Discordant Future

Year 101, Day 120 DR

We've been walking for such a long time. We don't know where we're walking. We don't know how to get there. We don't even know where we came from. The bridge disappeared as soon as we reached the other side. It's like we were teleported to another part of the forest; one we've never seen before. We've been debating what to do next. The others want me to go ahead and cast the spell, but they don't understand. The amount of power I'd need to do something like that...I just don't have it. I need an outside source to pull from, and an extremely strong one at that.

Of course, Nyx has agreed to let me borrow magic from her, but we already knew I'd need more than that. That's why we were counting on the ruins. I'd expected that maybe the magic in the ruins might have faded a bit from the chaos, but the energy that surrounded them was old and powerful. It's been there for thousands of years and I don't think it's gone now. It surely would have been enough to cast the spell with ease. The Everfree Forest has a small amount of energy on its own (enough to keep other magic from interfering with it), but it's nowhere near enough to pull a Greater Arcane. even combined with mine and Nyx's energy. For something like this, I'd need nothing short of Starswirl's own practice dummy, and that's assuming he used the same one for, say...thirty or so years. Most Magi can only hold on to one for about 10 years before it's too beat up to use and the residual energy begins to interfere with your spells. There just isn't enough magic around for me to complete the summoning.

You know, it didn't used to be this hard. When Mom and her friends claimed the Elements, they didn't have to cast a spell. After their first encounter with Discord, Magic began discussing the idea of putting more protections on them. The plans were put into place immediately after an attack on the capital city from another villain. So now we're stuck working around all the firewalls.

Still, the others are pressuring me to cast it here and now. Only Nyx is on my side now, even though Blossom usually sees my side in a debate. I'm trying to think of where I could get so much magical energy. I need something powerful, something soaked in magic that I can draw from.

I could always search for leylines--places where there's strong, natural magic flowing in a line. In fact, that's probably the best thing to do.

Because magic attracts magic, leylines are easy to find. If you let your magical energy trickle away from you, they'll be drawn toward the lines. This doesn't really use magic, because you sort of have to keep a hold on it to see where it's going. Plus, if you're successful, you're getting a whole lot more.

Leylines vary in strength. A lot of big cities are built on intersections between several. If I can find one medium-strength one, then it should eb enough, when combined with Nyx's energy and my own.

But I convinced the others to rest first. We've been walking for a long time and if I try a Greater Arcane now, I'll probably collapse. First thing when I wake up, though, I'll search for leylines. Hopefully the results will be promising and we can end this Hell we've been living in.

Year 101, Day 121 DR

As I said, I searched for the streams of magic as soon as I awoke. The results were very interesting, I must say. Instead of being drawn into the air, where leylines generally are, my energy was drawn toward Spectrum's bag. Or rather, something in her bag. I asked her to empty it, of course.

Mostly she pulled out supplies--food and water, a few rolls of bandage. A book, some ointment, and a couple of rags were also in there. At the bottom of her bag, she has some more personal items. We all did--things that reminded us of home or belonged to our parents. These were the things I was interested in, since our supplies obviously weren't suddenly magical.

Spec pulled several thigns out before we found the magic. There was her first trophy for winning a race, along with the crown Loyalty won in the Best Young Fliers competition. Next came a signed poster, a small locket, and a family photo. Finally, she removed the magical item--Honesty's hat.

I'll admit, it confused me at first. Why would Honesty's old leather stetson have so much magic? Then it hit me. It was leather. Leather can hold vast amounts of magic for hundreds of years. What's more is that Honesty, for a period of about thirty years (before Loyalty retired and moved in with her), had a spell cast on her weekly that allowed her to walk on clouds. And the spell was cast by none other than Magic herself.

That was exactly what I needed.

The hat itself is almost three-quarters of what the spell requires. I should only need to take a little from Nyx, and along with my own magic...I can do this. I can do this, here and now, with magic to spare.

Something went very, very wrong. I don't think it was any of us, but something definitely went awry. In fact, I'm sure we did everything right. It was Discord that ruined everything.

He popped up and interrupted the spell just before I completed it. All of my magical energy dissipated, which of course left me exhausted. I fell to my knees and looked up to find Discord floating in front of me.

"Well, well, look what we have here," he said, turning slowly to face each one of us. "If it sin't the poor little kids abandoned by their parents when they needed them most." He'd barely begun speaking and I was already furious.

Can you really blame me, though? That was a lie and he knew it! They didn't abandon us, he killed them. How dare he try to turn them into villains? They were heroes.

"You thought you could get away with this? That I would just let you?" He laughed. "Why do you think you couldn't find the ruins?" Now he was in front of me, touching my chin, violating my space. "You, Ruby, of all people should have known."

I slapped his claws away and took a deep breath, forcing my voice to be steady.

"Of course I knew. It's not like we had any other choice, though, and we'll do anything to defeat you." This elicited another chuckle from the Spirit in front of us, and I felt my anger about to bubble over. I needed to control myself. Lashing out wouldn't help any of us.

Apparently, Blossom didn't feel the same way.

"Who do you think you are?!" Everyone's attention snapped to her. "What gives you the right to ruin everyone's lives? Who died and put you in charge?" Of course, it was just an expression, but it put a huge grin on Discord' face.

"Why, Celestia, Luna, and all of your parents, of course." His voice was positively filled to the brim with sickening glee. It hurt even more that he was using their names; names we hadn't heard in almost a hundred years. "I thought we'd already established that."

And so it was, with tears brimming in our eyes, we attacked him. It was to no avail, however, as he simply teleported himself away, his awful laughter hanging in the air.

Year 101, Day 125 DR

We haven't moved from where we were when I tried to cast the spell. We haven't been able to, really. I've been exhausted to the point of being ill, and even moving my fingers hurts. Nyx has been most sympathetic to my condition, of course, knowing herself the physical toll magic can take. The others haven't exactly been harsh, but I can tell they don't know just how much pain I'm in right now. I'm just now able to pick up a pencil and write, to give you an idea of just how bad the pain was.

We'll be stuck here until I can walk again, so the others have been making themselves busy. They've built temporary shelters, which should hold up against most of the chaos. We just have to hope no monsters find us while I'm incapacitated.

My current condition wouldn't seem so bad (in the big picture, at least) if Nyx hadn't also lost a good deal of magical energy. While she's recovered from the physical effects, she still has yet to regenerate much of her magic. A Mage's body produces less magic when there is physical damage, and having the energy ripped away from you like we did can cause quite a bit of damage. Children have to be taught very early how to control their magic, because it can hurt them if it's not properly released.

So her magic is stunted, and I can barely move, which leaves our group at a virtual loss of protective magicks. Which basically means we're relying on physical strength, should something attack us. And while we're all pretty strong, we're not strong enough to fend off a manticore. Or even a cockatrice.

Essentially, if we're attacked, we're just about as good as dead.

I realized something today. With how everything's been going, we've been too distracted to notice, but the bird's stopped singing. That creepy bird with the disturbing song? It's gone. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, because now there's nothing but dead silence. I can't even hear distant sounds like I could when we first got in here. It's all gone. It's so quiet, we can hear each other breathing. All the time.

But hey, at least we know we're all still alive.

Year 101, Day 127 DR

I'm still bedridden, but I've been healing rather quickly. We should be able to move soon. We've had quite a bit of luck to be undisturbed. Maybe there aren't any predators in here anymore. For all I know, they could be gone.

That would be incredibly good luck for us, which is something we haven't had lately. We're not ready to trust it yet, so we're still being careful. We're moving as soon as I'm able to walk. We're going as far away as possible. I don't know when, but Discord will be back. He made mistakes with our parents, and I don't think he'll make them again. No, he'll be more careful with us. He thought he broke our parents, but he'll make sure he breaks us. We won't stop until we can't even look at each other.

The silence that surrounds us now is stifling. I can't stand it, this nothingness. Scoota's been talking almost non-stop for the simple fact that she hates all silence--and knows the rest of us do, too. Well, silence like this anyways. We haven't seen the good kind of silence (comfortable, warm, content) in over a hundred years. So we all try to keep conversation going, but mostly it's Scoota. The rest of us just don't have the energy.

About that--a lot of us have been tired and sluggish these past few days, despite our attempts to stay alert. This entire thing has been taking a huge toll lately, partly because we're starting to think we can't fix it. If Discord can disrupt my spell just like that, then how can we claim the Elements? How can we beat him? How did we ever hope to beat him in the first place? Of course he was watching us. Of course he would keep an eye on the children of the former Elements of Harmony. He's probably been expecting us to try this for a hundred years.

We've been so painfully stupid.

Year 101, Day 132 DR

We've finally gotten moving. For the past two days, we've been walking non-stop, trying to find some way out of this forest. In the end, I know it's useless and we're just wasting energy. He'll find us no matter where we go.

I don't know what to do anymore. None of us do. We can't beat him unless we have the Elements, and we can't get the Elements until we beat him! We're hopeless. There's nothing we can do until I find some way to break this vicious cycle.

I still feel awful. Part of it is that I'm still healing, but it's also because I feel like we're letting our parents down. We were supposed to save the world. We were supposed to succeed where they failed. That's what a parent wants of their kids, right? For them to not make the same mistakes? For them to do better than they have? Well, we've failed in all of that. We've disappointed them, no doubt. I just hope they can forgive us some day. But they have to, right? We've tried so very hard, pushed ourselves so far. I nearly killed myself casting that spell. I could still die, if I catch something. We've given this our best shot, just as they have.

It just wasn't enough.

Year 101, Day 140, DR

We might have a chance to win this. It's very slim and it will take everything we've got, but it's our only hope. Er...maybe I should start at the beginning.

We were walking through the forest as per usual, and we were all pretty...well, depressed. Even Scoota was less completely ecstatic than normal. After all we've gone though, here we are without a single hope in the world.

Tensions were rising within our group. Spectrum and Sapphire were bickering constantly, Blossom seemed sullen, Nyx refused to talk to anyone, and even Scoota couldn't cheer anyone up. After a while, we had to stop because Spec and Sapph had gotten into a particularly heated screaming match and wouldn't respond to anyone else. Shortly after that, we had to take cover from a cheese storm. While we were waiting that out, we were paid a little visit.

"Well, if it isn't my six favorite people!" Immediately, we were all standing back to back to back to...you get the point. Each of us faced a different direction, searching for the source of the voice. He was laughing now, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't see him.

"Show yourself, Discord!" Yes, I know. Stupid thing to say. Still, it must have worked because, almost at once, he appeared before me.

"I've bee watching you," He said. Great. Not only were we lost in a seemingly endless forest, but we were being stalked by the Spirit of Chaos as well. Just perfect. I didn't say anything out loud--just watched him.

"You're quite pathetic, really. It's hilarious!" Here he burst into a fit of laughter. Finally, he calmed down enough to speak again. "Still, I've decided to take some pity on you." He paused for a moment, opening his arms wide and donning what I can only assume was meant to be a warm smile. It came off cold and demented.

"Aren't I so generous?" He let out another laugh, clapping his hands...er...whatever together. I had no idea what he was talking about, but he soon clarified.

"I am going to give you a fighting chance. A slim, miniscule chance, but a chance nonetheless." When he noticed my wary look, a chuckle once more bubbled forth from his lips.

"I will give you a riddle, much like I did your parents. You must solve this riddle, complete the game it leads you to, and overcome and obstacles I decide to throw at you." He leaned in close and his voice lost its smug and joyful tone, turning dark. "Deal?"

I swallowed hard, turning the offer around in my mind. We had learned from our parents' mistakes, so we wouldn't be so easily fooled by his riddle. We would know to dissect it carefully and completely before doing anything. But Discord will have learned, too. He knows us, he knows our weaknesses, and he knows better than to underestimate us. He's awfully confident to even give us the tiniest chance to succeed--and there's always the possibility that he's lying. No doubt this was just a plan to break us even further.

Still...it was our only hope. Looking around, i found my friends gazing back, waiting for my decision. Finally, I turned back to Discord.

"Deal." He grinned widely and cracked his knuckles. Spinning upwards, he disappeared into the air. We drew close together again as we saw the shadows moving.

"Twists and turns are what you seek,

But don't assume your enemy weak.

All alone and torn apart,

You can't win the game without your heart."

And with a haunting laugh, he was gone.