//------------------------------//
// Broken Friendship 
// Story: Flash Sentry, Chaos and Disharmony 
// by Banshee531 
//------------------------------//

Springer was exhausted.

He had been 'trying' all day to keep Ponyville in one piece, as more and more weird things kept happening. The only problem was that he had no idea what he was doing, and trying to fix the unusual problems either ended up doing nothing or making the problem worse. However, despite this, he was happy that he was able to get the town evacuated, with the exception of Spike, who preferred holing up in the library.

Right now, he found himself in a particularly tricky situation: fighting a giant plant monster that had a yellow flower head and purple petals. On its flower head, it had a pair of large eyes and a giant jagged mouth, while it's back sprouted giant dark green leaves with black flower heads with red petals.

"Okay," Springer panted, flexing a offensive attack stance. "I can do this."

The plant monster then roared, unleashing it's tendrils and beginning to whip them at the jakhowl. Springer used everything he had learned from Flash to dodge the vines, creating a bone out of his aura to smack the rest away. "Take this!" He yelled as he slashed the air with the bone, striking one of the vines, slicing it off. "Gotcha," he said happily, one down...and a million more to go.

The monster then threw one of its arm vines towards Springer, causing him to jump into the air. As he did, flower head's mouth open, ready to take a bite out of the jakhowl. Luckily, Springer quickly thrust his Bone Breaker forward, blocking the mouth in one swift motion. As he did this, Springer saw another vine coming at his side. The jakhowl quickly hopped over the vine suddenly swinging into him, causing the plant to end up eating the vine instead of his aura bone. "HA! Eat that!"

Springer took this chance and ran up the vines, creating a pair of Bone Breakers, which he used to slash away the attacking vines. As he did this, the monster's patience had run thin. With a mighty roar, the plant shot a storm of tendrils at the jakhowl, causing him to hop off the plant. He then backpedaled for a second before putting his paws together. "Aura Blast!" Springer yelled as he created an aura sphere, firing it at the plant. Knocking the tendrils away, Spring created a pair of extra long Bone Breakers, charging the beast at full power. A second later, the jakhowl leaped into the air, spinning both bones at blinding speeds.

With this, the plant's life was finished. What followed was the greatest weedwhacking ever as Springer dove into the plant, slicing him to bits. It was only seconds later that the body went limp, its giant monster head falling to the ground with a thud.

Once Springer landed from his graceful attack, he turned towards the dead monster and smiled. "Not a good time to lose one's head," he smirked before turning to leave. However, before he could even decide what to try next, a sound from behind him caught his ears.

Turning back around, his eyes went wide seeing something growing out of the neck vine he had just sliced through. Both the head and the body began growing, the head appearing to regenerate its entire body while the body did the same with it's heads. Then a second plant monster appeared, both of them copies of each other. "Oh come on!" Springer yelled as he started to summon another aura weapon. "There's no end..."

In that second however, a powerful gust of wind swept by Springer as he felt himself be lifted into the air. "You alright?" A familiar voice said, making him look up and smile seeing his friend holding onto him.

"Yeah..." Springer slightly panted as he hugged Flash, "and thanks. One second later and I would have been plant food."

"Don't mention it," Flash replied, "I'm just glad I decided to scope out the area before heading to the library."

"Yeah..." Springer's face changed from exhaustion to worry. "So what exactly is happening right now? I thought the princess summoned you to fix all this."

"She did," Flash replied before frowning, "its a long story."

As they flew over to the library, Flash explained about Discord and him stealing the Elements of Harmony. How he and the others were tricked into going into the maze and getting separated. When they finally reunited, he found that only he and Twilight were acting normal while the others were acting odd, along with Rainbow abandoning them and Discord winning because of this.

"And now Twilight thinks we'll find the answers we need in the book on the Elements of Harmony," Flash finished.

"This is insane," Springer replied while slightly shaking his head, "but do you really think it'll have a clue?"

"I hope so...or we'll be in big trouble."

A few minutes later, the duo arrived at the library. They then saw that Twilight and the others were just arriving as well, though it obvious that Twilight was losing her last thread of patience.

"You weren't kidding," Springer commented as he saw their friends, "they really are gray."

"I know...and hopefully we can fix that soon." Flash replied as he landed. He then trotted up to Twilight, who was yelling at the four others.

"Okay we're here," Twilight groaned, opening the door to the library with a slam. "Now can you all please please PLEASE go inside?!"

"Ah absolutely refuse," Applejack said as she walked in, turning even more gray while doing it.

"With pleasure," Fluttershy said before landing on one of the bushes outside the door, turning it into a doormat. She too was beginning to turn grayer by the second.

"I HATE LIBRARIES!" Pinkie screamed as she walked inside, her color draining as well.

The only one left was Rarity, who was trying to push her boulder inside the library.

"Please," Twilight repeated, "we've gotta hurry."

"Forget it Twilight," Rarity growled with a glare, "I know what you're up to. The second I go in, you'll have your little minion Spike come and take Tom. Well, its not going to work!"

"Tom?" Springer asked.

"Don't ask," Flash shook his head. "Just...don't."

Twilight, Flash and Springer all shared a glance before glaring back at Rarity, who was now turning as gray as the others. "You're not going in without him are you?" Twilight asked, to which Rarity just shook her head. "Fine..." Twilight sighed before turning to Flash, "would you?"

"It's just a few meters," Flash pointed at the rock, "can't you just use your magic? I've seen you move heavier things."

Twilight just rolled her eyes and turned to the boulder, before her horn glowed and she magically lifted it into the air and through the door. However, Twilight was so frustrated that she didn't realise the door was obviously to small for 'Tom', which smashed through it and a good chunk of the wall.

"Careful Twilight," Rarity hissed before moving over to the boulder and caressing it, "you'll ruin his beautiful finish."

"Oh for the love of-"

"Twilight, what's going on?" a soaking wet Spike interrupted before pointing to the four mares in the room. "And why does everypony look so...gray?"

"I don't know how and I don't know why," Flash told him with a mix of annoyance and a grimace on his face, "but Discord's somehow turned everypony into the opposite of what they're supposed to be."

"You mean it's some kind of spell?"

"I don't know." Flash said before turning to Springer, "what can you get from them bud?"

Springer raised his paws and pointed them at the others while closing his eyes. His ears then flared up as he scanned the four's auras. When he was done, he shivered in disgust. "Something's not right. All I felt was...darkness. Its as if everything pure about them has been locked away."

Flash growled at hearing this, still unsure how as to how this tied into Discord's plan.

"Right now, that doesn't matter," Twilight said as she turned to Spike, "I need you to help me find something."

"Hey Twilight," Fluttershy interrupted, floating over Twilight with a bucket in her hooves, "what's soaking wet and clueless?"

"Fluttershy..." Twilight replied as she rolled her eyes, "I've had just about enough-" she didn't get to finish as Fluttershy tipped the contents of the bucket on top of the unicorn, soaking her to the bone.

"Your face!" Fluttershy laughed before slamming the bucket onto Twilight's head.

"Are you okay?" Flash asked from a distance, fearing her reaction.

"I'm...fine," Twilight growled from under the bucket. "Forget them and help me find the reference guide to the Elements of Harmony." she said as she did a quick drying spell over her body before glaring back at the others, "before somepony does something she'll regret."

Flash and Springer glanced at each other, both gulping at the face Twilight just gave. Spike on the other hoof, moved over to a bookcase with a slight smile on his face. "I know exactly where that book is." He proclaimed as he climbed up a ladder and stopped at the second to last shelf, pulling out a familiar brown book with a gold unicorn symbol. "Found it!" He called out, only for a scroll to slam him in the face and make him drop it.

Fluttershy zipped in out of nowhere and grabbed the book, before smirking up at the baby dragon. "HA!"

"Fluttershy," Twilight growled, "you'd better give me that book."

Fluttershy's face contorted into a smile that reminded Flash of the main character of an old foal's story called 'The Grump Who Stole Hearts Warming'.

"KEEP AWAY!" Fluttershy yelled as she threw the book towards Applejack, who caught it on her nose.

"Applejack," Twilight said as she ran at her, "give me that book!"

"I don't have any book," Applejack lied as she threw the book into the air.

Fluttershy and Pinkie both tried to grab the book, only for Flash to quickly dart into the air, stealing the tome in one fell swoop. As he landed, Rarity appeared in front of him, a maniacal look on her face as she stared the book. "Give me that! I want it, its mine!"

"Back off, all of you." Flash replied, only to see the four suddenly charge at him. The orange Pegasus just bit his lip, seeing this. "Alright, you asked for it." With a flap of his wings, he knocked all of them back with a single gust of air. "Now calm down! There's no need to-"

The book then levitated out of his hoof, quickly floating over to Twilight. She had a giant scowl on her face, and Flash could tell that her anger was just about to blow. "Thank you Flash. Now, lets see here...." She opened the book and gasped. There inside the book, hidden in the warped pages of the book, were seven very familiar objects.

"The Elements," Twilight exclaimed happily, "they were here all along! We finally got them! Now we can beat Discord!"

"Who?" Spike asked.

Flash turned to the drake and waved his hoof. "Long story. What matters is that he's going down and then we can put everything back to normal."

Twilight nodded and turned to the others. "See girls? We did it! We found the Elements of Harmony, together!" However, the others certainly did not look happy about this development. In fact they didn't even look like they cared. "You don't even care, do you?"

"NOPE!" they all yelled at the same time.

Twilight sighed. "I never thought this would happen."

"Twilight?" Flash asked in concern. He could tell that Twilight was starting to look off-color as well. "What are you-"

"My friends," Twilight interrupted, her voice rising. "have turned into complete JERKS!"

"Twilight, it's not like that. Just-"

However, Twilight wasn't listening. She took the Elements of Harmony in her magic aura and rushed them around the room, placing them on their respective owners. "Necklace, necklace, necklace, necklace, helmet!" Then with one last huff, she placed her own element on her head. "Big crown thingy. Come on everypony, let's go."

"But Twilight," Spike asked, blinking at the sight. "Aren't you missing somepony?"

"Nope," Twilight replied, "we got me and Flash along with the liar, the grump, the hoarder and the brute. That just about covers it."

"But what about Rainbow Dash? Where is she?"

"She flew off," Flash answered, shaking his head. "We don't know why."

"It doesn't matter," Twilight said angrily before turning to Spike and levitating the final Element around his neck, "you're the new Rainbow Dash. Now let's go!"

"ME?!" Spike screamed in horror before following the others, "but what if she finds out I've been impersonating her?" He shook in terror, "that won't end well."

Seeing how far this had gone, Flash grabbed Twilight's shoulder. "Hang on Twilight, this isn't going to work. Spike isn't Rainbow Dash."

"At this point, I doubt Rainbow could do any better," Twilight almost yelled before marching to the door, "now come on. The sooner we get this done, the sooner I can get away from you ponies." With that, she rushed out the door, followed by everypony else until only Flash, Springer and Spike were left.

"What's wrong with Twilight?" Springer asked him, "her aura's starting to become as dark as the others."

"Seeing our friends like this is getting to her," Flash replied, shaking his head. "I just wish I knew what Discord was planning. Unless it literally is us falling apart."

"Except you're not affected?" Spike asked, still confused at everything that was happening.

"No." Flash nodded before glancing at his partner. "My aura is fine, right?"

"Same as always. It doesn't even show a bit of darkness, unlike theirs."

A certain lightbulb clicked in Flash's head. "Huh. If that's the case, then-"

"FLASH! SPIKE!" Twilight yelled from outside, "GET YOUR BUTTS OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!"

"Um...don't you think we should-" Spike tried to say, only to be interrupted by Flash.

"Don't. She'll come back in here in a second."

Spike gulped at this suggestion. "But she sounds really angry. Like, the lemon tea incident angry."

"Its not going to be that bad Spike." Flash said with a chuckle. "Just wait and-"

"FLASH! I'M NOT GOING TO WAIT ANY LONGER! COME OUT HERE NOW!" Twilight exclaimed, her head now peering through the front door. However, the trio inside could see things were already worse, as they could see the anger pouring over her face.

"Uh-oh. That's not good." Springer commented, quickly hiding behind Flash.

"Twilight, calm down." Flash said as shook his head. "You need to-"

"SHUT UP! YOU AND SPIKE ARE COMING OUT HERE RIGHT NOW AND WE'RE GOING TO BEAT DISCORD!"

Flash crossed his hooves, leaning back as he glared at the once purple unicorn as she walked up to him, her eye twitching as he replied. "No. I'm not moving."

"Why you-"

"STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW TWILIGHT!" Flash yelled, causing Twilight to slightly wince. She began to backpedal, as she had never heard Flash yell at her before. Unfortunately, it didn't last long as the scowl returned to her face.

"Oh? So are you gonna start being a huge jerk to me too?!" Twilight barked back, her horn beginning to shine. "Well?! Are you?!"

"No, I'm not." Flash shook his head before putting his hoof on her shoulder. "Listen, Discord is getting to you, just like our friends. You need to slow down and think this through." Flash then pointed to Spike, "Spike isn't Rainbow Dash, and the girls aren't like themselves. If we want to win this, we need to fix that."

"No we don't." Applejack interjected, her eyes shifting as she did. "We already won."

"I hate the Elements of Harmony." Pinkie grumbled, quickly taking off her necklace as she did. As this happened, Rarity quickly grabbed the necklace, cackling as she said it was hers now.

"See?" Flash pointed to them again. "We need to fix this first, otherwise we're not gonna win."

"No, Applejack is right." Fluttershy mocked as she flew over Flash. "We don't need this garbage to win." She then took off her necklace and threw it at Flash, only for him to block and catch it with his wing.

With this, the others left the library, their necklaces on the floor. Rarity had also claimed that the necklaces weren't worth it, and decided Tom was enough for her. They then left, leaving the four in a pit of despair. Seeing this sight, Twilight turned back to Flash, the scowl still on her face. "Oh yeah, then why aren't you like them?! Why are you still the same?!" Twilight then pointed to the door, where all her 'friends' that had left them. "Why do I need them?! Why do I need friends like them?!"

"Twilight, I..." Flash stopped himself, blinking at the thought. "I don't know. I don't know why I'm the same and-" Flash then saw Twilight's fur begin to go gray. "No. Twilight, don't tell me you're changing too."

"Shut up." Twilight turned around, tears forming under her eyes. "After all, who needs enemies if I have friends like them..." She then began to walk up the library's stairs. Seeing the sight caused Flash's heart to begin breaking, his eyes shrinking as he saw the failure of his friendship with Twilight.

"Her aura," Springer confirmed in a horrified whisper, "it's turning more and more like the other's."

"No...NO!" Flash yelled, quickly flying up to stairs and landing in front of Twilight, a look of determination on his face. "Snap out of it Twilight! We're not giving up!"

Despite this action in front her, Twilight didn't even flinch. Instead, she just barely said, "It's over Flash, we've lost. Our friends don't want anything to do with us anymore, so what's the point if they don't want to help us?"

"That's not the Twilght I know and grew up with." Flash barked back, getting up into her face. "That's Discord. He's gotten in your head and clouding your judgement."

"Maybe...or maybe he's just helped me realize the truth. Maybe friendship isn't as powerful as I thought it was."

"No Twilight," Flash whispered to her, shaking his head as he did. "You don't believe that. This is what Discord wants, for us to give up on our friendship so we can't use the Elements against him. It's why he turned the others into who they are now. It's why he tried to turn me against my Element."

"Then why aren't you acting different?" Twilight replied with a glare. "Why aren't you all cowardly or...whatever the opposite of your Element is?!"

This stumbled Flash. He honestly didn't know what had caused him to be unaffected by Discords trickery...no, that wasn't right. He knew exactly what had caused it, he just didn't know how. "I...I remembered," Flash said in a slight hesitant tone. "Discord tried to make me think the ponies that I cared for didn't care about me. The ones who give me the courage to fight on, he tried to make me think that they hated me. That they only wanted me around just so they could use me...and it worked, because I almost fell for it."

"Then why didn't you?"

"I don't really know what it was," Flash replied, scratching the back of his head as he did. "but whatever it was, it showed me visions of my past. Times when others showed that they really did care for me, like when you taught me how to read, or when Shining Armor taught me how to fight with a sword. I remembered when ponies put my needs above their own, with nothing in return."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at this.

"I know it's seems like everything is falling apart," Flash gave her a determined stare, "but just because it's hopeless doesn't mean we should stop trying."

"Well maybe I've got nothing worth trying for," Twilight replied, tears starting to fall down her eyes. With that, she turned and began walking away, leaving Flash behind.

"That's not true. We have our friends, our family, everypony in Equestria. Aren't they worth fighting for?"

"Friends...FRIENDS?!" Twilight suddenly barked back, "what friends?! You mean those jerks that just left us?! HUH?!"

"Twilight..." Flash shook his head before getting up in her face again. He put both of his hooves on her shoulders. "Listen, you need to try and remember everything we've been through. Remember all the stuff me and you and the girls have done. Didn't it...didn't it mean anything to you?"

Twilight didn't reply. Instead, she brushed off his hooves before walking into her room, closing the door behind her. Once she was gone, Flash sighed in defeat before he walked back down to the main floor of the library. There, he took off his helmet and placed it on a nearby table, sighing as he did. "Darn it...why did this happen?"

"Flash," Springer asked as he walked up to his partner. Spike had returned upstairs, but the jakhowl had decided to stay on the first floor. "what do we do now?"

Flash didn't turn to him, not wanting to show the jakhowl the defeat in his eyes. "I don't know bud. I...I just don't know."

Looking around and out the window, Flash saw the chaos of the town begin to spread and intensify. Soon, all of Equestria would fall under Discord's insanity, followed by the whole rest of the world and there was nothing Flash could do about it.

Ponyville was ground zero for the end of the world.

"No," he whispered as he stood up, "I can't let that happen." He then tapped his side, seeing that Lightbringer was still on his person. Seeing this, Flash turned to the nearby door to the outside, where chaos awaited him. Letting out a long sigh, Flash got up and made his way to the door.

"Where are you going?" Springer asked.

"I don't know if I can beat Discord," he said as he opened the door, shifting Lightbringer as he did. "But I can't just sit back and let him do this."

"You're gonna fight him?" Springer asked.

"Yeah." Flash replied in a low, almost dreading tone. "I can't fix what's going on with the girls right now. I don't know how to change what Discord did to them...but maybe I'll get lucky and find some other way to beat him." Flash then turned to Springer with a face of both determination and a hint of fear. "And even if I can't win, I can at least say I tried. I'll fight him, even if I have to do it alone." With that, Flash stepped out the library and flexed his wings, only to feel something land on his back. Looking back, he saw Springer sitting there, ready for take off.

"You won't be alone." Springer said with a big smile, "We're a team. Where you go, I go."

Flash smiled and nodded, before turning back to the skies and taking off. They had to find Discord and defeat him, even if it meant giving up their own lives in the process. The battle for the fate of Equestria was about to happen, but could good win it?