Pinkie's sisters unleash a powerful enemy that is determined to make all of Equestria identical.
When Pinkie's sisters dig up an ancient living weapon designed to fight Discord, they don't know that they have unleashed a massive threat to Equestria. How will the Princesses and the Mane 6 fight a force that keeps growing stronger and which they don't want to harm? After all, how can Pinkie fight a creature with her sister's face? (A sequel to An Earth Pony's Guide to Magic, though probably possible to read without having read the first fic in the series)
A/N: All right. So, I’ve gone ahead and started a sequel to An Earth Pony’s Guide to Magic (and am likely turning this into a series of fics as I have ideas for future plots as well). That said, I think that this fic should be understandable without having read the first fic in the series as Star Swirl isn’t difficult to understand character-wise and she’s been reduced from protagonist to secondary character. I’m still looking forward to other people writing about her and this version of Equestria though. Also, warning, this fic is significantly darker than the last, but it shouldn’t be full on GRIMDARK.
More than Forty Blinks
Chapter 1: Introductions
“All right,” said Blinky as she placed her hoof against the side of the mineshaft. “It’s about there.”
“And you have no idea what it is?” asked Inky as she walked out of the shadows and into the torchlight. The place was otherwise empty.
“I’ve never felt anything like it before!” replied her younger sister. “It seems like a gemstone, but it’s hollow with something inside it and the shape seems different every time I check!”
“Let’s find out then,” said Inky. She turned around and bucked the wall of the cavern, reducing the surrounding area to rubble. The rubble slowly shifted downwards, revealing a pulsing, colour-changing gem-like object. Its shape was irregular, but rapidly shifting. The sisters concentrated on their connection to the earth in an attempt to understand what they had just uncovered.
“It seems to be using the natural flow of magic through the earth to alter itself,” Blinky commented.
“There’s something inside,” the darker earth pony added with a distant voice. “It doesn’t feel...right.”
“Well, we have to crack it open then!” said Blinky.
“Are...you sure that that’s...a good idea?” asked Inky.
“What kind of archaeology student would I be if I didn’t find out what’s inside?” asked the light grey pony with enthusiasm. “I have to ask, ‘What would Daring do?’”
“All right,” sighed Inky. This time, she bucked the crystalline object, shattering it into shifting pieces. Inside was a white sphere about the size of a pony. It rolled forward and the path it left behind was equally white and as smooth as glass.
“HOW FORTUNATE I AM TO COME ACROSS THE DOMINANT SPECIES, THE INSTANT I AM FREED!” said a voice.
“Hello?” asked Blinky.
The older sister began to back away slowly. “Blinky...I’m scared.”
“Don’t mind my sister. She’s a bit shy,” said Blinky.
“HER MANE IS ASSYMETRICAL,” replied the voice. “THAT IMPERFECTION SHALL BE PURGED.”
“That’s not a nice thing to...” began the archaeology student before the ball rolled forward and touched her. “Wh-what’s happening to me!?” she gasped as her hoof turned white and her legs began to follow. The ball’s shape began to shift.
“Stop that!” cried Inky. “Leave her alone!” She stomped her front hooves down and a boulder rose from the ground. She spun and bucked it at the then amorphous blob as Blinky’s cutie mark flickered and disappeared. The rock smashed into many tiny, white balls of identical size.
“YOU DARE TRY TO HARM ME!? I AM GIVING YOU A CHANCE FOR PERFECTION! TO BECOME PART OF SOMETHING GREATER! RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!” There were now two Blinky’s in front of Inky, though each was cutie mark-less and white, save for their red eyes. “THIS IS AN ACCEPTABLE BASIC MODEL!” They turned to Inky and poked her. She screamed as she transformed into an identical looking mare. As she did so, they said, “WE ARE CONFORMITY! YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED! YOUR SPECIAL TALENT SHALL ADAPT TO SERVICE US! RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!”
Back in Ponyville, Doctor Whooves was trying to revisit a picnic he’d had with his family. Nothing happened. After running a quick check with growing panic, he noticed that the only time magic he had access to was his internal clock. He immediately started running in the direction of Canterlot. The last time he had lost his powers, a certain draconequus had stopped being a statue. He needed to warn Princess Celestia that something was wrong immediately.
(/)
Princess Celestia was sitting before the Day Court and was busy listening to a petition by Baroness Gem Dust to relieve the costs of freight transport when one of her guards walked over and whispered into her ear, “A pony claiming to be ‘The Doctor’ is demanding to see you, Princess. He says to tell you that he finds ‘time unmalleable’, whatever that means."
Celestia’s smile dropped and her eyes widened. “Court is adjourned! We will reschedule the rest of the agenda!” she ordered to cries of protest. Celestia ignored them and flew to the window. She quickly found the statue she was looking for. “Still there,” she sighed. “Unless it’s an illusion. Spear Point, wake Princess Luna and tell her that I need her to guard Discord’s statue and check that nothing’s wrong with it.”
“Yes, Princess.” A guard saluted and left the room.
“Battle Ground, take me to The Doctor.”
“Right away, Princess.” The original guard led her into the next chamber where Doctor Whooves was pacing frantically.
“Blimey, am I glad to see you, Princess,” he sighed.
“What happened, Time?” asked Celestia.
“Just wanted to do a routine visit to a former picnic when I realised that my internal clock is the only thing working,” replied Doctor Whooves
“Have you checked with your colleagues yet?” asked Celestia.
“No. I wanted you to be the first to know.”
“Thank you,” said Celestia. Thankfully, all time pones who had agreed to work with her had been enchanted with a connection to her, in a similar way to how she magically infused her Day Guard and Luna her Night Guard, though obviously not to the same extent. Still, it made situations like the current one easier. She lifted her glowing horn and in a flash of light, the room was filled with ponies with hourglass cutie marks. Colgate removed her scrubs.
“Princess, what’s wrong? I was with a patient.”
“Are they in danger without you?” demanded Celestia.
“No,” admitted Colgate.
“Then I need you all to check if you have access to your time magic beyond your internal clocks.” Colgate’s eyes widened. “I don’t know how long that’ll take me!” she cried in panic. The room was soon filled with similar cries of dismay.
“Calm down, my little ponies,” said Celestia. “I am doing my best to find the root of the problem and solve it. I have others I need to see desperately first though.” With that, she teleported away.
(/)
Twilight was busy reshelving again when Celestia teleported in with a bright flash of light. “Holy guacamole!” cried Spike as he shielded his eyes.
“I’m sorry to drop in on you like this, my faithful student, but I need your help with some tasks more easily explained in pony.”
“What’s the matter, Princess?” asked Twilight in concern as she moved forward.
“I have reason to believe that Equestria is under threat from a dangerous foe, but I’m unsure from who. Firstly, I need to make sure that your friends are all fine.”
“They seemed fine last time I...”
“Bring them to me!” Celestia urged.
(/)
The bearers of the Elements of Harmony were soon assembled. After looking over them, Celestia sighed. “The good news is that you are still connected to your elements, so I do not think that Discord could have escaped, though I have Luna guarding him in case. The bad news is that I have no idea what the problem is then. So I am asking you all to help me with my investigation by searching for anything out of the ordinary. I will let my other agents know as well. Twilight, I need your help in speaking to a former classmate of yours. I understand that you met her again recently and were amicable to each other, which is good as we don’t get along well.”
“Why wouldn’t she get along with you?” asked Twilight. “And why is a former classmate of mine involved?”
“I’m sure she’ll explain that to you later,” replied Celestia. “The rest of you can search in the meantime. We will be at the gates of Tartarus.” With that, she teleported out with Twilight.
(/)
Twilight and Celestia reappeared on the cracked ground before the gates of Tartarus. “Why are we here, Princess?” asked Twilight.
“You’ll discover that soon enough, Twilight,” replied Celestia. “For now, follow me.” Celestia led the way as she walked right up to the gates themselves. They were charred and rusted pieces of black, twisted wrought iron topped with spikes, covering a large, dark cave whose entrance seemed to be a jagged, toothed maw stained with blood. The cave was filled with an unnatural darkness and thick fog which smelled of sulphur. The walls of the cave glowed with a deep red as the searing lava passed through them and the floor was covered in ash which filled the cracks in the ground. Above the gates was an iron plaque on which the words, “Remember that there is still hope, all who enter here,” were written. In front of the gates were a large three-headed dog and an ornate desk covered with paperwork. Behind the desk sat a dark coated miniature alicorn with a pale blue mane and a grim expression. On her flank was a cage of bones encasing a pair of red eyes in the darkness.
“Celestia, to what do I owe the...pleasure?” she asked.
“Plutonia, I already know what you look like. You can drop the illusion.”
“This is more official. It is basically my uniform. There are expectations of what the alicorn of death should look like.”
“Well, I brought one of your old class mates. Surely you can drop the disguise for her?” Twilight peeked around Celestia and the other alicorn smiled as her coat shifted to bright yellow and her mane became a shorter, fluffier purple. She was now obviously a filly, though her cutie mark remained.
“Twilight! Thanks again for returning my dog!"
“It was a pleasure, Pluto. So, how’s magic kindergarten?”
“Same as it has been for decades.” She glared at Celestia.
“You are only 700. You need time to train properly,” said Celestia.
“You passed Cadance and she is only 180!”
“Cadance is only a demi-alicorn and as such matures much faster than we do. Also, Cadance never had a temper tantrum that resulted in the souls of the dead wandering aimlessly for three days, forcing the spirit of her predecessor to fix up the mess and resulting in the legend of the Headless Horse.”
“Firstly, that story is awesome,” said Pluto lifting a hoof in divine proclamation. “Secondly, stripping me of my title was way too harsh a punishment! Thirdly, what does that have to do with my lessons!?"
“If you don't know, you're obviously not ready to pass.” Pluto glared at her again, but Celestia ignored her gaze. “I am here because I need to check the book,” Celestia said firmly
“And which book might that be, Celestia?” asked Pluto as she fluttered her eyes innocently.
“The red one,” replied Celestia.
“Well, to apply for that, you will need to fill out these forms in triplicate.” She levitated a pile of scrolls onto the desk. “You know that the details in this book are given out on a ‘need to know’ basis.”
“Plutonia, Equestria may be under threat. The last time I suspected that, I nearly lost Canterlot! Please don’t be difficult.”
“Please, Pluto. We need your help!” added Twilight.
Pluto sighed. “All right, Twilight. For you.” She levitated up a red covered book with the title “The Book of Great Evils”. “I will be reading it though. Let us start at the beginning. Morning Star...”
“I refuse to believe that he is alive,” replied Celestia. “Cadance is his current successor and he was much more powerful. He would have taken back his powers from her if that were true. Until I have confirmed that there is something wrong with her, I will believe that she is fine."
“All right. I will stop with chronological order and I will just throw out names. Tell me when you want me to elaborate. Tirek, Permafrost, Chrysalis, Grogar, Catrina, Havoc, the wizard of the crystal mines, the windigos, Tiamat, Cornucopia while under the influence of love potion...”
“You cannot blame her for that!” cried Celestia.
“She still brought a country to ruin. Her prince is listed here as well. Being listed in here has less to do with how evil one was and more to do with how high a threat they posed. Speaking of which...Nightmare Moon.” Pluto raised an eyebrow.
“Next!” hissed Celestia.
(/)
Pinkie climbed her way out of the grand piano and onto the stage. She then ran over to a grey earth pony mare and hugged her. “Cousin Octy! How are you!?”
“Pinkamena, we’re trying to practice here!”
“Aw, Octy. Don’t be like that! I just wanted to know if you’d noticed anything unusual! I’ve told you a zillion times to just call me Pinkie! I know you can do it! You manage sometimes!”
“All right. Guess I’ll have a look-see out at the farm next.” Pinkie smiled and jumped back into the piano and crawled out from under a rock. “That’s funny,” she said as she twisted her head into odd positions to examine her body and look under a rock as she raised an eyebrow. “I’m all the way out here! How’d that happen?” She then turned around and gasped. Her ancestral home was now completely smooth and white, as were the surrounding fields she had failed to arrive on. The rocks were all unnaturally spherical and nopony was in sight. Pinkie ran into the house and began searching for her family, but found no trace of them. Her mane began to sag in worry and she grabbed one of the round, white rocks before heading for the boulder that she had arrived under.
(/)
“...The Smooze, Discord...”Plutonia continued to drawl before Pinkie popped out from under her desk. “Who are you and what are you doing here!?” shrieked Pluto. “If you are an inmate, I suggest that you surrender now!”
“This is Pinkamena Diane Pie. She is the Bearer of Laughter,” sighed Celestia. “She is very good friends with Twilight Sparkle. She is also charmingly eccentric. Did you find anything, Pinkie?”
“My family isn’t home and everything’s all white and funny-looking! It’s all smooth! Look!” She held out the rock and Celestia froze
“White and smooth...Plutonia, what does the book say about Discord?”
“A lot. Son of Entropy and Havoc, Discord was the most powerful draconequus of his generation, partially due to the fact that he killed and ate his brother, Destruction, as well as his father’s avatar. Discord’s front left...”
“Skip to how he was defeated.”
“All right.” Pluto began turning pages frantically. “The powers and crimes sections are quite extensive for him. Ah, here we go. Discord was most recently defeated when he was turned to stone by the Elements of Harmony. At the time, the Bearer of Magic was Twilight Sparkle, the Bearer of Honesty was Applejack Apple the Fifth, the...”
“How about failed attempts during his previous reign?”
Plutonia frowned. “The attempt before the Elements of Harmony were used was the release of the Orb of Conformity by Justitia.”
“Of course,” Celestia sighed. “I need to check the magic in this rock.
“I know the perfect pony, Princess! Star Swirl!”
“Ah, yes. I remember her letter.” “But what does this mean, Princess?"
“I don’t know yet. I first want to be sure what this is.”
A Rainbow streak landed in their midst. “There’s a huge white patch on the ground and it’s growing towards Sweet Apple Acres!” Rainbow reported.
“All right, Rainbow. I need you to warn the Apple family. Twilight, Pinkie, I need you with me when I speak to Star Swirl. Can you take us there, Twilight?”
“I know the journey on hoof, so yes,” said Twilight. Her horn shimmered and they disappeared as Rainbow flew off back towards Ponyville.
(/)
Star Swirl dropped the tube she was holding in shock as the room was filled with a flash of light. She winced as the test tube cracked and looked up. “Princess Celestia! I’m so honoured to meet you again! And now you have Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of the Element of Magic and Pinkamena Diane Pie, Bearer of the Element of Laughter with you! What a wonderful day!” She dropped to her knees and bowed.
“Star Swirl, You know us well now. Why are you grovelling?” asked Twilight.
“Because I’ve never spoken to you together!”Star Swirl insisted.
“All right,” Twilight sighed. “We need you to figure out what kind of magic was involved in making this.” She levitated the rock over.
Star Swirl frowned and touched it with her hoof, whereupon her eyes widened dramatically. “I’ve never felt anything like it! Everything has been fundamentally altered to be more uniform. It feels a bit like Discord, but as if his magic had reversed and is not quite at that level of power. And...there’s also what feels like alicorn magic, but a different...no two different alicorns from any I know. They feel similar, but different."
Celestia sighed. “Please do not panic at what I am about to show you.” There was a flash and the four ponies were suddenly standing on a field of red dust, surrounded by a protective bubble. The sky had turned pink.
“I think I like this place!” said Pinkie.
“Did the rock feel like this place?” asked Celestia.
“Y-yes,” replied Star Swirl.
Celestia sighed again. "Then it is confirmed. This rock was created by Conformity.” They teleported back into Star Swirl’s apartment.
“Who’s Conformity, Princess?” asked Twilight.
“And where were we?” added Pinkie.
“We were on Mars, the planet associated with the alicorns who created Conformity,” replied Celestia
“Two? But I thought that only one alicorn could be associated with each planet, moon or sun at a time!” said Twilight as her eyebrows jumped.
“Conformity took a long time and a lot of power to be made. I could tell you the tale of her creation, but I can tell you almost nothing about Conformity herself. She was meant to be a powerful warrior designed to fight Discord. Justitia could not control her though and Discord quickly sensed that an individual was ruining his chaos, so he imprisoned her. She was not released when Discord was turned to stone though, indicating that the world is more harmonious with her imprisoned.”
(/)
One of Conformity’s bodies walked up to the door to the Apples’ home. She then turned round and bucked the door which shattered and landed in a stack of identical white planks. She walked in as Granny Smith stirred from her nap.
“Hellooo? Is somepony at the door?”
“DO NOT FEAR! WE ARE HERE TO RELIEVE YOU OF THE SYMPTOMS OF OLD AGE! YOUR DISTINCTIVENESS SHALL BE PURGED! YOUR LIFE SHALL BE ADDED TO OUR OWN!” Granny Smith rose from her couch.
“What’s that yah’re talkin’ abou’?”
“SURRENDER AND JOIN US! YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED! ACCEPT OUR GIFT!” The Blinky-shaped being moved forward and tapped Granny Smith on the muzzle.
“What’re yah...!?” cried the matriarch of the Apple family before her face was also reformed into a white likeness of Blinky’s.
(/)
“So yah ain’t seen nothin’ strange?” asked Applejack.
“Nnnope,” replied Big Mac as he shook his head.
“Help!” called Applebloom’s voice. Big Mac’s ear flicked and he frowned at the sound.
“But Ah hear somethin’ strange! Applebloom, where are yah!?”
At that moment, Rainbow flew down to meet them. “There you are!” she cried. “A huge white blotch is spreading into the farm!”
With that, Applebloom galloped into view. “Help! She looks like a pony, but she’s a monster! She did somethin’ tah Granny!”
“WE HELPED HER ACHIEVE GREATNESS! HER BODY WAS WEAK AND WE PURGED HER OF THE INDIVIDUALITY WHICH WEAKENED HER!”
“An where is she now?!” growled Applejack.
“They made her inta one of them!” cried Applebloom as she waved a hoof in the direction of the white pony.
“THERE IS NO LONGER AN EDITH SMITH! THERE IS ONLY CONFORMITY!”
“Yah monster!” yelled Applejack as she scraped a hoof along the ground. “Yah think y’all will git away with this!?”
“OF COURSE! ALL WILL BECOME ONE WITH CONFORMITY! RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!”
“Nnnope!” said Big Mac before galloping forward and kicking Conformity in the face. She flew backwards before hitting an apple tree which straightened, smoothed out its bark, whitened and dropped its now spherical apples in a neat pile. Conformity rose as Big Mac whitened and his muscular body shrank to the daintiness of a mare.
“AS WE STATED, RESISTANCE IS FUTILE! YOUR STRENGTH IS IRRELEVENT AS IT WILL BE ADDED TO OUR OWN!” The former body of Big Mac joined in. “BUT WE DO NOT WISH TO THREATEN EQUESTRIA WITH DISCORD BY ASIMILATING AN ELEMENT BEARER NOW! SO SPEAK TO US AND WE WILL LEAVE YOU AND APPLEBLOOM UNHARMED!”
(/)
Conformity’s four other bodies marched into Ponyville. Lyra turned her head to view the strange arrivals. She had always had an appreciation for novelty. But she was not alone in staring at the strange arrivals. “Changelings! The horror! The horror!” cried Lily as she grasped her face.
The stares only became more pronounced as they began to speak. “CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE! WE ARE CONFORMITY! BY VIRTUE OF LOCATION, YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO BE THE FIRST TOWN TO BE ELEVATED TO GREATNESS! YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED! YOUR SPECIAL TALENTS SHALL ADAPT TO SERVICE US! YOUR INDIVIDUALITY SHALL BE PURGED AND YOU SHALL KNOW THE GLORY OF UNITY! COME FOWARD AND ACCEPT THIS DIVINE GIFT!” Lily continued screaming. “YOU SHALL KNOW THIS GIFT WHETHER OR NOT YOU RESIST!” The bodies split up and began touching the bodies of the ponies with the typical results. The panicking only increased as Lily’s screams only got louder and the ponies tried running and flying away. Lyra tried to rise from her normal sitting position, but found that it had the disadvantage of being difficult to rise from. She was quickly tapped.
“When I said I wanted to know what it’s like to be a non-unicorn, this isn’t what I meant!” she cried, but this time, while most of her body morphed to Blinky’s likeness, her horn remained. The other bodies then sprouted horns of their own. The former body of Lyra raised her horn and grabbed a fleeing Cloud Chaser with her newly acquired telekinesis. Cloud Chaser screamed as she was tapped and Conformity’s bodies acquired wings which they immediately used to lift into the air and fly towards Canterlot.
(/)
“WE ARE WELL AWARE OF WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON WHILE WE’VE BEEN SEALED, APPLEJACK AND RAINBOW DASH! WE HAVE ABSORBED THE KNOWLEDGE OF THOSE WHO HAVE JOINED WITH US! WHAT YOU DO NOT REALISE IN YOUR IGNORANCE BROUGHT ON BY INDIVIDUALITY, IS THAT EQUESTRIA NEEDS US!”
“How do we need you!?” asked Rainbow. “WE ARE A FORCE WHICH WILL PROTECT EQUESTRIA FROM ITS MANY THREATS AND BRING IT TO GREATNESS!”
“Well, Ah don’t think we need yah!” growled Applejack. “Now give back Big Macintosh an’ Granny Smith!”
The white mare before them sprouted a horn. “DO YOU REALLY NOT NEED US!?” She then sprouted a pair of wings. “WE SUGGEST THAT YOU THINK ABOUT THAT!” She took to the air.
“We’ve got to stop her!” cried Rainbow before lifting off herself. Applejack grabbed her tail.
“Yah have tah warn Princess Celestia! Yah wings’re faster than mah legs. Ah’ll meet y’all at the barn!
“Right!” said Rainbow with a salute before flying towards Star Swirl’s apartment.
(/)
Rainbow flew into the apartment just as Celestia finished her explanation. “Princess! There’s a freaky white mare with red eyes turning other ponies into copies of herself! She just sprouted wings and a horn and flew off! They’re heading in the direction of Canterlot!”
The ponies in the room widened their eyes and dropped their jaws in horror. “It is worse than I thought!” said Celestia. “We need the Elements of Harmony!”
“Applejack’s at her barn!” Rainbow reported. “Rarity should be with Fluttershy in her cottage!”
“Then let us go!” said Celestia. They teleported to Fluttershy’s cottage.
“Oh my goodness!” said Fluttershy. “I was just asking my animal friends if they’d seen anything.” She looked at their faces. “Is something wrong?”
“We know who the threat is,” Celestia informed her. “Her name is Conformity and she is turning ponies into copies of herself.”
“How horrible!” Fluttershy exclaimed as she crouched submissively.
"Simply dreadful!" Rarity agreed. "How can an artiste work with eveypony looking exactly the same!"
“We need to use the Elements of Harmony to stop her!” said Twilight. “We’re going to fetch Applejack now!”
“All...right then,” Fluttershy nodded. They teleported again, this time to Applejack’s barn.
“Good. Y’all’re here,” she said.
“Yes, we need to stop Conformity with the Elements of Harmony!” said Twilight.
“Conform-who?” asked Applejack.
“The freaky mare from earlier!” Rainbow explained. “We gotta show her who’s boss!” She slammed her front hooves together. Applejack’s eyes narrowed.
“Yah betcha we do!” She turned to Applebloom. “Yah gonna be safe here?”
“She’s gone already! Ah can take care of mahself.”
A dark cloud drifted down towards them and coalesced before forming an image of Princess Luna. “Sister, I sense nothing wrong with Discord...”
“Keep guarding him. I’m not letting him loose again!”
“...but I sense alicorns entering Canterlot airspace. I do not recognise them.”
“So they’re trying to take Canterlot. We’ll be right over Luna. We don’t know much about this enemy and we don’t want to exacerbate the situation.” Celestia’s eyes suddenly widened. “I’ve just lost my magical connection to one...no two of my guards.”
Luna frowned. “That isn’t good. Are you sure that you don’t want me on the front lines. If alicorns are attacking us, our end of the treaty forbidding combat by members of the Cosmic Council should be nullified.”
“If she qualifies according to the treaty,” replied Celestia.
“She?” asked Luna.
“Conformity,” replied Celestia. Luna’s eyes widened. “This is a job for the elements, Luna. We’ll be right there. Return to concentrating on your post.” The cloud dissipated. Celestia’s horn flashed once more, but this time, they didn’t move. “I can’t teleport to the chamber with the door to the elements for some reason,” said Celestia. “I’ll get us as close as I can.” The next attempt took them to the passage just outside the chamber. The eight ponies ran (or flew in Rainbow’s case) to the door and entered. The room was completely white and featureless. Where the door to the elements once were stood a bare patch of wall. Standing in the room were three copies of Conformity.
“HELLO CELESTIA! IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME!” they said. “WE HATE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO YOUR MANE!”
A/N: Phew! So there we have the first chapter. I’m using a bit of stuff from other fanfics here, especially The Pony POV Series here, but anyone familiar with that series will be able to tell that I’ve adapted it a bit. There’s also some G1 references. Cornucopia is my name for the alicorn from Hearts and Hooves Day. Pluto is of course, the animation error from Lesson Zero. I’ve combined TVTropes fanon for her with my own. Permafrost is the alicorn villain from the fanon that the same thread created for Snowcatcher the Irreverent (who still needs her story told. I’ve offered to collaborate with the author who has taken on her story, but we’ll see.). Otherwise feel free to comment etc. Maybe, I’ll respond. Maybe Pinkie will and maybe Conformity will (she tells me that she isn’t assimilating humans YET though).
A/N: It seems that Conformity has generated quite a bit of discussion! I’m very pleased about this. You’ll learn quite a bit more about what makes her tick in this chapter. This will also be about the darkest chapter in the fic for...reasons. I must really thank my editors for their even more help than normal this chapter as well. Also, I made some minor edits to chapter 1 sinceputting it up.
Chapter 2: Discussion
“YOU AT LEAST KEPT IT ONE COLOUR WHEN YOU WERE IN YOUR TEEN HUNDREDS!” Conformity finished.
“B-Blinky?!” asked Pinkie as her face fell.
“YES! WE CHOSE HER BODY AS OUR TEMPLATE! IT IS AN HONOUR! BLINKAVERA WAS CERTAINLY A MORE SUITABLE CANDIDATE THAN EITHER OF HER SISTERS! WE MUST ASK THOUGH, HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO CONFIRM THAT WE WERE ACTIVE SO QUICKLY!? WE HAD TO ADD THE WING POWER OF MULTIPLE PEGASI AND SUPPLEMENT IT WITH EARTH PONY ENDURANCE TO GET HERE ON TIME!”
“Time magic was not working,” replied Celestia.
“OF COURSE!” Conformity nodded her heads. “WHAT COULD BE MORE CHAOTIC THAN THE DISRUPTION OF SPACE AND TIME!? NATURALLY, THAT WOULD BE THE FIRST THING WE WOULD STOP!” They gave a glare at Pinkie. “HOW APPROPRIATE THAT ONE AS CHAOTIC AS YOU WOULD BE KNOWN FOR SUCH THINGS! NOT EVEN YOUR MANE IS ORDERLY! IT MAINTAINS THAT DISGUSTING FRIZZ!”
“I hardly think that it’s appropriate to trade petty insults about our manes. It’s rather boorish,” Rarity said.
“YOU WOULD SAY THAT! PINKAMENA AT LEAST HAS THE EXCUSE OF NOT CARING! FOR YOU TO DELIBERATELY MAKE THOSE REVOLTING, ASSYMETRIC CURLS DEMONSTRATES THAT YOUR TASTE IS AWFUL!”
“Oh! It! Is! On!” declared Rarity before charging forward.
The central body of Conformity’s horn began to glow and Rarity was lifted into the air.
Celestia stepped forward. “Put her down. Now!” she whispered with a voice like ice as her horn began to glow threateningly.
“IF SHE IS WILLING TO BEHAVE HERSELF!” replied Conformity as she lowered Rarity to the ground. “THOUGH, WE WONDER WHAT YOU WERE THREATENING! WE ARE WELL AWARE OF HOW EASILY YOU COULD KILL US, CELESTIA! IF YOU GOT TRULY DESPERATE, YOU COULD SIMPLY DROP THE SUN! WHO WOULD SURVIVE THAT!? YOU!? THE GREATER DRAGONS!? THE GOLDEN-HOOVED CATTLE!? ANYONE WHO MANAGED AN INTERPLANETARY TELEPORT!? MAYBE THE CURRENT ALICORN OF DEATH IF THEY RIPPED THEIR SOUL FROM THEIR BODY! BUT EVEN IF THEY ALL FOUND A WAY TO SURVIVE AFTER HAVING THE PLANET SWALLOWED BY THE SUN, WOULD YOU REALLY BE ABLE TO SACRIFICE ALL YOUR SUBJECTS!? I KNOW THAT IN YOUR FIGHT AGAINST THE CURRENT CHANGELING QUEEN, NOT A SINGLE BYSTANDER WAS HARMED AND YOU LOST BECAUSE OF THAT RESTRAINT! YOU MAY HAVE INCREASED IN POWER, BUT YOU HAVE GROWN WEAK, CELESTIA! YOU DO NOT EVEN USE THE ROYAL VOICE ANYMORE AS IS THE SACRED TRADITION OF THE ALICORNS! EVER SINCE YOU NEARLY HARMED YOUR SISTER IN A FIGHT WITH DISCORD, YOU HAVE BEEN TOO AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS NECESSARY! WE HEREBY RELIEVE YOU OF THAT NECESSITY AS WE WILL DO IT FOR YOU!”
“I will find a way to protect Equestria. I always have.”
“WE ARE EQUESTRIA! AT LEAST, WE SOON WILL BE! AND AFTER THAT, THE WORLD! WE WILL FINALLY BE READY FOR OUR PURPOSE!”
“Your purpose to defeat Discord!?” asked Twilight. “It’s already been done!”
“YES! THESE ‘ELEMENTS OF HARMONY’ WERE USED TO DEFEAT HIM! AND YET, WE DISCOVERED THAT HIS PRISON IS ONLY AS STABLE AS THE BONDS BETWEEN THE ELEMENTS AND THEIR BEARERS! AND THAT HE HAS ALREADY BROKEN FREE ONCE BEFORE, BEING RECAPTURED ONLY THROUGH LUCK! THAT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR US, EVEN DISCOUNTING THE RIDICULOUS NUMBER OF OTHER THREATS THAT HAVE NEEDED TO BE DEALT WITH! IT IS TIME THAT SOMETHING WAS DONE TO PUT AN END TO IT ALL! HAVE YOU ALL FORGOTTEN WHAT IT WAS LIKE UNDER HIS RULE!? WE HAVE OUR PARENTS’ MEMORIES! MAYBE WE SHOULD SHOW YOU WHAT YOU SEEM TO HAVE FORGOTTEN! WATCH! WE HAVE TRANSLATED TO MODERN EQUESTRIAN!” Conformity’s horns glowed and an image was projected onto the wall.
(/)
Within the image, there was no sense to be found. The sky visible among the floating debris flashed bright neon colours as the purple-flaming chunks of ice fired popcorn in various directions. A giant cupcake waved as it ran past, grabbing and eating a rock before gravity suddenly shifted, sending it hurtling through the air. A tree tap danced on its blue leaves across the rocking ground. A waterfall of jellybeans fell into the sky. Green lightning squeaked as it darkened the scene. A boulder’s shadow was strangled by that of a flying mouse.Nearer by, the face of an alicorn stallion dominated the image. He had a silver coat and his golden mane flowed through the air. His horn glowed as he frowned in concentration.The golden glow of his magic surrounded the large, white orb which lay on the pedestal before him. The view panned to show that a pony of each tribe was guarding him and they were surrounded by a large force field.
“Your Highness, are you sure this will work?” asked the pegasus.
“IT HAS TO WORK!” replied the alicorn. He turned towards the pegasus and his cutie mark, a crowned helmet, became visible. “FOR TOO LONG HAVE OUR BRETHREN BEEN HELPLESS BEFORE THE MONSTER! WHAT GOOD IS IT BEING THE ALICORN OF AUTHORITY, DOMINANCE AND ORDER IF WE CANNOT EVEN CRUSH THE REBELLION OF A SINGLE DRACONEQUUS!? WE ARE THE GREATEST WARRIOR OF OUR FAMILY, YET TIME AND AGAIN WE HAVE BEEN DEFEATED! NO LONGER! THIS SHALL BE THE PERFECT WARRIOR FOR THIS BATTLE! CONFORMITY SHALL GIVE US VICTORY AND FREE OUR PEOPLE ONCE MORE TO A RULE OF ORDER AND PEACE! CONTINUE TO KEEP WATCH!”
“Teleport incoming!” warned the unicorn as his eyes widened.
There was a flash and a familiar draconequus appeared. “AH, PRINCEPS! IT SEEMS THAT YOU’RE BEING NAUGHTY AGAIN! HOW FUN!”
“YOU HAVE NOT EARNED THE RIGHT TO USE THE ROYAL VOICE, USURPER!” snarled Princeps as he turned to face the new arrival.
“BUT YOUR REACTION TO ME USING IT IS SO HILARIOUS! YOU ALICORNS CRACK ME UP! LOOK AT HOW IMPORTANT WE ARE! WE CAN YELL REALLY LOUDLY! Not that I don’t appreciate the ridiculousness.”
“QUIT MOCKING OUR ANCIENT TRADITIONS!”
“But I love mocking your ancient traditions! Stirring you up is so much fun!It’s almost as fun as when I play with one of Imperatrix’s lovers in front of her!”
“LEAVE OUR SISTER OUT OF THIS! YOUR FIGHT IS WITH US, DISCORD! AS IS APPROPRIATE BETWEEN PRINCE AND USURPER!” replied Princeps.
“But where’s the fun in doing what’s appropriate!? If you could see your face when I play with your subjects, maybe you’d understand! Actually, let me help with that.” Discord snapped his fingers and a bright pink hand mirror covered in bows and butterflies appeared in his talon. He showed it to Princeps. Princeps’s reflection was wearing makeup and had done its mane up in pink bows. It reached its head out of the mirror and kissed him on the lips before punching him in the face. It transformed into Discord as he climbed out the mirror which transformed into a bouquet of flowers. The flowers tried to eat Princeps’s face, but he blasted them to ashes with a scowl.
"You’re cute when you’re angry!” Discord grinned.
“THIS IS ENOUGH, DISCORD! ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, OUR FIGHT ENDS TODAY! WE ARE DONE WITH BEING YOUR TOY! KILL US! OR DIE!” His horn began to glow, a giant sword erupted from the ground and Discord dodged.
“Really, Princeps?” Discord tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow.“I thought that I was the one who was supposed to be dramatic! I’m not done playing with you!”
“THAT IS WHAT YOU THINK, DISCORD! NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, AFTER TODAY, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO!” He darted forward and sliced Discord in half with his wing.
“Let me pull myself together!” said Discord as he did so.
Princeps’s horn glowed once more and the sky darkened. Discord looked up to see a rain of arrows headed straight for him. He snapped his fingers and the arrows turned to pink chicken feathers. From the resulting pile of feathers, a giant chicken emerged, with Discord as its rider.
“Yeehaw!” Discord called out as he waved a Stetson. The chicken opened its beak in a roar to reveal rows of fangs. It pecked at Princeps. The alicorn dodged and stomped on its beak hard enough to shake the ground and leave a crater.
His horn glowed again and spears launched from the ground, penetrating the chicken like hot knives through butter. Discord jumped and somersaulted from the fowl’s back before landing on his hind legs, arms stretched open in victory. Three boulders pulled out signs, the first two saying “10” and the third saying “12”. “Thank you!” Discord bowed.
“STOP DODGING, YOU COWARD!” Princeps called out as his horn glowed again and chains sprung from the earth, grabbing the draconequus’s limbs and holding him in place.
Discord snapped his fingers. The chains transformed into snakes. The snakes bared their fangs as they flew, with wings, towards Princeps.
Princeps raised a shield and the snakes bounced off. He then sliced them up with his wings before telekinetically ripping out their fangs and hurling them at Discord.
Discord stretched out his left arm while he covered his face with his right and the fangs reversed direction.
Princeps fried them all before blasting at Discord himself who immediately teleported out of the way and directly behind his opponent. Princeps bucked Discord into a floating mountain which disintegrated from the impact.
The dust transformed into a noxious green gas which headed back for Princeps who flapped his wings. The resulting wind ripped out loose rocks and dispersed the cloud.
Discord teleported back to the battlefield again. “You’re so much fun, Princeps! I think that you’re actually trying harder than normal! Well done! Normal is boring!”
“WE SHOULD THANK YOU, DISCORD, BY WRESTLING CONTROL OF THE CELESTIAL BODIES FROM US, YOU HAVE FREED US TO USE ALL OUR POWER!” A golden glow enveloped his horn once more and a mighty army of stone ponies rose from the ground to charge at the draconequus.
Discord grinned and snapped his fingers and giant sheets of paper scooped up the army and crushed it. “Paper beats rock!”
Princeps’s face fell. His head lowered and he bit his lip before raising it once more. He scowled and bared his teeth as his breathing quickened. He flew at high speed, pinning Discord to the floor.
“Oh, Princeps! This is all so sudden!”
Golden light emanated from Princeps’s horn again and the white orb that would become Conformity and her three guards were surrounded by a magic field and froze, before hundreds of weapons fell from the sky, skewering both fighters.
Discord’s face contorted in fury and he snapped his fingers, teleporting next to the dying alicorn. His body was completely unharmed. “YOU DARE BREAK ONE OF MY TOYS!? I’LL HAVE TO PUNISH YOUR SUBJECTS FOR THIS, PRINCEPS! I WASN’T DONE PLAYING WITH YOU!”
“I’m sorry, Mortis. I failed to bring in an inmate for Tartarus,” whispered Princeps. “I just ask that you let me watch this monster’s defeat from Elysium, my cousin.” His eyes glazed over.
(/)
“OUR FATHER’S SPELL KEPT US FROZEN AND CUT OFF FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD UNTIL HIS REPLACEMENT WAS OLD ENOUGH TO CONTINUE HIS WORK!” Conformity explained as the image shifted.
“FORTUNATELY, HIS TWIN, IMPERATRIX, WHO WAS THE ALICORN OF VENUS AT THE TIME, SOON GAVE BIRTH TO A DEMI-ALICORN WHO TOOK HIS ROLE AS THE NEXT ALICORN OF MARS!”
At first the scene seemed similar to the last, despite the changes in chaos which included floating donuts, which had carrots flying through their holes. But this time, the alicorn was a smaller mare.
“SHE WAS HORRIFIED AT THE WAY DISCORD TREATED THE PONIES AROUND HER AND SHE TOOK THE TITLE OF ALICORN OF JUSTICE AND LAW!”
She had the golden mane of her uncle, but it didn’t yet flow with power the way it would in a mature alicorn and her coat was green. Her cutie mark was a golden set of scales.
“TWO HUNDRED YEARS AFTER HER UNCLE AND PREDECESSOR’S DEATH, SHE WAS FINALLY READY AND THE SPELL SHATTERED! THE UNICORN GUARD, STAR SWIRL THE SEVENTEENTH, CONTACTED HER AND PRINCESS JUSTITIA KNEW HOPE FOR THE FIRST TIME!”
“IS IT READY?!” the alicorn asked.
“Conformity feels capable of life, Princess,” replied the earth stallion. “You have poured in a lot of magic and added it to what His Highness started,” said Star Swirl. “She will certainly be powerful. For her to become more powerful than Discord would take more magic than you have, but you and your uncle have given her every defence and ability likely to help her fight him.”
“Perhaps it is best to strike while he is still unprepared,” added the pegasus stallion.
“VERY WELL!” Justitia leaned forward and fired a bolt at the white orb. It began to stir and rolled off the platform and onto the shielded ground. The grass bleached to white. “IS... SHE SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!?”
“Nopony has ever wielded this kind of magic before,” replied the unicorn. “For it to have some unexpected results is... expected. The important thing is that she does the job.”
The ball rolled forward, leaving a trail of white, up to the barrier. “RELEASE ME, MOTHER!” said the orb. “I WILL GLADLY DEFEAT THE ABOMINATION, DISCORD, FOR YOU!”
The pegasus shrugged. “Good enough for me.”
“VERY WELL!” The shield dropped and the disarray spread, but Conformity rolled onwards and the white patch rapidly spread across the ground.
Soon, the whiteness had passed the horizon, but it wasn’t long before a blur flew up to the group of rebels. It stopped to reveal the scowling form of Discord. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY BEAUTIFUL CHAOS!?” he demanded. “Justitia, you have a lot of explaining to do!”
“YOUR REIGN OF HORROR IS OVER, DISCORD! WE NOW HAVE A CHAMPION IMMUNE TO YOUR PANDEMONIUM!”
Discord frowned and leaned over to glare at Conformity. He snapped his fingers. Nothing happened. He pulled a pink umbrella from thin air and poked her before dropping it as it began turning white. He glared at her again and his eyes swirled with different colours. A small patch of grey appeared on her surface before disappearing.
Justitia smiled for the first time in her life. “YOU HAVE LOST, DISCORD! IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO FACE JUDGEMENT FOR YOUR CRIMES!”
Discord snapped his fingers again and an ever-changing crystal enveloped Conformity. She bashed herself against the side to no avail as Justitia’s face froze in horror. Discord snapped his fingers again and multi-coloured polka dots filled the former field of white.
“NO... NO... PLEASE NO!”
“Oh yes!” Discord grinned as he pulled out a disco ball and hung it in mid-air. “This is more like it! Now, about your little friends...” He turned towards Justitia’s guards.
“NO! DON’T HURT THEM! THEY WERE JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS! HURT ME INSTEAD!”
“Hurt them? I’m just going to show them how much fun it is to not follow orders!” He flew over and tapped each on the head. They quickly turned grey and their faces twisted into manic expressions of insanity.
“NO, NO! NO PLEASE! HAVE MERCY!” Justitia slowly backed away.
The pegasus’s wings flailed about, dragging his face across the floor, the earth pony began to eagerly dig like a mole, tongue hanging out and the unicorn ran about, aimlessly blasting the scenery.
“But I haven’t forgotten you, my sweet! You get to watch over them and enjoy their gifts with them!” He tapped her on the head and snapped his fingers. Justitia’s face began to bubble and six spheres rose from the mixture before blinking. She had sprouted another three pairs of eyes. “Now you’ll see everything they do!”
“NOOOOOOOOOO!” Jusitia screeched. The image faded. “Did that really happen?” asked Twilight as she turned to her mentor.
“Yes,” replied Celestia.
Twilight frowned. “But I thought that the alicorn of justice was blind!”
"Yes. After a time, Justitia could no longer bear the vision that Discord had given her.” The others’ faces briefly bloated with nausea
“HOW CAN YOU ALL BE SO SHOCKED THAT WE WOULD WANT TO ENSURE THAT NEITHER HE, NOR ANYTHING ELSE LIKE HIM, THREATENS EQUESTRIA AGAIN?!”
“But he beat you!” said Rainbow Dash with a shrug. “We managed what you couldn’t! So we know you can’t do better than us!”
“OF COURSE! FOR ALL THE GIFTS OUR PARENTS GAVE US, WE COULD NOT LAST FIVE MINUTES! THAT IS WHEN WE REALISED THAT WE NEEDED TO BECOME STRONGER! MORE POWERFUL! TO ABSORB ALL THE POWER WE COULD SO THAT WE WOULD FINALLY BE STRONG ENOUGH TO BEAT HIM! THEN, WE WOULD BE ABLE TO ASSIMILATE HIM AS WELL! HE WOULD NEVER AGAIN BE ABLE TO TERRORISE ANYPONY AND WITH ALL THAT POWER AT OUR COMMAND, NOTHING ELSE COULD THREATEN EQUESTRIA AGAIN!”
“You’re insane!” cried Star Swirl. “Even if you were able to gain enough power to defeat Discord, the fight would probably destroy the planet!”
“WE WOULD NOT LET THAT HAPPEN! IF WE CANNOT FIND A WAY TO STOP DISCORD, ONCE AND FOR ALL, IT WOULD MEAN THAT OUR PARENTS WERE WRONG, WHICH IS CLEARLY IMPOSSIBLE!”
“So you’re just going to absorb everypony until they’re all part of you!” growled Rainbow in disgust
“NOT EVERYPONY! EVERYONE! WE NEED ALL THE POWER WE CAN GET FOR THIS SACRED TASK! AND IS IT REALLY SO BAD, RAINBOW DASH!? WHEN CAN LOYALTY CONFLICT WHEN ALL ARE ONE!?” She turned her head and spoke to each bearer in turn. “WHO WOULD BE CRUEL WHEN THERE IS ONLY ONESELF TO BE CRUEL TO!? ALL ARE KIND TO THEMSELVES IF ONLY ENOUGH TO SURVIVE! WHO WOULD FEEL THE NEED TO LIE WHEN THERE IS NO ONE TO LIE TO! HOW MUCH MORE GENEROUS CAN IT BE THAN TO SHARE EVERYTHING!? WHAT GREATER FORM OF THE MAGIC OF FRIENDSHIP CAN THERE BE WHEN ALL ARE IN PERFECT COMMUNITY AND SHARE ALL MAGIC!?” She hesitated before Pinkie. “OKAY, SO WE DO NOT GET WHAT IS SO HARMONIOUS ABOUT LAUGHTER! EVEN DISCORD DID IT, WITH HIS INFERNAL CACKLING! IT WAS HORRIBLE!”
“True laughter brings ponies together in a way that shows that they enjoy their time with each other and aren’t simply forced into it, Conformity!” said Twilight. “The fact that there is no laughter within your so-called perfect community shows how flawed it is!”
“An’ Ah think yer lyin’ tah yerself if yah think that it’s so perfect!” added Applejack. "Yer unity is death! Yah don't bring together the ideas and emotions and feelings of those you absorb! Yah just harvest their raw knowledge, abilities and talent! If Granny Smith and Big Mac's hearts were really a part of yah, yah'd never be this HEARTLESS about this whole thing!"
Conformity frowned. “WHAT CAN MERE INDIVIDUALS KNOW ABOUT IT!?”
Twilight stepped forward. “I’m sorry Conformity! I think that we’ve heard enough!”
“We’ll find a way to save Equestria without your help and we’ll free everypony you’ve absorbed!” added Celestia. Their horns began to glow.
Pinkie darted in front of them. “No! Please don’t hurt Blinky!”
Conformity grinned. “YES! RATHER DIFFICULT TO HARM US IF YOU ARE UNWILLING TO HARM WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE FORMER BODIES OF PONIES YOU KNEW AND LOVED! AND WE ARE AFRAID THAT WE NEED TO TAKE SOME MORE PRECAUTIONS!” They stamped their front hooves down and a cube of white stone rose around Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy!” cried the others as they turned towards the block. Rainbow flew up to the block, but found it to have no entrances.
Conformity’s bodies then slid their hooves across the floor as Pinkie’s tail began to twitch and the cube descended into the floor. “DO NOT WORRY! WE HAVE LEFT HER WITH PLENTY OF AIR! WE NEED HER ALIVE IF WE ARE GOING TO ACQUIRE THAT STARE OF HERS! BUT FIRST, WE HAVE A WORLD TO ASSIMILATE!” They flew off to horrified faces.
A/N: Well, there we go. Hopefully, this will clear up a lot about Conformity’s goals, attitude, mental state, etc. I also hope that it will demonstrate more about how dangerous she is. Monologuing is usually disadvantageous to the villain, but when every second that you delay the heroes, the larger and more powerful your army becomes, it suddenly seems less stupid. Also, I got AJ’s backtalk from Alex Warlorn.
The diamond dog grumbled to himself about gems and how scarce they had been recently. He was busy stalking the plains, leaning forward in order to avoid being seen over the bushes. They were brown and dusty (the dog and plains) and while one wore a jewelled colour and a red jacket, the other was sparsely covered with small trees, thick, thorny bushes and patches of grass with the odd boulder. The dog had been assigned scouting duty and as such was sniffing with his flattened snout. This meant several things. Firstly, he was supposed to search the area while remaining out of the way of pony civilisation, though normally, individual and small groups of ponies were fine. It was part of his job to look for resources his pack could use and that included labour, whether from animals or members of other sapient races.
Recently, however, the guidelines had been updated to say that he should avoid a certain white, purple-maned unicorn. In fact, his orders were to run away and warn the rest of the pack of the danger, just as he was supposed to for other, older threats. He winced at the memory of her brief, but terrible, reign. There was a reason that his pack had been steadily moving away from Ponyville. They had also become a lot more reluctant to capture new workers. Anydog who did would be considered responsible for whatever impending disaster the new worker would probably bring. Perhaps, in the future, they could find a safer way of acquiring new workers, but for now, they were not high on his list of priorities. He was also supposed to search for other resources though. Food was one, but there was a particular resource that all diamond dogs loved and as usual, he could not keep his mind off of it.
A winged shadow approached and grew. The diamond dog looked up as a white alicorn landed in front of him. “Who are you, pony!?” he asked, pointing at her.
“WE ARE CONFORMITY! WE REQUIRE THE ABILITY TO DIG! YOUR ABILITIES SHALL BE ADDED TO OUR OWN!”
“What are you...?” began the diamond dog, before Conformity tapped him and he began to squeal. His features were smoothed out as his fur whitened and he was rendered female. “THIS IS ACCEPTABLE! ONWARD!” The canine Conformity climbed onto the back of the alicorn and they flew at high speed towards Canterlot.
(/)
“We need to rescue Fluttershy Posey, Bearer of the Element of Kindness!” cried Star Swirl.
“Yes, we do.” Celestia nodded. “But I fear that time is not on our side. Do you know of a way to hasten the rescue?”
Star Swirl closed her eyes and felt the earth. She walked forward a few steps. “Fluttershy Posey, Bearer of the Element of Kindness, is curled at the bottom of a chamber exactly one hundred ponylengths below us. Of course Conformity would put her there.”
“Is there a way down?” asked Celestia.
Star Swirl shook her head. “The chamber is completely sealed off. One would need to tunnel into it.”
“All right girls! Let’s dig!” said Twilight.
(/)
The the former diamond dog jumped off her alicorn mount. She then began to dig, quickly tunnelling underneath the castle before turning up towards the chamber holding the Elements of Harmony. She soon reached the solid rock floor, but found that she was magically repelled from touching it. “SEEMS AS THOUGH CELESTIA CONSIDERED THIS POSSIBILITY! SHE WAS ALWAYS THE STRATEGIST! TIME FOR PLAN B! STILL, AT LEAST THERE IS ANOTHER WAY THEY CAN BE SLOWED DOWN WHILE WE HAVE A BODY HERE!”
(/)
With the help of an alicorn, excavation proceeded quickly, but Star Swirl suddenly held up a hoof. “Stop!” she cried.
The digging ceased. “There... is something down there. It’s tunnelling under the castle... It feels like Conformity, but it’s the wrong shape.”
“She randomly sprouted a horn and wings in front of us,” said Rainbow with a shrug.
“And we saw that she used to be spherical,” added Twilight.
“Point taken,” conceded Star Swirl. “Wait... Now she’s heading for Fluttershy Posey, Bearer of the Element of Kindness!”
Sweat covered dripped down their muzzles and their hooves chipped as they poured on the speed. They soon broke their way into the cavern to find a crouching Fluttershy and a white diamond dog. Fluttershy uncovered her face to view the light which entered through the hole. “Is that you, Conformity?” asked Rainbow.
“YES! HERE FOR FLUTTERSHY?! WE ARE AFRAID THAT WE WOULD PREFER HER TO STAY AWAY FROM YOU!” She stepped in front of Fluttershy.
“And what are you going to do about it!?” asked Rainbow, glaring at the dog.
“WE ARE GOING TO BE IN YOUR WAY! WE DO NOT WANT TO TOUCH YOU YET, BUT YOU CANNOT TOUCH US!”
“That will not be a problem!” growled Celestia. Her horn glowed and the diamond dog lifted into the air.
“AH, YES! THAT DOES TEND TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM WHEN WE DO NOT HAVE MANY BODIES AROUND! YOU DO HAVE ENOUGH TELEKINETIC POWER TO EASILY LIFT THE SOLAR SYSTEM, AFTER ALL! BUT CAN YOU REALLY HOLD ALL OF US OFF WITHOUT DROPPING THE SUN, CELESTIA!? OR WILL YOU HAVE TO RESORT TO KILLING US!? WE SUPPOSE THAT YOU CAN TELL THAT THIS WAS NEVER THE BODY OF ONE OF YOUR SUBJECTS! WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO DESTROY IT!?”
“Unlike you, I actually care about making sure that no one else is harmed in my fights against evil, Conformity!”
The diamond dog’s face fell. “AND YOU PROVE YOURSELF NOBLE WITH THAT DECISION, CELESTIA! WE ACTUALLY APPRECIATE IT AND WISH THAT YOUR METHODS WERE EFFECTIVE! BUT SOMETIMES, WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE, NEEDS TO BE DONE! STILL, EVEN WE CAUSE AS LITTLE HARM AS POSSIBLE! UNITY IS GLORIOUS! NOT A THING TO BE FEARED! AND WE ARE DOING IT IN A WAY WHICH WILL MINIMISE DISCORD’S DESTRUCTIVENESS WHEN HE IS FREED! EVEN OUR CAPTURE OF FLUTTERSHY WAS DONE WITH NO HARM TO HER! WE HAVE NOTHING AGAINST HER! SHE WAS SIMPLY THE BEARER EASIEST TO CONTAIN! EVEN GUARDING HER SIMPLY REQUIRED US TO LEAVE THESE EYES CLOSED!AND NOW THAT YOU HAVE CAPTURED ME, WE ARE NOT EVEN GOING TO STOP YOU FROM FREEING HER FOR RISK OF FREEING DISCORD TOO EARLY!”
Celestia’s horn glowed and a golden cage formed around the diamond dog. “I may not be able to hold back all of your bodies at once, but I can at least slow you down.”
Rainbow Dash turned her head and called out, “Fluttershy!” before darting over to the yellow mare.“We’re here to save you! Come on!” She beckoned with a hoof.
“Oh... all... right,” whispered Fluttershy and she slowly flapped her way back into the light.
“Thank heavens you’re safe, Darling!” said Rarity.
“Oh... I’m okay."
“All right. We’re all together again. Conformity couldn’t stop that!” said Twilight.
“But we still need to stop her,” said Star Swirl. “She’s very dangerous and with Star Swirl the Seventeenth apparently having had a hoof in creating her, I feel an extra responsibility for this situation.”
“I thought that you’d come to the conclusion that you were a unique pony. That you didn’t have to be held to your ancestors’ achievements,” said Twilight.
“I still feel a connection to them though,” replied Star Swirl. “And I think that you need all the help you can get for this. Speaking of which, I think that we need to meet up with Princess Luna.”
“Agreed,” said Celestia.
They quickly ran up to a familiar statue which was standing in a circle of green grass, surrounded on all sides by whiteness. In front of the statue stood a scowling princess.
Star Swirl fell to her knees. “Princess Luna! It is such an honour to be in your presence again!”
“THOU MAY RISE!”
“Thank you,” replied Star Swirl as she did so.
“We are here to discuss how to defeat Conformity, Sister,” Celestia informed her.
“Conformity is a dangerous opponent and we cannot afford to make mistakes with her. As such, I think that we need to explore every possibility,” said Star Swirl. “Unfortunately, only Discord has ever defeated Conformity before.”
“THOU CANNOT SERIOUSLY BE SUGGESTING THAT WE FREE THIS HORROR, CANST THOU!?”
Celestia frowned. “While I am also appalled at that idea, remember your volume, Sister. Just talk to everypony the way you talk to me.”
“Sorry, Sister. It has been a stressful day.”
“I am not suggesting any course of action yet,” said Star Swirl. “But we need as many advantages as we can get. That includes information. Is there a way to find out his view of the battle?”
Luna rolled her eyes and her horn glowed.
A familiar voice said, “Well, now. It seems that you all need me after all.”
“There is no need for mocking, Discord,” said Celestia. “I take it that you are aware of what has been happening?”
“Aware? Of course I’m aware! I have nothing better to do than watch what’s happening, thanks to all of you! Well, except for you with the bells. You’re just an insignificant extra. Didn’t you know that style of hat went out of fashion before my first reign?”
“Do not listen to him.” said Celestia with a roll of her eyes. “He is just trying to be a jerk. It is one of the ways he works.”
“But suddenly, you are so much more appreciative of my works, aren’t you Celestia? At least things were interesting with me around. Now you have this drab, monotonous white.”
“Appreciate them?” asked Celestia.
“Yes! After I reversed all of your Uncle Mercury’s limbs, his dancing was far more interesting! At least it was when I made him dance in that condition. Didn’t you appreciate when I showed such special attention like that?”
“I will never appreciate the horrors that you inflict!” growled Celestia, “Now get to the point! How can Conformity be defeated!?”
“Well, you could release me. I suppose that I’d be willing to lend a claw. Even to you ungrateful lot.”
“Not happening. Next.”
“Well, then I don’t see the point in saying anything more.”
Luna’s horn glowed once more. “That was remarkably unhelpful,”
“Perhaps, but we still have other options,” replied Star Swirl. “Do you think that the Elements of Harmony are still recoverable?”
“I think so,” sighed Celestia. “If we can get through the wall, they should still be there. But that may take time, and I have noticed that every time we try to retrieve the Elements from the chamber, something goes wrong.”
“So, we need a backup plan.” Star Swirl nodded. “The Elements of Harmony are more powerful than Discord, and they left Conformity imprisoned, so they are likely to be effective, but in the event that something else goes wrong, there is another avenue that we have yet to explore.”
“And what, pray tell, is that?” asked Luna.
“Discord’s magic itself,” replied Star Swirl. “Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of the Element of Magic, whose special talent lets her learn any spell and I, Star Swirl the Hundred and Forty Seventh whose special talent allows her to understand magic both witnessed the way that Discord defeated Conformity, even if it was only through a record. What’s more is that we saw that the way it worked was through covering her in a type of crystal that Conformity was clearly incapable of altering and the Elements of Harmony left intact. That said, the crystal is obviously not completely immune to outside influence or she would never have been freed. As an earth pony, I may be able to manipulate the crystal myself. It should still exist as it is beyond Conformity’s power to change.”
“But where’ll we get this crystal?” asked Applejack.
“Most likely where it came from,” replied Star Swirl. “If Blinkavera Vivian Pie was the pony that Conformity based her template on, she most likely met her soon after being released, meaning that we’d most likely find pieces of her crystal prison...”
“At my family’s rock farm!” Pinkie interrupted as she jumped into the air and wriggled her legs.
“That’s right, Pinkie,” said Star Swirl. “While you try and get the Elements of Harmony, I’ll use my ability to detect the magic within the earth to find the crystals. I’d need to get there and back very quickly though and we know that Conformity blocks teleports and spacial manipulation.”
“You need to get somewhere fast!?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Hah! I’ll get you there and back on time!”
“Once again, Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of the Element of Magic in her bounteous wisdom is correct,” said Star Swirl. “We can’t let the bearers of the Elements of Harmony be split up again.”
“My sister will need to be here to help open the chamber, but I too have the speed of an alicorn,” said Luna.
“Thank you for the offer, Princess Luna,” said Star Swirl with a bow. “You are most generous. Er... Will, I be riding on your back?”
“No. We shall be flying in style!” replied Luna. She flapped her wings and flew off. They cringed as they heard a frustrated scream. Luna quickly returned wearing a scowl, but she was pulling something. “SHE ALTERED MY CHARIOT! FOR THIS, SHE MUST BE PUNISHED MOST SEVERELY!” Luna’s chariot, formerly black and spiky, was now white and far more box-like. She turned to Star Swirl. “GET IN! WE MUST STOP THIS EVIL AT ONCE!”
Star Swirl did so and grabbed hold of her hat as Luna flew off at a speed well over that of sound.
(/)
Luna landed on the white plains, and Star Swirl slowly wobbled off. “I think I know why earth ponies are meant to stay on the earth,” she mumbled. She then inhaled and exhaled deliberately and closed her eyes, connecting herself to the flow of magic within the earth. “Got it,” she said. “Follow me.”
(/)
The ponies kicked, scraped and blasted away at the wall before pulling away the resulting rubble until the door was finally revealed. Celestia leaned forward and inserted her horn into the lock and cancelled the protective spells. The door swung open, bathed in the light of her telekinesis as a white fly watched from the wall. They breathed a sigh of relief as the room seemed completely normal. Then, a white streak flew past them and landed in the room, forming a circle of white around her. She lifted the box containing the Elements of Harmony in her telekinesis.
“OH NO, WE ARE AFRAID THAT WE CANNOT LET YOU HAVE THESE!” she said.
“Conformity!” growled Rainbow Dash. “Don’t you ever know when to quit!?”
“THAT IS RATHER RICH COMING FROM YOU, RAINBOW DASH!” replied Conformity. “WE KNOW YOU QUITE WELL BY NOW! AFTER ALL, WE HAVE THE MEMORIES OF PONYVILLE, CANTERLOT AND CLOUDSDALE AND WE ARE CONTINUALLY BRINGING MORE SETTLEMENTS INTO OUR UNITY!”
“How did you even know we’d opened the door!?” asked Twilight.
“THAT WAS RATHER SIMPLE!” replied Conformity. “WE REALISED THAT WE COULD NOT GET INTO THE CHAMBER WITH CELESTIA’S ANTI-INTRUDER SPELLS PLACED ON IT! NOT UNTIL SHE HAD OPENED THE CHAMBER HERSELF! SO, WE BROUGHT A FLY INTO OUR UNITY AND ONCE WE ASSIMILATED IT, WE SAT, USING ITS BODY, UPON THE WALL, WATCHING YOU! MEANWHILE, WE HAD ANOTHER OF OUR BODIES WAITING AND HIDING OUT OF SIGHT SO THE AS SOON AS WE SAW YOU OPEN THE CHAMBER, WE COULD FLY IT IN AND GRAB THE CHEST! NOW, FOR THE NEXT THING ON OUR TO-DO LIST!” She pointed her horn up and blasted the roof, vaporising it and leaving a hole to the sky. “NOW, CELESTIA AND TWILIGHT SPARKLE, IF YOU TRY TO GRAB THIS BODY OR THE CHEST WITH YOUR MAGIC, THEN WE SHALL USE OUR OWN MAGIC TO SIMPLY CRUSH IT! WE BELIEVE THAT THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY WILL SURVIVE! THEY SURVIVED BEING SHATTERED, AFTER ALL! BUT REALLY, THAT WOULD BE A BIT OF A RISK AND SOMETHING OF A LARGE MESS TO CLEAN UP, WOULD YOU NOT SAY!? IT WOULD CERTAINLY BE VERY DIFFICULT TO EXTRACT THEIR REMAINS FROM THE REMAINS OF THE CHEST NOW, WOULD IT NOT?!” She smiled and flapped her wings, rising from the ground.
Conformity’s expression then turned to one of confusion as a dark blue streak headed towards them. Luna hit the floor, cracking it beneath her hooves. Conformity’s eyes widened in horror as she looked at the chariot and saw the crystals within. She rapidly ascended away from the alicorn and her cargo of crystal and pony.
“Grab a crystal and fire!” ordered Star Swirl.
Twilight, Luna, Celestia and Rarity immediately began lifting crystals out of the chariot and launching them at the fleeing alicorn. One of the crystals soon slammed into her and it started to grow around her. Her telekinesis and wings stopped working and both she and the chest fell unceremoniously to the ground with a couple of thuds.
The other ponies quickly ran out of the castle and onto the field where they found the white alicorn struggling against the growing crystal. They charged up to her, but she seemed helpless. “You-you... What have you, done!?” she squealed. “Let-let me go!”
“I don’t think so, Conformity,” replied Rainbow Dash.
“R-really?! Well, in that case, you had better hope that you have a lot more of that stuff!” She lifted her head and the sky began to darken as hundreds of white alicorns flew in from every direction. Some of them began to dive, while others wrapped their horns in glowing auras of magic and still others brought in large, dark cloud banks. A few bucked their clouds, discharging a few lightning bolts to make a point.
Luna formed a shimmering hemisphere of force around the group as Celestia telekinetically opened the chest.
“Necklace, necklace, necklace, necklace, necklace, big crown thingy!” Twilight shouted, throwing the elements to their bearers with her magic.
“Big crown thingy?” asked Star Swirl as she raised an eyebrow.
“All right, Conformity!” said Twilight. “We’ve had enough of this! Girls, formation!”
The bearers of the Elements of Harmony stepped forward and closed their eyes, concentrating. Their elements lit up, glowing with power before they opened their brightly shining eyes. A spectrum of beams burst from the elements, twisting into a rainbow. Luna dropped the shield as the rainbow lifted into the sky and arced back down, smashing into the rapidly crystallising alicorn.
She screamed as the rainbow twisted around her and expanded, forming a bubble which grew and swallowed up everything in their vision. All they could see was the bright, multicoloured light.
When the light cleared from their eyes, the ponies looked down at the crystal. It had cracked open to release Lyra’s quivering form.
“Lyra Heartstrings?!” gasped Star Swirl. She looked up. Around the area of the blast there were other ponies, groggily getting to their hooves, but the sky was still filled with Conformity’s bodies.
Conformity lowered her wings, no longer shielding her faces. “DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT WE WOULD BE STUPID ENOUGH TO BRING OUR ORIGINAL BODY!?”
“AGAIN!” yelled Luna.
“No!” said Celestia. “We will not beat her this way!”
“We need a plan!” cried Twilight.
Conformity tucked back her wings and dived towards them. She lowered her head and fired beams of light which smashed in colourful fireworks against the barrier that Celestia raised.
“Indeed!” replied Celestia. “And I know a place I am sure she has not reached yet!”
With a flash of light, all the ponies disappeared.
Another flash deposited all the ponies midair among the cold snowflakes. Most of the non-pegasi squealed and waved their legs before Celestia wrapped them in the warm protective glow of her telekinesis. They looked down to see the purple shimmer of a shield enveloping the Crystal Empire. Around them were more copies of Conformity pressing their hooves against the barrier.
The copies turned towards the new arrivals and flew towards them when blue and yellow auras grabbed them and flung them away as brightly coloured comet streaks. However, the number of copies only increased like Fluttershy’s fans from her modelling days as new ones flew in from over the horizon.
“SHININGARMOR!LET US IN!” Celestia called.
The purple shield was replaced with a blue one, and the ponies flew down, landing before the palace.
Shining and Cadance opened the door and rushed out to meet them. A blue shimmer surrounded Cadance’s horn.
“Princess Celestia, I’m glad you could—Twiley!?” began Shining, his eyes widening and his head rearing back at the last word. “What are you doing here!? Are you okay?! We aren’t sure what’s going on, are you!?”
“I’m fine, Shining. And it’s rude to interrupt your report to Princess Celestia like that!”
Shining lowered his head. “I’m sorry, your Highness. As I was saying, we don’t know what’s going on but we are glad that you could—Cadance?”
Cadance had just winced and placed a hoof to her temple. “It’s back,” she said.
“Let me take over again,” said Shining. “That way, you can hoofle the political discussion.” His horn fired a beam, forming a purple barrier over the blue one.
“It’s rude to call a lady old, Shining,” Cadance said with a pained smile. She then dropped her own shield.
Shining’s face scrunched up, and Cadance turned to the others. “Thank you for coming, Auntie Celestia and Luna and for bringing so many of my friends and ... the rest of the delegation.” She turned to Twilight and smiled before beginning a dance with her.
“Sunshine, sunshine! Ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves! And do a little shake!” they sang.
"Why is it that every time we meet, I’m exhausted ?” asked Cadance. “The plan was to meet up again when the fate of Equestria didn’t hang in the balance. But I guess we haven’t had much opportunity.” She frowned and looked into the crowd of other ponies. One of them appeared to be more nervous than the others and was frantically searching among the others. “Lyra? Are you all right?”
Lyra paused and turned towards her. “I’m sorry, Cadance. It really is good to see you again, but I can’t find Bon Bon! I’d like to meet your crystal subjects, but I want to be sure that she’s okay first.”
“Have no fear, my little pony,” said Celestia. “We have already proven that those absorbed by Conformity can be saved. And we shall save all of them.”
“Conformity?” asked Cadance. “Auntie Celestia, what’s going on? All we know is that white alicorns started flying in. I didn’t even think it was possible for there to be that many. I thought that most of the positions on the Cosmic Council were filled.”
“They are one individual,” said Celestia. “She is not a true alicorn, and I’m not even sure if she qualifies as a member of the Council as she’s the first of her kind. What’s important is that she is assimilating others to serve as her bodies and to gain their abilities. We cannot let the Crystal Empire fall. It is too important a location, contains a unique tribe, and it has you. It would be far too dangerous to allow Conformity to gain power over any of those things.”
“What about the Crystal Heart?” asked Twilight.
“We were relying on it as normal when the alic- Conformity began touching the shield,” explained Cadance. “Suddenly, all our minds were filled with her voice. She keeps telling us that we cannot stop her from reaching us and that she will join us all in glorious unity.”
“Sounds like her, all right,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Well, the crystal ponies weren’t able to maintain positive emotions with that in their heads, so Shining Armor and I have been shielding the city ourselves. Though we still hear the voice when we do so.”
“Wouldn’t organisin’ another crystal fair bring back the love an’ unity tah power the Heart again?” asked Applejack.
“Perhaps,” admitted Cadance with a tilt of her head. “It seems strange to perform another one so soon when they’re recommended once per year. Still, if you think it’ll help, then it’s worth a try.”
“Pshah!” said Rainbow with a wave of her hoof as she hovered just above them. “We’ll spread that spirit of love and unity no problem! We’ve done it before!”
“However, that may still not solve the problem,” Cadance admitted. “Conformity makes white blotches when pressing her hooves against the shield and they were still there when the shield was maintained by the Heart. And they’re growing. And more of her keep coming.”
“Well, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza...”
“Star Swirl, the Hundred and Forty Seventh, it’s nice to see you again, but please, I’d really rather just be called Cadance. Especially now.”
Star Swirl bit her lip. “Sorry Cadance. I should have remembered that. I’m glad to see you again as well. We do have good news in that we have already confirmed that the Elements of Harmony work on Conformity. The biggest problem that we’re having with them appears to be range. But if the Crystal Heart is able to shield the entire city, that would help as that’s better range than the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony managed. Perhaps we can come up with a solution before Conformity manages to affect the entire barrier.”
“Can’t we just blast her with the Crystal Heart like we did with Sombra?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“The Crystal Heart can act offensively!?” asked Star Swirl as her eyes widened.
“We were able to do so, yes,” replied Cadance. “But King Sombra had already entered the city by then.”
“So we’d still likely have our problem with range, even if that problem was reduced,” sighed Star Swirl as she lowered her head. “What’s more is that Conformity’s ability to interact with the shield means that it may not affect her in the same offensive capacity.”
“And trying to use it that way would require us to allow Conformity into the city,” said Celestia as she narrowed her eyes. “Meaning that in the likely event that it did not work, we would be sacrificing our current advantage and risk making Conformity even more powerful while potentially losing ponies who we need in this struggle.”
“Unacceptable!” said Luna as she slammed her hoof on the ground. “There must be a better plan.” She stared pointedly at Celestia.
“Agreed.” Celestia nodded. “We cannot afford a mistake here.”
“The plan may still have some merit,” said Star Swirl. “If I can determine the likelihood of how the Crystal Heart would be able to affect Conformity. I’d need to examine it.”
“Granted,” said Cadance.
“A fully charged Crystal Heart would at the very least give you and Shining Armor a break which we may be able to use to our advantage,” said Celestia.
“We’ll start getting a Crystal Fair organised!” said Twilight.
The fires of Tartarus roared and a scroll formed from a tongue of flame before dropping onto Pluto’s desk.
“Oh, good,” she said as she flapped her wings to raise her foalish body high enough to see onto her desk. “It seems as though Celestia has finally deigned to let me know what is going on,” Pluto remarked. “It is not as if I have better things to do than wait for her. I am sure that all the inmates will remain well behaved and all the souls will be ferried along merrily without disruption while Equestria deals with another crisis.” She rolled her eyes. “Let us see what she has decided to let me know. After all, I am merely the warden of the greatest evils ever to threaten Equestria and have cordial relationships with the dead. But my puny foalish mind could not possibly deal with whatever this is.” She unfurled the scroll.
Dear Plutonia,
We wish to inform you that the current threat is indeed Conformity. In addition to what we previously knew about her, we have discovered that she can transform others into herself, gaining their shapes and abilities. She wishes to do this to everyone in order to gain the power to fight Discord.
We are currently holding the Crystal Empire and planning a counterattack.
Please do not engage with her. She is beyond your experience and we do not need her gaining your powers.
Sincerely,
Celestia
Pluto turned to her empty in-tray, shrugged and placed the scroll on her desk, before levitating out the Book of Great Evils again. “Well, I hope that you can trust me enough to do the parchmentwork part of my job, Celestia,” she said. She raised a quill and began writing a new entry into the book. “See, I do know the alphabets. All three of them. My language skills are probably better than that of most of your teachers! Some of these entries are in Classical Peganese and Earthen for Elysium’s sake! I just hope that you remember that when this is done, the prisoner should be placed in my care instead of your little trophy garden. I hope you learned your lesson after Discord. And that you do not try anything fancy like sticking her in the Moon or what you did to Sombra. Seriously, what were you thinking that day!?” She threw her hooves into the air. “’I do not know, Luna. Maybe him being a unicorn is not enough of a challenge? Let us transform him into a bodiless, city-sized wall of shadow to make him even more difficult to kill! That sounds like a magnificent plan to me!’ Seriously, Celestia, stick with sunlight and leave the handling of prisoners to the professionals, okay?”
She underlined the heading “Defeat:” and returned the quill to its inkwell.
“I guess that’s another thing I have to wait for.” She placed the scroll in her out-tray and the book in her in-tray. “But contrary to what Celestia claims, I am not just an ordinary kindergartner. I am a member of the Cosmic Council and I will not be deprived of my duty!”
Star Swirl slowly walked towards the Crystal Heart, she blinked as she felt the radiance which poured off it. It hung suspended between a stalactite and stalagmite, also made of crystal. “This … is a powerful artefact, Cadance.”
Cadance smiled. “Yes. We’re rather proud of it.”
“May I touch it?” Star Swirl turned to her former foalsitter.
“If it will help save the day,” replied Cadance.
“I think it will.” Star Swirl nodded and touched a hoof to the relic, her eyes widening in astonishment.
“FOALS!” said Conformity. “DON’T THEY SEE THEY MERELY DELAY THE INEVITABLE!? BUT THERE IS MUCH MORE TO BRING INTO OUR UNITY! INCLUDING A PLACE FULL OF ALL KINDS OF POWER!”
Pluto raised her head into the air, closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again. “She is coming,” she said. “Cerberus, inside.”
Cerberus lowered his three heads and whined but slowly loped his way in through the mouth of Tartarus.
Pluto meanwhile raised herself to her full, minute height and walked forward with steps measured to give off an aura of confidence and authority.
Conformity landed before her and gave a sneer. “SO YOU ARE THE CURRENT ALICORN OF DEATH!?”
“That I am, Conformity,” replied Pluto. “And I am telling you to get. Off. My. Land.”
“YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS! THIS HOLE IS FILLED WITH THE DREGS OF EQUESTRIA! THE VILEST CREATURES KNOWN TO PONYDOM! AND YOU FEEL THE NEED TO PROTECT THEM!?”
“I am their warden,” replied Pluto. “It is my job to ensure that their evil is contained and to keep them isolated until they are ready for redemption. They are my responsibility and they are under my protection. Even if I were willing to leave them at your mercy, I will not have you leech power from them and I am certainly not giving you access to Elysium. If you enter Tartarus, it will be as a prisoner. So, are you going to surrender,” She narrowed her eyes, lowered her horn and spread her wings and forehooves, “or are we going to have a problem?”
“YOU ARE AN INFANT! DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN STOP US!? YOU MAY BE THE ALICORN OF DEATH, BUT WE REMEMBER MORTIS AND KNOW THAT HE TOO HAD HIS WEAKNESSES! AFTER ALL, YOU ARE HIS SUCCESSOR! SOON OUR POWER WILL DWARF HIS, LET ALONE YOURS! YOU SHALL BE ASSIMILATED EASILY! RESISTANCE FROM A CHILD, EVEN AN ALICORN, IS FUTILE!”
Pluto frowned and her horn was enveloped by a grey aura. The gates of Tartarus shut, closing like a mouth until the stalactites were clenched together as teeth. “Only the holder of the seat of Pluto can affect those gates,” said Pluto. “You are wasting your time. I am not opening them while they are threatened by you!”
Conformity frowned. “IRRELEVANT! ONCE WE HAVE ASSIMILATED YOU, WE SHALL HAVE THAT POWER! YOU HAVE NOT EVEN SLOWED US DOWN! YOU CANNOT ESCAPE AND YOU CANNOT DEFEAT US! WE WILL HAVE YOU!”
“You will have my body,” said Pluto. “But you will never have my domain! WE ARE PLUTONIA!WE ARE A FULL-ALICORN!” She flapped her wings, lifting her body into the sky. “WE ARE THE WARDEN OF TARTARUS AND THE GUIDE TOELYSIUM!” She threw her forehooves into the air and stretched them out. “WE ARE THE LAST JUDGEMENT AND THE FINAL REST!WE ARE THE GREAT PUNISHMENT AND THE ULTIMATE REWARD!” Her horn shone with grey light. “WE HOLD THE SEAT OFPLUTO, THE SEAT FOR WHICH WE WERE NAMED, ON THECOSMICCOUNCIL!WE HAVE AUTHORITY OVER DEATH ITSELF!ALL NATIONS FEAR US AND PONDER OUR MYSTERIES!” The aura around her horn grew till it was larger than her body. “WE ARE THE SUCCESSOR OFMORTIS AND MANY OTHERS BEFORE HIM, EACH OF WHOM BRINGS FEAR WITH THEIR MERE NAME!” Her eyes shone with white light. “WE ARE INEVITABLE AND CERTAIN! NONE SHALL CHEAT US OR DEFEAT US FOREVER!WHOEVER YOU ARE, OUR DUTIES WILL NOT BE COMPROMISED BY THE LIKES OF YOU!”
“CUTE! BUT CAN YOU BACK THOSE CLAIMS UP?! YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT ME IN A FIGHT!”
“I don’t need to,” said Pluto. Her horn flashed, and she collapsed, her cutie mark fading away.
“WHAT!?” cried Conformity as she reared back. “SURELY SHE WOULDN’T ... !?”
A glow rose from Pluto’s body, forming the image of a translucent yellow alicorn with a flowing mane of purple ether and eyes which shone brilliantly n pure white.
“WE SEE!” said Conformity as she raised her head to view the apparition. “YOU CHOSE TO USE YOUR POWER OVER DEATH TO TEMPORARILY SEVER YOUR SOUL FROM YOUR BODY! THAT WAY WE COULD NOT GAIN ACCESS TO THE POWER OF THE SEAT OF PLUTO! YET YOU HAVE SACRIFICED YOUR ABILITY TO INTERACT WITH THE PHYSICAL WORLD, INCLUDING US! AND YOUR BODY IS STILL UNDEFILED! WE CAN STILL GAIN THE BASIC ESSENCE OF AN ALICORN FROM IT!” She walked over and touched Pluto’s body. As Pluto’s body grew and whitened, Conformity’s mane began to billow in an undetectable wind. “NOW HOW WILL YOU STOP US!?”
“WE SPOKE THE TRUTH WHEN WE CALLED OURSELVES INEVITABLE,CONFORMITY!YOU WILL FALL, JUST LIKEDISCORD AND EVERY OTHER THREAT TOEQUESTRIA HAS BEFORE YOU, AND WE WILL BE WAITING!UNTIL THEN,TARTARUS ANDELYSIUM ARE BARRED!”
Conformity lifted her head from the body of the white alicorn lying on the floor. “WE WILL SEE!” she replied, before teleporting away.
“I can feel everything!” cried Star Swirl. “This power is enormous! It’s like a prism! For emotions! The Crystal Heart is the focus of the Crystal Empire and the Crystal Empire is the focus of the Equestrian continent! That’s how the emotions here reflect back to Equestria! And how they are amplified to the point that they can protect the Empire itself! But if it’s a prism for emotions, could it act as another kind of prism as well? It’s made of crystal, so it might be able to. Would that be enough? It could possibly work to amplify and spread other things, but emotions are what it is keyed to. Unless we used a chain reaction? So another prism would be required. A big one. The effect of the Elements of Harmony takes the form of a rainbow and should be malleable in the same manner. So, we need a way of spreading a rainbow. Light and love. Rainbow … light. Will we have time to set that up? Of course we will. Rainbow Dash, Bearer of the Element of Loyalty is perfect for this … But even still … if we’re going to make such a gamble, does it really matter I we risk even more? If this doesn’t work, we have lost, so better to enhance our odds, even if it worsens a loss.” Star Swirl turned towards Cadance. “Gather everypony! I know what we need to do!”
“FOALISH PONIES!LIKE OUR PARENTS BEFORE US, AND AS WE WERE ALWAYS MEANT TO, WE NOW POSSESS THE TRUE POWER OF AN ALICORN!YOUR RESISTANCE IS AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN FUTILE!WITH THIS POWER, YOUR GREATEST EFFORTS ARE MERELY MINOR DELAYS!SURRENDER, JOIN WITH US AND KNOW THE GLORY OF UNITY WHICH YOU ARE SO FOALISHLY RESISTING!”
“And not a moment too soon!” added Star Swirl.
The white alicorns flew at Shining Armor’s shield and pressed their hooves upon it. The shield rapidly turned to white and shattered.
WHERE WERE WE!?RIGHT!WE HAD JUST SHATTEREDSHINING ARMOR’S SHIELD!NOW WHAT WILL THEY TRY NEXT!? LET US SCAN TO SEE WHERE THEY ARE SO WE CAN FIND OUT! WE ARE JUST NARROWING OUR EYES FOR A BETTER VIEW! Chapter Five: Materials and Methods “The shield!” cried Star Swirl. She spun her head away from the shattering shield and back towards Cadance, eyes wide with horror.
Cadance nodded rapidly before leaning forward, shutting her eyes and concentrating. A blue aura surrounded her horn, and a shield enveloped the city.
Conformity frowned and bashed a hoof against the shield. She then waved it in emphasis as her single voice echoed throughout the city from her multitude of mouths, “WE WILL GET THROUGH YOUR SHIELD AS WELL, CADANCE!” She buzzed against the shields like an infestation of insects.
Cadance narrowed her eyes. “Hop on!” she said to Star Swirl, opening her wings as her eyes searched for Shining from the Crystal Heart Room.
Star Swirl jumped onto the alicorn’s back and the world turned into a blur. She closed her eyes uneasily as Cadance flew towards her husband. Once the alicorn’s hooves hit the ground, Star Swirl gratefully wobbled to the floor, thankful that the journey to the other side of the palace had been short.
Cadance lowered her head and a blue beam shone onto Shining Armor’s unconscious body. His eyes flickered open and he drowsily shook his head before shakily getting to his hooves.
“I’m all right,” he reassured her. “The sudden increase in power just startled me. I can return to my duty.” A purple beam shot forth from his horn, surrounding the city in a protective bubble again.
Cadance shut down her own shield and frowned as she saw the white patches spreading once again. “Okay. But I’m taking over again before she spreads too far.” Her horn shone again and her voice boomed from every corner of the crystal city, like a one pony team of street callers, “EVERYPONY IS TO REPORT TO THE PALACE IN PREPARATION FOR OUR COUNTERATTACK!”
(/)
Star Swirl stood before the Prince, Princesses and Bearers of the Elements of Harmony in a private board room. She stood next to a board and had a piece of chalk gravitationally attached to her hoof, as the Pie family had taught her.
“Okay! Thank you all for attending this strategy meeting,” she said before lifting the chalk to the board with a nervous grin. At least explaining things really would put her at ease. “This is the situation. Currently, Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor Sparkle ...” she turned slowly to Shining Armor. “Did you decide to drop your surname upon entrance into the royal family?”
“I haven’t used my surname in years.”
“Right. Okay. Princess Cadance, who, I suppose is actually Queen of the crystal ponies now-No, wait! Are you Queen of the crystal ponies?” She turned towards Cadance.
“Actually, some crystal ponies have decided to move into Equestria proper now,” said Cadance as she lifted her hoof, “so I’d have no authority over them and according to international law, that means that I have no right to the title of Queen. I’m happy with that though. But let’s get back to stopping Conformity rather than discussing proper address.”
“Okay then,” said Star Swirl as she bit her lip. Her mane was curling a bit and one of her eyes twitched. She wished that she had a book on politics with her to prevent any future mistakes.“Okay. Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor have been switching shielding duty between the two of them, but they are still affected by Conformity and can’t hold their shields for long.
“Adding in the Crystal Heart, we have three types of shields available. A physical wall of magic that Prince Shining Armor can conjure, a barrier of love that Cadance can channel and a field of emotional energy that we can all project through the Crystal Heart.” She drew crude figures of a unicorn, an alicorn and a heart, each with a circle around them. “But these shields are connected to the minds of those who make them, so Conformity can send her mind influencing abilities through them.” She drew a sad face holding a hoof to its head.
“We know that Conformity is affected by the Elements of Harmony. However, her original body is out of range.” She drew a foalish picture of an alicorn, the symbols of Harmony and an arrow between them with a large X through the arrow. “The Crystal Heart has much better range and also provides some protection from Conformity but is less effective.” She drew a crude picture of the Crystal Empire with a circle around it. “Its shielding properties extend out beyond the city. We need the shield of the Crystal Heart to take up some of the burden. However, its connection to the emotions of the inhabitants of the Crystal Empire makes it particularly vulnerable to Conformity, so we need a Crystal Fair to renew its powers. Especially as the Crystal Heart becomes more important in later parts of the plan.
“The Crystal Heart can spread emotions over the entire Equestrian continent. This is the kind of range we need, but the Crystal Heart may be less effective with non-emotional magic.
“Due to its nature as a prism-like object, light and rainbows are boosted by the power of the Crystal Heart, if less so than emotions. Thankfully, the Elements of Harmony act like light and rainbows in many ways.” She drew the symbols of the Elements of Harmony, an arrow to a heart and a set of beams radiating out. “Also, the dependence of the Elements of Harmony on the targeting intelligence of their bearers means that we should be able to squeeze more range out of the Crystal Heart than an ordinary rainbow would achieve, as the spell would actively seek out the bodies of Conformity, as the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony would specify.” She drew an arrow from the heart to an alicorn.
“That said, this is not enough for us to rely on merely those principles. Therefore, we need to channel the Crystal Heart amplified Rainbow of Harmony through a giant, convex lens to amplify its power.” She drew a large convex lens above the city.
Cadance raised a hoof. “We don’t have a giant, convex lens.”
“And a convex lens would amplify power, but it would diminish range!” Twilight objected.
“That’s why we have to make one, and why, above the lens, there will be a giant, convex mirror!” said Star Swirl as she drew a curve above the lens.
“And I suppose that we’ll be making the mirror as well?” asked Cadance as she tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.
“Correct!”
“Is it jus’ me or is this plan a mite overly-complicated?” Applejack asked, crossing her forelegs and looking dubious with her frown and raised eyebrow.
“It is as complicated as it needs to be, Applejack App... Bearer Applejack,” said Star Swirl as she lowered her head and closed her eyes. “And more complicated than I’ve illustrated so far.”
“How are we going to make the lens and mirror?” asked Twilight as she raised a hoof and leaned forward.
“Well, rainbows can be manipulated with water. And are subject to pegasus weather manipulation.”
“So, we need to make the lens and mirror out of water vapour!” cried Twilight. “Of course!”
“Indeed. So we’re dividing up into teams. The pegasi will sculpt the lens and mirror from clouds under the leadership of Rainbow Dash, Bearer of the Element of Loyalty and guidance of Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of the Element of Magic to make sure that they are exactly right.”
“I’ll be sure to use my knowledge of optics to make sure they are correctly made!” Twilight said with a nod.
“Just don’t get full egghead when you’re telling me what to do,” said Rainbow as she flicked her head and blew a strand of mane out of her face. “I don’t tell you that you’re too slow at being a librarian!”
Star Swirl scowled at Rainbow’s comment but turned back towards the crowd and continued. “And the rest of us will host the Crystal Fair under the leadership of Pinkamena Diane Pie, Bearer of the Element of Laughter to charge up the Crystal Heart.”
“Okie dokie Loki!” said Pinkie as she hopped in place. “I’ve done a Crystal Fair before! So now I’ll make it even more funneriffic than last time!”
“I’m sure that I can make some decorations while the others are busy,” said Rarity as she batted her own mane.
“Guess Ah’ll be helping set up the stalls then,” said Applejack.
“We need to try and boost the Crystal Heart and fire the Elements of Harmony at the same time in order to maximise their efficiency.” She drew an arrow from a set of Harmony symbols and another from a party hat, each to a heart, with a clock above the heart and a larger arrow emanating from the heart.
“There may be a problem with this plan,” said Celestia. “For it to work, the lens and mirror would need to be placed outside the shield, as your diagrams indicate, correct?”
“That’s correct.”
“If so, surely we need a way to get the lens and mirror in position without risking anypony being assimilated by Conformity, but I do not see it. How will we do so without that risk?”
Star Swirl opened and closed her mouth and then slowly raised a hoof. “About that ... We ... um ... won’t.”
“What do you mean ‘we won’t’?” asked Luna as she frowned, tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.
“There is no way that we can ensure that nopony gets assimilated during the placement of the clouds,” Star Swirl clarified. “We can merely take some precautions to reduce its likelihood and reduce the damage should Conformity attempt to assimilate somepony when they are unprotected by the shield. In fact, the risks we will take in order to give this mission the highest chance of success will increase the likelihood of Conformity attempting to assimilate somepony during the operation significantly.” She sighed and drooped her shoulders before looking over the shocked crowd with a grimace. “That’s why I need to discuss extra safety measures with you.”
(/)
Pinkie Pie rushed from store to store, helping assemble the stalls and begin the fun activities as Rarity hung up decorations. It was a lot more difficult when she couldn’t summon her party cannon. Still, the crystal ponies were cheering and unlike last time, they were actively helping set up the fair.
“Just remember,” Star Swirl reminded them, “that we want to charge the Crystal Heart but avoid activating it until the last second in order to maximise effectiveness the way that it was used against King Sombra.”
(/)
Rainbow Dash’s wing carved another layer of cloud off of the lenticular formation which obscured the Crystal Palace as she skimmed around the edge in a tight, curling loop. She then flew back down to Twilight who was levitating a geometry chart, glancing between it and the cloud with a furrowed brow.
“How about now?” she asked.
“The opacity still needs work,” replied Twilight as she peered through a telescope, before returning to her notes of which she was scribbling on three separate pages as a sextant floated in the background.
Rainbow’s eyelids lowered and her ears drooped. “In Equestrian.”
“It needs to be clearer.”
“Okay. I can do that.” She turned and began to speed off.
“Also, the refractive index isn’t right yet.”
Rainbow paused. “Again. Equestrian.”
“Make it ... bulgier.”
“Right.” Rainbow Dash turned her head away from Twilight and called out, “Princess! Could we have some more cloud, please!”
On top of the tallest tower, Luna turned to her sister. “I’ll do this one. They may need you later.” She flapped her wings and another bank of clouds formed in the air.
Rainbow Dash turned back to Twilight. “Will that be enough to start on the mirror?”
“Yes, but not enough to finish it,”
“How big does this mirror need to be?” asked Rainbow Dash with a raised eyebrow.
“Bigger than the city.”
“Then how are we going to fit it in the shield!?”
“We can’t,” said Twilight as she lowered her head. “It will have to be finished outside the shield.”
“Outside!?” asked Rainbow, glancing back at the clouds and then lifting her head to look up through the shield. “Looks like I’ll have to finish it myself. What do I do once I’ve finished it?”
“You’ll need to place the lens and the mirror at the correct positions.”
Rainbow shrugged in midair. “Shouldn’t be too hard. I just have to carry them up as I fly to the correct heights. How high do I have to place them.”
“High,” replied Twilight. “You’ll have to get the mirror all the way to the Tropopause.”
“That high!?” said Rainbow as she reared back. “This plan is sounding crazy even to me!”
“That’s because it is crazy,” said Star Swirl as she walked up to them. “You show fine judgement in declaring it so. But we are desperate and the craziness of the plan is all that’s giving us a chance. That said, Conformity may be more reluctant to attack Bearers of the Elements of Harmony based on her goals.”
She winced and bit her lip. “Still that reluctance will drop as she becomes more powerful and she may ignore that if she sees what we are doing as threatening. We need to be very fast. Luckily, you are good at that aren’t you, Bearer Rainbow Dash?”
“Sure am!” Rainbow lifted her head, closed her eyes and rested a hoof over her torso.
“I may, however, be able to improve your odds a little with a slight adjustment to the plan.”
(/)
Conformity snarled as she slammed her hooves repeatedly against the shield. She was making progress, but whenever her splotches started to approach one another, the Prince and Princess would swap out. Although they were having to switch more often in their increasing exhaustion, it was not fast enough to give the impression of power and might she had been attempting to portray.
Being the alicorn of Venus gave Cadance a lot more resistance to her influences than Conformity had hoped and now she was healing her husband between sessions. And the ponies below her seemed to be organising their little Crystal Fair. If they added the Crystal Heart’s shield to their defences, the process of wearing them down would take even longer. This was taking far more time than she had expected it to and was a painful reminder that she was not ready to face the kind of power that Discord would have at his disposal. Conformity’s bodies shook at that thought and her scowl deepened. The situation would have to change. She needed more. And she needed a way of disrupting the festival below her. She narrowed her eyes. Perhaps another source from Ponyville would help? No. Too small, despite the psychological advantages against the Bearers. But there was a better source just beyond Ponyville. She smirked. She would take advantage of that.
(/)
Rarity painted the stalls in bright colours as Pinkie rushed around, hanging up all the decorations that the unicorn had made earlier.
The crystal ponies brightened, both literally and figuratively as she passed.
“Come on, everypony!” she cheered. “Let’s jam! We’re going to show that big meany-pants that we know how to have fun!”
The ponies cheered, throwing their hooves into the air.
Rarity couldn’t help but smile. This sort of thing was Pinkie’s talent, after all, and was much easier with the crystal ponies helping out and not magically depressed.
(/)
One of Conformity’s bodies landed at the border of the Everfree Forest. She began to slowly walk along the path, foliage straightening and whitening as she passed.
(/)
“Hey!” cried Pinkie, suddenly dropping her basket of flags. She stared at her left foreleg with a frown. “My knee is pinchy!”
Rarity’s ears perked up at that. She turned away from her work, much as it pained her to leave such a masterpiece unfinished. “Your knee is pinchy?” she asked. “Isn’t that Pinkie Sense for-“
A massive flash of light filled the sky followed by a roar.
Fluttershy slowly looked up from the patch of cloud she was working on as her eyes widened. She backed away carefully until a back hoof nearly slipped off the cloud. Her jaw opened in a silent scream and she gradually raised a hoof and pointed at what one of Conformity’s bodies was now riding before she finally found her voice. “Dragon!”
Twilight recognised the dragon. Despite the fact that he was no longer green, she remembered his shape from the time she rescued Spike from him. He also had an alicorn standing on his head and were there such things as pony experts on dragon biology, they would be able to tell that he was now female. To Twilight’s eyes, that meant that the dragon had grown.
The roar had already brought the ponies’ attention and distracted them as they shivered at the presence of an enormous predator.
“Surrender!” the dragon roared. “You are only making this harder on yourselves! Resistance is futile! Acceptance is glorious! We grow ever stronger! Our troops are legion! Our resources, the entire planet! You think you have a chance because you have been temporarily been holding us at bay!? We have only begun to recruit!” The dragon breathed a jet of flame at the shield.
Cadance winced as the flames licked against the bubble she had projected around the city.
“You cannot last long against a dragon! And there are so many more available! Surrender before I bring more! Or add the other denizens of the Everfree!” the dragon roared.
“All right! That’s it!” said Rainbow with a scowl. “Time’s up! We have to finish this now! Twilight! Have you got your saddlebags!?”
Twilight levitated her bags onto her back. “Got them!” she confirmed.
“Let’s go!” Rainbow flew behind Twilight and lifted the unicorn onto her back before heading back for the skies.
Twilight held on tightly as she recalled what Star Swirl had said about this part of the plan.
(/)
“Rainbow Dash, Bearer of the Element of Loyalty is the fastest pegasus in Equestria,” Star Swirl explained, drawing a picture of a Pegasus with go fast lines streaming behind it. “And it would be very bad if any of the Princesses were to be assimilated. So she should be the one to get the clouds in place as quickly as possible.” “Would it not alsobe very bad for a Bearer of Harmony to be assimilated?” asked Celestia with a raised eyebrow. “Yes,” Star Swirl admitted as she lowered her head and fidgeted with her hoof. “But Conformity is less likely to try that. It’s still possible though, which is why this must be done fast and with as many extra precautions as possible.” “Ha! I can do fast!” Rainbow said with a grin. “This’ll be easy! I’ll be in and out in no time!” “I’m sure you will,” said Star Swirl with a hesitant smile. “But let’s make this as risk free as possible. I’d like you to take Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of the Element of Magic with you.”
“Why?” asked Rainbow. “I can do it myself! Are you trying to say that I need help!?” “I know you can. The first reason is that she knows exactly where to place the clouds and can do so easily with her telekinesis...” (/)
Twilight concentrated, grabbing the enormous clouds with her aura as they flew straight up at supersonic speed.
Shining Armor dismissed his barrier, leaving Cadance to concentrate more heavily on her own.
(/)
“We’ll need the barrier fully permeable to our own forces for the final part of the operation, but we can’t have large holes in the shield, so the protection will have to fall exclusively to Cadance,” Star Swirl explained. “And if the effort is too much for her?” asked Shining Armor as he narrowed his eyes. “Then we have big problems and will have to deal with them appropriately.” (/)
Luna and Celestia lifted off from the tower as Rainbow and Twilight approached the wall of blue. They flapped their wings, forming and lifting a mass of cloud through the shield as the ponies passed through it.
(/)
“Princess Luna and Princess Celestia will provide the final material for the mirror and cover to make it more difficult for Conformity to track what Rainbow Dash, Bearer of the Element of Loyalty and Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of the Element of Magic are doing,” said Star Swirl. She had drawn a picture of a unicorn on a pegasus’s back and surrounded it with a fluffy cloud. (/)
Twilight struggled to hold on as Rainbow whirled around like the most aggressive merry-go-round to ever declare young foals as its hated enemy.
Rainbow flicked the last stray tuft of cloud away from the mirror. “How’s that!?” she asked as she turned her smug grin towards her passenger.
“It’s perfect, just let me—“
Rainbow lifted straight up again, forcing Twilight to scramble to grab hold of their cargo with her telekinesis as a rainbow trail followed behind them.
Conformity frowned as she turned her faces towards them. “WHAT ARE THEY UP TO!?” She winced as a sonic rainboom filled the sky.
Twilight let go of the lens, hoping that her precision was not too hampered by the extreme speed.
At that moment, Cadance collapsed and the shield vanished.
“Rainbow! The shield failed!” Twilight yelled into her friend’s ear.
Rainbow scowled. “I didn’t want us to have to do this!”
(/)
“And how will we ‘appropriately deal with’ these ‘big problems’?” asked Shining with a scowl. Star Swirl opened her mouth, closed it, lowered her head and then lifted it again, displaying a furrowed brow. “In that situation, riskiness no longer matters because we’d be about to lose. We have to throw in everything.” She turned slowly to Princess Celestia, wincing as she did so. “Princess Celestia, there was a prophecy that Nightmare Moon would be released from the moon after a thousand years. After witnessing them in action and knowing some context, my guess is that this is because you arranged it so. Am I correct?”
Celestia frowned as she nodded. “Yes. Bearers do have that capability. Where are you going with this?” “So, the Bearers of Harmony are able to break a seal they’ve made from a distance as far away as the moon.” Princess Celestia’s eyes widened. “Are you seriously suggesting...?” (/)
Twilight pulled the Elements of Loyalty and Magic out of her saddlebags and placed them on her head and around Rainbow’s neck respectively as she made a final adjustment to the mirror’s position.
Far below, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rarity donned their own Elements and the six friends concentrated as their Elements glowed before forming a chain of light which fired a rainbow southwards.
All of Conformity’s eyes widened. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, YOU CRAZY FOALS!?” (/)
Back in Canterlot, a statue began to crack and the air was filled with a shout. “-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-!”
“Of course, while freeing Discord would provide a useful distraction, it would also remove the only reason that Conformity isn’t attacking Bearers of the Elements of Harmony,” said Star Swirl with a wince.
(/)
Most of Conformity’s bodies disappeared in a flash of magic; those left split into two groups, one chasing Twilight and Rainbow Dash, the other racing towards the palace.
Celestia’s eyes narrowed as she looked up from the roof of the palace. Her eyes flicked between the alicorns Flying towards Twilight and Rainbow before looking down towards those flying into the city.
Twilight turned to see Conformity flying straight towards her. She opened her saddlebags.
(/)
“We can use the saddlebags for two purposes,” Star Swirl explained. “Firstly, we can use them to conceal the Elements of Harmony. Secondly, if Conformity tries to touch us, we’ll need a weapon.”
(/)
Twilight glanced down, pulling a crystal from her saddlebag. She then aimed and threw it at Conformity. The streak of crystal struck home and the alicorn fell from the sky as crystal crept over her body. It was immediately replaced by more alicorns.
Celestia watched the scene above her and scowled at what was happening to her student. She had stayed out of the situation long enough. She appeared in a blinding flash next to Rainbow Dash, already in a defensive stance.
“No!” yelled Star Swirl as her pupils shrank and she raised a hoof. “Princess Celestia! This isn’t part of the plan! We must not risk you!”
Celestia grabbed the closest alicorns in her aura. She turned towards Twilight. “Go!”
Twilight closed her eyes and and let her magic yank herself and her steed through space and back to the Crystal Heart.
“YOU CAN’T HOLD US ALL OFF, CELESTIA!” snarled Conformity.
“Can’t I?” Celestia asked. She then did something she had only done twice in over a thousand years. She let go of the Sun.
(/)
The rest of the Bearers of Harmony ran from their posts around the fair to join Twilight and Rainbow Dash at the Crystal Heart below the palace as a swarm of white alicorns descended upon them.
“STOP! WE NEED ALL YOUR POWER TO STOPDISCORD!” they yelled. “GIVE US THE HEART AND JOIN OUR UNITY!IT IS YOUR ONLY CHANCE!”
Rarity struck one with a crystal, bringing it crashing to the ground.
“FINE!” shrieked the alicorns. “WE’LL JUST TAKE WHAT WE CAN!”
(/)
Celestia rolled her shoulders as she felt a 1989 septillion ton mass lift. The Sun would be fine for now. She could return it to its rightful orbit once she had dealt with the current situation. Her eyes shone with light and flames leapt from her mane and tail. Her body glowed with yellow light and her golden barding grew in plates over her body. If she was going to do this, she was going to do it properly. She had to be careful though. She didn’t want to damage Conformity’s bodies or anything in the Crystal Empire. And her instincts screamed at her to burn her enemies with her holy sun-fire. But no, fire was not an appropriate weapon for his situation. She would have to stretch slightly out of her element. Even light would risk permanently blinding her subjects. She flapped her wings and a gust blew the nearest alicorn away.
Others approached.
Celestia frowned. Stronger weather manipulation would risk the plan. Unless she stuck to lightning bolts and they were too dangerous. Most of her earth pony magic would not have been particularly useful in that situation either. It looked like she had to act like a high speed flying unicorn. She quickly flung a pair of magic bubbles up. She hovered in their centre and attempted to trap some alicorns in the space between them. The inner bubble expanded as the outer one contracted, narrowing the space.
The alicorns snarled and their eyes twitched as they pressed their hooves against the bubbles and one teleported into the inner bubble.
Celestia scowled, barring her teeth in a grimace. Conformity was fast enough to teleport before she had woven a spell to prevent her from doing so. She had to work faster. The sound of Conformity yelling into her brain was going to make that more difficult, especially as she wanted to keep this non-lethal. She fired a net of magic around the alicorn as she began her spell to prevent teleportation.
The net dangled from her horn, hanging by a golden thread of magic.
Another alicorn teleported in as the net began to whiten.
Celestia dropped the net, not wanting to discover what would happen if the whiteness finished its pathway along the rope to her horn. She then fired a blob of golden goo which splattered the second alicorn against the side of the inner barrier. The alicorn struggled as the goo held it against the barrier like an insect trapped in tree sap.
As more alicorns teleported in, Celestia gritted her teeth. The barriers weren’t working. She dropped them and as she continued working on anti-teleportation wards, began to design, thankful that while her sister was the better artist, she was better with puzzles. Celestia was momentarily relieved by the loss of Conformity’s voice in her mind, yet she still had other problems to deal with.
My biggest advantages over a standard pony here are spell versatility and overwhelming speed. thought Celestia. But my speed advantage has been considerably reduced since the point when Conformity claimed to have gained the power of a true alicorn. I hope that is not the case. She is bad enough without authority over a concept. And I will not use my speed to abandon my subjects. Nor can I take advantage of her speed in physical combat without risking both assimilation and harming a stolen body. Illusion is unlikely to be effective against a hive mind and risks the plan as well. I have to choose my spells carefully.
She scowled and ground her teeth as she saw that some of Conformity’s bodies were flying into the Crystal Empire. She telekinetically lifted them to face her, making sure to hold the dragon’s jaws shut and form a bubble around her head to prevent the use of smoke or fire. Telekinetically manipulating a struggling creature is far more difficult simply levitating a heavy object and holding a few hundred struggling bodies, each with far more strength than a typical earth pony, was distracting Celestia from the other tasks she was simultaneously performing. She began to wrap them in chains of magic, form cages around them and encase them in boxes. That bought her some more time. Enough for the basics of her plan to be ready and she could not keep this up for long. It was time to act.
She hastily constructed what she had been designing. A series of walls of magic popped into existence and rapidly assembled around the combatants. It formed a three-dimensional maze of magic, was bigger than the city and surrounded Conformity’s bodies with herself at the centre. She then inverted gravity within the maze. The routes through the maze were complex and while Conformity adjusted to the new gravity, it would allow Celestia to finish her anti-teleportation wards. Conformity would not be able to plot a route through the maze to perform a standard teleport and she would not summon the power to teleport through the walls in time.
Another of Conformity’s bodies appeared in a flash of magic just outside the maze. She then flew through the walls at supersonic speed, smashing them as she went.
Celestia began to turn her head, having just enough time to think that perhaps it would have been better to spend more time on the walls’ impenetrability and less on their intricacy before a hoof smashed through her barding and into her flank.
Celestia’s mostly ceremonial barding crumpled under the impact from Conformity’s attack. The maze dropped and Celestia’s cutie mark flickered away.
(/)
The ponies in the streets gasped as they saw Celestia’s assimilation. More alicorns swept down towards the city as the wave of white crept over her body.
Bodies of Conformity filled the sky and gave ugly grins before diving and poking the Equestrian and Crystal citizens one-by-one.
Star Swirl raised a hoof in fear as Conformity flew towards her.
The hoof was quickly poked as Conformity passed.
She can’t find out the plan! Star Swirl thought desperately and grabbed a crystal, slapping it on her foreleg, stopping the progression of white.
Conformity saw this and turned towards her, slowing the onslaught. One of her bodies then flew back and tapped her on the muzzle.
Star Swirl squinted to watch the newer wave of white approaching her brain, knowing she could do nothing to stop it. The last thing she ever saw would be Conformity assimilating those around her before they had time to implement the plan.
“Now!” yelled Twilight.
The ponies bowed, smiling, charging the city with light. The glow intensified to form a shining beacon of brilliance.
Conformity’s face contorted as she absorbed Celestia’s knowledge of the plan. But she could do nothing about it.
The Elements of Harmony shone in their respective colours and fired a twisting, rainbow beam into the Crystal Heart which travelled along with the aurora of emotional energy into the sky in a cone, adding to its shimmering gleam of energy.
The wall of emotional energy hit the lens and focused in an intense beam onto the mirror, forming a rainbow wave that spread over the continent as an unstoppable wall of brightly-coloured conquest.
Throughout Equestria, alicorns transformed back into ordinary ponies in a shimmering metamorphosis and gently floated to the ground, surrounded by multi-coloured energy.
Discord’s cracks resealed themselves before he had finished his word.
And near a rock farm, a frustrated white ball was once again trapped in crystal.
(/)
Around Equestria, ponies looked to the scintillating rainbow of energy which covered the sky in an aurora.
A green dragon lifted his neck and scratched his head. “Where am I?”
(/)
“Bon Bon! You’re here!” cried Lyra as she pronked over to the cream earth pony who was drowsily getting to her hooves. She then grabbed and squeezed her. “Come on! I’ve got to show you all the crystal ponies!”
(/)
“I guess that a lot of ponies ended up in a completely different place,” said Twilight sheepishly as she gave an awkward grin.
Celestia flew over and landed next to her. “Luna and I will ensure that everypony,” –she looked over to the large, green creature just outside the city borders,–“and everydragon gets home.”
“And we’re already having a crystal fair!” cried Pinkie as she jumped in from out of view. “They can join in the party!”
Star Swirl walked over and rubbed her head. “I’m just glad that we’re all safe.”
“That’s ‘cause your plan worked, Star!” squealed Pinkie. “Thank you! Now I can get my sister back! I need to go hug her! Then we can have a party to celebrate! Oooh! I’ll do that now! Then I can party right away!” She darted off.
“Well, it didn’t go exactly according to plan,” Star admitted sheepishly as she lowered her head.
“There are few times that it will,” said Celestia. “It is important to be able to adapt, but you managed to give us a firm foundation from which we could make those adaptations. Well done, Star Swirl, the Hundred and Forty Seventh.”
“Thank you,” said Star Swirl. “I’m definitely going to discuss this in my book.”
“Interesting,” said Celestia. “What do you plan on researching next?”
“Well, Zecora has promised to give me a few lessons, and I’ve been thinking of doing some travelling outside Equestria.”
(/)
Pinkie let go of the siblings she had been practically strangling. “I missed you so much!” she said. “I was so worried about you! I’m so glad you’re okay!”
“Thanks, Pinkie,” said Blinkie. “I think that I won’t just touch anything I dig up from now on.”
Inkie rolled her eyes. ‘
Pinkie said, “In that case, I also need to plan a ‘My Family is Safe and Blinkie is Finally Going to Start Listening to Inkie Party’!”
(/)
Three days later, Pluto finished off her parchmentwork as she levitated a large, shifting crystal along the passages of Tartarus. “You should not worry too much,” she said. “Celestia has asked me to give you a reasonably nice cell and I actually agree with her on this. At least she is finally letting me do my duty instead of doing something fancy like turn you to stone, or to smoke or to lock you on the Moon or under the ocean. About time too! Nothing has ever escaped Tartarus and every one of our redemption attempts has been successful. What’s more, your little escapade has given her an idea for how to redeem Discord!”
The crystal shook with a boom.
“Do not get so worked up. If she is right, she will have achieved your goal of neutralising that threat! And you can thank yourself for that! It is also likely to mean that your sentence will be a lot shorter than his. I have a feeling that you will be a lot easier than he is.”
(/)
Star Swirl the Hundred and Forty Seventh will return in ... Star Swirl and Stripes Forever