//------------------------------//
// Something Old 
// Story: Something Old, Something New 
// by JaelynPotons 
//------------------------------//

	"That's it, I'm going in!" Rainbow Dash had been waiting patiently for the better part of an hour, and had finally had enough. Fluttershy and Ebony had been in there way too long, and she was worried about her friend.
Before she could take off, Applejack had Rainbow's tail in her mouth. "Woah there, sugarcube. Ebony told us to wait out here until he called for us." Applejack said through a mouthful of rainbow colored tail.
"And you expect me to trust him? He lied to us, AJ! He could've told us he was Discord from the very beginning!" Rainbow Dash struggled for only a moment, then realized that Applejack was not going to allow her to go into that cave.
"I must say I agree with Rainbow Dash, girls. Besides, how do we know that brute hasn't tricked poor Fluttershy and has turned on us, working for Misfortune instead."
Applejack glared at Rarity before responding, "Do ya really think that Fluttershy is that easily fooled? She may be shy and naive, but she isn't stupid. Besides, Rainbow, if yer so angry at Discord for lyin' to us, why aren't ya angry at Fluttershy? She lied to us to, ya know." Applejack was always the voice of common sense, forcing other ponies to see the truth when they otherwise wouldn't have.
Rainbow sputtered, not knowing what to say. "Well, that's... that's different, Fluttershy is our friend! Discord isn't!"
Twilight's head shot up from the book she had been reading. "Applejack is right, girls. We promised to trust Fluttershy's judgment of Discord and his intentions. Besides, any friend of Fluttershy's is a friend of mine. Regardless of his past wrong-doings."
Rainbow landed heavily on ground, defeated and feeling ashamed of herself for having doubted her childhood friend. "Fine. But they're not out in the next ten minutes, I'm going in there no matter what you say!" She looked at Twilight with her eyebrow up. "Hey, where did you get that book anyway? You didn't seriously pack it up the mountain, did you?"
Twilight had been levitating her book in front of her face, and lowered it just enough to look at Rainbow Dash from over the top of it. "If you must know, I've been practicing this summoning spell that allows me to call any book from my library to wherever I am at. It took me weeks to perfect, and thankfully I had it down before going on this journey. I found the spell in a book called..."
As Twilight rambled on about her new spell, Applejack leaned closer to Rainbow and whispered, "Ya just had to ask, didn't ya?"
Rainbow snickered at the comment, then her right ear, the one closest to the cave, perked up at the sound of running hooves. They all heard it and turned towards the cave in time to see Fluttershy, tears streaming down her face running out of the cave, barely noticing where she was going. Applejack intercepted her just before she tumbled off the edge of the cliff.
"What's wrong, sugarcube?" Applejack asked as soon as Fluttershy was safe.
"Did that good-for-nothing trickster hurt you? Where is he? Why I'll-" Rainbow Dassh was interrupted by Fluttershy, who was still belligerent through her tears.
"D-discord... he-he's holding off-ff Misfo-fortune in there." Sudden realization of the situation at hand caused her eyes to widen and her stammer to disappear. "We have to go help him! He sent me out here to get you girls and he said he was gonna stay behind and hold off Misfortune but I don't know how long he'll last and oh dear Celestia please don't let him die and-"
Twilight cut her off. "Slow down, Fluttershy, you're only freaking yourself out more. We all need to have a calm head about this." She looked at the other Elements of Harmony. "C'mon girls, we have to get in there."
They all rushed into the cave, Fluttershy surprisingly taking the lead (not that the others even had a chance, she was running so fast). As they ran deeper into the cave they came closer to a series of flashing lights which could only be the battle going on between Misfortune and Discord. They rounded the last corner just in time to see Discord hit the ground, battered and bruised.
"Discord!" Fluttershy shouted and ran up to him, taking his head into her lap.
"My dear Fluttershy, don't you know how rude it is to be late?" Discord whispered, falling into a coughing fit.
Fluttershy didn't pay the comment any attention, stroking his face and crying softly. "You're going to be okay, Discord. The girls are here and we are going to defeat Misfortune."
Discord smiled at her. "Well, you couldn't have had better timing... I'm done, Fluttershy. I feel cold... the world is spinning around me and my life is flashing before my eyes..." He grimaced. "I really didn't have good fashion sense in the 70's..."
Fluttershy's tears hadn't stopped, flowing down  her face. "No, you're going to be fine. We'll defeat her and get you out of here."
"Don't worry about me.. I-I have lived a long life and have lived long enough to say goodbye to you... that is all I can ask for." He spasmed (a motion that looked ridiculous, and would've been funny in any other moment), and then lay there, unmoving, his eyes wide open and his tongue lolling out of his mouth.
Fluttershy was too distraught to see any humor in any of it, however. She yelled to him, "Discord! No, Discord!!" When he didn't respond, she bent over his limp form possessively.
The maniacal laughter of Misfortune sounded from around the Elements. "Well, lookie here. It seems as though the Lord of Chaos, even in death, hasn't lost his sense of humor. What's the matter little mare? Can't take a joke?" Misfortune laughed again.
Fluttershy kissed the dead draconequus' forehead before slowly getting up, cold fury enveloping her and transforming her features from the soft, angelic normality into something hard and unforgiving. She didn't say a word, only nodded to the other Elements (who were all shaking with horror, and not from Misfortune) to let them know she was ready and took up her position. Misfortune had materialized in the middle of the great cavern, a smug look on her elegant face.
Fluttershy looked back at Misfortune, the other Elements surrounding her. "I had pity for you in the beginning you know. I felt sorry for the little orphan who was mercilessly teased for being friends with somepony. I still feel pity for you, though." Fluttershy's eyes flamed with anger and hatred as the Elements of Harmony activated and levitated them all off the ground, leaving Misfortune on the ground to stare disbelievingly at the floating ponies. "I feel sorry for you because you don't know what real friendship or love feels like. I feel pity that you have chosen now, when we are the Elements of Harmony, to make yourself known. But there is one thing I don't feel sorry for. This." At that moment, the necklaces and Twilight's crown fired a bright rainbow at Misfortune, who suddenly realized that she had no way of escaping. Instead she yelled as the rainbow struck her and swirled around her, obscuring her from view.
When the rainbow melted away, all that was left of Misfortune was a single silver bracelet, glowing slightly. Fluttershy walked up and took a closer look at the bracelet to see that it was engraved with little figures of what appeared to be the events of Misfortune's life, complete with the end scene where the Elements of Harmony had defeated her. Fluttershy reached out a hoof to touch it, then Twilight yelled.
"Wait! Don't touch it Fluttershy!" Twilight trotted over next to her. "It may seem like it's just a bracelet, but you have to remember that it's still Misfortune, much like Discord was still Discord even though he was only a statue." Twilight levitated the bracelet into her own packs carefully before looking at Fluttershy with sympathy. "I'm so sorry Fluttershy, I-"
"Don't." Fluttershy cut her off, tears forming in her eyes again. "I don't want to talk about it... it just... it just doesn't make sense! Why didn't I feel him slip away? I thought we were soul twined and that I would have a chance to fight for him if he tried to slip away... but I couldn't do anything..."
"Fluttershy, my dear, haven't I told you there is no fun in making sense?"
All six mares, who had all joined Twilight and Fluttershy near the bracelet, whirled to find Discord, standing there without a scratch on him, grinning like a fool.  Pinkie Pie, who had been surprisingly silent through the whole ordeal, let out a big whoop and ran forward to hug Discord.
"Oh my gosh! We all thought you were dead, and Fluttershy was so sad and then we defeated Misfortune and Fluttershy tried to touch the bracelet but Twillight said no and then we were all sad again because you were dead but now here you are and look! Not even a bruise!" Pinkie said breathlessly, giggling at the end and letting go of Discord.
"What in tarnation, Discord? We were all worried sick about ya, we all thought you were dead! What happened?"
"You better have a good reason for this Discord, or I'll, I'll..." Rainbow Dash couldn't formulate the end of her sentence, Discord was laughing so hard.
Discord looked at Rainbow Dash, wiping a tear from his eyes and trying desperately to stop laughing. "Or you'll what? Crash into me? As you can clearly see, I've dealt with worse. Besides, now that I'm the Lord of Chaos again I couldn't help but create a dramatic death for you all to feel emotional about. And boy did it work! You should've seen the looks on your faces!!" He burst out with laughter all over again, and everyone but him was looking at Fluttershy, expecting to see her angry or sad.
Fluttershy couldn't think of anything to do but sit there and look shocked, mouth hanging open. It took her a moment to realize that it really was Discord standing there, laughing as though nothing had happened. Her mouth closed and formed an angry line, her eyes narrowed and she flew right up to Discord. Discord immediately stopped laughing and looked at her with wide eyes, afraid of what she was gonna do. To his and everypony else's surprise, she didn't hit him or scold him, but flew right into his arms, hugging him so tight that his face started to turn blue.
"It's good to have you back, Discord." She murmured into his fur as his arms encircled her.