“What…is happening to me?” Floating in a dark inky void, my hands grab my head. Everything is hazy. Am I dreaming right now?

The events of the last few hours replay in my mind, but the memory is distorted. Everything is monochrome and there’s strange lines and auras coming from everyone. Right we came to get the elements, but ran into…Daybreaker.

Nightmare showed up and helped and then…

The voidscape rumbles and shakes as I react to the memories. She’s gone. I thought I was on my way to join her, so how did I end up here? Is this Hell? I close my eyes to try and maintain composure but surprisingly enough I barely feel anything. I’m definitely upset but everything is severely muted.

Suddenly I’m able to see the world around me, but it’s still in this strange monochrome vision, and I assume the auras I see are some type of thermal vision? The auras are barely visible on trees and plants, but it was bright around the ponies. I can’t control my body.

Panic rises up but I can quickly feel something suppressing the emotion. My eye lids grow heavy and it feels like I’m out of energy. Fighting off the urge to sleep I watch as Luna steps in between my possessed body and Celestia. She’s…. She’s saying something. Stay awake.

She’s ordering me to snap out of it and return to her side. That’s exactly…what…I want to do! I can feel the body starting to tense up as if it’s about to attack Luna and that’s when I’m able to completely overcome the urge to sleep. I exert every ounce of willpower into forcing my body to lower its arm.

Kill kill kill kill kill kill KILL! SHE is in our way!

“I will not let you use my body to take away the things I cherish!” Feel starts to slowly return to my limbs and I’m able to grab my head as pain also starts to return with the rest of my bodily functions. I hear the sound of teleportation and glance up to see Luna and everyone else is gone. I’m alone.

Thank God. I don’t think I could’ve….held this thing….off….

Falling out of my own body and back into the dark void my eyes slowly close.

Canterlot Mines - Primary Pony Shelter

“After an encounter with Daybreaker, under the influence of Discord, the Element bearers were able to recover both Princess Celestia and Luna. Whereabouts of the actual Elements is still unknown. The report mentions one KIA and one MIA.” A guard that had only graduated basic a week ago reads off the report received from Vice Captain Elytra.

“What are their names? If it was one of the bearers it would’ve mentioned it, no? I didn’t think anypony else accompanied them on the journey.” Shining Armor replies while still focusing on a large holographic map of Canterlot Mountain and all of the nearby towns. New supply routes being drafted.

Cadence and her Knight are also in attendance and the Knight feels a knot form in her stomach, as the guard reads off the names. “Nightmare Moon sacrificed herself to save Princess Luna, and Ignis Ferrum was last seen leaping into the Everfree. It mentions that search and rescue for the Knight is not advised as he is currently transformed in a way that is similar to Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker. Subject cannot be reasoned with, flee on sight.”

“It’s just a villain transformation buffet out there, huh? What do you think, honey, feeling like you might be corrupted anytime soon? I’d appreciate a warning at least.” Shining either completely didn’t register the first name that was given out, or simply forgot who was in the room. Either way his special somepony lets him have it.

With a thwap upside the back of his head with her wing she gives him the stink eye. “Shining, read the room!” She motions with her eyes towards Force sitting a few feet away staring at the ground. It takes a second but it finally clicks and he shows a bit of guilt on his face. Cadence turns towards her knight and speaks to her. “Are you okay?”

“I mean you two were able to put two and two together right? Ignis transformed into that thing and Nightmare Moon died. She was the catalyst, I can’t imagine how much pain he’s in right now…”

“Do you want to go look for him?” Cadence offers her with a soft and gentle tone.

“But, the report said not to approach. It sounds like he’s not himself right now…”

“That’s not what I asked, my Knight. Do you want to go look for him? I would advise you not to approach him when you find him, but I think you’ll do so anyway.”

Force gives her sheepish grin and rubs the back of her head with a forehoof. “Yeah I probably will. Are you sure it’s okay?”

“Of course, without either of my Aunties here I’m in charge and I say it’s okay. Just be careful okay? He was last seen in the Everfree going west.”

The pegasus throws on her helmet and bolts towards the exit.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? The report made it seem more like he’s not even capable of speaking. He’s not like Nightmare or Daybreaker, they monologue, gloat, taunt, and converse with their opponents. This makes it seem like he just attacks on sight.” The Captain throws a questioning glance towards Cadence.

“...Why didn’t you say anything before I sent her off? No, I’m sure it’ll be fine. You don’t need the elements to solve every problem, Shiny. Sometimes all you need is a little Love.” To that response Shining just rolls his eyes.

“Lulu, you’ve been in this bed for almost an entire day. Why don’t you get up and come eat with me?” Nearly 24 hours after returning Celestia decides to go check on her sister in the medical tent.

“I’m not hungry, Tia.” With a massive sigh the alicorn still picks her head up from the bed. “I suppose I should at least move around a bit. Have you and your student come up with a new plan? I still don’t like that we just left Ignis in the Everfree to rampage on his own.”

“It was the only choice we had, Luna. You saw how he was barely holding himself back when you stepped in. The only real plan we have is the one we came up with yesterday. We just need to figure out how to find DIscord and what to say to him to coerce him into another riddle or game for the elements.”

As the words leave Celestia's lips there’s a tear in space over the camp. Everyone watches in horror as the draconequus himself appears in the air and slithers down towards the sisters. “Worry not, Sunny. You don’t have to say a thing. In fact I was already planning a rematch as soon as I discovered the bladesinger had cleansed my magic from your student and her friends.”

“How about we just skip the part where you turn back into a statue, asshole?” Rainbow calls out to Discord as her and the rest of the element bearers approach the sudden meeting.

“Now now dear Rainbow Dash, nopony likes a sore loser. I told you no wings allowed and you still took off anyways. Now, let’s see... where was I?”

Discord pulls out a ballcap that says “Thinking” on it and puts it on his head.

“When the pieces are in place,
and everything is where it’s supposed to be.
Against the speed of a city you shall race,
and should you fail you will not flee.
Or It will surely kill the tree.”

Discord hums for a moment and tries to decide if he’s happy with that, and with a final nod to himself he turns to the ponies one last time. “Solve that riddle and you’ll find the starting line, but just be aware that you should bring more than nine. Then the true game will begin.”

He takes note of the absolute death glare Luna is giving him and just before he vanishes back to his hidey hole he blows her a kiss. “Hopefully you don’t lose anypony else this time, Princess.”

Luna's face contorts into a disgusted rage and with a scream she fires off a beam at the draconequus. Right before the attack makes contact he poofs into a very familiar looking cloud of smoke and the echoes of his laughter fills the air as he disappears.

“I’ll kill him. If it’s the last thing I do, that creature will die.” Luna stares at where Discord just was with a look that sends a shiver down the other ponies' spines.

Applejack decides she’ll be the one to break the silence. “Is it just me or did that riddle make even less sense than the first one? I got no clue what the heck he’s talkin about.”

“Nope! Definitely not just you. I don’t even know what pieces he’s talking about!” Pinkie reassures AJ.

“Well darling, I thought it was rather obvious. We are the pieces. He’s implying that since we wield the Elements we are but pieces on the chess board of our Princesses.”

“I think you’re right Rarity, so if we’re supposed to go back to where we’re supposed to be…does that mean the Elements are back in the vault in Canterlot? It’s the only thing I can think of.” Twilight looks to her mentor for a second opinion and Celestia just gives her a nod.

“I believe that is correct. Unfortunately Canterlot is currently floating a few thousand feet above where it normally does, but I suppose in the grand scheme of things that isn’t too large of a problem. He didn’t take your wings or your horns this time, and he didn’t forbid me and Luna from helping. There is one peculiar thing though, he mentioned that we need to bring more than nine.” Celestia looks to her sister before continuing.

“The bearers are six, you and I make eight. Who else could he consider as “Pieces?” We might be forced to go confront Ignis before we can return to Canterlot. Even then that only leaves us at nine, I’m not sure who else would be considered a piece.”

“I believe I know Princess. When Ignis left here with us he gave a speech to the came and said that he didn’t think anything in this world could stand up to all three Princesses, the Elements, and the two Knights of Equestria if they banded together. Those numbers makes eleven, but he wasn’t referring to Princess Cadence. If we, uhm,” Twilight gulps feeling a bit guilty and uncomfortable for speaking so clinically about the recently deceased. “If we consider that it’s only two Princesses then that would be ten. In that case the other pony we would need is Unstoppable Force.”

The group of ponies proceed to go a bit more in depth on what they think each line of the riddle means, but decide that they should head out now. They don’t know where Ignis is and it might take a while to find him if they need to search the entire Everfree.

The Knight of Love had only been flying for an hour or so when she spotted something metal shining into her eyes. Dipping down closer to the dirt to inspect she sees a familiar emerald longsword. Eyes widening she flies down and lands. “This is definitely his sword but how did it end up over here? This is miles away from the Ponyville-Everfree border. Did he throw it?”

After taking a few minutes to strap the sword down to her back in a way that doesn’t impede her flight or endanger her safety if she were to crash, she returns to the air. “If he was last seen heading west, does that mean he was making his way towards the thestral camp? I’m not sure why he’d think to go back there, so I don’t think that’s the case. It’s been long enough that he would’ve already arrived and we would’ve definitely heard about that. So, I’ll stick to the Everfree.”

The plans have been put into motion and now everything is converging back to one place. To one elf. Hopefully the groups will not meet another tragic fate on their short journeys back to the Everfree.

Author's Note

This chapter is back to the normal amount of words I can comfortably put out in a day. I wasn't really pushing myself that hard the last several chapters it's more apt to say I was just in the zone.

Now I am in a state much like the state of this chapter. Decompression. A nice little decompression chapter setting the stage for the next and perhaps final arc in the Discord saga.

I did zero proofreading or skimming on this chapter, so if it's super fucked up just quote the bad parts and I'll swing through and fix em. I gotta go hit the sack though.

Thanks for reading.