Redemption of the Sun

Redemption

of

The Sun

Chapter 3: Laughter

At the highest point of the Royal Citadel, everything was quiet. The stars in the night sky twinkled merrily, as though unaware of the evil happening in the world below. Princess Luna stood alone on her balcony, ethereal mane casting an aurora on the darkened backdrop of glowing pinpricks above.

Her peaceful basking in the moonlight was shattered when a loud knocking came from the doors behind her. *sigh* “Enter.”

A pegasus with a pastel gold coat and brown mane entered. He saluted and said, “Private Pound Cake reporting, your Highness.”

“Why are you not in your armor?”

“I’m actually on leave right now. I’m just supposed to give you my report, then I can head home for a week. Uh, your Highness.”

“Ah, you must be from the team I sent after the gryphon. Did you capture it?”

“I don’t know, your Highness. I was sent back early, and the rest of the squad still hasn’t arrived, your Highness.”

“What could you possibly have to report then?”

“We found the gryphon, but she was leaving the desert, and she wasn’t travelling alone. She was accompanied by two ponies and a baby dragon... Your Highness.

“Try to refrain from ending every single sentence with ‘your Highness’. It’s getting annoying.” She supported her point by rubbing her temples with one hoof.

“Yes, your Highn— Sorry.”

“Just describe the ponies.”

“There was a unicorn stallion. Light blue, pale yellow mane. Cutie mark of some weird symbol that looked kind of like a key...”

Luna’s ears perked up. “Did the dragon appear to be acting as an assistant for him?”

“Yeah, kinda. She somehow recited Captain Armor’s entire biography for them.”

“I see... What about the other one?”

“A unicorn mare. White coat, pink mane. Couldn’t really tell what she looked like other than that, ‘cause she was wearing a cloak the whole time. She gave me a me a message for you.”

The pegasus now held Luna’s full attention. “What did she say?”

“Well... I can’t really remember her exact words, but she said something about Captain Armor wanting to kill her for something to do with his sister. She also said to tell you that she was sorry for something, then she ordered the other three to run.”

…

“Your Highness? Oh, sorry...”

“Is there any chance she could have survived?”

“Against the Captain and our entire squad? I don’t see how she could have.”

…

“Princess?”

“You may go, Pound Cake.”

He looked confused at the sadness in the Princess’ tone, but saluted and flew home. The moment he was out of sight, Luna crumpled to the ground and began to cry. “Sister...”

As a pony, a gryphon, and a baby dragon trekked through a rocky pine wood as snow began to fall from the dark gray clouds above. "Goddesses, it's freezing!"

Osanna glanced at Daylight, then ruffled her wings. "It's not that bad."

He glared at her, and started to grumble something about feathers. Snowflake flashed Osanna a conspiratorial smile before commenting, "Ah... It's nice and cool up here."

Daylight twisted his neck to glare at her, then bucked her off of his back. "You should do a bit of walking. It's good for you."

Osanna stopped and crouched down to allow Snowflake onto her back. As they overtook Daylight, Osanna winked, and Snowflake stuck her tongue out. Daylight froze, then shook his head and continued. "Mares..." Suddenly, there was a flash of red lightning. At the same moment, the wind picked up, and the snow turned into blowing sleet. "What the buck!?"

Osanna started sprinting ahead, prompting Daylight to follow. She suddenly veered to the right, and disappeared into the mountain. Daylight was confused for a second before he noticed a cave. Upon spotting shelter, he picked up his pace.

Inside, there was only one thing he could say. "Whaaat?"

The cave was dark, but crystals could be seen growing in strange geometric shapes on all of the walls. The crystals also looked like they were some kind of iridescent metal. Snowflake seemed to be having a stronger reaction to their new setting than either of the others. Namely salivating. "Oh. Yes." She immediately jumped off of Osanna, and sprinted to the nearest batch of crystals.

When she reached them, she wasted no time in picking one from the stone. She tilted her head back and raised the crystal in one claw, preparing to drop it into her mouth.

A pair of glowing amber eyes stared at her from the shadowed ceiling. Very slowly, she blinked. The eyes blinked back. She still had the crystal held above her.

A male voice came from the spot where the amber eyes were watching. "Are you gonna eat that?"

Snowflake screamed and flung the crystal at the thing on the ceiling. As the ran back to the other two, she yelled, "THERE'S A DRAGON!"

Osanna took a defensive stance. Daylight looked around warily and asked, "Where is it?"

From Daylight's left, the dragon answered, "Over there!" and pointed at Snowflake. Daylight and Osanna spun to look at Snowflake and screamed. Snowflake screamed back, and pointed at the iridescent black dragon that was now behind them. Osanna and Daylight looked at it and screamed. The dragon examined himself, then he screamed too.

Osanna, Snowflake, and Daylight turned and ran farther into the cave. Eventually they found a shadowy alcove, and quickly hid inside it. They waited for a few minutes. Daylight heard a crunching sound to his immediate right, and turned to see the dragon's head directly beside him, munching on the crystal that Snowflake had thrown at him.

The dragon swallowed then turned to Daylight, and with a completely straight face whispered, "Do you think it saw us?"

Once again, all four of them screamed, then the three travelers and the dragon ran off in opposite directions. The pony and the gryphon failed to notice that Snowflake had run in another completely different direction.

The young dragoness quickly found herself lost. When she reached a place where the passage branched in two different directions, she sat down and tried to figure out which way to go. The dragon sitting behind her suggested, "You should go right."

"Oh. Thanks." She stood up and began to head right, then stopped. Her eyes widened, and she turned back to see the dragon sitting there, staring at the roof. "Aren't you going to chase me?"

He looked down at her in surprise. "Why would I do that?"

"Because we entered your cave and I tried to eat your crystals?"

"So?"

"You're not angry?"

"Nope!"

"Oh... Do you know where my friends are?"

"Yep!"

"..."

"..."

"Could you lead me to them?"

"Sure!" He got up and walked past her, following the right passage. "This way!"

Snowflake slowly shook her head before following.

Daylight and Osanna were searching frantically for their missing companion. Their efforts turned out to be pointless when they noticed Snowflake and the dragon they had been running from walk into the room, chatting. Daylight picked Snowflake up with telekinesis and pulled her over to him. "Snowflake what are you doing!? Dragons are dangerous!" Snowflake's bemused expression got his panicked mind thinking clearly once again and he mumbled, "Right... Sorry..."

Freed from Daylight's magic, Snowflake motioned for the dragon to move closer. "C'mon Vis, they're cool."

Vis inched a bit closer, but continued to examine the pony and gryphon nervously. "But what if one of them is the dragon?"

Snowflake facepalmed. "You are the dragon."

Vis once again examined himself before waving an open claw in front of himself and declaring, "This is not the dragon you are looking for."

Osanna and Daylight glanced at each other. The gryphon made a 'he's crazy' motion with one talon. Daylight looked back to Vis, who was grinning widely. "What are you talking about?"

"It's a movie reference."

"What's a movie?"

"I have no idea. The bouncy pink one told me to say it."

"What?" Everyone except for Vis looked around to try and spot anyone else. Daylight adopted his psychologist tone and asked, "Vis, who else do you see in the room with us?"

"There's the pink pony standing next to me, the purple unicorn standing next to you, and the blue pegasus with crazy hair standing beside the gryphon. Hm... the unicorn is confused about how I can see them."

Snowflake ran over to Daylight and whispered, "Pinkie Pie, Element of Laughter."

Daylight looked at Vis, then asked, "A dragon?"

"We've already got a gryphon."

"I suppose... So these ponies he sees are the former bearers?"

"It would seem that way. Pinkie, Twilight, and Rainbow. Laughter, Magic, and Loyalty."

"I see..." He turned to Vis. "The unicorn, her name is Twilight?"

The dragon looked at the spot beside Daylight, then answered, "Yep."

"So they're ghosts?"

Vis once again awaited confirmation from Twilight. And kept waiting... And kept waiting...

"So?"

"Shh! She's not done yet."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Yeah, I didn't understand anything you just said." He directed his next words at Daylight. "She said a lot of stuff about spirits and harmonic energy and— WHY ARE YOU STEPPING INSIDE ME!?" Vis froze, then his eyes turned purple. When he spoke again, there was a strange female voice echoing alongside his. "This is fascinating... I'm going to need to do a lot of research on this dragon."

"What?"

Vis looked up at Daylight and answered, "Right, Sorry. I'm Twilight Sparkle. Somehow this dragon is linked to every possible reality simultaneously." His/Her eyes widened. "Just like Pinkie! This must have something to do with their element!"

"Twilight!"

"Right! Sorry again. I haven't actually been able to communicate with anypony other than the Elements you've already found, and the Princess the other day."

Daylight's ears perked, and a small smile appeared on his face. "Tia's alive?"

Vis/Twilight cocked his/her head. "Oh, right. You two are..." She coughed awkwardly before finishing, "...together. Myself and the other Elements were guiding you to the new bearers, but now that you've found Lord Vismut you can head straight for the capital. The Princess is waiting for you there."

Daylight appeared to be resisting the urge to jump up and down, something which looked rather strange to anyone who knew the normally collected unicorn. "I knew it! I knew she made it!"

A new voice answered him. He didn’t recognize it, but it was the voice of a being whom Twilight knew all too well. “Ah yes, My puppet got a little too... Emotional, and wiped out all of his little helpers. Oh well, watching Celly killing her loyal guard-captain was satisfying too!”

Vis’ eyes returned to their normal coloration for a second as Twilight’s very soul subconsciously flinched away from the voice, and back the realm it had been formerly inhabiting. His/her voice was barely a whisper, but the single word it spoke sent chills down the spines of every being present in the room. “Discord.”

“Twilight Sparkle! Fancy meeting you here! Actually, no it’s not. I lied.”

“Show yourself!”

“Oh, very well...” A stone draconequus partially detached itself from a nearby wall, then seemed to swim through the stone until it reached the travelers. “This is the best I can do without being there in person. I don’t really like it.” He detached from the wall further, and coiled around Vis/Twilight. “Do you want to know why I don’t like it?”

Vis/Twilight sighed, then shoved the draconequus off of him/herself. “Enlighten me...”

Discord feigned being saddened by his/her harshness, then grinned and slithered to the middle of the room. His smile fell; not literally falling off of his face and to the floor as one might expect from the comedic draconequus, but as a normal being’s would when they were unhappy. His stone face contorted into one of pure rage. In an icy voice he asked, “Have you ever been imprisoned in stone?”

Vis/Twilight hesitated before answering, “Once...”

“Then you know what it’s like. You find yourself frozen in place, unable to stop it as it works it’s way up your body. It burns as it goes, but you’re unable to make the pain go away. You try to gasp out your last breaths as your lungs solidify inside you, and when it finally reaches your head, greyness creeps into the edges of your vision. It crushes your eyes, and just when you think they’re about to pop, the greyness takes everything. Except instead of a quiet sleep, you live every moment inside your stone prison, able to hear everything around you, able to feel the constant pain.”

Vis/Twilight shuddered at her own memory of the experience. “Stop...”

Discord grinned cruelly, and moved to directly in front of the possessed dragon. “That is what you and your pathetic friends did to me for a second time,” His smile once again became a mask of rage.  “and that is why I will not stop until everything you hold dear has been WASHED TO TARTARUS BY THE TIDES OF CHAOS!”

Vis/Twilight began to slowly back away from the panting draconequus. “We need to leave now.”

Discord chuckled mirthlessly in response. "Leave? You didn't think I came all this way just to talk, did you? No, I merely wished to distract you long enough for two of my lieutenants to arrive.”

To everyone’s surprise, it was Snowflake who spoke next. “You like to make things interesting, right? That means you should tell us who we’re going to be up against.”

Discord smiled. “My, aren’t you a smart little one... I suppose it couldn’t hurt to give you this one little tidbit. The two I’ve sent after you are Glatisant and Zmey Gorynych.”

Snowflake smiled back, amused at how easily she had tricked him into providing them with vital information. “Glatisant, also known as the ‘Questing Beast’. Head and neck of a snake, body of a leopard, and the feet of a stag. Represents incest and chaos. No known weaknesses. However, Lesser threat. Zmey Gorynych. Three headed dragon. Part hydra, part wyvern. Represents pride and chaos. Possible to play on his pride. Greater threat despite this weakness.”

Discord blinked twice, then burst out laughing. “Oh this will be interesting!” With a snap of his fingers, the magic animating the stone draconequus was cut off. The statue fell and shattered against the floor.

After a few moments of silence, Daylight asked, “Plans? Anyone?” Vis/Twilight opened His/Her mouth to say something, then shook his/her head and closed it again. “Twilight? If you’ve got something, tell us.”

He/she looked extremely reluctant, but began to explain, “I have a plan. It will completely remove Zmey Gorynych from the equation, as well as make it easier to defeat Glatisant. But... There’s a catch; a few catches, really.”

“Which are?”

“The plan requires me to bind myself to you, allowing me to temporarily manifest in physical form. A side-effect of this is that if either of us is killed, the other will also die. On top of that, there’s no guarantee I’ll be able to remove the spell without killing both of us.”

“And why would this be a good thing?”

“I would be able to draw on the magical reserves of two elements of magic. Combined with a few of the combat spells I learned during my brief visit to Tartarus a few months ago, beating Glatisant should be relatively simple. I estimate a fifty percent chance of successfully removing Zmey Gorynych, a ninety-eight percent chance of defeating Glatisant, and a twenty percent chance of succeeding overall.”

“That’s not a very good chance... Wait, you were in Tartarus?”

“That’s not important right now. Anyways, those chances of success are nineteen percent higher than running out there without a plan.”

“Alright, what do you need to do?”

“Come over here.” Daylight did as he was asked. “Now, this will probably be the most horrifying thing you will ever experience in your life.” He/she placed his/her claws on Daylights horn.

“What could possibly be worse than—” Vis/Twilight’s claws erupted into violet flames, which quickly traveled down Daylight’s horn and encased his entire body. ”WHAT THE BUCK!?” He pulled away, but the spell had already taken effect. Though the flames weren’t causing any physical damage, Daylight was instinctively screaming and attempting to swat them out.

The others watched on, unpossessed Vis included, unsure of whether or not they should try to help. Luckily for the flaming unicorn, the fire receded and gathered at the tip of his horn before slowly leaving to float in the air beside him. The flames quickly coalesced into the form of Twilight Sparkle. With a flash, the spell was done. The resulting lavender unicorn seemed completely normal, except for a few stray violet flames drifting from her mane and tail. “Well. Let’s go.”

As the five of them headed for the exit, Vis noticed that all of them seemed to be frowning. An invisible pink pony began to whisper something in his ear. Moments later, he broke into song. The rest of them were confused, to say the least. This was a song which Twilight could identify as being Pinkie’s ‘Smile Smile Smile’. She began to sing along, a smile slowly forming on her face. Once they were used to the lyrics, the others joined in. By the time the song ended, all of them were smiling, and Vis somehow felt that this was what he was meant to do.

Princess Luna sighed as a guard approached her throne. These days, it could only mean one of two things. She made a lucky guess. “Which one is it this time?”

“Laughter, your Highness, and — you’re never going to believe this — It appears to bear the mark of a Dragon Lord.”

Princess Luna could hardly say she was surprised, what with the way things were going lately. “Thank you. Please keep me informed if anything else happens.”

The guard hesitated. “There was... one other thing...”

“Continue.”

“There’s a hooded unicorn mare at the castle gates. When she was denied entry, she told me to inform you — Well, her exact words were, ‘The sunrise was gathering harmony, but chaos cut her off’. I normally wouldn’t mention it, but with the Elements acting up...”

Princess Luna seemed unable to decide between happiness or sadness. “Send her in, and... Set up a memorial service for Captain Armor.”

The guard looked extremely confused at the last command, but dutifully saluted and said, “Yes, your Highness.” Before exiting the room.

A few minutes later, the hooded mare walked in, her cloak once again black. She glanced nervously at the guards in each corner of the room. Princess Luna noticed this. “Guards, nothing you are about to see or hear is to leave this room, under penalty of death.” All of the guards saluted in acknowledgement. “Good.” She stepped down from the throne, and approached the hooded mare. “Sister, it has been too long.” A few guards looked uneasy about the revelation, but they would remain loyal; there were still just as many stories about Nightmare Moon as there were of Celestia.

Celestia removed her hood. “I’m sorry, but you know it was for the best.”

“Yes, I suppose it was... You said that you were gathering the new bearers?”

“Yes. I was travelling with a unicorn named Daylight, a wyrmling named Snowflake, and a gryphon named Ossana.”

“The wyrmling, was it a Dragon Lord?”

Celestia couldn’t help but giggle at the thought of Snowflake as a Dragon Lord. “No, sister. Snowflake was hatched by Daylight as his assistant. What could have possibly made you think that a Dragon Lord would choose the name ‘Snowflake’?”

Luna looked a bit sheepish as she realized what she had asked. “The Element of Laughter activated a few minutes ago. The guard on duty said that it bore the mark of a Dragon Lord.”

“There’s only one Dragon Lord I know of who lives around here, and I can definitely see him as the Element of Laughter. I believe you’ve met him, a certain ‘Lord Vismut’?”

Princess Luna facehoofed. “Yes, I remember that one alright...” Her smile fell as she switched to a more serious topic. “So, Shining Armor...?”

“Yes, He’s dead. It wasn’t his fault, I could tell that Discord had taken him.”

Luna sighed. “Then it was unavoidable...”

“He would have broken one day regardless.”

“What do we tell Cadence?”

“The truth.”

Twilight stood facing a three-headed dragon and a Questing Beast. The others were standing behind her. “Say... Zmey Gorynych, why is Glatisant here with you? Did Discord really think that you needed his help?”

The dragon snarled. “Mne nuzhno nikto ne pomoshchʹ.”

“Oh really? Discord must think you do.”

“On ne posmeyet...”

“Well apparently he did dare.”

Glatisant spoke up, his voice accompanied by the sound of a few dozen yelping dogs. “Don’t listen to it! It’s trying to trick you!”

The dragon shot him a look of pure hatred. “Sushchestvuyet net drugogo obʺyasneniya vashi gryaznyye prisutstviye.”

“You idiot!”

“Spravitʹsya s etim samostoyatelʹno. Mne nuzhno imetʹ neskolʹko slov s Razdor.”

With that, the dragon took off towards the south. Glatisant looked at the rapidly shrinking form of his former ally, then back to Twilight. The lavender unicorn was grinning. “Uh oh...”

With her horn glowing a vivid reddish-violet, Twilight began to walk towards him. With a flourish of her horn, she cried out, “FÚGIANT SENTIRE EFFRENEM IMPETUM IGNIS TARTAREO! IGNI, INTERNECO!”

Discord paused from slapping the backs of all three of Zmey Gorynych’s heads to look at his scrying pool. “Oh wow... That’s brutal, even by my standards...” He went back to annoying the dragon.

“YA proshu proshcheniya! Ostanovitʹ bitʹ menya, chert vozʹmi!”