//------------------------------// // End of a Journey - 2 // Story: Old Wrath // by Wooden Entity //------------------------------// Flying at full speed towards Discord I punch him as hard as I can into his face throwing him away against a tree. Thou it wouldn't harm him very much it was something I was really looking forward to do finally. Holding his cheek he stands up again. "Now with what did I deserve such an unfriendly greeting, stranger?" He asks me. A yellow pony runs to him. "Yah all right?" She turns to me. "Ah ain't know what's yah problem with Discord, black one, but Ah won't allow yah to hurt one of my friends!" Discord moves in front of her. "I appreciate your help, Applejack, but I think I can handle him by myself." He says before snapping his fingers. Nothing happens, only a black aura forms around my horn. He tries it again and again but the result is always the same. "Huh ..." "What is it draconequus? Your chaos not working on me?" I mock him. "Really?" Discord asks with a sinister grin. I recognize a shadow under me and look up to the sky. Phaseshift The downfalling house falls just through me without causing any damage. While walking out of its remainings I hear Apple... *sigh* - god damnit - the element of honesty yelling at him. "Damnit Discord, yah didn't need to crush him with a building. Yah could have at least tried to talk to him!" "Don't worry about me, little pony." I say before shifting back. "I am not here for talking." I canalize energy in my hands and use it to form lighting claws of energy on their backs. Having them finished I jump towards Discord but shortly before I could hit him he teleports himself and the element of honesty away. My attack only hits the tree I smashed him against before and cuts it into two parts. I turn around and see him with her standing on the field again. Again I jump towards him but he just floats backwards leaving me back hitting just the ground. I try it again and again getting angrier everytime I miss him until he eventually floats against the wall of a red barn. Knowing that he would just teleport away if I try another time I teleport in front of him and grab him with my left on his throat heaving him upwards. Discord still tries it, but I'm blocking him with my magic. I form my right hand into a spear and strike out. "This is your end, murderer!" "Nope!" Suddenly something hits me and throws me to the side. After hitting the ground I see in the corner of my eye Discord teleporting away. Suprised by this unexpected attack my gaze wanders around to find a big red stallion some meters away from me. Angry I yell at him. "Stupid brute, you will not save him!" "Nope!" He answers before starting to run towards me. Before the impact I teleport after Discord, coming out in what seemed to be a ... library build into a ... tree? ... Yeah, looks like a tree ... huh ... cool. Examining the room I find Discord standing next to a purple alicorn. I won't even try to remember her name. After forming my spear back into a hand I start another attack while he's still suprised. Shortly before he can teleport away I grab him on his throat again causing him to teleport both of us. In the next moment we both crash through a window and fall down along a high crystaline tower. After Discord realizes he can't teleport in my grip he tries to slow us down by flying upwards but I keep pushing us towards the ground. "Are you crazy you might kill us both ... or ... at least youself!" He yells at me. "If that is the prize for seeing your skull smashing on the ground I am willing to pay it!" I answer him. Suddenly a portal appears under us. We fall through it crushing on its other side against a building smashing a wall of it. While we both try to recover from the impact Cadance and other one in purple land next to us. "Leave ... Discord ... in peace!" The purple one shouts to me while catching for breath. Teleporting from Ponyville to the crystal empire must have been very exhausting for her. "I will not allow any more fighting in my empire!" Cadance says. "Stop interfering!" I warn them before I send a shockwave towards them throwing them backwards followed by Discord teleporting to them to help them up. "Attacking me is one thing, strange creature, but attacking my friends is something I do not like very much." He says with a frown before shooting a energy beam at me. It just hits my magical shield without causing any damage. "Finally ... I was afraid that was already all you got." I mock him. We both fly into the air. "I got a little suprise for you too." I tell him before I shoot a beam on him that he dodges. "Then come and get me, my dark friend." Discord say before sticking out his tongue. He flies backwards and I follow him while we both keep shooting beams at each other. Shortly after, Cadance and the purple one join us. Thou their attacks aren't very strong I try something to stop them from shooting. I form blades on the backsides of my hands and force Discord into a close-quarters combat so his "friends" are too afraid to hurt him and stop attacking me. He uses his powers of chaos to reform his body everytime I would hit it causing my attacks to miss him but at some point he isn't fast enough. Obviously surprised he backs off and covers the wound on his stomach with his hand. Cautiously Discord takes his hand off the wound and examines it. After some seconds he gives me an angry stare. "Well, that's it, my dear friend. I am done playing games with you!" He canalizes some of his power around his forearms and forms it into swords. Suddenly he storms towards me and tries to to hit me with one of them. In the last moment I am able to block it with one of my blades but the force of the impact throws me back. He strikes out and follows me but before he can land another hit I send out a scythe formed blade of energy at him that forces him to stop and block it. Without giving Discord a chance for another attack I combine my two blades to a big one and attack him again with all my force. Shortly before his face he can block my blade with both of his swords. I keep pushing it bringing it closer and closer to his face when he suddenly kicks me back. Waiting for a chance for a good hit we keep distance and in fly in circles around each other. Eventually I feel a strange sensation coming from one the pockets of my coat and pause. I grab into the pocket and pull out Zephyr's control crystal. It allows me to stay in contact with it over a far distance and to give simple orders to it. Now it was telling me that its shield would be failing soon. "Damnit, not now! It's still to early!" I talk to angrily to myself. "Okay, then back off and cloak again!" I order it. After that I look back to my enemies who are giving me a confused gaze. Only the draconequus seemed to understand. "Looks like my dear princesses now have time for a visit." He say before teleporting away. "You don't have a chance against the power of the four princesses and Discord together so back off now and walk away in peace!" The purple one warns me. Backing off ... no, it is far too late for that now. Who knows wether I get a second chance for this. I must bring it to an end! "We'll see about that ..." I say to them before following Discord. After teleporting I end up in the throne room of canterlot shortly followed by the two princesses. "What do you want, stranger?" A familiar voice asks. I turn my head to find its source and my gaze wanders to princess Celestia walking together with princess Luna towards me. In the background I see Discord hiding behind a statue sticking out his tongue like a little kid that's happy that someone else is in trouble. "Why are you attacking our ally, Discord?" Celestia asks. "Ally?" I begin to chuckle. "There were times where this murderer where the biggest threat for all live in Equestria and YOU CALL HIM YOUR ALLY!?" I scream at them while point I at Discord. "His sins were a long time ago. He regrets now what he has done and so we were willing to forgive him." I chuckle even harder than before while I'm still full of anger. "Hehehe ... how generous of our highness to amnesty him after we had so much to suffer under him, ain't we?" I make a little pause. "DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT SUFFERING MEANS?!" I make a pause to calm down and my gaze wanders to the ground. "All the years we were trying to fight him back, to survive ... you weren't there to see it. It almost needed our total annihilation before you two showed up." I look into Celestia's face with tears in my eyes. "No, you do not have the right to make this decision." A little breeze wanders through the room and lifts a part of my coat revealing my cutiemark, a book with a lightning, to them. Princess Celestias eyes widen. "Who are you?" She asks in shock. I wipe off the tears of my eyes. "Don't recognize me, my princess? Your old counselor?" She doesn't answer. "Though we have confidants whose opinions we appreciate we do not have official counselors. So what are you talking about, nightmarish creature?" Luna finally asks. "But we had." Celestia says. "We had counselors ... in the beginning." "Yes, but that is already thousands of years ago." "Exactly." I say. Princess Luna frowns at me. "Maybe I can give you a little hint." A black aura form around my horn while I cast a spell on me. After it's finished I harumph heavily until I finally speak again. "Promise me to bring him justice!" I say with a lighter voice than before. It was my original voice that went lost after all the alterations of my body. My voices changes to princess Celestia's. "I promise. He will pay for what he has done to your people ... done to your wife. Trusty Harps murderer will be punished." I deactivate the spell and change back to my normal voice. "Has it finally sunk in?" Slowly Celestia shakes her head eyes wide open. "No ... no ... that is impossible ... you can not mean ... that you are ..." She stops. "Yes, that is exactly what I meant. I am Storming Bookshelf, archmage of Polis and your former counselor." "No!" Luna says in shock. "What have you done to yourself?" "This doesn't matter anymore. The only thing that matters now is that I will do what you couldn't." I form my claws again. "I will kill Discord." Suddenly I am surrounded by a magical barrier. I look around and see that it is powered by Cadance and the purple one. "Somepony help us while Discord gets out of here!" The purple one shouts. Luna joins them strenghtening the spell. "YOU ARE BETRAYING ME AGAIN?!" I scream towards Celestia while she opens a portal through which she and Discord escape. I try to follow them but the barrier is blocking me. Enraged more than even before I bash like a beserker in the barrier and even shoot mutiple beams on it. After some time I realize that my attacks a futile and try calm down. I close my eyes and take a deep breath before I sit down in the middle of the barrier. I deactivate all the restrictions spells I casted on the Ichor and let it grow. Slowly a dark fog forms around me growing bigger and bigger until it fills out my prison. At once I absorb the complete fog and use its power for a massive shockwave that breaks the barrier, throwing its maintainers away and destroying parts of the throne room. "You will not stop me." I tell them while I try to follow Celestia. A blockade? "You can not go where my sister went!" Luna shouts to me victorious. "Do not underestimate me..." I cast a spell which opens a portal but it is blocked by some kind of invisible wall. With all my strengt I force my right hand through it causing lightnings around it. It utterly hurts but I keep pushing until at some point a tear opens in the barrier. I push my other hand in it too and slowly rip it open. "No you must not go there!" Luna screams. After the hole is finally big enough for me I walk through it. ********************************************************* Uhhh ... this headache. Slowly standing up I find myself in the partly destroyed throne room. "Are you okay, Twilight?" Someone asks me. I turn around to the voice and see Cadance standing near to me. "Yes I think I am alright." I answer while holding my head. "Just a little dizzy." Suddenly I remember. "We must follow him and help princess Celestia!" I try to teleport to her but it doesn't work for some reason. "That won't be possible, Twilight Sparkle." My gaze wanders to Luna walking over to me. "My sister is now in a place only she can visit." She tells me. "Even if you would be able to follow her you would probably not survive for a very long time." I examine the room in search for the stranger. "Where is he?" "He's ... he's with my sister." "Does that mean he is ..." "Dead? I'm afraid not but in this place my sister has some ... advantages over him. She should be able to fight him off, I ... I hope." "Okaaaaaay." A say concerned. "But can I ask you something?" "What?" "Who was that? You seemed to know him from somewhere." Lunas gaze wanders to the ground. "Yeah ... yeah we know him." She says before turning her head slightly to me. "You remember what my sister told you about Discord? How he reigned over Equestria before we arrived?" "Yes." "You have to know that he did not conquer Equestria in one day. It took him many years to spread out his influence over the country. In the end there was only one place left unharmed by him ... Polis, the former capital of the ancient Equestria. Protected by the shield of their unicorn magicans it stayed save for many year." She pauses. "Well ... one day Discord finally broke it and attacked the city. Me and my sister came in the last moment to draw him back and save its inhabitants, but we were too late ... Many ponies died that day." "I'm ... I'm sorry ... Luna." I try to comfort her. "But what does this have to do with this stranger?" "His name is Storming Bookshelf. He was the one who invented Polis' protection spell." "What?" Me and Cadance shout simultaniously. "That is impossible! Only alicorns can stay alive for such a long time!" I say. "Well back then he might not have been the most powerful unicorn but he was ... inventive." "O...okay, so he found a way to stay alive for this long, but only to kill Discord? Does he want to avenge his people or what is his goal?" "No, not ... not only ... I don't know everything about it but my sister told me that during the rescue work after the attack ... she found him under the ruins of an orchestra ... holding a dead pegasus in his hooves ... she was his wife." "Oh my god ..." I say almost unhearable. "After that he helped us whereever he could in hope that we would fight back Discord and avenge his wife but ... when we finally had the elements of harmony and turned him into stone ... he ... he broke ... he didn't want Discord to stay alive and pleaded us to finish him off but we denied his wish." Suddenly a sad smile comes upon her face. "I can still remember his last words to us: "I will come back." " Her gaze wanders to the sky which was visible through a hole in the roof caused by the fighting. "Poor Storming, why can't you find peace?" ********************************************************* I am not sure were I ended up. I see only darkness before me while I feel simultaniously a strange warmth. After I turn around I see its source. "Beautiful ..." I whisper to myself. Staying with its giant size before me. This is princess Celestia realm ... the sun. Suddenly I notice something strange on me. My wings ... they are huge. In the endless energy of the sunlight they grew to massive size. In the far distance I see something moving over the suns surface and fly towards it. As I get closer I see that it's Discord. Immediatly I shoot a beam at him but before it can reach him a eruption from the sun blocks its way and forms a protecting dome around him. "I control this realm." I turn my head and see princess Celestia hovering in some distance. "If you want Discord you must defeat the power of the sun first!" "Hand ... him ... out." I say to her as my final warning. "No." "So be it." I fly into her direction as suddenly she shoots a giant, extremly powerful, continuously beam at me. Under normal circumstances she probably would have turned me into ashes immediatly but with the massives amounts of energy my wings are absorbing from her sun I am able to withstand. "How is this possible?" She shouts surprised. "Your sun is working against you, your highness." Slowly but steady I move closer to her while my wings become smaller. I will not fall! As I reach her they were already shrunken to the half of their size but still intact. I grab her on her throat but she keeps shooting. I begin to strangle her. "Stop it NOW!" She keeps struggling but after some time she gives up and stops the beam but keeps up the dome around Discord. Maybe I should strangle her until she passes out? I shake my head. Coming up with another idea slowly I fly with her in my hand to Discord's dome. "Discord is no ... threat anymore ... He has changed!" Celestia says while trying to breath. I don't answer her. "He is helping us ... Equestria needs him." "That doesn't matter to me." "What do you ... hope to get from this, ... Storming?" She asks after a little while. "Vengeance..." "Vengeance ... won't bring her back." "Letting this monster staying alive either." "Exactly." "Huh?" "No matter ... whatever you do ... you can not ... bring her back. ... His death ... won't change that. ..." "Shut up! I have nothing left if I don't do this." "What do you have left ... if you do it? ... Tell me." "I ... I ... don't ... just shut up!" "The only thing ... you will achieve ... is to harm ... Equestria ... and its ponies!" "ENOUGH!" I put more strength in my grip to keep her from talking. What do I have left? ... Killing Discord was the only thing that gave my existance purpose. Finally at Discords dome I give her a hard punch into the stomach. She groans in pain and the dome slowly falls apart. I throw her to the side and teleport to Discord. I grab him and open a portal back to canterlot where we come out on a square in the city shortly followed by Celestia, Luna, Cadance and the purple one. Soon after my arrival the hole army of canterlot approaches and surrounds us. I can hear Celestia shouting to me but I ignore her and encase us both with with my still enlarged wings. With the outer surface of them I can feel that the ponies outside start to shoot at me. If she said the truth ... Am I willing to harm Equestria just for my revenge? "Please, I am a different now, I don't mean any harm anymore, really!" Discord says pleading. "I am sorry for what I did. If I could I would make it undone but I can't. No one can bring her back!" As I look into his eyes I realize this aren't just the words of someone afraid to die ... It was genuine sorrow. He really has changed ... "I ... know ... I know ..." I eventually say with tears in my eyes while I strike out. "You aren't the one I was searching for all the time anymore and it doesn't matter whether I kill you or not ... She's dead ... no matter what I do ... my actions won't change that ... the only thing I can do now ..." I lift my wings and disable my shield leaving me without any protection. "... is to join her." I say with a grin. Suddenly everything feels numb. See you on the other side, Trusty. Becoming weaker I loose my grip on Discord and immedieatly he teleports away. My sight becomes blurry while I begin to tumble. For some reason my gaze wanders to my hoof covered in blood and wounds. Looks like even my blood is black now. Then everything goes dark.