//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: A New Hope // by computerneek //------------------------------// “We’re losing.” The six friends blink.  “What?” Discord nods slowly.  Princess Celestia had already warned them that the information is about as top secret as it gets- but honestly, he’s not surprised. Celestia nods as well.  “We’re losing,” she repeats.  “That’s why we’re planning this next assault to contain every one of us…  and you. “The Elements of Harmony are our last hope.  We think we’ve located their main command and control post, just outside the Crystal Empire…  or where it once stood, at any rate. We’re planning one final push at it with the largest force we can manage- including myself, Luna, and you, Discord.  We’ll have the Element Bearers follow in the rear- and pull to the front as we reach their base; the Elements of Harmony should be able to destroy their base without issue.” “Um, you do know they have shielded themselves against my power, right?” Discord asks. She nods.  “We are aware.  We are also aware we haven’t used the Elements against them yet- and that those same Elements, in the past, have trumped even your own power not once but twice.”  She surveys the party. “We can only pray the Elements are powerful enough to pierce their shields.” Applejack scowls at the map they’re seated around.  “There ain’t no way this is gonna end well.” The battle is a disaster.  Nothing shy of an utter disaster. But in the cold calculus of war, it’s actually going well.  They’re losing a lot of soldiers- but they’re reaching their objective. The Element Bearers gallop up the battlefield, getting themselves in range for the Elements to do their magic.  Their army has reached its target position; they won’t be in danger of attack by the enemy. Much. They stop.  Just ahead, both the Princesses and Discord are duking it out on the front lines.  Each of them easily wipes out multiple enemy soldiers with each blow- but this enemy has numbers.  Where from, they aren’t certain; there had never been this many minotaurs and centaurs before.  At least the Griffins- who could have bypassed the shield surrounding Canterlot- have declared their neutrality in this conflict. They activate the Elements of Harmony, specify their target.  It takes a few seconds for the magic to build, before the giant rainbow laser blasts overtop the army and slams into the barriers surrounding their enemy’s base.  Barrier after barrier falls under this onslaught- and very suddenly, before they manage to penetrate the last one, something strikes them in return. The rainbows, in the absence of the Elements, disappear just as quickly as they came. Discord makes a bash against the remaining barriers.  Unfortunately, they still hold- so, mission failed, the entire army begins its retreat, the Element Bearers nowhere to be seen.  The army regroups, and they recheck, but the Elements and their Bearers had simply disappeared. “We’ve lost,” Princess Luna despairs.  She, Celestia, and Discord have drawn away from their army, and covered themselves in a privacy barrier. Celestia only lets out a sigh, hanging her head. “Not yet,” Discord states defiantly.  “If the Elements can cut through that wall and I can move the Elements around, there has to be something else I can move that can cut through that wall.” Celestia looks towards him.  “But the Elements were wiped out,” she mutters. He shakes his head.  “Not quite. The Elements protected themselves- and the Bearers- quite well…  but as near as I can tell, they were still teleported all across Equestria.” He shakes his head.  “Even I can’t tell where they are.” “Then we have but to look for them,” Luna states. Discord sighs.  “I’m pretty sure they’ll just scatter them again.  I think it’s time we stopped putting all our eggs in one basket- you go ahead and locate the Elements, I’ll see if I can’t find something else.” Celestia raises an eyebrow.  “Where might that be?” He shrugs.  “I have access to the multiverse, Princess.  I’ll find the biggest, most powerful weapon I can get my paws on and drag it back here to- hopefully- assure us victory.” She nods.  “Then let it so be.  We will regroup the Elements of Harmony while you track down a new hope.”  She gazes directly at the draconequus for a second. “We wish you luck.” As the two Princesses begin their short trek back to their army and order a general retreat, Discord embarks upon his journey by stepping through a portal.  He has many worlds to sift through, most likely, before he discovers a suitable weapon. At least none of these worlds have the same overhead on them that Equus has- that terrible overhead, generated from he knows not where behind the enemy lines, that blocks him from assuming an omnipotent state.  Or, what he calls an omnipotent state; it’s not truly omnipotent.  When he does this, though, he takes up no physical space, scattering the energy of his being across the land.  It can be confusing if he’s not careful- but he can scan vast amounts of land very quickly. This first world he has found himself shows nothing more impressive than acid saliva.  While undoubtedly amusing, these ‘zerg’ would be more destructive to Equestria than helpful.  Besides, he doubts their sharpened claws would be any more effective against trained soldiers- let alone hardened, magical barriers- than the spears and swords of the Equestrian Royal Guard turned Royal Equestrian Army.  He crosses into another world. This world is fairly interesting- one that he might have enjoyed, back in his day.  Maybe he’ll visit sometime; there seems to be two entire societies, interpenetrating each other but not interacting.  One has some weapons he could use; while more effective than simple swords, these sharp-object-spewing sticks would be fairly easy to counter…  and difficult to use, nevermind hard to make ammunition for. The other society uses wooden sticks as their weapon of choice, launching magic out of them…  Distorted magic, sure, but still. He reviews this for a moment but, after finding the magic to be basic next to what unicorns can do, discards these sticks as insufficient.  The flying two-wheeled vehicle was amusing, he concedes, before passing on to another world. At first glance, this third world looks the same as the second.  Upon closer examination, though, he discovers a couple of immortal races- but no new weapons.  Sure, native bipeds that can turn into incredibly strong (and fast) wolves might be nice, and sparkly-skinned tougher-than-steel and super-speeded bipeds that feed on their more typical relatives’ blood are well and good, but neither fit his requirement.  He skips to the next world. In the fourth world, he actually finds himself in deep space, rather than near a planet.  Well, not deep space; there are those two metal contraptions duking it out with incredibly ineffective laser beams.  Seriously, he could do more damage than that with the flick of his paw!  He watches the one- with ‘NX-01’ printed on it- eventually win the engagement…  but not only is this thing too big for him to take back with him, he doesn’t think he could have a hope of controlling it, even with ponies’ help; it seems to be operated by as many as a few hundred locals!  He continues to the next world. Another world with massive crew counts on massive weapons.  This one even has some kind of laser cannon he watches destroy an entire world- and, what’s more, some of the locals even use a little magic!  … and call it the ‘Force’. Whatever; every weapon big enough to maybe do the job is either controlled by several hundred (or more) locals, or simply too big for him to take back.  He skips to the next world. This sixth world looks a little strange…  He leaves it far behind as soon as he spots the talking sponge.  He will not allow that abomination anywhere near Equestria! The seventh world looks a bit more satisfactory.  Only, the only weapons he can spot are either similar to the ones he’d seen on the second and third worlds…  or mounted to a spaceship the size of the moon.  Unfortunately, he can’t take anything remotely that large, so he continues his search. Another world in space seems to be number eight.  Honestly, as he watches that tiny ship- CL-56- smash that other ship many times its own size from so far away it couldn’t possibly see its target, he’d love to bring that back with him- but it requires too large of a crew…  Oh, and it’s also a bit too heavy. He notes this world for possible review once the war is over, though; one can never be too prepared and, given enough time, he can bring over things that large. Number nine also takes place in space.  He watches one ship float in space for a few seconds before it launches a single missile to incinerate an entire starsystem.  Unfortunately, that missile alone was far too large for him to bring with- so the whole ship… He really doesn’t stand a chance.  Next world. Ten seems similar to the second and third, though it has a little tiny four-wheeled vehicle burning one point twenty-one jigga-watts to travel through time.  Amusing, but nothing useful. Eleven features giant robots punching giant monsters.  As much as he can’t wait for the sequel, the robots are disappointingly useless for their size, so he has to skip. Twelve has a blue box hopping between worlds and through time, fixing problems with a screwdriver.  None of the weapons are satisfying. Thirteen, however, looks a little better.  These giant hunks of alloy will be right on the edge of what he can jump back to Equestria- and, if he exerts himself, he can get even the biggest one of them out.  Not only that, but with only one-native crews, they’re completely decimating the battlefield! He doubts he will be able to point that many guns at once, the way these people are, but he is impressed by their sheer firepower- and their ability to generate their own defensive force fields.  That don’t interdict their own fire, only their opponents’. He looks a little closer.  These things should be perfect for his needs- and, of course, he picks the biggest one on the battlefield.  The one that just jumped across the battlefield- through the worldwall, he thinks- to flank its enemy.  He starts setting up his spell matrix. He’d duplicate it if he could- but at the moment, he doesn’t have near enough power to do that. As he does so, he watches as his target machine takes many hits from its opposing weapons.  Many of them glance off of its defensive force field; a few more simply disappear against its side.  The few dozen that make it through simply crater its armor. One of its lesser buddies takes a shot in the middle of its side, and explodes with the fury of…  he doesn’t know what, but that blast would easily level Manehattan. He sets up his spell to self-activate, should his target machine suffer any kind of similar damage, before it can blow apart.  Little damages like six-meter holes in critical components he can fix, once he gets back to Equestria.  Major damages like that explosion, not so much. He finishes his adjustment, and finishes crafting his spell.  Now, he has only to accumulate the power necessary to transfer the thing, then pull it out of this battle before it suffers too much damage.  After all, it does take time to fix…  and it’s just beyond that which he can transport immediately. However, as its companions die, it starts taking more fire- and, eventually, takes crippling damage.  His spell auto-activates- and instantly zeroes his available energy, still demanding more. He falls into the blackness of unconsciousness- the same bliss that any energy being will experience, when fully drained of all its energy.