Eljunbyro

by Imploding Colon

Loyalty's Labyrinth

With a grunt, I clasp another ball of dense clouds between my hooves and soar up to the bottom edge of Cloudsdale. I slap the wispy material against the structure, giving it a good buck pack it in thick. That accomplished, I twirl—hyperventilating—and dive towards another island of floating cumulus below.

I've been frantically working at this for hours now. Police ponies tried tracking me down. Pegasi guards attempted to stop me. But I outflew them all. What else was I to do? Cloudsdale could have fallen at any moment. If only one pony had the guts to do anything about it, she wasn't about to let anyone stop her.

I grabbed another cluster of clouds and zoomed straight up for the foundations of the levitating city. Discord would have to have had the power of twenty alicorns if he wanted to zap this thing from the sky. And even if he did make it all fall, I wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of making it go down easy.

I flew towards the cloudy base of the maretropolis and started layering the cumulus bits over the surface. As I did this, I felt a change in the wind. I realized that it wasn't the air that was changing, but something in my head. Some of the spiraling had stopped, making me realize that I had been dizzy the entire time up until then.

Briefly, I lingered in mid hover, a very dangerous thing considering the looming fate of Cloudsdale. But instead of focusing on that, I was having a moment of clarity. And through that widening hole of thought, colors were stabbing their way through to me: colors of purple, blue, gold, pink, and—last but not least—green.

I gasped. I reeled. I clasped onto my head as waves of pain overwhelmed me. The dizziness melted in the midst of it, like I was touching down, landing in the garden labyrinthe, staring at Discord. He was staring back, only this time he was sneering. Since when do messengers who deliver dire warnings sneer?

I felt the stab again. It pierced my heart this time, instantly producing tears. I never cried, and yet I bawled like a little foal. It took every ounce of my strength to keep my wings beating, to keep me so high up in the air as my spirit plummeted towards the center of the earth.

I clenched my moist eyes shut and seethed. When I opened them again, I was not levitating beneathing Cloudsdale. I was not in the skies over Equestria. My vision was ripping away from my body, absorbing all the colors of light, and zipping south, over the hills, through the trees, past the floating chaotic maelstrom that Ponyville had become, and into the center of town.

The Elements....

Comments

[Cynderfall]

Huh?

[North Bound]

I agree: "huh"?
But um, that green definitely has to be an Applejack reference. So this is perhaps her element trying to get through to her and pull her back to the other elements. It's trying to reconnect.
No! That's it! She's feeling the elements activate!

[Ledomare]

1621483

BRILLIANT

...aww, wait. Spike doesn't get a color. Guess he wasn't the new Rainbow Dash.

[IfOnlyICouldDeactivate]

Wha-?

I like 1621483 's idea. A link between the elements...

Perhaps that is the key to bringing them all back? We can only hope...

Onwards!

[MellowMabari]

Oh yeah, her feeling the Elements activate would make sense. But she's gonna get there too late...

[Personifire]

Oh lord. The divergence is about to happen.

[Psyco Josho]

The missing color is red.

[bigchibz110]

Mind=ldsahfj.dlafhzxk.cfdcmsc;sd
me likes

[Rara]

That's an interesting method she used to "protect" Cloudsdale. I figured she was going to try and evacuate everyone, or start flying around the city getting more and more paranoid on her guard duty.

[dashie76]

IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!

So the main thing in this chapter is that it's unclear what freed Dash from Discord's spell. I agree with Vortex Timer in that she probably felt the Elenents activate. But it's also possible that she subconsciencely realized that what she was doing was wrong. These are my thoughts so far.

-MASH

[AppleTank]

Personally, I think its the Elements burning into a pile of ashes.

[dafiltafish]

this is going to scar belle's mind.

[CrimsonPhoenix]

so this is what is different in here than from the show.

[Regidar]

1621483 I must concur with that
Good job, mate

[Super Trampoline]

oh noes!

[whizzball1]

Exposition in a few chapters. It's coming.

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

The Elements are calling.

[Zecoro]

1884516 I think it's her friends...

[**Beert]

Eeyup. I don't know how people came up with 'elements are activated' theory, because why would she cry? She just felt her friends die, that's what happened.

[Tim the Planes-pony]

Uh Oh!

[Aiyonbeam]

Oh man.
This is where the split happens, isn't it?
In the show, Discord just laughs the rest of the M6 off, but in this, he must've turned them to stone, or did something to them.
And now we know almost all of the full story.

Celestia would be Van Hohenheim, then, leaving Whitemane as... I dunno, maybe Izumi? She's not harsh enough. Needs more thought...

[Tim the Planes-pony]

I grabbed another cluster of clouds and zoomed straight up for the foundations of the levitating city.

Discord's exact quote was that the foundations of home would CRUMBLE without her, clouds don't crumble. Granted, Discord probably COULD make cloudsdale crumble, given what he is, but that would be way too simple for him. That should have been her first clue, but then she wasn't in her right state of mind, and will unfortunately pay for it dearly.

04/22/2017 20:57 UTC

[Quirky View]

8113348
Clouds are also not opaque up close but they are in Equestria and Discord had nothing to do with that.