"He’s climbing the mountain. What can we do ? Just what can we do !?" Twilight angrily asked to herself.
"Flee ?" Fluttershy squeaked.
"I think he’ll track down Princess Celestia’s magic wherever we go, maybe even in other dimensions", Starlight replied flatly. "And if he can’t follow us, there’s a risk that he’d probably destroy Equestria out of anger".
The ground shook violently for ten seconds.
"Rock avalanche !" Pinkie Pie screamed.
"If he goes on like this, part of Canterlot will face a rain of rocks ! And at this altitude, it’ll be almost like a meteor shower !" Twilight panicked.
"It will be worse", Celestia corrected as she tried to get up. "Canterlot may not support the weight of that thing, and the entire mountainside could collapse".
Terrorized gasps echoed through the halls of the castle.
"I’ll go tell him", Discord decided.
"Wait ! You’ll be powerless against him ! Why would you do such a thing ?" A surprised and confused Luna asked.
"I don’t wanna see this place going down after I made it float", the draconequus said, shrugging. "Besides that, I think he doesn’t wanna bury “his” princess under tons of rocks…" He added before disappearing.
He reappeared on the mountainside, floating in the sky to have a better view. He did not search long before locating the monster that was jumping from cliff to cliff with an unsuspected agility. But something was off. It was much smaller. Really much smaller. And maybe even less terrifying. The scales on the shell were not keeled anymore, and seemed to be actual, giant turtle shell scales. The spiky bone protrusions were still there, but growing in the middle of the scales ; they had also became conical. The horns had drastically reduced in size, as they did not reach the top of the hair whereas they were far longer than them previously. The padded feet were not as large as before and the body scales of the monster had taken a yellowish orange color instead of the former brown. The spikes on the collars had also decreased in size but his beige mouth was bigger. The most surprising change, however, was the eyes : the serpentine red pupils had disappeared, giving place to round ones, and the irises were now bright orange. He was slightly less terrifying this way, but he stayed nonetheless a scarier creature than dragons. Discord fell almost at ease and appeared right in front of him as he was jumping on the path leading to Canterlot.
"I see you’ve changed your appearance. You’re less creepy this way, I must say", the Master of Chaos complimented sarcastically. "I think you’ve reached the same conclusion as us : the mountain wouldn’t have supported your weight. You better go on a diet y’know…"
"A chimera with a sense of humor telling me to go on a diet… Such a funny world…"
Bowser stopped walking and crossed his bulky arms.
"I can change back whenever I want… These two forms are the same. But even like that, you can’t stop me. I still got my Darkness and strength. Back when I hadn’t my powers, it would’ve been easy – too easy – to beat me. I must say I would’ve made an alliance with you to try to get the kingdom I no longer want… because I see you’re someone who’s done some harm to this country, just like me. Now, move or I crush you under the weight you think I’d better lose", the monster threatened.
Discord noted the change in tone and hovered not far away from the creature which continued its walk.
"You know what ? I think I can stop you in this form… I think your power simply reached its limit…" The draconequus threatened as his voice changed to a deep growl and his pupils to two elongated, shining dots of anger.
Thick dark clouds and thunder suddenly encompassed the two monsters ; Discord instantly became huge, dwarfing the King of the Koopas who stopped again, sighing. The rocks that were forming the path came to life, gained in height and converged towards Bowser ; the ground shook violently to try to destabilize him to no avail ; he shook his head, visibly disappointed.
"You really wanna fight ? You’re gonna have a bad time"
"That’s my line ! You have no idea of how powerful I am !" Discord bellowed. "I am the Master of Chaos ! The Creator of Disharmony ! I can do whatever I want, whenever I want ! I can break the laws of physics should I desire ! I can rip the very fabric of reality ! I can change you into…"
He stopped his rambling : the monster was suddenly right in front of him ; below, the ground and living rocks were shattered. Discord sensed something that destabilized him ; just before realizing that it was the dark, foreign power consuming his chaos with its hungry maws, Bowser grabbed him around the neck with his arm ; the Spirit of Disharmony sensed the spiky collars painfully piercing his flesh. The heavy beast pinned him to the ground in an explosion as all the chaos magic shattered like a thin pane of ice thrown on a wall. Bowser restrained the draconequus with one of his huge hands ; Discord immediately shrunk back to his normal size and the leader of the Koopa race effortlessly lifted him by the throat with the same hand.
"You talk too much and don’t listen enough ; I warned you. Now you lost. Don’t you understand, pathetic little being, that my power is not magic ? It’s far, far away from that. Now, what will I do with you, useless trickster ? Maybe take you as a hostage… Hmm…"
Bowser raised his other hand, claws outstretched : Discord saw them coming down near his heart and he closed his eyes ; he thought of Fluttershy just before the claws touched him. What he sensed was not oblivion however ; he felt almost all of his magic suddenly fading away. He opened one of his asymmetric eyes : he was still in one piece and not injured in the slightest by the attack.
"I sealed most of your magic for one or two days ; I just let the necessary spark for you to get outta here to your… pony friends", the King of the Koopa explained, smiling with a mix of threat and mockery.
"Consider yourself lucky to not be flattened or having your magic or yourself permanently destroyed. Don’t worry, neither that nor your wounds will kill you. Go away, powerless annoying little thing, before I change my mind".
The battered and wounded Discord complied and disappeared.
"DISCORD !!" Fluttershy exclaimed once he reappeared in the castle’s throne room.
All the ponies hurried next to him ; Bowser had made good of his word : the Master of Chaos was struggling to even keep himself on all four.
"You’re wounded !" Fluttershy panicked as she saw the puncture marks on his neck from where the spikes had penetrated his flesh ; they were slightly bleeding.
"Just… a few… holes", her friend replied with difficulty ; the wounds threatened to open more and tiny droplets of blood stained the grey fur.
"Stop talking !" Luna ordered, her voice filled with worry. "I still have enough magic to heal you. Just stop talking".
The Princess of the Night applied her glowing horn on Discord’s neck : the bleeding stopped and the wounds closed themselves, although they left some tiny scars ; Discord did not get up however, but he managed to talk clearly, albeit much slower and with a bitter tone than usual.
"Thanks Luna. That’s not the first time I’m depowered, but that’s definitely the first time I’m crushed like that… I think I can now call myself the Spirit of Failure".
He paused to give his friends the important information :
"He’s far smaller than before, but well… he just jumped, put a wrestling move on me and voilà ! It was over. Duration of the fight : five seconds. I counted. Heh… I thought I was a goner when I saw his claws coming down, but no, guy’s just sealed my magic for two days. He’s right though : I’m pathetic. Behold the Master of Fail !"
"Don’t say such things", Fluttershy reprimanded as she tearfully hugged him. "You’re the Lord of Chaos ! Your powers are just amazing ! Don’t listen to him : you’re truly the best !"
Discord smiled weakly as everyone around him smiled and concurred with Fluttershy’s statement.
The ground shook and Twilight hurried outside the castle just in time to see the limbs and head of the monster coming out of its flying shell as it landed, again shaking the city ; it made its way towards the gates.
"He’s almost at the gates !" The purple alicorn exclaimed.
"Close them immediately ! Alert the guards ! Ring the alarm ! Every citizen must stay inside their locked houses !" Luna roared as loud as she could with her royal voice. "Sister, I will not let this monster capture you !"
As Discord was being put in a bedroom and treated, the entire city sprang into action : guards filled the streets while citizens emptied them. All doors were locked up and all shops, closed. Soon, the city fell silent, except for the hoof stomps of the guards. A rustling came from the sky as the Wonderbolts circled above Canterlot, ready to dive onto the intruder ; intruder who stopped a few feet away from the gates ; he could see the guards behind them and the pegasi above. He smiled. Jumping in the middle of the town was perfectly feasible, but such a jump could cause the collapsing of at least part of it, even with his current size ; he opted for another method.
"Ponies !" He roared with a wall-shaking voice. "If you don’t surrender the white princess to me in one minute precisely, I will burn the eastern district of this city in its entirety ! Your weak magic won’t stop my flames from tearing through your walls ! Now the choice is yours !"
The guards were still awaiting instructions when the time limit reached its end.
"I thought you were peace-loving and wise creatures… such a shame. I feel like you’re as disappointed as me … So… why not cheer up ourselves with some fireworks ?" He roared again.
He lifted his head, briefly inhaled and breathed a gigantic stream of fire above the eastern part of Canterlot ; the fire expanded through the sky, forming a deathly veil, but fell slowly as innumerable little flames ; the flickering tiny fires were not affected by the strong wind produced by the pegasi to extinguish them ; they touched some roofs and stayed in place without expanding or extinguishing.
"The second fire I’ll breathe will merge with this one and reduce this district to ashes in seconds. I say it one more time : surrender the princess".
The gates opened and the guards and the Wonderbolts charged. The last ones were the firsts on the monster, which was thrice their size. Surprisingly for his size and weight, Bowser managed to catch one ; Soarin was swiftly grabbed with one arm and thrown onto the charging unicorn guards who were readying their magic. The hurled pegasus knocked out twelve of them – and himself – as the monster had thrown him just between the gates, where the guards exited the city. Hundreds beams of magic vainly hit the beast as it began walking towards the gates, simply throwing aside the guards which got too close and some other Wonderbolts along the way : it ignored the others. The gates were immediately closed, but one punch of the clawed hand shattered them like they were made of paper.
"What do we do now ?!" Twilight asked to no one in particular with a tone indicating she was slowly losing her self-control.
"He’s gonna burn the city to a crisp !" Spike panicked.
"This is enough. I will surrender", Celestia affirmed in a soft but determined voice.
The white alicorn was now standing without effort.
"You can’t do this, sister !" Luna exclaimed.
"I must protect not only this city, but Equestria as a whole. He will never stop. We have seen his will and his power : with that in mind, how could he not be relentless ? Nothing can stop him ; it’s enough. Putting spell after spell will only anger him more and more and cause unjustified destruction, either because of the spells or his growing rage. Truthfully, I don’t think he will harm me. Maybe I can reason with him, even if it takes time… Sister, you take the responsibility for raising the sun in my absence. I am sure I will come back", Celestia concluded with a sad smile and tears in her eyes as she passed her powers to her sister ; she then quickly flew out of the balcony.
"I…" Twilight began as her voice broke.
She extended her wings and followed her mentor as the others failed to stop her.
"Ah ain’t stayin’ here as Princess Celestia an’ Twilight are riskin’ their lives !" Applejack affirmed.
Her friends approved and they headed towards the direction of the monster.
"I can’t", Luna sobbed as they were going to leave the room. "My sister trusted me with the safety of the kingdom. I just can’t…" She repeated before breaking in tears.
"We’ll get Princess Celestia back, no matter what it takes", Starlight assured.
"Thank you everypony", Luna thanked with a weak, crushed voice.
They hurried out of the castle and rushed through the streets of Canterlot, Rainbow Dash guiding them in the air.
"They’re here !" She exclaimed before speeding right in front of her.
Twilight and Celestia were facing Bowser, the three of them surrounded by guards. The monster looked at each of the armored unicorns before speaking :
"Don’t forget I’ll burn half of this town if these soldiers try anything. That’d be useless anyways : your magic can’t stop me. No force or magic can. Before I lose patience, and trust me, you really don’t wanna see that… will you come with me ?"
Celestia took a deep breath and answered with a firm voice.
"Yes. I’ll come with you, if you don’t harm any of my subjects and extinguish the fire. Now".
"Good. I had no intention to harm or kill anyone anyways. Do I have your word as a princess and fellow ruler ?"
"You have it".
The flames disappeared in a puff of smoke, letting no traces on the roofs.
"Perfect. Take my hand please. I’m gonna teleport us to the portal", Bowser informed, extending his clawed hand.
"No !" Twilight screamed, readying her magic.
"Twilight !" Celestia intervened. "Please, stop. I gave my word to him".
"Don’t worry… You’ll come back, I promise", the monster tried to reassure.
Celestia put her decorated white hoof in the huge scaly palm. A tiny whirlwind of black smoke enveloped the princess and the beast ; when it disappeared, they were gone.
Celestia had never seen such a magic portal : it was a large green pipe emerging from the ground, with only darkness inside.
"After you", Bowser said. "Don’t be afraid, the portal has no side-effects. Just jump in it. Don’t try to flee, I may be heavy, but I can catch you easily".
Celestia hovered above the darkness of the pipe for some seconds, closed her eyes, and plunged inside ; Bowser followed her.