Chapter 1: One last Letter
The small shelter shook and dust fell from above as another strike impacted the ground above, causing Spike to stumble and cough as he looked up, his eyes wide with worry.
“Come on Twilight, we don’t have time to send a letter, they found us much quicker this time. Not that you can blame them, I can’t believe that last shelter left was in Ponyville! We traveled all over searching for the other five safe houses just to end up being sent back here by the last note!” Spike yelled with a mixed tone of fear and annoyance.
Coughing from the dust that fell from the stone ceiling, Twilight Sparkle, a purple unicorn and the other occupant of the shelter, glared at the dragon. “We don’t have time to argue Spike! The whole point of going to these shelters was to send the letters just as the Princess instructed. And I’m not going to fail just when we’ve reached the final one.” Another impact struck the roof of the building. Twilight’s horn began to glow and her ragged saddlebags opened. Out floated a rough, tattered scroll, a sad excuse for a quill and an almost empty ink well. Spike took them with reluctance. Fear beginning to taint her voice, Twilight Sparkle spoke that all too familiar phrase, One that once made her laugh and smile, now only eliciting a small, quiet whimper “Dear Princess Celestia,… ”
Dear Princess Celestia,
We’ve done what you told us to do. We’ve been to every one of the safe houses and sent a letter from each of them. We’ve done so without any knowledge of why simply because you told asked us to. Discord had found us each time we reached one, and each time ...---
A shudder shook Twilight body as memories rushed to the front of her mind. Applejack being dragged away from them into the forest, Pinkie's unconscious body being carried away. Rainbow simply disappearing. Rarity's grime covered body rising above the clouds and Fluttershy falling from the high cliffs and vanishing in the valley far below.
Another impact, this time followed by a voice, one with a familiar southern drawl, “Time for you to come out sugarcube, we got to get going.” The voice had a warmness to it, that charmed Twilight, that made her trust it.
Twilight fought back the urge to step toward the stairs leading to the entrance. The voice didn’t sound hateful or spiteful but Twilight knew the truth. She shook her head as an unpleasant memory flashed through her mind: Applejack, her normally kind earth pony friend, grinning malevolently at her over the crumpled form of Pinkie Pie.
“Twi?” Spike asked softly.
Shaking her head again, she steeled herself and continued,
---That was bad enough, but after each pony taken, the next time Discord appeared they were with him! ---
More memories came unbidden to Twilight's mind, each one a shot of pain lancing through her heart.
"Twilight, we don't have to do this! We can leave here and send the letter from someplace else can't we?!" Spike pleaded seeing her obvious discomfort.
"No Spike, the princess told us to send the letters from the bunkers, so that's what we're going to do!" Twilight shot back. She refocused her mind and banished the memories as she began to speak again.
---My friends had changed! Not like before when Discord first appeared, they helped him princess! Please, I can't take much more of this, with my friends against me I'm fighting alone!---
“Twilight, you’re not alone, you’ve still got me.” Spike stopped scribbling on the parchment and gave Twilight a warm smile, or at least the best one he could muster.
Twilight returned the look in kind, “Spike, you know what I mean. now that my friends are…” she hesitated, “helping Discord, I don't have anyone to help me fight. You’re here so I can protect you, not so you can fight. You’re a just a baby dragon after all.”
Spike was about to respond when another voice sounded from above, another familiar voice, this time from Rainbow Dash. “We’re losing patience with you Twilight. You’ve got five minutes before I do to this place what I do to Applejack's old barns. And don’t think that just because it’s magically protected that I can’t break through, I’ve been practicing against the other bunkers and there’s not much left of them!” There was a short pause before the voice piped back up, sounding excited, “Actually, don’t come out, I want to see what happens when a pony gets hit!” A maliciousness could be heard in Rainbow Dash’s words that sent shivers down Twilight’s spine. Nothing of her old friend seemed to remain.
Taking a deep breath Twilight tried to regain focus. she began to think to herself, Ignore them, they always do this, try to distract you. That must mean that you’re doing something they don’t want you to. Just one more letter, surely the princess will get this one… Taking another deep breath she turned to Spike and signaled him continue writing.
---Isn’t there something that you can do to save the land we had? I’m begging you princess; you’ve got to stop this, there’s not much left of the world we once knew, it feels like Equestria’s been gone for so long. Please, prove our faith in you to be true.
It’s been an honor to serve you all these years princess; under your guidance I’ve been able to accomplish so much. Now, there’s just one last thing for me to do, one last thing that I’ve got to prove and one final goodbye before I try to prevent our doom. I refuse to believe that magic is dead, that there is nothing I can do, so if you do receive this letter: please, help me find a way to defeat the chaos that’s covered our world. This is my one last letter to you.
Your Always-Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle
Signing the name with a flourish acquired over many years of writing letters, Spike looked to Twilight in fear, “What do you mean ‘one final goodbye’, ‘one last letter’, what are you planning!? You’re not thinking of fighting them are you!?” Before he could continue his line of questioning a voice called down into the bunker.
“Time's up, Twilight! prepare to go boom! AHAHAHAHAH!” A maddened cackle faded into the distance as Rainbow Dash most likely rose higher into the air in preparation for the attack. There was a familiarity in that laugh that Twilight couldn’t place, but she didn’t have time to think about that now.
With only half a minute at best before the bunker, and them with it, was destroyed Twilight turned to Spike, “I’m going to teleport us out of here, as soon as you see sky send the letter!” Seeing that he was about to say something Twilight held up a hoof. “We don’t have time to talk Spike, just be ready.” Silenced for now, but giving her a look that clearly said they were going to have a chat about this later Spike quickly rolled and bound the letter.
Twilight waited for the sound she knew would come when Rainbow got close, the high pitched whine of Rainbow just brushing against the sound barrier. She had a plan, teleport out at the last second and use the mushroom cloud as cover. That should give them enough time to send the letter safely.
The sound came much sooner than expected; Twilight smiled ever so slightly She’s gotten even faster, at least that hasn’t changed about her. Gathering magical energy around herself and Spike she prepared the teleportation, imagining a clear space a hundred or so meters away from the bunker, she assumed that would be far enough to prevent much of the damage from the explosion's blast wave. With a loud pop the unicorn and dragon disappeared in a flash of purplish light.
A second later another purple flash appeared in a small clearing between a couple of destroyed houses. Shaken from the teleportation, but determined not to let Twilight down, Spike took a deep breath, lifted up the letter and exhaled a burst of magical green flame. The letter was quickly consumed, turning into a sparkling greyish cloud of smoke that began to drift away.
The whine reached an almost unbearable pitch at the same moment Spike exhaled. Twilight looked back she saw streak of rainbow-colored light rushing straight down towards the town hall, where they had been hiding just few moments before. With less than a second to spare, Twilight brought up a magical shield.
When Rainbow Dash struck the ground there was a bright flash of light. A tremor quickly shook the town before the area around the town hall was shattered and thrown into the air. Half a second later an explosion was heard and a blast wave rushed out from the impact point. Homes closest to the impact were completely destroyed; the rest were ripped to pieces. Large, jagged chunks of wood flew through the air in all directions.
Had she not brought up the shield both she and Spike would have been skewered a dozen times over. Twilight grunted and stumbled back as the blast wave hit her shield, but regained her balance just in time to brace for the debris.
A shiver of terror passed through Twilight, That would have done more than simply killed them if I hadn’t gotten them out of there when they did. Rainbow had really just tried to obliterate them…
As the rush of debris began to calm Twilight was able to relax a bit and turned to Spike, “You okay?”
Spike staggered to his feet and dusted himself off, “A little shook up, but other than that fine. Your shields are getting better.”
Seeing nothing else hit her shield Twilight let the magic dissipate and trotted over. “We should have a couple minutes before the cloud clears and they start looking for us, let me give you quick check up just to be sure, you never know what kind of internal effect something like that can have. Stand still.” A purple glow covered the unicorn’s horn as she leaned toward the dragon.
“Twilight, just because we have minute or two doesn’t mean we should just stand here while they are so close, we need to get away from here!”
“Spike I don’t want to teleport you if you’re injured! Teleportation has always been a little dangerous even when everypony was in good physical condition. We never figured out if there were negative impacts on injured ponies or dragons I don’t want to find out now!”
Hearing the anxiety in her voice Spike sighed. “Fine, just be quick about it. I don’t like standing out in the open, even if they’re distracted."
A magical aura enveloped Twilight's horn as she leaned down towards the Dragon. After a moment’s hesitation Twilight said, in a voice filled with sadness, “I love you Spike, goodbye.” And with that Twilight touched her horn to the dragon’s forehead just as a shocked look appeared on his face.
“Twilight what are…” He was cut off midsentence as his eyelids drooped and the spell washed over him. He was quickly on the ground curled up in a little ball, snoring away. It was a spell she had been working on for a couple weeks after they’d found 4th shelter and Twilight began formulating her current plan. The spell forced a dragon into hibernation, it was something she didn’t think would work on a full grown dragon, but it at least worked on Spike. Tossing a quick look back she noticed the dust cloud thinning a bit. Realizing time was running out she turned back and focused on the sleeping dragon before her.
She was planning a long range teleportation with another as the subject instead of a tag along. Picturing the large cavern high in mountains Twilight focused on the image of a bubble surrounding Spike. He was bathed in deep violet light as Twilight poured more and more energy into the spell, just to ensure his safety during the trip. Eyes filled with tears Twilight added one last surge of power and with a loud crack the little dragon disappeared.
Mildly exhausted from the large energy expenditure, Twilight dropped back onto her haunches and began to cry. All she could do was repeat to herself again and again that it was the right thing to do. The spell would have Spike sleeping for at least 100 years and there were gems stored in the cave for food. He would be safe, no one but she knew where the cave was and hopefully by the time he awoke the world would be safer. Sure, he would probably hate her for what she did, but at least he would be alive.
“Aww, what’s wrong, Twilight? lose someone you care about?” The mocking voice that came from behind her made Twilight flinch away.
Scrambling to her hooves, Twilight made a quick dash away from the voice before turning around to face the monster that had done this to the beautiful world. She had never gotten a good look at Discord while she had been running these past few months she always just assumed he had looked the same, she was right in a way, the basic components were the same, but that’s where the similarities ended. Twilight couldn’t help but cower from the figure before her. Unlike her previous encounters with Discord, this creature was much more intimidating, bestial… monstrous.
He was at least twice the size of his previous form. His arms and legs were more muscular and defined; huge, vicious claws tipped each of his fingers. His wings were much larger and more powerful; they looked as if a single flap of one could snap a tree in half. His horns had become enormous; the tips of them appeared so sharp they could run her through without any difficulty. His face was what scared Twilight the most; gone was the almost playful grin from before. In its place was a smile, complemented by an enormous fang, that practically dripped malice; there was not even a hint of joviality-- only hatred, only an urge to hurt. His eyes were almost worse. Where previously there had been a chaotic genius now there was a sadistic shine. That intellect was still there, but it was focused now, focused on her, and that scared her more than anything ever had before.
Noticing Twilight’s terrified expression Discord let out a slight chuckle. “Oh, I forgot, you’ve been running too much, you haven’t had a chance to take a look at my true self.” At this point Discord struck a ridiculous pose, one hand behind his head the other on his hip. “This is what I actually look like, not that tiny little thing you dealt with those years ago. I was low on power after my thousand year imprisonment, and before I was able to get any of my real power back you and your pathetic friends sealed me in a statue, AGAIN!” The last word was accompanied by an almost palpable anger as Discord stomped on the ground sending cracks spreading out for a couple hundred feet. One of the nearby houses came crashing down as the last few piece of support were shaken loose--Twilight also lost her balance, falling back on her rump.
“Fortunately, this time I spent some time just wandering around, performing small bits of chaos as my power returned. In addition I was able to plan…” His voice drifted off as his eyes lost a little focus a grin slowly forming on his face.
“Plan what, boss?” The voice of Rainbow Dash snapped Discord out his reverie and he turned to look at the new arrivals.
“Ah, looks like your friends have arrived dear Twilight, isn’t that wonderful?” He once again turned that hateful gaze to the cowering purple unicorn as each of her “friends” began to reach Discord’s side.
Rainbow Dash reached Discord first, far ahead of the rest of them, “Well, what plan? Anything awesome you need me to do?” She asked as she landed to his left, locking her eyes on Twilight, giving a snort and scraping the ground with her front hoof.
Giving Rainbow Dash an amused look, Discord simply said, “Revenge my dear pony. Well, revenge and then some simple chaos! Can I count on you to help me with that?”
“Well of course you can” Replied the pegasus proudly. “I am the most loyal of ponies after all.” Rainbow Dash turned her mocking gaze to Twilight and laughed, “Aren’t I?”
“Oh, leave the poor dear alone would you Rainbow Dash. And really, did you have to make such a large explosion? I’m going to be cleaning Ponyville out of my mane and tail for weeks.” Twilight tore her eyes away from Discord to see her other 4 friends arrive. Rarity was the one who spoke, an aura of magic surrounding her mane and tail, pieces of wood were removed and tossed away from time to time. “It’s good to see you again, darling. How are you? And where is my dear Spikey Wikey?”
At this Twilight’s expression took a much darker tone “You’ll never get him, Rarity. he’s--” she choked back a sob, “--gone.”
“OH, you think you can keep me from my adorable little dragon?” A cruel grin appeared on her face, “Well, I would say I’ll show you but you’re…”
She was cut off as Discord lowered a hand in front of her, wagging a finger. “Ah ah ah, no spoilers, takes away the surprise” Rarity simply huffed and focused on removing chunks of wood.
It was at this moment a blur of pink shot up Discords tail, and on his head between his horns appeared the bright pink earth pony, Pinkie Pie, “You got that right Discy, and you never want to ruin the surprise, especially when it’s a surprise party cause that takes away half of what makes a surprise party a surprise party!" Pinkie Pie then dove off of Discords head and with a flip landed next to Rainbow Dash at Discord's side and shot a grin at the creature. A grin that Discord returned in kind
“Do you have to be so chummy together? It’s creepy how close you two act.” Rainbow directed towards both Discord and Pinkie
“What’s so creepy about two kindred spirits getting along?” replied Discord.
“PINKIE'S NOTHING LIKE YOU, YOU MONSTER!” Everypony turned towards Twilight, on her hooves once more.
“Oh, so you’re finally rested enough to do something are you? About time, I was getting a little bored stalling for you.” Discord stood to his full height, any sign of the jokester from just seconds before was gone, in its place the vengeful monster again stood.
“What do you mean stalling, why would you wait for me to get my energy back?!” asked Twilight.
“I may want you to feel pain greater than any imagined before”, said Discord as he grinned, revealing many sharp teeth, “But I don’t want to do it if you can’t ‘try’ and do something about it, much more fun that way.”
“I don’t know what exactly I can do to stop you, but I’ll give my life trying! Even if I fail Equestria stills has Celestia. I’ve sent the last letter, you weren’t able to stop me, her plan has succeeded!” Twilight yelled.
“Letter? You mean this one?” Discord held out a claw and in it appeared a small puff of sparkling grey smoke that then condensed into a piece of rolled parchment. “Thank you very much, I don’t get letters often. Let’s see what it has to say.” With a snap of his fingers a pair of small reading glasses appeared on his face and he unrolled the letter. “...’Dear princess Foolestia…friends against me…alone…one last goodbye’, Oooh ‘last letter to you’, looks like someone has started to give up hope! Splendid!” Discord removed his glasses and tossed them into the air, where they turned into a fish and swam away.
“Wha…how…that’s not possible! Those letter go straight to Celestia. You couldn’t have that!” Twilight cried, her eyes beginning to water once again again.
“Oh, but my dear, she is here. She’s been with me for a long time now. Would you like to see her?” Discord leaned down toward the unicorn who took several steps back as the monstrous face got closer. Reaching eye level Discord turned so just one of his enormous eyes faced Twilight. “Look into my eye Twilight Sparkle, gaze upon your precious pony princess!” He blinked and when his eye opened Twilight saw a sight the made her legs weak and her heart shatter.
Celestia, chained in what appeared to be a dark room, illuminated only by a dim patch of light above her. Her legs bound tightly to the floor to prevent movement, her wings strapped tightly to her side. Chains and a collar held her head forward, staring out of Discords eye. Worst of all though was the expression on her face. Terror and pain dominated her expression, tears streamed from her eyes and her mouth was held open in what appeared to be a perpetual scream.
“What… what have you done? How could you have Celestia, nothing has happened to the Sun, it still moves as it normally does, that doesn't make any sense." Said Twilight, what she had seen preventing her from putting any real emotion behind the words.
“I’ve trapped your poor princess inside my…I guess you could say soul. I’ve bound her to the very essence of my being, her conscious and subconscious minds bombarded by constant chaos, never able to sleep, constantly aware of what I've done and am doing to her precious ponies. And as for the second bit...” Discord began making motions with his hands and Twilight watched in horror as the sun copied them exactly. "I've had control for awhile now, I just begrudgingly kept order just for this precise moment!" Discord reveled in the look of revulsion Twilight gave him. “Anyway, you know the best part about all this? Celestia hasn’t tried to fight it once! I would have thought she would at least put up a bit of resistance, but she just kind of accepted it, some princess she turned out to be…Oh! You have to hear this, it’s one of her screaming days!” And with that Discord coughed a bit and opened his mouth wide.
“Please, make it stop! I can't take it anymore! Stop the noise, Stop doing this to me! Just stopitstopitstopitstopit!” Hearing her teacher voice filled with such anguish caused Twilight more pain than she thought possible.
“Enough! Please stop!” Twilight pleaded, holding her ears, trying to block out the princess’s voice. Dropping to the ground, she couldn’t hold back her tears anymore.
“Aw, really? I think she was getting to one of the good parts!” Discord said as he stood back up his body shaking as he laughed. Seeing her shaking form Discord asked in a disappointed voice, “Oh come now, don’t tell me all it took to break you was that? I thought I told you I wanted a fight.”
Shaking her head, Twilight stood back up wiped her eyes, “No…No you haven’t broken me Discord!” She looked up at Discord, rage filling her eyes. “You’ve given me more of a reason to fight!” She pawed the ground, “I’ll make you pay for this!” Twilight began focusing her magic. She needed to cast two spells almost simultaneously, one right after a teleportation.
“Good, so what’s your big plan? Try and use all the elements by yourself? Simply try and blow me up? I can’t wait to see what you do!” Discord simply stood there, letting her prepare herself.
Twilight silently mocked Discord for making the same mistake he had those years ago, just standing there and letting them try whatever they could to stop him. But hey, she wasn’t going to complain. With the spells prepared she focused on her destination, the space right in front of Rainbow Dash. She focused the last bit of energy into the teleportation and felt it activate, as soon as the felt herself begin to change places she began the start of the second spell. It was a spell she had used the last time Discord appeared, the memory spell she had used to fix her friends before.
Feeling the teleportation ending she ignited the memory spell just in time to place her horn on Rainbow Dash’s head, a look a surprise appearing on her face before a violet light washed over it. Twilight pushed the memories of their friendship toward Rainbow’s mind, trying to find that clouded place that had been there the last time. She didn’t find it. Instead she felt a force strike her mind, sending her reeling. The spell backfired and launched her back across the clearing. She bounced a few times before coming to rest a few dozen few away.
Discord was rolling on the ground, laughter shaking his body. “Really, that was your plan?! Try and reverse what I did to them, you really thought I would make the same mistake twice!?” In the blink of an eye he was standing straight up again “Don’t insult me, Twilight Sparkle. That last time was just a small parlor trick, hide from them what made their elements work, their most basic essence.”
Shaking herself Twilight got unsteadily to her feet. “What--” A bout of coughing interrupted her, “--did you do then?”
“That’s the beauty of it. I didn’t have to do all that much, they joined me by choice!” Noticing a look of disbelief in her eyes he chuckled, “Oh sure it took a little persuading, but soon they were all following me and helping me spread my chaos!” He leaned a little closer. “I won’t say I didn’t do a little meddling, added a fail-safe. You just ran into it actually. I added a bit of myself to their minds, allows for a bit of control if needed.” He leaned back up, “So what I’m saying, Twilight Sparkle, is that your friends… are… part… of… me!”, as each of those last five words was spoken another voice joined Discords, and on the last, Discord and her friends spoke together in perfect harmony.
Twilight dropped to the ground, all will simply leaving her battered body. There really is no hope. Equestria, my friends, even Celestia, all under Discords control. She felt her head fall to the ground, she wanted to cry but couldn’t even find the will to do that. What more can I do? My plan failed, no more than failed, it was batted away like a fly I can't hope for the princess to come to the rescue. Discord is just too powerful now, too smart. There really was no point in fighting anymore.
“Yes! That’s what I was looking for! That look of total despair!” Shivers of delight ran through his body he began walking towards Twilight. “Now don’t hold too still there, don’t want to kill you in one swing... ” He began flexing his griffon like hand, the talons grew and sharpened.
Twilight felt the large presence approach her but she didn’t try to run, just curled up .
“Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle, with this I can end this foolish chase and get back to some good old-fashioned chaos.” He brought his hand up, point the fingers straight down and thrust his hand toward the pony
Even when her conscious mind didn't want to survive something in her subconscious still forced a flinch from Twilight as she felt the approaching hand and she closed her eyes. The last thought she had was, I’m sorry, everypony, I’m so sorry…
Then another thought came, then another and another all asking the same question. “Why am I still alive?” She opened her and looked up to see Discords hand, inches from her face. Curiosity trumped her fear and she tried to look past the hand, and what she saw was Discord with a look of amazement and fear spreading across his face.
“No, it’s not possible! You haven’t done anything until now; you don’t have the power to control me Celestia!” Discord screamed. His hand began withdrawing as he shook his head back and forth.
“And didn’t you find that strange at all, Discord? You really thought I would give up so easily? No, I’ve been biding my time, storing as much of my power as I could whenever I had a lucid moment in the storm of chaos you call a soul!” Celestia’s voice emanated from Discords mouth, Discord brought a hand to his mouth to try and stop it, but his attempts were futile. “It hurt more than anything to watch you destroy this world, but I knew I needed to wait for the most opportune time to strike, and this is it!” With that, sunlight shot from Discords eyes and he began to scream. His body fell to the ground convulsing.
Twilight's friends tried to approach but were batted away by his thrashing. The sunlight from his eyes grew brighter and brighter until everypony present had to look away for fear of being blinded.
As the light faded Twilight turned back towards Discord and met the eyes of someone that she hadn’t seen in months. Celestia stood above Discords twitching body, her body glowing with power. She walked over to Twilight and nuzzled her student. “You’ve done well, it’s time for you to rest.”
“But what about Discord, what about my friends!?” Twilight asked, finally regaining enough strength to stand.
“Don’t worry, we will save your friends, and stop Discord, but first there are things we need to discuss.” She began focusing magic into her horn, “You’ve kept your faith in my plan during your journey just like I asked of you. Now I need to ask for just a bit more; have faith in me now.”
Twilight looked towards her friends, all of them staring at Celestia in a mix of fear and wonder. Nodding in resignation Twilight turned back to the princess. “Alright, princess, I’ll trust you.”
Smiling warmly at her student Celestia let the magic wash over them and they disappeared with a flash of golden light.
They reappeared in a dark, cold room, illuminated only by dim magical lights. Twilight gave the place a cursory glance; it appeared to be similar to the bunkers they had gone to before but older, much older. “Princess, where are we?” Getting no response she asked again. “Princess?”
Twilight turned to see her teachers body on the floor. “princess!?”
Back in the clearing, Discord's shaking had quickly evolved into manic laughter. Rainbow Dash approached nervously. “Uh… boss, you okay?”
“Okay? OKAY!? I’m better than okay!” He picked himself up off the ground, still shaking with laughter, his eyes crazed. “The game has finally begun in earnest! Time for us all to have some real fun!" His maniacal laughter rising and rising in volume as it echoed throughout the clearing.
End Chapter 1
Disclaimer 1: This chapter was partially inspired by the song One Last Letter by Aviators, a couple of the lines in the letter are either taken directly from the song or modified lines from the song. Credit goes to Aviators for those lines, not me.
Disclaimer 2: I do not own My Little Pony, that belongs to Hasbro
Note from author: Again, this is my first attempt at writing a fanfic and writing in general so my apologies for the the quality. Constructive criticism is highly welcomed. I’ve got at least 6 or 7 chapters worth of ideas and I would like the later chapters to be of much better quality than this so any help with improving my writing is greatly appreciated.
Thank you for taking the time to read what I assume is an abomination to the written word and I hope you’ll choose to read more.