"This does not concern you, servant of chaos." Gloom's voice was a barely audible whisper.
"I disagree Gloomy. These ponies you were about to snack on happen to be my friends and under my protection. If you really are that hungry feel free to have some gefilte-flan." Discord was suddenly holding a plate with a strange piece of food on it. It looked like a lump of brownish jello with a fish head on top. The fish head wobbled slightly. "Isn't it delightfully weird? I learned the recipe from some kids I met on my travels through the dimensions. Oh, and don't worry Fluttershy the fish head is made out of tofu so no actual fish were harmed to make it."
"Huh? Wha?" Fluttershy's eyes weakly opened and she tried to stand before collapsing again.
"It's alright Fluttershy, rest now. Your old pal Discord will handle this," Discord said gently.
"Discord, be careful. That thing can-" Fluttershy's voice was barely a whisper.
"I know. I've met Gloomy before, I'll explain later when you're not in mortal danger," Discord never stopped looking at Gloom as he spoke to Fluttershy, "Now where were we? Oh yes, you were just leaving Gloomy."
Gloom's thoughts were the picture of frustration. I was so close, I had them. I could've finished this before it even began. But no, now I have the spirit of chaos in my way and Celestia is likely freeing herself. I could run, but where to? He can be anywhere he wants! If only he had intervened an hour later, it would be too late. I must keep them away from the Crystal Empire, the heart is almost ready and final preparations must be made. Maybe I can stall, my magic is flowing in faster now that it's split between 2 avatars instead of 3, I'm already stronger than before.
There was silence as the two spirits stared at each other. Gloom's eyes burned as he stared at Discord. Discord met his gaze and smirked.
"Oh please, you know mind magic doesn't work on me. Chaos can't be controlled, my thoughts are my own."
Sunset held her breath as she watched. As the seconds passed she noticed that something was building around Gloom. Darkness itself seemed to condense and ripple around him. He was gathering power! Charging up for something!
"Discord watch o-" was all Sunset had time to yell before Gloom fired a blast from his mouth. The shot was a direct hit and Discord vanished in an explosion. Gloom continued to fire into the cloud of smoke and debris for several seconds before stopping.
"Did you get him?" A voice whispered from behind Gloom. Gloom spun around to see Discord standing unharmed. Gloom's claw swung to shred Discord to ribbons. The swipe struck dead on but instead of tearing to pieces Discord exploded in a cloud of bubbles. Discord was suddenly standing on Gloom's head, or rather, dancing on his head. Tendrils of shadow sprang from Gloom's body and wrapped around Discord, who promptly tied them in a knot and vanished. Discord appeared in front of Gloom and his lion's paw swung to uppercut Gloom, "Shoryuken!" Gloom's jaw shattered then reformed as he tried to grab Discord. Everywhere Gloom attacked Discord just wasn't there anymore. Abruptly Gloom switched strategies, using frost instead of shadow. The ground turned to ice around Gloom, but Discord simply started ice skating, avoiding the spikes of ice shooting out of the ground at Gloom's command. A smoke screen appeared around Gloom, but it was blown away by a high powered fan Discord pulled out of nowhere. Gloom roared and lightning crashed into Discord from the sky. Discord simply appeared above Gloom and dumped a bucket of what looked like chocolate milk on him. The chocolate milk then exploded, twice. "Get it, cause it's double chocolate?" Discord chuckled, mocking the badly damaged Gloom. Gloom released a huge burst of dark energy in all directions and Discord vanished. Gloom looked around, snarling. suddenly Discord's head popped out of Gloom's chest, much to everypony's surprise and disgust. "You know Gloomy, things would be a lot better if you just lightened up."
"GOT YOU!" Gloom roared as his slime coated Discord. Gloom seized Discord and pulled him out of his chest. The ooze hardened around Discord and in seconds Discord was frozen as a tar covered statue, an expression of horror on his face. "Ha, overconfident idiot. Enjoy being trapped forever. Now for you my little ponies." Gloom walked towards the ponies. Sunset and Fluttershy, the only conscious ponies, couldn't believe their eyes. What could stop this monster if it could beat Discord so easily. Gloom stopped only a meter from them. The others were starting to stir, Twilight's eyes fluttered open, but the group was helpless.
Then Gloom smiled, "Psyche!" A zipper appeared and unzipped Gloom to reveal Discord inside an elaborate Gloom costume. "Ha, pulled the old switcheroo!" The ponies could only stare in shock and confusion. "He actually thought he could trap me. Maybe a few eons in that prison will improve his attitude. By the way-" He now addressed Sunset, "You must be Sunset Shimmer, I'm Discord, wonderful to meet you. Now, is everypony okay?"
The ponies and dragon all slowly woke up. "Discord? Where's that monster?! What happened?" Twilight asked.
"I trapped him over there in a statue of yours truly." As Discord spoke a group of bleachers suddenly appeared with a crowd of cheering Discords. "Oh you're all too kind, just being your friendly neighborhood hero and all." Discord began to wave and flex for the crowd of, hims.
"So what was that thing and how do you know it?" Fluttershy asked.
"Oh it's a long story, let me end this fanfic first then I'll tell you," Discord snapped his fingers.
They all lived happily ever after
The End?
"Why did you add a question mark?" Pinkie asked.
"What? I didn't, let me try again."
The End?
"It's still there," Pinkie said. The other's stared at Discord and Pinkie, having no idea what they were talking about. Twilight noticed that the eyes of the statue were starting to glow red.
The End??????NO???????!@#@%@%^RTSFGHZGSET^WQRYRFGJFVVSSFS NO!ARA$FGHFYUR???????????????????????
"C'mon you stupid story, end already." Discord continued to snap his fingers.
The E!@#!%#$$%$%^&~#%$Y%%&#RDDSGG010101010100001100001111011100001010SUFFERING!@##$$$@@HATE!@!$!#$%$@!
"Uh Discord?" Twilight said as the statue started to crack.
The !@#!#$!$#%YOUHAVENOTBEATENME!!#$@#$^#$&#!#%&*&^)(()(*))00010200201010100
"Okay now it's getting creepy," Pinkie said.
"Everypony, I don't think it's over," Twilight said, her ears down in fear. The statue shattered and Gloom burst out, his eyes crimson flames.
"DIE!" Gloom fired a huge blast of darkness at Discord, the shadow seemed to flicker and roar like fire as it thundered towards the draconeques like a bowling ball. Discord smiled confidently as the attack neared. Then Gloom swung his claw in some kind of steering gesture at the last moment, just inches from Discord the blast turned in mid air and hurdled towards the group of ponies, it's speed suddenly increasing to bullet level, giving no time to react. Discord could survive anything he couldn't dodge or deflect, but he needed a chance to react if he wanted to protect others. He went to snap his fingers, but it was too late. Twilight was in front of the group when the black flame struck, the last thing she saw was the darkfire ball hanging in front of her face as if frozen in time for an instant.
In that instant, something inside her snapped.
The shadow flame exploded, the world went dark for a second as the fire consumed rather than emitted light. Discord stood there, dumbstruck as he watched the huge plume of smoke that doubtless concealed the scorch mark that was all that remained of his only friends. He had failed to protect them. Gloom walked up to the stricken chaos spirit. "Pitiful." Discord turned to Gloom as the spirit of misery spoke. Discord simply emitted an incoherent noise, it sounded like the voices of multiple animals, snarls, growls, roars, and wails all mixed together in despair and rage. It was the voice of true chaos and madness. Gloom was well aware that this avatar was about to be destroyed, but it didn't matter. Discord would likely retreat into seclusion or descend into madness afterwards, no longer caring about the world that would soon belong to Gloom. Gloom braced himself, his Ponyville avatar already beginning to shut down, his Crystal Empire body will be unaffected by its counterpart's demise. In the Crystal Empire he continued the corruption of the heart. Discord reached for Gloom, tears pouring down his face but his mouth was twisted into a disturbing smile. A terrible magic began to build on Discord's claw.
A purple glow flashed from the smoke cloud. The two spirits turned. A pulse of bright violet fire cleared the smoke to reveal Twilight Sparkle. Her eyes shined blinding white and wild energy arced from her horn in all directions, the raw power had deflected Gloom's attack, saving Twilight and her friends, but something was wrong. Twilight twitched violently in a seizure as she levitated into the air, her horn shining brighter and brighter. The ponies backed away as the temperature around the unicorn climbed and the smell of ozone permeated the air. Lightning and fire sparked and flashed from her horn and cracks began to form along it. The fur on Twilight's coat began to ignite. The magic was building to a critical mass.
"She's gonna blow!" Pinkie screamed.
"Twilight!" Spike yelled.
"Magic surge! Really, really big magic surge! Way too big to stop!" Sunset yelled over the roar and crackle of Twilight's magic. Discord stared dumbly for an instant then looked at Gloom. He noticed that Gloom was also staring at Twilight, also dumbstruck. Discord acted first, with a snap he was by Twilight's side.
"Twilight that's too much! Shut it off!" Discord demanded. Twilight didn't respond, all she did was stare into the distance. "Never-mind! I'll take the edge off and we'll ride the wave!" Discord touched Twilight's horn with the tip of a claw. The energy stopped firing in all directions and instead a bright stream of purple light flowed from the horn into Discord. The spirit of chaos inflated like a balloon and glowed violet. Just when it looked like Discord was about to pop the stream ceased and Twilight flopped to the ground, back to normal.
"Twilight, Discord, are you both alright!" Fluttershy asked.
"Ugh," Twilight rubbed her aching head.
"Don't worry, I know just how to burn off all this magic," Discord said, "Hey Gloomy!" Gloom bolted, running away from Discord as fast as he could. "I'm a firin-" Gloom leaped into the air and started flying away, "-mah lazah! BLEAAHHHHHHHH!" A huge purple blast shot from Discord's mouth. The energy wave caught up to Gloom and utterly obliterated him. The magic continued until Discord deflated back to normal. "Wow, glad that's out. Is everypony alright?"