Destinies Intertwined: Battles of the Past ~ The Elements Vs. Discord · 6:16pm Jan 26th, 2018
I apologize for the bit of delay. But I hope you all will enjoy this next bit of DI. I hope you enjoy it! (As always the green color means optional music and the red color means to stop the optional music).
Disorder is only as strong as its maker. Yet even chaos’s immunities cannot protect it for long against order. For Twilight this was to be the outcome of this final confrontation. At least that was what she hoped would happen. She and the girls stood in a horizontal row; staring at the disfigured shape of Ponyville. A foal’s playtime gone wrong.
The aggressor should have been considered such a naughty child. “That monster’s gonna get what’s coming to him.” Rainbow Dash the first to break their uneasy silence. As much as Twilight had disliked the pegasus’s gun-ho nature, she appreciated her as a boost to their courage.
A boost that was necessary if they were all going to see this through to the end. “Do you really think Ponyville will return to normal after all of this?” Fluttershy shook behind Applejack. “A-after all that Discord has done?”
“Undoubtedly.” Twilight nodded.” Once we use the Elements of Harmony on him, they should reverse everything that Discord has touched.”
“Then what’re we waiting for?” Applejack took a step forward. “Let’s go get Discord.”
“But girls.” Pinkie Pie whined. “Why reverse all of this when we get Cotton Candy clouds that make it rain chocolate milk? Chocolate milk? And a endless supply of it? It’s the most delicious gisert of all time?”
“Gisert?” Rarity deadpanned
“Yeah!” She bounced excitedly. “It’s a gift and chocolate is a desert. Mix the two together and you get a gift that you can eat for life!”
“Pinkie, darling. That is not a real word. And you know why we have to do this.”
“I know.” She pouted. “But it’s an endless supply of chocolate. How can we pass up such a gooey treat such as free chocolate and cotton candy?”
“Uh… are you serious?” As odd as Pinkie Pie ever was Rainbow Dash and the others were right. The world was and would be in chaotic disarray if they did not stop Discord. If they didn’t end Discord’s rule then chaos would be the new physical principle of Equus. A terrifying reality that Twilight dared to not imagine.
She took in a quick breath and said, “Alright, girls. You ready for this?” They nodded in unison. Pinkie gave a less enthusiastic nod but it was a confirmation nonetheless. The group quickly trotted into the small town. A town that Discord had proclaimed would be the chaos capital of the world. The idea was about as sound as securing a jester as head of the magic division.
As they neared the center of town did they hear laughter not too far away. They stopped at the corner of a house, Twilight peered around the corner to see Discord sitting on a throne, laughing as he took study of his unorganized surroundings. Hay roofed huts floated on islands far above the ground: with pie dropping randomly from the sky, rabbits running on stilt legs and buffalo dancing like school girl ballerinas.
A cotton candy cloud hovered next to the Draconequus. He leaned close and opened his palm. A clear glass cup flashed from nothingness and filled up with the chocolate rain pouring incessantly from the sticky pink shaped clouds. “Chaos is a wonderful… wonderful thing!” Twilight glanced over her shoulder and nodded to the girls.
As he was about to take a sip from his cup, Twilight and the girls trotted closer to the false lord. With their distance closing she stopped in her tracks and spoke just as he touched the glass to his lips. “Not as wonderful as friendship!” His eyes grew wide and he held the cup from his mouth.
“Oh… this again?” Discord sneered. He took the cup and drank from it, and as the cup was drained it took the color of the milk, tainted by the magic like its corrupted user. He tossed it over his right shoulder and lazily stared, the cup caused a loud bang as it exploded into brown glass fragments. An odd culmination of events.
“That’s right. You couldn’t brake apart our friendship for long.” Applejack stomped her hoof.
“Oh, Applejack. Don’t lie to me.” He pointed a finger and her Element glew. She pressed her hooves against the ground and upturned grass as he dragged her closer to him. She was lifted off the ground and hung in the air like she was stuck on some invisible coat rack. “I’m the one who made you a liar.” His hand lit up with a bright yellow glow and Twilight watched as the rest of her friends were dragged across the ground, only to be lifted up and set next to Applejack in a horizontal row. “I’m also the one who turned all of you into the opposite of yourselves. From the bully to the selfish. I can turn you into whatever I want because I can.” He chuckled. “Will you ever learn?”
Twilight was not about to let her friends be forced back into their negative aspects. Her horn glowed a magenta aura and in a flash she appeared in the middle of her friends, surrounding them in a bubble as she brought them back a distance. “I’ll tell you what we learned, Discord. We’ve learned that friendship isn’t always easy. But that it’s always worth fighting for.”
Discord, however, did not seem to be troubled by her statement. “Oh you ponies… how much I missed your kind. Always you prattle on about friendship and how it has saved you time and time again.” He snickered. “You know. I’m actually considering the idea of letting you turn me into stone so I don’t have to hear you drone on about how important the magic of friendship is.”
“Umm… this isn’t what I was expecting from him.” Fluttershy whispered.
“I know.” Twilight said. “I thought he’d be a little more immature.”
The smile he once held diminished. “You know… it’s awfully impolite to talk about me like I’m on the far side of Equus.”
“It doesn’t matter when we’ve already won.” Rainbow boasted hovering with her chest puffed out.
Discord was silent for a moment. And then he began to chuckle. His chuckle grew. His calm laughter was a frightening display. Twilight’s ears folded back. Why wasn’t he scared of them? “You think you’ve won? Just because you have your precious Elements of Harmony?”
“We’re not wasting anymore time.” Twilight hissed. She glanced at the girls. “You all ready?”
“Yeah!” They replied in unison. All except Pinkie Pie who was standing underneath a cotton candy cloud, tongue extended out.
She looked at the girls and gulped. “Oh, sorry.” And as quickly as she stood underneath the cloud she zipped back to her friends side, growling at Discord, who could only stare at the pink pony.
“I wish you would change your mind, Pinkie Pie. You would be quite the fun mare to hang around with. But…” He sat upright and floated out of his chair. “I’m not going to let it end again.” He smiled. “How about we play one last game?”
“No!” The girls yelled and formed their circle. As they called upon the Elements the gems flashed to life.
But Discord laughed. “You girls can’t stop chaos? Even the Elements of Harmony cannot always control what will happen.” He raised a hand forward and the surroundings turned to darkness. The girls cried out in panic as all that was familiar was wiped away from existence.
“What did you do, Discord!?” Twilight glared.
“Oh? Little old me? Well it’s quite simple, really. I know you want to get rid of me because of this and that and yadda yadda, look. I wish to simply play one last game with you.” He floated closer and continued, “if you win the darkness around us will break. My power will, suffice to say, be weakened and then you can fire your friendship laser. But if I win then I’ll keep you all trapped here in this dimension and seal you away for all eternity.”
His frown deepened. “Then you’ll get to experience the isolation I was forced into for all that time.” And he smiled a rather friendly smile. “Your consent into whether you participate in this game is not necessary. It’s a mandatory thing to have your compliance. After all…” He disappeared within the misty shadows of this new world. “It’ll be much more fun to crush your spirits when you’re at your most aspirant.”
Twilight heard Fluttershy’s scream as she watched her friend disappear. Then Rarity was suddenly gone. She looked around herself and realized that nopony else was around her. “Applejack! Rarity!” Her breathing increased. “Girls!? Fluttershy! Rainbow! Pinkie!” That same dread she held when Discord had turned her friends against her came back. But now they were gone and she couldn’t see them anymore. “Girls!? Is anypony there? Girls!?” She felt a drowsy sensation creep over her, eyes heavy like the water pulling a stone down to its dark depths.
“N-no… I can’t fall asleep. I can’t… fall…” The tide of dark sleep fell over her. And she felt the nothingness wash over her.
~~~
Twilight shivered and floated there in the darkness. Why she couldn’t open her eyes. Or maybe they were and she had lost her sight from some random happenstance. When she finally opened her eyes she saw nothing. There was nothing. But she didn’t see it as the biggest problem. “Girls!? Fluttershy! Rarity!” She paused for a moment and hoped that they would respond. When no response came she felt her body shake. “Don’t panic. Don’t panic.”
Words did not soothe her like it did the manticore. “Applejack! Rainbow! Pinkie!” Still nothing. What had Discord done? She looked to her hooves. It was odd that she did not feel the sensation of any solid ground. Was she floating? Any plan to subdue her panic was a welcomed distraction.
A diversion that did not last long as she watched a circular object light up with an intense light. All that she could see now was a blinding light. From one extreme to another. Her hooves finally touched a solid surface. But when she looked down she panicked a little. “W-what am I doing on this… picture?” A stained glass picture of herself. Beautiful and yet haunting. Her own self image was the biggest part of this odd glass picture.
But she could see her friends. Surrounding her on the top ring encircling her head. Spike was on the top right outer circle and below him was her parents and her brother. On the left side she could see Princess Celestia. Even her cutie mark filled out an entire semi-circle. But why and how was this happening? “Take your time.”
She jumped at the unknown voice. Twilight turned around. “Who’s there?” But nopony was behind her.
“Don’t be afraid.”
“Then who are you?” She could see the words form in her head but did not understand why she couldn’t hear a voice. Surely there was somepony who was there, somewhere in this deep darkness that would help her. “Why am I here? Where are my friends?”
“Your friends are close. Never will they be very far from you in your time of need.” Whatever this voice was talking about, she did not have any comprehension of the circumstances. “But now is the time of awakening. You and your friends shall realize that there is more to the world. That there is more to the battles that you and your friends face.”
“B-but… what are you saying? What are you talking about?” Confusion was the best word to describe her situation. Where were her friends? Where was… “Discord.” She turned to what she thought was the sky of this darkness. “Where’s Discord? What’s happening to Equestria?”
“That chaotic being is on his way. He will be here soon. But don’t worry. You and your friends shall face this trial together.” Twilight could feel the mysterious presence drift away, leaving like a silent wind on an evening day. She had no idea what was going to happen and being left in this dark place worried her the more time she spent here. A light began to glow from a distance; bringing with it the first sign of hope that Twilight had for this place.
That light was followed by another and then three more. And then orbs of light slowly drifted down onto the other platforms. Twilight smiled when they took the shape of her friends. “Girls? Girls!?” She waved over to them. “Girls!? I’m over here!” But they did not seem to hear her. “Girls? Girls, I’m over here!” Fluttershy looked her way, but did not seem to even notice she was there. “What’s going on… why can’t they see me?” Like an ethereal veil they were blinded to her presence. Seemingly unaware that she even existed.
Then came a familiar laugh. She looked up to see nothing and frowned when that mocking tone echoed around her. “Oh what a wonderful treat. To have you all here, sitting patiently like a dog, unaware of its imminent demise.” He chuckled again. “I hope you’re finding yourself at home. For this is the last place you’ll see. So. I hope you’ve said your last words. Now it’s time for the show to begin.”
Twilight looked at her friends, her eyes widened when Applejack was slowly backpedaling to the edge, with three timberwolves forming from this dark mist. She turned to Fluttershy and watched as she crouched down, wings nearly covered her eyes, as a dragon appeared this time.
Rarity as she could see was crying in fear as a gorgon appeared on her platform, with Rainbow Dash readying herself to fight a manticore and Pinkie Pie staring wide-eyed at a giant spider. “Girls!? Girls, hang on!” She had to hope that they could hear her. “I’ll find a way to get us out of this mess!” She froze as a cold presence grazed her backside.
Slowly she turned around. There was nothing there. Nothing but her shadow. “The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes.” The voice’s symbolic warning fell on deaf ears. Twilight couldn’t tear her gaze away from the dark colorless being that seemed to shatter the law of physics
It stood up and began to grow, but suddenly shrank, and finally grew until it stood as tall as her. The shadowy presence looked at her with an eyeless gaze, taking the same shape as her until these glass-like jagged goggles formed around what should’ve been its eyes, a bright blue flame glowed, a foreboding sign. How the being did not catch fire was far beyond Twilight’s other concerns.
Why and how it looked like her was another burgeoning question. But she couldn’t ask them now. She shook her head and widened her stance, horn sparking to life. Now was the time to fight.
The shadow raised its head and shot a dark beam at her, Twilight jumped to the side and reciprocated in kind. It too sidestepped out of the way before a firefight began between the two. Twilight took a quick glance to her friends and saw them all evading their enemies.
Nopony else was fighting except Rainbow Dash. She had to finish this fight quickly. Her friends were in danger. With a clever idea Twilight stopped in her tracks and charged a beam on her horn. The magenta light grew into a small ball.
She yelped as another beam was sent her direction, doing her best to concentrate on charging her attack. If she lost concentration for even the slightest moment. The ball pulsed and she launched it at the dark being. It was launched into the air and over the side. She cheered in surprise that it worked, that her plan went off without a hitch.
But she stopped in her tracks when the being floated back up over the edge and landed on the right corner. The fight she had to end was not yet met with its swift demise. The shadow’s eye holes lit up and its hooves amassed a large dark force.
It jumped into the air, higher than even the best athletic pony, and the ground swayed with a dark wave. Twilight lifted a shield up in front of her, and gasped when she felt the pressure hit the barrier. Hooves screeched against the platform as she was pushed back straight to the edge. She breathed a little and felt tired.
How long would this battle last? The creature seemed to answer as it charged straight at her. She hurried forward and dodged an incoming hoof, the creature rapidly pivoted on its legs. Twilight blocked the next hoof with a circular barrier, feeling the creature push her back with each strike.
She clenched her teeth. Each hit increased the strain in her horn; and her headache only grew worse. The shadow raised both its hooves and as it struck, that same dark energy formed and the small barrier broke, Twilight yelped and slid back from the impact, still on her hooves but dazed.
The creature lifted its head upwards and a circular and mass took shape. The dark energy exploded and formed into a mass of small dark orbs. Each orb rose into the air and then fell towards Twilight. She dodged a couple and raised her barrier to block the next incoming orbs.
But she felt her barrier break again and shrieked when the mass of orbs exploded on contact. Each hit hurt more than the last until she found herself sliding on the ground, stomach to the air, moaning in pain. Shakily she looked up and saw the dark being preparing yet another circular mass of orbs. Was this it? She thought. Was Discord really going to win against them?
Was their struggles all for nothing? Then she saw a light shine in the corner of her eye. “There is still hope, my child.” Another light blinked into existence, and she smiled when Applejack had an ethereal weapon in tow.
She couldn’t really describe what it was but the fact that it existed was good enough for her. Applejack took this ethereal item and smashed the first timberwolf, only to sweep the other two off the platform. Applejack then turned to where she sat and smiled. “Twilight! There you are!”
“Applejack. Can you really see me!?” She nodded and Twilight sighed in relief. But that momentary consolation did not last for long, as the being launched another army of dark orbs. With a revived amount of vigor Twilight stood upright and blocked the incoming array of orbs, but felt a shockwave from behind, yelping as she slid forward.
She got up and dodged the shadow’s hoof swipe. Another light came to brighten this dark world. Twilight glanced over her shoulder and saw Fluttershy hid behind what looked like an ethereal shield, the dragon’s flames passing right beside Fluttershy’s cover.
There was a fast shift of light and an orb pierced the dragon’s hide, the creature roared as it slowly faded to nothingness. Rarity and the other girls too gained some mysterious weapon. All varying in shape. But the result was the same and each opponent they had was defeated not long after they gained this ethereal weapon.
Twilight turned to the shadow to which she returned a glare. “This cannot be!” She heard Discord’s displeased voice. “You’re all supposed to be dead! It's too soon for you to have found those weapons!?”
She had no idea what he was talking about, but now that the tables had turned and Twilight could only smile. Even as bruised as she was, and from what she saw, the girls were bruised as well, she began to chuckle a little. “You see, Discord?” She felt his intense gaze even if he was nowhere to be seen. “This is why we came through. This is why me and my friends didn’t fail. We relied on each other. When they came out on top, they gave me the strength to continue forward, even when it seemed pointless to fight.”
The same glow appeared in front of her. When she analyzed the ethereal shape she thought she saw some kind of sceptre. She levitated it to her front and pointed it at the shadow. A purple glow emanated from her Element and now she finally began to realize who was helping them. “No matter what you throw our way, Discord. We’ll always be the ones to stand on top. That is the power of my friends! This is the power of friendship!”
A purple beam shot out of the sceptre and the shadow reciprocated with a dark beam of its own. The two opposing forces came at a standstill, neither pushing the other. Twilight held it as best she could until the shadow began to push her back. Slowly but surely the purple beam began to shorten and decline at a slow pace. “Don’t give up, Twilight!” She heard Rainbow’s call.
“You can do this Twilight!” Fluttershy was the next to speak.
“We believe in you, Twilight!” And Rarity’s words were the third and most inspirational.
“Kick that shadow’s butt!” Pinkie cheered.
Twilight felt five other energies form right next to her magic. The beam combined into the other colors and turned into a pure white light. It was an immense power that, as Twilight yelled, using what was left of her own strength, the magic overpowered the singular dark beam. And with it the shadowy version of her disappeared, splitting into tendrils of darkness.
There was a bright flash of light that overtook Twilight’s vision. And everything went to black once more.
~~~
Twilight felt the world turn by but all that seemed to remain was the darkness. She felt the heaviness drift by and opened her eyes to see Discord on his throne. But something was different. He sat there limply like vines in a rainforest, and remained motionless with his eyes closed. She heard groans to her left and right and smiled when she saw her friends waking up. “You girls, okay?”
She got a few half-hearted nods but it was good to know they were still okay. Discord cried out and she quickly turned back to him. He thrashed on his throne as arcs of electricity surrounded him. “No! This cannot be! My magic!” He glared at the girls. “What did you ponies do to me!?”
Then she thought back to his deal and smirked. “Don’t you remember your own words, Discord? It was you who said that if you lost then you’d be left in a weakened state. Looks like what you said did become a reality.” He pressed his hands on both armrests but his arms shook to even lift himself off the throne. “Now then. I think it’s time we finished what we started. What do you say, girls?”
They all cheered in agreement and a white light grew around them. Discord stared wide-eyed. “N-n-no! I won’t let this happen!” He fought a losing battle against his weakened body. “I don’t want to go back! I don’t want to be turned to stone!”
Twilight felt just a little pity for the Draconequus. But after his attempt to take their life she wasn’t about to forgive him for his actions. She felt the immense magic swirl through her again and opened her eyes to reveal a white light. The rainbow came out just like before and in moments Discord wailed in terror as it struck him. He cried in fear as he watched his body petrify from his feet, struggling to move before he was frozen in a state of pure dread.
A loud boom echoed across the land as a white shield encircled the group. It covered the surrounding area in meer seconds and reversed all the chaos magic that Discord unleashed. Twilight felt her hooves touch the ground again, rubbing her head to alleviate the headache. She opened her eyes and smiled at the sight of Ponyville, now returned back to its original state. They had did it. They had beaten Discord. And Equestria was safe again.
Chaos is only as strong as its maker. Discord was such a powerful being but in the face of Twilight and her friends their friendship overcame his chaotic might. Friendship had won the day again. And the magic of their bonds proved to be a reminder of how strong a group of friends can really be.
That was really good! Nice idea to have each mare face a threat.
I’m eager for the one with Chrysalis.
4782724
Thanks! I'll start on that sooner or later.
Hmmm, do you plan to write it in several parts, like with a first part, Twilight fighting Chrysalis, still disguised as Cadance, before she's magically sent into the crystal caves? Then, while Shining and the real Cadance prepare their spell, the mane 6 would keep Chrysalis busy?
4783043
Something like that.
4783400
I am eager to see how it will go.