Chaos and Harmony - Crossing Paths

by ShootingRainbowStar13

Chapter 10: Discord's Revenge (Part 1)

Applebloom leaped out of the way with a cry, as Diamond's blast of red magic shattered an antique vase. She scrambled into a corner, trembling in fright.

Diamond turned to Scootaloo, who yelped and stumbled backwards. "What's wrong with you??"

"YOU'RE WRONG WITH ME!!!" Diamond screeched. She fired at the little pegasus, and Scootaloo only just jumped clear of the blast. It hit the floor and incinerated part of the rug.

"Stop, Diamond!! You'll destroy everything!!" Sweetie Belle implored as the rushed across the room, dodging rays of red magic. "DIAMOND, PLEASE!"

Applebloom ducked behind a table as the corner she was hiding in was blasted. She was panicking, vaguely thinking that even Diamond wouldn't try to actually kill some pony. Through her terror, she saw Diamond's terrible red eyes. She saw the coldly glinting red jewel embedded in her tiara.

And she knew what to do.

"GIRLS, IT'S THE JEWEL IN THE TIARA!!! SOMEHOW IT'S CONTROLLING HER!!! GET THE TIARA OFF HER HEAD!!!" Applebloom leaped out from behind the desk, galloping straight toward Diamond Tiara.

She even managed to bravely shout, "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS EVIL TIARA STOPPERS!!"

She stopped being brave when she was forced to hit the slightly burnt rug as a beam of red magic shot over her head, singeing her bow.

"YOU ARE NOT TOUCHING MY TIARA!!" Diamond erupted in a swirl of red magic, sending crackling electric arcs all across the room. Sweetie Belle screamed as one struck her right in her bare flank.

"SWEETIE BEEELLE!!!!" Scootaloo turned to run to her fallen friend.

"No Scootaloo... get the tiara!" Sweetie Belle struggled to her hooves, shaking with effort. Her horn sparked.

Scootaloo hestitated, then turned back and ran towards Diamond and Applebloom, who were playing a dangerous game of hopscotch.

Applebloom leapt forwards, and then jumped back with a cry as a blast of magic almost hit her hooves.

Scootaloo realized that Diamond could effortlessly hold them back with her magic. She had to catch her by suprise. She smiled as she picked up a golden plated hairbrush, knowing that the lessons with Rainbow Dash were paying off.

She threw the brush at the sparkling tiara. It was probably one of the most successful throws she had made in her life.

Unfortunantly, Diamond chose that exact moment to erupt in red magic, throwing Applebloom onto her back with a yell. The hairbrush bounced off the red barrier, smoking. Diamond turned with deadly speed and knocked Scootaloo off her hooves with a sparking red whip. The little pegasus missed the carpet and landed hard on the wooden floor.

Diamond wrapped both fillies in red magic almost effortlessly, throwing them both harshly against the wall. They groaned and slumped to the ground. Scootaloo tried to get up, but was pinned back by an aura of red magic. She struggled weakly, grunting with pain as the magic somehow dug into her skin. Diamond advanced slowly, chuckling cruelly.

"Diamond... stop... this isn't you..." groaned Applebloom. She struggled, but yelped as a snap of electricity struck her.

"Oh, I want this moment to last. You're wrong Applebloom... this is the real me!" She began to laugh, and she lifted her head, drawing red energy in great storm clouds around her horn.

Applebloom closed her eyes.

ZZZZZZZNNNZZZZZAAAAAAPPPP!!!

Applebloom realized that was not the sound of two fillies being vaporized, as she was still there to think that thought. She opened her eyes.

Diamond was stock still, her hair standing on end. Her red pupils had shrunk to little spots. As they watched, the filly tumbled to the ground. The tiara went skittering across the wooden floor, tinkling as it went. The red stone stopped glowing.

Sweetie Belle stood behind the spot were Diamond had been. She was panting, her horn glowing richly with pale green magic, but she was grinning triumphantly. Her eyes rolled up into her head, and she collapsed much like her older sister onto the plush rug.

"Sweetie Belle!" The other two fillies felt the enchantment lift, and they ran to the young unicorn.

"She fainted from exhaustion." stated Applebloom.

"How do you know that?" asked Scootaloo.

"Belive me, when ya work on the farm in the sun fo' a little too long... ya get ta know how it's like."

Sweetie's eyelids fluttered open. The grin returned to her face.

"Are you alright?" Scootaloo asked anxiously.

Sweetie Belle sighed with happiness. "I can do magic..."

They all turned to look at the other fallen filly. Diamond Tiara was sprawled on the floor, her eyes closed. The tiara lay gleaming in a patch of sunlight.

"Wha' did ja do to her?" Applebloom trotted over cautiously and tapped the filly lightly on the head.

"I... think I just stunned her. I'm not sure what I did, I just felt weird spark of magic when I got hit by that electric shock. I just harnessed it, and... bam, Diamond's out for the count!"

Applebloom stopped prodding Diamond and went to the tiara. She stared at the little red stone. Then she dug her hoof into the sides of the jewel and tugged. She succeeded in denting the tiara a little, but the gem would not come loose.

"Allow me." Sweetie Belle concentrated, narrowing her eyes and focusing on the tiara. Her horn started to glow. Her tounge stuck out of her mouth.

With a little pop, the jewel came away from the tiara. It landed in Applebloom's hoof.

Instantly, Diamond gasped in her unconciousness. Her horn shimmered as it shrank down beneath the purple and white mane from which it had come. She opened her eyes, and they were blue as a wintery sky.

The filly shivered with uncharacteristic fear. "Horrible... being controlled..."

She stared straight through Applebloom's eyes as if they weren't there. It took a moment for her to focus on the young earth pony.

"Take the jewel, I don't want it. I never want... I NEVER want to see it AGAIN!!"

With that, the poor filly turned and ran from the room, sobbing.

All three crusaders stared after her. Then Applebloom looked at her friends.

"Ah think that Twiligh' migh' like to see this gem."

---

The Tornado cut through the sky like a knife, thanks to the excess power of the Chaos Emerald. But if it wasn't for Silver and Sonic's weak idea of technology, the plane would have crashed multiple times from the unharnessed energy.

They were flying onwards, to the next source of chaos energy. Equestria was incredibly lucky to have all the Chaos Emeralds fall around ponyville, as Earth's Chaos Emeralds had been scattered all across the globe. Silver reckoned that it was because the jewels had traveled through a dimension and were already slowing down, so they landed close to the place they had broken through.

Sonic sat boredly at the controls. He had been for so long his butt had frozen to the seat. Knuckles was asleep and Shadow was lying on the back of the plane. Silver had fallen out of the sky twice from exhaustion and pain from the fight and was now sitting huffily in front of Shadow, glaring at the swooping form of Rainbow Dash, who was still flying despite the enlessly long journey.

It was already becoming night. The Tornado kept flying for as long as it could until the sun disappeared and the stars came out and Rainbow Dash finally fell onto the wing of the Tornado, passed out with weariness. Shadow had to grab hold of her and drag her to safety to keep her from falling off the plane altogether.

The bi-plane sank through the clouds. There was a valley below them, with stretching trees and little streams that glistened in the light of the moon. It was far too perfect for the seasoned fighters.

Sonic steered the plane to the ground, landing it in a wide open clearing. Once he was on the gound, he whooped with deilight and rushed off in a blur into the woods, leaving a trail of grass and leaves swirling in the air.

Shadow sighed and set Rainbow Dash down at the roots of a tree. She woke, yawning loudly and blinking her magenta eyes. She shot to her hooves and snapped out her wings, shooting off into the sky until she was only a sillouette in the moonlight. Shadow turned and helped Knuckles and Silver unpack some food supplies, muttering about irresponsible carefree blue creatures.

Within moments there was a small fire burning in a ring of stones. Sonic finally came back from his run through the trees, fresh and grinning. He took the chiili dog that Knuckles offered him and chewed vigorously.

It seemed strange that although Discord, Eggman and a bloodthirsty (love-thirsty?) army of changelings were after them and the remaining two jewels that could destroy them all, they were sitting in a beautiful forest glade at night enjoying a picnic for dinner. Sonic personally decided that this passed for chaos, and continued eating his chilli dog.

In a flash of multicolors Rainbow Dash returned, clopping over to the fire and sitting down. She turned to Sonic to say something, but froze in suprise.

"Whu?" Sonic asked through a mouthful of sausage and chilli sauce.

"What... are you eating?"

"Oh." Sonic swallowed and looked down at the rest of his chilli dog.

"Is that.. meat?" Dash wrinkled her nose.

Sonic realised that ponies were vegetarians. He felt himself flush with embarrassment as he nodded his head in response.

"So there IS something that you two don't have in common!" Knuckles exclaimed.

After that, Sonic fell silent. As the others chatted, he quietly told himself that he would not tell Dash that Chrysalis had taken her form in an attempt to defeat him during the changeling attack. He finished his chilli dog, just thinking.

Dash ate a salad sandwich, absently staring at the moon. Perhaps she was thinking too.

When they had all finished, Silver declared his sleeping quarters. "I get the Tornado's cockpit!" He dodged a spiked fist from Knuckles. They began to argue over the seat while Shadow merely huffed and pulled the chaos emerald from the plane's controls. He lay next to the fire with his fingers curled over the gem and closed his eyes.

Sonic yawned, and stood up. He turned and ran back into the woods. The clearing disappeared behind him, and he was soon alone. He didn't know how far he ran from the camp, but he didn't care. He ran straight up the tallest tree he could find, breaking through the canopy and into another world, one of stars and and moonlight. He stopped and gazed at the moon, before dropping down slightly and stretching out on a branch. Not so comfortable, but he had slept in worse places. He closed his eyes.

A swooshing of wingbeats made him open an eye. Rainbow Dash flew over the trees, landing smoothly next to Sonic on a second branch. He laughed. "You must do this a lot."

Dash sighed, folding her wings and slumping down. "Back in Cloudsdale. I fly out every night just to gaze at the moon. I've never told anyone this before, not even Scootaloo. Could you keep that a secret?"

"Why?"

"Just do, Sonic."

It was quiet after that. Soon Sonic could hear unfeminine snores coming from the blue pegasus. He chuckled.

He closed his eyes, recalling the first time he saw her three days before. She was so dramatic, announcing her name just to enhance the effect. Yes, Dash and Sonic were extremely alike.

He drifted asleep. Then it happened.

His eyes snapped open when he heard Dash's battle cry of "YYAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!" He almost jumped straight off the branch. He looked up and saw Dash flying right at a tall, lean flying figure, her wings outstretched and her face in a scowl. The figure just flew out of the way and grabbed her tail, making her yelp and kick backwards. Her back leg made contact with the figure's chest, and it gave a short cry of pain. Dash twisted around and punched it repeatedly.

Sonic launched off the branch and onto the attacker, adrenalin pumping through his bloodstream. He yelled as he smashed both fists into the thing's stomach. It grunted and doubled over, and Sonic saw his face.

It was Discord.

He spun in the air, trying to kick his chin, but Discord dodged and grabbed his leg, swinging him like a bat into Rainbow Dash, and they both went tumbling through the trees and landed hard on the leafy ground.

Discord laughed as he came to land. He folded his wings. "Much better, I prefer to be on land."

Dash sighed. "While we're asleep, Discord? Seriously?"

Discord smirked. "Ah, your sleeping forms. Did you intend to drop your head on Sonic's shoulder?"

"Wha-" Dash gaped for a moment, but quickly shook her head. "SHUT UP!" She flew at him, but he snapped his fingers and she fell to the ground. Her wings were gone.

She gasped. "No... not again..."

Discord laughed. "This is what would have happened in the other world if I had taken charge. Eggman performed terribly, letting Tails get away with the emerald..."

Sonic felt a surge of triumph. Their friends in Equestria had at least one emerald!

For a heartbeat, Discord met his gaze, and Sonic felt as if Discord could see straight through him into his mind. The draconequus's eyes narrowed.

"And now, to make up for the loss!" He snapped his fingers. His image began to spiral into the air, like water into an invisible plughole. In a second, he was gone.

"Make up for..." Sonic pondered for a second, before the relisation hit him. "The Emerald we got today!" C'mon Dash!"

"My wings..." for a moment Dash just stood staring at her wingless back.

"No time to let you run normal speed... I guess it's my turn to carry you. Grab my neck."

Dash drew herself together and clasped her hooves around Sonic's neck, and he shot like a bullet back to the campsite.

'He was right,' she thought as the wind whistled in her ears. 'The exhilaration is great, but just not the same as flying.'

When they returned, Discord was strangling Shadow.

It was unlike Discord to use actual physical contact... but there you go, he was chaos. And the mismatched hands that were clamped around Shadow's neck like a vice was very physical indeed.

Silver and Knuckles were still sleeping, for some strange reason. Perhaps Discord was forcing them to stay asleep against their wills. Either way, they were not helping.

Shadow was still holding the precious purple chaos emerald. He was struggling, attempting to chaos control out of Discord's grasp, but somehow it wouldn't work. The ultimate life-form was kicking at Discord and pushing against the arms with all his might, but even he could not escape the hold of Chaos. Discord chuckled and tightened his grip, and Shadow's efforts began to weaken.

Sonic crossed the clearing in one bound and launched a furious kick at Discord's side. For just one moment, Discord was caught off guard. Sonic took the chance and leapt off his place on the ground and before Discord knew what was happening he prised Shadow from his grip, took hold of the limp hedgehog and jumped away.

Shadow had already recovered by the time Sonic landed neatly on the grass, and he stood up and glared at Discord. "You.. will... PAY... for that."

Discord merely laughed, and he thrust his lion paw at Shadow. He leapt back on instinct, but instead of the expected strike came something much worse.

Shadow began to rush forwards, but he suddenly found it hard to move and was soon frozen to the spot. He looked down in disbelief as his legs hardened and froze, his torso immobilizing, the white fur on his chest becoming firm gray, and before he had the sense to adopt a relatively good pose his vision turned black and he was trapped.

Sonic simply gaped in equal horror and amazement at the stone statue that had been Shadow a heartbeat before. His granite face portraited a look of mixed confusion and panic, his arms were frozen in their lifted position, and his legs were still stuck as if he was still in the first steps of a run. The chaos emerald was the only unfrozen thing, and as he watched it fell from the stone fingers and landed noiselessly on the ground.

And before Sonic could return to his senses Discord was snapping his fingers and the jewel was in his hands.

"Oh no you DON'T!" Dash was only a regular earth pony at the moment, but she was still pretty darn fast. She barreled into Discord's legs and knocked him over, grabbing the emerald as she did.

Discord flipped his tail around and whipped the emerald out of her hooves, and it went flying. Pony and draconequus and hedgehog raced after it, and when Discord reached it first the other two leapt on him and began the strangest wrestling match in history.

Discord ached his back and clung onto the emerald and Sonic had himself wrapped around his neck, and Dash was tugging vainly at his arms. Discord them struggle for a little bit longer, then merely teleported away. He stretched himself to full height and admired his prize in the rising sun's light. Then he snapped his fingers.

"NO!" Dash launched herself onto his back just in time to disappear with him.

"DASH!!" Sonic ran uselessly to the spot where they had vanished and cursed himself for yet again being too slow.

But to his suprise, Dash reappeared in the air a moment later, and crash-landed on the grass. As he helped her up, he was even more suprised that her wings had reappeared. He stared at them in amazement. Discord let her have her wings back?

Meanwhile, Shadow was still a statue.

Sonic ran back over and tried to shake his cold, hard arm. "Shadow... Shadow?"

Dash flicked her tail and tentatively flew over to Sonic and Shadow, as if checking that her wings were really there. She landed next to Shadow, and quietly shook her head.

"The only way we could keep Discord under control was by turning him to stone. This.. this must be his revenge. When we set him free to be... reformed..." she winced slightly. ".. he mentioned that being a statue didn't mean that he couldn't hear every word we said. Shadow is alive in there, Sonic, but unless we get the Elements of Harmony all together we can't bring him back."

She rubbed her own Element of Loyalty, which she had not taken off ever since she left Equestria. It shone slightly, and a wisp of red magic flew from it and circled Shadow. The statue glowed for a moment, but as the magic sunk into the stone the glow stopped.

"Then we need all the Elements!" cried Sonic. "We need to go back to Equestria!"

"Sonic - "

"We can't just leave him like this!"

Rainbow Dash hesitated. This was definitely part of Discord's plan. He was forcing them to return to Equestria while he took the opportunity to steal the last two emeralds. And he would do it in style.

Move on and beat Discord at his game? Return home and free Shadow? Her love for adventure battled her steadfast loyalty. And finally, Loyalty overcame the urge to continue.

"You're right, we can't leave him." Dash looked at Sonic and smiled. "I was feeling kind of homesick anyway. Equestria it is then!" She flew off to wake Knuckles and Silver, who were already stirring when Discord's spell was lifted.

Sonic looked back at Shadow, filled with new hope. As the clearing was flooded with watery daylight, he put a hand softly on the stone shoulder.

"Just hold on, Shadow. We'll bring you back."

Author's Note:

Hey Pretty Ponies,

I am sick and tired of my friends telling me to turn this into a love story, so you know what? I WILL. Watch out Equestria, Sondash is coming to town!!

Sorry if I just ruined everything.

Comments

[ShootingRainbowStar13]

Very happy with the number of likes!

THANK YOU!!

[SonicANIMEfan2013]

Wow.. pretty deep story so far.. nice development