Avatar: The Last Alicorn. Book 4: Alicorn

by Jeweled Pen

Chapter 21: A new adventure waits

“That's... a doozy of a wall,” Applejack mumbled as the ponies stared. They'd finally made it through the many mountains of temptation and could finally see out into the distance, towards the badlands. Or at least, they would have except a massive wall that reached up into the clouds had been raised all across the border, cutting them off from the wasteland.

“There's no way that was made by hoof,” Twilight muttered as she stared at it. “It's too... new. It had to be magic, but who? Discord? Why would Discord make it?”

“Maybe it was the zebras,” Rainbow offered. “Trying to keep Discord out? There's no telling what's over there, though. They probably have all kinds of weird magic.” She then snickered. “Or maybe Discord did put it up because he's scared of something over there.”

Twilight snickered and shook her head. “Right, Discord scared of something. No, it must be something to keep him out. But it must have taken a lot of magic to create such a thing. Bending, too...” She frowned as she looked over at it again. Parts of it appeared to be made of metal, though others were stone and some even glass. All melded together perfectly. The entire thing was just strange. It looked like something Discord would make, but there was no candy. “The Badlands are... mostly unexplored. Perhaps there are things in there other than the zebras?” She shook her head and started walking again. It wasn't like they had the time to examine it now. The world still needed them. The wall could be dealt with after Discord was gone, if even then. Not like it was hurting anything.

------

“Oh buck,” Twilight said as they climbed over another hill. The other ponies slowly walked after her and expressed similar sentiments.

“What is it?” Rainbow asked, a frown on her face. “I don't hear anything weird.”

“Ah think... ah think we're at ground zero,” Applejack said, her mouth falling down.

Ahead of them was a realm of pure chaos. There was grass, but it all seemed to be made of different candies and jellos, wiggling in the wind. Chocolate milk was raining down from the few cotton candy clouds, though some of them were raining up. Houses were flying around upside down, their owners drinking tea while they sat upside down on the chimneys. There were buffalo in tutus dancing around. Everything was just plain wrong and strange, making the ponies stare with wide eyed horror and fascination.

“Discord,” Twilight whispered.

“Oh, yes. He's definitely behind all this,” Sweetie said with a shake of her head.

“No! I mean, Discord!” She pointed a hoof towards a nearby fur tree. The tree snarled at them as it guarded its caramel apples. One of the apples had been carved into a little throne and Discord was sitting on it, rocking back and forth as he watched them.

The spirit chuckled as he eyed them. “My oh my. Finally decided to see me?” He motioned his arm out towards the great, wide open fields of his discorded world. “What do you think? I believe I'll call it Discordia. Do you like it?”

Twilight shook her head as panic rose in her. They weren't ready, they were still missing two of their friends. They couldn't take him down now. She took a deep breath. “W-what are you doing, Discord? What... is all this?” She looked around at what had once been a barren desert. Now it was more of a dessert. Long, empty flat plains where the chocolate mousse could run free.

“Oh, I'm just having some fun. You know how all this work can just tire a spirit of chaos out.” He snapped his fingers and appeared behind her, making her yelp and jump forward. “I see you're coming along nicely. Three of you out already? I was certain I'd get at least a few more years of glorious chaos.” He sighed and then snickered. “I see you even have Spike. Do tell me you plan on giving him one of the elements to fight me with? That has always worked so well for all of you. Perhaps he can be the new Rarity?”

The alicorn took a step back, fire forming at the tip of her horn. “Y-you leave Spike alone. He--”

“Oh, do calm yourself,” the spirit said as he reached out and pinched the tip of her horn, snuffing the fire out. “I'd think you'd...” He frowned and glanced back up. “A shame for them you haven't saved Pinkie yet.”

“Huh? Why would--” Snap.

------

Twilight smiled as Manehatten finally came into view. She glanced back to her friends. “We're here, Pinkie's just a little further away.”

Sweetie nodded and glanced towards the great city. The great walls still surrounded it, in good repair. There were craters around the walls from where the stars had fallen against the city, but the damage seemed to be healing slowly. The great dragon statues inside could be seen, peeking over the walls. There were ponies on the walls, peering out over the crowds. “Are you sure this is going to be okay?”

Twilight nodded. “I... I think so. I don't think...” She took a slow, deep breath. She couldn't believe she was having to say this. “I think Discord was telling the truth. All this is just a game to him, he doesn't think he can lose. He doesn't believe we can beat him.” She dug her hooves deeper into the sand. “But... that doesn't matter. Because we will defeat him and make him regret all he's done.”

“What about Rarity? Do yah think he was tellin' the truth about that?” Flowerbloom asked.

Twilight sighed and gave a little shrug. “I... guess? Maybe?” She glanced to Scootaloo. “But I have no idea what his little riddle meant. Do you?”

“Not a clue,” the pegasus said with a shrug. “I don't think it was at Canterlot, but I suppose it's possible. I wouldn't put it past Trixie to try and have both yours and her statue in the same place. To gloat over her two biggest threats.”

Twilight nodded. “That is something she'd probably do.” She looked back towards the city. “But at least now we have a destination in mind, we--” She paused and her eyes widened slightly. She froze in mid step. “Applejack, how's your sand bending?”

“Good. Why?”

“Take us underground, now.”

“What? But ah--”

“Do it!”

The earth pony frowned before stomping her hoof. The ground opened underneath and swallowed them up. The ponies landed in a small pile, making them groan. After a few seconds they managed to realign themselves and get back to standing. “Now, yah mind tellin' me what that was all about?”

Twilight took a slow, deep breath. “I... I saw Nightmare Moon. She was on the wall.”

Silence filled the hole as the ponies let that news sink in. The alicorn's horn lit up after a few seconds. “We'll have to dig our way in and keep our heads low.” She let out another soft sigh. “There's no telling how dangerous this will be, so everypony, be careful.”

There were a few small nods as the group started slowly making their way forward, Flowerbloom and Applejack leading the way. The sand was packed tightly with bending to keep them safe. Step by step they made their way closer to Manehatten and their trapped friend.

Comments

[eric-emanwu]

I think I know what this chapter is. This is the innoculously important chapter. That the chapter seems like an odd filler chapter before manehatten, but it actually contains some very important elements in the mix. Let us count the ways.

Item Banana. What? I can't use the normal numbers or discord will turn me into a newt, and I won't get better. Anyways, Item Banana is the wall. Even though it doesn't seem like something discord would do, perhaps that's his point. This must be where he's working on his secret project. If he has space to work quietly, he can work without prying eyes like Trixie or the reserve members of the story who might be able to find something out. Something important is in there. I can feel it.

Item Flower: Discordia. While that's mostly discord's place to turn the desert into dessert for the buffalos and chocolate mousse to roam, it's also his place to wait in ambush for team avatar harmony. Still missing the straight mares of Putting your Hoof Down, they can't blast discord right now, so he took some time to tease them about giving spike an element, that they're moving faster than he thought, and also a mysterious bit directed at the writer. "A shame for them you haven't saved Pinkie yet." That must mean Pinkie would know something about the original return of harmony that might've allowed them to see through some of discord's potential smokescreens. But she's not, and discord hit the fast forward button, forcing us to guess on filling in the gaps.

So, it seems that in the gap between the story, there was a brief conversation. It probably went something like this:
Discord: "Now avatar twilight, cutie mark crusaders and friends, Since you're all here, I could easily turn you all into frogs, freeze you with magic, send you overnight mail to trixie, or what have you.....Buuuuuuttt I won't."
Twilight & Everyone: "WHAT?"
Discord: "You see, if I did do something like that, it would ruin the whole game. I'm the game master, not the players, so in this campaign, I have no interest in just sending you back to start all willy nilly. Where's the fun in that? No, what I'm going to do is let you continue on to manehatten without incident.You see, I'm Discord. And after I messed up with Starswirl's team, I learned some pointers on how to handle an avatar the 2nd time around: Have a few minions to do your work and keep the avatar occupied. No, I'm going to let trixie continue her merry chase of you, and see which one of you wins. Since I did give her a little help with the sisters, I'm sure she'll pull out the win, but then again, the avatar is always full of surprises. (smiles innocently) And besides, I'd prefer a proper fight down the line with a more fair vessel if I'm going to square off against an avatar."
Twilight: "So, can we go now?"
Discord: "Ah! Not quite yet. Since you're doing so well with the current game, I think I'll give you a little bonus challenge to figure out where Princess Rarity is at. (Presents the riddle). Well, I'm off to make a mouse chase a cat for food. See you later team avatar harmony. Or not." (snaps his figures and disappears)
Rainbow: "Since I couldn't see all that, did what just happened happen?"

Well, they're back, with some idea of where to go. However, it seems Nightmare moon beat them here, so we face another dilemma. How are we going to get Sokka while avoiding Ozai?

Like I said, I think this is a small but important chapter for the long run, so I'm interested to see where you take it.

(Just you wait...My little reviewer.) Shut up discord!