//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 // Story: Journal of a DJ // by XyroX //------------------------------// I ran around the corner and saw the last guard in front of me disappearing through a wall. Without thinking about it, I followed him and ran right through the smooth concrete wall. Behind this magical mirage was a quite big hall, bigger than I imagined it after Luna called it ’small’, but I think the royals have another interpretation of small as a little unicorn like me. I had to blink a few times before my eyes accustomed to the bright light coming from several lamps hanging from the ceiling. When I was able to take a unadulterated look around, I froze for a moment. Luna was right, Discord already knew that we would come, and he and Nick had set up some ‘welcoming gifts’ for us. The whole room was like a huge labyrinth of barriers, ensuring cover for them and their clones, but on our side of the room wasn’t a single spot to hide, nothing to take cover behind. I spotted Nick on the rear end of the room, behind a huge glass wall laughing like crazy and pressing some keys on a console in front of him. Discord was flying around in the hall, throwing deadly spells and yelling insults at the royal sisters. Twilight and the other elements already prepared their elemental spell, and the royal guards stormed the front and threw themselves into battle against the clone army. I had luck to be the last one entering the room, I was able to run straight to the first barricades and duck behind them as the soldiers already had made a run on it and now were about to take over to the next row. I cowered behind my hiding place and wasn’t able to move, but slowly I felt the adrenalin taking over and I calmed down. I glazed over the barricade and spotted a little door right next to the glass wall. This was the place I had to go. I sneaked around the barrier and made my way towards the opposite end of the room, always holding my head down to avoid the fatal spells flying through the room. I stayed behind the line of royal soldiers and tried helping them as good as I could. Though I wasn’t a good fighter, I knew several spells to take out an enemy, and I used every tiny thing I could get my magic on to throw it at one of the defenders. I even tried lifting one of the barricades, but they were too heavy, the only thing I could do with them was displacing them, and I used this to crush a few clones between them, but they soon were aware of this and dodged the slow moving barriers. It felt like an eternity to cross the room, but I did it without getting hurt. Luna was the first one to enter the hall, her sister and the elements just seconds behind her. The alicorns and pegasi lifted off instantly to have more room to dodge and fight. Discord was flying right in front of them, above a labyrinth of barricades and an army of clones. “It’s over, Discord! This will be our last encounter!” “Oh, Luna, how can you say such a thing? I always dreamed of a world in which we can stay ‘friends’!” “Shut your mouth! This time, there will be no chance for you. This time, we will end this!” “I’m afraid you’re right. But you’re the ones who will be ended. Don’t fight it, just look at the chaos rising everywhere! I’m plunging your world into everlasting despair!” Discord laughed loud and threw a spell at Luna, but she dodged it easily. In the meantime, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash circled above Twilight who stood between Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie and readied the elemental spell. Celestia now rose her horn too and enveloped the six ponies in a strong shield to prevent them from any spells Discord would use on them. Luna accelerated and aimed at Discord , trying to pierce his shoulder with her horn, but her target just teleported to the side and countered with one more deadly spell. Luna dodged it by flying a loop and answered with one of her spells, a dark whirling bold. Discord looked at it amused and just opened a hole in his chest, letting the projectile fly right through his body. Celestia took a quick look around; the royal soldiers were gaining more and more the upper hoof, but they suffered heavy casualties. She also spotted Vinyl in the middle of the room, it seemed she was trying to get to the rear end of it where Nick was still standing behind a huge wall of glass. He was pressing keys like a madcolt, and with every touch one of the royal guards was getting into trouble. Here a trapdoor opened, there the wall shot some poisoned arrows into the crowd. She suddenly saw one of the clones sneaking up to Vinyl from behind, but there was no way Celestia could interrupt her protecting spell. She waved her sister and pointed at the enemy, and Luna plunged down to vaporize the clone before he reached Vinyl. The white unicorn didn’t even notice that Luna had just saved her life, she was too concentrated and used her magic to squash some clones between their barricades. Celestia rose one eyebrow in surprise, maybe the little DJ wasn’t as helpless as she thought. A few minutes later Vinyl reached the back door and disappeared through it, and at the same time Twilight was ready to unleash the elemental spell. Celestia lowered her shield around the elements and joined the circle, a few seconds later Luna appeared there, too. This was the most dangerous moment, if Discord would act now fast enough, they’d have no chance to repel his magic. Luckily Luna had interrupted his casting right before she joined the circle, so Discord had to recover before he could do anything else. This was time enough for the eight to finally trigger the spell. It wasn’t just the ordinary elemental spell that turned Discord into stone once. This time, the spell was reinforced with the power of day and night. A primeval beam dashed through the room and met Discord who screamed in pain and despair, but this time he wouldn’t get away. The beam was too powerful to escape, Discord had no chance to teleport away, and slowly his flesh was getting ripped from his bones and evaporated right behind his body. It took almost two minutes, but when the eight ponies ended their spell, there was nothing left of there former adversary but one of his horns. I went through the door and entered a tiny connection space between the main hall and the little room Nick was in. I dashed through the next door and found myself right next to Nick and two of his clones looking exactly as him, just for one difference: The real Nick had his cutie mark, the two clones had each a little number right next to it. The first one had a little 1, the second a little 2, marking them as X01 and X02. This must be the reason Nick was able to survive the explosion, he wasn’t up there! X03 must have taken his place when I had been captured up there. But how was he even able to fool Ruben? Probably he just didn’t look at Nicks cutie mark just as me when I was beating him up back then. Nopony would have thought that he wouldn’t operate Vinyl himself. “Oh Vinyl, I knew we would meet again. Isn’t this wonderful? Look what I did, and I did it all just for you! Now that you’re safe I can finally end all the violence over there!” Nick was just about to press a key on his console, a bigger and red one, but I dashed at him and knocked him away from the console. While falling I turned around and threw a few spells behind me, destroying the console and even killing one of his personal clones. The other one charged at me at tried grabbing me, but I was faster than him. I jumped over him and rammed my horn into his neck. I felt and heard a loud cracking, than X01 fell on the floor. “What have you done? Vinyl, what have you done? Don’t you see I did this all just for you? You don’t deserve living with this dirty little mare and working in these dirty little clubs. With me, you can have whole Equestria as your stage!” “Don’t talk about Octy like that! I have caused enough harm, insane colt. You will pay for your actions, you will pay for what you did to me, and you will pay for what you did to Octy. This time there will be nopony to hold me back!” I ran towards him and threw him down by drilling my horn deep into his left shoulder. He screamed in pain, but I didn’t care. This stallion had done terrible things to me and the one I loved, and now it was payback time. I knew Celestia was able to see me, but I wouldn’t stop until she forced me to. “You will get what you deserve, and I insure you won’t like it.” His shoulder was bleeding, the whole in it was almost deep enough to touch his bones. I raised one hoof and pressed it on it, trying to get it into his shoulder. At the same time I used my other hoof to press it onto his nose until I felt his bones yielding and cracking. Nick screamed in pure pain, and slowly I subsided. Though I wanted to do bad things to him, really bad things, this wasn’t me. I wasn’t a fighter, I wasn’t somepony to torture another pony. I just was a DJ, living together with her marefriend who surely wouldn’t like what happened right now. I hit him one last time to knock him out, than I carried him into the main hall where the soldiers were just about to destroy the last clones. Celestia, her sister and the elements were standing around a horn lying on the ground. I shivered when I realized it was Discords horn. “Vinyl! You did it!” “Yeah, Pinkie, but you all have done well, too.” “I’m proud at you, Vinyl Scratch. Not just for winning against Nick, but even more that you discovered the meaning of killing somepony and turned against it. You are strong, maybe not physically, but mentally. Now there is just one last thing to do… Twilight, please, accompany Vinyl and your friend back to Ponyville. Luna and I will follow you later, first we have to clear this place entirely and get sure that nopony will use these wicked machines of Nicks ever again. I’ll let one troop accompany you, just in case… and of course to take care of Nick. I’m very proud of all of you.” Just seconds after Celestia ended, a few royal soldiers came to us and we finally left the bunker, left the forest and went back home to Ponyville. It’s over now, finally I can live my life like a normal pony… with the right mare by my side.