//------------------------------// // Chapter 18: Battlefield Earth // Story: Martin's Unreal Life // by CrypticMetaphor //------------------------------// Sortitus and Aequivalere took flight after Discord in the immediate moment he reappeared; Sortitus shot a white bolt at Discord who dodged it only for Aequivalere to send a slash made out of black energy at the draconequus which plowed him into a wall with a grunt. Discord looked at his brother in black, “That was a cheap shot!” Sortitus responded by binding Discord in chains of white energy whereas Aequivalere surrounded Discord with black fire that formed a dome. Both of the Aspects hands were encased in white and black auras respectively when the dome exploded into shards along with the chains as Discord dusted himself off. Discord looked mildly annoyed, “Still using parlor tricks I see. Why don’t you both cut loose like me!” Discord then blasted both Aspects with well lined up finger blasts of acid yellow energy which sent both of them flying. * Martin dodged around a random car which dropped out of the sky and almost crushed him, “This place is turning into a war zone!” Alan ducked as a shard of metal missed his head, “Tell me about it, reading about battles like these in fanfiction is one thing but experiencing it is a whole other ballgame!” Pinkie Pie poked her head out of a bush nearby and looked into the sky, “LOOK!” Everybody looked up into the sky as the saw Eris right hook Luna only to be blasted into the hospital. * Eris dusted herself off as a security guard ran in front of her, “FREEZE!” Eris then poked him on the head as the guard got encased in ice, “freeze…” She then grabbed a piece of a broken bed frame and changed it into a nasty looking scythe as she flew out of the hole and straight toward Celestia, “A LITTLE OFF THE TOP YOUR HIENGOUS HIGHNESS!!” Celestia managed to dodge around the first swing but the second swing destroyed one of her pauldrons like it was made of glass. Luna took notice of this and plowed into Eris back and pinned her against the side of a building. The sheer force of impact created a miniature crater which Luna and Eris were at the center of as they both tried to outdo the others might. Celestia hovered nearby as she prepared a solar beam. * Martin and the Six looked at both battles as Alan tried to find a safe place to set up the elements to fire at Discord. Soon he found a small park that wasn’t too far away but at the same time not to close to both battles, soon they all stood and watched the six get into formation. Twilight focused, “Alright girls, we only have one shot at Discord MAKE IT COUNT!” All of the six nodded as the stones on their rings began to glow brightly, Alan just stared as he took out his cellphone, “This. Is. AWESOME!!” Martin just looked at him as they six were bathed in white light soon the elements began to light up with their respective colours and…fizzled out. All of their jaws dropped as Alan dropped into a puddle of chocolate milk after the sudden change, “fudge…” * Sortitus’ vision was swimming when he sat up and looked around, the sky had reddened and was riddled with cotton candy clouds and there was the stink of smoke and burnt salmon for some reason. He was currently sitting on the ground and noticed concerned citizens were seeing if he was alright. Sortitus raised his hand and spoke one word, “oblivisci.” A white aura then appeared around every the citizens heads as they seemingly turned away from him and resumed their panicking like they never found him. He looked around for Discord and Aequivalere but to no avail. He then heard the destruction of pavement nearby and ran to investigate its source. He found Aequivalere pinned under an anvil with a smiling Discord sitting on top of it with a smirk. Discord casually waved his hand with a bored look, “Why do we fight Sortitus? We are family after all.” Sortitus stopped his advancing, “You stopped being our family when you almost destroyed Equestria the first time.” Discord smiled at the memory, “Oh I remember that day well. Oh the fun I had!”, his smile vanished, “Until the princesses imprisoned me in a statue and all of you just stood by and watched!” Sortitus began to berate Discord immediately, “WE HAD NO CHOICE! You were a loose cannon and you disobeyed the rule that…”, he immediately silenced himself. Discord gave a sly smile, “So my senses weren’t deceiving me. When I first escaped I searched for you all again but could only find you and mister negative here.”, he then hopped down from the anvil and approached Sortitus as he shifted into his human form, “Tell me what you did to them oh mighty one.” Sortitus looked him straight in the eye, “They almost did what you did…” Discord walked around Sortitus and converted back into his original form, “You both act all righteous and brave but deep down you’re the same as me. You both are ticking time bombs just waiting to go off and you now know firsthand what happens when an Aspect goes bad.” Sortitus looked at Aequivalere as his brother returned the stare. Truthfully both of them feared the day that they might become like their siblings and both knew if that time came the other might not be able to prevent what might follow. Sortitus turned away from Discord, “Discord how long has it been since we’ve seen each other?” Discord thought for a moment, “100 eons give or take, why?” Sortitus’ silver hair began to glow as it began to levitate a bit as he was surrounded by a white aura, “Because I have been waiting a long time to find a reason to use my divine form for a few seconds.”, he then turned around as his irises became burning bright blue discs. * Celestia, Luna and Eris heard a massive discharge of energy as an explosion of flawless white energy sent Discord flying through the cloud line. Eris took this opportunity to wrench Luna from her back and slam her face hard into the wall; she then grabbed the princess by her starry hair and hurled her into Celestia who instinctively caught her only to be blasted in the face by a powerful magic discharge. The smoke cleared to reveal Luna had erected a barrier around both of them much to Eris’s annoyance. Eris hurled the scythe into the ground below and bellowed at both of them, “WILL THE BOTH OF YOU JUST DIE ALREADY!” Celestia responded with her charged solar beam which hurled Eris into the ground and into the sewers below. Luna looked at Celestia, “Sister, so you think she is defeated?” Celestia shook her head, “I’m afraid not, I seemed to have made her angry.” Eris shot out of the hole like a bullet and plowed into Celestia with tremendous force which completely destroyed the armour protecting the princess’s torso to reveal a white robe like top underneath. Luna flew straight at Eris only for Eris to raise her hand and catch the princess of the night in a telekinetic grip. * Martin, Alan and the six were panicking massively as they tried to find a way to make the elements work. Alan then blurted out, “Maybe you need to say an incantation to activate them here!”, he then spoke at the six’s hand, “Uh…in brightest day in blackest night no evil shall escape my sight, let those who worship chaos’s might beware our power harmony’s light!”, nothing happened. Martin gave Alan a half look, “Nice one Hal Jordan.” Alan pointed at him, “At least I’m trying something!” There was an explosion behind them as they saw Luna land hard with Celestia in her arms with Eris in hot pursuit. Martin took on an overwhelmed look, “OH this is going to suck!” * Discord was dazed as he lay on the floor of the underground parking garage he had smashed down into from the sky, “I forgot how powerful he was in that form.” Sortitus and Aequivalere teleported into the garage with Sortitus looking as he normally did, “Will you surrender now?” Discord thought for a second, “Uhhhh…no.” He then blasted both Aspects who locked both of their blasts with his as the garage began to tremble and crack at the foundations. * Eris was hurling cars and various other projectiles at Luna and the now conscious Celestia as they deflected them away from any innocent bystanders. One of the cars had lodged itself into the side of a building and fell onto the street almost crushing a group of fleeing people, which was the last straw for Martin. Martin ran near the battlefield and yelled at Eris, “LUPE STOP!!!” Eris stopped throwing the cars as she landed in front of Martin, “What do you want?” The princesses were about to intervene only to smack into a barrier that had trapped them as Martin continued speaking, “I know I betrayed your feelings, I should have told you the truth from the very beginning but I was confused and overwhelmed with…everything.” He then placed a hand on Eris’s shoulder, “But you have to understand that what you’re doing is endangering innocent lives. It’s not that I don’t like you, it’s just that I have feelings for someone else but that doesn’t mean we still can’t see each other, you understand right?” Eris looked at the ground for a second the back at Martin as she gingerly took his hand off of her, “I understand.”, Martin exhaled as she squeezed his hand, “And you can understand this that if I can’t have you, NOBODY CAN!!” Eris then tossed Martin clear across the way and into the side of a minivan which dented massively Martin however didn’t move. Applejacks eyes widened in absolute horror as Eris laughed hysterically signifying that the last bit of sanity had left the woman and in its place was what could only be described as Discord Insanity. Alan looked at the ground and found a piece of broken pipe and picked it up, “this should do it.” Rainbow stopped him from walking off, “What are you doing!?” Alan looked at her for a second and gently grabbed her chin and planted a minute long kiss on her lips before pulling away with a grin, “Buying you girls some time.” Rainbow was too shocked to keep her grip as Alan rushed Eris with a yell. Eris took notice of this, “you’re kidding…you’re kidding right?” Alan was a foot away from her as Eris snapped her fingers and transformed him into a statue. All of the girls at seeing their friend’s predicaments yelled in unison, “NO!!” Eris turned toward the girls and advanced threateningly on them, “Game over my little ponies.” Chapter 19 is the last chapter of this story. Hope you have enjoyed it