Chapters The League of Talented Magicians
This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
Chapter 1: An ending to a Honeymoon
Shining Armor awoke with the most beautiful mare in the world in his arms. He sighed contentedly and closed his eyes in the warm temperature of Haywaii. It was only natural the two would spend their honeymoon in the loveliest part of all Equestria. Of course, Shining thought that any place was lovely as long as Cadence was there. He shifted his weight ever so slightly, but the mare in his arms was awaking too.
“What time is it dear?” Cadence asked.
“Probably some time past noon” Shining replied without opening his eyes.
Cadence sighed and snuggled in closer to Shining. “Good” she said contentedly.
It was times like this that Shining was glad to be alive. He held Cadence tightly and thought back at how his life was pretty much perfect. He managed to meet the mare of his dreams back when he had just entered the Guard, when he and Cadence were still a colt and filly on the verge of maturity. Thinking of her had helped Shining cope through all the troubles of the Guard, his missions, and eventually all the troubles that plagued him as he became the Captain of Celestia’s Royal Guard. Even the events that almost ruined their wedding seemed futile and distant as he held his wife in his hooves. He was about to fall back into a content sleep with his wife as there was a knock at the door of their hotel room.
Shining regretfully cracked an eyelid open as Cadence lifted her head. She slowly moved out of Shining’s embrace and walked tiredly to the bedroom door. Shining followed her with his eyes, admiring how beautiful his wife was, even after just waking up. She paused at the doorframe and stretched, making Shining want to dash to her and bring her back to bed. But she looked back at him and caught him staring.
“I’ll get the door” she said with a sultry smile as she walked out of the bedroom into the main area of the honeymoon suite. Shining rolled onto his back and smiled, happiest as he had been in all of his life. He wondered what he would do with Cadence today. Maybe spend some time down on the beach, have some late lunch, go swimming or something, and then come back have early dinner, and then spend most of the night in their bedroom. Shining thought it was a pretty solid agenda for the day, but his dreams were cut short by Cadence’s shaky “Shining, you might want to come here.”
Shining jumped out of bed, knowing something was amiss just by the sound of his wife’s voice. He briskly walked out of the bedroom and into the honeymoon suite’s main room and saw Cadence looking worried. It was apparent why though. The door was open, and Shining saw that a Royal Guard was at it, dressed in full armor.
“May I come in Sir?” he asked.
“Right away soldier.” Shining answered. As soon as he came into the room and the door was closed, Shining glared at him. “Why are you here soldier?” he asked with a certain malice. “You DO know I am on my honeymoon?”
The soldier looked ashamed for a moment down at the floor, but then he looked straight into his commanding officer’s eyes. “I was sent here by Princesses Celestia and Luna to call you back to Canterlot.”
“You mean Princess Celestia, and I repeat I am on my honeymoon” Shining answered stubbornly.
“No, I mean Princess Celestia AND Princess Luna. They both sent me here to call you back to Canterlot. Princess Celestia told me to give you a message beside this. She said it was an ‘Elemental Emergency’” the soldier said stiffly. Shining looked to Cadence and his face paled. This was bad.
“Cadence, I need to go to Canterlot immediately. I’m so, so sorry” Shining said with abject urgency. Cadence stepped closer to him and hugged him. “You mean ‘we’. I’m going too. I’m not about to be separated from you again” she said as her horn started to glow. Shining smiled and kissed her, crossing his horn with hers. His started to glow with magical power as well, and in a matter of seconds, both unicorn and alicorn teleported away from their honeymoon suite in Haywaii.
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The pair apparated in the throne room of the Royal Castle, surprising a few guards. The guards did not draw their weapons though, because they knew only a select few ponies could teleport into the castle, thanks to the royal sisters’ magical protection spells. When they saw that it was Shining Armor and Cadence Armor, they saluted.
Shining looked around, noticing that the thrones were empty. He was about to ask one of the guards where the princesses were, when one of the guards put his hoof to his mouth, indicating silence. Shining and his wife stayed silent as the guards went behind the thrones and opened up the secret doors at the base of their backs with their spears. Shining’s eyebrows rose. The princesses only used this emergency room in times of…well, total emergency.
Shining quickly led Cadence to the back of the thrones and they descended the stairs underneath the now-opened door. The magic door closed and locked behind them, at the touch of the guards spears, and sealed the married couple in the granite lined tunnel. Cadence looked up at the closed door apprehensively, remembering the last time she was underneath the royal castle. Shining saw this and snuggled up next to her, giving her support as they walked on down the hall.
“S..so when was this built?” Cadence asked, her voice cracking with her fear of the place.
“The sisters had this built along with the castle, right before the banishment of Nightmare Moon. Even though it looks brand new, it’s at least a thousand years old. But don’t worry; it’s heavily protected by the sisters’ magic. The only thing that scares me is that they never use the hallway, and the bunker at its end, unless it’s a dire emergency; One that might require the use of the Elements of Harmony, or worse.” Shining mused while they walked. Unfortunately, his musings only worsened Cadence’s fears. She snuggled up closer to him, making him notice how much she was actually shaking. Shining laid his head across her neck, comforting her. He kept close to her like this until he saw light at the end of the corridor and heard some voices. As the two got closer, they could easily distinguish the two voices of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, but they also heard an unsettlingly semi-familiar voice. However, the subtle shake in Luna’s voice, and edge in Celestia’s made Shining all the more worried.
Shining and Cadence tenderly approached the wooden door that was starkly homely in this cold and protective place. They listened to the voices for a moment, and then Shining knocked on the door. The voices of the princesses and the third person went quiet. Then a “Come in” was heard and Shining opened the door.
The room that they married couple entered into was big, but not comfortably so. It felt like a large cage, but it was made a little more civilized by the large, warm rug on the floor, along with the low-sitting tea table in the middle of the room. The two royal sisters sat in plush chairs on one side of the table, Celestia holding a cup of tea while Luna quietly sipped at hers. They were greeted by bows from their cousin and her husband.
“Rise my little ponies.” Celestia said to the pair.
“Yes, enough of all that…sniveling. If I was the ruler again, you wouldn’t have to bow. Nope. You’d throw pies at each others faces. Oo! Or maybe tacos!” said the energetic, yet diabolic voice from across the table. Shining rose quickly already knowing who it was. His horn glowed with vicious magical energy at the living statue across the table. Sure, Shining was surprised that the statue was talking and sipping hot chocolate from a mug made of bubbles, but that didn’t stop him from protecting the threat to his princesses and more importantly, wife.
“Whoa, hold on there dirt harry.” the Discord-statue said. “I am here peacefully. I’m actually working with you silly little ponies this time.”
Shining’s eyes narrowed and his horn grew brighter. “You’re full of….”
“Enough Shining.” Princess Celestia said. Shining’s horn dimmed and he cast a bemused sidelong glance to Celestia. “He speaks the truth my captain. Please, sit with Cadence. Luna and I will discuss everything as soon as you two are comfortable.” Shining dissipated his magic and led Cadence to the far end of the table. He first seated his wife, and then got into a plush chair next to her. They touched hooves under the table, not for romance, but for the very comforting act.
“Would you like some tea?” Luna asked. “Or hot chocolate?” Discord asked with a smug grin. Celestia sighed and Shining glared at him, while Cadence pulled his hoof closer to her.
“Enough playing with them Discord.” Celestia said briskly.
“But that is what….” Discord’s stone mouth seemed to grow over itself as Luna acted her magic upon his statue-body. Discord rolled his eyes and snapped his marble fingers, producing a zipper where his lips once were. He pulled it and freed his mouth from the stone, ready to say something.
“Last night ,” Celestia said cutting off Discord’s attempt at a rebuke. “An old enemy came back to us. He was and still is an ancient enemy, and he is the first of the great daemons to escape from Tartarus.”
“Who?” Shining asked scared and intrigued.
“My father.” Spat Discord as he checked his marble nails.
The League of Talented Magicians
This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
Chapter 2: The Aspects of Magic
If Shining had agreed to Luna’s Tea, he was sure he would have spluttered it all over the table when he heard Discord speak.
“Y..your father?” Cadence asked, her voice cracking out of fear. Shining was glad that she spoke first, because he knew his voice would have done the same.
“Well…my father per-se.” Discord said with a wave of a stone hand.
“What do you mean, ‘per-se’? He IS you dad and not something much worse?” Shining asked.
Discord stared at Shining with a hard, cold, and god-like stare. “He is my father. And he is much worse than whatever your poor little pony mind is thinking of.”
Shining gulped. “So why did you call us Princesses? Isn’t this a job for the Elements of Harmony?”
“That my muscle-headed unicorn is exactly why I had your princesses call you here.” Discord answered for Celestia and Luna. Shining glared at him, but Celestia silenced him with a glance.
“Shining, we called you here for one very important reason. You may have realized this already, but Luna and I are not truly here. The two alicorns you see right now are our magical projections.”
Shining’s and Cadence’s eyes grew wide, but as soon as they felt the two alicorns with their magic, they realized it was true.
“This is because we were injured badly in the fight that ensued last night. The only reason Equestria isn’t destroyed right now is because we created a temporal-magic field, but we can explain that latter.” Luna said, speaking for the first time.
“Basically, we are regenerating right now in the special room beneath this one, and we need your help.” Celestia finished.
“How can I help?” Shining asked.
“I believe this is my turn to extrapolate.” Discord said, snapping his fingers to turn his chair into a tricycle. He pedaled over with the strange sound of marble on marble as he moved.
“Well silly pony,” he started. “I am not truly the god of all darkness and all that junk that you ponies think I am. In actuality, I am the Avatar of Chaos, Discord. That creature that escaped Tartarus and injured your princesses last night was the original source of my power and my creator; Chaos. He created me out of the insanity that tinged ponies minds after he was imprisoned in Tartarus at the beginning of Equestria. As his Avatar, I spread his ideals using his power and whatnot for countless years. But now, I do not need him, nor do I want him here in Equestria. I have adapted my own source of powers and have grown away from my origins. So, If you would put away your old pretenses, then you could become a hero for all of Equestria and help me put my father back into his eternal prison.”
“But I still don’t get it. You were imprisoned in stone by the Elements of Harmony. Why can’t we do the same for Chaos?” Shining asked bemused.
“Well first off, the Elements of Harmony were made to help combat ME, not my father. They would be as useless as fighting Pinkie Pie with weapons made of sugar. We need something stronger, something ancient. And I know what we need and where to get it before my father heals himself from last night’s battle.” Discord explained as he summoned cotton candy to snack on. Shining thought it was strange to see a statue eat food, but his mind fell back on track as his wife spoke up.
“So why do you need Shining?”
Discord looked at her and saw the fear in her eyes. His stony demeanor melted a little. “I am sorry my dear, but I must borrow your husband until this whole ordeal is over. He will be needed to combat Chaos.”
Cadence pulled herself up straight in her chair. “Then I’m coming too.” She said with such defiance and strength that Shining kissed her passionately in front of three super powered beings.
“Ah-hem.” Celestia soughed to break up their kiss. “No, Cadence. You must stay here.”
Cadence’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Why?”
“As of currently, we are injured, and you are the only royalty in Equestria, besides our damnable fool of a nephew.”
“So….oh my.” Cadence said realizing what Celestia was saying.
“Yes, as of currently, you are the ruler of all of Equestria until we are sufficiently healed and this is all over.”Luna finished for her.
“Come Cadence. We must instruct you. Say your goodbyes to Shining. He and you will be needed in different places.” Celestia said sadly. “We’ll give your two a moment of privacy.” She said as she and Luna dissipated. Discord rolled his eyes and disappeared in a puff of purple smoke.
Shining slowly turned to face Cadence directly. He knew she was crying, and he knew he would start to cry too. He gave her a sad smile when he saw her tears and felt his own streaking down his face. They embraced silently, crying for a time together, two lovers about to be torn apart.
“This reminds me of when I first joined the guard. Remember how I hugged you awkwardly at the train station?” Shining said to break the silence.
Cadence laughed sadly. “Our horns hit and we almost managed to set the train on fire.”
“It seems like that was just yesterday. I left then, and I returned to you.” He said, pulling out of the tight hug, so he could see his wife’s face. “And I’ll keep on returning to you. You just make sure the whole kingdom doesn’t get ruined while I’m gone.” He said as he kissed her.
They kept kissing for what seemed like hours, but were just mere flashes of a second in their mind, when Celestia and Luna reappeared in the room. They looked at the two sadly, and gently led Cadence away, out the door and down the hall she and Shining had walked down to get there. Cadence gave one glance back to Shining, but turned away as the door closed magically, praying to all her gods that he would come back to her.
Shining sat there in the chair, feeling empty and confused, when a magnificent display of fireworks erupted out of nothingness as Discord re-appeared in the room.
“You say your goodbyes?” he asked casually.
“Yeah.” Shining said.
“It always hurts to see a child of Venus in pain.” Discord said shaking his head.
“What?”
“Oh, that’s right. Venus was her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother. Not only was she beautiful, but she had this way with ponies…….Really made them fell loved, you know?”
“Actually I do.” Shining said thinking about his wife. “Why are you being so nice? Aren’t you all about messing with my emotions at a time like this?”
“Hey, I’m not a jerk. I might like to have fun, but I reserve the bad treatment to my enemies and ponies who wronged me. All of you ponies really need to stop making assumptions.” Discord said with a pout.
“Sorry.” Shining said a little sadly.
“Alright, let’s get going. We need to get the others.”
“Others? What do you mean? In fact, I never found out why I’m truly here. And why aren’t you still in Canterlot Gardens, frozen?”
Discord sighed. “This is a waste of time…..” But he saw the look in Shining’s eyes, so he sighed again and pulled a chair to the table. He flipped it around and sat in it, where it immediately turned into a chair made out of withering snakes.
“They won’t bite” he said quickly. “Now, I am a walking statue thanks to my father’s magic. His magic boosted my own, so now I can move around and use my magic, but the marble is a side-effect of the Elements of Harmony. Second, you are here because you are one of the Aspects of Magic. It’s like the Elements of Harmony, but think 500 times stronger.” He said nonchalantly. “And seventh, we need to go get the other Aspects of Magic and their armors.”
“So you’re saying I’m more powerful than my sister, the most talented magician in the world?”
“Yeah. Basically.” Discord said with a shrug.
“Do you really understand what you just said? I can’t do half the stuff Twily can do! How can I be stronger than her!”
“Simple. She’s strong in a various range of magics. But she is not perfect in just one of them. You, however, are. This is why your Aspect of Magic is the Aspect of Protection. You are the shield carrier, the juggernaut, the sentinel of the Aspects. On the other hand, I am the Aspect of Alteration, the changling, the creature of fluidity, the sewer of Discord.” Discord said with a smile.
“So now we need to go get the other Aspects.” He said getting up off of his snake-chair, letting the snakes fall to the ground and then evaporate into green smoke which floated to the ceiling, where they condensed, forming a green cloud that rained gummy-snakes. Discord caught one and took a bite out of it. He caught another in his opposite hand and extended it to Shining.
“Take a nibble.” He said.
Shining shook his head. “I’m not hungry.”
“I’m not asking.” Discord said as Shining noticed that the gummy-snake was glowing. “I know where another Aspect is, and we need to go now to get him. Luckily he’s here in Canterlot, but we must hurry. Time is of the essence. Or iridescence. I mix those up often. Come on!” he said thrusting the gummy-snake towards Shining. Shining picked it out of his marble hand with his magic and gingerly took a bite out of it. He felt his body hum with energy.
“Geronimo!” Discord shouted as the floor beneath them melted away into pure insanity.
The League of Talented Magicians
Breaking and Entering is Magic
This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
Chapter 3: Breaking and Entering is Magic
Shining could almost hear the sound of his mind snapping as the mad passage through Discord’s teleportation screeched to a halt. Literally. The pair had sprinted into existence out side of the Lunar Battalion’s headquarters in an abandoned alley. But instead of appearing like a normal teleport, Discord’s teleport fired the pair out of the wall of the alley, shooting lines of flame along the ground where insanity and sanity met, making little battling flames.
Shining shook his head and caught his breath. Nothing he had ever done had been as heart-wrenchingly, mind-wearingly terrible as that small trip had been. And the sad part was that they hadn’t gone far. The Lunar Battalion Headquarters was just on the opposite side of the castle from the Solar Guard Headquarters. Shining looked at the big, dark, sleek building and wondered what went on in there. It was true he was personal friends with the General of the Lunar Battalion who shared the same rank with Luna as he did with Celestia, but he knew very little of the rest of the battalion.
“He’s in there.” Discord said.
“Well why didn’t we just teleport inside?”
“Too strong of a magic defense system. I was hoping that I could get in with some influence from you, but I doubt that’ll work. Look.” Discord said, pointing an albino arm towards the front doors of the building. Shining read the magical message on the door and groaned.
“To all visitors,
The Lunar Battalion is busy preparing for their annual games with the Timberwolf tribes of the north. Thus, the Headquarters building will be locked up. Please don’t try to enter unless you have a death wish. Have a lovely night.
Love,
General Crimson Moon Steelhooves.”
“How cute. A hoof casted letter and all.” Discord commented as slashed at the magic, making the message distort, changing the words around in a dyslexic’s nightmare. “With that, there’s only one thing we can do now.”
“Which is?” Shining asked.
Discord smiled, and his one fang looked all the more deadly since it was made of sharpened marble. “Use the back door.”
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“This is ridiculous. Ugh, you weigh a ton, you know.” Shining grumbled as he strained to keep his magic panel real, since it held Discord afloat next to a fourth story window. If he fell, he wouldn’t get hurt, but everypony with in a six block radius would hear the sound of his impact.
“Shut up you!” Discord hissed. He had been unsuccessfully picking a window lock with his finger that he magically contorted into a pick for the last 20 minutes.
“Oh damn this all!” Discord shouted aloud as he changed the window into rice pudding. He hopped through the glass covered windowsill into the building. He poked his head outside just as Shining heard an alarm go off on the inside of the building.
“Come on!” Discord shouted down to his partner in crime.
Shining quickly let lose a chain of swears under his breath as he made a set of stairs from magic and sped up them to the newly opened window. He jumped through the window into the building and glared at the awaiting Discord. Shining was about to reprimand him for his idiocy, but one of the Units of the Lunar Battalion charged up the stairs at the end of the corridor.
“Halt in the name of Phobos Unit of the Lunar Battal…..Sweet Luna! It’s mother-bucking Discord! Take him out!!!!” shouted the captain of the Unit. At that, five earth ponies charged at the pair, while four unicorns charged up their horns and three more pegasi pulled out bows and notched their arrows. Shining sighed while Discord cracked his knuckles.
“Oh this is inconvenient.” Said Discord is such an unbelievable way that Shining actually heard giggles between his words.
“Discord, if you hurt any one of them……” Shining threatened.
“I’ll just knock them out. Boy scout’s honor.” Discord said, crossing his fingers.
“Whatever.” Shining said as he made a magical shield appear just in time to deflect thee arrows and four magical spells away from the pair. Shining kept reflecting the magic and archery attacks while Discord knocked out the earth ponies in a short order. When he did the unicorns bellowed and charged at him, but Shining took care of them before they could get near Discord. He made a corridor-wide reflective shield at just the right time, when the unicorns were sprinting, which ricochet them onto their pegasi teammates. Discord knocked them all out and tied them up with summoned ropes.
The pair walked down the stairs at the end of the one-corridor floor. Shining was still alert, but Discord was reveling in the fight.
“Did you see me take out that one with the brown mane?”
“We should be…”
“You didn’t. Hmmf. Maybe I should turn one of them into a poodle to make you notice.
“You will do no such thing!” Shining shouted, stopping Discord on the stairs. “These are respectable ponies that risk their lives every day. You will NOT play with them like toys.”
“Fine, fine.” Discord said waiving away the tense atmosphere. “I just hope we get to have another go. I want to see how the Battalion has changed over the centuries.”
Shining sighed. “I swear that you’re having fun.”
“Whatever do you mean?” Discord said with the most impressive innocent face in all of reality.
“Let’s just find this Aspect guy.” Shining said as he stepped off of the stairs and rounded the corner. “I don’t want to…….horseapples.” He said as he magicked up a large shield to protect himself and Discord from the onslaught of a few Units worth of magical assaults, arrows, and thrown weapons.
“He we go again.” Shining and Discord said together, Shining with a sigh, Discord with a giddy laugh.
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After the pair had passed through floor three and floor two without getting themselves hurt, but coming very close to death on various occasions, they stopped for a breath on the last staircase down to the floor level.
“This really reminds me of ‘The Raid: Redemption.’” Discord said between ragged breaths.
“What?” Shining said softly, out of breath.
Discord rolled his eyes. “It’s a fantastic movie.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Well it isn’t from this dimension exactly……” Discord said standing up. Shining followed his lead, standing up as well. He tilted his head and looked at the stairs for a second.
“Did you hear something?”
“No. It must be your lack of imagination.” Discord replied.
“I could have sworn…UGHN!” Shining shouted as he felt something hit his abdomen. It hit him hard too, because he heard some of his ribs break. But he didn’t have time to worry about that, because he was thrown from the top of the stairs to the lobby of the first floor.
“Shining!” Discord yelled before Shining could hear some resounding metal-on-stone noises. Then he heard something crack loudly.
“How did you do that? I’ve been trying to break this marble since the start of season 2!”
But Discord’s prattle was cut short as Shining heard a lot of thumping and Discord’s words vibrating unnaturally. Shining found out why, as Discord came down the stairs, toboggan-style.
Shining tried to get up to help the disheveled avatar of Chaos, but the pain in his abdomen was too great. He became aware of nine set of eyes on him, so when he rolled onto his back, he found a unicorn with a black coat and surprisingly, a Timberwolf a pawful of glowing claws at his neck.
“Somepony turn on some lights. I want our little burglars to see who they’ve incurred the wrath of before we finish them off.” Said a disembodied voice a few feet away from Shining.
Suddenly, lights blazed on the first floor, and pony dressed in all black seemed to melt out of the shadows a few feet away from Shining’s head.
“Hey Crimson.” Shining said with a wince.
“I don’t know what he’s done to you Shining,” the General of the Lunar Battalion said as he pulled the cowl back from his uniform, revealing his long blood-red mane and sleek, yet dense, silver coat “but he’s gonna pay.” He said, throwing a heavy punch at the prone Discord.
“No!” Shining shouted as he made a shield between Crimson’s gauntleted hoof and Discord’s marble head.
“Crimson glared over at Shining. “Don’t make me knock you out….” He growled.
“Please! Just listen.” Shining said, as he told his story to Crimson.
When Shining was done, Crimson stepped away from Discord and put a hoof to his chin. He walked about in silence for a moment.
“Fenrir, Solitary, help Shining up. He’s telling the truth.”
“How do you know cap’n?” asked the unicorn with the black coat.
“Because Luna called me in from Ponyville to assemble a task force to go do some recon on this monster; it looks like Discord started assembling one first.”
“Yes indeedy, so if we could just…..” Discord started.
“Shut up or I’ll turn you into chalk dust. You don’t look so good Shining.” Crimson said all at once.
“I think you broke a few of my ribs when you hit me.”
“Oops. Sorry.” Crimson said with a sheepish grin. “Twilight will hang this above me for so long……”
“It’s ok Crimson, he’ll be fine.” said a spectacled unicorn who stepped into Shining’s view. The unicorn had a lab-coat-white coat, salt and pepper hair, boxy glasses that defined him as a doctor, a pair of medical saddlebags, and a mortar and pestle as his cutie mark. Shining knew him only by reputation: Syringe Poultice, medic of Puck Unit of the Lunar Battalion, one of General Steelhooves’ right-hoofed stallions.
Syringe walked over to Shining briskly and moved away his two teammates. He gently rolled Shining onto his back and prodded his now-misshapen abdomen with gentle hooves. Every time Shining elicited a gasp or tightened his jaw, Syringe dabbed a small amount of blue goo from his medical bags on the spot. The goo felt ice cold and when Syringe was done, his horn glowed and he lowered it to each spot of blue goo. The goo started to glow and it sunk into Shining’s body, scaring him a little. Then Syringe pulled away from Shining’s body and his horn grew just a little brighter. Shining gasped at the sharp pain that seized his abdomen, but it was gone in seconds. Then he sat up, amazed he could be felling so well.
“That should do it.” Syringe said as he stood up, like curing a pony was no big deal.
“Yes it should.” said Discord who was lying on his stomach, his legs kicking up into the air, his head resting on his hands.
“You my good stallion are the Aspect of Restoration; the healer, the calming wind, the soothing touch of gentleness that the Aspects so desperately need. And now, you are coming with us.”
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The League of Talented Magicians
Bosting isn't the only thing this pony can do
This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
Chapter 4: Boasting isn’t the only thing this pony can do
Crimson had given Discord an extremely dirty look after he had said his little speech about Syringe being the Aspect of Restoration, but Syringe looked a little humbled by it. He silently backed away from Shining and whispered something in Crimson’s ear. Crimson begrudgingly nodded and Syringe left the lobby through a stairway that led further downward into the building’s basements.
“Syringe has gone to get a few necessities, but he informed me that he is going with you.” Crimson explained to Shining.
“Could you tell him to move with some haste? We’re not exactly on a time limit, but the faster we move, the easier it will be.” Discord said, while he etched doodles into the black granite of the lobby floor.
“I swear to both Princesses that if Syringe gets hurt because of you, I will personally make you wish you stayed in Canterlot Gardens.” Crimson said with 100 ccs of pure malice and hatred to the statuesque god of discord. Discord’s eye rose and a challenging smirk spread across his face. He opened his mouth to reply, but Shining beat him to it.
“Don’t worry Crimson; I’ll personally make sure he’s safe. I am the Aspect of Protection after all.”
Crimson actually cracked a small smile. “That makes two of us, doesn’t it?”
Shining returned the smile. “Yeah.”
Syringe walked back into the lobby from the basements, his saddle bags slightly bulging with the addition of whatever ‘essentials’ he had grabbed.
“Thank Eris you came.” said Discord a little disgustedly. “I actually thought your General and Shining were about to make out.” he said, making gagging motions with his stone fingers. Syringe rolled his eyes making Discord roll around on the floor, laughing at his own joke.
Crimson sighed and shook his head. “Get up you fool. Don’t you have to go somewhere?”
“Yep!” said Discord as he continued to roll on the ground.
“Then get going!” screamed Crimson. Shining almost felt sorry for the guy, but also empathized with him. He too was starting to get fed up with Discord’s actions.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Discord replied incredulously, rolling with control now. He log-rolled in short, controlled rolls and Shining and Syringe felt that ground was starting to hum with energy.
“Well? What are you two waiting for?” he asked the other Aspects. Shining shrugged his shoulders and lowered himself to the ground, leaving Syringe standing alone. He started to copy Discord, rolling in controlled bursts, from side to side. Eventually, Syringe got down to the floor and did the same.
“Ready?” Discord said as they all rolled to the left.
“1” he said as they rolled to the right.
“92.756438” he said when they went left.
“Purple” he said as they went right again.
“3!” he shouted as they rolled left, falling into the abyss of discord that the floor had opened up into.
“SON OF AHHHHHHAHHHH!!!!!!!” Shining Armor screamed as they all fell into Discord’s way of travel.
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“Are you alright?” Syringe asked Shining when they came back into existence. Shining had his eyes clamped shut and quivered slightly. His face had gone white and a sheen of sweat coated his body. He took a few deep breaths.
“Yeah. I think I’ll be fine.” he said in a small voice. “This happens every time I travel with Discord.”
“That’s what you get for being so stubborn.” Discord replied walking past the two. Again, they had come into existence in an alleyway, but there was an immediate difference between this and last time. First off, Shining’s head hurt much worse than it had before, and he thought that this meant they traveled much further. And second, it was much hotter than Canterlot. Shining started to sweat, but he pushed the heat out of his mind as he saw what Discord was doing.
There at the end of the alleyway, stood Discord. He was using his magic to conjure up a tuxedo made of obsidian. When Discord deemed it just right, he tried to put it on, and a horrible stone-on-stone screeching could be heard in the hot, night air. Shining winced, the sound not helping his headache.
“Cut that out you idiot.” Syringe said with disdain.
Discord looked at him with wide eyes. “But we’re going to a magic show on the famous Applewood Drive. I can’t show up looking like this.”
So that’s why it’s so hot, Shining thought. They were in Applewood, home to countless stars of ponykind. And what was even better was that they knew exactly where the Aspect of Magic was.
“Can’t you just turn YOURSELF into something different?” Syringe asked.
“I can, but I’ll still be covered in this blasted marble.”
“Well do it. Just turn yourself into a pony until we find the Aspect of Magic.”
“Urgh. I hate pony forms. But I digress…..” Discord said as the marble of his skin rippled and he shrunk, taking the form of a pony, albeit one that looked remarkably similar to Discord. He was now a unicorn however; his antler and twisted horn becoming one misshapen and unnatural horn, and his legs were still all different features of different creatures. His stone wings lay back across his body and his dragon tail had become a stone ponytail.
“Well let’s not keep the lady waiting.” Discord said as he exited the alleyway and was almost hit by a fast moving car while trying to cross the street.
“Watch it!” shouted the car’s driver. Discord just tried to snap his fingers, but realized he only had hooves now. He sighed and his horn made a faint “pop!” noise. He smiled as the driver of the car ran down the street, being chased by a giant robot his car had once been.
“Cut it out Discord.” said Shining as he put up a barrier between the car-bot and scared pony. The car-bot fell apart with another glow of Discord’s horn.
“So I can’t even instill a few good lessons?”
“Let’s just go find the Aspect of…..”
“She’s the Aspect of Illusion. You might even know her Shining!”
Shining was confused by what he meant, but Syringe cleared his confusion.
“I take it she’s in there.” He said pointing to a large theater, surrounded by lights, paparazzi, and stars. Shining took one look at the place and groaned. Not only did he hate large crowds since they were dangerous and impeding, but he also managed to read who was performing.
“You know her?” Syringe asked.
“Unfortunately.” Shining answered, making Discord smile widely.
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Inside the theater, wealthy ponies, stars, and aristocrats all applauded for the onstage magician. ‘And with good reason’ she thought to herself as she pulled off another magic trick, making the entire audience gasp. ‘Do they really fear such easy magic?’ she thought. ‘This is barely anything. Just make one thing float over their heads, disappear, and do some other subtle things to it, and they’re hooked. Suckers.’
‘I guess I better finish it.’ She thought. “And now Mares and Gentlecolts, for my last trick, I will summon a beast so terrible, so evil, that many ponies think of him as just a nightmare. But he IS real, and he will be conquered by me, the strongest magician in the entire world!” she announced to the audience, making them erupt into cheers. But then she closed her eyes and her horn started to glow from underneath her hat. The crowd fell silent, not know that this trick actually did require the silence. For this trick, she had to concentrate and focus her magic. She had to create a type of magical hologram that would act and look like the monster, but would be tangible enough to fool the crowd.
She chuckled to herself when she was ready. “And now” she called to the audience, “I give you Discord!”
She had perfected this trick after many performances, and she knew something was wrong. Instead of an apparition appearing, her magic shot out of her horn in a shower of fireworks and Discord appeared on stage with a flourish.
“Good evening!” he said to the crowd, making them laugh. The magician paled. This was not part of the trick, neigh, the show! Where had this creature of stone come from? In all of the other shows, she had made an illusion and fought it off for the finale. But what was this? A cruel joke by saboteurs? Or had she really summoned the God of Chaos?
“Yes, yes applaud Miss. Lulamoon.” Discord said to the crowd. “She managed to summon me! But it is sad that she can’t control me. NOW IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO PERISH! MUWHAHAHAHHAHAHHA!!!!” Discord laughed sinisterly before flying above the now panicking crowd.
The magician gingerly fired some magical blasts at the flying statue. The audience was beginning to become scared and confused. They didn’t know if they were in true danger, or if this was all part of the show. ‘I’m not going back out on the streets again!’ the magician told herself thinking about the last time she was homeless. Not such a fun time, if she remembered correctly. She charged more magic into her attacks and started summoning things like handkerchiefs, straightjackets, and other magical apparel to help drag down this unknown creature. The creature fought it all, but eventually sunk back to the stage.
“So it’s a fight you want?” said Discord as he gulped in a big breath. Then he let a jet of flame soar out of his mouth. The magician yelped and was about to jump offstage and flee, when the flames ducked around her without harming her. Somepony had put up an invisible shield, and she was being protected. She looked around and felt her confidence rising again.
“Stand back creature! You are no match for me!” she shouted when Discord stopped breathing fire. Discord coughed a little, and the magician fired a ball of pure blue energy at Discord. His face contorted into a smile, and then a frown as he was struck with the magic. He was thrown back, and then everypony heard a shattering of glass, and Discord disappeared.
“I…I did it. I beat Discord. I BEAT DISCORD!” she screamed to the crowd. The crowd erupted into cheers and the all stood and applauded.
“Yes, yes.” The magician nodded before throwing her hooves into the air. “I am the Great and Powerful Trixie!” she cried as she heard the multitude shouted her name in praise.
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The League of Talented Magicians
Why it's a good reason to have dead stuff at a concert
This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
Chapter 5: Why it’s a good reason to have dead stuff at concerts
Trixie walked off stage and back to her dressing room, feeling like she was the greatest pony in the entire world. She shrugged off her cape and threw it onto her chair, tossing her hat after it. Then she walked over to her mirror and grabbed the picture that was stuck in its frame with a tight magical grip.
“So you still think you’re better than me?” she said angrily to the picture of the lavender unicorn. “Did you see that? I BEAT Discord. ALONE. Not even you could do that, Miss. I’m number one!” she said as she threw the picture to the floor and stomped on it once. She smiled. Taking out her anger on Twilight always had that effect.
“Charming.” said a voice that made her jump. She jumped and looked around for the source of the voice, but only saw her cape and hat sitting awkwardly on her chair. Wait. Her chair wasn’t that tall……
“Can you see me? Or has that blasted unicorn’s potion not worn off? Meh, whatever.” Said the voice as Trixie heard a snap of fingers. Then she was capulted through time and space by some form of teleportation, coming back into reality at a doughnut shop that she recognized as one she often went to, just a few blocks away from the theater. She shook as she took in the sights. She was sitting at a round table with the very God of Chaos, Discord at her left, sipping chocolate milk and munching a doughnut, while a unicorn she didn’t recognize sat across from her. He was reading a newspaper and gave her a slight wave. Then she looked to her right and her vision went red.
“YOU!” she screamed. “I should have known that Twilight Sparkle would be behind that!”
Shining Armor held his hooves up in a gesture of peace. “You can scream at me all night, or you can listen to why Discord….escorted you here.” He said with a disapproving frown in Discord’s direction. Discord saw, but he just shrugged it off, humming a tune.
Shining explained the situation to Trixie, and she paled when she found out that the stone monster had actually been Discord. She thought it was just a golem that Shining or the other unicorn made, but she was wrong. However, the color returned to her face when she heard the part about being stronger than the Elements of Harmony.
“So you’re saying that I will be massively more powerful than Twilight? Not that I’m weaker than her now……” she asked.
“Yes you will be stronger than her.” answered discord tiredly. “But only in the field that you are perfect in.”
“Which is?”
Discord took another bite of his doughnut and a sip of his chocolate milk before speaking. “You, my dear Trixie Lulamoon, are the Aspect of Illusion. You are the trickster, the misinformer, the mesmerizer of the Aspects.”
“So what does this mean?” Trixie asked. “I already know I am a great magician, but what do all those titles mean?” At this Syringe lowered the newspaper and Shining focused on Discord. Discord took a deep breath.
“Long ago, before I was even formed, back when all the Alicorns lived together and ruled the whole world together, there were mighty daemons that roamed Equestria and the rest of the world. The alicorns managed to round them up and imprison them in the great pit of Tartarus. Like the Elements of Harmony, the Aspects of Magic were strong magical tools that the original seven alicorns used. However, there are only six Aspects, since the seventh alicorn was too strong to use the Aspects without engulfing the world in a catastrophe that would have stopped time. But other than that, the Aspects of Magic all belonged to your princesses and four other alicorns. When the wielded the Aspects of Magic to fight the greater daemons, like my father, they were given names based on their Aspect of Magic. The alicorn that used the Aspect of Protection was nicknamed ‘The Shield’. The ones who used the Aspect of Restoration and Illusion were called ‘The Healer’ and ‘The Trickster’ respectively, because of their magic.”
“Also, these alicorns were the original elementals. They each had their own special element that they could control better along with their magics, but I doubt any of you could use these elements until you are wearing the Aspects themselves, so we’ll leave that until we get all of our friends together. Come on, I know where another Aspect is.”
“Is he somewhere close by?” Shining asked hopefully.
“Nope. She’s playing a concert in Fillidelphia.” Discord answered.
“What is she the Aspect of music?” Trixie snorted.
Discord glared at her. “She is much worse than that. Just hope you are never on her bad side.”
Trixie gulped and Discord tipped back in his chair. “Let’s go.” He said, falling back in his chair, dissipating as he hit the floor. Syringe followed suit, and Trixie looked as Shining confused.
“It’s how he teleports. And if you’re anything like me, you might want to close your eyes.” Shining explained.
Trixie laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m nothing like you.” She said as she threw herself backward, disappearing into smoke. Shining sighed and paid the bill for the doughnuts and beverages and let himself fall back to the ground.
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Shining came into existence with a heavy buzzing in his ears. He held his head for a moment and realized that it wasn’t his head that was buzzing; it was the feedback from an amplifier on the other side of the tall wooden fence that allowed him to teleport there. He shook his head and realized in the dark night that he was no longer in Applewood. It was much colder and he could feel the sting of autumn in the midnight wind.
However, he was worried most from the lack of his friends. Discord, Trixie, and Syringe were nowhere to be found. He quickly looked around, and found a plank of the fence was missing a few feet away from where he teleported. He walked over to it and found a puddle of wood from where the plank had been. He sighed and knew where they had gone. He followed his friends through the plank and was immediately barraged.
He was shoved, pushed, punched, and jostled about by a crowd of ponies the hold in the fence had led into. He quickly turned angry shoving the ponies back, who just smiled at his shoves and returned them with gusto. “Woohhhhhoooooaaaaaaa!” belted out a mare’s voice from behind Shining. He quickly turned around to see n earth pony mare playing a guitar and singing on a stage, alone. The crowds cheered and went crazy at her fast and heavy punk strumming, moshing everywhere and just going insane. Shining couldn’t help but be caught up in all of it. Here was an awesome concert with some music that he had always loved. Even though he never told Cadence, his first love had been not with a filly, but with punk music in general. Back when he was a colt, he had a major crush on Roam Jett and was a dedicated fan of the Drop-Hoof Murphy’s. So he stood there for a while watching the mare play her guitar. He was amazed that an earth pony could have that level of skill with a stringed instrument, but he was more intrigued by her looks.
She had a bubble-gum pink coat, platinum blonde mane with more bubble-gum pink highlights, and her cutie mark was that of an eclipsed sun. She wore a heavy, black leather jacket and some wicked looking earrings. She danced across the stage singing songs and playing her guitar amazingly. Shining finally managed to pull his eyes off of her as he saw a heavy marble draconequus crowd-surfing. Shining moved his way over to him, and picked him up off of the crowd with magic. He strenuously carried him to the back of the crowd and put him down.
“Where’s everypony else?” Shining shouted above the noise of the music and crowds.
“They’re up front at the stage, trying not to get crushed.” He answered just as loudly.
“And where’s the Aspect?”
Discord just pointed. Shining didn’t have to look. He already had a feeling he knew who it was. “But she’s an earth pony! How can she do magic?”
“I don’t know.” Discord shrugged. “Why don’t you ask her? But do it quickly. Do you see those ponies over there?” Discord asked, jerking his head behind him. Shining looked around and saw a group of ponies that weren’t dancing or cheering. There was about ten of them, and they just stood there, their eerie eyes just staring evilly at the mare onstage.
“We should get her and leave, ASAP.” Shining said, agreeing with Discord.
“I’ll go cause some ‘technical difficulties’ while you go talk to her.” Discord said, his eyes lighting up.
“Sure.” Shining nodded. The pair separated and went on their own missions, Discord snaking his way to the back of the stage and Shining forging his way to stage. As soon as Shining got there, the sound of the amps cut out, silencing the music and making the crowd get angry.
“Sorry about that ponies.” the musician cried out, cupping her hooves around her mouth to amplify her voice. We’re having some technical stuff right now, so if you want to hear more music, I suggest going and fixing it!” she called out to the crowd. A few ponies left the crowd and went back stage while others tried to climb up on-stage for autographs and other fan junk. The musician smiled and put up a hoof.
“Stay.” she said, and it strangely froze the ponies in place. Shining looked over to the ponies, confused that one word could do that, but he clambered up on-stage to talk to her. She saw him and tried to the same. “Stay.” she commanded Shining, only to look confused for a second when it didn’t work. Then her dark-brown eyes, which were stark against her coat and mane, lit up and she gave Shining a diving hug.
“Damn, It’s been so long since one of you has attended a show!” she said in her melodic voice.
“One of you?” Shining asked as he saw Syringe and Trixie climb on stage. Discord came out from the back of the stage, looking fiercely at the crowd, particularly the ten pure-black ponies that started moving towards the stage.
“Listen, Miss….”
“Daisy. Just call me Daisy.”
“Ok Daisy.” Shining said earnestly, “You need to come with us. I know it sounds strange, but we need you.”
“For the Aspects, right?”
“How did you….”
“Don’t worry about it, I’ve…..Watch out!” she screamed as a ball of flaming energy sped towards them. Shining barely had time to put a shield, so the one that he managed to produce was brittle and weak. When the energy ball hit it, it protected everypony, but Shining took the brunt of the back-blast. He was thrown off of his hooves and saw the group of attacking ponies climb onto the stage. Shining got up and stumbled. He realized on of his legs was broken. He saw as Discord tried to turn the ponies into harmless things, but the magic wasn’t working, and the ponies were getting closer.
What confused Shining was how they had fired the magic. They were all earth ponies, so how could they manifest something like pure energy? His question was answered when on of the attackers opened his jaws to an unnatural angle and he saw another ball of energy being charged. Shining quickly produced a stronger shield around his friends who were backing up towards him while they were barraged suddenly by a blast of magic. They sped to Shining and all came close to him, so he could make a strong semi-circle shield around everypony.
As Syringe examined his broken leg Shining looked at Discord bemusedly.
“They must be made of Chaos magic. That’s why mine didn’t affect them.” Discord explained.
“Let’s leave. We’re all here right?” Trixie said nervously.
“But what about all those other ponies?” Syringe asked. “We can’t leave them there to die.”
Daisy started to laugh. “Don’t worry about that. In fact, I know how we can take care of these Chaos-guys.”
“How?” asked Shining.
“Get me my guitar.” She said smiling.
Discord shrugged and snapped his fingers. The guitar appeared next to Daisy and she picked it up and stood with it. “This is how earth ponies use magic.” She said as she started to play.
Her song was not punkish, but it felt the same, with its heavy guitar lead, but there was something underneath all of that. It felt ancient and powerful. But it also felt a little wrong. The Chaos creatures stopped attacking at the sound of the noise and they perked up their heads. The whole crowd moved like one being looking at Daisy right at that moment. She sang in a long-lost tongue and the crowd started to move. Shining had no idea what language she was speaking, but he understood her words.
“Rise, rise, come to my aid. For just a breath more you can feel happiness and pain. Live again, live again, but do not stay. Go sleep and rest at my call and say.” Daisy sang, her song getting more and more powerful. The crowd rose onto the stage and surrounded the Chaos creatures and fought them. All of the ponies except for Discord and Daisy gasped in shock as they watched many of the crowd get fatally stabbed or shot with magic and disappear into dust. But after what felt like hours, the crowd had managed to kill off all of the Chaos creatures, their dead bodies convulsing and melting into puddles of darkness. When all the creatures were gone, Shining dropped the shield.
Immediately, the crowd rushed them and Trixie screamed, but Daisy just laughed. The crowds walked around the other ponies and draconequus, lifting up and worshipping Daisy. She was happy and looked content in their grasps.
“But how?” a shaken Trixie asked. “Not even I can brainwash a whole audience of ponies.”
“These aren’t ponies, silly.” Daisy said with a giggle. “You are the Aspect of Illusion, are you not? Clear the illusion on them.”
Trixie’s horn wavered with magic, but then it glowed strongly. Trixie noticed it first and shrieked as her magic worked on the crowd. Shining and Syringe watched with abject terror as the crowd of ponies shimmered with a heat-haze, only to clear to their true forms.
All around the Aspects stood many corpses in various states of decay. Some were skeletal ponies while others were fresh from the grave. It was the ones that were in-between that sickened Shining the most. But the worst of all was how all of their empty eyes, or eye sockets, glowed with an inner green light, which sickened Shining to the core.
“So when you said ‘one of you’…” Shining said.
“Yes, I meant one of you, a living pony. It really has been such a long time since living ponies have come to one of my shows. Usually they get upset by all the death, so I have to mask it. But even then……” Daisy said sadly.
Shining started to feel bad for here, but then one of the corpses looked at him, and he could see worms crawling through the corpse’s cheeks as he tried to give a smile. Shining felt sick.
“Aspects of Magic, meet Daisy, the Aspect of Conjuration; the necromancer, the summoner, the unholy queen of the Aspects.” Discord said in disgust.
Daisy giggled and waved a hoof. “Hi, everypony.”
The League of Talented Magicians
This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
Chapter 7: Welcome to the Club!
The six reappeared in a very different climate and scenery. As Helaku gaped at the changed landscape, Daisy gently tied his father’s necklace onto him. But Helaku was not the only one to be amazed at the scenery. All around the six were rolling, verdant green hills. There was a mist that hung around them and a large mountain skyrocketed out of the ground a little off to the distance in front of them. Discord got up and started to talk.
“Listen, we’re going into the mountain to get our armor. Our armors with the all of our Aspects of Magic are in the old headquarters of the League of Talented Magicians. They were the last bearers of the Aspects and they were known for being notoriously strong. This most definitely means that their headquarters is guarded heavily. So we’re all going to have to be on guard.”
“Fine, Trixie and I will take point, since she can clear away any illusions and I can protect us if anything goes awry.” said Shining. Trixie didn’t look too thrilled at being up front, but she could follow the logic behind Shining’s thinking.
“Then your three” Discord said, pointing to Syringe, Daisy, and Helaku “should be in the middle. I’ll cover our backsides.” He said, conjuring up some pillows that had magically become stuck to everyone’s backsides. Helaku laughed and Shining sighed.
“There. My job’s done.” said Discord as he snapped his favorite sunglasses into existence and slipped them over his eyes.
“Very good Discord, but how are we supposed to walk now?”
Discord frowned. “Very well.” He said snapping his fingers again, making the pillows disappear. “Joy kill.” Shining marched out leading them towards the base of the mountain. They traveled over rocky hills and deep muddied valleys again and again, so when they reached the mountain Helaku was dragging behind and the whole group was getting tied of the journey before they had even started.
“Why can’t we teleport into the headquarters?” Trixie asked when they stopped at the base of the mountain. She had been trying to get the mud out of her fetlocks and was angry at how the mud latched itself onto her beautiful coat hairs.
“We don’t know how heavily guarded it is. For all we know, we could die the second we teleported in.” Discord said.
“Cut that out Discord! You’re scaring Helaku.” Daisy reprimanded him. Helaku was shaking, but he denied it was from fear. However, when Daisy offered to let him ride on her back, he gratefully excepted, since he was still just a child and that walk was much longer than is should have been.
When they all started walking up the mountain, they realized it was going to be much longer than originally thought. Soon seconds turned into minutes which turned into hours. They tried to keep going at a constant pace, but weariness was setting in. The loose stones and wet rocks underhoof didn’t make climbing the small stairs etched into the side of the mountain any easier. Around noon they stopped again to rest, looking out at the vast lands that spread out from beneath them. The grey clouds covered the sky above them, but it didn’t feel like it would rain anytime soon.
“Where are we exactly?” asked Syringe while he was looking out at land. “I can’t see any tows or cities from here.”
“The Rainy Mountain a couple miles North of Vanhoover.” replied Trixie. All eyes turned to her in amazement. “When you mentioned the League of Talented Magicians, I knew exactly where we were. I’ve been a fan of them since I was a little filly.” she said, blushing.
“You do know that they’ve been dead for a good 400 years, right?” asked Discord.
“So? They’re my heroes. And now it all makes sense, why they were so diverse. It was because they were actually the Aspects of Magic! OH MY GOODNESS!” she shouted in an almost impeccable impersonation of Pinkie Pie. “DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?” she said looking around the group, her eyes wide and filled with wonder. “WE’RE THE NEW LEAGUE OF TALENTED MAGICIANS!!!!!!” she shouted with such enthusiasm that Shining half expected her to break out into song.
Helaku started to laugh. “So who was in the League of Talented Magicians?” he asked.
“Well there was Hyp Nosis, Master of all Minds, Siguard the fighter, he could heal any of his wounds almost instantly, ummm….Hatched Chick, the most powerful elementalist ever, who was a griffon. Who else? Oh yeah The Philosopher, the only alchemist to turn lead into gold, and that into celestial gold; The Golem, a strong monster that was supposed to have come from the center of the earth; and finally, Lady Burton, the queen of the séance.” Trixie said as the group rose up and started to stretch out their weary limbs.
However Trixie kept talking even as they started to walk again. “The League had lots of adventures and helped create the common day study of magic and its effects on the world. They did so much for magicians, mages, and scientists all over the world!”
“Who was your favorite Miss. Trixie?” asked Helaku.
“I like The Golem, but it was Hyp Nosis who really made me want to become a magician. ‘The mind is a magical thing, just like the world. Therefore, you shape the world with your mind. Now go and make this world something to be proud of.’ He always said. It really made me want to be like him and make the world a better place with my own magic. I don’t know where I’d be now if I didn’t learn about him when I was young.” She said with a sigh.
“What about you sister?” said Helaku as he tapped Daisy’s shoulder with his tiny horns.
“I grew up in the Hallow Shades, a small village in the middle of a deep forest. It was said that I was born from the darkness of the forest, so I didn’t have a true family growing up, but I did live with a nice old mare that I called ‘grandmother’. She died when I was in my teenage years, and I missed her terribly. So I sang to her and her spirit came back to me. I was so happy that I learned to play guitar and tried to make all the spirits in the world as happy as I was. Now I just need to find a way to let other ponies see their loved ones, and we’ll all be happy! Yay!” Daisy said excitedly. Her words however, unsettled almost all, except for Helaku.
“What do you want to do when you get older?” asked Syringe.
“I want to lead our tribe to the leader of our alliances. I want to stop the fights for dominance and bring the tribes together. The other tribes are very obsessed about being the strongest, but I see no need in that. I know about lots of strength, and it is scary.”
“You’re pretty wise for a kid.” said Shining respectfully.
“Thanks.” Helaku replied, grinning from the praise. “What’s that?” he said pointing at the large black obelisk at the end of the path. The six walked up to it and Discord examined it thoroughly.
“We might have to use some pretty heavy magic to get this open…..” he speculated.
Syringe sighed and walked up to the door. He looked at the extensive runes upon it and lifted a hoof. Everyone looked at him with bated breath as he put his hoof a little over head level.
“What are you…”
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK. Syringe’s hoof went three times. Then he stood there patiently and waited for a moment while the door slowly creaked open.
“It’s just common courtesy.” He said as he entered the mountain. Everyone except for Discord laughed, with Discord confused as to why the door had opened so easily. Something wasn’t right. He followed the rest of them in, his senses burning with apprehension. Something was wrong, very wrong, but it made him angry he couldn’t tell what it was. Damn the Elements of Harmony and their medusa-like powers! Sure he could move about and use his power thanks to his father, but still he was felt tampered. His senses were always just a bit off and all his magic seemed slow too. And he knew that when he faced his father, slow magic and unfocused wits would kill everypony.
The six walked into a large hallowed out cavern with an extensive circle and rune-network lining the floor. On the opposite side of the cavern, maybe a 200 meter dash away, was the large enameled door that led into the headquarters of the League of Talented Magicians.
“Look everypony! It’s the magicians’ circle!” exclaimed Trixie. “It was said the magicians used this to travel to anywhere in Equestria and back. It was also speculated that the Lady Burton used this for her séances.”
That’s when it hit Discord. “Everypony back!” he screamed, backpedalling towards the closing door that led back out onto the safety of the mountain. But it had closed by the time he reached it. Discord slammed on the door with a marble fist as the others approached. Then he tried to turn the door into other things like snakes, gummy worms, leaves, balloons, anything so that they could escape. But it was no use.
“Does anypony else feel that?” asked Daisy.
“What?” asked Shining alarmed.
“That beating. It sounds like a drum beat of four. Wait, it’s gone.” she said, whipping her head over to the circle. “Guys, get ready.”
“For what?” asked Trixie, Syringe, and Shining.
“For something bad.” Discord said angrily.
At that moment, the magicians’ circle started to glow a deep purple, first with the outer edges and runes. Then, the purple light shot inwards and illuminated the center. The purple light got brighter and brighter until it filled the whole cavern with a purple sun. Then it exploded, washing the purple light over everything and the circle went silent again.
“Maybe it was just a dud?” Trixie asked hopefully from under her front hooves.
Then the ground started shaking. Tears appeared in the center of the circle and columns of dust flew up out of the tears. They intertwined and melded together above the center of the circle, forming a floating orb in the air. The tears slowly sealed and the ball started to pulse. Strange shapes started shooting out of it and, slowly it started to form. Daisy palled, which was strange on her normally happy face.
“Run.” She said.
“Run!!!!”
The forming stopped just as the group started to run towards the entrance to the headquarters. Where the ball of dust had once floated now stood a gigantic beast of ivory bone. Its long and deadly body filled up most of the cavern and its eyeless sockets roamed its home for the newest additions to its menu. It found them at the home of the powerful ones. It gave one long roar, showing off its sword-like teeth and stretched its membrane-less wings for all to see. Even in death it was a creature to be feared and remembered as a creature of nightmares.
It was Dracus.
The League of Talented Magicians
This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
Chapter 8: Bison Angry!
As soon as the great skeletal dragon roared, Shining placed one of his strongest shields between the six of them and the monster. Its roars and claws slammed against the purple dome with such force that each hit made Shining cringe a little.
“That…that’s Dracus, scourge of the mountains, one of the un-captured great daemons. He died instead of being thrown into Tartarus, but that was before I was born!” Discord said as he gaped in awe. The creature’s claws slammed down on the shield again, making cracks appear in the top. Trixie gasped.
“Sorry.” Shining panted. His horn glowed brighter and the cracks healed, as well as adding another layer onto it. Shining giggled nervously.
“Daisy, can you control him?” Syringe asked, noticing the strain on Shining. She gulped and pulled her guitar off of her back. “I’ll try.”
She started playing and singing and Dracus stopped attacking the shield with such an effort. Daisy strummed louder and quicker and sung with more volume, making Dracus stop his attack completely.
“Drop the shield!” she shouted quickly between words. Even that small deviation in the music made Dracus look like he was going to attack again. Shining looked at her as if she was insane, but he realized she had a point. The shield was reflecting the sound waves off each side, making her music sound duller on the outside. Shining tenderly let his shield melt away and Daisy walked towards the lucid Dracus, her body soaked in sweat from trying to keep it under control. Discord led the rest of them over to the door and he started to try to open it. As he did, Daisy got closer and closer to Dracus, making him swoon even more, until she was almost touching him. However, that was when all hell broke loose.
As Daisy approached Dracus, the monster grinned an evil smile and let loose a terrible roar. Only this roar held the beast’s magic, making the roar go supersonic. Daisy was flung from in front of him by the mere pressure of the roar. Then Dracus lunged at the group at the door. Syringe and Trixie dodged one way, Shining and Helaku the other. However, Discord got caught.
“Ow! Ow! Horseapples! Ow!” he yelled as Dracus picked him up between his fangs and swung him about like a rag doll. The fangs didn’t break Discord’s marble skin, but that didn’t mean it did not hurt. “Uraghh!!!” Discord shouted again as Dracus tried to crush him. He tried to turn Dracus’s teeth into marshmallows, but dragon bone is impervious to most spells. So Discord summoned up a large crowbar. “Get ready for the Gordon Freeman special!” he shouted as he smacked Dracus again and again.
The gonging sound of metal on bone reverberated through the cavern as Shining tried to find a place to hide Helaku. He was just a kid! He couldn’t fight this monster, even if he was the Aspect of Destruction. Shining looked around the cavern, but only found a few stalagmites to hide the boy behind while he ran off to fight the creature.
Syringe and Trixie fled off to where Daisy had been thrown by Dracus’s shout and they found her crumpled body lying against the cavern wall. Syringe went to work stat, checking all her vitals and for the level of damage. He stripped his saddlebags away from his flank and searched through them while making magical compresses along Daisy’s body. She had broken too many bones and even punctured a lung, but what matter was that her heart and brain were undamaged. Syringe didn’t know if all the magic in the world could save a pony from a broken cortex.
“What can I do?” asked Trixie nervously.
“I need you to make sure Dracus doesn’t come over here. Keep him away at all costs.” He said while he unstoppered some poultice bottles. “Draw his attention away with your illusions.” he continued as he heard Dracus roar and a distant thump, indicating that Dracus had gotten bored with his Discord-chew toy. “Hurry!” Syringe hissed. Trixie sped away with shaking limbs to face the beast.
Shining had tried to trip the monster with some aptly placed shields, but they were all too weak to phase the creature. He kept on smashing through the magic, getting ominously closer to Shining.
“Hey ugly!” screamed a couple of mares’ voices from Shining’s left. He looked over to see not one but five Trixies standing next to each other. The last one in the line looked at Shining and nodded to him. But then Dracus attacked the Trixies and they scattered running circles around the skeletal dragon. Dracus caught one in his maw, but it evaporated away. At that all the Trixies’ horns glowed and the remaining four turned into eight. Dracus brought more attacks down on the Trixies, but Shining managed to block a few.
“Don’t worry about me!” said eight Trixie voices. “Find a way to stop Draacus!” they repeated each other. Shining nodded and ran towards the thrashing beast, looking around for a way to make the monster stop. He ran around in desperation for a moment before almost being crushed by the dragon’s tail. Shining quickly jumped away. Damn thing was like a moving staircase.
That was it! If Shining could run up those vertebrae, than maybe he could find a way to decapitate the creature. Maybe use some well placed stalactites. Shining readied himself and waited for the golden moment. Dracus’s tail hit the ground with a heavy thud, and Shining sprinted up the tip of the tail, running up towards the base just at Dracus pulled his tail from the ground. The dragon was aware that a small creature was on his back, but a more appetizing meal was running around his claws. If only he could catch it, he would be content.
Shining wobbled as he climbed up to the dragon’s shoulders and held onto the vertebrae at the base of neck for dear life. Trixie had made more clones and Dracus was going crazy, trying to eat all of them. Shining focused on one particularly deadly looking stalactite and made a circular shield at its base. He magically sharpened the shield and cut through the stalactite as Dracus’s head went underneath it. Shining managed to jump away as it impacted the dragon’s head, smashing the skull into the ground. Shining stood there for a second just catching his breath.
“You did it!” sixteen Trixies shouted triumphantly. “Oops, sorry.” She said as she made the clones disappear.
“No.” Shining gasped. “We did it. We’re all a team.” He panted out.
Trixie ginned. “Well now that that’s over, let’s---”
Trixie was thrown off of her hooves by a large ivory claw. She landed with a hard thud near where Helaku was hiding. Shining turned to fight the monster, but he was impaled by the claws. Dracus picked him up while he chocked on a punctured lung and flung him over to where Trixie lay. Shining woozily saw that the blue mare was still breathing, but he also saw the panicked look in Helaku’s eyes. But then something happened. Helaku looked at the pair again, and then over to where Daisy had fallen. He snorted and screamed, charging at the monster.
Shining didn’t see it, but he heard Helaku get smacked and thrown into the air. The land however, was different. It sounded much heavier than Helaku should have been.
“I AM CHINDI!” bellowed an unnatural voice, laced with so much power; you could run all of Ponyville for the winter on that shout alone. Shining moved his head slowly, looking for the tiny bull. Instead he saw a giant beast of a bison, with large horns, sharpened to deadly points. The bull’s soft, short coat was not thick and shaggy, with jets of electricity playing across it. Every time the bull snorted flames escaped from his nostrils, and his shouts brought on an icy wind. He pawed the ground twice, eliciting two small earthquakes as he did so.
“DIE!” the bull scream-snorted and he charged at the confused Dracus.
The impact of the headbutt sent waves of magical energy coursing through every being in the cavern. Shining was surprised the mountain hadn’t been destroyed by such a force. He followed Helaku with his darkening vision, watching as the fight played itself out. After the headbutt, Dracus was dazed and Helaku took that chance to unleash a fury of attacks on him. First, Helaku jumped into the air, somehow floating as he breathed in through his nose, and let out a large bout of flame on the creature’s skull. The smell of charred bone filled the cavern as Dracus howled and hit Helaku with a claw. Helaku was flung towards the ceiling, but he caught himself on his back hooves and shouted. Pillars of stone from the cavern floor shot upwards and tripped the beast, making Dracus hit the ground heavily. Before he could right himself up, Helaku jumped, bellowing as lightning gathered in his horns. When his head connected with Dracus’s chest, ozone filled the air and Dracus screamed in pain. But Helaku wasn’t finished. He kept kitting the monster with his overpowered hooves, bellowing the whole time. And then when all Shining could hear was Helaku’s ragged breathing and Dracus’s whimpering, he saw Helaku stand again.
Helaku took up a stance across from the beaten Dracus who kept trying to get back up. Shining saw Helaku take a deep breath and felt the room get a little hotter. Then, a high pitched screaming, like that of the winter’s wind through icy trees echoed through the cavern as Helaku screamed pure winter onto Dracus. In a matter of seconds, Dracus was completely frozen over and Helaku stood there panting.
Helaku let out a victory bellow and lightning erupted from his body, striking the top of the cavern. Shining looked at the bull’s face as he turned around and suddenly understood what Helaku has said about fearing the Aspect of Destruction and power. The bull was not the small bison foal Helaku; he was a creature of rage and power. He was Chindi.
Shining’s vision blurred away to darkness as the blood loss affected his body. He heard some drunken voice, but was lost to the darkness before he could answer them.