“You sure they’re coming?” Smolder asked.

“Yes, they’ll be here soon,” Ivory said.

“Well I hope they hurry for Ember’s sake,” Smolder said looking at her Dragon Lord. Ember was pacing back and forth in the throne room, holding the scepter tight. It started to emit a soft glow not too long after they arrived at the castle.

“Come on, just tell me what's wrong?” Ember groaned, staring at the Bloodstone gem.

“Why is she talking to the scepter?” Buttercup asked quietly.

“I mean it responded to us back in the dragon lands? Don’t know why it’s shut up now.” Smolder shrugged.

“Does it normally talk back?” Buttercup questioned.

“Not until a few days ago, hence why we need Professor Twilight,” Smolder replied. As if on cue the door opened as the four stepped inside.

“Ahh finally!” Ember said with annoyance. “It’s rude to keep the Dragon Lord waiting.”

“Apologies Lord Ember, we were not expecting your arrival,” Twilight said with a bow, Spike walked forward and greeted his fellow dragons.

“Ember, Smolder is everything alright?” Spike asked.

“No everything is not alright Spike!” Ember said, huffing out smoke from her nostrils. “The dragon lands is on the verge of total chaos!”

“Non-stop eruptions, earthquakes, lava floods, you name it,” Smolder explained. “And then there’s the Bloodstone Scepter.”

“For days it would respond to any of my commands, then out of the blue it starts showing off powers it never had before!” Ember groaned.

“Powers like what?” Luna asked worriedly, Ember held up the scepter showing off its strange glow.

“Come on please cooperate?” She asked nicely to the confusion of the others, save Smolder. Suddenly the scepter trembled and the fire from nearby torch lights flew towards it. It erupted in flames as a massive fiery dragon claw appeared above them.

“That’s a lot bigger than before.” Smolder gulped. The claw waved toward them in a greeting fashion.

“Fascinating! Pyrokinetic magic! But I thought that was only possible with a select few unicorns and the Kiren!” Twilight said in awe.

“This is way cooler than my magic fire messaging breath!” Spike said.

“I’ve also dabbled in fire magic but never have I seen something like this,” Celestia said cautiously.

“Now you see why we came here. Ugh, not even my dad knew about this! Can you…I dunno fix it?” Ember pleaded. The flaming hand ‘gasped’ in alarm and gave a thumbs down at that request.

“Magical artifacts are very delicate things, especially when they're as old as this scepter,” Celestia said. “If we were to try and change its properties without knowing how it was made or how it works it would be extremely dangerous.”

“Well, we need to do something! I can’t control the other dragons as it is right now, and if they get rowdy by what’s going on in the dragon lands I won’t be able to stop them from rampaging.” Ember groaned.

“Come on, the dragons aren’t that bad right? Haven’t you been taking steps to make them more friendly Ember?” Spike asked.

“Did you forget about the story of Dragon Lord Scales I told you about?” Smolder asked, crossing her arms. “While Ember and I aren’t as cutthroat, many older dragons still are.”

“Oh right,” Spike says.

“Um, well since the scepter, or more accurately the Bloodstone Gem is sentient, have you asked if it's connected to what’s been going on?” Twilight suggested.

“Huh, this is the second time I’ve run into a ‘sentient’ magical item. I wonder how many others are out there?” Smolder piped in.

“What pray tell was the first?” Luna asked.

“The Tree of Harmony, me and my friends were tested and summoned to rebuild the tree into a treehouse.” Smolder shrugged. Celestia and Luna's mouths went agape and gave Twilight and Spike confused looks.

“Hey in our defense, we know as much as they do,” Spike said.

“Can we focus?!” Ember shouted, meanwhile Ivory and Buttercup stood awkwardly in the background.

“Is…is this what normally happens when the princesses deal with something major that occurs?” Buttercup whispered.

“I don’t know, but if it is then I see why they want to retire,” Ivory whispered back.

“Look, the scepter already told us that while what’s happening is connected to its… ‘awakening’. It is not the direct cause of what’s happening in the dragon lands. We came here to get it to work like it normally did so I can get the dragons under control.” Ember sighed. “Once I can make sure my people don’t go rampaging in a panic then I can figure out what’s going on.”

“Hmm, when did you say this started happening?” Luna asked.

“A few weeks ago, why?” Ember asked. Luna didn’t answer as she thought for a moment.

“Sister, do you have an idea?” Celestia asked.

“I have a theory at best.” Luna clarified. “The dragon lands began to get out of hoof not long after King Sombra returned, and it was shortly after that we discovered Tirek and Cozy Glow escaped Tartarus. There might be a connection there.”

“Hey weren’t you thinking the same thing on the way over here?” Smolder said, Ember nodded.

“But there have been no sightings of your missing inmates anywhere near our borders,” Ember stated.

“Still we cannot rule out the possibility of their involvement,” Luna said. “Anything is possible.”

“Have you asked if there’s a way to fix it?” Spike suggested. “It seems to be up to answering questions, even if in a vague nonverbal manner.” Ember paused for a moment before looking at the giant fire claw.

“Um, what he said?” The claw shifted and folded, making it look almost like a face in compilation, well, one made of dragon talons. It snapped its fingers as if an idea came to mind. It pointed a finger toward the wall and a stream of fire shot out from the fingertip hitting the far side throne room wall, right above the guard's heads.

“Hey, watch it! We don’t want to become dragon flambé!” Ivory called out.

“And we just finished repairing this place after the attack too.” Buttercup groaned.

“Wait, look! It’s writing something on the wall!” Smolder pointed out. The flames began to burn in symbols onto the wall….albeit slowly.

“This may take a second, guards, can you retrieve some fire extinguishers please?” Twilight asked.

Elsewhere…

“Best road trip ever!” Cozy cackled as the trio looked over their work. The sky was filled with storm clouds. Rain, snow, hail, powerful winds, and crackling thunder kept Pegasi in disarray. On the street various earth ponies laid collapsed on the ground, seemingly drained. Unicorn performers refuse to waste their potential on a fireworks display. Guards were doing their best to protect ponies, but there were too many things happening all at once.

“This trip has become most entertaining.” Chrysalis grinned.

“Now while they’re all distracted, we head for the castle,” Tirek said, cracking his knuckles. The group silently snuck away as the chaos unfolded.

“Honestly it's pathetic how easily these ponies fall apart when something goes wrong,” Chrysalis said.

“How do you think I was able to take over the Friendship school so quickly? They’ll fall in line if they believe it will keep them safe.” Cozy said.

“Well, at least their magic serves as a good pick me up,” Tirek added admiring his larger form. “Although I wish it tasted as good as their desserts. I even hesitated for a moment to drain a baker of his magic after I took a bite of his apple carrot cake.”

“Well don’t gorge up too much, we can’t sneak around with you as a giant,” Chrysalis warned. As they snuck through the city, Cozy paused for a moment. She turned to look at a nearby festival tent. She felt something, a familiar presence.

“Cozy don’t lag behind!” Tirek called out. Cozy shook her head and noticed they were far ahead of her. Running after them she didn’t notice a pair of ponies step out from the tent.

“That game was rigged.” Gusty huffed. Mix-up followed after her with a large stuffed animal on his back.

“Or maybe you're just not cut out for ring toss.” Mix up laughed.

“How was I supposed to know that the poles would move?!” Gusty said,

“Well blasting a hole through the tent didn’t really help, did it?” Mix Up teased.

“I-you?!” Gusty choked as her face went red with embarrassment. “Fine, you’re right. But I was mad, okay?! I wanted a prize too.” She pouted.

“Well, maybe you can win one at the next booth if you don’t burn it down. Oh, maybe I could get a hat for my new friend here!” Mix Up said.

“What like a top hat?”

“I was thinking of a fedora actu-” Mix Up was interrupted as a bolt of lightning struck him.

“Mix Up!” Gusty gasped in terror. Mix Up’s mane and tail stuck out with static running through them, his fur burnt black from the bolt, he let out a gasp of surprise as steam exited his mouth.

“I’d make an electric pun but I’m worried my platypus is singed.” Mix Up said, as he shook off the soot.

“Hang on, I know a healing spell, hold still,” Gusty said.

“Oh, I’m fine, not the first time I’ve been struck by lightning.” Mix up said as he looked over his plush. “Although that lightning bolt came out of nowhere, what's going on with the weather?”

The pair finally noticed the weather going nuts all around them. Down the street, a stall had been covered in snow, while hurricane winds had blown over another. Ponies were running around panicking.

“I guess the weather ponies wanted to try something new?” Mix Up joked.

“Somepony needs to do something!” Clover said, running into the storm. Her horn ignited with magic, moving debris out of the way of evacuation routes, dousing fires, and picking up any pony that had fallen.

“Oh, I’m sure the royal guard has it under con-*snirk* okay sorry I can’t say that with a straight face.” Mix Up laughed, glancing back to his companion. “Alright time to play hero.” Horn ignited as he casually began to help. The two worked in tandem helping anypony they came across. Putting out fires, raising shields against random lightning bolts, guiding ponies to shelter.

“Mix Up! I need your help over here!” Gusty said, carrying several earth ponies with her magic. “Something is wrong with these ponies! They’ve lost their strength and can barely move!”

Mix Up paused as he gave the earth ponies a once over. “Well, that’s not right.” He said in a serious tone.

“There are more nearby, please look after them! I’m going to go look to see if there’s any more in a similar state!” Gusty said with determination and running off.

“Wait, I don't think we should spli-and she’s gone. Quite a brave pony isn’t she?” Mix up thought to himself. Once she was out of sight Discord shed his disguise as he gathered the weakened earth ponies. Snapping his finger he summoned multiple flying stretchers to place the ponies on. Donning a doctor's outfit he looked them over with a large magnifying glass and stethoscope. “Hmm peculiar.”

“Discord!!” Fluttershy’s voice shouted out, snapping his head back he smiled seeing his pegasi friend and company.

“Fluttershy! There you are my dear, I hope the weather hasn’t put a damper on the festivities!”

“Discord, what's going on? One minute everything was fine and-”

“And everything descended into chaos. Yes, yes I know, and before any of you ask I had absolutely nothing to do with it.” Discord said looking at the others. “I’m in the middle of assisting my new friend trying to help all these poor ponies.” He said placing an ice pack on one of the weakened earth ponies.

“Well if you didn’t do it then who- wait, new friend?” Rainbow paused mid-sentence.

“Yes, she’s quite a spirited one. Although I never caught her name, I was using my pony disguise to appear more approachable.” Discord said, pulling out a mask of his pony self from his ear. “She just ran off to see if there were more ponies like this around that needed aid.” He said gesturing to the sickly earth ponies.

“We got the gist from Braeburn, something’s gone wrong with the food. Several ponies have collapsed around the city.” Applejack said as she went over to the earth ponies. “Some bug or something maybe?”

“Hmm, I suppose that would make sense.” Discord shrugged. “Although I have a feeling that isn’t the real reason.” He thought.

“Whatever the case, thank you for helping out. We’ll do what we can from here.” Rarity said. Discord nodded, teleporting them to a makeshift hospital where ponies had been gathering for safety.

“Say, why isn’t Twilight helping you?” Discord asked.

“She’s busy helping Ember and Smolder. The dragons got their own pickle to deal with!” Pinkie said.

“Well, I suppose you girls can handle things from here. I’ll go inform the royals of what's going on.” Discord said. “Please keep an eye out for my new friend, she’s a unicorn wearing a brown cloak. With a colorful arrangement of hairpins in her mane. She’ll probably be helping somepony!”

Meanwhile

Gusty ran as quickly as she could through the streets doing her best to aid anyone she found. “This must be the work of those three from the mountain! Did they catch wind of us tailing them and create this mess as a distraction? I better find them quickly before Big Red up there gets impatient. A pissed-off dragon would only add to the mess down here. I shouldn’t have let Mix Up distract me!” Gusty thought as she raced through the city. Suddenly a mini twister descended from the storm before she could react she was picked up by the powerful winds and flung across the city. Bracing herself she transformed back into her mist form just before she hit the ground. Reforming herself she groaned as her head spun.

“Ugh, that thing came out of nowhere.” Picking herself up she looked where she landed. “I’m at the castle? Well, at least I wasn’t thrown off the mountain.” As she wandered around she heard a loud thud. Following the sound she found a guard lying on the ground unconscious next to an open door. She checked the guard out making sure he was alright. Gusty dragged the guard inside the castle for safety, as she set him down she heard something from down the hall.

“Honestly, even with the extra security, those guards are still pathetic.” A shrill voice echoed.

“A thousand years of peace will do that to an army.” Another deeper voice said.

“Will you two keep it down? We’re trying to avoid being caught by the princesses!” A higher-pitched voice said to the other two. Steeling herself she snuck further down the hallway.

Staying out of sight but within earshot of the trio. As Gusty followed she noted how many of the halls were empty, save for a few geese. She figured they fled inside to escape the storm, and the guards were out in the city to help with the civilians.

Gusty followed the trio throughout the castle, past kitchens, several rooms, and dozens of hallways, none of which she bothered to pay attention to. Although she did stop to admire a hall of glass murals, showing off various events of history. She was taken aback by how much she had missed since her self-imposed disappearance.

She saw several murals, a strange mismatched creature causing strife only to be bested twice by two alicorns and a group of six ponies. The two alicorns turn on each other, with the darker one facing the same six ponies as before. A shapeshifter queen’s attempts to conquer the land and her people’s rebellion. A unicorn king, destroyed by a crystal heart. A gigantic red centaur fighting the six ponies again, this time one of them being an alicorn. A pony is freed from a shadow by a group of heroes with a familiar-looking unicorn. An invasion by a yeti wielding a magic staff was stopped once again by the same six ponies. Then a mural of a small filly stealing all the magic in the world and being sent to some dark prison.

Gusty gazed closely toward another mural depicting six magical gems. They seemed similar to the gems she wore. Her train of thought was interrupted as the sound of footsteps drew near. Shifting into her mist form she hid in the shadows as the three she had been trailing walked past her.

“Grah! This blasted castle is a maze! Where could they be hiding those archives?!” Chrysalis hissed.

“Didn’t your old hive work like a living maze? Always changing and shifting?” Cozy asked.

“There was a method to my hive! This place seems like a poorly pieced-together children’s dollhouse! I swear I thought I saw three unfinished rooms!”

“To be fair, this place has been attacked quite a bit within the last few years,” Tirek said.

“You mean by us?” Cozy snarked which got a chuckle out of the other two. Once they were gone Gusty reformed herself.

“Those three are the ones that stole the bell? This is worse than I thought, they know what they’re doing! If they find some way to master the bell then disaster will befall us all. Perhaps I should alert Smaug. I may need him if these three decide to try anything else.” Gusty thought igniting her horn only for it to sizzle as her spell failed. “What?! Why isn’t my teleportation magic working? The castle must have an anti-teleport ward on it.”

“Get back!” Hissed Chrysalis suddenly. “I can hear the Princesses in the throne room and they aren’t alone!” She warned the others the trio backed up, nearly turning the corner on Gusty. Hiding quickly she hid behind a nearby pillar.

“Of all the blasted times for them to be in the castle!” Tirek huffed.

“Whatever it doesn’t matter, this isn’t the way to the archives. I told you we should’ve gone the other way!” Cozy groaned in frustration, the trio turned and headed toward another hallway. Poking out from her hiding spot Gusty turned toward the throne room door.

“Should I inform the royalty? No, the more creatures that get involved with this the worse it’ll be.” Gusty thought before following the others. She paused for a moment as something caught her attention. “Am I imagining things or do I smell smoke?” As she took off after the trio, the throne room door burst open filling the hallway with smoke. Twilight and Spike stepped out of the fog of ash coughing.

“Why didn’t we open a window?!” Spike coughed, the duo was followed shortly by the guards, royal sisters, and other dragons.

“In hindsight, we were focused on what the scepter was writing.” Twilight gasped, her horn lit up as several windows in the hallway opened up with magic. As the crowd gathered out Celestia and Luna fanned their wings to push the smoke out to the windows.

“Having a barbeque in the throne room? And you didn’t invite me?” Discord said floating down to them with a vacuum cleaner. He turned it on, sucking up the last of the smoke from the room.

“Um who or what is that?” Ember asked at the sight of the draconequus.

“Oh right, you haven’t met. That is Discord, he’s a magical prankster who once took over Equestria. Now he helps some of the professors with their classes. Although it usually ends with us covered in some kind of food or confetti.” Smoulder explained.

“Delighted to make your acquaintance your dragon lordship,” Discord said with a bow suddenly dressed in old medieval nobility clothes.

“Um, nice to meet you?” She said hesitantly.

“Discord we are in the middle of important business, what is it that you need?” Celestia asked.

“Well, while you all were helping our scaly friends here, Canterlot has been hit by some major bad weather.” He said, pulling out a pointer and a weather map of the city. “You know, some hurricane-level winds, torrential rain and snow, lightning striking every five minutes.” As if on cue a loud boom of thunder shook the castle. “Along with several ponies collapsing from food poisoning and a race war brewing amongst some unicorns.”

“WHAT?!” The royals said in shock. They ran to a nearby window seeing the chaos unfold.

“How did this happen?!” Luna demanded.

“Don’t look at me, I made sure to follow Twilight’s instructions to the letter!” Discord replied, pulling out Twilight’s little note card. “I even made a friend, who is probably out there helping ponies get to safety. Such a caring soul.”

“Well, clearly something went wro- wait you made a friend?” Spike said caught off guard.

“Why is that such a hard thing to believe?” Discord retorted.

“Let's focus, we need to get out there and help everypony!” Twilight said.

“But what about the message from the staff?” Smoulder asked, reminding them of their previous task.

“I’m sorry Lord Ember, but we must see to our ponies. We will be of no help if our city falls apart around us.” Celestia said, turning to the Dragon Lord.

“No, go protect your ponies. This can wait, I believe the staff is done writing anyway.” Ember said, flying back to the throne room. Just as she entered the flaming claw stopped its writing and retreated into the Bloodstone.

“Gah! It's written in the ancient tongue! This will take too long to translate!” Ember groaned.

“Why? Didn’t your dad teach you how to read the old tongue?” Smolder asked.

“I skipped a few of my father’s lessons to do some combat training when I was younger,” Ember admitted embarrassed. “Do you know any?”

“No, I was shipped off to the Friendship school before I could learn any.” Smoulder shrugged.

“I’ll be sure to add some native language classes to the school for next semester,” Twilight said.

“Well, what now?” Spike asked.

“Allow me,” Discord said, snapping his fingers. A piece of paper appeared in his paw, and he proceeded to suck up the words from the wall like a vacuum. As if he was gargling water he spat out the words back onto the parchment. “Here you are!” He said, shaking off the spit from the parchment. Ember gagged as she grasped the paper carefully. “Oh that will be 200 bits,” he said to the guard ponies.

“What for?” Ivory asked.

“For cleaning your wall of course!” He teased as he pointed over to another version of himself cleaning up the burn marks off the wall. “All sparkly clean!” Twilight walked over to Ember and looked down at the parchment in confusion.

“Um, Discord this is still in ancient Draconic?” Twilight said.

“Well that's odd, I thought I translated it?” He said, pulling out his tongue where several hundred tiny discords were working away at typewriters. They looked up and shrugged, one pulled up a sign asking for more of Fluttershy’s tea biscuits. He let it go, rolling it back in like a tape measure.

“Let's worry about that later, we have a city to save!” Luna said boldly. The others nodded before rushing out of the castle.

In the Canterlot archives.

“Find anything?” Tirek asked as he looked through a bookshelf.

“No!” His cohorts replied. Chrysalis had combed through several tomes tossing them aside like trash. Cozy was flying through the maze of books and scrolls. She grew increasingly frustrated as she tossed aside Chancellor Puddinghead’s secret recipe book.

“This place is a mess! At least Twilight Sparkle kept her library in order! Did the princesses not hire any archivists to organize this place?” She grumbled. Another boom of thunder shook the castle, causing a pile of books to fall off the shelf and onto Cozy.

“Gah! Ow! Sonofa-!” She cursed as several books bounced off her head and buried her beneath them. Grumbling feeling a lump form on her head she pulled herself from the pile. She caught the last falling book before it could nail her in the face. Looking at the annoying tome titled, Famous Keys and Who Used Them, “I swear if we don’t find something I’m gonna burn down this whole library!” She huffed, her fur suddenly stood on end as a chill bit at her body.

The sounds of her cohorts’ grumblings were drowned out by the sound of the rumbling thunder outside. Slowly she stood up and as if in a trance she began to trot past the row of books. Her vision began to darken as she wandered through the archives. Her heartbeat quickened as her body moved on its own. A barely audible sound passed through her ears.

“Urzûk...dâk ghashûk…”

Cozy could see nothing, her vision stolen from her, she wandered blindly through the dark. Fear filled her body fighting to regain control. But something forced her onward.

“Shakûk....ghashnakh...lûk ghashûk kûrz.”

A distant light began to shine in the void. A familiar teal glow. As she drew closer the source of the light became clear.

The Bewitching Bell floated in the dark, calling to her. Growing brighter as she drew near.

“Na… dâk kûr ghashûk…”

Cozy reached out her hoof, inching closer.

*BOOM*

Cozy was snapped from her trance as the sound of thunder and shattering glass filled the archives. She looked up and saw a ceiling window had been smashed in by the force of dangerous winds outside. Shaking her head she took a step back and checked her surroundings, she was in another part of the archives. She noticed she had also brought with her the tome she had previously looked at.

“How did I?” Her thoughts were interrupted by the shouts of her companions.

“What was that?!” Chrysalis shouted out from far away. “Tirek did you break something?”

“How dare you! I did no such thing! The storm broke a window, not me!” The centaur snapped back. “Cozy? What’s your status? We need to hurry!”

“I...I'm fine, Tirek! Still looking!” Cozy responded, shaking her head. She turned back around to see a pedestal hidden away in a corner, covered by a sheet. The wind from the broken window made it flap about. Walking towards it she lifted the sheet to see a glass case, and inside it a very old black book covered in chains.

“Is this?” She muttered to herself.

Lifting off the glass case she looked at the chained book. Thinking quickly she gave the chains a few smacks with the book she brought with her. They gave way and she grabbed the ancient tome. Opening it she saw bizarre and old text. But what drew her attention was an illustration. An illustration of The Bewitching Bell.

“I found it!”

“Where did they go?!” Gusty thought to herself as she ran through the halls. “They turned a corner and vanished!” She had looked through dozens of rooms and gone through several halls and found no trace of the trio. “I’m running out of time! If the storm gets worse it’ll draw his attention and that’ll bring a whole other set of problems!”
As if on cue a loud thunderous boom shook the castle making her trip.

“Okay, I need to find them now!” Gusty said steeling her resolve. Her horn ignited as she transformed back into her mist form. With great speed she zoomed through the corridors, not caring if any creature saw her. Scanning left and right with her magic she blitzed through room after room until finally, she sensed the presence of the trio behind a far-off door.

“There! I found them!” Gusty zoomed over to the door however, something made her pause. She turned and looked at a nearby wall….with a map of the interior of the castle. “Oh come on!” She groaned glaring at the offending map.

Transforming back into her original form, quietly she slipped through the door and into the archives. With quick and silent haste she slipped to and fro around the maze of books. She paused as she heard a voice.

“Took you long enough!” A deep voice boomed from below. Peaking over a balcony Gusty saw the trio huddled around a table.

“Finally we have what we came for, now let's go before we get caught!” Chrysalis said.

“Yeah, I don’t want to get thrown back into Tartarus!” Cozy huffed.

“Now wait just a minute, I need to confirm this is the real deal. We could be looking at a fake.” Tirek said flipping through the book.

“What’s there to think? It’s a blasted ancient book that was wrapped up in chains!” Cozy replied.

“There are several ancient forbidden books in this library. I had gone through six others before you made your bold claim.” Tirek said. “If this really is Grogar’s book I need to confirm it.”

“And how will you do that?” Cozy asked.

“In my past, I’ve managed to find scraps of writing written by the former Emperor of Equestria. I learned that every authentic piece of his work has a signature of his hidden within the text. If this is legit then I’ll find it.” Tirek explained.

“Well hurry up, I refuse to get my wings torn off by those gale-force winds outside,” Chrysalis growled. “Seriously child, did you have to make such a powerful storm?”

“Hey, it's not my fault those morons left all those weather factory shipments together. I’m pretty sure somepony could’ve sneezed on them and caused this. What kind of festival needs twelve barrels of bottled twisters, six boxes of blizzards, two dozen bottles of lightning, and three tankers of hurricane fuel!” Cozy retorted.

“.....Point taken,” Chrysalis said taken aback by that. Gusty nodded her head in agreement with the queen’s response.

“Okay, what is up with ponies in this millennium? Ugh regardless no matter how extensive this archive is there’s no way this place has Grogar’s Tome of Spells.” Gusty thought. “I saw fit to have my protege toss that thing into the deepest darkest pit he could find! There’s no way any creature could’ve found-”

“Here it is! Grogar’s signature!” Tirek said pointing to a certain page. “This is his Tome of Spells!”

“DAMN IT STARSWIRL!!!” Gusty shouted in annoyance.

….
….
….
….

“I said that out loud didn't I?” She muttered. Looking down she saw the three villains staring right back up to her.

“Seize her!” Chrysalis shouted, buzzing into action. She flew straight toward Gusty, her horn aimed straight for the unicorn’s neck.

With graceful movement, Gusty dodged the queen’s attack and leaped down toward a nearby bookshelf. Tirek shot a blast of magic toward her as she landed. She raised her right foreleg, and her pink gem bracelet lit up as a portal appeared in front of the blast. A second portal opened behind Tirek and his attack hit him in the back. He dropped to the floor with a thud, dropping the book.

“Clever! But not clever enough!” Chrysalis said, leaping down and transforming into a manticore. Gusty turned, raising her left foreleg as her yellow gem bracelet conjured a yellow bubble shield around herself. Chrysalis slammed into the shield with her increased mass sending the two tumbling off the bookshelf.

Gusty expertly rolled across the floor, getting back on her hooves. Raising her hoof the shield became a wall between her and Chrysalis as the queen stabbed at it with her stinger tail. She ran toward the book only to have her back leg grabbed by Tirek.

“No, you don’t!” He lifted her up and slammed her against the bookshelf. Tirek turned toward his young cohort. “Cozy! Grab the book and go! We’ll be right behind you!” He said as he slammed the mare repeatedly against the bookshelves.

Nodding Cozy grabbed the black book and flew off in the other direction. Pulling the mare close, Tirek looked at the bruised mare in his grasp. “I don’t know who you are, but you won’t be spying on us anymore!” He chuckled as he opened his mouth preparing to drain her of her magic.

Suddenly the orange gem bracelet on her left back leg lit up. Gusty looked at him with a glare as she grabbed him by his horns and pulled with incredible strength. Suplexing the large centaur over her and onto the ground with a crack! Landing on his back as he groaned in pain she looked over to where Cozy had darted off too.

Before she could give chase Chrysalis tackled her, pinning her to the ground, the shield having deactivated. “Now I’ve got you!” Chrysalis growled preparing to bite Gusty’s head off. Once again another gem lit up, this time the purple gem necklace shined as purple electricity shot out of it. Shocking Chrysalis back into her original form and sending her flying into Tirek as he was getting back up. Sighing, Gusty turned back toward where Cozy had fled. The blue bracelet on her back right leg lit up.

Cozy huffed as she buzzed through the halls trying to find an exit. “Who was that? I’ve never seen her around the castle before! She’s not a royal guard, and what were those gems she wore? Ugh, questions for later, first find a way out then regroup with the others!” Cozy thought as her wings beat faster.

"Ghash."

“Huh?” Cozy said, pausing and looking around. Before she could question her body was already moving into a nearby room. Suddenly a green blur zipped by with great speed. “What the?!” Cozy shook her head as she found herself in the throne room.

"Lugburz krimpûl. Ghâsh shakhûk. Durbatulûk."

“Shut up!” Cozy groaned as she clutched her head, the room felt like it was spinning. Dropping the book she gasped beginning to hyperventilate. Her vision began to darken.

"Ghashûk. Zâgûl. Mâkûl ghâshûk. Gûlûk shâdû."

“Stop!” She cried tears running down her cheeks.

"U ghashûk."

“Please!”

"Ghashûk."

Suddenly a familiar ringing filled Cozy’s ears. She turned, and there in the dark, the Bewitching Bell hovered. Her eyes dulled and she ceased her struggles, like a moth to a flame she walked to the bell. It pulsed with power, ringing out in the void, illuminating the ground below it. The black tome lay below it. Cozy looked down at the book and she reached out, flipping it open. As if by fate, she opened the page she needed. The writing was foreign and old, very old. A sketch of a fearsome creature was below the text.

"Lûk."

Cozy spoke the spell.

“Dûmpûl ghâsh, I gûlûk zâg. Burzum-ishi, mûkûl kûl ghâshûk. Sûk ghâsh-”

“STOP!” Gusty shouted, pulling away Cozy from the tome. “What did you do-” Gusty gasped, Cozy’s pupils were gone. “Young filly! Snap out of it!”

Cozy’s eyes began to glow red as a wicked grin swept across her face. She began to laugh at the older mare. Her laughter distorted as Cozy’s voice was replaced with another. Gusty’s eyes shrunk in terror.

“You’ve failed, M̴̺̗̳̰̭̋̃́̀̓̏̆̆̀͂ͅy̴̜͔͙͕̖͍̯͕͖̾͊̿̿͘̚ͅ ̸̢͔̽̍̀̒̏̋Ĺ̷͚́̈́͋͂̀̀̚̕ì̸͕̟̓͊̈́̈́̋̓̕͘͝t̷̞͍͍̰̮̑͗͘t̷͚͈̯̘̣̝̑l̷̪͍̓̑͋̿e̴̲̝̼͖̰̘̞̋̈́ ̵̢̙̘̹͓̜̘͗̽̓̈́̌̍̆P̴̢̣̦̥̹̜͉͇̏̅̿̉̂ơ̵̧̗͓͕̪͔̎̔̉̿̽̈́͝n̸̝̤͚̫̻͖̻͍̘̘͑ỳ̵̜̅͋̊̚͘!” Grogar’s voice boomed from the foal's mouth. Gusty turned to see the tome light up blinding them both.

Outside

“Okay, I think we’ve found the last of the sick ponies over here!” Rarity said, placing a blanket on a nearby pony. The makeshift hospital had become extremely crowded as more ponies began to gather. Unicorn guards had put up a protective shield to keep out the dangerous weather. Twilight and Spike were escorting some Unicorns into the camp when Applejack spotted them.

“Twilight, Spike, everything good on yer end?” AJ asked, walking over to the siblings.

“Yes, we were able to sort everything out with the firework troupe,” Twilight said.

“Although we haven’t found the pony responsible for putting those ideas in their head. No pony is better than others because of their race.” Spike said, shrugging.

“I’m sure they might need some lessons on friendship,” Twilight said hopefully. “How are things here?”

“Well, Fluttershy is making a head count of all the children and elderly. Rarity is helping tend to the sick and injured. I’ve finished sorting the contaminated food from the uncontaminated ones. Pinkie is going around doing her best to keep spirits high, and last I heard Rainbow was helping the weather ponies stop the storm.” AJ said.

“We’ve got some more injured over here!” Buttercup shouted as she escorted several ponies with bruises and cuts from debris. Before Twilight could respond Ivory Spark ran past her to his fellow guard.

“Have you found my sister? My parents can’t find her anywhere!” Ivory said with worry in his voice.

“Not yet, but with the princesses helping we’ll find her. Now help me get these ponies inside the shield.” Buttercup said, Ivory sighed and nodded.

“Seems we still have a few stragglers. Hopefully, we can get this storm under control and continue the search.” Twilight said.

“Well you’ll be happy to know we’ve gotten most of the fires taken care of,” Celestia said flying down to them followed by Luna.

“And the storm has been contained to the Capitol, it won’t spread any further now,” Luna added.

“Good! We’ll have just enough time to continue the holiday.” Twilight said. “We won’t let these accidents ruin the night.”

“Where are Dragon Lord Ember and young Smolder?” Celestia asked.

“They’re in the camp with Pinkie,” AJ said. Pointing over to one part of the camp, Pinkie was juggling for some ponies with Smolder’s aid while Ember was staring down at the paper with the message.

“I think this word means slumber?” Ember groaned as she walked in place. “And does this one mean ... big rock? Mountain maybe?” Smolder walked over to her leader with concern.

“Any luck?” Smolder asked.

“Sort of? I’ve gotten a few words and letters but it’s still a slow process.” Ember sighed.

“Well, don’t you worry I’m sure once things are back to normal Twilight will help you!” Pinkie chimed in. “After we get back to partying of course.”

“Sooner than that even!” Twilight said, walking over with the others. Everyone exchanged hopeful looks as Discord popped above them.

“How wonderful, I can’t wait to introduce you all to my new friend! Any sign of her?” Discord asked hopefully.

“No sign of the mare you described Discord, but we may see her yet,” Luna said. “Still I’m quite proud of you for making a new friend despite all this.”

“Why thank you, Lulu! That means so much to me.” Discord said with a big grin. Suddenly the sound of thunder echoed overhead as lightning flashed across the sky. Rainbow descended with a few pegasi into a shielded camp.

“Rainbow, what's the status?” Spike asked. Rainbow shook off the rainwater from her mane as she groaned.

“Not good, the storm is still too strong to directly deal with. There’s too much lightning for me to do a Rainboom to clear the sky. I’m starting to think what happened was no accident.” Rainbow said. “Where did that lead weather pony we saw earlier go?”

“He’s with the injured ponies, he got hit by a stray lightning bolt and was knocked out cold,” Fluttershy said, walking to them with Rarity.

“Poor dear’s fur is burnt, and his mane and tail are a mess!” Rarity said sadly.

“We’ll speak with him once he wakes up, I don’t think he could’ve caused this storm intentionally,” Twilight said.

“He was muttering in his sleep, saying something about an assistant. Maybe if we could find them we could figure out what happened.” Rarity said.

“Good idea Rari-WHOA!” Pinkie began until her whole body started shaking and shuddering like crazy. “Doozy! Doozy! We have a Doozy coming!” She said worriedly.

“Now what?” Rainbow groaned.

“Oh no I don’t think we can handle a Pinkie sense doozy on top of everything now!” Fluttershy said worriedly. Discord popped over to Fluttershy to give her a reassuring hug.

“No need to fear my dear, your Lord of Chaos is here to hel-ACK!” Discord said as his whole body started flailing. When he was finished a look of extreme worry laid on his face. “That can’t be right?”

“Discord, what's wrong?” Celestia asked. Suddenly the ground began to shake as a bright teal glow shone out from the castle.

Every creature across the city stared in confusion as the light grew brighter and larger. The sky darkened as the city was bathed in a teal-colored eldritch light blinding everyone. Any creature who looked at Canterlot from afar would see a bright teal glow engulf the mountainside.

As quickly as it appeared the light faded. Everything was still and silent, the storm itself even seemed to pause in anticipation. An ominous dread spread through every creature there, on a primal level.

Lights started going out violently across the city, from candles suddenly burning out to light bulbs shattering to pieces. Then lighting struck down from the storm, repeatedly striking the castle as if something was drawing in the magical energy of the storm.

Too transfixed on the light show, none noticed the shadows bleeding away from their spots and headed toward the castle with great speed. Another rumble and several giant black crystals rose where the lightning struck.

“No….” Discord said, breaking the silence. He started walking forward and then began running into a full sprint. The voices of his friends were drowned out by his quickening heartbeat and the growing rumbling noise. The black crystals began to glow shifting between colors of red, purple, and green.

Flapping his mismatched wings he flew up to the castle, he snapped his fingers sending a wave of chaos magic toward the crystals. Hammers, saws, jackhammers, and dynamite all appeared around the crystals. Slamming, chipping, stabbing, exploding on them. The crystals remained unfazed, their color hue shift growing faster. He snapped his fingers again, summoning cannons that fired upon the crystals and vats full of acid pouring on top of them. They damaged the castle, but the crystals remained unfazed. Now a humming noise began as the crystals crackled with black colored electricity.

“No, no, no! NO!” Discord repeated snapping both his fingers. Now just blasting the cursed things with raw chaos energy. Still, they remained unfazed, mocking him.

“Discord!!” The shouts of his friends rushed to the castle, but he paid them no heed. Sweat ran down his face and fear raced through his heart. The humming grew louder as the crystals pulsed with powerful magic.

“I won’t let this happen!” Discord growled, pulling out a giant hammer. He flew toward the nearest crystal and slammed down the hammer with a mighty crack! A flash of light ignited as it made contact. The impact was so powerful it flung the draconequus back. He blinked his eyes and saw the crystal finally shattered.

Dead.

Lifeless.

“Ha.Ha! Haha! Take that!” He turned back to his gathered friends. “We’re fine! Nothing a little elbow grease can’t fix!”

“...D̴͇̭͉͍̀́̾̆̕î̷̜̼̠͎̻̃̾̾͛͗ş̷̧̢̧̡͔̱́́͗͠͝ć̷̺̹̤̼̄ò̷̧̻̫̮̹̮ŕ̶͙͔̯̹́̀̀̊͘d̴̠̿͗...“

The spirit of chaos felt his heart stop. The looks of fear in his friend's eyes made his blood run cold. He turned slowly around.

Black smog rose from the shattered crystal. A giant pair of green pupil-less glowing eyes with purple smoke emitting from them glared down at him with vengeful intent. The other crystals shattered as more black smoke rose, pooling together into one large black cloud that dwarfed the castle. The fog solidified as a blood-red horn emerged above the eyes. The black smog jutted out and grabbed the draconequus suddenly, squeezing him tightly. The fog began to dissipate to reveal a large black armored scaled claw clutching the chaos lord tightly. Two large black bat-like wings jutted out from the fog, and a charred and cracked face emerged from the smoke. Two more horns jutting out of the creature's head like a ram pointed back to its jagged face with a gaping maw of the mouth that was lit by a raging inferno within. With a fanged grin, the devil spoke.

“...Y̶̟̘͔͂o̵̡̹̐̃͐͘ù̸͓͈͓͚͋̏͝ ̷̞͌͌̂̀a̶̫̟̐͋̍͐r̸̳̘̈́̾̓e̵̦͍̯̎ ̸̨̣̲̼̈́̒m̸͈̂̏͝i̸̪̪͙̘̇̄͗͘ṉ̸̜̈́͆͋ͅẻ̷̘̭͔ ̶̨͎̲̒͌̓...D̶̞̭̺̾͑̚̚i̵͉͂͂ͅẽ̵̢̻̝͚̆...”

Author's Note

Happy Halloween! 🎃 Hope you all enjoy this chapter! I did my best to get this out today for the holiday. Please let me know if you notice any grammar errors. Hope you enjoy!

Here are the translations in order:

“Come….you’re almost there….”

“Go my little puppet…find what you desire most.”

“Yes…just a little further…”

"Hide."

"The Guardian has found you. The Beast will not be far behind. Use the book."

"There is a spell. Cast it. Summon the fallen. The Shadow will obey."

"You will obey. "

"Obey."

"Powers of old, I call upon the dark. Bend the disgraced king to my will. Come forth my-"