//------------------------------// // Help is always around // Story: Living Darkness // by vildtiger //------------------------------// Note: This happens a couple hours after the last chapter. part 2 and made from the episode "Return of Harmony" By Spy's suggestion, Twilight follows the Changeling back to Ponyville, the trip, however, does take way longer than wanted. First, it’s because the train no longer is available as Discord made it into a crazy rollercoaster and the walk back is agonizingly slow. Partly because the others rotten attitude keeps stalling them but also Discord messing up the world like making day and night go by in minutes, turns every road into soap and the before harmless critters do everything to harm everypony daring to approach them. “Ugh… Discord is not making this easy.” Twilight grumbles, once again getting back on her hooves after have slipped on the soap road. Spy is lucky that he has wings and thus can fly over this slippery road, he does end flat onto a cloud of soap when his pegasus wings suddenly disappear. He emerges from the soap cloud just as Discord skates by them, asking both: “Beautiful, isn't it?” He stops on a small hill where a grand view of what has happened to Ponyville can be seen. The grassy fields have been turned into a square pattern, half of the town is flying in the air and chocolate rain is filling the nearby river. Discord looks quite proud of his work. “This is the new and improved Ponyville, and these are only my first of changes.” He grabs the now earth pony Spy, holding him towards the town just as night arrives. “Picture it. The chaos capital of the world!” Spy doesn’t answer, he only lets out some angry words Twilight does not understand when Discord rudely drops him back to the ground as the Draconis disappears once again. Twilight dreads how worse Discord can do from how bad things already are, but she is still determent to put a stop to this madness. “Not if I have anything to say about it.“ “Don't worry, you won't.” Fluttershy tells her and laughs at her own joke as she skates past and makes sure she hits the Changeling on her way. Twilight and Spy both groan but does move on, approaching the Golden Oak Library, here Twilight is very surprised when she sees her older brother waiting for them at the door. “Shining Armor?” She gallops over to him, does has to stop when Derpy runs past her to get away from the agitated Pinkie. Getting past her jerk friends, Twilight hugs her brother, stepping away she asks confused. “What are you doing here?” However is it Spy there speaks. “After the Crystal Empire, Princess Celestia trusted me again for missions. On my latest mission, I took notice the Shadow Ponies were starting to converge near Canterlot. Since they have possessed me, I had the advantage of spotting ponies being possessed by them. I knew they were up to no good.” “Did you report it to Celestia?” Twilight asks. Spy nods he did that indeed. “She feared this might happen, that’s why she sealed the Elements behind that safe; in hope to keep them away from Discord's grasp. Too bad that part did not work." Spy muses mostly to himself as that would've made things so much easier, anyway, nodding to the captain of the royal guard. "I lettered Shining Armor and Cadence a few days past. Requesting Shining Armor to come and aid us." “After I saw what the Shadow Ponies can do to ponies mind, I asked Cadence to stay in the Crystal Empire for her own safety.” Shining Armor takes over, conjuring a shield there works as an umbrella against the chocolate milk rain. He hates to say this to his sister but… “I’m sorry Twilly, I knew Discord might have the same powers as the Shadow Ponies, but we needed to know what we stand up against.” He knows a lot about sacrifice thanks to his position as a captain of the royal guard. He knows it’s no excuse but it was a calculated risk. Hearing that her brother pretty much used her friends as bait is heart-wrenching. “How could you?” She asks in a whisper, Shining Armor lowers his head in regret for a moment, then with his head raised again says hard. “It was a risk we had to take, I did ask Spy to make sure none of you would get truly hurt when facing Discord.” Spy nods, that was one of the main reasons why he disguised himself as Zecora, but also to observe their new enemy. “Discord might think he has the advantages but when he changed the others to their worst selves. He revealed his own weakness: he is arrogant in his powers.” He turns his gaze to the corrupted group of ponies and single dragon. “He is confident you won’t be any danger now that he has turned your friends against you. We can use this overconfidence against him.” Spy finishes, eyeing the pony much in despair of their situation. “One thing first though.” Shining Armor eyes lands on his heartbroken sister, ignoring his own regret for his choice, he asks her. “Did Discord say anything to hint you towards the Elements?” Twilight nods and cipher what the draconequus said. “’Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the Elements back where you began.’ That’s what he said.” Twilight says and taps her own head to ponder what it meant. “but what does it mean?” “I’m sorry sis, that’s on you.” Shining Armor smiles weakly, “I have always been bad at riddles.” Spy does have an idea, had it for a while now but he couldn’t say it back when he was in Zecora’s form as he needed to see what Discord’s master plan was. “’Back where you began.’ Twilight, where did you get the Elements the first time they appeared before you?” “It was when we fought Nightmare Moon.” Twilight replies, she gasps and has to ask just to be sure. “You think he hid them inside the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters?!” “Maybe, but I wouldn’t trust Discord.” Spy replies, reminding her. “He is, after all, someone who loves to play others for a fool. He will do anything to turn friends and family against each other.” “All allied with the Shadow Ponies do that.” Shining Armor remarks. Eyeing his sister, he notices how tired she is. “You should get some rest Twilly, I will check the ruins for the Elements” Even though she is exhausted from being active for over 24 hours, Twilight Sparkle just can’t make herself get some rest, her friends- Equestria depends on her! “No, I can rest when Discord is defeated.” But her brother won’t hear of it. “A soldier cannot fight without a good night rest. Spy, take care of her.” Said Changeling nods and with that, her brother heads out to search the ruins for the Elements, ensuring the very worried Twilight. “Don’t worry about me Twily. Discord can’t corrupt me as long I wear this.” Pointing at his silver necklace. Twilight has to admit defeat and trust her brother in knowing what he is doing. After having picked up the depressive Spike, Twilight follows Spy into the Everfree forest for some much-needed rest. She might be exhausted, both from having traveled from Canterlot and back without any chance of rest plus has dealt with a lot of mental stress from Discord’s antics and her corrupted friends. But even though she is exhausted, Twilight still notices the strange, glowing mushrooms forming a circle around Zecora’s hut. “It’s a safety measure.” Spy explains to her as they step over this strange barrier. Twilight looks behind to get a better look at the mushrooms, asking Spy. “Is it to keep out Discord?” “No, to keep someone inside.” Twilight frowns at his remarks, about to ask what he meant but got her answer when stepping into the hut. A very young filly runs under her and would’ve gone outside if not Spy caught that little one. Twilight stares at this unicorn baby, noticing this young one looks very much like a zebra with those stripes but… she has fangs and a tail like Scout. Dumbfounded of what this filly inclines but hasn’t seen any past sign Twilight turns to Zecora who has another baby on her back, playfully biting the rings around her neck. “You… Zecora are they—“ Zecora nods. “They are our children, not the way I expected you would meet them.” She admits and can also understand Twilight’s great confusions. “I understand your great shock, Spy still is having problems with this whole trust.” “Apologies.” Spy says and puts down the foal he caught trying to leave the safety of the hut. “Letting others know my secrets is still an issue I am working on.” Twilight Sparkle nods slowly, still quite taken aback that she hasn’t spotted any signs that Zecora has been pregnant, and if she has been more awake and aware then she would’ve realized that Zecora is together with Spy; a master of disguises and Zecora can do some crazy things with her potion making. So having her to keep her pregnancy hidden wouldn’t be that hard for them. All Twilight can think about is the two foals skittering around the floor, the one there tried to escape is looking curiously up at her with bright brown eyes. Slowly Twilight gets over her shock and after Zecora has served her some of the herb tea, she asks the parents. “How old are they?” “About three months.” Spy replies and once again has to grab the flint colored foal as she again tries to get outside. Putting that little escape artist beside her sister. “Believe it or not.” For human babies are far from that lively at that age. He swears it’s because of their Changeling side but at least they are easy to distract. Picking up Jeremy’s baseball, he rolls it over the floor and that gets both babies attention. He points at the little escape artist, now currently pushing the baseball around with her muzzle. “This is Lavernia.” Her coat is flint colored, what little hair she has is the same dark red as Jeremy. She has grey stripes on the hindquarters and around the eyes from her mother's side. What she got from him is the holes at the ears, legs, fangs and the ability to sense emotions. Oh and she has a horn, not sure if that means Lavernia one day will be able to shapeshift. The second baby leaps off her mother and bites into the ball but has to use her hooves to keep it in place. Pointing at the baby mistaking the ball for food. “And that is Sauda, don't stick your hoof over to her: she will bite you.” Seemly her teeth itch as she has to bite everything, one of the reasons why he has this baseball. Her coat is slate grey with black stripes down her neck, back and all the way down her lion tail. Her hair is dark grey and striped like Zecora, and even has a light grey muzzle as her mother. That little one drops the ball and turns her rose-colored eyes up to him when hearing her name before she returns to chasing her sister who has snatched the ball. Twilight smiles weakly at the two foals playing around, even though she is still startled seeing them. “Wish you had told me sooner....” Her smile drops when the still very depressive Spike points out. “It’s not like they trust you… why would they?” Twilight groans and slams her head against the table, at least the babies are having fun as they giggles of her action. *** Twilight did not get much sleep but enough to feel a bit more ready to face her jerk friends, Spy and Zecora’s two children helped on her mood too, even Spike had trouble being depressive around the two cute and very curious foals. This breather might have been good but it hasn’t changed the fact that her friends are not themselves. “How can I help them when they don’t want to be helped?” Twilight asks the two bearers of Guidance. “The task is simple, Discord made your friends get lost,” Zecora taps Twilight chest “you will have to remind your friends of the virtue they forgot.” Spy nods in agreement of what his beloved have said. “Discord messed with them like a Shadow Pony. Remembering what is important will snap them out from it.” He knows that through experience, his maternal love for Scout made him able to fight the Shadow Pony possessing him. Twilight gasps, understanding what she needs to do. “Discord's trying to distract us from what's important. He knows how powerful our friendships are, and he's trying to keep us from seeing it! Thank you! Oh, thank you both so much!” Twilight cheers and with: “Tell my brother to meet me at the library when he returns!” She grabs Spike and leaves the hut in haste. When back inside the Golden Oak Library Twilight performs a memory spell on Spike, as hoped he returns back to normal, but still is greatly affected by Discord’s deception. “The— The statues of the Drakes— I was their only hope but I… I don’t know how to save them...” Spike explains, looking ready to burst into tears. Twilight feels sorry and angry that Discord threw that huge bolder of responsibility onto Spike, he may be the hope for the Drakes but- “Spike, we may not know how to save your kind at the moment, but that doesn't mean they never will be free again.” Spike dries away his tears, still look heartbroken though so Twilight gives him a hug as he really seems to need one. “We won’t give up on them; like I didn’t give up on you.” Spike returns the hug, feeling much better and happy she reminded him he does not stand alone in this. “Thanks, Twilight.” She puts him down and when more certain on himself again, Spike asks. “What’s the plan?” Blinking when she explains that Shining Armor is currently searching the ruins of Luna and Celestia’s former castle. “Your brother is here?” Realizing how much he has been missing. Twilight nods and although not really happy that he used her friends as bait, she can forgive Shining Armor since he did it to give them a fighting chance and is currently risking his own skin to find the lost Elements. “Spy and my brother have been making a backup plan in the case this would happen. It seems everypony with the silver necklaces are immune towards the mind-bending corruption— but only as long their partner is out of harm’s way.” “Now I really wish the others with the silver necklace are here.” Spike muses, he picks up a scroll and swings it like it’s a sword. “With them, we could’ve defeated Discord, no problem!” Spike’s right and Twilight is getting the idea that the Shadow Ponies waited for the turned humans departure before releasing Discord when they realized that those with the twin Element can fight them head-on. “Yeah, but they aren’t here, so we have to figure this out on our own.” Twilight says, Spike nods before both turns to the door when a tired and quite ruffled up Shining Armor walks inside, however, he does not have the Elements. Twilight feared that would be the case. “Oh no, they weren’t there?” Shining Armor shakes his head. “No, but Discord sure made it look as if they were there.” He shakes and dust flies off his pelt from the hourglass sand Discord threw at him as his form of a sick joke that he was running out of time. While brushing the sand out from his mane, Shining Armor asks his very smart sister. “Any other idea where they might be?” “No, but I have a reference guide on the Elements of Harmony.” Twilight says and just as she said it, Spike trots over to the place where he last saw that book. “Found it!” He calls but just to his luck, a now really grey and thus really greedy Rarity just passed by and when hearing someone has something she doesn't, Rarity levitates it out from his claws and runs off, yelling: “Mine!” Spike falls to the floor, getting up he and the unicorn siblings stare at where the corrupted Rarity ran off with the book. Twilight groans greatly annoyed by this. “Oh for the love of— let’s go!” She gets Spike on her back and they follow Rarity. Catching up to her is somewhat easy, sure Rarity made them chase her through half the town, but when Twilight gets close enough to grab the book with her own magic. The corrupted unicorn goes all psycho on them. “IT’S MINE!” Twilight would've gotten seriously hurt if Shining Armor hasn't jumped in between and taken the attacking unicorn right to the face. He can take it though, wouldn’t be much of a royal guard if he can’t handle a single manic unicorn. Twilight hesitates for a moment, considering running over and help her brother, but decides otherwise as it seems he is handling the greedy Rarity well enough. She turns to the book and opens it, Twilight gasps when the Elements of Harmony are inside the book. “Brother I found them! The Elements are here!” “Good.” He smiles and with a quick spell, traps the raging Rarity inside a shield bubble. “Now let’s get your friends back to normal.” Twilight nods and lets her memory spell return Rarity back to normal. Rarity is quite embarrassed she let herself get turned against her generous nature, more so she did it because of a useless rock. “Let’s us never speak of it again.” She tells the others before following to find another of the bearers. Applejack is easy enough to find for even with a corrupted mind, Applejack’s heart knows the importance of family. Getting to the farm is a bit tricky because of all the chaos going around, but arrive they do and Twilight declares to the lying through her teeth Applejack. “I'm here to fight for our friendship!” Of course, Applejack’s mind is so clouded with her darker self that she does not see it that way. “Oh, now you want to fight. Where you went when I was battling Discord?” She demands and starts pretending she is fighting something. It comes to a sudden halt when Twilight tackles and throws Applejack to the ground, Twilight must admit that part of her does find a small satisfaction doing that from how much frustrations her friends put her through on the way back. But that feeling is very fleeting as Twilight Sparkle much rather want her honest friend back. “Snap out of it! This isn’t you!” and does her memory spell. She only steps away when Applejack natural coat colors return. “Wh-What happened? Twilight!” Applejack then realizes what happened and feels really bad about it. “I saw a vision of us feuding' and fighting'. I couldn't face the truth, so I started telling lies.” And has to ask the friend she probably hurt the most. “Can you ever forgive me?” Twilight smiles. “I already have,” with Rarity nodding in agreement, saying “If we do fight, don’t hesitate to tell us your true feelings, that’s what friends are for, after all.” Applejack smiles and on Twilight Sparkle’s battle-cry, she follows the group to find more of their corrupted friends. They find Derpy by mere accident, poor pony is more terrified than Fluttershy when she is standing in a large crowd. It takes another chase and Applejack using her lasso skills to capture the cross-eyed grey mare. When Twilight is done using her spell, Derpy explains what Discord did to her. “My attempt to help only made everything worse… I got so afraid that I didn’t dare do anything…” Twilight taps friendly the grey mare’s shoulder, telling her with a soft smile. “Derpy, never be afraid to act, even if you think it might make it worse.” Both turning their gaze down to Spike when he reminds the grey mare. “Yeah, remember how you saved us from the hydra?” Derpy smiles and nods she remembers that, reminded that reckless actions are at times needed, even if somepony might get a bit hurt. “I won’t back down this time, promise.” She tells them and follows- although do accidentally flies into a passing flying pig. The others are fortunately patient and allow their cross-eyed friend recover before hurrying over to Fluttershy’s cottage. Dealing with Fluttershy is very troublesome, her brutal behavior and ability to speak with animals sure makes it hard getting in close. So Twilight and the others are happy they got Derpy before dealing with Fluttershy as the grey mare ignores the danger of the attacking bear and catches Fluttershy. Shining Armor swiftly deals with the raging bear by giving it a timeout inside one of his shields, Applejack helps Derpy to hold down Fluttershy and while Rarity keeps the small but quite aggressive critters under control with a levitation spell. Twilight hurries over and performs her memory spell on Fluttershy. Unlike the others, Fluttershy does not remember much as she didn’t fall for Discord’s trick and instead got forced to become bad. In fact. “I just had the worst dream, I was mean and cruel and… oh, it was so horrible.” She tells her friends. Twilight and the others decide that perhaps it is best not to tell her that was her a moment ago. Instead, they all ensure her the bad dream is over before moving on to find Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Finding Pinkie is a bit tricky and so is it getting in close, but not so much when Rarity can smooth talk herself to the agitated Pinkie Pie, making the angry pony put her guard down and thus allow Twilight to perform her spell without having to resolve to yet another fight. When Pinkie is back to normal, she does need a quick ensuring that they don’t laugh at her. “Of course not Pinkie.” Twilight says and Fluttershy adding. “We’re laughing with you and well, your antics.” That’s all Pinkie needed to hear and she can instead have a laugh that she not long ago was grey. Twilight and the others smile hearing their friend is back to her bubbly and cheerful self. “Anypony else missing?” Shining Armor asks his sister “Yes, Rainbow Dash; the Element of Loyalty.” Twilight replies and they head to Rainbow's home. However, she is not there but instead chilling on a small patch of a cloud. As expected Rainbow Dash is not really herself but does not stop Twilight from trying and calls up to the pegasus. “Discord's still on the loose! We need you to help us defeat him with your element: Loyalty!” Not sure if she should have expected this or get annoyed when Rainbow Dash replies apprehensive. “Pfft. Loyalty, schmoyalty! Have you guys seen Ponyville? It's a disaster!” and returns back to napping on her cloud. “I'm staying here in Cloudsdale where everything's awesome.” “How in Equestria can she think that tiny patch of clouds is Cloudsdale?” Rarity asks herself out loud, growling pretty annoyed when Applejack points out teasingly. “The same way he got you to think that cheap rock was a diamond.” And has to remind the orange pony that did not want to be reminded; that was so embarrassing! “Time to plan B.” Twilight declares and explain to her friends about the plan. After have gotten a hold on the air balloon, Twilight tells the two pegasi to grab Rainbow Dash and hold her down. “Applejack will lower me down from this rope so I can cast the memory spell on her.” Fluttershy and Derpy nod and flies down to the sleeping Rainbow Dash, however just as luck would have it, Derpy miscalculate the distance and completely misses, thus waking Rainbow Dash up and Fluttershy meek side is out at full swing as she asks the corrupted pegasus. “Um...I'm just wondering if it's okay if I hold you down against your will for a little bit?” The unicorn siblings face-hoof at the same time how bad this plan has gone. Of course, the now disloyal Rainbow Dash won’t have anything to do with the group and tells Fluttershy grinningly. “Nice try! Ponyville's your problem, not mine.” By those words, she grabs the cloud she thinks is Cloudsdale and speeds away. Twilight wraps a rope around both her hooves and throws the robe down to Fluttershy, calling her. “Come on, Fluttershy, we've got to catch her!” Fluttershy bites the robe and flies after Rainbow Dash, and that moment Twilight realizes her brother’s action against her friends as she is forced to leave Derpy behind. Said grey mare gets up from the ground and watches a sheepishly the chase going on above. Twilight Sparkle throws a rope up to Applejack, letting her catch Rainbow with it, to Rarity and Pinkie Pie luck Shining Armor saw the rob isn’t secured the last second and grabs it right before the two got thrown overboard, he does almost get thrown over the edge himself from how strong a flyer Rainbow Dash is. “Secure the rope!” He commands the two mares. Pinkie grabs the robe and in a cartoonishly manner wraps it more than enough to the air balloon. It only slowed Rainbow Dash down, so they have to put more ropes around her, for that however they need to get in closer. “Fluttershy, you have to fly faster!” Twilight calls down to the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy tries with tears in her eyes but just cannot catch up to Rainbow Dash. “I can’t!” She cries. However does get the needed push when Twilight tells her. “If you can't catch her, Discord wins!” and hearing his name makes her realize that horrible dream of her being cruel was real and Discord was the one who did it. “That big... dumb... MEANIE!” and with anger aimed towards the draconequus , she flies past her limit, exactly like during the tornado made to bring water to Cloudsdale. With the needed speed, Twilight tries desperately to figure out a way to reel Rainbow Dash onto the ground, she gets an idea and after a quick spell, about ten minutes later, another flyer appears and when seeing him Twilight throws the second rope up to Applejack. “Okay, Applejack, last rope! Make it count!” Applejack throws it and when Rainbow Dash has it strapped to her. Applejack gives the rope to Spy and he transforms into a rock, and not even Rainbow Dash is strong enough for both flying with an air balloon filled with ponies and a rock, so she gets forced to the ground. With Rainbow Dash secured onto the ground, Pinkie Pie remarks to Spy there returns back to his pegasus form. “I didn’t know you could turn into rocks.” “It’s not something I will do often.” He replies and shudders of how it felt being a rock. “Turning into inanimate objects is very discomforting, but it served its purpose.” and must admit to Twilight. “Nice conjuring, almost fooled us it was a talking bird.” Twilight beams and enjoys the moment of pride before she turns to Rainbow Dash and casts the memory spell on her. After a moment of disorientation, Rainbow Dash pretty much goes into a frantic panic. “How's Ponyville? Where are the Elements?! Did we stop Discord?” The last she asks after have tackled Applejack down, she didn’t get her answer though as her friends are so happy everyone is back to normal and makes group hug. The moment is quickly broken when a line of buffalo ballad dance past them. Twilight Sparkle smile sheepishly. “Maybe it's a little early for a group hug.” “It’s not like the whole world is depending on you.” Spy remarks dryly, earning a stare from Shining Armor, which he completely ignores. After Zecora has joined the group and gotten her Element necklace around her neck, Twilight and her friends head to the center of this chaotic place, as expected, they find Discord sitting on a throne there and he better enjoy this as long as he can. “Discord!” She calls, stepping towards the chaos spirit with her friends right behind her. Discord pretends he’s impressed but in fact mocks them as he still thinks he has the upper hand. “Well, well, well, I see you've found the Elements of Harmony. How terrifying!” Twilight smirks. “You better! Friendship isn't always easy, but there's no doubt it's worth fighting for!” about make her speech longer by revealing why he failed but a tap from Applejack and the orange mare whispering. “Let’s not give him the heads-up.” Oh, right, Twilight smiles embarrassed of that very close call, so skipping a speech she turns to Discord who gags of her already said words. And as Spy predicted, Discord is so arrogant in his powers that he does not see he no longer has the advantages. “Fine, go ahead. Try and use your little Elements. Friend me. Just make it quick. I'm missing some excellent chaos here.” Well, better not keep his stone prison waiting. Twilight turns to her friends. “Alright, let's show him what friendship can do!” However before she can activate the Elements of Harmony, Pinkie stops them and slurps the chocolate milk falling from a nearby candy cloud. Fortunately, she does quickly cut that out and joins the formation. Twilight Sparkle activates the Elements, and at first, Discord is not at all bothered and when he finally realizes that they no longer are corrupted, it is too late. The Element of Loyalty, Kindness, and Courage forms magical robes in their respective colors which wraps around Discord’s wrists and neck, keeping him in place. It’s where he starts to panic but no matter how much he struggles, he cannot get free from his bindings. The rest of the Elements shoots out projectiles, hitting the restrained Discord and robbing away any powers he could’ve used to get free, not even the Shadow Ponies would be able to free him and lastly, after a shockwave of the raw strength of the Elements, a rainbow strikes the spirit of chaos, entrapping him into stone and the last thought he has before being fully turned is wondering where he had failed. Another shockwave from the Elements of Harmony and all of Discord’s chaos disappears, returning Ponyville and the whole surrounding area back to its former self. The bearers land back onto the ground, all beaming of this grand victory and more than happy letting Celestia decide what to do with the once again imprison Discord.