Brightspawn

Discord was feeling incredibly stiff. Not only had he been re-encased in stone, but there was a sharp pain on his side that burned even more when he touched it. This was a problem, because when an area hurts, he just wants to hold it, and holding it in this case would just make it hurt more. He had never felt this much pain before. The pain grew slowly, like a hot knife against his scales, until he began writhing on the ground in agony.

Moments later, Discord realized that he could move, despite being a statue. He slowly became aware of his surroundings. It seemed some ponies had dragged him inside the force field, judging from the deep furrows in the ground. The commotion had caused some ponies to trot over.

“Are you… okay?” Twilight Sparkle asked, poking at the living statue with a hoof. She hit the shining mark and Discord winced as a sharp pain coursed through his body.

“I’ll thank you not to touch that,” he said, standing up and brushing himself off. “That magic was stronger than I thought, but still not enough to completely seal me. I do feel a little parched, though.” He snapped his fingers and laid back. Nothing happened.

Discord blinked twice and snapped his fingers again, frowning. “What’s wrong?” Twilight asked. A look of worry spread over her face.

“You mean besides me being a statue?” Discord said, “For one thing, I’m thirsty and a mug of cider hasn’t appeared. It seems that I can’t use my powers right now. What a bore,” He slumped down and sat on a rock, splitting it in two as he forgot he was still made of stone.

“What? But we only won because of you!” Rainbow Dash said. “What if they come back?”

“They’ll definitely be back. The Solemn Guards aren’t the kind to give up so easily. They’ll be back, and we won’t have Discord to take them out this time.” Shining Armor said gravely. “My own guards are tired and injured. We won’t be able to put up much resistance, not enough to matter anyway.”

His guards had begun gathering around him and now there was a small crowd. “These Solemn Guards are an infestation that threatens to wipe out our land. “ He continued, “How long can we last, cut off from the world? Weeks? Months? Eventually we will be the only ones left, a bunch of cowards hiding in a bubble.”

“Sorry to interrupt your moment,” Rainbow Dash said, “But I think they’re back.” She gestured at a rapidly approaching object in the distance with her hoof.

“How in tarnation did they get so many ponies together so quickly?” Applejack asked, shielding her eyes from the sun to get a closer look. “What the- You girls aren’t gonna like this.”

An enormous white castle mounted on floating slabs of marble was floating through the air, seemingly unaffected by gravity. It flew extremely quickly, painting a shadow over the land in a smooth gliding manner. It was by no means slow, but its pace didn’t feel hurried. It came to a halt just outside of the force field surrounding Canterlot. A gate opened from the side and two ponies flew out, gliding gently to the ground. As their hooves touched the earth, the wind outside stopped.

“It’s Crystal Lance! And… an alicorn?” Pinkie Pie said, jumping over the Royal Guards’ heads. The alicorn turned and made eye contact with Pinkie mid jump, sending chills down her spine. “This one’s pretty creepy. Do you think she’s… Tranquility?” The guards became deathly silent at the mention of her name. All eyes turned to the two ponies from the sky.

“So they hide behind their shield in the presence of the light,” the Alicorn murmured to Crystal Lance. “If only they would cooperate.” She approached the force field and touched it gently. A powerful shockwave threw her back, forcing her to steady herself with her wings.

“This will not do. Your lance is required,” Tranquility said to her companion. Crystal Lance fired a beam of blinding white light from the lance he held at his side, but Shining Armor’s force field absorbed it as if nothing had happened. Tranquility frowned slightly, spread her wings, and flew back into the castle, closely followed by Crystal Lance.

The aura of silence that seemed to accompany Tranquility slowly faded as the defenders of Canterlot realized what had just happened. “That,” Applejack said, approaching Shining Armor, “is one hay of a force field.” Her comment broke the ice, and much cheering was had by the guards, most of it praise for Shining Armor.

“Is that it? The big, bad Tranquility that’s going to erase the world can’t even break a force field? Chrysalis got farther than she did.” Rainbow Dash scoffed.

“I’ll admit, she had me worried, but at least we can keep her at bay for now.” Celestia nodded. “It would be wise not to underestimate her. I sensed that her castle moved here by her power alone.”

“Why aren’t you celebrating?” Twilight asked her brother. “We won because of you!”

Shining Armor was frowning and staring at the flying castle. He turned to his sister. “Twilight, you know what this means, right?” he said slowly.

“Um, that we won and you should be happy? Tranquility can’t hurt us in here!” Twilight hugged him but he pushed her away.

“It means that I need to get in there.” Shining Armor pointed at the castle. “And you have the spell to take me.”

“What?! That’s crazy! There’s no way I’m teleporting my big brother anywhere near that castle! What if there’s a thousand Solemn Guards in there?” Twilight asked angrily.

“You heard what I said earlier. We’re not safe forever. We’re just cowards hiding in a bubble, waiting for them to find some way around my force field. They find that way around, and we’re gone. Well, they haven’t yet found a way yet, so it’s the only weapon we have.”

“And? What are you going to do? Trap Tranquility in a bubble and throw her away?” Twilight asked. “Are you even thinking this through?”

“You saw me in the battle. I’m not an idiot, and these force fields can be used in more than one way.” Shining Armor charged his horn, firing it at a nearby tree. A force field formed in the center, expanding outwards with a large cracking noise, splitting the tree in two.

“You mean… you’re going to kill her?” Twilight said.

Shining Armor was resolute. “If that is what I must do.”

“Wait!” A mare’s voice called from the skies as Cadence flew down and hugged her husband. “Please, don’t do this!”

“You saw what they did to the Royal Guard. I made a commitment when I signed up for the guards. I worked my entire life for this. I’m going to defend Canterlot in every way I can.” Shining Armor said.

“Then take me with you,” tears welled up in Cadence’s face. “If something happens to you, I…”

Shining Armor looked straight into her eyes. “I know this will be hard for you, but I need you to stay here and keep the force field up around Canterlot. There’s no guarantee that they’ll let up their attack while I’m gone.

Cadence returned his gaze. “I’m not weak,” she whispered. “I can help.”

“I never said you were,” Shining Armor replied. “What I’m asking you to do would require more strength than anything I could ever do.”

“Promise me that you won’t leave me a widow so soon after our marriage.” Cadence said, weeping.

“I promise,” Shining Armor kissed her, then let her go, turning to his sister. “Are you ready to cast the spell?”

“Am I ready to send my brother to his doom? Who knows what you’ll meet in there?” Twilight said. “But... you have a point. We really don’t have any better options.”

Shining Armor took a deep breath and stood still. “Then do it now, before I change my mind.” Twilight’s horn flashed brightly, and he was gone.

Princess Celestia stepped up to Cadence and put a hoof on her shoulder. “There’s a reason I chose your husband as the Guard Captain. He wasn’t the strongest, nor was he the most magical, but he had something special. He’s a fighter. I knew the day I hired him that he would protect Canterlot with his life.”

Cadence glared at her. “That’s what I’m afraid of.” She brushed Celestia aside and headed back towards the palace.

Celestia turned to Twilight and her friends. “Ready the Elements of Harmony. I didn’t want to say this in front of Cadence, but Tranquility may be too much for Shining Armor to handle. With Discord unable to help, the Elements may be our only hope.” Twilight and the others ran off to fetch their Elements. Celestia turned to Discord.

“Still here, still a statue.” Discord grumbled. A fork crawled over and started scratching Discord’s back. “Ah, that’s better. I was feeling a bit stiff.” He grinned toothily.

“I thought you had no powers left,” Celestia said, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t have any powers left, but it seems my old buddies still listen to me. Aren’t we lucky that I had just finished setting up dinner before I got here?” Discord grinned.

“Aren’t we,” Celestia smiled back. “How big of a dinner was this exactly?”

“You wouldn’t happen to be suggesting I use dinnerware for something… disharmonious, would you, my Princess?” Discord twirled a living butter knife in his claw innocently.

“Actually,” Celestia said, “That’s exactly what I was suggesting.”