Ready?
As the Sun shot up and swapped places with the Moon umpteenth time that 24 hour period, the dragoness named Ember stood on the edge of a cliff in the Dragonlands. She was looking expectantly towards the twisted, multicolored lands of Equestria, eagerly awaiting something, or rather someone.
Ember finally smiled when she spotted a red speck leading five other specks. She waited patiently for Garble and his entourage landed before her.
"Were you successful?" Ember enquired.
Garble held up a sack and said, "Well yeah. When the Dragon Lord tells you to do something, you do it."
One member of the group, a chubby dragon named Clump, snorted and said, "I don't know what was worse. All the chaos, or that crazy unicorn that was guarding those things."
A thin purple dragon named Fume moaned and said, "Ugh, I'm gonna be having nightmares of getting crushed by 'Tom' for months!"
Ember took the sack and peeked inside. She counted the pieces of jewelry inside and said, "That's all six alright." She then peered at Garble and said, "Discord didn't see any of you, did he?"
"He's busy overseeing the Semi-Quasi-Annual Running of the Slot Machines in Las Pegasus today. Isn't that why we went to Ponyville today?" Garble questioned impatiently.
"Discord can teleport, genius. What if he decided to pop back into the Chaos Capital of the world just for laughs?" Ember pressed.
Garble waved it off and said, "Oh come on, it's not like he even cares about those gems anymore. And that crazy unicorn was only guarding them because she somehow got the greed of a dragon in her. We could've just been after her mane brush and she'd have still tried to murder us."
Ember huffed and, "Whatever. You got the Elements, that's all that matters. You'll get your reward later. Right now, I have a blacksmith to go visit."
Every dragon was gathered underneath the midday Sun, which was then replaced by the midnight Moon. Regardless of the state of the sky, the dragons all had their undivided attention focused on the Dragon Lord.
The teenage dragon wielded the Bloodstone Scepter and beheld the population. Then the Dragon Lord spoke.
"10 years ago, Discord the Lord of Chaos broke free from his prison of stone. Due to the weakness and stupidity of the pony princesses, the six ponies who wielded the only weapons powerful enough to defeat him, the Elements of Harmony, had their minds broken by the vile Draconequus. And thus, Discord conquered all of Equestria in a matter of hours."
The Dragon Lord gazed all around at the crowd before continuing.
"You might wonder why we should even care about what happens in Equestria. The ponies are not our friends, the movement of the Sun and Moon does not affect us, and Discord has not appeared in the Dragonlands. Well, there are two reasons. For one, Discord WILL come to conquer us eventually. He is immortal, and he will eventually get bored with Equestria and move on to conquering the world. We are no match for him. He will turn all of our magma into bubble gum. He will turn our fire breath into bubble breath. He will turn our gems into Parasprites. And then, when we have nothing left to lose, he will render each and every one of us mentally insane."
The Dragon Lord waited a moment to let the message sink in, then continued.
"The second reason is a bit more. . . personal. . .for you see. . .because of Discord. . .I. . ."
The breath seemed to catch in the Dragon Lord's throat. A fist was clenched, a deep breath was taken, and then with a sharp, he shouted, "I lost EVERYTHING! MY HOME! MY FRIENDS! MY FAMILY! EVERYTHING! That moment will forever be burned in my mind. She was corrupted by Discord, but I still followed her as we were forced to leave our home. Time passed. We traveled quite a distance. Then those slavers from Klugetown ambushed us. I can still see that empty look in her eyes when she tossed me at the slavers and made her escape. For two years I suffered as a slave in that horrible city, but two years was all it took for me to finally snap. I was not a pony! I was a dragon! I led a glorious slave revolt that saw the slave trader Verko hung and Klugetown burnt to the ground. Shortly after, I was called to the Gauntlet of Fire, and I was victorious!"
The green and purple dragon breathed in and out heavily, then he said, "I do not blame her. She can't be held responsible for what she did, the fault falls solely on Discord. I will make sure Justice is done, and also protect the Dragonlands from the pain that Discord made me feel. Unfortunately, this is something I must do alone. As a Noble Dragon, I must do this in accordance with the Code of my own creation. That is why from the very day I became Dragon Lord, I spent so much time training my body, studying every fighting style out there, and after I molted I trained ceaselessly to master the highest level flying tricks imaginable. All of that was to be sure that I could defeat Discord and put an end to his chaos. But of course, you might wonder why I think I can fight Discord alone after I just said that we dragons are no match for Discord. Well, that is because I will have something that no other dragon has.”
Right on cue, Ember walked over, holding a golden chest in her claws. The chest glittered under the moonlight, and then the sunlight as it suddenly became the evening.
The Dragon Lord turned to her and placed his right claw on the chest.
“Ember,” he said, “If I do not return, you will be the Dragon Lord.”
Ember’s eyes widened and she said, “N-no. . .The Gauntlet of Fire-.”
“Happened only 8 years ago, we shouldn’t hold it again so soon,” he interjected, “It’s only fair that if a Dragon Lord dies before his time, the Bloodstone Scepter should go to the one he felt was worthy of it. Besides, I would not have succeeded if it were not for you, Ember.” The Dragon Lord then smiled with a tender warmth on his face and said, “You’ve been a good friend to me, Ember. That means a lot.”
Ember stared at the younger dragon. She was only a few inches taller than him due to his pubescent growth spurt, yet he seemed almost overly mature for his age. Ember smiled back and said, “Thank you. . .Spike.”
The Dragon Lord nodded, and he opened the golden chest. Inside was a four fingered right-gauntlet made of a mysterious metal that resembled gold. Set in the four fingers were the Elements of Honesty, Loyalty, Laughter, and Kindness. In the wrist was the Element of Generosity, and on the back of the gauntlet was the Element of Magic.
The Dragon Lord closed his eyes and sighed, focusing his thoughts and floating through his memories. He then picked up the gauntlet with his left claw and said, “Fine, Twilight. I’ll do it myself.”
Spike slid the gauntlet onto his right claw and flexed his fingers as the Elements hummed and sang with power in response to the familiar presence.
Then he turned to all the dragons watching and said, “I’d ask you to come watch. . .but it’ll probably be over by the time you all get there!”
Then, with a purple flash of light, he was gone.
Author's Note
If you're wondering what to expect from the upcoming fight, here are the sources of inspiration for what I will write:
Darkseid vs Thanos
Goku vs Superman
Spyro vs Crash Bandicoot
Omni-man vs Homelander (won't link because it's a really graphic and gore filled fight)
Fight!
"Come on! Come on!" Discord shouted as he sat on his throne in the twisted town that was once Ponyville, still in its floating house filled, checkerboard spangled grounded, and random house of cards filled glory. Discord was wearing the stereotypical cloak and crown of a king as he ordered, "Throw those bowling pins higher!"
Celestia and Luna, dressed as clowns, complete with red noses and makeup, struggled to stay balanced on brightly colored balls as they juggled bowling pins together. They had long since stopped objecting, as Discord would simply just remove their mouths whenever they complained. However, that did not make the various comical stunts they were forced to perform any easier. Inevitably, Celestia caught a bowling pin on the head and fell back off of her ball and flat onto her back. This sent her ball bouncing into the ball Luna was balancing on, causing the younger princess to fall flat on her face.
Discord sighed with disappointment and turned to the former Storm King, who stood next to the throne while wearing a court jester's outfit. Discord shook his head and said, "It certainly is hard to find good entertainment these days, you know. Between their clumsiness and your lousy jokes. Do I have to always be the one to make you chumps funny?!"
Discord then gestured towards Tempest Shadow, who sat in a miserable, near catatonic state as her eyes were focused on her forehead. In place of her broken horn was a bicycle horn that honked a few times, which then changed into a bugle that emitted a loud trumpet, which then changed into a French-horn that blared loudly, which then changed into a cornet and blew some jazz, which then changed into. . .
"I apologized for invading! Can't you just let us go back home!" the Storm Jester whined.
Discord scoffed and said, "Where's the fun in that? And did I say that you could stop dancing?" He then snapped his eagle claw and lightning bolts stuck at the Storm Jester's feet. The miserable satyr flailed his limbs and wailed as he lifted his feet high while trying to dance and dodge lightning bolts at the same time.
Discord whistled loud, and Grubber ran over wearing a maid's outfit and carrying a tray full of chocolate eclairs. Discord grabbed one of the eclairs and said, "Serves you literal fools right for being dumb enough to believe that those Obsidian Orbs could imprison ME in stone." Discord took a bite of the eclair, swallowed, then turned the remains of the desert into a megaphone and used it to shout at Grubber in a British Cockney accent, "WROOOOOOOONG! DO IT AGAIN!"
The rest of the eclairs then grew teeth and threw themselves onto Grubber, who ran away screaming.
Discord disappeared the megaphone and burst out into maniacal laughter, and he said, "Chaos is a wonder, wonderful thing!"
Then, the Dragon Lord appeared in a flash.
Celestia sat straight up and gaped at the dragon in shock. "Spike?" she gasped at the teen.
Spike turned to the royal sisters and said, "You two stay away. Wouldn't want you to get hurt." He then waved his gauntlet wearing claw and teleported the alicorns away.
The Storm King looked at Spike in surprise and said, "Wait. . .Aren't you the dragon that wrecked Klugetown?"
BOOOOM!
A massive fireball struck the Storm King in the chest and blasted him clear over the horizon.
Completely unfazed and unimpressed, Discord rested his chin in his lion paw and said in a patronizing tone, "Aww, it's New Rainbow Dash! Hi, new Rainbow Dash! Are you mad about something? Did you come to throw a temper tantrum?"
Spike frowned harder than he ever had in his life, and he raised his right claw, the Elements of Harmony sparkling within the gauntlet.
Discord giggled like a schoolfilly and said, "Aww! And you brought the worthless Elements too! You think that you can use them! That's so precious!"
Spike snaped his claws.
Discord fell on his rear when his throne vanished, along with his crown and cape. The flash of light that accompanied the snap faded, and Discord's jaw literally fell off of his face and hit the ground when he saw that all of Ponyville had been restored to its original state. All of his chaos had been erased.
Spike slowly walked towards Discord and said, "Now, you're going bow and grovel at my feet and beg for mercy, and then I'll turn you to stone and spare you the pain you deserve."
Discord's jaw zipped back up onto his face, then he frowned and said coldly, "You. Made. Me. Mad." Discord stood up tall, standing twice as tall as the teenage dragon. He then clenched his lion paw tightly and said, "Are you such an idiot that you don't even know how stupid it is to make the Lord of Chaos mad?" Discord flicked out one digit of his lion paw, put it to his mouth, and blew into it. His lion fist grew to 10 times its size, and Discord teleported right in front of Spike.
"I'll squash you like the little bug you are!" Discord said venomously, and he swung his giant fist back to slam Spike in the face, but the dragon quickly raised his right claw to catch the punch. The Element of Honesty flashed, and Spike caught the massive punch effortlessly. He then raised both claws and grabbed the giant fist tightly. Spike then spun Discord around like an athlete throwing a hammer. With super strength, Spike threw Discord with all his might towards the nearby mountains. Discord shot through the air at nearly the speed of sound and collided headfirst into the side of the mountain.
CRAAASH!
Discord pulled his head out and shook off the dizziness, and he saw Spike flying towards him. Discord raised his now normal sized paw and claw, and giant pillars burst out of the ground in Spike's path. The dragon effortlessly smashed through the pillars, until one pillar shot up right underneath him and struck him right in the stomach, punting him straight up into the air.
Discord teleported above Spike, wielding a comically large wooden mallet. He brought the mallet down hard onto the dragon's back, right between his wings. This sent Spike back down hard, where he slammed back into the ground.
WHAM!
Spike raised his head and saw that Discord had a massive steel cannon pointed right at his face. Just as the fuse was almost completely burned through, the Element of Generosity on Spike's gauntlet flashed.
BOOM!
A massive cannon ball shot out and stuck a diamond shield that appeared in front of Spike. Then Spike jumped up and flew over to the cannon. He grabbed the mouth of it and flipped it over at Discord.
Discord just shrugged and slide across the ground out of the path of the cannon, only to get hit in the stomach by the cannonball that Spike suddenly pitched back at him.
THUNK!
Discord grunted as the cannonball sunk into his stomach. The projectile was the absorbed into his stomach, and Discord coughed up the cannonball and fired it back at Spike. The Dragon Lord dug his feet into the ground and thrashed his tail. He moved his arms back, cupped his claws, and then brought them forward to not catch the cannon ball, but punt it back the way it came. After the metal ball struck Discord hard in the face, Spike then quickly took the air as he watched Discord fall to the ground and then disappear.
Discord then reappeared in front of Spike and jabbed him in the forehead with his eagle claw. The moment he touched the dragon, however, all of the Elements flashed, and Discord was knocked backwards.
Discord shook his head and frowned. "Fine. We'll do this the hard way," he said, and with a flash of light, Discord was wearing a red robe, a champion ship belt, and a pair of mismatched red and blue boxing gloves. Discord got in close and the two exchanged blows in midair. Discord swung both fists upwards, which Spike blocked easily. Discord thrust both his fists forward, and Spike blocked both with a bent left forearm and then hit Discord in the face with his right fist.
Discord huffed and flew up into a portal, and then up through another portal to uppercut Spike. The dragon saw this coming, however, and he backflipped in midair, his two feet caching Discord in the jaw hard. Discord shook it off and quickly swung for a left hook, while also stretching his right arm so that it snaked around to hit Spike in the back of the head. Spike blocked the left hook but took the hit to the back of the head.
Discord then extended both of his arms far out and brought them back fast to hit Spike's temples. However, Spike let out a griffon-like shriek and quickly raised his claws to catch both fists. He then clutched Discord's boxing gloves and flipped like a gymnast, his feet swinging down and hitting Discord on the head. Spike then folded his wings in and crossed his arms across his chest. The dragon fell quickly after Discord, and repeatedly kicked downwards, striking Discord in the head multiple times before kicking with both feet and propelling himself away as he popped his wings back open.
In a foul mood, Discord placed a pirate hat on his head to cover the lumps that were forming. Then drew a pair of razor-sharp pirate scimitars. "Yo-ho-ho!" Discord laughed as he zipped directly towards Spike with blades flailing.
Spike cracked his knuckles, and then flew directly towards Discord. Spike flipped at the last moment, swinging his tail upwards and knocking one sword out of Discord's lion paw. Discord then swung downward with his other sword, only for Spike to catch the blade in between the palms of his claws. Spike then breathed a blast of fire hot enough to melt the blade completely.
At that moment, a parrot peeked out from under Discord's hat and opened its beak wide. A gun barrel popped out of its mouth and shot Spike right in the forehead. The blast knocked Spike back, and Discord was in the midst of laughing when the dragon's tail lashed out and wrapped around his neck. Spike used his tail to hurl Discord into the ground.
WHAM!
Spike rubbed at the bleeding welt on his forehead as he glared down at Discord.
"How about I take a page from Rarity's book and turn you into a pincushion!" Discord said he got back up, and he raised his arms as a dark shadow spread across his face. Then the sky got ominously dark with cotton candy clouds. Discord then glared and pointed at Spike, and hundreds of pointy candy canes shot out of the clouds and came down like bullets. Spike just chuckled and flexed a finger, causing the Element of Laughter to flash. He then sucked in his breath and inhaled not only the falling candy canes, and then the cotton candy clouds above. After this, Spike chewed for a bit, let out a loud belch, and then sniffed his own burp.
"Mmmm. Peppermint!" he said with a smile.
Discord gnashed his teeth and said, "Only I get to make the jokes here! Try eating THESE!"
Black shadows appeared on the ground, and Spike looked up to see anvils and safes falling out of the sky. This wasn't just a shower or a mere storm, the entire sky was nearly completely filled with heavy objects, changing the sky from blue to steel gray. What's more, all of the anvils and safes had rockets attached to them, propelling down to the ground at speeds fast enough to annihilate anything they hit.
Spike clenched his fist, and the Element of Loyalty flashed. Spike then dashed forward, zipping all around and dodging the rocket propelled heavy metal projectiles as they exploded on contact with the ground. Time seemed to slow down for Spike as he dodged through the falling metal at supersonic speed. Not slowing down once, Spike closed the distance between him and Discord in just a few seconds and landed a punch deep into Discord's body. At that moment, the Element of Honesty flashed again, and Spike punched Discord with so much speed and force that the Draconequus was blasted back into the mountainside.
THUNK! - WHAM!
As Discord hung spread eagled with his back slammed into the mountain, he opened his eyes just in time to see Spike zip right over to him. After kneeing Discord in the stomach, Spike began punching him in the face over and over again.
THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-THWACK!
After the sixth punch, Discord teleported away and floated in midair some distance away. Discord licked his lips and spat out blood. His snake-like tongue felt around for his iconic tooth, only to discover that it wasn't there anymore. Discord's eyes turned red, and he growled as he raised his arms and caused several of the currently empty Ponyville houses to levitate. He then flung them all directly at Spike.
Spike turned and saw the houses coming. He clenched his fist, and the Element of Magic started to glow. Spike ran across the ground, teleporting to dodge the falling houses as they slammed into the ground and burst apart. Spike kept his head down as rubble and wreckage rained down around him. He then jumped up into the air and took flight to reach Discord, only for two more houses to appear on either side of him and slam into him, sandwiching him.
CRAAAASH!
After the remnants of the houses collapsed in on themselves, Discord chuckled as he landed on the ground next to the wreckage. The rubble shifted, and Spike slowly crawled out. The dragon's nose was dripping blood, and several of the spines on his back and head had been snapped. Spike snarled as he clenched his fist, the Element of Laughter glowing and sparkling.
"And this is what happens to punks like you. . ." Discord said with a smile, in spite of his missing tooth, "Now you know, why you don't mess with the Lord of-."
THWACK!
Discord was punched hard in the back of the head, his neck bending at an uncomfortable looking angle. He turned around fast and saw Spike hovering there, smiling. Discord scowled and raised his eagle claw.
THWACK!
Discord got punched in the back of the head again, and he turned again to see Spike once again. He turned his head fast to look behind and then back in front of him. Furious, Discord declared, "Only I can be in two places at-."
SNAP!
Discord was punched a third time, this time from the side. This third punch actually managed to snap off his stag antler. Discord's eyes widened, and he cried out in rage and frustration as he split into eight Discords and swung wildly. Spike was inevitably caught by this and had his arms, legs, wings, tail, and neck grabbed by Discords. The eighth Discord then made an enormous set of speakers appear. Earmuffs appeared on his head, and Discord screamed at the top of his lungs into the microphone. The force of the sound obliterated the Discord copies nearly instantly.
Discord smirked and looked up towards Spike, only for his smile to fall when he saw the purple magical dome around Spike's head.
The Element of Magic finished glowing as Spike inhaled deeply, the purple magical dome disappeared, and he exhaled an intense burst of fire directly into Discord's face.
Discord's billy-goat beard caught fire, along with the rest of his face, and he fell backwards screaming, right into a huge swimming pool that he conjured into being. A massive tidal wave then rose from the pool and landed right onto Spike, which then instantly froze into a block of ice.
SMASH!
The ice shattered when Spike burst out of it, roaring with rage. But that roar was cut off when the shattered ice formed jagged shards and zeroed in on the dragon. The pointy barbs pierced his limbs and punched holes in wings, causing the dragon let out screams of pain as spurts of blood shot out every-which way.
Discord reappeared above the bleeding dragon, now as massive as an Ursa Major. Discord's brown hoof was big enough to completely cover the Dragon Lord, and he brought it downward to squash Spike flat and grind him into the dirt.
Even in his pain, Spike noticed the massive shadow looming over him, and clenched his fist to cause the Elements of Honesty and Laughter in his gauntlet to glow. Then he raised up both claws to catch the massive hoof that descended upon him. He couldn't stop it from coming down entirely, but he was able to get a good enough grip on the sides of it. Then, he began to spin on one leg like some kind of supernatural ballet dancer.
CRACK!
Discord cried out in pain as his hoof was twisted and dislocated like a wet towel being wrung out. He flexed his eagle claw to send more shards of ice Spike's way, but this time the dragon was ready. The Element of Generosity flashed, and diamond shields appeared to block the ice shard attack. Then, Spike spat a huge fireball right in between Discord's legs.
Discord howled in pain as he grabbed his crotch with his lion paw. Spike let go of the crippled hoof and let Discord hop away on his lizard foot, getting smaller and smaller with every hop. When he returned to his normal size, Discord disappeared in a flash. He then reappeared behind Spike, now with a demented look in his eye, and swung a chainsaw down at Spike's head.
Spike turned at the last second and grabbed the chainsaw with his bare left claw. He roared in pain as the teeth of the power tool dug into the scales on his hand and sent blood splattering. Spike swung his right claw into Discord's chest, purposely not making a fist this time so his claws could puncture deep into Discord's flesh, drawing blood in retaliation. This caused Discord to rear back a bit, and Spike took advantage of this by letting go of the chainsaw, crawling onto the ground, and diving for Discord's tail. Spike also made sure to whip his own tail upwards to strike Discord in the face, giving him further time to grab Discord's tail and sink his teeth into it.
With his own teeth clenched tight enough to crack them, Discord willed the chainsaw to come down hard onto the tip of Spike's tail. As the chainsaw cut into Spike, the dragon merely sunk his teeth deeper into Discord's tail, blood seeping out and running down his chin. Then, with a flash of the Element of Magic, the two of them were teleported up into the sky. Unable to fly due his punctured wings, Spike grabbed Discord's arms tightly and crawled up the long body. Once he made it up to Discord's one horned head, the Element of Honesty starting glowing, and Spike started slamming his own forehead into Discord's face while at the same time crushing Discord's eagle claw in his own until the avian appendage was broken completely.
Discord finally flipped his body over to fling Spike towards the ground. He threw a pair a round bombs at Spike, but a large diamond shield appeared to block them, and they exploded harmlessly. Discord breathed in and out heavily and loudly, his rage burning hotter and hotter inside to the point that steam blew out of his ears, making him look even more demented when paired with his two black eyes. Discord then looked up at the sky, and sly, malicious grin spread across his bruised face, making him look still more insane. He lowered the Sun to make way for the Moon, and then pointed upwards into what appeared to be an empty patch of night sky. However, in mere seconds, an object could be seen heading towards the planet. It was an enormous meteor the size of a Manehatten skyscraper.
Discord continued to smile, in spite of his black eye, as he floated back to the ground with his arms folded behind his back. Spike lay prone and exhausted on the ground, right below the falling meteor. Discord snapped his lion paw, and chains burst out of the ground and pinned Spike to that spot. Discord waited a moment to watch the meteor quickly fall towards where Spike was pinned, then he turned around to limp off in victory.
That's when he saw Spike lying on the ground right in front of him with a smug smile.
As Discord gasped at the grinning Dragon Lord, he and held up his gauntlet, showing off how the Elements of Laughter and Magic were glowing. Then Spike gestured to their surroundings, revealing that they were now in the middle of the empty Badlands with no one and nothing else for miles around.
As a new diamond shield courtesy of the Element of Generosity appeared over Spike, and Discord looked straight up right before the moment of impact.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
When the dust finally settled, Spike and Discord were both lying prone in the incredibly massive crater in the Badlands. The inside of the crater was made of glass.
The diamond shield helped, but there was only so much it could do against the impact. Spike's tail was bent in half, and all of his spines were snapped. Discord didn't look so good either, both of his horns were snapped clean off and all of his limbs were bent in painful angles.
Discord was the first to get up, blood dripping from his nose and mouth as he laughed.
"Ah-haw-haw-haw. . . You can hit me. . .all you want. . .but you're still just a dragon. . ."
Spike slowly and painfully raised his head, gritting his teeth as he looked up defiantly at Discord.
"And I. . . am still the Lord of Chaos. . ." Discord panted in spite of injuries, "So. . .we both knew how this would end. . ."
Spike nodded and said, "Yeah. . .you never did stand a chance."
Discord blinked. "Huh?"
Then the Element of Kindness began to glow.
Discord could only look on in abject horror as all of Spike's spines began to regrow, his wounds sealed up, his tail straightened back up, and the holes in his wings were filled up. Spike stood up boldly and smiled, then he flexed his biceps and said, "Looking good, Spike. Looking reeeeaaaal good!" Then casually regarded his gauntlet and said, "Huh. . .you know I think the Elements are keeping you from healing yourself. . ."
Discord stood with his tongue lolling out of his mouth for a long moment, then he suddenly snapped and let out an anguished, enraged roaring wail as chaos magic shot violently out of his eyes. Spike brought up his gauntlet to block the jagged beam of wild purple chaotic energy as he slowly walked towards Discord, all while the Lord of Chaos launched into a hate fueled rant.
"YOU STUPID UPSTARD DISRESPECTFUL MEDDLING DRAGON! WHEN I'M THROUGH WITH YOU I'M GOING TO TEAR APART THE MINDS OF EVERY SINGLE DRAGON IN THIS ENTIRE UNIVERSE AND MAKE THEM ALL CONSTANTLY BREAK THEIR OWN BONES AND BITE THEIR OWN FLESH AND EAT THEIR OWN-!"
POW!
Spike shoved the gauntlet right into Discord's mouth.
"Shut-up," Spike said simply, and the Element of Magic pulsated brightly as Spike unleashed a huge sea of purple magical fire right into Discord's face and eyes. Spike kept this up for a solid minute, and then ripped his fist out of Discord's mouth so he could grab him by the neck.
"Here's the last thing you'll ever hear," Spike said seriously, and as he squeezed with all his might he said clearly into the now blind Draconeqqus' ear, "Twilight Sparkle."
The Elements all glowed brighter than ever as their power flowed through Discord's weakened body. Discord twitched for a minute, then slowly went limp as he slowly began to fade away. Before long, Spike was no longer holding anything.
Spike let out a long sigh, then looked at the sparkling gems in the gauntlet and said, "Alright then. . . Now let's clean up his mess."
And then, Spike snaped his claws.
Author's Note
One more chapter left. There's more story content regarding the aftermath and the Mane Six.
Also, for anyone wondering what powers the Elements can give to Spike.
Honesty: Super strength
Kindness: Grand healing
Generosity: Diamond constructs
Laughter: Low level reality warping, being in two places at once, heightened metabolism, and spacious internal anatomy.
Loyalty: Super speed
Magic: Various spells, teleportation, magical empowerment of other abilities and actions
Laughter and Magic combined: Can warp multiple entities great distances with respect to context of current situation.
All the Elements Combined: Immunity to mind magic and corruption, anti-chaos magic, reversal of the effects of chaos magic, destruction of chaos-based entities.
Game!
Grand, triumphant fanfare echoed throughout the halls of the restored Canterlot Castle, all vestiges of Discord's chaotic reign and macabre artwork long gone. A massive audience of ponies stood in the throne room as guards opened the doors to admit in their hero.
Wielding the Bloodstone Scepter in his left claw and the shining gauntlet on his right claw, Dragon Lord Spike strode boldly down the aisle. He stood before Celestia and Luna, nodding curtly to each of them.
Luna merely nodded back, while Celestia declared loudly for all to hear, "We have gathered here today to honor the mighty Dragon Lord who helped Equestria in its time of sure need, and freed us from Discord's tyranny, putting an end to this decade of chaos, and restoring Harmony back to our land,"
Celestia and Luna's horns flashed, and a curtail parted, revealing a stained glass window depicting Spike grappling with a defeated looking Discord, while raising his right fist high with the Elements of Harmony shining brightly in his gauntlet.
The whole crowd cheered for the liberator, but Spike wasn't interested in the crowd at the moment. Instead, he was focused on six ponies who stood off to the side, looking to be feeling a mixture of embarrassment, guilt, and shame.
Spike approached the group, looking over all of them, until he stopped at the purple unicorn with her head down. "Twilight... Look at me," he said.
Twilight slowly raised her head to reveal the tears on her face. "Spiiiike," she said, her voice trembling with misery, "I am so sorry..."
Spike shook his head and said, "What for? You didn't do anything wrong."
Twilight's eyes widened. "Wh-what? But, Spike! I-."
"Discord twisted your mind. That's why you abandoned me to those Klugetown slavers. You're not to blame for anything you did," Spike then spoke to all 6 mares at large, "None of you are. None of you were in your right minds." Spike then scowled and said, "If anyone is to blame other than Discord, it's the princesses for sending you to certain doom."
"They had no choice, Spike. They couldn't use the Elements anymore. It has to be us," Twilight said quickly.
"Did they warn you about Discord's mind bending powers?" Spike pressed, still scowling, "Did they offer themselves up as living shields to buy you time to get to the Elements? It's not as though they'd have been of any use anywhere else. The ponies of Equestria would have felt safer if they knew their princesses were actually fighting Discord directly instead of feebly doing damage control or whatever lame excuse they gave for keeping their distance. Heh. Cowards."
Rainbow Dash glanced up and piped up feebly with, "They're not-," before immediately falling silent, unable to commit to the argument against her dragon friend that had risked everything to save Equestria.
Applejack took off her hat and said in a depressed tone, "Doggone it, Spike is right, y'all. The princesses didn't do a dang thing to help us or protect us while we looked for the Elements. They waited until after we were all split apart. Meaning no Elements, meaning they were powerless against Discord. Pretty darn foolish of them to be honest."
Pinkie Pie looked at all the sad faces around her, and she stood up on her hind legs and said, "Hey, hey, hey! That's all in the past now! Discord's gone now, and we're all back to our old selves again! If that isn't a reason to party, I don't know what is!"
Fluttershy sighed softly and said, "I don't know. Maybe if we had a chance, we could've been friends with Discord and helped him see the error of his ways."
The other ponies all burst into fits of laughter.
Pinkie hugged an unamused Fluttershy and said. "Aw, Fluttershy! You're such a cack-up!"
Rarity sighed as the laughter faded and said, "Oh yes, nothing like a bit of levity to break the tension." Rarity then gave Spike a look over, her eyes taking in his every detail, from the tip of his muscular tail to his impressive spikes. She studied his well toned chest muscles for a moment as well. "Spike, darling," she finally said smoothly, "You certainly have matured since we've last seen you. Perhaps you and I could have a chat over a cup or two of tea and-."
"SPIKE!"
A gray, owl-looking griffoness flew in a glomped Spike in a massive hug.
"I knew you could do it!" the griffoness said warmly.
Spike smiled and hugged her back. "Well, you helped quite a bit, didn't you."
Spike then looked back up at the surprised mares and presented the new arrival to them. "This is Gabriella. Gabby for short. I met her a while back when I first visited Griffonstone. I spent a lot of time traveling the world learning different fighting styles so I'd be ready to fight Discord. No griffon in Griffonstone wanted to help me, except for Gabby. And since she's awesome at literally everything she does-."
"Aww, Spike," Gabby said bashfully with an adorable blush.
"-she made me a master in no time. We've been visiting each other a lot. I don't know what I'd do without her."
Gabby nuzzled Spike's rippled chest and said, "Well, I don't know what I'd do without you, Spike. You're the only creature to ever like me."
Spike laughed and said, "Oh, blame the other griffons for that! There's not a pony in Equestria that wouldn't enjoy your company, not that I'd ever want to share you with anyone else!"
As Gabby giggled and Spike stroked her neck and head, Rarity bit her lip and turned away.
"Well, Spike," Twilight began, but then corrected herself and restated, "Well then, Dragon Lord Spike. What will you do now? Will you keep the Elements in the Dragonlands for safe keeping, or...?"
Spike shook his head and said, "I may have used them, but they're not mine to keep. The . . . hmph, princesses and I had a quick chat, and they admitted that they stole the Elements from a magical crystal tree in the Everfree Forest called the Tree of Harmony. I plan on putting them back into the Tree after the celebration. They should be safe there. It's where they belong after all. I still have my work cut out for me as the Dragon Lord. I want the dragons to be friendly with the other races, and with Discord gone, I might finally have a chance to make that happen. Maybe I could send a couple of young dragons to Equestria to get used to being around ponies?"
Twilight smiled with approval and said, "As long as you don't stop visiting us, anything you do is fine by us, Spike."
"Yeah! Don't be a stranger, pal!" Rainbow said with her usual cockiness.
Spike nodded and said with a toothy grin, "Sure. But as for right now, who's ready to party!?"
Gabby got perkier than ever and said, "I am!"
Pinkie jumped up on her Party Cannon and said, "Ooh, just you wait, Gabby! This will be the greatest party you've ever had in your life!"
The End
