Rise of Terror

Twilight walked up and down in front of her throne nervously. At last, her friends arrived.

„We came as fast as we could! What’s the emergency?!“, Rainbow asked.

„It’s Terror. Last night, he destroyed Yakyakistan.“, Twilight answered in a serious tone of voice.

„WHAT?!“, the others yelled shocked.

„Discord told me. He went to see him yesterday and saw him do it. Terror told him that his new ‘assitant‘ told him the other nations would be our enemies. Terror thinks he’s doing us a favor by destroying them. Thanks to Discord, I also know his next target: The Dragonlands.“

„And what about Prince Rutherford and the yaks?“, Pinkie asked worried.

„Apparently, they were warned before Terror arrived. But whoever warned them also told them, and every other leader for that matter, that we Equestrians are supposed to be the ones who freed Terror. They are all coming soon. And they are not happy.“

„But who would-“, Fluttershy started.

But then she stopped. Annoyed, the entire group said at the same time:

„Discorn.“

„That damn snake! We completely forgot about him because of Terrors return!“, Applejack cursed.

Suddendly, the door opened. Prince Rutherford, Thorax, Ember, Queen Novo and Grandpa Gruff, the official representative of the still leaderless Griffonstone, came in. And each one of them was furious.

„Yaks are angry! Yaks thought Ponys were friends! But then Yaks get warned Ponys released Terror! And then Terror comes and destroys Yakyakistan! Again! Yaks want answers or Yaks will smash Ponys!“, Rutherford angrily yelled.

„Same here! Terror destroyed so many of us in the past! The mere mention of his name strikes fear into the hearts of dragons everywhere! And now he’s back to finish what he almost succeeded in long ago!“, Ember yelled.

„And we may not follow Chrysalis anymore, but we still despise Terror!“, Thorax added.

„Luckily, we and the griffons were spared by him in the past. But if he really wants to destroy every non-pony nation, then that will not be the case this time. We want to stop him. But first, we want to know whether it was really you who released him?!“, Queen Novo demanded.

„Every creature, please! Calm down! I can assure you, Equestria has nothing to do with Terrors return. In fact, only a few days ago, we stopped a mad villain named Discorn who wanted to free Terror. But it seemed, Discorn was able to weaken the seals holding him captive enough for Terror to break free on his own. Further, I have it from a trustworthy source that Terror has been tricked into doing this, most likely by Discorn.“

The rulers and Grandpa Gruff thought about it for a moment. Then Prince Rutherford said:

„Hm. Yaks and Ponys have fought side by side in the past. So Yaks will give Ponys benefit of doubt.“

The other rulers and Grandpa Gruff agreed.

„Thank you. My source is currently stalling Terror from reaching his next target, the Dragonlands. I think, if we can catch up to him, we could talk-“

„No! This no time for talk! Terror must be destroyed! Yaks will gather army and Yaks will go to war!“, Rutherford yelled.

Unfortunately for Twilight, the other creatures agreed. They all looked back at Twilight. She sighed knowing what they wanted to hear.

„Alright. Then I will gather up Equestrias army as well. We’ll gather up our forces and prepare to defend the Dragonlands. Though, for the record, considering that Terror is literally the Spirit of Distruction, I don’t think this is a good idea.“

The massive army comprised out of ponys, griffons, dragons, yaks, hippogryphs and changelings stood on the plateau on the border to the Dragonlands.

„And you are sure, Terror is going to enter from this side?“, Ember asked Twilight.

„If my source is right, he should arrive here any-“

„There he is!“, Thorax yelled.

In the distance, they saw a red fireball flying at them. As it passed the border into the Dragonlands, it slowed down until it came to a hold. With a snap, Terror turned off the flames before landing in front of the army. Twilight noticed how most dragons, yaks and changeling turned pale and began shaking in fear. For the first time, Terror took off his sunglasses revealing his threatening red eyes. He looked around.

„What is this? Do you…want to stop me?“, he asked.

„Terror, listen to me! You are being tricked! The other nations aren’t our enemies! They are out friends!“, Twilight pleaded with him.

But Terror said:

„No. It is you who is being tricked, your majesty. When these creatures say they are your friends, they speak with a split tongue. They know they can’t beat you in battle. So they are trying to infiltrate you and weaken you over centuries, until they can take over!“

„The only one who speaks with a split tongue is you, monster!“, Thorax yelled.

„Enough talk! Yaks smash!“, Rutherford yelled.

„No! Wait!“, Twilight yelled but it was too late. The yaks, dragons and griffons charged at Terror. After a moment of hesitation, the other armies joined in as well.

„Bring it.“, Terror said with a wide grin.

The first to arrive were the griffons. But Terror took a deep breath and blew at them with such a force, they were thrown back onto the ground. Next up, the yaks threw rocks at him. But Terror simply put up his fists and punched each and everyone one of them into thousands of pieces. Then, the changelings came from both land and air. Terror created a tornado in each of his palms and threw them at the Changeling blowing them and any other flyer away. Then, he landed and clapped his hand together, sending out a powerful shockwave which threw back the changelings. Next up, the yaks jumped up and down, making the earth tremour trying to throw Terror off-balance. But Terror, completely uneffected, simply laughed and said:

„Ha! You call that a tremour? Let me show you a real one.“

He hit the ground with his tail creating a tremour so strong, it threw everyone off-balance. Afterwards, he looked up where all dragons except Torch were about to unleash dragon fire upon him. Once again, he took a deep breath. But this time, he unleashed his own fire, easily pushing back the combined dragon fire of all dragons hitting them and knocking them out of the sky.

„Come now, is that really all you got?“, he asked.

„Don’t get cocky! Dad, now!“, Ember yelled.

Torch rose up behind Terror, grabbed him and said:

„Remember me, Terror? It’s payback time!“

„I do. You certainly got old. And fat. But more importantly: How did I not see you while I was flying in here?“, Terror asked before easily freeing himself.

He flew up to him and poked Torches horn with his pinky finger. Suddendly, Torch went flying. After only a few seconds, he was already out of sight. Then, Terror turned around and caught a combined fire-magic beam from the unicorns and the dragons in his palm forming it into a sphere.

„Alright. Time to end this. I’m getting bored.“, he said crushing the sphere releasing an omnidirectional wave which defeated everyone at once.

„I gotta ask: Did really NON of you knew about my nickname ‘The one who can’t be beaten in battle‘? Eh, a question for later. Right now, I have to detroy the Dragonlands.“

He shouted into the air:

„Assistant! Come here and take them all captive! I’ll decide what to do with them later!“

Then he flew away. As he did, someone teleported in front of the beaten army. It was Discorn.

„Right away, master!“, he yelled in the direction Terror had flown.

Then he turned to the freshly defeated. He moved over to Twilight and her friends who, due to not attacking Terror directly, were still able to move the most.

„Well, well, well. What a pretty picture. Suprised to see me?“, he asked with a sadistic smile on his face.

„N-nope. Huh. It – huh – was obvious you were the one behind all of this.“, Rainbow managed to get out.

„I m-mean – huh – who else c-could it have been?“, Twilight added.

Discorns sadistic smile turned into a disappointed frown.

„Urgs. Well that’s no fun! Fine. Then I’ll just pretend like you are suprised and give my monologue because I enjoy doing so.“

„D-do ya – huh – have to?“, Applejack asked annoyed.

Discorn responded equally annoyed:

„Yes. And you can’t do anything about it. Now, you see: After Terror made his return known, I immediately made myself invisible and teleported to Canterlot in hopes of witnessing your distruction. Unfortunatly, as you know, it turned out my three former minions really were just cowards. So I made up a new plan: After Discord teleported you all away, I created some false evidence ‘proving‘ the other nations are only pretending to be your friends. Then I warned them all about Terror, showed the ‘evidence‘ to Terror and you know the rest. Honestly, I was suprised how easy to manipulate he was. He must have been in that box a very long time. Originally, I wanted to incite a war between you all. But now that you are laying here before me completely defenceless, I might as well finish you right now!“

„I’d rather have you not.“, a voice said.

Discord appeared behind him.

„Ah. Discord. We meet again. But this time, I am prepared.“, Discorn said.

He took something out. It was Gorgars bell. Before Discord could react, Discorn activated it and stole his magic.

„You know, I actually wanted to wait with this. But no matter. Now, all I need to do is to get Terror to go into my world, kill my enemes there, then steal his magic to appear as the savior and then I’ll –“

Discorn stopped. He turned pale. He slowly looked up. Terror floated above him. And he was furious.

„M-master. H-how long have you been there?“, Discorn asked frightend.

„Oh, I just arrived here. I don’t know what you were talking about. But what I do know is that you DARED to steal my brothers magic. And that was a big mistake. A REALLY! BIG! MISTAKE!“

„Well, uhm, you see, I – uhm – ah, screw it!“, Discorn yelled out.

He pointed the bell at Terror. But before he could activate it, Terror grabbed and crushed it. The chaos magic stored in the bell went back to Discord. Then, Terror turned towards Discorn.

„Could we talk about this?“, Discorn asked.

„You denied yourself that option the moment you stole my brothers magic.“, Terror said coldly.

He snapped with his fingers. Suddendly, flames started crawling up Discorns hooves. But instead of burning him, they erased him!

„No. No! NOOOOO! PLEASE! DON’T!“, tears began forming and dropping down his eyes, „NOT YET! NOT LIKE THIS! NOOOOO!“

He looked up to the sky. The flames had already erased most of him.

„MOTHER! FATHER! FORGIVE ME! I FAILED YOU!“, he cried out before being completely and utterly erased.

The ponys were speachless. Terror threw a last look at the place where Discorn was just a moment ago before heading off. Twilight swollowed and looked up to Discord.

„Plan B“, she said.

Discord sighed. He snapped his fingers healing everyone before teleporting them away. They arrived on another plateau. The Pillers and the Young Six awaited them.

„How did it go?“, Smolder asked.

But Twilight only said:

„Plan B.“

The others nodded. Then, Twilight nodded at Discord. He snapped with his fingers. Soon, Terror appeared.

„Hm? Master Star Swirl and the Pillers? What is going on here?“, he asked.

Twilight took a deep breath. Then she stepped forwards.

„Terror! You might be the Spirit of Doom and Destruction, but you are not a bad creature! As long as you aren’t tricked or angered, you are actually quite nice! If things were different, I even believe we could be friends! But…seeing you erase Discorn made me realize something: One bad day is all that it takes for all of us to share his fate! Therefore, and I’m really sorry to say that, you need to get sealed away again! You are simply too powerful and too dangerous!“

Terror sighed.

„So be it then. You know, I could easily erase you before you could even comprehend it. But I will not. I could also just run away and pick you off one by one. But I will not. Instead, I will do this.“

He landed on the ground below, reached inside of his jacket, took out the box he was imprisoned in, placed it beneath him and opened it. Then he flew back up into the air and positioned himself right above the box.

„I’ve heard you are capable of using the magic of friendship, one of the few powers I do not have. This kind of magic has always intrigued me. I presume, you’ll use that power against me. I’m looking forward to see it in action. But I will not make it easy for you. I WILL resist. Please excuse my selfishness but I waited for my freedom for such a long time, I simply can’t just give it up now. So I will hold against your friendship-laser with a beam of pure destruction. Then we’ll see what is more powerful. If friendship is more powerful, I will be sealed away. But if destruction is more powerful…Well, let’s just say: It was nice knowing you for the short time we spent.“

He took a deep breath and said:

“One last thing before we begin: If you do win, I propably won’t be able to say it. So I say it now: From the bottom of my heard, I wish you good fortune for the future. May the rest of your days be spent in peace. After this, you deserve it.“

Terror gathered pure destructive power between his hands. It manifested in a dark red sphere.

„Ready when you are.“, Terror said.

Twilight nodded.

„For our friends.“, the Mane Six said.

„For our homes.“, the Young Six said.

„For life.“, the Pillers said.

They all started glowing. They flew up into the air in a triangular formation. A rainbow beam went out from each of them into the center gathering into a glowing sphere before shooting out in a bright, rainbow-colored beam in Terrors direction. Terror pushed his hand forwards. The sphere shot out a dark red beam. Both beams collided – and they remained in the same place, neither of them able to push the other away.

„Interesting! It seems we’ve reached an impasse!“, Terror yelled over the beam-struggle.

„Yeah! That’s new!“, Rainbow yelled.

„But how?!“, Rarity asked.

„Destruction is a natural process! It’s part of existence, of life! Not even friendship can beat it!“, Star Swirl yelled.

„And I guess since friendship in its truest and purest form will last forever, even beyond death, not even pure destruction can end it! That’s why my beam can‘t overpower yours either! Huh! Who knew?!“, Terror added.

„So…What now?!“, Pinkie asked.

„What we need is a third pure magical force as a tie-breaker!“, Star Swirl yelled.

Everyone looked at Discord. He turned pale. His eyes showed inner-conflict. Seeing that, Terror took a deep breath. Then, with a wide smile, he suddendly yelled:

„Don’t worry, Discord! I won’t make you choose!“

Suddendly, to the shock of all, Terror simply stopped. He opened his arms embracing the rainbow beam. It hit him only a moment later.

„Terror…why?“, Discord asked.

Terror was slowly disintegrating into particles, each of them falling down into the opened box. With a caring smile, Terror said:

„Because making you chose would have only hurt you. My freedom simply isn’t worth that. Remember, little brother: I’ll always love you.“

With these words, the rest of him disintegrated. The particles fell into the box. As soon as all of them had fallen in, it closed shut. The heroes landed. They looked over to Discord.

„Discord?“, Fluttershy asked softly.

But Discord didn’t answer. He walked over to the box and gently picked it up. Then he turned to the Mane Six. With tears streaming down his face, he asked:

„May I keep it?“

Twilight nodded.

„Thank you.“, Discord said before teleporting away.