The Power of Six

“Princess please,” the purple filly begged, “let me try one more time; I know I can do it this time.”

“No Twilight,” Celestia responded sternly, she loved the child dearly but her patience was wearing thin, “it’s not a matter of whether you can do it or not, I know you are perfectly capable.”

“Then why?” Twilight whined, giving Celestia the large puppy dog eyes they both knew she couldn’t resist.

“Twilight,” Celestia said with a sigh, “we have tried this at least a dozen times today, and each time you make the same mistake. And since you won’t learn from those mistakes I will simply have to end our lesson here so you don’t hurt somepony.”

Twilight’s head hung low as she began packing her saddle bag.

“I’m sorry princess,” she murmured, “I just can’t do otherwise.”

“Yes you can,” Celestia insisted, “you don’t need to draw on so much power, but until you accept that your spell casting will become dangerous, and not just for you but those round you.”

The two left the practice rooms in silence, Twilight still staring at her hooves.

Celestia couldn’t help but feel ashamed for scolding her, she knew she couldn’t help it, a unicorn as young as her shouldn’t be able to channel as much magic as she does. But if she was to fulfil her destiny, she needed to learn control now; perhaps a different tactic was necessary.

“Twilight, do you know what happens to a unicorn, or any being for that matter, that exposes themselves to too much magical energy?”

“Um, no,” she replied thinking, “I get a headache when I do it.”

Celestia shook her head, “that’s only the start, you’ve never gotten any worse because I’ve always been there to stop you before that could happen.”

Twilight gulped at the implications, Celestia knew she was frightening her but she needed to hear this if she was going to gain the willpower necessary for control.

“When a being becomes too saturated with magic, the results are catastrophic,” she continued, “it’s slow, and it is painful. The more magic you’re exposed to, or the longer you are exposed, the more likely you will suffer from effects that will never go away.”

Twilight halted, she was shaking now, now it was time to hammer the message home.

“As long as I am here that won’t happen, but Twilight,” she said demanding the filly’s full attention, “it will be down to you, and you alone, to learn to control your magic intake.”

Twilight shook with tears welling up in her eyes, that was enough. Celestia leaned down and embraced the filly.

“I’m sorry Twilight, but you need to know these things.”

“I-I know,” she replied through sobs, “I’m s-sorry princess; I promise I won’t let it happen again.”

Celestia sighed one last time, she prayed her message would take root in her faithful student, everything she had told Twilight was true, but she had spared most of the details, it was a fate she would wish upon no creature.

But Clarity knew, Clarity understood Celestia’s fear, for she was living it. When she was young, she had been playing in the streets of Canterlot, she wanted to try and get a cutie mark in roller blading. One bad fall left her with a broken leg; at the time she had thought there was no worse pain. Years later when she was a student in Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns, she failed to cast a protection spell during a field trip, and was stung by a Cazador. While she was rushed to hospital she was certain she knew true pain.

But she knew nothing of pain, not until she was cast into that abyss. Now she knew what pain was, true, unending agony. If she could have screamed, her sound would have broken through the veil itself. And as if the universe was truly out to spite her, it would take a long, very long time, before she was given the mercy of death. Mere feet away, an alicorn stood, pondering this. It was a cruel way to eliminate somepony, she knew, but there no point in feeling guilty, soon everything would meet the same end as Clarity.

At last, she smiled and stepped out of the room, placing the last of her anti detection spells on the key responsible for Clarity’s fate, which now hung from a chain around her neck. The time was ripe, the gates were almost ready. But first, she had twelve pesky princesses she needed to take care of.

“Oh,” a voice came as she entered the hallway, “sorry I almost walked into you there.”

“That’s quite alright Twilight,” the alicorn replied with a friendly smile, “I was just heading back to the assembly hall to see if any progress has been made, would you care to join me?”

“Of course Roma,” she replied happily, and together they set off, the young princess to focused on her futile mission to notice the wicked grin plastered on the princess of order.

The Power of Six

Celestia and Luna stood staring at each other; the fear stricken look on each of their faces indicated to the other, they had both felt it. It had been small, but enough. The key had been used.

“This is bad,” Luna muttered, then her eyes widened as Celestia’s horn lit up, “what are you doing?”

But before she received an answer, the light atop Celestia’s horn flared and she felt a wave of nausea pass over her.

“I’m sorry sister,” Celestia said after Luna regained her composure, “I was sending a summons to the others.”

“Why?” Luna demanded, “One of them is a traitor who we now know is fully willing to use the key, and you want to bring her here.”

“We have no choice,” Celestia said simply, Luna quirked an eyebrow.

“Why, what are you suggesting we do?” but the empty look in Celestia’s eyes told her everything she needed to know, “no! That’s insane! That’s treason!”

“What do you suggest?” Celestia demanded, even Luna had never seen her so desperate, and she could it see it was making her dangerous, “the end of all things, or a cleansing?”

“There must be a way to lure her out,” Luna begged, “anything!”

“Luna, I would not do this if I had a choice, you know that.”

“But…” however she was cut off by the sound of the doors opening.

“Celestia! We were on our way when I received your message, has something happened?” Ignis demanded, hurrying forward, followed closely by Rarity, Fluttershy, and surprisingly enough, the cutie mark crusaders.

“Everything is fine Ignis,” Celestia lied, “we’re just waiting for the others.”

It hurt Celestia to lie to the fire princess; surely, she was not the traitor.

“Hold on!” Luna exclaimed, realising something, “girls.”

Rarity and Fluttershy looked up, surprised at being addressed at such a time.

“How long have you been with Ignis?”

“Oh, um…” Rarity began, scouring her memory.

“About twenty minutes,” Fluttershy suggested quietly.

“You see!” Luna said triumphantly, turning to Celestia, “Ignis is clearly innocent as the key was activated mere minutes ago.”

“What!” Ignis exclaimed, “The key was activated?”

“It was a minor flux,” Celestia replied, “we only felt it because we established a long range detection spell in this chamber.”

“Regardless,” Luna continued, “Ignis could not have been responsible as she could not have used the key without them noticing.”

Celestia nodded hesitantly, “I see what you’re saying, but…”

“But nothing sister!” Luna exclaimed cutting her off, “we can still figure this out, we just need more time.”

"Time for what?” a voice called out from the door way. All present sun around to see Caelum swagger in, flanked by Mare Equus and Clover.

“Have we found out something?” Caelum began, just before she was barrelled out of the way by a blue blur speeding into the room.

“Princess, please help!” a panic stricken Rainbow Dash begged.

“Pinkie Pie!” Rarity and Fluttershy screamed at the same time, rushing over to the mare who resembled a rag doll at this point.

“What happened?” Celestia demanded marching over to examine.

“That… thing in the black cloak did something to her,” Dash explained in a furious tone. Realisation seemed to dawn on Celestia, then came a look of relief that took the three worried mares by surprise.

“Don’t worry,” she assured them, touching the tip of her horn to Pinkie’s forehead. Almost instantly her hair exploded into its usual curls and her coat became considerably more vibrant.

“Wow-wee that was weird,” she exclaimed leaping into the air.

“Pinkie, you’re okay,” Dash said completely dumbfounded, “but I don’t understand, what happened to her?”

“Inen, just has that kind of effect on ponies who aren’t used to her,” Celestia explained almost sheepishly, “especially one like Pinkie here who tends to bottle up her negative emotions.”

“That’s good,” Fluttershy said relieved, “I’m just glad you’re okay Pinkie Pie.”

“A-hem,” Luna gave a fake cough getting Celestia’s attention; their eyes met briefly and as they did a secret message seemed to be passed between them.

“Ah yes, well,” Celestia began nervously, “she could still use some rest, why don’t you three take her back to her room.”

The ponies all agreed and they began filing out, the three fillies in tow.

“And if you see Applejack or Clarity, take them with you,” Celestia shouted after them.

The three latest princesses eyed Celestia suspiciously before glancing at each other.

“You know Celestia,” Mare Equus began coolly, “if I was paranoid, I’d say you were hiding something from us.”

“That wasn’t the desired effect I assure you,” Celestia responded in a similar tone.

~

Cadance lay gasping for breath, something had happened, something terrible. Her heart felt like a knife had been driven through it. She wasn’t sure what it meant, but she suddenly had an intense desire to see her husband and sisters. Summoning all her strength, she got to her hooves, although it was agonising for her, she began stumbling down the hall in the direction of the assembly hall, the message sent from Celestia five minutes later didn’t ease her anxieties any, it just made her pick up the pace more.

~

“You sure you’re alright hun?” Applejack asked, sitting on the bed next to Pinkie. Rarity had just filled her in on what had happened while she was away with Shining Armour.

“Of course AJ, why wouldn’t I be?” Pinkie replied in her usual tone.

“You know why ahm askin’, we’re worried ‘bout you Pinks,” Applejack insisted. Pinkie sighed exasperatedly.

“It was just a run in with some bad mojo,” she insisted.

“Fair enough,” Applejack relented, “so any thoughts on this situation we got ourselves in?”

“It’s nothing the princesses can’t handle,” Pinkie assured her.

“Celestia seemed mighty scared,” Applejack muttered, “and we’re up against another princess here.”

“Oh I’m sure they’ll forget all about their nefarious schemes once we throw them a big party,” she insisted as confetti exploded over their heads.

“Ah hope,” Applejack sighed, lying back and tipping her hat over her face.

“Something the matter Rare?” Pinkie asked after giggling at the sleepy Applejack.

“No, it’s just, has anyone seen Clarity?” she asked causing Shining Armour to look up from his paper, “The princess told us to keep her with us, but I haven’t seen her at all since the summit.”

“I’ll go check for her,” Shining said, standing up from the table, “she probably just got lost.”

The words had barely left his mouth when all present in the room were thrown off their hooves and sent rocketing across the room. It felt as if a surge had just passed through the entire castle.

“What in the hay was that?” Rainbow Dash demanded, trying to pull Scootaloo free of a clothes hamper.

“Nothing good I imagine,” Shining Armour said, storming for the door.

“Do we ever get a break?” Applejack muttered, pulling herself free of the bed clothes and trotting out after the captain.

“Oh, uh, maybe I should stay here,” Fluttershy suggested nervously to Rarity as Pinkie and Rainbow Dash sped off.

“Good idea,” Rarity said, causing Fluttershy’s eyes to widen in surprise, “you can make sure those three don’t follow us.”

“Awwww,” the fillies chorused.

“No arguing, now be good for Fluttershy, we’ll be back shortly,” she said leaving the room.

~

“Twilight!” Cadance exclaimed, hobbling over to her sister in law. Twilight turned and her eyes opened wide with horror as she saw Cadance.

“Cadance, what happened?” she asked catching the older alicorn as she collapsed.

“I don’t know, Twilight have you seen your brother or my sister?” she asked desperately.

“No, not since we left here earlier, why has something happened?”

“I fear so,” she said sadly, trailing off as she noticed the room was now full of all thirteen princesses.

“What’s going on?” she asked, “did Celestia find something?”

“She hasn’t told us yet, she’s just been busy talking to… Inen, I think her name was,” Twilight informed her. Cadance looked around and sure enough Celestia appeared deep in conversation with the shrouded figure at the other side of the room. They seemed to be keeping their distance and Celestia did not look happy.

“You don’t look so good my dear,” a voice spoke over Cadance. She looked up to see a familiar grey, armoured alicorn.

“I’m not feeling great Roma,” she said offering a weak smile.

“That won’t do,” she said leaning down, “don’t worry Twilight, I’ll look after Cadance, you see if you can’t get answers out of Celestia.”

“Sure, don’t worry Cadance, I’ll be back soon.” with that she was off leaving Cadance with the princess of order.

“So tell me,” she began, “how did you come to be in this state?”

~

It felt like forever since he had been here. True his life was still quite short, so three years seemed like a large fraction in the big picture. But still, to be climbing the steps of tower he once knew to be his one and only home, it felt odd, he wasn’t sure he liked it. After he and Twilight had left Clover’s room, she had told him she needed time to think. Spike understood, this was all becoming a bit much for her. So he left her to wander the halls for herself while he… wandered aimlessly in the opposite direction.

It wasn’t until later he realised his feet were carrying him along a familiar path. once he’d become aware he began to recall the route as that of the one he and Twilight took when returning from an afternoon of studying to their private quarters where he would sleep and Twilight… would study more. He smiled at the memory, weird to think how much life changed in such a short space of time. It felt like they were swept away in a gale, their comfortable lives of solitude replaced by those of fun and excitement, and then all too quickly it changed again when Twilight became a princess.

Spike didn’t even realise he’d started crying; somehow thinking about how much everything had changed in such a short space of time depressed him. But here he was again, standing at the oh so familiar door. Another smile spread across his face, the last time he was here he couldn’t reach the handle, this was the first time he realised he was growing. Clutching the cool metal in his claw he turned it slowly, savouring the moment.

The door swung open to reveal something he was not expecting. The once full to the point of overflowing bookcases were bare and covered in thick layers of dust. The whole room looked like it hadn’t been used since they moved out. Spike had figured Celestia would repurpose the room or at least let someone else use it. Continuing through the room he examined every surface, each one seemed to trigger an obscure memory from his earliest years.

There in the corner, that was where Twilight put his first cot after he hatched and she was accepted into the school. He had spent one night in it, after that he stayed in Twilight’s room after they both realised neither of them wanted to be alone at night. They had slept in the same room almost every night ever since. That table in front of the window, he was sitting there when he first breathed fire. It hadn’t been an impressive sight, he still could only manage a small spout, but Twilight had been proud none the less, it was one of the only occasions she asked Celestia for time off studying so they could celebrate. All three of them went for a picnic in Whitetail Woods.

Shaking his head of the heavy flow of memories he made his way up the stairs to a landing with only a single set of double doors, the doors to their old bedroom. Again he took note of his new height as he turned the handle. However as he stepped in he immediately noticed something different about this room. It had been slept in; recently, perhaps it was being used by someone, someone who didn’t bother to use the rest of the tower. Seemed a little wasteful in Spike’s mind but he ignored it. Walking up to the bed he saw it wasn’t the same one he was once so familiar with, that disappointed him.

The bed was certainly untidy, whoever was using it didn’t care for tidiness, but then the room outside was evidence of that. Besides the bed the room appeared empty and Spike was about to leave, but something caught his attention, something on the bedside cabinet. Spike picked it up in his claws and blew the thin film of dust that had gathered off, before gasping in surprise. It was a framed picture, of Fluttershy.

Who would keep a picture of Fluttershy? Written at the bottom in the Pegasus’s familiar elegant hoof writing were the words ‘your friend, Fluttershy’. Spike continued to stare, what an odd thing to find. He was about to set it back when he felt his claws brush against something. Flipping the frame over he saw there was a note pinned to the back. The writing was messier on this one, and the ink still looked wet, had this been put here recently?

‘My dear Fluttershy, I’m sorry I couldn’t be the friend you deserved. Thank you for everything, Discord’. Spike stared blankly at the note, reading and re-reading, letting the message sink in. then he was blasted off his feet and sent flying into the wall. He managed to raise his arm in time to shield his face, subsequently it took the impact. The picture was thrown from his grasp, the glass front shattering as it fell to the floor. Clambering up he looked around wildly for the source of the explosion, it didn’t take long.

From where he stood he could see a bright blue light through the window. Rushing over he hopped onto the bed to get a better look. It seemed to be a pillar of some sort, blasted straight through the roof of the castle and piercing the heavens. Spike knew that light could only mean bad things, he scrambled for the door, desperate to find his friends, but before he left something stopped him. He looked over again at the picture, in the big picture it seemed insignificant, but he had the strange feeling a lot was riding on him delivering that note.

Making a snap decision he raced back and picked up the picture in his claws, the note remained pinned on the back so he took the whole thing as he departed the room. He and Twilight had their own private room, but the others were staying in a separate suite not far from here, hopefully Fluttershy would be there.

~

“Excuse me, Celestia,” Twilight began, Celestia turned to face her, she reminded Twilight unsettlingly of how she herself looked during the tardy incident, “is there anything I can do to help.”

Celesta opened her mouth to respond but all that came out was a croak, she looked helplessly from Twilight and Inen, the latter continuing to stare at her, or at least Twilight assumed she was staring.

“Twilight, this situation is dire, I won't lie to you,” she confided quietly, “out of thirteen suspects I can only rule out six, and then I can’t see any of the ones left over being capable of this.”

Twilight looked around the room; everyone gathered seemed to keeping to themselves with only a few exceptions, they were constantly shifting on the spot and casting suspicious glares at one another.

“What do you propose?” she asked turning back to Celestia.

“Twilight… it’s not good,” she said, her eyes shifting over to Inen. Inen… the princess of death.

“You can’t mean…” Twilight began, as Celestia’s intentions became clear to her.

“Twilight listen!” she commanded hurriedly, “I don’t like this any more than you do, but we’re weighing the lives of all against the lives of a few in this room.”

“But-but they’re your friends,” Twilight insisted, refusing to believe Celestia was really suggesting this, “even if you can eliminate six of us, that still leaves seven.”

“I know,” she admitted shamefully, “I’ve known each and every one of them since the day their reign began, this cuts me very deeply.”

Twilight looked back at the princesses gathered in the room, her eyes resting on Cadance and Roma, what were they talking about?

“I was sorry to hear about your sister,” Roma said, the ghost of a smile appearing on her face.

“My sister? What do you mean?” Cadance asked confused from where she lay.

“Don’t you know?” Roma asked I’m mock surprise, “the poor girl had a little trip.”

“What are you talking about?” Cadance demanded, her heart rate increasing.

“Don’t worry dear Cadance,” she replied stroking her mane, a wide grin forming on her face, “you’ll be with her soon enough.”

Cadance’s eyes stretched wide as a blue light began to emit from Roma’s chest.

“You!” she exclaimed, horrified.

“Me!” Roma spat, standing up, the key manifesting on a chain around her neck. Eyes were beginning to look their way but there was nothing they could do. They could only watch as the key began to shine with a brilliant, pure blue light, before the whole thing exploded outwards.

~

Everypony in Equestria turned their heads, dropping what they were doing as the light filled the sky. It began in Canterlot and it rose higher and higher until it was touching the sky itself. No one knew what it meant, but they all felt it as they were knocked off their feet.

~

Twilight tasted blood in her mouth, the blast had sent he face first into the wall, and it probably showed. Almost lazily she cast a healing spell on herself and as it began to take effect she desperately searched her memory for anything that might indicate what just happened. Celestia had told her a plan to stop the traitor, a plan she wanted no part in. She had been looking around the room, she saw Cadance talking with Roma, no, arguing! Then Roma stood up, something shining on her chest.

Suddenly everything was clear to Twilight as she slowly turned her gaze over the rest of the battered and broken princesses’ stirring from the blast, and Roma who stood triumphantly in the centre, glowing with an ethereal blue light, the Aether Key hanging from her neck.

“Traitor,” a voice spat, Twilight saw it was Ignis, already casting her own healing spell and staring at Roma with pure undiluted hatred. Soon all the princesses were pulling themselves together, Twilight hobbled over to where Celestia had fallen.

It was much further from where she was standing before the blast, and Twilight realised as she reached her, she had teleported herself to shield Luna with her own body. A pang of envy filled Twilight at this sight of sisterly affection, but she forced it out, now was not the time to be petty and selfish. The two sisters stood up and along with the rest of the princesses in the room were now staring daggers at Roma. Twilight briefly wandered why they weren’t perforating her with spells by now, but she assumed they didn’t want to do anything that might upset the key.

“Well Celestia,” Roma began, great, cliché villain monologue time, can’t she just skip to the part where she explains her diabolical plan and how we stop it. “Here we are, exactly where we should have been over a thousand years ago.”

“Explain this treachery,” Luna demanded. Roma laughed, most uncharacteristically, she even looked uncomfortable as the sounds escaped her mouth.

“All in due time, but I can’t have any of you in such a condition that makes me so vulnerable,” she explained.

“Well clearly you seem to be having difficulty with your counting,” Twilight snapped, no one hurt Celestia and got away with it, “you’re pretty outnumbered.”

“My counting skills are perfection,” she replied, Twilight detected the bitterness in her tone, “unfortunately for you, I have an old friend who owes me a favour. Isn’t that right, Discord?”

Twilight blinked in surprise as she felt something appear behind her. Turning around slowly she saw exactly what she didn’t want to see.

“I’m so sorry Twilight,” the draconequus said, sounding almost sincere, before he reached forward with a talon which he rested on the top of Twilight’s skull. The next she knew, there was an odd sensation sweeping over her, like she had just been drenched in a bucket of ice cold water. Just before her jaw froze in place she managed to utter one sentence.

“I thought you didn’t turn ponies into stone.”

~

Well that’s new, Clarity thought. A feeling that wasn’t pain, how long had it been since she felt that? Minutes? Hours? Years? She didn’t know anymore.

Perhaps I’m finally dying, she thought, the first happy thought she had in a long time.

“Or perhaps you’re ready,” a voice echoed through her head. Clarity’s eyes snapped open. Wait… she had eyes again. She had hooves and hair, she had vocal chords, where were you earlier when I wanted to scream?

She was herself again; the old body that had been ripped to shreds within seconds of her arrival was once again hers. Hmm, she was still in the Aether, blue as far as the eye can see, but this was a start. Taking her new mouth she decided to test it.

“Hello, is anyone there?” she croaked, her throat sounded hoarse like she hadn’t spoken for weeks, maybe she hadn’t. There was no reply, but she began to make out something out amidst the sea of energy.

A dark ball, pulsating slightly. She began moving towards it, floating through this world reminded her of swimming and she then recalled the water princess’s comments regarding the sport. As she neared the orb she noticed it was glowing faintly around the edges, it felt like it was drawing something in. wandering up next to it, Clarity began to peer into it. It looked almost like a circle cut out of the fabric of space itself.

Bracing herself she tentatively reached out and toughed it with the tip of her hoof. Immediately she snapped her hoof back, that second had a disturbing feel to it; it was almost like it was pulling something, from all sides, almost like a vacuum. For some reason she couldn’t quite explain she felt the need to turn around, and as she did her eyes widened in surprise. There were more of these black circles spread out over the Aether as far as she could see. Eleven if she counted the one she just touched.

“What…” she muttered as her horn erupted into a pure ethereal light, just like it did before she found the key. “Again?”

~

Roma stalked through Canterlot’s new sculpture garden, each princess frozen in various looks of anger and betrayal. Oh how she was enjoying this, and it was about to get even more fun. The room was filled with the sound of grunting, good, while that was annoying it meant they were all aware of what was going on, and she wanted them to be able to witness the end of their world.

“You’re going to pay for this!” a voice echoed through the room. Roma looked over in surprise, it was definitely Caelum’s voice but she was still encased in stone.

“Ah, projecting our thoughts are we?” she said, the obvious truth dawning on her, “speak away while you can, soon you won’t have the power necessary to do so.”

“How so?” Caelum’s voice demanded.

“Because I’m going to take it of course,” she answered simply firing a blast of grey light from her horn, striking the statue of Caelum in the chest. As it did, a silvery line was drawn from the point of impact to the tip of her horn, and all along the line, small sparks of light could be seen flowing into Roma’s horn.

She repeated this spell until there were twelve silver lines connecting her to each of the frozen princesses, drawing succulently on each of their powers.

“I have no doubt, freeing you all will be the first thing on everyponies’ minds,” she announced, “so I’m taking the obvious precaution so that should it come to pass, you’ll be incapable of standing against me.”

“Why delay the inevitable?” Clover’s voice echoed, “you’re obviously going to open the gates why not go ahead?”

“The answer is simple,” she began, “while you might be silently praying I do not know the locations of the gates, you would be sadly mistaken. The real reason that’s not what I’m currently doing, is because I’ve already done it.”

There was no response, well of course there wasn’t.

“I’m sure you’d all be gasping if you could,” she said, smirking at her own joke, “I’ve spent a long time bringing this plan together, a thousand years to find each of the gates, to learn everything I could about my enemies, figure out how to break into the vault, and discover just how the key works.

“It is, in the end, only a key,” she explained, still weaving in and out of the statues, “it is used to open the locks, but it can’t speed up the gates. They’re opening now as we speak, but due to their size it may take some time. Smaller ones can open in a second after the lock is broken, like the one I cast your little sister into Cadance.”

“I will kill you!” Cadance’s voice screamed.

“Sure you will,” Roma replied in a condescending voice.

“But this has no purpose,” Vegnum’s voice insisted, “you represent order, how is destroying everything, yourself included going to bring any semblance of order to the world?”

“Firstly, you will be destroyed, I shall be fine, your powers will go a long way in insuring that,” she stated matter of factly, “secondly, you just can’t see the bigger picture, but then none of you have existed for nearly as long as I have. This world is broken, chaotic, imperfect. I plan to wipe the slate, begin anew, create the perfect world, just as I tried to do a thousand years ago, until my plans were thwarted by two meddling unicorn sisters.”

Roma’s gaze burned into the statues of Celestia and Luna, Celestia’s wing still draped defensively over her younger sister.

“It’s been a long conquest,” she said drearily, “but soon, I will have my perfect world.”

As Roma finished a sound could be heard outside, the clanging of metal.

“Hmm, looks like the cavalry have arrived,” she announced, eyes on the door, “we can’t have interruptions just yet.”

Roma raised a hoof into the air, her horn glowing with a deep grey aura, the room began rumbling.

~

Shining Armour led the group as they charged through the castle; they saw the blue pillar through the windows as they ran, and they all knew without saying it that it was coming from the summit room.

“Where are the elements of harmony?” he called over his shoulder at the mares trotting behind him.

“Twi brought ‘em,” Applejack informed her.

“Spike’s probably got them,” Rainbow Dash proposed.

“And where’s he?” the four mares all shrugged and Shining had to resist face hoofing, “alright, we split up, Rarity and Pinkie, find Spike and the elements. Applejack and Rainbow Dash, you’re with me.”

“Aye aye cap’n,” Applejack said with a quick salute.

“Oh boy, are we pirates now?” Pinkie asked excitedly.

“If it will make you follow me then yes,” Rarity shouted dragging Pinkie Pie down a side corridor.

“Alright you two, I’m hoping you can both handle yourselves in a sticky situation.”

“Don’t you worry, with my speed, Applejack’s strength and your magic, ain’t nothing gonna beat us,” Rainbow Dash answered with determination.

“That’s what I like to hear,” Shining Armour said as they continued to run. They were nearing their destination, only one more corner… or maybe two. Alright make three. Hang on now this isn’t right.

“Hold up,” Shining Armour commanded, skidding to a halt, “this isn’t right, we should be there by now.”

“Yah sure?” Applejack asked unconvinced.

“Positive, I lived here long enough to know this doesn’t make any sense.”

“Make sense, oh what fun is there in making sense?” an all too familiar voice called out.

“Discord!” Applejack and Rainbow Dash bellowed at once.

“You got me,” the voice replied, strange, Discord didn’t sound his usually mad self, he sounded bored, sad even.

“What in the hay do yah think you’re tryin’ ta pull?” Applejack demanded staring around wildly.

“Just holding you up really,” he replied, his monotonous tone not letting up.

“You snake! After everything Fluttershy did for you!” Dash raged at the entire corridor. there was no reply, not for some time at least, it was only when they were convinced he had disappeared that he spoke again.

“She can do better.”

“What?” Dash said, her aggressive stance slipping, something in that last sentence had made her feel…

“Discord, you have to let us through,” Shining Armour pleaded, “you can still do the right thing.”

Discord never replied. Applejack stomped her hoof and swore.

“There must be a way round,” she asked, Shining armour thought about it.

“Probably not, but perhaps if I cast a shield we can push through his magic.”

“That’ll work?” Dash asked sounding hopeful.

“Only one way to find out.”

~

Spike ran as fast as his legs would carry him. He was exhausted and his legs were shaking, he knew they would give out soon, but he wouldn’t stop, he had to reach Fluttershy, and hope he was making the right move. The room finally came into sight and he charged at full pelt, not even stopping to turn the handle, instead he just crashed head first using all his momentum to take the door off its hinges.

“Spike,” a quiet voice enquired in a confused tone.

Spike looked up to see the yellow Pegasus standing next to the bed where the cutie mark crusaders were sitting. As he pulled himself to his feet, she fluttered over and offered him a hoof which he accepted gratefully.

“Is something wrong?” she asked trying to hide the worry in her voice.

“Probably,” he said holding up the picture frame, “I think you need to see this.”

Fluttershy looked taken aback when she saw it was a picture of her, but accepted it nonetheless. She quickly read the message on the front and it dawned on her who this belonged to. Spike watched as she flipped the frame over and her eyes scanned the note. There was a moment of silence as Spike waited to hear her respond.

“Oh… my.”

~

“Yar har, fiddle di dee, being a pirate is all right with me, Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate!” Pinkie sang as she bounced after Rarity who was trying to keep her grace in check by not punching the singing mare.

“Pinkie,” she said at last, her voice trembling with the effort it took not to scream, “not really the time for that dear.”

“Okie dokie,” Pinkie said stopping instantly, “where are we going?”

“Twilight and Spike’s room,” she replied, glad she was finally saying something reasonable, “hopefully Spike will be there, or at the very least the elements.”

“Do you think Twilight would just leave them lying in her room?” Pinkie asked, Rarity hadn’t thought about that, but she wasn’t going to let Pinkie know that.

“I’m sure she would have put a protection spell on them,” she bluffed, not having a clue when it came to schools of magic that didn’t relate to her special talent.

“But if there is then how will we get them?” Pinkie asked.

“Well we’ll just…” she hesitated, “oh I don’t know, we’ll think of something.”

“Alright, as long as you know what you’re doing,” Pinkie said happily, Rarity gave a low growl.

~

Clarity walked with her head hung low, she couldn’t even keep on track, what use was she ever going to be to Twilight Sparkle?

“I hope the others had better luck than I did,” she mumbled to herself, however just then her horn lit up with a stunning blue light. “What now?”

Her magic had never acted of its own accord before, not for many years since she learned to control it, but more importantly, what magic was this, she had never felt anything like it before.

As the thoughts ran through her mind she felt herself getting dragged along by her horn.

“Where are you taking me?” she begged as if it would tell her. Soon she found herself trailed up next to another door, one that at a glance seemed just as ordinary as every other one.

“Hang on a second!” Clarity exclaimed turning away from the door, “I’ve been here before.”

She racked her memories trying to remember what was happening; it didn’t take long for the events following this to surface in her mind.

The key, Roma, falling, pain, so much pain… then it stopped, and she was herself again, and there were those black orbs…

“My horn was glowing, just like it did when I was back here,” she said absent minded, then something occurred to her, “but it wasn’t the first time…”

The world around her dissolved, in a faint blue glow, and as it did another building began to form around her.

Her first thought was that she was back in the exact same place, but no, it was just similar, this was somewhere else. She began walking through the new building, it did seem very familiar, and she felt she knew where she was going. a set of double doors stood before, and she could hear something on the other side, the faint cries of laughter. Curious she reached out and pushed the door open with her hoof and stepped outside.

She knew where she was, Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, and she knew when she was. Before her in the private gardens, accessible only to students of the school itself two fillies ran circles around one another while an older pair watched on with amusement. This was the day she received her cutie mark. Slowly she walked forward, descending the steps into the garden, the four ponies didn’t see or hear her, this didn’t surprise her.

It had been her first year, she was nervous about attending the prestigious school, but her sister assured her it would be alright. Her reluctance at the time to make any friends had convinced her it wouldn’t be. Cadance had taken note of this, and insisted she come with her while she was foal sitting. Clarity hadn’t liked the idea of sharing her sister with anypony, it didn’t matter this was supposed to be the personal student of Princess Celestia, the one Cadance spoke so highly of, Clarity didn’t want to meet her.

But when they arrived at the gardens she found a filly of the same age as herself throwing the biggest temper tantrum to her brother, who would have thought she had been having the same thoughts at the prospect of hanging around with her? The filly had cried when Cadance and her brother confiscated her books until she took time to play. Twilight hadn’t been pleased, and it certainly made getting along difficult, but as time passed the two found themselves enjoying each other’s company quite a lot, allowing Cadance and Shining Armour to let out a sigh of relief.

After twenty minutes of playing Twilight forgot all about her books and studies, it would be one of the few times she ever would before moving to Ponyville. Clarity smiled as she reminisced about the day playing out before her, thinking back, she could have lived in that moment forever, young not to have any concerns in the world, playing with her new friend while her sister watched on. However she knew what came after this, and sure enough the two fillies ran off out of sight, Cadance and Shining Armour too tied up in their blossoming love to notice.

Clarity followed, she didn’t need to see this again, but she felt it was important. Behind a large clump of rose bushes the two fillies sat, Clarity leaning forward so her horn was low to the ground. It gave off a faint blue light as a daisy began to sprout from the ground and bloomed.

“Wow!” Twilight squealed with delight, Clarity had smiled but the spell had exhausted her.

“Let me try,” Twilight said, and that’s when it happened. Clarity had found it odd watching Twilight concentrate, she had never needed to draw in very much power to do any spell let alone that one, but Twilight didn’t seem to be stopping.

It didn’t take long for the fillies to realise something was wrong, but by the time they did Twilight’s horn was already glowing as bright as the setting sun and she was beginning to scream. Cadance and Shining Armour were running to them now, but they wouldn’t make it in time. Clarity watched as the memory of herself did exactly what she had done all those years ago. She never understood why, it was like she had felt compelled to do it, but amidst Twilight’s screams, Clarity had closed her eyes and leaned in, and the tips of their horns touched.

Clarity watched as one filly siphoned the power from the other, as Twilight kept giving, Clarity kept taking, but the weird part was, she felt alight, better than alright, taking on all that pure, undiluted power felt… right. It was then, she hadn’t realised at the time, but as she drained Twilight of the magic that was threatening to destroy her, a flash of light on her flanks brought fourth her cutie mark. And that was it, for it was at that moment Celestia made her appearance. She subdued Twilight first to stop her drawing on any more power, then Clarity.

The memory faded away, for that’s all there was. The next thing Clarity knew, she was at home and Cadance informed her that Twilight was undergoing extra lessons with Celestia to control her magic intake. After that they didn’t see each other an awful lot, but when they did Twilight was very withdrawn, Clarity had always wondered if she remembered, but she never asked. With the memory faded away Clarity once again hung in the all too familiar Aether, the orbs ever present. Taking all this in she gave a curt nod.

“I think I understand now.”

~

“I don’t think this is working!” Dash screamed over the tumult of noise that was triggered by trio attempting to proceed with the shield active.

“Just hold on for a little longer!” Shining Armour shouted back, “the door is just ahead!”

Indeed it was, it had been a struggle but they had pushed through Discord’s magic and now the end was in sight.

“Just… a little… more!” he shouted, just as the shield shattered.

The effect was instantaneous, the corridor they were walking down began warping and twisting until it was clear they were back where they started.

“Son of a…” Shining Armour began.

“Ah think we need back up,” Applejack said, Shining Armour mulled this over.

“I suppose it couldn’t hurt to have a few more heads to put together,” he agreed, “come on, to the barracks.”

With new found determination they all set off in the opposite direction. They would reach the barracks, call in every able bodied soldier to aid them, then they would storm that room and bring an end to this madness. The barracks was just around this corner… or this corner. Or maybe… hang on a second.

“Oh for the love of…”

~

“Oh my? That’s all you have to say?” Spike said in disbelief.

“Of course not,” Fluttershy replied hurt, “what am I supposed to say.”

She stormed over to the window and huffed with her back to the dragon. Spike sighed and looked over at the bed… which was now empty.

“Uh Fluttershy,” he began, “we’ve got a problem.”

Fluttershy didn’t respond, she was just staring out the window.

“Fluttershy!”

“I think… I think I know where Discord is,” she said at last.

“You do? Where?” Spike asked bewildered, Fluttershy pointed out the window. Spike scampered over, forgetting about the missing fillies.

Once he was at the window he saw where Fluttershy was pointing.

“The sculpture garden? Why would he be there?” Spike asked unsure.

“I just have a feeling,” Fluttershy whispered. Without further debate she unlatched the window and let it swing open, “hop on.”

Together they swooped down from the tower, Fluttershy gently gliding down towards their destination.

As they flew Fluttershy caught her first glimpses of the blue light pillar and gulped, she picked up her pace considerably after that. Fairly soon they touched down on the gravel pathway and Spike dismounted.

“You’re a much better flyer than Rainbow Dash,” he said as they began walking.

“Oh no, I could never be as fast as her,” Fluttershy said blushing.

“No I mean, you’re more controlled, more… delicate.” Fluttershy looked down at him in surprise, “in Rarity’s words.”

They reached the sculpture garden and were quickly passing in and out of statues, each one representing a great victory in the history of Equestria, but they weren’t looking for one depicting a pony. Sure enough as the two reached their goal, the pedestal was not empty.

“How do you do that Fluttershy?” Discord asked, from where he was perched, “I was sure nopony would bother to look for me out here.

“Your note sounded sad, I figured this is where you would go if you were sad,” she answered. Discord still didn’t look down at her.

“It wasn’t supposed to be an invitation to come look for me,” he said snidely, “it was a chance to cut ties with a monster.”

“Discord, you know I don’t think you’re a monster,” Fluttershy said, flying up so that she would be eye level with him if he wasn’t stubbornly turning his head away.

“You say that now,” he muttered.

“Yes I do, and nothing can change that,” she insisted.

At last Discord relented in turning his head around, Fluttershy gasped as she saw his bloodshot eyes.

“They’ll never take me back after what I’ve done,” he said, his voice quivering, “they’ll never forgive me.”

“Discord,” Fluttershy began folding a wing around his head, “as long as you never stop trying to do the right thing and make up for your mistakes, you’ll always deserve forgiveness.”

Discord sighed and bowed his head, then he murmured something that neither Fluttershy or Spike caught.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” she asked, wow, role reversal.

“Roma is the traitor,” he said loud enough for them to hear him, “and I helped her.”

“Roma? The princess of order?” Fluttershy questioned, that couldn’t be right, she had been so nice, and she had an alibi. As if reading her thoughts Discord continued.

“She had me masquerade as her, while she stole the key,” he explained, “after that… I turned the other princesses to stone.”

“You did what!” Spike bellowed, Fluttershy was taken aback, but she didn’t move.

“Why would you want to help her?” Fluttershy asked, this had a profound effect on Discord.

“You think I want to help her?” he shouted causing Fluttershy to fly back in fright, “you think I have a choice?”

“There’s always a choice,” Fluttershy insisted, “what aren’t you telling me?”

Discord looked away again, but this time he didn’t look like he was going to give in. Fluttershy sighed and fluttered down to Spike, after a quick exchange of words she was in the air once more. She placed something on the pedestal next to Discord’s hoof.

“I still have faith in you,” she said before returning to the ground and walking away, Spike in tow. Discord looked around in time to see her tail swish around a corner. He sighed and looked down at what she had left behind, then his eyes opened wide as he picked it up in his claw. It was the picture, the glass was gone, but something had been added, a new word had been written, ‘Your friend, Fluttershy. Always’.

~

“Told you so,” Pinkie Pie said happily as Rarity stumbled to her hooves after being fired across Twilight’s bedroom.

“Tell me my mane isn’t singed, Celestia help you if it is!” she screeched. Pinkie just gave a little giggle snort before bouncing away. Rarity gave out a frustrated roar before charging into the bathroom. Pinkie was humming merrily to herself while examining the jewel encrusted box carefully when an ear splitting scream ripped through the suite, perhaps the whole castle.

“Oh Rarity it doesn’t look that bad,” Pinkie pleaded.

“I look… I look…” Rarity stepped out of the bathroom, her hair a frizzy, curly, gravity defying disaster, “I look like you!”

“Oh my god you totally do!” Pinkie exclaimed bouncing over, “we should do a magic show, you can be my double so when I fall through a trap door you’ll climb out of a different one so it looks like I walked through one door and out the other, but really I didn’t, and we’ll make loads of money and be really famous until you get corrupted by my arch nemesis who want revenge for me shooting his fingers off.”

“Pinkie, let me start by saying I hope none of that ever happens,” Rarity said with a deadpan expression, “secondly, the world is kind of in a state of mid peril, need I remind you.”

“Oh yeah,” Pinkie said running over to the box which she opened to reveal the elements of harmony, “ta-daa!”

“How-you-what?” Rarity stuttered, her eye twitching. She was about to scream again, but before she could the lid of the box closed of its own accord.

“Not ta-daa,” Pinkie sad sheepishly.

~

Clarity took a deep breath, which was strange considering there was no oxygen in this world. This was her fifth attempt, and it was starting to hurt.

“Focus,” she told herself, clenching her eyes shut.

“Concentrate,” she said as her horn began to glow.

“I can do this,” she said as it began to shine, “I’m ready.”

Clarity opened her eyes, her horn now too bright for the average pony to look at, she charged. She galloped with all her might, trying desperately to continue drawing magic in, her head was bent low; the orb was approaching her ever faster. Here it comes, three, two, one… and with blinding pain, Clarity was sent cascading back from the ball, her horn extinguishing. She groaned as she lay in a crumpled heap, five attempts, five failures.

“For the last time Clarity I don’t want to hear you talking about that!” Cadance scolded, “I’ve told you before, your cutie mark is to do with emotions, and that is what we’re studying.”

“But that day with Twilight,” Clarity insisted, “something happened, I think it means something.”

“Clarity listen to me,” Cadance said leaning down so she was at eye level with her younger sister, “whatever you think happened, you’re wrong. You just imagined what happened that day.”

“I never hated you for lying Cadance,” Clarity whispered as she pulled herself up again, “I knew you only wanted to protect me. You were afraid, just like Celestia. Fillies shouldn’t be able to draw on that much raw power like Twilight did, fillies shouldn’t be able to take that much pure power like I did. For that is my special talent, I know that now. Pure magic, it’s dangerous to unicorns, to all creatures, but I’m an exception. I can take all this power… so others don’t have to feel that pain.”

“Focus!” Clarity shut her eyes.

“Concentrate!” Clarity’s horn began to light up, faster and brighter this time.

“I will do this!” she screamed, her eyes bursting open as her entire body became infused with the light, “I was born ready!”

she charged, her head bent low, her eyes wide, but this time something was different, she didn’t feel herself slowing down, she didn’t feel her power waning.

With one final burst of speed she plunged her horn into the orb, and wasn’t cast back. The void ripped open, the Aether tore apart and granted her an exit, which she gratefully dived through. Her hooves stumbled beneath her as she landed on the first real, solid ground she’d encountered for a while. She looked back quickly, afraid she had made a terrible mistake, but was glad to see the rip stitching itself back up. The last of the magic drained from her, leaving her feeling weak and nauseous. She was back exactly where she left, but how much time had passed?

Rushing from the room she ran squarely into a small purple and green blur, causing them both to go tumbling into a wall.

“Ohhhh,” she moaned, hello physical world pain, how I missed you.

“Clarity?” the voice spoke, she looked up to see it was Spike she had charged into, “where have you been?”

“It’s a long story;” she said dismissively, the time to tell her tale would come later, “what’s happened?”

“We don’t know, there was this big blast and a blue light,” he began explaining in a rushed tone, “now everyone is everywhere and Discord turned the princesses to stone.”

“Wait what?” Clarity asked, sure she had misheard that, wasn’t Discord on their side.

“Turns out he was in cahoots with the traitor,” he said bitterly, “Fluttershy went to find the others and asked me to fetch the elements of harmony.”

“Of course, there’s no time to lose,” Clarity said, standing up and using her magic to lift Spike onto her back, “just point me in the right direction.”

~

“Ah give up,” Applejack said, collapsing out of a mixture of exhaustion and frustration.

“Come on AJ, we can’t quit now, Twilight’s counting on us,” Rainbow Dash begged.

“What do you expect us to do?” Applejack asked hopelessly, “face it, as long as Discord is against us we can’t win.”

“You rang!” a voice called out, causing all three heads to turn as a draconequus manifested in the air in front of them.

“Discord!” they all bellowed, but quickly had their mouths zipped closed.

“As much as I’d love to listen to you all,” he said sounding much chirpier than when they last heard him, “I believe we have twelve fair maidens to rescue and an evil villainess to thwart.”

“You mean…” Dash began unzipping her mouth.

“Don’t make me say it,” Discord said scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment before clicking his claw, instantly re-establishing the castle corridors.

“Good to have you back on the winning team,” Shining Armour said, “but you’re gonna have to lead the way, we’re a bit disoriented”

“As you command brave captain,” Discord said assuming a Trottingham accent before appearing dressed in full medieval armour, riding a pantomime horse, “onwards to glory!”

As the four figures charged, their spirits renewed, a fifth stood back, watching from afar.

“I knew you had it in you Discord,” Fluttershy whispered before hurrying after them.

~

“Scoots, are you sure this is ah good idea?” Applebloom asked again as they stood precariously on the edge of the roof, overlooking the rest of the castle.

“It’s fool proof,” she insisted, “and simple, we glide from this, the tallest tower, straight into that hole where the light is coming from.”

“Is it safe to fly into a big blue light that just destroyed the roof of a castle?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I’m sure it doesn’t have much juice left in it, it’s been up for a while.”

“Alright, at the very least we might get our gliden’ cutie marks,” Applebloom said trying to put a positive spin on the situation.

“Or our near death experience cutie marks,” Sweetie Belle muttered darkly.

“That would be so awesome,” Scootaloo exclaimed, “alright crusaders, ready? Three, two, one…”

“Hey Scoot, aren’t we supposed to be attached to this thing in some way?” Applebloom asked… a little too late.

“Go!”

~

“There it is,” Spike exclaimed, “it’s the door that’s… open. Uh oh.”

Clarity picked up the pace and they charged into the room at full pelt with Spike shouting at the top of his lungs.

“Drop the elements, hooves in the air!” at which point they immediately froze as they came face to face with Rarity styling her mane and Pinkie Pie playing yhatzee, the box lying forgotten about on the floor.

“Good timing,” Rarity said, “you get to join us prepare for the end of the world.”

“What now?” Clarity asked.

“The elements dear, they’re locked up tight, and without them I’m certainly not stopping any villains.”

“You mean you can’t pass Twilight’s defences?” Spike asked incuriously.

“Nope, first it messed up Rarity’s hair, then it closed itself anytime we opened it, then it jumped around the room…”

“I think they get the idea Pinkie Pie,” Rarity deadpanned. Clarity sighed but Spike burst into laughter.

“Oh did I miss a joke?” Pinkie asked excitedly.

“I thought it was so obvious,” Spike said trying to contain his laughter, “Twilight always has a failsafe in case someone needs to get under her protection without magic, considering its Twilight it’s kind of obvious what it would be.”

Pinkie Pie and Rarity stared at Spike, then at each other, and then back at Spike.

“Here I’ll show you,” he said walking over to the box, “hey elements, you’re going to be tardy.”

The box sprang open immediately, releasing each of the necklaces and crown into Spike’s outstretched arms.

“See, easy peasy,” he said looking over at the two mares whose jaws were swinging below their necklines.

“Right, with that bit of hilarity out of the way, can we please go save the world?” Clarity asked exasperated.

~

The three ponies and Discord, now returned to his normal appearance after the joke had become stale, charged up the hallway, to be faced with a most disheartening sight. The hall was packed with armoured guards trying desperately to batter their way through what appeared to be a shard of grey crystal that had crept up over the doorway to the assembly hall.

“Stand aside colts!” Shining Armour ordered, hearing him they immediately parted to allow them to pass.

“Lieutenant, status report,” he demanded of the official looking guards pony sporting several medals over his uniform.

“Sir, we arrived here shortly after the explosion, but when we did this… thing appeared out of nowhere,” he explained gesturing, “Nothing has made a dent in it so far. Any time we tried to retreat and look for another entrance we ended up right back here.”

“Yeah that was my bad,” Discord said, Shining Armour ignored him.

“Discord, do you know what this stuff is?” he asked rubbing a hoof against it.

“It’s order crystal, Roma designed it to be the most perfect mineral,” he explained, “everything is perfection with her.”

“Does it have any weaknesses?” Dash asked fluttering up beside Discord.

“Of course it does, everything does,” he retorted.

“But you just said it was perfect,” Dash snapped back.

“No, I said it was made to be perfect, you should learn to listen,” he said grabbing Dash’s ear and stretching them so they resembled those of a donkey’s, “Roma is a fool, there’s no such thing as perfection but she can’t see that.”

“Discord, it’s weakness,” Shining Armour snapped before Dash could continue arguing.

“Simple, the natural opposite of order is chaos, and that’s where I come in,” he said clapping his bear paw against his claw.

“Nothing happened,” Applejack said confused.

“Really? Try breaking it now,” he suggested looking to Shining Armour. Shining Armour didn’t look convinced but he turned to the crystal anyway. He took one breath before raising his head, drawing power into his horn, before bringing it down upon the rock. There was a mighty explosion, throwing them all flying backwards. Applejack was the first to recover, not counting Discord who was never thrown back to begin with. The door was now clear, the crystal lying in large chunks scattered over the floor.

“Where the heck is everypony?” she asked, realising that besides Dash, Discord and herself, all the guards including Shining Armour had vanished.

“That’s the unfortunate thing about chaos magic,” Discord said, not sounding like he considered it to be unfortunate at all, “there are always side effects, and they are always unpredictable.”

“Well where are they?” Dash demanded regaining focus.

“Oh they’ll be somewhere, don’t worry,” he said in a bored voice, “but right now we have a mission, one that demands our full attention.”

“That we do,” a voice called out from behind them, the three turned to see Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Clarity and Spike approaching them. The most encouraging sight was the remaining elements cradled in Spike’s arms.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Dash said victoriously hoof pounding the air. Without waiting for invitation, Applejack and Rainbow Dash claimed their elements, glad to have the familiar feel around their necks once more. Once they backed up again Spike was left carrying just one element.

“Well this puts a spanner in the works now doesn’t it,” Discord said scratching his head thoughtfully.

~

“There, isn’t that better?” Roma said as the muffled voices of the soldiers became frustrated as their path was blocked by the newly formed crystal. “That gives us a little extra time to chat.”

“You said we stopped you a thousand years ago,” Celestia’s voice questioned, “what did you mean by that?”

“You really don’t get it do you?” Roma said coldly, staring the stature of Celestia squarely in the face, “after everything you’ve observed, can you really not draw the connections?”

“Discord…” Celestia began.

“You’re getting warmer,” Roma said mockingly.

“You recruited him?” Celestia queried, Roma’s smile faded.

“The years appear to have made you quite dense Celestia,” she said bluntly.

“Take that back!” Twilight’s voice ordered, Roma just ignored her.

“I didn’t recruit Discord,” she spat, “I… created him!”

There was a long moment of silence.

“You, created Discord?” Luonto said disbelievingly.

“Of course, I am order itself,” she announced, “as such it is fully within my power to create something that is entirely without order.”

“And I suppose that was another attempt at ‘cleaning the slate’?” Vegnum asked sarcastically.

“Exactly,” Roma replied, “as repulsive as chaos is, it has its uses.

“And now here we are,” she continued, “that pathetic creature is wrapped around my hoof once again, and soon, even you won’t be able to stop me.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Somnium said cryptically.

“And what’s that supposed to mean? Am I to take it from that you have some ingenious scheme? Perhaps it involves stealing back your precious key and using it to re seal the gates, hmm?”

As she spoke her horn glowed and the key was lifted from around her neck and held out in front of her.

As the few princesses whose heads were turned in the right direction watched, Roma’s horn flared with an intense light, and the key shattered into miniscule blue fragments.

“Woops,” Roma said with a wicked smile, “any other bright ideas?”

“Yes actually,” Luna said, a mere hint of annoyance in her voice, “keep you talking for as long as possible.”

“Oh…” Roma began, only to be cut off by the sound of the door crashing open. She turned her head as the dust began to clear, five mares were only just visible, but their trinkets were clear as day.

“Really? You think the elements of harmony have any power so long as Twilight remains incapacitated?” she mocked. But as she spoke the last of the smoke cleared, and she saw there was not five, but six mares. Clarity stepped forward, in line with the others, the familiar crown upon her head.

“Ah…” was all Roma had time to say before the gemstones upon each began to light up.

~

Spike poked his around the corner just as the familiar rainbow beam faded from view, the scene it left was considerably more favourable to all those present except for their enemy. Roma lay in a crumpled heap, but appeared to be recovering quickly. That and all the other princesses had been released and the strange connection between them and Roma had been severed, however much to the dragon’s horror, they all lay and trembling piles, resembling mere husks of their former selves.

“How dare you,” Roma croaked, getting to her hooves, “how dare you!”

As she screeched the six mares began channelling the elements again, but she wasn’t going to take it lying down. Lighting her horn up, all six were grabbed in her telekinetic field and hurled across the room at the opposite wall. The speed they were thrown at, they would be pulverised. Spike screamed, but as his friends approached the wall they were all caught in what looked like a purple net. Looking around he saw Twilight balancing on one hoof, an agonised expression on her face as she cast the spell.

However she was too weak to hold it and it broke almost immediately upon impact. Thankfully it had the desired effect that their momentum was slowed enough that they only ended up receiving bumps and bruises.

“Nice save Twilight,” Roma spat, “but it doesn’t look like you have enough in you for another.”

She was right unfortunately, Twilight’s leg immediately gave out and she collapsed to the floor panting heavily. Roma smirked at the sight of this and began walking forward to the element bearers.

“You should be dead,” she reminded Clarity who was the only one with the strength left to look up at her, “how could you possibly survive?”

Clarity didn’t answer, she merely stared. Roma’s patience broke and with a twitch of her horn Clarity was dragged into the air in front of her.

“Clarity no!” Cadance screamed hoarsely. Roma ignored her as well as she stared intently into Clarity’s eyes while she struggled for breath under Roma’s hold.

“No,” Roma whispered, as something became clear to her, “it can’t be…”

Spike was done hiding, he charged forward with a rock clutched in his claw which he launched squarely at the back of Roma’s head. The rock careened through the air, about to make its target… when it disintegrated in mid-air. Spike froze as he saw this; Roma didn’t even turn to look at him as she flung him into the wall. That had hurt, it wasn’t a hard throw as she had barely been concentrating, but it had hurt nonetheless.

“So, it seems there is one with the power to oppose me,” Roma continued thoughtfully, before breaking out in a wide grin, “not for long.”

As the words left her mouth, the grey light surrounding her horn intensified so that Clarity was forced to shut her eyes for fear of them being burnt out of her skull. Was she really going to die here? After everything she had fought through to get this far? Perhaps not.

The light dimmed as Roma’s attention was diverted; a harmonious scream seemed to be echoing through the entire chamber. It was only at the last second that Roma looked up to see three fillies and the remains of a hang glider plunging down on top of her.

~

Canterlot castle was in chaos, nowhere more so than the assembly hall for the royal summit. The doors were ripped from their hinges, the walls and floor were chipped and battered, most of the platforms and pillars lining the wall had been ripped away, the entire ceiling gone from the earlier activation of the Aether Key. Yes this was certainly chaos, and now Discord was in his element as he strode through the door to find Roma attempting to untangle herself from a hang glider while the floor was littered with twelve princesses, six mares, three fillies and one dragon, all semi-conscious.

“Tell me Roma,” he drawled, earning her attention, she looked back at Discord with pure venom, “how did you think this would all end? The inhabitants of this world would just roll over for you.”

“I think I understand now,” Fluttershy had said quietly so the others couldn't hear as Applejack limbered herself up for bucking the door in. “Don’t get involved, not unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“No, I’ve long since accepted that the beings that infest this world are too stupid to understand the brilliance of my vision,” she replied icily, freeing herself from the glider and facing Discord with her wings spread wide and aggressive.

“I know this is very difficult for you,” she whispered embracing Discord in a brief hug.

“Celestia,” Discord called out to the alicorn who was shaking on the stone floor. “Do I have permission to go all out? To bring an end to this.”

“Yes,” Celestia breathed. Discord grinned his widest grin in a very long time.

“Good,” he hissed, never taking his eyes off Roma. The single word seemed to have a profound effect on the world, for as it was uttered, all hell began to break loose.

~

The citizens of Canterlot gathered in the street, watching the castle with fearful eyes. The light had been extinguished not long ago, but all present had the creeping feeling something far worse was on its way. A theory that was only proven correct when the entire mountain side began trembling due to some unseen force. as unicorns of the Canterlot gentry watched in undisguised horror, the entire castle was wrenched from where it was rooted, as if an invisible and had just ripped away from the rest of the city.

The castle ascended into the sky and the ponies below watched as it began to crumble, towers collapsing and annexes falling away. However it was as if the remains fell into a current encircling the ruin, as they fell they were swept up and began orbiting the remains of the castle, twisting and warping into bizarre mockeries of pony architecture. Soon all that remained was a floating abomination of a castle, curiously, filled with golden orbs.”

~

Roma laughed manically as she took all this in.

“You actually diverted power to protect these vermin?” she guffawed gesturing at the golden balls, each containing one life that had been in the castle at the time. “You have changed.”

Discord didn’t reply, instead he rose into the air, keeping his joints loose, never taking his eyes off Roma who stood in a regal pose upon a floating fragment of floor that had been ripped from the castle.

The silence began to stretch, Discord’s eye twitched with impatience, but he couldn’t strike yet, for as they both knew the key to victory was the element of…

“Surprise!” the real Discord exclaimed appearing behind Roma swinging an inflatable mallet. First point to Discord as Roma was sent rocketing off her perch by the surprising impact carried by the balloon toy. Without a moments delay she twisted herself in mid-air, her horn lighting up, wrenching a pillar from the castle to act as her new platform.

As quick as a flash she landed and began ripping brick after brick from the castle and sending them in perfect formation at Discord, whose body twisted and rippled easily, letting the projectiles pass right past or in some case through him. With a loud snap Discord tore a stair case from the floating ruin which coiled itself in the air before striking out at Roma like a serpent. Roma wasn’t caught off guard however as she sprung from the pillar which was shattered upon impact, spreading her wings, she dived straight at Discord.

Discord leapt back and floated in nothing just as Roma sliced through where he had been a second before, her leg gauntlets forming blades at a single command of her horn.

“Trust you to bring blades to a gun fight,” Discord exclaimed whipping out a pump action shotgun and fired a powerful jet of water, knocking Roma off balance. As she spun, she teleported herself several metres away for good measure, once she had regained her composure she pulled a dozen gargoyles free of the battlements, animating them with another flash of her horn.

The stone soldiers bore down upon Discord who, with a flurry of his serpentine body, exploded into a swarm of parasprites which devoured the incoming enemies whole. Discord himself reappeared on one of the spires, without hesitation he leapt off and began falling through the air towards Roma who was still looking for him. With little effort began freezing the air, creating a slide of ice beneath his feet, trailing out behind him. Directing this he sped down to Roma and began circling her, encasing her in a frozen prison.

Once his masterpiece was done he leapt forward, taking hold of the ice sculpture in his now oversized hands. As he took hold he began spinning around, faster and faster until finally he released the ball of ice straight for the earth far below. It dropped at a sickening speed, but before it reached it's final destination the whole thing shattered, and Roma sped back up without wasting any time. Discord dodged her as she shot through the air like a bullet, her wings searing past like razor blades. As Roma passed right by her quarry she felt something tug on her tail and looked down to see a grapping hook tangled up in her hair. On the other end of the rope, Discord held on, wearing water skis on his feet, inflatable arm bands and giant novelty sunglasses.

Roma swished her tail with all her might, ignoring the pain that shot through her rump. As Discord came soaring towards her she spun in the air thrusting her hind legs out. She didn’t see but felt something collide hard with them. With a laugh she turned around to see only a cloud of confetti where Discord had been.

“Looking for someone?” Discord called out, now in front of her. She spun around in time be knocked clean out of the sky by a giant boxing glove attached to a spring.

As she fell her wings flapped uselessly. Staring at them in confusion she saw her perfectly preened feathers had been glued together by what looked like napalm, however knowing Discord it was more likely marmalade. Giving up on her wings she summoned another platform from the castle which she landed hard on, almost causing it to buckle under the sudden weight. Roma looked around wildly, scanning the skies for the cursed draconequus, but he was nowhere to be seen, and when Discord was nowhere to be seen, it usually meant he was…

“Behind you,” the voice mused. Roma spun around, intending to lash out with her forehooves, but this time she was too late. Discord dodged her attack, but instead of retreating to a safe distance he closed the gap between them so they were eye to eye. He didn’t say anything, just reached out and clenched the sides of Roma’s helmet with the tips of his paws and claws. Roma felt a woozy sensation overcome her as Discords eyes began to ripple hypnotically. However almost as soon as it started it was over, and she was blasted back yet again, this time landing on a conveniently placed section of roof that had fallen from the castle and was now floating in the gravitational pull of it.

“Did you really think you’re little mind tricks would have any effect on me?” she said with an attempt at her old winning attitude.

“Mind tricks? Is that what you thought that was?” Discord asked innocently. Roma frowned, what she hadn’t seen when Discord took hold of her, was the twelve balls of power drained from her body, returning to their original owners. “I think the line you’re looking for here, is ‘oh-no’.”

Roma turned around slowly, her eyes moving upwards to Canterlot Castle, where twelve alicorns, returned to full power descended with looks of righteous fury burning in their eyes.

“Roma,” Celestia announced being the first to descend to her level, the others quickly joining her, as they all circled the grey alicorn, “you have committed unspeakable acts against this world and its inhabitants. I think I speak for all of us when I strip you of your undeserved title and sentence you to the ultimate punishment available to us… annihilation.”

Roma’s eyes stretched wide fury and she tried without success to form a distinguishable sentence.

“No objection? That suits me,” Caelum exclaimed as her body exploded in a bright cerulean light.

One by one each of the princesses lit up, Roma found herself frozen where she stood, whether it was due to some power of her opponents or her fear, she wasn’t sure. Soon only Twilight remained, and Roma could see the uncertainty plastered over her face, maybe there was a chance yet.

“Twilight,” Celestia whispered, the youngest looked over at her mentor, and as their eyes met it was as if they exchanged a thousand words through a single look, and Twilight nodded in sad acceptance as she too lit up in a brilliant purple light.

Roma stared on in disbelief as she was overwhelmed by the power of each of the twelve princesses. She could feel her body tremble as it began to shatter into particles. The pain was unimaginable, perhaps the physical world equivalent of what she herself put Clarity through, perhaps it was meant to be ironic that way. As her body disintegrated she didn’t scream, instead she merely laughed, an insane cackle. The princesses stared in slight confusion at the quickly disappearing traitor.

“You think you’ve won? You think just because you beat me you can return to your worthless, imperfect lives?” she screamed between laughs, only he head and part of her torso remained, “the gates are still opening, and they can never be stopped! You’ve won nothing!”

And with those final words, the last of Roma was shredded into miniscule fragments and scattered to the winds. The princesses hung in the air, the light fading from their bodies, Roma was gone, but her words hung in the air, poisoning an otherwise glorious victory.

“Discord,” Twilight said at last, “I sincerely hope you can fix all this.”

The draconequus grinned at the challenge, “easily!”

~

“Twily! Cadance!” Shining Armour exclaimed, rushing over to the group of mares gathered in the newly rebuilt castle courtyard, “you’re okay!”

“Shining, where have you been?” Twilight and Cadance asked at the same time.

“Um, it’s a long story,” he said nervously glancing at his hooves, “let’s just say I and the rest of the royal guard understand exactly why ponies don’t like going in the Everfree Forest.”

“Well you’re just in time for the party, courtesy of Pinks,” Rainbow Dash informed him.

“I’m calling it my ‘Discord-beat-his-evil-creator-and-saved-the-world-with-the-princesses-who-aren’t-evil’s-help’ party,” Pinkie announced happily, “I might need some help making the banner.”

“So that’s it? it’s all over?” Shining asked hopefully, this earned a sad look from Twilight and Cadance.

“When are things ever that simple,” Clarity muttered.

“Come on,” Twilight said woefully, “there’s another meeting, and you’ve all been asked to attend this one.”

“Yippee, we finally get to meet all the princesses, eh Dashie,” Pinkie said bouncing at the back of the group.

“I guess,” Dash admitted.

“Some better circumstances would have been nice,” Rarity chipped in tersely.

“Discord really did a good job fixing this place up,” Fluttershy said as they passed through the doors into the castle.

“You mean from all the damage he caused?” Applejack retorted earning an uncharacteristically angry glare from Fluttershy, “ah mean, that was darn good of him.”

“I’m glad you think so Applejack,” Discord said appearing over their heads, causing the farm pony to jump into the air, “perhaps this is finally the beginning of a beautiful friendship between you and me.”

“Ah’m not gonna credit that with a response,” Applejack muttered, picking up her pace so she could talk to somepony else, anypony else.

“How are you feeling Discord?” Fluttershy asked lagging behind the rest.

“Chipper as always my dear, thank you for asking,” he replied simply, not meeting her eye.

“I mean, how are you, regarding… her?” Fluttershy asked tentatively. Discord stopped walking.

“From the day she made me, she filled my head with lies and false beliefs,” he said, his tone darkening, “it wasn’t until you gave me a chance that I realised my life could ever be anything more than what she had intended. it gave me the strength to do what I did, I’m free, truly free for the first time ever, and I have you to thank for that.”

Fluttershy opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by Dash who called out from down the corridor.

“Are you guys coming or what?”

~

The party arrived at the doors to the assembly hall; Shining Armour gave silent thanks it wasn’t covered in crystal again. Twilight took a nervous intake of breath.

“Here we go,” she murmured as she pushed the door open with her magic. The room was absolute anarchy as they walked in, true it had been restored to its original design, but the princesses who now occupied the floor rather than their platforms were arguing and shouting at the top of their lungs, fighting desperately to be heard.

“We can’t ignore this insurrection,” Ignis was insisting, “for all we know Roma had allies, they must be quelled before they can cause any more damage.”

“We can’t stay here,” Somnium was arguing, “we’ve already been here longer than we should have, our own countries need us.”

“We won’t have countries left if those gates aren’t shut,” Clover tried to reason.

“Of course,” Caelum began sarcastically, “I forgot we have a whole factory for making Aether Keys, problem solved.”

“There must be another way,” Luonto urged, “we haven’t even tried and we’re already fighting among ourselves needlessly."

“But we don’t where the gates are,” Mare Equus reminded the room, “you heard Roma, it took her a thousand years to find them all.”

Twilight noticed Inen was standing far back, refusing to get involved and Vegnum was rubbing her temples with her mechanical claws.

“THAT IS ENOUGH!” a voice bellowed, the room was silenced immediately and all eyes turned to the triumvirate platform where Celestia and Luna had just appeared. Nopony used the royal Canterlot voice quite like Celestia it seemed. “This is a catastrophe and if we turn on each other now then we have already lost.”

“What would you have us do?” Ignis pleaded.

“While I know it is not this court’s place to listen to the voice of one, I beseech you all to listen and obey if we are to have any hope of surviving this."

Some princesses like Ignis and Luonto seemed only too glad to put their faith in Celestia, others like Caelum and Mare Equus looked less pleased at the prospect, but no one argued.

“Alright, thank you,” Celestia said with a sigh of relief, “first things first, you must all return to your own countries, Somnium is right, we can’t ignore our duties because of this, but also because it will be up to each of you to put in every ounce of effort into locating the gates. We know there are eleven; one in every continent, by breaking it down it should make it easier for all of us.

“I would ask you, Luna, to take up temporary dominion over Panchea,” she continued addressing her sister, “with Roma’s absence the country will likely need a strong leader to prevent it succumbing to turmoil.”

Luna nodded before Celestia turned her attention to Twilight.

“Twilight, I am tasking you and your friends the mission of travelling to the locations of each gate as they are discovered, without the key our only hope for sealing them once more lies in the elements of harmony.”

“You can count on us princess,” Twilight responded with determination.

“But, uh, what if they don’t work?” Fluttershy asked, afraid of the possibility.

“Don’t worry my child,” Celestia replied soothingly, “the elements are designed to restore harmony, two worlds spilling into one another is exactly the unbalanced situation they were created for, I have every faith they will work.”

Fluttershy seemed relaxed by this, and the other element bearers looked even more elated.

“Lastly, Discord,” the draconequus looked up in surprise at being addressed, “you have already made leaps and bounds in earning your redemption, but to prove your devotion I would have you perform one more task.”

Discord and Fluttershy exchanged nervous glances before looking back up.

“I need you to find out everything there is to know about Roma,” she continued, “her plans, her allies, anything that might help us understand what we’re up against. Can you manage that?”

“It would be my pleasure milady,” Discord said with a little bow. Twilight noticed the relief he was trying to hide.

“In that case there is nothing further to discuss,” she said exhaling, “I wish you all luck, may we meet back here in a year safe in the knowledge that our world is not in danger.”

~

“Look I’m not saying what you did was wrong,” Spike said again, his message still not getting through, “I’m just saying it’s not up to me whether you get punished or not.”

The cutie mark crusaders looked disheartened at that. Spike paced anxiously, the girls were due back from their meeting any minute now. As he walked he noticed the sad expressions of the three fillies.

“Hey,” he said getting their attention, “for what it’s worth, I thought you girls were really brave.”

They all beamed at the compliment just as the door opened.

Rarity and Applejack walked in, apparently deep in conversation, but as they saw the fillies they hushed up.

“So, hang glidin’ from the roof,” Applejack began, “you’re lucky you three weren’t killed.”

The fillies’ smiles faded.

“We have told you countless times,” Rarity continued, “but would you ever listen?”

The two mares sighed before looking at each other and nodding.

“But it would be wrong of us to say you weren’t incredibly courageous,” Rarity said causing all three fillies’ eyes to open wide, “and Clarity owes you her life.”

“You mean you’re not gonna punish us?” Applebloom asked hopefully.

“Nah Sugarcube, not this time,” Applejack relented, “but don’t get the wrong idea now, this don’t mean you can go off doin’ whatever you want, it just means you were lucky this time and we’re all mighty grateful you’re okay.”

Sweetie Belle and Applebloom leapt off the bed and rushed over to embrace their sisters. Scootaloo frowned slightly, but not before the door was opened again and Rainbow Dash sauntered in followed by Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.

“Hey squirt, I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” Dash said noticing Scootaloo, “hang gliding off a roof and crashing straight into the bad guy, now that was awesome!”

Scootaloo beamed and rushed over to her surrogate sister and hugged her tightly, which she didn’t try to resist.

Dash looked up to see the stern looks Applejack and Rarity were giving her, she sighed before looking back down at the elated filly.

“Yeah it was awesome, but listen,” she said trying to choose her words carefully, “just in future, maybe don’t go getting yourselves into crazy situations like that.”

Scootaloo looked up in shock, along with everypony else in the room.

“I’m not saying that to kill your buzz Scoots,” she said, wishing she was better at this, “I just don’t want you getting hurt is all… I don’t know what I’d do if that happened.”

There was a long moment of silence before Scootaloo finally smiled again.

“Okay Rainbow Dash, we’ll be safer in future.” Dash smirked and looked up to see the surprised but undeniably proud faces of Applejack and Rarity.

“Woo hoo!” Pinkie exclaimed, “This calls for a ‘Dashie-just-developed-as-a-character’ party!”

“I did what now?”

~

Twilight sighed as she walked along the platform with Cadance, Clarity and Shining Armour.

“This isn’t how I wanted to spend our time together,” she muttered dejectedly.

“I know Twilight,” Cadance replied sympathetically, “I wish we could have normal lives all the time.”

“Do you think you’ll be able to do it?” Twilight asked, “Find the gate.”

“I don’t know,” Cadance admitted, “but I do know I won’t stop trying. We’re going to beat this, I’m sure of it.”

“Yeah,” Twilight said smiling for the first time that morning, “we’ve done this kind of thing before, as long as we have each other, we’ll always win.”

“All aboard, for the Crystal Empire!” the train conductor bellowed.

“Well, I guess this is it,” Cadance said absently, she leaned in to hug Twilight, “I hope we see each other again soon.”

“Me too,” Twilight said as the embrace ended.

“You be good you hear,” Shining Armour said jokingly before squeezing Twilight, “I love you sis.”

“Love you too BBBFF.” as she pulled away from the hug she turned to Clarity who had been unusually quite since they left the castle.

“I’m not going,” she announced at last.

“What!” the other three exclaimed.

“Clarity what are you taking about? We have to go home,” Cadance insisted, but Clarity shook her head.

“No, you have to go home, they need you, but I…” she hesitated trying to find the words, “I think I’m needed for something else.”

Cadance looked to her husband who was staring dumbfounded; Twilight just looked on, a faint understanding passing between her and Clarity.

“Twilight,” she began again, “if you’d let me… can I come with you? Help you and your friends close the gates.”

Twilight didn’t need to think about it, “I think I’d be very happy to have you along with us.”

Clarity then looked to Cadance who was still unconvinced.

“Please Cadance,” Clarity insisted, “I’m not a child anymore, I know what I’m doing.”

“Last call for the Crystal Empire!” the conductor shouted as the locomotive began churning out steam. Cadance looked desperate for a moment before finally nodding.

“Just be safe,” she said clutching her sister. Twilight watched, reminded of how Celestia had protected Luna from Roma, and then she looked at Shining Armour and knew he would have done the same for her.

“Cadance we gotta go,” Shining said quietly, un-eager to pull the sisters apart, but Cadance accepted it as she stepped away from Clarity. There were no more farewells; the two simply stepped onto the train in forced silence. Twilight and Clarity watched as the train began to move, and their siblings looked out the window at them. As they got smaller and smaller, Clarity was overwhelmed by her thoughts.

I love you Cadance, but I owe a debt, I’ll stick with Twilight to the bitter end if I have to, I owe her that and so much more.