her war with the Goddess of Light. The master who had no doubt watched in glee and amusement as she fought a losing battle against her bitter nemesis and that little pet pegasus of hers. The master who had left her to be defeated, to be humiliated, by none other than that same little pegasus. And now he expected her to play the loyal servant to him. She regarded him with one last look of contempt, and then reared up onto her hind legs.

“Discord keeps reviving me, but I won’t play the puppet anymore!” she said. She brought down her front hooves, ready to grind Discord’s body into paste, only for his arms to reach up and catch her front legs in midair. She struggled against his grip, trying to bring her hooves down on him, but he ripped her legs off with one clean motion. Nightmare Moon stumbled back and fell into the water, landing on her back as souls leaked out into the air from the remains of her legs as well as her horn. “No! How dare you?!”

“I am your master, Nightmare Moon, and I will revive you as many times as I desire!” Discord said as he rose back up. An explosion of light and energy burst forth from his neck, and the fiery head of a bearded blue ibex with long, curved back horns sprang up in place of his lost head. “But you’ve worn out your usefulness!”

Discord plunged the shark’s head on his left arm into Nightmare Moon’s chest, its jaws clamping down where Nightmare Moon’s heart would be. Her body began to disappear almost immediately, tens of thousands of souls swarming out of her like embers from a campfire, starting from the wound in her chest, then her head, and finally her wings and hind legs. Many more souls dripped from the rows of teeth on Discord’s arm as he raised it back up. On land, three ponies’ jaws had fallen in stunned silence, while Rainbow Dash, her teeth bared, looked apoplectic.

“Nightmare Moon!” Rainbow said. “You put our lives in the hooves of Nightmare Moon! Are you out of your minds?!”

“I can’t believe he’d do that to her!” Twilight said.

“No honor among Underworld gods, I guess,” Shining Armor said.

“What do we do?” Fluttershy asked.

“We press on!” Luna said. Fluttershy’s wings unfurled as a blue aura flared across them, earning a wide-eyed glance from her. “Powerful though it may have been, the Great Sacred Treasure was but one weapon. We have yet to bring to bear the full weight of our forces against Discord!”

“It may still be salvageable,” Celestia said. “Fluttershy, pick up that cannon.”

Amidst the wreckage of the Great Sacred Treasure rested a long barrel cannon. Bits and chunks of the Great Sacred Treasure’s white armor plating still clung to the body of the cannon, albeit twisted and charred in places, but what caught her eye was a display screen on the side, with a flickering green readout: 11%.

“We’ll help too,” Twilight said, she and her brother standing up with some difficulty. She turned to Shining Armor, who gave her a quick nod. Their horns lit up, and they zipped out toward the ocean, hard light paths streaking through the air in their wake.

Fluttershy reached for the cannon, grabbing onto the closest thing to a hoofhold she could find. She placed her other hoof beneath the cannon for support, and with a few beats of her wings, the power of flight spell carried her up into the air. The cannon was heavy, heavier than any cannon or club she had used in any of her missions, but she held on with both hooves. Off in the distance, Discord turned his new flaming goat head toward Fluttershy, only to be met with a blast in the face from Twilight’s horn as she rushed by. The golden light that had penetrated the clouds above Discord’s head had disappeared, and instead a thin shaft of light shone down on the cannon from above.

“I have a plan, but it will take some time,” Celestia said. “I’m going to channel the magic of my Solar Flare spell to charge the cannon. Once it’s fully charged, let loose!”

Sure enough, she could see the percentage on the display rising: 17%… 18%… Heat radiated from the cannon, and parts of it began to glow where there was no armor plating. Sparks crackled from its body and into the air, and Fluttershy flinched as they flew by her.

“The Forces of Nature are en route to render aid,” Luna said. “But they are too far away. I fear they may not reach you in time.”

Discord raised his lion’s paw, and a beam shot out of his palm at Twilight. The hard light path under Twilight’s hooves sloped down, letting her duck underneath it as she galloped by and fired back with two blasts from her horn. Discord snarled, and a pair of beams shot out of his eyes at her. The path under her hooves twisted, putting itself between her and Discord’s attack as she ran sideways along it. His eye beams cracked the path, and Twilight grimaced as the cracks spread across the path toward her hooves. A sharp impact struck the back of Discord’s left arm as Shining Armor rammed into him, a barrier spell surrounding him. Discord fired back with a beam from his paw, rattling the barrier, Shining Armor, and the hard light path he ran on all at once.

“Everypony spread out!” Shining Armor said. “We need to divide his attention and make sure he can’t line us up!”

Fluttershy glanced back and forth between the battle playing out before her and the display on the cannon: 42%… 43%… Fire erupted along the body of the cannon, just at the base of the barrel. A loud pop and a flash emitted from underneath one of the remaining pieces of plating, which now had a new crack in it. As components of the cannon glowed brighter, Fluttershy could see dents, cracks, and exposed circuits that weren’t visible when she first picked it up. Golden energy seemed to leak and drip away from the glowing parts. There was no telling how much longer the cannon would hold up.

If she was lucky, she would only get one shot.

Off in the distance, Discord was fuming. “I had today all planned out!” he said. “Take my time with your little toy, take it apart piece by piece, and sit back with a hot dog and nachos while Nightmare Moon finished you off!” He backhanded Shining Armor with his shark head arm, shattering his barrier and flinging him off of his hard light path. “My ‘deadliest attack’ wasn’t even meant for you! I was aiming it at the town behind you!” He fired a beam from his shark’s head, shattering the hard light path under Twilight’s hooves and sending her plummeting. He then turned around and fired his eye beams at Fluttershy. “What a pest you are!”

Fluttershy ducked under Discord’s eye beams. Discord began to follow her with his beams, only for them to falter when a blast of electricity hit the back of his head. He turned around and saw Rarity hovering above him, a blue electrical field crackling from her horn to the rest of her body and through the blue scarf around her neck. He fired a beam from his paw, but Rarity zipped across the sky to evade him. Using her horn, she sent bolts of electricity into three nearby clouds. All three clouds struck Discord with lightning all at once. Discord seethed and waved his paw, and all three clouds turned into sheep and plummeted from the air.

Meanwhile, Twilight struggled to get her hooves under her as she fell. She channeled a spell from her horn into her hooves, but her magic fizzled out. Down below, the ocean’s waters were coming up on her fast. She shut her eyes, focused on her magic, and vanished in a flash of magenta light. She reappeared hundreds of feet up in the air. With a little more altitude to work with, she tried her magic again. The hard light path reappeared under her hooves, sloping at a near freefall along with her, and she broke into a gallop. The light path curved ahead of her, becoming less steep as she bled off her falling speed, then sloped back upward as she raced toward Discord. She would’ve breathed a sigh of relief if she wasn’t running at a full gallop.

Shining Armor surveyed the battle as he circled around Discord, his barrier spell back in place again. Fluttershy was keeping out of the fray, holding out while that cannon charged. Good, he thought to himself, at least that was going right. That unicorn Rarity was also taking a few shots at Discord, dividing his attention further. Also good, they needed all the help they could get.

And then there was Twily. He watched her teleport out of the way of one of Discord’s attacks, only to stumble on her own light path when she popped back in. She had never teleported in midrun during a battle before. She’d never had to. They were the two fastest unicorns in the galaxy. Until now, evasive maneuvers had been enough. Until now, his barrier had been enough. He wished he could be there right now, covering her with his barrier spell. He glanced back at Fluttershy and wondered how much time the cannon still needed.

Fluttershy looked on at the three unicorns fighting Discord off, and then at the readout on the cannon. 75%… 76%… She swerved as Discord fired a beam at her from his shark head, then saw Rarity blast him with a lightning bolt. All three of them were barely hanging on. She wouldn’t fare much better. The power of flight couldn’t match Rarity’s lightning speed or the Lightning Chariot unicorns, especially not when she was lugging this heavy cannon. She needed them to hang on. If they lost, it was over.

Her gaze turned from the unicorns to Discord himself. From the furious glare on his new goat head to the shark’s head on his left arm and his draconic lower body. All new body parts, all grown using the souls of dead ponies and creatures. The look in Fluttershy’s eyes hardened. No more, she thought to herself. She was fighting for all creatures living and breathing. She was fighting for all departed souls still hanging in limbo. And last but not least, she was fighting for Princess Celestia, the Goddess of Light. And in all of their names, she would crush the Lord of the Underworld.

Fluttershy regarded Discord one more time, her eyes narrowing to a hard glare. “I won’t let you desecrate another soul,” she muttered under her breath.

The readout on the cannon read 96%. Rarity launched another bolt of lightning at Discord. Discord raised the shark head to block her electricity. His eyes flashed. The lightning bolt arced around and zapped Rarity. Then every cloud nearby let loose a lightning bolt, all striking Rarity at the same time. Rarity froze for a moment, and then fell out of the air.

98%…

Twilight shot another blast at Discord from her horn. Discord raised his lion’s paw and turned his head toward her. Two beams shot from his eyes. Twilight ran up and sailed over the beams, but Discord’s eyes tracked her. With the beams right behind her and gaining, Twilight teleported. Discord snapped the digits on his paw at that exact moment, and Twilight reappeared right in front of Shining Armor, inside his barrier. The two siblings crashed into each other. Their light paths and his barrier flickered out of existence, and both ponies fell out of the sky.

99%…

Discord turned his gaze to Fluttershy.

100%
CHARGE COMPLETE
FINAL STRIKE RE—

“Fluttershy, now!” Luna shouted. “FIRE!”

Fluttershy lifted the cannon and aimed it at Discord. An explosion tore through part of the cannon’s body, blowing off two pieces of plating. Electricity surged along the length of the body, frying some of the exposed circuitry. Fires erupted, followed by another explosion, and two cables running along the side of the cannon melted. Another surge of electricity raced down the barrel, followed by an explosion.

And then the cannon fired.

A massive golden beam of energy issued from the muzzle of the cannon, surrounded by a swirling spiral of rainbow light. Discord gritted his teeth and held out his arms, unleashing all of his might into four beams of magic from his eyes and arms. The beams met in the middle, pushing against each other for less than a second before the Final Strike cannon’s beam forced Discord's attack back. He had no time to think, no time to move or pop out of existence or throw a bit of magic.

The beam struck Discord head on, sending a shockwave across his body. His shark head arm and lower body vaporized instantly. He struggled against the force of the blast, even as its magic bore through his chest and sent iridescent veins through his upper body and arms. Even his flaming goat head, the last part of his body that had been regrown during this fight, was being consumed by the gold and rainbow energy.

“It’s hard to believe, but you actually got me, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “The nerve of you.”

The Final Strike beam pierced through and shot out of Discord’s back. The iridescent veins spread throughout his body and consumed him, while his fiery head was enveloped and snuffed out by the beam’s energy. As the beam’s energy shrunk and eventually dissipated, the remains of Discord’s body broke away and faded into nothing with the gold and rainbow light.

Author's Note

The ending goes on for long enough that I thought it should get its own chapter. It'll be up the following day.