Six ponies, one severely injured with blood streaming down her flank, stood between two black tides. The black tide of the unconscious and the dead behind them, and the black tide that was bearing down on them at a rate which would give little respite.
Starswirl turned to the brown injured mare beside him, "Coco, are you ok to continue?" She returned something between a grimace and a smile.
"Don't you worry about me, Starswirl, as long as your plan works I'll be fine." Her voice was ragged, and flecks of blood and spittle sprayed from her mouth as she spoke. He smiled when he had seen she'd survived the dive, but he guessed that it was only by the soothing power of her element that she still stood.
"Coco, it will be alright," he replied, a large grin plastered across his face. "I've done all the calculations, and besides, this is why the elements were created. There is no way this plan can possibly fail."
Papyrus Reed, standing nearby, raised a hoof to his face. "That's what you said about that multi-teleportation spell and the far gaze spell. We all know how they turned out," he groaned. Suddenly Papyrus yelped as he felt the heat from the flames lick at his shoulder.
"Shut it Papyrus!" exclaimed Dragon Fire. "The last thing we need is your whining, I'm sure Starswirl has got it all worked out properly - this time."
Throughout this exchange, Sapphire, who was usually giddy when she was least excited, stood strangely still and silent. Her change in demeanor showing how the stress was getting to even this usually bubbly pony.
Studying his friends, Starswirl slowly stroked his small beard, something that was strange for a pony to have. Strange, but not unheard of. It was a comfort he was glad to have, something that marked him as special beyond his almost outstanding skill with magic. He was glad they were alive, however, what they had fought against so far had only been a tiny portion of Chaos' army. There was no way they could defeat the horde in front of them. Luckily, his plan involved defeating one being. The Lord Chaos himself.
Starswirl stepped out of the group of friends towards the advancing line of Chaos' forces. It wasn't a large distance, but to him it felt like the whole of Equestria. "Friends, we cannot afford to argue, we must hurry to set up the ritual in the scant time that remains."
"Yes, you're right, of course." Said Violet Skies, "What do you want us to do?" Starswirl smiled again, he could always rely on Violet to be serious.
"I need to draw some runes, Papyrus, do you have the crushed jade?"
"Yes, of course I do." Said the disgruntled green pony as he hoofed a bag of salt out of his saddle bag. "Why do you need this anyway?"
"It's to do with the crystalline structure," he replied, "It absorbs magical energies and reflects it around itself. Crushed jade is small enough that the amount of crystals in close proximity amplifies the magical power around us."
"Um, Starswirl?" asked Sapphire, now coming out of her trance. "Why do we need this, surely the elements were made for this?"
"Well, yes, of course. However, their power will be stretched thin, the runes are to cast a protective ward over us. Surely that much would be obvious, especially to a fellow unicorn!"
She blushed, embarrassed by her lack of what appeared to be obvious unicorn knowledge. She mumbled a reply, "Of course, sorry."
Working frantically, Starswirl placed the runes on the ground, taking great care in their shape and the amount of salt placed in each line. The others just watched silently, but restless, as they observed the approaching tide of darkness and shadow.
The ground was rumbling when he finished his work, beads of sweat falling into his eyes, clearly drawing runes was draining work. "Alright guys, get into the rune with the symbol of your elements," he mumbled. Already standing in his rune, he took a quick breather to regather his energy and charged up a spell. It went off without a hitch, after all it was a relatively simple one, used for nothing more than to amplify the voice.
"Chaos, we challenge you to single combat, do you accept or are you a cowerd?" His voice rang out across the field. Behind him, all five of his friends facehoofed at the insult, mocking someone as powerful as Chaos was probably not a good thing.
A roar was heard in response to the challenge, and the six ponies noticed the lead figure of the army rise up far into the sky, its form changing and consuming nearby shadowlings as it grew. Like a tidal wave, the figure swept down upon them, crashing against what seemed to be an invisible barrier as he attempted to assault the elements.
"It seems you ponies were more prepared than those at Stalliongrad," he chuckled, his voice dark and booming. "They were an amusing appetizer before my main course. No matter, I shall swipe you aside soon enough." Once again Chaos descended on the barrier, this time engulfing them completely. Darkness consumed the ponies as all traces of light were blocked out, laughter ringing out around them.
"You think we're afraid of the dark? What do you take us for, fillies?"
"Fillies? No, fillies would have had more sense than to attack me. It is hopeless, I'm the all consuming darkness, I am chaos incarnate. Nothing can defeat me"
At his words, the barrier between them and chaos began to glow bright red, it was clear it wouldn't hold for much longer. Four of the ponies closed their eyes, accepting their fate, only Coco and Starswirl's eyes remained open.
"Starswirl, whatever it was you gave us the elements for, it would be nice if you did it now," said Coco.
A huge smile plastered itself across his face, "Friends, do you remember what I said when I gave you your elements?" He heard murmured yeses, "Good, think about it now. Let the reason fill your mind."
As one, the five elemental necklaces lit up, a crackling of energy could be heard inside the barrier. Detecting the magic, Chaos doubled his efforts against the barrier, it seemed like they had a weapon that could possibly harm him after all.
Starswirl stood in the center of the cascade of energy, bathing in the magic that flowed around him. He admired his friends, they were doing their task perfectly. Muttering a couple of words, he focused his mind and his magic causing his element to glow as well.
One by one each of the six ponies began to rise slowly into the air, ending with Starswirl being the last to rise. He felt his body fill with pure energy and focused it into his horn and tiara. The build up of energy was massive, and soon streams of magical energy flowed visibly around them It was a sight like none he had ever seen, pure magic visible to the naked eye. A slow but beautiful tune appeared to come from the six elements as their energies combined, however this was quickly drowned out by a large roar and a crash. The barrier around them collapsed into motes of light which danced around in mid air before evaporating as they fell towards the ground.
Chaos let out a cry of triumph, he had reached them before they could fire off their energy, but his cry was short lived as he rushed to crush them. Cries of triumph turned to pain as the shadow that made up his arms melted as it came near the light of the elements. He paused for a split second, his young mind almost whirring as he calculated his mistake. He should have wondered how these six had beaten his vanguard, or why they dared challenge him.
He thought for a second to escape, flee and fight another day. But he, like a child believed that would not help, after all what would stop them coming after him. Instead, he charged them with everything he had, absorbing all the shadowlings he could reach in order to destroy them before they could destroy him.
He lay himself upon them reaching out with everything he had to crush them, his body burnt until he could take no more and eventually recoiled, his body nothing more than tatters. He gazed upon the ponies, floating in mid air appearing as they did before, not even a scratch upon them.
As they remained hovering there a pony general who had been standing by idly walked over to him. "Chaos, Sir, what are your orders?"
"Crush them!"
The general nodded and barked an order, within seconds the air was filled with bolts of magic as hordes of unicorns; some willing servants and some not, fired upon the six. Just before the collision, Starswirl's eyes opened and all the magic exploded in mid air like a clumsily organized fireworks display. His eyes, bright white energy flowing from them, surveyed the scene.
"Chaos, we give you one last chance to surrender."
"Or what?"
"Your end."
"I am a god, you cannot end me." His army roared with agreement, although his tattered body was evidence to the contrary.
"So be it."
With a cry, a beam of energy linked the six ponies and fired upon chaos, breaking into fine lines that traced over him upon impact. As the beam weaved a web over him, it intensified and spread out across the army. Seeing this, the army turned to flee and trampled themselves in panic. Soon the light built up so no one could see, blinding everyone around.
Slowly the light receded and the view astonished five of the ponies as they fell down to the ground, they were alone, of Chaos and his army there was no sign. Rising from the ground they looked at each other in silence before cheering in triumph. After a few seconds, however, confusion appeared upon the group, Starswirl was missing. For a few moments they were worried that the ritual had banished their friend in the process, but he was soon found after a frantic search and what they saw shocked them. It wasn't that he was unconscious, after all his effort that much could be expected, it was that appeared wrinkled as if aged and his beard had grown long and had faded to white.